While not exactly what you are asking, check out Nebula as it has a lot of long form content that is not slop because they actively monitor it.

Not sure if these are what you’re looking for, but:

• Dr. Becky [professional commentary on astronomy and astrophysics]

• Anton Petrov [professional commentary on astronomy and astrophysics]

• What’s Going On With Shipping? [videos about the ins and outs of international maritime shipping]

• Not Just Bikes [focuses on the many ways urban infrastructure can be improved]

• Sampson Boat Co. [~seven years worth of videos where Leo rebuilds a 1910 gaff cutter from the keel up. Currently sailing it back to London to participate in race the same boat won a century ago]

• Primitive Technology [builds cool things with sticks, mud, water and pond scum]

• Bad Obsession Motorsport [bought an old mini-cooper and shoved an engine from a Celica GT-Four into it]

• Practical Engineering [a practical look at engineering projects that most people ignore, mostly because they're underground]

• B1M [videos focusing on large mega projects like tunnels and nuclear reactors]

• Jay and Mark [map guys that rightfully complain about Londons infrastructure]

• Florian Gadsby [skilled (practised) potter that makes really satisfying pieces]

There are also channels that are focused on the war in Ukraine and related international shenanigans (in order of avg. video length):

• Perun

• Denys Davydov

• Reporting from Ukraine

• Suchomimus (poor chap made a channel to nerd out about dinosaurs, then the Russians attacked…)

Also check out ytch.xyz; It serves videos from a curated list of channels such that it behaves like cable television.

Also also check out nebula.tv if you can afford it.

I like:

Technology Connections. Alec is a refrigeration cycle enthusiast from the American Midwest in a tweed jacket who talks about gadgetry. He’ll change your understanding of dishwashers.

History For Granite. Join him to explore ancient Egypt. A no bullshit no ancient aliens channel focusing on old kingdom Egyptian monuments, particularly the pyramids of Giza and Dahshur. His hot takes include “The ascending passage of the Great Pyramid is built of lower quality limestone, possibly because the higher quality Tura limestone used for most passageways wasn’t available. As the passage ascends, you can see the work getting more consistent and gaining quality, as if the masons were gaining skill working with this inferior material.” And he casts solar eclipse quantities of shade at Zahi Hawass. It’s hilarious.

Cathode Ray Dude. A computer and video hardware enthusiast from the Pacific Northwest. He’ll find some electronics artifact and explore its quirks and features, including a whole series on weird old laptops.

Paul Fellows. Bri’ish astronomer type who delivers short-ish briefings on astronomical objects. “Once Around: The Large Magellanic Cloud.” I’m getting to where I prefer his content to SEA or Astrum.

TierZoo. Animal documentaries in the style of video game commentary. Animals are player characters in a massively multiplayer game called Outside. A typical video will be titled “Are snakes OP?” and he will rank various snakes on a tier list. “Next we have the rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes have spent evolution points on the rattle ability, a mid-level intimidation and area denial attack intended to evade encounters with carnivore mains.” The fact he’s been able to keep up this shtick so long is the most entertaining part.

CRD and tech connections is all I watch really.

Don’t see “Half As Interesting” listed here. His stuff doesn’t usually go super deep, but I’ve learned a lot from him.

And just recently he was accused of using AI for a thumbnail and this was his response:

(This is slightly UK centric)

Posts regularly:

• Ensemble issues: Reading is a Skill, SlimeE101, The Everyman Reads BasqueIcelandicPigeon [focus on linguistics],

• Architecture and Cities: Manuel Bravo, [english and spanish] TheGoodTasteChannel

• ComicBook History: ComicLads, [AKA the gooner lads… watch at your own peril] ComicDrake, BaysTalks, TheRealMoeSchomo

• Environment/Gardening - Huw Richards, Bill Sutherlands’ Conservation Concepts, MossyEarth, LeaveCurious

• Geography: VologdaMapping

• History: UsefulCharts [geneology focus and religion], Northern Introvert, Ellie Dashwood, Historian’s Craft, Lots of the ones in PonyOfWar’s comment notably toldinstone

• Law: Mike Rafi (Also has a short-form focus)

• Logic and Maths: MindYourDecisions

• Mathematics: BlackPenRedPen [alt channel for higher difficulty i think], Dr Barker polymathematic

• News/BUSINESS: Patrick Boyle,

• News/POLITICS: Academic Agent, ibx2cat, Peter McCormack

• News/TECH: Louis Rossman

• Politics: Caleb Maupin

• Psych/therapy: Spencer Greenberg

• Religion: ReadyToHarvest, ReligionForBreakfast, Mike Winger,

• Trains and Transport: Geoff Marshall

• Writing/TV and Movies: EmpathyMachines

• Writing/LITERATURE: BookFox

Less-often post schedule:

• Ensemble: Lindybeige [modern issues and histroy]
• Science: VSauce, Sabin Civil Engineering, Gabriel Carcassi [Physics and Maths]
• Therapy/Psychology: Daniel Mackler
• TV and cinema facts: TheFactFiend

Scary Interesting does some horror documentary stuff about, idk, scary situations people have been stuck in. No AI images, which is saying something, cause he always has some kind of background or graphic going.

More perfect union, according to Nicole, Zac rios

3 of my favorites in last few months.

Darknet diaries is the shit for podcasts. Also on YouTube.

PBS and Nova are good. Science Channel as well. Most vids are short but they put out some banger full length documentaries every so often.

History Time is also really good. The length of the vids can be hella long.

The History Channel has some cool stuff too.

Look at the list of creators on nebula and check their videos out, I think most of them should fit the bill.

If you find something you like, you can get a nebula sub (or lifetime pass) and cut out all the YouTube nonsense from the experience too!

Not quite documentaries, but Clabretro makes long videos where you sort of learn about old computer equipment along with him as he figures out how to use a new thing he got. He used to use LLMs to try to figure stuff out in his videos which was a little annoying but he doesn’t seem to anymore.

plus he has a cute cat named chloe

For specifically media discussion and history discussion, OverlySarcasticProductions

Time Ghost’s channels are, IMO, the gold standard for history content. Its very in-depth, but they’ve so-far covered WW1 on their The Great War channel, WW2 on their World War 2 channel, interwar periods, and their current focus is on the Korean War on their channel, The Forgotten War by Indy Neidell.

All of their channels focus on covering these time periods chronologically - usually one episode a week, covering that week’s events. Most of these individual episodes are 10-20 minutes long, but again, they release a new one weekly, so it will take a long time to catch up. As well as these weekly episodes, they also create some specials covering specific topics, and they produce the occational long-form documentary, such as their 12 hour long video on Pearl Harbor or their 24 hour long video on D-Day.

allegedly Scary Interesting uses no AI generated content

Cathode Ray Dude he does 1 hour plus videos on the history of a niche product or technology. He just did one that is 2+ hours on how they film tvs for movies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicQUvSUbPM