How I Built This with Guy Raz

CrunchLabs: Mark Rober

Apr 15, 2024

Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer and Apple employee, is now a renowned YouTube creator and the brains behind Crunch Labs. In this conversation, he shares his journey from crafting Halloween costumes with tech to viral science videos, highlighting the importance of joy in learning. Rober reflects on the creative process behind popular projects like the glitter bomb and discusses the financial shifts in content creation. He also explores his passion for educational subscription boxes that inspire kids to explore science through fun activities.

01:09:17

Episode guests

Mark Rober

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Highlights

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Mark Rober celebrates science joyfully through viral videos and entrepreneurship.

Growing a YouTube channel involves authentic content creation and seizing mainstream opportunities.

Balancing personal fulfillment with business growth is key to sustaining creative integrity.

Deep dives

Creative Pranks and Inventions

Mark Rober's journey began with creating unique ideas like the watermelon trick followed by pranks such as the glitter bomb to combat theft, receiving attention from Jimmy Kimmel for a resulting TV show idea to engineer pranks for a larger audience.

Preserving the Heart of the Content

01:19

Protect Your Treadmill Speed

01:22

How to Make an iPad Costume Less Expensive

02:00

Creating Evergreen Content

01:19

Intro

4min

From Engineer to Influencer: A Journey to NASA and Beyond

17min

From Costumes to Corporate: A Creative Journey

9min

From Ideas to Viral Hits

6min

From Apple to Viral Innovation

10min

Navigating Creative Control and Team Dynamics in Content Creation

2min

From Corporate to Creativity: Building an Educational YouTube Channel

9min

Balancing Growth and Purpose in Content Creation

5min

Innovative Learning Through Subscription Boxes

6min

10.

The Financial Landscape of YouTube and Educational Innovations

2min

11.

Building a Legacy: The Journey of Crunch Labs

6min

12.

Creative Solutions and Educational Inspiration

3min

As one of the most successful creators on YouTube, Mark Rober doesn’t see what he does as a business. Instead, it’s a way to celebrate science in the most joyful way possible. While working as an engineer at NASA, he made his YouTube debut with a tutorial on how to make a gory Halloween costume with two iPads and a lot of duct tape. Over time, his videos became more elaborate, including a belly flop into a pool full of Jello, and a demo of a glitter-fart bomb to get revenge on porch pirates. Within a few years, Mark was teaching online science classes and selling subscription boxes for kids. Today, his YouTube channel has 5.5 billion views, 48 million subscribers…and–astonishingly, given that audience–less than 150 videos.

This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Sam Paulson.

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How I Built This with Guy Raz

CrunchLabs: Mark Rober

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Creative Pranks and Inventions

Transition from Engineer to YouTuber

Balancing Passion and Business

Balancing Passion and Scale in Content Creation

Transition from YouTube to Entrepreneurship

Preserving the Heart of the Content

Protect Your Treadmill Speed

How to Make an iPad Costume Less Expensive

Creating Evergreen Content

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts