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I definitely spend a lot of my entertainment time watching youtube. I really agree what you're saying as far as big content creators not offering much substance to their videos, but it's wrong to think that the "big youtubers" are the only ones making things on Youtube. I have my subscriptions filled with some pretty amazing smaller youtubers who are making great, cerebral content all the time. I'm more interested in non-fiction, while it sounds like you're looking for fiction and story-telling, but I'll share some of my favorite channels anyway

PBS idea channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3LqW4ijMoENQ2Wv17ZrFJA

Historia Civilis - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv_vLHiWVBh_FR9vbeuiY-A

Langfocus - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhX3WQEkraW3VHPyup8jkQ

Crash Course - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6b17PVsYBQ0ip5gyeme-Q

Baz Battles - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx-dJoP9hFCBloY9qodykvw

Wendover Productions - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9RM-iSvTu1uPJb8X5yp3EQ

Practical Engineering - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMOqf8ab-42UUQIdVoKwjlQ



Primitive Technology - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA

has been my favorite recently. Hits the engineering and problem solving part of my brain but is also weirdly very meditative without any talking.


Be sure to turn on the subtitles - he narrates through CC what he is doing which is often very interesting.


Subtitles are different than Closed Captioning.


Not on YouTube - the menu entry is literally "Subtitles/CC"


I'll just dump my favorite youtube channels here too:

I enjoy some math channels like Numberphile https://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile, computerphile https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9-y-6csu5WGm29I7JiwpnA, standupmaths https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths, 3blue1brown https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw, Vi Hart https://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart, Mathologer https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1_uAIS3r8Vu6JjXWvastJg, singingbanana https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpizQXRt817D0qpBQZ2TlA, and some of Vsauce https://www.youtube.com/user/Vsauce.

For "general interesting random facts" there's Tom Scott https://www.youtube.com/user/enyay, Wendover Productions https://www.youtube.com/user/Wendoverproductions, CGP Grey https://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey, Lindybeige https://www.youtube.com/user/lindybeige, Shadiversity https://www.youtube.com/user/shadmbrooks. and Today I Found Out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC64UiPJwM_e9AqAd7RiD7JA.

Science/Tech/etc: engineerguy https://www.youtube.com/user/engineerguyvideo, Kurzgesagt https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXVk37bltHxD1rDPwtNM8Q, and C0nc0rdance https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPFnHiJx1P9UY05_F9sOu1g.

Miscellaneous: kaptainkristian https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuPgdqQKpq4T4zeqmTelnFg, CaptainDisillusion https://www.youtube.com/user/CaptainDisillusion, and the more recent videos of suckerpinch https://www.youtube.com/user/suckerpinch/videos.

Politics: I unsubscribed from most political content a long time ago. But Last Week Tonight https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3XTzVzaHQEd30rQbuvCtTQ and Vox https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA are pretty good.

Humor: That's pretty subjective, but I think everyone should know about The Onion https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfAOh2t5DpxVrgS9NQKjC7A. Also Fitzthislewitz https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPswLO6Jrrmg8hXY03eXHAw.


replying to save list, thanks


Definitely some interesting stuff there so thanks for sharing. I do agree there is interesting stuff to be found I just find it really hard to see why the popular content is popular (other than the personality cult I mentioned). And I'm usually someone who is perfectly happy enjoying mainstream/popular content (I'm not that discerning) so found it odd.




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