Figuring it Out is a new show from TED Audio Collective (TAC) featuring the creators of Answer in Progress (AiP). Sabrina Cruz, Melissa Fernandes, and Taha Khan are three friends with differing backgrounds who are united by passionate curiosity. As they explain on their YouTube channel, “We want to strip away the stigma of not knowing things and bring back the joy in learning.”
This 30-month project will produce 6 seasons of Figuring it Out for sharing on both AiP and TED channels, social media, etc. Each season grapples with a central theme across 3 Arcs and will include:
--9 podcast episodes (60-90 minutes each): Hosted by AiP with editorial direction including fact checking, story editing and production by TED; full audio episodes released weekly
--Up to 3 podcast video adaptations: Writing and editorial by AiP and TED; these will correspond to audio episodes in length
--1 AiP-style video (15-20 min): Written and produced by the hosts in their signature style, delivering ideas and footage from the podcast season in a format native to AiP’s audience
--9+ social videos per season (30 sec up to 3 minutes): suitable for TikTok and Instagram, produced by AiP and TED, incorporating ideas and footage from each episode.
Cumulatively, we will produce 54 episodes, 18 video adaptations, 6 AiP-style YouTube videos, and 54 social videos. TED will launch a robust multi-platform marketing campaign, including one live taping at a TED conference per year. We see Answer in Progress and TED as ideal partners to produce the show we initially proposed as More Questions than Answers. With 1.7M subscribers on YouTube and 95M total views, our hosts have proven their capacity to connect with young seekers like themselves, who grew up looking to the Internet for answers to life’s persistent mysteries, wildest curiosities, secret hopes, and 3:00am fears. Our hosts are expert producers of high-quality educational videos and they are poised to shape the emerging genre of video podcasts on YouTube.
