Tomorrow - Episode 19: Casey Neistat and the Shared Perspective

Episode Date: August 17, 2015

Filmmaker, tech entrepreneur, and artist Casey Neistat's resume includes a show on HBO, a million YouTube subscribers, and living in a trailer park as a teenage parent. Hot off the heels of launching new video sharing app Beme, Casey sits down with Josh to discuss the origins of his creativity, how technology has changed the landscape of filmmaking, and his philosophies about self esteem and confidence. The two men also discuss the consequences of lacking an academic background. Not to be missed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to tomorrow on Your Host Joshua Topolsky. Today on the podcast, we discuss imposter syndrome, zima, and Kylie or Kendall Jenner. But first, a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Canary at New Approach to Home Security. Canary is a complete home security system packed into a single device. Unlike old systems, Canary is built to learn. Whenever it detects something out of the ordinary in your home, Canary sends an alert with HD

video and audio straight to your phone. That way you can keep an eye on your kids or your pets when you're stuck at work, find out the oven was left on before it's too late, or stop burglars with the swipe of a finger. Pick up your canary today when you visit www.meatcanary.com slash to Polsky. My guest today is an extremely creative dude, a weird dude, a very special dude. He's also a human being. His name is Casey Neistat. Casey, thanks for being here.

Weird and special, huh? Well, you are weird and special. I mean, you're not like a typical, you don't fall into a really obvious bucket, I think. I mean, you're weirder than most people that are like known on the internet. I feel like most people are like, I do this one thing, this is my thing. And there aren't a lot of people who are like polymaths or like super dynamic.

And I think you've got a very dynamic sort of. Yeah, I move around a lot. Yeah, like, okay, so what would you say like you as a career, what were your beginnings? What did you start in as a career? I was in the food service industry. I washed dishes and scrubbed out chowder pots and it like a really shitty um... seafood restaurant that would be but like okay more of like your professional public career okay got you uh...

what's the first thing you remember doing for money you know honestly i i have had to have been forced to sort of examine that question more and more because of of being because of my technology company and trying to explain why I have had to, I've been forced to sort of examine that question more and more because of, of being, because of my technology company and trying to explain why I built a technology company has a really dynamic relationship with the foundation of my career. Right. And let me back, let me just say, stop there and back up and say like, you are a video director or you are a...

Sure. So, I mean, that's where I was gonna go. It's like, I think I'm most commonly identified as a filmmaker, and that's not incorrect, but if you take a big step back, which I've recently sort of been forced to do, and you look at the scope of my career, which has now like, has been 15 years, some of the old men now,

I like started by making little movies and then I put them on the internet and then I put them on the internet for YouTube and then I put them in fine art galleries and museums and then on TV and then in movie theaters and then back to YouTube and then on every social medium platform that existed. So I now almost reject the being identified as a filmmaker.

I think I've always been medium and distribution platform agnostic. Right. I just like sharing. So what do you do? Well, now I run a technology company. Right. Well, you're gonna talk about, where I wanna talk about Beam, which is a nap

that you've created. I'm not trying to get to that. No, no, I just see it. I'm just, you're like, you're like, you're really, you're like, you're the first off, first and foremost. No, no, no, and I do wanna, it's really interesting. It's one of the reasons why we know each other. So I wanna talk about that. You're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, as extreme as where you're at, but I do feel like there is it I think people tend to want to have you be one thing like this is what this person does like he's a filmmaker because it's really easy to compartmentalize who people are and what they do just by saying like this person

you know runs track that's there that's all they do sure and you know and I don't reject that holy I think filmmakers fine or or you know Technologist is fine. I think those are all but they're a really different job descriptions. They are and I make her and technologists is fine, I think those are all. But they're a really different job descriptions. They are. And the maker and technologists could work together. Sure, but I actually haven't shot on film in probably nine years and I've made 300 movies since then. So it's... I was going to say that's a weird thing if you was a filmmaker. That's why I said Video Director because Indirector is probably too limiting. But...

If you want to get into nuance or my new shape here, I haven't shot to video in a long time either. So, I remember when Facebook, I'm sorry, I remember when YouTube first coined the phrase creator, and that felt so obnoxious and like annoying that they had to invent a new title. And in time, I've really come to appreciate that term creator because that's what I think people like me do is we just create and whether we create on social media or we create images for Instagram or we create little videos for YouTube. It's just the act of creation that is what I feel like I'm a part of.

Yes. And the internet is, the internet is, it's like this leveling, I mean, creating on the internet is not like you're doing, like I write, write like a journalist might have been 20 years ago. You write, like I sit down somewhere, I write, I give it to somebody, it goes and gets printed, right? And that's like the whole thing, right? Now it's like, you might write a story

and then it becomes something completely different. Like there's a video component, there is a graphics component, there's an interactive component. So there isn't like, and you might be doing all of that yourself, like as a journalist or as a filmmaker, you might also be taking that and using it as a basis for some new piece of technology or putting it into a stream with a bunch of other things,

like still images or the idea that there's this single thing, the single point like that you do like your photographer is kind of is broken by the internet a little bit. I think so. But I think this this thread started because you asked me what I do. Which we still don't know. But I can answer that. You know, I am a filmmaker and I've made movies and feature films that I've made a TV

show that I had on HBO that I wrote and directed and started and I now have a YouTube channel that I upload to every day that has a million subscribers and a couple hundred million views and I have a technology company. Beam. Beam. And that's, and I'm a dad, I've got two kids. Oh yeah, that. And then you know, you're you've got Children that little thing on the stuff Children, I think that's probably I got curly hair. I think that probably curly hair. Not really profession

Not really something that you well, I was getting to do that. I am right more broadly and so let's talk about beam Since that's like obviously the newest sort of offering from your world And I should I want to talk a little bit about how I came to learn about it. You actually... It's gonna be tough for you to tell this story, Josh, without you sounding like an ego maniac. So if you want me to lead you into, if you want me to like gently ease into this,

I think we could do that. I do feel like there's probably, uh, that sounds like a reasonable. Okay, okay, okay. I like that you're looking out sounds like a reasonable. Okay, okay. I like that you're looking out for me. No, I am. I can't have that. I may not have the kind of perspective necessary.

Oh, yeah. Anyhow, so you've got an, you have a, you've made an app. It's called Beam. It's a, it's a, how would you describe it to somebody? You've just met them. They don't know anything about you. They don't know anything about, they know that apps exist. Maybe they use Twitter, maybe they use Snapchat.

Okay, so I would probably say it's something like this. I think that there is no greater power than the power of shared perspective. I think if you can share your perspective, then you can move mountains. And I think that we have been limited historically. If you wanna share your perspective, it requires you to have sort of a creative expression. So I share my perspective

by making movies and maybe an artist does by painting. And if you take that even further, you look at like a Twitter, like you share your perspective by writing, and like a YouTube, you share your perspective by making little videos. And I just really believe in this is a problem that I identified that people do want to share their perspective, even people that don't want to create. So can we solve that problem via technology? Can we enable people to share their perspective without that burden of creation? And that is the problem that being, that's the problem that my tech company that this app solves.

