Nick: So I hope we're in focus and everything, cause now I'm in front of the camera.

Lindsey: So in case you're new to this channel, my name is Doctor Lindsey Doe, I'm referred to as "Lindsey", and this is my partner in crime.

Nick: I'm Nick Jenkins.

Lindsey: What do you do?

Nick: I film stuff. I am the director and editor for Sexplanations.

Nick: We thought it'd be fun to answer some of your questions cause I'm not in front of the camera very often, so...

Lindsey: Let's do it.

Nick: Let's do it.

Nick: My most favorite mistake?

Lindsey: Yeah, like something happened, and then we had to movie magic it. What's your favorite thing?

Nick: Hmm, I don't know. I tend not to think of those as fun. If there's a mistake it means I've failed somewhere along the way. I know you love it though because we're working together and it's like...

Lindsey: I do; it's my favorite part of the whole process, is when we come up against a glitch. It's like my brain lights up, and it thinks about all the ways that we could fix it, and I don't know whether or not it's actually possible, and then you...you make it possible. And it's so fun!

Nick: I will always say that the, and a lot of people probably aren't going to like me for saying this, but I was surprised at how vehemently people reacted to allies, the "A" in the alphabet soup. That really surprised me. It was eye opening, but it still surprises me. Right now.

Lindsey: I would say I was super surprised by the really, really, really high thumbs on anal sex.

Nick: Uh, consent was the most viewed. And the least viewed was the HIV FAQ.

Nick: I personally would still like to somehow tackle body image, but I know that it's hard to do in a single episode.

Lindsey: I would love to tackle polycystic ovarian syndrome, because it’s been highly requested and I think that it is important to respond to the audience.

Nick: Yeah they have requested that a lot.

Lindsey: I would like to do a tour of the gynecologist table and do the live pelvic exam we've talked about. I feel like we had this question last time that we did a sit down chat for the first of the year... And I think then I also talked about things like circumcision and a whole run down of the birth control options, an episode for each one might be really nice too. And toys, talking about phthalates and how to store your toys would be really great.


Lindsey: It's really challenging to write a script because I want to make sure that the words I'm using aren't doing harm while I'm trying to eliminate harm--sexual harm. And so often times I will find myself write a line and then go back through every single word and look up its meaning so that I am making sure that I selected the ideal word for that sentence. And that’s a pretty grueling process.

Nick: The biggest challenge for me I think is, as we're a year in now, for me to think about how I can add more visually in terms of camera and everything, just like how do I not just make it more interesting for them but more interesting for us to do things. Because we have a pretty rigorous schedule, and that doesn't always afford us with a lot of time to try things, so I think that is one of the biggest challenges-- is just like, how do we get the chance to still be artists?

Lindsey: You.

Nick: Me. 

Nick: I think for me the highlight was... more so than Crash Course and SciShow, honestly, was seeing how much people really appreciated the work we were doing. I think that was-- That's important to me.

Lindsey: Oh Yeah.

Nick: Especially if you're like me and you come from film school, you end up making a lot of films that YOU want to see, so it's really great to do something like this where you're making it for someone else and hoping that you're going to help people. Hoping that they get something out of it. So getting the reaction is great, from everybody. It makes me so happy. 

Lindsey: So my answer is... you, and your answer is... you.

Nick: Me?

Lindsey: Them.

Nick: Oh! You. And Lindsey. Because there are a lot of people you work with, and it's not that they're bad people, or that their work ethic is bad, it's just that they're not open the way that Lindsey's open on set, so. 

Lindsey: Thank you!

Nick: You're welcome. 

Lindsey: I try.

Nick: I know. You're a great collaborator because you never freak out about me changing something or asking "Why?" So, you know.

Lindsey: It was intimidating.

Nick: Was it? Why was it intimidating? 

Lindsey: Yeah. Because you know so much about film, and um, it was intimidating to both have really amazing Firefly going on and wanting to give it my full attention, and having really amazing Nick commentary and wanting to give it my full attention, and I was like, "Aaaah! I can't do both! One of you pause!" 

Nick: Uh, no. I'm not a really big looking-back guy, I like to look forward, and maybe there was something I did that wasn't, you know, the best sound or the best lighting or the best camera or the best edit, but I would rather just look forward, and not look back and change anything.

Lindsey: I want to do Rube Goldberg effect with paraphilias. That's like, mmm, how can I put a hundred things in a row and have one smooth camera shot? I don't know that that's within our power right now. And I also love how the paraphilias episode turned out.

