I’m not sure what is going on, but it feels like everyone that I’ve followed or enjoyed watching now has huge leanings/kickbacks from companies they seem to be promoting on their platforms. Specifically space news recently has really shown the bias with everyone foaming at the mouth about how brilliant SpaceX is when they decide to pivot to the moon instead of mars or adding safety measures like water to a launchpad which has been done for decades.
I think my breaking point was a recent video of someone walking around, what seemed to be a campus, explaining the server/hosting logistics and technical aspects but then pivoted into how great it was when everything they were saying seemed to be a negative. Followed all the relevant links to the person and of course they work for google, so it’s some kinda “non-mainstream advertising” in the guise of actual knowledge.
I think the only two individuals I watch anymore are Anton and Fran. Hell, some of Neil Degrasse Tyson’s shit has been interesting me just because of my lack of content and I’m unfortunately someone who just can’t stand the guy (but I’ll admit I’ve seen some videos lately and he’s made good points while calling out bad actors in question).
If you’re into Astronomy you’ll like Frasier Cain
None.
“Unbiased”
Would be an implausible absolute judgement showing my own bias and ignorance of my bias.
Cannot escape bias. Cannot eliminate it. Can only be aware and honest of it, at best.
Strongly agree. Everyone has a perspective, and even exclusively presenting objective facts will still be biased due to what is included and what is excluded.
As an example of someone who handles this well, I’d recommend Layne Norton. He’s a fitness/physiology/diet communicator. He has a PhD in it (which by itself doesnt prove much), but he is very careful in every video to only make supported claims, and he clearly states when he is only giving opinion.
For example, he will point that understanding a single mechanism doesnt tell you the whole story, so you need randomized, doubled blind, placebo controlled human trials (and preferably many), to really understand something.
That’s something that so many influencers in that field get wrong. They’ll talk about a single study that looked at the effects of a plant on a certain metabolic pathway in a petri dish, and use that to recommend people take it as a supplement. This ignores the obvious possibility that in vivo results wouldn’t match in vitro, and that the pathway they discovered isnt completely overshadowed by a different pathway with the opposite effect.
He has a few biases/conflicts of interest, which are explicitly mentioned in pretty much every video: he sells supplements, he invests in a protein bar company, and his PhD research was funded by the beef and dairy industries.
youtube T. Folse Nuclear (he’s pro-nukes but fair), youtube Sabine Hossenfelder (but does not like the academic patriarchy mafia), huberman lab (medicine, healthy lifestyle), youtube daves garage (microsoft), Dr Todd Grande (psychology, mostly of celebrity crime) but I think he lets his trumper opinions leak in, youtube geography by geoff (guess) , youtube nick zentner (geology with pacific nw emphasis), lazy chill history (history emphasizing mystery), youtube microbetv, youtube justine taylor (military at the grunt level) , youtube paleo analaysys (all of life history, not just dinosaurs) youtube xah lee (computers with emphasis on alternative input keyboards etc). Those are some of my youtube subscriptions
Fran Blanche looks interesting, I’ll give her a chance…
I used to like Sabine H. but for a few years now she does not seem to be well.
Not exactly a “commentator” as he isn’t usually talking about the state of tech as a whole but specific products, and usually vintage ones.
But you mentioned Fran so I think there’s some overlap.
If you want to listen to a retired Brirish chap go on about weird retro audio formats for half an hour, he’s your man.
He does occasionally review modern products, and if they are crap he will absolutely tell you so. He has a lot of integrity and it shows.
“Unbiased” is a silly word whose use shows a lack of understanding of systems of power.
Dr. Angela Collier and Dr. Fatima both make good videos about science and science communication.
The best communicators are ones that stick to their own field. Neil Degrasse Tyson is kind of a bad one for that, as well.
There’s a lot of fields and subfields, so that means not any one particular person, unfortunately.
Science and futurism with Isaac Arthur will always be my favorite YouTuber. The guys personal history is fascinating, he’s always been very involved with his community. He does video essays about different aspects of the future, from spaceship designs that work under currently known physics, to what the future of sports looks like. He covers megastructures like Dyson spheres(or swarms more likely), he’s touched on micro and nano technology, I bet you haven’t even heard of a Santa Claus machine. I recommend you start with his earlier stuff although it’s not mandatory. It will give you a good idea of the logical frameworks he works within. Plus hearing “whalegun” literally never gets old.
There’s also PBS spacetime. Matt Dowd is an amazing person and a very effective physics communicator. You can come away from his videos with nearly a college level education, but it’s a lot of work because it’s not easy to understand all the time. He’s breaks things down excellently, but the topics he covers are so complex that you can only reasonably break them down so far. He does quantum videos, lots of black hole stuff, breaks down everything we know about dark energy and matter, discusses the heat death of the universe, and gets into Einstein Rosen bridges and the holographic theory.
I don’t know what “bias” is in this context, science isn’t really political and doesn’t have a “message” so there’s not really anything to push. Either you communicate the truth, or you’re a grifter. There’s isn’t really an in between. That being said, this next person does make their political beliefs more known, although rarely does that get brought up in their videos.
Joe Scott from Answers With Joe is awesome! He does a lot more wide ranging stuff, like weird occurrences(missing people, time travelers, alien abductions) but he present them in a very unbias way in the sense that he tries to tell all sides of the story. He’s not a conspiracy theorist, but he does find some of the more wacky conspiracies interesting. He’s also done videos on AI before LLMs started taking over, he covered Omuamua back when that happened, he’s discussed how climate change will impact different areas. He’s a much more layman-level YouTuber than the others in this list, but he is every bit as informative and entertaining.
Styropyro does lasers and extremely high voltage, The Plasma channel does things that might shock you, the Thought Emporium does a ton of crazy cool stuff like gene editing and growing a real mini rat brain to play DOOM. IDidAThing does foot stuff. CodysLab is interesting. The video content is incredible, but Cody does give me some mildly unsettling vibes.
Shout-out to The GrandLine Review. They’re not sciencey at all, they cover One Piece. They’re cool and funny though, check em out if you’re into lore videos.
If anyone liked these recommendations, let me know. My feed is nothing but this stuff, and I’ve got a lot of YouTubers who I watch.
I like Angela Colliers videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtscFf8VayggrDYjOwDke_Q
Subscribed! It’s funny because I’ve seen the startrek videos recommended to me but never looked into the channel before lol.
For space/astronomy news, I recommend Doctor Becky https://youtube.com/@drbecky and Fraser Cain. https://youtube.com/@frasercain
Becky handles mostly astronomy news, Fraser handles mostly space flight news. Both are pretty decent at staying more objective.
Common sense skeptics are very biased against BS.
Second this. Really enjoyed the detailed breakdowns of all Musks insane promises
I watch Upper Echelon on YouTube. I wouldn’t say he’s unbiased though. His videos are all criticisms of tech things.
Seems well researched though and he talks about things I’ve not seen addressed as much on other channels.
Most of his videos are on AI.
Here is his latest. About an AI “reddit -like” platform called moltbrook. And how tech bros trying to say it shows AI emergence is a lie. It’s actually humans running the site. And it’s mostly just scam AI bots running rampant.
