Whats_your_reasoning

Anyone got any informative YouTube channels that DON’T use AI slop?

https://lemmy.world/post/44507044

Anyone got any informative YouTube channels that DON’T use AI slop? - Lemmy.World

I love long-form videos that tell information and stories. Documentaries about most any topics, especially ones that last an hour or more, are my bread and butter. But when I’m using YouTube on my TV, I can’t tell from thumbnails what the quality of a channel is. Sometimes I find gold, but other times it’s obvious they’re using an AI voice over or AI imagery and I immediately turn it off. I’m so tired of trudging through the slop, even though it’s just beginning. So for now, I figure I’ll check with y’all - do you have any preferred/recommended channels that make the sort of video I’m looking for, that are still human-made? I’d love to hear about them.

Mar 20 at 11:48amWeb
Show threadChippys_mittens1d ago
Simon Whistler is the man. He runs a bunch of YouTube channels with the same basic idea. He has a script about a topic written by a person then he reads it on camera with plenty of his own additions. My favorite channels are “into the shadows”, “casual criminalist” " megaprojects" and “side projects” but I think he has a few more. Each one is themed differently but all are good, interesting, human made and educational. Tons of content on each channel.
Show threadTurboWafflz1d ago
Has his content gotten more accurate? I stopped watching him after he claimed that the cell signal meter on your phone doesn’t measure the signal strength but actually the distance to the nearest tower
Show threadChippys_mittens1d ago
I don’t fact check his videos for technicalities. I consume mostly historical or true crime from him.
Show threadAstralPath1d ago
Joe Scott is good for this.
Show threadeinkorn1d ago
Depending on which language you speak I can recommend Arte, a French-German cooperation.
ARTEde

Herzlich Willkommen auf dem ARTE-YouTube Kanal. Hier findet ihr täglich spannende Dokumentationen und Formate wie "Mit offenen Karten", "42, die Antwort auf fast alles", "Stimmt es, dass..." und mehr. Netiquette Wir freuen uns über eure Kommentare, Anregungen, Fragen und Meinungen und wünschen uns einen konstruktiven Austausch auf sachlicher Ebene mit freundlichem und respektvollem Umgangston. Um dies zu gewährleisten, werden wir Kommentare und Nachrichten, mit folgenden Inhalten löschen: - Beleidigungen, Diskriminierungen, Sexismus, Rassismus, Bedrohungen oder Hetze/Hasspropaganda aller Art - Aufforderungen zu Gewalt aller Art - Fake News - Irreführender Aufruf zu Spenden - Werbung und Spambotschaften - Wahl- und Parteienwerbung aller Art - Pornografie und Obszönitäten - Verletzungen von Rechten Dritter - Irreführende Links - Inhalt-/Kanalfremde Kommentare ohne erkennenswerten Beitrag für den Austausch/die Diskussion

YouTube
Show threadBjörn1d ago
Usually not as long, but the PBS stuff and Dr Becky are pretty good for astrophysics.
Show threadPonyOfWar1d ago

A few channels I like that I think should fit. AFAIK none of them use AI whatsoever.

Stefan Milo (Prehistory/Archaeology)

Told in Stone (Ancient History)

World of Antiquity (Ancient History)

The Pharao Nerd (History)

Trey the Explainer (History and random topics)

Anton Petrov (Space and Science)

Big Joel (Culture/Media)

STRANGE ÆONS (Internet culture and random stuff)

Stefan Milo

Bringing the deep past to life. Videos on archaeology, evolution and stuff that happened ages ago.

YouTube
Show threadsnoons1d ago

Not sure if these are what you’re looking for, but:

  • Dr. Becky

  • What’s Going On With Shipping?

  • Not Just Bikes

  • Sampson Boat Co.

  • Primitive Technology

  • Bad Obsession Motorsport

  • Practical Engineering

  • B1M

  • Jay and Mark

  • Florian Gadsby

There are also channels that are focused on the war in Ukraine and related international shenanigans (in order of avg. video length):

  • Perun

  • Denys Davydov

  • Reporting from Ukraine

  • Suchomimus (poor chap made a channel to nerd out about dinosaurs, then the Russians attacked…)

Also check out ytch.xyz; It serves videos from a curated list of channels such that it behaves like cable television.

Also also check out nebula.tv if you can afford it.

Show threadINeedANewUserName1d ago
I had to scroll way too far to find Practical Engineering and still haven’t seen Styropyro
Show threadLeeks1d ago
While not exactly what you are asking, check out Nebula as it has a lot of long form content that is not slop.
Nebula – Indie Streaming

Nebula is smart, thoughtful videos, podcasts, and classes from your favorite creators.

