Extremely Early Preview + News
Added 2024-08-03 20:32:02 +0000 UTCHey everyone, here's an extremely, extremely, extremely early preview of the next video. This is actually just a scratch read, I normally do these audio-only but opted to do it on camera this time and walk through the whole process.
These scratch reads have a couple key functions. First they give a sense of the actual final runtime. I can usually get a pretty accurate guess just from word count, but it sticks better in my head once I can see the timeline visually in my NLE. Second, they help catch things that might not be odd on the page but sound weird or repetitive out loud or are just physically hard to perform. Third, they provide a foundation for pre-visualization, marking out segments that are maybe too long and need some change in style to keep momentum up, or segments of script that are too short for their visual component to actually play out.
We have written a lot of this around visuals that aren't included in any form, so there will be oddities about "this thing here" and "that thing behind me" but if you want to leave feedback on something that didn't make sense or a point you got lost on, at this point in the process we would rather sort through people pointing out the obvious rather than remaining silent about something they just assumed we were going to address.
NEWS
I will be presenting at XOXO in Portland August 24th, i believe passes for this are already sold out.
I will also be at PAX West August 30 through September 2nd and will have a presentation "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft LIVE!" in the Firebird theatre at 2:30pm PT on Sunday the 1st. In addition to the panel I have a joint table with Film Joy (Movies With Mikey) where I will, for the first time ever, have actual planned merch and not just whatever leftover props happen to be laying around. I'll make a post specifically for the merch in a few days, but there will be two different brand new stickers in both a large and small size, a fresh run of My Cohendolences cards from This is Financial Advice, and a brand new t-shirt produced by Catawampus Ink.
Comments
Obviously, Nathan is a busy guy. But does he have friends or family in the UK? Because Harry clearly needs a Nate. While I love Folding Ideas, and am always excited to see something new from you, we could also use more than 1 Hbomberguy video a year!
orestes
2024-10-05 04:06:13 +0000 UTCHe did a gear video on Patreon a few months ago, but I do not remember off the top of my head.
orestes
2024-10-05 01:22:57 +0000 UTCHas Dan ever said what mic he's using or does anyone recognize it?
Beth Curtin
2024-09-02 03:07:52 +0000 UTCcommenting on this late, but I ask anyways out of curiosity of the process, how long does is usually take to complete the video once you're at this stage? Would you call this the "halfway mark," or does the research & writing make for less effort than the filming, recording, & editing?
Myth
2024-08-25 05:41:19 +0000 UTCYeah, I don't think it was intended poorly. The problem with "presumably" is that it casts what follows (in this case, being able to walk) as the norm, and anything else as "other" or abnormal. To think about it in a different way, I'm a POC living in a city where most people are white, and if someone said "you live in $city, so presumably you're white" I'd feel pretty crummy about my experience not having room in the statement. I'd be like, "you presumed wrong! And you didn't even have to presume anything in the first place!" It's not really about hedging statistical probabilities, but more about avoiding making people who are already marginalized feel like they're being called out for being different in that moment. But again, I fully acknowledge that this is polishing language that I don't think quite hit the mark, rather than addressing any ill intent.
fanciest pigeon
2024-08-21 23:07:44 +0000 UTCThat line stood out to me and I took it that he said "presumably" specifically to acknowledge that some people can't/have never walked. But I don't know, I guess it could be taken either way.
Aaron Phillips
2024-08-21 22:48:15 +0000 UTCSuper cool video! Have fun in Texas (or hope you had fun if you’ve already gone!)
Kiki
2024-08-16 02:39:16 +0000 UTCAny chance of us getting a recording of the panels?
Mel Curtis
2024-08-08 09:50:47 +0000 UTCJust sitting, waiting for the swerve. Wasn't disappointed
Tym
2024-08-06 14:49:37 +0000 UTCReally loved it, both this style of preview and the script itself. I think a small thing that would be nice to add is a little extra on the weird Kentucky Ark thing, either about its bad science or the amount of government funding that went into it. I assume some will be able to be understood in a photo or clip but it would help the ending to get more of a sense of the scale and nature of the issue in the modern day.
TurquoiseYoshi
2024-08-06 00:59:35 +0000 UTCThis is very interesting and coincidental timing for me - A month or so ago, I had listened to a podcast (BBC's You're Dead to Me) where they talked about the palaeontologist, Mary Anning. They touched on a part where the church wasnt against evolution because the dinosaurs were seen as "pure" creatures created by god (they were really big) and it was proof that sin had corrupted the world because they were all dead (thus destroying more of god's perfect work). An interesting look at how religion grapples with evolution and science.
