My Favorite YouTube Creators and Channels

Science, Engineering and Space:

• Scott Manley: Best overall coverage of space launches and developments, with some aviation thrown in since he's been doing light-aircraft pilot training. Amazing to think that globally, there is now an average of one space launch every two or three days!
• Tom Scott: Currently on hiatus, Tom delights in visiting places and doing things that most of us likely never will. Outstanding content; can't wait until he returns to YouTube.
• Practical Engineering: Grady explains engineering and physics incredibly well.

• What's Going On With Shipping?: Dr. Sal Mercogliano's expert analysis of shipping, naval history and current affairs is top-notch. He'd make a good Shipping Czar for the U.S. Government.
• Ward Carroll: great source on military issues.
• Yacht Report (formerly eSysman): excellent source of info on yachts, etc. Really came into its own after the Ukraine War started and Russian yachts became sanctioned.
• Super Yacht Captain: not quite as compelling as when he was captain on M/Y AWOL, but now that he's again captain on a yacht, Tristan's channel has gotten more interesting.

• La Lido Loca: Tony B. is one of THE most popular cruise vloggers out there, for good reason.
• Emma's Cruises: another very popular cruise vlogger based in the UK...with a very famous cat. I bring "Captain Hudson" with me on MY cruises, in the form of a small plush cat.
• Tips For Travellers: Gary Bembridge's cruise channel. He is older and more old-school, but this Brit produces well-developed content with a UK and exotic-cruise focus.

• Virtual Railfan: On almost any given night you'll find me hanging out on the live-chat for their La Plata, MO camera...but we have 130+ railroad wayside cameras all over the US and Canada. "We," because I'm honored to be a live-chat moderator for them on YouTube.
• Simply Railway: Thibault is an amazingly well-traveled young man from France, with passenger train reviews from all over Europe and the U.S. His English is a bit weak but his videos are generally subtitled with no voiceover.
• DownieLive: Mike Downey is likewise a well-travelled Canadian chap. He's done a lot of train videos, but, e.g. his UK canal narrowboating adventures have been great to watch, too!
• Distant Signal: if Danny Harmon isn't the best railfan content creator out there, I wanna know who is. A recently-retired broadcast professonal, he has a great voice and produces excellent and often educational railroading content.
• Trains Are Awesome: Thom, a young chap from the Netherlands (who looks even younger) focuses on passenger and commuter rail service, with some side forays into local and intercity buses.
• Three Minutes of Aviation: Exactly what it says it is: about three minutes' worth of clips .
• StreamTime Live: companion channel to Virtual Railfan (see below), with live-feed cameras at seaports, locks and airports. Both the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore and the near-miss in Feb. 2025 at Midway Airport were captured perfectly by their cams.

• Eckhart's Ladder: Excellent, long-running channel specializing in Star Wars content. Among the best out there.
• EcksClips: the short-form vesion of the above.
• SpaceDock: another excellent channel specializing in well-crafted sci-fi content, often about starships and vehicles.
• FandersonUFO: this chap specializes in content based on Gerry Anderson's British "UFO" series, which I love. He features some original clips, some re-edited material, and updates the space effects to look more modern. Love his dedication!
• Robin Sellex: this channel specializes in Star Trek clips (from many different shows). Good stuff; it's actually got me interested in re-watching Deep Space 9 and Enterprise.
• April 5, 2063: named after First Contact Day in Star Trek, this channel also features good Trek clips and content. And the owner is named Paul, so he is automagically cool in my book.

• Let's Game It Out: the way Josh tortures games, and often the characters IN the games, combined with his devilishly matter-of-fact deadpan delivery, makes this one a gem. He's gone from a smaller creator to routinely creating "#1 Trending" videos on all of YouTube, and his popularity is well-deserved.
• Marcel Vos: there's not much about Roller Coaster Tycoon that Marcel, a cool Dutch creator, doesn't know. I feel let down if he doesn't drown at least a few hundred park guests in a video.

• Vegan Black Metal Chef: He's a vegan, he's into black metal (and plays it), and he produces metal videos showing him making various tasty vegan dishes. He's been doing this for many years and is still quite popular, and he's a friend on Facebook as well.
• Hitler Rants Parodies: some of these creations, all subtitled humorously from the movie Downfall (r.i.p. Bruno Ganz), are drop-dead hilarious. Well-crafted and edited.
• Marshall Patrick: this rising star Georgia boy makes his own t-shirts, which is good because he uses them often in his videos, to hilarious effect.
• The Babylon Bee: my liberal friends might want to steer clear, but their videos are often hysterical...and always well-crafted.
• JoeyBToonz: features Joey's always cynical, but incisive, "takes" on the world.
• RazorFist/The Rageaholic: another channel that my progressive friends might want to avoid (aside from his gaming content). Unlike most YouTubers, he does his rants in just one uninterrupted take. He's also a metalhead with IMO good taste.

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