So today it's gonna be a little bit different
because we received a random package from YouTube.
It is a giant box that says, "Open me."
We have no real context of what's going on,
but we may as well just open it.
-Okay. -Okay.
[BOTH GASPING]
[BOTH SCREAMING]
[LAUGHING]
[DISTORTED LAUGHTER]
"You've been selected to take part
"in YouTube's
Okay, "The Great Gift Express."
A round trip from here to there.
-This is so cool. -Oh, my gosh.
-This is exciting. This is an exciting day for us. -What's happening?
And it has a little, like, URL
that I think we need to go to, a website.
Do you want to just hit play?
That I can do.
Hey, y'all. I'm Alton DuLaney,
the world's most famous gift wrap artist,
and YouTube's wrap-resentative.
gift-lomat, present-er.
What? What's that?
You have been selected to be a part
of YouTube's
where you and 11 other creators
will participate in a chain of charitable gift giving.
You will each be assigned a creator,
and as a gift, each of you will make a donation
to a charity that is important to your recipient.
Cool.
And then, you will be whisked away to my magical Wrap Shop...
I bet it's in the North Pole.
Magic.
...where I'll teach you how to gift wrap the creator's donation
-in a thoughtful way.
ALTON:
without further ado...
Aah!
I took years of modern dance.
-This guy's hilarious. -Yeah, he's amazing.
Who is he?
Let's find out who your lucky gift-cipient is.
What?
Oh, come on.
-Who is it? -Wow.
The lucky gift-cipient is...
The magnificent Molly Burke.
Yeah! Okay. I'm glad that we know her well, so we can...
I wanna find a way that we can engineer the perfect scientific gift for Molly.
I know.
That's the thing about us, it's gonna have to incorporate science,
especially considering we're horrible at wrapping gifts.
-Yeah. -Like, really.
See y'all at the Wrap Shop.
-On to the train. -I love lightspeed rail.
NARRATOR:
travelling 50 miles per hour...
I love trains.
This is bumpy.
...to a whimsical winter landscape
which was actually just flour.
It carried with it AsapSCIENCE
and their gifts for Molly Burke.
They arrived at Alton's Wrap Shop
to add their science to his work.
Whoo!
-It's freezing out there. -Ooh!
Quite the storm. Whoops!
-Slammed the door. Sorry. -That's all right.
Welcome to the Wrap Shop.
So, guys, tell me a little bit about Molly Burke.
We've come prepared,
'cause you know we love to have a good diagram.
So Molly is a fellow creator.
She loves makeup. She loves fashion.
She jumped out of a plane, which I would never do.
She also has an adorable dog named Gallop, who's so sweet and kind.
Oh, my God, he... Not!
ALTON: Mmm-hmm.
You also have an extremely calm, amazing dog,
who's also falling asleep right now, which is amazing.
And he's her guide dog, because she's blind.
Oh, okay. The art of gift wrapping is much more than visual.
It's the touch. It's the weight. It's the shape.
And even depending on what you embellish it with,
-it could be the scent of the gift. -GREGORY: Yeah.
People who are blind have other heightened senses.
So I think we wanna figure out how we can incorporate that into the gift.
MITCHELL: That's completely true.
In fact, a 2017 study found
when looking at blind people compared to those who weren't,
they used parts of their brain more significantly
related to hearing, scent and touch.
Within the blind subjects, the study found
that the plasticity of the brain leads to the brain
developing new connections as it adapts and grows.
Significant changes were not only observed in the occipital cortex,
but also areas implicated in memory,
language processing and sensorimotor functions.
In other words, when it comes to senses other than sight,
Molly kinda has superpowers.
And if Molly can learn all that, you can learn to gift wrap.
-Exactly. -Yeah, okay.
That's fair enough.
Clearly, you've given a lot of thought to this,
so what are your ideas for gifts for Molly?
So I come from a lineage of granola parents,
so I was always given around Christmas time, donations,
which was a hard thing to deal with sometimes as a kid,
I'd be like, "Thank you, I did want an action figure, but..."
So, I do... As I became an adult, realized how important this is,
so this is a donation to the Mira Foundation
which she cares deeply about,
and it provides guide dogs to people aged 11 to 16.
So that's gonna be one part of the gift.
The second part is actually a cookbook for the blind
by a really famous chef named Christine Ha, who is blind herself.
Is there anything else we need to take into consideration?
Yes, so we are always thinking about the climate crisis,
and especially around the holidays, because in fact,
the holidays can be a little trashy.
[LAUGHS] I'm a little trashy, too.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
In America, between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day,
there's a 25 percent increase in trash.
Within that timeframe, it actually means, every week
there's an extra one ton of trash produced.
A lot of people think that wrapping paper is recyclable.
But if there's ever glitter on it, or you're gonna tape on it,
it also can't be recycled.
