media diet

I haven't seen many movies or TV shows. But I've watched a lot of YouTube. It makes up the majority of my "media diet", and these are my favourite channels from over the years. For some meta-notes, I almost exclusively watch these videos on my laptop where I have uBlock and Sponsor Block to watch without ads. In the rare instances I want to watch on my phone, I try to use an alternative front end like Invidious.

food

• Adam Ragusea
  • Home cook that got big from brief, focused, accessible recipes. I remember first finding him when he only had like 3 videos. I think it started out as a hobby during his other work as a journalism lecturer and freelance writer (he also studied music). His past lends well to educational videos. He has some really cool stuff on the history of food, testing modern cooking myths, and he'll often follow those videos with a recipe using ingredients/techniques discussed in the investigations.
• J. Kenji López-Alt
  • Former restaurant owner and extremely successful food writer, I was first suggested Kenji for his midnight snack POV videos. The channel documents stuff he cooks for his family and some extras, like a recent breakdown of a grocery haul or restaurant suggestions. Really interesting to see from the perspective of a professional chef, especially since he just seems like a really cool guy.
  • His alt account is called J. Kenji López-Main which is hilarious.
• Ethan Chlebowski
  • Self-taught cook that I started watching for easy and healthy recipes/frameworks geared for real home eating. Lately he's moved more in the direction of answering questions of what is or isn't worth pursuing as a home cook, and while the insights are often interesting, I haven't enjoyed the experiments as much. Big fan of Ethan though.
• Internet Shaquille / Extranet Shaquille
  • Kind of random channel. I don't even know what the hosts name is. He makes videos on anything he's knowledgable about, which thus far has included cooking, gardening and a one hour guide to Las Vegas for some reason. Also a cool guide to camera focusing on his surprisingly neat second channel. I like how he explains how to treat ingredients/recipes rather than focusing on specific, exact recipes. That can go for a lot of the channels above though.
• Sandwiches of History
  • Short, ad-less, daily videos of sandwiches from old American cookbooks, with occasional viewer submissions. When I first learned of this I became obsessed and watched nothing else for a couple weeks to catch up on every video. It wasn't that exciting.
• Steve1989MREInfo
  • MRE = Meal Ready to Eat. These are government-formulated rations for soldiers. I don't know why it's so interesting to see what they eat, but the consistent calmness of Steve and my lack of knowledge on military nutrition have kept me intrigued for years. I prefer seeing the modern ones, but he's done some really old rations too, which is always fun.
• Tasting History with Max Miller
  • Pretty self-explanatory name. Makes old recipes, espouses some information, then tastes the results. Cool stuff.

learning

• Bliss Foster
  • I'm only kind of into fashion. I'd say I'm more into clothes if that makes sense. Regardless, Bliss's videos on the fashion industry broadly and luxury brands specifically always have tons of stuff I never would've known or considered otherwise. It's an interesting world to peek into and this channel is a very easy way to do so.
• CGP Grey
  • Densely packed, often animated, and fairly transparent educational videos with a surprising amount of alliteration for some reason. I really liked his exploration of the abandoned weapons testing facility TEKOI (not what his usual stuff his like), and really didn't like his video on the solution to traffic (see Not Just Bikes below).
  • Some of his videos on politics are incredibly eye-opening and I highly recommend watching them if you're unfamiliar with the subject matter: The Rules for Rulers, The Law You Won't Be Told and especially the whole Politics in the Animal Kingdom series.
• Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
  • In all honesty, this is probably my least watched channel on this list, but I still have an incredible appreciation for it. There's a number of articles on Joey Santore, but there's nothing like experiencing his ramblings and tangents first hand in his long, simple, often solitary videos. More recently he's been having some guests to learn from and the production quality has increased a bit (he got a drone) but the spirit of the channel remains true.
  • There is only one piece of youtuber merch I've ever actually wanted, and it came from this channel. A t-shirt with a cute Yogi Bear-esque cartoon with the caption "Only you can help lower property values! Crime keeps housing affordable".
• Jay Foreman
  • Fast paced and silly educational videos with a surprisingly high level of production value. Common themes include English history, cartography, and geography.
• Tom Scott
  • Weekly (until the end of 2023) videos on a wide variety of subjects. Technology, linguistics, and most commonly the stories behind interesting places and things in the world. Always shot on location in the same outfit, which is really cool. The videos are usually fairly short, but also include some longer deep dives. Tom has a quirky background that's worth looking into a bit as well.
• Not Just Bikes
  • I'm pretty vocal about the perils of car-dependent infrastructure with anyone who'll listen, and this is where I learned almost everything I know. The title of the channel is a reference to the Netherlands, where the creator lives, and how their safe, efficient transportation systems are not just about the bikes. It is frustrating to now be aware of how solvable the problems around me are, but it also gives hope for a better future.
• PolyMatter
  • A polished, corporate-feeling channel centred around economic and global policy. Interesting topics and insights, but I get a weird vibe from the channel for some reason. I see construction-centric channel The B1M in a very similar light.
• Technology Connections
  • This guy is just a massive nerd. I have no idea what's going on half the time when things get technical, but hearing the stories around everyday technology I often take for granted is really interesting. The videos can get a bit long-winded though.
  • Scrolling through this channel hilarious: a 21 minute video on the colour brown, 32 minutes on dishwashers, 13 minutes on turn signals (and a separate 29 minute video on brake lights), 25 minutes on kettles, etc. That's just scratching the surface.
• Vsauce
  • I feel like everyone knows about Vsauce at this point. Possibly the channel I've been watching for the longest time on this list and I still get excited for every video, no matter what it's about.

games

• Handler
  • Chill Call of Duty videos with actual playing of the objective rather than kill hunting. I got into COD through Warzone at the beginning of the pandemic (like a lot of other guys my age) but haven't played in a long time. I found the main game more fun, but never bought it and was never very good, so watching a great player is very satisfying. Some of my favourite videos to watch before going to bed for some reason.
• Wirtual / WirtualTV
  • I had never played Trackmania when I first watched a bunch of Wirtual's videos, but his dramatic storytelling and my existing fascination in speed running had me quickly hooked. I've briefly tried the game in the past but never bought a membership. Watching gameplay has kept me sated so far.
• WolfeyVGC
  • I played a lot of Pokémon on the DS growing up, but never competitively. I'm not sure how I got started watching Wolfe's Sword and Shield videos. I guess with almost anything, it's just really interesting to observe someone doing something they're truly great at. Wolfe is a former world champion still competing at the top flight. Learning about the game from him has been really cool and pretty funny.
• Daniel Naroditsky
  • In my opinion best chess channel for high quality gameplay and explanations. At the time of writing, Danya is rank 144 in the world, specializing in speed chess, and has a degree in history which makes for some interesting rabbit holes along the way. Also a really level-headed dude with reasonable, well-spoken takes on a lot of hot topics.
• Eric Rosen
  • Eric is an International Master, which isn't as prestigious as some other online chess personalities, but his relaxed demeanor and dry humour make for some really entertaining games, especially in contrast to his tricky and aggressive play style.
  • His little quips about his personal life can be really funny too. I learned about licorice tea from him and am a huge fan now.
• Jomboy Media
  • Detailed sports coverage on a wide breadth of events. Big moments, little moments, sports I love and some I've never heard of. Notably to me, this channel is solely responsible for taking me from baseball hater to passive fan.
• Will Anderson
  • A recent addition to the channels I watch, Will is a competitive Scrabble player recounting moments in history and sharing his knowledge. I'm not a huge fan of the game but the drama and surprising amount of strategy in each move are fascinating to hear about.
• xisumavoid
  • I played a good amount of Minecraft growing up but didn't watch a ton. I thought I should rectify this during university and gave a couple channels a shot, settling on xisuma as my favourite (and EthosLab as a close second). This is another channel here that I don't actually watch much, but would happily advocate for it's quality.

making

• Adam Savage's Tested
  • Mythbusters was one of my favourite shows as a kid, so when I found out Adam Savage had been posting videos of his own for years without me knowing, I was first mad I found out so late, but then super excited to see what he was up to. Turns out, a lot, and he has an incredibly unique channel filled with personal and technical Q&A, guests, and some cool projects. The videos can get a bit slow at times, but they work well for a sort of podcast-y thing to have on in the background.
• Blacktail Studio
  • The first wood working channel I watched, and I think a blueprint for a lot of large project based channels that came after it. Laid back videos with a long runtime, featuring commentary on the process and random asides sprinkled in. From my perspective, it also propelled epoxy tables into the spotlight, but that may just be because it was the first I heard of them. The channel creator Cam has a pretty good sense of humour, but I don't really feel like I can trust him for some reason.
• Bricks and Disorder
  • Two guys in Britain doing some pretty intense project videos with short-form content sprinkled in between. Still a pretty new channel, but their first video was really cool and while the second wasn't quite as fun, I'm excited to see what's next. I wonder how well monetization has been going for them.
• DIY Perks
  • This guy builds some really neat stuff but I kind of get psycho vibes from him.
• Foureyes Furniture
  • Another wood working channel. Not much to say about it, I just really like these kinds of videos. Still don't love a lot of the end products though.
• Joel Laurino
  • This guy is restoring a 1972 Toyota Corolla completely on his own, as a complete beginner to working on cars. Watching the progress has been crazy, and as someone who fantasizes about EV swapping vintage cars someday it's great fuel for daydreaming.
• Make With Miles
  • Another pretty straightforward wood working channel, and again, I feel like the style of what Miles builds isn't really to my taste. It's cool to watch because of the small scale he works at though, as a young university student with a relatively small setup.
• Pedulla Studio
  • Highest quality wood working I've seen on YouTube. Or maybe he's just really good with the cameras. Either way, this guy's incredibly talented, and a couple of the pieces he's made are designed in a way that I really appreciate and would probably take inspiration from if I ever got into wood working.
• Scott Yu-Jan
  • I was recently really impressed by Scott's videos, but feel like the emphasis on over-the-top cinematography kind of takes away from the project at times, and only a handful of his videos are actually about making things (that I find cool). I feel like I've seen a couple other channels that also teeter on the edge of "productivity YouTube" and I really didn't like it, so I hope the future here is just more focus on making cool stuff. The polish on the editing also gives a kind of plastic, corporate feel which tends to rub me the wrong way. This is a shame though, cause I'm sure it takes a lot of work and other people seem to like it.

