Primitive Technology: One guy, wearing only a pair of shorts, no music, no narration, just bird and forest sounds, as he creates shelters and items from the forest around him using prehistoric technology.

He started by building various types of shelters, then got into making pottery, bricks, and roof tiles, using clay from a nearby stream.

Currently, he's working on fire technology, creating hotter and hotter fires first to fire his clay objects to make them durable, and then to smelt iton.

Where does he get the metal? He harvested "iron bacteria" from the creek, and dried it fired it, and collected the tiny iron "prills". When he had enough, he went through a series of experiments to make his fire hot enough to melt the prills, and forge it into a tiny, rough, triangular knife.

Today, there are lots of copycats, mostly building elaborate shelters, but this guy is the OG. I mostly watch musical and political content, but Primitive Technology is the only channel I watch as soon as a new video drops. When the apocalypse arrives, I'll be ready.

Edit: Ever see someone start a fire by spinning a stick between his palms? This guy does it in almost every episode.

I'd say that the only channel I come back to time and time again is probably technology connections. Just the right amount of snarkiness and information.

Lockpickinglawyer. Fascinating to watch. The guy is so speedy at opening locks without a key.

Red Letter Media. Obviously I found them through their Star Wars prequel joke reviews, but they've just turned out to be a really solid and enjoyable semi-comedic film review channel. You get a sense of their particular interests and biases, some they share, some they don't and that helps understand their perspective on films they review so you have an idea of if you'd like them. Plus their other series like Re;View and Best of the Worst show me discussions on movies I probably wouldn't have ever watched otherwise.

I also just love how low-key they are as far as the YT influencer BS that's become the norm on the platform. No sponsorships. They never ask you to "Like and subscribe and leave a comment and hit that bell!". They have a Patreon but they don't even advertise it in their videos, let alone dedicate a portion of the video to a stream of internet names that donated. The thumbnails and titles aren't really clickbait. Their video descriptions are actually descriptions of the video instead of a bunch of links to their socials and sponsors. They don't act overly hype or angry or anything. They just act like what they are: Shlubs. They occasionally get B-list celebrities as guests and rather than plaster their name and whatever projects they're working on all over the fucking video for clickbait, they just don't even really acknowledge they're celebrities. They're just some dudes who happened to stop by to hang out and be on the shows. With most of them you wouldn't even know they were celebrities if you didn't already know them. I had to look up a few of them, which is hard when they don't even use their full names.

I watch pretty much all of their Half in the Bag and Re;View shows and the occasional miscellaneous video they make. I don't watch Best of the Worst that often, but I have enjoyed it when I have watched it.

Tom Scott, Ross Scott.

In addition to lots of other channels already mentioned, there are:

• The Elephant Graveyard
• Bobby Fingers
• Folding Ideas
• Thought Slime
• Technology Connections
• Nutrition Facts
• Viva Longetivity
• Not Just Bikes
• Climate Town

Democracy Now, Majority Report (RIP Michael Brooks), This Old Tony

For me, hopescolling (doomscrolling but looking for any reason to have hope) is a full time job regarding the political situation in the US. To that end, my regular resources are:

Ashley B: Ashley discuses US history, mostly black history, but not always, covering other issues such as J. Edgar Hoover, the scandals of past presidents, and black culture. She doesn't hold back regarding the brutal details of slave history and post-bellum racial violence, and those videos can be tough to listen to.

Belle of the Ranch: The successor to Beau of the Fifth Column, Belle discusses particulars of current issues, explaining details of the economy, of the US war on Iran, and Trump telling on himself in his social media posts. While left leaning, answers a lot of comments from MAGA.

Climate Town Rollie Williams is a very watchable climatologist who covers issues of climate and government gone wrong, such as why Americans eat so much cheese, how the US doesn't drive cars anymore (we drive Non-Passenger Work Vehicles, aka SUVs) and how the methane industry (natural gas) is the climate-killing dark horse.

Heather Cox Richardson: Richardson is a professor of American History at Boston college and does a lot of videos discussing current events and how they rhyme with past events in US history, which can be reassuring that we might actually get through this. I listen to her Letters From An American daily.

