Tag: youtube

My Favorite Youtube Channels

General / Fun Channels

  • TWiT Tech Podcast Network – Several tech podcast/videos. Actually manny channels.
  • Holderness Family Vlogs – My kids call them the funny family. We all enjoy their funny songs and videos.
  • Ordinary Adventures – This great couple visits amusement parks and takes you on the adventure with them. I love their disney videos and the others as well. Extremely entertaining.
  • Kara and Nate – Travelers who make amazing content and have hit 100 countries!
  • EXCESSORIZE ME. – While I am a struggling minimalist, I find this channel entertaining, but mostly don’t buy anything here. The host covers all kinds of cool kit.
  • Good Mythical Morning – Two zany guys that eat all kinds of strange things. Very entertaining well produced content.
  • Headspace – My new addiction. This is an app that you can use on your phone (subscription based), but lots of free stuff on their youtube channel.
  • WHAT’S INSIDE? FAMILY – A family that does pretty interesting videos. Always entertaining. Lots of stuff around Tesla here, which is what drew me to their content originally.
  • colinfurze – Another Zany youtuber. He has gotten to be one of the most subscribed to channels in all of youtube at 11.3M subs. He builds crazy stuff.
  • Nerdist – Nerds reviewing nerdy movies and television shows. As a Nerd, I like their content.
  • We’re the Russos – Our channel is about cool campers, RV living and travel. We’re Joe and Kait of We’re the Russos and we travel full time and share our journey here and on our website https://weretherussos.com.
  • Less Junk, More Journey – I’m putting this in the fun category, because they really don’t talk about minimalism here. This family travels in an RV and explores the world.
  • Julie Nolke – An actor, writer, comedian and creator of this channel. Tune in for a new comedy sketch every Thursday.
  • The Fit RV – #vanlife. Stef is an RVing personal trainer, specializing in exercises for beginners and seniors. Check out her little or no-equipment workouts and fit tips! James is compulsive about RV mods. There’s always a new RV mod, experiment, or helpful tip he’s working on, and he shares them here!
  • SmarterEveryDay – Explore the world using science. That’s pretty much all there is to it. Watch 2 videos. If you learn something AWESOME, please subscribe if you feel like I earned it.
  • Yoga With Adriene – Rightfully so, one of the most popular yoga channels on youtube. Excellent channel, thousands of videos!
  • The Financial Diet – The Financial Diet talks about personal finance in a way that doesn’t make you want to curl up in a ball and cry.
  • Reina del Cid – Posting music to this YouTube channel since 2007. For the last few years, I’ve been posting a new video every Sunday, and I call it “Sunday Mornings with Reina del Cid.”

Veganism

  • Vegancuts – Vegancuts is an online marketplace with monthly snack box and beauty box and quarterly makeup box subscription service. Shop with us to discover the best vegan products.
  • Sweet Simple Vegan – Good vegan recipes and Jasmine and Chris are fun too.
  • World of Vegan – World of Vegan is your hub for the latest vegan recipes, news, trends, lifestyle content and more! Hosted by long-time vegan activist and filmmaker Michelle Cehn (michellecehn.com), our videos are both inspirations and fun, and often include special guests from the vegan community.
  • Vegan Yack Attack – A vegan food blog for people who LOVE food, run by Jackie Sobon. We cover everything from indulgent desserts, to healthy dinners, meal prep, and even raw recipes! I also write up product reviews and am sort of a beer snob. You’ll find that there is something for everyone, here!
  • Sustainably Vegan – Advocating a low impact lifestyle: zero waste, plant-based, and ethical.
  • Cheap Lazy Vegan – Mostly recipes.
  • Toni Okamoto – Vegan recipes and cookbook author.
  • PLANT BASED NEWS – A vegan news media & plant-based health education platform.
  • The Vegan Cyclist – Cat 2 road cyclists in California, my videos consist of well produced cycling tips, amateur race breakdowns with power overlays, and vlogs of my day at the races. Bro, listen, your gonna dig my channel, don’t let the whole vegan thing get in the way. I dont preach it, I just live it. I guarantee you will enjoy my videos as a cyclist or your money back!
  • LIVEKINDLY – the largest plant-based lifestyle platform on Earth. We lead conversations around climate justice and food innovation, encourage bold action by empowering you with education and the resources to make an impact in your everyday life. Come for the delicious vegan recipes and conscious living tips, stay for the community committed to creating change.

