YouTube. We all know it; we all use it.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll sometimes find yourself bored while scrolling through your homepage. And you’ll be desperate for the algorithm to throw you something new, something different.

If you’re looking for new faces, or different takes on old topics, here’s my list of YouTubers to Check out.

Philosophy Tube

Abigail Thorn’s channel Philosophy Tube is an icon. She’s been making videos about philosophy (funnily enough) for ten years at this point. 

In that time, she’s done videos on individual philosophers, she’s made videos answering different philosophical questions.

Recently, she’s made over the top videos going into details of philosophical topics like Social Constructs, Vaccines, and Trans-humanism.

Thorn came out as a transgender woman in a video called Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story. It’s an incredible video.

Her video;

I Emailed My Doctor 133 Times: The Crisis in the British Healthcare System

is a fantastic insight into some of the difficulties she encountered searching for gender affirming care. It is also an amazing look into the academic study of institutions. 

Thorn once called this video her “Magnum Opus” so if there’s only one you ever watch, I’d recommend that one. (Although it is 90 minutes long so make sure you have snacks prepared beforehand)

Hello Future Me

Hello Future Me is the channel of Tim Hickson.

On his about page, he is described as:

“Writer, worldbuilder, video essayist, bread connoisseur, and person who talks about The Last Airbender probably a little too much.”

This last point is absolutely true. I found his channel through his 2 and a half hour epic The Last Airbender is the Worst Film Ever Made – HERE’S WHY. Its an incredible breakdown of literally everything that is wrong with the 2010 “classic” The Last Airbender directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Hickson’s channel is home to a wonderful array of videos. If you like anything from the world of Avatar, then this channel is full of theories and discussions. Videos like: the psychology Zuko and Azula, and hypotheticals like What if Aang never ran away?

He has videos a discussing the role of the atomic bomb in studio Ghibli films and it’s utterly fascinating.

Hickson loves to discuss the art of story writing and world building. His channel is an incredible source of tips and ideas for any hopeful author as well.

Tara Mooknee

Tara Mooknee’s channel is The only channel on YouTube where videos are written and produced by a cow.

If you’ve ever watched one of Tara’s videos, you’ll be very familiar with this sentence.

Mooknee is a delightful woman whose channel is dedicated to the various topics and discussion surrounding feminism in popular culture.

She loves to discuss buzzword topics circling the internet like, pickme girl and pickme boy. 

Her videos are full of classic British sarcasm and, to me at least, that makes them hilarious as well as interesting.

I really love her rants about different topics. Like Hating children isn’t a personality trait or her incredible video about Amatonormativity discussing asexuality.

Rowan Ellis

Speaking of asexuality, Rowan Ellis is a wonderful queer ace youtuber. Her channel is dedicated to discussions about the role of queer and female representations and issues in popular culture.

Ellis is a truly wonderful writer, which makes her ability to get the point across incredible.

(Also, I met her at a Christmas Party once and she’s actually the loveliest person ever).

I don’t think I’ve finished a video of hers without storming away from my laptop to calm down. Ellis has a wonderful way of emoting to her viewers.

One Video, the perpetual infantilisation of millennial women is a brilliant and heartbreaking look at just what the title says. The way millennial women are left feeling or desiring infantilisation by society.

I get so excited when I see that Ellis has uploaded a video. I always know it’s going to be a fantastic, thought-provoking 40 minute journey.

A particular favourite of mine is The creepy implications of Time Travel Rom Coms. Which warning, will ruin your ability to watch any of the movies she talks about ever again, but is 100% worth it I promise.

JohntheDuncan

John the Duncan is one of the newest additions to my little sphere of YouTubers, but boy oh boy does he hit hard.

On John the Duncan’s channel, you’ll find a fascinating mix of video essays. Some dedicated to the discussion of a particular idea, like Masculinity or Globalisation.

Others offer incredible political and social analysis of films such as Shrek 2 or Chicken Run.

Seriously though, Shrek 2: A Queer Masterpeice. is a work of genius that I couldn’t look away from and you should go and watch it, right now.

His charming Scottish Accent always lulls me into a comforting aura while he ever so calmly explains his argument for his point.

One thing to note, is I do sometimes find myself a bit overwhelmed with his very academic language (which he can’t help; he’s a human rights PhD researcher so no blame there).

So, for me personally, a little can go a long way with him. 

I tend to space out my videos so as to not get overwhelmed.

Jessie Gender

Have you ever wished that you could talk about Star Trek and the science of gender on one channel? Well then look no further.

Jessie Gender is an enormous Star Trek fan and full-time trans woman. 

I first discovered her channel through her two part series about Matt Walsh: The Manipulations of Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman?”  and Debunking Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman?”. 

These two videos are incredible and sometimes difficult to watch, dive into the terrifying world of Transphobia and media personalities who encourage transphobia. They are incredible, if a little heavy. Although the lighting helps a lot!

Jessie Gender is outstanding at fearlessly jumping in and discussing anything in popular culture, positive or negative that touches on transgender-related topics. 

She also has a second channel called Jessie Gender After Dark Where she gives reviews and discussions about Star Trek and other sci-fi or comic shows like “The Secret Invasion”.

This second channel is also home to Jessie Gender’s shorter videos addressing smaller news articles about trans people and her thoughts on that particular case as well.

Princess Weekes

Princess Weekes is a channel discussing pop culture, race, feminism, and other social issues.

She has videos diving into particular series such as Queen Charlotte and Bridgerton, as well as content where she discusses themes across popular culture in general.

