Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 15 Michael Stevens (Vsauce) - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: January 10, 2014

This week Rhett & Link get to know Michael Stevens, creator and host of popular YouTube channel, VSauce, on a personal level that is publicly unprecedented, as they chat about his aspirations of being a "Polymath" as a child, how a video called "Hillary Clinton Farts" played a major role in his eventual success, and the effect being a YouTube employee has on his channel popularity. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. It's time for another conversation with an interesting person from the Internet. And this week at the Roundtable of Dim Lighting, we have the one and only Michael Stevens, creator of one of the most fascinating channels on the Internet. You've heard of it, Vsauce. He schools us on who he is, the person behind the science. Is he just the internet's version of Bill Nye or something more? We also talk about his surprising path to where he's at with Vsauce now and the unexpected way he came up with the name Vsauce.

His initial viral success had nothing to do with science. So this is convolution happening here. We also discussed the secrets to how he gets so many views on his videos. Does being a Google employee give him an unfair advantage as a YouTuber? Now, I got to admit, when I talk to someone like Michael Stevens, who is obviously a smart gentleman, he has reputation for being a smart guy. I selfishly like to be able to say, oh, yeah, yeah, I was an engineer once. I majored in civil engineering. I have an engineering degree. I have a degree.

I have an industrial engineering degree. Right. And so that's your background. I took three levels engineering degree. Right. And so, you know, that's your background. I took three levels of calculus. Right. And so, you know this if you've listened to us talk about our backgrounds before, that, you know, we have engineering degrees. And we did that for a few years. Now, the interesting thing is that we have pretty much done stuff together since we met one another, right?

You know, school. First grade on, we kind of, okay, friends, let's kind of have, we're doing stuff together, except for after graduating from college and getting engineering jobs. Now, interestingly, we were doing the same thing. I mean, we both got engineering degrees, and we both wore khakis and polos to work every day. But we went to two separate places. Did you tuck your polo in? Oh, of course. You couldn't not

tuck your polo in. I think on an occasional Friday, I wouldn't tuck my polo in. But then you'd just look like a punk. You mean you wore khakis with an untucked polo? That doesn't even look good. Looks kind of slobbish. Yeah, it's like, I'm not going to trust that guy with any calculations. Yeah, true. Well, on Fridays. Looks kind of slobbish. Yeah, it's like, I'm not going to trust that guy with any calculations.

Yeah, true. You know? Well, on Fridays. Well, on Fridays I wore jeans, but I tucked a polo into them. I mean, it was casual Fridays. You can't get too casual here, you know? You got to wear flip-flops or something. But the thing that's interesting is that I know a fair amount about your time at IBM as an industrial engineer

simply through stories that you've told now that we do this. But we didn't talk about it at all at the time. I had no idea what you were doing on a daily basis. Well, what was I doing? I mean, what was I supposed to say? Hey, man, I got to tell you about this conveyor belt layout that I designed today. When the refurbished computers come down here, I figured out the best way to put them in a box and to tape the box. I actually bought the machine that tapes the box. It's amazing. Will you come to work with me and see the automatic box taper that I purchased? If you had talked about it like that, I would have shown up. Oh, yeah, man. And these guys who work back there,

they're from Africa, and they're awesome guys, and we're from Africa and they're really, they're awesome guys and we're friends and they tape the boxes. That's how it worked. Well, but isn't it fascinating? Well, the machine taped the boxes. Isn't it fascinating that, you know,

now we know too much about each other in our day. I mean, we're with each other all the time. So, I mean, it's just our daily routine. What would you have told me? That's what I would have told you. I would have said, well, what I did today is I went on the internet and I just

looked at ultralight planes and how they fly around. And I looked at some blogs about ultralights and then my boss came over. So you procrastinated. And he had incredibly horrible breath that he would put his face up over the top of my cubicle. He wouldn't come into my cubicle. He would just put his head over the top. Really? So I would just see his face. And he would be like seven to nine feet from my face. But I would smell his breath.

It was like a projectile. Projectile halitosis. Oh, it was like right into my nostrils. So much so that I had to alter my breathing. My manager's breath stunk really bad too. And he had a, we had offices, we didn't have cubicles. But so you wouldn't tell me anything about the actual job you did? Did you actually do work? Yeah. Yeah. Well, but it's because in the specific sector of the engineering world that I was in, the energy market at the time,

with the whole, this is kind of boring information, but long story short, with the Enron scandal, it drastically impacted the workload at a firm that was designing power plants. So much so that for the whole last year that I worked there, we did nothing except like read novels and go on the internet. Because there was no jobs because

it was all job based there was nothing you could do now i told you they wanted you to be reading manuals and like learning standards but no one did that especially somebody like me who knew i wasn't going to do this forever what were you supposed to be doing though designing how thick a pipe should be that carries water out of it well not how thick but how big around so uh the first year okay the first year i'm glad you set that one straight no but how much you know how thick, but how big around. So the first year. Okay. The first year. I'm glad you set that one straight. No, but how much, you know,

how thick a pipe is, is the wall thickness. And design that? How the diameter of a pipe is what I would determine. So the material and the diameter and how large the retention pond should be. So this is actually kind of fascinating. If you look at a power plant, the entire, the grade,

meaning the slope of the ground, when you look at a power plant, the entire grade, meaning the slope of the ground, when you look at a power plant, it's all graded to one side or to a number of sides, and there's a retention pond. Basically, it's like, okay, we've put these huge slabs of concrete out here on Earth, and now we have to take into account that we have changed the characteristics of this particular place so that when it rains, we've got to take that into account. this particular place so that when it rains, we've got to take that into account. And we've got to funnel all this water that comes off of these places, put them in a pond, and then distribute them, you know, into the, you know, off of, basically dam them up so they don't ruin anything. So there was an ecological consequence to what was happening and you had to account for that by creating a retention pond. And like designing drains and then pipes that would route the water to the pond.

Sounds awesome. I built ponds but you couldn't even put fish in them. I was always like, let's put some catfish out there. How come the last thing that we don't do is turn this into a fishing pond? And everyone just looked at me like, because that's not what this is about, bruh. Makes me want to go back and do it

now that you got me all fired up about it. Let's design some ponds, man. You can tape the boxes and I'll design the ponds. Let's do it. No, thanks. Okay. I'm pretty grateful and even more so right now after this conversation of what I'm currently doing.

Yeah. This is pretty great. And now you know why I never told you about that. Yeah, because I'm kind of sleepy now. But give me this one concession here. Every day, no, once a week on Fridays, we need to start wearing khakis and tug-tip polos. Because I think that it's like the opposite of casual Friday.

The rest of the world is enjoying casual Friday, dressing like we're dressed right now. We have straight-laced Fridays. Straight-laced Friday. And everybody here at the like we're dressed right now. We have straight-laced Fridays. Straight-laced Friday, and everybody here at the studio comes in dressed business casual, and we're thankful that we have this slacker job, basically. We get to talk to each other every day.

