Anyone can upload pretty much anything on Youtube, and as such it is so massive and unwieldy that it can be hard to sift through all of the mostly pointless or absurd content to find the few true gems. As such, we have gone through Youtube and found some of the best cooking and food channels for your viewing pleasure. From the international, to the historical, from comedy, to prison cooking, and everything in between, we will guide you through some of the best channels on the site.

SEE ALSO: 10 Pieces Of Celebrity Gold Hiding On YouTube

10 Grandpa Kitchen

Why you’ll love it: The Channel Grandpa Kitchen Feeds Indian Orphans, And Cooks In The Open Air

Grandpa Kitchen is a more recent addition to Youtube, only joining in late 2017, but they have already amassed almost 200 videos, and they have over 5 million subscribers. Based in a village in Telangana, India, the channel is run by a father and son who are local to the area. The channel always starts off with gentle, caring music, showing you the orphans they are going to feed. It then cuts to the elder of the two, Narayana Reddy, who is 73 years old, and introduces himself as “your grandpa” and gives a light, loving and friendly chuckle. He explains what he will be preparing today, and then him and his son Shrikant Reddy, who manages his Youtube channel, set to work.

Out in the open air, using giant pots, they make meals of every kind imaginable. From traditional Indian recipes like butter chicken, to international favorites like cheeseburgers and lasagna, grandpa Reddy cooks it all in a huge pot, enough to feed a whole village of orphans. And, when it comes to the international recipes, they add spices to give it an Indian sensibility, such as coriander powder, cumin, red chili sauce, ginger garlic paste, black pepper and others. His recipe variations are fascinating, and the video is done mostly without music, which has given it some qualities that people compare to ASMR videos. At the end, the payoff is about as good as it gets, as you see him literally handing the food to orphaned children, and watching as they eat it with a satisfied and happy expression on their faces. Grandpa doesn’t really ask directly for donations, instead, he just asks you to like, subscribe, and share, so that he can use more of his own money to feed hungry people.^[1]

9 Townsend

Why you’ll love it: The Channel Townsends Experiments With 18th Century (And Sometimes Older) Recipes

Townsends is a Youtube channel that was founded by John Townsend, a man originally known mostly for the brick and mortar store he runs with his dad in Pierceton Indiana, that had for years sold gear for historical reenactors who were looking to interpret history from roughly around American colonial times. However, the Youtube channel is what has really given him fame, and blown up his business into something huge. His channel started out mostly featuring 18th century recipes, and has been incredibly authentic from the start. They use historically accurate methods and try to follow the recipes from old cookbooks as much as is possible; although sometimes the instructions are unclear and they have to experiment or make guesses.

As his channel has grown, he has also made it even more about life in the 18th century in general. He has shown all sorts of survival tips, and other methods of how things were done back in the day, and interviewed various historical reenactors in character, in order to teach people more about the time period. One of his most controversial, but successful interviews was with a black woman who interprets the life of an enslaved woman from the 18th century. Her interpretation of the time period was uncomfortable for some, but it was extremely accurate, and both portrayed the enslaved people of the time in a positive light, while highlighting at the same time, in frank terms, how difficult and awful things were for them.^[2]

8 Kitchen Nightmares

Why you’ll love it: Kitchen Nightmares Has A Channel To Give You Your Fix Of Angry Gordon Ramsay

The vast majority of you are already familiar with the two hit shows, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, which was set in the United Kingdom, and Kitchen Nightmares, a similar but more bombastic show that was set in the United States of America, both starring known food expert and rage queen Gordon Ramsay. However, while some people don’t enjoy the rollercoaster of the entire show, most people enjoy angry people shouting at others about making bad food. If you are one of these people, you will likely immensely enjoy the Kitchen Nightmares Youtube channel.

It has all of the best clips and moments of Gordon Ramsay berating bad chefs and going off about disgusting food, and an incredible amount of excellent compilations. If you are the type to watch Kitchen Nightmares just for the part where he bashes food they understand you completely. Most of the compilations are overwhelming negative in nature, and filled to the brim with Ramsay going off on incompetent chefs and or restaurant owners for one reason or another. For some people this may be a bit too much negativity to stomach, but if just find it hilarious to watch Ramsay lose his temper, or spit out disgusting food over and over, you will find almost endless amusement on this channel.^[3]

7 Great Depression Cooking

Why you’ll love it: Great Depression Cooking Gives You An Authentic Look At Food From That Era In America

The Youtube Channel Great Depression Cooking is no longer posting new videos, but that is because the series star, unfortunately, is dead. The channel’s star was Clara Cannucciari, who wrote the cooking book “Great Depression Cooking With Clara” and has had some of her individual videos viewed by millions of people. She was born in 1915, but sadly passed away in 2013, at the tender age of 98 years old. Several years before she died, her grandson Christopher started filming her recipes and commentary for posterity, and uploaded them to Youtube, in order to bring her knowledge to the world.

Clara calmly told stories from the era explaining just how poor people really were, and what they used to make hearty recipes back then, in order to feed as many people as possible with so little. She was never that interested in being filmed, but she turned out to be really good on camera, and she maintained a down home authenticity by always filming in her own kitchen with all of her own old tools, which she had managed with for a very long time. While it may be depressing to some, watching her channel can be good not just for historical purposes. The world economy is in a somewhat unstable state right now, so knowing how to make cheap, healthy meals that can feed a lot of people may be very important knowledge again very soon. If nothing else, we all could have individual times of want, so we could all use knowledge of this kind.^[4]

6 Rasta Kitch

Why you’ll love it: Rasta Kitchen Gives You An Authentic Look At Ital Cooking Straight From Jamaica

Rasta Kitchen is a rare gem on Youtube that was started roughly four years ago. The show takes place in Jamaica, in a riverside cottage owned by a Rasta named Mokko who lives there with his entire family. The cottage had been on the World’s Together Travel Network and caught the attention of a few aspiring filmmakers from Canada who contacted Mokko. Since then, with a small film crew, a young man named Matthew has worked with Mokko to produce videos of his cooking to showcase on Youtube. They even hope, with enough attention, to one day turn Rasta Kitchen into a feature length show on network television.

Some of the videos from Rasta Kitchen have garnered millions of views, likely because of Mokko’s laid back style and the way he talks to Matthew and the camera crew as if they are just friends over for lunch. He slowly, but surely, makes his way through authentic Ital recipes, giving detailed commentary throughout on his entire process, and the meals are always clearly delicious and healthy. The laid back style of the channel, instead of the faster, cut pacing of many cooking channels today, is a welcome change, and makes you feel like you are right there with him in Jamaica, listening to him dispense cooking advice in person, in his own, charismatic manner.^[5]

5 Kali Muscle

Why you’ll love it: Kali Muscle Will Show You How To Make Prison Food, And Bulk On A Budget

Now known as Kali Muscle, he was once simply known as Chuck Kirkendall. He grew up in Oakland and in his early college years was struggling financially and often surrounded by violence. As a young man he made a huge mistake and committed armed robbery to try to make ends meet. He was caught and went to prison for eleven years. He decided he would make something of himself, and spent the next eleven years bulking up as a bodybuilder, so that he could be something when he got out.

After getting out of prison, he managed to star in a handful of commercials due to his physique, which helped him get a little bit of a start. Now, he has a Youtube channel where he gives kids tips on how to lift weights as a positive outlift, and how to bulk up on a budget. He has become a motivational speaker and a husband, convinced it is his mission to help as many kids as possible avoid the time in jail he went through. He shows fascinating recipes that he used in prison to bulk up, as well as healthier foods he eats now for bodybuilding, many of which can still be done on a budget. All of his recipes have a very charismatic delivery and it draws you in as you feel like he is speaking directly to you, as your friend, showing you his favorite tips and giving you advice. His passion to show off everything he has learned in life, after all he went through, is infectious.^[6]

4 You Suck At Cooking

Why you’ll love it: The Channel You Suck At Cooking Gives A Comedic, But Delicious Take On Cooking

If you haven’t heard of the channel “You Suck At Cooking” and you enjoy sarcastic, satirical humor, then you don’t know what you have been missing. Hosted by a mysterious person somewhere in Canada, the channel showcases healthy, homemade recipes, with an extremely comedic bent, utilizing a lot of slightly insulting jokes, and various puns or other effects. While the channel is extremely comedic and played for laughs, he uses fresh ingredients, and if you already know a decent amount about cooking, you can actually glean some pretty useful ideas and recipes from it.

However, most people just watch it because of a charismatic comedian who has put together entire skits around fake girlfriends, a sentient robot that he built as a kid, an entire storyline about sentient eggs involving murder, and so many other hilarious gags. On top of that, he will sometimes end videos with his own original songs, backed by guitar, with funny lyrics relevant to the situation at hand. It may sound personally insulting, but You Suck At Cooking is really just meant to amuse you, and maybe educate you just a little bit about healthy, and affordable cooking along the way.^[7]

3 First We Feast

Why you’ll love it: First We Feast Doesn’t Do Much Cooking, But Hot Ones Is Must See TV

The Youtube Channel First We Feast is an offshoot of a food blog started back in 2014, which still has a website to this day. The channel features shows such as the Burger Shop, and the Curry Shop, where they talk about food making guides, occasionally showcase recipes, but mostly eat and review a lot of interesting and delicious food. However, by far the show they are most known for is Hot Ones, hosted by Sean Evans.

This show has celebrities sit down and have an interview with the host, while the host and the interviewee eat progressively hotter wings, and become progressively more miserable. The interviews usually range from about 20-30 minutes long, but they are well worth the length. Many A list celebrities and musicians have been on the show, and something about the experience seems to break down people’s vulnerabilities in such a way that they give really human answers, and not the scripted sounding stuff you are used to hearing in TV interviews. The host and his team also do a really good job on research to ask a lot of interesting questions they might not hear elsewhere, and it can also just be fun to watch rich people suffer eating insanely hot wings.^[8]

2 ReportOfTheWeek

Why you’ll love it: ReportOfTheWeek Reviews Fast Food In A Suit And Tie — It Doesn’t Get Much More Unique

The ReportOTheWeek is a Youtube channel that has been running since 2011, and started out mostly with food reviews. The host, at the start, was a kid of only 13 who got people’s attention because he would review greasy fast food while wearing a suit and tie. He also does drink reviews, and has his own radio style show where he interacts with listeners in a more intimate way than he can do on Youtube.

While his real name is John Jurasek, his is affectionately known as Reviewbrah by his fans, and has gained great notoriety since his appearance on an episode of the hit Comedy Central Show Tosh. Despite the setback of temporary demonetization of food review videos, he kept going strong with patreon contributions, and has never really stopped giving regular, and quality content over the years. He somehow never makes a mess on his suits, and his sophisticated bearing gives a strange vibe to the videos that draws people in. Also, while people may find it strange to review fast food so seriously, he believes that as fast food is what people eat most, it makes sense to review it in all seriousness, as it has the most relevance to the average person’s life.^[9]

1 TheWolfePit

Why you’ll love it: TheWolfePit Will Test The Strangest Dollar Store Foods For You, The People

The WolfePit is hosted by a middle aged dad from Texas, known as Larry, who uses his channel to cook a lot of down home, delicious Texas comfort food and his recipes are good quality, if not always the most lean options. However, it is his reviews of the most insane, processed food products, that he is probably best known for.

His favorite place to shop is the Dollar Tree, but he will try strange foods from around the world, or almost anything processed (especially if it is sold at a discount). From whole chicken in a can, to steaks from the Dollar Tree, he will prepare it according to the package instructions, and dutifully give it a try for you, the people. His soothing delivery, as he reads the nutritional content and explains anything strange in the ingredients list, manages to draw people in, in an almost hypnotic way. He also makes a lot of dad jokes, and other silly puns, but in such a way that you don’t really groan, but just enjoy it as part of the overall charm.^[10]

Since YouTube was founded (15 years ago, yes we are that old), it has been known as an experimental space. YouTubers are just people that upload their crazy ideas for the world to see. More recently, with some of YouTube’s updated policies, the amount of crazy content seems to be decreasing. Here a list of channels where the creators defy conformity to continue to push the boundaries of originality…. and good sense. These guys really risk their lives for the views.

10 Disturbing Channels From The Weird Part Of YouTube

10Hot Ones
Spicy food, 8.16 million subscribers

Let’s start our list with a very popular entry. In his channel “First We Feast”, host Sean Evans interviews celebrities while they attempt to eat chicken wings covered in spicy sauces. The wings get increasingly hot as the rounds go on. Not every artist enjoys (or is able to handle) spicy food. Hilarity ensues.

This is arguably the most lighthearted and popular channel on this list. Spicy food is appreciated by many people. However, the consequences of consuming some species of chilies can be quite grim. Capsaicin, the main bio-active compound in chili peppers, can cause severe symptoms in the human body. These symptoms include: stomach aches, vomiting and diarrhea. These symptoms are often seen on the show, including the diarrhea part (we are looking at you Bobby Lee).

