WEBVTT - The HowStuffWorks Story Part One 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.200 Text with Technology with tex Stuff from stuff works dot Com. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.040 Hey there, and welcome to text Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.200 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here at How Stuff Works, 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.480 and we made it, guys all the way to episode 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.000 nine hundred, and they said it couldn't be done or 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.400 shouldn't be done one of the two. Who's to say, 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.800 but happy nine episode of text Stuff at least according 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.840 to my notes, which could clearly be totally wrong. Uh, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.839 this may or may not be the nine episode. I 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.440 use a spreadsheet and I do a little plus one, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:45.720 and according to that, it's nine. So we're gonna treat 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.360 it like it's the nine, because if it's not, you 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.200 can just be comforted in knowing that there's no real 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.440 significance to any particular number anyway. In other words, listen 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:59.480 to every tech Stuff episode like it's or something. For 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:01.640 today's episode, we're going to do something I should have 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.679 covered hundreds of episodes ago. We're going to look at 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.640 the how Stuff Works story. It's a little different from 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.399 how How Stuff Works works. I think I have done 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.479 that episode in the past, but this is more about 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.200 the story of the company, and it's a complicated one. 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.720 For multiple reasons. Now, one of those is that we 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:21.440 have two very different branches of the company these days. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.440 We have the website how stuff works dot Com. That's 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.039 the that's the business that hired me oh so many 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.920 years ago. It's the home to thousands of articles about 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.120 all sorts of topics. And then we have the podcast network, 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.040 of which tech stuff is a part, along with other 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.399 great shows like stuff you should Know, Stuff you missed 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.880 in history class, and shows that aren't so great, like 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:43.640 stuff they don't want you to know That's for you, 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.920 Ben Bolan Uh and more. Uh. We have those two 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.840 different branches. And now, even though I got hired for 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.680 how stuff Works dot Com, I work for the podcast side. 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.480 In this episode, I'm going to focus mainly on that 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.600 website side of the business. We will later on chat 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:01.560 with our us in louder Milk. She is the head 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.160 of the editorial department here at how stuff works dot com, 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.080 and we'll learn all about the process of pitching and 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.160 selecting and editing articles for the site, as well as 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.160 how things have changed since she came on board, and 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.240 we'll look at the company in general and how that's 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.040 changed over the years. So actually we'll start with that. 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.160 The history of how Stuff Works dates back to nineteen 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.480 and that's when Marshall Brain and yes that is his 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.399 real name, decided to launch a website that would host 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:35.799 articles about how stuff works. Marshall Brain was born in 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:40.440 nineteen sixty one and Santa Monica, California, and he attended 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.120 a polytechnic institute over in New York, earned a bachelor's 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.600 degree in electrical engineering, and then went on to earn 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.440 his master's degree in computer science at North Carolina State 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.280 University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and he became a computer 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:58.120 science professor there. Between nineteen six and nine. Two and 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.800 ninety two, he founded a software training and consulting company, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.520 and in he began publishing articles online on his new 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:11.720 web page, which he dubbed how stuff Works. Early articles 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.000 mostly focused on technology. How a car engine works is 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.960 typically cited as the first article on the site. The 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.440 truth is lost to antiquity or we just haven't been 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.160 able to get a straight story to find out, but 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.840 how a car engine works is typically the one we say, yeah, 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.640 that that's kind of the first real how stuff works article, 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.519 But others that came out that same year would include 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.560 how television works. How the radio spectrum works, how a 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.680 thermis works, and Marshall Brain's site became popular and attracted 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.040 lots of visitors, and in two thousand he decided he 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.360 would hold around a venture capital funding in order to 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.560 ramp up this website, because up to that point it 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.040 had really been a hobby. He wasn't looking at it 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.520 as a full business, but he saw the site grow 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.400 and he formed a an entire business out of it. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.279 He hired on a staff, he set up a headquarters 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.680 in Carry, North Carolina, but he did find it challenging 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:13.840 to create a business that had an ongoing source of revenue. 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.560 He wasn't able to really figure out that part out, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.359 or or at least get the backing of advertisers to 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.400 really make a go of it, and by the end 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.919 of two thousand one he had to cut back on 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.560 about half of his company's staff. So while he had 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.440 hired on a bunch of people after that first round 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.320 of venture capital funding, that money didn't last forever and 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.800 the revenue just hadn't come around yet, so he laid 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:38.880 off about half the people he had had to hire. 