It's not a slacker job. It's a fun job. It's a fun job. Yeah, it's not a slacker job, but it's a fun job. Who else? I'm shifting gears now. Did you have anything else you want to say about that? No.

I was going to shift back to Michael. Tucked in polos. And get into this thing. Because who else gets to talk to someone like Michael Stevens about his personal life? Nobody but us, Rhett. No one else is doing this, I don't think. Well, that's not true, but it's nice that you think that. But we did have a conversation with Michael about his personal life

and also everything that led up to his amazing success on YouTube, which is 6 million subscribers on his Vsauce channel with titles for videos including, Why Are Bad Words Bad? Is anything real? How much money is there on Earth? What if everyone on Earth jumped at once? Now, let's talk to the man behind these irresistibly clickable titles. Here it is, our Ear Biscuit with Michael Stevens.

You've already gone through an energy drink. You're about to go through a coffee, and then we've got two backup waters. I know, but how come you have two waters? There's three of us? Well, I've already got one. Because I'm betting that we all aren't going to need a full bottle. An additional. Yeah, we're going to share one bottle.

We're going to pass. We're going to pass it. You know, I shared a water bottle with Henry Winkler once. Really? Yeah. The Fonz? Yeah. Yeah.

I went to this film school in Orange at Chapman University for like two weeks over the summer. Okay. And he came and spoke and he left his water bottle on the lectern and afterwards I was like, free Fonz spit. So I took it. And drank it. No, I wouldn't dare do that and taint the saliva. Do you still have it? I don't know, you know, do that and taint the saliva. Do you still have it? I don't know.

I might. So it wasn't, see, when you said that, you were like, I shared a water bottle with Henry Winkler. I was like, oh, that means you guys were hanging, playing tennis together. No. He doesn't know. And he was like, you want some of my water? He doesn't know that I took it. And I thought, you know, if I ever drank out of this, it would be a little bit like kissing him.

Yeah. And what did you think about that? And so then you drank out of it or then you didn't? No, I was afraid to do that. So I just kind of, I probably honestly threw it away but just kept telling the story. Right. Right, because it's really about the story. It's really about that.

We once shared a lobby with Henry Winkler. Remember that? Yeah, he was in the lobby and so were we. That's pretty much it. You shared it though. Yeah, we were sharing it really good. I remember as a kid being a pro wrestling fan and thinking, I don't know why I thought this because I never saw pro wrestling in person, but I was thinking if I were to ever be at a pro wrestling event and Hulk Hogan were to run past me and give me five, because he would do that as he was going down into the wrestling ring, I developed a plan that I was going to come home, put my hand in plastic,

and try to capture some of the sweat from Hulk Hogan. Some Hogan-ness. And even though I never was able to execute the plan, it was a fully formed plan in my mind. Right. But you would eventually wash the hand. You would just bag up some of the molecules that were still there. Right. And then I would keep the bag and then wash my hand.

That's great. That's actually really clever. I'm pretty clever. But it wouldn't work. It's like trying to bag a fart or something. Oh, you've never tried to bag a fart? Why are we always going back to farts, the three of us? Yeah, last time you were here on the Mythical Show, we talked in detail about diarrhea. I feel like most of that got cut. I'm thinking it's for the anniversary special deleted scenes bonus.

But let me put it to you this way. You're breathing in atoms that Hulk Hogan has breathed in. You don't need to bag up a high five molecule. That's a good point. Just be. Just be yourself. In theory, though, but you can't point to it. Yeah.

You want to create memorabilia. That's why you at least kept the water bottle for a few minutes or days or weeks or whatever. It might still be in my closet in my bedroom at home in Kansas. But is it true, though? I mean, statistically speaking, have we breathed the same molecules as Hulk Hogan? Oh, yeah. Many times over? I think many times over.

Atoms are just so tiny. They're so tiny. Each breath contains quintillions of atoms. And so just to get 100 of them from Hulk Hogan's breath, statistically very, very likely that you're doing it right now. Oh my goodness, this is amazing. We're breathing Hulk Hogan's air.

And you know what? There's a 100% chance that we have breathed Ric Flair's air because we shared an elevator with him. Remember that? Whoa. That was Greg the Hammer Valentine. It wasn't Ric Flair.

They were both at the same hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee. You and Tommy Rutledge rode the elevator with Greg the Hammer Valentine. It wasn't Ric Flair. They were both at the same hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee. You and Tommy Rutledge rode the elevator with Greg the Hammer Valentine. I rode the elevator with the Nature Boy. That's called a bad choice on my part. Wrong elevator. I breathed deeply when I was

in that elevator with the Nature Boy. You're talking about wrestling, too. I'm sorry. You into pro wrestling? No. Okay, sorry. You into pro wrestling? No. But I think I was born at a different time. I was a bit too young during the Hulk Hogan era.

And then the Stone Cold Steve Austin era, I was in my science phase. I wanted to know a bunch of facts and own test tubes. Well, there's a lot of physics in pro wrestling. There really is. And there's a lot of acting, which I was always interested in as well. Really? Yeah. I did theater all the time, all through high school, college.

And in a way, now, I still perform, but to a global audience. Well, let's do that. Let's go back. Let's go even earlier. So where are you from? Stillwell, Kansas. Stillwell, Kansas. Stillwell.

Is that a small town? I've never heard of it. It's a pretty small town, not named after the stillness of its wells, but rather a guy named Mr. Stillwell who helped get the railroad through the city or something. And by city, I mean it was a small town. As Overland Park, Kansas has grown, it has become a bit bigger. But it's still not really a suburb. There aren't sewers.

There aren't curbs. There aren't leash laws for dogs. But there are traffic lights. Oh, yeah. There are a few traffic lights. Okay. Yeah. I was born in Kansas Oh, yeah. There are a few traffic lights. Okay. Yeah. I was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

And then as soon as I turned five years old, started going to school, my parents moved to a house that wasn't right on this big, busy road, Ward Parkway. And we moved to Stilwell, Kansas, which is a bit political, right? Because all my family lived in Missouri, and here we are being Kansan people? That was – there's controversy there? Yeah, because were we traitors to the state of Missouri? Yes. I think so. By leaving.

By leaving. We only lived a mile from the border. I could just ride my bike over to Missouri. And we would do that. We'd go to Belton, Missouri to buy fireworks every year. Okay. Oh, so they got loose laws over there on the fireworks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like South Carolina. We would go to South Carolina. Right. Yeah. Right across the border, all the firework tents would set up over the summer. Yeah, yeah. So that was the thing. It was, oh, I'm riding my bike across the border.