Nick: The paraphilia episode's a great example of thinking on our feet. That's one that we had this really grand idea and it just... We finally, we started to realize as soon as we started shooting that it wasn't going to work the way we thought it was going to, so we had to sort of make up a lot of stuff on the fly. And I feel like it came out pretty good.

Lindsey: Yeah, and it was amazing to have more people in the room and to incorporate everybody's ideas and boundaries and who's doing what and where, and have you determine the shots with those different individuals.

Nick: I don't get asked a lot of questions.

Lindsey: I am asked a lot of "Am I normal? What kind of care do I need for..."

Nick: Are YOU normal? ...Oh! (Laughing) Never mind. 

Lindsey: I love how that's the first thing that comes to your mind.

Nick: Cut that out. I'm just like, "Why would they ask that? That's rude!"

Lindsey: You absolutely can't cut that out. They're asking whether or not they're normal. They're asking, um, "What to do about..." and "Is this okay?" 

Nick: Yeah, um, I take it back, actually. I do get asks on Tumblr, which-- I'm always, if you want to follow me on Tumblr, and ask, link in the doobly-doo. Most of them are like, "How did you get to be where you are, working with Lindsey and Hank and everything?" So those are the most common ones. And then, "What episodes do you have planned for the future?" And stuff like that. So those are the most-- that's the most questions I get usually, "How did you get the job?" and "What are you doing in the future?"

Lindsey: What's your OkCupid account? 

Nick: Uh, soon to be deleted. 

Lindsey: So, the questions have all been really similar throughout time on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube itself, my website, different people... You guys find me. And they are as I've described, where this is going on and this scenario is presented, and, "What do I do? What would you recommend?" Um, what is different is the first 30,000 views and the comments that happen right after a video are very sexplanations-friendly, very Lindsey-friendly. And then once we get into higher numbers like 90,000 views, the meanies come, and those questions are not so nice. Like, "What is wrong with you?" would be a really gentle way of putting it. (Laughs)

Nick: So yeah, for me it would be a full-time graphic artist illustrator. How about you?

Lindsey: Hm. Ooh, okay. Lots of things. I would love to have 
a website that is not mine, somebody else makes it, that has a gallery on it, and a community, and um, places for people to dialogue, all organized. And then I would love to have complementary study guides, hmm, quizzes that go along with episodes, so that people could test their knowledge. And I would love to have workbooks, I would love to have textbooks, I would...

Nick: You just want a whole university. Sexplanations University.

Lindsey: Yes.

Nick: Sad to say it's just time. My time is, you know, I do a lot, and so I'm not as free as I would like to be all the time. So I think... getting our schedules to merge all the time is always a challenge.

Lindsey: I said this the last time, I hate the make-up part. 

Nick: (laughs)

Lindsey: I don't even know where to begin.

Nick: (laughs) I...

Lindsey: Scratch our chins.

Nick: Yeah. I'm absolutely horrendous at reading sexual interest in me. So...

Lindsey: So if maybe I was showing him sexual interest, he would have no idea.

Nick: I would have no absolutely no idea. I feel like I'm making a show with my friend, that's how I feel.

(high fives)

Nick: I hope that answers your question.

Lindsey: (laughs) It doesn't at all.

Nick: I don't feel any sexual tension.

Lindsey: Okay okay, yeah, no, I don't either. In terms of us talking about sex and that generating sexual thoughts, and then working together as two heterosexual individuals, that is an experience that's important to acknowledge I think. So here's what I would say about that. Nick is incredibly professional. It's really important to me that we engage professionally, and the best way for us to engage professionally about a sexual content is to-- engage professionally about a sexual content. 

Nick: Yeah.

Lindsey: I mean that's what we do, we just let it be our topic, the same way that you do-- Chemistry with Hank, and that's the topic, and you banter back and forth, and you have that energy, and you may game later, but when you are in that space doing that thing it is about the audience, and it is about being there for the audience and not altering this dynamic so much that it's dangerous for you-- I don't know how to put it into words.

Nick: There is always that danger when you're working with someone who you could be attracted to that you will-- that you will become attracted to that person, and then that attraction will take over the relationship in some way. First of all, a), I don't date people I work with, just because I've seen it go sour, so I've just-- I feel that way, but also... I feel like what Lindsey and I talk about all the time, about sex and about sociology and about psychology, all of that stuff, is extraordinarily intellectually engaging to me. Um, we don't talk about it in an erotic sense; it's always talked about in sort of this fascination with people.

