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Bill Wurtz's history of the entire world, i guess and its predecessor history of japan. They both blur the line of "documentary" a little, but are very good, and his music (beyond those videos) is also great.
Most any of Qxir's or Plainly Difficult's videos.
I could probably go on, but my nerd is showing maybe a little too much, and I watch way too much youtube.
Seconding Qxir. His humor + artstyle + accent combine into a really amusing end result, plus he actually does a fair bit of research into the topics he covers.
Along those lines, Sam O'Nella Academy is another channel of "amusing narration + semi-crude yet understandable illustrations + genuinely informative". I started with his video on Tarrare and chortled mightily throughout.
Hbomberguy's entire channel is a goldmine. It's hard to pick just one so instead here's three, in decreasing order of silliness
All of them are about 2 hours long each
Aside from that, Cathode Ray Dude's recent The Unholy Saga of Phoenix Hyperspace is quite good, though it's a really computer nerd-y topic.
And finally, if we're allowing conference talks, literally anything Deviant Ollam has his name attached to tends to be really good, though he does tend to repeat stuff between his talks. Here is four that's different enough from each other:
I totally forgot to mention Deev's talks in my answer. I have watched most of them several times, and enjoy the different versions/twists on talks he's given on elevators such as Elevator Obscura: Hacks and Curios in the Lift Industry vs Pit/Penthouse. Great stuff.
Not full documentaries, but Tom Scott on YouTube does great little 5-10 minute explainers.
https://youtube.com/@TomScottGo
Edit - added YouTube channel
Shoutout to Lemmino! I love his video about Jack the Ripper.
Yes! It's so good
I created a playlist of the recommendations here and thought I might as well share: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9W-RMmS6ewK9p8OtJEKXtClpXEibXEIU
I also added this video on the Boeing 737 Max from MegaProjects, and a couple on a subject near and dear to my heart: Boy Bands of the 90s:
The Polybius documentary by Ahoy. https://youtu.be/_7X6Yeydgyg
Thanks for sharing these! I've only seen 1 and 5, so I've got something to watch this weekend!
Hey, I think this can be interesting to some of you
There is a Non-profit organisation based in Swiss, that aims to evaluate the quality of Youtube videos, and generates global recommendations from that: tournesol.app
Currently, there is about 25000 videos included (~50% are in French, ~40% in English, 10% other) at the top of English recommendations we can find Kurzgesagt, Science4All, ~~John Oliver~~ LastWeekTonight
If you like to give your opinion, please come by !
This works like that:
Pros: The recommendation algorithm used, 100% Open sourced and developed by universities, said to be mathematically safe against a number of risks (strategic voting, bots attacks...) and "more representative to public opinion than commonly used polling methods"
Cons: The current low number of users (recommendations are pretty biased towards living healthly and reducing carbon footprint, for the moment, not a lot of entertainment yet)
Note that I'm not affiliated not part of the associative, I'm only a user of Tournesol, comparing videos from time to time to improve global rankings
Defunctland's Disney's Fastpass: A Complicated History is a fantastic dive into the logistics of managing a giant crowd over several years, from approaching it as an engineering problem all the way to exploiting the system for profit. It's such a fascinating problem to me, and it's presented in an engaging and fun way. The rest of the channel is fantastic too!
I'll also recommend Fascinating Horror - these aren't fictional horror stories, these are real disasters told in an incredibly detailed but highly respectful way. They don't just explain the disaster and why/how it happened, but also the regulations that came afterwards to make sure these would never happen again. They're all high quality, but if you want a starting point the Nutty Butty Caves will give you a good idea what the channel is about.
I keep watching this little short every once in a while: The Missile Knows Where It Is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ
Psychocybernetics?
Road Guy Rob talks about how highway engineering works in a fun, highly animated way:
Here's one about a bike lane disaster -- where the city screwed up and undid it after a week:
Philosophical Analysis of Dark Souls - The Gemsbok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpf3KQBIoCY
I think it might be the best analysis video about a game anywhere on the internet.
Disney Channelβs Theme: A History Mystery. A documentary by Defunctland about the previously unknown composer of the Disney Channelβs signature theme.
I really enjoyed this video by Freya HolmΓ©r talking about Splines. Awesome resource for game devs.
Summoning Salt's The Quest to Beat Matt Turk. https://youtu.be/TBR9ypSOTGQ
It is one of Salt's greatest videos, and showcases some of the best editing and storytelling I've ever seen on YouTube. Probably the best part is that you can go in with no knowledge of the game, like I did, and come out fully understanding everything about the game.
This classic: https://youtu.be/wKbU8B-QVZk
Every time I come across it I have to watch at least 10 times in a row.
Anything from Oversimplified channel. History made funny and fun. I never learnt about the Aussie vs emu war growing up here. https://youtu.be/BXpu6tbFCsI
Jon Bois' documentary on Lonnie Smith. Probably one of the greatest documentaries of all time https://youtu.be/wTM_eN8AZeQ
If you can get past the weird framing device, the Plinkett reviews of the Star Wars prequels are an excellent deep dive into the issues with those films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI&list=PL5919C8DE6F720A2D
Jenny Nicholson's videos are great, but her documentary on "The Last Bronycon" is special, as the realization dawns on you while watching that she has more connection to Brony culture than you might have guessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVOF2PiHnc
I'm a huge fan of "The Alt Right Playbook", which breaks down the dirty tactics the alt right uses to recruit people.
Also a huge fan of "In search of a flat Earth", which looks at conspiracy theories, how they evolve, why people believe in them, and why "the shape of the Earth might actually be the least relevant part of the flat Earth conspiracy".
Open Dialogue: an alternative Finnish approach to healing psychosis https://youtu.be/HDVhZHJagfQ
Psychiatry - An Industry of Death https://youtu.be/N0LsYY7WNP4
Scientist re-reads the Diamond Age after 25 years https://youtu.be/FmvLbhWSPuY
12 Best Episodes of The Outer Limits 1995 β Sci-fi at its best https://youtu.be/yzj_CvMEtjE
A time lapse of the history of the universe:
Very minimalistic, but I like the sound and visuals. Just try to tune in and enjoy an existential crisis at the end!
The Mennonites - A trip back in time | DW
Documentary https://youtu.be/Pt_XU4W4DBA
It just fascinates me.
So this isn't on YouTube but the Ken Burns Vietnam War Series is absolutely phenomenal and hands down the best documentary I have ever seen, not even close. If you can find somewhere to watch it I recommend it endlessly.
Anything by Richard Feldman. I'm binging all of the talks he has given for a third time now
Koyanisquatsi. No commentary, just ambience.
watching this film in an altered state is wonderful. (it's also wonderful sober)
As in, stoned? Shrooms?
the latter but the former is probably also excellent
Anything from Oversimplified channel. History made funny and fun. I never learnt about the Aussie vs emu war growing up here. https://youtu.be/BXpu6tbFCsI
This quaint documentary about the pigeon and dove species of Australia. I find it to be incredibly comforting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXjmxyGLReA
Facts in Motion vids about flood basalt volcanoes and extinction events:
I really wish he were still making videos.
Similarly, Nick Zentner's lecture on the Flood Basalts of the Pacific Northwest. I can't tell you how many times I've watched this exact lecture (although all of Zentner's stuff is great):
Vsauce's Which Way Is Down. Of all his videos, this is the one I keep going back to:
Agree with 1 and 3. I haven't seen the other ones, they seem interesting.
The only one I can think of right now, because I've seen it like 3 times, is The Internet's Own Boy.