It bridges that divide between the need to create and the desire to share perspectives. Prospective is a big word and I'm just curious because it's essentially like what the app can you explain how the app works? Yeah, so the app works. There's no graphical user interface around creating a video. It shares video from you to how many people follow you similar to like a Twitter social graph, right? But there's no there's no user interface to create. There's no big red record button. What you do is you cover the screen of your iPhone and the proximity sensor, which is the little sensor that tells your phone to turn off

when you hold your phone up to your ear, your phone goes black. We use that sensor to record. So when that's covered, the camera starts to record for seconds of video and the second, the four seconds are up, it's immediately posted. So you can record, you can initiate that record by holding the phone to your chest, you can

put it up against the wall, you can cover it with your hand. But what it doesn't do is it doesn't ask you to think about cinematography. You don't have to hold that phone up in front of your face to say, how does this look? How does what I'm shooting look like? It doesn't interrupt life, to share life. It just captures and then shares. For four seconds. For four seconds at a time,

you can link together as many four second clips as you want. And once that clip is up, everybody who follows me can watch it. That's correct. And they can watch as much as they want. They can watch it once. Only one time. And then it's gone.

So four seconds and then it's gone. Yeah, the goal there is to emulate human interaction. It's like a conversation you have with someone on the street. It's meaningful, but the minute it's gone. So four seconds and then it's gone. Yeah, the goal there is to emulate human interaction. It's like a conversation you have with someone on the street. It's meaningful, but the minute it's over, there's no permanent record of it. So why shouldn't the social product emulate human interaction? Why does it have to be this catalog? Why four seconds? Just as far as my history as a filmmaker and appreciation for what is consumable, I think that when you're sharing raw and you're sharing reality, it needs to have some sort of, it needs to address that

struggle for interestingness. The fact that live is inherently boring. And I think forcing you as the person sharing to force your perspectives or your ideas or whatever it is that you want to share into four second nuggets, it makes it much more interesting when you're on the consumption side. So, for example, when we sat down here, I captured four clips on beam, and those are all linked together by beams.

That's a little 16 second video, and you watch that and it's four seconds, then a new shot, then a new shot, and it feels like you're watching something that's much more meaningful than 16 raw seconds of me sitting in a chair. So if I'm using beam all day and people haven't checked, like I'm another user that's following me and I haven't checked the feed and I've done 20 clips, those all play sequentially, right?

Yeah, they do. And well beam parses them together. So if five of those clips were shot while you're at home and then four of them were shot here and then three of them were shot at lunch, beam will figure all that out on the back end. So they're separate, they're they're separate chunks. Yeah, they're separate chunks They're separate little experiences. So it's not about it's not really about storytelling though It's not about storytelling at all right, and in fact, I think that's part of that original sort of thesis behind this this company behind This this app is like how can you bifurcate the need to tell a story from just sharing perspective?

You see something interesting, like a cab driver outside screaming at this, the fair, like I just want to share that. Right. I don't want to stop and think how can I tell this story dynamic? I just want to share that. So these are like, you kind of want them, you kind of want it to be sharing without context almost in the way. Yeah, I think that's a part of it.

I mean, I think look, any social product you're building a tool and then it's up to your user base to define how that tool is used. Right. But for me, all day long, I experienced little moments that I find interesting. And I've always wanted a way to share those little moments. And as vast as the space is right now, there's no, there's

no product on the market that enables me to share those little moments. Right. Like Snapchat, I mean, which is, there are similarities in the sense that you share short snippets of video and you can sort of share to all of the people who are following you or all the people that you're friends with. But it is, does seem much more focused on like a sequential sort of storytelling aspect. I mean, it's certainly at least for

me. And I'm not a the heaviest Snapchat. I am the heaviest. I love Snapchat. Snapchat's an awesome app. I've been using it for, I was a really early Snapchat story user. But I use Snapchat the way that I make movies. I think of a beginning and middle and end. I focus on the creation. I shoot it. I say, does this look good? If it doesn't, I delete it, I reshoot it. I want it to be something awesome that I can share out to my friends. It is absolutely a creative expression. And Snapchat gives you the tools to do that. There are filters there, I can put text over it. But the amount that it asks from me creatively is a lot.

That creative burden to creation there is a lot. Instagram, Instagram's probably the greatest creative burden. I mean, I'll spend 15 minutes on a picture before I'll post it on Instagram. Questioning, is this good enough to share? Really? Do you think everybody does that? Do you think that's just you?

No, I don't think I'm unique. I think that there's a, which is the younger, gender, Kardashian girl, anyways. Kylie. Whichever one, the one with the lips. There's two of them, I think it's them. Okay, one of the two of them. I want to say it's Kendall and Kylie, I could be wrong.

Magnus, can you research that because I don't want to be? I don't know, I should know this. We should both know this. They're both extremely attractive young ladies. And one of them is not over 18, but. They're both super pretty. Not really sure. Is the point the point and be virgin into it inappropriate. I don't know. No, you're right. They're very attractive young ladies go on. That's not even close. I was just saying

they're really pretty and there's there's a quote that I read where she said, I take 500 selfies before I post one. Yeah. And I think that really compartmentalizes like that creative burden is like she might be a little different than normal person Well, you ask if you asked if I thought people were like me and that they give their So you compare yourself to Kylie Jenner. I think that she's the furthest extreme on the spectrum But I do think that we're all like we're all guilty of really scrutinizing how we portray ourselves on social media Right, no, that's true. I mean, we actually have created an environment where, you know, what you're really thinking about is how,

I mean, in a way, like, sharing in a social environment is about, like, how does this make me seem to other people? You know, like, does this make me seem smart? Does this make me seem beautiful? Does it make me seem interesting? I mean, there is a great component of social where it's not, I mean, it's not all this, but you can see on Facebook and on Twitter and in Snapchat and Instagram, like, certainly

Instagram, I think it's the one that's most where it's most prevalent. It's like about what people will think of you when you've shared that thing versus like what you're actually trying to share. I think you're doing a good job of compartmentalizing what social media has become. And what that is, social media has evolved, or maybe devolved into sort of controlling how the world sees me. And our goal with beam is to instead share how you see the world.

And that's why I use that. That's why I use that word perspective that you picked on earlier, because. I wasn't picking on. No, no, no, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, I'm just, I'm curious because it's very specific. You said it a couple times. A perspective isn't the same thing as like an experience

or whatever or even a story. You're absolutely right. And that choosing that word was very deliberate because it is about perspective. It's about how you see things. And that doesn't mean you can't talk into the camera on beam. Like I do selfies on beam all the time.

