Intelligent YouTube Channels





Below, we have gath­ered togeth­er some of the most intel­li­gent video col­lec­tions on YouTube. A great place to find cul­tur­al­ly enrich­ing video…

Gen­er­al

  • @GoogleTalks
    • Google has lots of famous vis­i­tors speak­ing at its head­quar­ters, and they’re all record­ed and neat­ly pre­sent­ed here.
  • Al Jazeera Eng­lish
    • The Mid­dle East­ern news ser­vice, which has gen­er­at­ed its share of con­tro­ver­sy, now airs broad­casts in Eng­lish and presents them here.
  • Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry
  • Artists Space
    • Artists Space sup­ports con­tem­po­rary artists work­ing in the visu­al arts, video and elec­tron­ic media, per­for­mance, archi­tec­ture and design, and it pro­motes artis­tic exper­i­men­ta­tion and dia­log in con­tem­po­rary cul­ture.
  • Aspen Insti­tute
    • An inter­na­tion­al non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to fos­ter­ing enlight­ened lead­er­ship and open-mind­ed dia­logue.
  • Bad Astron­o­my
    • Bad Astron­o­my is devot­ed to debunk­ing myths and mis­con­cep­tions about astron­o­my, and also to slap down with­out apol­o­gy bad think­ing in all its forms.
  • Big Think
    • This col­lec­tion brings you videos fea­tur­ing some of today’s lead­ing thinkers, movers and shak­ers.
  • Bob Dylan TV
    • The offi­cial YouTube Chan­nel for Bob Dylan. Fea­tures some good vin­tage clips, even though it has a com­mer­cial angle.
  • British Film Insti­tute Nation­al Archive
    • The BFI (British Film Insti­tute) pro­motes under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of Britain’s rich film and tele­vi­sion her­itage and cul­ture. And it claims to have the “world’s largest and most diverse film and TV archive.”



