Official CushVlog Transcription Project for Matt's Second Book
Hello everyone!
Chris here. I’m excited to announce that we are going to be working on a new book! This one is going to be a compilation of essays based on Matt Christman’s CushVlogs. We’re currently in the process of putting together a sample chapter and pitching the project to various agents and publishers, but we’re also going to be asking you all for help.
In brief, we need a team of volunteers to help us transcribe/catalogue/organize Matt’s vlogs so an editor can turn them into a book. If that sounds like something you would want to be a part of, feel free to fill out this Google Form. However, please keep a few things in mind: (1) this project will be controlled top-down by myself and our assistant, (2) transcription can be tedious work, and (3) while we will give any volunteers some type of compensation—at least a free book (custom-signed by Matt?) and credits within the book itself—we can’t promise anything incredible. Maybe something more when we determine how this project will progress. If this is a dealbreaker, that’s totally fine!
We will figure out how many volunteers we have and divide the vlogs accordingly. Your job will be not only to generate accurate transcriptions, but also, most importantly, to tag the transcriptions by topic & timestamp to create a manageable text database to generate a manuscript from. This is why we’re asking for human volunteers rather than just relying on automated services to do this. As you can see by the guide document, we’ve already put together a workflow we feel comfortable and confident with, so please refrain from submitting suggestions on process.
If you’re still down to get involved, fill out the Google Form. If you have any more questions, check out this guide document or shoot me an email at cush@chapotraphouse.com.
UPDATE: Already more than enough people interested, submission form is now closed! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted, you'll be hearing from us soon. Looking forward to putting this all together.
Comments (130)
I have some old notes with timecodes for various quotes if that helps. I sent them to Matt a long time ago on Twitter when he first mentioned writing a book, so he may still have them, but I can send again if it helps you filter thru episodes.
If you use AI to do your transcriptions for you please proof read it after folks thank you. We love proofreading don’t we folks.
Can't believe I'll get to read the first draft of the Orange Catholic Bible
294
Did anyone get the first book yet? Not sure if it was sent out yet.
Real Amanda Palmer "hey do unpaid labor for me but leftistly" moment
This is worthwhile labor to do I think, good for the soul of the participant
Sad to have missed the application window! Would still be keen to help if there is an opportunity so do let us know. Cheers
Damn, looks like no more applications are accepted. Good luck to everyone involved. I'm extremely excited about this project and I'm looking forward to buying the book. Love you, Matt.
“Do my job for me for free”
It's volunteer work, not like you are being forced
Goddamn it. You actually have a busy life for two days and you miss out... Not at all surprised about the volunteer volume though. Lots of folks get it :D A big fat lol to those folks to those bitching about the compensation end of this. Lots of folks don't get it.
It would be neat to get some ibids and footnotes from Matt now, if there were anything he might be able to add in hindsight.
Please let me work for free!
Lmfao asking for free labour
A labor of love.
Please make sure to include the chat messages Matt directly responds to in the book, as he responded to one of mine in one of the few streams I was able to catch live
You don’t need to do this manually, it can be done with AI programs now
Half the volunteers will probably do this, because they have the expertise as transcriptionists to turn walls of text the AI churns out into formatted and useful rough draft documents
Check out whisper.cpp on github, it's crazy fast for transcribing especially on Mac Silicon
What a crazy ask- free labor for socialist bros that make like 200k a month. Pathetic
What? First of all socialism is not about paying everyone for every labor action performed, its distributing good in humane rational way. Socialism would be a society that you COULD help another without need for payment because you've are already taken care of. Free labor would be much more common in a socialist society. Also have you ever thought maybe they are letting us transcribe so we can feel that we're a part of something? Why do I get the feeling your from RedScare or whatever woo reactionary podcast you sub to?
If there's anything else I can do, these vlogs kept me going during the pandemic
They were something special. Matt predicted alot of stuff.
Dang, missed it
By the way. The two or three of you who Reply All'ed the project acceptance email with an unfunny meme/dick joke are lower than dirt
There should also be an accompanying playlist of all the songs he mumble sings to at the beginning of each stream
Damn that closed fast. I don't suppose there's a waitlist? Glad you got such a positive response though!
I came across a website where someone had already transcribed most of them, might want to reach out to that person. Also I still haven't received No Pasaran but I assume they're still being shipped out?
I just received mine today. Think the last batch of signed copies were a bit slow.
Open the google forms
Dont have time to transcribe but highly recommend doing it to the House Delegate video "Cushvlog President's vlog" or something like that. Lot of great christman rants in there, esp about Andrew Johnson and Lincoln
Sooooo stoked this is happening.
I’m doing my part
Chris/Mr. Chapo: I would be willing to contribute art. A run of Matt flavored gulf war style trading cards but updated for our shitty times would be sick
If this happened I would pay for a printed pack.