Cycling / Zwift

  • ElectricBikeReview.com – Discover new electric bikes, see hands on demos and reviews, get feedback on which ebike is best for you!
  • Ryan Van Duzer – I’m always on the hunt for exciting new experiences and ways to make this world a better place. The main goal with my content is to inspire viewers to get off their couches. My adventures include bike touring, mountain biking, trail running, racing ultras, trekking, Burningman, exploring Latin America, and traveling to every corner of the world.
  • Shane Miller – GPLama – (Consultant • Cycling Tech Product Specialist • Husband / Cyclist / Traveller). Through my years of racing I’ve trained indoors a lot. I’ve also used ALL the software from Spinervals, TrainerRoad, Sufferfest (with Knighthood!), Kinomap, Zwift, etc. I also collect indoor trainers.
  • Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN) – The Global Mountain Bike Network is the best MTB YouTube channel, with videos for everyone who loves dirt: from the full-faced helmet downhill mountain biker to the lycra-clad cross country rider along with everyone and anyone in between.
  • Electric Mountain Bike Network (EMBN) – The Electric Mountain Bike Network (EMBN) is dedicated to igniting your passion for electric mountain bikes (eMTBs) by taking your riding further, faster and further than ever before.
  • KevDoes – Pushing you to live your best life by showing you my journey to get there!
  • Canyon Bicycles – Some great bikes I’ll never be able to afford, but they also have some fun content on their channel.
  • Juliet Elliott – A cyclist and Zwifter that has entertaining content.
  • Dustin Klein – Cyclist with fun and entertaining content.
  • Cycling Weekly – Much like BikeRadar. Great content, just wish there was more of it.
  • Propel – eBike retailer in NY and Long Beach, CA. Lots of content on ebikes and the legality surrounding them.
  • Sherpa Dave – Zwifter that posts good recon information around the TTT and other races.
  • BikeRadar – UK based cycling channel. Great channel, but they don’t put out as much content as GCN.
  • GMBN Tech – A GCN spin off that is mountain bike tech. No read road bike covered here, but great content.
  • Zwift Community Live – Covers Zwift races.
  • Berm Peak – We’re turning my backyard into a super miniature downhill mountain bike park, and making family-friendly video content in the process.
  • Berm Peak Express – Berm Peak is a fun channel about mountain biking. Sometimes it’s a bit different, but really the same.
  • Global Cycling Network – (GCN) probably the cycling channel for cyclist on youtube. Great content for everything related to cycling.
  • GCN Tech – Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Tech goes deeper into the bikes, kit and technology stories that matter.
  • Zwift – A virtual indoor stationary bike app that gamifies indoor training. Also works for treadmills.
  • Everything Is Photogenic – Sarah discusses cycling and Zwift.
  • Path Less Pedaled – Russ covers the non-competitive side of cycling, partypace.
  • Mark Lewis – An above average cyclist who enjoys Zwifting.
  • Cameron Jeffers – 23 year old bike rider, documenting the adventures life takes me on.
  • Not Just Bikes – Stories of great urban planning and urban experiences from Amsterdam and the Netherlands. It’s not just bikes.
  • Katie Kookaburra – Cyclist youtuber that has entertaining and motivational videos.
  • Stoked On Spokes – Cyclist vlogger.
  • DC Rainmaker – Looking for the most in-depth sports technology reviews? You’ve arrived. Everything from GPS watches to action cameras to activity trackers and more. But, just a small snippet of that is published here on YouTube, the rest is in my massively long posts at dcrainmaker.com.
  • Shifter – Exploring cities from the seat of a bike.
  • Ted King – Bikes. Presumably you’ve stumbled on this channel because you’re interested in bikes. Gravel bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, and every iteration in between, follow along on Ted’s fast paced adventures to bike rides everywhere.
  • SYD and MACKY – Two pro mountain bike racers, living in a van and traveling the world to race the best races. Doing our best to #bemoreawesome.

