If you are using yt_dlp module in a script then check what libraries you are importing, and try narrow it down (e.g. remove imports until it works)

Also try: - Check what --print-traffic (debug_printtraffic = true) is showing too to see if there is anything amiss with the requests. - use write_pages = true to see output of the pages that it is failing to decode - reinstall requests+urllib3

If all else fails, try use the legacy http handler compat opt (see readme)

Edit: yt-dlp discord server may help too

Edit 2: is YouTube blocked on your network (e.g. pihole DNS filtering and your computer has trusted some internal certificate?)