Stephen Bandstra
2024-08-05 20:44:24 +0000 UTCI was in my teens when it started and I didn't finish the process til I was in my early twenties. I sometimes say that I didn't have any independent thought or opinion until I was in my twenties, and while that isnt ENTIRELY true, it's close enough. I really didn't know how to think until then. The thing is, though, I didn't really have the comfort of "my parents believed in these things so I did too." I wasn't brought into the church until I was like seven or so and didn't become a "born again" until I was nine or ten, and I was WAY way more devout than my mother, and my stepdad had essentially zero interest in the church or God except as they formed the vague background. I, on the other hand, was a True Believer, without that being modeled for me by anyone in my family. It was a sincere, from the heart thing and I can't blame anyone else for it. I WAS raised to believe in God from early on and to be a Christian, but it was a vague, hazy sort of belief that didn't require any positive action from me until I joined the church. The closest thing I have is that the church leaders believed those things, so THEY were the fools. My mom was going through the motions hoping for a faith that never came, and even as a child I perceived that. The homeschooling, the banning of "demonic literature," all that stuff - it was pushed on her by the church, and didn't even observe all of it to the extent that I did. She listened to secular music, for example; I didn't. I will gently push back on that last thing, though, but only in a very particular sense. I do think that you're generally right, especially because deconversion is a process in part of killing everyone you've ever known (no afterlife), in some sense - realizing the finality of ended relationships is harder when you have more of them to look back on. But in the fundamentalist environment my church was in, I actually think it's easier for the shell to crack for true believers. If you're going through the motions and you've figured out how to thrive in the environment of the fundie church, you're going to have an easier time grappling with inconsistencies and injustices than someone who really, truly believes in an infallible, loving God. My personal experience with ex-fundies is that the ones most likely to deconvert (in my experience! I may be wrong) are the ones who were the truest believers, because it's easiest for them to discern the inconsistencies and become truly distressed by them.
Rejam
2024-08-05 19:19:35 +0000 UTCAgree on the hoodie - both my partner and I from the UK have been searching the internet for the hoodie - it would be great to be able to buy a version of it haha
Georgia ‘Violet’ Parish
2024-08-05 14:19:38 +0000 UTCHey Dan! Early in the video when you're explaining why the carvings are so bad, I noticed some wording where you say something like "presumably you've walked before." I wanted to flag this as potentially ableist - I know there are people out there for whom that is not the case, and I think they might prefer not having that be called out. Just a small nitpick I noticed in a really fun and compelling video. Can't wait to see the final product!
fanciest pigeon
2024-08-05 04:56:12 +0000 UTCCreative way to do a preview and a behind the scenes all in one!
ab
2024-08-04 20:07:50 +0000 UTCI’m very excited for this one!
Taitaiheart
2024-08-04 16:53:49 +0000 UTCOh, that hoodie <3
Przemek Piotrowski
2024-08-04 16:38:01 +0000 UTCMake sure to check the seasons. I went when the river was flooded so I didn’t get to see any prints.
Sam Vercauteren
2024-08-04 15:09:26 +0000 UTCAh, a relaxing talk on fossils and nothing else... oh, there's the twist. Never mind.
James Rule
2024-08-04 13:02:14 +0000 UTCI've got family near there but never actually made it to Glen Rose. Maybe I should do that next time I'm in Texas
Esther Mackenzie
2024-08-04 12:24:35 +0000 UTCI listened to this like I would a podcast and found it really easy to follow. Everything made narrative and structural sense and I could imagine the visuals to the narration in my head quite easily. Parts of it reminded me of Knowing Better's Christian Science video, also in that I found it fascinating but as someone not from North America, I was left wondering how Evangelicals got to that point of... devout stubbornness? So if you were thinking of making the video longer by adding additional angles to the subject, I'd love a segment explaining how religion in the US got to this point, divorced from the Vatican and reality. Another thing I am hoping to see in this video - should you include narration by other creators - is a list of your voice actors. I find this often useful to find other cool people to watch :D As for the merch, low-key I am hoping for a version of the Lake Minnewanka hoodie! It is kind of your most iconic look (and also looks really cool). I'm assuming you got it from a place that has a copyright on it but maybe you can start a collab with them to sell a similar or the same design!
Kathy Clysm
2024-08-04 07:45:57 +0000 UTCI was raised in a baptist church and I fell deep into the creationism rabbit hole about 10-15 years ago when I was in high school. I remember those guys talking about these footprints and promoting Carl Baugh as a real expert. It's cathartic to hear you covering this, thank you.
John Woods
2024-08-04 07:28:56 +0000 UTC35:50 "...getting a tour from the local." Seems like "local" should be plural.
