Anna’s Science Magic Show Hooray! Uses the Weird and Gross to Get Kids and their Families Excited about Science.
Anna Rothschild works hard to bring engaging and accurate science information to YouTube.
Anna Rothschild
Subscribers: 5,401
Uploads: 14
Video Views: 751,9661
Channel Type: Education
User Created: May 18th, 2018
Anna’s science-theme variety show explores topics ranging from the Hidden Science of Harry Potter to why we have butts — all in the name of making science more exciting and accessible for the next generation of explorers. We had a chance to chat with Anna and get some insight into the process and philosophy behind her channel.
Scott: What were you doing before you were producing stuff for YouTube, and how did you fall into that space?
Anna: Way back when I thought I wanted to be a scientist, I worked in a lab. I realized that I was just more interested in talking to people about what they were doing in our labs than actually moving fluids from one pipette to another pipette or one test tube to another.
I ended up getting up into science journalism, and at the same time, just watching a ton of YouTube videos. I was just like, “Man I wanna be mixing these two things. I wanna be talking to people on the internet where I’m finding this awesome community, and also talking about science and education.” That’s kind of how it happened.
Scott: How did you launch into YouTube?
Anna: I launched my first YouTube channel as the PBS show NOVA. I’d been making YouTube videos before that, but I launched my first original channel through them called Gross Science. Basically, they were interested in reaching new audiences. I was obsessed with gross stuff and was already making videos all about disgusting things. They said, “Let’s see if you can grow a channel with us.” It was a fun experience.
Scott: What grabbed you about “gross” science specifically?
Anna: I guess my interest in science as a little kid was often spurred on by disgusting things that happened or disgusting experiments that we did in school. I remember being a little kid and dissecting owl pellets in my 6th-grade biology class. Which are basically like coughed up balls of undigested food and stuff that owls just kind of vomit out. You can see little mouse skeletons in them.
Gross stuff was really this amazing vehicle for science for me as a little kid, which is why I thought it would be a good way to explore different science topics as an adult.
Scott: The show that you’re doing now, Anna’s Science Magic Show Hooray!, right?
Anna: Yeah, exactly. I just call it Science Magic Show Hooray! these days ’cause it’s a mouthful.
Scott: How did you come up with that name? It’s very fun.
Anna: I kind of had Science Magic Show Hooray! as a placeholder name initially, because it was just a word salad of words that I thought best described the show. It’s science, it’s magical, and I wanted to have an element of “hooray” to it. Then I told my current boss, and she was like, “Oh my gosh! I love that; that’s so goofy! Let’s just go with it!”
Scott: Why specifically aim for a younger audience?
Anna: I really want to create a show that can appeal to families. I’m writing it so that a kid can understand it, but I can create a family viewing experience. When I was brought on at the Washington Post, the Post really wants us to reach new audiences, including an audience of kids and their families.
I wanted to create a viewing experience where parents would watch with their kids, and parents could end up being the ambassadors of science for their kids. They can actually show the videos to their kids and that can be a starting place for them to go off and have their own adventures in science.
Scott: How did the format of the show develop?
Anna: From the very beginning, I really wanted to make kind of a science variety show, in part because as a kid, and frankly even as an adult, I was super inspired by shows like PeeWee’s Playhouse, where there was a kind of starting point, but then the show veered off into different adventures that all focused on similar themes. I think that that’s a really great way to think about science or really any sort of educational video, because there’s not always just one answer. You can address questions from a variety of different angles, and I think a variety show format is a great way to explore the different facets of the topics.
First, I just wanted to have lots of different cool art in it. I wanted to include animations, and songs, and interviews, and have it feel like a very rich experience. Those are the shows that I’ve really liked growing up, even now into my adulthood. So I thought why not make that for the YouTube audience?
Scott: Yeah, why not make the thing that I wanted to see when I was a kid?
Anna: Yeah, exactly.
Scott: That’s a good perspective. So how do you start on a new video? Do you have a bank of ideas that you schedule in advance?
Anna: I totally do have a backlog of ideas in a document that I draw from, but I also read the news every day. I’m also constantly reading new scientific papers, so I’ll get ideas from there, too. Also, sometimes, weird stuff happens in our lives, and I just have a question about something that maybe happened to me or happened to a friend of mine, so that will get added to the list, too. Recently, I did a video titled “Why Am I So Sweaty?” Sometimes, these are the important questions that we need answered.
Scott: So once you’ve locked into your idea of what you’re gonna do next, what’s the production process look like? There’s research and script writing I assume. How does that all work?
Anna: Like you said, I start out doing pretty extensive research, I read primary literature, and, for basically every episode, I’m calling scientists and fact checking with scientists because accuracy is really important to me. And obviously also, I work at the Washington Post and we want to be as accurate as possible at all times.
During the script writing process, I’m thinking about how I want to bring the different segments to life. Whether it’s done through animation, or whether it’s going out into the field and filming something in a park. I’m thinking about how I’m bringing it to life while script writing ’cause you have to have that in mind if you’re gonna make something look beautiful. Then we go film it.
Scott: Do you have a whole crew of people who help you film?
