š® Ask and you shall... receive a lesson plan
When you give a nerd some free time, see what they build
š¤ Rapid Round Up
š©³ We tried out making some short form videos and we learned a lot from making little things.
š» Sabrina got spooky when she wrote and directed her first piece of fiction for season 2 of the You Feeling This podcast. Her episode drops in a few weeks but you can find the first episodes of the season right here (or wherever you find podcasts).
šļø Tom Scott has us back on lateral and we got so far off track that Tom might be regretting the show premise. Listen here.
š Sabrina was a lab rat for Letās Learn Everythingās Maximum Fun Drive game show special. You can listen to a preview here.
š® We started practicing our 2025 theme and itās yielding some interesting results. It also means that we donāt have any new exclusives but you can check out the old ones with the password: CURRY
āØ Bonus content by Melissa
The Recipe
As you probably know, the curry video was a year long endeavour ā largely because we were trying to figure out what the story was supposed to beā¦ while we were making it.
One thing we did while trying to hammer out the details was this edit: a blend of Melissa interviewing her grandma, and Sabrina interviewing Melissa about interviewing her grandma.
Yes it was very meta, but it helped us understand what we were trying to say a little more clearly. Hope you enjoy this little peek behind our process!
š Office Memo by Sabrina
What Fills a Space to Play?
You may have noticed that we havenāt uploaded a long-form YouTube video in a minute (specifically 50 days). We are still working on videos (Sabrinaās dropping a now one in about 2 weeks) but weāve stopped prioritizing trying to get a video out every 2-3 weeks.
It was a (
bad?)bold decision that some very respectable business people may disagree with, but if we want to follow our 2025 theme of āspace to playā, then we first need space.The first thing weāve learned since making this choice is that the breathing room has a noticeable effect on our video production. We found ourselves diving deeper into rabbit holes and tangents which is something we lost about 2 years ago when this became our full time jobs.
The second thing is that we realized we donāt need to spend every minute working on videos (which is a very strange freedom after 4 straight years of Content Creationā¢).
We arenāt 100% certain how weāll be spending the time but thatās part of the fun. We might take a class to sharpen up our skills, or start a podcast because Tahaās been talking about it forever, or make a website (oops wait Iām actually doing that one).
While we figure ourselves out, we just wanted to express how grateful we are to you. By subscribing to this newsletter and watching our videos, youāre making it possible for us to do what we do. So, thank you.
āļø Audience Participation
Submit your Handwriting!
Melissa is on a quest to write like a 19th-century princess for her next video. Want your handwriting featured? Follow these steps and submit below!
š Write Answer in Progress on a white background.
šø Take a well-lit photo or scan of your writing.
š¤ Upload your image using the form below.Handwritten is best, but if you must go digital, we wonāt judge (much).
š§ Mixtape
I miss a time Iāve never known
For when you crave a past you never actually lived, candlelit evenings, suspiciously cheap rent, a world without push notifications. Here is a folk-ish soundtrack Sabrina curated for daydreaming about simpler days, even if they only exist in your imagination.
š Patreon Unlocked
Can we ruin Sabrinaās website?
Sabrina has spent the last few weeks building GatoSearch.com, a website to help people engage with their curiosity. You just ask a question and the website generates a lesson plan to help you find an answer. It also stores those lesson plans for future references and builds a curiosity graph to help you visualize what youāre most interested in.
Sabrina is still refining the site and adding feature, but weāre opening the beta up to Patreon supporters! Yes, that means for as little as $5/month, you can access our Patreon-exclusive podcast, after shows, and Gato!
Speaking of the Patreon-exclusive podcast, in this unlocked episode, the trio work as a team to try to break Sabrinaās website. Give it a listen to learn more about how the website works and whether we can trick it into doing a minor hate crime.
This is some fine print that most people would ignore, but if youāre reading it, you probably arenāt like most people. We need that curiosity to help make Gato a better website so the first five people to click this link can claim a free 1 month membership to our Patreon. This offer can only be claimed with a valid Patreon account that does not have an active paid membership to Answer in Progress.
š¦ Creator Spotlight
Xyla Foxlin
Xyla Foxlin might be the cooolest person on the internet. She combines engineering, storytelling, and explosions to create everything from bulletproof ballgowns to a mobius strip violin.
But Xyla is also a pilot who is revealing the strange and archaic system that binds the FAA and stops pilots (especially female pilots) from seeking necessary health care. It is a kind of scary watch in the context of all the plane news this year, but knowledge is a helpful precursor to change.
āļø Up Next
šØ Sabrina tackles the AI art debate and itās just as existential as you might expect
š Thank You
Thank you for subscribing and following our chaotic little journey - see ya next month!
from ur neighbourhood nerds,
Sabrina, Melissa, and Taha <3