https://vanneistat.com/videos/fixing-the-zip-line-without-permission/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/-4zC8phWZ30/maxresdefault.jpg Fixing the Zip-Line Without Permission The zip-line at the playground has been broken for three years. Van rolls up with torx bits, two socket sets, and fake printed emails forged in the Werner Herzog tradition of document forgery to confuse any bureaucrats who might interfere. The plan: dismantle the track, replace the bearings and skateboard wheels, reassemble everything before anyone notices. The unpredictable variable is Jerry, the caretaker who lives in the house overlooking the playground and runs a tight ship.Van compares Jerry to Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird, the irrational fear to which we fail to give the benefit of the doubt. Jerry turns out to be an ally, not an obstacle. He sees them wrenching on the equipment and assumes, correctly, they are dads fixing things for the kids. The community built this playground. The community fixes it. Seven minutes, and the zip-line runs smooth as an unmuddied lake. https://www.youtube.com/embed/-4zC8phWZ30 437 2021-08-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Torx screws socket set skateboard wheel bearings Werner Herzog https://vanneistat.com/videos/all-of-the-gear-in-my-87-land-cruiser/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/03BlPJj_4ME/maxresdefault.jpg All of the Gear in my '87 Land Cruiser Every piece of gear stored in our 1987 Land Cruiser. On the title it's Isabel's truck; she bought it, Van dumped a fortune into it. Toyota calls it a station wagon. The Cummins R2.8 turbo diesel gets 25 miles per gallon but it is LOUD: ear protection and walkie-talkies for driver and passenger. Gentleman's tool kit, tape, scribes, pep pills, Isabel's lotion, Isabel's lotion, Isabel's lotion. Soy sauce for the boys' road sushi, stored in an old Isabel's lotion bottle. The gear list reveals priorities: repair tools outnumber comfort items. https://www.youtube.com/embed/03BlPJj_4ME 333 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser (1987) Cummins R2.8 turbo diesel e-bike charger chainsaw air compressor https://vanneistat.com/videos/moving-to-new-york-city/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/0RQpyV_Ppts/maxresdefault.jpg Moving to New York City Forty-nine seconds on moving to New York City. Van lived there for 20 years, arrived in his twenties. His position: every American should live in New York for one year, like the draft. Move there if you have a mission. Without a mission, the city eats you alive. With one, it makes a man out of you. No romance, no complaint, just the facts of arrival. https://www.youtube.com/embed/0RQpyV_Ppts 49 2023-07-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short moving york city https://vanneistat.com/videos/new-camera-ritual/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/1AfDEn05TSA/maxresdefault.jpg New Camera Ritual Two new cameras in one week, and setting them up reveals a ritual Van didn't know he had. Lanyard on the camera. Name it after a film camera: the GoPro 8 is the Arriflex, the GoPro 10 is the Panavision, the GoPro 11 is the Bolex. Build a custom foot so it can stand up on its own. The first foot he ever made was for the Canon TX1, which he still calls the most beautiful pocket camera. Rituals of initiation for tools sound precious until you realize they're calibration. The ritual teaches you the camera before the camera teaches you anything. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1AfDEn05TSA 59 2024-08-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro 11 GoPro 8 GoPro 10 Olympus Leica Canon TX1 iPhone Arriflex Panavision Bolex https://vanneistat.com/videos/risking-an-18-year-friendship/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/1YxsTIfxhk0/maxresdefault.jpg Risking an 18-Year Friendship Each year a spirited woman sends Van a birthday message from wherever she is in the world. Cairo, Berlin, Beirut. This year's greeting has arrived, but Van is particularly nervous to read it. Not because he's fearful for her safety. The transcript is almost entirely redacted: this is one of the most private videos on the channel, the relationship between the message and the nervousness left for the viewer to fill in. An 18-year friendship held in the balance of a single annual ritual. Eight minutes, and the video's restraint is its argument: some things are too important to explain. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1YxsTIfxhk0 501 2021-06-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form risking 18-year friendship https://vanneistat.com/videos/making-your-own-filmmaking-gear-vs-buying-it/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/1eBKJVRQmrc/maxresdefault.jpg Making Your Own Filmmaking Gear vs. Buying It A Steadicam Van built. Dated, obsolete, don't bother, buy a store-bought one for $99 with servos and auto-stabilizers. A camera from 2008 he still uses to simulate VHS footage. A foot he chiseled and Dremeled so an LCD screen would stay open. A charging station that evolved from a desk. The video is a catalog of homemade filmmaking gear: each item an argument about when to build and when to buy. The Steadicam was too hard, not worth it. The camera foot was hard but worth it because no one sells the exact thing he needed. The charging station solved a problem that didn't have a commercial solution. The underlying principle: build when the commercial version doesn't exist or doesn't fit your specific workflow. Buy when someone else has already solved the engineering. Van's workshop is the boundary between those two decisions. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1eBKJVRQmrc 458 2021-06-18T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Steadicam (homemade) Canon TX1 Dremel Belkin surge suppressor Canon 1DX Canon T2i Insta 360 GoPro black seamless paper https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-february-28/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/2Er7wyyw83s/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28 A February 2022 live session, among the channel's first. Van takes viewer questions and workshops the livestream format in real time. Everything is new. https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Er7wyyw83s 3900 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Eide Pro SS Sur-Ron Moleskin notebooks Pentel correction ink BMW motorcycle Ford F350 7.3L Toyota Land Cruiser Photoshop Joe Rogan Chris Williamson Theo Von Tim Dillon Rick Rubin Trent Reznor David Lynch George Lucas Casey Neistat Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/solving-my-bike-rack-problem/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/2VCKUHQBWaw/maxresdefault.jpg Solving My Bike Rack Problem Sixty seconds. The VanMoof fits on the Land Cruiser rack but it is too big for Isabel. The Super 73 is Isabel-sized but too heavy for the rack. Weeks of obsessing. The solution: an Amazon bike rack that miraculously fits the Tacoma bed, a step bit to bore out wider slots for fat wheels, a wider brace plate fashioned from the extras, and an 18-pound aluminum ramp. The Super 73 goes up the ramp into the rack. Can she load it herself? She can. Problem solved. https://www.youtube.com/embed/2VCKUHQBWaw 60 2024-09-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man VanMoof Super 73 Toyota Land Cruiser Toyota Tacoma Amazon bike rack step bit https://vanneistat.com/videos/a-few-of-my-favorite-builds/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/2p4aS5m-R1I/maxresdefault.jpg A Few of My Favorite Builds A camera stabilizer from 2009 for a Canon SD 870 that never really worked right. Now it's just a sculpture, a beautiful failure. A tool wall inspired by a book Van saw in Tom Sachs's studio about a famous tool rack some master craftsman had built for himself. Rudimentary but built just right, albeit not perfectly. The Destroyer lamp: 8-lb sledge base, added switches, heat lamps, wobbles but doesn't fall down. Van's invention, but you can make one if you like. Each build is a micro-argument for making things by hand. https://www.youtube.com/embed/2p4aS5m-R1I 77 2025-01-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon SD 870 Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-january-16-2026-9am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3-cwCAktStY/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, January 16, 2026 9am PST A January 2026 Friday session. Van takes viewer questions and previews new-year plans for the channel. Fresh start energy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3-cwCAktStY 6001 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs NASA Leatherman Pentel pencil Craftsman socket set (15-piece) vice grips Ryobi drill press Toyota Land Cruiser Klein tool pouches Makita hedge trimmers Stanley Fat Max tape measure Tajima G-Lock tape measure Snap-On Deco Art extra fine 7mm paint pen Harbor Freight wood burner ($10) Old Man Emu shocks Cummins David Lynch Tom Sachs Casey Neistat John Ferguson Vincent Gallo Quentin Tarantino James Pumphrey Adam Corolla Josh Safdie Benny Safdie https://vanneistat.com/videos/forbidden-workshop-practices-part-1/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/30pVhb706I4/maxresdefault.jpg Forbidden Workshop Practices, Part 1 Part 1 of a workshop-practices series that turns safety-culture orthodoxy sideways. "Forbidden" isn't click-bait. It's Van's framing for the workshop techniques that experienced makers use daily but never demonstrate publicly because liability culture has made honest instruction impossible. The video is under two minutes, which is exactly long enough to demonstrate a single forbidden practice and let the audience decide whether orthodoxy or experience is the better teacher.The format (short, direct, no disclaimers) is itself a forbidden practice in the YouTube workshop space, where every power-tool video comes wrapped in liability language. Van skips the warning and shows the work. The implicit argument: if you're old enough to own the tool, you're old enough to decide how to use it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/30pVhb706I4 