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How People Vs Food Builds Scalable YouTube Formats

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We break down how People Vs Food stays fresh after a decade by pairing a clear creative North Star with systems that make videos scalable and easy to click. Nicole shares what it really takes to reduce key man risk, test new formats, and package ideas so the audience understands the promise instantly. 
• Nicole’s career path from traditional film and TV into digital food content and YouTube 
• Using food as a storytelling vehicle for culture, education, and shared history 
• Defining the channel’s North Star before choosing formats, topics, or games 
• Managing key man risk with hosts as anchors and an ensemble cast model 
• How casting works at scale with polls, topic buckets, and scheduling constraints 
• Bulk shooting 10–14 episodes in two days across multiple studios 
• Why ideation and packaging beat “cool ideas” without a clear title, hook, and thumbnail 
• Testing new formats over multiple uploads and judging success by the intended goal 
• Where AI helps and where it fails, especially for research and fact accuracy 
• Workflow automation with Airtable to reduce manual work and protect creative focus 
I want y'all to leave me a comment. Which which video from uh people versus food is your favorite? 


Packaging Matters More Than Ideas

SPEAKER_02

Also, does it matter how cool of an idea you have if you're not able to package it? And by packaging, I mean coming up with a really clickable title, coming up with a hook, and having an image that draws in people's attention to want to invest in clicking on that video. Key man risk, and key man is a term that gets thrown around a lot in our industry. Um, but it's real. It's the key man is that person that everyone relates to on a channel. It is Max Miller, it is Jimmy Donaldson, it is how single creator channels grow. And once they leave, your channel lives or dies by that. We will send out polls to our 200 plus cast um based on whatever things we're filming. And we will film anywhere from uh 10 to 14 episodes over a two-day shoot window across, we have six studios

Nicole’s Path From Film To Food

SPEAKER_02

in our building.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, welcome back to the Only Podcast that loves food more than you do. I'm Travis here every single week helping you grow your YouTube channel. This week I have someone super special. I have Nicole here. And let me tell you something, she has titles we all wish we could have. She's the VP of content for React and the host and executive producer of People versus Food. Nicole, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for having me, Travis.

SPEAKER_00

If you're new here, we help you grow your YouTube channel many different ways. And today we're going to talk about content creation and how channels get stood up, in other words, made and created for success, hopefully from the ground floor. Now, Nicole, tell us a little bit about your background. Tell us what you do on a day-to-day, and then we'll get into all the other good stuff.

SPEAKER_02

You want the whole life story?

SPEAKER_00

Tell me, I want everything. I want the novel, I want everything. Give it all to me.

SPEAKER_02

I am one of those weird weird children who was born and raised in Los Angeles in West Hollywood. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's never that never happens.

SPEAKER_02

I and I walked to my elementary school. I got that good old, you know, Midwest upbringing in the middle of West Hollywood. Um, but I went to NYU, I went to film school there, um, studied traditional filmmaking, uh, worked in the studio system after I graduated um for Wendy Feinerman, who produced, I worked on the post of Devil Wears Prada and P.S. I Love You. I went to ICM, I worked at a talent agency, I worked at Spyglass Studios and MGM working on a bunch of movies. And the whole time I was like, man, I love this, but it takes movies so long to get made. And I also love food. I love the storytelling that food is able to unlock. Um, so my bosses set me up with some uh interviews with different people, and I ended up leaving to go work on um Master Chef and Hell's Kitchen.

SPEAKER_00

I love Master Chef and Hill's. I love all those shows.

