Jeremy:
In the last few days, Jeff and I have been… He shot me a text and showed me this YouTube channel that just has suddenly blown up. It’s called, “Dad, How Do I?” And I wanted to get, Jeff, your take. How big is this, and why do you think this has taken off all of a sudden, so much?

Jeff:
If you guys don’t know what it is, it’s literally just this dad on an iPhone, the lowest production value ever, and he said he realized that his kids would, once they went to college and stuff, sometimes just say, “Hey Dad, how do I do this?” And he’s such a good dad that he’d make little videos for them, or make little encouragements. This is how you fix a drain, this is how you do this outside, this is how you do something that’s broken with a toilet, and he just realized, “Man, there’s not a lot of people…” Or his daughter said something of realizing a lot of people don’t have that access, or that ability, now, with the terrible lack of… Absent fathers, missing fathers, and moms, too, but just this concept of him, specifically, of that classic, traditional vibe, of the dad that helps, and fixes, and serves, and offers those tools.

He started a YouTube channel, and it only is a month old. It was getting a little bit of traction and then it just got that crazy lucky wave of something on Facebook, something on Reddit, and just exploded where he has… I think when I sent it to you last week, it was 1.3 million subscribers, and he’s already up to 1.9 million subscribers, so he’s done over another half a million subscribers just in a couple of days since we talked about it. The channel is called “Dad, How Do I?” He answers, “How do I…?” every single episode; it’s genius, it’s brilliant. Even the fact that it’s low production value and low… I love everything about it. It’s so innocent and pure and amazing.

If you think about what… And I think what I texted you, I think it showed there is… Because I think there is some truth to the fact that men, masculinity, fathers, etc., there is a edge to that that people don’t like because they’ve been so harmed by it. Rightly so, been so damaged by it, rightly so. The bad pictures of it, the bad toxic masculinity, all these things, which I actually am on board with, all of those indictments. But I think sometimes the religious [inaudible 00:02:02] can come so hard on that that they just think there is actually still a space in a lot of people’s hearts of almost this natural, innate desire for fatherhood. And what I love about him, which I think is perfect, is he’s so gentle and fun, and I’m like, man, just this gentle, incredible, loving, present father. I think there’s still so much desire for that.

Honestly, just go read the comments. He’s telling people how to fix a toilet and the comments really don’t have anything to do with that. The comments have to do with, “I lost my dad,” or, “My dad left and I’m crying.” It’s such a relational connection, it’s crazy. But I don’t know; what did you think about it?

Jeremy:
It does seem to suggest that we’re starving for basic fatherhood. For somebody to be able to pick up an iPhone and shoot videos to his kids about basic dad-ish things, and for that to be… It just demonstrates… We don’t ever get away from this. I think one of the things that… It’s also very hopeful to me, that no matter how much the culture deconstructs some of these basic roles that are in the family, it’s never going to go away. It’s innate in the design. If you try to crush it in one area, it’s kind of like whack-a-mole; it’s just going to pop up in some other area.

I think there’s been a lot of confusion in this area around fatherhood, and a lot of denigration, and I think now you’re seeing people looking for… We need this. It’s like a nutrient that people are starving for, and so to see… And I think this guy had just the right spirit. I think a lot of the frustration people are feeling is a spirit of domination or something, and this guy just was clearly a servant. He was competent; that’s another thing. I think that’s not to be understated. I think the fact that he knew what he was doing, could fix things, and just made you feel protected and loved at the same time, and not crushed. That is such a beautiful thing to see.

Jeff:
Yeah, and there was even one comment, which I thought was so true, of humans are so good at reading in between the micro-body language, emotions, etc. Someone made a comment that I loved, which was true, once I read it, was like, “Man, when you watch his videos, watch how much he looks at the camera with genuine care for having you understand.” There’s a way to do it where it could just be like, “This is how you do it. Here’s the facts.” You literally feel like he’s talking to you, he’s so personal. It feels so homey, and I think all the elements add up to a really fun, cool example, that I think we are desiring fatherhood and the apprenticeship of parenthood. For the moms listening, I’ll say same thing, that this goes to moms and dads. There’s an apprenticeship to parenthood that we’ve lost. We’ve turned parenthood into more passing on information, passing on facts, rather than this, “Come alongside, I’m going to teach you a way of life.” I think that is missing, which I think he shows for sure.