And this is what we call "wish-cycling,"
when you just throw something in the recycling
assuming it is going to get recycled
when in fact, it can't.
So I hope this isn't too much of an issue
that you know we don't wanna create that much waste.
I don't know, is this gonna be a challenge?
I've wrapped gifts in everything, even to dollar bills,
which is kind of the ultimate recyclable material.
Whoa!
And also the best gift to get, probably.
Yeah, and then right after you can go straight to the strip club.
You ready?
So, you all wanna head over to the gift wrap studio
and do some wrapping?
With that hat on and you saying, "Y'all,"
was very exciting for me.
GREGORY: I'm genuinely, like, so scared to wrap gifts.
-Oh, my gosh. I'm so nervous. -MITCHELL: Here we are.
My fight-or-flight response is going off in my head.
And just so you know, there's actually toys in these boxes,
and these gifts will go to children in need.
So, I'm counting on you to do a good job.
Yeah, I kinda feel like I'm at a test
that I literally haven't prepared for at all,
so thank you for bringing me back to my university years of stress.
Let's do a little gift wrapping here.
Now, typically with a box, there is a top and a bottom to the gift...
Hello!
Okay, we need to move on.
ALTON: You always wrap from the bottom so you do it face down.
And now this is how I measure what I'm working with here.
I just do a little crease there.
-Wow! -So that makes a little line,
and so that's the edge of your box,
so now you just wanna cut an inch or so over that.
No. Why was I... [SPUTTERS]
I can't do anything straight.
MITCHELL: All right.
So on your little mark there, you're gonna fold that under.
And now this goes on top.
GREGORY: Oh.
Because that minimizes your seams when you're finished.
-Oh! Okay. -ALTON: Perfect.
I like to say, "Wrapping is a snap."
'Cause you take those fingers that you snap with
and now you run it around the edges,
and you crisp all your little edges up.
Do you have, like, calloused fingers like a guitar player?
I earned those callouses.
[LAUGHS]
And then always embellish, because it's that little extra touch...
-Yeah, that's true. -...that really takes it to the next level.
-Bing! -Ting!
-Now, we're gonna do that great Christine Ha Braille cookbook. -MITCHELL: Cool.
I have for you these cute little aprons.
This is what we're gonna actually wrap the cookbook in.
MITCHELL: That's so clever. GREGORY: Oh, my gosh!
That's so cool.
The name for this, it's a Japanese word
and it's called furoshiki.
It's a Japanese art of cloth wrapping,
and it dates back to 710 AD.
The name actually translates to "bath spread,"
and it was derived from the practice of bundling one's clothes
at public baths to avoid wardrobe mix-up with other patrons.
Eventually, the furoshiki usage extended
to serve as a means for merchants to transport goods
to protect and decorate gifts.
Today, in modern-day Japan,
furoshiki are commonly used to wrap lunch boxes,
doubling as the table mats for your lunch.
But everywhere, furoshiki is growing in popularity
as the ultimate reusable bag.
That's so cool.
And I like to call this putting the "present" in "presentation,"
because then the actual wrap becomes a secondary gift.
Wow, I love that.
So let's start by spreading it out
and kinda getting the biggest area
that you could possibly work with.
Line up your apron strings,
'cause when we're done, we're gonna use this as our built-on ribbon.
And I'm Santa!
I genetically look like I could be his son,
'cause I'm always red in the face.
All right, Kris Kringle, let's move on with this.
Bring down this kind of top flap,
tuck the fabric down the side,
and then I crisscross over...
MITCHELL And does the apron part need to be folded?
Okay, this is how you do it. Okay? You pull it down, and then you do that.
It's clear to me which one of you folds the laundry at home.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's not true.
I just throw things.
And now, I'm folding my little ruffle part over,
and this creates this little crisscross pattern,
or a kimono almost, is what it looks like.
You're doing great.
[MITCHELL CHUCKLING]
-This guy on the other hand... -Not so.
ALTON: [LAUGHS] He's working hard.
He goes under his breath, "Man, this is so hard."
And now the bib of the apron, I'm folding over
to get just a nice edge.
-GREGORY: Wow. -So the dealio
is you have to basically create a square
out of a non-square shape.
Hate to say it, babe, but that's kinda math.
Math, see?
And now I've wrapped my apron strings underneath
so you're binding all this together.
And then I'm gonna just tie a simple bow
like you're tying your shoe. And if that wasn't enough,
what we've created here is this great pocket...
that then you could slide in, like, cooking utensils.
MITCHELL: Very cool.
Oh, wow!
Some fresh rosemary for you.
This smells so good.
ALTON: And this introduces the element of scent to the gift.
I mean, in particular, this whole thing is very tactile.
You can feel the different textures,
and now we have a literal scent coming off it.
It's a perfect gift, I think, for Molly.