SPEAKER_02

So I spent a couple of years uh working on those shows in the culinary department. Um, so my job was to cook and style and do art and help bring all the food to life. Um, and this was back in the day where YouTube was still a little bit of the wild west. Um, and there was a company, Pot Sugar Studios. Uh, they were a pretty big, like, celebrity um editorial website, and they were starting to launch their YouTube series. Um, and they had acquired a studio and wanted to launch a food channel and a shopping channel. So I came on board to help launch those channels in between seasons of Hell's Kitchen. And after a month of my three-month contract, they were like, please never leave us. Here is your full-time contract. Uh, I was there for five and a half years, eventually became VP of uh creator director of lifestyle content there, um, overseeing food, beauty, fitness, YouTube, um, and lifestyle conversation. Um, went from there, did a television show for Food Network with Giotta, and then went back into digital media with TasteMade. Um, Taste Made is a big travel food website. Um, and they were have they needed someone who could be their branded content producer, director, extraordinaire to basically fly around the world. It was the best job in the world. I'm love my current job, love all the other jobs I've had, but I got I got paid uh to basically fly around the world and discover um hidden treasures um and partner them with different brands. We worked with a lot of credit card companies, tourism boards, um, and highlight those unique businesses in video content um for Tasemade. Unfortunately, that job ended during the pandemic because travel pretty much ended overnight. Um I went back into television, produced two shows, and then um my friend who um had also been in the industry for a really long time, he had worked in another company called Maker Studio that was across the street from Pop Sugar. Um, and I had gotten to know a lot of the Maker Studio guys, said, Hey, I work at this company, FBE, Fine Brothers Entertainment. Um, they are the YouTube channel that launched the reaction format way, way back when. Um, and he said, We want, we want to do food. You are the food girl. Come in and help us. I had watched a lot of uh React growing up as well. And you know, I think they were a pretty big mainstay in a lot of people's learning about different cultures, different ages, different generations. And I was really excited to take on this challenge. So I joined in 2021 and basically helped launch that channel. Uh, we've this company has gone through multiple acquisitions. So we've had a couple uh different owners. So I've had to navigate what that means and what that means to a legacy content brand and how you stay true and authentic to the audience whilst getting, you know, new directives from new owners on their visions and the things that they are bringing into the conversation that sort of change how you make that content. Um, and that's that's where I am now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, and people versus food is kind of iconic, it's been around for over a decade. So coming into that uh after it's already been established must have been kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, it's super fascinating.

SPEAKER_00

It's like, oh, how do I do these? Do you ever notice? Um, I've noticed this in like corporations and stuff in the past where people were doing things a certain way. And when you ask why they do it that certain way, their answer is like, well, we've just always done it this way. And there's no like other good reason that they're doing things. Have you noticed that?

SPEAKER_02

Oh my god, yes. Um that is that was a lot of it. And then my my first gut to any one of those sort of questions is okay, but really why? Like there are reasons. And as I started to dig into the history of this company, I was like, no, there were really valid reasons for why you did certain things, and then there were some really dumb reasons for why you were still doing some of these things. So let's stop doing the dumb things, let's keep doing the things that make sense.

SPEAKER_00

But ultimately, we're the the show is is the I mean listen, they say that the titles on the tin, you know exactly what you're getting, people versus food. And I love food. Uh, I've done many a things with food, mostly eating it. Um, although every once in a while I'll do something else with it. But but I think like the thing that makes it interesting is it's so uh easy to understand that uh even at a uh you don't necessarily need to speak English to understand what's going on. And that's such a big evergreenslash uh big way to get into like a global audience.

Food As A Culture Story Engine

SPEAKER_00

When you guys are thinking of um ideas, what does that process look like? And how can someone who's like an individual creator use parts of what you guys do for the process for their own content creation?