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.480 He couldn't get the advertising support he needed to keep 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:44.120 the site going. He sought another round of venture funding, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.680 and in two thousand two, there's a private company that 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.839 was called Convex that made an offer to buy How 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.680 Stuff Works, and Brain accepted. The price was the princely 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:59.960 sum of one million dollars. The Convex Group was an 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.880 entertainment and investment company. It was founded by a guy 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:08.280 named Jeff Arnold. Jeff Arnold started his career doing starting 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.000 several other businesses, but really was known for beating the 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.920 founder of a website called web Md. Just been terrifying 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.080 people ever since. Whenever you have an ache, pain, or 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.680 strange rash, you go to web Md and then you 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.799 realize that you've got some sort of Venusian death cold 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:29.560 or something. But he founded this company. It was wildly successful. However, 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.680 it wasn't a runaway hit right out of the gate. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.679 Arnold actually left web md after the dot com crash 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.919 that happened around two thousand, two thousand one, and he 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.039 said that he just didn't feel like he could lead 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.839 web m D through that that turmoil. He didn't have 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.159 the experience to do it. So insteady win and created 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.719 the Convex Group. Now, the Convex Group was a company, 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.719 like I said, that invested in largely entertainment ventures, and 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.200 they acquired several other entities, so they purchased other companies. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.840 One of those was a company called lid Rock. Do 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.400 you remember lid Rock. If not, here's a quick refresher. 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.039 Once upon a time, my dear listeners, there were movie 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.840 theater chains in the United States in particular, but in 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.440 other countries as well, that would include a c D 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.200 that is, a compact disc. With certain drink purchases. The 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.960 compact disc would fit into the lid of a gargantuan 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.599 sized soft drink cup, which I'm sure was marketed as 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.160 a small and the idea was that you would pop 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.320 off the lid, take out the c D, and then 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.160 you could discover new music, presumably by playing the CD. 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.640 If you can just discover it by looking at one. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.640 Your eyes are lasers in your robot. We had some 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.919 of these lid Rock lids around the office. When I 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.400 first started at How Stuff Works, it wasn't subject of 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:58.760 some jovial conversation at points in the editorial department. Now 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.760 I joined How Stuff Works Come in two thousand seven, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.560 and that was when it was still owned by the 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.960 Convex Group. So I have some interesting memories are of 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.520 this time. I was actually part of the staff anyway, 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.000 the Convex Group, but How Stuff Works with the goal 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.080 of selling it for a profit further down the road. 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.480 This was not a secret. It was not like it 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.400 was coming as a shock to anyone. It was pretty 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.960 much part of the deal when the Convex Group made 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.840 the acquisition in two thousand two. It's just it took 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:30.600 a few years to get to the point where they 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.920 could sell it for a really good profit. In the meantime, 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.240 the website grew. Now there wasn't time before I was 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.600 hired where things seemed really interesting to me. Now I 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.040 never got to experience this firsthand. I just got to 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:50.280 hear about this time, this wondrous, magical, mythical time. Before 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.680 I got hired on there used to be a branch 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.880 of the How Stuff Works site called stuff Oh, And 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.680 this was meant to cover more whimsical and lighthearted topics, 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.920 largely entertainment related topics. How Stuff Works was thought to 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.320 be more serious. It was going to explain stuff like 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:13.000 refrigerators and computers and world finance, and STUFFO would answer 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.760 really weird questions such as who would win in a fight? 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:22.000 Superman or a Jedi. STUFFO existed from two thousand four 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.800 to about two thousand six, and from what I heard, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:26.680 it was a lot of fun to work on, but 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.560 it wasn't to last. By the time I was brought on, 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:35.360 STUFFO was gone, and the the editorial staff of How 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.120 Stuff Works itself had been through a really rough patch. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.200 All of the full time writers, except for one, we're gone. 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.439 There's one remaining full time writer when I was brought on. 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:50.120 That one full time staff writer was Tracy V. Wilson. 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.720 Now she's a host of stuff you missed in history class. 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:56.640 That might be where you're familiar with Tracy, But I 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.760 had known Tracy from before I started How Stuff Works. 