For many, 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'. Whatever what the YouTube 'algorithm' is, it's pretty dumb; it tends to keep recommending the same stuff.

But YouTube also has societal benefits. It allows 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, a British gym climber and instructor. Emphasis on training and technique.
• Max Milne : my favorite competitive climber because of his irreverence.
• Grace O'Connell : wife of my friend Nato, V10 climber, UC Berkeley prof.

Bouldering videos often have people shouting encouragement at the climber:

nice
really good
so good
so strong
you got it
good effort
c'mon, man
yeah, c'mon
let's go
there you go
do it
yes! yes!
try hard
that's it

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, quantum computing, 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 and acerbically funny 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 deep-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 fast.
• 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.