YouTube is one of the biggest and most popular websites on the web; thousands of people now make a living from posting their video creations to the site, and so-called “influencers” are fast becoming an integral part of the promotional strategy for many businesses. Last year, almost 30,000 hours of new video were uploaded to the platform every hour – no matter how hard you try, you cannot possibly watch everything available on YouTube in your entire lifetime.
It’s a scary statistic, and one which immediately raises the question of how you can find the best content to suit your tastes. You shouldn’t worry, however; the YouTube algorithm is designed to suggest content to you based on the videos you have watched before, constantly tweaking and updating itself to reflect your taste considering watch time, engagement, and several other metrics. On the downside, this can lead to viewers finding themselves in a “bubble” of their own making – an endless echo chamber that excludes new experiences and opinions.
This is a great shame, as YouTube is absolutely loaded with interesting creators who you may not have seen before. With this in mind, we decided to share a few of the best channels we have found during the past year – who knows, maybe some of these will be of interest to you as well!
SciManDan
We’ll start off with a bit of a strange one, SciManDan’s channel started off with a regular guy who found himself hugely frustrated by the rise of “Flat Earth” propaganda on the web. Whilst most of us just laugh off this kind of content – perhaps even seeking it out for giggles – Dan decided enough was enough and began creating weekly videos where he would address specific videos created by so-called “Flat Earthers” in an entertaining and comedic way.
Since then, Dan has spread his wings and begun to address numerous other conspiracy theories as well on his “Tinfoil Tuesdays” segments. If you’ve ever wondered how space-deniers, evolution-deniers, or proponents of UFO’s really think, you will have a ball on Dan’s channel.
The Big Jackpot
Fans of gambling might want to take a look at this one, a channel created by Scott Richter which focuses on the best slots and table games you can find on the Las Vegas strip. There are dozens if not hundreds of gambling-related channels on YouTube, but many of them seem to focus on players with unlimited bankrolls spinning slots at ridiculous amounts per spin at online casinos. You would be better to spend your time playing free slots instead.
Scott takes a different approach, choosing to visit land-based casinos with his “big jackpot” entourage, verifiably playing games in the high limit rooms of Vegas at up to $250 per spin. You can’t help but wonder how anyone can afford this – and that is where things get interesting; Richter was once known as the “Spam King”, responsible for sending more than 100 million emails every day to internet users in the early 2000’s.
Coffeezilla & Kitboga
From his base at the “ten million dollar studio”, Coffeezilla performs his sacred duty to users of the internet to find and expose scams, wherever they may be. Coffee has found himself a target of endless campaigns to have him cancelled as fraudsters scramble to stop him shining a light on their criminal antics – thankfully, YouTube has supported this creator which has allowed him to grow to the point of taking down the billion-dollar “Safemoon” scandal in 2022.
If you fancy something a little more light-hearted, check out the scam busting superhero “Kitboga”. This guy takes on scam call centres for sport, often using a voice changer to play half a dozen different characters over the course of day long phone calls designed to waste the time and resources of these disgusting “businesses”. Out of all the scambaiting channels on YouTube, this guy must be the funniest.
John Michael Godier
John is an author and futurist who has had several books published in the past and now creates weekly YouTube videos exploring topics such as the Fermi Paradox, (the question of why we can’t see alien life everywhere despite the fact the universe is so old) Planetary Science, and the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
Anybody with even a passing interest in space and the unknown will be enthralled by John’s content and his realistic, plausible explanations for the phenomena we see in the stars above us. John’s content also seems to satisfy a second purpose – hundreds of viewers have thanked the creator for his soothing voice and intonation which they use to help them sleep.
Karl Jobst
Video games are big business in 2022 and are even becoming a means of making a living for a very lucky sector of the population. Professional gaming, or “e-sports” has become a spectator event over the past decade or so, and there are now several events every year with multi-million dollar prizes for the professional teams who participate in these endeavours.
How do people get to such a skill level? “Speed running” games is one potential means, and is something that Karl himself knows more than a thing or two about. A former GoldenEye and Perfect Dark world champion, Karl breaks down the fastest and most impressive speedruns of all time, as well as exposing corruption and law-breaking within the video game community.
It’s the strangest thing – I wouldn’t expect myself to be interested in many of these topics normally, but Karl has a way of getting his opinions across that has you hooked.