Asklemmy

I recently saw this: What are some great YouTube channels worth checking out? which indirectly answers your question I guess for the people that posted suggestions.

Mine were:

• https://www.youtube.com/@TheTimTraveller - Utterly charming and funny travel videos
• https://www.youtube.com/@AtomicShrimp - Incredibly wholesome nerdyness in a multitude of forms
• https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck - Insightful and considered observations about the war in Ukraine
• https://www.youtube.com/@TheCriticalDrinker - Unashamedly non-PC reviews and observations on film and TV

I am subscribed to dozens of channels. Some that consistently put out interesting/good content are:

Donut Media (with SponsorBlock enabled)

The Proper People

Tom Scott

The B1M

Vox

Joe Scott

BBC Earth Lab

Those videos are a result of people min/maxing for the algorithm; the fact that you see them so much shows that they are unfortunately succesfull. Its a symptom of people being able to make (good) money from it.

There is still plenty of good content, but you would find it in the recommendations. You have to go searching for it. Search for your hobbies and interests. The more niche your search terms the better.

Hermitcraft and Red Letter Media

Matt’s off road recovery, Real Civil Engineer, Heavy D (Sparks), Practical Engineering.

I use newpipe to not have to struggle with all the ads.

My goto channels that id always recommend and support via patreon/ donations:

(General stuff) Clickspring Ben Eater Sebastian Lague Steve Wallis Luetin09 JunsKitchen

(Gaming) TomatoAnus Pete Complete Rhadamant Nivarias

I absolutely hate all the screaming that some youtubers think they have to do....

If anyone has any great (calm) youtubers, especially something strategy gaming related, please drop them!!

Tom Scott - short documentaries about places and things that are are out of the ordinary

Climate Town - comedic video essays on how certain parts of our lives impact the climate

CGP Grey - in-depth animated video essays on nerdy topics like flag designs or airport runway numbering

Dashner Design and Reatoration - realistic furniture restoration where the guy is honest about flaws and failed techniques. Not too much talking, but enough to let you know why he’s doing certain things

I watch Audit the Audit and CodeBlueCams, but I don't subscribe to them. And Mark Rober, sometimes. I don't have a Goog account, so I only browse as a guest. This is by choice.

Beau of the Fifth Column is a channel I love to watch. He offers really good insights to news and politics.

A lot of my favourites have already been mentioned, but one I didn't see is Peter Santenello.

He makes vlogs going into dangerous areas, ghettos, gang and criminal areas in general, or in really rich neighborhoods, and he hangs out with some locals asking them a lot about their life.

It's really interesting stuff

Watcher is a fun channel, educational and stupid at times.

Wristwatch Revival is a great turn off your brain kind of channel but now I'm building watches in my free time.

Primitive Technology is just fantastic all the time.

Chubby Emu is a great medical channel and his meme game is on point.

Brutalmoose is a beautiful storm of chaotic editing techniques.

Sam O'Nella!

Kurtzgesagt.

Technology Connections.

Goniloc used to be kick-ass.

Smarter Every Day.

I'm not even deep into the algorithm. You need to stop clicking on garbage.

I watch more YouTube then I'd like to admit honestly, but with ad blockers it's not too bad. Some of my frequented channels/creators:

Gaming:

• Haelian: Used to be purely Hades content, now mostly a rogue like variety streamer/creator.
• GrandPOOBear: lots of Mario romhacks and high level Kaizo play, with a decent amount of variety games as well. Super funny/chill dude.
• CarlSagan42: Mostly plays SMM troll levels, although sometimes his reactions can be a little much. Entertaining if you like Mario though.
• Frost Prime: Mostly Slay the Spire content, although I think he's pretty funny as well.
• Iron Pineapple: Finds and plays every souls-like he can on Steam. Usually pretty entertaining.
• Mukluk: A lot of Guild Wars 2 content, but has a 2nd channel of many types of games. Currently he's going through Baldurs Gate 3
• A Mighty Teapot: Another GW2 creator. Recently did a "Zero to Hero" series in which he created a fresh account and leveled/geared from scratch.
• Josh Stryfe Hayes: A well spoken brit who does commentary on MMOs and gaming in general. I suggest his "Worst MMO Ever" series.
• Flophouse Plays: Variety games, recently enjoyed his videos on finding obscure games on old systems (SNES, Genesis, etc)
• Wulff Den: heavy emphasis on emulators and hacks. Lots of comparisons, like Steam Deck vs ASUS ROG Ally

Music:

• Ola Englund: Swedish metal guitarist and owner of Solar Guitars. Lots of chugs, caveman riffs, and gear reviews.
• NikNocturnal: While the running joke is that he's a "poser" because he likes metalcore, he's a very solid guitarist and makes fun content.
• Ben Eller: Super talented guitarist who gives practice techniques and song/riff breakdowns.
• Adam Neely: Jazz bassist who does video essays on various music theory topics.
• 66Samus: Goofy metal drummer
• Bradley Hall: Goofy metal guitarist who loves to sweep.
• Ichika Nito: Guitarist, think Polyphia condensed into 30sec videos
• Sebastiside: Same as above, but metal.
• Dean Lamb: Insanely good Guitarist from Archspire, love his "4 levels of death metal" series.
• Brandon Ellis: Guitarist of Black Dahlia Murder, mostly playthroughs and practice runs. God-tier shredder.