other

• Beau Miles
  • Beau is an Australian outdoorsman with a cute family and unique perspective on life. He makes short documentary style films of himself doing silly things with insightful commentary. Nice balance of fun and thought-provoking.
• Doug DeMuro
  • I'm not much of a car guy but I used to watch every video Doug put out. I really like the way he presents the cars and his focus on their little design eccentricities. His non-reviews can be pretty engaging too; his path to success is really cool and his knowledge and passion for the car industry are admirable.
• Jam2go
  • My first exposure to Jam2go were his Deluxe Horoscopes videos, but I really got hooked after finding his animated album-accompanying short film GLHF. I thought it was a shame how few views it had given how much work it presumably took and with how much I liked it. Since then, he's released a video game in the same art style as his previous work with lots of new and creative techniques, as well as some video essays with pretty visuals and amusing topics.
• jvscholz / James Scholz / jay skullz
  • It's hard to describe how I feel about this channel. The combination of his old tech, dumb phone content, messy aesthetic and unusual lifestyle keep me really interested in what he has going, but I also kind of don't want to like it. I really like James's website though.
• Primitive Technology
  • In a way this could be in the making section of this page, but I think it's a little distinct. I don't know much of the context around this channel, but essentially, the creator makes projects in the forest starting from absolutely nothing and working his way up. Lately his videos have been all about furnaces and smelting, but his older ones include buildings, tools, and even some food. And he's kept his videos incredibly consistent for the last 8 years. No music or commentary, just some slow paced film of him doing his thing and subtitles for explanations along the way (turn on closed captioning to see them).
• Theo and Harris
  • I like watches. It's not something I like to spend a ton of time on (frankly I find it embarrassing) but Theo and Harris videos are essentially podcasts that I can put on in the background to hear some news or learn some history, and the dynamic between hosts Christian and Michael is really entertaining while still feeling very natural and casual. The amount of in-video promotion is kind of annoying though.
• This is Antwon
  • Fashion channel with emphasis on techwear. I normally wouldn't be into that, but there are also a number of videos discussing fashion as an interest at large in an analytical way, which is pretty fresh and eye-opening. The concepts discussed are fairly widely applicable, and through some deep dives I've even been introduced to a couple of small brands that I now follow.
• Vihart
  • One of the oldest channels in this list, and I've watched it sporadically for many of its years. Really fun and goofy explorations of math without getting too technical, often stemming from doodling or some other creative source. Also a lot of Thanksgiving videos for some reason.
  • I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that part of the reason I decided to study math in university is because of a sort of romanticization of math on YouTube, making me think that if I got to a high enough level there would be immense beauty and curiosity welling up inside of me from all the new math I was learning. Vihart was certainly complicit in this, along with others such as Numberphile and 3Blue1Brown.
• Rajiv Surendra
  • Rajiv's story is incredibly interesting. I only know bits and pieces, but there's a few things that stand out to me: years of working at Ontario's locally famous Pioneer Village, building a career as a calligrapher, specializing in chalkboard writing for businesses, and pursuing a variety of creative hobbies like painting, knitting, pottery, book-binding, and home decorating. I only recently found his channel but his passion for history, quality craftsmanship and life is beautiful to see and I can see myself learning a ton thanks to it.
• Mixie and Munchie / 2girls1bottl3
  • This is not a YouTube channel, but its the only "creators"/"influencers" I really follow outside of YouTube (and music). I found them on TikTok but now follow and watch them on Instagram. There's some interesting articles about them online and what they do is hard to summarize, but it's almost like a performance art series. Practically, its just short videos of Mixie making a drink while Munchie waits nearby keeping herself occupied. They then share the drink. I'm not sure why I'm so into it, but I think it has to do with the conversation around it, the questions on culture it raises for me, and an inexplicable hilarity in every video.

outside of youtube

Currently, the rest of my content consumption consists of:

• Articles that show up on my RSS reader. I haven't found many things to follow (most of the feeds were defaults in the app) but I try to stay caught up and am looking for more. Most of the entries in my feed are from the youtube channels listed above or newsletters for clothing brands/shops I followed by converting to RSS feeds. I use the NetNewsWire apps on my laptop and phone.
• Hacker News, which is very nerdy but generates great discussion and features a lot of news relevant to my career/industry.
• Reddit, primarily for r/nba and r/soccer. Highlights and news for the two sports I follow most.
• Music, but this is usually very passive and changes frequently.
• I try to stay off algorithmically charged platforms but do spend some time on TikTok every once in a while. It's pretty hit-or-miss but I haven't been able to find the hits anywhere else.
• I'd like to read more, watch a couple TV shows, and see some classic movies. I'm not a big fan of podcasts but will randomly listen to an episode of something once in a while.