Lindsey: I really follow your lead. Like Nick is uber uber professional. I've never felt sexually harassed, or challenged, or, you know, there's no sexism, there's nothing. I really feel super safe with you. 

Nick: Well that's very-- thank you.

Lindsey: You're welcome.

Nick: Uh, I try to... just as a side note, I try to make that feeling on every set. That the people I'm working with are my buddies. That we're trying to collectively create something together.
 
Lindsey: Cake.

Nick: Cake?

Lindsey: Yes. If we are working in a bakery together, and we both really love cake, and we're making all of these cakes constantly, one would think that we would just dive in and smash our faces into the frosting and it's game over, and there's flour everywhere. But, when I'm doing Sexplanations with Nick, you know-- we make cupcakes and take them home later, but we don't eat any of that cake, that cake is for you, and you guys go, and you have that beautiful dessert that we made.

Nick: You just think of that?

Lindsey: Yeah.

Nick: (whisper) That's brilliant.

Nick: Go.

Lindsey: Hmmmmm...

Nick: It did take a long time to get the ball rolling, didn't it?

Lindsey: Yes. I approached Hank and said, "Hey!" And he said, "Yeah!" And then we had a meeting with you, where I got to meet you for the first time. And then, we had to build up the episodes before we launched, and then launched. I needed to learn Twitter, and Tumblr...

Nick: Oh, that's right! You had.. yeah.

Lindsey: And those names, those handles, and...

Nick: Yeah. There was a lot of that. The social media side of it was definitely a first. What about for the future? Plans for the future?

Lindsey: I want to go on tour.

Nick: Okay.

Lindsey: Sex education across...not just the United States, and up and down, but meeeyrp, different continents. I definitely want us to do Australia and London, and I would really like to have more people come on to the show.

Nick: Okay, and we're going to start with that pretty soon actually.

Lindsey: Yeah.

Nick: Yeah. So we will have that, which is great.

Lindsey: 'Cause I love hearing stories rather than telling the stories of others.

Nick: Yeah, I agree. Umm... So I think that's great, and I would love to do that Australia and London thing even though she knows I'm terrified of flying. 

Nick: I didn't expect it to be as... uh embraced as it was; that, that sort of surprised me because the idea was I'll do a simple one, something that I can talk about that uh, since Lindsey was going to be gone but we wanted to make sure we'd have a video for you guys, I said "Well I can talk about identity because it's something I've thought a lot about and that has sort of worked its way into different classes I've taught, so I thought okay I'll do this, I'll send the script to Lindsey and Lindsey adds notes and re-writes a couple of things. Uh, so I was shocked when people like Hannah Witton really liked it and she did her identity video and other YouTubers jumped on like Matt Gaydos and did theirs, and so I guess it was just surprising more than anything. 

Lindsey: We'll be doing Sexplanations, and then pause because we have a whole conversation for us to go through in order to really attach to the material that we are working on, and in that time you say some of the most profound things I've ever heard, and they don't get recorded and they don't get shared, and so for you to be able to have that time on our channel so that there is an audience that gets more Nick was awesome for me, and then to have people pick it up in an unique way - it wasn't so much like "Oh yeah, this is the best sexual health content ever," it was more "This feels right to me and I want to share it and I want to replicate it and have this rippling effect go out." was exactly the kind of attention I felt that it deserved.

Nick: Well that is what I like in a perfect world that would be what I wanted out of it because the whole idea was, you know, it's healthy to talk about it and to do it, um, because there are a lot of things in there I said that I didn't really know until I wrote it down as though I was going to say it, and I would be like and then I would be like, "Yeah, I do identify that way."

Nick: I want to do a series of episodes, like 3 or 4, all on one topic, just different perspectives on it, so it would be a little more stretched out. I will continue to do what we are doing and add new stuff like we talked about with pelvic exam and having a couple of different hosts show up. I will not appear without clothing.

Lindsey: I want... I want an illustrator really badly.

Nick: I do too; it's not in our budget yet.

Lindsey: I want an illustrator in the next year. I will continue to do what we have been doing. I won't quit.

Nick: Okay, that's fair.

Nick: You know what? I'm so proud of us because we did - we are a year now I mean we are almost completely self-sufficient. Our Subbable is rocking it; you guys are amazing. I just couldn't be happier.

Lindsey: Sexplanations is our gift to you; thank you for watching us this last year and enjoy more to come.

Lindsey: Bye!

Nick: Bye!