Release Week Nerves! | The Friday Update

Welcome to another edition of the Friday update which, for reasons explained below, I'm actually writing on Thursday morning.

So, erm, hello from the past, I guess? (Although, on second thoughts, I think that's how all writing works...)

What have I been up to this week?

When I last sat down to write one of these updates, I was in the middle of a manic week of editing, going slightly loopy at the prospect of spending any more time staring at Premiere Pro. As I write this update, I am safely out the other side of that woods!

The last few days of editing went fairly smoothly. It did involve working throughout the entire weekend but it was generally without too many bumps in the road. Uploading videos to YouTube can often involve having to battle with overzealous copyright systems and monetisation suitability algorithms. Knowing how desperate boxing promoters generally are to protect footage of their fights and being unsure as to how YouTube's monetisation and age-requirement systems would deal with a combat sport, I had worried that I might have to spend quite a lot of time swapping out clips. However, all was fine on the first upload!

Since finishing the edit, I've been busying myself with other bits of what I call "upload admin". For example, I like to ensure that subtitles are available on the day a video is published so that anyone who uses them doesn't have to wait to watch the video.

I also spent quite a lot of time messing around in Photoshop trying to make the best thumbnail for the video that I can—after weeks and weeks working on a video (and being quite proud of what I've made) I'm always keen to make sure I package it in a way that means as many people as possible will see it. The current favourite is below, although I may swap it depending on how well the video does on release!

As I said above, I'm writing this update on Thursday morning and will be releasing the video this evening. As ever, I'm an absolute nervous wreck! The day a video goes out, I always find that I spend most of the day itching with nerves about how it will be received.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, it will have had a smooth and successful launch!

And outside of work?

Making sure that everything is ready for release has been a pretty all-encompassing task and so there's not a huge amount to report from the non-work aspects of my life this week (unless you want a list of household chores I've done, which I don't think you do!).

I'm still running in preparation for the 10K race I'm doing next week. I've found myself having daydreams of twisting my ankle or getting some other injury which means that all my hard work goes to waste. Hopefully that won't happen though!

I'm also heading to a friend's wedding this weekend and so spent some time on Wednesday wandering around the city centre looking for a new pair of smart shoes.

Finally, those of you who have watched my livestreams will know that I have a big bookcase in my house (a post-PhD gift to myself which I'm very proud of). Over the past month or two it had become a bit chaotic and so I spent some time on Monday returning it to its Dewey-Decimalised best!

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

A few recommendations for things to listen to this week!

Firstly, I've just started listening to the audio book of Anand Giridharadas' Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. Those of you who have seen my video on Johnny Harris' partnership with the World Economic Forum will know that I've got a longstanding interest in the ways in which billionaires and other elites pretend to be addressing the problems of the world in order to imply that actual, meaningful change is unnecessary.

Giridharadas' book is (so far) a really interesting dive into the conferences (such as the World Economic Forum's Davos Summit), programmes and institutions that underpin these efforts. I'm going to be working on a couple of videos which dig into this world in the future and so it feels a little like I'm getting ahead with some research!

Secondly, I'm an occasional listener to Tribune magazine's Politics, Theory, Other podcast. A few days ago, they released an interview with Paul Rogers about the developing situation in Afghanistan. For anyone else feeling a bit out of the loop, I found this to be a really helpful insight.

This episode of the podcast will be quite out-of-date with regards to the rapidly developing situation now (in fact, it was already very out of date by the time I listened to it a day or so after it came out). Nevertheless, I've just seen that they've released a follow-up which I haven't listened to but can imagine is just as insightful.

You can find all the episodes of Politics, Theory, Otherhere: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother

Finally, I've currently got Dave Haus' 2013 album Devour on repeat. For anyone who was alive during the early days of the Great Recession, it's always quite a melancholic listen but I think ably engages with the sense of what it was like to be alive during and after the financial crisis.

At one point, Haus sings: 'Broken promises to children, leave an indelible impression/ Welcome to the Great Depression'.

I find this line is a great summation of the political actions which initially led to the emergence of millennial socialism or "Generation Left".

What have I been thinking about?

It's fitting that I mentioned my video about Johnny Harris and the World Economic Forum above as my next video is going to be wading into similar waters, exploring some *interesting* partnerships between educational YouTubers and companies or institutions trying to promote certain policy agendas.

My primary focus this week has still been on ensuring that the boxing video is ready to go, but I have begun to do a tiny bit of work on the next video and so I've been doing a lot of thinking about how best to categorise what I'm currently calling "policy placement" (a bit like "product placement" but with political policies).

I've also been doing a lot of thinking about the best tone to strike in making another video which uses a particular instance of a creator partnering with a company as a springboard for wider discussion. While I think there's very questionable ethics around such deals, I kinda want to phrase things in a way that avoids too much drama—although maybe that's unavoidable on the internet!

Thanks for reading this week's edition of the Friday update. As I say, hopefully by the next time I'm writing to you, the next video has had a successful launch. I can't wait to hear what you all think!

Have a fantastic week and thanks as ever for your generous support!