Despite all the uncertainty & stress affecting our newsroom and many like it, I'm so proud of what the @nowthisnews social video team is doing daily.

April 2020 = 300M+ 60 second views (not 3 sec, *60 sec*) on FB, ~100M on Twitter, & our best month ever for YouTube AND IG, too.

In addition to staying up on all the national headlines and trending stories—serious & silly alike—our audience expects of us, there’s so many other rabbit holes and threads the team has been chasing in this recent era as well.

Here are just a few I loved watching them work on:

. @amandajchoy & @lanijessica_ profiled a number of Asian-American chefs who have converted their NYC restaurants into community kitchens to serve frontline health workers, all at a time when racism against the AAPI community is unfortunately sky-high. https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1263475383048929280

When most of the world was early in lockdown and searching for answers, @scoutmaceachron was on a (figurative) mission to Mars to get some: https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1246861999377510401

In honor of Arab American Heritage Month, @SuzanneGaber tracked the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways Arab culture has influenced mainstream pop music.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1257102138125230083

Whether it’s America’s over-incarcerated prisons, or Indigenous tribes like the Navajo Nation, @maddieptacin has been repeatedly exploring how COVID-19 impacts our least visible populations.

. @kavish___ on how one Brooklyn nightclub scene maintains its sense of community from a virtual distance. https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1244867772976214021

Domestic violence cases can skyrocket when whole neighborhoods and cities are sent into lockdown. Here’s how a simple hand gesture can potentially save someone’s life, via @jackienpadilla.

4/20/20 probably wasn’t what many cannabis enthusiasts had hoped for, but NowThis’ professor emeritus of bud @PHLstoner brought a dank dose of perspective nonetheless:

. @lanijessica_ was helping to connect the dots between COVID-19 & America’s racial & geographic disparities well before it became conventional wisdom.

Absolutely adored the perspective @emesfahanismith brought to her interview with our very own @ScoutMacEachron, about how a sense of ‘tragic optimism’ can power you through tough times, even a global pandemic.

I was as lost as anyone when oil hit below minus-$30 in April. Luckily I had @mmadden90’s interview with ‘Boomtown’ podcast host Christian Wallace to break it all down for me.

May is #MentalHealthMonth . If you have questions on your mind but don’t know where to get the answers, @amandajchoy’s wide-ranging shoot with actor & content creator @AnnaAkana is the perfect place to start.

. @kavish___ went deep on the relationship between coronavirus and our climate crisis, and how the experiences of the present give us the potential roadmap for the future.

This thread could go all day...so I’ll wrap it up with some boobs. Specifically, @jackienpadilla’s profile on how one strip club in Portland had to get creative to stay afloat & do right by its dancers.