  • Brook­lyn Muse­um
    • A fair­ly rich line­up of videos explor­ing the col­lec­tions at Brook­lyn’s main art muse­um.
  • Canal Edu­catif
    • CED is a phil­an­thropic pro­duc­er of free high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion­al videos in the domains of arts, eco­nom­ics and sci­ence.
  • Char­lie Rose
    • PBS inter­view­er Char­lie Rose presents seg­ments of his night­ly inter­views.
  • Cinet­ic
    • Cinet­ic brings audi­ences the lat­est, great­est and clas­sic fes­ti­val favorites from around the globe. From award-win­ners by vet­er­an film­mak­ers to up-and-com­ing tal­ent telling new sto­ries, Cinet­ic prides itself on being at the fore­front of qual­i­ty indie film in the dig­i­tal space.
  • Cit­i­zen Tube
    • YouTube’s own chan­nel presents videos deal­ing with the Amer­i­can polit­i­cal process and the 2008 elec­tion.
  • Com­put­er His­to­ry Muse­um
    • A good num­ber of videos that delve into com­put­ers, net­work­ing, and semi­con­duc­tors.
  • Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions
    • A resource designed to pro­vide insight into the com­plex inter­na­tion­al issues chal­leng­ing pol­i­cy­mak­ers and cit­i­zens alike.
  • CSPAN
    • Videos that keep a close eye on the inner-work­ings of the Amer­i­can polit­i­cal process.
  • Edu­topia
    • Offers inspi­ra­tion and infor­ma­tion for what works in edu­ca­tion. Edu­topia is run by The George Lucas Edu­ca­tion­al Foun­da­tion.
  • FORA.tv
    • Deliv­ers video pre­sen­ta­tions from the world’s great writ­ers, lead­ers, activists and thinkers.
  • Guardian Unlim­it­ed TV
    • The Guardian brings you videos that make the tele­vi­sion world its focus.
  • Google Tech Talks
    • The name kind of says it all.
  • Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty Press
    • HUP, a major pub­lish­er of non-fic­tion, schol­ar­ly, and gen­er­al inter­est books, brings you videos with new authors.
  • Intel­li­gence Squared
    • Brings Oxford-style debat­ing to Amer­i­ca. Each debate fea­tures one motion, one mod­er­a­tor, and three pan­elists argu­ing for a motion, and three argu­ing against.
  • Intel­li­gent Chan­nel
    • A new des­ti­na­tion for intel­li­gent con­ver­sa­tions & doc­u­men­taries — with lead­ers from the worlds of enter­tain­ment and edu­ca­tion.
  • JFK Library
    • The JFK Library hous­es vin­tage video of Amer­i­ca’s 35th pres­i­dent.
  • Khan Acad­e­my
    • This chan­nel fea­tures over 800 videos that will teach stu­dents the ins and outs of alge­bra, geom­e­try, trigonom­e­try, cal­cu­lus, sta­tis­tics, finance, physics, eco­nom­ics and more. The clips have been record­ed by Salman Khan.
  • KQED on Demand- San Fran­cis­co
    • Media pro­vid­ed by the pub­lic broad­cast­ing com­pa­ny in the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area. I drink at this well dai­ly.
  • MoMA
    • Videos high­light­ing the art col­lec­tion, pub­lic pro­grams, and tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions at The Muse­um of Mod­ern Art in New York City.
  • Mon­ty Python Chan­nel
    • Their videos have been cir­cu­lat­ing around YouTube for a while. Now, the come­di­ans have their own chan­nel. A good place to have a laugh.
  • Nation­al Geo­graph­ic
    • The col­lec­tion is rich, but the videos are short. Anoth­er instance where the provider could use the medi­um to offer more substance/depth.
  • New Sci­en­tist.
    • Videos and vod­casts cov­er­ing sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, space, the envi­ron­ment and a whole lot more. An inter­na­tion­al team of expert jour­nal­ists brings you the lat­est inno­va­tions and ideas in sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy, from the won­der­ful to the wor­ry­ing to the weird.
  • NFB
    • The Nation­al Film Board of Cana­da hosts short films from its larg­er col­lec­tion host­ed at NFB.CA
  • NOVA
    • Short video out­takes from PBS’s pop­u­lar sci­ence pro­gram.
  • Oscar’s Chan­nel
    • The offi­cial chan­nel of the Acad­e­my of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences is the only place to relive favorite Oscar® moments and see exclu­sive inter­views with the tal­ent­ed film pro­fes­sion­als who com­prise the Acad­e­my mem­ber­ship. Includes some good vin­tage clips.
  • Philip Scott John­son
    • Some great videos that put art in motion.
  • Pol­i­tic­sTV
    • Polit­i­cal videos with a pro­gres­sive bent.
  • Pulitzer Cen­ter on Cri­sis Report­ing
    • The Pulitzer Cen­ter on Cri­sis Report­ing’s mis­sion is to pro­mote in-depth cov­er­age of inter­na­tion­al affairs, focus­ing on top­ics that have been under-report­ed, mis-report­ed — or not report­ed at all.
  • Rea­son TV
    • Reason.tv is your source for the best lib­er­tar­i­an videos on the Inter­net and the home of the Drew Carey Project, a series of doc­u­men­tary shorts host­ed by Drew Carey.
  • Reel­NASA
    • Videos show the lat­est hap­pen­ings at NASA and new devel­op­ments in space explo­ration.
  • Reuters Video
    • The lat­est video from Reuters.
  • Richard Dawkins
    • The chan­nel fea­tures talks by Richard Dawkins, the Oxford evo­lu­tion­ary biol­o­gist, as well as oth­ers influ­enced by his thought.
  • Sci­en­Cen­tral
    • Sci­en­Cen­tral, Inc. pro­duces sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy con­tent for tele­vi­sion, video, and the web. From broad­cast news fea­tures to edu­ca­tion­al prod­ucts, they cov­er the med­ical, envi­ron­men­tal, and tech­no­log­i­cal issues that affect dai­ly life.