That was kind of like an adventure for you as a kid. Yeah, and it was exciting because it's also a nerdy thing, borders, to be like, wow, like, I can have one foot in Missouri and one in Kansas. And it's completely an arbitrary thing that humans made up. Right. But you're like, wow, there's something special about this. It's like sitting

on the equator. We used to do that with the counties. We would be like, this is the Johnston County line. Was it Johnson County? Johnson County. Yeah, counties were a big deal back in North Carolina. Johnson County, that's where Stilwell is.

Johnson County, Kansas. Yeah. Wow. This Johnson guy did a lot of counting. Ours was Johnston. Oh, that guy's a jerk. He threw a T in there. Yeah, yeah.

So did you grow up with both your parents? What was your family situation like? Yeah, definitely. I grew up with both of my parents and a sister two years younger than me named Melissa. Okay. And she is just so athletic. She played semi-professional American football on an all-girls team. What?

Yeah. That exists? Yeah. Wow. She just bought a dirt bike, and I'm like, oh, cool. But now she's doing BMX tournaments on it. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. I break a sweat just peeling an orange.

But my sister, she is so fit and athletic, and she does all kinds of sports. So what is that like growing up where you've, where you kind of you've got the stereotypes backwards a little bit in your family. You know, you've got the jock sister and you're into science. Yeah, so they were still stereotypes though. Still like, well if you're going to excel at soccer then I'm going to excel at

knowing the most about everything else. You know? Right. Yeah, my older stepsister, anything she liked, I decided not to like just because she liked it. Like music.

As a kid, I decided not to like music. Just at all. At all. Period. Because Emmy liked music. You could have just picked the genres that she liked and hated those. I was that determined to be different. I'm going to swear off all the arts because you're a fan of music.

Right. So did you consciously say this to people? Like, oh, I don't like music. Yeah. That's what a kid would say. Yeah. It was like, yeah, that's her thing. Yeah.

But then I slowly got into it. I mean, I got like Weird Al Yankovic tapes, which, you know, you can argue that's not really music. So I was like, okay, this is like a comedy thing. Something a little bit different. This is making fun of music, just like I do all the time. Have you heard this experiment? It has not been done before, but you have a child, step one. It has not been done before, but you have a child, step one, and then you raise your child only listening to Weird Al Yankovic so that when they go off on their own as an adult and they hear all of these songs, the originals, they think, who are these people ripping off Weird Al and not being funny?

That's, well, that's a cruel experiment. Yeah. I'm still fertile. I could still do it. Are you still fertile? Yeah. I think so, yeah. Congrats.

All right, so let's keep going here. So your sister, a little bit younger, what was it like growing up in that environment? What did your parents do? What do they do? It was a fantastic environment. My mother right now is working as a para at a high school, and she's a crossing guard.

A what? A para? A para. So she helps all the teachers, and she helps with students that need extra help, and follows them around, and gets to be in school all day in a high school, but then also gets all the high school breaks. So she's off for the holidays in the summer, which is perfect, because it makes it easy for my sister and I to come home and visit, and not have to have her take time off work, and blah, blah, blah. My dad is a chemical engineer, and he worked for a company called Black & Veatch the whole

time, really. Oh, crap. I know someone who worked for Black & Veatch. Really? My first job out of college was Black & Veatch. It's Rhett. No kidding. And where?

Yeah, because they're based in Kansas City, Missouri. Yeah. They always talk about Kansas City like, we're going to send you to Kansas City. Whoa. Okay, so go on. What did you do for them? I was a civil engineer. Civil engineer.

Yep. Yeah. I, of course, it's a, you know, a power design firm, you know, so we, in our office in Cary, we designed mostly natural gas plants. And so I was not just civil, but what you know a hydraulic engineer so yeah i would design the waste basically the water retention system that is so funny and then like route some of the piping and stuff did that so exciting too it sounds very exciting it was riveting my uncle still works for black and vege well i'm I'm sure I know a lot of people who know your uncle

because we had like 100 people in our office still there in Cary, North Carolina, and they went to and fro from Kansas City all the time. So your uncle still works there. Your dad doesn't anymore, but he did work there when you were growing up as a chemical engineer. Yeah, and he worked in sulfur recovery. So when you are getting natural gas, petroleum out of the ground, there's a lot of sulfur in there, more than you need. And a lot of these plants that process or extract petroleum products are really far away. And so it's not like, oh, throw the sulfur in the back of Ted's pickup and we'll drive it to the place where they make fertilizers or paints or whoever needs the sulfur. It's usually in the middle of Siberia or something. And so my father

invented a process called STEP, sulfur to energy process, that actually took all that sulfur. And then you could, in some way, use it to actually get energy back to keep running the plant. This is very popular. He has a patent on it. Oh, wow. When did he invent this? While I was a child. So is this like, I mean, is this the kind of thing you invent this and it's like a life transformation kind of situation? Well, he invented it while working at Black & Veatch. So they own it. Own it.

And then I don't know exactly all of the details, but after I went off to college, he got a offer from a company based in Malaysia to start a sulfur recovery group for them. So he went off, made his own company called KPS. And I wondered, why'd you call it KPS? Why didn't you call it David Stevens Awesome Company or something? And he gave me this advice. He was like, Michael, I don't want to meet a client and tell them, hi, I'm from David Stevens Energy Recovery. I'm David Stevens. Because then it seems like that's it. You know?

Right. If you're David Stevens from KPS, whoa. Right. What is KPS? That sounds huge. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We didn't take that advice.

You're Rhett and Link, Inc., right? Yeah. So it's like the- Yeah, I'm the Rhett're Rhett and Link Inc right yeah so it's like the yeah I'm the Rhett from Rhett and Link Inc I mean I have to do this all the time when we're like setting up you know a new a phone account or something like that because we do all this

ourselves so I said like what's the company I'm like Rhett and Link Inc and they're like and your name I'm like Rhett McLaughlin it gets kind of small kind of quick. Yeah, they're like, okay, I see what kind of corporation this is. Your dad is a smart guy. Isn't that clever?

Yeah. Now, so for you as a kid, were you a very inquisitive child, kind of nerdy? Were you, you know, how would you describe yourself then? And were you like taken after your dad genetically or just socially, or what was going on? I took after my dad genetically because that's the law of biology. That's a great question. Also, I took after him. I took after my dad genetically.

Wow. In other words, I wasn't adopted. In my mind, it was a more intriguing question. He took me to museums a lot. He's a very inquisitive guy, very interested in all kinds of things from philosophy to music to chemical engineering to physics to history to art. And I call him a polymath, which is what I would like to consider myself as well. I don't know how you qualify to be a polymath. What does that mean exactly, polymath?

It's someone who is interested in and can have meaningful conversations about all kinds of disciplines. Did you invent that term? No, not at all. No, it's been around since the word poly and math have been around. Oh. Yeah. When I think of math, I think of like arithmetic.

Right, but I think math in this sense can mean discipline. Okay. Like Jared Diamond. Okay, that guy is a polymath. He's like, oh, you want to talk about chemistry and also the anthropology of tribes in New Guinea? I can do that. So it's a nice way to say know it all. Yeah.

