I had a lot of conversations with my dad about how glorifying people is setting yourself up for failure when there were loads of protests were going on about bringing down statues of famously racist people who did like a handful of notable things i.e. most of the U.S. founding fathers.

I wouldn’t suggest keeping a list of names that you admire. Maybe keep a list of things about those names that you admire

Harry Brewis (hbomberguy)

I quite like Dolly Parton and Mr. Rogers for what it's worth.

where is lena raine

Scott Manley

Adam Savage

Aaron Swartz?

maybe some women?

Abigail Thorn

jacob geller

dan olson

hbomberguy

Some of my personal ones are:

Gabe Newell

The vinesauce crew (Vinny, Joel, Limes, Rev, etc)

Jerma

Jabroni Mike

Fredrick "fat nuts" Knudsen

WhiskeyDing0

Hideki Naganuma

King Gizzard

Peter Gabriel

Ross Scott (acursed farms)

John Carmack

John Romero

Might update this with more if I think of any.

Adam savage, zack freedman, both giant inspirations to me.

Brennan Lee Mulligan and, by extension, Sam Reich.

edit: to be fair, a lot of the Dropout cast seem like pretty great human beings as well (Emily Axford comes to mind, plus she frequently played opposite Adam Conover in the series Adam Ruins Everything which is both entertaining and horrible)

bill wurtz

Grady Hillhouse of Practical Engineering. He provides so much insight to the constructed world around us and, more recently, has done a ton of work to digest complex reports to, as he puts it, "elevate the discussion" around manmade disasters so that the layman can have a more informed opinion.

Pannenkoek as well. He's pretty niche, making videos almost exclusively about Mario 64, but he has an incredible talent for teaching complex technical concepts in an understandable way. It's often really hard for people that freakin smart to turn around and explain their knowledge to a layman, but Pannen puts a ton of work into visuals and examples to make sense of some really comprehensive stuff.

Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe. They've always had a mission to reach queer kids and have taken inspiration from Mr. Rogers to help children love and accept themselves. Over the course of their career, they've really come out of their shell and fought for representation in cartoons, driving the whole medium forward while supporting their peers across the animation industry. They've been pretty quiet online since the end of Steven Universe, but it's because they're out there in person at LGBTQ+ youth centers teaching kids how to understand and express themselves. I didn't know what it meant to have a role model until I started following their career.

Welcome back, Sethbling here

Some more youtubers:

• Sebastian Lague

• Stefan from CNC Kitchen

• Sam from Wendover

• Jason Slaughter (NJB)

• Reece Martin (RMTransit)

Fred Rogers

Dolly Parton

Steve Wozniak

Betty White

Carl Sagan

Hedy Lamarr

Albert Einstein

Grace Hopper

Alan Turing

Are we talking just contemporary people? Because John Brown, as a historical figure, is a great inspiration for me.

so what i'm seeing here is that your youtube recommendations are borderline identical to mine

Wendy Carlos. One of the earliest trans icons who basically invented the genre of electronic music.

She maintains a personal website that's straight out of the early 2000s.

Wendy Carlos HomePage - https://www.wendycarlos.com/

https://youtu.be/Z3cab5IcCy8

Can i be on the list?

Chris Hadfield? But maybe that's just cuz I'm a big space nerd.

If you admire Technology Connections, take a look at Cathode Ray Dude. Exudes a lot of the same energy.

Boyboy and friendlyjordies, they are what journalist should be

Posy has many videos along the lines of technology connections with incredible macro footage as well as lots of other random interesting stuff.

mitxela for well documented high quality projects blending mechanical and electrical engineering.

The Tim Traveller is basically Tom Scott if only covering strange historical things. And unlike Tom Scott he's still making videos.

Cathode Ray Dude does a mix of long form content like technology connections, but focusing on relatively modern computers.

You should definitely check out Deviant Ollam and Mitxela

Richard Feynman

thor from pirate software

Post10, hah, hes great :D

Neil Cicierega, Neil Gaiman, Gooseworx

Terry Pratchett

Robin Williams

Tom Cardy

Tom MacDonald

Tim Minchin

The Stupendium

Eddie Izzard

...idk, there's probably more

Dankpods

Steve from Gamers Nexus. Dude is like TotalBiscuit but for tech, not just gaming. Also, TotalBiscuit, if you are ok with adding those that have passed to the list...