 Kelly right all right, so We are pressed for time. So let's jump right in. I think we have all heard talks from the folks except for Tyrone So that's me. Let's have let's have Tyrone introduce himself real quick We know everyone else on the panel and then we will jump right in Hey everybody There's a switch super hot Hey, what's up everybody? There are so many familiar faces here. I'm happy to see I'm gonna do a call-outs Larry. What's up my man? We got to move quick though because we're short on time. Let's go. Happy you guys are here. All right Also, I'm Ty. I do street epistemology. That's a really fun technique that I'll be talking about later on I've been doing talks outside with most of you guys here. Thank you so much for having me here This is my first time speaking in Lexington. Thanks Sweet So one of the fun things about moderating and doing talks about podcasting and blogging and content creation is that I get to work out My own anxiety and doing these things So something that I have been struggling with and I would love to hear your all's input on is I am perpetually not necessarily thinking about What I make but how I make decisions about what I make And so like what stories do I tell what things do I talk about? Because if we're talking about atheistic secular stuff, we're talking about racial justice, social justice, gender justice, all of those things there is no shortage of bad things to talk about right and If I don't talk about all of those things, I feel like I'm perpetually failing my audience at not calling those things out But if I only talk about those things, I'm like beating everyone over the head with it And so whoever has thoughts and feelings about how you just make decisions about what you create the things you decide to talk about I'm interested in perspectives on that Okay I'll start by saying that there are a whole lot of amazing content creators like Cali for example Who are talking about those very serious topics and giving you great information about it and leading you through great storytelling I Actually do something a little bit different along with there's no illusions back. Yeah, there's no illusions over there and the syndolusions as well We do a couple of different podcasts where we're doing a little bit more of the Pointing out the absurdity and you know the wacky stuff the ridiculous stuff in trying to make it a Little bit crazier. It'll be a little bit silly sometimes That's not always the right tone for certain subjects and those subjects are being covered amazingly by again a lot of different people We kind of feel a different niche. We go for That craziness, you know kind of preaching to the choir idea is how we do it, but I think there's absolutely big value in both Yeah, I know for my website when I'm writing articles about news stories or something I always think to myself. I don't really care what the atheists who are the sort of people who would be in this room I don't really care what you all think because you probably Overlapped with my own views in a lot of ways, so I'm not writing for you when I'm writing I'm writing for Random people who might be curious about that issue and how atheists in general because I represent everybody might think about it and What Christians who might be curious what the other side has to say about an issue what they might think about it? It not that this happens all the time, but I'm always thinking like if this gets quoted somewhere What are they gonna pull and is it the thing I want them to take from this so that's kind of in the back of my head I'm writing for an audience that would never come to this sort of thing even though. I'm writing as if I'm talking to all of you I don't really Okay That was a talk that was Relevant to me because not only did I know that I was having I'm not a bad Researcher right so I mean I can research a thing and when I can't find an answer to it and it's plaguing me I Believe that I'm not the only person in the atheist community that's having that same issue that would like to know What happened to them or what was going on? And so I just looked at it as this is relevant to me and when I go to conferences I talked to a lot of people who seem to be struggling with the same thing and we're hearing from people who don't Seem to understand it who haven't had the experience and so kind of like what him on was saying You have this two audiences, right? So you've got the audience that it actually is speaking to in a very direct way And then you have the peripheral audience that then also Is kind of has something they can learn from it as well about their misconceptions about what's happening One of the projects that I was just working on recently was a long Super exciting history of the Pledge of Allegiance, but I know when I was making that I think everyone here knows if I asked you Hey, when was under God inserted into the pledge? You would probably have a rough answer to that and I know Random people who don't think about the pledge as much as we do may not know the history of that They may not know a lot of stuff that all of us have come to know about it So I know it again It's a new project. So my thought was if I'm coming from the outside and I didn't know anything Atheists know about the pledge. What would be interesting? What would they want to know it? And again, it's a lot of how I go into making videos how I go into Talking about issues on the podcast or writing about them, too The content that I make is focused on a misconception that we can't have a conversation about God or Money or politics, but particularly the God question that seems to be the one that's most taboo The content that I'm proposing is To challenge that idea by demonstrating that it is possible to have those conversations If you do it in a very particular way the way that's actually not hard at all and it just takes a little bit of Openness on your part to have that willingness Conversation with someone and be patient with them and you can actually make some really great progress in short periods of time I didn't know that at the time when I got into this hobby and when I moved to Knoxville It was a point where I had become an atheist. I moved to a new city. I didn't have a support group I didn't have a culture I didn't have a group that I can reach out to that I knew of at the time and it felt very Isolated I felt very isolated when I tried to use this method. I learned on YouTube like S.E. Street Epistemology, I realized now I know I can actually have a conversation with anyone about anything particularly about God Which is a epiphany that I've reached when I was Coming out as an atheist. So that's why I wanted to show more people this kind of Demonstrable way to get through to people about their God beliefs Yeah, I think it kind of goes back to what we were talking about in the building communities panel, right? So we build