This week on The Deep Dive: I guess malls aren’t dying anymore, how we went from Hoarders to Tidying Up with Marie Kondo to RestockTok, the confusing ethics of enjoying art that wasn’t meant to be seen, a Team 10 retrospective (it was even worse than you remember), and why we can’t separate Dan Schneider from his shows no matter how much we may want to.

Fifty percent of subscribers to The Deep Dive prefer video essays that are 20-40 minutes long – the Searchable Playlist can help you sort videos by runtime when you need something to watch during your lunch break. Did I mention that it includes every recommendation from The Deep Dive ever?

URBANISM

Why Shopping Malls Refuse to Die by City Beautiful (10:59)

A little birdie may have recently told you that malls are dying – another victim of ruthless millennials and their refusal to spend what little money they have on things their parents believed were essential, like napkins. In this video, City Beautiful shares evidence that malls may not actually be on their way out. In fact, shopping at some malls has returned to pre-pandemic levels and the ones that have seen lower volume are looking for more effective ways to use their massive spaces. So your local mall might be around for longer than you thought, and at least Gen Z won’t lose yet another third place. Although, some members of Gen Alpha might soon be attending school in a building that was once used as a mall.

(On a related note, if you’re like me and want to see a future with better American cities, keep scrolling for details about an event I think you’ll enjoy…)

CULTURE

The Cult of Organisation & The Celebrity Kitchen Complex by Jordan Theresa (35:23)

Sure, American consumerism today is bad, but believe me when I say it used to be worse. I mean, there used to be entire TV shows dedicated to hoarding before The Home Edit and Marie Kondo swooped in and saved our storage closets. We’ve grown so much from the wake-up call that was the homes featured on Hoarders and now, TikTok is filled with organizational and restock videos. In other words, we did it – we tackled consumerism by the horns and in this video, Jordan Theresa explains how. Just kidding! The KonMari method may have taken us a few steps forward when it comes to decluttering, but capitalism sucked us right back in with content that “celebrates American excess as long as it’s organized in clear plastic containers in rainbow order.” That’s a direct quote from this video, excuse me while I glue my brain back together.

This issue of The Deep Dive is sponsored by

Join me at the Strong Towns National Gathering 2024!

If you’ve been here for a while, you know The Deep Dive loves video essays that can help us imagine a future with better, walkable, and more livable cities – like this flurfdesign video about why kids don’t go outside anymore or this Strong Towns video about how we can create better American cities instead of just leaving the country.

I’m so beyond excited to share that I’ll be attending the Strong Towns National Gathering on May 14-15 in Cincinnati – and I’d love to see you there! Register for the event here and use code HAYAK2024 to get 10% off General Admission tickets. Don’t forget to purchase them before April 1 to take advantage of the early bird discount!

See you there! 🚉

ART

Art for No One by Jacob Geller (55:34)

Art is meant to be seen, enjoyed, and admired – but what about the cases where that was never the intention? From a mysterious city in the desert to the basements of some of the most famous artists of all time, some art just wasn’t meant to be consumed. In this video, Jacob Geller connects various forms of art created for no one throughout history and the ways human enjoyment has benefitted, tainted, and diluted it. On one hand, there’s something disrespectful and, frankly, deeply inconsiderate about exposing creations that were specifically made to be hidden. On the other hand, at least we get to experience them?

INTERNET

Unpacking the Chaotic Team 10 Lore by Ashley Norton (1:09:30)

Just because I knew you needed a dose of the cringiest 2010s nostalgia the internet has to offer, let’s take a trip back to the genre that once defined YouTube and appreciate just how far we’ve come. In this video, Ashley Norton reaches into the depths of our collective internet memory and unlocks a time when my eyes were glued to every single update surrounding the fall of Jake Paul’s Team 10. The Martinez Twins, the Why I Left BuzzFee– I mean, Team 10 era of videos, Alissa Violet, the weekly diss tracks, England’s redesignation as a city, that one KTLA segment – this video has it all. Unsurprisingly, the story of Team 10 can also be defined by every single type of abuse you could possibly imagine and even a few desperate scams on its way out.

TV

We Don’t Talk About Dan Schneider by Quinton Reviews (1:54:47)

As we watch the long-overdue reckoning of Dan Schneider unfold, many of us struggle to reconcile the content he created with some pretty undeniable horrors that took place on and off the sets of our favorite childhood shows. While most of us would prefer to separate Dan Schneider, the person, from his TV shows, that might be much more difficult to do than we’d like to think. In this video, Quinton Reviews caps off his series about the Nickelodeon Cinematic Universe with a nuanced look at the question of how we’re supposed to feel about beloved shows like All That, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly, and Victorious. Sure, Dan Scheider is a problem, but is he the problem when it comes to the larger issue of exploitation in child stardom? He isn’t – far from it, actually. But you already knew that.

The Deep Dive’s Bonus Video of the Week

Shout out to Sara from Boston for the recommendation!

Listen closely and you might hear The Hum, a sound only 2% of people can hear with reports of it being recorded across the globe – and nobody knows what it is. This video nails down a pretty solid hypothesis (at least to my unscientific mind) of what it could be and the road to that answer is FASCINATING.

If you have a bonus video you want to share for a shoutout in an upcoming newsletter, check out the poll below – it doesn’t even have to be a video essay!

Share The Deep Dive 🎁

Got any video essay rabbits in your life who just don’t know it yet? Here’s your chance to start spreading the word to your herd! Just share your unique link below and unlock these rewards!

*US and Canada shipping only

Thanks for reading and happy watching! See you next week 💭