Furthermore, a man has reportedly passed away in 2019 in the UK. He consumed a fish cake, that was so hot that burned his throat and caused him to asphyxiate to death.

9Furious Pete
Competitive eating, 5.15 million subscribers

Competitive eating has been around since long before YouTube was founded. It is not a surprise that this practice was adopted by people seeking likes on the internet. Peter Czerwinski holds several Guinness World Records^[4] in competitive eating, an achievement he was able to transform into a successful YouTube career. I myself cannot watch people eating without getting hungry myself.

Most notably, he can be seen in his channel eating a pizza of the size of a dinner table and an 11 lb jar of Nutella in one go! However, eating challenges are not only fun and games. Some contests can be quite nasty even to watch. Check out our 10 Unappetising Facts About Eating Contests list. It goes without saying the risks involved in overeating. To name only a few, it can lead to obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease. Even more concerning, this year a woman died in Australia while participating in an eating contest, after consuming a large number of lamingtons, a traditional Australian cake that is nearly as delicious as New Zealand’s pavlova!

8Mustang Wanted
Altitude stunts, 295 thousand subscribers

As a random subscriber commented on one of his videos: “This guys has balls made of diamonds”. Do you remember those high altitude videos that were going viral a while back? Those scary videos where Russian kids would hang from tall buildings (with no safety gear at all) risking falling to their deaths? Well, Pavlo Gennadiyovich Ushivets, made his YouTube channel about ignoring all the instincts that evolution taught us over the past 200,000 years.

It’s silly to explain how falling from the top of the1,356 ft tall Princess Tower of Dubai would be detrimental to your health. That does not seem to scare Pavlo, as the Princess Tower is only one of the buildings you can see him dangling from without any equipment. In our society where people die while taking selfies, Pavlo certainly stands out from the rest.

7StreetBeefs
Mixed Martial Arts, 1.39 million subscribers

In its early days, YouTube was mostly about cat videos . . . and people fighting. The OG’s of the internet may remember Kimbo Slice, the king of backyard brawls, who unfortunately passed away in 2016 In those days, you could barely see any blood due to the low definition of the cameras around.

In these days, MMA fighting is still a popular genre on YouTube. No doubt the fighting looks even gorier in high definition. The channel StreetBeefs is one of the most successful amateur fighting organizers to grace the platform. The videos do not shy away from showing two young lads slugging it out. Even though deaths are relatively rare in MMA bouts and have never occurred with StreetBeefs, in 2019 at least 15 casualties were reported as resulting from competitions like these.

6skippy62able
Inhaling things, 2.52 million subscribers

This one is easily one of the weirdest entries on our list. We are all aware that alcohol must be consumed responsibly. However, when we think “consume”, the word “drink” comes to mind, rather than the word “inhale”. Kevin Thomas Strahle, also a competitive eater, decided to get a “competitive” edge, attracting views by inhaling stuff. That includes, alcohol, soda and other fizzy drinks.

On his latest videos, he has been vocal about YouTube limiting exposure on his videos, labelling them as non-advertiser friendly. This time we must side with YouTube’s decision, due to the fact that this is a very unhealthy activity. Additionally to all the usual undesirable side effects of ingesting alcohol by drinking, inhaling has other problems: The practice is known to increase the chance of overdose, damaging the lungs and cause addiction. Furthermore, it seems that he is in severe pain while doing it. Generally, Kevin’s channel is basically about ingesting anything weird – including eating a whole cactus and drinking a 20 year old bottle of Crystal Pepsi (the video of which includes a serious vomiting warning).

10 Short Films Hiding On YouTube That Feature Huge Stars

5PaulsGear
Motorcycling, 8.61 thousand subscribers

The adrenaline rush you get by riding a motorcycle is something that is quite unique. Even a religious experience to some. That being said, the top speed that most people will ever experience while riding a bike is not likely to exceed the 80 mph (about 120 km/h). Maybe slightly more than that if you are a bit of a daredevil. There are reasons for speed limits. No safety precautions can save you from a high speed crash, especially while on a motorcycle.

However, YouTuber PaulsGear (his name seems to be somewhat of a secret) can be seen on his channel driving at an astounding speed of 186 mph (or about 300 km/h). Admittedly, that can only be achieved (within the confines of the law) at an autobahn, access highways in Germany that have sections with no speed limit. This mysterious character of PaulsGear often hides his face by wearing a bike helmet. It is unlikely, however, that the helmet would save his life in the event of a crash at his preferred speed.

4BlueWorldTV
Marine diving, 632 thousand subscribers

Most people believe that space is final frontier. Well, be surprised to know that it’s not the only final frontier. About 5% of our oceans have been explored and charted, kind of embarrassing given that our planet is about 70% water. In order to fix that and educate us, marine biologist Jonathan Bird created his channel, focused on sea exploration. In his videos, he can be seen swimming with several species of sharks, see snakes and octopuses.

On top of the marine life, other dangers are associated with scuba diving, such as drowning (obviously), decompression sickness and arterial air embolism. The last one happens to a diver when bubbles form in an artery on ascent and block his blood-flow or. Basically, your blood boiling in your veins. Jonathan is an experienced diver and is very mindful about safety, but a regular person should avoid facing the ocean like he does.

3Göran Winblad
Ultra marathon, 3.1 thousand subscribers

Can you run a 5K (3.1 miles)? Good for you! How about a 10K (5.2 miles)? That’s even better, but only about a quarter of the distance of a marathon, which is 42.2 km (26.2 miles). It takes a very physically fit person to run a marathon and still requires months’ worth of preparation. Some people take running to a whole other level, by becoming ultramarathon runners. For a ultramarathon runner, 50K (31 miles) are common place, and some races can stretch up to 100 miles. Regardless of the benefits of running, the human body is not designed to go that far.

The health impacts of running that much, with no breaks, include nausea and/or vomiting, damaging your organs and immune system. Scientists have actually determined running a ultramarathon to be an health-damaging, rather than beneficial.

2drugslab
Taking drugs, 1.03 million subscribers

Ah the Netherlands. As you may know, the drug policy is a bit looser there than in most countries (we are getting increasingly into controversial territory). In their channel, Nellie Benner, Rens Polman and Bastiaan Rosman try a lot of different kinds of drugs. The substances include (but are not limited to) marihuana, cocaine, ecstasy, speed and LSD. All three are fairly young and attractive. While intoxicated, they do all sorts of activities that range from entertaining to insane.

One would think that censorship would be all over this channel right? Not in Holland. The whole thing is sponsored by BNNVARA,^[16] a Dutch public broadcaster, in an effort to draw attention to drug abuse and responsible consumption. Their heart rates and body temperatures are monitored for safety purposes. Regardless of any precautions taken, drug consumption can always lead to overdosing.

1Brave Wilderness
Stings and bites, 15.6 million subscribers

Finally our number 1! Getting people interested in science and nature is no easy task. A field trip goes a long way, but few people (if anybody) are willing to go to the extremes that Nathaniel “Coyote” Peterson, a wildlife educator, went to draw attention his cause. You see, getting bitten or stung by a bug can be such a harrowing experience that the Schmidt sting pain index was developed to put a number to a feeling that words don’t do quite justice.

Only a madman would subject himself to that voluntarily, right? Well, on his channel, Coyote was stung by pretty much every animal that he could get his hands on. In fact, he was already stung by four animals that made our own list of the Top 10 Most Horrifyingly Painful Venoms.

10 Eerie Videos Of UFOs Captured On Live Television

“YouTube is not a site for people under 13,” YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo told the Washington Post.^[1] Perhaps not, but kids programming is the most popular category on the platform. In fact, four of the top five US channels feature kid content.^[2]

Top 10 Crazy YouTube Channels Where People Risk Their Lives

In a USA Today article, YouTube was quoted as saying, “If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the service. There are lots of other great websites for you. Talk to your parents about what sites are appropriate for you.”^[3]

Really? How many children are going to inform their parents that what they’re watching on YouTube is too mature for them? Zero. Kids turn to YouTube for information the way their parents utilize Google. A Protect Young Eyes survey of high school students found that when given the option to choose their No. 1 online activity, teens choose YouTube over social media and gaming at a 3-to-1 ratio. Among tweens and teens, YouTube–not Instagram, Snapchat, or Tik Tok–is the most-utilized online platform.^[4]

Online video usage has more than doubled in four years. The percentage of adolescents who watch online videos “every day” has gone from 24 percent to 56 percent among 8- to 12-year-olds and from 34 percent to 69 percent among 13- to 18-year-olds. And the amount of time each age group spends watching those videos has gone from 30 minutes a day to about one hour a day on average. (Most parents can acknowledge that one hour is on the low side.)^[5]

10 Disturbing Channels From The Weird Part Of YouTube

As of January 2020, a whopping 82,248 videos are viewed every second (this stat is updated daily). And 400 hours of submitted video are received every minute. YouTube can’t filter everything because there’s simply too much, and there aren’t any actual humans monitoring what is coming in. A USA Today review, for example, found plenty of sexualized or violent cartoons that weren’t restricted to adults. Until YouTube or Google is notified about such content, it will remain on the site.

Jill Murphy, vice president and editor-in-chief of Common Sense Media, says there is no easy fix. One of YouTube’s biggest problems is its inability to control a child’s search results.^[6] “Searching YouTube is essentially like searching Google,” explains Murphy. The results are not only looking to offer you accurate information on what you’re looking for, but also suggest some unrelated, but often tempting, things to watch. With so much content and so many options, it can be hard for any age to stay focused.”

So what are impressionable children watching on YouTube? Plenty! Here are just 10 unsettling examples of inappropriate content.

10 A Frighteningly Thin Beauty Vlogger

Eugenia Cooney has been uploading beauty and style tutorials since June 2011. But while the 25-year-old initially garnered subscribers with makeup and fashion reviews, it was something very different that later brought curious viewers to her platforms: at 5’7” tall, she weighs a mere 86 lbs.^[7]

In 2015, commenters on Cooney’s videos began commenting about her dwindling frame and suspected eating disorder. The comments about her appearance took on a life of their own, and by the end of 2015, Cooney’s video’s were receiving more dislikes than likes.

Concerned viewers petitioned YouTube to ban Cooney’s content, alleging that she was promoting eating disorders and negatively influencing impressionable young followers. One Change.org petition (and there were several) received more than 20,000 signatures.

“Some people are saying I’m, like, a bad influence on girls,” Cooney said in a video response to the controversy.^[8] “I just want you guys to know, like, I have seriously never tried to be a bad influence on YouTube or to influence anyone badly. I would never want to do that. I have never told anyone to try to, like, lose weight or to try to, like, change the way they look or to look like me.”

Supporters claim that if Cooney was anorexic or bulimic, she would show other signs, like decaying teeth or unhealthy hair and nails. They propose that she just has “crazy high metabolism.”^[9] Others aspire to be “Eugenia Cooney skinny.”

In 2018, Cooney was suspended from Twitch for a nip-slip violation.^[10] In February 2019, she took a five-month hiatus from social media. Skinny as ever, she was back in action by July 2019 and continues to deliver new videos to 2.4 million subscribers.

9 A Disgusting Waste of Food

On the other end of the spectrum are the mukbangers (we covered the worst of them here). These YouTubers buy copious amounts of food to eat on camera. While some might ingest an entire fast-food menu in one sitting, many leave much of the food to go to waste.

Nikocado Avocado, with 1.83 million subscribers, is perhaps the worst offender. Each episode features the former vegan having a mental breakdown while sitting behind mountains of unhealthy processed foods. He nastily inhales an obnoxious portion of the food while crying and whining, then he goes off the rails and destroys an even more-obnoxious portion–crushing it with a broom or pouring something inedible onto it.^[11]

It’s a disgusting waste of perfectly good food. In 2018, an estimated 820 million people did not have enough to eat, according to the World Health Organization (up from 811 million in 2017). Efforts to reduce the number of babies born with low birth rate and the number of children who are stunted are moving too slowly to stop the rise.

Despite these challenges, obesity continues to increase in all regions, particularly among school-age children and adults. Young YouTube viewers learn little of world hunger and too much about excess and waste.^[12]

8 The Body of a Suicide Victim

YouTuber and internet star Logan Paul has 21.1 million subscribers.^[13] As of January 2020, his channel has received 4.8 billion views, placing him among the top 140 subscribed channels on YouTube.^[14]

Paul, 25, has become quite the controversial character. He participated in the Tide Pod challenge, tasered dead rats, and attempted CPR on a fish he removed from a pond. But it was the dead body video that caused the biggest pushback.

Paul’s YouTube channel had more than 15 million subscribers (mostly minors) when the “suicide forest” scandal hit. In 2017, Paul and team visited Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji–a site that has recorded hundreds of suicides and suicide attempts–and filmed their encounter with an apparent suicide victim: they shot footage of a man’s body hanging from a tree. “Did we just find a dead person in the suicide forest? This was supposed to be a fun vlog,” Paul, in a ridiculous green hat, said to the camera.