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.800 I actually was a writer on a series of things 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.320 that Tracy would also occasionally write for, and that's how 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.480 we knew each other. So I applied to work for 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.760 How Stuff Works in late two thousand six, got an 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.640 interview in early two thousand seven, and was hired on 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.280 February fifteen, two thousand seven. At that time, Tracy and 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.960 I were the only two full time staff writers, with 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.560 Julia Layton writing Questions of the Day, and we'll talk 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.040 more about that in our interview. With Alison lower Milk, 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.240 the managing editor of How Stuff Works in just a 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.760 few moments. Now, a few months after I joined, the 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.760 company began to reinvest in the editorial department. So it 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.920 had gone through a dip where a lot of the 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.360 people were either laid off or people left the job 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.800 to go and do something else, and Tracy and I 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.280 were the only two there. But they then switched where 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.280 there was this reinvestment and the department began to grow 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.520 and we started to hire new writers and editors. And 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.480 some of those people are folks that you might be 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:04.600 familiar with, such as Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant. They 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.679 came in on that first wave. So I was here first. 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.280 I want that noted these days, they do host stuff 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:16.600 you should know, a podcast of some renown. I do 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.520 not begrudge them their success. They're actually amazing. They are talented, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.840 they are funny, they're wicked smart, and so they are 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:30.559 fantastic coworkers and great podcasters. Now, in October two thousand seven, 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.080 this was less than a year after I had started 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.800 at the company, we got the announcement that Discovery Communications, 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.080 that is the company behind the Discovery Channel, the Science 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.680 Channel TLC and More was going to buy How Stuff 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.120 Works and then generally agreed upon estimate for the sales price, 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.240 because these things are not always public, was two hundred 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.960 fifty million dollars. That's a pretty nice profit for that 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.640 million dollar investment that was made back in two thousand two. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.160 I mean, also explain what life was like back then 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.880 for the writers of How Stuff Works. Not in general, 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.120 I mean, two thousand seven wasn't that long ago. You 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.840 could probably remember it yourself, But if you were a 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.000 writer in two thousand seven, particularly when Tracy and I 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.600 were writing, we would write one article every two weeks 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:18.360 and we would just alternate. By the time Discovery was 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.920 purchasing us, we had switched to writing an article every week, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.960 and we then had more writers and more editors, so 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.760 we could actually publish more than one article every week. 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:31.719 Because back in the day, if you went to House 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.320 Stuff Works dot com and you looked at that front page, 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.160 there would only be one new article every single week. 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.040 If you went back the next day, there might be 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.199 different articles listed on the home page, but they were 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.880 all previously written, they weren't new. So this was a 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.040 moment where we were transforming that where we were trying 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.839 to generate an entire web page is worth or a 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:59.240 tire landing pages worth of new content every week, which 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.320 was a big challenge. It was it was ramping up 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.319 quite a bit, and it put a lot of pressure 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.360 on us as writers and editors. Now, How Stuff Works 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.480 was intended to become a digital arm of Discovery Communications, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.160 and on the surface, it looked like it was going 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.360 to be a really good fit because the content on 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.800 Discovery was all about asking interesting questions and finding out 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.200 the answers, which is, if you hadn't figured it out, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.800 what How Stuff Works is all about. Two And there 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.880 were a lot of cool opportunities that popped up due 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.320 to Discovery being the owner of the company. So sometimes 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.720 people had an opportunity to write for a television show 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.600 or even appear on one. And there were also some 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.840 things that were perhaps a little less positive, but that's 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.000 to be expected with any major change in the company. 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.720 It's not unique to How Stuff Works. This was also, 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.319 of course, during a time at Discovery when the channels 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.080 began to create some content that met with let's say, 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:02.520 mixed reactions, such as specials of Mermaids and Megaladon's that 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.240 seemed to be documentaries but were in fact fiction that 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.320 was a fun thing to live through and right for 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.000 Under Discovery. How Stuff Works would also launch a new 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.000 business podcasts now we're going to talk more about that 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:21.040 in episode nine one. But the major podcasts that we 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.720 launched back in two thousand and eight would be Stuff 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.439 you Should Know, Stuff You Missed in History Class, which 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:31.520 was originally called Factor Fiction, and of course Tech Stuff 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.480 and Marshall Brain also launched a short form podcast called 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.400 brain Stuff. From two thousand eight until two thousand fourteen, 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.480 how Stuff Works was part of the Discovery Communications family, 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.439 and we produced podcasts and videos on top of continuing 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.760 to write articles about all sorts of topics. For a while, 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:55.319 writers specialized in specific content categories, and I was asked 0:13:55.440 --> 0:14:00.200 and accepted uh to become deemed the head writer for 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.320 computers and electronics because everyone else was scared of them. 