🎙️ Chase Cain Bet on Himself. Now He’s Betting on YouTube to Change Climate Coverage 🌎🎥

What happens when a veteran TV journalist walks away from a major network job to build something of his own?

In this episode of Life After News, Jason talks with meteorologist and climate reporter Chase Cain about leaving NBC News, starting over in San Francisco, and launching a new climate-focused platform on YouTube. Chase explains why he believes mainstream media still isn’t giving climate change the attention it deserves and why he’s taking the risk to do it differently.

They get into the real reasons climate stories struggle to break through in traditional news, how extreme weather connects to climate change, and why so many journalists are quietly wondering whether it’s time to build something beyond the corporate newsroom.

Chase also shares practical advice for journalists and creators thinking about making the leap, including how he’s approaching YouTube as both a mission and a business.

This is a conversation about reinvention, risk, purpose, and what it means to chase what matters. 🌱

In this episode:
✨ Why Chase left NBC News
🌡️ Why climate change coverage gets buried in mainstream media
🔥 What record-breaking March heat says about our changing planet
🧠 How Chase makes climate science easier to understand
📺 Why YouTube may be the future for journalists
💸 The fear and financial reality of leaving a steady media job
🎯 What creators and reporters need to know before going out on their own
🌿 Why hope matters in climate storytelling

Connect with Chase Cain:
Search Chase Cain on YouTube and follow his work as he builds his new platform around climate, connection, and storytelling.

🎧 Loved this episode? Please rate and review Life After News, share it with a friend, and help more people discover these conversations. Your support really makes a difference.

#LifeAfterNews #JasonBall #ChaseCain #ClimateChange #Meteorologist #ClimateReporter #Journalism #YouTubeCreator #MediaFuture #DigitalJournalism #NewsIndustry #ClimateCoverage #CreatorEconomy #Podcast #PalmSprings

 Let Life After News inspire your next chapter. Because leaving the news doesn’t mean the story’s over—it means a new one’s just beginning.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello there. My guest today is meteorologist and climate reporter Chase Kane. Earlier this month, Chase quit his job at NBC News to go out on his own. He's betting on himself and he's betting on YouTube. One of the reasons he left is because he thinks that mainstream media isn't properly covering climate change. He does a great job of breaking it down, making it simple. He's actually doing what a lot of journalists want to be doing, but are probably afraid to do. So here's kind of his high how-to guide on how to make a career on YouTube. All right, Chase Kane, welcome to the show. How are you today?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Uh great. I actually just finished moving, Jason, moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco. So the fact that I can say that I'm great today, I feel like is an accomplishment because you might still see the boxes behind me. So life is chaotic, but it's uh it's coming together.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Wow, you've got a lot of change going on in your life.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah, I think I just made the decision like, how much personal change can one person tolerate at once? Let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So you quit your job and moved to San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, it wasn't those two weren't connected. Uh it was primarily for my partner's job. It just so happened that it all coincided together. So funny how life works like that sometimes, right? It's like everything everywhere all at once.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Exactly. Exactly. So you, I'm so interested to talk to you about what you're doing because I feel like you're doing what I think a lot more people want to do, but are afraid to do or should be doing, and are just kind of trying to hang on to that corporate job. And so tell us what your your new path is.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I am focusing on building an audience on YouTube, people who care about our planet, people who care about the environment, people who love the outdoors. Uh, I mean, there's some pretty phenomenal research that Yale and George Mason have done for, I think, 20 years now. And, you know, it says basically two-thirds of Americans are worried about climate change. That's a lot of people. That's north of 200 million people. So even if you look at it just through the lens of the US, I think there's an incredible audience of people who want to understand these things, they want to know what they can do. They want to feel like maybe there's a little bit of hope and that, like, you know, the world's not just ending tomorrow. But they're not, I would say they're not getting that uh regularly in the news. And that's not just about one network or one station. I think that's pretty uniform across the board.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

So let me ask you this. Then as you said, you're not not getting that information, but why can't you do that in the uh a regular job or a corporate job or you know, mainstream media?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