SPEAKER_02

So having worked in a lot of different realms of food, like I've worked in food competition. Um when I was at Pop Sugar, we were really doing like recipe education to what I'm doing now, is not it is food, but it's just using food as your storytelling vehicle. Um, because so much of what we really do is giving context to culture by educating through entertainment. And in our current channel, is really a lot more about education and bridging gaps and understanding using food as that vehicle. Um, so I think the biggest thing first is to decide what it is that motivates you. Like what is the story that you're trying to tell? Are you trying to teach people how to cook? Are you trying to teach people hacks? Are you trying to expand um worldviews or horizons through food? Are you trying to do something that's a little more clever, like creating a story or an immersion or an experience through food? And then once you have the core of that, you have your North Star for what you're designing your channel for. Um, and I think the thing that always fascinated me through all of these is using food as your motivator to be able to share stories and to share culture. And so if I'm not doing that in every episode, and if I'm not educating, if I'm not teaching you about where a tomato is from or where a potato is from, or why different areas highlight different flavor palettes from spice to um salt to savory, um, that I'm not doing a good job at my guiding light, which is to get people to understand that everybody eats, and we share a really common global history through food.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and that's actually, I think you I don't know any content creator almost could really do that. It's about uh connecting with your audience in a way that everyone understands and to be what people would normally say is relatable. What makes it interesting is um for this particular channel, it's not like you're going to see the same people in every episode, which brings up its own challenges. Um, because you know, if you get someone that's uh let's say, for example, you're a smaller creator listening and they're like, I like to do uh food videos. I've done a I've interviewed a couple of um larger content creators in the food space, and they might go, well, like for example, Max Miller was on a couple weeks ago, and they're like, Oh, I want to do something like Max. He does some really cool stuff and connects it with history. Um, I wonder if I could do that. Okay, then you get people to be connected with you as the person. Like people love Max. The people the comments on that video really good. People love Max Miller. I love Max. Max is great, right? People love Max. But when you don't have that kind of thing consistent in every episode, but it still needs to be interesting to the core people and to new people, how do you navigate that? I mean, you you're not relying on the same person coming and saying the same things. Um, how do you do it?

Designing Around Key Man Risk

SPEAKER_02

So, I mean, you know, this is a big key man risk, and key man is a term that gets thrown around a lot in our industry, um, but it's real. It's the key man is that person that everyone relates to on a channel. It is Max Miller, it is Jimmy Donaldson, it is how single creator channels grow, and it's because of that parasocial relationship with that one person. We like to think, well, not we like to, this is kind of how people versus food works, is the key man are the hosts, and they are the Alex Trebeks of the world. Um, so myself and some of my past hosts, uh, Chef Ash, and now we have Solorum, who's on the channel, who's doing great. Um, we act as your like person that you know you're gonna come back to that guaranteed level of information in every episode. But you then get to see a whole really fun cast of characters that rotate in and out, kind of like how Smosh Pit was born, where you had just a group of really funny people that are sometimes there, all of our cast have full-time jobs. So they all come in when they have free time and we have to schedule around when they're available. Um, but it allows us to be able to world build in a way that is very different. And it as a strategy takes that key man risk off of how a channel moves forward. Um, I think if this channel was really dedicated to just one or two key creators, um, once they leave, your channel lives or dies by that, hence key man risk. Um, but we wanted to make sure that we were building a platform and a place where you could have those people and those different parts change in and out as the channel grows, as people evolve, and you know, as people frankly get burnt out and tired and want to move on or do something different or elevate to the next stage in their own careers.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, this is true. So I I used to coach uh Donut Media, which is a really large car channel, and they uh a couple years ago had a bunch of their hosts leave and then they all spun off their own channels. And, you know, Donut was in a bit of a crisis there for a minute because a lot of the people that watched that channel were there for those specific hosts. And this was always something that I had mentioned to them in coaching. I'm like, you know, you have to kind of pay attention to this thing. So now I think they're starting to figure out that like you need to have hosts that are interesting and people connect with, but it needs to be this thing that I think you guys have kind of mastered where um it is important to have people that people like. You do want people to watch them for the hosts as well, but also if the host listens, I got a job and I'm doing something else, I don't want to do this anymore. It can't destroy the channel. So that is a very tricky thing. And uh for people that are listening, they're like, Well, I don't really have like an ensemble cast. You might be doing a channel with your friend or your sister or your brother, and they might be like, Ah, I'm kind of done with this thing. And then what do you do?

