Here's an idea, you've got questions, we have answers.
So two weeks ago, we asked you guys to ask us
some questions to find out what you wanted
to know about Idea Channel.
And now, I'm going to answer those questions.
So here we go.
Teddy from Sweden wants to know where the ideas that
make up Idea Channel come from.
I really wish that there was a more interesting answer
the question.
I try to real a lot.
I read maybe a book a week, if not more.
And I try to watch and listen to and read
as much as I possibly can.
You guys give me tons of awesome suggestions of stuff
to check out.
So that makes sure that I never have any free time
in my entire life.
And then once I've kind of loaded all of these thoughts
and media and everything into my brain, I kind of just,
I don't know, sit down and think.
The secret of inspiration I think
is not waiting for it to strike, but knowing how
to strike out at it yourself.
And so I've just learned over years
of doing this kind of work and writing what kind of situation
I put myself in in order to generate the kind of material
that I like.
And it's just, I mean not everything is good.
Like I make lots and lots of bad stuff, lots of bad ideas.
But if you just generate and generate and generate,
a certain percentage of it will be good.
And then it's a matter of pulling those things out
and taking them to the next level.
Gack04 wants to know whether or not PBS Digital Studios has
approval over the episodes.
And if so, what that process is like.
I mean our relationship with PBS Digital Studios
is awesome and like really open and collaborative.
And we talk to them about ideas and scripts,
and they see edits of the videos and give us their thoughts.
So in a sense, yeah, they have approval
but they're not telling us what to make
or telling us not to do certain things.
Everything you see on the show is
purely Idea Channel team in collaboration
with Digital Studios.
So it's really, it's a great deal.
We work with, we work with PBS for a reason.
It's great.
Luke and Jackie want to know whether or not
there have been episodes that we have had to shelve
after looking into them.
And I think really there's only ever been one
and it was going to be an episode about "Hetalia"
the manga and anime.
And I just, I had a hard time getting into it.
I couldn't find something to contribute
to the conversation about it.
And that's not a value judgment on "Hetalia" at all.
That's a value judgment on me just
not being able to figure out what it was that I could really
grab onto in "Hetalia."
Aimawish wants to know how I came to be
involved with Idea Channel.
It's a little bit of a long story.
So some friends of mine and I, my friends Patrick and Stephen,
we had a show called Meme Factory,
which is like a performative lecture
thing about internet culture.
That led me and Patrick you write, host,
and produce for "Know Your Meme."
and then, that was our first kind of big internet video gig.
After, that Meme Factory actually got invited to be
on a PBS Digital Studios show called "Off Book"
as guests talking about internet culture .
And once we were on that, Lauren from PBS Digital Studios,
which is the awesome internet only media creation wing of PBS
that we are a part of, saw that, went and saw
some of the things that I made for "Know Your Meme,"
and called me and said, hey I'm working with these guys.
Andrew Kornhaber and Eric Brown to develop a show.
They were working on another thing.
And she asked whether or not I would
be interested in doing that as well.
And it turns out that Eric and Andrew and I
were old friends from "Know Your Meme" days,
and we joined forces.
So I guess long story short, PBS Digital Studios reached out
to me and then I worked with them and Kornhaber Brown
to develop Idea Channel.
Griffin and Kasey want to know what
fandoms me and the rest of the crew are a part of
and what other things we love.
I think I would consider myself a huge Welcome to Night Vale
fan and definitely a Whovian.
I'm also a massive Douglas Adams devotee and a huge cyberpunk
nerd.
And I play lots of tabletop role playing games.
I just started running a shadow run game
that I'm very excited about.
As far as picking favorites, I am
terrible at picking favorites.
But if I had to, and I would probably
change my mind tomorrow, I think my favorite movie would
be "In the Mood for Love."
My favorite TV show would be "The Venture Brothers."
Game, Super Metroid, and record probably "Emergency and I"
by The Dismemberment Plan.
So for the crew, Andrew is a huge, huge "Futurama" fan.
He has an encyclopedic knowledge,
as does Morgan of "Arrested Development."
and he doesn't want to call himself a Sherlockian,
but I think he secretly is.
He also is a huge bike nerd.
ShadowBrony wants to know if I read
every comment on every video.
And I haven't been as good at this recently,
but generally I read every comment left on a video
up until the day before a new video comes out.
And Yeah, I mean it's hard.
It takes a very long time, but I learn a lot.
And I get to see what you guys think of the episodes, which
helps us make future episodes.
So it's a hugely important part of the show
and I think it influences the way that we put
Idea Channel together a lot.
As far as choosing what's best, I
mean I like people who challenge the ideas
in the show in an intelligent way, people who
have really great conversations with one another,
people have really well reasoned arguments,
and most importantly, people who don't just repeat things that
are in the episodes.
Like additional information is really key.