Nebula
Show threadanon67891d ago

I’m on a Nebula guest pass this week someone generously gave me when I talked about having a hard time finding AI things.

It’s a very stark contrast scrolling through the 2 feeds next to each other!

Nebula has a more Fediverse feel. I don’t believe it has any kind of real recommendation algorithm, it just has a few suggested categories, like this is Women’s Month, so they highlight female creators. Less people contributing, but every video looks watchable even if it’s not something I have interest in. The main issue I’ve had is getting used to a more Netflix looking system to find videos, and just the fact since everything looks interesting, I haven’t actually watched much since it’s stuff I want to watch when I can actually pay attention instead of it just being moreso background noise. For the $60 a year or whatever it is, it is looking quite tempting.

Scrolling YouTube next to it feels much more like looking at Facebook. Clear algorithm based feed. Lots of mental junk food type recommendations. Real content looks the same as AI. I’m on premium and still have to hear the in-video ad reads. Much more variety (almost no electronic music production or synth type stuff I could find on Nebula, not much on animation, for example) but you have to wade through a lot of crud to find the good stuff.

Show threadIntrovertTurtle1d ago

SmarterEveryDay is cool, it’s a former NASA engineer just explaining cool shit. I’m a fan of his ‘how do helicopters work’ deep dive, and the world’s greatest archer videos.

Veritassium is kinda the same thing, though I don’t know his stuff quite as well.

Show threadSkaveRat1d ago
getting more and more turned off by smartereverydays increase in religious bullshit in the videos
Show threadIntrovertTurtle1d ago
I haven’t watched much of his new stuff, so idk anything about that. I do know a lot of his fans were semi-upset about his increase in use of the slow-mo, high-speed camera footage.
Show threadThorry1d ago
There is this super cool video series debunking some of the horse shit Destin has been saying about creationism. Would recommend: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLInNVsmlBUlSjLSj9yGEKp…
How did bacterial flagella evolve?

This is the series made by Jon Perry (Stated Clearly) for Destin Sandlin (Smarter Every Day) to help Destin understand what we know about the evolution of ba...

YouTube
Show threadOaksey19h ago
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.
Show thread🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞1d ago

the world’s greatest archer videos.

^Lana!^

…LANA!

…LANAAAA!!!

(wait, I think I misunderstood) ;-)

Show threadThePantser1d ago
Cathode Ray Dude he does 1 hour plus videos on the history of a niche product or technology. He just did one that is 2+ hours on how they film tvs for movies. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicQUvSUbPM
Filming Video: CRTs On Set

YouTube
Show threadRobotToaster1d ago

Historia Civilis youtube.com/@historiacivilis

Cambrian chronicles youtube.com/@cambrianchronicles

Type 56 youtube.com/@type56_ordnance_dept

Historia Civilis

Civic History.

YouTube
Show threadspectrums_coherence1d ago
Veritasium Fren Johnny Harris Compterphile 3blue1brown tldrNews (several channel each for different region) RealLifeLore Money and Macro (actual economist, not finance bro)
Show threadsad_detective_man1d ago
Does Veritasium not use AI elements? Even in the narrative animations?
Show threadspectrums_coherence1d ago

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.

Show threadNihilsineNefas1d ago

Tech Ingredients - DIY-ing machines that seem way more complicated than they actually are

AvE - tool teardowns with the kind of crude humour you only get from being a spannerjockey

Greenhill Forge - Chap that builds homesteading/self sufficiency/off-grid equipment, brilliant at explaining the underlying principles without any jargon

Maximus Ironthumper - An off-grid living guy that’s currently building a portable pipe organ in an old Zil truck (and refurbishing said truck in the process)

Styropyro - Master of the question “How dangerous can I make this high voltage device/ Laser without dying?”

Nilered /Nileblue - A mad scientist with the budget to do things like ‘making a bacon flavoured apple’ just for the hell of it

Dankpods - A channel with the widest variety of music tech and creator of the “Nugget dip” - a series about looking at second hand MP3/phone/early 00’s tech that ended up in second hand stores

Alexander the ok - Highly researched and well written videos on topics such as “What is the dumbest nuclear bomb ever put into service?”