You want to be a palatable know-it-all, which, yeah, to make it a compliment, because know-it-all is negative. Let's call it not a know-it-all, but an interested in it all. Okay. Okay? And that was my identity. You know how in high school you've got the goths and the jocks and whatever? Well, I wanted to be the kid who had read the encyclopedia.

That's a joke, right? Oh, that guy is so nerdy. He read the encyclopedia. Well, I did. You did. I did. I read the encyclopedia not because – well, it was interesting, sure. But I also just really wanted to be able to tell people, oh, yeah, well, I read the encyclopedia and – OK.

So – OK. That's honest. I appreciate that. Even that early on, you could tell that I was curious but also was a performer. OK. So you didn't necessarily have some of the other stereotypical things, aspects that come along with someone who's really interested in science and math and all these other things at that age, which might be social awkwardness, et cetera? Really good question.

I see I wasn't that socially awkward because I was such a class clown, right? I was not super attractive. I didn't I wasn't in the popular crowd, but I did on two occasions get invited to their parties because of my attitude in class, right? I could be sarcastic and talk back and the kids loved it and the teachers didn't. So I got suspended my sophomore year in high school. Yeah.

Suspended. What did you do exactly? All right. Suspended? What did you do exactly? All right. Let's go back and just explain that this particular class I was a really bad but great class clown in, right? I would get the kids to all laugh at things and I would, you know, criticize the assignments in funny ways. And the teacher really didn't like that.

So then one day I was going to make this joke about my friend who was quite nerdy. He tucked in his, okay, he wore his gym shirt to class. Yeah. Kind of a no-no. Kind of a weird thing, but he also- Not gym class. It's not gym class. It was English class. And he not only wore it to class, but tucked it in with a belt. And it was like, okay, you're not fooling anyone. That's our gym shirt. Like it even kind of smells. So a few days later, I wore my gym shirt to that class. And everyone's like, oh, Michael, like he'll do anything. And I said, wait, I need to tuck it in.

But I was a little bit of a chubster. So I had to unbutton my pants to start tucking this thing in. Oh, that's a no-no. Everything goes according to plan. Sit back down, doing the assignment. So everyone's in class. This is like in the middle of class. Hold on, guys.

I need to tuck in my shirt. That's part of this joke. I need to open my pants to all of you. But everybody got it. They were like, oh, yeah, because Ralphie, he came in. Yeah, because this other student had done it, they all got it and didn't think a thing of you. But everybody got it. They were like, oh yeah, because Ralphie, he came in. Yeah, because this other student had done it,

they all got it and didn't think a thing of it. What was his name, Ralphie? Almost. Let's call him Ralphie to protect his identity. He seems like a Ralphie to me.

And, so, the teacher realized this could be the last straw. Let's call this sexual harassment. Taking your pants off in class? I mean, did you pull your pants down like a toddler?

No, no. I unbuttoned and probably unzipped a little bit just so I could get my hand in there to tuck the shirt around. So you weren't like a toddler using the bathroom. You were like an old man tucking in his shirt. Exactly. Old men do this type of thing in public all the time. Yeah, I saw that this morning, yeah. I don't do that in public anymore.

But the assistant principal shows up and takes me out. And as far as he knows, I just tore my pants completely off and did a strip tease. Because the teacher used the term sexual harassment. Right. So he snatched you out of class, the assistant principal, and... So then I was stuck in what's called ISS, in-school suspension for that day. Oh, I've been to that, yeah. Yeah, right?

And I wasn't able to explain to anybody what had really happened. I didn't even speak with the real principal. But I told the assistant principal, look, what happened is like I had been trying to get up to the cookie jar to steal a cookie, which is bad. And then as I do it, oh, whoops, I trip and my pants fall off. And now I'm in trouble for that. But that part was an accident. Whatever. The principal never heard my explanation, And so I was suspended for three

days. Wow. Yeah. And I had to go to all my teachers and tell them that I was suspended for acting up in class. And if, and it was up to them to give me any assignments I would miss so that I could do them while I was suspended or they could just say, no, you deserve this. And I'd get zeros on those things. So that was kind of like a walk of shame to go to all my classes before my parents came and got me. And I was in a lot of trouble. And that kind of thing ends up being on your record essentially, right? When you start trying to get into college. Yeah. So when I applied to colleges, fill out all the information and there's that great question. It's just one question with a yes or no checkbox. Have you ever been convicted of a felony or suspended? with a yes or no checkbox,

have you ever been convicted of a felony or suspended? Yeah, just lump it together. They're together. And if you check yes, you have to submit an explanation that you wrote separately. And you find yourself talking to colleges about your fly being open. There was a kid.

Your pants being unbuttoned. He came to class with his gym shirt on. Yeah, and they would hear that and go, okay, I believe you weren't trying to harass anybody, but that's just not even funny. Like, that's not even a very clever trick. You tucked in a gym shirt? Like, at least get suspended for a good joke.

But here's what happens. So I turned it around, and it wound up making my college applications stand out because I was gone for three days. I was a little heavy at the time, as I explained, needing to like do this whole like pants thing because I couldn't get a shirt in otherwise. And that summer I mowed yards and ran and lifted weights every other day. And I lost like 40 or 50 pounds. Whoa, okay. And I got really tan. I mean, I was hot, all right? I was hot.

And I came back that next year and applied. So the suspension led to a physical transformation. Exactly. And beyond that, I did a bunch of community service that summer working at this nature park, which was cool because everyone else there was my age and they were doing court ordered community service.

So they were there because they, you know, broke stuff, vandalized, stole things, were caught with drugs, whatever. But I was just the kid who was like, I really want to get community service hours. And sure enough, when I got back to school, I was hot. I became, I think, vice president of National Honor Society. So on those college applications. Which is what happens when you get hot, I guess. That's what happens when you get hot.

Yeah. On my applications, it all says, yes, I got suspended. But it was a wake-up call, a clarion call to change that caused me to better myself. And now I'm ready for you, university. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. When I was doing community service at the nature park, this one kid that I really liked hung out with a lot. me to better myself and now I'm ready for you, university. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

When I was doing community service at the nature park, this one kid that I really liked hung out with a lot. He was there because he'd stole a canoe from a sporting goods store. That's tough. Like, how do you do that? And he's like, it made so much sense. If I tried to steal something small, I'd get caught. But if I just walk out of there with a whole canoe, people will think, well, he clearly knows

what he's doing. No one's just going to walk out with a canoe. But the problem was his pants were unbuttoned and I said, you, sir. I think the problem was

You're sexually harassing that canoe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that what happened? If only. The problem in his case was that he was like 14 and 14-year-olds

don't just like buy canoes and then drag them out. If he'd been like a man, or a woman, just an adult person in general, or if he was wearing like a, you know, bright construction vest, it would look like, oh, it's official. Like, just let him do it. Yeah. So he was there at the, at the, uh, yeah.

