Just watch stuff from before 2023 or so? There's still lots.

I love that he's established enough in the niche that he gets access to film civil construction projects, too. Great stuff

Highly suggest Swegle Studios if you’re into weather and other natural phenomena. Full disclaimer though, he tried AI visuals once or twice in the past but got absolutely reamed for it and doesn’t do it anymore

the world’s greatest archer videos.

^Lana!^

…LANA!

…LANAAAA!!!!!!!

(wait, I think I misunderstood) ;-)

Unlike fern and tldrnews, I don't think they declared no AI, but I feel most of there animation seems to involve a lot of human labors, at least on top of AI.

They have also never declared the use of AI either, so I guess I don't know for sure.

PBS SpaceTime, my personal favorite channel

Oversimplified, my close second

Yea it's not like anyone could've consumed ALL the available, informative, pre 2023 youtube information

Gamers Nexus has lately turned into a full blown journalist team. Their stuff is top notch, and it's powered by gamers not billionares.

Curious Archive is really good if you’re into media and story analysis and exploration. I’ve also been hooked on KBash for deep dive video game retrospectives.

Is there a way to filter YT searches for that?

This is the best, most comprehensive list I've found: https://www.clicknourishment.com/

No one seems to have mentioned Steve Mould.
Super specific topics, interesting (to me anyway) and definitely no slop.
Edit:mentionded?

I hadn’t noticed it in the videos I’ve seen. He has a good podcast “No Dumb Questions” and has a Pastor as his co-host. Typically I enjoy it but good lord, the Christmas special was bible class and painful to listen to.

PBS and Nova are good. Science Channel as well. Most vids are short but they put out some banger full length documentaries every so often.

History Time is also really good. The length of the vids can be hella long.

The History Channel has some cool stuff too.

Looks to be broken for me?

For specifically media discussion and history discussion, OverlySarcasticProductions

More perfect union, according to Nicole, Zac rios

3 of my favorites in last few months.

Darknet diaries is the shit for podcasts. Also on YouTube.

If you are interested in (astro)physics, here are two channels which i enjoy and can assure for their correctness on research topics:

Dr. Becky Astrophysicist talking about what's happening in space from planets currently visible by nakedness eye to new impactfull research papers. She explains everything in an approachable way.

Angela Collier
Theoretical physicist, makes long story telling videos about physics and societal topics surrounding research. Most videos are >50 minutes, some are more than three hours. However, they often stray from the original topic.

For some talk about philosophy, I can recommend Philosophy Tube.
Most videos are somewhat short of an hour, but explain some philosophical topic in an approachable and interesting manner. Just don't be detered by her extraordinary costumes for each session. I think she research the philosophical questions quite well.

Still loading fine for me. Have a VPN or adblock enabled?

There's slop, slop, slop, information and slop. It hasn't got much slop in it...

I like:

Technology Connections. Alec is a refrigeration cycle enthusiast from the American Midwest in a tweed jacket who talks about gadgetry. He'll change your understanding of dishwashers.

History For Granite. Join him to explore ancient Egypt. A no bullshit no ancient aliens channel focusing on old kingdom Egyptian monuments, particularly the pyramids of Giza and Dahshur. His hot takes include "The ascending passage of the Great Pyramid is built of lower quality limestone, possibly because the higher quality Tura limestone used for most passageways wasn't available. As the passage ascends, you can see the work getting more consistent and gaining quality, as if the masons were gaining skill working with this inferior material." And he casts solar eclipse quantities of shade at Zahi Hawass. It's hilarious.

Cathode Ray Dude. A computer and video hardware enthusiast from the Pacific Northwest. He'll find some electronics artifact and explore its quirks and features, including a whole series on weird old laptops.

Paul Fellows. Bri'ish astronomer type who delivers short-ish briefings on astronomical objects. "Once Around: The Large Magellanic Cloud." I'm getting to where I prefer his content to SEA or Astrum.

TierZoo. Animal documentaries in the style of video game commentary. Animals are player characters in a massively multiplayer game called Outside. A typical video will be titled "Are snakes OP?" and he will rank various snakes on a tier list. "Next we have the rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes have spent evolution points on the rattle ability, a mid-level intimidation and area denial attack intended to evade encounters with carnivore mains." The fact he's been able to keep up this shtick so long is the most entertaining part.

Don't see "Half As Interesting" listed here. His stuff doesn't usually go super deep, but I've learned a lot from him.

And just recently he was accused of using AI for a thumbnail and this was his response:

Veritasium is my favourite, especially for math stuff. The videos tend to be about 20m.

VPN cause UK.

Ooh, just reopened it and now it's fine

Veritasium got bought by venture capital a while ago. They can still be informative and decent but they feel so hollow now I can't usually stand to watch them.

allegedly Scary Interesting uses no AI generated content

eh, I've stopped watching him in the past couple years.

between the trend of needing to go bigger to satisfy the algorithm, the religious stuff, and fellating the US military, the content just isn't worth it

I've enjoyed DW Documentaries since I found them on a now defunct community TV channel back in the early 2000s. The format is the same now as it was then, so if they've worked in some AI slop, I haven't noticed. Topics are varied - science, history, politics, the environment, how local traditions of varying places cope with change - as are the run times.

Some examples:

Zanzibar - Island Paradise in Flux

Father Unknown? Life as a Sperm Donor's Child

Organic Farming as a Career Choice - Italy's Young Farmers

Neutrios: Do They Reveal the Secrets of the Universe?