But the difference between staring at the back of your phone and talking into it versus staring at the mirror that is your selfie camera is that when I'm looking at my selfie camera, I'm judging how I look, I'm judging my composure and when I'm looking at the back of the phone, it's much like I am when I'm talking to you and no idea how I look. I'm just being me. That's like when you were filming before and I had I was like how do I look afterwards and think I was like, did I look okay or something like that?

Because I am, you are constantly concerned about how you come off and in any media, I mean, really. And that's like, like me. But the real world, we don't have that opportunity. But Josh, I want to tell the story. Okay, so we, this is a story for you, the audience. I'm not telling this to Josh, but I'll listen. We had Josh by very early.

Like, we're very secretive around beam. We didn't want so much of what we built and the technology is so new. We didn't want people speculating. So we kept it in like an extreme stealth mode right up until launch. And we brought Josh in pretty early to share with him what we were doing. And now beam, the name of the app is beam, B-E-M-E. But what the app does is it enables people to be me. Like one of the original sketches that I have for the app

was like, what's it like to be a girl, what's it like to be pretty, what's it like to be bullied, what's it like to be me? Can we make something that does just that? So we called it be me. And Josh came in and he was like, give him the whole rundown, he's like, I dig it, I like what you guys are up to.

You can't call it be me. You should call it beme. And you were not the first person to say that Josh, but you were by far the most emphatic. And you had a really, really good argument as to why it should be called beme. And when you walked out of the room, we were like, shit.

That's a pulski. He's so right. The argument, I think the argument was one, it has the word itself that you created, be me. When I saw it, looked like meme. And so I felt like there's an instant meme is like a form of currency on the internet, essentially.

Like a meme is like the thing that travels most, right? So it seemed like really obvious to me, like, oh yeah, like it's a, it, oh yeah, it's a beam. It's a version of a meme. It's something that travels some distance and like, and you were right. And then also, but then also it just is like, it's like you're sending it. You're beaming it to another person. Yeah, I mean, there's a million, it's a plan word and a million,

words and a million different directions. And for me, the truth is it's slightly more abstract. There's something inherently narcissistic about something called be me. And that narcissism is like, antithetical to what this entire product is. Right. I'm just glad you used it. Honestly, the day I didn't know you were going to, I actually didn't know.

I left and I remember I went home and I talked to my wife about it. I said, of course, don't ever repeat anything that I tell you to her, to Laura. And then I was like talking about it. And I was like, you know, but I feel like it's like the name. I feel like they got a colored beab. and I didn't know if you were ever going We didn't have another conversation about the name after that And so I didn't know and I read the Times article the New York Times article There's actually a part where I do wrote it Mike Isaac is I did the story and

It was like pronounce beam and I was like, oh my god I like I had like a lich because I was I just felt like you sometimes you don't know And this is me just being totally egotistical for a minute. But sometimes you don't know if you've run out of good ideas. And you're like, no, but you may be saying, you may be like, yeah, we should do a story on acts or like, how come nobody's saying this or doing this? And you're in those ideas or bad ideas, and you've run out of ideas and you have to retire. So it's always nice to get like an indicator that maybe you still have good ideas. And that was to me, it was like,

there is some juice left in the orange that is Josh DePolski. Yes, thank you. That's how I think of myself as an orange to be squeezed by society and reality. Or just me for names of my technology company. Yeah, if you're working on anything else, I'm happy to consult.

That's my new thing. I just consult on names. I'm like, I actually had a friend who, I claimed, I don't know if this is true, that his father, not his father, his uncle invented the name Zima. You know that, you know that, remember the drink, Zima? Do I? I'm a product of the 90s.

Yeah, I remember. So Zima was like a, was like a, like a, like a, like a clear malt liquor. It was like a real fresh edgy. Yeah, like my friends, cool mom drink. Yeah, Zima had like a blue and white liabal, blue and silver label. Anyhow, they're pretty tasty, but I wouldn't give for a Zeme right now. I think they still make the Magnus. Can you find out? What's your research in something else for us? The Akali or Kendall are those the names? Oh, you didn't even research it. Magnus' Swedish,

I should say, I know that already. No, I just feel like it's worth repeating. Right. People should understand if there's a problem, it's due to his Swedish heritage. Anyhow, another something wrong with that. I want to, we can talk about being a little bit, I'm actually curious, Kylie Jenner is that Magnus is telling us is the one that had the selfie quote, I guess. Do you have a name by the way for,

are you calling selfie something and beam, like Beamies? Well, no, we'll, so slam down. Slam down, it's Josh. It's another two, that's it. That's it, that's it. That's it, that's it, that's it, no, well, so slam down. Slam down, it's another two, that's it. That's it, that's it. That's two right there. No, the proximity sensor is on the same side as your screen. So one fun way to do a selfie is to like,

just literally press the phone up against the wall and talking to the phone. So I think it was our intern called it a wall fee, but we've rejected. That doesn't have a great, that doesn't really, really stick. It doesn't really roll off the tongue I mean nothing but selfie has really stuck in the sense of like how do you

So there's a great word there's like a butt selfie which is apparently balfi which I don't really know if anybody uses You know, Belfast is terrible word. Do you have a selfie stick? Are you kidding me? I'm Here now this is not a selfie stick. This is a selfie stick. What are these things called? Yeah, I'm right here. Now this is not a selfie stick. This is a selfie stick. This is what are these things called? So what Josh is looking at right now is I, you know, because I make videos all day,

every day I carry around in this somewhat obtuse contraption that I put together of camera parts. And I have a flexible tripod on there that I use as a selfie stick primarily, but it's sitting on the table right now in more of a tripod like tradition. Yeah, traditional tripod position. But you came in, you walked into the studio and you were like, you were filming it. I assume you walk into

almost every room doing that. And do people ever get angry? Do people get angry? I mean, I remember early in my career when I was a kid, I used to film everything. I was like in my early 20s and people give me such a hard time about it. But in success, you can kind of film anywhere and it's like either you're okay with me filming there or you're wrong and that confidence really just pushes me through. Wow, I like that. It's an enormous amount of confidence. So where does this come from?

I mean, you've put yourself in a lot of what you've done. I mean, obviously there is like an ego aspect to it, you know, and maybe, and maybe, and I'm like, I can't, I can't answer this, I'm curious. But where does this desire, I mean, you make, the way the things you make are varied, you know, sometimes they're an ad for a big brand and sometimes they're like a really personal video about yourself and sometimes they're like something else

completely, they're a piece of art. You know, where, where, or an app, like where did this start, This like desire to share a lot of yourself. I mean, like a lot more of yourself than most people share. Well, I mean, I think it's like, you know, I never went to film school and my early roots as a filmmaker, I, you know, I didn't have any subject matter to talk about. I started making movies and I lived in a trailer park on welfare when I was 19 where, uh, and South Eastern Connecticut. Okay. And the only stories that I had to share were the stories I knew, which were stories for my life.