And what's neat is because I was the only person there who wasn't in trouble through juvenile court. I was given the most responsibility. I got to drive the golf carts around with all the plants and mulch or whatever. I got to kind of lead the projects. Yeah, yeah. So as you can see, I hit my nadir, and then I could only go up from there. And you did.

That's what got you into college. Where did you get into college? University of Chicago. And it was a result of this, like the essay that you attached, the sexual harassment explanation? I think it helped a lot, yeah. Wow. And you wanted to, or you studied what? I studied neuropsychology and English literature.

Hmm. Okay. So, and you mentioned that you started getting into theater and performance and stuff. So that started a little bit earlier, but you carried that into college? Yeah. So in high school, I started doing exactly what I do now on Vsauce, which is I wrote informative speeches for a program called Forensics. That's like a club at your high school? Exactly. And then on the weekends, you would go to different high schools

and you would perform informative speeches about seven to nine minutes long to judges. And then they would score all the students. So it was public speaking, not debate. It was not debate. It was competitive public speaking, right? And there are different events. You could also do oration,

which is a speech that's a bit longer and it's more about an opinion, letting people know about something or giving them information. Well, it's different than informative. And I did both and I did my first informative speech about ketchup. And as a guy who had grown up reading the encyclopedia, I could come up with a lot of things to say about ketchup or tangentially involved in ketchup. And I was quite excited about these things. I mean, I talked the same way I do now. My first tournament, I got first place. And I was this freshman. For ketchup. For ketchup. I called it ketchup on ketchup.

Yeah, I get it. Yeah. Play on words. Play on words. Now, let me tell you this. In high school, I went through puberty at like eight years old. Not even high school. So I was like – You had a beard? Really? When did you get the beard? Is that what you're talking about?

Yeah, I think I was still in the womb when the beard was coming in. It was sprouting. Yeah. So before all the other guys caught up, I was like quite, you know, mature looking and big. And I was the only guy in my high school who could play adult male characters in plays. So they hear that I'm doing speeches. I don't really act,

but the drama teacher asked me to audition for repertory theater. And I just gave one of my speeches and they were, I think they just said, look, we need this guy cause he looks so old. And sure enough, I performed in a lot of plays as the dad or the oldest man. Right.

It makes sense. Cause you'd rather use one of the students as opposed to like the janitors. I mean, sometimes they use the janitor. Sometimes they use just a dad, somebody who works in the cafeteria, unemployed dad. Right.

And then it's like, that's a little creepy. This adult guy. Just a dad. Somebody who works in a cafeteria. Unemployed dad. And then it's like, that's a little creepy, this adult guy. Right. So I could do it and I already had this kind of receding hairline and that was so lucky. I mean, if there's any piece of advice here it's that it's okay to kind of have a gimmick because you'll get in faster. I didn't have

to necessarily already know how to act and a lot about theater. I just was able to say, yeah, sure, I'll be the dad. I'll be the old male figure. And that's what I did. But the other people that I acted with, the other kids, were so much more talented than I was. That was amazing because they were so good. I had to keep up with them and I had to learn and I always felt like I was surrounded by people more talented than myself. And that's,

that can make you scared, but it can also be really inspiring. And so I think my life has been a story of trying to find those moments where I can be the one in the room who knows the least and is the least experienced and can hopefully get some of my surrounding colleagues' talent to rub off on me. So where was your mind when you went off to college and had that double major and this bent towards entertainment? I knew I was never going to be that great of an actor. But I got really into the theory of theater and directing. So William Ball and Bogart, I read everything they'd wrote. Yeah. So connect the dots for us in how it went from where you were at in college to where you're at now. So I'm doing a lot of theater, right?

Especially directing. That's what I love to do. And then I saw a video probably on College Humor or something. I don't think YouTube was quite there yet. And it was a mashup that took The Shining and made it look like a funny movie. Okay. Have you seen this? Yeah. funny movie. Okay. Have you seen this? Yeah. It was a movie trailer that for a movie called Shining, which is this feel good relationship thing between the sun and like a family vacation. Yeah. He just, the guy who edited it just chose the right moments to make it look like a family

fun thing. And then he put music in that really pulled at your heartstrings and it floored me. And then he put music in that really pulled at your heartstrings. Yeah. And it floored me. That was so powerful. Today we take it as, you know, well, anyone can do that. But at the time, this was like a landmark thing that you could take a famous piece of work like The Shining and make it mean something completely different without even needing to own a camera. It was just straight up editing. And that was huge to me.

So I immediately joined our campus film group so that I could learn how to use editing software. And one of the first things I edited was Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the trailer, remixed to look like a horror film. Okay, so you did the opposite. I did the opposite, yeah. And what I did, it was so simple, but it like a horror film. Okay, so you did the opposite. I did the opposite, yeah. Of Shining.

And what I did, it was so simple, but it was a great exercise. I just took the entire movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and then I took the trailer for Friday the 13th with Don LaFontaine's voiceover, and I used his voiceover as the template, and I just found Ferris Bueller's scenes

to fit each thing that he said. So when he goes, 13 of her friends are dead, I took the nurse giving a hug to Sloan. Right? And it just, it was really easy. You would just find a thing that kind of matched and then you'd put it in this like spooky music. Sure.

And yeah. And then where did you post that? I posted it on about 16 different video sites. Everything from E-Bombs World to iFilm to Yahoo to CollegeHumor. Yeah, the same strategy. We used to have an account everywhere. Everywhere.

All those places you just mentioned and many more. Yes, and it was called Super Distribution. Funny or Die was one. Did it take off anywhere? Yeah, on CollegeHumor, right? So they put it on the front page. If you watch it today, you're going to go, this is really a clumsy edit. But seriously, at that time, we're talking about 2006, 2005.

This was like, whoa, you just changed a piece of culture. And how many people have watched it? Two million? That's insane. So that made me really excited. I remixed George W. Bush and Karl Rove into a rap video, which again is terrible. I called it Bush and Rove Thug Life.

So in their own words, they were like talking over a rap beat kind of thing. There was no auto-tune back then. No, there was, well, maybe there was some sort of auto-tune thing. There was no auto-tune back then. No, there was. Well, maybe there was some sort of auto-tune thing, but I didn't use it. There was no auto-tune in the news. Right. I just remixed a couple of songs, Make It Rain by Fat Joe and one other song.

And I just found moments like George Bush raising his hand up, and then I looped it so it looked like he was going, yeah, to the beat up and down. You can't see what I'm doing, but it's very hip-hop. I'm really in tune with dance moves. And that's what I did. And that wound up on the front page of Funny or Die with a review by Chris Henschey, Brooke Shields' husband.

