Title essentially. Youtube’s algorithm is hot garbage, so I can’t search for anything anymore without a ton of AI slop and rage bait. So, who do you go to for actual good long form videos? Exposes, scandals, behind the scenes, documentaries, film, travel, transit, who do you recommend I follow?
I only really subscribe to two channels that focus on 20-30 minute videos and post on a pretty regular basis:
Technology Connections
Internet Comment Etiquette with Erik
Seconding Technology Connections. Great long form content
The longest videos I watch on YouTube, and I enjoy every minute of them.
Especially the dishwashers.
Seconding Internet Comment Etiquette. Information as art.
Do your research sheeple 8========D aaaand post!
8=========D That’s a rocket ship!
Pineapple Erik needs a comeback!
I love Technology Connections, but i do have watch at 1.75X or else it’s too long form for me.
There are two YouTubers who make videos 4+ hours long that you have to watch every minute of:
Sure but HBG is the only one who can make a viral 4 hour video.
Jenny’s last 4 hour video went more than viral, to be fair.
I love Jenny, so HBomberGuy would probably be good too
These two were my first thought! I’ll add that both cover a range of topics, Jenny does do a lot of videos around Star Wars, but also covers obscure films, and theme parks, wherenl HBomber runs the gamut from flat earth to vaccines to video games to plagiarism. Both are incredibly well researched and, in my opinion, offer very fair takes on the subject matter.
My same two!
Technology Connections
It might be worth adding that some people might find him (and similar long form content) verbose if they are not into the topics. I watch probably most of his episodes, but some people in my life don’t vibe with those. The same people did not appreciate the 7 color e-ink display I had been tinkering around with until I made it display a dog pic, so it’s also about how the topic relates to what you already like.
Did you see his latest video about algorithms? Best video so far this year imo
Yes, I figured that might have been part the trigger for the thread.
Angela Collier for commentary on physics. She has a lot of good commentary on the field itself (see her recent Feynman video), but also good science videos… that I usually lose track of about 3/4 of the way through, but I enjoy nonetheless.
I second Angela, informative, chill and kinda funny
My favorite video title of all time is still “alkaline water …with lemon”
Really loved her video on new Star Trek too, she has very similar vibes to Jenny Nicholson but has a lot of great science material too
She did Feynman dirty.
Crime related:
- https://www.youtube.com/@thisisMONSTERS/
- https://www.youtube.com/@redtreestories/
- https://www.youtube.com/@TruRedCRIMEVAULT/
- https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondEvill/
- https://www.youtube.com/@TheVillains./
- https://www.youtube.com/@StrangerStories/
- https://www.youtube.com/@diretrip/videos
Disaster related:
- https://www.youtube.com/@FascinatingHorror/
- https://www.youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult/
- https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB/
- https://www.youtube.com/@ScaryInteresting/
- https://www.youtube.com/@DarkRecordsDocs/
Weird medical stories: https://www.youtube.com/@chubbyemu
Interesting economic vids: https://www.youtube.com/coldfusion/
Business and economics: https://www.youtube.com/c/Wendoverproductions/
Geopolitics explainer vids: https://www.youtube.com/@CaspianReport/
Theme park history: https://www.youtube.com/@Defunctland/
Interesting historical themed vids: https://www.youtube.com/@YoreHistory/
above and beyond, thank you!
I guess I should have expected it, but I was hoping they were videos on how to do crime… ☹️
Lol. The Lockpicking Lawyer springs to mind 😁
recently, the guy who hooks up different toys to high voltage, causing thier hilarious “methy movements and spazzing out”
If you’re into true crime, I highly recommend https://youtube.com/@thatchapter
Mike is a good storyteller and makes videos that aren’t just stock footage and images spliced together.
We have similar taste in youtubers! If you enjoy those disaster related videos, I recommend Abstract (formerly Real Horror). Great production value and storytelling. She does all her own work as far as I know, so she doesn’t have a huge playlist to watch sadly. But the narration and setup really add a gravitas to the disasters that I feel the other youtubers are missing.
Has 9 videos and 0.5M subs, I feel they might be worth looking at!
awesome comment! saved for later
Along with Technology Connections, Philosophy Tube, and Primitive Technology, here are my “must watch” subs
Climate Town - Excellent videos about climate change and environmental impact that are insightful and funny
Contrapoints - Well written and meticulous deconstructions of philosophical concepts in media, pop culture and society with a dry wit
Every Frame a Painting - Amazing content on film-making. No longer active, but if you haven’t seen it yet, lucky you, enjoy.
Pop Culture Detective - Interesting meta analyses of popular tropes in pop culture
Because I’m into historical clothing and fashion, Bernadette Banner and Abby Cox both do great videos on costuming, history and creating cool stuff
Love climate town. I hate that someone needs to waste their time disproving lies from the oil, gas, politicians and the like, but it does give me hope in the future that there are people like that out there.
Every Frame a Painting came back to life one year ago! He uploaded some new videos :)
Yes! It was such a pleasant surprise on my feed. Unfortunately they said they won’t be continuing because of Youtube’s enforcement policies around copyrighted material so those videos were meant to be a limited series.
deleted by creator
AvE (though I’m pretty sure he’s conservative)
You’re right. AvE went completely off the deep end during the height of Covid, and revealed that his being a scumbag isn’t just doing a bit for the camera.
Do you have a link to his undoing?
His knowledge of everything mechanical and electronic is pretty useful though. I’ve learned a TON from him but now I prefer Cutting Edge Engineering to scratch that kind of itch.
