“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho famously has the line, “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
In the Wu Mountain sphere of content creativity, a good thing recently occurred for the second time, leaving me contemplating whether it will assume a ‘Coelhian pattern of repetition’ (I just made that term up, but it goes, no?).
Rather than something happening ‘to’ Wu – passively – the episode I hope to see ‘three-peated’ is the making of another installment in our now ongoing original Youtube series entitled “This Month in Tea Science.”
The premise is simple – I review and discuss recently published (within the month) peer-reviewed research examining all topics… tea (Camellia sinensis). Tea science topics can include tea cultivation, processing of tea leaves, effects of tea consumption on health or physiology, etc.
Any topic (pertaining to tea) is fair game, however few articles make the cut… (leaving many a researcher devastated not to have landed a primetime publicity feature in front of the channel’s 68 subscribers).
I try to choose only articles that are broadly interesting and relevant to the intellectually curious tea drinker.
On the production side, making these videos has actually been enjoyable, which might explain how it’s happened twice and will likely happen again. Entertaining to produce, but also the old adage is true that teaching is the best way to learn.
You see, to flip on the camera and familiarize my viewership (i.e. earth’s 68 most excellent and treasured humans) with newly discovered molecular interactions between tea antioxidant compounds and SARS-CoV-2 protease proteins (as Nov. 2021 explores) – it demands that I ain’t humming and hawing my way through it.
In other words, I must internalize the information before I open my mouth, which, for an aspiring tea science academic, has been like mental burpee day at the Crossfit gym (meaning that I vomit from exhaustion after recording). No – it’s good hard training.
At the same time, this is Youtube – and if it’s boring, people will not watch it. So, I crack a few jokes, get a lil’ goofy, and always try to incorporate the big-picture takeaway (as in, why should anyone give a hoot about the findings of this research?)
It’s fun. I benefit from the practice. Most of all, though, it’s informative and engaging material for my 68 kings and queens. Ipso facto, “This Month in Tea Science” October and November 2021 are officially in the books (well, the cloud), and I’ll be damned if Coelho didn’t call a three-peat.
Well… check ‘em out, would ya, and let me know what you think (videos linked below).
If you get bored, try skipping ahead rather than closing the video out, because some parts are much better than others (the goal is to make all parts good… but it’s a work in progress).
This is all for now – Goodbye (how I will be signing off on all my blog posts from now on… Unless it only happens once)