Heading out for a road trip?  If you’re flying – er, driving – solo, then you’ll want some entertainment.  If you’re the sort that can serenely focus on the road day after day, mile after mile in Zen-like single-mindedness, you’re a unique individual.  Most folks need some music, an audiobook – or one of the links below.

Podcasts are a thing.  Audiobooks are a thing.  But if you’re a mental omnivore who needs galaxy-sized diversity in media and options, there’s nothing like YouTube.  Of course, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t watch while you drive, but these are all shows where the audio is the main focus and you can enjoy them purely listening.

Me, Myself, and Die!: If you enjoy tabletop roleplaying, or just a rollicking good story produced by professional talent,  voice actor Trevor Devall’s three-season-old venture is a wonderful companion.  If you’ve listened to Critical Role, you have some inkling of what’s being done: professional voice actors playing D&D.  In this case, Devall is playing solo.  In most cases, listening to someone’s solo RPG adventure is as exciting as watching paint mix, but Devall gives unique voices to each characters and his amazing array of voices makes the show really hum.  The segments are crisp, 30-minute episodes and as of this writing there’s 3 different seasons with season 4 hovering in the wings.  I really don’t think you need to be a gamer at all – just sit back and enjoy the yarns and marvel because it’s all made up randomly on the spot with dice and charts.  For full experience (because he uses miniatures and a multi-camera setup) you want to watch on YouTube but listening (either via YT or the podcasts) is nearly as good because of Devall’s excellent storytelling.

KiraTV: If you want tales of streamers gone bad, Twitch blowups, or Kickstarter scams, KiraTV’s your show.  How Linus Tech Tips went down in flames, the tale of Ashley Madison, how PhantomL0rd ruined his career…the stories are always fascinating and Kira goes deep.  If @SirFoxy was a YouTube channel, this would be him.

Jim Can’t Swim: If criminal psychology is your jam, you’ll love these two channels.  JCS was the original, commenting on intense police interrogation sessions.  In each video, Jim would talk about the police tactics used, the psychological pressure being applied, and the nuances of the responses.  In most cases, the perpetrators have committed horrific crimes yet claiming innocence, and the detectives are slowly breaking down their defenses until they confess.

Matt Orchard: JCS with more narrative.  Like JCS, there aren’t hundreds of cases – just a few select ones, but done very well, with a ton of deep-dive research.  They’re like listening to an A&E true crime story only for smart people.  Not all are crime per se but all are complex interpretations and narrations of events.  From how politicians were caught in lies to the societal forces in play in the Daniel Holtzclaw case, there’s tons here to dig into.  (If you want less analysis and more bite-sized stories, check out That Chapter).

Warographics, Perun, or evenLazerPig: If you’re more of a geopolitics person or want to keep up on events like the war in Ukraine, these are excellent channels.  Warographics covers major situations around the world (they also do some history).  Indeed, I learned a lot from their coverage on the Haiti crisis, which was a year or so before it really caught mainstream attention.  Perun is a military analyst (pro or amateur, I don’t know) who covers things like military systems and components, individual countries’ military strategies, and of course the current war in Ukraine.  You’ll get a lot of detail and info, presented with wisecracks and dry wit.  It’s like having lunch with a senior military analyst.  LazerPig is just hilarious – his video on why the T-14 Armata tank sucks still made me laugh out loud on the third listen.

Mark Felton: If you like WWII history, then Mark Felton is the epitome – perhaps the apotheosis – of my theory that the number of interesting stories about that titanic conflict is infinite.  Seriously, the pries into obscure but fascinating tales of Hitler’s Arab paratroopers, Martin Bormann’s confusing death, what happened to Hitler stamps after the war, and what happened to that giant globe where Hitler sketched new borders in pencil.  Felton is a professional historian so you’re getting thoroughly-grounded research.

Company Man: Remember…that company?  Circuit City, Sega, Forever 21, Atari…what happened to them?  And why are Rolex, Red Bull, and Olive Garden so successful?  The stories of companies around the world are fascinating because these enterprises and brands impact our lives every day.  The Company Man tells their stories in his easy-going manner.

Don Shipley aka Phony Navy SEAL of the Week: If you like cringe, this is a great channel.  Shipley is a former Navy SEAL and he’s made it his mission to bust phonies and imposters.  And they are legion!  He calls them (and in earlier times, showed up at their door), banters shipmate-to-shipmate, and then slowly begins needling them about then things they don’t know and the lies they tell, until he erupts in full you-are-a-phony fury.  It’s pretty funny at times, sad at others, but always entertaining.  He has a pay site where you can get tons more but there’s lots of free exposures on YouTube.

LowEndBoxTV: Did you think I’d miss an opportunity to plug the greatest YouTube channel in the history of the platform?  Of course not.  From how-tos and tutorials to mini-docus to reviews, there’s tons of variety on the community channel, so if you haven’t checked it you, your next roadtrip – or lunch break – is the perfect time to dive in.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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