My 10 favorite YouTube channels

May 02, 2020

Until 1 year ago, I couldn’t rationalize a Netflix subscription, because there is just so much good content on YouTube. It is one of the things that makes me feel incredibly lucky to grow up in the 21st century. As long as I have a good internet connection, I can learn and discover so many interesting new things from passionate creators.

I somewhat often have conversation of what my favorite channels are, so here I ranked my 10 favorite YouTube channels and included links to some of my favorite episodes. I think many of you would enjoy these, and if you have any recommendations, please let me know!

Top 10

  1. Wendover Productions & PolyMatter & Kurzgesagt
  2. The Joe Rogan Experience
  3. Summoning Salt
  4. LEMMiNO
  5. Healthcare Triage
  6. 3Blue1Brown
  7. Wisecrack
  8. School of Life
  9. Crash Course
  10. VICE

1. Mini documentaries about society

My top spot is a category which includes a few channels:

Wendover makes captivating videos about logistics, transport, and other things (e.g. How Rwanda is becoming the Singapore of Africa, American sports’ battle for China, The logistics of the US census).

PolyMatter has a lot of cool videos about problems in different countries and other things (e.g. Why In-N-Out isn’t coming to a city near you, Why India banned 86% of its currency, Why scooter startups are worth billions.

Kurzgesagt makes really amazing animations to explain scientific concepts in a fun way and also has a lot of other random videos about society and philosophy too (e.g. Is the EU Democratic? Does Your Vote Matter?, Optimistic Nihilism, Are GMOs good or bad?.

Other good channels in this category include:

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

It’s sad to me that Joe Rogan is a controversial figure, because his interviews are so refreshing and insightful. Rarely am I able to get into the interesting nuances of complicated subjects like Joe does consistently with many of his guests. Him and his guests point out the flaws in both extreme positions that most people seem to cling to, and they discuss a position that is more reasonable. He interviews a variety of people including politicians, scientists, journalists, authors, comedians, and fighters. There are so many good episodes, but a sample of one’s I’ve found especially good are:

3. Summoning Salt

Who knew video game speed runs could be so fascinating. Millions of people, like me, were introduced to this by Summoning Salt describing the incredible dedication and research that went into speed runners optimizing World 4-2 in the original Super Mario Bros. Many of his other documentary-style videos tell equally captivating tales of how gamers perfected runs through other (mostly retro) video games. The Mario game episodes are my favorite for personal nostalgic reasons.

4. LEMMiNO

Lemmino tells some fascinating stories about real-world mysteries. My favorite was probably about the puzzle Cicada 3301

5. Healthcare Triage

Aaron Carroll is a pediatrician who loves communicating well-researched and nuanced medical information, and especially debunking nutrition myths. One of my favorite episodes is about the Milk-Industrial complex. He also has a series comparing the healthcare systems of different countries.

6. 3Blue1Brown

Well known for beautiful mathematical visualizations, 3Blue1Brown eloquently describes a wide variety of complex mathematics. He also gave the best explanation of how cryptocurrencies work and has an especially good series on linear algebra.

7. Wisecrack

Wisecrack provides some nice analyses of different TV series that I enjoy like Rick & Morty, Bojack Horseman, and Black Mirror. They also have a “Thug Notes” series which are fun short summaries and interpretations of popular books (e.g. Fahrenheit 451). Also good is “the weird history of adult animation”.

8. School of Life

A place for thought-provoking relationship and general life advice. I definitely don’t agree with everything they say; I think they over-attribute things to childhood and really demonize porn. But overall, they make a lot of interesting points to consider as we stumble through our lives (e.g. “Finding your mission”).

9. Crash Course

A friend introduced me to the OG crash course serieses on Biology and World History. The World history one by John Green is phenomenal and super interesting to someone who did not engage with history at all in any classes I had to take in school taught by gym teachers. I also liked their course on Media literacy. I’m sure others of their courses are good too.

10. VICE

VICE produces really unique documentaries about risque topics like drugs and prostitution. I especially liked their investigation into North Korean labor camps in Russia. Also good were videos about counterfeiting in Lima and fungus as a replacement to plastic.

Honorable mentions

Honorable mentions - educational and informational

Conclusion

Again, if you have any recommendations, please let me know! And if you enjoy them and have too much money than you know what to do with, consider supporting them on Patreon :)