The video was uploaded to YouTube.^[15] Paul “censored” his video, titled “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest…,” by issuing a warning at the beginning, blurring the victim’s face during closeups, and providing suicide hotline information. He also chose to demonetize the video. But none of these efforts made up for the fact that he videotaped a corpse and shared it with his young followers.

More than 6.5 million people viewed the footage over the next 24 hours. Surprisingly, it was Paul, not YouTube, who eventually took down the video. “I should have never posted the video, I should have put the cameras down,” he said in a video apology. “I’ve made a huge mistake; I don’t expect to be forgiven.”^[16]

The apology video garnered 52.8 million views and made the YouTuber even wealthier. He earned $14.5 million between June 2017 and June 2018, up 16 percent from the previous year, and a spot on Forbes’ annual Highest-Paid YouTube Stars list.^[17] And it was kind of awful when Paul posted his “comeback” video, pushing merch and bragging about gaining three million subscribers while on his three-week break in which he said he was “lit as fuck.”^[18]

So were there no consequences for Paul’s airing of a dead body? Experts say YouTube is as much to blame as Paul is. “YouTube encourages stars like Paul to garner views by any means necessary,” Wired magazine wrote in January 2018, “while largely deciding how and when to censor their videos behind closed doors.” Shortly after this article, YouTube announced it had removed Paul from Google Preferred, its top-tier advertising program that allows creators to have access to revenue from premium advertisers.^[19]

Interesting Note: Just hours after Paul’s suicide forest video aired, his younger brother Jake–equally wealthy and controversial–uploaded “I Lost My Virginity” for his younger audience.

7 Solicitation of Child Pornography

The most popular YouTube channels involve gaming, beauty and, of course, music. Millions of young people flock to channels like Ariana Grande’s or Justin Bieber’s.

Musician Austin Jones was a YouTuber from 2007 to 2017. The singer/guitarist was 14 years old when he started his YouTube channel. Ten years later, he had accumulated more than 500,000 subscribers and 20 million video views. But he won’t be remembered for his music.

In May 2015, Jones came under fire for contacting underaged female fans online. He solicited videos of the young girls twerking. He admitted to doing so and apologized for his actions but he denied that nudity was involved.

In June 2017, Jones was arrested on two counts of producing child pornography. He had persuaded and instructed an underage female fan to make sexually explicit videos of herself. In February 2019, Jones pleaded guilty to coaxing multiple female minors to send sexual videos of themselves to him. YouTube immediately terminated his channel.

Jones (26 years old but still looking like a teenage boy) was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

6 Racism and Anti-Semitism

Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber. He registered with YouTube in 2010, and by 2013 had the most-subscribed channel on the site–a record he held through 2019. His 104 million subscribers have viewed his video games, vlogs, comedy shorts, and music videos more than 25 billion times. (He was the first individual creator to reach the 100 million subscribers milestone.)^[20] In 2016, Time named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.^[21]

PewDiePie makes a lot of money on YouTube, and YouTube makes a lot of money from him. But their relationship has had its ups and downs. In 2017, YouTube canceled the creator’s YouTube Red show after racist remarks and behaviors.

In one episode, PewDiePie discussed how the website Fiverr lets users hire freelancers to perform tasks for $5. He claimed that his intent was to point out how the internet could be used to get people to do anything for a small amount of money. But when he paid men to hold a sign with an anti-Semitic phrase as a gag, YouTube removed him from Google Preferred advertising and Disney cut ties with him. The sign read, “Death to all Jews.”^[22]

Later, the YouTuber added some racism to his anti-semitism. During a live-stream broadcast of himself playing a popular video game, PewDiePie expressed frustration in a way that most people wouldn’t. “What a fucking nigger! Jeez! Oh my god! What the fuck? Sorry, but what the fuck?” He quickly realized what he’d said and added, “I don’t mean that in a bad way,” before laughing it off. Apart from removal of some games from his channel, the blunder didn’t cost the YouTuber more than some bad press. The 30-year-old has an estimated net worth of $30 million.^[23]

PewDiePie “took a break” in January 2020, but it wasn’t long before he was back online and adding to his fortune.^[24]

10 Pieces Of Celebrity Gold Hiding On YouTube

5 Animal Abuse for Entertainment

Animal videos have always been huge on YouTube. Lately, however, “pet fail” videos are going viral, and that’s not a good thing. What is intended to be funny can actually be cruel. A surprising number of pet fail videos show animals in distress. Impressionable young people are replicating the pranks (on YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram), and the long-term impact they have on pets may be harmful.^[25]

Under its “violent or graphic content” policy, YouTube explicitly bans animal content “where there is infliction of unnecessary suffering or harm deliberately causing an animal distress.” The viral pet fails appear to be excluded from this definition.

Pet fails, which can rake in millions of views, seem harmless enough–cats being frightened by cucumbers, dogs getting stuck in random objects–but they may have a negative impact on the animals. A video of a cat reacting to tape on its paws garnered more than 375,000 views. Viewer comments express amusement. But the cats, desperate to find balance, look positively traumatized.^[26]

Apart from the immediate physical harm the animals may experience (from a fall, for example) is the potential long-term psychological or physiological harm. In a 2010 study, Nancy Dreschel, Associate Teaching Professor of Small Animal Science at Penn State, found that fear, and anxiety-related behaviors in pet dogs were likely to cause physiological stress response, which could ultimately contribute to increased disease frequency and severity and a shorter life span for the animal.^[27][28]

Pets are amazing. And they can provide an endless supply of cuteness and laughs without being put in harm’s way.

4 Cruelty Toward the Homeless

Spanish YouTuber Kangua Ren, aka ReSet, defines “harmless prank” differently than most people would. Ren was popular for accepting “challenges” from his 1.2 milion YouTube followers. “I do things to give a show,” reported Spanish news outlet El Pais. “People like morbid things.”^[29]

In early 2017, Ren put yet another one of those challenges into motion when he replaced the cream in Oreo cookies with toothpaste and gave them to a homeless man. Ren filmed and then posted a video of the man eating the tainted cookies, becoming sick, and vomiting. After uploading the video, Ren remarked online that he had given the man a 20 euro bill with the cookies. “Look at the positive side: this will help you clean your teeth,” he wrote. “I think you have not cleaned them since you became poor.”

In May 2019, Ren was ordered to shut down his YouTube channel for five years and pay £20,000 to his victim (identified as Gheorge L., a man of Romanian origin). He was convicted of violating the moral integrity” of the Gheorge L. and sentenced to 15 months in prison. As a first-time non-violent offender, his sentence will likely be suspended.^[30]

3 Underage Gambling

Trevor Martin and Tom Cassel, known on YouTube as TmarTn and Syndicate, are popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) gamers.^[31][32]
In CSGO, players can exchange real money for the chance to obtain a modified weapon. The weapon, in turn, can become valuable virtual currency. Professionals gamers repurchase them for thousands of dollars. On their YouTube channel, Martin and Cassel regularly uploaded videos of themselves placing bets on CSGO Lotto and winning big cash prizes.

But there was more to it than online fun and games. Martin and Cassel are co-owners of CSGO Lotto, and the gambling site was welcoming participants as young as 13 years old. Young people were quick to click videos like the now-deleted “How to Win $13,000 in 5 Minutes!”

“I apologize to anyone who feels misled regarding the ownership of CSGO Lotto,” said Cassel, the company’s vice president. “I will always be more transparent from here on out.”

But Martin, president of the company, did not apologize. “I created the site. I wanted to build something awesome for other people to enjoy, and I played on it,” he said in a 2016 YouTube video. “Obviously, on my end, me playing on Lotto rather than other sites gives me an advantage because it promotes my own site, but it is not immoral, there is nothing wrong with it. I am 100 percent honest.”

The videos Cassel and Martin posted were described as “sponsored” by CSGO Lotto. They invited followers to put money into a website that they were themselves behind–a dishonest move in the YouTube community.

2 Second-Degree Manslaughter

In June 2017, a pregnant Monalisa Perez, 21, fatally shot boyfriend Pedro Ruiz III, 22, in a botched stunt that was caught on tape. The aspiring YouTubers, in an effort to attract more subscribers to their channel, promised viewers that they would deliver a new “crazier” stunt every week.

The stunt that killed the 22-year-old? Ruiz held a 1.5-inch book in front of his chest while Perez shot him from point blank range with a .50-caliber Desert Eagle handgun. The shooting took place in front of 30 witnesses, including the couple’s 3-year-old daughter.

In “practice” sessions leading up to the shooting, the couple tested various books in an abandoned building. Thirty minutes before they filmed the stunt, Perez–a self-described “family vlogger”–tweeted, “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE.”^[33]

A transcript of the video reveals Ruiz speaking to the camera. “The most trustworthy person that I trust in this world is my girlfriend, Monalisa. So if I am going to die, I am pretty much ready to go to heaven right now.”

The pair set up two cameras. Perez stood close to her boyfriend and pointed the gun about a foot away from the book. She became emotional and pleaded with Ruiz to not go through with the stunt. “Hey, this is the moment of truth, babe,” he told her. “I trust. It’s in, okay, I love you.”

Before pulling the trigger, a crying Perez said, “I can’t do this, babe. I am so scared. My heart is beating…” She added, “Babe, if I kill you, what’s going to happen to my life? Like, no, this isn’t okay…I don’t want to be responsible.” Ruiz assured her he would be fine as long as she hit the book. The transcript ended with Perez pleading, “Stop. Babe, stop. Babe.”

In her interview Perez told investigators: “I didn’t mean to hurt him, he was my everything. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this”.She told authorities that Ruiz was an adrenaline junkie who was intent on pursuing more and more dangerous stunts. She claims he told her that if he died, it would be doing something that made him happy. The county attorney said that while the stunt was “dreamed up, planned, and executed” by Ruiz, Perez had “wrongfully and tragically relied on his assurances that the stunt was safe.

Perez was jailed for six months (plus 10 years of supervised probatiuon) after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors said she was guilty of “culpable negligence that led to the tragic and completely avoidable death.”^[34]

1 Adult Content Directed at Children

Parents can take the initiative to monitor their children’s viewing habits and install parental controls, but kids are pretty good at getting around such efforts. It would be nice to rely on YouTube to protect kids from adult content. That was the intent of YouTube Kids, which was created in 2015 with content specifically geared toward children ages 7 and up.^[35]

The channel/app enables parents to set time limits and block the search function. YouTube Kids adjusts content based on the age and individuality of each child’s profile. But the app has experienced problems since day one.

After parents complained about kid content containing cursing, drug use, sexual language, and dangerous behaviors, YouTube went to work to correct the problem. It took three years, but in 2018, YouTube issued the following statement:

“Content that misleads or endangers children is unacceptable to us. We have clear policies against these videos and we enforce them aggressively. We use a combination of machine learning, algorithms and community flagging to determine content in the YouTube Kids app. The YouTube team is made up of parents who care deeply about this, and are committed to making the app better every day.”^[36]

Nevertheless, the problems persist. A Netsanity article listed just a few of the more recent findings on YouTube Kids. Videos containing misogyny, suicide, stabbings, and school shootings:^[37]

When parents reported a nine-second clip within a cartoon that showed a man teaching kids how to slit their wrists (“Remember kids: sideways for attention, longways for results. End it!”), it took more than a week for YouTube/YouTube Kids to delete the video. The problem is that everything on YouTube Kids comes from YouTube itself.

Honestly, any kid over the age of 7 isn’t interested in YouTube Kids content anyway–they prefer the more adult stuff on the main site. YouTube offers restricted modes of viewing to block adult or objectionable content, but most tweens are smart enough to get around them without their parents’ knowledge. Which is why Protect Young Eyes recommends that “kids younger than high school only have access to YouTube through a browser that has third-party-filter controls installed.”^[38][39]

The bottom line is this: YouTube is a social lifeline for kids.^[40] “All of their friends are talking about it. Kids have devices at school. They’re going to watch it at school…so eliminating it without taking the time to talk about why something bothers you or hearing from your kid about why it’s appealing to them is not necessarily a path Common Sense [Media] would recommend,” Murphy says. “Teach your kids to live with it, rather than shutting it off.”

10 Terrifying YouTube Videos That Will Keep You Awake At Night

Classical music: It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But there are certain performances that have appeared on YouTube that receive special attention from a wider audience. This is a list of those such performances as selected by me.

I was studying to be an opera singer at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London. While I ultimately started a business focused mainly on writing and the internet (hooray!), my foray into the world of opera and classical music generally, continues to bring me great joy to this day. I hope you enjoy this small selection from me . . . with love to you.

Top 10 Truly Disturbing Classical Pieces

For the sake of clarification, I will say that the title here refers not to the “Classical Era” of classical music (from roughly 1730–1820 and comprising the work of Mozart, early Beethoven, and Haydn), but uses the term in the broader sense in which it is most well known: music based upon the forms, instrumentation, and styles of the great eras (Classical, Baroque, Renaissance, 20th Century etc.)