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.320 We're all a bunch of English Lit majors. But I 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.959 argued that technology meant I had the easiest job of everybody, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.560 because here's a secret. Technology either works or it doesn't, 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.600 so you just learn how it works and you explain 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.560 it and you're done. Whereas if you're covering any of 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:26.920 those fuzzy social things, it gets way more messy and complicated. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.600 Josh Chuck, Robert Lamb and uh WHRs truly became senior 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.640 writers at that time, and we helped shape the editorial 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.640 voice in the direction of the website. We experimented with 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:43.720 creating new experiences, such as with Android and iOS apps, 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.040 and we collaborate with other parts of the Discovery digital network. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.360 By Discoveries strategy for digital was changing, the company began 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.440 to sell off or shut down various divisions within their 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.160 digital network. It wasn't just how Stuff Works, it also 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.560 was source Fed and others, and they decided to sell 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.960 how Stuff Works. The company that bought How Stuff Works 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:08.680 was called Blue Cora, and it paid a reported forty 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.640 five million dollars for the site, which was obviously a 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:16.320 huge drop in price and any two drop in price 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.320 in fact from what Discovery had paid back in two 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.960 thousand eight. So I'm going to be real here. It 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.880 was not easy to go through this transition. For one thing, 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.320 when you see the company you love and work for 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.120 sell for so much less than what it was value 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.800 just a few years earlier, that's hard to take and 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.600 most of us had no idea what Blue Cora even did. 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.480 Some of the still don't. What it did do, mainly 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.120 is own other companies like Infospace. Infospace is one of 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.440 those companies that has its own really complicated history, including 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.840 a fairly shady past at one point, though the company 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.800 of today does not resemble that older one at all. 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.640 And maybe one day I'll do a full episode on 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.120 the Infospace story, because it is interesting and it is tumultuous, 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.640 and the company has emerged from that past and has 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:13.520 done incredible work. How stuff Works was meant to complement Infospace, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:18.080 which focused on search business, so they would do search 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.120 advertising and search optimization. How stuff Works would end up 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.200 being a great pairing. That was the logic. How stuff 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.119 Works would create content, Infospace would at leverage its expertise 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.840 with search to help how stuff Works take advantage of 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.480 that search power, and it would become a mutually beneficial relationship. 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.960 But then Blue Cora began to focus more on financial 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.400 services and less on Internet search. As the parent company's 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.200 goals began to change, it became clear to the business 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:52.200 owners that Infospace and with it, how stuff Works didn't 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.360 really have a place at the table anymore. Now this 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.880 is particularly interesting to me because Infospace created Blue Cora 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:04.240 as a holding company. So Infospace created Blue Cora. Then 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.000 eventually Blue Corus says, you know what, we don't need 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.040 Infospace anymore. This is kind of similar to how Google 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.600 created Alphabet to be a holding company, a parent company 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.960 for all of the Google sub companies. And so Blue 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:17.800 Cora began to look for a company that might want 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.159 to purchase Infospace and also take How Stuff Works along 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:25.119 for the ride. That company would be one called open Mail. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.920 And yeah, this is really is a crazy complicated story. 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.320 I know because I lived through all of this. Anyway. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:36.440 Open Mail LLC was a data management and marketing technology 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.520 company which purchased both Infospace and How Stuff Works for 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.520 forty five million dollars, which also stung because now the 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.240 company that was purchased two years previously for forty five 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.439 million dollars was being sold with another much larger company 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:55.000 for a combined price of forty five million dollars. Open 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.280 Mail would later rebrand itself into System one, and in August, 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.920 System One announced it was going to spin off How 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.439 Stuff Works as an independent company, and that's where we 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.600 are now. In that time, Conald Burne has been my 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.120 boss twice. He joined how stuff Works in two thousand seven, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.359 a few months after I started, and he headed up 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.639 the company for several years until Discovery sold how stuff 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:25.119 Works to Blue Cora, and then we parted ways. Then, 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.960 as how stuff Works became an independent company in sen 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.040 he returned and now he's the boss again. So that's 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.800 kind of interesting. Now I've got a whole lot more 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.199 to say about how stuff Works the company, but first 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.680 you guessed it. Let's take a quick break to thank 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:50.600 our sponsor. All Right, we're back now, I'd like to 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.440 switch over to an interview I did earlier with Alison Loudermilk, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:56.760 be managing editor of how stuff Works, to talk about 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.640 the voice of the site and how things have changed 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.720 over the years. I am joined in the studio by 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.880 Alison louder Milk, the managing editor over at how stuff 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.040 works dot com. Allison, I invited you here so that 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.600 we could talk about the experience of working for how 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.840 stuff Works, as well as the uh, the sort of 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.600 stuff you do as managing editor, and kind of how 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.520 the site itself has changed a little bit over time. 