106 2025-03-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Phillips head screws flathead screws angle grinder sledgehammer https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-may-17-2024-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/39acgeh3bak/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024 9am PDT A May 2024 Friday morning session. Van answers questions and talks through current projects with the Patreon community. The format by this point is settled and comfortable. https://www.youtube.com/embed/39acgeh3bak 4819 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon AE-1 Toyota Land Cruiser Audi A6 Icon 4x4 TLC Cummins diesel Husqvarna 400/500/700 Super Moto BMW motorcycle (GS 1350/R1300 GS Adventure) Marathon watch Leica Q Leica M Pentel pencil Nizo Super 8 camera iPhone 1 Samsung Apple stock Spencer Niosi Tom Sachs Jonathan Ward Joe Rogan Charles Eames Ray Eames Dieter Rams George Lucas Colin and Samir Scott Galloway https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-52722-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3KKSL7yWQ9o/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM Friday, 5.27.22 9am PDT A late May 2022 Friday session. Van takes questions from the Patreon community and talks shop. The livestream format is still new and finding its legs. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3KKSL7yWQ9o 4106 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Porsche Lars von Trier Bjork Jorgen Leth Matthew B. Crawford Sean Avery Braxton Haugen Joe Rogan Yaniv Schulman Casey Neistat Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/robbed-at-gunpoint-in-mexico/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3OqXdO-FpOE/maxresdefault.jpg ROBBED AT GUNPOINT IN MEXICO The full story of the robbery from the Mexico vacation: the one referenced in the non-miserable vacations video. Highway 51, a silver Mazda CX-30 pulls alongside the Land Cruiser, the passenger pointing at the wheels. Van looks down into the Mazda and sees guns. The video opens with a thesis: for some of us danger is fun, and many fun things are dangerous. Snowboarding is slightly dangerous, motorcycles are very dangerous, Mexican roads are a little dangerous. Then the driving footage: how you pass on a Mexican highway, the speed bumps, the breakdown lanes. Then the robbery. Van pushed back when they asked him to get out of the car. That was a line he wasn't willing to cross. Two hours later, safe at breakfast in Ixtapa, he looked like he'd aged five years. The cheerful footage afterward is shock, not recovery. The video holds the contradiction: the more experiences you have with danger, the more you learn to mitigate it, and the more you learn the limits of your control. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3OqXdO-FpOE 614 2023-04-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Mazda CX-30 Toyota Land Cruiser Charles Eames https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-pursuit-of-perfection/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3XiMfYtRfkg/maxresdefault.jpg The Pursuit of Perfection Van came up with it on a run: perfectionism is a form of cowardice. Then he revised it. Disruptive perfectionism is a form of cowardice. And arrogance. Who are you to decide what is perfect? That's up to us, the viewer. His overriding rule: get it done. Finish the project by Thursday so he can upload. Cut corners, develop workarounds, accumulate enough workarounds and you develop a style. If you are lucky, you develop originality. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3XiMfYtRfkg 894 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Craftsman tool chest Douglas fir white oak Tom Sachs Vince Lombardi Aristotle Wes Anderson https://vanneistat.com/videos/10-forbidden-practices-in-the-workshop/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3bAZQ9nWybM/maxresdefault.jpg 10 Forbidden Practices in the Workshop Ten rules for the workshop, delivered as commandments with consequences. No bare feet: Van's son refuses to follow this rule, so Van warns him and then lets him get hurt. When making straight razor cuts, never use a straight edge as a guide. Freehand along a drawn line, because the edge always shifts. No fixing garbage, meaning manufactured garbage that wasn't built to last. The list is the channel's repair philosophy codified into prohibitions. Each forbidden practice exists because Van violated it himself at some point and paid the price. The real story here is not the list. The workshop is a moral space: not because the rules are arbitrary, but because breaking them wastes material, wastes time, or injures someone. The video treats craft discipline with the seriousness of safety regulations, because in a workshop they are the same thing. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3bAZQ9nWybM 544 2022-09-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Headcount.org Ikea Phillips head screws flathead screws Torx head screws vice grips angle grinder https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-spirited-woman/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3gaxw4HBE7o/maxresdefault.jpg The Spirited Woman The Spirited Woman: a friend, not a lover. An old friend from far away. A sailor, twice around the world. Proximity to this particular spirited woman gives Van insights, reflection, perspective. He will carry this perspective all through Mexico in this year of no winter. He will be an adventurer in a land of strangers. 42 seconds that expand the channel's thesis beyond its predominantly male audience. The spirited person isn't defined by gender but by orientation toward life. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3gaxw4HBE7o 42 2024-07-10T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short woman https://vanneistat.com/videos/peer-discussion-grey-gersten/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/3s7OxaQWhTM/maxresdefault.jpg PEER DISCUSSION: GREY GERSTEN A Patreon-exclusive peer discussion with Grey Gersten. The peer discussion format inverts the typical creator-audience dynamic, giving a patron's perspective and experience equal weight with Van's own. The series treats the audience as collaborators. That is not a metaphor. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3s7OxaQWhTM 3288 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro Grey Gersten Mike Rowe Miles Davis Nina Simone Bill Withers https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistat-fixes-your-stuff-now/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/476uQn0xbeQ/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat fixes YOUR stuff now. Van is changing the focus of the channel from fixing his world to fixing yours. He made an appeal on Patreon: send me your broken things. Not the transmission of your Camaro. Something fixable in a day or two, within 20 miles of Woodland Hills.The first job: Casey wants antlers mounted on a wall to hold a sword. Van's strategy is to let the antlers lie naturally and build a small rest to hold the sword laterally. He drills into heirloom antlers, which is like drilling into steel, and it kind of stinks. The indulgence: a foam washer behind the mount where no one will ever see it except Van and Casey. Tung oil to bring out the end grain. Seven minutes on the proposition that fixing someone else's broken thing is better therapy than fixing your own. I believe that. https://www.youtube.com/embed/476uQn0xbeQ 423 2025-11-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Killspencer CW Morgan Bag Phillips screwdriver plumber's epoxy Casey https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-spent-3-weeks-and-59947-fixing-a-dumb-playground-toy/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/4EMF6MYTJkY/maxresdefault.jpg I Spent 3 Weeks and $599.47 Fixing a Dumb Playground Toy Ten broken rollers on a playground toy. Should be no problem. Get a 1.75-inch dowel, cut it to length, drill a 9/16 hole, paint, install. Wrong. Home Depot only sells dowels too small and too big. The axle hole must be square and centered or the roller pinches little kid fingers. Van had to buy a drill press (he said he would never buy a drill press) and a miter saw (he did not want to buy a miter saw) and build a jig and a fence to keep the dowels from falling off the table.The Home Depot trip is always two hours and two visits. Always four hours. The process: miter-cut four-inch lengths of two-inch dowel, mill them down to 1.75 inches with a hole saw, bore a 9/16 hole for the axle, cut to final length using the custom jig. Sand, paint, seal, times eleven. Three weeks, $599.47 in tools and materials for a dumb playground toy. The problem is not too much time or too much money. Maybe the problem is too much fun. Maybe there is no problem at all. https://www.youtube.com/embed/4EMF6MYTJkY 488 2024-12-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp drill press miter saw hole saw https://vanneistat.com/videos/on-the-road-repairs/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/4h8PtNEwn74/maxresdefault.jpg On the Road Repairs Two kits in the Land Cruiser. One for fixing the car, one for non-car repairs on the road. The center console looks like a junk drawer, but each item is thought out. Disposable gloves for the engine compartment. A lighter, because lighter plus glue stick equals hot glue gun. A cord that can hold 150 pounds. A Swiss Army knife Classic from 2008, mint condition, scissors virgin.Easy Pass. Velcro, the gold standard. Magnets. A white-out pen for writing on anything. Rubber bands. Two red pens because pen borrowers steal pens. Extra pencil leads. Thread with a stripe of hot glue so it doesn't unravel. A terrible first-aid kit that needs Band-Aids. Binder clips. Phone charger. A roll of Duck Brand Crystal Clear tape, the fundamental repair material. https://www.youtube.com/embed/4h8PtNEwn74 110 2025-01-10T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser Pentel pencil (7mm) Swiss Army Knife Classic (2008) Swiss Champ Leatherman Duck Brand Crystal Clear tape gaff tape Easy Pass https://vanneistat.com/videos/miserable-in-new-york-city/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/4nWIor_j8OU/maxresdefault.jpg