Tom
2024-08-04 01:07:36 +0000 UTCI'm curious how old you were when you shifted your viewpoint. I was 12 or 13 when I realized the whole thing was bullshit -- the creationism, the devil spirits, the speaking in tongues, the idea that anyone was answering prayers about parking spaces -- and I feel like it was much easier as a kid than it would have been as an adult (modulo the having to live a lie for 5 more years). As a kid, I could frame it as "my parents believed these things, what idiots", while if I had had the same realizations at, say, 25 or 30, it would have to be _me_ who had believed those things, and that would have made me the idiot. I always wonder how many people stick with the church because by the time they realize something isn't right, they've invested too much of their identity in it and can't risk rebuilding from scratch.
Lanth
2024-08-04 00:49:29 +0000 UTCEver since the scientism minisode I’ve been hoping you’d revisit this topic but I didn’t expect it to actually happen. I had the biggest grin on my face when I realized where this was going. :D
Lea Chinelo
2024-08-04 00:37:41 +0000 UTCOoh this must connect to the video you posted way back in 2021. Something about dinosaurs and God and all that. I was bummed we didn't get a full essay and I'm stoked we're getting it now!!!
Pinakebbet
2024-08-04 00:32:10 +0000 UTCAs a native of Lubbock, Texas, an audible "oh no" escaped me as soon as I realized where this was going
Cait Monroe
2024-08-04 00:27:58 +0000 UTCWonderful to hear!
PerfectlyAdequate
2024-08-04 00:21:45 +0000 UTCCan’t wait to see the finished video! By coincidence, I was in Glen Rose last weekend hiking in Dinosaur State Park.
Sitrantha
2024-08-04 00:16:11 +0000 UTCErika has been very kind and lent us some help! She's quite busy doing field work, but we've been in touch.
FoldableHuman
2024-08-04 00:10:45 +0000 UTCLove the idea! Not sure if it’s something you want but I do enjoy YouTuber Gutsick Gibbon’s videos on YEC. Her videos always feel like they need a proper editor, so having y’all tackle the subject is very exciting
PerfectlyAdequate
2024-08-03 23:53:45 +0000 UTCHi Dan, I love your channel! My only suggestion is explaining historical amounts of money relative to today's USD. E.g. @ 14:35. I infer that $25 was a lot of money during the Great Depression, but my best guess could still be off by an order of magnitude. Thanks so much for posting this preview!
lrw789
2024-08-03 23:49:13 +0000 UTCHi, Jeane Dixon is pronounced like "Gene Dixon," there's a 1989 commercial for her 900 number where she says it. This is a terrible TV psychic ad, BTW, Miss Cleo blows her out of the water
Ted Koutz
2024-08-03 23:34:23 +0000 UTCOh wow. This has been in production for a while. It was a little weird hearing about Glen Rose, because I had taken a brief road trip there in 2021. Then I remembered that I had taken that road trip after reading about Glen Rose after hearing about it in a video you had where you talked about researching this video.
Sam Vercauteren
2024-08-03 23:02:23 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing so much of your process, Dan. It's much appreciated.
Patrick Riegert
2024-08-03 23:01:59 +0000 UTCThis was a great listen. I don't see any obvious problems with the draft, and I enjoyed the lead-in of having this fascinating little story about fossil hunters George Adams. The only thing I can think to add is more discussion on the topic of creationist rhetoric and propaganda, to better place these examples in a broader context. I look forward to the finished version!
Burt Hagman
2024-08-03 22:51:45 +0000 UTCThis feels like a blast from the past. Growing up, my church wasn't quite sure whether they were just creationists or YE creationists. My parents taught me to give answers about evolution in school like "The book says X" or "Scientists say X" instead of saying "X". Because if I just wrote the answer as presented in class, then g-d would know and be unhappy with me. It was important for the sake of my soul to show that I did not believe what the coursework covered. Anyway I *think* my parents are not YECists anymore, but I don't really talk about it with them. --- Sometimes I like to imagine that I'm a space alien anthropologist visiting earth. The fight about evolution is pretty revealing about human nature and how we process stories and facts. Atheists used evolution as a lever to prove religion was wrong - so churches had to prove evolution was wrong! So they made up stories like 'Mantracks'. But it's such a dumb fight! All creationists have to do is say that g-d used evolution as a tool to create humans! Checkmate atheists! But that would be ceding territory! And the creationists can't retreat even an inch in a fight for The Truth. It's like how conservatives in the US will say that the US is NOT A DEMOCRACY. Because if we live in a democracy, then that gives legitimacy to the Democratic Party. Benoit Blanc voice: It's so dumb. --- If I was an alien anthropologist my doctoral thesis would be on religio-genesis and evolution over 10,000 years of human history. (I also imagine that I've been watching humanity for 10,000 years).
