Marz Corbeau

Hello! We meet again. This round up is all YouTube videos again. Hopefully, there’s something in here to tickle your fancy. Many of these make for the perfect dinner documentaries to kickback with but I tried to include some lunch break sized ones too. As always, none of these recs come from algorithms. These are all things recommended to me or I stumbled onto in my searches. Human curation at it’s admittedly human. I really enjoyed these and I’m glad I get the chance to share them with you here. Hope your new year is off to a great start.

J Draper - We Didn’t Start the Class War: The Tudor Homelessness Crisis [32 min] – “Rich people invented homeless people in the 16th century and they’ve been mad about it ever since” - so opens J Draper’s excellent video. I learned so much in this one and even better still, the sources are given and quite solid. Usually when I see videos like this, it’s people who are prone to making leaps but J Draper is a professional historian and does an excellent job laying out not just what happened but how we know what happened. Ever wonder how we went from a medieval culture that saw vows of poverty as the fastest way to be close to God to our present rampant moralization of the homeless? Well this video traces that arc very handily. Highly recommend.

CPG Grey - What Are Post Codes Actually Telling You? [8 min] – I kind of knew some of this but I loved finding out some of the weird edge cases (or which our present home is one; though unmentioned). As someone who really loved getting and sending mail, I love finding out more about my beloved postal system that makes it all happen. The system is pretty elegant on the whole. Someday I hope to be the sort of person who puts that 4 digit code in addition to my zip code but I’m just not there yet.

Caitlin Doughty - Who Hid a Fresh Body in a Civil War Grave? [28 min] – This was a fascinating story that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I first saw this video a little while ago. This is the wild story of how a desecrated civil grave lead to the creation of the nation’s first “body farm”. I grew up in Tennessee from ages 1-11 and this happened not far away (though well before I moved there). I grew up hearing about this place but I had no idea how it came about or why it existed in the first place. I appreciate that there are people both willing to donate their bodies and study what happens.

Alex Boucher - The Art of Cat Acting [22 minutes] – Ever wonder how they get cats to do what they do in shows and movies? I hadn’t really until I bumped into this channel. Cat acting was by far the wildest romp. Whatever you think it is, it’s probably not that. I don’t want to spoil it so I won’t say too much more other than I have so much more respect for animal handlers, actors, and directors who choose to incorporate cats into the films. That work is hard!

Veritasium - The Man Who Killed Millions and Saved Billions [23 minutes] – CW: suicide, war crimes. This video has haunted me ever since I saw it. I think it’s an important one though as it serves as a cautionary tale. Science isn’t a moral system, it’s an inquiry system. What happens when the question someone is asking is how to kill mass amounts of people? How do we weight the actions of scientists who unleash both great advances and great horrors simultaneously. I don’t know that we’ve figured it out really. But this video was a great meditation on the dangers of science divorced from ethics.

Matt Baume - Gays and Oz: Why There’s No Place Like Homo [1 hour 5 minutes] – So I’m not a fan of the Wizard of Oz. It always felt like one of those movies adults would put on for kids that would make a nap look far more appealing. But as I grew older and came to know myself as queer, I saw references to it everywhere in the community. This video helped me see this movie through the eyes of people who love it and I better understand why it has such a grip on the queer community all these many years later. It’s still not for me personally but I’ve got way more openness to it now knowing it’s long and stories history among the gays.

Liam Thompson - I Painted the Entire Shrek Script on My Wall [8 minutes] – I don’t know what to tell you with this one. I just like watching people suffer for absolutely bonkers little projects. Also, I’m a big Shrek fan so this checked all the boxes.

Wheezy Waiter - Day in the Life of a Bridge Inspector [27 Minutes] – It is criminal this video didn’t get more views. I think about it every time I go over a bridge. My qpp and I talk about it regularly when we’re walking on a road. I’ve heard a lot about how infrastructure is deteriorating but I had no concept of how we knew that, what’s being done about it, and who even works on it to begin with. I’ve even seen a few trucks out since that were probably doing this work and I just feel incredibly grateful for them. This video showed me just how hard that work is but also how much it matters. You won’t look at a bridge the same way again.

SciShow - The Man Who Stole the Moon and the One Who Saved It [59 min] – This was a WILD ride from start to finish. I don’t even know what to say about this one other than I’m not used to stories this insane having subjects you can still interview. This is the convoluted story of catching a former NASA intern who pulled off a moon rock heist and it’s well worth your time.

My Analog Journal - Peruvian Psychedelic Cumbia, Salsa, Boogaloo, and beyond with Infopesa [46 minutes] – It’s good music, Brent. I love the energy of this playlist and the DJ is clearly having an awesome time. Great to pair with a novel set in some place warm.

Merry Christmas! This year I’m giving you the gift of human curation. Hopefully there’s at least one on this list you haven’t seen yet. Enjoy!