How Business Worked aka How History Works: This is the sister project to How Money Works (below). Which discusses history with a business slant. Recent topics of interest (to me) include No one wants to work anymore is a recurring theme and The Powell Memorandum and The myth of Hitler fixing the German economy. HBW is slightly longer form than HMW.

How Money Works: A (former?) finance bro talks about business and economic issues, breaking them down so that I (not a money guy) can understand them. Recent videos that are particularly edifying include why big tech now is hiring back its layoffs and how entrenched money is in US politics.

Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie: Jamelle Bouie is a NYT columnist who reads a lot of books, knows a lot about US government and has good insights into the thought processes of MAGA figures.

A few of my goats I haven't seen mentioned:

• Noah Caldwell-Gervais - absolute pinnacle of long-form gaming content. Amazing writing, and in depth critique which justifies it's run length.
• House of Tabula - cinephile shit. Many hot takes and elitism so not for everyone but I really appreciate what they do.
• Chinese Cooking Demystified - one of the best cooking channels period but especially if you like Chinese food. Authentic recipes, deep-dives, technique focused.
• Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't - misanthropic foul-mouthed botanist travels the world describing plants and ecosystems.

This Old Tony. If you know you know. He's sort of like Locksmithing Lawyer for machining.

Sabine Hossenfelder. Physics and shit.

Adam Savage Tested. You know.

Perkins Brothers Builders. They build houses start to finish, two shows a week that follow their current build.

Dale Philip. No BS travel vlogger. His backstory is he won $750K playing poker and decided to start a travel vlog.

Copied from my previous answer on the topic.

Ancient Americas is the best pre-columbian history youtuber. I always watch his videos.

Here are some others I usually watch.

Stefan Milo for anthropology

Dig. for ancient near east topics

PBS spacetime for physics videos

Whats going on with Shipping for updates on the shipping industry

Technology Connections and LaurieWired for random tech stuff

Grant Harting to watch a pharmacist eat random pills

Road Guy Rob for road engineering information

Canned Fish Files to watch a man eat sardines

ESOTERICA for information on history, magic and religious practices.

Crime Pays But Botany Doesnt for botany tours of predominantly the American southwest

Asianometry for random history and tech history videos

Andy Wards Ancient Pottery for learning about historic ceramic practices

Patrick Kelly for healthcare and medical history

In no particular order:

• Civvie11 (Video games)
• Warlockcracy (Video games, mostly CRPGs. Good humour)
• Wilburgur (Video games)
• SsethTzeentach (Hyper meme-fied game reviews)
• Historia Civilis (History)
• ymfah (Video game challenges, hyper meme-fied)
• Technology Connection (Everyday tech)
• Grim Beard (Long video game reviews)
• Noah Caldwell-Gervais (Long video game reviews)
• Frederik Knudsen (Rabbit hole stuff)

Plus more I can't recall right now. But I can watch any old video from these guys any time and not feel bored.

Hi, I'm the one that asked the opposite question that Op linked to :p

Ashens.

He doesnt make many videos anymore, though theres always a cchance for a random burst of uploads, I think his actual film making hobby has taken more importance, which is understandable, but that is made up for every christmas when he and nerdcubed do some crazy advent calendar thing for 24/25 days leading up to christmas. Which is a yearly christmas ritual for me, to watch all the old ones, and the new one, every year.

Cutting Edge Engineering Australia.

An Australian machinist that does repairs for heavy digging/mining equipment. Rebuilding hydraulic cylinders, repairing smashed frames, manufacturing new to spec parts (for a fraction of what they'd cost from the manufacturer), plus he also has videos on making new shop tools, and a long running series about totally rebuilding a truck crane.. Which kinda lost its urgency and importance with a new ceiling crane they got installed, but are still gonna work on it and finish it.

Used to post one video every friday, but their shop has gotten busier and busier and they made an announcement a few months back that they were going to a every other week release schedule, which makes me sad because watching him was my friday morning ritual, but I'm not upset about it because his business is doing gangbusters and i'm not so self centered as to expect him to sacrifice business that pays $$$$$$ to keep making videos that bring in a fraction of a fraction of that.

