How Today I Found Out Makes Its Videos (and How Much It Earns)
Today I Found Out is one of the longer-running history-and-trivia explainer channels on YouTube, with 5M+ subscribers and a publishing cadence of 3–5 videos per week since 2013. The format is straightforward: stock-footage compilation with voiceover explaining the origins of common things — phrases, products, historical events, scientific phenomena. Here's how the production works.
Last updated: · Estimates based on Social Blade and 2026 niche RPM averages
How Today I Found Out makes its videos
The format is consistent across the entire decade-plus catalog: 8–15 minute videos, voiceover narration over stock footage and archival images, single-topic deep-dives ("Why we say 'OK'", "The origin of the necktie", "How we measure time"). Topics are pulled from search demand and reader-submitted questions, then researched and scripted by the team.
Production is professional but not high-production-value. The visual layer is functional — stock footage that loosely matches the script, archival photos for historical content, occasional simple text overlays. The script and voice carry the content. Per-video production time is reportedly 8–15 hours of team work, parallelized to ship multiple videos per week.
The production workflow
Today I Found Out is operated by Daven Hiskey (founder) and a small team of writers and editors. The channel is part of a broader content brand including a website (todayifoundout.com) and a related podcast — content is often cross-purposed across formats. Tools are conventional: Adobe Premiere, stock-footage subscriptions, broadcast voiceover recording. The voice talent is consistent across the catalog, contributing to brand recognition.
How much Today I Found Out makes (estimated)
With 5M subscribers and 12–20 uploads per month averaging 400K views, monthly views land around 8–18 million. The history/educational niche RPM range is $4–$10. At a midpoint $6 RPM and 12M average monthly views, monthly ad revenue lands around $30K–$70K.
The brand also earns from the website (advertising and affiliate), the podcast (sponsorships), occasional book deals, and YouTube sponsorships. Total annual revenue across all properties plausibly reaches $700K–$2M before team costs. After paying the team and operations, take-home for the operators is significantly less.
Why this format works
History and origins content has remarkably stable demand. People consistently search for "why we say X" and "how did Y start" — these queries don't expire and don't have seasonality. Today I Found Out has built up thousands of videos covering this query space, which means strong long-tail traffic from search even on videos published years ago.
The 'voiceover over stock footage' format is also algorithmically-friendly. It produces consistent watch sessions of 8–15 minutes that suit YouTube's mid-roll ad model, doesn't require specialized production skills, and scales to multiple videos per week without burning out the team.
How to build a history channel like Today I Found Out in 2026
The broad-history-explainer space is competitive but not saturated for tight sub-niches. New creators can win by covering specific eras (Roman empire only, Industrial Revolution only), specific topic types (origin of common phrases only, history of specific industries only), or specific geographic focuses. Within tight sub-niches, a solo creator can compete on depth.
The AI-first solo workflow: use Leaxor to generate scene illustrations from your script, replacing stock-footage hunting. Voiceover can be your own or an ElevenLabs voice. Total per-video time drops to 2–4 hours, sustainable at 3–5 videos per week solo in a focused sub-niche.
Common mistakes when copying Today I Found Out's format
The first mistake is choosing topics from competitor catalogs rather than search-demand data. Today I Found Out has covered most common-curiosity topics; copying their topic list produces direct-comparison videos that lose to their existing back catalog. Find topic gaps in your sub-niche where they haven't published.
The second mistake is treating depth as optional. The channel works because the research is solid; viewers detect when historical content is shallow or wrong, and back-catalog videos with corrections in the comments hurt the channel's authority. Spend research time before scripting; don't rely on Wikipedia summaries for historical claims.
Today I Found Out — FAQ
Who runs Today I Found Out?+
Today I Found Out was founded by Daven Hiskey in 2010 as a website covering origins, history, and science explainers. The YouTube channel launched in 2013 and has grown into one of the longer-running explainer channels in the niche, now with 5M+ subscribers. The team includes Daven as creative lead, several writers covering research and scripting, voice talent, and editing staff. The brand operates across multiple platforms — the original website continues publishing articles, a podcast covers similar topics in audio format, and the YouTube channel publishes 3–5 videos per week. The cross-format approach (website + podcast + YouTube) is unusual for explainer channels and gives the brand multiple revenue streams beyond YouTube ad revenue alone.
How much does Today I Found Out earn?+
Today I Found Out's YouTube channel earns an estimated $30,000–$70,000 per month in ad revenue, based on 8–18 million monthly views and the history/educational niche RPM range of $4–$10. The broader brand (website, podcast, YouTube combined) plausibly earns $700K–$2M annually across all platforms before team costs. The website generates revenue from display advertising and affiliate links; the podcast generates sponsorship revenue; the YouTube channel generates ad revenue and occasional sponsorships. After paying the team (writers, voice talent, editing staff) and operational expenses, take-home for the operators is significantly less than gross. These figures are estimates based on public proxies including Social Blade view data and industry RPM benchmarks; actual revenue across the brand is not publicly disclosed.
What software is used by Today I Found Out?+
Today I Found Out uses standard professional video editing software based on visible production qualities — Adobe Premiere Pro for editing and final assembly, stock footage from major commercial libraries (Storyblocks, Pond5, Adobe Stock) for the visual layer, broadcast-grade audio recording equipment for voiceover, and basic title/text overlay graphics produced in Premiere or Photoshop. There are no specialized animation or motion graphics tools because the format doesn't require them. Research is conducted through traditional source material — books, academic papers, archival news content — with cross-referencing to ensure accuracy. Solo creators replicating the format can use the same Adobe stack at consumer pricing, or skip stock footage entirely by using AI video generation tools like Leaxor for scene illustrations from script.
How does Today I Found Out research videos?+
Today I Found Out's research process is more rigorous than many explainer channels because the brand depends on factual accuracy. The team uses primary sources where available (academic papers, historical archives, government records), reputable secondary sources for context, and cross-references claims across multiple sources before scripting. Daven Hiskey has discussed the research approach in occasional interviews, emphasizing that getting facts wrong damages channel authority faster than other failures. Research time per video is approximately 2–4 hours of dedicated research before scripting begins, totaling 8–15 hours of team work including scripting, recording, and editing. Solo creators copying the format should plan for similar research investment per video — shortcuts on research produce content that fails to differentiate from lower-quality competitors.
Can I make a Today I Found Out-style channel with AI?+
Yes. The format suits AI video tools well — stock footage replacement is the easiest production step to compress with AI, and the voiceover layer can use ElevenLabs voices that match the calm-explainer tone. Tools like Leaxor can generate scene-by-scene illustrations from a script in 5–10 minutes, replacing the 4–6 hours of stock-footage hunting per video. The non-replaceable element is research depth — Today I Found Out's authority comes from accurate historical and scientific claims, which AI cannot reliably verify. Solo creators using AI for production should still invest the 2–4 hours per video in primary-source research that the established channel uses. The format works because the script is correct; AI accelerates production without changing the research requirement.
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