I didn't expect much from San Marino. Even filming this episode I was a little annoyed with how little I could find worth telling.
But this story entertained me, and Kata edited it beautifully. I'm super happy with how it turned out.
I hope you all enjoy!
2019-08-31 18:00:23 +0000 UTC View Post
We happened to be driving past Liechtenstein on our way to filming and came across this story. I couldn't find it online in English, so I decided to make the pit stop.
Thanks for watching and supporting!!!
I don't expect a lot of people to watch this episode, but it was the main reason I went to Somaliland in the first place and it damn well needs to be heard.
200 million women. At least a million little girls this year, every year, until we make it stop.
This is precisely why we use Patreon as our main source of funding. So we can tell stories like these. Thank you, sincerely, for allowing us to do what we feel best.
As always, much love from the Hadfields,
Evan...
Laas Geel was amazing!!! The art is incredible and the paintings are so well preserved. Hard to believe they are at least 5,000 years old. Makes a visit to Somaliland totally worth it, even if you have to spend the rest of your time hiding in a hotel room. ;)
Thanks for watching!
Lots of love from us both,
Kata
Hello Patrons,
As you might guess upon watching, this week's video is an emotional follow up to our rather clinical look at Somaliland independence. I feel to understand the true drive towards freedom, you need to know the trauma that got them there. Make their struggle a little less forgotten.
Huge thanks to Eric for stepping up to the plate when the whole world fell apart. He may never be the world's best cameraman, but he's always there when you need him.
Thanks, everyone...
2019-08-03 18:00:37 +0000 UTC View Post
It is my understanding that Somaliland receives around five hundred tourists a year. We were three. But within a single day, street assaults over tattoos meant we were two. Then one.
Naturally, it was an extremely difficult place to film. I did my best with what I could.
That said, I had a unique and life-affirming visit and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Wonderful people helped me get this footage without asking for a single thing in return, and showed me kindn...
Today's video, the last from Ethiopia, is my favourite of the season.
Abel is a hero of mine, but also a friend. I'm proud to have met him and to have been able to pass on his story. He deserves better from this world, and I hope that in some small way this helps him achieve that.
This week's patronage will be going towards funding Abel's efforts to run an independent, modern media outlet that serves the needs of everyday Ethiopians. While I don't expect any of you to fund any f...
Tej! It looks great but tastes horrible. I think it may just be antifreeze. Both of us who drank it vomited, and really badly so at that.
Yet, I still highly recommend it. Why? Because we can use it to save our beeeees. (not really)
Enjoy!
Kata (& Evan)
Hello dearest Patrons,
I am back, not gunned down in the street, and here in my normal chair trying to figure out this week's normal video. Luckily for me, this week is a bit of a break from the heavy stuff and is instead just a quick video we made on the way out the door of Ethiopia. It isn't the last video this season before Somaliland (that's a special one I'm particularly proud of), but it is getting close!
In one respect, today's video is the story of trying new things. But...
The battle of Adwa is among the most famous battles in history. Hard to call rare. So instead, this episode is about an obelisk. All joking not aside, everything, of course, is a matter of perspective. To Evan, for example, Italy's greatest shame is Francesco.
It took a great deal of effort to produce this episode. Lost A roll, limited amount of B roll, super dusty clips, just to name a few. We tried to patch up the holes with some historic footage, as well as with shots from Francesco ...
2019-06-29 18:00:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Chewing khat at this point is tradition. It is so much a part of East African culture that you can even use it to bribe the police.
Evan probably wishes he could have bribed men with bags of leaves in Sarajevo as well. Some sort of police/mafia robbed him, Francesco and Eric at gunpoint two nights ago. They took the camera, phones, wallets... Luckily, they're are all okay, trying to find a new camera to finish up filming the new season.
Lots of love to everyone,
Kata 2019-06-22 18:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post
God is just what we make of it. Even when they aren't.
The Rastas of Shashamane are a very secluded community, so trying to respect their privacy, filming this episode was challenging. Luckily, the owners of Zion Train Lodge were incredibly helpful and welcoming. Their lodge is a literal art gallery filled with beautiful murals. As we don't have a lot of footage from Shashamane, I was worried that the visuals of this episode won't do justice to the story. However, I'm quite happy how it...
2019-06-15 18:00:50 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a story about coffee. We hope you like it.
Tesfamikael and his family were very nice people. They invited us into their home for coffee.
Ethiopian coffee is really good. You supposed to drink 3 cups (3 brews). Often in the evening. So good luck falling asleep afterwards!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Kata (& Evan)
P. S: Restaurants often serve popcorn with coffee. All of our popcorn was eaten by Donnie, the donkey.
2019-06-08 18:00:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello Earthlings.
This week's episode is a bit of a silly take on a serious topic.
It's hard to deny that I wrote this whole episode because I wanted you to see Samuel the amorous donkey attempt to court his unwilling lady love. But I still think it might be worth the watch. :)
Enjoy!
- Evan
Teff. It's the primary staple of the national diet of Ethiopia. It forms injera, the daily bread of an entire nation, and has been around since the very dawn of agriculture.
But today, despite being more important to the nation's survival than ever before, teff is facing its greatest threat: the Dutch.
The locals said that we would become addicted to injera once we tried it, but I guess that didn't happen. While I didn't mind the sour sponginess, Evan and Eric were less keen...