Best of r/BirdBuddy via @pixouls on Mastodon - this was a pure delight to browse through. It’s a combinations of stills and videos from people’s Bird Buddys - a small bird feeder with a camera in it that alerts people to when they have bird (and other visitors). Looks like there are also hummingbird feeders, bird bath, and nesting box versions now too. The posts really run the gambit from classic bird selfies to some truly unexpected visitors. I usually steer clear of reddit but it was well worth the dip back in to enjoy all the lovely birds (and other wildlife) people had captured. Very “moment of zen”.

Rainy Mood Anyone remember StumbleUpon (RIP)? It was this website where you could tab through a bunch of other websites in categories that you picked. Some were clearly trying to sell you something but a lot of them were just random personal sites that were weird and wonderful. One of my favorite sites I ever found with StumblrUpon was RainyMood. I found it sophomore year of college 1.0 and it was a godsend. I was living with some real shit roommates and I found that just listening to this site calmed me down. Sometimes I’d add in some music, other times it was just me and the rain. I still come back to it. There are other sites that give you more control over your rain loop but I love the simplicity of this site. There’s no getting bogged down in choices and perfecting it. You just hit play and you go. Nature sounds more generally have been found to help with nervous system regulation - so give yourself the gift of peace today.

Cornell Feederwatch Live Cams I figure most people know about these but hey maybe you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000 and I get to introduce you to one of the most chill livestreams on the internet. Cornell University maintains several live bird cams all over the world though most are based in the US. They’re just such a chill and pleasant way to pass some time in a given day. Especially if you’re not in a place where you can set up your own bird feeder, these live feeds let you check out some very active feeders throughout the day. Birds tend to come in waves so it’ll be dead and then like 12 of them show up and since you never know when it’s gonna happen, it’s an extra delight.

RailCowGirl - The Best of Norway’s Railway Winter Cab Views A few years ago, for a few glorious months, Netflix had “Slow TV: Train Ride Bergen to Oslo” which was a NRK TV channel special from 2009 that was exactly what it says on the tin - a complete almost 8 hour train ride from Bergen to Oslo. Intrigued, my qpp and I watched several hours of it, completely delighted. I went to finish it later and was bummed to see it was gone. Now we don’t have Netflix at all. So it set me down the weird rabbit hole to find anything like it. Cue RailCowGirl who has provided the internet with some of the most beautiful complete Norwegian train ride videos one could ever hope for. There’s a vast library of them at this point. The live feed I linked to cycles through several of the most beautiful winter rides she’s ever captured. It is quite calming to throw one of these one and just watch it, they often put me to sleep.

Struthless - A chaotic guide to making stuff instead of doomscrolling This video came out a little while ago but I think I’ll be singing it’s praises for a while to come. There’s loads of videos preaching the virtue of getting off your device but very few that say “hey go do this specific thing instead”. This video gives 10 creative prompts that can be responded to across several mediums and he even includes examples of his own responses to get your gears turning. I really like how straight forward the prompts are. They don’t take a lot of brain power to figure out. And I appreciate how the tone is not one of moralistic signalling like a lot of other videos on the topic are, but just straight up “I think making stuff is good for you - let’s go!”

the internet archive #1 fan blog This blog might not be visible to people who don’t have a tumblr log in which is a damn shame but I’m sharing it here just in case. This blog posts little random gems the owner finds as they crawl through the Internet Archive. It’s fascinating to see what someone else has run into while they browse there. A lot of it is historical in nature but there’s fun detours into more modern stuff on occasion. I really appreciate the pinned post at the top that talks about how to watch films and TV shows on the Internet Archive - something I didn’t really know was possible until I found this blog. It’s sparked my curiosity and I’ve been poking around over there more and more lately.

Wikiroulette So why this over hitting random page on wikipedia itself? Mostly because I find the arrow keys very handy for continuing on. I stumbled onto this from a neocities webpage and spent…entirely too long just tabbing through pages and reading up on completely random topics I’d never thought to look up. Like now I know that the average train ride from Warsaw to Prague is about 8 hours. What am I going to do with that information? Likely nothing. But I learned that fact in a context that was neutral and not trying to make my angry for engagement and so I will admit I’m a little more fond of that fact than I am some others.

WordLibs A small collection of online “mad libs” style games. Wikiroulette inspired me to go looking for some old school mad libs and use what I found on it for the words I put into the Mad Lib and I gotta tell you it was way funnier than whatever I would have cooked up with just my own little brain. Not super useful, I know but it was just a fun way to spend a little time on the internet. I think you can print some out here if you prefer playing by hand.

Crosswords Arena Crosswords Arena is my favorite alternative to Words with Friends. It’s not as easy to play asynchronously, but if you’re both online at the same time it’s perfect. They also have lots of bots that are pretty fun to play with and several different languages to pick from including, perhaps most puzzlingly, Latin. My qpp and I play this pretty regularly. It’s great on nights when I need to be in bed and somewhat solo for my health but I still want to do an activity with her. The biggest pro in my opinion is that you do not need to give an email address or create an account to use it. You love to see it.