And that was a trajectory I went down. And as my skills, as a filmmaker, a storyteller, sort of evolved, the only thing that I was really, the only thing that I really understood, like I think you can't communicate something that you don't really understand. And the only thing I really understood was myself and the experiences that I had. So those were the experiences that I chose to tell. And even now, I've made future films

that I've made TV shows about subjects beyond myself. I've worked as a journalist quite a bit, and the movies that I make that I have the most confidence in because I have the best old stories or ones that I really understand. And those are the ones that are about me personally, because it's like, I'm sure I could tell a story about what it means to have a baby or what it means to get married. But there's no way it would be as as correctors, accurateors, intimated, telling my story about having a kid or getting married, because it's just something I really understand. And as I matured and grown up and gotten older, I've come to appreciate the power of sharing a really well told story. So my desire, my ambition is always to tell stories better. What was the moment where you realize that this could be, that this would be something that you could turn into a career, that you could actually,

I mean, you're doing it at a scale that most people, a lot of people with video cameras, there are a lot of people who take selfies or whatever. Not all of them are going to be, I mean, very few of them are going to end up being you, right? So was there a moment, was there something that happened? Was there like a meeting or an event or whatever where you knew that this was something that could be more real? No, I don't know if I still feel that way.

I feel like the carpet could be pulled out from under me at any second, but no, that would feel good. Do you really feel that way? I still feel that way. I feel like the carpet could be pulled out from under me at any second. But no, and that would feel good. Do you really feel that way? I genuinely feel that way. You think that way. So how would that go down to what people be like, actually, this guy's stuff sucks? Or I mean, I don't know. I just think that like in life, all of us humans,

I should make a vlog about this, this idea. But you want to, you just do it right now. All of us humans, it would require an animation. But all of us humans, like, I think we all reach a point in our lives that we identify with the most and we hang on to those moments for our whole lives. That's what we identify with. And it's like a state of arrested development.

Like when you're development, it's a human being just stops and stops right there. Can you give me an example? So for me, yeah, I ran away from home when I was 15 and got my girlfriend pregnant. And when I was 17 years old, is when I was like, yeah, on welfare living in a trailer park with a baby

and washing dishes for a living. And that was who I was, that was who I still am. So everything that I have above and beyond that, which is the accumulation of my life is the accumulation of that. I feel like it's just bonus. And that bonus could go away

and I could be reset back to that person who I really am, which is a dishwasher in South Eastern Connecticut living in a trailer park. This makes a lot of sense to me. I think part of what you're describing is something that's called imposter syndrome. I think that's, and by the way, I have the same,

I mean, I feel like at the base level of everything that I've ever done or am, I'm like at the base level of everything that I've ever done or am, I'm like a really lame annoying nerd, like a not a cool guy. Like I'm not, and maybe by the way, maybe that's how people perceive me. And you know what, great, that I succeeded as not a cool guy.

But I feel like I've done like things and accomplished things, but I do feel like it's total imposter. It's certain, and many, at many points, and I think like at some point, somebody is gonna go, wait a second, why is this guy doing this? Like he shouldn't be doing this. He doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. I think there's real virtue in that. I think that I think it's real pain in it, that's for sure. What's virtuous about that is that so if that's your zero is just a nerdy guy and my zero is a guy living in a trailer park

Everything above that zero is just bonus. guy and my zero is a guy living in a trailer park, everything above that zero is just bonus. So when people ask me sort of where the fearlessness comes from to start a technology company or to shut down a previous company, it's like, do anything that I've ever done, it's because like what's to fear? I'm just like some guy who lives in a trailer. I don't like, I would have been going to lose all this other shit that I've earned over the last few years, like it doesn't matter. I'm just some guy in a trailer park.

Right. All right. I want to take a break, because I want to talk about maybe the potential roots, at least for me, but maybe also for you, of some of this stuff. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back with more. All right. I want to talk a little bit about Canary. It is a complete home security system packed into a single device that you control from

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slash 128. We're back with Casey Neistat and we've just learned thanks to Magnus that Zima was discontinued in 2008 but can still be purchased in Japan. We're just learning from our sponsor Zima. Our Japanese sponsor actually I would like to go, I would really like to have a Zima. Do you think the recipe, can you find out about it as the recipe in the same in Japan? I think I could come up with it. It's like six tablespoons of sugar

to cut the sparkling water. I have no idea. It's like a sprite, I think what it ultimately is like, spritin' gray alcohol. Exactly, that's exactly what it is. So we were talking about Imposter Syndrome and some feeling like a dishwasher and or like a horrible nerd. And actually what's interesting is, you're saying like all of the stuff is

bonus, like all the other stuff that you do and get or whatever is bonus. And I do think what's what's interesting to me and I remember having a very distinct moment where I realize this, you know, we are like all sort of fuck-ups who don't know what we're doing. I mean, I really believe that nobody knows what they're doing. I remember being in a meeting with like a bunch of executives and these architects, we were about to lease a very large. This is like in the early days of Fox. We were about to lease a very large office space.

And somebody from Vox, I'm not gonna name, and it's like, well, the architect got into like, or the architect, or or the guy who's managing the production of building out this office, kind of like a huge argument over something, and it was clear to me that neither one of them really knew what the fuck they were talking about. It was like about lights or seating

or what we were paying for the floor or something, and nobody seemed to really have any, like there was no adult in the room, right? And these were people having like, oh, these are the adults, I'm just the dumb impostor. So I feel like nobody really knows what they're doing. I think up to the highest level of government, like I feel like there are probably moments

when Obama's like, what the fuck am I doing? I have no idea, I can't believe I designed this trade deal. And I don't really know. I mean, I think that's true, I think that's true for the world. Like when I talk to kids, like high school kids, I always tell them that no one knows anything. So you listen to everyone, but you reject everything that doesn't sound right because

it's true. Otherwise, who are we following? We're following the people who paved these roads before us, but who are they? They're just like some fucking guy. So I want to talk about something. I almost never talk about because part of me is like It's a little bit embarrassing and this is actually kind of weird to be talking about But I've never talked about it on any podcast I've only talked about a little bit publicly But we have something in common that very few people that I've met in my life Certainly not like doing really crazy weird things like what you and I are you know, we tend to be doing very interesting things We're both high school dropouts. And now you didn't, did you drop out of high school and then go to

school, go to college? No. Okay, so neither did I. And I've been in, by the way, this is tied by that imposter syndrome. And I don't know if this fuels any of that. I'm not saying that you have imposter syndrome. It sounds like you do though. Do you ever feel like are you ever in a room full of like executives who graduated from Harvard and Yale you ever feel like are you ever in a room full of like executives who graduated from Harvard and Yale? Because I'm sure you're in rooms like that on a regular basis. Does that ever creep in? Do you ever think about that? No. Really? If anything, I just think of it as a strength. Really? They are beholden to some sort of system that I have the luxury of having like an open- mindedness and open to things that

I'm not beholden to sort of any institutional thinking. And I say that like very delicately because I've been to a fantastic... I'm delicate. I've had a fantastic appreciation for education. Right. In fact, I spent half of last year at MIT. I was invited to MIT to work out of the Media Lab as part of a fellowship between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Sundance Institute.