Environmentalism

  • Fully Charged Show – Fully Charged is the world’s number 1 clean energy & electric vehicle channel. Founded and hosted by Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, Carpool).
  • The Minimal Mom – Tom and Dawn and we live with our four kids (ages 4-9) just outside of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. We took on a minimalist lifestyle about 6 years ago and haven’t looked back! We don’t miss any of the stuff…none of it!
  • Fully Charged Plus – Great channel about electric cars and other electric vehicles. Great entertaining content from extremely knowledgeable people.
  • City Beautiful – City Beautiful is a YouTube channel dedicated to educating everyone about cities and city planning. Cities are amazing! I cover topics such as transportation, land use planning, and urban design.
  • Kirsten Dirksen – Kristen does home tours that for unusual homes, tiny-homes, earth homes, etc. Very interesting!
  • Levi Hildebrand – An environmentalist that has an entertaining and educational channel.
  • Shelbizleee – My name is Shelbi and I have a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and a passion for sustainability. My mission for this channel is to create a community where the average person can come and feel like they can make a difference.
  • Joshua Becker – Minimalist author.
  • Strong Towns – for those passionate about the future of America’s towns and neighborhoods. Our mission is to support a model of development that allows America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods to become financially strong and resilient.
  • Living Big In A Tiny House – Think House Hunters, but for tiny homes only. The host takes a look at tiny homes.
  • Exploring Alternatives – Living differently. Tiny homes, house boats, etc.
  • Matt D’Avella – Minimalist and documentary film maker.
  • NEVER TOO SMALL – Never Too Small is a video channel dedicated to small footprint design and living; featuring award-winning designers and their tiny / micro apartments, studios and self-contained projects.

Car Stuff

  • Doug DeMuro – Fun car reviews. Doug looks at cars to find strange and unique things.
  • Driven Car Reviews With Tom Voelk – Very polished car review content from a professional journalist. Awesome content from a very nice guy!
  • Alex on Autos – The authority on car reviews! Alex does in-depth reviews and covers everything. By far the best car reviews anywhere TV or youtube!
  • MotorWeek – Car show from television. They have very short videos available online.
  • DRIVETRIBE – Jeremy Clarkson’s, Richard Hammond’s and James May’s home of epic motoring and pulse-racing adventure.

Review | Tales from the Open Road (We’re the Russos)

Tales From the Open Road: The Adventures and Misadventures of RV Living (We're the Russos Book 2)
We’re The Russos Book 2

First, a disclaimer, Joe, and Kait sent me a Kindle version of the book. They didn’t ask me to review it here and my review is my own. Tales From the Open Raod: The Adventures of RV Living is Joe Russo’s second book. The first book Take Risks: One Couple’s Journey to Quit Their Jobs and Hit the Open Road was book one. I’ve already reviewed that book here in 2018 and you can read the review by clicking on the link above.

I’m a big fan of the Russos. I’ve been a subscriber to their YouTube channel since before Joe’s first book. As you can guess from the titles of the books, they are a couple from Los Angeles that quit their jobs, bought an RV and started traveling the US. This, however, as Joe explains in the most recent book was not early retirement.

I recommend reading the books in order as the first book does a good job of covering the period when they decided to make this leap. This second book goes into how. It covers the trials and tribulations of driving and finding parking for a large RV. And it also begins the story of them looking for a smaller RV. While there is a path forward mentioned in the book, we don’t actually find out in the book what happens next, but for all the YouTube followers of the Russo’s we already know how that story ends.

Joe’s writing flows well and while simple really works for me. It’s a fun read and I really liked getting to know more of the details as a YouTube follower I didn’t see all the behind the scenes information that Joe shares in the book. My only complaint is that I wish there was more in the book. More details and more of the class B journey. That said I think it takes tremendous bravery to share your story in a book and even more to share it on a medium like YouTube where the Internet trolls will offer unsolicited feedback on everything that makes it into a video.

Regardless of what the Russo’s do next, I look forward to following their journey on YouTube and in print!

Book Review | Take Risks: One Couple’s Journey to Quit Their Jobs and Hit the Open Road

Take Risks
Take Risks

Another book with a long title and if you look at the actual title as it reads on Goodreads it is really: Take Risks: One Couple’s Journey to Quit Their Jobs and Hit the Open Road (We’re the Russos Book 1), which of course tells us that Joe plans on writing a second book. Joe and Kait Russo are a couple that lived and worked in the Los Angeles area. Like many of us in this area, they worked very hard and their perspective companies expected a lot of them every day.