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:29.800 We try to keep a consistent voice for the the website, 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.600 so that we can have that sort of throughput, but 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.840 it's uh, there are little things around the edges that change. 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.960 So first off, how would you describe how stuff works 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.600 as voice to somebody if you were telling them and 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.280 they had never visited the website, and you said, well, 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.359 you know, it's it's a reference site. It's got tons 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:48.840 of information about all sorts of topics. How would you 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.960 describe the tone or the voice of the site, Jonathan, 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.320 That's a great question and it's something we think about 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.959 a lot on the editorial team. UM. I think the 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:03.000 most important thing to recognize about the folks who are 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.520 here editing and writing for House to Works is that 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.560 we are a curious bunch, and so we let our 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:14.120 innate wonder of the world really drive what we're talking about. UM. 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.879 We are always curious and we are always trying to 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.680 get to the bottom of something. UM, and that can 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:24.280 drive the conversation. Let's take let's take what's going on 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.520 in the world today. There's a lot of political things. 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.520 House to Works is not, always, has not traditionally been 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:34.240 a political site, but we will try to find the story, 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.440 the explainer behind the politics, like how does that process work? 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.840 Does a president have to live in the White House, 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.359 things like that. UM, So we're always trying to look 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:48.480 for the bigger picture of something that's happening behind the news. 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:53.639 We started out very science and technically focused. Our big article, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:55.960 as I'm smiling right here and I'm waiting for you 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.240 to recognize, it is how car engines work. I mean, 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.120 that's that's the big one. That's the gendery how stuff works, biggie. 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.000 And we've gone on to do thousands and thousands of 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.800 articles since then, and what does remain consistent over all 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:12.000 of those articles is the curiosity and it's it's it 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.960 shouldn't be superficial. We strive to never be superficial, but 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.160 rather we're trying to get underneath and dig I mean, 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.240 are there scientific forces at work? What is the theory? 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.119 What are what is the research out there? Um that 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.320 has you know, investigated the topic at hand. We try 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:31.920 to go for primary sources. We are factual. We try 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:33.679 as much as we can to be unbiased, but of 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.520 course we're coming from a certain point of view. So 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.120 there is so much you can do on that front. Well, 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:42.240 and I like to describe it sort of as you know, 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.360 you're chatting with a super smart friend of yours at 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.840 like a restaurant or something, or you know, some casual environment, 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.520 so it doesn't come across necessarily professorial. Right, It's not 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:58.960 like a lecture. It's it's not dry like a typical 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:03.160 reference book would be. But it's also not as flippant 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:06.280 as some other sites might be. There's a there's a 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.560 middle ground there. So and I'm not trying to dismiss 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:16.399 or or talk trash about sites that are more uh, 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.800 you know, they add more humor into their their work. 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.359 I think there is value in that. That's just not 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:24.280 the voice of how stuff works. There's a little bit, 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.000 but it's not like and this is the setup for 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.600 a jokey joke, and now we'll throw in a factor 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.720 to uh. There's some delicate line in between. That's the 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:35.919 way I always felt that, you know, you wanted to 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:40.840 feel like the article is taking you and treating you 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.159 as an equal as the reader. Right, Like we're not 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.560 talking down to anybody, We're not trying to uh to 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:49.439 come across as we're We are the Great Oracle, and 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:51.800 you shall kneel before us, and we will bestow our 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:54.120 wisdom and knowledge upon you, and you will be better 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.119 for it, but still less than us and go away. 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:58.919 Now that's not the way we wanted to have how 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.080 stuff works come across. And uh So it was always 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:06.919 a challenge for me as a writer two find the 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:12.560 elements in an assignment that got me interested, you know, 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:15.840