YouTube has replaced television as the primary source of information and entertainment. This has been, in part, socially deleterious: it's made it easier to spread propaganda and conspiracy theories, and now there's a flood of AI-generated 'slop'. And I don't know exactly what the YouTube 'algorithm' is, but it's pretty dumb; it tends to keep recommending the same stuff.

But YouTube also has societal benefits. It's allowed some great 'content creators' to reach a wide audience, and in some cases make a living from it.

Here are the YouTube channels I'm currently subscribed to:

Rock climbing

Tom Benzing: A somewhat narcissistic gen-Z gym boulderer. Mixes climbing footage with home-spun philosophy. Often irritating, sometimes endearing.

Climbing Stuff: Climbing humor. Often hilarious.

Alex Megos: A world-class climber with a wry sense of humor in spite of being German.

Catalyst Climbing: Louis Parkinson is a British gym climber and instructor. Emphasis on training and technique.

Max Milne : Max is my favorite competitive climber because of his irreverence.

Grace O'Connell : wife of my friend Nato, V10 climber, UC Berkeley prof.

Nature, outdoors

Crime pays but botany doesn't: Joey Santore is a foul-mouthed tough-sounding guy who knows huge amounts about botany, especially desert, and its relation to geology.

Topo Traveler: young guy finds interesting remote places using Google Maps, then goes there.

Natural Experience: hiking exploration of geologically interesting places in the U.S.

Shawn Willsey: American geology.

Science, math, engineering

Sabine Hossenfelder: A former CERN particle physicist surveys (and ranks on a 'bullshit meter') current research papers in physics and cosmology. She points out that the 'publish or perish' system has led to tons of BS papers; right-wingers have erroneously characterized this as an attack on science itself.

Veritasium: Well-made physics videos.

3blue1brown: Well-made math videos.

Mind your decisions: game theory, logic, paradoxes.

PBS spacetime: physics, astronomy.

Astrum: astronomy.

Dell parts people: a super smart and entertaining guy who repairs laptops. Each case is like a murder mystery. I venture to say he's the best in the world at this.

History

Hard Thrasher: well-researched military videos, mostly WWII air war, with an emphasis on internal politics.

British Naval History

Part-Time Explorer: shipwrecks, other disasters.

Curiousity Value Channel: air/rail/ship disasters.

Fact Quickie: Diverse videos, mostly debunking hoaxes.

Politics, religion

Genetically modified skeptic: historical and current attacks on atheism.

Valkai Labs: analyzes nut-case Christian videos

Culture Catz: analyzes nut-case Christian videos; also flat-earthers and other ultra-fringe stuff.

Jon Cohen: a call-in show; he calmly debates Christians (but never sways them as far as I can tell).

Cars, boats, and planes

Driving 4 Answers: A guy from Croatia talks about car technology, mostly gas engine designs. Passionate, humorous, excellent graphics. A+.

Top Gear Classic: videos from the BBC 'Top Gear' series, mostly about fast cars. Humorous.

Ocean Liner Design Mentour Pilot: Petter Hornfeld (Swedish airline pilot) talks about crashes, incidents, aerodynamics, fly-by-wire, and aviation industry trends. Educational, often funny.

Pilot debrief: analyses of accidents (mostly small planes) by Hoover, a former fighter pilot. Not as slick as Mentour Pilot, but I really like him.

Sports

Cycling toons: news from competitive cycling by a guy who's convinced that everyone dopes (and he's probably right).

Press Box Chronicles: Jeff Pearlman was a writer for Sports Illustrated. He gives no-punches-pulled accounts of athletes (many of them total A-holes) from the 80s onward.

Jomboy Media: Analyses of recent incidents from major-league baseball. Lip-reading. Fascinating if you're a baseball fan.

Music, art

Rick Beato: videos about music, mostly post-50s popular music but sometimes other stuff, even classical. 'Why this song is great' videos, interviews, critical comments on the current music industry and AI.

Full Stack Violin: by my friend Nato! (see above)

The music professor: classical music.

Frederick Viner: videos about classical piano pieces.

You can't unhear this: Beatles history.

Salisbury Organist: organs in rural English churches, and organ music. Charming at first, but cloying.

Smarthistory: art history.

Entertainment

Mitchell and Webb: British comedy duo in the Monty Python tradition.

Chris and Jack: another British comedy duo.

Adult Swim: bizarre/humorous cartoons.

Goldie and Frenchie: dog talk show. Cute but gets old.

DUST: short (5-15 min) sci-fi films, mostly computer graphics. I like the premise, but most of the films are 99% special effects and 1% plot.