Knowing Better
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March 2025 Update
🕑 Added 2025-03-03 19:41:48 +0000 UTCHello Everyone!
I have been writing my script for the Hawaii video, which is no small feat. I've read more books and watched more documentaries for this project than any two previous projects combined. I have SO much information to work with that it's a struggle to know what to include in the video and what can be cut out.
The script is currently ~9200 words long and Kamehameha I just unified the islands into a single kingdom. That's something like 50 minutes of set up before the actual Kingdom of Hawaii begins.
This is shaping up to be my longest video yet.
Like previous projects, I won't be breaking this one up into parts, because people tend not to watch all of the parts. Viewership numbers seem to get cut in half with each installment. Since the things I'm talking about in these 9200 words will come back up again when I'm at 25,000 words, it's best to keep it all in one video.
However, I have decided that I will be pulling out the "How and when was Hawaii first settled?" discussion out of the script to turn it into it's own video. I was originally trying to include it in the main video, but I could literally talk about this for an hour. Which would mean I wouldn't be getting to Kamehameha for WAY too long. I'm debating whether this second video will be a Patreon/Nebula exclusive, like Geronimo was, or whether it'll come out a few months later, like what I did with the Pilgrims video.
In short: What is true for Polynesians in the South Pacific isn't necessarily true for Hawaiians in the North Pacific. Yet they really, really want to be included in the Great Voyagers and Navigators narrative. So they insist two-way travel between Hawaii and the other Polynesian archipelagoes happened for many centuries, even though there is no archaeological or genetic evidence to support it. It isn't even supported by their own oral history. They take legends of demigods, strip out the demigod part, and pass them off as things that actually happened. The whole thing is such an interesting story that I want to talk about it, but like I said, it would derail the main video before it even got started.
All that said, I'm hoping that the script for the main video will be mostly finalized by the end of the month, so filming in my new studio can begin in April.
After every video, I tell myself I'm going to do something small for my next project, but they inevitably balloon out of control. Having the ability to really dive into a topic for months before presenting it to you is, quite frankly, the best job I could've ever asked for. I appreciate all of you for allowing me to work on massive projects like this. I hope each one is as informative and entertaining as the last.
I'm still doing co-working streams on Twitch on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays if you'd like to watch the process. And I'm doing gaming streams (we're currently playing Civ 7) on Sundays. So check it out and say hello sometime!
Comments
Knowing Better
I appreciate you asking, especially since you didn't technically have to. As an actual educator, Fair Use applies to you more than anyone else. You're welcome to use anything I've posted publicly (this counts as publicly). But know that since the video hasn't come out yet, these aren't necessarily my final thoughts on the matter.
Knowing Better
Like you, I did not have the attention span for that one. I originally planned to read 6 books for this project, but that soon ballooned to 11 and I might as well have read Michener. 😅 These are the books I read. Kuykendall's books alone are just as long as Michener's Hawaii. Unfamiliar Fishes Sarah Vowell 2011 Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii James L Haley 2014 The History of Hawaii Ralph Kuykendall 1926 The Hawaiian Kingdom Volume I Ralph Kuykendall 1938 The Hawaiian Kingdom Volume II Ralph Kuykendall 1953 The Hawaiian Kingdom Volume III Ralph Kuykendall 1967 Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani 1898 Hawaiian Antiquities David Malo 1839 Overthrow Stephen Kinzer 2006 Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia Christina Thompson 2019 The Wide Wide Sea Hampton Sides 2024
Paul Grodt
I'm curious to see if you touch up on the James A Michener novel, _Hawaii_. I never had the attention span to get into but my mom read it first at age 9 and often said it was one of her all-time favorite books.
00m
May I use some of your notes here and the image of your script when I teach about Hawaii to my APUSH class in two weeks? I would also like to ask them the hypothetical you posted on Blue Sky. Reason for the latter: I taught AP World last year and talked about Hawaii during that class a bit too. Want to see who remembers the nuance and who forgot.
