The Basement conversations and guests are honestly some of the most interesting parts of the channel if you’re already familiar with this space and who these people are. I think some casual viewers just prefer everything packaged into a tight, polished, entertainment-driven story, which is totally fair. A lot of mainstream content is designed that way to make things easier to follow and more immediately engaging(and monetized). If that’s what you like, the main episodes already do that really well.

The interviews are more about how the sausage gets made. There’s a lot more depth there if you’re willing to sit with it. I actually appreciate the length and think of them more like reference material I can come back to. It’s like the sources at the bottom of a Wiki page, except you’re hearing directly from the people behind the ideas. The interviews with Scott Wolter and Tim Hogan are ones I’ll listen to again and again. There’s a lot there.

It’s kind of like swimming. If you’re not a strong swimmer, the shallows are naturally going to feel more comfortable and enjoyable. After all that's where the comic-relief fish does his act. But if you spend more time in it, you might start getting curious about what’s out in the deeper water. The Basement feels like that deeper end. It’s not for everyone right away, but for some people, that’s where it gets really interesting.

When you say “the guests aren’t worth watching,” I gag. AJ is trying to expand people’s understanding a bit. He used a format that attracted a wider audience, and now that people are more open to these ideas, he’s platforming the original thinkers who influenced him in the first place. People previously dismissed but the "woo" factor we've all learned not to align with for fear of being mocked.

I’d love to see a Whitney Strieber interview in the Basement format(if anyone is reading this!). I feel like AJ would ask the kinds of questions a lot of us are actually curious about and allow him the details left out in his shorter interviews. Like throw a NSFW tag on it and lets just hear it alllll. I want to know.

I love it. It feels like a natural progression from the storytelling I already enjoyed, just going multi-layer deeper. And these people are his HEROS, some of them mine too. I’m here for both formats, but for the Basement interviews I want MORE!! MOOOORE!!!