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BTS Pics: 'The Birth Rates Scam'
🕑 Added 2025-09-26 19:36:25 +0000 UTCHello lovely Patrons!
We just wrapped after two days on set filming the next episode, working title The Birth Rates Scam!
It was a fun couple of days; everything went pretty smoothly!
we were honoured to be joined on set by Mother Nature herself, who took time out of her busy schedule to educate us!
She wasn't the only deity on set: we were also joined by Agnothena, Goddess of Ignorance!
Brian Conway returned as stylist, and Nicki Buglewicz did the HMU, and they both did an AMAZING job
I really let Brian off the leash this time and he outdid himself! The gorgeous nails were made by Liia Zotova!
This look is spectacular; it was a custom design by Mariusz Malon, and he knocked it out of the park!
Nicki's makeup is INCREDIBLE as always, the white eyelashes were such a good idea
As the title implies we'll be talking about birth rates, as well as ageing populations, and how people often get muddled when discussing them
the little details Nicki does with the hair and makeup are so good, my skin looks so glowy here!
you might recognise that prism from previous episodes! We'll be talking about Phantasms again!
after we turned the fancy dial way down for the Jefferson episode, I wanted to turn things WAY up again
OH NOOOOOOOO!
I'm sorry to say we were also joined by Philosophy Tube's most notorious villain, The Arsonist
He was in a somewhat less composed mood than usual though. I wonder if he's not coping well with the way the world is changing...
again, the details are so on point: Nicki makes him look so sickly and gross
we'll be getting into some pretty dense economics and theory on this one, so I wanted to also make it spectacular. That's the Philosophy Tube way!
we were also joined by a new crew member, Josh! (Not pictured here). He helped us with the lighting and camera placement, and did a super job especially considering we threw him in at the deep end! The lighting on the Arsonist is so perfect, so moody!
all in all, this should be an incredible episode! I'll get to work on editing, and we'll actually be back in the studio in just a couple of weeks to film the one that comes after it!
as you'll see, this one ends on something of a cliffhanger...
xxx
Comments
Captain Mikee
Oh, I meant to give some background on that - I grew up in the 70s and 80s in a "liberal" household in the city of Palo Alto, which has had a long relationship with eugenics. The Population Bomb, while not named often, was a huge influence on the political discussions I witnessed as a child, as well as "overpopulation" being a favorite scapegoat for my grandmother. I recall my stepdad making what I now see as extremely racist statements about people in "poor" countries having too many children, and reading similar sentiments in Analog magazine. It took me a long time to recognize the racist undertone of all these discussions. To hear people now making the opposite claims about birth rates, yet somehow with the same underlying basis of racism, gives me an odd sense of cultural whiplash.
Captain Mikee
Just watched the video on Nebula! I learned a lot, thank you for that! I am somewhat embarrassed now because I wrote a song about Fritz Haber inspired by Michael Pollan's mention of him in "The Omnivore's Dilemma." I went on to read Dietrich Stoltzenberg's biography and Vaclav Smil's book "Enriching the Earth." Based on Smil's claims, I wrote that the nitrogen cycle is "not enough to feed more than four billion people on Earth" and the Haber-Bosch process is needed to fix nitrogen to create artificial fertilizer for the rest of humanity. I'm not sure of anything anymore though! Also the arsonist segment made me ill. I wished it was shorter, I found it so disturbing. I have a tendency to try to see everyone's point of view and when I'm presented with very toxic perspectives, I find it better for my mental health to withdraw rather than engage.
Mani
What a video! and what a bombshell!
Emily Meyerding
Another awesome video. Thank you.