But there is actually a lot of science behind smell as well.
After a smell enters the nose,
it travels through the cranial nerve
to the olfactory bulb,
which processes smells.
The olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system,
and this actually hosts something in your brain called the amygdala.
Now, your amygdala you might have heard of before
because it is linked to emotional response.
And so this close relationship between the olfactory system
and the amygdala is one of the reasons odors lead to nostalgia.
And so you can bring emotional memory into someone through smell.
Giving a charitable donation is a great gift to give someone
because it's thoughtful, it's generous,
but just because you're doing a good deed,
doesn't mean you don't have to make it look good.
-Oh. -[LAUGHING]
So we don't get away with this one?
You are really gonna enjoy this, because it involves some engineering.
BOTH: Okay.
We thought we will create a little dog house.
-Okay, that's really cute. -Oh, wow!
ALTON: The first part is actually creating the dog.
I've got some instructions for you of how to do it.
Okay, let's go.
While Mitch is working on that,
this is paper that has been embedded with wildflower seeds.
-Wow. -And so, when you're done with this,
-you plant it, and it grows. -That is so cool.
Okay, wow. Now I've heard everything.
So we're gonna do a technique that's called pleating.
You're going to fold about one inch.
-GREGORY: Okay. -And then I use that as my guide,
and I continue to fold it.
Then you wanna unfold, and you turn it over,
so your little ridges are now up.
You're gonna grab a ridge, and pinch it and pull it about halfway,
so you create this layered effect.
You're gonna produce four of these panels,
and that's gonna be all four sides of the dog house.
Okay.
Pleating is actually a technique I use on a lot of different gift wraps.
-Oh, wow. -So, I call this a tuxedo pleat,
'cause it kinda looks like a tuxedo shirt...
Holding that up right now, it looks like, bam, part of your outfit.
-Hey, that's my outfit today. -So, I see.
You don't wanna make a full house,
you could just put on two of those.
Right, you could do all kinds of things with this technique.
So I have here some spools of rick-rack.
-Called it riff-raff? -Rick-rack.
Oh, "rick-rack."
-Okay, I was like, the rapper? -You're riff-raff.
This is rick-rack.
-There's a difference. -Oh, drag.
I'm wearing the white on top of the red.
Feel this. It's creating the texture of shingles.
I love this,
because there is so much interesting science
behind how blind people touch and feel.
In fact, a lot of studies have shown
that while blind people and sighted people can feel
different taps on their fingers in the same way,
when it comes to different kinds of feelings,
so taps versus vibrations,
blind people have a lot more sensitivity on their fingers.
Which makes sense. They're using more activated parts of their brains
dedicated to feeling things and so ultimately,
this is a really exciting gift to give to somebody who can really feel it
probably more than we even can.
Oh, I finished the dog.
Oh, my God!
GREGORY: Arf! Arf! ALTON: It kinda looks like Gallop.
GREGORY: This is incredible. MITCHELL: It's perfect.
And we have our finished dog house here.
-Hey! Look at that. -We've created these wooden panel sides,
and then we created this shingle roof,
and then we open it up.
And this is one of the few times when it's a good thing
-to be in the dog house. -GREGORY: Ah!
-True, true! -Our little dog goes in,
and then you can add your charitable contribution.
Yeah, so we had a card made in Braille,
so we'll stick that in there.
Oh, my gosh, it keeps on going. I love it.
And then we're gonna add this cute little dog collar
to hold it all together.
So it's not just a contribution, it's actually a gift that they get to keep.
-Wow. -They can share it together. That's so nice.
I'm so excited for Molly to experience this gift
in a way that I've even never had a chance to experience
something so tactile and different.
And thank you so much for teaching us,
and bringing science into this. It's really interesting and fascinating for us.
MITCHELL: Thank you guys for watching.
Make sure you subscribe, and we'll see you next time.
-Peace. -That's a wrap.
NARRATOR:
The presents wrapped and folded,
they tumble down the slide.
Off to Molly Burke's apartment,
where she'll find out what's inside.
This part of YouTube's
has ended over here.
But if you'd like more holiday,
lend Molly Burke your ear.
Peppermint Patty,
your Christmas elf, at your service.
Ooh, it's a dog collar!
Is this supposed to be Gallop?
Oh, look at you, my Christmas tree.
In the spirit of giving,
we want to bring your attention
to the donate button,
where you can donate to Rainbow Railroad
which is a cause near and dear to our hearts.
They help to bring people from across the world
who are queer to Canada away from persecution,
in order to have safety in our country as newcomers.
So when we got back home,
we found this little card left in our bags from Alton.
"All this holiday cheer does not need to end here.
"Choose one more creator for the Giving Train
"and let's start a whole new chain."
Okay, we will have to think about who that will be,
-but in the meantime... -Happy holidays, we love you.