Youtube channels you should check out
This is a curated list of my favorite youtube channels, along with some videos.
Table of Contents ▼
Maths & Physics
3blue1Brown
The undisputed favourite on the list. Grant tackles math concepts at every level in a beautiful, clear and visual way. He even created his own python library (Manim) specifically to animate these videos.
It’s hard to pick a specific one to start, but you should check out his essence of calculus playlist and his video about the medical test paradox.
Minutephysics
This channel tries to explain physics in a minute and with cute little drawings. It generally keeps things fairly casual, but some videos are genuinely good at explaining tough concepts. The series on special relativity is a masterpiece.
XKCD’s what if
If you liked the webcomic, books and blog, you’ll love this series. The animation is done by minutephysics’s author, while the narration is by Randall Munroe himself. The series takes (sometimes fairly unhinged) hypotethical scenarios and walks through them with the characteristical wit and attention to detailed figures. This is more of a guilty pleasure than anything else, but totally worth checking out.
AlphaPhoenix
This guy has a lot of great demos and experiments for peculiar phenomena that usually involve slow motion cameras. I like the fact the he takes concept ideas you probably have wondered about too at least once in your life, and he makes a real effort to try and make them “visible” in experiments to satisfy your curiosity.
One video I really recommend is How does electricity find the path of least resistance?
ElectroBoom
Mehdi is love. Mehdi is life. Mehdi is a middle aged electrical engineer that loves to get shocked by ignoring basic safety rules. The “accidents” are actually almost always staged for the memes, he really knows his stuff. He has some videos up where he “teaches”, but for the most part he will show you the interesting circuits and gadgets he builds and explain the science behind them.
Numberphile
While it started with each episode being dedicated to a specific number and its properties, it has evolved to cover a broad array of concepts across many branches of mathematics. It’s wonderfully low-fi, with most of the exposition being done through pen and paper. Recommendend videos:
Software & Computers
Low Level
Vulnerability researcher and cybersecurity expert. Also he’s a generally fun host and great at explaining stuff you usually don’t see when dealing with high level languages: assembly, memory management, os facilities..
Here’s a short version of his challenge to build a custom memory allocator
CodeAesthetics
He has a small but extremely high-quality catalogue. The focus is software design and programming, but the real value is the perspective: making you rethink habits you picked up without even realizing it. He has the best explanation of dependency injection I could find on youtube.
Fireship
Another guilty pleasure. You should not take the videos too seriously, but they’re good to have a laugh and keep in the loop of what’s happening in the software development scene thanks to the “Code Report” series of videos. Another great series is “X in 100 seconds”, where he showcases languages and frameworks in (usually little more than) 100 seconds. 100+ Web Development Things you Should Know is a great and fun video.
Computerphile
This is a numberphile spinoff about computer science. There many great videos here, and they cover a broad array of subjects. The cryptography ones are my favourites, but a very recent one about concurrency in threads is very good as well
Miscellaneous
CGPGrey
This is highly recommended and probably my second favourite on the list. Grey produces explanatory videos on a wide variety of topics (history, politics, geography, economics…) and always does deep research. Videos are rather infrequent but always worth the wait. He has a gift for picking topics that sound mundane and making them surprisingly profound. There’s videos about coins, voting systems, how pirate ships worked from a business perspective, the nature of identity, plane boarding systems… literally everything; and he manages to make this all fun and teach you something you never even knew you wanted to know. He was also making Videos about ChatGPT and the impact of AI on society as early as 2018 and 2013.
Kurzgesagt
Based in Germany, Kurzgesagt creates beautifully animated explainers covering big topics like black holes, climate change, human biology, and philosophy. The visuals are stunning and immediatly recognizable, and the writing manages to be both scientifically serious and, oddly, moving: they have a tendency to end videos on an existential note that sits with you.
Their video about stress is must watch for everyone.
Agadmator
This is an odd one out. He just shows interesting chess games and comments them. I like his videos a lot. Don’t know why. That’s it.