The Swiss Bar Fire Disaster - Life After the Nightmare

Toxic Colonialism: Secret Chemical Warfare in Algeria

Strong Women: The Fight for Self-Determination

Muscles - More Than Power and Pumping Iron

Final Days Full of Life - Hospice Stories

Opioid Crisis in the US Part 01: Business and Addiction

Opioid Crisis in the US Part 02: Business and Addiction

Viva Longevity has become one of my favorite channels for anything nutrition and longevity related. Chris MacAskill is a retired Earth scientist who started the channel as a passion project. He claims to keep all possible ad things shut off, doesn't accept donations, and is doing the channel out of his own pocket.

The gist of it is to push back against all the misinformation, by providing a platform for the most cited and respected health and nutritional researchers, who do actual science, to talk about their work. He also has episodes about how industry-funded disinformation campaigns work to undermine the scientific communities.

Love this channel, I discovered it last summer.

Technology Connections is the bomb. It's the kind of content that makes you more knowledgeable in a meaningful way by the time the video is over.

Reject Convenience and their side channel, Privacy Policies Explained.

Folding Ideas is a favorite for me. His stuff is professional, entertaining, and educational.

I'm a big fan of the b1m.

https://youtu.be/EruSZNI4th4 <- tunnel under the Faroe islands & world's only undersea roundabout

I noticed an increase in the variety of onscreen talent and more animatics, but I haven't noticed a decrease in the production value

If you’re on a browser, I’d recommend:

https://github.com/amitbl/blocktube

And perhaps other YouTube client apps have a similar feature.

I find, for a given topic, that there are a few common channels spamming hundreds and hundreds of junk videos. Block them as you find them, and it cleans up the feed immensely.

It’s absolutely mind boggling that YT doesn’t include this as a default feature.

Also, respectfully I would not get too invested in YT.

The other day, I found my TV (with the stock app) auto skipping sponsers. That’s just one of a bazillion ways Google is crushing creators that make anything but attention slop, intentionally, so that kind of long-form content you like may not last.

Such a bummer. i didn’t know

Universe Today is fantastic space news

John Michael Godier has informative science based space and metaphysics, sci fi writer. Good stuff

PBS SpaceTime is wonderful

Fig Leaf wonderful history, love this woman and style

Dark5 Ancient Mysteries

North 02

+1 PBS SpaceTime!

Scotty Kilmer, ChrisFix and Project Farm for cars.

Philosophy Tube.

Lindybeige.

Exercise - Chloe Ting, Move with Nicole, Yoga with Adrienne.

For video games:

https://youtube.com/@neverknowsbest

Several hours-long dives into either a specific game, a series of games, or even the entire history of video games. His voice somehow locks you in. You won't even feel the time go by and you will feel richer for the experience.

For interviews, Lex Fridman.

I don't want ANY slop!

LEMMiNO's production quality on his mystery documentaries is brilliant.

Ahoy mainly focuses on aspects of video game history and video game weapon design. I love his voice.

3Blue1Brown for pure mathematics.

pbs eons, there are bunch of channels related to this one, some people on reporting on paleontology/new discoveries, or bio, i like how some people in the comments try to accuse the channels of AI without actual evidence. almost all the influencers AI for thier thumbnails, which i find cringey.

i would be careful watch pbs terra though, because there seems to be some sort of misinformation(like the alleged experts are speaking from an misinformed point of view), like how they are trying to save american chestnut species being devestated by blight, but doesnt go into detail(omit) why they are using the chinese hybrid to prevent disease, which makes it not a natural species since it was the chinese one that spread the disease in the first place, same goes with the devil holes pupfish(claims they are saving the species but doesnt really say why its being hybridizing with another species). there is just something off about that channel that doesnt have with the other pbs channels.

I've actually been really impressed by some of their recent videos. I especially liked the one on jet turbine blades (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtxVdC7pBQM), and their explanation of how displacements propagate through crystals, and how the blades are made with variations in crystal structure that limit that propagation. Yeah, they're using clickbaity titles on it, but the content's solid.

doesnt kurz use AI in some of his presentation, and tried to justify why hes using as not 'actual slop"

Dime Store Adventures is a guy who researches local history from around New England, travels there and makes videos about it. Often researching or trying to find something while filming, making it feel like an actual adventure. A lot of it is centered around cemeteries, background stories about the people buried there, grave monuments with crazy backstories, but also old newspaper articles, local legends and forgotten historical landmarks or geographical features. He seems pretty serious about doing his research, he clearly knows his way around local libraries and archives and I find his way of presenting the information and his enthusiasm about the subjects very engaging. Especially when he goes around looking for something and actually finds it.

What on Earth is This? Is a British guy who travels mostly around Europe (sometimes further) and goes to see engineering features or other manmade structures that have interesting backstories or stand out in some way. He tries to do a pretty deep dive into why something was built or operated a certain way while keeping his videos short and to the point. I also really like his enthusiasm and way of explaining things.

I am not aware of anything like this. They usually take a clear anti AI stance when it comes to their merch.

There's a million great recommendations in this thread already so I don't feel the need to add, but I wanted to chime in that the type of channel that would just use AI slides/"footage" today was always around but were just doing lazy work instead. Also a rule of thumb that seems to kinda work so far is if it's also on Nebula then it's usually pretty well made and researched.

What do you mean, you don't like slop?