Hello! If you don't know me, my name's Tom,
I used to make regular videos on YouTube about interesting things in the world.
I've been gone for a while, and so this is a temporary video with
with what I've been up to,
some details of what I'm going to make next,
how you might be able to help,
and why I'm just a little bit scared about it.
First, some quick plugs for what I'm doing:
I'm hosting the Lateral podcast.
There's a new episode every week: "weird questions, and wonderful answers".
It's had some great guests, and it's going to have more.
It's in full video every week on Spotify,
in audio wherever you get your podcasts,
and there are highlights on YouTube and TikTok.
We have a book, too, and we're doing a second live show in October.
Next up, the Technical Difficulties: me, Chris, Gary, and Matt,
have filmed another season of our Reverse Trivia format.
It was a lot of fun to get the gang back together in this hall,
and the results should hopefully be airing in a couple of months
over on the group's channel.
And I have a weekly newsletter that points to good things on the internet.
And if you were subscribed to that,
you'd know about the next bit of this a little sooner.
I know it's been pretty quiet around here, but I've been happy.
And I don't want to go back to my old on-location, one-take,
set-down-a-camera, stand-in-a-place and recite-words formula.
That's sort-of what I'm doing here, in a familiar place,
and it's really comfortable. It's a really comfortable rut.
I did try to make a couple of videos towards the end of last year,
but they just didn't work. And they didn't feel right.
So rather than come back with something half-assed,
or an imitation of what I used to do,
if my heart's not in it, and it’s not...
then what I have to do is change.
Not drastically, but I'm going to switch things around
and merge a couple of formats.
The interesting places and things from my old channel,
and the collaborations from my Plus channel.
And it'll be rough around the edges and filmed mostly just by me,
like I used to, it'll be the opposite of the professional, glossy stuff.
And it'll be about the place where it all started: England.
I'm doing a lot of research, but I could use some help.
I'm looking for interesting stuff in England.
This doesn't have to fit my old format:
it could be something strange and unknown,
or a weird tourist attraction,
or a challenge like from my Plus series,
or a company or science lab that does something amazing,
or an event that I should show to the world.
Maybe you run it or own it,
or maybe you know someone who's part of it,
or you just know about it.
If you go to the link on screen, tomscott.com/places,
there's a form there, including a request for a clickbait title.
I've no idea how long it'll take to go through all that,
I'll have some folks helping me,
but if you send something in,
you might just get a message asking about it.
If you sent in something years ago and I replied with "yeah, maybe one day",
now... now would be a really good time to send it again!
Because it turns out my email archive is a mess.
Also, I'm looking for interesting people.
Not just YouTubers, although anyone who's good on camera would be great,
let's go on adventures,
but also people who are doing interesting things where I can stop by.
Some of the best things I did on the Plus channel
were with people I didn't know. Sheep herding. Caving. Tightrope walking.
Can you show off what you do?
All the same stuff applies, the link for that is tomscott.com/people.
So: it's time to come home. It will probably take a while.
Maybe it won't happen, maybe I'll try it and it won't work.
I don't know. And that is a little bit scary,
because the general rule on YouTube is that you always go bigger
and numbers must go up and expenses must always increase
and the next video must always be
more professional and shinier and more spectacular,
and so setting up something that is deliberately less,
and is also, right now, a long way away from being real,
and might not even happen...
That is a bit scary, and I’m cycling between excitement and dread.
But. If you want to stick around, the plan is:
let's go see England.
That was weird.
Eighteen months, it's been.
Eighteen months.
All right, let's see how that looked.