If you want to keep up to date with my personal life and loves when it comes to music and other arts, feel free to add me as a friend on Facebook.

10 Spontaneous Audience Eruption

Let’s start with something unexpected and exciting! Classical music is rather structured in form and audiences tend to behave in a certain expected manner. But here, in this live performance by the astonishing virtuoso Cecilia Bartoli, the audience is so awestruck by her opening bars that they erupt into a totally spontaneous applause garnering an adorable reaction from Miss Bartoli which is extremely pleasing to watch. It is a very human moment.

At 34 seconds we hear what may perhaps be a recording of one of the most perfect sounds produced by a human being. For further listening here is a moving rendition of Voi Che Sapete from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.

9 Spiegel im Spiegel, Arvo Pärt

This piece requires metronomic perfection from the piano and intense concentration from both performers. It may seem basic but the highly exposing nature of the composition makes it incredibly difficult. Here we see a stunning rendition. Arvo Pärt, the composer, is from Estonia and uses a minimalistic compositional style that calls to mind much religious music of the Renaissance era. The title means “mirrors in the mirror” and refers to the myriad reflections seen when one reflects a mirror in another mirror: this is represented in the music by repetitive rising and falling tunes. Spiegel im Spiegel has proven to be incredibly popular with film makers and it has been used dozens of times in that setting.

8 Adagio for Strings

Okay now for something a little sadder. This is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and it was played at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, the announcement of which we covered on our list of amazing audience reactions as a bonus item (thanks HM8432). It is one of the most widely loved and played classical pieces in the world and is particularly popular music for funerals. Its popularity can be seen in the many tens of millions of views that the various recordings of it have on YouTube. It is transcendent in its beauty. This is a week of birthdays of the departed and death anniversaries for me, so I am including this entry especially in memory of my late mother Lois, my late father Adam, and my late brother Stewart.

7 Rosenkavalier Trio

Behold one of the possibly worst dresses ever to appear on the stage of the Metropolitan opera in New York! What was Frederica von Stade thinking in that chocolate-box getup? It may have been the eighties but that’s still no excuse! Anyway, this song is not here for the fashion. These are three of the greatest voices of the twentieth century performing together at an anniversary concert for one of the greatest opera companies in the world . . . with one of the greatest conductors of opera in our time. This trio by Strauss from his opera The Rosenkavalier is beautiful in its own right, but the combination of talent here takes it to a whole other dimension. It is, in a word, Angelic.

An interesting sidenote on this one is that the black singer above, Kathleen Battle, was (and maybe still is) such a difficult woman to work with that she was fired by the Metropolitan opera for bad attitude and very publicly chastised by the company. It was a great shame as Battle, originally an elementary schoolteacher, shot to opera superstardom with her incredible vocal talent.

6 International Accord

Pandemics, economic disasters, and geopolitical tensions are on all of our minds at the moment. Here is a performance that can give us some hope for the future. Here we have my personal favorite baritone, the late Dmitry Hvorostovski (with the white hair), singing the famed Pearlfisher’s duet with the accomplished tenor Kauffman. Why is this so special? We have a German and a Russian man singing a duet by a Frenchman. It also happens to be one of the most loved pieces of classical music outside of the classical music world (I guarantee you’ve heard this song).

For additional pleasure you might like to listen to Hvorostovsky performing Rodrigo’s Aria at the Singer of the World Competition (which he won) in which he demonstrates what I would consider one of the most perfect vocal breathing techniques ever. Watch here.

Top 10 Horrifyingly Difficult Opera Arias

5 Akhnaten

Sung in Ancient Egyptian, this minimalist opera by the great Philip Glass is really the single best opera in the modern minimalist style. Watch for yourself: it is hard not to love it. Gentle tunes repeat over and over while slow delicate movements are performed in time by the singers. It is hypnotic. Akhnaten is the third in a trilogy of operas with the first being based on part of the life of Albert Einstein (we featured that, amusingly, on our recent list of Truly Disturbing Classical Pieces,) and the second being the South African portion of the life of Gandhi.

Minimalism is often the closest thing we get these days to a truly harmonic sounding classical style. What is particularly beautiful in this section of the opera is the way the male singer (a countertenor—see item 1) often has to sing a higher part than the woman playing his wife. It makes for an unusual and eerie, but attractive sound.

4 In Paradisum, Fauré Requiem

A Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass. It has set pieces that are included in all requiems and while they are primarily for public performance, they do occasionally get used in actual Catholic funerals. The most famous requiem is probably the setting by Mozart featured prominently in the film Amadeus. Verdi also wrote a very famous requiem and his Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) is known by most people from movies or TV programs. But the most beautiful, I think, is the Requiem of French composer Gabriel Fauré.

You will probably recognize the part I have selected to show here, In Paradisum, as it was used as part of the soundtrack to the zombie film 28 Days Later. It is glorious and the music reflects the words: “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once (a) poor (man), may you have eternal rest.” For your edification I have included the entire Requiem, just drag the player position to 0 to start it over.

3 Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

This piece (Polish composer Henryk Gorecki’s third symphony) actually hit the pop music charts it was so internationally loved. It may have even been the first piece of classical music to do that since the popular music charts were invented. It is a set of three songs in the form of a symphony and this one (the most popular) is the second song. It is sung in Polish and the text is a prayer to the Virgin Mary inscribed on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II. The words being sung are: “Oh, Mamma do not cry. Immaculate Queen of Heaven, support me always.”

2 I hate and I love

Jóhann Jóhannsson, the Icelandic composer of this piece died in 2018 at the age of 48 from an overdose of cocaine and cold medicine. It is a profound loss to classical music and the film industry (he wrote most of his music for films including the most outstanding recent science fiction movie Arrival which you have to see if you haven’t already). I may be taking a small liberty including this on a list about classical music, but my reason is that it includes a vocal part and lyrics, albeit performed by a computer, and was not intended specifically as film music. To complete the very modern take on classical music, it is written for strings and tape recorder and the ensemble includes a synthesizer and electric guitar. Jóhannsson himself is seen in this live performance controlling the vocal recording, conducting, and playing the piano.

The lyrics are by Catallus who wrote the famous sexual poem known as Catullus 16 which bears the famous opening line: “I will sodomize you and face-fuck you”; we have covered it before. Odi Et Amo is the first line of his two line poem Catullus 85: “I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask. / I know not, but I feel it happening and I am tortured.” The setting of this Latin lyric is profound, beautiful, and out of this world. If you wish to hear another beautiful piece by this composer, I recommend his haunting “The Sun’s Gone Dim” with Lyrics by the indomitable Dorothy Parker from Jóhannsson’s 2006 album entitled IBM 1401, A User’s Manual.

1 Ombra Mai Fu

I want to end this list with a performance that is both surreal and beautiful. Beautiful because the piece “Ombra mai Fu” is one of the most extraordinarily beautiful pieces of vocal music ever written, and surreal in that the male singer is a counter-tenor, which means he sings in a feminine register. His rendition is certainly one of the best. The piece is from Xerxes by Handel. In this day and age its words speak volumes to us. Yesterday we published a list about entering a new dark age, let us look at these words now while listening to this beautiful aria and remember that the world is full of wonder. They may be 300 years old, but I sincerely wish these words upon all of us today.

“Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never disturb your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.”

Top 10 Classical One Hit Wonders

Social media and the internet has a bad reputation for spreading false information. Anyone with a fringe theory or a conspiracy theory can reach millions. Bad ideas can spread like a virus. But the internet is also the most powerful tool ever invented for the dissemination of knowledge. Not everyone has the time to study subjects in depth but luckily there are clever people out there who put their time into distilling a lifetime of learning into fun videos for anyone who is interested.

Here are ten YouTube channels that might make you a bit smarter for watching them.

10 Books That Will Make You Smarter

10 PBS Space Time

Let’s start with the hardest thing in the universe to understand – the universe itself. Though the universe is also technically the only thing we can understand. PBS Space Time is a channel that takes on almost every physics topic you can think of in its effort to make the big topic of the universe just a little more understandable.

It also takes on everything from the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang and before) to the potential end. You will also find out what time is, why it is, and what happens if you reverse its direction. Sometimes the topics might get a bit complex for some viewers (I’ll never properly get the geometry of space-time) but they are always fascinating.

Want to know if the expansion of space will eventually rip apart every atom in existence? Then this is the channel to you.

9 Wisecrack

Pop culture is always brain-rotting right? Turns out film and tv can actually be pretty smart. You just need to look at it the right way. Wisecrack is a channel that examines the philosophy behind all of your favourite shows.

Whether it’s nihilism in BoJack Horseman or the cosmic pessimism of Rick and Morty you’ll find out how these shows interact with some of the deepest philosophy ever written. They even do a series of videos called ‘Deep or Dumb’ that will help you work out whether something really is profound or just pretending to be.

They also tackle real world subjects like why democracy is hard and how adverts try to get into your head. At the very least you’ll learn that you are not alone in your existential crisis – everyone is struggling to find meaning.

8 SciShow

SciShow is one of the best short science video channels on YouTube. Think of an area of science and they are sure to have done series on it. Want to know how a beetle can survive being eaten by a frog and crawling out of its backside – there’s a video for that. Want the latest news on the coronavirus – they read and summarise the latest scientific studies.

As well as biology they cover physics and chemistry. Put those three subjects together and you have pretty much everything covered. By looking at some very niche subjects they can open up great big topics. Ever wondered why it is that humans have hair on their butts?

If you have a more cosmic turn of mind then there is their sister channel SciShow Space that covers all things interstellar. From the solar system to the edge of the universe there is something here for everyone.

7 Objectivity

Museums can be static places. Sometimes all the glass cases can make you feel distant from the fascinating objects they house. There are also millions and millions of objects that a museum just has no space to display. Objectivity is a channel that gets behind the glass and into the archives to bring an item’s story out into the open.

Want to know about the Pope’s collection of space rocks? Then there is a video about his chunk of Mars and all his meteorites. You don’t just get to see the collections – you find out the tales behind them. Just how do you pick a piece of moon rock to give to the pope?

As well as incredible science you’ll find more human stories. You can find out which pages of his books Sir Isaac Newton turned down the corners on because he was interest in them. And if you need to clean a mummy then you’ll need a curator with a lot of saliva.

6 Periodic Videos

Not everyone has access to a laboratory so if you want to get a look inside one then you couldn’t do better than watching Periodic Videos. Featuring the magnificent hair of Professor Sir Martyn Poliakof, as well as his decades of chemistry experience, the videos started as just brief explainers of all of the elements in the periodic table. Since then Brady Haran, who also produces the Objectivity videos, has covered some of the strangest reactions in all of chemistry.

Professor Poliakof has an infectious delight in seeing things happen in the lab. Viewers have even taken to sending him samples so that he can carry out weird experiments. If you want to see a metal spoon melting in a cup of tea then there is a video for that.

The team have also visited some great places outside of the lab. For those with a taste for precious metals and diamonds then there are videos of how those are produced. You’ll find out how hard it would be to steal anything though – the lab coats people wear in these facilities don’t have pockets to stop you slipping anything out.

Top 10 Ways to Seem Smarter than You Are

5 Veritasium

Veritasium is one of the biggest science channels on YouTube and he draws people in because he is willing to throw his whole body into his experiments. Can you swim in a pool of small balls? Derek Muller will try it to find out. Can a centimetre of aerogel stop the heat produced by a flamethrower? Muller will literally stand in the line of fire to see if the flames make it through.

But once the eye catching experiment is over you get the science explained. If you ever wanted to know how to use grapes in a microwave to make plasma then Veritasium will show you, explain why you can do it – and maybe why you shouldn’t.

Plus it is always a joy to see scientists get into nerdy fights. So, at the risk of starting another argument, which really is better: turbulent flow or laminar flow?

4 True Facts

Zefrank who produces a series of videos about various animals has perhaps the best voice of any naturalist – sorry Sir David Attenborough. No one says “Babby” like Zefrank. The tone of his work could not be more different from a traditional nature show however.

While introducing lesser known groups of animals, like the nudibranch, Zefrank will have a bit of fun. You’ll learn about their toothy tongues called a radula – and also why you should not French kiss them.

There is no better way to accidentally learn about the evolutionary groups of the octopus than hearing how one of them looks like “an alien got freaky with a weather balloon.” Zoology has never been this interesting.

3 Minute Physics

Wouldn’t it be great to just be able to watch minute long videos and learn about some of the toughest topics in physics? Yeah, unfortunately Minute Physics is mostly built on a lie. Not many of these videos actually are a minute, but that’s a minute nitpick.

Using cool, hand drawn illustrations this channel explains how everything from subatomic particles to galactic clusters work. You’ll find out how to actually achieve Cold Fusion at room temperature and what shape the universe really has.

It also tackles more every day problems like why is the sky blue, how do bikes work, and just how far can Legolas really see with his elf eyes?