SPEAKER_02

So or just you get a career or job in another state, uh, you have a child, you get married, like all of those things are just part of the natural growth of like how people want to grow up in their lives.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think if depending on what your channel content is about, like if it's a vlog or something, then you take people along for the ride, and that's a cool thing. But but if you're like a painting channel and you're like, I'm gonna teach you how to paint every day for like a year, and then all of a sudden, well, I'm pregnant now, so I guess I won't be doing that for the next, you know, however long. Um, that yeah, that can be disruptive. But it it I just I've always wondered behind the scenes on like uh channels with ensemble casts, like how they they weave in and out of people's schedules. Uh, I know a little bit about some channels that I've helped with this in the past, but it's all everyone's unique, it's all super unique. So the people that are uh that are coming through that are hosting these um some of these videos that are that have full-time jobs how does that kind of affect their day-to-day life? Because it is weird, right? They're a YouTuber, but not like a YouTuber like most people think, because they're like an employee. How does that work? And what is it difficult for you to kind of manage that that kind of extra thing? Like, you have a job, but this is the job too.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, it

Casting Systems And Bulk Shoot Logistics

SPEAKER_02

is. Um, I've built a lot of infrastructure and a lot of systems. And I think there's a difference when you're talking to like people who are starting out and who are like individual creators. You are gonna grow to different stages. And if you do want to create something that is more of like a network or something that's bigger, it takes a lot of organization and it takes those kinds of people who can think through all of the logical steps of how you coordinate large groups. It's the same people who thrive in like event planning, are the types of brains that work really well for orchestrating this kind of system. Um, you know, to share a little bit of how we do it is we will send out polls to our 200 plus cast um based on whatever things we're filming. And we will film anywhere from uh 10 to 14 episodes over a two-day shoot window. Um, across, we have six studios in our building. Um, so it looks like the craziest school calendar that you've ever seen. Um, so I will activate my team of producers, uh, assign them all out different episodes that they're gonna be working on. So it becomes up to the producer to make sure that the gameplay is right and all of the different elements of like what makes a good YouTube video are going into their episodes. But then we're working with a casting team and we're working with a production team. The casting team's job is to take those 200 plus people, look at all of their responses to our polls of like, are you a Nickelodeon fan? If you were to do Nickelodeon trivia, how well would you do? We're doing an episode on rocket power. What's your rocket power knowledge? We're talking about Death Row Last Meals. Are you comfortable talking about inmates, about our judicial system, and still creating some like levity and entertainment and education around that while talking about a really serious subject? Um, and so once we have all of that information in, they will then go to work and figure out who are the 20 people that are gonna fit the buckets of all of these different types of episodes. Um, and how are we gonna bring them in to block shoot them throughout the day? So as a cast member, you're going from a finish the line Nickelodeon into a try not to sing to cat's eyes favorite music into a trying Oahawkin food for the first time episode. So they're going through a whole range of emotions and we let them know their schedule and sort of we'll give them breaks in between so that they can recalibrate to what they're gonna be talking about next. But for them, it's really fun because they get to come in and film four different YouTube videos in an afternoon. Um, and then we're bulk shooting our all of our content. I have crazy content calendars. Um, so I'm just making sure the counter is correct for all of the different outlets that we need so that we can maintain are always on schedule.

SPEAKER_00

How does someone become a cast member? How does that work?

SPEAKER_02

We have a whole audition page.

SPEAKER_00

Um I have a feeling some people watching this are gonna be like, wait a minute, I want to be a part of that. I love food, I love being on YouTube. How does that work?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I'm pretty sure right now you can go to our Instagram pages and in the links, uh, there is a page that you can fill out an audition form and submit a video of who you are, what your likes are. Unfortunately, right now we do film all of our things in Los Angeles. Uh, so you have to be local to Los Angeles. Um, and then yeah, our casting team will go through the auditions pretty regularly. And um every time we do open casting calls, they'll see who's around, who fits the vibe, who very much likes to yes and content, who wants to bring positivity and connection into uh talking about different topics.

