rchapman

Early Release - What is Zionism? Pt. 2: The Creation of Israel

Hey everyone, I'm back from the abyss and happy to report I have a new video to release. It's the follow-up to my last video on Zionism, and covers from where it left off (in 1896) until the creation of Israel in 1948.

I'm calling this a rough cut. I need to spend another couple days on it for finishing touches, which is mostly color grading and adding some movement to some visual assets. I thought I'd release this in the meantime. It's basically the finished piece.

If you have ...

Next Video Rough Cut

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well.

I'm about to release a rough cut for my next Zionism piece here, covering from where I left off last time until the state of Israel was created in 1948. I'm calling it a rough cut, I suppose, but it's basically the finished product, minus some color grading, some movement on some of the pictures, probably some adjustments on the score, things like that.

I'm hoping to have it uploaded here by tomorrow. If not, then I think almost certainl...

Early Release - What Is Zionism? Part 1: Jews Return to Palestine

Hello everyone! I decided to start trying early releases here, to give you guys something sooner, and also possibly get some feedback before I release it to the general public. I uploaded a version earlier today with a layer that didn't render in the timeline, so it had a bunch of visual bugs. I took that version down and re-uploaded this, so it should be release-worthy quality now.

About the piece:

If you weren't aware, I've been working on a big piece on Zionism. It started t...

A Private Discord Server

A private Discord server to provide a formal place for people here and on my Patreon page to talk to each other. I explain the rules and basic premise of the server in the video, so please watch that before joining.

Link to the server: https://discord.gg/Yn9tCUTfUt

My Trip to Verdun

I wanted an excuse to travel outside of Paris and had read about Verdun making my World War 2 video. I learned that some of it was preserved and decided to bundle a visit there into a trip to eastern France. I filmed a bit of footage, enough to make something for you guys, but then was a bit stumped about what to say about it. I sat on it for a while until I realized my struggle in finding significance in it was probably not going to change, in a sense, but also gave me perspective on our tim...

Next Private Video

Hey everyone, I hope you're all having a good New Year so far.

A little update on my end: I want to make a follow-up video for my Iran piece on Islam, collectivism, and Khomeini, but I'm in Europe and my books are all still boxed up in transit on cargo ship somewhere. I thought about making it anyway, but I think it would be best to wait until my books are here so I can make a better piece.

In the meantime, I've been sitting on footage from my travels in France (from the last ...

The State Control of Morality in Iran

Hey everyone! If you didn't catch it I uploaded my video on Iran yesterday. Thank you for your patience if you’re still here.

This video ended being about twice as long as I originally intended, and about 4 times as much work. That ended up being especially problematic because I lived in no fewer than 4 places across the production of this video, 3 of which I had to record audio in to keep the production moving along, which became its own ongoing complication and technical puzzle to s...

Saying Hello

Hey everyone, just stopping by to say hello. I'm still here! Also, I'm sorry things have been quiet. I'm still waiting for my visa to be approved but if everything goes to plan, then I should be moving to France in a week.

I'm still working hard on my latest project. It will be I think a little under 50 minutes long and will be a large-scale piece on Iran. I'm hoping to release it within the next 10 days.

How is everyone feeling coming out of the election? I've been resisting t...

A Life Update (Members Video)

Hey everyone, I've had some developments in my personal life that are going to impact my work. I figured it seemed appropriate to share it here.

A Trend I've Been Seeing (Members Video)

My thoughts on a conspiratorial trend I've been watching that has come to prominence over the last 6 months or so.

America's Leadership Problem

Hey everyone! You've probably already seen it, but here's the latest video. With the election coming up I wanted to cover the subject of American leadership productively, and this is what I came up with.

I hope you guys enjoyed it. I planned on actually covering Iran & Islam next and have made a dent in researching that. There was, of course, the debate this week, and after watching it I took a day to pause and consider covering American politics again for my next one. I might cha...

New Video Soon

Update: If anyone's wondering where it is, the video is uploaded and ready to release. It's being held by a copyright claim that I was told would release yesterday. I'm still waiting. I'll make it public once the company gets to it.

Hey everyone. As usual there's been a long silence since my last upload, but I've been busy working on my latest piece. I'm a little reluctant to give release estimates, but I think it will be out in less than a week. It's going to be on the shorter end (ar...

When the Nazis Hosted the Olympics (Members Video)

Hey everyone! Here's the latest members video as a thank you for your support. It seems that as my quality standards go up these are resembling, more and more, the quality of main channel videos from a year or two ago, and hopefully that's a good thing for you guys.

Basically, the Nazi Olympics struck me as an interesting moment in history and also a powerful symbol of the period that ties in nicely as bonus content for the last WWII video. Enjoy!

Sources for the video:

T...

How World War II Began

Hey everyone, I thought I'd make a post here as a sort of debrief from the last video (How World War II Began).

It's a subject that's been on my mind (as it has been for many) since Russia began its war with Ukraine, and I wanted to make something that put the dynamics down on the table in a clear way for everyone to see. It ended up taking around 8 months to make and was easily the most trying experience so far for me as a creator.

I originally wanted it to be around 40 minut...

When Bad Research is Popular (Members Video)

Hey everyone! Here's the latest member's video. While I research, I come across work that is highly regarded by the public but poorly regarded by the academic world. I think the discrepancy on its own is interesting, but it also presents a puzzle for me to deal with when I produce content. Thinking about that gave me the idea to produce this piece, and I basically sat down and recorded this off the top of my head using materials that relate to my upcoming video.

I hope you en...

The End of the Holy Roman Empire (Members Video)

Hey everyone, this is essentially a supplement to my nationalism video, showing some collateral damage that occurred as people switched into seeing the world in terms of nations.

