Often times, like at the end of a working day, a day I have off, or when I’m actually working, I feel tired, run down and my mind feels like a great giant glob of greaseless goo.
I don’t want to do much in terms of actual involvement with real life where I have to assent to real effort on my part to engage something that takes real energy to do.
That is why I can click on Youtube and just browse the various variety of videos offered in small 10 minute or less segments.
My mind is put in a relaxed state as I take in invigorating intriguing information, neat nerdy news and comforting chuckles of comedy.
Many Youtube channels have content creators that provide just the right thing I might later want to share in a blog post about a certain theological, cultural or funny point about life.
I have my own Youtube channel which I haven’t done much with.
And then there is our Catholic Bard channel which has even less videos.
And now here are 21 Youtube Channels that I like and I am sharing them with you, so you can be equally enriched, enlightened, and energized by them. This includes the two above.
The First Five channels I am listing after my channels above are Youtube channels that help fuel my faith, hope and love in Christ and his Church.
Breaking In The Habit – YouTube
When I want practical explanation of theological and church related topics, I want a positive engaging presentation to fill my ears. Father Casey Cole gives us those types of videos mixed with his own personal experience and unique perspective. I don’t want to listen to some religious person drone on about the terrible state of the church and the world. You can always count on an a video of his that will connect you to a vivid encounter with Jesus Christ. Even if you should disagree with a particular point he makes, he is never a disagreeable person. He is Encouraging and Challenging at the same time. His youthful appearance appearing in a Franciscan robe adds to the mystic and appeal. He is the type of guy you would want to hang out with and go out and eat, watch a movie or because he’s a priest, hear your confession.
In Defense of Fr. Casey Cole | Mark Wilson (patheos.com)
If you want more practical down to earth short explanations of the Catholic faith, Ascension Presents is here to help. With the wide variety of presenters you get a good mix of people sharing the beauty of Catholicism. You have the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the married couple Jackie and Bobby Angel, Pints with Aquinas host Matt Fradd and the elegant, denviner and almost star of Batman and Robin, Fr. Mike Schmitz. He seriously almost got the part of Robin in one of the Batman movies. Besides doing the Bible in a Year Podcast, Fr. Mike continues to bring ordinary everyday problems that Catholics and every person face to simplistic understanding. Let’s face it, humans all suffer from the same types of things. How to Deal with Friendships, the Disappointments of Life, the Loss of Hope, Forgiveness, and How to Deal with Difficult People just to name a few. Fr. Mike can take these issues and bring them to a level of understanding that can both be comforting and also challenging. Like Fr. Casey he is also rather hilarious and a person you would just want to spend time with. Also I’m sure he gives good confessions.
Bishop Robert Barron – YouTube
If there is one person who really stirs my soul with the truth of the Catholic Faith and brings the scriptures alive for me, it is Bishop Robert Barron. I usually go out of my way to listen to his weekly homilies or his commentaries about culture. Bishop Barron and anyone associated with his ministry Word on Fire, I find to be grounded in the teachings of Catholicism and are able to help me wrap my head around difficult biblical passages, church teachings and current secular thinking. I find that Bishop Barron tends to get a lot of unnecessary flack.
His success is real and substantive and not simply an ephemeral popularity. The stuff he produces is first rate and is having a very positive impact in the Church. His critics all fail to consider what the goals of Word on Fire are. What its target audience is. What its evangelizing methodology is. Because if they got that then they would know that it would all be destroyed quickly if Word on Fire became just one more platform filled with invective and “attacks” and endless debates on the ecclesial hot button issues. What C.S. Lewis did in “Mere Christianity” is what Barron is doing with Word on Fire. It is in a sense an attempt to present “Mere Catholicism” in all its beauty but absent all of the current animosities over various “issues.”-Larry Chapp
Dr. Chapp has expressed what WOF is and why it is worth listening to.
The Catholic Talk Show – YouTube
Watching one guy talk about the faith in an aspiring way can be quite engaging, but watching more than one is even more engaging. The Catholic Talk Show featuring Ryan DellaCrosse, Ryan Scheel, and Fr. Rich Pagano, is faithful, hilarious, entertaining, and informative! The sheer number of good topics they discuss makes their show a diverse smogersboard of Catholic thought. Check them out.
SQPN has programs of all things biblical and Catholic, a worldview that sees God in Sci-Fi, Culture, Technology and the mysterious world around us with committed and knowledgeable Catholic Geeks. It is home to various podcasts such as American Catholic History, The Secrets of many different TV Shows and Movies and Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Often after listening to one of Jimmy’s podcasts, my mind often feels blown away with the immensity of the reality of God and the mysterious world in which he made. ACH helps me see the struggles and successes of fellow Catholics. The Secret shows help me gain a Catholic perspective on the culture in which we live. Listen and you will entertained and hopefully become more God focused.
Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious Interview | Mark Wilson (patheos.com)
These Guys are not Catholic, but their devout Christians who teach the truths of Christ by making fun of stuff. This video is a classic and is a good example of ecumenical mere Christianity.
As a Catholic blogger I like to suck up all the enlightening Catholic thought I can, so I can be a better informed disciple of Christ. I like to have theological spiritual thoughts spiraling around my inner cerebral cortex, so that I can internalize it into my soul and live out the life of Christ in the world in which I live. But I also realize that to a mind hooked onto Christ, sees Christ in every aspect of creation. And so sometimes it is good to listen to things that are not directly focused on Catholic thought but on the wonders of the rest of the world God created and the various creativity and talent God has granted to others. Things that Catholics and non-Catholics find in common and can enjoy together regardless of religious affiliation. Just a note, if I list a certain channel does not mean I agree with everything a person posts on their channel, but that I find the overall content interesting and watchable.
