5 huge if true moments for Cleo Abram
May 15, 2024 – [[read-time]] minute read
You launched your YouTube channel with the video “Why I Left Vox.” What motivated this transition and how were you feeling at the time?
I got obsessed with this idea of a show that would be deep dive explainers into new technologies and ways that they might help us improve the world. And at a certain point it just made perfect sense to launch it as a show on YouTube. Initially, I thought about a lot of different ways of making this happen. Was it pitching a show to a streamer? Was it trying to make that show within a media company? But at the end of the day, I really wanted to make this show and it just felt like having the creative control and having the opportunity to experiment was ultimately what was most important to me. I had already grown up as a video journalist on YouTube and I just love YouTube. I really wanted to make a show that would be the best parts of highly produced television and quality explainer journalism, which I had learned from working on Explained on Netflix, Glad You Asked on YouTube Originals, and by working at Vox and also would have the kind of journey and energy and personal stories of the YouTubers that I most admired. I had a vision for what a show would be that would tackle these technologies in a way that felt both like you’re going to much more deeply understand them and where they're taking us in the future.
You had your first video hit 1M views - an explainer about Elon Musk building Starlink. What are the unique challenges and opportunities of being a journalist on YouTube?
I see being a journalist as an action that you take every day. So I don't think that I'm a journalist because I worked at a media company. I think that I'm a journalist because I do journalism and what that means is you are either sourcing new information, which is what a lot of journalists do, or you are analyzing and deciphering that information, which is part of what is so great about an explainer. And doing all of that in video can be very challenging, but also gives you such a rich opportunity to offer something to both eyes and ears.
When I create a script, I just absolutely love the opportunity to try and fit the most information in the most fun way. In terms of doing journalism specifically on YouTube, it's exciting that it has an opportunity to reach so many people. It's exciting that you have an opportunity to receive feedback and really talk with your audience. I've made shows for streamers where I didn't have that kind of feedback and I really missed it. In terms of some of the challenges, it felt like I really jumped into the ocean and was creating things from the ground up – whether it's your own production process or figuring out how to build a team. I think figuring out how to run a business when you have been a salaried employee for for your whole career is obviously tricky for anyone whether they're starting a business on YouTube or in some other way.
“ I also think that one of the most wonderful things about the growth of independent journalism both on YouTube and in general is the opportunity to tell all kinds of different stories.”
In the same month, you did a video on Formula 1 and a gene-edited tree. How do you approach the challenge of creating content that appeals to a wide range of audiences while maintaining a unique and authentic voice?
One of the things that I was really excited about when I launched the show was incorporating more of my personal interests into an episode. And there was some risk to that. What if I find something interesting that nobody else finds interesting? But in setting up the show, I said here are the four constraints that I am going to put on myself and here's what you should expect in the show. It's always going to be a deep dive into an interesting technology or scientific achievement that I think will really matter in the world in the future. We're always going to give you a real explainer on how it works and how it might play out in that future. And we're going to do so in a way that is genuinely optimistic. And then also the last one is if it's not inherently visual to make something be a good video, we won’t do it.
“ There are lots of different things that YouTubers and independent journalists can do that traditional media companies won’t but the quality of journalism being done on YouTube could easily be on TV.”
Two years ago, you did a video about artificial wombs. How does your storytelling differ from a traditional media company?
I had seen a big controversy on Twitter because people were talking about artificial wombs and in the context of that conversation on Twitter, it felt very matrix-y and people reacted very negatively to the idea. But from my perspective even looking at that controversy, I am a woman who hasn't had kids yet. I also don't want the Matrix, but I would love technology that makes this process easier for half the population. How would that work? What is going on with that category of tech now?
So I started researching this video and I decided to do it as a sort of exploration, recording myself as I learned new things. What I discovered was there are many different kinds of technology along the process of gestation. There's technology that helps support IVF really early on and there’s technology that helps save premature babies. So we're helping along each part of the spectrum here. It just so happened that during this process of learning about artificial wombs, I began to have a pretty severe pain in my abdomen and I went to the doctor and they told me that I had two cysts on my left ovary that was causing what's called ovarian torsion. I needed to have a minor surgery to correct that and it was kind of scary. I was going through this procedure to in some part help protect my future fertility while I was simultaneously doing journalism about how technology can help fertility and I was getting a laparoscopic surgery which is a technology assisted surgery that has progressed rapidly in the last few decades.
As I was going through that whole process I was like, I can't not include this. But at a larger media company, I wouldn’t necessarily have been free to tell a mixed kind of story. So what I ended up doing was I talked about the science of artificial wombs and I also talked about my experience of needing technology to help protect my fertility. There are lots of episodes where I am maybe tonally a little bit more YouTube but I am acting in the way that that a correspondent might very well act. The other point that I think is really important is yes, there are lots of different things that YouTubers and independent journalists can do that traditional media companies won’t but the quality of journalism being done on YouTube could easily be on TV.
“ I see being a journalist as an action that you take every day. So I don't think that I'm a journalist because I worked at a media company. I think that I'm a journalist because I do journalism”
You recently posted an explainer video testing NASA’s new spacesuit. What are some key trends and innovations you see shaping the future of journalistic content on YouTube?
I think there is something deeply special about going somewhere and showing something to an audience that they might not have an opportunity to visit. The little kid inside of me is so delighted and I hope that it delights the other little kid inside other adults and that's part of what makes field shoots so special. NASA's new spacesuits are coming out and I got to put it on, pressurize it, and then do a bunch of challenges, which was awesome. And during that, it's an explainer about how space suits work.
I consider myself a proxy for the audience when I'm in these rooms. On YouTube and as an independent journalist, I'm able to bring that exploratory, vlog style and highly produced animations and explanations together and I really enjoy that. I also think that one of the most wonderful things about the growth of independent journalism both on YouTube and in general is the opportunity to tell all kinds of different stories. People go down all kinds of rabbit holes that I didn't even know were there. That flourishing of independent journalism is an opportunity as an audience member to learn all kinds of new things and as a journalist to make sure that all kinds of different stories get told. The kinds of stories we tell at Huge If True are exciting, nuanced, detailed, fun, and above all optimistic about the future.