[Inaudible Talking]

Stan: .,.always on the side.

Nick: Hi!

Stan: Oh, hi.

[Laughter]

John: Hello! Welcome the, uh, 2016 spring membership drive for the CrashCourse Patreon. Over the next, how many hours Nick?

Nick: Uh, 12 hours.

John: Over the next 12 hours, uh, we will be live, uh, here talking about
 
[Audio playback]

John: Oh god. Nope. Nope. You've got to mute it.

Stan: [inaudible]

John: Well, yeah, but you can't. You got to do this.

Stan: Oh, yeah.

John: Okay.

Stan: Having the livestream on is the problem.

John: Yeah. And, uh, now it's back. Yupp.

Stan: Let's just get rid of that.

John: OK. You can do that as well, if you want.

Nick: OK. Everything's muted. It's good.

[Inaudible talking]

Female in background: Yeah, if you go to CrashCourse YouTube channel, it's on there.

Nick: Um, there we are.

[Cheering]

John: I want to make clear that was Stan's fault. Over the next--

[Laughing]

John: Over the next 12 hours, except for the last 30 seconds, we're going to be live-streaming. I don't know why I'm wearing this hat. Um, and, uh, talking about CrashCourse and the Patreon, which is how we fund CrashCourse, uh, and trying, uh, to, uh, get, convince you, uh, to become a member or encourage you to become a patron of Patr-- uh, of CrashCourse. Um, so, we're here right now with Nick, who is in Missoula, Montana. And then, this is the Indianapolis, uh, some of the Indianapolis CrashCourse crew. Zulaiha, you can only see half of her face, because-- there she is! Sheridan is here. Stan is here. Uh, Stan Muller, the executive producer of CrashCourse. And, Brandon Brungard is here as well. Rosianna is off in a corner; she's there but you can't see her. Hey, ah, there she is! And um..

Stan: There's another Nick.

John: There's another Nick behind Nick. Uh, it's a little bit confusing, but we'll-- you'll-- you got 12 hours to learn names, so I'm sure you'll get there eventually. We have Bop-It! Uh, which is a game that I just discovered. It's terrible, but I've, um...

[Laughing]

John: Very bad at it, but I'm passionate.

Zulaiha: Just twist it, twist it.

John: Pull? Twist it, twist, ah.

Zulaiha: Yeah.

John: Alright. So, we have Bop-It! We're going to play Bop-It! a little later in the background. We got, uh, the arcade machine. Your Patreon dollars, by the way, do not pay for the arcade machine, that came out of our pockets. Um, and uh, yeah. So, we got our, our, uh, arcade machine that we're going to play some games, CrashCourse games on. We're going to have a great time over the next 12 hours, is that correct Nick?

Nick: Um, I really hope so.

[Laughing]

John: Alright, so, first off, I just-- We were going to take some questions from comments, so if you're in the comments, feel free to ask any of us questions. But, I just want to say, um, explain what Patreon is. Is that fair, Nick?

Nick: Yes.

John: Alright, I'm going to explain what Patreon is and how CrashCourse is funded. So, advertising is great. We love advertising. It's just kind of a terrible way to fund online video, because, um, all advertisers care about is the number of people who see their ad. Um, which is great for them. Uh, it's the right thing for them to do, I guess, but it isn't great for necessarily, for the overall quality of online video. Because, in the end, all that matters is the number of eyeballs that see something, not how useful some thing is, not how much it matters to somebody, not how, uh, deeply good it is. Joe's here, who does CrashCourse Curriculum, and I don't know what he's going to do all day because we're going to be here until like 1 p.m. Um, Joe's, use my office. I feel bad.

Joe: I'll be fine.

John: Here's Joe. Joe works on the, uh, developing the curriculum materials for CrashCourse. So, the stuff that goes into, uh, schools, uh, you know, that isn't video, but worksheets, other stuff. We'll have Joe talk about that in a little while. So, anyway, uh, advertising is not necessarily the best way to pay for like high-production value content-- sorry Bop-It!'s talking to me-- Especially educational content. And so, that's why we turn-- Ok, goodbye Bop-It! You go to sleep. That's why we turn, um, to you, and ask you to voluntarily subscribe to support, um, uh, CrashCourse. Basically it's a National Public Radio model, uh, for those of you who live in the United States.