I mean, I think you and probably your audience for this, uh, for this interview understands news. And that means they also understand how much chaos is in the world right now. I mean, it's called the what? The flood the zone approach. And it's just, you know, if it's not ice on the streets of cities, it's a new war in Iran, or it's the Epstein files, or it's the crazy thing that a prominent politician decided to say today. Or it's just like, it's always something. And so when you're competing against those things that maybe are more immediately visual, or it's just new and it's fresh and it's something people haven't heard about before. As you know, it's just it's hard to break through that and say, well, this is actually an issue that affects not just every one of your viewers, but every single person on the planet. Uh, and just because we didn't have a disaster today doesn't mean that this isn't worth talking about. In fact, I would say that it's most worth talking about when we don't have disasters. Uh so that's just it's just a difficult um hill to climb every day. I felt a little bit like Sisyphus, where, you know, I roll the boulder up the hill one day and I wake up the next morning and there's two boulders. So uh, you know, that that that can be a little tiring after a while.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

I I think you're right though, about there is an audience and appetite for it because I I live in Palm Springs and my parents live in Arkansas where I grew up. And anytime there's any extreme weather, my mother goes, Do you think it's climate change? And I'm like, probably. And then we just kind of go off about that. But you know, it's interesting that, you know, she's an older woman and she's still it's still top of mind to her when the weather and everybody if everybody talks about the weather and everybody, you know, weather is part of our lives.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

And and and you know, depending upon when when people are listening to this, I mean, one relevant thing to Palm Springs is that like around the middle of March, what would it be, like the 20th, I think, Palm Springs could potentially set the hottest temperature ever recorded in the US in the month of March, where you live. So depending on when people are watching this, like buckle up, or I hope you made it, because I mean that's you know, that's pretty extraordinary.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Well, we are experiencing a uh heat wave across the state here in California this week. So I mean, can as a medium, you're a meteorologist and a climate reporter, can you explain why we're having the heat wave in in March, or is it just something that's happening?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

There is a strong climate signal on this. I mean, heat and climate change is like of all the connections that we can make. I mean, it's the most, it's the most uh logical, right? It's the simplest for our brains, but it's also just the simplest scientifically. Like the hotter you make the planet overall, you push the baseline up. Uh, I mean, one person kind of described it as like, imagine you're on an escalator and the escalator is going up. Well, maybe you can squat down on the escalator or sit down on the step if you want to, but the escalator is still moving up. But then when there's a day or a moment that you decide to stand up on that escalator, you've just set a new record high. So heat and climate change is like a really strong link. And yeah, it shouldn't be this hot. And even in Palm Springs in March, and I'm talking to you from San Francisco where it's mid-80s this week. Mid-80s in March in San Francisco is like, I mean, that's it's it's unheard of.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

I don't think I've ever been to San Francisco and when I where I didn't need at least a jacket.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah. I mean, there's there's some saying about what like the the coldest winter of my life was summer in San Francisco. And it's like, you know, it's kind of it's kind of true. Um and the other thing I would just say that you may notice, especially over the next few days, or just at any point, is that an even stronger link with climate change and heat happens overnight, that it's not cooling off as much at night as it used to. So it's the 115, 120 degree high that makes the news. That's what gets the headline. But what's actually more impactful is that it's just staying hot at night. So people that used to be able to leave their windows open, like, okay, it's hot in the afternoon, it'll cool off at night. Well, that's not happening. That affects us, that affects plants, that affects animals. I mean, that's something that is is really concerning for scientists and should be concerning for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

