First, Happy New Year! I hope you've had a good holiday season.
Second, as always, thank you. This year more than any since I started Then & Now, I could not be doing this without you. As I mentioned at the end of How to Make a Fascist, I do not take this lightly. You all have enabled me to read and research at a depth which is very uncommon. Even academics are limited by the demands of the job, teaching, and the requirements of the field they publish in. I get to read - within reason - anything I think matters
Furthermore, I can do that reading in the ways I see fit. This is not inconsequential. If I need to put an entire week aside to really think about Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation or the history of Syndicalism, I can do so. This enables me to make connections and understand the texts in a way that I don’t think is possible if you are juggling countless other demands.
What is my job then? To choose and research how I do this ethically (having a point of view, a purpose, and a direction which I think is as close to the ‘good’ as I can reasonably estimate), and to present those topics to you in the most effective way I can. Both are a work in a progress. They always will be.
Doing this ethically is a big reason I read a lot about the history of ethics and spend a big portion of my time on the great philosophers. Reading Hegel, Mill, Marx, Nietzsche, etc, in-depth always restructures how I approach other topics. So more of that this year.I have also spent this holiday season catching up on some ethicists I've never read - Derek Parfit, Henry Sidgwick, and some Peter Singer, amongst others. I usually try and think of topics from a consequentialist point of view - for example, which topics are most urgent to the most amount of people. Which subjects or arguments will have the greatest net effect. And so on. More on this this year, too.
2025 was tough on Youtube for several reasons.
There's a lot of competition out there. Some of it good and some of it bad. The good includes lots of new people making great videos similar to Then & Now, the bad includes AI slop, big money, and a lot more sensationalist clickbait to compete with.
I also think I made some poor choices this year. We made ten videos and none of them did as well as 2024. That's fine, but I have to think about the sustainability of the channel. 2025 was not sustainable.
The Rise of Global Populism was a little late in terms of topicality. It was a similar story with The Death of Woke. I think people were simply fed up with both topics. However, I wanted to spend time researching and understanding both for my own thinking (I am working on the initial stages of a book on internet culture and the history of the media). I was a little surprised the Burnout video didn’t do well, but again, it may be a tired (excuse the pun) topic at this point. Plus who wants to watch a video on burnout for 1hr30?
Despite this, there are things to celebrate. I am proud of the burnout video. I worked with a cameraman and chatted to people on the streets in Manchester. This was new. I also included interviews with experts in the populism and burnout videos. The Deep State video used interesting graphics and I used a greenscreen studio to film How to Make a Fascist, which I think is our best work yet.
In terms of views, How to Make a Fascist is doing ok, but once again not as well as I hoped. It’s still early though, and again, thanks to you all, I don’t have to worry as much about views as others do.
So in short, there are lessons going forward. The big one is to think more carefully about what we make. In 2026 I will continue to experiment, while also returning to some formats that have worked in the past.
So, here’s what’s coming up, in a rough order:
First, we’re finishing the Fascism series with a few shorter videos.
Then:
Schopenhauer: A Complete Guide to PessimismNietzsche: A Complete Guide to X(?)The End of the Book (on the decline of reading, shift to internet, etc)Revolutions, mappedA Useful History of PhilosophyBeing Good: A History of EthicsInequality: Past, Present, and FutureThe Russian Revolution (I would like to make a big video on this, similar to Fascism, with greenscreens – but will likely be next year)
I also have three main areas I’d like to improve on:
- To continue honing my storytelling skills. My videos can be dense and abstract, so emphasising narrative is a good way of counterbalancing that and drawing new viewers in.
- To write more on Substack and work on a book.
- To go live here on Patreon more with Q&A’s, informal chats, and so on. I did one on the Fascism reading list and it went well.
It would be great to hear what you all think, if you have any requests, or ideas for the Patreon in 2026!
Finally, I need to find ways to grow the Patreon, especially if views and ad-revenue continue to be lower in 2026. I hope this isn’t the case, but if you’re a free member reading this and you enjoy my work and want to get the videos ad-free and early, watch the How to Think Differently About History course, etc, please consider joining us.
Wishing each of you all the best for 2026.
THANK YOU,Lewis