SPEAKER_00

What are some of the things that you particularly love about a cast mate bringing to uh an episode? Again, I I want to do this because there are certain people that are listening that maybe they just like the content creation portion, but they don't like editing, they don't like script writing, they don't like anything. They just want to go do something. And it sounds like a perfect type of that is most of our cast.

SPEAKER_02

Most of our cast are just genuinely enjoyable, wonderful people. Um, and I've struggled with some of them to be like, hey, you have a career, like you have the possibility of being a creator, and they're kind of like, oh, but editing is so much work. And like, I'm like, but you tell really amazing stories, and they're like, eh, we'll we'll just leave that to you guys. I'm like, but you take really cool photos and you clearly have an eye for it, and they're just like, eh, that feels like whatever. And they want to just come in and be able to share who they are without having to do all of the extra work.

SPEAKER_00

Is there an economy for that? Like, is there is there a place for people that that do that? But other than like acting in TV shows that you know, most people won't never get a chance. Like, this seems more approachable, so more reasonable. Is there an economy for this sort of thing?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. Right now it's kind of us. I don't really know a lot of other channels that are there. Um, with all of their teens cast, um, Hi Ho Kids does it with kids. Um, Jubilee is another big channel that does that, except for it's a little more serious in nature. Or you have the nectar and the dating stuff. Um, and then there are two channels that we love, mamas and papas, uh, that do it with Mexican moms and Mexican dads.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, very cool.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so I think there are places for that kind of thing. I think React is sort of the one big broad positive community of those kinds of creators uh right now. But you know, it's the trick though is it is a lot of work and it does kind of take a little bit of having a company and having um backing to be able to do something as big and at scale as what we do. The reason that we are able to do a lot of things is because we do bulk shoot in that way. Like if we were to pay everybody to come in and just film one video, that video gets infinitely more expensive to make than when you're bulk shooting 14 episodes at a time and really maximizing the use of all of my producers, all of our cam, our tech team. Like we're sort of making the best use of everything.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, you you pretty much have this down pat now, but what's like the most difficult part of the day-to-day of this channel right now?

Clickable Titles Formats And Audience Tests

SPEAKER_02

Um, honestly, ideation. It's everything, it doesn't matter how good your machine operates. If you're still not coming up with ideas that people are excited about and people want to watch, then it doesn't matter how good of a system you have. Um, and it's the same thing that I always tell all of my producers. It also doesn't matter how cool of an idea you have if you're not able to package it. And by packaging, I mean coming up with a really clickable title, coming up with a hook that you can explain very quickly in like one sentence, and having an image that draws in people's attention to want to invest in clicking on that video. It doesn't matter if you're like, I'm gonna make the coolest trivia game show ever, and it's gonna be super silly and super, super fun, and like everyone's gonna love it, and our cast is gonna have so much fun, until you have that title of double dare. I just did a vintage Nickelodeon episode. It doesn't matter. Um, so it's trying to figure out how we come up with new formats that are repeatable and scalable that can hit on a lot of the topics that we know our particular audience really loves. They love nostalgia, they love 90s throwback, they love cartoons, they love, oh my goodness, they love rock music. Which like stings to my little heart. Every time we're like, oh, let's talk about vintage blink one eight, vintage blink one eight.

SPEAKER_00

The fact that you have to say those two words together makes me feel very old, but yeah, I understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so yeah, we come we try to come up with formats or games that really fit that world. Um, and then we'll repeat them a few times to see whether or not the audience actually really likes it. Um, and the other thing that you have as a resource as they're growing is your audience. Um, I listen to them pretty actively. Um, every day I am on every single YouTube channel looking at the comments, seeing what they're excited about, what kind of topics they want us to delve into. Um, and then I'll assign that to different producers to dive into those and see if there's enough meat there for an episode.