2 Numberphile

Maths can be a dry subject. Pure maths can seem pointless with its abstract ideas that have nothing, seemingly, with our lives. Yet it turns out that maths can be used to push forward our knowledge of the universe in some crazy ways.

Want to learn whether you can avoid spilling a beer stored in a four-dimensional bottle? As well as dealing with things that are impossible in reality they deal with the reality of mathematicians as human beings. You’ll learn how a mathematician earned a billion dollars or why a mathematician turned down a million dollars.

The videos also show some of the joy in pure mathematics. The video describing a duel between two philosophers to find the largest possible number is like a Royal Rumble for nerds.

1 Kurzgesagt

Kurzgesact produces videos to describe big topics in a nutshell. And when they say big they mean big. One video examines the biggest stars in the universe and they make our sun look like a speck next to them.

Some of the videos might spark a sense of existential dread. The video dealing with the idea of the false vacuum explains how just one fluctuation in the fabric of the universe might end up destroying it. But don’t worry, there probably isn’t a wave of nothingness expanding at the speed of light that will erase everything…

No need for panic however as Kurzgesagt provides some philosophical videos to help cheer you up after some of their bleaker works. One video explains optimistic nihilism – though how optimistic you find it may be in the eye of the beholder.

Top 10 Ways College Makes You Dumb

YouTube is no stranger to controversy. In the last few years, some of the craziest things have happened on the platform that have sparked outrage in the entire world. With Logan Paul’s shenanigans in Japan, or Pewdiepie’s all out war with the Wall Street Journal, YouTube stars have definitely given their fair share of scandals to the world. But some of those scandals definitely stand out as being unusual and completely random, which make it all more surprising than your average internet frenzy. From backfiring anger and crazy plot twists, to unpredictable emotional outbursts and dark mysteries, here are 10 bizarre YouTube controversies that shocked people:

Top 10 Crazy YouTube Channels Where People Risk Their Lives

10 Lonelygirl15

14 years ago, in June 2006, a friendly 16 year-old girl named Bree Avery (more commonly known as Lonelygirl15) began to post videos to YouTube. In them, she is simply sitting in front of her webcam and talking to the audience. Nothing out of the ordinary (especially in 2006), but Bree’s likeable antics made her the very first viral YouTube stars. People loved her for her authenticity and relatable personality, and she seemed to have a great time exploring her world and talking about it in her videos. She was an absolute phenomenon in the early days of internet culture.

So imagine the shock when, a few months later, people found out that Lonelygirl15 did not actually exist.

The story of Lonelygirl15 is often said to be the first YouTube scandal ever. It turns out that Bree Avery was a fictional character played by 19 year-old actress Jessica Rose, and every single video she had posted had been written and meticulously directed by three California filmmakers to look like an authentic video diary. In a surprising event for the time, mainstream media picked up the story, with the New York Times even going on a special investigation to unmask the people behind it all, but the web series ended up continuing and even spawned a number of spin-offs, up until its end in 2008.^[1]

9 Kristian Harloff & The Collider Live Meltdown

Kristian Haloff is a YouTube personality behind a number of internet communities. He co-created Schmoes Know, the Collider Live daily show, and he even was a major part of the popular Collider Movie Talk for years. He is also a devoted Star Wars fan who solidified his place in the fandom with his weekly show “Jedi Council”, in which he broke down news about the franchise with a variety of co-hosts. But Kristian is also known for having a very strange temper and engaging in toxic behaviours against anyone who dared to criticize him, and it was made very clear when he had a completely random meltdown live on air during one of his shows.

When he found out that he wasn’t invited to an exclusive visit at the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge theme park in 2019, and later heard that another reporter at Collider was going instead of him, Harloff threw a literal fit and declared live on air that he would not be covering anything related to Galaxy’s Edge on any of his shows. He ranted about his status in the Star Wars community online with his Jedi Council show, claiming “I’ve been busting my ass being a Star Wars fan for five years.”

That did not fly with the producer of the show, Thadd Williams, who immediately grabbed a microphone and put Harloff in his place by reminding him that the show belonged to Collider and that he would be addressing Collider’s coverage of Galaxy’s Edge, wether he wanted it or not. Harloff immediately exploded on him in a full on temper tantrum, and the two proceeded to verbally attack each other for minutes on end, with everyone else in the show awkwardly sitting there in silence.

In the following days, Harloff was absolutely blasted by the entire world, and was even called out by Star Wars writers on Twitter, who accused him of acting like a “spoiled child who didn’t get his toy”. Some even accused him of being sexist for being angry about women being sent to Galaxy’s Edge instead of him, and he was essentially written off as a representation of everything wrong with the Star Wars fandom, and why Star Wars fans can’t ever be taken seriously. The backlash was so intense that Kristian had to apologize more than once on air, admitting that his reaction was immature, entitled and embarrassing.^[2]

8 Motoki vs Math Podcast

This particular controversy has been fascinating to many, because it involves creators from two different cultures. Motoki is an Asian-American creator, and Math Podcast is French. Both are very successful, but they seemingly have nothing to do with one another. They shouldn’t have anything to do with one another. But, in 2016, some fans discovered in the strangest way that they had more in common than anyone could’ve thought.

Over time, more and more people started to notice that Math’s videos were very similar to Motoki’s. A bit too similar even. In fact, they were the same. To the word, to the second, and sometimes, to the shot. People realized that Math had plagiarized every single one of Motoki’s videos by translating them to French and reshooting them the exact same way, giving Motoki no credit whatsoever and making his French audience believe that he was the creator behind it all. He would sometimes even steal shots from the original videos and seamlessly reedit them into his versions.

In February 2016, Motoki ended up speaking up about this, confirming that Math had never asked for his permission to remake his videos. Both American and French media took on the story, and condemned Math for his actions — he had built a highly successful career by stealing Motoki’s work, and he decided to take action. Naturally, Math’s career crashed before he could even say “oops”, and despite numerous apologies and attempts to reinvent his channel over the years, he never recovered from the scandal and has now completely vanished from YouTube.^[3]

7 Olivia Jade

At first glance, Olivia Jade is your average teenage social media influencer and YouTube star. She has had an audience for a while, her content is harmless, and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Except, of course, for the fact that Olivia is the daughter of the disgraced “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Gianulli, who were recently sentenced to 2 and 5 months in prison, after pleading guilty to charges of bribery fraud.

Olivia reportedly helped her parents forge an extracurricular file after they paid over half a million dollars in bribes to get their daughter accepted at the University Of Southern California, ahead of any other (more deserving) students who applied for admission. When the scandal was exposed and lawsuits started to rain, Olivia was promptly dropped by the major brands that endorsed her (including Amazon, Sephora and TRESemmé), and she was essentially been banished from the Internet, resulting in a year long hiatus that led her to a 2020 apology press tour that has been poorly received.^[4]

6 Tanacon: The Biggest Ego Trip in Internet History

Tana Mongeau is a creator that is known for her eccentric personality, having become famous for her crazy (and often proven to be fake) “story time” videos on YouTube. Just like many problematic creators on the platform, her ego is her primary drive in life, and that assessment was never made more clear than on the day Tana decided to create her own convention, Tanacon.

When the massive Vidcon event refused to invite her as a featured creator for their 2018 edition, Tana decided to get back at them by launching her own free convention on the same day as Vidcon, and across the street from them. The problem was that Tana widely underestimated the implications, and was incredibly unprepared for the challenge. What ensued was an absolute train wreck that left thousands of people waiting in front of a full venue in brutal heat, without food or water, even resulting in people having to be sent to the ER in ambulances. The police had to intervene and give numerous statements on the situation and, due to the catastrophe it had turned into, the 3-day event was cancelled before the end of its first day.

It was later revealed that Tanacon was also a scam, as Tana and her team had advertised the event as being free, except for people who wanted VIP tickets, but it then came to light that it was a lie, and that every person present at the event had been a purchased VIP ticket, due to the website showing that free tickets had been sold out. The fallout from the scandal created a frenzy that resulted in lawsuits, companies going bankrupt and a number of documentaries going back on the event, with hours of footage from people who were actually there on the day of the debacle.^[5]

10 Terrifying YouTube Videos That Will Keep You Awake At Night

5 The Brooke Houts Incident

Brooke Houts is a name that inspires immediate anger to those who know it. A creator on YouTube since 2014, Brooke became better known after adopting a puppy named Sphinx, who became the biggest attraction on her channel, bringing her thousands upon thousands of viewers. She was exhibiting a fun and cheeky lifestyle with Sphinx and people loved her for it. But that was until August 2019, when Brooke posted a seemingly normal video, in which she (unfortunately for her) did not realize that she had forgotten to edit out some disturbing images she clearly had not intended for anyone to see…

The uncut footage shows Brooke repeatedly punching Sphinx and shoving him around as he tries to play with her while she talks to the camera. As he accidentally interrupts her during her outro, she grabs him, pins him to the ground, yells at him to stop, before spitting on him. The part ends with Brooke slapping Sphinx one last time, prompting him to walk away off screen, audibly whining out of fear as she walks towards him.

The world, the media and Brooke’s former fans erupted in a mighty rage, tearing her to shreds online and calling for her to be arrested for animal cruelty. The police actually listened and opened an investigation on Brooke, and she later attempted to apologize on YouTube, unsuccessfully. Her career completely vanished in less than 24 hours, and while she has tried many times to make a comeback following it all, she has been brutally rejected every single time, prompting her to disappear again.^[6]

4 JayStation: YouTube’s Ghostbuster

JayStation is considered to be the very worst of YouTube. He has been called out numerous times by other creators for being toxic, manipulative and creepy. YouTube even blacklisted his channel, and eventually deleted it, forcing him to migrate to a new one. Many people still wonder why he is allowed to be on YouTube at all. Why? All of that for one simple reason: in 2019, JayStation decided to fake his girlfriend’s death for views.

He actually tried to make his audience (which is mostly constituted of children) believe that his girlfriend Alexia Marano had died in a brutal car crash, and that he was grieving her loss. He even built a fake crash site on the side of a road to show where she died. The grim video series was leading towards Jay attempting to “talk to her spirit”, but he never made it there. Thousands of people called him out, eventually forcing him to admit he was lying.

Alexia later revealed to be a victim of domestic abuse, claiming that Jay regularly bullied her and forced her to do things for the sake of getting views and subscribers on YouTube. The allegations eventually led to Jay being arrested and charged for assault with a weapon. He has since returned to YouTube and posts regularly, but JayStation will always be remembered by the public as the creep who faked his girlfriend’s death for fame.^[7]

3 Jenna Marbles: The Last Pioneer

Jenna Mourey, better known to the world as Jenna Marbles, is arguably one of the biggest YouTube stars to ever be on the platform. She is the female YouTuber with the largest amount of subscribers ever, with over 20 million viewers on her channel. Jenna is considered to be a true pioneer and legend of YouTube culture, and a positive role model that people (kids and adults alike) have been glad to look up to. However, in 2020, Jenna became the greatest example of what happens when the toxicity of cancel culture backfires.

Despite the fact that Jenna is an extremely loveable human being with great values, some people took issues with jokes she made almost a decade ago, that were deemed by many to be racist and offensive. But, weirdly enough, that wasn’t the controversial part. The controversy that everyone talked about came a few days later when Jenna released an emotional video to acknowledge and apologize for the jokes, in which she explained that she never meant to hurt anyone and that there are no excuses for her jokes. And then, to everyone’s absolute shock, she announced that she was quitting YouTube for good, after 10 years of weekly videos.

No one saw this coming, and the internet went into a frenzy. Even the people who were actively cancelling her seemed to be distraught by her sudden departure, and while some thought that she would be back after a couple of weeks, Jenna’s channel is still abandoned today, over seven months later, along with all of her social media profiles. Nobody actually expected her to leave, and the sadness and scandal that came with the departure of one of YouTube culture’s original pioneers even peaked the attention of mainstream media outlets, who covered the story for weeks on end.^[8]

2 The Myka Stauffer Family Scandal

Family lifestyle channels have become their own genre of YouTube content over the years, and they are often subject to debates when it comes to the ethical choices of parents who willingly exhibit every aspect of their children’s lives (private or not) to millions of people. But no creators on the platform have ever made people question those morals more than Myka Stauffer, a mother of 5 with a successful YouTube channel, who completely destroyed her career in 2020 when the shady circumstances of an adoption blew up in her face.

When Myka and her husband decided to adopt a child from China, audiences were thrilled, and their channel got much bigger as they documented every single step of the adoption process for everyone to see. They eventually got to bring a young autistic boy home, and they documented his new life as well, and more and more people enjoyed watching Myka as she exhibited the difficulty of being a parent to a child with such a condition. It kept going for a while, until one day, some viewers started to notice that the child had suddenly vanished from the channel.

Despite acting like everything was normal in the videos, every member of the family kept appearing, except for the adopted child. People started to question Myka relentlessly, and, after weeks of speculation, Myka and her husband released a video where they confirmed to the audience that their adopted son had been re-homed after two years of living with them, because they were no longer capable of dealing with his autism.