Malinda is a singer/songwriter/actor, and her channel combines music and vlogs to create “musical stories” around themes within her own life and the lives of young people. She wants to use music to have discussions about things that matter to us. The Music is good, catchy and worth singing along to. Here she is turning popular songs into my wife’s favorite genre of music.
Irish Tunes.
The Holderness Family – YouTube
If Weird Al was more down to earth weird and had a family it would be the Holderness family. Penn and his loving tolerant wife give us original clean comedy which include hilarious parodies of popular music. They often drag their two kids into the act, and we get a lot of vids about school and family life. They make the videos that I would have made, had I polished my video making skills and kept up with technology, minus the musical aspect of their productions. Sometimes they make videos that directly speak to my personal experience.
Have ever watched Saturday Night Live and cringed at some of the overt inappropriate content that you would have to shield from your kids and wondered if there was an equivalent that you could actually share with them? The comedy crew from BYU TV is here to provide that equivalent for you. The group of actors has changed somewhat from a few seasons ago, but their commitment to making you laugh has not. Original sketches, parodies and songs make up this very delightful comedy sketch show from a group of committed Mormons whose comedy is grounded in family friendly videos. Here is one daughters’ and my’s favorite Studio C’s videos.
If I were to produce comedy videos, Ryan George one be the style that I would go for. Playing all roles in his sketch’s, his comedy brings the truth about the reality of life by presenting it, as it is in all its absurdness. He breaks down ordinary everyday things by giving us videos such as The First Guy to Ever Order Food Delivery, Ever Play Duck, Duck, Goose and Ever Climb a Mountain. But his real claim to comedy Youtube Fame is his Movie Pitches. He critiques a movie by playing a guy pitching a film to a producer. His pitch lays out what happens in the movie, and the critique is in the plot holes and inconsistencies talked about as they have been written. You might think that a formula like that could wear thin and lose it’s humor appeal after a while. You would think that it would be hard to not have it grow stale and old. But I can just say that yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s actually super easy and barley an inconvenience. Making great movie pitches is tight.
I’m a big movie fan, buff, lover. I love movie news, reviews, information and trivia. There are lots of good channels out there dedicated to movie talk. Because there are so many, I decided to mention one particular site that specializes in movie related talk. And that is the John Campea show. The format of the show has John taking movie related questions and spending some time talking about them with related guests. If your into movies, this is the show you want to tune into. Because it is a news related show, some of the material will someday be dated. But this particular video has elements that will still be informational later on in life, as it talks about and gives insight into the film industry.
One of the best things about movie nerddom is finding fellow nerds who have dedicated their Youtube channels to analyzing the heck out of the stories we love to think and talk about. There are lots of these channels out there and one of the most engaging is by two brothers named Jonathan “J” Carlin and Ben Carlin also known as The Super Carlin Brothers. Energetic about their film theories, these two brothers help us think about our favorite geeky films in a deep thinking way. Here is one of their most fun and thought provoking videos that is constantly updated as new movies come out in the film series.
Nuseir Yassin (Arabic: نصير ياسين, Hebrew: נוסייר יאסין; born 9 February 1992) is an Israeli-born Arab vlogger who makes inspiring Youtube videos. This is the first video of his that I remember seeing. He is adding beauty and goodness to the world through his short heartfelt videos. You want a reminder that the world is a good place, check out Nas Daily.
Where Nas gives you short little inspiring videos, Austin McConnell gives you longer in-depth videos about some of the interesting things that he is doing in his life. Things like the disastrous movie he made, the disastrous book he wrote, and how he bought the rights to a Jack Nicholson movie. Liven your day with some fresh insights about life and a person who lives it well.
Diane Jennings is a young Irish girl full of energy who enjoys traveling to the United States of America. She loves comparing our two countries. She is insightful, funny, a dog lover and is prepared for the end of the world. As a person of Irish decent, my wife really finds her worth watching.
There are a lot of educational channels on Youtube. So if you love learning and like gathering new interesting information there is no shortage of these channels. Here is one of these channels. Let Mr. Beat educate you about history, geography and more.
It’s Okay to be Smart is created by Joe Hanson, Ph.D. who is a curious group of atoms in a very curious universe. Join him as he explores curiosity and illuminate the science behind… well, everything.
When I want a entertaining medical opinion, I watch Zubin Damania, MD or ZDoggMD. One of the most balanced, brilliant, and entertaining voices to listen to during this time of Covid craziness.
From the official Description of his Youtube Channel: Do you want to know how our legal system works? You’ve come to the right place. LegalEagle is all about giving you an insider’s view to the legal system. Have some fun and learn to think like a lawyer. I get asked a lot about whether being a practicing attorney is like being a lawyer on TV. I love watching legal movies and courtroom dramas. It’s one of the reasons I decided to become a lawyer. But sometimes they make me want to pull my hair out because they are ridiculous. So I created this channel to answer your burning questions about the law and the legal profession. While all legal movies and shows take dramatic license to make things more interesting (nobody wants to see hundreds of hours of brief writing), many of them have a grain of truth. Learn everything you always wanted to know about being an attorney!
BONUS:
Two of Our Favorite Youtube Videos We Love to Share With Others.
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