SPEAKER_00

Let's talk about that and then what you said just before that is kind of figuring out when you test something, getting feedback from the audience, and then also testing it more than once, which I think is so important. I try to tell people when you're trying, especially doing a new format, the first time is unlikely to be like this great hit. Let's just you just randomly get the viral hit. But for the most part, when you change uh formats or anything, it usually doesn't take off immediately. Uh it usually takes a couple of videos. What is your guys' kind of thought process process behind that? How long do you give it? How many videos do you give a new kind of idea before you go, oh, this just didn't work?

SPEAKER_02

I was saying we actually have a kind of different one because every time we try a new format, people do get really excited.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02

Um, because it is something different. Like we we create a lot of content across the channels. So every time you do something that's a little different, not only is our cast really excited about it, so they help promote it a lot. Um, the algorithm will see that there's a new spike of new interest in our viewers to this format, so they'll push it out. Um, then we start to see diminishing returns on the second and the third iterations of those new formats. Um I'd say we try to say uh six chances.

SPEAKER_00

That sounds, that sounds pretty healthy. And what uh what baseline are you saying, okay? Well, this failed or or it's successful. I mean, obviously, if it's successful, you'll know because you're getting a whole bunch of views on it, you're maybe getting new subscribers, whatever. But what is uh what is a quote failure look like?

SPEAKER_02

Um well, going into a new format, we really talk internally a lot about what it is we are trying to accomplish with this format. Are we trying to bring in new audience? Are we trying to expand our audience? Are we trying to serve our core audience? Um, so those are the metrics that we're really looking against when we are evaluating whether something is successful or not. Um, and so some of our new things that we will test out, if it is bringing in a new audience, but the views aren't quite at the same level as some of our regular heavy hitter episodes, that's still a success because that is doing what we want it to do. And we want to have a healthy mix of episodes that are bringing in new audience and sort of growing that audience, as well as episodes that really feed our core audience and make sure our core core audience is getting exactly what they signed up for and what they want out of these channels.

SPEAKER_00

That makes sense. But I mean, is there is there something that's not just I mean, I the thing is is that everything's relative, right? And when you have evergreen content, just because it didn't work today doesn't mean it doesn't work six months from now. Does that ever do you ever go back and look at things like oh that didn't work then?

SPEAKER_02

Let me say when we say like we'll give an episode or we'll give a format about six episodes to test it, those six episodes are coming out over a three-month span.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay. I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

We do not like, and that's the nice thing about our channels because we have so much, so many different types of formats. Like, we'll say, okay, this is gonna come out every other week and let's see how it does. Um, so we have that time to also test what it is, and that way we're also not cannibalizing our audience and being like, oh, we're just gonna give you this new format, whether you ask for it or not. We're gonna like lightly Ivy drip it into your feed to see whether or not it catches on. That also gives us time. I like to shoot like two episodes at a time. So I'll shoot the first two, edit them, then put them up, and then be able to take the learnings from the process of filming and editing those first two to apply it to the next one. So that even as we're growing this format within that six uh episode test window, we're also improving on what we're doing as well.

SPEAKER_00

What are some of the insights you've you've gained over the last

AI Limits Workflow Automations And The Future

SPEAKER_00

like even year? Because I feel like AI has changed so many things, ideation of things, thumbnail, everything. Like, what have you noticed over the last year that maybe has changed on YouTube and the way that you guys react, or do you guys do things differently because of all the changes?

SPEAKER_02

You know, I think AI is definitely a hot topic right now. Um we're a channel that feeds on human reactions and like human um conversation. So we and yeah, we've we have definitely talked internally about what AI means to us and how we want to use it and how we don't want to use it. Um and I I hate to say it, I the research side of it is not great. Even the best AI research still gets things wrong. So you can use it as sort of like a first draft of like, let me gather some information, but it still needs us to go in and manually check all the facts and try to find the right information. And it is getting harder and harder to get to the core of like what is the actual truth and what is the right information. Um, so I was hoping that it would be a great boon for research and writing, but it has not been that yet. Um, you know, and maybe if that improves, things will change down the road, but it's definitely not there.