That is true. But the then every time we have a you know a big winter storm, then the I call them the idiots, but maybe I shouldn't call them that, but they push back and say, see, it's not global warming. But this is this is explain why this is the pop of the rubber band or the other side of the pendulum.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Actually, I have an easy way to explain it. So, okay, so this is just like a USB cable. So imagine that there is a fence around the North Pole, and that fence is like you pull the cable tight, and so that fence is holding all the cold air up there. Well, as the poles get hotter than the rest of the planet, it's basically like, you know, losing the tension in that cord. And so, like when I let go of the cord, it starts to wobble, right? It starts to make these weird shapes. And so what that does is it lets cold air that would have stayed up there, it lets it spill down south. So it's actually a hallmark of climate change that you get these weather whiplash events where it is 75 and sunny one day, and then it is snowing the next. Um, and and those things have always happened, but what's happening with climate change is that they're happening more often and they're becoming more intense. I mean, it was what, a few years ago in Texas where they had that deep freeze, power plants shut down, and people died. Um, you know, so so that was something where there was also a strong fingerprint of climate change. Um, you know, some things like heat, easy to understand. Some things like cold weather, yeah, the climate deniers latch onto that and say, you know, see, it's snowing. You can't have climate change if you're, you know, like the senator that did that, like brings a snowball to the floor of the Senate and like, there's no climate change, it's a snowball. And it's like, well, that's you just embarrassed yourself on the Florida Senate.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

It is interesting too, because we rent a hotel here in Palm Springs and we get guests from all over. And we just got a guest from um Long Island, and they he said it was the worst winter he's ever had, and he was 70 years old. He said, And it just like the snow was packed and it hard, and then we had guests from Utah who had a very mild winter, and they're worried about not having enough water because of the there's no snow pack this year. So it it's definitely been an interesting season.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, and it's um, you know, like I I don't want to get deep in the physics and and bore people with it, but um, you know, having a really intensely cold winter where you get a lot more snow or a lot more snow at once is also linked to climate change because the hotter we make the atmosphere overall, like just the basic physics are that it can hold more moisture. And so if there's more moisture up there, that means more snow, that means more rain uh that comes down more quickly and also like overwhelms our stormwater systems. Um actually, it was what, it was a few years ago. It was uh remnants of Hillary that came through Palm Springs. I was reporting from Palm Springs at the time, you know, and you could just see it. You could just see like how much water was coming down, and even, you know, the desert's obviously not designed for that, but you get downpours and it was just way too much water for the stormwater system in Palm Springs.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, it was a lot. It was I mean, it rained for I mean, it never rains for more than a few hours at a time here. And it rained, I think, for like 24 hours that yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

It was hospitals were flooding. I mean, every like it was it was bad.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

It was a lot. We all it was funny because we have there are a lot of hotels in our neighborhood, and we all had our sump pumps out trying to, you know, get the water off the properties. But it was it was interesting, and they were we were actually lucky because we're close to the mountains and but the canyons keep the water kind of away from from where we are. Um, but I also I liked your little demonstration there. And I thought I was looking at your uh Instagram and your YouTube channels. You do a lot of visual aids. I feel it's almost kind of like Bill, Bill Nye, the science guy. Where did you how did you figure out how to do these like visual representations or kind of almost experiments?

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Uh I, you know, it came from a place, it actually came from I think the same place inside that made me want to go back and get my master's in meteorology. Because I would read a scientific report written by, you know, brilliant people who worked for years on something. And I like to think I'm a relatively smart person. I'm like, what are they talking about? This doesn't make any sense. And then it's my job to turn around and try to, you know, explain it to everyone on TV, which is a wide range of people, like varying levels of education and age. And I just, I don't ever think that someone's level of education should be a barrier to understanding something so important. And so what I would try and do is like, okay, now that I understand what this is, like, how would I teach this to Chase of last week that didn't get it? Like, what might be an interesting way to do it? Like, do I grab sponges? Am I getting jars? Am I using a charging cable? Uh, and so sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's also just like a fun thing to do to kind of like play Bill Nye in your kitchen and make a mess on the floor. But the end result is that, like, oh, well, that was a that was a cool video. I got to play with Play-Doh as an adult.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

That's true. So you had like almost 20 years in the TV news business, kind of on and off with weather and some weather or not. Were you always interested in weather, or did that just happen?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah, I was I was always interested in weather. Um, you know, my my grandfather was really like a big weather nerd. Like we I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, and you know, he was one of those people like there's a tornado warning and he wants to be on the front porch watching it and not like taking shelter. Uh but then also I'm dating myself here, Jason. But I graduated college uh in 2005 and free, well, thank you. Thank you. Uh just had my midlife, my midlife, not crisis, my midlife moment. Um, but so I was 22. I was three months out of college when Hurricane Katrina was uh hitting, and I was working in a small market in Georgia. But you know, TV ownership groups, it's like this is gonna be a big deal, we need some help. And so they were looking for people to go, and no one at the station wanted to go. And I was like, I'll go. That sounds fun. Uh was not fun. I mean, it was a horrific experience, um, but also I think a really formative experience because like that early in my career, three months after graduating with my journalism degree, I'm in the middle of one of the worst disasters in American history. And so that really like cemented it. So I was actually in my next job when I was in Lexington, Kentucky, where they uh really like weather was the thing that they wanted to cover all the time, and I loved doing it. Other people didn't want to be cold or wet or whatever. And so it was easy for me to kind of like carve out my place. Uh, and then was also able to start like filling in, uh, doing weather on the weekends, started a meteorology degree. Um, financial crash happened, didn't get to finish. But like, yeah, it was just kind of like I think Hurricane Katrina and then those years in Lexington really just like cemented my fascination with and curiosity about weather in our planet.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Okay. So we've established that you're uh you know an expert in uh climate science and uh meteorologists, you have your degree. So, what are you gonna do with this new venture? What tell us what we should expect on it?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I think it's gonna be well, well, first of all, I want it to be uh a a little bit more hopeful. Um, I want people to come away with one of two things. I want them to understand something better, or I want them to feel like motivated and maybe empowered. So it'll be a combination of maybe it's a long-form interview. Like my next video that'll be out in the next couple of days is with um well-known climate scientist named Catherine Hayho. She's an evangelical Christian, decided to go and study climate science because of her faith, which you're like, that that doesn't track with some things in America right now. But so it's a long-form conversation with her that you would just not see on the news because it's just, it's just too long and that's just not the right vehicle for it. But I think people will watch that and walk away, like, oh wow, maybe I see my own faith differently, or I understand my family members' faith differently. And now I can have a conversation with them about that. Uh and other things, I still want to like go out in the world and do interesting solution stories, like showing how nature has the power to heal itself. Maybe we give it a little help, or maybe we borrowed this process from nature. And thanks to science, we can accelerate that. And that that's a way to address this, uh, and just, you know, show people that there is positive momentum, that as bad as things might feel and might be in some ways, um, that all hope is lost. Because if all if that all hope is not lost, because if we think that it is, if it's like, well, uh, world's gonna end, um, we're all screwed, then that changes the way that we live our lives. And I think in the background, it also affects our mental health, right? If we just think like everything's awful and there's no hope, like I don't think that's I don't think that's the way to live.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

I think there is there a call to action because I feel like that people need something to to be able to at least feel like they're trying to to make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

In this moment, I think the biggest thing that people can do is actually talk about it. Like whoever said talk is cheap, I don't agree with that in this context. I think talk is really important. Um, different people call it different things, but there's this phenomena of climate silence or climate hushing, that we hear the things that the president says, we hear the things that certain, you know, members of a political party say, and we think that represents everyone. And so therefore we self-censor. We don't bring it up at dinner, we don't bring it up in front of our friends because we think that climate deniers are a big chunk of the population. But that same Yale research shows that it's one in 10 Americans. So 90% of Americans either understand climate change is real or they're like, well, I don't know, but I'm curious about it. So I would say that's a pretty safe thing to talk about if you're if 90% of the people that you interact with are either going to agree or be open to it. And so because we're not talking about climate change enough, we're not talking about what's happening to our rivers and lakes and the air that we breathe, guess what? It gives people permission to abuse those things and destroy the things that we ultimately need for life. So I think the biggest thing is just start talking about it. And if you aren't confident, like delivering a monologue on climate change, ask questions. Like, you know, hey, I just moved to a city where they're launching a compost campaign. Like, does anyone like compost? Like, how do I do this? Like, what should I ask questions if you don't have the answers, but like just talk about it. Don't think that the climate deniers are really that big of a group. They're not, they're just really loud and pretty annoying.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Or once your YouTube channel learn all about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Well, right. That's that's that's also uh that's also the hope is that that's a place where people can, you know, come together, where people can learn things. And I don't expect that everyone's going to uh agree with everything or agree with my approach. Um, but I I hope that it starts the dialogue because that's really what we need right now.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yes, for sure. So your kind of your tagline is chase what matters. I think that's very clever. So does that go deeper?

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah, I mean, it is uh I'm going to be officially uh leaning into that in the next couple months. I'm still like in the early experimentation phase, but you know, I I think the things that matter root uh or or lead to a place of connection, whether it is like connection between two people, like us having a conversation is a connection. Uh you walk outside and you notice a beautiful flower blooming in the spring, and then you hear the bird chirp. Like that is a moment of like connection, or you feel that like crisp breeze on a hot afternoon and you feel that connection. Like we are ultimately connected with our plan. And I know some people might hear this and think, like, okay, we're getting woo-woo here, but it's also true. We have been sold this lie and this illusion that we're not part of nature, that we're separate, because we can go inside our homes and turn on the AC, we can turn on the faucet and clean water comes out. And so we're not thinking about where that water comes from or where food came from. Um, but like we came from nature. And, you know, spoil alert, like when we die, we're gonna decompose and we're gonna go back to nature. We are nature. And so I want to help people, it's not so much about like teaching things. I want people to remember, like remember the connection with beautiful places. If you love going to the beach, if you love going to the lake, if you like, you know, sitting at the park, like remembering those things and then also using that as a gateway to reconnect with one another. Cause this this gets back to the back to the politics of the moment. I don't have to tell you, there's so much polarization. And I think so much of it comes from the fact that like we won't even talk to someone that we disagree with anymore. We're like, that's an awful person who wants to take a to take away my rights. And so, like, you know, they're evil, you know, to hell with them. And I I understand that. I'm not justifying things that people do, but I I do think it's important that we learn that we remember how to just like talk to and listen to people that we disagree with because guess what? We're gonna find something we agree on.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

That's true. People are complicated being beans for for sure. So let's talk for the uh journalists and the content creators in the room. What's your like production strategy? How are you how are you growing this YouTube? And it's not just YouTube, it's your entire social all the social platforms too. What strategy can you share with us?

SPEAKER_01 19:26

The biggest learning curve for any journalist who is thinking about doing this or wanting to do this in the context of the job that they have is learning the strategy. Um, you know, at KTLA, you had a marketing team. Like that doesn't mean you weren't involved in it. And and you probably know more than like, you know, reporters and anchors, but like you had a marketing team. You have a strat like NBC has a whole strategy team of like really smart people that that's all they think about. So learning the strategy is the biggest part of it. Uh, and it's why I actually like uh invested some money in this eight-week intensive course with one of the top strategists on YouTube to learn that part of it. Because I know the science, I know how to shoot video, I know how to edit, I know how to I think be on camera, I know how to do the content side. But what good is great content if no one sees it? And so I'm right now like really laser focused on learning the strategy. And YouTube actually has, like, especially compared to other social platforms, the algorithm algorithm is much more straightforward. And once you kind of like I'm I feel like I'm starting to get it. Like once you get it, it's like, okay, I can just kind of like follow this formula and it's going to increase the reach of a particular video, add a few more subscribers, and then over time that snowballs. So I would say, like, you know, seek out um someone, a program, a class, whatever it is, to learn the strategy and then apply that to what you already know in terms of being a journalist. And Patty Galloway is like one of the top YouTube strategists. And there's also a channel on YouTube, Colin and Samir. They're actually based in Los Angeles. Um, I think both of them are great resources, that they're really focused on like talking to creators who have had success, helping creators find more success and then teaching other people. Um, so you know, if someone is interested in this, like check those folks out. Um, I've learned a lot from each of them. But, you know, for me, it's the the reason I'm so focused on YouTube is that if people aren't aware, like YouTube is now watched more than any of the major media companies. Um, I was actually reading a report last week from an analytics firm. Was it Moffitt? I think it was Moffitt and Nathan. They said that YouTube is now the biggest media company in the world. And, you know, like the ad dollars are pouring toward YouTube. They're pouring toward individual creators, and they're just like, it feels like the bottom is falling out from traditional media. And so, you know, not just about my previous home at NBC, but I just think like in general, it feels like the Titanic has sprung a leak and people are getting on the lifeboats. And, you know, I don't want to be that couple in the movie Titanic that's like sitting there eating their steak dinner, drinking wine with the water rising around their ankles. Um You know, I I want to I want to hop on one of those lifeboats. But then more importantly, is just that like I want people on these platforms to have a legitimate source of expertise and some truth and some fact. And like, here's what's really going on. Here's here's how to understand this. Um, there are people doing this on social media, but um, you know, I have the experience as a journalist, I have a master's in meteorology. Like, I think I generally know what I'm talking about. So I want to also provide some of that expertise where there's really like a void of it on these social platforms.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