An absolute outrage ensued, and Myka was accused of having adopted the boy for the sake of getting views online, and having abandoned her own son when he was no longer profitable for their channel. She was continuously blamed for using the child as a prop, with many pointing to her various sponsorship deals that had to do with the adoption. Myka later released a statement, in which she explained to have underestimated her son’s condition, and admitted to have been arrogant, naive and brutally unprepared to take care of a child with special needs.

Myka lost all of her precious brand deals, as she was dropped by every company she was working with. The police opened an investigation on the matter, and talks about potential lawsuits against the couple have been brought up. Myka’s YouTube channel has been completely abandoned since, and we have not heard from her since her official statement.^[9]

1 The Mysterious Case Of Marina Joyce

To this day, Marina Joyce is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of YouTube, and there are still many questions hovering around her story. She started as a sweet and quirky fashion centred creator, at times touching on comedy with fun sketches. Marina was never exactly YouTube’s elite, but she had garnered a sizeable audience over the years, and her community seemed to thrive in her intimate world of light-hearted content. But then… things took a turn, and Marina Joyce quickly became a name that piqued the curiosity of the entire world.

In 2016, Marina’s content slowly started to change, in a way that began to make her fans ask questions. People noticed that she was losing weight at an alarming rate, and her mannerisms and body language became incredibly strange, almost robotic (frantic blinking, awkward hand gestures, broken speech patterns, etc). Her personality did a complete 180, going from friendly and bubbly to strangely formal and creepy. Her audience started to worry about her safety, some believing she was suffering from a serious drug addiction, but it all came to a head when she posted an especially disturbing video on July 2nd, 2016.

The creepy video, simply titled “Date Outfit Ideas”, sees Marina show off different outfits she likes for a first date. Innocent in concept, but everything about it feels incredibly off — Marina looks confused and lost, continuously rambling and repeating herself while twirling around to show her dresses. Her arms are covered in harsh bruises, as well as her back. Furthermore, there seems to be someone behind the camera telling her what to do, which often seems to distract her as she talks. And, in a final show of suspiciousness, we can hear her whisper “help me” in a quick musical passage.

The video instantly went viral all around the world, and the now famous #SaveMarinaJoyce became one of the most talked about stories in the media. Theories began to circulate about Marina’s situation for weeks on end, going from kidnapping scenarios to a hostage situation. But nothing came of it. On her end, Marina simply continued to post extremely disturbing videos, as if everything was fine, completely ignoring the millions of people commenting and tweeting about her. Many believed that she was leaving secret messages to ask for help, and thousands of people began to investigate and analyze every second of her videos.

Eight months later, after a quick hiatus from YouTube, Marina released a new video titled “Saving Marina Joyce”, in which she thanked people for being concerned about her well being, and explained that she indeed went through a traumatic event that changed her life and destroyed her mind, causing her to drastically change and lose herself in the process, even admitting “there was danger in her life” at some point. She also explained that she had been on a recovery path for a few months, and that life was much better for her now, which people were relieved to hear, as she indeed looked better and more “normal” in the video. While she never fully told what happened to her that triggered such a change, everyone seemed happy with her explanation, and the world moved on. But it wasn’t the end of it.

Two years later, on July 31st, 2019, at the age of 22 years old, Marina Joyce mysteriously went missing. The circumstances of her disappearance were extremely foggy. The police got involved, even asking for the public’s help to search, and Marina was found in London after 10 days, confirmed to be “safe and well”. The authorities did not give any explanation about the whole situation (despite her boyfriend claiming that Marina was never missing, which did not make sense), and, just like in 2016, the story eventually went away with very little information being revealed to the public.

Since then, Marina has returned to YouTube, regularly making videos with her boyfriend, and everyone seems to have left her story behind. Her community seems to have moved on as well, and people usually compliment her on seeming better and happier. But, to this day, no one knows what actually happened to Marina Joyce.^[10]

Top 10 Shocking Things Kids Are Watching On Youtube

So it is the New Year and you’ve decided you want to get smarter. New Year, new you. But looking at the state of the world around you it might seem like a good idea to stay curled up in your bed. Luckily for you there are dozens of incredibly smart people making informative and entertaining videos on YouTube. Without leaving your bed you can stare at your phone and feel just a little bit cleverer.

Top 10 YouTube Channels To Make You Seem Smarter

10 OverSimplified

Ask any historian and they will tell you that the world is pretty complicated – to say the least. Any time you try to write down history you have to leave things out to construct the story that you want to tell. All history is an act of simplification, it’s just that most histories don’t tell you that they are simplifying. At least the YouTuber OverSimplified admits what he is doing from the outset.

In a series of videos about various historical topics OverSimplified sets out to make history a bit more understandable. In the video dealing with the prohibition of alcohol in the United States you’ll learn both the broad strokes of a complex sociological movement and the fun details. Did you know about a little old lady called Carrie Nation who travelled around smashing up saloons with her hatchet?

As well as big world events OverSimplified also tackles lesser known topics – like the time Australia went to war with Emus, and lost.

9 Legal Eagle

Law can seem like a pretty impenetrable topic to research. Latin phrases, arcane procedures, and historical precedents all serve to make law a weird world. Legal Eagle tries to make it all make sense.

While mainly focused on United States law Legal Eagle’s videos serve as a good basis for understanding how any legal system is supposed to work. Recently, for obvious reasons, he has produced a lot of videos on election law that help both Americans and gobsmacked foreign observers comprehend the twists and turns of the 2020 election.

Some of the most ‘fun’ videos are in his True Crime series – from the time the Police blew up a house (and who should pay for the damage) to the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case he tracks how the legal system dealt with each event.

8 Crash Course

No one can know everything. If you ever fell asleep in class you’ve missed at least some of the facts out there. Luckily for you there is always a video out there for whatever class you snoozed through. And most of them can be found on Crash Course’s channel.

If you need to brush up on your biology then everything from DNA to evolution is covered. If you want some history then you can watch videos going from pre-history to how our media consumption is changing our brains. Yes, even the media put our by Crash Course.

After 2020 you might be feeling depressed, stressed, or anxious. Maybe Crash Course’s Psychology series might be a good place to start…

7 Journey to the Microcosmos

Okay, some topics are just too big for the human brain to comprehend. Unfortunately even when you look at small things things can get a bit complex. And Journey to the Microcosmos studies things that are really small.

It turns out that every drop of pond water is brimming with activity. Tiny single-celled organisms are milling around in their millions and fighting life or death battles that most of us never get to see. To focus on the struggle going on all around us Journey to the Microcosmos turns powerful microscopes on these hidden creatures.

As well as revealing beautiful mini wonders the presenter may just have one of the most calming voices YouTube has to offer.

6 Tier Zoo

If you prefer the animals you look at to be a bit more visible to the naked eye then Tier Zoo is the channel for you. As well as looking at weird and wonderful animals this channel does it in a way that will appeal to gamers. By treating the natural world like a game he examines the abilities evolution has developed.

Are Tardigrades playing the game of life on God Mode? Should Dinosaurs be unbanned? And have sloths had their stats Nerfed? Tier Zoo will let you decide. It will also help new players decide which starter animal they should really pick – cat or dog?

Top 10 Ways to Seem Smarter than You Are

5 Vsauce

Vsauce is one of the biggest science YouTubers out there, and for good reason. While there are plenty of websites out there that promise pictures of hot people (I’m told) only Vsauce will reveal the hottest things in the universe. And most of them you will definitely not want to get intimate with.

As well as physics Vsauce has videos covering why we find things creepy (thing Sonic the Hedgehog with teeth) and why curse words are though of as bad (but don’t say them if you don’t want to get banned).

Some of the more entertaining videos on the channel deal with fun hypotheticals like what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning. And aside from being a logistical nightmare what would be the consequences of everyone jumping at once?

4 Ted Ed

TED Talks have a bit of a mixed reputation. There are those who view the glossy presentations as insightful and a great way to communicate research and ideas to a wider audience. There are also those who think that TED leads to oversimplification and the commercialisation of knowledge. Both may be right. But TED Ed is a channel that produces short introductions to great topics you might want to research further for yourself.

As well as retelling some of the great myths of world culture with stunning animations they tackle topics ranging from the opioid epidemic to common logical fallacies. We could probably all do with a brush up on spotting the tricks other YouTube videos use to convince us of untruths. Or we might end up walking off the edge of the flat Earth.

3 CGP Grey

While there are lots of YouTubers out there who have incredible animation skills they are not always required to make great videos. CGP Grey may not have the most visually stunning videos but they are always interesting and informative. Where else will you find out how to become Pope in five minutes?

Among other topics you’ll find covered on his channel are things like the difference between the UK and Britain, why you actually have two people in your brain, and why domesticating Zebras is a bad idea.

He even did videos explaining Brexit, which even lots of British people might need help with…

2 Sabine Hossenfelder

If some channels can be accused of dumbing down complex topics that is not a charge that can be levelled at Sabine Hossenfelder. Hossenfelder is not just a YouTuber – she is a physics researcher working on quantum gravity, itself a field that scares other theoretical researchers. So she knows what she is talking about.

Luckily for those intimidated by quantum gravity Hossenfelder tackles ideas in a huge range of fields in physics, and sometimes beyond. You can find out the current thinking on whether there is a smallest size in the universe, how to travel faster than the speed of light, and even if you have free will. Don’t worry, even if you don’t have free will you will want to watch these videos.

And though complex equations often pop up on the screen Hossenfelder will hold your hand as she walks you through them.

1 Tom Scott

Ever wanted to see a nerd pass out in a giant centrifuge? Of course you have and Tom Scott is a YouTuber willing to push his body to the edge in the name of science education. While there is fun in watching the expression on a person’s face as their blood is forced out of their brain and into their buttocks it is also a teaching opportunity. Just what is G-force? And jerk, it turns out, is not just an expression of greeting in online comments.

As well as the science of things like batteries that still work after 176 years and why getting brain eating amoebas in your nose is a bad idea Scott also looks at social issues. Why do Americans find it weird when British people start conversations with “You alright?” And how should GIF be pronounced?

The further you delve into these videos the more topics you discover that you never knew you never knew about. And that is what makes for a great YouTube channel.

10 Books That Will Make You Smarter

Horror movies? How dull. A scary book? What, paper and glue? You can’t read a jump scare! Get with the 21st century, kids. Why not indulge in some new media this Halloween? In this list, you will get a handy guide to the darkest, most thought-provoking, terrifying channels on YouTube.

Gather up your loved ones, turn off the lights, open up the trash bag of sweet things you’ve extorted from your neighbors and watch these creators as they take you on a dark and twisted journey.

Related: 10 Spooky Supernatural Stories From 19th-Century England

10 Scary Mysteries—Delivering as Promised…

If you are a fan of things “doing what they say on the label,” you’re in for a treat. This channel covers mysteries. Scary mysteries, one could say. These binge-worthy 10–20 minute videos cover UFOs, ghosts, serial killers, and all manner of shocking, unsolved, and unexplained phenomena.

Starting Point: “5 Frightening Forests You Should Never Visit”—There’s something naturally unnerving about a forest. From being the setting for horror stories and films in pop culture to the fact that countless ancestors met their end in the world’s ancient forests, there seems to be more than lions, tigers, and bears to fear in the woods. Covering subjects as varied as folk cryptids like the Jersey Devil, serial killers, and a mysterious fifteen-foot-wide circle where no plant life can grow, this video will start your deep dive into the world’s mysteries.^[1]

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Twisted 2’s”—Videos that cover two prominent mysteries.
“Every Town Has a Dark Side”—Podcast episodes covering crimes and mysteries in small-town USA.
“Strange and Scary Mysteries of the Month”—A monthly roundup of the weirdest news reports and stories

9 Nexpo—ARGs and “Aaaaarghs”!

This popular channel provides long-form, deep dives into some of the strangest things found online. From ARGs (augmented reality games, usually with a horror theme) and creepy viral videos to genuine research into online pedophile rings, this channel is more than just a place for compiling disturbing online crap—he really aims to do good. This intrepid explorer of the darker fringes of the internet has invited you to see what he has found. Will you join him?

Starting Point: “Strange Flyers Around Portland, Oregon”—A weird prank, ARG gone too far, or evidence of a cult in the Pacific Northwest? This amazing look into this fringe phenomenon will leave you wondering what every flyer, poster, or graffitied tag you see in your town actually means.^[2]

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Disturbing Things from around the Internet”

8 Nick Crowley—Aleister Would Be Proud

Very much the same stylistic vein as the previous entry, Nick Crowley likes to cover the darker things found around the internet. One of the key differences is that Nick tends to focus more on the real horror found online—terrible animal cruelty scams, self-destructive cancer-chasing fetish communities, and emergent cults. Where Nexpo likes to leave you with a sense of mystery, a creeping dread that surrounds the question “I wonder if that’s real?” Crowley rarely allows for that question to enter the viewer’s mind. These things did happen. And here they are.