Cary the Snail - Social Media in Real Life I’m shocked this video doesn’t have more views honestly because it’s great. The basic premise is Cary the Snail puts up posters around Portland to ask for movie, music, and food recs and then actually tries some. It really captures what a lot of the old school internet was - just sharing a neat thing you liked with a total stranger. There were some really cool finds on the whole and it was kind of heartening to see so many total strangers play along. It’s those little moments of just unpretentious human sharing that just really get me.

In all honesty, I haven’t felt like writing about what’s going on in my life at the moment. Every week I think, maybe this time and then I just cannot string together the thoughts it would take to write something halfway meaningful. So I thought I’d share a round up of 10 videos I enjoyed recently on YouTube instead. Looking for something to watch with dinner tonight - I’ve got you covered.

Struthless - I truly hope I’m just being paranoid about this [31 minutes] Examines Australia’s social media ban for children under 16. I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t touch on federated social networking at all, but overall I thought this was a really thoughtful look at the issues. I appreciated his framework to avoid dualistic conversations that only really serve to act out an identity rather than genuinely understand each other. He mentions a bunch of great authors that I love and pulls from their ideas pretty faithfully. Just all around great video and I recommend it.

Sarah Davis Bake - The internet used to be a place [25 minutes] Lovely retrospective, game review, and think piece about one of the reasons that the internet feels so different now - place. It examines the threshold effect in logging off and what we’re missing now that we largely don’t. Made me pretty nostalgic for the old internet. I think it’s always good to check out what got lost in pursuit of progress and see if there’s not a way to bring it into the future once again. Lovely edits and a treat to watch.

Nathan Laundry - Trapped in Notion’s Second Brain - How Notes Joined the Attention Economy (and How to Break Free! [25 minutes] The critique of productivity culture’s darling - Building a Second Brain - that I’ve been fucking craving. It’s also a great walk through of the progressing enshittification of digital notes. The example of his digital notes is a little over my head but I appreciate him talking about FOSS options for having locally hosted notes. Well worth a watch, especially if you ever got caught up in the Notion hype.

You’ve Got Kat - Whatever Happened to Dollz? - Nostalgia Goggles [24 minutes] A great deep dive into the history of the late 90’s early 00’s fad of dollz. I loved dollz art back in the day and it was really cool to see some of the old sites I used to visit. I hadn’t really thought about their connection to present day things like piccrew and doll apps games. I didn’t realize how the archive efforts for dollz had been so lacking. It makes me realize I’m missing some of those older ways of online expression. I hope there’s a resurgence!

hankschannel - The Second (or perhaps 3rd) Most Important Technology [50 minutes] The Internet’s own science man Hank Green interviews Virginia Postrel about her book The Fabric of Civilization about string and fabric as a technology. Fascinating conversation! I learned so many neat facts I don’t want to spoil. But the quote that will stick with me is definitely “Any sufficiently familiar technology is indistinguishable from nature”. Like damn. So true.

Dan McClellan - Christmas trees are not pagan [9 minutes] I see Christians, Pagans, and Atheists get this wrong all the damn time. I was grateful to stumble onto this great little video summarizing the current evidence on where they likely came from. I appreciate the sensitivity he uses in debunking te myth, because there are lots of reasons people get invested in this idea in the first place. Just a great seasonal explainer.

Salmence - Completing the Community Center with No Energy [55 minutes] I stumbled onto this playthrough when I was hyper fixated on Stardew Valley a few weeks ago and it blew my mind. I love the weird shit people decide to do with this game. It made me look at the game completely differently. I don’t think I’d ever want to do a playthrough like this but it is so fun to watch. If you like watching people suffer in silly ways, this is a good one.

Ted Nivison - I Grew a Plant from Soil Made from Fast Food [25 minutes] I enjoy Ted’s videos generally and this was basically catnip to me as a plant fan. This was…pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be but watching someone who’s just learning about plants encounter it was a great time. A bit gross at times, but otherwise, just a fun romp with plant biology.

Burback - Why don’t we make Holiday Video Games? [32 minutes] The Burback twins ask the important question: if video games are so popular and the holiday pastime is all about consuming holiday media - why are there no big Christmas or similar games? I had never really considered it before and after thinking it over, I do kind of wish I had a Christmas game to replay during the season, instead of my usual trying to speedrun to Winter in Stardew Valley and simply linger. Surely there’s a better way.

Buddhist Society of Western Australia - Happiness in All Circumstances | Ajahn Brahn | December 5th, 2025 [1 hr 13 minutes] I enjoyed this recent talk from Ajahn Brahm about how important it is to try to find happiness in any situation your find yourself in. A lot of fun stories and bad jokes as usual. What’s not to love?