YouTube content for good
6 creators who entertain AND enlighten viewers
Are you a YouTube regular? I am, and it’s become my go-to for thoughtful, original content I can watch independent of my phone. Along with web browsing, it’s available as an app on most smart TVs, and I find myself choosing it far more frequently than Netflix, Hulu, or Max.
Since I did a post about my top podcasts, I thought I’d do the same for the YouTube creators I follow and love.
There are lots of astrologers and tarot readers on YouTube but none that I’ve found who deliver readings consistently and without sensationalism. Except Chris Reck a.k.a. Minnow Pond. As a Pisces sun (Leo rising, Sagittarius moon), I get at least one general reading per week, but bonus readings are released regularly too. Chris’ videos tend to be about twenty minutes long, covering the past, present, future, and opportunities of the moment.
Even if they’re general and intended to be relevant to 1/12th of the population, Minnow Pond Tarot readings always make me feel better, give me hope, and encourage me to keep going, keep expanding, keep reaching for my truest self.
Perhaps you don’t give much credence to the Tarot or to astrology, but if you’re curious or want to learn more, I suggest subscribing to Chris’ channel.
FYI: Astrology interprets celestial placements based on a structured framework of geometric alignments and planetary positions. Each person has a unique natal chart that’s created using their birth date, time, and location. Astrologers use this chart and the corresponding signs and houses to assess a person’s personality, life purpose, and potential future. Astrology can also shed light on the current planetary alignment at any given moment in relation to one’s own unique astrological signature.
Tarot is more energetic and interpretive, using a shuffled deck of 78 cards illustrated with symbolic pictures and meanings to provide broad guidance about potential outcomes. The reader can interpret the subset of cards that are drawn in various ways depending on their disposition, openness, and familiarity with the archetypes of the Tarot deck.
Tarot readers like Minnow Pond blend these two tools, using both the cards and the current planetary alignments to pinpoint energy of the moment and to give broad guidance to each sign.
SpineCare Decompression and Chiropractic Center
Based in St. Joseph, Michigan, Dr. Michael Rowe has built his YouTube channel by explaining and demonstrating physical therapy exercises that address common spinal and musculoskeletal ailments like sciatica and multifidus. I’ve dealt with the former as I’ve aged and become less flexible sitting at a computer to work each day.
I found Dr. Rowe while searching late one night for restless leg solutions because my legs would not stop twitching and I couldn’t fall asleep. If you’ve ever needed physical therapy, then his suggestions and explanations will be familiar. Most of them involve repetitions of extending and retracting muscles and limbs, with a short hold in the middle. When I had terrible neck pain this summer, I used his videos to stretch my neck muscles each morning and felt significantly better after just a few days.
Certainly this information is available elsewhere on the internet, but video is a powerful medium to quickly show rather than tell how something is done correctly. I’m all for getting an official, in-person medical opinion, but in a pinch, and for free, channels like SpineCare are wonderful resources for self-healing.
I stumbled across Kirsten’s channel by demonstrating an interest in tiny homes. Her channel covers much more than that, but the underlying theme is of simple living, self-sufficiency, and alternative philosophies for life.
She travels all over the world to interview homeowners, builders, and architects about their homes and projects. Some of my favorite videos of hers have been about things like communal living, geodesic domes, earth ships, and growing or cultivating everything one needs to survive. She also showcases incredible accessory dwelling units (ADUs), adaptive reuse of old buildings for residential living, and car-free housing developments.
These kinds of stories are the antithesis of flashy real estate shows about the biggest mansions and costliest townhomes in bustling real estate markets like LA and New York. Instead, Kirsten seeks out makers and doers who aim for the smallest environmental impact and integrate the most efficient use of space and materials, usually nestled in the mountains or forests, close to nature.
I promise, you’ll be fascinated with her inspiring content and wise subjects.
Mark Laita is a photographer and videographer who has built an impressive 6 million subscribers on YouTube with interviews and portraits of “the human condition,” from prostitutes to mobsters to the unhoused. His signature style is a black and white cover photo, which gives his videos a sobering signature.
In so many contexts of life, we prefer to not think about the dark, sad, uncomfortable stories of addiction, despair, and struggle. It’s easier to focus on aspirational, socially acceptable topics and ignore the things that frighten us—the social taboos. But humans face all types of challenges and circumstances, and Mark Laita believes in giving even the darkest, most heartbreaking subjects equal airtime.
I can’t say I look forward to watching Mark’s videos, but I have found each of them to be fascinating and poignant. Most of his subjects have faced harder lives than my own, and so their stories of survival, redemption, and transcendence are enlightening and inspiring.
Even if you find it difficult, I strongly suggest subscribing to Mark’s channel so that he can continue to do his important work.
I’ve mentioned Dr. Brach in this space before, regarding her book Radical Acceptance. Quickly thereafter, I located her YouTube channel and was thrilled to find that she is very active on it. About once a week, she offers an open and free guided meditation, which you can participate in live or follow later at your convenience.
Her voice is soothing, and her cadence helps to slow the mind down, to focus on the body and the present, and to tap into something softer and deeper.
I don’t always watch her videos or use her guided sessions for my own practice, but I think for anyone who’s curious about meditation, or seeking some sort of spiritual pressure release, Dr. Brach’s content is a gift to the internet, with nothing asked for in return.
And last, but not least, is Meditative Mind. Produced by Dilpeet Bhatia in Australia, the channel offers original soundscapes, mantra chants, and chakra healing music to accompany the listener’s meditation and mindfulness practices.
There’s an app too, but I’ve found the Meditative Mind YouTube channel to offer more and longer content for free. Many of its tracks are eight and nine hours long, long enough to leave while you fall asleep, or to have playing in the background during meditation.
Sometimes I put them on when I want some kind of background noise, but not a show, or the news, or blaring fire trucks. It’s soothing, and that’s rare to find in any media these days.
I realize these channels are not mindlessly entertaining like the content can be on other platforms—but I strongly believe in the currency of attention, and the need to spend that limited resource intentionally.
These talented, entrepreneurial creators are telling real stories with nuance and complexity, not hawking products or trying to sway public opinion. I suppose I’ve grown tired of being entertained and am more interested now in being enlightened.
I do pay $14/month for YouTube premium, which removes ads from videos, something I happily pay in exchange for the variety and nutritionally rich content I can consume and apply to my life to live better.
If you’ve never opened the YouTube app on your smart TV, perhaps now is the time to do so and start discovering the diverse, interesting and curious content relevant to you.