Starting point: “The Khamar Daban Incident”—You may very well have read about the Dyatlov Pass incident, the strange event that led to the deaths of a clutch of young Russian researchers in a remote part of Siberia (in fact, Crowley has a great couple of videos exploring the incident), but have you heard about the Khamar Daban incident? This (arguably) more shocking event is covered ably by Mr. Crowley. The perfect real-life tale for Halloween night.^[3]

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“YouTube’s Darkest Channels”

7 Bedtime Stories—Creepy Mysteries, Creepier Artwork

When you get a channel description that begins with “WARNING—These stories are NOT suitable for younger audiences. Turn off the lights, get into bed, and plug in your earphones. It’s time for a creepy bedtime story,” you know you’re in for a good time. This channel certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Covering well-known paranormal stories, some more obscure ones from beyond the anglosphere, and even a couple of viewer-submitted experiences, the team behind Bedtime Stories are among the best in the biz at new media paranormal content generation. The wonderfully drawn artwork accompanying the matter of fact, northern-English-accented narration draws you in as though watching a particularly good lecture. And then the subject matter hits you. Then you’re afraid.^[4]

Starting point: “The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Mystery”—Best to start from the very first video and go from there. This spooky event from the eerily atmospheric isles west of Scotland is a classic story that remains an exemplar of this channel’s aptitude at expressing the uncanny.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
Weekly uploads

6 Atrocity Guide—Weird Internet Tales

For a less horror-oriented (but no less unnerving) channel, check out Atrocity Guide. Although given the nature of her uploads, you may end up seeking out more hokey ghost or Bigfoot videos…

Covering weird stories about strange individuals and groups may not be as bed-wetting or terror-inducing an experience as some of the other channels listed here. Still, one thing is for certain—the subjects covered here are well-documented, meticulously covered, and 100% real/weird/unnerving.^[5]

Starting Point: “The Strange World of Breatharianism”—The title could just have easily swapped the word “strange” with horrific, deluded, or mystifyingly still going. This 50-minute long mini-doc on this dangerous cult is among the best found online. Sad, worrying, and sobering.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
Uploads every few months

5 Being Scared—Rain, Wind, and Horror Stories

Every once in a while, it is good for us to remember that tradition matters. Before all these new media guys bombarded us with mini-docs, deep dives, and compilation vids and before the word “meme” was used on a daily basis, people gathered ’round and told scary stories. Quite often, this was done on dark, stormy nights, the world outside setting the scene for some wickedly frightening tales to be told.

Many of us have memories of sharing urban legends around campfires, in abandoned houses we were dared to enter, or at a friend’s sleepover. This channel re-captures this like no other. Scary stories told with suitably atmospheric SFX—wind, rain, and thunder.^[6]

You’ll listen to one. Hear the rain in your earhole. You notice that your bedroom window’s blind is open. Didn’t you close it?

Nope.

Ok, just a few more tales…

Starting Point: Anywhere. Press play, sit back, pee your pants.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Scary Stories for a Rainy Night”

4 In Praise of Shadows—Peek Behind the Curtain of Horror Media

If you don’t fancy a night of direct terror, why not learn about the movies, comic books, and other media that have provided us with terror over the years? This channel offers a wonderful overview of horror fiction in all its forms. The deepest of deep dives into the history of horror comics throughout the twentieth century is a real highlight. But don’t get too comfy—the measured critique on offer here may make you say, “Hm, very interesting,” but the artwork that accompanies the commentary is often chilling enough to make you go check under the bed.^[7]

Starting Point: “Homunculus: What Does It Mean to Be Human?”—A retrospective of one of the most mind-bending shocking Manga ever. Thought-provoking and vomit-inducing.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Anatomy of a Franchise”
“Why You Should Watch…”
And definitely make sure you check out the three-part series on Horror Comics

3 Rusty West—Missing in the Wilderness

Anyone who is aware of the “Missing 411” phenomenon will love this channel. But even if you aren’t aware of the theories surrounding the comparatively high number of people who go missing in U.S. national parks, Rusty West’s soothing drawl will win you over—it seems to have been carved from prime mahogany and dipped in molasses. Despite the vocal attraction, these stories may make you think twice about venturing into the wilderness anytime soon.

These tragic, perplexing, and often creepy tales of hikers disappearing off the face of the earth, alongside a good selection of viewer-submitted stories of strange encounters, weird occurrences, and brushes with the preternatural, provide hours of material ready for your perusal.^[8]

Starting Point: “3½ Hours of Strange National Park Disappearances”—Don’t be daunted by this feature-length video of narrated accounts; you can dip in and out, settle in with some cocoa and a bowl of popcorn or lie back and fall asleep to Rusty’s voice recounting some cases that remain unsolved.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
Various compilation videos
“10 More Strangest National Park Disappearances” series
“Case Studies”—A selection of vids that focus a little more in-depth on individual cases

2 The Paranormal Scholar—A Fortean Look at Freaky Phenomena

Finally, an expert! Well, sort of. Outside the channel, it does seem that husband and wife duo Laura and Erik Rowton seek to bridge the gap between underground fans, paranormal researchers, and the traditionally stuffy academic domain (their feature-length documentary “In Search of the Dead” includes many interviews with academics).

Their YouTube channel is more about charting and listing paranormal events and anecdotes. Laura Rowton’s pleasant voiceover takes us through various “Top X-number” lists of a diverse range of Fortean phenomena—from historical instances of meetings with the devil to creepy “men in black” encounters that will freak you out more than the prospect of a continental greeting from Tommy Lee Jones.^[9]

Starting Point: “5 Terrifying Wartime Monster Sightings”—This list of monster sightings introduces an interesting angle that many viewers may not consider: soldiers who have witnessed cryptids. Are these accounts more credible given the trusted position fighting men hold in society? Or does the fact that these people are in high-stress, frenetic environments facing the constant threat of death breathing down their necks render their testimony even more unreliable? Whatever you think, these stories are awesome.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Unexplained Mysteries”
“Deities, Demons, and the Devil”

1 Lazy Masquerade—The Online All-Rounder of the Macabre and Unsettling

Finally, we have a channel that combines all the best points of the previous entries without losing any of the overall quality. If you’re going to binge, go hard and go…Lazy. Focused mini-docs on gory murders, unexplained events, and all manner of strange and singular phenomena, list vids, and scary story reads—this channel does the lot.

There is also a periodic focus on Southeast Asia, an area where news rarely permeates Western media. And, boy oh boy, there are some fascinating, terrifying tales to tell from that part of the globe.

Cuddle up on your couch and start watching. Make sure the lights are off, though. After all, “Lazy” always signs off with, “The best things happen in the dark…”^[10]

Starting Point: “3 Creepy ‘Region Locked’ Mysteries, FINALLY UNLOCKED”—Lazy covers three crazy stories from the Far East that you’ve probably not heard.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Photos with Creepy Backstories”
“Folklore and Urban Legends”
“USA Horror Road Trip”
And many, many, many more…

Here’s to scary binging!

We all have our guilty online pleasures. Be it cute cat videos, makeup tutorials, recipes you’ll never cook, celebrity gossip, and such. For me, I went down the internet rabbit hole and found myself hooked on YouTube videos of volunteer divers solving missing persons’ cold cases.

Using fairly basic equipment like fish finders, they are aiding law enforcement agencies and granting closure to families by bringing their lost loved ones home. While some of these teams may not like being categorized as YouTubers, many of these groups are funded only by YouTube monetization, donations, merch sales, and the occasional reward payment. YouTube is just one means that enables them to finance their amazing work.

Here are ten missing person cases that have been solved by YouTube dive teams.

Related: 10 Times Smartphones And The Internet Saved Lives

10 Jed Hall: Missing since 2018

In the early morning hours of January 22, 2018, 16-year-old Matthew “Jed” Hall was reported missing in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Jed left a note behind indicating that he may attempt suicide; however, a journal was also found detailing plans to run away from home. Despite ongoing searches, his disappearance remained unsolved for over four years. Amazingly, the cold case was solved within 20 minutes by YouTubers Adventures with Purpose (AWP).

“We came into this like we come into all cases,” AWP diver Doug Bishop explained. “We determine if someone is missing and if someone is missing with a vehicle. We specialize in sonar the way that law enforcement doesn’t have the capability. Do we have a cellphone ping, a last known location? Locations that are frequented, etc. That’s how we base the waterways that we need to search, and that’s how we choose those waterways.”

Using a cellphone ping as a starting point, AWP started searching an area of the Snake River. Just 20 minutes later, they were able to locate Jed’s vehicle under about 2.5 meters (8 feet) of water, roughly 68.5 meters (75 yards) away from a boat ramp. The Idaho Falls Police Department later confirmed that they had positively identified that the human remains found in the rear of the vehicle were Jed’s.^[1]

9 Ruth Hemphill: Missing since 2005

Miriam “Ruth” Hemphill, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was 84 years old when she disappeared on July 22, 2005. Three months earlier, her daughter was found dead, and her death was ruled a suicide. Bill Hemphill told police that his wife Ruth had left a note about their daughter’s death, and he also found a newspaper clipping his wife had cut out concerning a person who drove into a lake.

Bill felt certain that his wife was dead and that she’d driven her car into one of the lakes in the area. Police agreed that this scenario was likely to be correct, but numerous searches were unable to turn up any sign of Ruth or her car.

The case attracted the attention of Jeremy Sides, whose YouTube channel is “Exploring with Nug.” He explained, “I pretty much just went there and just started sonaring the river until I found some cars. We started finding some cars and the third one we found was hers.” He’d found her vehicle in Melton Hill Lake, and when it was pulled out, human remains were located inside.

Sides has said that he just wants to bring some closure to families of cold case victims. “It feels good to be able to help someone. It’s always been in my blood to want to go beyond myself to help somebody else out.”^[2]

8 Nicholas Allen: Missing since 2020

While most of those in law enforcement are more than happy to accept the assistance of the likes of AWP and other volunteer dive teams, sadly, that’s not always the case.

In February 2020, 17-year-old Nicholas Allen disappeared. His cellphone was switched off, so it could not be tracked, but his vehicle was seen in the vicinity of the murky Yadkin River. The family, frustrated by the apparent disinterest of local law enforcement, reached out to AWP. “My gut feeling just keeps telling me he’s in that river… Something bad has happened to him,” Trudy Bernstein, Nicholas’s aunt, said.

Using information provided by the family, AWP used sonar and found the vehicle less than two hours after arriving at the river. However, when they notified local law enforcement of the discovery, the now-viral video shows the officer arriving on the scene displaying an appalling lack of empathy toward the family and outright hostility toward the AWP dive team.

In response to the public backlash, Sheriff Richie Simmons issued an apology to both the family and AWP. Saying in part that the officer’s abrasive attitude was “not empathetic or kind to the family of Nick, and also was not welcoming or appreciative to Adventures with Purpose. Please know that the interaction you had with our investigator does not represent how we train our officers, and his actions are not in accordance with our expectations. There are no excuses for this type of behavior.”^[3]

7 Jan Shupe Smith: Missing since 2021

A Florida family waited ten agonizing months before discovering what happened to 59-year-old Margaret “Jan” Shupe Smith. She went missing on April 2, 2021, driving her little green Kia Soul. The family reached out to AW), who searched for Smith’s car in several bodies of water in the Lakeland area of Polk County.

AWP was about to suspend their search when a Polk County deputy informed them that Smith had been in a minor traffic accident on the day she went missing. This pointed them in the direction of a small retention pond in a new housing development, about a mile from the crash site. Within mere minutes of arriving at the shallow algae-filled pond, Jan’s car was discovered, and a body was located inside. It was hidden just 46 centimeters (18 inches) under the surface of the water.

Smith had gone missing at night, and she reportedly had poor night vision. The neighborhood was also under construction, which could have led to her being confused about her surroundings, causing her to accidentally drive into the unmarked, unfenced pond at the end of an uncompleted road. “This was a tragic accident, and our prayers are with the family,” Polk County Sheriff, Grady Judd, stated. “We’re grateful for Adventures with Purpose working with us in locating the vehicle.”^[4]

6 Timothy Robinson: Missing since 2008

AWP and several other similar dive groups did not initially start out solving cold cases. AWP’s Jared Leisek started his YouTube channel to document his progress toward his goal of diving to pick up 2,000 pounds of trash littering waterways in a three-month timeframe.

The group was doing a live stream of an environmental cleanup project on the Willamette River in Oregon in May 2020 when they pulled the car belonging to missing 56-year-old Timothy Robinson out of the water. Unbeknownst to AWP, Robinson had vanished in November 2008, having left a suicide note saying he intended to drive off a boat ramp. Twelve years later, the live stream was quickly cut when the AWP team realized that the vehicle had human remains inside.