For a channel update - I'm taking about one day off every two weeks to keep from burning out, but beyond that I'm spending all my time trying to finish my next main channel piece on the origins of World War II. It's currently looking to be about an hour and a half long and will sort of resemble a feature docum...

The Next American Civil War

Hey everyone, hope you're having a good December. I've been busy working on the World War 2 piece and am about halfway through recording and editing it.  It's probably going to be over an hour long and will basically resemble a full-length documentary.

Meanwhile the trailer for Civil War came out and made me decide to make a quick piece on it. This is what resulted. Hope you get something out of it!

I plan on doing one Patron's video before the WWII video is released. It's ei...

Some Music

Hey everyone. I realize Halloween is mostly an American holiday, but I thought I'd get away from all the heavy material for a moment and share a Halloween-themed playlist I made for those that will appreciate it here.

Happy Halloween to those that are celebrating it and have a great night to everyone else.

- Ryan

Patron's Video: The End of the Holy Roman Empire

Hey everyone, here's the latest patron's video. I thought it was interesting that just about everyone has heard of the Holy Roman Empire, but no one seems to care about it. Studying nationalism shed light on why, and this is me sharing my findings.

Thanks for your support and I hope you enjoy it.

Nationalism: An In-Depth Explanation

Hey everyone, here's the nationalism piece I've been working on for the last few months. I originally wanted to make about a 10-12 minute piece comparing nationalism and patriotism, but the more time I spent with nationalism the more I decided that the patriotism approach was thin/uninteresting.

I decided instead to focus entirely on nationalism and make an in-depth piece covering:

- The world before nationalism

- The broad contours of the history of nationalism from beginni...

Nationalism Video

Hey everyone, going by the timeline I gave on my last update I should have probably uploaded something by now, so I wanted to fill you all in.

I finished setting up the new studio and spent about 10 days reading/preparing for the nationalism vs patriotism video towards the end of July. As I worked on it, I lost conviction that the 'nationalism vs patriotism' concept was the right course of action for me, and became increasingly convinced that I should ditch the patriotism angle and make...

An Update

Patrons hello! I thought I’d give you all an update. I’ve had some changes in my personal life, which means I’m moving out of the space I’ve been filming in and into a new studio. The new space should give me a little more room to work in and more flexibility customizing the background. I can literally only afford to do that thanks to your donations here, so thank you again, so much, for your support.

I’ll be moving into the new space over the next 2-3 weeks. Video-wise, I hav...

The Man Who Saved Thomas Jefferson (Members Video)

Hey everyone, here's the latest members video. I was initially going to make this about Jouett's heroic ride through the night to warn Jefferson, then ask if he changed the world for better or for worse, assuming Jefferson had been caught and executed had Jouett not done that. But re-reading the source I was going to use set off red flags, and the following video resulted.

Hope you guys enjoy it and thank you again for your support!

New video: Why Thomas Jefferson Didn't Free His Slaves

Hey everyone, here's the latest video. I published it over Memorial Day Weekend, which perhaps wasn't the best in terms of timing, but that's when I was done producing it. I think Americans still have unfinished business in resolving their opinions and understanding of Jefferson, and this piece tried to help that process along.

I know everyone's not crazy about these 18th century & ancient history pieces, so if thats you, thank you for bearing with me. I think they're important for ...

The Prospect Of World War III (Members Video)

Hey everyone, the prospect of World War III has been on my mind lately, and as it seems like has been for a lot of people. I don't want to be alarmist, but I do think it's something worth paying attention to and talking about. It seemed appropriate to make another video on here to do that. Hope you guys enjoy it.

I'm going from this pretty much straight into recording my piece on Thomas Jefferson & slavery, then after that I plan on doing a piece on the origins of World War II. Than...

American Democracy vs. Ancient Athens

Hey everyone, here's the American/Athenian democracy video. I've been trying to figure out for a while (about a year? at least) how to make an educational video on democracy that the public might actually want to watch. It's not a topic with dramatic weight like fascism or socialism, so I think it tends to come across as a flat/dry subject. This was my attempt to solve that puzzle and present it in an interesting lens.

I hope you guys like it! This was about three months of work on my e...

Something interesting I found (Members Video)

Hey everyone, I found an interesting little gem that I wanted to share with you guys. Hope you enjoy! 

Also once you watch, what do you think? Coincidence or no?

Thanks again for your support! Roadmap for the next two vids - starting  tomorrow: American vs. Athenian Democracy. After that (which I'm researching somewhat concurrently): Thomas Jefferson & Slavery. Both will in the longer, more heavily cited format.

- Ryan

Who were the sophists? (Members Video)

Hey all, here's another mini vid. I'm in the middle of one of the more research-intensive projects comparing American and Athenian democracy, and thought I'd make this as a supplement and a sort of warm-up. I initially planned for it to be around 4 minutes, but the more I read about them, the more material I wanted to include, and it started to resemble a main channel vid. I limited myself to just producing it for a single day, and ended up with a 7.5 min vid that's something in between. Let ...

Why Do People Hate Elon Musk?

Hey all, here's the Elon video. This video was an experiment to see how working on a more contemporary/pop-oriented topic would play out. I tried to approach it from a perspective that cut through the noise and got at the underlying dynamics to the polarization around him. Let me know what you think.

My next video is going to be on democracy in both ancient Athens and America, describing and comparing them. It's going to be in the heavier/longer style, and it's something I've been work...

What Is Existentialism? (Members Video)

Hey all, here's a quick video talking about existentialism. My main goal here is to make the concept less intimidating for people who don't have a handle on what it means. Let me know what you think. 

For main channel videos, I'm currently working on a piece on Elon Musk and am looking to follow that up with a piece on either censorship or Thomas Jefferson & his relationship with slavery. As always, that roadmap can change. I often start a piece and decide the material or conce...