Life in ancient times / Desperate Oasis / Theatrical releases you can stream
Recomendo - issue #516
Life in ancient times
Most sources of AI-generated content do not warrant a second visit. The only AI-generated content I have been returning to are two YouTube channels that use AI to reconstruct history. The first one, Majestic Studios, recreates daily life in now legendary ancient cities as seen through time. I learned a lot, for instance, by following the development of Paris from 259 BC till the present. This same creator (a British bloke, Jonathan Laramime) created a synthetic character named Chloe, styled as an influencer in LA, who pretends to be a time-travelling tourist. Chloe is very believable. She wanders the streets in ancient times taking selfies and being wowed by the cultural norms. Chloe’s valley girl reactions to the ancient world is accessible and entertaining, but also historically accurate, which has made the channel Chloe VS History a viral hit. Recreating history is the perfect job for AI, and I expect these channels to be the first of many, as other history buffs create their own improved versions. — KK
Beautifully designed two-player card game
I bought the Desperate Oasis card game solely because the retro design is gorgeous — vintage orange-and-cream illustrations of camels, scorpions, jackals, and chameleons that look like they were pulled from a 1920s matchbook art. The fact that it’s actually fun to play is a bonus. Two players battle for control of five desert oases by playing animal cards on either side, using palm trees to boost values, and triggering special powers (the Deathstalker Scorpion destroys the weakest card; three Jackals create a bonus space). A round takes about 15 minutes, and a full game is three rounds. — MF
Theatrical releases you can stream
Every weekend I set out to figure out what’s in theaters that I can also watch from home. But between all the streaming services and web directories, I end up spending more time searching than watching. JustWatch.com used to solve this for me, but lately it feels complicated and sometimes inaccurate. It’s a made-up problem that doesn’t really matter but is genuinely annoying. My current fix is this IMDB list of theatrical releases you can stream or rent, and it seems to actually stay updated. — CD
Cheap living in China
Chinamaxxing is fashionable right now. One guy moved his family from America to China and gives an account of how much it costs to live in the middle class in China. His video report, “I Left the US for Shenzhen, China – Here’s How Much it Costs” ignores all the political aspects of living in China and merely focuses on the economic. Right now very few westerners will want to make the political tradeoffs to move to China, but this report will reveal a bit about how middle class Chinese are actually living, and gives a more realistic portrait of China today. — KK
Oddly satisfying tree stump removal videos
Uproot Excavator is a YouTube channel devoted entirely to one thing: tree stumps being yanked out of the ground by heavy equipment. The arm of an excavator, fitted with a pincer-like attachment, clamps onto a stump, rips it out along with a massive clump of roots that must weigh several hundred pounds, shakes the dirt loose, and sets the whole thing aside next to a fresh crater in the earth. That’s it. Hundreds of short videos, all basically the same removal over and over. I find it weirdly hypnotic and deeply satisfying to watch. — MF
Ten-minute skills for the rest of your life
This Reddit thread asks what a person can learn in 10 minutes that will be useful for life, and the top-voted answer is using your hand span, thumb to pinky, as a built-in measuring tool. Mine is 7 inches, which I will now never forget. The other favorites in the thread are worth sharing for your relationships and your nervous system: "Never explain yourself to people committed to misunderstanding you." Before responding in an argument, scan your body and take a slow nasal breath to notice fight or flight before you speak. Then speak calmly. "'No, I can't' is a full sentence. You don't owe anyone a 10-minute TED Talk about why." — CD
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Re: "Chloe" as somehow being "realistic" in what she's showing you from history
https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2026/05/23/aichloe/
there's a whole list of factual inaccuracies in just a quick-&-dirty blog post to tell you that they're not even close on the historical accuracy
You can only imagine what they'd come up with if they actually went digging.
Actually, both "Chloe" and the "host" of Majestic Studios are AI creations of a man named Jonathan Laram, as exposed in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYeiNMi52Pk. I just watched "Chloe's" trip to Rome in 44 BC and found it highly implausible, to say the least. Among other things, it was far too sanitary: the streets, shops, etc. are very clean and tidy-looking, whereas the real Rome was actually a pretty filthy place to live in. Trash and debris and filth (both animal and human) were ubiquitous. The baths, despite their reputation as a place to get clean, were often breeding grounds for disease, since some of the pools in them didn't even have drains, as documented in one of Mary Beard's many videos about ancient Rome. Moreover, the scattered aerial views of the entire city depict many buildings what had not yet been built in 44 BC, the stated year of "Chloe's" visit.
At best, I think videos like this could be categorized as historical fiction; certainly they do not have documentary accuracy. In fact, as the video linked above shows, the creator (Jonathan Laram, who apparently has little background in actual historical studies) admits that he uses Claude.ai to create his basic script which he then fine-tunes a little bit to suit his purposes. Then he turns it over to AI video creation tools. So it's AI all the way down. It's AI slop, albeit high-quality AI slop.
If you're serious about learning about ancient times and places, there is a wealth of good documentaries out there which are grounded in research done by actual historians. By the way, if you're looking for documentaries specifically about ancient Rome, you can't do better than watching some of the aforementioned Mary Beard's videos.
Please seek out her videos and similar videos by actual historians instead of relying on AI fakery!