John: A few people pay so everyone can enjoy it for free. Uh, if just, uh, if just two percent of the people who pay who watch CrashCourse pay, uh, two or three dollars a month on Patreon, uh, we'd be able to do eight or nine, uh, shows a week instead of, uh, four or five that we are able to do now. Um, and so it's, it doesn't take, your money goes a very, very long way toward, uh, supporting CrashCourse. By the way, you can find the Patreon at patreon.com/CrashCourse. Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash CrashCourse. And, we're very grateful to the people, um, who support CrashCourse now, um, on Patreon. It's the lion's share of how we make this work. Um, the, we do make money from advertising, sometimes we have brand deals, we have some support from, um, from very generous, uh, foundations and individuals, especially, uh, folks at Bill Gates's personally office, which is a huge, hugely important part of how we're able to do, especially the curriculum stuff. But, uh, but the biggest chunk of the budget is you. Um, and so, we really appreciate your support, and we hope that if you value CrashCourse, if it's something that, um, that, uh, matters to you and that has been helpful to you, and that you want to see continue to grow, and, uh, hopefully be useful to generations of new students then, um, then you'll go to Patreon and support us. The only other thing I'll say before we, before I-- I-- I give up the microphone or answer some of your questions and comments, um, is that, uh, is about kind of what we're, what we're looking to do over the next, um, next couple of years. The first thing is that we would like to be shooting in 4k. Like, um, we think that's going to be where the world's going to be in 5 years. So, we'd like to make stuff that, um, that will look good in 5 years, because one of the kind of keys to CrashCourse is that is doesn't age that quickly because physics doesn't change that quickly. Um, it does change, but hopefully, like, you only have to refresh like every five years.

John: So, we want to be shooting in 4k, um, and that's one of the things that, um, we're looking to, uh, increase the budget to be able to do. The other thing is that we really want to be able to do CrashCourse in other languages. Um, it's unfortunate that, you know, we're getting more subtitles. Um, we've got some big projects coming up in other languages, but right now, you know, CrashCourse is mostly for people in the english-speaking world, and we'd like that to change. We'd like to have, uh, you know, dubbing to start, but we'd also ideally like to have, um, hosts from outside, you know, from outside the english-speaking world, uh, talking directly in their language, uh, to people, uh, to students and teachers. And, so that's the other big thing that we really want to do, um, with CrashCourse. So, we're happy to answer your questions about the Patreon or anything else. But, um, but yeah. Thank you for supporting it. If you can't support it, of course, like if you don't have money, I totally understand. Um, uh, this is my, uh, stop punching-- stop eagle punching US government cup, by the way.

[Slurping noise]

Nick: Available now

John: Available now at dftba.com.

Stan: Are there any others?

[Laughter]

John: Yes, there so happens to be others. Wow, there's lots of CrashCourse mugs available at dftba.com. That's another part of, a big part of how we fund CrashCourse, actually. Um, fricking mug sales.

[Laughter]

John: Can't underestimate it. Um, Rosianna you want to ask the questions?

Rosianna: Yeah! Um, so, what was your initial thought about CrashCourse when it first started?

John: I thought that it would not be this. Uh, Stan-- So, here's the whole story, I'll tell you the story about how CrashCourse started. I put an ad in Craigslist, because that's where you find employees-- Brandon, would you like a chair? Joe would you like a chair?

Joe: I'm good on my knees.

John: Ok.

Stan: You're taking a knee back there?

Joe: I'm taking a knee.

John: Uh, so, I put an ad on Craigslist asking for an assistant to read some of my email, and just to like edit. I really wanted to do a game series, so I was, uh, I wanted somebody who could edit gaming stuff, and Stan applied.

John: And, Stan has both a degree in history and a degree in video editing, as it happens.