Just to name a few off the dome in a variety of Science/STEM topics

Show threadCMLVI1d ago
Scary Interesting does some horror documentary stuff about, idk, scary situations people have been stuck in. No AI images, which is saying something, cause he always has some kind of background or graphic going.
Show threadnate3d1d ago
His stuff is great, there was a short time where he was using some AI generated content but the backlash was so severe that only lasted a handful of episodes
Show threadCMLVI1d ago
I missed those, I go through phases with him. I get it though, guy cranks out videos and probably gets old using the same cave diving stock videos lol.
Show threadnate3d1d ago
lol I think that was exactly it, and it actually had a good long-term effect as I’ve noticed an increase of using actual footage/images from the topics being discussed when prior it was more stock image stuff. And also 100% with the phases. Gotta binge and purge that dopamine 😭😂
Show threadiamthetot1d ago
Lots of good channels mentioned that I won’t repeat, but didn’t see Modern History TV yet.
Show threadSanguinePar1d ago

If you like long, human-made, interesting but also a bit leftfield documentaries, you could do a lot worse than Jon Bois.

Example - a four part series about the history of the telegraph, told through an extended metaphor involving the two main characters in 90s sitcom, Home Improvement.

Highly recommended, as is his other stuff. He has a couple of deep dives into the weird histories of the Atlanta Falcons and the Minnesota Vikings that are also well worth watching

The birth of the internet, according to Jon Bois

YouTube
Show threadnate3d1d ago

Check out Simon Whistler and his teams channels. Tons of informative stuff and I think they make a sizable portion of all YouTube content lol

www.simonwhistler.com

SIMON WHISTLER

SIMON WHISTLER
Show threadBryyM1d ago
The Whistlerverse is just too full of inaccuracies to be a good source for infotainment
Show threadnate3d1d ago
How so? Not doubting, I just hadn’t heard anything before.
Show threadBryyM1d ago
Well I discovered it when I saw there was so many channels of his that talked about the similar topics, it felt off somehow so I started to google some of the stuff he talked about. It wasn’t necessarily wrong, but inaccurate enough that when you watch a lot of his stuff the image of what happened will be skewed. It has been years since I did it so I don’t have exact details for you, but it shouldn’t be too hard to replicate (if google/google.scholar hasn’t degraded too much).
Show threadRandomgal1d ago
Agreed. I used to follow his channel until he spoke a hot a topic I actually knew about beforehand and realized bro isn’t great at reaserxh or critical thinking. He just parrots whatever Google tells him.
Show threadBricked1d ago

Even if you can’t afford Nebula, I recommend browsing its explore section, because many of its high quality creators and videos are also on YouTube

Here are some of my favourite creators who make half-hour-long animated documentary-style videos:

  • LEMMiNO
  • fern
  • Hoog
  • neo
  • PolyMatter
  • Mustard
  • Imperial
  • Cipher
  • PBS Space Time
  • melodysheep
Show threadglimse1d ago

Sad to see no love for one of the coolest dudes in Nebula, Grady from Practical Engineering.

If you like seeing how civil engineering projects happen, there’s no better channel. It reminds me of PBS shows I watched as a kid

Show threaddalekcaan1d ago
I watch him on youtube, love his videos. Very straightforward and informative.
Show threadglimse1d ago
I love that he’s established enough in the niche that he gets access to film civil construction projects, too. Great stuff
Show threadCMLVI1d ago

LEMMiNO is my favorite bi-annual creator.

Nexpo does some really good stuff too, but I think recently he’s just been doing like Reddit deep dives, and that is only so interesting.

Show threadJayGray91🐉🍕1d ago

I’d be a little wary with Kurzgesagt. Tldw their funding can be traced to Bill Gates’ many companies.

How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires

How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires

YouTube
Show threadFeathercrown1d ago
It’s pretty funny that Sciencephile the AI can be recommended as a good non-AI source of info now that more capable AI is real and not just scifi.
Show threadFinjaminPoach1d ago

(This is slightly UK centric)

Posts regularly:

Less-often post schedule:

Reading is a Skill

Reading is my primary hobby, strongest skill, and greatest "unfair advantage." Recognizing reading as a skill also means I've been able to develop it through deliberate practice, and that's what this channel is about. Also a lot of it is about trying to solve what I call "the central problem" – how do we live the Serenity Prayer in a world that we have made into one we are very much not made for?

YouTube
Show threadrozodru1d ago

IF you like warhammer 40k or want to get into the lore (it’s god damn insanely deep and interesting) there are a few VERY good videos that are multiple hours long that pretty much come out on a weekly basis. https://www.youtube.com/@Luetin09 is my favourite. if I have nothing to do one a weekend afternoon i’ll just put his vids on while I do some dev work or play around with my pc configs. each video is easily 2+ hours. and it’s just lore.

I don’t even know how to play WH40k, I don’t own any of the minitures, but damn do I know all the lore because of his vids.