This sounds like an exciting project, but you've got to pay people for this. Editing a book, transcribing, that is an actual job and you should pay people for their work
have done some audiobook work and subtitling in the past, it is incredibly onerous, mindless and unrewarding
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/tools/how-to-guides/how-to-determine-individual-volunteer-employee
I think it’s awesome so many people love this program and Matt enough to do this, but I also think it’s pretty tone deaf for Chapo to call upon its fans in this way. Of course we’re willing to do anything for our guys, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is like a real job with real work that someone should get paid to do. If the reason is that they “haven’t figured the project out” yet, then I feel like they need to take a beat and do that before taking applications and providing a pretty well-thought out SOP for the task. Regardless of intentions, they need to realize that in the end, they’re going to have a lot of people who make a lot less money than them doing very tedious labor for the “opportunity to contribute.” I’ve loved these guys for years and years and think they’re probably genuinely good people, but this post seriously bummed me out.
I really get that man. I feel the same way, and I think a lot of other people here, even those who feel a little miffed by this, do too. I think that level of gratitude and enthusiastic fandom is also why our Chapos feel okay or even excited about opening this up to the community, and maybe misread the reality of what they’re asking for, and what position they are in versus the position of those they’re requesting this from are in. Obviously I (and all of us, I hope) love Matt and would do basically whatever we’re capable of for his benefit, but when you look at their resources vs. what they’re asking for here, it just feels like they’re overreaching, and maybe taking their fanbase for granted. From what we can see, Chapo has immense resources compared to the vast majority of us and is asking us to do something fairly laborious and banking on our desire to “be involved” to contribute what appears to be pretty dry, tedious work that they could easily pay people in need of work to do. I respect their decision to generally stay closed off about their finances, and trust and hope that they do good things with the money, but at the end of the day, I’m looking at a figure that comes down to over $2 million a year, and just can’t reconcile that with this work getting done for free by people who surely have much, much smaller incomes. I hope it comes across that I’m not approaching this at all in bad faith or looking to be a hater, and really believe this is just a real lack of perspective and maybe a bit of inconsideration on their part.
just use Virgil’s monthly payments to fund the transcripts
I still haven’t got my book :(
i'm so sad i missed applying for this too, i regularly go back and listen thru
I am so sad I missed applying for this
Hell yea brother
I’ve been thinking for years that this would be a good idea.
By the time I found about this it was already closed sadly. I’ll just say that the vlog titled Fibonacci Sniper is one of his best imo, out of this whole library it’s the one that stands out the most
Seconded. Also, the Voteball Origins episodes.
Your reserve troops are ready to serve 🫡
Anyone know if the first book is still shipping?
Just got a shipping notice for mine a few days ago. No book yet but hopefully soon.
Ahh man sorry I missed the opportunity
Chris if you need me to prove my chops I can write 500 words on when Matt fell out of that chair.
I laughed way, way, way too hard at that moment. Physical comedy is still king.
If you need a dumb guy to do some dumb guy stuff I'd be glad to help.
I got around to signing up just a bit after the form was taken down :( but am glad to know that there's so many people passionate enough to take this on. Let us know if you need any more volunteers
Still kicking myself for not buying No Pasaran. Please do a reprint 🙏
Matt putting out more new content than the Tupac estate
Replied to someone below but posting here for visibility and clarity: I've had dozens of requests from people over the years to do exactly this and I wanted it done quickly by people who know & are passionate about the material. I'll almost certainly work out some kind of profit share for volunteers if this makes it to sale, just no idea what the form or timeline of that will be right now. More than enough people are interested, will figure out something reasonable with our final team. Thanks to everyone for who submitted!
If I get selected I’d like my profit share to go to Matt, plz and thx.
Progressive Pod Seeks Unpaid Interns. Inquire Within.
You guys make a lot of money to not at least compensate people somewhat fairly for what’s going to be hours of tedious labor
Life isn’t always about money
*Takes long pull from joint* *Chugs polar* *Takes gingerly sip from White Claw* *Turns over hotdog on Weber grill* Dont be an asshole or dont be a pussy. Those are the two camps
Hey, I work at an Archive and transcribe oral histories almost daily. I came here first thing this morning after listening to the pod and all spots are already filled up. I’ve been listening to chapo since 2017 and was an avid listener of the vlogs from day one. I am very motivated to help, so please feel free to reach out should you require assistance and seek any more volunteers.
Just filled out a volunteer form. Really excited for this.
Would love to lend a hand if the form reopens.
YES! I've been hoping for this for years! I guess I missed the chance to volunteer...
Aww I missed the chance! I’ve done a ton of transcribing interviews so would love to lend a hand
Getting ready to have to spell ‘insouciance’ properly
01/20/2021 to 10/7/2023 (mm/dd/yyyy) feels like a total black hole in my political memory, this will be a great historical project in that sense. As with other causes, I’ll support monetarily.