• Mystic Arts for D&D
• Taskmaster for Taskmaster
• Lessons from the Screenplay and Every Frame a Painting for movie theory (though both have slowed down a lot)
• El Train | Loop Kitchen for hip hop/sampling history
• NPR Music for Tiny Desk
• Team Coco for General Insanity
• Late Night with Seth Meyers for the only way I can watch news some days
• Triple J for the music

Driving4answers for motor vehicle engineering fun. Jonas ceika (formerly Cuck philosophy) for philosophy/media criticism/political theory.

Channels that I actually look forward to each release:

4WD 24-7 Australian four wheel driving, visiting a lot of places I wish i could go to.

Fire to fork Camp fire cooking, but at the moment also a bit of a travel blog as Harry is in Canada right now.

Andy cooks Cooking show by a personable ex-chef

Brian Lagerstrom More cooking by a slightly less personable ex-chef

Captain Disillusion Special effects debunks and explainers. Rarely puts out videos but they're worth watching when they do arrive.

Clickspring Master craftsman does metalwork. I often have no idea what he's talking about but it's just great to watch.

Dylan O'Donnell Astrophotography with an Australian slant.

LEMMiNO Deep dives into mysteries and other topics. Well researched.

Nat's What I Reckon Started no-nonsense cooking videos during COVID lockdowns, delivering a good mix of cooking advice, mental health awareness and swearing. His videos aren't as tight now as they used to be but they're still fun to watch.

Primative Technology No voice over, relaxing to watch dude in North Queensland improving his skills over the years to make huts, ceramics and some iron smelting. Make sure you turn on captions!

ones i haven't seen mentioned:

• hbomberguy: long form video essays, uploads about once a year
• Core-A Gaming: video analysis about fighting games at large
• Domics: one of the pioneers of the animated "storytime" YouTube meta
• FilmJoy: long form video essays about visual media, typically focusing on a particular movie per essay
• Internet Shaquille: an extremely down to earth cooking channel
• Knowing Better: long form video essays, generally about American history, often exploring untaught/heavily misunderstood subjects
• MeatCanyon: great animation meant to be disturbing and funny, sometimes even both at once
• Outdoor Boys: watch a very pleasant man survive outdoors, usually in Alaska
• Project Farm: attempts to apply the scientific method on various household appliances to discover which are good at what they're supposed to do
• Will Anderson: did you ever want competitive Scrabble analysis? Then boy do I have the channel for you!
• The Plain Bagel: levelheaded explanations for financial news, not quite as dry as Patrick Boyle
• synthet: visual and funny breakdowns of popular musical (synth) techniques
• Zullie the Witch: From Software lore explorer
• CalebCity: short form comedy skits, often with a gaming tint to it
• tanks for nothin: watch someone build interesting aquascaped fishtanks, but the videos themselves are art too

Anitubers. Glass Reflection. Mother's Basement. Bennett the Sage (away while he helps his father). Bonsai Pop (also trends political), Super Eyepatch wolf

Political content: FD Signifier, Climate Town, More Perfect Union,

Cooking: Aaron and Claire, Derek Sarno

Medical: Chubbyemu

Body building: Jeff Nippard, Noel Deyzel, trainer winny

Other health: Yoga with Adriene

Other: aamon animations, coffeezilla, dungeon soup, Jacob Geller, ODD TINKERING, physics girl, self sufficient me, the sphere hunter

• PlayFrame - animator plays video games (the guy from the original Extra Credits)
• NewFramePlus - about video game animation, really well made, fun and informative (same person as above)
• SnakeDiscovery - snake hatching videos and reptile content
• Clint's Reptiles - biologist, "best pet for you?" and animal phylogenies etc. Very engaging personality.
• 7 Days of Science - paleontology science news
• Bernadette Banner - historical fashion
• BilliSpeaks and NotMadJustMoody - cats learning to "speak" using buttons
• Casual Geographic - entertaining and surprisingly accurate animal mini-documentaries
• CinemaTherapy - therapy explained with movies
• How to Cook That - food science and debunking
• Jim Browning - fighting tech support scams
• JunsKitchen - japanese cooking (but the cats steal the show)
• Leafy Street - entertaining reptile keeping videos
• Matthias Krantz - builds whacky musical instruments
• NativLang - animated videos about obscure linguistics
• SerpaDesign - terrarium and vivarium builds
• People Are Fish - palaentology deep dives and new discoveries
• Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong - explaining and updating old toy dinosaur designs

There's many more but I fear the list would get too long.