1. Interview
First, habemus interview!
I had a really fun conversation with Alma Alizadeh of For I Am King. She’s a very talented Iranian metal singer (based in NL), and in our conversation she was kind enough to give the viewers some insight on her development as an artist.
2. Status of the Page.
I’m not gonna lie. I’ve been way too busy to create content with any kind of consistency. This is partly related to the fact that most of my projects involve extensive research (which I have to do on the side of my academic job), so that maintaining a social media presence, or posting some vapid article about nothing at all just to please the algorithm, is not something I’m very interested in.
I’m currently working on a couple of projects. One of them deals with the “banality of evil” regarding cooperation with human rights violators, etc., and the other deals with Islamic blasphemy (in line with my previous video on the stabbing of Salman Rushdie, or the situation of women in Iran). Although I know that there’s a tendency to just create Youtube content based on a quick review of a Wikipedia page, I’ve been reading a lot about these topics, and trying to create something that will be engaging as well as interesting for my viewers/readers. Particularly when it comes to the issue of Islamic blasphemy, the objective is pretty ambitious, since I plan to have a long-form article, heavily sourced, to go with the video that will end up on Youtube (because what goes well with a video nobody watches is an article nobody reads!). I might also create something on AI “art” at some point, depending on my workload.
There’s definitely some degree of frustration when it comes to creating Youtube content, considering that the platform (as well as Instagram, TikTok, etc.) are steering their “creators” to make “shorts”, ideally as ad-friendly as possible. This isn’t exactly compatible with the kind of stuff I like to create, so I’m pretty much resigned to relative obscurity. I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for every single view or reader. I consider it a privilege that there are people, as few or as many as they might be, who find value in the material I share.
Having said that, I’d love you even more if you share the videos/articles with people you think might be interested in them!
Take care everyone.