For me it’s DJ Peach Cobbler. I’ve been watching his videos since he had around 2,000 subscribers. Now it’s nearly 450,000.
He used to mostly make videos on games, now he does a lot of history stuff too. He also has a little satirical news show, and a few tasteful shitposts. A really diverse YouTube channel.
What’s your favorite YouTube channel that’s not a mainstream big-name like pewdiepie, mrbeast, ksi, etc…?
Inside China Business
Its a chauvinist doing 10min reports on China’s business practices. Its mostly a guy presenting well researched information about how China is eating the us’ lunch and being frustrated about it.
My husband recently found this gem of a cooking channel that we both love. Chef Jean Pierre He’s hilarious and the food looks amazing.
Hello friends! happy t-rex arm wiggle
Blind Drunk. I know nobody’s heard of them because they have like 2K subs, but they’re good as hell. They make a drinking game out of reading trash right wing books by people like Boris Johnson, Ben Shapiro, and the dork who wrote the Turner Diaries. But despite how messy and dark things could get with that premise, it’s some of the funniest, best put together and most insightful content I’ve ever seen on the subject of fascism and fascist psychology.
Love me some Peach Cobbler too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLfFWXUNJ_I It’s more of one playlist than a channel about quantum mechanics on Russian, but as I see it has English subtitles. A fairly clear explanation with a small amount of simple mathematics, probably the minimum that is possible. It helps to understand at least a little such a complex and illogical science for the average layman.
Combo Class is a neat math education channel where things are often on fire or falling apart in the background in a way that’s fascinating on top of the math itself
Side note, I have no idea how many subscribers counts as obscure. It seems relative to the size of the niche. Or maybe I have no idea how big people are relative to how much I care about them. Like I would expect Ben Levin (music theory and production creator) to be closer in subs to Adam Neely (same) but he’s an entire order of magnitude lower. Like is CJ The X (video essayist) obscure enough at 341K subs?
Fresh from the Farm Fungi - he is a mushroom farmer from Colorado. He has a ton of valuable information on growing mushrooms and running a business. He also has a few series of videos on very interesting experiments such as growing boletus, morelles, and cordyceps.
Microbehunter - he is a biology teacher that runs a microscope channel. His videos are very useful for learning the basics of microscopy.
Huygen Optics - I’m not sure about this guy’s background. He worked in R&D for Phillips in the 90s and he knows a lot about optics and chemistry, but I don’t know much more. He has built some equipment in has garage for sputtering metals on surfaces and has some pretty cool videos.
MissOrchidGirl - she is more popular than the others. She has great info about caring for orchids and a fantastic orchid collection.
Ben Felix - he is a portfolio manager with very solid financial advice. He supports his claims with research articles.
+1 for huygen optics, this dude is legit
CGP Grey kicked me off on this intense obsession with getting rid of First Past The Post voting, but he has many other very well made videos. Cannot recommend him enough.
Notable runners up:
Steve1989MRE
JoergeSprave (the slingshot channel)
deleted by creator
twoodfrd - the guy repairs guitars with his soothing voice and lots of technicial knowledge
Vindsvept, fantasy music https://youtu.be/ZDokgvuuS7E
Also I didn’t think it was a small channel but apparently he only has just over 1m subs: Karl Jobst, he mostly covers video game speedrunning achievements and cheating https://youtu.be/AFrQ1_2bbsI
Kyle the Scott. A Scottish cisman with a kinda effeminate voice who once did a dramatic shirt rip to prove he is in fact cis, in the middle of a half hour essay about why it shouldn’t even matter and “transvestigations” are bullshit.
But his normal schtick is media criticism, covering franchises like Star Wars, Halo, and Assassin’s Creed. They’re just genuinely good reviews that aren’t afraid to get into the politics where appropriate (including explicitly rejecting some of the more popular bigoted takes) but honestly feel it’s about the way that particular lens affects the media, rather than being an end into itself.
who once did a dramatic shirt rip to prove he is in fact cis, in the middle of a half hour essay about why it shouldn’t even matter and “transvestigations” are bullshit.
Based
A really tiny channel I like is Don’t Look East. Currently less than 3000 subscribers and most videos just get a few hundred views. He does unscripted travel vlogs about rarely visited destinations, mostly in Asia and Eastern Europe. For example he recently travelled the entire Thailand/Myanmar border by motorcycle.
Amazing. Such an underrated channel, Thanks for posting!
Aussie Wood Shed
Bobby Fingers. He makes diaramas of weird things and then buries them in the woods for people to find. Doesn’t make videos too often but they’re hilarious.
Also, he was one of the guys in Rubberbandits
… wow, that explains a lot.
Hanging out for the next one. Dude’s so funny.
I have zero interest in watching an anonymous YouTuber making models… but Bobby Fingers is so much more than that. Highly recommended.
Matt Brown - security researcher and bug bounty hunter
Robert Murray Smith - general mechanical engineering tinkering, lots to learn
TheCod3r - console and other electronic repairs
Wesley Kagan - builds cars but is just an overall genius and entertaining
Joe Grand - hacker, genius
There are more popular/sometimes better people and channels in each genre but I’ve stuck to those with under 1 million sub’s. I’ll assume people like Colin Furze, Ben Eater, Computerphile are already too well known for this thread
Very interesting list! I am especially curious about Matt Brown’s videos. Thanks!