Basic Information

• Started By : Otto von Nostitz
• Published On : Jan 2, 2019, 8:00 AM
• Funding Ends : Closed
• Category : Education
• Likes : 0
• Backers : 0
• Description : Hello Everybody!
  
  Who am...  moreHello Everybody!
  
  Who am I?
  
  My name is Tristan and I'm a Historian with Master's Degrees in History and American Studies. For years now, I have watched the amazing success of scientists in the educational realm. I love hearing Neil Degrasse Tyson or Bill Nye make the case that science is amazing and enriches the lives of everyone, not just those who work in laboratories. On Youtube, I see amazing work by Hank Green and his team producing Sci-Show and the wonderful things PBS and Discovery have done with the Seeker and PBS digital studios networks.
  
  There was one problem though. I found that history, the topic I love, was woefully unrepresented in this space. We don't have a Bill Nye for history and that really disappointed me. History teaches very valuable skills and helps a lot of the world make more sense by gaining perspective through the past. When we do see history content, its either non-enriching (long descriptions of battles and royal lineages) or attempts to take other, less reputable work, and sell it as history in order to be a little flashier. I'm looking at you Ancient Aliens!
  
  So in September of 2015, I launched Step Back. Since my first video, I have worked to make engaging, fun, and, most importantly, enlightening educational videos about the past. We've tackled why America leads the world in conspiracy theories; theorized about who came to the Americas before Columbus; and discussed what those that live studying the long history of Islam think about ISIS. Topics that many considered not interesting enough to sell to an audience. Despite that, thousands of people came out in support! We are nearing 10,000 subscribers by the end of the channel's first year.
  
  What are you paying for?
  
  -Your money will first contribute to building up the technology base of the channel. Grad students are not paid handsomely and things like professional software or better equipment are hard investments to make. Your contributions will make sure that we can have history content that is, not only engaging, but looks and sounds great which will help with giving more people who might not be sold on history an easier way into it.
  
  -Investing more time in videos: At the moment, I am torn between many masters. With your contributions I can justify dedicating a larger slice of my working time to making these videos even better.
  
  -Some content that covers important, but darker chapters of world history that Youtube considers "not ad friendly". Youtube deactivates monitization on these videos which disincentivises making them. I think that these topics are very important and would not like to have to choose between making the content that needs to be made or paying the bills.
  
  Thank you all so much, we really appreciate whatever you can help with. Just knowing that so many of you out there care about history as much as I do makes me happy beyond words. This really helps me out!
  
  *From website above in the title.  less