| HN Mirror

What I find on YouTube is quite different from traditional movies and TV series. I don't watch YouTube for fiction / drama (I watch Netflix for that), but I find a lot of things that are, in my opinion, far better than Discovery Channel style content has ever been. A few examples of longer form content (mostly 15-60 minutes) that I enjoy...

Practical Engineering - A civil engineer's view of things in the world. How water flows above and below ground, bridge and building failures, trains, designing for safety, etc. His current series (a playlist called Practical Construction) is a phenomenal view of how infrastructure around us is built (in this case, a sewage lift station). https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalEngineeringChannel

Little Chinese Everywhere - A woman from China, educated at least partially in Europe, travelling slowly over land from Switzerland to China (and now across many parts of China). She is sometimes with her German boyfriend and often with locals she meets along the way. She clearly has a background in geography and does a great job showing things I'd have trouble getting access to as an American and as an introvert. Seeing a sober view of deeply skilled artisans in Iran, hanging out with camel herders in Oman, exploring thousand-year-old Svan towers in Georgia, coop farming in Switzerland, etc. - things you just wouldn't get in exorbitantly expensive productions where things have to be made artificially dramatic and adhere to certain political viewpoints. https://www.youtube.com/@littlechineseeverywhere

Stuff Made Here - A inspiring set of devices / robots built in a surprisingly comedic way ("Why would I spend time having fun when I can build a robot to have fun for me?") and then judged with dry wit by the maker's spouse. Examples include a basketball hoop that will fix your bad shots, a pool cue that will do the same, and a CNC pumpkin carving machine. https://www.youtube.com/@StuffMadeHere

Up and Atom - Explorations of various topics in physics, math, and computer science. These explorations often include a look into the history behind the topics and practical / amusing applications in our day-to-day lives that might not be obvious. For example, how did religion historically affect the adoption and use of the number zero in different parts of the world? https://www.youtube.com/@upandatom

Technology Connections - Well researched deep dives into things that are all around us - toasters, refrigerators, HVAC, light bulbs, electric cars, the color brown, etc. He gets surprisingly technical while remaining mostly approachable. And something I wish was required training for all engineers, he goes into why the tech does and does not work well for the people that use it. https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections

The Charismatic Voice - An opera singer, educated in the biology and mechanics of the voice as well as music theory, shares her love of music by analyzing performances of various genres of popular music from the last 50 years. Her aim is clearly not to be a music critic, but to find the wonderful parts of the performances she analyzes and share the joy those parts create in her. She appears completely unreserved in expressing that joy, making it infectious. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCharismaticVoice