12 YouTube Channels you need to know about
No matter what your interests are you will probably find a channel on YouTube dedicated to just that topic. Last year YouTube celebrated it’s 10-year anniversary and the platform has grown and evolved massively during its lifespan. YouTube is full of amazingly talented and funny characters but sometimes it’s hard to know where to start or how to find them. With this in mind we’ve put together a list of 12 YouTube channels that are definitely worth a look at (or even a second if you’ve seen some of their videos before).
The Vlog Brothers is a channel created and hosted by brothers, John Green and Hank Green. They started in 2007 with the Brotherhood 2.0 project where they decided that instead of communicating via email or text they would communicate exclusively via video blogs for one year.
The Vlog Brothers has since evolved into a larger community of channels created and developed by the Green brothers with a community of fans and supporters known as Nerdfighteria. New videos, projects and discussions are uploaded daily but be careful – once you start you can easily lose a few hours simply watching one video after the other!
Hosted by John Green’s wife Sarah Urist Green, a contemporary art curator, the videos showcase contemporary artists in America, profiling their work and explaining the concepts of modern and contemporary art to the audience. The artists that Sarah interviews then give an “assignment” to the audience, an art project that you can do at home. This is a fascinating series for anyone who is interested in learning more about art or doing crafts.
Grey’s channel features short explanatory videos on a variety of subjects including politics, geography, economics, and British culture. The channel’s first popular video was an explanation of the terminology of the British Isles, which went viral. Since then, Grey’s videos have received a lot of attention with over 200 million views on his channel.
4. Numberphile
If you love puzzles and mind benders you will love this channel. Numberphile plays magic tricks with maths and numbers. It is one of the YouTube channels developed by Brady Haran who also hosts the popular podcast Hello Internet with CPG Grey. Brady has over 12 different YouTube channels which are all mostly science themed. In Numberphile Brady films some of the top maths minds from leading universities as they explain maths concepts and theorems and generally just have fun with numbers.
5. ThinkR
ThinkR is a channel that aims to challenge your mind. The channel presents and shares extraordinary people, stories, and ideas with the intention of making you think about things differently. The channel includes series like ‘Epiphany’ which invites thought leaders from different disciplines to reveal the innovative, and unexpected aspects of their worlds. There is also a series on ‘prodigies’ which showcases stories of the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights.
Similar to Numberphile, Minute Physics is an educational channel that explains physics and other scientific concepts in simple animated videos that are only a few minutes long. The videos cover a variety of topics from explaining the consequences of when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object to discussing why pink is not actually a colour.
7. Cracked
Cracked is a comedy channel and an extension of the popular website Cracked.com [link: www.cracked.com]. The humorous videos focus on examining and dismantling popular tropes in movies, television and culture. With topics like Honest Ads, Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder and After Hours, this channel will make you question everything you think you know about your favourite movies, TV shows, comic book characters and everything else.
This hilarious channel makes fun of politicians, sports players, popular movies and more. The channel is run by someone in the music production business who remains anonymous. They spoof clips from films, TV shows, songs, sports, and political news stories by overdubbing them so that they seem to be speaking hilarious nonsense with invented dialogue matched to the lip movements of the characters. We recommend starting with A Bad Lip Reading of Game of Thrones and Star Wars – A Bad Lip Reading.
9. Tested
If you were a fan of MythBusters then be sure to check out this YouTube channel where all the myth busting shenanigans continues. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman return to create videos about amazing technology, unbelievable maker projects, engineering masterpieces, magical special effects, and much more. Their goal is to tell the stories of the people who are working to build the future. If you like to know about all the latest in technology be sure to check this one out!
10. Fun for Louis
The next level in arm-chair travel, Louis Cole is a British film-maker who takes his fans on his adventures around the world. His YouTube channel has a following of over 1.5 million and over 200 million views. On Fun for Louis he posts a daily video blog documenting his life and travels, adventuring to amazing places all over the globe. Encouraging people to “enjoy life and live the adventure,” Louis has posted a daily video for over 1000 days in a row.
11. Mr Ben Brown
Ben Brown is a British daily vlogger and film maker who also travels the world and documents his adventures along the way. He is based in Cape Town and currently living with SA musician Jeremy Loops. Many of his videos feature scenes from around Cape Town and it is great to see the beauty of our Mother City being showcased to the world. Subscribe to his channel to follow him on his adventures.
Phil uploads a new video every day of the week showcasing the latest in entertainment news and things he just thinks are really cool. This includes links to interesting and usual videos, the latest blockbuster movie trailers, gaming updates and more. He also shares his thoughts and opinions on the latest in news and pop culture in a fun and entertaining way.
What do you think of our list? If there are any other YouTubers that you think deserve to be added to the list let us know on Twitter using the hashtag #TopYouTube.
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