But see, that's an incredible thing to have done. From, I mean, to me, in my life, I always thought that having really screwed up like my high school education because I was like a weird, wouldn't listen to anybody kind of kid who, like, literally, my parents could not contain. I mean, that was the reality was I was so willful that like my parents didn't know what to do with me.

I mean, I do think I think about it all the time, not because like I'm like, man, I wish I'd have gone to Harvard. I agree with you that there's a power in it, but it also is like you're in it, you're like a kind of a lone wolf. Like I feel like a lone wolf. Like I don't have the network or this, there's a part of me that always wonders like what I don't have the network or this,

there's a part of me that always wonders like what I don't know essentially, you know? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm also a big fan of self-education. I think that there's so much to be learned. And if you really break down sort of what an educational sort of institution is and how it works, I think you can seek out and find that information, right, attain that information.

Well, information's out there. I mean, educating yourself is more possible now than it's ever been, but I still think that, I mean, I think one of the biggest things for me, and I don't know if you had a similar experience, and I certainly don't want to put words in your mouth, is that I felt like my emotional education was really stunted by not going to high,

by not being in high school. Like, I feel like I still now have feelings about social settings or how to interact with people where I'm not acting normal because I never learned, I didn't get beat up enough in high school essentially. I mean, I do think that the social aspects of especially college are at least 50% of the value because that social graduation in between becoming an adult and being a child is really important to any kind of development. But look, college as a whole, high school as a whole, degrees, I think what they are, they're sort of a social agreement between some sort of societal norm or an institution and then the world. And I think that that agreement or the value of that social contract is fading really quickly, especially in the

technology space, especially in the world that I live in. And it's changing so quickly because the educational institutions can't quite keep up with the advancements in technology. So I have 11 people working at my tech company and they're all extremely valuable, extraordinary technologists. And I didn't ask one of them where they went to school.

Right. I couldn't tell you where any of them went to school. My CTO went to Vassar and got majored in Victorian studies. That's all I know of the entire staff of my tech department. It's so odd. Because it's something we tease him about. That's the only thing I know. No, but this is so true. I mean, actually, I mean, it's been odd. Because it's something we tease him about. That's the only thing I know. No, but this is so true.

I mean, actually, I mean, it's been the same for me. I could not tell you the last person I hired for any place. I've been, I cannot tell you where any of them went to school or whether it was even a conversation. It was like because it's so easy now to prove your work. I feel like, you know, like to build something that is verifiable and real. I need to keep apologizing for this

because this sounds like an anti-education position, which I don't take. Like right now, literally, as we're doing this, my son, who is a junior in high school, is spending his summer at the University of Connecticut, living in a dorm room studying. He's doing pre-college courses. So I'm a huge fan, a huge proponent of education, but I do think that there are people that it just does not work for

and those people have to find their own paths and for whatever reason both two of those outliers are sitting in this room talking to one another right now. Yeah, but that's why I wanted to bring it up because I think it is it is extremely, maybe maybe we're pioneers in that sense. Something tells me more like fuck ups. Yeah, no. We got really lucky. But, you know, although also like, you know, I think there's a certain element of, there is like my,

I feel like my not going to high school dovetails with like the birth of the real internet that we know and live on now. You know that there's a, and that changed the way people live and interact. And it changed like what I was able to do as a person by myself, wherever I was sitting, you know, the possibilities, my world became much bigger and much more open. And like I would venture to guess they were for you as well. And then like, I mean, my departure from high school is far less romantic.

Like my, I got my girlfriend pregnant. We had to like pay rent. I did my parents didn't give me any money. I had nowhere to turn to so I had to get a job and I couldn't work 50 hours a week washing dishes and go to high school full-time. A certain romance to that though. In the truest sense. I mean only in retrospect, only in sweeping success. Not to you.

Not to you. Right, every other from that from any other perspective, it's just sort of a business. Right. And it could be a much more depressed and story. Yeah. Well, you believe it should make it work.

No, I do. I'm doing all right. You know, I'd be sure it could be pulled away from you at any moment. All right, I want to talk about a couple of things, a couple of other things that are not as dark and heavy as education. I was just reading an article about somebody

a vine person, I can't think of who it is now, but you were mentioned in it. Explain why I'm pulling all the business inside of Prophecy. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Explain this thing to me. Explain vine, explain vine as a phenomenon

and like the people that it's producing. And let's say you, let's extend that to YouTube as well, or like whatever you, whatever you are. Those are two dramatically different, dramatically different platforms where I don't think there are very many parallels between the creators that succeed on either one of them. So I'm happy you attacked your other.

But there are, what I'm saying is there's a new breed of talent that is succeeding both on like Vine and YouTube and Snapchat, and maybe there's like more of a link between Vine and Snapchat than what. I mean, I'd prefer to tackle YouTube. So that's the one that I know the best. Okay, I will tackle YouTube. But I want to talk about Vine.

Sure, no, I'm more than happy to, but I think what YouTube does, the romance of YouTube. And I just, as the keynote speaker at VidCon, which is a huge convention for YouTubers a couple weeks ago. And I said this there, and I really believe this, that vlogging, the act of vlogging, is my favorite. And I think we'll quickly become the most relevant new genre of filmmaking. And that's sort of a profound statement, but I really am convicted in that position. But I think what YouTube has done is YouTube has egalitarianized filmmaking.

It has finally democratized the most exclusive, the most nepotistic art form that ever is, that ever was. It all of the sudden is now accessible to the masses. And technology, cell phones, cameras have made the process of creating films fair, finally. Right. And that's happened in the last decade. But YouTube has made the distribution of it fair. I mean, if you look at the numbers that like a Pudi Pai, who's the number one creator on YouTube, who's done 12 billion views, compare that to anything.

Yeah. Compare that to the aggregate of every Super Bowl played in the last hundred years, and it's tenfold that. Compare that to the most, the avatar or Titanic, it crushes it. And if you think about, like, it's really different than Avatar Titanic. I'm talking purely objective numbers and eyeballs. Because what it does share in common with Titanic, with avatars, that people elected to view it. I'm not talking about the qualitative differences. Someone says, I want to watch Avatar, and they sat down and watched it. Someone said, I to watch Poodie Pie's silly swearing videos at video games

Where the hell of it is unbelievably consumable content is they chose to watch it and from like a 30,000 foot perspective that is a huge idea that is tremendous Pewdiepie if you don't know is a Swedish dude So is it a it's a single dude? It's a single dude. He has 32 million YouTube subscribers. And he basically screams, he does a lot of screaming. How would you describe it? He's mostly a gaming YouTuber.