But it's gotta be a little scary too. You're leaving the comfort and the security of you you get a paycheck every two weeks, your health insurance is part of that. And you know, it's gonna be scary to jump out and so why, why now? And what uh tell me, was it scary? Maybe it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Oh no, I think I think scary is an understatement to it was terrifying. I mean, I was I was paid pretty darn well at NBC, uh and and really thankful for that. Uh so yeah, like I had to sit down and like kind of do some math and say, okay, if I make zero dollars, how long can I make zero dollars and be okay? I'm, you know, not planning trips and like not spending money on expensive things the way that I did, you know, even just a couple months ago. Um, and so I kind of like had to figure out for myself, like, what is my savings? What is my runway? How long do I have to make this work? And it's not like when that when I hit that time limit that I'm done, maybe it's just okay, well, I need to go find freelance work or I need to, you know, do something to bridge the gap. I'm committed to this long term, but um, you know, I feel like I have a little over a year of runway, very fortunate that I'm in that position. But it's still terrifying. I mean, you know, haven't gotten a paycheck. Don't know when I'll get one, don't expect to get one anytime, even in the next few months, because you have to like, you have to prove your value, you have to prove your reach first before brands are gonna approach you or before you can reach out to a brand. Because you can't say, like, I have a hundred subscribers and 14 views, like, give me money. They're gonna be like, leave me alone. Uh so yeah, it was, it was terrifying. And I mean, I think I think the other, the other part of the question of why now is just kind of back to that uh comparison to the Titanic. I don't think that news is going to completely sink and completely go away. Um, but I do think there is a monumental shift. There, the data shows there is a monumental shift um underway and has been for years. I mean, even since you know, for when you were a news director. I mean, probably looked at those overnight ratings every day and you see the rating like going down. You're like, but that was an like, we did our best newscast ever. Why was it lower? It's just that people are changing their habits. Uh, I mean, I'm sure you have perspective on this too, but it's like, I don't no one cares about the six o'clock news. Like, news is always available to them. Why is it appointment viewing? It's not a sporting event, it's not a concert. Why do I have to sit there at 6 p.m. to be informed? Um, and so as those habits accelerate, I just wanted to make sure that I'm following where people are going.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I mean, that was part of our strategy was to try to do more news. That way it wasn't just appointment news and hopefully that kept things going. But, you know, this budget constraints or that's just gonna continue. I don't there's always gonna be do more with less. And it's always been that way. I mean, I've been doing this for over 30 years, and it's always been do more with less, but it's really maybe at a tipping point, but the the world is definitely changing. So, how long have you been thinking about this? How long did you how long been when you first thought of this till you launched it?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

I mean, I I think for a for a few years, um, before I was in my most recent role at NBC, I was on an experimental team called NBC LX. That was a moment where NBC was um the predecessor to NBC News Now was NBC News Signal, and they had a group called Left Field and they had NBC LX, and they had these experimental teams that were trying to figure out how do we do news differently. And in doing that, it just showed me like, oh, the way that I've always been a reporter isn't the way that I necessarily need to be a reporter. And it was fun and I enjoyed it. And we would, you know, I would see the ratings for one of our newscasts for uh for a story that I did. And then that same story would go on YouTube and with 100,000 people would watch it exponentially more. And I'm like, okay, this is cool. People are watching this on YouTube. And so it starts those, those uh gears turning. But I think like this specific decision was probably a little bit more than a year in the making. Um, and part of it was just me kind of like working up the courage to do the scary thing of like leaping out of the plane and like, uh, is my parachute packed? Is there a parachute in the backpack? I hope so. I think so. Um yeah, it was it's it was scary.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

You're talking about your parachute. Your parachute was building out your, you know, how long have you actually been actively working on it before you you left?

