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?

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    fem månader sedan

    I have a few to recommend:

    • SEA and Astrum. Almost interchangeable calm and chill space documentary channels. If you’re like me and get a spinny mind around bedtime, these are great, they hold my attention to keep my mind from racing and are calm enough to drift to sleep while listening.

    • Bedtime Stories. Anything from urban legends to strange disappearances told in a campfire ghost story format accompanied by hand drawn illustrations. Sometimes wanders into hibbidy jibbidy but fun nonetheless. See also Wartime Stories for a similar format focusing on stories from/about the military.

    • History For Granite. I read this guy as an armchair archaeologist who is interested primarily in the pyramids and megalithic structures of ancient Egypt almost as much as he is at sniping at Zahi Hawass. Possibly a bit of a crank, though his wild ideas tend to be things like “The pyramid was designed to remain open for worshippers to routinely enter” and he often focuses on the engineering of the structures and layout of the stones.

    • Nexpo. Short for Nightmare Expo, purveyor of creepy stories.

    • Captain KRB. Video essayist, fond of minecraft, retro media, and occasional odd stories like the Voynich manuscript or the Cicada 3301 mystery.

    • Lemmino, started out as a top ten list channel, has pivoted to long form documentaries on a “when it’s done” basis. Topics range from the history of the “Cool S” graffiti symbol to the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

    • Ahoy. Churns out one, maybe two videos a year on the topic of video games, primarily video game weapons. Typical format will introduce a weapon, say, the M-16 combat rifle, discuss its real world invention and service history, then its depiction in video games and possibly other media. Peppered in are other more general video game topics; his video on Polybius is particularly good.

    • This Old Tony. A dude named Tony whose got a hobby machine shop full of dad jokes in his garage.

    • Clickspring. Australian dude who makes soul-achingly beautiful videos about clockmaking and machining. Go watch him build a clock out of raw brass and tell me your life hasn’t changed.

    • Tech Tangents. One of those guys who will hold an 8-bit ISA card in his hands with a look of utter rapture on his face, he repairs, restores and documents old computer and gaming equipment, and operates a capacitor wiki. He once reverse engineered an ISA adapter card to get a very early CD-ROM drive functioning…live on Twitch.

  • Keshara@lemmy.world
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    fem månader sedan

    My recommendation for travel would be ‘Bald and Bankrupt’, in particular I loved his whole Russian/Ex-Soviet Union series.

    For documentaries, I do enjoy the ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ documentaries. They did a great one on Terry A. Davis a few years back

    • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
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      fem månader sedan

      The soviet Union series was great, but anything I watched after that was boring to be honest.

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      fem månader sedan

      Wow, this is great!!

      I also like 12tone but those are probably more like medium -form videos

  • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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    fem månader sedan

    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.

  • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
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    fem månader sedan

    Nerd³ (nerd cubed) long form video game content while he talks about the game he’s playing, sprinkled with commentary about life and current events

    Cold Fusion. Sort of a mini documentary on news items, one item at a time. Tech focused.

  • shittydwarf@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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    fem månader sedan

    Do yourself a favour and watch Ed Pratt Unicycle around the world. This is one of my favourite things on YouTube, watching him go from just a kid with a weird dream to a great filmmaker and experienced traveler in such an authentic way. Highly recommended

  • demesisx@infosec.pubEnglish
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    fem månader sedan
    • Cutting Edge Engineering
    • Martijn Doolaard
    • AvE (though I’m pretty sure he’s conservative)
    • Primitive Technology
    • Watcheyes
    • Clickspring
    • Democracy Now
    • Tech Ingredients
    • Applied Science
    • Cody’s Lab
    • Fireship
    • Mental Outlaw
    • Tsoding
    • Tsoding Daily
    • CinemaStix
    • Pitching Ninja
    • Jeff Geerling
    • Impure Pics
    • Psionic Audio
    • Computerphile
    • The Amp Hour
    • Abom79
    • Tweag
    • Serokell
    • NixCon
    • IOG Academy
    • Mend It Mark
    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      fem månader sedan

      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.

      • demesisx@infosec.pubEnglish
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        fem månader sedan

        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.

    • livingcoder@programming.dev
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      fem månader sedan

      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.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      fem månader sedan

      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.

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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    fem månader sedan

    My #1 go to is probably Cathode Ray Dude. He makes videos mostly on old tech which is what I’m very interested in.

    If you’re more looking for exposing scandals there’s always Coffeezilla/Voidzill.

    • ajoebyanyothername@lemmy.world
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      fem månader sedan

      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.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    fem månader sedan

    For long form,

    Bobby Broccoli, ~1hr videos on science scandals https://youtube.com/@bobbybroccoli

    Defunctland, 30m to 1h45m videos on defunct theme parks and rides https://youtube.com/@defunctland

    Your dinosaurs are wrong, 15m to 1h45m videos on comparing toy dinosaurs to the most up to date research https://youtube.com/@yourdinosaursarewrong

    2nd on Drachinifel, 7m to 1h45m videos on naval History https://youtube.com/@drachinifel

    Perun, 1h videos on defense economics https://youtube.com/@perunau

    Diplo Strats, 2h to 6h videos on diplomacy the board game, like risk on massive steroids https://youtube.com/@diplostrats