LOTW special - Youtube, Podcasts, etc
Just wanted to link-spam some Youtube channels and podcasts I’ve been watching recently for this Links Of The Week:
Podcasts
- Still Untitled: Adam Savage and some combination of Norm and Will from Tested, and occasionally a guest, talk about random stuff, usually pertaining to movies/tv shows.
- Waveform: MKBHD’s podcast. I don’t regularly listen, but they recently did a deep dive on their YouTube production, which makes me want to do a sort of Every Frame a Painting analysis of famous YouTuber’s - what’s the classic look, the classic edit, the classic shot. Most of the big names are pretty formulaic, but there are some really interesting differences in their formulas and styles.
YouTube - Cooking
- Bon Appetit: Bon Appetit is by far the most wholesome cult I’ve ever joined (I’m not in any cults). All of the presenters have a lovely, distinct personality and interplay with each other. The personalities are all much more natural than most YouTubers, since they’re actually professional cooks whose day jobs is to test recipes, not to make YouTube videos. The video editing is on point as well.
- Binging with Babish: He has two main series - Basics with Babish and Binging with Babish. Basics with Babish focuses on the basic, classic recipes, done right, from scratch, with minimal frills but maximum tastiness. Binging with Babish is all about recreating specific dishes from TV shows, such as the Harry Potter special.
- Alex French Guy Cooking: Focuses on long-scale perfection of difficult recipes, though the past year or two of videos have declined in quality in my opinion. Check out the classic ramen series for a taste of his best.
YouTube - Making, long-scale projects
- Wintergatan: A Swedish guy builds an insane musical instrument. Lots of practical making advice, and I don’t think I’ve seen such a long-running, well-documented project since Clickspring’s original build.
- Tech Ingredients: Presented almost as a PBS-style science show, this channel does a lot with thermodynamics, speakers, etc.
- Applied Science: Similar to Tech Ingredients, but a little bit more “just a guy in a garage”. He’s been working on high-resolution photolithography, which is quite fun to follow.
- The Thought Emporium: He does a lot of biohacking, which is a field I generally feel doesn’t follow enough safety precautions, but he does better than most. He’s recently partnered with Applied Science to do more high-precision sputtering and micro-electronics to interface with some bio-electronics.
- How to Make Everything: He tackles projects from absolutely nothing, and has slowly built up his tools to the bronze age. Straight lines and sharp tools aren’t found here, but lots of persistence is.
- BPS.Space: A model rocket builder focused on control electronics and gimbaled motors.
YouTube - Making, but really good
- This Old Tony: Probably the best sense of humor and editing style on YouTube, in my opinion. He’s a joy to watch. A mix of welding and machining.
- oxtoolco: A technician for various Berkeley labs, he focuses on lapping, tool building, and generally very high precision operations.
- Frank Howarth: A woodworker with a beautiful workshop. Previously did lots of woodturning and segmented bowls, but he’s been focusing on other things recently.
- Ishitani Furniture: Absolutely classic fine woodworking. Hand-cut dovetails as far as the eye can see. Beautiful Japanese carpentry.
- Kobeomsuk Furniture: The Korean counterpart to Ishitani Furniture. Fewer hand-cut dovetails, but still quite good.
YouTube - Making, low-budget
- Seth’s Bike Hacks: A mountain biker / DIY-er, who’s recently been working on building out a set of backyard trails out in western NC. Also check out Berm Peak Express, the less-produced companion videos.
- Rainfall Projects: A guy that owns a farm does farm and barn projects, plus some smaller builds. Highly recommend the meat smoker video.
- Primitive Technology: Your world will change when you realize that there’s closed captions describing everything he does. I have no idea how he has 10M subscribers, but he makes lots of pottery, huts, and kilns, and is very peacceful to watch.
YouTube - Making, mainstream
- Diresta: The OG YouTube maker. Endless tools and printing presses, he’s got a big warehouse makerspace in update NY since he left his NYC basement shop.
- EvanAndKatelyn: DIYers that focus on around-the-house type projects.
- April Wilkerson: Similar vibes to EvanAndKatelyn, but more large-scale woodworking projects. I liked the series on building a bandaw mill in particular.
- I Like To Make Stuff: The opposite of Diresta, absolutely beats you over the head with details and talking through what he’s doing, but there are some good projects every now and then.
- Laura Kampf: German maker, lots of plywood and repurposing of junkyard parts.
- Alec Steele: A British blacksmith in Montana that practices jewel-setting while his assistant hand-sands and hand-polishes endlessly. He’s got a bit of a fast-cut, bro-y vibe, but other than that it’s pretty good.
- Grimsmo Knives: If you can get past the hybrid knife-bro, manufacturing-bro culture, there’s some really interesting high-end machining going on. They’re currently moving into a new shop, which has been an interesting series.
YouTube - Exercise
- Magnus Midtbø: Magnus is a climber - his hardest route ever was a 9b, and he also on-sighted an 8c+, which puts him somewhere in the top-10 in the world, but those ascents were in 2010 and 2013 respectively. He’s since retired from competitive climbing, so he’s not quite that good anymore, but he’s still super strong and his videos are really inspiring to go climbing.
- Juji & Tom: Lots of clickbait, but an absolute monster of a man is somehow also incredibly flexible and light on his feet.
YouTube - Giants
- Linus Tech Tips: The big tech YouTube channel, focuses on gaming computer builds that I don’t generally find interesting but occasionally has some interesting projects.
- MKBHD: Mostly phone reviews, which I don’t find interesting, but also sometimes some really cool cinema gear or other reviews.
- Casey Neistat: The OG vlogger. Some of the stuff is occasionally pretty interesting? It’s all generally much less interesting to me now that he’s not in NYC.
And finally, possibly my favorite ever YouTube channel, Wong Fu Productions. I haven’t loved as much of their recent stuff, but they’ve been going at it for many years, and were the cornerstone of the OG Asian YouTubers crew, along with NigaHiga and KevJumba. Unlike those, Wong Fu has stayed on with cute sketches and short films, though I generally prefer the artsy videos generally directed by Wes, over the relationship videos generally directed by Phil. My absolute favorites are SHELL and the One Days: HK.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Maybe you discovered a new channel to follow to get you through the quarantine?