Michael Burns left academia and made a name for himself writing and hosting comedic educational videos for the popular YouTube channel, Wisecrack. After the company laid everyone off, he started his own channel Burns Theory, where he continues to make content about philosophy, media criticism, and radical politics that is smart, funny, and respects the viewer's intelligence. We talk about the comedic edutainment that was popular in our youth on History Channel, TLC, Discovery, et al before those channels became 24/7 reality networks, which were eventually killed altogether by entertainment mergers. In Hollywood, I've seen a lot of negative attitudes on YouTube –– claiming it's all lowest-common-denominator slop like MrBeast trapping obese people in a cage for a year for $100k. But in this era of instability and mergers, creators should be putting their work out on widely accessible platforms. It's a great time right now, in that creators don't have to water down their message or take unnecessary network notes. Working independently of course requires time and/or money, but if creators work together instead of competing over scraps, creative solutions can be found. Check out Michael's new film, "Leave a Comment" which is available online and at select live screenings. Timestamps: [00:00:00] Trailer [00:00:40] Intro [00:01:01] How to Become a YouTube Star: Watch MrBeast, Take Notes [00:02:25] The MrBeast Industries Job Interview and the Train Through a Brick Wall [00:07:21] Playing YouTube: Packaging, Thumbnails, and People Getting Sick of AI [00:12:55] Unionizing YouTube, IATSE, and HBO's Nonunion First 15 Years [00:18:53] Leave a Comment, Online Trolls, and Googling Depersonalization [00:28:12] Entertainment People Should Not Be the Face of Socialist Movements [00:29:47] What Actually Made Zohran Win, and It Was Not the Celebrities [00:37:13] The Pope's New Encyclical and Communion Centered Communism [00:39:07] Pete Hegseth's Tattoo, Greg Bovino, and Unequal Coverage of Fascism [00:43:23] Mary Emailed a Convent to Ask If She Could Be a Nun [00:48:25] Comedians as the Real Philosophers, and How Gaza Broke Corporate News [00:52:35] Why He Stopped Saying Progressive and Still Says Communist [01:00:04] Mary the Catholic Anarchist Who Still Wants State Health Insurance [01:12:25] Taking a Sketchy Sponsorship and Paying People Union Wages [01:16:16] Outro Follow Michael: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/michael_o_burns/ X - https://x.com/michaeloburns Threads - https://www.threads.net/@michael_o_burns Follow Mary: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/maryhoulihan Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/maryhoulie/ twitch - twitch.tv/maryhoulie TikTok - tiktok.com/@maryhoulie See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