I love her video Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires? Where she discusses the fact that so many major vampire franchises feature vampires that fought for the confederacy in the American civil war. (That’s the side which wanted to keep slaves, by the way).

I really enjoy the topics that she covers, and she has a wonderful way of finding topics to cover that I don’t see in many other places.

One of her recent videos Anne Heche: When Community Doesn’t Show up. Is an insightful look at someone I had never heard of before, and I really appreciate Princess Weekes taking the time to make the video.

Friendly Space Ninja

Friendly Space Ninja’s channel is quite a different one to the others I have spoken about in this video. 

He covers and critiques various television and film series, and sometimes discusses themes across different series as well.

I actually found his channel a couple of years ago, watching his review of the first season of Emily in Paris. This particular video ended up being one of his most popular videos and he has of course made similar ones about seasons 2 and 3 as well.

I really enjoy the way he unpicks shows, and is able to coherently discuss what does and doesn’t work, and why that is. His insight helped me to understand these threads in different narratives as well, which is always great.

Full disclosure, while I love his videos and content, I haven’t seen many of the shows he is actually critiquing. But even so, that doesn’t necessarily matter as I still learn a lot from what he says.

His video How to fix the worst character on television is my favourite of his. I think his idea for how to fix Emily in Paris is a stroke of genius. And if it actually ever happens can someone please tell me as I might then actually watch the show.

Lilly Alexandre

Lilly Alexandre is actually the most recent channel that I have found. She is a writer making videos about art, tech and gender.

So far, I have mostly explored her content on gender, like her most recent video Why Are People Trans? Her coverage of this topic is very well researched, and she is able to create some wonderful personal hooks into the topics she discusses too. 

She also has some interesting topics about AI as well as the problem with Aesthetics in art which I can’t wait to watch. 

I found her channel thanks to a collaboration with our next youtuber:

SAVY WRITES BOOKS

Savy Writes Books (no I’m not going to capitalise it every time, I’m sorry). Is a wonderfully chaotic YouTuber and streamer who makes content about literature.

She does rant reviews about controversial books, as well as discussing various films and notable moments of internet gossip.

Savy’s videos are always and interesting wild ride, and her ever informal tone makes them easy and engaging to watch.

Her video A Barbie Movie Deep Dive: More than Faux Feminist Propoganda is by far my favourite critique of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. (This is also the video that introduced me to Lilly Alexandre)

The videos that she makes always have such a note of positivity, or treating everything as a learning opportunity. This can be a welcome change from some of the other names on this list, that can leave things feeling a little bit, well doomed.

Alexander Avila

Okay so if Philosophy Tube was a Gen Z kid and covered Social Analysis and was a trans man, you would kind of end up with Alexander Avila. You might have come across his channel before under the name Are They Gay?

At the time of writing, his most recent video TikTok Gave Me Autism: The Politics of Self Diagnosis. Is my current favourite video essay.

Avila has a charming way of combining solid research with interesting visuals. His videos are beautifully written and I honestly think if he ever collaborated with Rowan Ellis I might just cry at how well everything is phrased.

His channel covers a variety of topics. He previously had a long running series going into whether various characters from TV shows or movies were gay. 

He has slowly been shifting this format to talk about things like Marxist Theory in Barbie, Rainbow Capitalism, Queerbaiting, and manufactured gay culture. His work is always well thought out and beautifully delivered, I can’t wait to check out more.

Honourable Mentions

There are a few other channels that I would like to mention here that I haven’t included in the list for one reason or another:

Hbomberguy

Hbomberguy has been around on YouTube forever. He posts videos with in depth looks into, honestly whatever he is currently interested in that week. 

His most recent video ROBLOX_OOF.mp3 is a crazy rabbit hole ride down into the video game composer Tommy Talarico and the frankly outstandingly long list of lies he’s put into the universe. 

Hbomberguy’s videos are a wild ride from start to finish, but they are always meticulously researched and constantly entertaining.

Point of warning though, if you watch his video on Sherlock, you’ll never look at the show the same way ever again.

Shaun

Shaun is one of those increasingly rare youtubers who haven’t ventured in front of the camera, and so is fairly anonymous.

Shaun posts videos very occasionally. They usually focus on something controversial that has recently made headlines. His most recent title is Kellie-Jay & the Neo-Nazis a two hour long deep dive into a transphobic activist.

Shaun’s videos are thorough and unbiased, he doesn’t set out to show a particular agenda, but simply provide facts and information, as well as anything that might have been left out by mainstream news outlets. 

I often send people his video JK Rowling’s New Friends to people that claim “She’s not really that bad is she” as a good example of this.

CinemaTherapy

Cinema Therapy is like the lovely cosy dad hug of YouTube. The whole premise is two guys – Jonathan Decker and Alan Seawright (a therapist and a filmmaker respectively). Watching a movie and then discussing it from each of their professional positions.

Each episode they usually pick a theme and a movie and discuss how the movie shows that. 

They do a series called Villain Therapy in particular that I love. Villain Therapy: JOBU TUPAKI from Everything Everywhere All at Once is a wonderful half hour look at an incredible movie, and the role that expectations play in our sense of self and mental wellbeing. 

Seriously though, all of their videos are lovely and wonderful. The relationship between Seawright and Decker is so wholesome and everyone should go watch their channel right now.

P.S if you want to have some fun, they did a whole series watching the twilight franchise that is just beautiful.

And that’s it. I hope you found something new and interesting on this list. And thank you for reading this article on thismonthshobby.com