And he was like, I judge someone's friendship with me based on their reaction to this video. And it got like 100,000 views by being on the front page of Funny or Die back in 2006. And that was giant. And the fact that this celebrity talked about it, I'm like, okay, I know what I'm doing. This is incredible.

It's basically art, but it's also comedy, and look how big the audience is. And it was just editing, just a little bit of editing that you learned by going to this club. It wasn't creating anything from scratch. It was basically using that editing. Found footage. Found footage template. And so did you start to branch out at that point or just more of the same?

So then I made a YouTube channel called Campaign 2008, but the pain was spelled P-A-I-N, like ouch, pain. Got it. Get it? Very clever. Ketchup with ketchup. Ketchup on ketchup. So there I did all my political remixes.

I think Bush and Rove Thug Life might be on that channel. And then I just started making an edit for every person running for the presidency in 2008. So I did one with Ron Paul that mixed him up with some chameleon air song. Yeah, gosh, I kind of am forgetting some of these. I did a Hillary Clinton one where I found a speech where she said something about white something, like red, white, and blue. And she also talked about like power. And so I made it look like she was talking about white power. Yeah, really stupid stuff.

But – Sensational. Sensational, yeah. But really they were exercises that allowed me to learn how to use editing tools. So if I saw an interview with Ron Paul with a blue background, I'm like, I think I can chroma key that blue out and put him in a chameleon video. Sure enough, I learned how to do that, and it took hours because I was having to Google how to use Chroma Key on Final Cut and all this stuff. You were doing this totally alone. I was alone, yeah, in the basement of the biological laboratory, which had a media suite.

And that's what I would do. I didn't even have my own computer that could run Final Cut, so I would get up really early and go there and just work. Wow. Look at that guy doing biology in there yeah yeah maybe not did your friends at the time know that you were kind of creating these viral videos or was it because typically people who are in college who are creating viral videos it's more of a collaborative thing oh my friends get together we thought this would be funny. I find it interesting that it seems like an isolated experience.

It was very isolated. Yeah, because I was working with found footage, just editing on my own. And at the time, I worked in the basement of the big library, just opening mail that they received and sorting all the mail. And so I would just sit there and I would listen to political speeches and then take notes about, ooh, the way she said the word butt was so isolated there. I could easily make like cut that out and make it sound like she talked about a, you know, a bottom butt. Right. And I would just do this while I opened and sorted the mail. And I think because all of my friends in college were older than me, by the time I was a senior, they'd all graduated.

And my closest friend who was my same age, he was studying abroad that year. So – and I moved into an apartment that was a studio, so I lived by myself. And so it was a very isolated life. I think my girlfriend had broken up with me too. So all I did was watch political news and take notes on the speeches and then go to the library at 7 a.m. when it opened. It closed at about 1 a.m. and that's all I did. Well, so were you sad or were you happy? No, I was super happy. I mean, I still had a bunch of friends through theater that I hung out with during the day and I was still going to classes, but I'd become incredibly focused on each project.

And it was interesting because then the project itself was faceless. Exactly, yeah. You know, it was this channel that it wasn't personality-based, right? Right. So the most famous episode I ever made through Campaign 2008 was called Hillary Clinton Farts.

And I found a moment in a debate where she cleared her throat. And I could put in just a little – and I made it really subtle and I put a filter on it. So it really did – I mean it looks realistic. And in fact, it's fooled a lot of people. And when I told this story to some people – So you didn't put it to a beat. You just said – No, this was just a 28-second long clip, and I watched the whole thing, and I made notes of all the other – Barack Obama, John Edwards, the interviewer and audience members' reactions.

And I got all the right reactions where they just sort of put their heads down or they just kind of stare blankly. all the right reactions where they just sort of put their heads down or they just kind of stare blankly. And then the very last reaction is this big guy in the audience who's just looking, nodding his head like, I know. That's my kind of girl. And that was 28 seconds long, but it took off like crazy. I think it has something like 9 million views. And then a guy just ripped it off of my channel because it was faceless and put it on his. And that one has like 12 million views. Oh, really?

Yeah. And I did put a campaign 2008 logo at the end that I'd made, but he cut that off. Of course. You know, it just got, this was, it got ripped everywhere and you can find it in all kinds of video sites. Well, I guess at the time, I mean, like a lot of us back in that time, 2007, 2008, you know, you didn't really have, there was no vision. There was no business plan associated with this. It was just like, this is really cool. And people

are watching and I'm going to keep doing it. You kind of get addicted to the, you know, that the attention that these things garner. Yeah. Yeah. I made one called Baracko Bollywood, where I made it look like Barack Obama was singing a Bollywood song. I just, I took one of his speeches and I cut out every vowel and consonant sound so that then I could singing a Bollywood song, I took one of his speeches and I cut out every vowel and consonant sound so that then I could take the Bollywood vocal track and just say, okay, that's a long A. Let me get the Barack long A mouth shape.

And I animated him singing it. Like lip syncing to it. Lip syncing, exactly. And that wound up being written about in Newsweek magazine. Wow. Yeah, and they didn't even know who I was, and they didn't ask. They just said, here's a still frame from Barack O'Bollywood, a crazy video made by an Obama fan, which how did they – I didn't say I was an Obama fan. I was just a guy editing a goofy thing.

But it got in Newsweek, and that was insane. in Newsweek and that was insane. So at about that time, we move on to the next part of the story, which is Ben Rellis discovering the videos that I was making in Chicago and asking me to make some kinds of edits for

Barely Political, which at the time was Ben was the creator of Obama Girl. And that was huge. When that came out, people were like, wait, Obama must have funded this.

No one just does this on their own. A parody video had never really been made like that ever. So to this day, Obama Girl is in textbooks because the 2008 election

was this like first election social media was around for and it's a big deal. So Ben, creator of Obama Girl, this amazing viral sensation contacts you because he's seeing that you're doing something political, same thing. Right. Political comedy. Yeah. And so I made a piece for them that I was paid some flat fee for. And it was the same as Hillary farts, but it was John McCain this time.

And I got him calling up on a phone laughing and I made it sound like he was burping. And then I found footage of Hillary Clinton answering a phone and kind of like, she's confused about the thing. And so he just keeps farting and burping over the phone. And then she's like, what? And then he just like laughs and hangs up

and that's the end. How did that one do? Oh, man. I think it has like three or four million. Wow. Yeah, but again, faceless. So it was on Barely Political's channel at that point. Yeah, yeah.

And so did that transition into a job? Yeah, so then I started doing a lot of editing for the stuff that Mark Douglas and Rusty Ward were writing for Barely Political. And they would like overnight me the footage and I'd edit the thing. Then when I graduated, it kind of turned into I would love to work with you guys all the time. And they were in New York, right? They were in New York City. So by about September, we'd worked out a deal and I was hired full time by Next New Networks, which owned Barely Political.