2019-05-25 18:00:24 +0000 UTC View Post
If we found the Ezana stone before the Rosetta, I suspect you'd already know this story. But we didn't, so you probably haven't heard about it. Even now, the Ezana stone is pretty hard to find. It's hidden in a tiny hut by the side of the road in Axum. The old man who guards it, sometimes whacks children with his stick - probably mostly out of boredom.
Axum was very interesting to film, it's covered in archaeological sites. The video also heavily features Lalibela with its rock ca...
2019-05-18 18:00:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Harar! Where feeding various animals chunks of goat has become a tourism bonanza.
The town itself is probably the most unique and interesting place we visited in Ethiopia, and we ended up doing about four episodes from the area rather unexpectedly. The city has an intensely cool history, lots of glory and horror and humanity, and most of all - hyenas.
This isn't exactly our most intellectually rigorous video, but I had a lot of fun trying to make it. It turns out that the new ...
Helllllllllo dear Patrons,
Welcome to another Saturday's attempt to entertain and educate. Today's episode is about Awra Amba, a cult by any other name.
This video was easily our most difficult this season. Not because the location was hard to get to, or the subjects hard to film. They were pleasant, helpful, and forthcoming. No, the reason that this episode was hard is because the person I hired to film it got day drunk and threw away everything from this entire week. I honestl...
I liked this story. I liked it so much that I made an entire episode about something that is completely incapable of being filmed. The story of Abba Mahari: Ethiopia's Moses.
There is almost nothing written about him, and nobody left to pass down oral tradition. Yet, if you scour the history long enough, you can pinpoint a fairly comical moment in time when a man stood before a river with a dream in his eyes, and lost.
This week's episode (as well as the next three upcoming) bor...
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Today's episode is about a dam they'd never let me get close to, and the countries who wish to destroy it.
I'm going to try to start tailoring the videos into a more questioning tone, I think. I only did it in the title here, but I like how it leads me to think when forming the episode. I'm just mulling it over, so let me know what you think!
I didn't get a chance to review this video after it was edited due to birthday cel...
We're back!
Although it wasn't the first episode we filmed in Ethiopia (actually, nearly the last), we felt that humanity's beginning would make for a good opener.
This is the story of Lucy, and the splinters of history that she represents. While she may not be one of our ancestors, she is a symbol across the globe. A bipedal ape living at the dawn of man.
As mentioned, this episode (and essentially the entire season) was filmed by myself (a-roll by Eric). I'm not a vide...
Hello everyone. I might not be dead, but I am slightly out of focus!
It has been a heck of a long time since I've put an update out here on Patreon, and I'm excited to announce that we're finally ready to launch our new season from East Africa. It has been a very long and complicated road to get here, but we're finally here.
On top of that, my wife and I have been discussing that I haven't been a good enough Patreon person. I need to engage here more. To provide behind-the-scene...
Dear Patrons, it's time we had a quick chat about the future.
Francesco is gone. And while we are all wishing him the best in what is undoubtedly the right decision, the kid was 50% of this series. He was the heart. It's not a simple transition to lose him.
Yet, most clouds have silver linings, and in his life upgrade, it has me thinking about my own. I'll be releasing an update video to explain further when able, but to summarize, starting in the upcoming season i...
Welcome to 2019! We're back, if momentarily, to bring you some childish jokes from a small town in Newfoundland.
As mentioned in the description of the video in more detail, Francesco is moving on in the world and we're in the market for a new battle hardened videographer/editor. If you know that person, let me know!
As always, thank you incredibly for your support. 2019 is gonna be our year.
Dear Patrons,
I don't really remember why we decided to do this, but we've made a video about how we make videos, with a real video wedged in. I'm not sure if you'll like it, but doing it this way was a lot of fun to film.
There was a lot of driving around before we came across ol' Kyle here. But when we saw her, we knew it was all going to be ok.
Also, to note - this is our last video of the year so that Franny can have a few days to rest up and take some holiday. We also ...
2018-12-15 19:01:30 +0000 UTC View Post
It's Wednesday, and that means we're talking in my house. Today's episode comes with an incredibly long preamble and a little back and forth about a product I actually like (and a Patron friend of mine makes).
Dan Demsky, you're a mensch. Thanks for all the shirts.
(Also: Apparently, my heating sounds wanted to join for the first minute or two. Thanks, heating sounds!)
Hello everyone. I hope you're excited for a video about incest and blood theft. I know I am.
But more seriously, this episode was made possible by the friendly and open attitude of people who knew that I was essentially going to be calling them bad names on the internet (and I should make note that none of the people featured on screen were those who had their blood stolen, nor are to my knowledge any more inbred than the rest of us).
The reality is that all of our fam...
Hooray! My body is finally bounced back from getting in the car accident, and I'm able to get back to filming various long delayed second channel Patreon videos.
Today's video is the story of that accident, a few days after the fact. It was graciously sponsored by our Patron Wes Mills. Wes, you rock.
Love to our entire Patreon family,
Evan, Francesco and Kata
2018-12-05 18:15:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Today's episode is the story of one of my heroes. Dr. Wilfred Grenfell. He was a good man, who lived a good life. I have huge respect for anyone who puts up with a Labrador winter, let alone simply to keep others alive.
Much love to you all!
What do you do when the cod's gone?
To follow the theme of our last episode's fishery doom and gloom, we wanted to show what had been done since the collapse on the island of Fogo, and how a single person can make a difference when they decide to.
Also: We are back this week with Common Ground videos. We made a ton when Francesco was here and then it turned out the microphone was picking up too much couch squeak and I couldn't release them. It was basically all squeak. A Ti...