Sometimes I come across a channel or other content source that’s just … exactly what I need. They stand out within their genre, put out reliably excellent content. Their work is never background noise, unless that’s the intention (and if so, it’s the best fucking background noise ever, ahemmynoise). You eagerly await the next drop, and have completely consumed the previous releases.
Here are some I’m very hype about, maybe you have some too.
Mine is the wintegatan guy building his new marble machine. I watch them religiously every Wednesday, and they’re the perfect interlocking gear to the gears of my brain.
Misc: Captain Disillusion - CG & hoax debunking Syrmor - real talks in VR, a lot like Humans of New York Zefrank - currently does “True Facts About X” infrequently but the good shit is all of his “ashow” content, kinda rambly stuff about life. Amrit Brar - Tarot designs, both cards and pins and stuff
Apparel: Mega64 - They have a lot of creative artists that contribute to their apparel, including one of the Skullgirls artists Anime Trash Swag - what is says on the tin Fangamer - actually good videogame paraphernalia
Webcomics: Whomp! -self deprecating humor that is consistently funny and not a cry for help Gunnerkrigg Court - magitech hogwarts Hark a Vagrant - historical humor Octopus Pie - I despise the label “slice of life” so I’m just gonna say it’s NYC human drama Oglaf - An erotic humor comic where the author decided humor is more fun than straight pornography extremely not safe for work Monster Pulse - A weird facility creates a gas that causes one of your organs to turn into a sentient monster. I wouldn’t say this one is consistently quality, but I’ve had a personal affinity for it since to me it’s about dealing with chronic disease and how our bodies rebel against us. Emily Carroll - One shot fantasy/horror comics, nsfw
I feel like this is almost a gimme, but Primitive Technology is literally the greatest achievement of the Internet.
I am also a fan of wild in situ cooking channels. Here are two of my favorites:
And for nerds like me into Norse culture and recreation, it’s hard to beat Dr. Jackson Crawford, whose nerdery is literally unparalleled in the modern world:
The Modern Rogue is really good, IMO. It’s basically "Professional magician and his friend learn the basics of various skills in the mold of fictional people like McGuyver, Bond, etc.
They’re pretty good about presenting themselves as the “everyman” to the experts they have on their show.
There’s also Scam School/Scam Nation, done by Brushwood for a while. It’s all about bar scams, riddles, and simple magic tricks; the kind you’d bust out when hanging around at a bar.
The three historians whose works have yet to let me down are WEB DuBois, Eric Foner, and Alan Taylor. DuBois is famous as the first black graduate of Harvard and founder of the NAACP, but was also the most eloquent non fiction writer I’ve ever read. Getting his start at a time where the field of history was very afraid to get political, DuBois’ work demolished the distinction between politics and history. An activist and historian at once, DuBois did everything that would become popular in the field when a lighter skinned man named Howard Zinn started doing it. Ahead of his time, DuBois’ 1935 masterpiece “Black Reconstruction in America” hit before the public or academia was ready to hear it, but overthrew the racist-ass Dunning school of Reconstruction when it was reissued in 1963. That said, “Black Reconstruction” is extremely dense and I would not recommend it as an introduction to his works (even tho that’s what I did). “Souls of Black Folk” is probably his most enduring work with good reason. It’s more accessible and a little better written.
Eric Foner is probably the preeminent Civil War-era historian of our time. He very much studied in the DuBois school of engaging writing and political history. He won a Pulitzer in the 2000s for his book “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” which is a beautiful book and probably the one to start with. I also adore his book “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution” which is also the only piece of media I have signed to my new name. I eagerly await his next book “The Second Founding” which deals with the Constitutional changes from 1863 to 1870.
Alan Taylor is kind of the odd duck out of these, because he is apolitical and dry as Hell. Taylor’s great strength is in his depth of research. He digs deeper into primary documentation than any other historian I’ve read, and his book “American Revolutions: A Continental History” turned me into the staunch loyalist you know today. It’s the only book I own two of.
I generally take “content” to be media produced for distribution and consumption on online platforms, where traditional media has not already well established roles and so on. So YouTubers, twitterers, podcasters, etc. Like if you’re a musician but all your work center on releasing videos on YouTube or Vimeo then that’s now contextually made you more of a Content Creator than a musician focused on making music and releasing it in the traditional ways. For easy example Pomplamoose made YouTube videos, not just music videos. Some people show how they setup a song or make a musical thing before dropping the hard beats like Our Boy Frank Javelonious Cee-Bisquick.
So like, authors “create content” in a way, but I don’t think we consider that Content. In their role as author, creating a book, we have long defined roles for that. If there is a person who is an author then releases dedicated “content” via YouTube like Hank Green, or a podcast say, then in that capacity they are a “content Creator” for sure.
If an author formats their work into ways consumed via modern digital media distribution, then that’s clearly it too.
I have a long list of channels and sources I follow. That’s not to say they are all reliably excellent. I’ll have to think about those that are.
On the tech side of things, https://lobste.rs is a non-terrible version of Hacker News with a good community. I follow it by using RSS, which allows the occasional low-quality article through but overall the quality is quite high.