Anna: Yeah. I’m very lucky that I have people here at the Post to help me film. I do most of the editing and a lot of the animating myself, but we also have some really wonderful editors and animators here who do stuff for us, too. Some of the animations, that are like the most beautiful, are done by wonderful people on our team. It takes a village.
Scott: That’s awesome to know that you’re involved in a lot of different parts of the process.
Anna: I want it to feel very homemade and being part of each step of the way is one way to help that, bring that to life.
Scott: You mentioned storyboarding things like animations, filming a section of the video in a specific location, etc. Do you find that going to different places or just changing the visual elements of the scenery helps people to understand the topic, or helps keep people engaged?
Anna: Yeah, for sure. Whether it’s changing up locations or bringing in animations, I think that you want to give people a really rich viewing experience. Otherwise, it could end up just being an audiobook. I want to make sure that I’m giving people stuff to tickle their brains, but also their eyeballs, too.
One other thing on that note is that sometimes there are certain topics that might not necessarily be immediately interesting to a certain person, but if you include really visually interesting animations, then all of a sudden you’re bringing them into a world that maybe they would have just disregarded, but now you’ve brought in a visual element that was truly compelling. It’s another in for people.
Scott: Yeah, it sucks people in, and then they might leave being like “I never knew I wanted to know that, but now I do.”.
Anna: Exactly, “I never knew I wanted to know that.”
Scott: I remember the best comment I ever got on one of my videos was something like “This is way more interesting than it has any right to be,” and I was like, “Yes, success!”
Anna: I totally hear that, 100%.
Scott: What’s it been like working with the Washington Post?
Anna: It’s been really great. It’s really been awesome. When I made Gross Science, I was working mostly alone, though I have to give props to all the wonderful interns who always helped me make my videos. I was working alone, and that can be extremely isolating. It’s really wonderful to have a team of creative people who I respect working with me on a daily basis. It’s just awesome. I’m very grateful for that. Plus, I’m in a newsroom with the smartest people all day. Sometimes I walk down the hall, and I’m like “Oh my goodness, you guys are superstars!”
Scott: What advice would you give to other science education YouTube channels out there?
Anna: I just have a few things to say. First of all, I think those people are often aspirational learners. People always say don’t talk down to kids when you’re making an educational video, but I think that’s true of everyone regardless of what age you’re trying to shoot for. Remember that people want to learn, maybe even a little more than is necessarily meant for their “grade level.” Give people a little bit more that’s tantalizing so there’s something they can aspire to.
That doesn’t mean that you should be using giant words. Remember you should keep the language simple. You can talk about a deeply complex topic, as long as you use words that the audience that you’re targeting can understand. Remember people are smart, they just might not have the vocabulary that you have to talk about the subject.
Then I guess the last thing I would say is if you want to make videos, and you’re worried about your own artistic skills, don’t be. When I started making videos I didn’t have any sort of artistic background at all, and now I animate as a huge part of my job. I really taught myself how to do it. I don’t want to pretend like I’m the most wonderful animator in the world. I look at people, even here at the Post, who are wonderfully trained animators. Don’t let your lack of a background in art be a barrier to trying. Once you try, you’ll find that you can do way more than you ever thought you could.
Scott: I really like the idea of keeping the language simple, because I do think that there is a draw to — if you’re an educational channel—to present yourself as very smart and studied; using big words to gain credibility, in a sense. Like, “Yes, I know this stuff, and I can prove it ’cause I know this word!” But I think there is something about being able to explain complex subjects in a simple manner.
Anna: I’m sure that there are certain audiences out there that you can target that will want that much more complex language, but you really have to think about who is the audience that I’m making a video for? Target your language to match that audience. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a really complex topic.
I was talking to a woman the other day who was telling me that her eight-year-old is all obsessed with CRISPR, the gene editing technology, and I was like “Oh my goodness, an eight-year-old is interested in CRISPR? How does an eight-year-old even know about CRISPR?”, but as long as you can find a way into a story … You can tell the eight-year-old that story, you just need to address the vocabulary a little bit.
Scott: Yeah, absolutely. I think it helps that CRISPR is just a fun word to say, too.
Anna: Oh, 100%. Also, it’s totally something out of science fiction in a very fascinating way.
Scott: This is maybe kind of a loaded question, but would you consider yourself a “YouTuber?” I know some people just say “I just upload videos to YouTube. I’m not a YouTuber.”
Youtube isn’t just a platform for uploading videos; it’s also a social network.
Anna: Oh, I definitely consider myself a YouTuber. One of the things with Gross Science that was the reason that I loved making the videos was I felt like I developed a big community of people who I got to hang out with every week. I know that sounds really cheesy, but I mean it completely, wholeheartedly.
I knew the people who were going to comment on every video and I loved the conversations that I had with them. I made friends on YouTube with those people. I feel that way … I feel like the show that I’m making, I want to build that same kind of community. I want it to feel like this is a show for the audience, but also they are collaborators in the show.
I think that people forget that YouTube isn’t just a platform for uploading videos, it’s also a social network, and you can build real relationships and friendships on there. I want my audience to actually feel like they’re part of every episode of the show.