So we post videos of himself flying video games. And he squares and screams at the screen a lot. Right. And Magnus, would you say, you're Swedish? Would you say that that's representative of most of the people in Sweden? Would you say that he's a good ambassador for your country's brand? Magnus said because you can hear him that he's very proud. He's the second biggest export after

IKEA, which has nothing in common with with PewDiePie whatsoever. So I came from YouTube, I ran into the open, warm, welcoming arms of YouTube from HBO. I had a show that I wrote, I directed, I produced, I edited, I filmed it, we deficit-funded it, like we made it and then sold it to HBO for millions of dollars, like the dream story you could ever have. And at the peak of that success, I said, fuck this, this isn't feel right at all. And I ran to YouTube. What didn't feel right about it? What didn't feel right about it? What didn't feel right about it

is that I would make something, which is my HBO show. And then before the audience, before people could view that something that I had created, there were about a million filters in between me, the creator, and the audience. Right. There were producers, there were channel heads, there were all these people that all had to chime in.

If you're rocker ties the spirit of the artwork that was that content, and YouTube is the entire, is the perfect antithesis of that. I mean literally I posted a movie this morning at 8 a.m. I finished that movie at 742 a.m. and by noon it had been seen by 150,000 people. Right. I mean this is not the same kind of this is not like a linear sort of storytelling in the sense of like traditional like we think of like 22 minutes it comes or hour long dramas or two hour movies I mean, we're not it's a different type of content altogether I mean it's not like you could produce what you produced in that whatever that 15 minute window is you would have never produced that for HBO Anyhow because of the totally different form well, I mean, I think you'd be surprised me to be a content

It's exactly like my YouTube content, but that's the exception not the rule. It bundled into a show, wasn't like. I think all you're talking about, all what you're referring to is just, there's an evolution of any medium. And that's what we're seeing on the internet right now. And that's why I push back that like,

how dare you say that, how dare anyone suggest that Poodie Pies like, unwatchable garbage videos. I don't think, I didn't say that i have a record i'm working with my mouth sir i'll go on the record to say that i find puty pie unwatchable i also do okay but but who are we to sit here and say that it's not a lot of people though no who are we to say it's less socially relevant than citizen came i'm not

well okay i think it's less relevant than citizen can. I would agree with that. I'm willing to, and by the way, and not like I'm like, oh, citizen canes, the finest piece of art that has ever been produced. It's pretty good. It's very good. It's very good. All I'm saying is, where is the citizen can of this, like, of this generation?

Well, I think that, I think that just like anything else, like, sorry, what is your channel? You have more. You have more people creating now than ever before there are billion channels on YouTube But they're only a couple that are really successful. I mean, they're only I think less than a thousand that have more than a million subscribers Right, I don't know the math really quickly, but with that's a hundredth of one percent less That's a thousand of one percent more. I don't ever get out. I'm very bad at that. I'm very bad at that. I'm very bad about that. So I don't think that there's any more great content being made. There's just a lot more content being made.

If you've wanted to write historically, you need a pencil and a stack of paper. The access, the opportunity to be a great writer has been, you know, has been omnipresent forever. Doesn't mean there are more great writers out there. And now like the filmmaking has become just that. It's like because it's ubiquitous, because it's accessible by all. It doesn't mean there's gonna be more great stuff. There's to be more stuff. Right. But you would think that if there's more stuff, you're gonna end up with more, was that your watch, baby? Yeah. What it was, oh, it's telling you it's

six o'clock. Okay. That's my metronome. Yeah, it's just an hourly, very slow. Yeah, very slow. Oh, but it's what BPM is that. It's one. There's that, it's one one. No, it's one, no more math, yeah. It's a telly. Yes, here it's a, we should be able to figure this out

really easily, but we can't. At any rate, see high school does matter for certain. I guess that's actually good. I never passed a Rhythmic. No, there's a couple of really important things you should learn at least before you decide to leave high school. Um, were we talking about, oh, I was saying that if you're producing more stuff, you would, you have to venture to guess that at some point you start to, some, somewhere in there, you're

going to start to get more good stuff, right? Because some people are going to decide. Well, then hence sort of how I preface this whole conversation by saying that I think vlogging is my favorite and will be one of the most influential new genres of filmmaking. Define vlogging to me. Vlogging, I'm singling out creators on YouTube that upload regularly with a consistent format. And that is less video gamers and more people that actually use a camera. Right.

Because what are these people talking to the camera? Sure. People talking to the camera, travel vloggers, lifestyle vloggers, which is probably the category that I would lump myself into. Because what these people are, there are singular creators, or one person that does the soup to nuts. That is from the inception of the idea, the production of the video, the post production of the video, to the distribution of the video, is by one person, it's a singular vision, and that's huge. That's profound.

That's like a Picasso coming up with an idea, painting something on a canvas all the way to displaying it in a museum. Like that's a gigantic idea. And just because I think qualitatively right now, there's a ton, there's a horribly disproportionate more amount of bad than there is good. But I think in time, we'll start to see that filter,

that shift. But vlogging, in time we'll start to see that filter, that shift. But vlogging, as a thing, feels comes off as a very self-centered Facebook generation, it feels like of the generation that was raised by Facebook. It will evolve into something more mature, but just like how I got my roots in filmmaking, I think you have kids with a single camera, and they're like, what do I talk about?

All they have is themselves. Right. So why search for another story? They just tell their own. Right. And I think there's something really beautiful and something amazing in that, because it's like, if you look at what something like YouTube has done for young people like the LGBTQ crowd, and you have this sort of this like unbelievable amount

of really rich, really dynamic, really intimate content of people dealing with struggles. Struggles that when I was a kid, like there was no talking about that. If you struggle with something like that 15 years ago, you were alone. And now because of the power of shared perspective, it's moved that, it's pushed that forward in such a big way. It's huge. It's tremendous. No, I was just talking to somebody about this. And you almost see like how things that to us were big deals like gender and sexuality. Like when we were growing up, it was like a big deal. Somebody gay, like they're not gay, whatever.

When you can imagine a world and a lot of it has to do with like being just having this huge amount of like experience and information that's like available and real and like sort of like it's there for anybody who wants it. You can see that in like 20 years, like nobody will ever talk about it. I mean, people won't be talking about that. At least the generation that's growing up

like on YouTube and on Facebook and all these other places, that I feel like gender or sexuality stuff, that like was a big deal when we were kids and that like was a big deal politically will be done away with in the next 25 to 50 years. Well, I hope, I think 25 to 50 is ambitious, but so really, I have great hope for humanity. I appreciate it.

Look, I mean, that what you just described is absolutely sort of the mission behind beam, behind my app is like, Oh, yeah, spring design to me. It's just that. I mean, like my wife follows this 14 year old kid who lives in a hotel in Dubai. And that sounds crazy, but it's like,

literally like, I watch him over her shoulder and I see that in the hotel. Exactly. But I now but it's like literally like I watch him over her shoulder and I see like exactly. But I now understand it's incredible. His life is incredible. When he wants food, he goes down to the food court of the mall that's attached to his hotel. But like this sounds novel or silly or anecdotal, but like I never really thought that that lifestyle existed.