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Well, I mean, there there are, you know, there's there's some limitations in terms of like what you can do when you work for a major media company. Like, um, you know, I can't just go create my own thing that competes with the people who are giving me that nice paycheck. Right. Uh so some of it was just like planning, strategy. Like I started working with a with a branding strategist to help me figure out like, you know, what is the message? What's the right niche here? Um, how do I explain this to people? So I was starting to do some of that work in the background. And I think, you know, by the time we get to May or June, if you go to my YouTube channel, then people will see like the full realization of that. Um But yeah, I mean it's it's it's been a work in progress. So I wouldn't I wouldn't suggest to someone who still works in news, you're thinking about this and you quit tomorrow. Like give it some thought and start learning while you're still getting that paycheck.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

But yes, being active, active learning, uh, active thinking, not just, you know, daydreaming. You actually have to put it into action because we can sit and think about things forever and never take any action on it.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Yeah, and it's and it's hard. I mean, I was a I was a local reporter for nearly 20 years, and it they can be very long days, especially in Los Angeles. Like you get in a live truck and you're driving two hours away and you have these live shots at 567, and then you get home and you're like, I don't even want to shower. I'm so exhausted. And so, like, trying to figure out like how do you you, how do you make time for this other thing in there? Uh, it's not easy. But I think if someone, if the passion's there, like you'll you'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Yeah, I agree. So let's talk about some other fun things. You are you did a podcast with Adam Ripman about the Olympics, my new favorite Olympian. That must have been fun.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Yeah, that was that was really fun. It actually started uh that I was just supposed to do one episode. There's uh a snowboarder from Southern California. Her name is B. Kim. Um, this was her first Olympics. She didn't medal, but I was like so excited to like watch her there. She is a vocal advocate for climate change. And she was one of the, you know, one of the featured guests. And so at first it was like, hey, would you would you join for this episode? Because you two are gonna have a lot to talk about. And you know, it just quickly evolved from there of like, well, actually, would you want to do Aldi's? And I said, sure. Uh so Adam Ripon was uh such a pleasure to work with, like, so fun in person. He and I had met briefly during the Tokyo Olympics. Uh so we didn't know each other well, but like we had, you know, we had met before and and had somewhat of a connection. But it was just, it was fun. Like we uh they had a studio in downtown LA and we were there all day, just kind of like riffing and having fun and talking to these athletes and interviewing people from NBC sports. And it was um, it was, it was a really fun experience. Uh, and I've actually gotten just a lot of feedback from friends like, oh, that was so cool. I didn't know this about this person. Um Yeah, because like Winter Olympics are a little bit more foreign. And so helping, helping feeling like you know the athlete makes it more interesting to watch Bobsledding or curling of, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

That's that's true. I feel like every time I went anywhere, it was always curling was on for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

It is so fascinating. And actually, speaking of YouTube, there's a creator, Clio Abram, that NBC actually sent to the Winter Olympics. And she did this like deep dive. It was like a 20 or 30-minute video explaining curling, the physics, how it came to be. It was so fascinating, Jason. Uh, so I would highly recommend you go watch that video. But actually, this kind of connects back to the reason I did this is like in early December, NBC announces that they're sending like 20 or 25 influencers and creators to Milan Cortina for the Olympics. And I don't know what their total number of, you know, internal employees was, but you know, it just seemed to me like, okay, they're starting to lean more on the people that have the following on these platforms. Like even the company is like making no secret of the fact that like that's what they value. Um, you know, so it's it's uh that was also, I think, another important sign for me of like creators, like YouTube creators are getting sent by NBC to go cover the Olympics. Um, you know, so that was that was an important moment.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Wow, that is interesting. You were smart to figure that out and to go, oh wait, what's going on here? But back to curling. I need to want to see because I do not understand the scoring of it at all.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yeah, Cleo, uh, and the last name is Abram. Cleo Abram curling, you should find it. It has tons of views. It is, it's so well done. It is so fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