Luetin09

Welcome to my Channel. I've been immersed in Warhammer 40,000 for some 30 years now, my primary goal is to share that deep love of the lore and hobby with as many people as possible, and help give some distraction from the stresses we all face. Here we will dive deep into the lore, and hopefully scratch out some meanings and understanding within the rich deep verse that is 40K. I also sometimes look into adjacent topics - history - apocalypse and fantasy sci-fi.

YouTube
Show threadAnchoriteMagus1d ago
Luetin, Arbitor Ian, Adeptus Ridiculous, The Remembrancer, Baldermort, many more…all making long form (30 min plus) videos put together solely with human effort. There’s a lot of AI slop in the 40K space, but also a lot of really creative people making great stuff.
Show threadDevolution1d ago
History Time. His videos, especially the one on the Sea Peoples, is peak.
Show threadshads1d ago

I have some regulars, probably more mid length than long form but they all have the occasional longer piece every so often: History with Kayleigh - Charming Dutch creator with a focus on pre-historical human and hominids Extra History - Cartoonified History with a humorous style Flight Formula - Aviation History History Buffs - Historical Analysis of Movies and TV Technology Connections - Ascerbic presentation of technology often delving into the historic context Gavin the Medievalist - Dr of English who specialises in medieval literature Four Keys Book Arts - Calm and Patient Book Binder, sidelines in paper marbling Noah Caldwell-Gervais - Video game analysis, super in depth with a focus on games as narrative

Missing a heap but those are the channels that sprang to mind.

History with Kayleigh

Business Inquiries: [email protected] Videos about Ancient Structures, Human Evolution, Archaeological Discoveries, Ancient Queens, Theories About Ancient Civilizations & Inventions from the Ancient World. I research structures like Burial Mounds, Pyramids, Ziggurats, Dolmens, Henge Monuments, Megalithic structures, Neolithic structures. #History #Ancient #Neolithic #Mesolithic #Palaeolithic #Prehistory #stoneage Scientific details about me: Name: Kayleigh A.N. Düring Date of Construction: November 1991 CE Location: North-Holland, The Netherlands Gender: Female Ancestry: Dutch Height: 1,74 meters Structural integrity: Below average, restoration was attempted Date of Restoration; July 2012 Restoration: Removal of tailbone, inconclusive result Current state: Alive (I think?) Eye color: Green Hair color: Blonde Accession Number: 11.14.1991 Email: [email protected] Wanna do a Collab? email me: [email protected]

YouTube
Show threadTurboWafflz1d ago

Not quite documentaries, but Clabretro makes long videos where you sort of learn about old computer equipment along with him as he figures out how to use a new thing he got. He used to use LLMs to try to figure stuff out in his videos which was a little annoying but he doesn’t seem to anymore.

plus he has a cute cat named chloe

Show thread9point61d ago

Look at the list of creators on nebula and check their videos out, I think most of them should fit the bill.

If you find something you like, you can get a nebula sub (or lifetime pass) and cut out all the YouTube nonsense from the experience too!

Show threadbridgeenjoyer1d ago
CRD and tech connections is all I watch really.
Show threadGlitch1d ago
LaurieWired
Show threadsolrize1d ago
Just watch stuff from before 2023 or so? There’s still lots.
Show thread87Six1d ago
Yea it’s not like anyone could’ve consumed ALL the available, informative, pre 2023 youtube information
Show threadWhats_your_reasoning22h ago
Is there a way to filter YT searches for that?
Show threadnautilus1d ago
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
Show threadAnti_Iridium1d ago

PBS SpaceTime, my personal favorite channel

Oversimplified, my close second

PBS Space Time

Space Time explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth with our astrophysicist host: Matthew O’Dowd. For all business inquiries and sponsorship opportunities please reach out to: [email protected] Matt O'Dowd spends his time studying the universe, especially really far-away things like quasars, super-massive black holes, and evolving galaxies. He uses telescopes in space to do it. Matt completed his Ph.D. at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute, followed by work at the University of Melbourne and Columbia University. He's now a professor at the City University of New York's Lehman College and an Associate at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. Previous host Gabe Perez-Giz is an astrophysicist who studies black hole physics. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and also hosted PBS Infinite Series.

YouTube
Show thread87Six1d ago
Gamers Nexus has lately turned into a full blown journalist team. Their stuff is top notch, and it’s powered by gamers not billionares.
Show threadNotASharkInAManSuit22h ago
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.
Show threadbl4kers22h ago
This is the best, most comprehensive list I’ve found: www.clicknourishment.com
Click Nourish

Show threadgwl [he/him]5h ago

Looks to be broken for me?

Show threaddustycups21h ago
No one seems to have mentionded Steve Mould.
Super specific topics, interesting (to me anyway) and definitely no slop.