Been dreaming about this book.
At your service, Mr. Chapo.
i'm foaming at the mouth and retarded for this
LETS GOOOOOO
Would be cool if we could get the first book. I feel like I bought an NFT
Dog shoot them an email I think everyone has gotten their book
2 million dollars in revenue per year and you can’t pay someone for such tedious work?
Guessing you're 12 if you're unable to understand how that after taxes divided by 7 people at least doesn't make them teeming with wealth.
I remember asking Matt how to avoid becoming blackpilled. He responded, but if anyone comes across it please @ me, if you don't mind.
The future is up for grabs
Amazing. This is something I imagined myself doing in some fever dream episodes where I imagined I wasn't a lazy feckless slug who had the autist tendency to get obsessed enough about something to do this sort of thing. The cushvlogs are a repository of some amazing thought processes that had a huge influence (on me dropping the fuck out of the grad program I was enrolled in at the time lol)
If a million guys could do this for Cum Town on the YouTube comments section, I'm sure it can be done again.
bad lieutenant port of call new orleans 💯‼️
We’re not gonna love this…. But this is a perfect job for AI
No. It's not. We use an AI transcriber at the archive where I work and we still have to go through and manually correct and edit the transcripts. AI is fine for the first draft but blows for every other step.
Let's go
Cushvlogs are actually my favorite Chapo universe content. Looking forward to this.
I volunteer as tribute. Let's fucking goooo
i miss Matt so much that i have rewatched cushvlog so many times now. Great idea
Same.
I thought many times that this should be done, and I've transcribed passages from cushvlogs before just for personal use. There's an incredible amount of wisdom in those videos. Count me the hell in.
Brilliant idea/
What is the timeline for when this would start? I know you're still peddling the project, but as a teacher getting crushed in the middle of the year, I know I'll have time over the summer.
This is pretty fucking sick and I'm super glad it's happening. I only saw a small fraction of the Cushvlogs but heard so much dope shit when I did, Matt is truly an intellectual giant. The way he puts huge ideas together while being thoughtful but also talking shit is one of my favorite things. I'm curious who is going to take the episode where his chair broke (I was laughing my ass off; I caught that live)
thank you in advance to the volunteers ❤️
Awesome idea. Matt’s Cushvlogs helped inspire me to get more involved in socialist politics
This so cool.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ This sounds SICK and I am already wishing I had some time for a side project to fuck with this with you all lol, maybe so but regardless I am sure that the community around these vlogs knows the material VERY well and will find the best stuff
I won't use AI
Please call it CushBook
Chris, you know about this, right? https://www.cushbomb.com/ZINES/TBOB.pdf
Great idea, and a tyfys to the beautiful and/or handsome volunteers
I can automate like 85-90% of this with my speech diarization software, including the topic analysis/time stamps. I reached out, I can get you most of the way there. Theres also companies whose software is even better than mine and will get it done for a fee 100% accurate for not all that much.
Like they're going to trust some gayguy
Lmfao “volunteer”? Is this a Something Awful forum project?
the cushvlogs won't be nearly as enjoyable if you can't see/hear matt sweating profusely and tripping on acid
*sips la croix while humming 1970s soft rock*
I'll be waiting by my mailbox.
Looking forward to this, Chris.
very pleased to hear about this, i’ve always thought this would be a fun idea
Would be a pleasure to help out
I immediately offered to automate the process without reading your message all the way. I was just excited to use AI for something useful for once. But if that's not the way you want to do it then so be it. If you wanted to automate you'd still want to have people rewatch and read the transcription. There would still need to be a human element. But if that's not the way you want to do it then forget I said anything.
I mean it can be 100% accurate exactly as a human good with good techniques (not using llms/chat gpt) speech diarization is for accessibility not for AI nerds, but sure, get your followers to do free labor for you instead of spending $500-1k, which people would also just do for free.
I would do anything for my big moist boi
I love this idea. I always found his vlog to be deeply inspirational and driven by the kind of electricity that I aspire to in my most ecstatic moment.
“Volunteer”? You guys make millions, why the fuck can’t you pay for labor?
Chris confirmed in that Vanity Fair article they're still paying Virgil a small share. Have him do it
I humbly volunteer myself as a cleric in the Christman Scriptorium
Excited for this! Any word on when the courier is picking up more copies of no pasarán? I’m still waiting on mine.
Damn bruh I thought you was me for a second
You make two million a year you can afford to pay people.
You are literally 19 years old
A lot of the extant YouTube compilations would be a great resource for topic organization if you didn’t already have ideas. Acid Marxist and Forbidden Fruit are the best clippers that aren’t on the Cumtown beat
Hell yeah!
This should be a good starting point for anyone interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/cushvlog/s/UP9YXrUSsZ
Those streams are dearly missed, so excited to read this
Can we get a hell yeah Chris going in the chat?
Hell yeah Chris