And now I understand that crazy, he's probably, he's got to be unique lifestyle of like a teenager growing up in a hotel and Dubai. Is he very, you think he's very rich? You know, I can't tell that. It's fancy. His lifestyle is very fancy. Shalso follows a guy who lives in DC who I think he's a single dad. It's this guy and his kid. And the guy has sleeve tattoos and he's always like hanging out with his baby. And it's really fantastic because like we have a kid. And literally because of social media

We're able to empathize with parents that are dealing with similar struggles to ourselves Right, and I think that's a micro examination of what can be achieved globally and glue and can be achieved via technology That will promote empathy and I think that that's transformative But you think it's important that it's that it's done in a way that's not like forcing somebody to it to dramatize like their story. Well, I think there's a million manifestations, but I think that the closer we can get to raw, the more truthfulness it communicates.

Would you prefer to be on camera all the time? No, I think that life is too boring to be on camera all the time. There is a lot of boring stuff. Like when you're watching TV, that would not be good. That would not be good video. That's my problem with live sharing apps is that they do nothing to address that struggle for parents. That's right. I think that parents go.

I don't. I think it's an incredible utility. I think that when news is breaking, I think that my first experience with her scope was when that building was burning down in second avenue Yeah, and I was like holy shit like without this tool I would have no access to see what's actually happening in my hometown and that was profound But but there's home there's a flip side to that. Yeah, like do you live on second Avenue? I used to live what half a block from there, but you don't I don't I mean if a building burned down like uptown Like and you know what it, is it important for you?

I mean, I'm a news junkie, so I care. I don't know where you're going with this. Well, if a building burned down, burns down in Cleveland is important. I mean, I probably wouldn't be engaged, but you know, that's a place for a lot. But we have, but these apps have a way of making things seem, I mean, and I'm not being like the old guy here. I'm actually saying we have this weird, you know, Twitter is a great platform for our outrage. Like we're, I think we talked about this a little bit, but anyhow, you know, something like Periscope makes that fire seem really important to everybody who can tune into it, but the thing is it's not really important to everybody who can tune into it.

Like there is like a certain amount of understanding in the, the world is so big and so vast. Don't you feel like there's, needs to be some context and some basic storytelling that goes along with this stuff so you're not just like, oh my God, something's on fire. Um, I mean, sure, you know, I think it's like a dangerous line of thought where you're going with that because I think you're sure my line of thought is dangerous. It forces a compartmentalization of communication as a whole. And I think that that's wrong. I think that communication needs to manifest

in a million different ways, and Mary had different ways in that where he can communicate anything, everything. So is it important? Does it affect me? Is my life really that different? Understanding with the life of a 14 year old living in a hotelist?

No, but it might move the needle like a tiny, tiny bit in my own understanding. Yeah, you might decide to go to Dubai. And like if you want to look at something that I think is slightly more nefarious, it's like Cecil the Lion really pissed me off. I think that like, yes, it's tragic and it sucks. And like big game hunting, something that I would go on the record as being against. But like, it was a single lion.

And in that same week, there was like, you know, three African Americans killed by police officers here in the United States of America and if you compare their Twitter trending and their mentions it's grossly disproportionate in the lion's favor. Yeah not to be a dick about this but like anybody who's really outraged about the lion being killed and he tamperers on a regular basis like if they had any like perception understanding. My favorite piece of my favorite news piece about the whole thing was written by that Zimbabwean I'm not sure you say that but guy from Zimbabwe journalist for the New York Times you say that, but guy from Zimbabwe,

journalist for the New York Times, wrote an op-ed about it and he said, like, I grew up in Zimbabwean, know what it was like. And here you have these Americans, and we drove our own mountain lions to on the verge of extinction. See, we're doing with the wolves. I'm a little biased here.

I'm a, I'm a, I work with the endangered species, coalition out of DC, and I'm, I'm aware of what we've done as Americans as far as driving animals to the brink of extinction. Oh, it's totally. The whole line gets killed in the whole world. Got their panties enough, bro. And this is what I'm saying about the most crying on TV. This is what I'm saying about the, about the outrage where it's like, you know, it's

so disproportionate to not only to, like, because the context is not there. And you're just like, oh my god, they're killing a lot. They're killing this line. How could they without any perspective or context whatsoever? And I do feel like I'm not saying like we shouldn't have these platforms we should But there is something needed that's why I'm sort of curious like in as far as beam is concerned where it is like Context lists, but it's also very like personal so I mean it changes it because it's personal right? It's not like a broadcasting app for like do you want there to be a situation where maybe you do? Like, I have a beam account. I've got 10 million followers,

and like, I see something horrible and I share it with 10 million followers. Like, is that an ideal situation without any context? Well, I think the nature of these products is like, yeah, I think that something like that could be an eventuality, but before you'd have 10 million followers, you'd have 10 million people that say, I'm interested in Josh's perspective enough so that I will follow him.

And I think that's the big difference between a product like any of these social products we're seeing from Twitter to beam versus Fox News. I don't tell Fox News that I want to see Donald Trump's face 18 out of 24 hours of their news cycle, but that's being fed to me. You could tell the new way. You would say that right. I would say as loudly as I possibly could. Please show more Trump.

So if you want to get into sort of the dangers of communication or sort of publication bias, like that's where I think it is. I think it's where you have these huge gatekeepers that have far more control. Players, yeah. I think that social media is the solution, is part of the solution, not part of the problem. I think it's the entrenched media that is the problem. Right.

I think, I guess, my, I think, and I agree with you. I agree 100%. I think it's a question of like, how do we learn? I think we spent the last five, six years looking down at our phones, just going like, oh my God, this thing does this. This is incredible. And now we're starting to get to the point where actually this conversation is, this should be happening right now where we're going,

like, all right, but what does it mean? Like, how do I use it? Like, what does it for? Like, why would I use Snapchat over here and Beam over here and Twitter over here? Like, what are the reasons? You know, and I think there have to be, it sounds like you understand this,

that whole perspective idea to me is really interesting. It's like, there is a different reason why you would use this, you know? Yeah, I mean, look, that's we're raising money. It's like the video sharing space is so crowded and I would agree. The video space is way too crowded to start another video sharing app. But I think beam is part of sort of a next generation of sharing. I think it's a genre in the social space that doesn't really exist right now.

It's one that's largely vacant. And I think that whether or not Beam succeeds, I think something will succeed in this space that enables us to share in almost a passive capacity. Right. But not all the time. But not all the time because all the time is fucking boring. Right. Maybe someday you'll be able,

maybe Beam someday will be able to know when something interesting is gonna happen and they'll just start recording. I mean, is been working on that? Yeah, that technology. The product is a lot less complex than you think. You could probably just whip that up. All right, so I know you have to go.

