Week after week Joe Scott makes us laugh while we learn. The “science communicator” teaches us everything from putting a space station around the moon to sharing about a race of “Hobbit people” that lived 18,000 years ago. For those who have yet to check out Scott’s YouTube videos, take 10-20 minutes out of your week to soak up some science. Nerds know that anyone who lists “Galaxy Quest” as his favorite sci-fi/comedy film is a keeper! Meet the man behind “Answers With Joe.”
Colleen Bement: My husband and I watch “Answers With Joe” and I knew that my Nerd Alert News readers would love to get to know you. Take us through the journey of how you created your amazing show.
Joe Scott: Well, first of all, thanks for watching, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. As for how it got started, it was never meant to be a science show. I started out as a screenwriter and filmmaker (I still would like to do more of that in the future) and I had dabbled in standup comedy a while back. Both of those had their frustrations – in filmmaking, you have to raise tons of money and navigate an endless series of catch-22s just to get it made with no guarantee of success, and in standup, you have to go to open mic nights multiple times a week for a year at least before you start booking any real gigs and especially starting out you don’t get on stage until 1 am and the only people left are all the other comedians who have already heard your jokes. Both very difficult to do if you have a full-time job to support yourself.
So along came this YouTube thing and I thought it was a good option to do a little bit of both and put out videos on a regular basis, get quick feedback and maybe – just maybe – build an audience. It turns out it just kinda scratched all those itches and I enjoyed it. So I kept doing it.
Thing is YouTube is hard and very frustrating in the beginning. When you’re small and don’t have a following, it’s next to impossible for people to see your video. It’s like a drop of water landing in the Pacific Ocean. So I would do it for a while and get frustrated and quit; this happened a few times. But eventually, I just made a rule for myself that I would put out something every Monday, even if it’s just a check-in shot on my phone. Getting on that schedule made all the difference, both in building the audience and it just forced me to get more economical about how I shot the videos. I made a little studio in my office and set it up so I can record directly on my computer, basically any hangup or hurdle I chipped away at to make it as quick and easy as possible while maintaining a level of quality I was happy with.
The videos, in the beginning, were all me just answering viewer questions – which were usually just friends on Facebook at first – and in 2015 I answered a question about aliens and made it about the Fermi Paradox, which I’d just read an article about. The algorithm smiled on it for some reason and it took off. I’d been posting videos every week for about a year before this happened. But that brought in a lot of new subscribers, who asked questions that became more videos. Those tended to be more in a science/futurism direction because it was the Fermi Paradox video that brought them in. So I leaned into it (luckily I enjoy that kind of stuff) and it continued working. So next thing you know I’m a science communicator. 🙂
CB: How do you come up with your topics, and just how much research goes into one of your “Answers With Joe” episodes?
JS: As I said, in the beginning, I was just answering questions given to me by viewers, so I’d talk about pretty much anything, it was very random. After things got more sciency, I just limited them to more science-related questions. As the channel grew, I could pick and choose topics based on which were being requested the most, and eventually, it got to where I could pretty much guarantee that if I did a topic, someone had asked about it at some point.
These days I’m almost overwhelmed with potential topics from social media, comments, and emails. I probably get sent about 20 a day. Not to mention a lot of times when researching a video, I’ll run into something I’d never heard of that might make a video of its own. Happens all the time. As for which ones I pick for the channel out of all those, I have to say it’s mostly a gut thing. I know from experience what types of videos get a lot of views from the audience so of course, that’s important. But I also make sure to cover topics that I think are interesting but maybe won’t get a ton of views. Ultimately this channel is a reflection of me and I don’t want to fall into the hole of covering topics that I’m not really interested in. I also ask myself if I have a particular take on the topic that might be interesting. No point regurgitating the same points that other people – usually much smarter than me – have already covered.
As for the time I spend on it, I get asked this a lot and I really don’t have a good answer. Every video is different. Some just write themselves and some are like pulling teeth. Thankfully I have a small team around the channel now so I don’t have to do all the research myself.
CB: Do you have a particular scientist that has inspired you?
JS: I know it’s kinda lame to say Einstein, but I had his poster on my wall growing up and we share a birthday so I’ve always felt a bit of a kinship there. Plus he had that great quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Obviously there are countless brilliant minds that have gotten us where we are, but most of science is cumulative and iterative, one person’s insights piggybacking on those who came before them. But Einstein just came out of nowhere with these radical new perspectives that changed everything, and his ideas are still being proven today.
Aside from him, Richard Feynman was a great science personality that wasn’t afraid to mix science and fun. And obviously great science communicators like Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and Brian Cox.
CB: Your episode on surviving Mars was incredibly enlightening. Science fiction often makes it seem so simple, and you brought us the science of how difficult it would be. Two questions:
- Do you believe that humans will eventually be able to colonize Mars?
JS: Will we be able to? Like technologically? Yes, we will have the ability to do it, but that’s not the hurdle. We could do it now if we really wanted to, but it’s the cost of it that is the hangup. Ultimately there needs to be an economic reason to go there – same for the moon. If it doesn’t have a way of paying for itself it will always be a money pit that could go away when the belt needs to be tightened. If we go there and happen to find some precious resource that is lacking here on Earth, that might change things. I don’t know the answer, honestly. I’m curious what that economic incentive will be. Hopefully, we’ll find it.
2. If it was relatively safe, would you take a trip there?
Probably not. I doubt I would even qualify. I think by the time something like that is open for randos like me I’ll be too old. Plus I’m married and we’re talking about a 2-year plus trip (and no, she wouldn’t join me for all the money in the world). Going to Mars wouldn’t be a trip, it would be more like pilgrims on the Mayflower. I’m not really prepared to uproot my whole life for a few years and then deal with whatever health issues would come with that for the rest of it.
Now the moon on the other hand, if it were relatively safe, I absolutely would want to do that. Seeing the Earth big in the sky would be a much better view anyway.
CB: Do you have pets and if you do, have you had one interrupt your filming?
JS: 2 dogs and a cat. And yes, they interrupt all the time. I actually did an April Fools video this year that my dog hosted. Her name is Zoe so it was called Answers With Zoe.
CB: What do you do in what little spare time that you probably have? Hobbies? Other interests?
JS: Spare time…I’ve heard this phrase before. I’m not sure what it means.
CB: Speed Round!
- Favorite sci-fi film: It’s more comedy than sci-fi but I love “Galaxy Quest.”
- Favorite sci-fi book: The number of sci-fi books I’ve read is embarrassingly small, to be honest. I did love The Martian. I could throw Oryx and Crake in there.
- Favorite superhero: None stand out at the moment so I’ll do the cheesy thing and say, my mom.
Catch Joe’s latest video to enjoy that weekly does of learning for fun!
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Written by Colleen Bement
