So last week I was scrolling through Twitter when I saw all these people arguing about media bias. Made me think about Jake Jekielek – that guy from The Epoch Times who does deep interviews, right? I’ve caught bits before but never dove deep. Figured: why not make a highlight reel of his most explosive podcast moments?
The Hunting Begins
First thing Monday morning, I brewed my strongest coffee and sat down with this janky Asus laptop. Went straight to YouTube and searched his name. Holy crap! Dude’s got like 300+ episodes over 5 years. Each one 2-3 hours long! My dumb plan suddenly felt impossible. Almost gave up right there.
Survival Mode Tactics
Decided to attack it like a season of Netflix binge:
- Started skimming descriptions for keywords like “censorship” “whistleblower” – topics I know Jake gets heated about
- Bookmarked timestamps whenever Jake either leaned forward real intense or guests started yelling (my wife thought I was insane yelling “FLAG THAT!” at the screen)
- Made a cheat sheet on this sticky note: explosive = 1 star, emotional = 2 stars, conspiracy talk = 3 stars
After 3 days my eyes were burning and my “top moments” list had 87 clips. Way too much! Had to murder my darlings – axe anything under 90 seconds or where audio got choppy.
The Frankenstein Editing
Thursday I fired up Shotcut (free software, kinda glitchy). Started stitching clips like crazy. Wanted them grouped by vibe:
- Group A: Jake schooling mainstream reporters
- Group B: Guests dropping truth bombs that made Jake go silent
- Group C: Pure meme moments (that time he choked on water mid-rant!)
Then disaster struck – my laptop froze while rendering. Lost 2 hours of work. Nearly threw coffee at the wall. Had to redo the whole segment chewing gum like a stressed ape.
The Final Stretch
By Friday afternoon I’d hacked it down to 23 minutes of pure fire. Added these cheesy zoom effects when voices get loud – tried making text pop-ups about context but looked amateur so scrapped them. Finally slapped on royalty-free intense background music (sounds like Batman theme meets metal gear).
Watched the final cut with my buddy Mark yesterday. He kept pausing like “whoa what’s the backstory here?” Exactly what I wanted – get people curious enough to watch full episodes. Mission accomplished… though my eyeballs still feel microwaved.