And I moved out to New York City and did that for like four years. Right, and there's a number of things that are fascinating about this for me. I mean, I think when I first saw, because we've all witnessed, you know, the explosive growth of your videos over the past year or so especially. We're talking a 5 million subscriber jump in like a year time. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the thing that, you know, when you see something that becomes incredibly successful on YouTube as YouTubers watching that you conjecture and you try to figure out why it's working and you make assumptions about things. And I just was thinking, okay, this guy obviously is from a science background. He's incredibly smart. And he was some professor somewhere, some scientist somewhere that got, somebody was like, hey, we know how to produce this content and we're going to put you here and make you do this. And it's just working great. That's just the assumption

that I brought. But it makes so much more sense to hear the story, which is, obviously, you're a smart guy who read the encyclopedia, who can speak on these subjects with authority. But the reason that it's so successful is because you lived it. You discovered how things work on the internet personally and personally produce these things in a way that you just can't pull some professor out of a college and say, hey, talk about this. It's fascinating. Even going back to your oration and how you speak and how there's a background from that too. I think a lot of people don't know that backstory. They think maybe that I'm just brought in and there's a whole team producing them. But up until a month ago, I was doing all the editing and everything. I researched

and wrote and then I shoot alone, just like Zay Frank, you know, with the camera has to be closer to my face that I can reach out and press the record button and focus it. Yeah. To this day, I still shoot alone. Luckily, I have an editor now who can help me get that and he can work on the edit while I work on the next episode or on other projects. But yeah, I grew up with the internet. I grew up ever since maybe 2005. I think there've only been a few occasions I haven't made a video during a week since then.

But some of them were faceless. They were just crazy edits or compilations that didn't say, hey, I'm Michael Stevens. Now, at some point, Next New Networks that you worked for became, was bought by Google or something happened there. And kind of at the same time, with so many changes going on with how YouTube itself worked, there was a lot of Vsauce on the homepage of YouTube. I remember there was a meeting amongst a whole bunch of YouTubers where YouTube people came in and explained all the changes.

And at one point, there was an outrage where it was like, why is this Vsauce can get on the homepage all the time? But I can't anymore. What's happening? And then there's somebody saying, well, you know, Michael is a Google employee. And it's like, oh, that's the answer. And of course, I don't believe that's the answer.

But you know, you rack your brain. And so, is that really what it is, though? Do we need to become Google employees to really kill this thing? The acquisition so that you're technically working for Google. Of course. So first of all, no.

I mean I wish I knew how to get onto the front page. That is a super secret thing that is always changing, right, which is kind of cool. In fact, I wish I knew more about how these algorithms are built because there's not anyone who makes a conscious decision to curate anything onto the front page because that's not a very YouTube-y thing, right? It should be – this is what people are watching. And you can actually surface super cool content faster using mathematical algorithms. So they'll detect, wait a second, Perez Hilton and Sports Illustrated both embedded this video? That's a weird combo. Clearly this is something important.

Get it up there. It's important, right? Or it's being viewed by a very diverse group of demographics. Get it up there, right? But the specifics of how all these things are weighted is a super huge mystery, I think, to almost everybody. But you're a Google employee, right? Yeah. So to go to the acquisition, Next New Networks had created a lot of really great shows and we discovered a lot of great talent.

For instance, the Gregory Brothers and Autotune the News. Ben Rellis found Michael Gregory doing his little funny things and we started collaborating with Barely Political and Autotune the News. wound up acquiring Next New Networks so that we could take what we'd learned in the field making all of this stuff and send it out to partners at scale, right, and teach them what we had learned and give them advice and all of that. And by the way, Ben Rellis is the reason why the mythical show existed. You know, working on the innovation side of YouTube from within YouTube and saying, what does YouTube want to invest in? Well, one of those things is long form. I was having a relationship with Ben. That's where the Mythical Show came from, just as a side note.

So he got moved over. Next New Networks got moved over. And you as a part of that as a Google employee. And it was just – it was phenomenal because all of a sudden YouTube acquired a company of people that had been using YouTube and eBombs and Yahoo and every possible way to super distribute Netflix, Roku boxes, all of these things. We'd been using this for years and we'd been building successes and failures and we tried everything. So all of a sudden we brought in all these people to YouTube who had been using the system for their well-being. You know, if I didn't get enough views on something, well, I might just get fired, right? There was this pressure to always be innovating

and to be figuring out secrets like, oh, if I do this, I think I might be able to get more views or I might get onto this chart or I might da-da-da-da, all these things. And how do I use annotations to do something that's really tricky and gets me blogged about? Like that was our whole mindset. It was a really creative environment.

So then YouTube got all of this knowledge when they acquired Next New Networks. And now I work for YouTube as a programming strategist, spreading out my successes and failures and questions and challenges to other creators, letting them know, hey, I did this once, you know, two years ago, and it worked really well. Or I did this and people hated it, so maybe don't do that. And how did the whole move to London factor into this? So I was a programming strategist in New York City, and they needed someone to do that same job in EMEA, which is Europe, Middle East, and Africa. I was going out to London for a week or two at a time to sort of meet with

their partner managers and tell them, you know, hey, these are some cool things people are doing. These are some really innovative things people are doing. These are some programming strategies that are working, shows that don't just get people to click but get people to subscribe, right? And I wound up loving the team out there in the UK and all of Europe and Middle East and Africa. And then I said, hey, you're hiring someone to do what I do in New York. Can I apply for that? And they said, sure. And I got that job and was lucky enough to get to move to the UK. And it's been amazing. I don't think it's a coincidence. Vsauce has grown as fast as it has since I moved out to Europe and

really learned a lot more about the world and about global audiences. Well, let me ask you this. I mean, are you studying not only your audience, but these things, these other things that are really popping on YouTube? Are you a student of those type of things in order to seeing where Vsauce should go? And what are those, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, where Vsauce should go. And what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, where Vsauce should go, in my opinion,

is beyond YouTube. You know, YouTube is a part of a business, right? And it can be a really powerful part of a business. But I think that Vsauce has a lot of exciting opportunities offline that will help us let the rest of the world know that we exist who isn't looking at YouTube as closely and let them know that there's such great content on YouTube.

If that means like writing columns for a magazine, if that means getting a Vsauce board game, I mean, hello, like those kinds of things are really what's exciting to me right now. But it's all a Google entity now, right? Or is Vsauce separate? Is it owned by Google too? Yeah, it is. It is. And so part of innovating and part of like figuring out what advice we can give to channels means that we need to run Vsauce like it's a channel. And so if there are opportunities in other media, if there are any way we can help bring more people to YouTube, that is what we're looking for. Well, I got to say that the content is very welcome on YouTube from my perspective because I love the fact that people are responding to content that is challenging, that is informative, that isn't tricking people into watching videos, that isn't just about video games, and isn't just about the

latest celebrity gossip. I mean, to me, that's, you know, a lot of people have their opinions about what YouTube videos should be and what the YouTube audience is. And I think that the fact that your videos have gotten so popular attests to the fact that there's people who actually want to learn legitimate information. And apparently it's a very broad audience. And that's, I mean, that's encouraging. Yeah. Yeah. The audience is really broad, but YouTube is so big. There's room for everything. Do you make three hour long films? Perfect. YouTube's great for that. Do you want to just watch videos of the surgery you're about to have? Yeah, YouTube has that too, right? So it's easy to think that there's only one type of genre or style or click that is YouTube, but YouTube is gigantic.

