Some Favorite You Tube Channels (in no particular order)
Ten social work YouTube channels
All of these have content worth watching
:
Canadian Association of Social Workers
Grand Challenges for Social Work
I sometimes watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Not Just Bikes. Good investigation of urban planning and social phenomena related to transport and urban design.
Jay Foreman and Map Men. Nice trivia about maps (I love maps), and also some good analysis of urban design with a focus on London.
Adam Something. Hungarian with a liberal arts education who has an interest in transportation infrastructure, city planning, history, and politics.
J. J. McCullough. Canadian guy from Vancouver, BC who is interested in pop culture and cultural studies.
Knowing Better. Hawaiian dude who does in-depth explorations of issues. He was a social studies or history teacher, and has good pedagogical skills.
bloggingheads.tv sometimes has interesting conversations, but it attracts some ugly alt-right fascists and racists (such trolls like to dominate the comment section). I especially like “The Glenn Show” because I find Glenn Loury to be challenging, as I disagree with much of what he thinks, but I still agree with enough of his reasoning and opinions to find his opinions intriguing.
I think Vice news does some good reporting, and I enjoy their channel.
I think Tolkien was the 20th century’s greatest author, and I like the Nerd of the Rings. I’m more interested in academic study of Tolkien, but for fandom, it’s hard to think of anyone more informed and helpful in explaining Tolkien (maybe Tolkien Untangled)
Kraut is a German who discusses International politics and history, and has useful insights.
Veritasium is my favorite physics and engineering channel.
The Royal Institution is another good science channel I take pleasures in viewing. Good lectures.
Bald and Bankrupt is my favorite travel channel. I find it humanistic and life-affirming.
Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal is my favorite podcast / YouTube channel. I listen to Curt’s conversations with great interest, usually. I guess a few of his guests are a little too flakey, and he doesn’t challenge them as much as I would like, but overall, this is just an outstanding source.
Closer to Truth is another good cosmology and science and philosophy channels.
metaRising is yet another interesting source for fringe philosophy and esoteric cosmologies.
Scienceandnonduality is the fourth philosophy YouTube channel I sometimes watch. There is more psychology and consciousness stuff on this channel, and less science.
Wisecrack is entertaining for its philosophy and pop culture discussions.
For film criticism and pop culture, I also like Thomas Flight. It’s like taking a film or media class, which to me is a very good thing.
The Cinema Cartography is another good, serious channel about the art of cinema.
One of my old college friends (James Boobar) has a fine Youtube channel with interesting conversations and guests.
I’m not sure I really want to admit it, or recommend them, but I do sometimes watch ADV Podcasts, They like Taiwan, and they sometimes have interesting insights in contemporary Chinese culture. They are relentlessly down on the Chinese government, but as someone who was a college student in 1989 on the tangents of the events of that spring, I’m okay with that. They each have their own channels: laowhy86 and serpentza. They’ve spent a lot more time in China than I have, and it is interesting to me to hear how non-academics with interest and experience in China perceive it.
I have enjoyed watching the Fung Brothers, and their channel can be entertaining.
The Fall of Civilizations channel has the best history documentaries I have ever seen.
Dan Davis has good history programs as well.
The Let’s Talk Religion channel has exceptionally fine discussions of topics in theology and religious history.
Lectures at the Oriental Institute (sponsored by the University of Chicago here in Illinois) are a source of great interest for me.
Rick Beato sometimes gives such technical details that I can't understand what he is saying, but I still love his music criticism and analysis.
Professor of Rock is another good music channel I sometimes watch on YouTube.
Trash Theory does deep background on songs and genres, and I like it as a music knowledge channel.
For serious music (concert music), the channel I like is
I like Scotty Kilmer’s automotive channel. I don’t like his click-bait titles, but they are evidently necessary to drive up viewers; his videos are not like the titles.
For art channels, Great Art Explained has several good videos.
Perspective is the an outstanding source for documentaries about art.
Nerdwriter1 has interesting commentary on music, film, art, politics, and various other topics.
Political You Tube channels.
These are mostly radical and leftist. Some are about history or philosophy. They are pretty good.
Richard D Wolff (economist)
On the moderate (not radical) side, aside from Glen Loury, whom I've already recommended, I like:
Atun-Shei Films (almost all history)
and although I'm conflicted about him, Steven Pinker
Reasonable conservatives, with whom I generally disagree, but whom I generally find engaging and interesting, and sometimes challenging, can be found...
at the National Review institute (look for Johnah Goldberg)
at The American Enterprise Institute
at The Heritage Foundation
In any appearance of David Frum
In any appearance of Conor Friedersdorf
In any appearance of David Brooks
Sometimes Thomas Sowell manages to say something sensible
TELEVISION
I mainly watched television when I was a child, and pretty much stopped watching regular television in the mid-1980s. I have, however, watched some series in the 1990s, and in the more recent years the occasional program on Netflix, PBS, or Amazon Prime has captured my attention. Some television series have I enjoyed:
- Nova
- Frontline
- The Prisoner (commentary, overview) (first episode)
- The Goodies (YouTube review)
- SCTV and Monty Python’s Flying Circus
- The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley
- M*A*S*H
- The Omega Factor (like the X-files, but made in 1979)
- Millenium The first two seasons were intriguing, but the third season was awful.
- Wild Kingdom (I remember watching this as a child)
- Nature
- Sealab 2020 This was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon when I was a child. We lived near Laguna Beach, visiting the coast frequently, and I wanted to be an oceanographer throughout most of my childhood.
- Josie and the Pussycats. My other favorite Saturday morning cartoon.
- Star Trek. My favorite Star Trek series was the Next Generation, although the last couple seasons of Deep Space Nine were great as well.
- When I was very small I would watch Bewitched, I Love Lucy, Sesame Street, the Electric Company, Captain Kangaroo, and Mr. Rogers.
- Other television personalities I like include Ernie Kovacs, Red Skelton, and Steve Allen.
- I have somewhat enjoyed some more recent programs, such as the Man in the High Castle (different from the book, but good on its own merits), Stranger Things, and Detention (返校 ).
Some of my favorite personalities in the entertainment industry:
- Clara Bow
- Charlie Chaplin
- Lexa Doig
- Harrison Ford
- Mel Gibson
- Lillian Gish
- Cary Grant
- Alec Guinness
- Katharine Hepburn
- Carole Lombard
- Myrna Loy
- Steve Martin
- Rosenda Monteros
- France Nuyen
- Anthony Quinn
- Peter Sellers
- Martin Short
- Patrick Stewart
- Robin Williams
- Jonathan Winters
Favorite sources for journalism
Favorite ideas and influences