That's funny. So your other two passions seem to be Cachella and Burning Man.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Oh, uh, I would not I don't need that, I don't know that I need to go back to Burning Man again. I've been five times, and uh I feel like I've had that experience. But I do love music festivals. I mean, especially in California. You're outside. Um, I mean, the two best performances I've seen in my life and may ever see are when Beyonce performed a Coachella, when Lady Gaga performed a Coachella last year. I mean, just it's I mean, you can watch it on TV or on YouTube. But for anyone who was there, they will understand like experiencing Baychella in person is that was a spiritual experience, Jason.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

I would have liked to see that. That would have been good. Are you coming this year?

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Uh no, I'm again, I'm trying to try to do that. Oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I'm trying to not spend austerity going on at your house.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah, you know, just just trying to be mindful about these things. So maybe I'll, you know, things will pick up. We'll, I'll be, I'll be doing great next year. I can go back and enjoy some some fun outside. Um, but yeah, trying to just be frugal at the moment. And and I mean, honestly, one of the things I'm doing is it like some of the extra money. It's like, well, there's an interesting story in Montana that I want to go do in a few weeks. And so using some of that money, it's the adult decision. Um, right. It's like, I'm gonna use some of this money to fly to Montana to do this story because I think this is really important and impactful. Um yeah. And I, you know, I also I feel like there's a little bit of a journalistic conflict of interest. If like, if I'm going to do a story about what this company's doing, but they pay for me to go, then does that like, you know, that that just feels a little bit like um I yeah. So so I'm trying to devote some of my money to actually like traveling to do cool stories in other places.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

That's smart. That is smart if you're focused on your business now and you're growing your business. And you I um it sounds like you're really are thinking about it as a business, not just a opportunity to create content.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Yeah, I mean, it's uh I I have to. And that's also part of the big learning curve. Um actually, one of my former colleagues from NBC LX, uh, Bianca Grolo, she left several years ago and started her YouTube channel, and she I think now has like a quarter million subscribers, and she's hiring people to work for her. Like she's still doing the stories, but like I don't know exactly who she's hiring, but she, you know, maybe has a producer, she has a shooter, she has an editor. And so she's getting to do these like really cool, rich, in-depth stories, and she's getting to do them on her terms. And it's become so successful that she's now employing other people. And I would also imagine, like, you know, if someone's been a news photographer for a long time and um, not to pick on LA, but they're tired of covering, you know, crime and car chases and fires. And they're like, oh, here's this journalist that used to be at NBC and they want a videographer to go do these cool stories. Like, what news photographer wouldn't want to do that? So, like, I think there's also a way to be able to like, can I help create dream jobs for other people? And I know this sounds like pie in the sky, but it's also like very real that I'm watching my former colleagues do this thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

That's amazing. That's great. I'm I'm so excited to see what's next and what becomes of uh we're gonna are we calling it Chase What Matters?

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Yeah, I mean, well, the the the easiest way to find my YouTube is just my name, Chase Kane, C-A-I-N. So it's YouTube at Chase Kane. And then in the coming weeks and months, you'll start to see um start to see Chase What Matters as a more um, I guess, forward part of the brand. So very, very observant of you. Bonus points for you for actually noticing uh noticing that, because I hadn't actually said it. So I guess we're break, we're breaking the news here on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

I love it. All right, Chase. It's so good to catch up with you. It's been a long time, it's been too long. If you guys are ever down this way, let me know. I'd love to catch up in person, but thanks so much for the time.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Of course, I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Jason.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

So he was right about one thing. On uh March 20th, it was indeed 108 degrees in Palm Springs, the hottest temperature ever recorded in March in California. However, in Yuma, Arizona, it was 112. I'm very interested to see Chase's success over the next year and if he's able to make this work. So if you're planning to do something or you've done something like this, let me know. I'd love to hear from you. All right, until next time. Thanks so much.