platforms and like rock star activists Podcasters bloggers youtubers and I think there are a whole lot of people who want to do this kind of thing But feel like they can't because they lack some charisma They feel like what they don't what they have to say isn't interesting enough and I think kind of what I'm hearing in the panel is that like I mean like I'm a person with a perspective, right? There's no way I'm the only person who thinks this and so it's valuable to just like Let me just make what's interesting to me and it'll matter to someone. Yeah, I Have no perspective to be fair. I just want to be clear like I'm every majority group ever So I try to keep that mind along. I just occurred to me as you said that I have the luxury of knowing that if the archive of my entire website is available online And I tried I cringe at stuff I wrote yesterday much less like 12 13 years ago But it's all there and I think going to what Kelly is saying if you are interested in doing any of it Whether it's blogging podcast YouTube whatever it is Start doing it if you want to write a book go do it go self-publish it. It's fine Like just put it out there because you'll learn stuff along the way And if this is a hobby that is still interesting to you you will find a way to get better at it the thing that you Do what you can try to make it as good as it can possibly be and then like whatever a month from now or year from now You're gonna look at that and say oh my goodness. That was horrible. I can't watch that It was really bad and yet. I'm sure if people found like Kelly was a if people found your old stuff They will recognize that like you are speaking to me like you are saying something. I needed to hear It matters to somebody out there. I can tell you this I can see the analytics on my site and Like 60 to 70 percent of people who are visiting the site are probably reading something that was just posted recently All the rest of them are on that long tail somewhere They're looking at old stuff that I've tried I would wipe off the face of the internet if I could But someone's looking that stuff up it matters to them somehow because you don't Google onto something from 2007 randomly So like put it out there if you can because you and I have heard this 100% of the time from anyone who does any content creation Whether they have a couple subscribers on YouTube or like a whole bunch Every single one of them hands down has said I have heard from somebody who stumbled upon the thing I made and they wanted to reach out to say how much they appreciated it I have never not heard that from someone who just started making and it's not like they advertised it They just like uploaded it to YouTube with whatever title kind of made sense for it I'm 36 and I think one thing that surprises me is the stuff I used to Google when I was questioning my fate is stuff people now go to YouTube and type in and They'll find the stuff there. They're not doing what I did when I was questioning and so that They're looking for this stuff stuff that we may not think about anymore because we've been doing this for a while Just two things to add to that I love seeing old stuff on popular channels because it gives me the idea that I can make mistakes too and I love that Also, you will call today your audience as long as you stay consistent with the message that you're trying to send out And that's free to evolve over time But I'd say instead of chasing that crowd that you're trying to get let them come to you and the people that like you for Who you are will be the ones that stick with you for the long term. Yeah, what I love saying when somebody is like I want to start a podcast. I'm afraid it's gonna suck. Yes, actually it will your first podcast Episode will suck without fail like like that's just the way it is the thing is though That's okay, right the first time anyone tries anything normally. They're terrible at it, right the ideas you keep at it You get good, right? Yeah, I think somebody else. Yeah, so I would just say What I think about somebody for example like part airmen who's writing books This is a person that went into You know school for Bible study when they believed They lost their belief along the way But what they didn't do was quit school and say I'm wasting my time on this they went He went ahead and got the degree and then he started writing books about what he learned to basically tell everybody else Here's what they teach you in Bible politics that nobody tells you in church and I have a friend who is in a very cloistered Jewish community in the Northeast and was Plaint like being pushed toward going into rabbinical studies and he was asking me like how do I get out of this? And I said get out of it do it right like go and do it do your rabbinical studies Become a rabbi and then be the Jewish bartender men like get this get this degree Because that would be a degree that was supported and at first he was just like oh, you know I don't want to do it and I said well if it won't make you happy. Obviously you I don't not gonna suggest that you do it, but Even there are so many people who are just like oh I feel like I wasted so much time with these studies or I feel like and it's like you know You can take that cred and turn it on the thing that wasted your time and keep somebody else from wasting time by Explaining things like this. So it's just interesting when you kind of think of a thing. They have that thing where the saying about how Problems can be opportunities right a problem arises. It's an opportunity It's like well, is it a problem that you're going to this seminary or that you're going to go to this rabbinical studies? Or is this an opportunity? You don't believe you're going to go do it and Let's see what you what you get that way when you write a book as a as an ex-Jewish kid that dropped out of studies It doesn't sell as much as if you're going to be the guy that got the actual Degree that became the rabbi and then said okay. I'm an atheist. I'm an atheist rabbi and this is why Yeah, well, and I think that speaks to the idea of continually being a student so for me I There will never be a point where I'm just like well, I'm a good podcaster I'm just gonna keep doing what I do right and I feel like that's a very obvious thing to say if you're talking about any other Discipline, but when we think about creative things podcast YouTube channels blogs, whatever So much of the the hard work that gets folks there happens behind the scenes Right and all of the learning and work that goes into Studying people who do it the way that we like it to be done And so I'm interested in hearing from the panel like what it's the behind-the-scenes stuff that you all do to To be a student and to get better at what you do I'll answer that this night. I was gonna say a piggybacking on Tracy was saying anytime my ice cooler says like I think I'm an atheist my