SPEAKER_00

It's such an interesting thing because it does um at times when it works well, it works very well and it's very surprising. Like, holy crap, you just saved me hours. And then other times you'll get something and you'll pick at a thread. Like this actually happened to me earlier today. I was using uh an AI um and I asked it a question about something. Actually, it was about um because I'm uh looking to to buy a new house, and I was looking at what was selling recently, and it and I said, Well, so this house recently, you know, went up on the market. Tell me about it. That and they said, Oh, okay, it just flipped a pending today. So that means that when they showed it this weekend, it uh now someone's gonna buy it, and that's cool. And I'm like, Oh, that was very fast. And then I went to the actual site, went to Zillow, and looked at it, and it was still active. I go back and go, You said that someone had put an offer in, but it says active. And it goes, Oh, yeah, sorry, I hallucinated that. Like, I'm sorry, what uh why? And then I asked it why, and it's always fascinating to hear why, and it it assumed, it said it assumed things, which is really interesting. Uh, I don't want you to assume facts, please. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, for the first draft of like, let me gut check some things or like whatever, it's not a terrible tool to have. It just yeah, sadly.

SPEAKER_00

Just not quite where you want it to be.

SPEAKER_02

It's not quite where it needs to be yet.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um what do you think?

SPEAKER_02

So we haven't really seen a lot of changing changes to what we've been doing. All that said, we have written a lot of real, if this then that basically uh automations into our workflow. And being able to automate the things that don't need like a manual human to do, our entire world is built on Airtable, which is like an incredible platform that is like an Excel spreadsheet on crack, I like to say. Um, so everything that we do, like we've masterminded how information flows so that we can have a lot of people come in and really focus on the creative aspects of it and doing all of the fact checking and doing doing all of those things. Instead of the manual rote of, okay, I need to plug these cast members into this episode. I need to build this show code that assigns to this budget, I need to build a shopping list or a prep list. Like those are the things that we do use automations for. Um, and we've we've been doing that from the very beginning. Um, so the AI tools have been able to help us with some of our automations and make some of our automations work even better. Um, but we already had a pretty strong fundamental workflow process that allows creation at scale.

SPEAKER_00

Well, one thing I think that you guys could use is still pretty accurate, is because you guys get a lot of comments, is going through comments and coming up with sentiments across all the comments. So that's always something that seems to be uh pretty good. What do you think the future of uh people versus food is? Like what does it look like? It's still relevant to this day, which is very hard to say for a uh channel that's over 10 years old. It's a very hard thing to do. Uh it stays relevant, but what do you think the future looks like? Is it kind of the same format or do you do you envision like something that you'd like to try different? What what's going through your mind?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I will say we have a couple things in the work that I can't talk about yet of how we how we sort of grow. Um, but it is staying true to sort of the audience, but being able to expand um what it is we're doing. And the nice thing about people versus food is even if we do a type of episode trying Filipino food, um, the audience is only seeing those six specific cast members who are in that episode try X, Y, and Z. So every time we do a thing that works really well, we can actually do it with multiple groups of people. Um, because there is gonna always be new people with new taste buds coming up who we want to see and hear from and we want to know what their experience is like, because everybody's experience with food is completely different. Um, so that is the nice thing that we do have in our back pockets.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Like the fact that everyone's reaction to something is different, even the same exact thing, does make it like this gold mine of never running out of of ideas and kind of concepts and stuff.

SPEAKER_02

I'm super excited to see and thank goodness Disney keeps putting food in their movies.

SPEAKER_00

I know what is going on. I saw some stuff, and I'm like, I don't, I don't even understand that it like if you take the Disney name away from some of the food, especially when they do stuff with fast food restaurants where they do like these collabs and stuff, just take the Disney name away from it and then look at the food itself. And I'm like, I don't I don't know. I don't know that I'm that interested.

SPEAKER_02

No, but as long as television shows and movies keep putting new food items into their content, I can still make content out of it.