I don't want to, I mean, I would. I've got a baby at home. Yes, so I've heard. You have a baby, but you also have a 17 year old son, which to me is the craziest thing in the world. Yeah, it's a heck of a divide between the two of them, but no, I had my son Owen when I was, when I was, he was born two, except for my 17th birthday. And, but no, I had my son Owen when I was when I was he was born two

Except for my 17th birthday and then I had I had franny earlier this year See helpful does he help out? I mean he's incredible Like it seems like he's like a full-grown man So you basically could just like put him to work with the kid you smile when you say that but you have no idea like he I have an 18 month old. I'm like boy. I wish I just have a teen year old around just to hang out with the kids sometimes I'm really stuff like my wife and I was about to dinner and we just hand over the keys so we can drink. Like, that's what it's like having a adult. That's incredible. And he's so much fun. I should have noticed.

So the kid when I was 17, I thought, I don't know that I recommend it, but for me, it was really great. Well, it all worked out. All right. So tell me what's the next thing. So, beam is successful? Is it doing what you wanted to do? I mean, the answer, is it successful as a big question, but is it doing what I want to do? Yes. We are rolling at a rate that is,

we're having to fight to maintain the amount of capacity. We are, every day is a struggle to maintain it because we have so many new users coming on. It's not just new users coming on, but the way in which people are using it, the sheer quantity of sharing that's taking place on there is so overwhelming, which is wonderful.

How many people are you following? How many people do I follow? I think I follow about 230 people on these. And how many people follow you? Like 198,000. And then for the record, in Casey is not a default follow on being. So those people had to seek me out

and type in my username. So Casey is your username? It is not? It's not your username. No, it's out and type in my user name. So KC is your user name? It's not your user name. No, C-A-S-E-Y. Oh, okay. Are you connecting? All of the N-B in by the way. Is it connected up to any, like, Duke, can I connect it up to any other social network that I use? No, I can't log in with Facebook or, no, no. It's just like all in, it's all encapsulated inside of the book. Well, that's right, because if your consumption experience doesn't mirror the creation experience

Then the level of preciousness gets attached to what you're creating in it But I can't promote like a beam like my beam stream. Oh, we are building something right now That's really fun. That does just that actually by time this podcast goes live. We should have that up What is it can you talk about? Yeah, so it's called beam links and what it is? There's a share card in beaming just hit the button and it creates like What's your username Josh? I'm actually not using beam. Do you know why? Oh, cuz you're on Android because I Last couple of months I've been using the Android phone. I was actually really bummed. We have a team literally I have an iPhone I should get I should get on in fact, you know what let's just say by the time this goes up

And I'm gonna I'm gonna heavily promote my my existence on beam I will have a beam account in you and I'm gonna heavily promote my existence on beam. I will have a beam account, you and I will be. You'll be Josh Wittapolski. Josh Wittapolski, a possible. Josh Wittapolski. Kind of a mouthful. But no, how the share cards work is literally like beam.com slash Joshua Dupolski.

And then you can watch the... No, but it's this really sexy card that you can share to any other platform to get people to follow you. So that's what I'm interested in. If they type that link in, it so that's what I'm interested in. If they type that link in, it's an automatic follow for you on-beam. So like the thing that I'm interested in

is because like all the time, I actually will tweet something and I share it to Facebook because like I don't interact with Facebook as a separate entity that often because to me it feels like a chore and most of my like most of my conversation happens and it plays like Twitter.

And so is there like a way to connect, and this is more of like a technical question, really more than so, is there a way to connect? And this is more of a technical question, really more than anything, or a philosophical question. Do you want it to feel like, you can mere cat in on Twitter, it's like, hey, here's the link to my mere cat, and then you go back to it, or a periscope, then you go back to it.

Is that, will that be part of? I mean, look, I'm getting people excited about what you're creating, as I was paramount to the success of any app. Like, with Snapchat, I screenshot my snaps, and then I tweet an image of the screenshot saying, check out what I just did on Snapchat. I'm clunky as that, they should be able to do something

that they would do that. It is, but again, look, it's when you have a closed end and network like Beam, when you're sharing content off platform, it can, if not done correctly, it can threaten sort of the ethos of that platform. So the way we're doing it is very deliberate and very considerate, because we want to navigate that ethos and we want to make sure we're not pushing aside any of our principles in order

for growth. And you don't want to be a card in somebody else's network. You want to be your own network. Yeah, but that doesn't mean their enticement is still important. I just shot something amazing on beam. I want you to come check it out. Like that's really important. I tweet that every single day when I do something awesome

on beam, which is every day. Probably many, many times, every day. So anyhow, all right. So beam is growing. You're going to have new features that are going to be coming out. What else? Anything else? And we're working on Android.

Android. What is the deal with Android? Because there are a lot of Android users. And a lot of pissed off Android users. And they're right to be. I said, when you came out, I was like, where's the Android version? I carry a Samsung S6 Edge, which I think is a pretty sexy phone.

Yeah, this is the S6. Yeah, I say cameras pretty good. It's pretty good. I actually think this, I'm gonna go on record and say bold, bold, bold, straight. I'm gonna go on record and say that the camera and the S6 is better than the iPhone camera. And I've done side by side comparison.

The way you started up is incredible. No, they nailed it. They doubled the double. Yeah, it's really good. Well, you know, actually, have you used a OnePlus? No. OnePlus is like this. Yeah, I know what it is.

Yeah, you know, about OnePlus. Well, you just do a circle on the lock screen. Totally locked black screen. You do a circle and it opens the camera up. That's pretty cool. It's kind of cool. If you do a V, it does a flashlight, which is very handy, because I'd always use my flashlight.

Anyhow. In any event. Well, the reason why you're doing it. V, it does a flashlight, which is very handy, because I've always used my flashlight. Anyhow. In any event. No, the reason why you're gonna have me, you'll get me an APK very soon, right? Yeah, just know that. It's when you have limited resources, like any startup does, you have to focus on running platform,

get it right, and then you port that over, and we started the porting process, you know, before launch. Is it in testing? Not even close. Not even close. No. Okay. Well there you go. This is definitely, I can tell you this,

there are definitely people who listen to this podcast that are Android users are going to like. I'm working on it. So I just want you to, like, we are spending so much money, we're devoting so many resources to being on Android. And I empathize with it. I was on Android for years waiting for Instagram to show off.

I know, right. And we're not going to wait years. We started literally as soon as we had the product where we thought it was close enough to recreate it on Android, we went for it. Right. Okay, good. So it's not there.

Good, I'm excited. All right, listen man, I get to, you gotta go, but you gotta come back, because this is really good and I feel like there are many things that we have to talk about that we have not talked about. And clearly, by the next time, you'll have done like 20 different other new things and we'll be able to talk I do stay busy, but yes, I would love to come back to any time Josh. You just let me know when

I'm vlogging Josh right now. I got the camera. I'm so excited about this. This is a great interview I appreciate you giving me the time Thanks a lot. Well, that is our podcast for this week. We'll be back next week with more. And as always, I wish you and your family the very best although they're being watched and recorded right now. you