Living this way grew tiresome to the Russos and one day out of nowhere Kait said let’s just leave it all behind and travel. So began the Russos adventure. The non-fiction book chronicles the Russo’s life while they make their transition. In that year, they start researching their options and start shopping for an RV to live out of full-time. They put their house up for sale and have to get rid of most of their possessions.

Were the Russos
Were the Russos

Like many others, I watch Joe and Kait’s adventure via their YouTube channel where they post a weekly video covering their adventures. While watching their videos Joe recommended a book called Walden on Wheels. I had already heard of this book and it was on my to-read pile. Whenever someone talks about books I’m instantly interested and Joe just mentioned a book that was already on my list! So, Walden on Wheels went to the top of my to-read list. While I was reading and enjoying that book, Joe revealed to his YouTube subscribers that he had written a book and it was available on Amazon for download on a Kindle. I was sold. I immediately downloaded the book and began reading right after I had finished Walden on Wheels.

Joe doesn’t disappoint. He dived in with detail on their adventure to buy an RV and start their adventure. But just as they begin their journey, the book ends, which brings us back to the beginning of this post, there will be a second book and I will be reading it! While we wait there is always Joe and Kait’s new videos every week on YouTube. Joe’s first book earned 5 stars from me.

Catching Up

Library of Souls
Library of Souls

I’ve fallen very far behind on my posting to this blog.  I added six books to my reading list just now, which covers the last 5 months.  They are:

Many of the books listed above I read because I was at least slightly interested and I was participating in the adult summer reading program at my local library.  The last book on this list is the exception.  I read that just because I loved the first two books.  It took me a while to get to this last book because there are so many other books I also want to read.  I’m happy to have finally read it and I will update you all with a review soon I hope.

Now that it is Thanksgiving break I finally have some time to sit down and do some work in my office that’s not related to my day job.  I got some other things done as well.  I scan all the girl’s artwork that they give me.  I know we can’t keep it all, but I can scan it and store it on the Network Attached Storage (NAS) device we have.  I also have all our movies and tv shows stored on it.  I scan everything in using my trusty Canon scanner.  Thankfully, they keep their driver page updated, even for those of us that adopted macOS High Sierra early.

I’ve also been watching some more TV recently as well.  I started by diving into Star Trek DS9.  It is the only series that I haven’t watched all the way through.  I’m making my way through that on Netflix.  In addition, I’ve also gotten addicted to Stranger Things.  I’m early in the second season so no spoilers, please.  When I’m not watching those I’ve been making time to learn about class b RVs on youtube and got addicted to the We Are The Russos.

I’m not a camper, so I have not idea why I’m so into the idea of these RV things.  No idea where it all came from, but I’ve always been into the tiny homes stuff.  I think it is amazing the way that people find a way to make it with so little.  I have so much and the idea of paring down has always appealed to me.  When I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I really did get rid of a lot, but it really wasn’t enough.  We have a two-thousand square foot home and it is full!

Speaking of youtube. I think it would be a good idea to try that here.  I’m not one to sit down and record a video, but I think it would help drive traffic to the site and I know lots of times I want to watch a video of something instead of reading a bunch of text.  Sounds strange on a book blog site, doesn’t it?  I think some more about that one.  Lots of things to consider.

Lots of other things are also going on.  Work has gotten a lot busier and I started taking my weight loss a lot more seriously.  I watched Vegucated on Netflix and a few other vegetarian and vegan documentaries as well as Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2.  All these films together pushed me over the edge to go vegan.  I’m what you would call a lazy vegan.  I find my self-making exceptions to the dairy rule.  For example, I can not give up pizza so my give and take on that is ordering only vegetarian pizza.  It’s not vegan, but at least it is vegetarian.  I haven’t had meat in about four months.

I have been also going to the gym on average 5-6 days a week.  Pretty much every day.  I got a new Apple Watch and I’ve been trying to close all the rings every day.  Most days I make it and with giving up meat, it has been pretty easy to lose a lot of weight.  I’m down about 18 pounds from September.  I use my Aria, a Fitbit scale, to track my weight every day.  They have the 2nd version of it available now.  I was thinking of getting it because mine doesn’t always sync right.  I’ve had problems with it since the beginning.

I think that is pretty good for now.  Hopefully, more coming very soon.

Lucy the Reader

I ran across this, I forget how, but tell me how cute is she?  I think it is the accent!  I just love watching her videos!  I’ll be stuck watching these for the rest of the week now!

You can find her on youtube and her blog.