parents are making me go to church or something. I say the same thing Yeah, go go learn that stuff so that it you have a better position from which to refute it later And then keep reading stuff. Let me think about your question for a second. I Am done thinking about Answer you're stalling I I've definitely I've definitely learned along the way of doing our show in particular from two Three four very intelligent people that I'm lucky enough to work with in particular It's kind of relates to the stuff. I was talking about earlier with Uncle John I've learned to have more empathy. I really have and You might know Eli Bosnick in particular he's a very empathetic person he's Behind the scenes. I'm talking to him. I'm asking him Why am I wrong about x y and z and he talks me down from my stupid wrong position on a regular basis? And I become a little more enlightened if I pay attention to that and it's really helpful And I think audiences react well to that I think you know having a wrong position and learning to have it righted is a virtue And I'm lucky enough to have people who can do that for me and being honest and vulnerable about the same Sure, absolutely. I know if I'm in terms of research if I'm writing an article commenting on some new story I try my best whenever it's possible to see what my opponents have Religious people have said about that same issue What are the Christian groups saying about this lawsuit because maybe I try to write my post first Just this is what I'm thinking about this issue Then I will go see what they wrote to make sure did I address that and if I didn't maybe I need to add some stuff To it or quote them because this is a relevant thing But one thing that definitely helps me is I try to see what's already been out there If people have commented and make sure I've addressed their concerns if they pointed any out Yeah, I don't know if this relates to content creation so much But I find that one of the things that helps me kind of keep learning is to Invest in communities of which I'm not a part So I a lot of times will sign on for like threads I know Cali at your page just the transgender discussions and I rarely would comment I mainly would just listen right go there and especially if I see an OP where somebody's saying something that I Initially think I don't understand or disagree with and then I'll go and I'll read the thread And I will see what the people who were living the experience are saying about it and what this means to them versus what I'm thinking it means to them and I Changed my mind almost every time. It's just about learning What's happening with these people instead of me assuming what's happening or looking at it from my perspective Where I have no insight into what's happening in this particular situation except from the outside So one of the things that I find is like a helpful learning tool It's just literally eavesdropping online for groups that I am not a member of to find out what their experience is Going after Tracy's good answer going on yeah My answer is a little bit more calm gentle I've learned a lot of cool random things in the process of trying to get like my videos and audio stuff out I don't think you can learn things in a vacuum I think you whatever you pick up you can apply to a whole bunch of other skill sets and in the process of making like for example the podcast with Larry and the radio show that we do I've learned about voice compression proper mixing audio levels Bit rates all sorts of really cool things that I can use to make better kazoo music or whatever If you want to talk about some cool stuff I learned about making jingles in a really really cool way So like I have like different jingles for different kinds of stuff that I make and I went into such a deep rabbit hole of making Solid quick little fun music that takes up like five seconds to the point where now when I hear jingles. I'm like, yeah, that's pretty good That's really smart, but yeah, there's definitely dude There's so many things you can learn from just applying yourself and pouring yourself into something Actually love Yeah, the best way to learn a thing is to do a thing and then maybe to teach a thing, right? Yeah Yeah, I was gonna add one other thing that I'm noticing about this weekend actually I mentioned before I'm You know perspective lists being from all the different majority groups, but being at a place like this and just The answer is shut the fuck up and listen and I've been able to do that And it's a whole bunch of intelligent people and I'm able to hear great perspectives And I'm able to learn a little bit and become you know, not quite so Whatever I started as yeah So it's been a very positive experience. Thank you to everybody who's kind of teaching me And so we've got three minutes left not a ton of time, but I'm curious each of you We've talked a lot about sort of general philosophy if Making the content that you make because everyone up here is somewhat seasoned in doing whatever it is that they do If you could go back in time like before you hit publish on your first podcast episode or video or blog post or whatever it is What would you tell yourself? A lot of the stuff that I thought was cringe worthy now looking back on stuff It's a lot of let me tell you this goes to the student that thing I would talk about what I was going through or what I thought was interesting to like my inner circle of people that I hung out with and That that is interesting to me and it's interesting to nobody else And I think one of the shifts I've done with writing online Anyway, is I tell you nothing about me anymore You know nothing about me and I focus way more on trying to explain something just to straight I'm just the third-person omniscient narrator Hopefully and you never know anything about me and that has actually helped me with what I do We're gonna start the media maviest. There's one thing I tell myself It's I'm so glad you started because when I did this I'm setting up I'm dragging a table and two chairs out in the middle of a park in Kentucky This is like extreme black sports Hey, I'm gonna talk to you by your god. We're gonna really dive down into it perfect strangers And it's just the most nerve-wracking thing to jump into but if I could look back at myself I'd just say hey man. I'm really glad that you started doing this. Yeah Gosh, I was gonna add my perspective, but I think that's really it like you're good Just hit the publish button. Just do it. I've heard people say that about like dieting too Don't say I'm gonna start the diet next week. No, no, no, you're starting it go push public It is gonna suck, but it will get better But again the hardest thing for anyone who's considering doing any of this stuff is like actually putting the first one out there Do it and then stick to your schedule and keep doing it and get better Awesome. That is our time friends. Thank you