Other:

• Drawfee: 4 super talented digital artists draw based on crazy prompts. Highly recommend anything Pokemon related of theirs.
• Jolly: 2 British dudes travel and eat different foods. Fun times
• Game Grumps: while their newer stuff doesn't hit the same, I can rewatch their old playthroughs (Paper Mario TTYD, Pokemon Fire Red,etc) repeatedly.
• Angry Video Game Nerd: Similar to the above, newer stuff is alright but I regularly play seasons 1-4. So nostalgic.

I might have a problem....

Sounds like your algorithm is pretty badly poisoned.

It's my primary video entertainment service. I have a premium family plan so I don't have to deal with ads on any device and neither do my wife kids or parents.

I don't see any crypto scams. I do occasionally see clickbait BS in the suggestions, but I've gotten pretty good at avoiding it. Even creators who put out things I like, I'll delay watching stuff with clickbait thumbs or titles so as not to reward it. I found the Veritasium video on clickbait informative. (Funnily enough he's now on my shit list for clickbait)

An inexhaustive list of my follows off the top of my head:
Gaming:
Many a true nerd, mainly for the fallout stuff but I like their other content.
T90official, for AoE2 match coverage, the nearest I get to watching sports
Best Guest (he deserves more subs, with his surreal challenge runs) SorcererDave.
Karl Jobst

Science:
PBS space time.
Anton Petrov.
Sabine Hossenfelder.

Legal commentary:
Leonard french.
Steve Lehto.

Tech:
Linus Tech tips (although they're all in on the clickbait titles & soyface)
Gamers Nexus
Der8auer EN
Louis Rossman (I've become less of a fan over the last few years, but not enough to drop him)

Other
Meatcanyon/papa meat
Rainman rays repairs (the algorithm offered him up, and I've found him fixing stuff pretty compelling lately)

There are more but that all I want to type out right now. Some also broadcast on Twitch, but I'm not a fan of that platform. I like some editing, and can't stand the "look at me, look at meeeee" aspect of twitch chat (or any 'live' content)

there's still plenty of great content on YouTube it just depends on what you're watching

RedLetterMedia. I re-watch their 'best of the worst' movie reviews over and over.

Been watching a lot of Ordinary Sausage lately. Such absolute culinary insanity and yet weirdly wholesome.

On the more soothing side of things, Townsends' cooking videos are usually just plain nice, not to mention surprisingly tasty. Never would've thought "literally put an unpeeled onion in the oven until it smells delicious" would be a viable recipe but it turns out it's amazing. Also, Mushroom Ketchup rules.

Jarvis Johnson, Atrioc, Pitch Meetings, Philip DeFranco

You absolutely should keep on watching YT. In fact I can specifically highly recommend the channel DukeUnivLibraries. This video with almost 1M views will sway in just the first 15 seconds but you will not be able to peel your eyes away for the entire 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Prepare yourself. Get some popcorn. https://youtu.be/e1iGEM9NMFM

Tomatoanus does speed run explanation videos and they are always interesting to me

Rick Beato - music theory Meat Canton - animation James Lee - animation Tasting History - food and history Bunch of cop watchers and civil rights folks. Bad Cop No Donut stuff.

Oh. Also:

Captain Disillusionment - VFX and skeptics Corridor - VFX Movies with Mikey - film video essays In/Frame/Out - film theory and savage commentary Emmet Short - pop tech Daryl Talks Games - psychology of video games. I cry. WrySci - small channel but funny science stuff. Wish it’d have taken off.

Hones trailers (game and movies/TV series), HISHE, Steven He, Pitch Meeting, Ryan George, Linux Experiement

I love CallMeKevin, he’s so funny and generally wholesome, his content is great. Beyond that it’s all over the place. Tolkien Untangled, Wendigoon, Contra Points, Cracking the Cryptic for wild sudoku solving, Ryan Hollinger, a lot of history channels, things like Real Engineering, and coding stuff when needed

Hyperspace pirate is currently working on making a cryocooler to make liquid nitrogen, out of cheap and readily accessible components. He's not done yet, but the progress videos are very interesting to watch. https://www.youtube.com/@HyperspacePirate

Big fan of Mighty Car Mods. Been going since the mid 2000s, but still don't do any BS, just good car videos. From long Top Gear Special style videos like Kei to the City down to quick and small videos like How to change your steering wheel.

Mostly Townsends and Steven1989 with some Primitive Technologies thrown in for light watching, plus ContraPoints and Philosophy Tube for when I have an hour to sit down and focus on really heady topics.