SPEAKER_01

Um you would laugh.

SPEAKER_02

I when I go to the movies, I actually I have Slack on my phone and I have a Slack like message to myself where I'll be like, okay, I am watching Zootopia.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And throughout the movie, I'll be like, all right, they're having a koala colada right now. Okay, they just pulled a carrot out of the microwave.

SPEAKER_00

I have one last question. Um, we're both we both love food. Uh what's the craziest thing you've done with food? And I'll tell you what the craziest thing I know. Now it could be what you've eaten, where you've eaten it, uh, you know, whatever. Like, what's the craziest kind of food story you have?

SPEAKER_02

I my husband likes when I share this one, is he is a huge Francis Maulman fan. Uh, Francis Mallman is an incredible chef who does like whole animal um roasts, like very Argentinian style. Um, and so we were determined to do this. We went and got a bunch of iron. We built a giant iron across, is like what the device is to cook an animal. We went and got a lamb from down the road at like an Amish uh our Mennonite community and um put the lamb up. Uh my husband dug a pit out in a field and we stoked it with coal and fire uh and roasted the whole animal for 12 hours like 12 or 13 hours. Um, and basically had this huge feast. We invited everybody in the neighborhood to come eat. Um, and we just love cooking for communal gatherings.

SPEAKER_00

That's so cool. Was it good?

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Man, that sounds delicious. I love it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it was delicious, and we slathered it at chimichuri.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh. That sounds amazing. I love meat. I love it the best. It's the best. Uh, I think for me, it was I tried to eat the entire McDonald's menu in under an hour.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That's on YouTube. So, listeners, if you want to try to find it, I'm not gonna tell you where it is. You can find it. It's somewhere on YouTube. Anyway, I want to thank you for it.

SPEAKER_02

I'll give you my most disgusting one that is Oh, please. I'd love to do this. Head ultimate of punishments on our channel. This was very, very early on, and we have replicated a few times, but it's from Rick and Morty, where there's a commercial where they're eating delicious shit.

SPEAKER_00

No, really? No.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Please do.

SPEAKER_02

So I I made a big bowl, a steaming big bowl.

SPEAKER_00

Made out of what?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I think I used cottage cheese and yogurt for the base. So you get that, like you get the little bit of chunks in there. Uh, I then added in some cocoa powder for coloring.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

Um, and then there's uh, have you ever heard of a durian fruit?

SPEAKER_00

I have, yes.

SPEAKER_02

So it's a Southeast Asian fruit that it's big and spiky. It looks mean. It looks like it shouldn't be eaten.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I know.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, when you crack it open, it smells like a fart.

SPEAKER_00

That's what I've heard, yes.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's pretty. I and I I've eaten fresh durian, I still can't. Um, but you can also get durian extract, which is the intensified version of it.

SPEAKER_00

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

And let me just tell you, that stuff is horrible.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I got one for you. So I did I did something similar. I I bought, I think it was a bunch of like really gross food from Amazon. Um, the end result was like, and I've seen these, the candied scorpion. I know you've seen those before. That freaked me out. But the worst thing was not what I thought it would be. Uh, it was a soda that was flavored like ranch.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I got the ranch soda, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, I almost puked drinking that. That was I want I to this day I get this thing in my throat as I talk about it. Like, ooh, it's terrible. Who thought this was a good idea? It was terrible. Anyway, if y'all love food, then you're definitely gonna love people versus food. We'll have links in the description in the show notes for listening to the audio podcast. Nicole, thank you so much for joining us today. Of course, you're gonna have all types of information in the description. And listen, I want y'all to leave me a comment. Which which video from uh people versus food is your favorite? I'll probably leave one as a pin comment myself. And uh, y'all can say hello to Nicole next time you see you on an episode. We appreciate you coming on through today. Uh, and by the way, if you love food, I have a video right here from one of the people who's been on recently that has a chef's channel. I'll see y'all in the next one.