I’m excited as hell to ask you to donate during Reason‘s annual webathon, the one week each year where we ask you to support our efforts to advance libertarian ideas and policies with fully tax-deductible donations. And I’m even more excited to announce a massive $100,000 matching grant from a supporter—which means that every dollar (or satoshis; yes, we take bitcoin!) goes twice as far for the next hundred grand in donations! If you can’t wait, go here right now to check out swag levels and make a contribution.
But first, riddle me this? What was your favorite Reason video of 2022? Of all time? Since I’ve been with our video platform since it launched in late 2007, I think about this sort of question all the time. We’ve released over 3,000 videos that have been viewed 260 million times on YouTube alone, so there’s a lot to choose from, starting with that early one with the commute from hell, that helicopter ride, and Drew Carey (more on him later).
My answers: For this year, it’s our interview with Monty Python‘s John Cleese at FreedomFest, where the master comedian talked about how “wokeness” is the enemy of creativity—and that creativity is something that can be taught, a skill not unlike carpentry or plumbing. The Q&A clearly tickled more than the funny bones of our audience, as it’s racked up 1.6 million views since its August 1 release, making it our single-biggest hit released this year.
And my favorite video of all time? This one is tougher, but I’m going with 2013’s “UPS vs. Ultimate Whiteboard Remix,” which parodied a popular ad series while laying out an incredibly sophisticated argument about labor law and government regulations in just two minutes. I wrote and performed the script, based on a Reason article by Mercatus Center scholar Veronique de Rugy, and Meredith Bragg provided the absolutely magical animation and editing. This one was a finalist for a National Magazine Award, the highest honor in our space, and I especially love the way we were able to perfectly mimic a super-expensive TV commercial with a green screen and a few thousand dollars worth of camera and editing equipment (cheap technology keeps remaking the world and expanding freedom in all sorts of great ways, as Jim Epstein wrote in this tribute to the Sony VX1000 camera).
In 2022, our videos have so far generated a mind-boggling 24.3 million views on YouTube, our main distribution platform. The content ranges from long-form interviews like the one with Cleese and ones with Jay Bhattacharya and Glenn Greenwald, to incredible documentaries such as Zach Weissmueller’s “Forget the Great Reset, Embrace the Great Escape” to the comedy stylings of Austin Bragg and Meredith Bragg and Remy to our new weekly livestreams featuring leading thinkers and policymakers.
This is the sort of work your money supports. Reason is here, day in and day out, making the principled case for a more libertarian world in which all of us have more power and control over our own lives. And since 2007, we’ve been using video to supplement our arguments in the marketplace of ideas. Our video platform is the brainchild of Reason Foundation trustee, comedy legend, and Price Is Right host Drew Carey, who suggested we experiment with making online documentaries at a time when most magazines were still struggling to adapt to the World Wide Web. “Your stories make people think,” Drew said, “but with video, we can make people feel too and gain an even-deeper appreciation for the power of ‘Free Minds and Free Markets.'” Drew hosted the first dozen-plus videos we put out 15 years ago and of course he headlined our award-winning series, Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey—which, come to think of it, might just be my favorite Reason video of all time.
If you like what we’re doing—and make sure to list your favorite videos in the comments!—then please make a donation right now, when the $100,000 matching grant will magically double its value! Thanks for your support!
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