Edward’s niece Jessica was surprised to receive a call from detectives after the discovery and was pleased that the family could finally have some answers 12 years after he disappeared. “Thank you for bringing closure to this family. It’s been a long time, and now he can finally be put to rest. Thank you, and God bless,” she said. ^[5]

5 Brian Goff & Joni Davis: Missing since 2018

Ohio resident 66-year-old Brian Goff was the full-time caretaker of 55-year-old Joni Davis, who had suffered a traumatic brain injury several years earlier. They were last seen leaving a Pizza Hut on June 18, 2018, then they disappeared.

While taking a break from looking into another cold case, Chaos Divers decided to see if they could locate the missing couple. Team member Lindsay Bussick later described how the team found them one mile south of where their cell phone pinged. “When the vehicle came across the sonar, there was no doubt what it was.” Goff and Davis were found in the Ohio River in their submerged Oldsmobile, still strapped in by their seatbelts.

While authorities are unsure exactly how the vehicle ended up in the water, they have confirmed that they have ruled out foul play. Local councilman Jack Regis theorized, “One of them could have had a health problem at that time. Nobody knows that answer, and we’ll never know,” he said. “It’s just a shame, but at least the families got closure finally.”^[6]

4 Carey Mae Parker: Missing since 1991

Young Texan mother of three, Carey Mae Parker, was just 23 years old when she vanished without a trace in March 1991. After more than 30 years, the mystery of her disappearance was finally solved in February 2021, when AWP located her vehicle submerged in the waters of Lake Tawakoni.

The road was closed, and part of the disintegrating vehicle was recovered from the water, matching the description of Parker’s car. AWP returned to the lake several months later and conducted a grid search, recovering the rest of the vehicle, as well as human remains. They also located some items of clothing and a child’s bicycle. Parker’s sister, Patricia Gager, explained that on the day she disappeared, Carey was planning to buy a bicycle for her son’s 6th birthday. “She will still have to be identified through DNA, but I have no other reason to believe [it’s] not her,” she explained.^[7]

7 Samantha Hopper & Her Babies: Missing since 1998

An Arkansas woman, 20-year-old Samantha Hopper, was almost nine months pregnant when she and her two-year-old daughter Courtney were reported missing on September 11, 1998. Hopper was on her way to drop her daughter off before going to a concert in the city of Little Rock when they disappeared.

Chaos Divers and Adventures with Purpose joined forces to bring resolution to the 23-year-old mystery. Using information from the family about Hopper’s habits and schedule, they narrowed down possible locations and split up to search possible locations of interest, scanning different areas of Russellville Lake. Around an hour into the search, they located the vehicle in the lake, submerged in about 3 meters (10 feet) of water.

As the vehicle was being recovered, human remains were found inside. Hopper’s surviving daughter, Dezarae Carpenter, was relieved that her mother and siblings could finally be given a proper farewell. Chaos Divers later posted on Facebook, “while it was gut-wrenching to have to see the tears stream down their faces as they were told the news, it was also incredibly heartwarming to see the smiles on their faces and the weight release from their shoulders knowing they were potentially bringing their loved ones home.”^[8]

2 Erin Foster & Jeremy Bechtel: Missing since 2000

When best friends 18-year-old Erin Foster and 17-year-old Jeremy Bechtel disappeared without a trace on April 3, 2000, the rumor mill in Sparta, Tennesee, went into overdrive. But their families knew that something was terribly wrong. “Just a nightmare, man. Just a total nightmare,” described Erin’s father, Cecil Foster.

Months turned into years, and eventually, Sheriff Steve Page decided to revisit the cold case. Starting over, Page said he came across one piece of paper that changed everything. It was the initial missing person’s report filed by Erin’s family. Details in the report seemed to suggest that authorities had been looking for the missing pair on the wrong side of the county. When Exploring with Nug’s Jeremy Sides expressed interest in the case, Page knew exactly where to send him. Following Page’s hunch, Sides used sonar to scan a section of the Calfkiller River. Just 4 meters (13 feet) below the surface of the water, he located the Pontiac Grand Am driven by Foster.

The car was recovered, and the remains of both Erin and Jeremy were found inside. After over two decades, Sheriff Page was able to tell the families what had become of their children. All indications are that it was just a traffic accident, and they simply ran off the road. “I don’t think I believed it even though he’s got the license plate in his hand,” Erin’s father said.^[9]

1 Janet Farris: Missing since 1992

It turns out you don’t necessarily need any training or even specialist equipment to do this kind of thing. Sometimes all it takes is a little luck and good timing. In British Columbia, Canada, 13-year-old Max Werenka was using his GoPro in Lake Griffen when he and a group of visitors to the lake located a car containing the body of 69-year-old Janet Farris, who was reported missing in 1992.

Farris disappeared while driving from Vancouver Island to a wedding in Alberta. “Two weeks later, we received a phone call from that family in Alberta asking why she never came to the wedding,” Farris’s granddaughter, Erin Farris-Hartley, explained, “So she had actually been missing for two weeks with nobody knowing.”

The GoPro footage that Max provided to the RCMP clearly showed an upside-down car resting on the rocky bottom of the lake. When the vehicle was recovered, authorities finally knew what had happened to Janet. “I think the worst thing was not knowing,” her son, George Farris, explained. “We kind of assumed that maybe she had gone off the road or fallen asleep, or tried to avoid an accident or animal on the road,” he said, adding that “given a sad situation, it’s the best of all outcomes.”^[10]

Every minute, five hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, making it the most saturated market since Starbucks opened a store on seemingly every block in Manhattan. Travel-themed YouTube channels are not so much a niche as a big gaping hole with an “Everybody Welcome!” sign, meaning some travel YouTubers are now venturing into dangerous territory to bring in the clicks.

From crime-infested ghettoes to breakaway states, here are ten insane places that only a lunatic would go—or somebody who puts views above all else.

Related: 10 Insane Tours That Are Extremely Dangerous

10 Chechnya, Russia—Bald and Bankrupt

This Russian-speaking British adventurer is no stranger to a walk on the wild side, having made videos in the Sahara, Sinaloa, and Bolivia. But it is the former Soviet Union where his heart lies. Journeys in Belarus and war-torn Ukraine have been well-received by his three million subscribers. Though his visits to the more dangerous provinces of Russia—like Dagestan and the neighboring Chechnya—really demonstrate what an utterly fearless traveler he is.

In a place most sane travelers would take all costs to avoid, Bald and Bankrupt (or Benjamin Rich, as he is otherwise known) stumbles sleepily off the train, lets loose a typically British “Crikey!” at the cold temperature, and then meanders happily along a puddle-drenched gravel road, aiming for what he vaguely hopes is the center of town. There is not an insurgent in sight as he explores the winding gorges of Chechnya with his taxi driver and newfound friend, Ruslan.

What might be presented by more clickbait-prone YouTubers as a scary place is instead shown to be a land of stunning beauty and warm characters. Even having to exit the car at a Russian military checkpoint is dealt with as just another mini-escapade, with his driver exclaiming, “You offered to pay more for every adventure!”^[1]

9 Lima, Peru—Kurt Caz

When it comes to a traveler whose video titles often contain the phrase “most dangerous hood,” it can prove difficult to choose just the one. However, in this video, the young South African is seen in his most vulnerable position yet. He is alone atop a hill in the shantytown Rímac ghetto of northern Lima, having wandered through near-deserted and rundown streets where concerned voices warn him he will be robbed, or worse.

Indeed, the moment almost comes—a shady tuk-tuk driver that takes him to the summit seems very keen on making hushed phone calls while insisting that he stay. And a suspicious encounter Kurt has on the barren side of the hill afterward suggests his instinct not to linger was right.^[2]

8 Cameroon—PPPeter

Arriving on a cargo ship from Nigeria, the local police in Tiko, Cameroon, immediately insist on sending them over the border to Nigeria, a place considered much safer. Despite a “mass shooting” by a rebel movement just a few hundred meters away, Peter chooses to stay.

What follows is a three-day stay on a ship in the port followed by a heart-racing midnight run organized by the Czech embassy toward the safer French-speaking region of Cameroon. For a man that has suffered several bouts of food poisoning and one case of life-threatening malaria, you might think he would take such danger in his stride. But even Peter, intrepid traveler though he is, says it’s the most afraid he has ever been in his life.^[3]

7 Afghanistan—Indigo Traveler

If you’ve watched the news at all in the last twenty years, you’ll have noticed that Afghanistan isn’t really the sort of place to find itself at the top of anyone’s bucket list. Ravaged by decades of war and daily violence, this central-Asian country is rarely portrayed as anything other than that. That is until Indigo Traveler made this video in 2019, a journalistic piece that successfully manages to avoid exploitation while still depicting the daily struggles that Afghan people face in the northern city of Mazar.

Interviews with various market sellers show a human side that is all-too-often missing from the daily news coverage. A particularly harrowing visit to a UNICEF nutrition clinic allows us to see some of the crucial work being done before the return of the Taliban. What is most commendable, though, is Indigo Traveler’s willingness to reduce his own screen time to give time to those he interviews.^[4]

6 San Salvador, El Salvador—Alex Outhwaite

Having the highest murder rate in the world doesn’t lend itself well to tourist figures, which is why El Salvador is one of the least-visited countries in Latin America. It is a nation plagued by tragic, violent crime, political corruption, and street gangs.

Watching this video, you wouldn’t know any of that, with Alex’s itinerary including a quaint market, a microbrewery, and—showing that they really do exist in every corner of the world—an Irish pub where she watches a Nirvana tribute band. As any good travel YouTuber does, Alex manages to paint a different picture of a country where the news stories are not always positive.^[5]

5 Chernobyl, Ukraine—Shiey

There are plenty of Chernobyl videos on YouTube nowadays, particularly in the wake of the hit HBO series. But what separates Shiey’s videos from the rest is the fact that he is not supposed to be there. Arriving with two friends after an all-night trek through abandoned Ukrainian villages, forests, and deep rivers, Shiey shows the side of the exclusion zone that most tourists never see.

While avoiding the regular security patrols, they explore a series of dilapidated buildings and even spend the night sleeping in an empty apartment. The most unsettling moment, though, comes when the fearless Shiey climbs high up the Duga radar installation, a giant Soviet-era contraption that stands at almost 500 feet. There are debates to be had about the ethics of such a trip, but there’s no denying that it makes for compulsive viewing.^[6]

4 Mogadishu, Somalia—Drew Binsky

We once thought of Somalia solely as the war-torn and violent land depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down. More recently, that image of Somalia has been replaced in the collective consciousness as a land of pirates, given recent events of ship hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. However, Drew Binsky brings us a third, far more vibrant picture of Somalia.

There are contrasting images of rundown buildings next to colorful ice-cream parlors, armed militias parading past white sandy beaches, modern hotels and the barriers built to protect them from terrorist attacks. It’s certainly not a city you could call safe, but with its bustling markets and cheerful citizens, it’s perhaps not the place we had in mind, either.^[7]

3 Detroit, Michigan, USA

The dilapidated neighborhoods of Detroit might not be the most dangerous place in the world, but by American standards, they rank highly. They are notorious for gang crime and rife with extreme poverty, and they are rarely the setting for a YouTube travel video.

In a series dedicated to exploring the more deprived areas of inner-city America, Charlie Bo shows us a place we’d otherwise never dare venture. This video does lack the personal touch found in other videos in this list as he records while driving around in his car. However, given the reputation of the area he’s visiting, it’s quite understandable.^[8]

2 The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan—Fearless & Far

It may not really be a portal to the underworld, but as a massive pit of perpetually burning fire, it might as well be. The Darvaza gas crater has been burning since the 1970s and is ranked second in Tripadvisor’s list of things to do in Turkmenistan, which in itself says a lot about this mysterious country.

Ruled over by an authoritarian dictator with his own personality cult, this central Asian country can be difficult to get into, especially if you have any journalistic intentions. Mike Corey, the creator behind this channel, takes full advantage of his travel permit and shows some incredible footage of Turkmenistan, including a pristine white capital city constructed almost entirely out of marble. But it is this video where he roasts marshmallows over the least likely of campfires that really captures the imagination.^[9]

1 Syria—Jacob Laukaitis

Nowadays, we think of Syria as a place that people are trying to flee rather than get into. Not so for Jacob Laukaitis, a Lithuanian filmmaker with a penchant for making videos that get under the skin of countries that most of us wouldn’t dream of visiting. Between conversations with the locals and sweeping shots of the stunning Syrian landscape, Jacob includes short and informative snippets that detail the events of the Syrian civil war.

This is a no-holds-barred account of the nation, and the video takes us from the surprising realities of modern life in Damascus to the horrific scenes of Aleppo. From the fancy coffee shops and shopping malls of the capital, the viewer is taken to witness the fallout of the war, where bombed-out buildings and shell-cratered streets are still called home by the surprisingly hopeful residents. This video is an integrative piece of journalism and one that depicts the Syrian people in a warm light in contrast to the negative press coverage they so often face.^[10]