  • Six­ty Sym­bols
    • Curi­ous and quirky videos describ­ing the var­i­ous sym­bols used in physics and astron­o­my. Comes out of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Not­ting­ham.
  • Slate
    • Video from Slate Mag­a­zine
  • Spo­ken Verse
    • Roger Ebert calls it one of the rich­est resources on YouTube. Spo­ken Verse offers over 400 read­ings of great poems in Eng­lish, from Shake­speare to today.
  • Steve Span­gler Sci­ence Show
    • Catch the videos pro­duced by a teacher nation­al­ly known for mak­ing sci­ence fun.
  • Sun­dance
    • Pro­vides video clips from orig­i­nal series and films air­ing on the Sun­dance Chan­nel.
  • The Alcove
    • A pro­gram that fea­tures inter­views with var­i­ous influ­en­tial thinkers.
  • The Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry
    • This chan­nel pro­vides a rare glimpse into the Muse­um’s exhi­bi­tions, sci­en­tif­ic research, pub­lic pro­grams and edu­ca­tion­al endeav­ors. Videos pre­sent­ed by the Muse­um high­light its glob­al mis­sion to advance sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­ery and increase under­stand­ing of nature and human cul­tures.
  • The Com­mon­wealth Club (San Fran­cis­co)
    • Videos com­ing out of the nation’s old­est and largest pub­lic affairs forum, pre­sent­ing top­ics rang­ing across pol­i­tics, cul­ture, and soci­ety.
  • The Com­mon­craft Show
    • The Com­mon Craft Show is a series of short explana­to­ry videos by Lee and Sachi LeFever. The goal is to fight com­plex­i­ty with sim­ple tools and plain lan­guage.
  • The Davos Ques­tion
    • Every year, glob­al lead­ers attend the World Eco­nom­ic Forum in Davos, Switzer­land to dis­cuss how to bet­ter the world. Here you get to see what they have to say.
  • The Library of Con­gress
    • Time­less trea­sures and con­tem­po­rary pre­sen­ta­tions from the Library of Con­gress in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Fea­tures record­ings dat­ing from the ear­li­est Edi­son films to the present.
  • The New York Times
    • All the news that’s fit to stream.
  • The New York­er
    • The offi­cial video chan­nel of The New York­er mag­a­zine.
  • The Nobel Prize
    • Brings you fas­ci­nat­ing insights into the minds of cur­rent and past Nobel Lau­re­ates.
  • The Onion News Net­work
    • A good dose of fun­ny videos from The Onion. Good for when you need some com­ic relief.
  • The Peri­od­ic Table of Videos
    • A nice uni­ver­si­ty-spon­sored project, this col­lec­tion fea­tures a video about each ele­ment on the peri­od­ic table. A handy thing for chem­istry stu­dents. Comes out of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Not­ting­ham.
  • The Real News
    • The Real News Net­work is a glob­al online video news net­work that lis­tens to and is depen­dent sole­ly on its audi­ence. No ads. No gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies. No cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship.
  • The World Bank
    • Videos com­ing out of the insti­tu­tion whose goal is to rid the world of pover­ty..
  • Thir­teen WNET (PBS New Your)
    • Fea­tures con­tent from New York City’s flag­ship pub­lic tele­vi­sion sta­tion.
  • THNKR
    • Gives view­ers extra­or­di­nary access to the peo­ple, places, sto­ries, and ideas that are trans­form­ing our world.
  • YouTube EDU
    • YouTube hosts a sec­tion ded­i­cat­ed to aca­d­e­m­ic videos. It’s a lit­tle bit of a mixed bag, but it fea­tures some qual­i­ty videos.
  • YouTube Movies
    • YouTube now hosts a series of com­plete stu­dio movies on its site. Above, I’ve linked you direct­ly to the documentary/biography sec­tion. But feel free to peruse the larg­er col­lec­tion. You’ll find some good films there.
  • TED Talks
    • Gen­er­al­ly engag­ing videos com­ing out of the annu­al TED con­fer­ence. Fea­tures impor­tant thinkers from dif­fer­ent walks of life.
  • TED x Talks
    • In the spir­it of ideas worth spread­ing, TEDx is a pro­gram of local, self-orga­nized events that bring peo­ple togeth­er to share a TED-like expe­ri­ence.
  • Trav­el Chan­nel TV
    • The Trav­el Chan­nel brings you around the world on YouTube.
  • UCSF Mem­o­ry & Aging Chan­nel
    • UCSF, one of the lead­ing med­ical schools in the US, fea­tures videos that will “edu­cate patients, care­givers and health pro­fes­sion­als about the var­i­ous forms of neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases.” The dis­eases cov­ered here include Alzheimer’s, Fron­totem­po­ral demen­tia and Creutzfelt-Jakob
  • Van­i­ty Fair Mag­a­zine
    • Videos from the mag­a­zine launched in 1913.
  • WNYC Radio
    • Videos pro­vid­ed by WNYC, New York Pub­lic Radio, the largest pub­lic radio sta­tion in the US.
  • World Eco­nom­ic Forum
    • The World Eco­nom­ic Forum is an inde­pen­dent inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion com­mit­ted to improv­ing the state of the world by engag­ing lead­ers in part­ner­ships to shape glob­al, region­al and indus­try agen­das.
  • Yad Vashem
    • Con­tain­ing the world’s largest repos­i­to­ry of infor­ma­tion on the Holo­caust, Yad Vashem is a leader in Holo­caust edu­ca­tion, com­mem­o­ra­tion, research and doc­u­men­ta­tion.
  • 92nd Street Y
    • Pret­ty much any­one and every­one on the cul­tur­al radar pass­es through the 92nd Y in NYC.

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