Cameron Sours
2024-08-03 22:43:52 +0000 UTCreally looking forward to the finished video! clickbait title: dinosaur footprints prove god's existence xD
potted_penguin
2024-08-03 22:26:05 +0000 UTCAha! That's exciting, I immediately thought of the video talking about The Principle.
Austin Zhivago
2024-08-03 22:17:07 +0000 UTCI was hoping you’d found the tropics of Calgary.
Ross Vincent
2024-08-03 22:16:07 +0000 UTCI've been following you since you were a cardboard puppet and it caused a strange but positive feeling when you got to the hook and I realized that you were making a video directly relevant to my life. I was one of those homeschooled kids who thought my only field trip was going to be to the YEC museum (it wasn't: I got shown around Confederate battlefields and told how much slaves like being slaves, instead; tbh I would have preferred the dinosaurs at my all-of-maybe-eight-years-old). I actually watched Ken Ham give a lecture to a packed, standing-room-only crowd at my large church. It was interesting to hear this dissection of the architects of the movement that I'd later end up deconstructing. What's even more interesting is that I deconstructed it - as nearly all of us do - because I looked into it. I looked into that history (or at least, the later history; most of this was new to me!) because I wanted to be able to better argue for YEC, and all my church taught me was to say "Were you there?" in response to evolution arguments. I wanted to be able to ably defend what I had been taught was the truth, and looked into the evidence. I'm not sure what it is that separates the hundreds of thousands of us who looked at that evidence and felt our faith eroded away (the temptation to make a flowery comparison to the river is here), and the people who created that evidence, and the people who spread it. I still, to this day, cannot grapple with what allows them to look at the same arguments I did and see strong ones, let alone create those arguments in the first place. I am not an especially intelligent person, so it's gotta be something else: some willingness to engage in self-deception, I guess. While a lot of this info was new to me, what was very, very old to me was just how little has changed: people fabricating flimsy justification for their faith and being more willing to cling to it than to just... IDK, change their minds. Which seems like it ought to be such an easy thing to do. Anyway, sorry to leave an essay on your essay. Just found myself in a weird, sort of electrified state watching this.
Rejam
2024-08-03 22:05:41 +0000 UTCThis definitely feels like a Part 1 to something, enjoyed it even as just background audio
Robert
2024-08-03 22:01:34 +0000 UTCNathan took the lead on writing this one, I handed him all my old notes and sent him off while I finished IDKJR.
FoldableHuman
2024-08-03 22:00:11 +0000 UTCSolid scratch read! I listened to this while doing some work (how I normally rewatch vids), and I was able to follow the narrative, including the various named subjects. Comparing it to your GME video drafts (a subject I was probably as familiar with as I am with this, so not very), I was able to follow the subject-specific language in this more easily; it's very clear. I always appreciate the combination of your broad scope of interests with your particular narrative lens!
DF
2024-08-03 21:59:41 +0000 UTCYes! At long last!
FoldableHuman
2024-08-03 21:56:13 +0000 UTCAww, that's unfortunate, you were always so helpful! Maybe in the future!
FoldableHuman
2024-08-03 21:55:56 +0000 UTCAre we seeing the fruition of that Scientism bonus vid from years ago?! Absolutely stoked.
Julia Krystosek
2024-08-03 21:53:39 +0000 UTCIt would be neat to get Milo from miniminuteman to read out some of the quotes. Seems pretty up his alley
Xavier Marican
2024-08-03 21:53:16 +0000 UTCthis is so crazy specific but i'm obsessed with your pronunciation of anachronistic about a minute in
Maia
2024-08-03 21:27:01 +0000 UTCBummed I won't be at West to Enforce for you in Bandland again, hopefully in the future. Hope you have a great time
Metalupis
2024-08-03 21:16:05 +0000 UTCkept waiting for the twist/lead-in, and honestly was at a point of just believing that dan's next era in video essays was gonna be paleontology, but we just hit that sweet sweet mary adams quote ;p
anneon
2024-08-03 20:59:17 +0000 UTCYour pace is relentless. Six weeks after IDKJR dropped and you already have a readable draft of the script for the next video? I'm in awe of how frequently you put out videos without ever compromising on quality; I just hope that you're not pushing yourself too hard.
Izzy Killeen
2024-08-03 20:40:19 +0000 UTCThank you for the update Dan. Hope you're doing well!
Desi Fowl
2024-08-03 20:38:25 +0000 UTC