Also, pro tip, if you swear, we're
not going to feature your comment.
Don't swear.
What are you doing?
It's a family show.
Stephen Chapman wants to know how long it takes
to put together an episode.
So here's the weekly schedule.
So on Monday, I'll spend all day writing
and then I'll spend the first half of Tuesday writing,
and then the second half of Tuesday shooting.
And usually how that works is we'll shoot responses
to the last week's video, so comments
and then the video that comes out the next week.
And then Wednesday through Monday, the editors
are working on pulling together assets and putting
a cut together, while Ben works on the motion graphics.
And while they're doing that, I am
researching for the next topic or set of topics.
Research can sometimes take a day.
I'll feel really comfortable after that
and then I'll go for it.
But sometimes it can take a lot longer.
It can take sometimes like a week, sometimes a month.
And I'm occasionally researching upwards
of, I don't know, like it could be two, three,
but maybe five episodes at the same time.
I think the longest I've ever spent researching something
was about a month, and that was for the Is Math Real episode.
That was, yeah, hours at the library,
but totally worth it, lots of fun.
Redhopper wants to know what the writing process is like
and how the asset gathering process works.
So I will write an outline for every episode and then me
and Andrew, the producer, will take a look at it
and talk through it.
He's got a background in anthropology
so he is a huge, huge resource, making
sure I have covered all my bases, bringing
additional expertise into the episodes.
And then after we've agreed on an outline and flesh it out,
I will write a script over the course of two days.
And then we'll take a look at it again
and that's when we bring Morgan in
to get like a fresh outside perspective of someone who
hasn't been there building the ideas from the beginning.
And then we'll going and shoot.
And then the way the asset gathering works
is, I mean I will sometimes add some notes saying
like I think this would be a great image here.
But mostly, it's Morgan, Andrew and the editors pulling
in things from their expertise from their knowledge
of culture, which is awesome because I think it makes it
like another character.
It's not all me making the decisions.
And I think that's one of the things that
makes Idea Channel what it is, that it's clearly
a labor of several different people working together
towards this one thing.
So Yeah, no, I don't, I don't get,
I don't gather most of the assets.
Valfor-Dragoon wants to know if there
are topics that we haven't talked about but want to.
And the answer is yes, there are so many, The avatar, the NSA,
"Harry Potter," "The Wire," Pokemon.
There are tons of reasons that we haven't gotten around
to doing those things, but mostly it's
because these are things that have had so much written
about them.
And we really like to bring something new
to the conversation.
So it's tough for us to figure out
what point of view, what connection,
what idea is in there that hasn't yet been sort of over
done.
So deck_m_all asks whether or not
you can meet the Idea Channel team and what
their role in the team is.
And the answer is yes, of course.
So first there's Morgan, who is the director.
And I think he is also the looks.
And then there's Andrew who is the producer,
and he is the brawn.
Yeah, which way is the gun show?
Our wild card has clearly been our motion graphics guy,
who lives in Portland.
And you'd think that would leave me as the brains,
but I think it's all of us collectively.
I might be like the sullen moody one.
Derek the Human asked about the most rewarding experience I've
had since making Idea Channel.
This is a-- this is a very hard question to answer.
The last two VidCons have been amazing,
not only because I got to meet a lot of you guys
but because I got to meet so many of the YouTubers
that I love and look up to.
Visiting Mr. Monfre's class was also just unbelievable.
I'm not even going to bother say anything about it.
Just, it was like beyond words.
But beyond that-- and this is going to come across as really
sappy, but I'm going to try to be as sincere as possible--
like literally every day.
We just crossed 400,000 subscribers
which is a mind boggling huge number that I never
expected we would get to.
I get to talk to interesting and amazing people
on the internet every day.
We have the best comment section in all of YouTube.
You guys have such great ideas and reactions
to the stuff we talk about.
I get to spend such a huge portion of my life doing things
that I am so interested in, and so engaged
with and in love with.
And I get to do that because of you guys.
I get to do that because you are supportive
and like having these weird sometimes silly seeming,
but ultimately I think really important conversations
with us.
So yeah, every day is a party in Idea Channel land.
Thank you.
And with that sap fest, I think we have answered
a fair number of questions.
Thank you to everybody who submitted questions
and to everybody who voted on those questions.
Remember, you can always reach out
and ask me whatever you want on the IRC, on Twitter, on Tumblr.
I love talking to you guys and I love it
when you reach out and say hey, so you know, please do so.
And we'll be back next week with a full Idea Channel episode.
So until then, I'll see you on the internet.
So after editing this video together,
we realized that we had over 20 minutes of material.
So what you just watched were the most requested questions.
If you want to see the video where
I answer a lot more questions, you can do so right here.
We'll put a link up somewhere to the other video.
Don't field required, but you know, it's here if you want it.
And thanks for asking all those questions.
They were awesome.