Here Are My Favorite New Videos on YouTube (No Paywall Today!)
And a link to our new YouTube channel
I often share my favorite new YouTube videos with readers here. These recommendations are usually kept behind a paywall for premium subscribers, but today I’m making them available to everybody.
Enjoy!
This is also a good time to remind you that The Honest Broker launched a YouTube channel two days ago. I encourage you to subscribe to it.
And if you want to receive my music and video recommendations in the future (including my 100 favorite albums of 2025—coming soon), consider taking out a premium subscription to The Honest Broker.
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Now let’s look at my favorite new videos…
I’m old enough to have worked with reel-to-reel tape recorders. And I know that only punks play them this way. But these are savvy punks, and their band is called Open Reel Ensemble. According to their website, they “play reel-to-reel tape recorders as ‘magnetic folklore instruments.’”
How do you stop a bully? Here’s advice from the Russian mafia. This is gritty stuff, and I don’t want to endorse any dodgy behavior. But I’ve dealt with bullying (described here) and everything this gentleman says—okay, maybe he’s not so gentle—meets my sniff test.
So check it out—but use with caution.
Can you imagine getting a call from the Nobel Prize congratulating you on winning? That happened a few hours ago to Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai. Here’s how it went down.
Hejira is a seven-piece band that performs exquisite renditions of Joni Mitchell compositions. Here’s their new video of “Help Me.”
Someday I’ll write an essay on Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco—who spent much of his career as an émigré Hollywood composer, working on 200 films for MGM. But he’s also my favorite modern composer for the guitar, and his reputation is finally rising long after his death in 1968.
Here’s a new video of his work performed by Laura Lootens
Music producer Rick Rubin is now conducting in-depth interviews on his YouTube channel. And this isn’t your typical pop culture fluff. Rubin converses with everybody from West Coast art legend Ed Ruscha to director Francis Ford Coppola.
Below is his give-and-take with Icelandic concert pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Judging by the YouTube views, these aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
The organization Playing for Change creates international goodwill through cross-border music collaborations. So they do good deeds, but their work is also ingenious and grandly entertaining.
I love this recent tribute to traditional Delta blues, which starts out in Mississippi, but soon travels all over the world.
Is it really true that orchestra conductors perform out of time with the music? Jacob de Jongh investigates, and reaches the disturbing conclusion that this is quite common, even among famous orchestras.
But if conductors can’t keep the pulse, what purpose do they serve? To find out, he interrogates conductor Adrian Adlam.
You may drink tea, but you don’t do it like Dairik Amae. He’s a tea practitioner who lives in Kyoto, and he teaches mindfulness techniques via his favorite hot beverage. I’ve been focusing lately on ways to slow down in order to savor small things; and just watching this video gave me a dose of serenity.
Can this really be a video game soundtrack? Yes, it is—and Hollywood should take notice. Film soundtracks are mostly snoozeville nowadays, filled with drones and buzzes, and avoiding melody as if it were contraband from a Venezuelan cartel.
But game developers took a chance on Lorien Testard, discovered on SoundCloud, and he delivered a massive 7-hour soundtrack, encompassing 154 tracks. Soprano Alice Duport-Percier is featured prominently, and to powerful effect.
This music has found a large audience from people outside the gaming community, and for good reasons. This kind of bel canto aesthetic hardly exists any more, but has lost none of its charm.
This video about 72-year-old rock climber Ian Elliott is the most inspiring story you will encounter today.
This musician’s most popular album got mysteriously deleted from Spotify. And when she tried to fix the problem, she ended up in AI customer service hell.
What’s going on here? Is this happening to other musicians?
Of course, if you really want to know Spotify’s dark secrets, you need to consult Liz Pelly. She has written the book on how music streaming platforms manipulate and deceive—based on her in-depth research. Here she sits down and dishes the dirt with Adam Conover.
David Perell is a friend of The Honest Broker (here’s the video of our two-hour conversation at my home). He is now producing a film series about the disappearance of beauty from our day-to-day life, and it features culture critic Sheehan Quirke. Here’s the trailer.
I’ll close with some curmudgeonly opinions on living classical pianists. I don’t endorse all the opinions here, but the frank, skeptical tone will appeal to those who think music criticism is too polite nowadays.
That’s all for today. If you want to receive these recommendations in the future, consider becoming a premium subscriber to The Honest Broker.
I want to believe that Russian mafia guy isn't AI. Found him a while back and pretty sure it's just really good AI.
Does give good advice tho.
Thank you 💕💎💕