You can start with his video praising the “freedom convoy” shitshow plus ranting about the usual talking points re: vaccines, masks, etc. which kind of did it for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeYVyhhHY-Y
Honestly, I’m amazed he hasn’t deleted it from his channel by now.
Was really disappointed when that one came out… His stuff was great up to that point but now it feels… It’s got an ick now.
Good list, many hits with my list. Let me recommend “Tally Ho” and “Escape to Rural France” to you, although the latter might be too short for “long format” with 10 minutes per episode, give or take.
Great list! I would just add The Majority Report if you’re looking to learn more about politics while also trying to understand what is happening today. They do a ~2.5-hour live show every weekday which includes a quick overview of the latest headlines for today, an interview of someone with knowledge about some politics-related topic, and then an hour of mostly right wing videos that they discuss, argue with, and vent about.
I love it for how informative it is and for keeping me sane.
Folding Ideas is fantastic
I actively avoid shorts so most of what I watch is long form.
- Technology Connections - A guy needing out about household tech
- Unlearning Economics - a trained economist turned public edutainer who kept learning after Econ 101, unlike others who shall remain nameless
- Behind the Bastards - Chummy laughter about the worst people ever
- RPG with DBJ - RPG talk with a focus on creativity and exploring the opportunities afforded by the space of ‘limited only by your imagination’
- We’re in Hell - A guy looking at pieces of media and the ideology infused into them by culture
- Gresham College - lectures on widely ranging topics, presented by professors but targetting the layperson
- The Morbid Zoo - A cool gal doing analysis of movies, usually horror, but sometimes others, with an eye toward ideology and culture (Hellraiser, Smile, Twilight, PotC, etc.)
- Folding Ideas - More film analysis, but with a tack toward various criticisms
- Doctor Who - the old series are all on the tubes now. Not educational, but fun.
Behind the Bastards is fucking great! If you like their stuff, you might also enjoy “Respect The Dead (A Podcast Where We Don’t).” It’s a kind of queer younger sibling to BTB and a whole lot of fun, but they only cover people who are for sure dead.
Technology Connections
The video on pinball machines was absolutely incredible
Red letter media
I love Star Trek, but don’t want to watch the modern Alex kurtzman garbage, so they take the bullet for me.
I’m also not a movie guy, so watching their reviews/analysis while playing Minecraft is more entertaining than the movies they talk about.
Best of the worst is them watching B and direct to video movies that i wouldn’t otherwise know about.
Watch strange new worlds, Mike is rightfully dead inside after disco, but I genuinely like a majority of Strange New worlds, and generally align with Mike and Rich on most other Star Trek. I do think they praised season 3 of picard too much.
kurtzman is so trash for NUTREK, and there are so many people actually defending the current franchises on youtube videos, did they not noticed the material was most lifted off of memory alpha and the fan novels? why it so bad in taste. the animated series, however im partial to.
as for SNW ITS BETWEEN disco in terribleness(its a sold C- show), but not as bad but no where near “2000s enterprise series level of great series”. the enterprise series wouldve continued beyond 4 seasons, if not for LES MOONVEs, who hated star trek.
both picard and disco were just plain cringey. almost always on the 3 series, use romulan at end of season 1 as clickbait and then completely dropping thier arcs.
Haven’t seen Philosophy Tube on here yet.
High quality and engaging deep dives on various philosophy-related topics. Abigail, the face of the channel is an actor and playwright (and an academic) and that very much shines through.
Seconded. Love their stuff. Also Contrapoints (who Philosophy Tube kinda ripped off, but hey ho, both great content.)
FD Signifier is good too.
Contra and Philosophytube are an excellent example of how two people with a lot of similarities can do the same concept and wind up with wildly different results even when both are excellently done.
I love Technology Connections for an easy, interesting watch. He just explains how appliances work lol
Have you seen his latest? It’s all about algorithms and a societal shift in what people expect from computers and media.
It’s a video I loved, and I understand why some of his fans wouldn’t but a lot of people need to see it.
I haven’t had a chance yet! Seems like a bit of a departure from his usual stuff but very topical
Yes, I also love it! But sometimes he’s a bit repetitive. I usually watch his videos at 1.2x speed
Peter Dibble has some great documentaries on historical curiosities around the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.
Technology Connections does deep dives into topics of technology, specific devices and appliances, and generally is very entertaining and informative.
RedLetterMedia for film critiques, so bad it’s good reviews, and comedy.
Defunctland does documentaries around theme parks.
Tasting History with Max Miller is a very educational historical food dishes show. Not super long form.
Matt Baume does great “LGBTQ+ in TV, historically” type of content. And wrote a book about it which is great too.
Stand-up Maths does great math content. Yeah, it’s math, but it’s fun. Bonus is he also wrote a great book relating to his content about engineering and maths mistakes in real life on large scales.
LGR- retro computer tech
Techmoan- retro audio tech
For Drfunctland, who doesn’t want to watch an over hour long video on the design of FastPass?
Ah yes, the time a youtuber hired industrial engineers to create simulations of a theme park
For educative scientific YT channels I’d recommend Veritasium, The Action Lab and NileRed to name a few. They produce top quality scientific videos about really interesting phenomenas and experiments. And the best part is they make the concepts simple to understand without the need of a degree or smth lol
Adding to this, Smarter Every Day is really great – they just started a series on Nuclear Power with a walkthrough of the first Nuclear Reactor used to produce electricity.