Did your brain ever turn off? You just like veg out? Yeah, for sure. No. yeah for sure um no i think i think you know as i kind of get a life back like i said you know i'm taking a vacation of sorts starting saturday and i like to hang out with people who just don't even do youtube so how are you getting a life back are you you, that implies that A, your life was taken away or you didn't have one. Yeah. And so tell us, is that true? And then how you go about getting it back? What do you mean get your life back? Look, you know, if you want to create 13 minute long episodes every

week and build an audience and get 5 million subscribers in a year, you know, and you also want to have a life at the same time, you don't, don't, you know. It's not going to help. Colin Gray from CGP Gray put it really well. He's like, okay, look, you have four things in life and you get to pick two, job, friends, family, and health. Pick two.

And I've been focusing on my job and my job as the two things. You doubled down. You doubled down. I doubled down. And that meant that everything I did, even watching Family Guy episodes at 2 in the morning was all about, huh, what if dogs talked? Okay, that could be an idea. And then I'll read about anthropomorphism and all these things. But now I'm starting to realize, you know, taking a break is like really good for your mental health, for your creativity and spending time with someone who does a completely different job

and not thinking about Vsauce or thinking about any, any, you know, other project I'm working on and just being a human and learning and hanging out with different people invigorates you. So you're quitting for a while. Is that what you're saying? No, not at all. Not at all. I'll still make an episode. So you're quitting for a while. No, not at all. Is that what you're saying? No, not at all. Not at all. I'll still make an episode. So it's not really a vacation, but it's just rather than spending 24 hours a day researching and writing, I should spend like 21, right?

Really? Yeah. That's what you're going to, that's your plan? That's my plan for a relaxing vacation um just to taper it a little bit yeah and it's also important to meet people who do different things because it'll blow your mind right and that's why when we say vsauce is a scientific channel i think not really i mean i do well what's the shortest poem you can write what's the greatest honor you know a lot of these things are more about language and culture and the arts and history.

And it's not just laboratory experiments and test tubes. Well, listen, man. Thanks for coming here to the roundtable of dim lighting. Now you need to sign it. And you can sign it in English. Yeah, I would love to. I only know English. Yo sé un poco español, pero muy malo.

And that's it. Our conversation with Michael from Vsauce. He's not Vsauce. I know we would always refer to him as Vsauce, but... But he says Vsauce Michael here, but he's saying Vsauce. I know we would always refer to him as Vsauce, but I mean- But he says Vsauce Michael here, but he's saying Vsauce- Is the audience. And is just the thing. And then Michael is him here.

I wasn't confused by that when he was here in the room. So I knew his name was Michael. And I appreciated kind of getting to know him as a person. I found it very fascinating. You know, timing is everything. I think we've learned that from a lot of these stories we've heard with the advent of the internet and YouTube and entertainment. For him, there were three parallel tracks, his scientific mindedness and fascination with all those things which become the content of Vsauce,

his class clownedness and wanting to be an entertainer, speech giver, actor. And then the third thing in college of just wanting to be an editor and making viral videos that really had nothing to do with the other two, and then the three of them come together, of his success is v sauce and v because of youtube you know um yeah we definitely can relate to that and how these weird skills and you know desire for something to happen and then the opportunity that youtube provides leads to a career it's just it's nuts but yeah i did find it very interesting. He said that his friend said there are only four things. I think it was his friend.

Well, somebody told him. There's four things you can have in life. There's four things in life, but you got to pick two. Job, friends, family, and health. And when he said that, I immediately had a knee-jerk reaction. I was like, in my mind, that's not true. That's not true. It can't be true.

Then I started thinking about it, and I realized he's right. Now, the interesting thing is we have the ability to circumvent this a little bit because we work together. So while we don't have a lot of other friends. We have some friends, but I think it's clear that we've chosen family and job with just a few friends, and we don't exercise. Yeah. We were just talking about this the other day. There's no exercise. I mean, we do some active things, but there's no like commitment to health, right? And beyond our

friendship and the few other friendships that we have that are not regular, like see people on a regular basis, it's job and family. But it's interesting that you're right. We've kind of gamed the system because we work together and we are friends. And here's how we can complete. Are we really friends or coworkers? No, we're friends. That's the question.

But no, listen, we can totally game this system, all four. If we get those treadmills that you run on, those little elliptical machines that you do while you're at your stand-up desk. Rhett, that will never happen. I think what you need to be thinking is, we need to make an exercise channel. We need to totally change our brand

to just be like, we're exercise, we're personal trainers. Well, we could do an exercise channel. That's the only way to make it work. But just as one of the things. All the people that we're training are friends that we're making in real life, and they're like in the room. That's how only way to make it work. But just as one of the things. All the people that we're training are friends that we're making in real life and they're like in the room.

That's how we do it. That's how we game the system completely. Well, we could just get one of those little ellipticals. I'm not talking about the big elliptical that we had. I'm talking about this little thing, little stair step thing that as we're at our standup desk, we're like,

hey, I got an idea. If that's the noise you're going to be making the entire time, then you're going to lose the friendship aspect. I'm only going to be making that noise the first three months until my body adjusts. Or we could just come to grips with the fact that that's how it is and we're choosing our two and we get a little bit of friendship too and we could just come to grips with the fact that that's how it is and we're choosing our two. And we get a little bit of friendship too and we should just be thankful.

We shouldn't try to game the system. No, no, no. Without health though, we'll die. But we'll be happy. Oh, okay. Die happy. We didn't, you know, I wonder what, he said right now he's got just job and job.

Just job and job. So he's only picked one. Yeah, he doubled down and well. Can't blame him. Well, he's a single guy, you know, he can kind of get away with it right now. So thanks, Michael, for coming in. Be sure to tweet at Michael and let him know.

I'm kind of, I'm actually looking right now. I think it's tweet sauce. If you go to twitter.com slash TweetSauce. Huh. Yeah, that's it. You can let him know that you listened to this. TweetSauce. You've gained an understanding of the man behind the science.

And these two men are going to be here next week delivering you more stories. For some reason, I want to say stories from the road. I don't know why. Well, that's a new podcast that we're starting. It sounded like it sounded good. We're going to start that on Sunday. Stories from the road. But in the meantime, we hope you enjoyed this ear biscuit with a little bit of V-sauce on it.

Think about that. A little bit of that green V-sauce on your ear biscuit. Mental picture. Eat it.