Miserable In New York City The spirited man finds himself in a multi-million dollar Park Avenue apartment, having neither asked for it nor earned it. To hell with this town. In 12 hours the snow will be yellow, then brown, then gray, then gone. Three minutes. Van maps the arc from one dream to the space between dreams: not lost, but disoriented. His intuition speaks in cardinal directions. The quiet voice gives one-word answers, one at a time. Follow the word and the next word will come. The video is Van at his most compressed and most literary, a prose poem about the moment when one chapter of New York ends and the next life hasn't yet announced itself. The new dream whispers. https://www.youtube.com/embed/4nWIor_j8OU 186 2021-04-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form miserable york city https://vanneistat.com/videos/no-sound-livestream-friday-may-17-2024-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/4p_p25I76rc/maxresdefault.jpg (NO SOUND) LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024 9am PDT (NO SOUND) LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024 9am PDT — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/4p_p25I76rc 525 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form sound livestream friday 2024 https://vanneistat.com/videos/fear-vs-confidence/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/58oAizZs0RI/maxresdefault.jpg Fear vs. Confidence Confidence is the belief that you can accomplish the task at hand. Fear is a feeling that begins in the body, usually in the stomach, and migrates to infest the head. Confidence begins in the head and eventually inoculates the body from fear. And desire is the bridge between the two. 32 seconds. You don't eliminate fear to achieve confidence; the action itself is what confidence actually is. https://www.youtube.com/embed/58oAizZs0RI 32 2024-08-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short fear confidence https://vanneistat.com/videos/love-letter-to-plumbers/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/5BgXz2mwpzU/maxresdefault.jpg Love Letter to Plumbers Van has a fundamental problem with plumbing. Why are the pipes still built into the walls, such that the walls must be destroyed to access them? He has destroyed soaked walls accessing burst pipes. Twice. The sprinkler man had to diamond-blade and sledgehammer through six inches of pavers and concrete to reach some plumbing. Van asked him not to build the pipe back into the terrace.He loves plumbers. It's plumbing design he has a beef with. Plumbing can be beautiful. He has seen it. Noam Chomsky said it best: the arrival of indoor plumbing as a technology makes the arrival of the smartphone seem a trifle, that plumbing completely transformed human life on planet Earth. Where is the respect for it? Besides Paris. That is the question. Eight minutes, and the freshly installed sprinkler system, with its direct drip valves punched into the mainline, is the counterargument: simple to install, simple to modify, simple to maintain. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5BgXz2mwpzU 514 2021-09-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man DJI Mavic Air 2 drone sprinkler system Noam Chomsky https://vanneistat.com/videos/playing-catch-to-come-off-the-ledge/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/5F6ghYB5dYA/maxresdefault.jpg Playing Catch to Come off the Ledge A family emergency consumed five production days. BC Slace: the normally invisible lucky rabbit's foot behind the episodes. Suggested they make a video about playing catch. It was handy for two reasons: Van had acquired some unfamiliar cameras he wanted to test (a five-pound professional camera, a drone, a GoPro, an Insta360, an iPhone 12 Pro), and playing catch is fun. They threw a GoPro across the field to simulate the ball's path through the air. Too much spin. It didn't work. The Insta360 with its two hemispherical lenses got the shot instead. Even in your mid-40s, an hour of playing catch relieved the stress of the vanished production days. The Dodgers even won the World Series that year. The video is about the simplest possible therapy: the achievable fraternal goals of the perfect throw and the perfect catch. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5F6ghYB5dYA 258 2021-05-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon 1DX DJI drone GoPro iPhone 12 Pro Insta 360 iMac DV Grey Gersten https://vanneistat.com/videos/learning-to-wheelie-at-49-years-old/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/5O25cbfC4iw/maxresdefault.jpg Learning to WHEELIE at 49 Years Old Learning to wheelie a motorcycle at 49 years old. The distinction Van draws between thinking young and feeling young is the conceptual payload. Thinking young is the delusion that your body still operates by its 25-year-old rules. Feeling young is the willingness to be a beginner again. To accept coaching. To fail repeatedly in front of a camera.The structure follows a two-day learning arc: power wheelie versus balance-point wheelie, the call to the coach, the final exam, the return to the road. Van doesn't pretend the wheelie comes easily or that 49-year-old joints forgive the same way 25-year-old joints do. The video is an argument for physical ambition past its conventional expiration date. The falls and the breakthroughs, documented equally. That takes guts. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5O25cbfC4iw 703 2024-06-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp BMW 650 motorcycle Kevlar Amazon bubble wrap Braxton Haugen Smashing Pumpkins https://vanneistat.com/videos/inner-child-vs-inner-adult/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/5oMVSmeE21U/maxresdefault.jpg Inner-Child vs. Inner-Adult Inner child versus inner adult. Did some work, won an award, bought the bike, delivery baby, bought the rack, installed the rack, picked up the loaner bike. Microtasks by the thousands. Freedom ain't free; the cost is responsibility. It is the inner child who finds the spirit to make the videos that provide the livelihood. It is the inner adult who finds the discipline, the maturity to execute. But you have to grow up before you can keep the inner child. You have to grow up first. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5oMVSmeE21U 241 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Eide Pro SS satellite messenger Tony Robbins https://vanneistat.com/videos/3597-days-of-sobriety/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/5oTDsss4lpQ/maxresdefault.jpg 3,597 days of sobriety Van decided to make an episode about sobriety and then didn't want to. The fewer conclusions he could draw about his 3,597 consecutive substance-free days, the more honest the video became. He called a friend: a woman with more years sober than he has, and she gave him two instructions that became the video's architecture. First: speak only about your own experience. What it was like, what happened, what it's like now. Second: be in service to the newcomer. The structure mirrors the AA speaker share format, which is not an accident. What it was like: chopping through a door to save someone from heroin, a drug-induced motorcycle crash, the oscillation between the happiest he's ever been and a nervous breakdown. What happened: he lost his mind, called a friend, went to meetings. What it's like now: miraculous. He protects his sobriety with all his might because he understands it makes everything else possible. The video doesn't try to teach anyone anything about getting sober. It just shows what one man's sobriety looks like from the inside, which is harder to do and more useful. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5oTDsss4lpQ 423 2021-05-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Steve Jobs https://vanneistat.com/videos/bullet-20-gratitude-resentment/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/5yd8sGUVxI8/maxresdefault.jpg Bullet 20: Gratitude & Resentment Bullet 20: Gratitude and Resentment. A Patreon-exclusive numbered entry in Van's "Bullet" series. The tension between gratitude for what you have and resentment for what you lack. The numbered format is a serialized practice: short philosophical reflections, one at a time. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5yd8sGUVxI8 581 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Nike Craft Lego Rocket Factory Tom Sachs Sarah Hoover Aquavella Galleries https://vanneistat.com/videos/you-are-not-an-artist/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/6EMAOqRd4OA/maxresdefault.jpg You are NOT an artist The title is a provocation designed to offend, and the twelve minutes that follow are designed to earn the offense. Van's argument isn't that art doesn't exist or that creative people are frauds. It's that the label "artist" has become a defense mechanism, a way of claiming specialness without doing the work that would make the label unnecessary. You don't need to call yourself an artist if the work speaks for itself. Ok. Fine.The target audience is precisely the people who will be most upset by the title: aspiring creators who have invested their identity in the label rather than the practice. Van is drawing a line between identity and craft, between what you call yourself and what you actually produce. If the title makes you angry, the anger itself is the data point worth examining. That's the turn. https://www.youtube.com/embed/6EMAOqRd4OA 721 2026-01-19T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Fisher Space Pen Zebra JK Refill G Series Gel (0.7mm) John Baldessari Leo Tolstoy Tom Sachs Charles Eames Bobby Neuwirth Bob Dylan Jules Bastien-Lepage https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-most-cinematic-film-ever-made-about-screws/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/6FnjvDYzg6Y/maxresdefault.jpg THE MOST CINEMATIC FILM EVER MADE ABOUT SCREWS The most cinematic film ever made about screws. That is the claim. Van's cinematographic treatment of fastener hardware comes surprisingly close to earning it. A micro-film that treats the humble screw like a leading man. https://www.youtube.com/embed/6FnjvDYzg6Y 75 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-struggle-of-success/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/6P87trqm1VU/maxresdefault.jpg The Struggle of Success Success is 1% inspiration, 49% perspiration, and 50% luck. Van visits hat maker Nick Fouquet in Venice Beach and uses the encounter to dismantle the myth of overnight success. Fouquet's story: the years of invisible struggle that preceded his visible success. Van calls it "the process graph," a visual framework showing that the relationship between effort and recognition is nonlinear, back-loaded, and designed to break people who mistake early difficulty for evidence they are on the wrong path.The deeper argument is about luck's relationship to persistence. Van does not deny that luck matters. He reframes it as a variable that only activates after a threshold of work has been crossed. Luck plays more of a part in our success than we do, by 1%. But for some players, luck itself is an art. https://www.youtube.com/embed/6P87trqm1VU 559 2023-04-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Nick Fouquet Billy Gibbons Bob Dylan Charles Eames https://vanneistat.com/videos/land-cruiser-ride-along-cummins-r28-h55f-transmission/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/6PI_Y_S1lQ8/maxresdefault.jpg Land Cruiser Ride-Along, Cummins R2.8 & H55F Transmission A ride-along in the 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser with detailed discussion of the Cummins R2.8 diesel engine swap and H55F transmission. The engine is about a year old. They get 25 miles per gallon but it is loud. Deep technical content for the vehicle enthusiast segment of the audience, bridging Van's workshop philosophy with the mechanical specifics that keep a decades-old truck on the road every day. https://www.youtube.com/embed/6PI_Y_S1lQ8 340 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Cummins R2.8 Toyota Land Cruiser 80 series Toyota Tacoma Home Depot floor mats Murphy gauge GoPro GPS speedometer Dynamat https://vanneistat.com/videos/2009-maritime-hotel-video-proposal-video-no-music/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/6mu4XP1jOy0/maxresdefault.jpg 2009 MARITIME HOTEL VIDEO-PROPOSAL VIDEO (no music) The 2009 Maritime Hotel video proposal. A pitch document showing how Van sold a project to potential collaborators. The proposal format reveals professional infrastructure behind independent filmmaking. Pre-production as its own art form. https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mu4XP1jOy0 496 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Sony Phantom camera Canon camera (400 ISO) Eric Goode Stanley Kubrick https://vanneistat.com/videos/small-fast-perfect/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/7CS-RTneCgU/maxresdefault.jpg Small, Fast, Perfect Van's favorite computer runs on AA batteries, powers on instantly, and does exactly one thing: look up words. The Franklin Language Master, a gift from someone who loved him in 1988, gets raced head-to-head against a physical dictionary. The Language Master wins 7.2 seconds to 21.4, and the margin isn't close.The word he looks up is 'avuncular.' Suggestive of an uncle, especially in kindliness. The choice isn't random. Van uses the definition to describe himself: giving nieces candy and nephews weapons. The 12-step language slipped in ('a power greater than the dictionary can restore us to sanity') is characteristic of how Van threads personal recovery through throwaway lines. A clip from the flagship episode. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7CS-RTneCgU 129 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Franklin Language Master Wordly Wise Dictionary (physical) https://vanneistat.com/videos/love-letter-to-manual-typewriters/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/7Dodu68M6a4/maxresdefault.jpg Love Letter to Manual Typewriters A love letter to manual typewriters. It reminds Van of a firearm in some ways. Kind of sounds like a .22 being fired maybe a mile away. If you're angry, there's a violence in the keys. The competitor is the computer: layers of distractions, apps, windows, news, popup text messages that can throw the idea right out of your head. The typewriter has one less sophisticated set of resources in the chain. You just sit down and bang on it. One minute. No backspace. Every keystroke committed. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Dodu68M6a4 60 2024-09-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man manual typewriter https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-pencil/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/7UTYeebC-Sg/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Pencil Ten years of searching, experimenting, and testing to arrive at a Pentel mechanical pencil, a tool you can buy almost anywhere for a few dollars. Then the modifications start. Van grips it so hard that he wraps it in a silicone grip. He makes more mistakes than the factory eraser can keep up with, so he engineers a replacement eraser mount out of plumber's epoxy. That one took two years. Every change is earned by use. The silicone grip answers a specific problem: he throttles the pencil. The plumber's epoxy mount is sanded by hand so the replacement eraser fits just so. And then the detail that turns a tool into a record. He dates it. "Can't have a pencil floating around without a date on it." The stock pencil costs almost nothing. The modified one is irreplaceable, because it encodes a decade of practice you cannot buy off a shelf. This is craft epistemology in 36 seconds. Knowledge that only arrives through sustained use of a single instrument. Van treats a disposable object as a permanent relationship, the same move he makes with the tools he refuses to let migrate between nests. The pencil is the channel in miniature: the cheap thing, used long enough and modified precisely enough, becomes the thing you can't work without. What Van Uses: a Pentel mechanical pencil chosen for wide availability, lead that doesn't snap, and a good color. A silicone grip added because he holds it too tightly. A custom eraser mount built from plumber's epoxy and sanded to fit. More of his everyday tools live on the things Van loves. Related: The Tool Van Neistat Can't Live Without, Van Neistat's Essential Tools, Love Letter to Manual Typewriters FAQ What pencil does Van Neistat use?A Pentel mechanical pencil. He chose it after ten years of testing because it's widely available, the lead doesn't break easily, and it comes in a color he likes. He then modified it with a silicone grip and a rebuilt eraser. Why does Van put a silicone grip on his pencil?Because he grips it very tightly while drawing and writing. The silicone sleeve ma https://www.youtube.com/embed/7UTYeebC-Sg 36 2024-05-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Pentel pencil silicone grip plumber's epoxy https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-debt-we-owe-our-parents-we-pay-unto-our-children/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/7o0PRGGOTVg/maxresdefault.jpg The Debt We Owe Our Parents We Pay Unto Our Children A ninety-seven-second meditation on intergenerational debt: what your parents gave you can never be repaid to them directly, only paid forward to your children. The title states the thesis completely, and the video exists to give it weight rather than elaboration. Some ideas don't need ten minutes. They need the right images and the conviction to stop.One of the channel's most shareable pieces: a complete philosophical statement in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. The debt you thought you owed your parents, you actually owe your children. That one line does all the work. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7o0PRGGOTVg 97 2025-05-12T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Hot Wheels Isabelle https://vanneistat.com/videos/build-a-small-shelf-without-power-tools/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/7sBvCsKwDzc/maxresdefault.jpg Build a SMALL SHELF without power tools. This style shelf you can build without power tools, and it is good practice for the bigger shelves. The ability to build custom shelves is the cornerstone of an organized life. Tools needed: tape measure, pencil, combo square, 100-grit sandpaper, number-two Phillips screwdriver, good sharp scissors, and a level. Supplies: 2.5-by-quarter-inch pine molding, two-inch corner braces, number-six by one-inch drywall screws (coarse thread, important detail), and Scotch VHB tape.Van walks through every step with the precision of someone who knows exactly where beginners go wrong. Line your combo square up to your mark. Cut top-down, all the way through the board. Sand the corners so nobody gets splinters, but don't go crazy. Drive the drywall screw into the exact center of your circle, like a ninja. Not too much pressure, not too tight. Do not strip the drywall. Light medium torque. Seven minutes, and the shelf is up. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7sBvCsKwDzc 476 2023-11-13T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Aura (digital security) combo square Phillips screwdriver #2 Scotch VHB tape (3M) drywall screws #6x1" pine molding corner braces https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-darius/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/83XclCG6MpE/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: DARIUS Americans in Berlin 2003: Darius. Part of the documentary series Van filmed starting September 11, 2003, profiling Americans living in Berlin. Van was 28, working on Tom Sachs's installation at the Deutsche Guggenheim. The series captures a pre-social-media era of international creative migration, when Berlin rents were cheap and the city was still figuring out what it would become. https://www.youtube.com/embed/83XclCG6MpE 2706 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man iMac DV Sony TRV 8 Tom Sachs Darius James Bobby Seale Jean-Paul Sartre Noam Chomsky Abbie Hoffman Jerry Rubin Johnny Depp https://vanneistat.com/videos/a-trick-to-repairing-the-truck-paint/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/851gNLjODMk/maxresdefault.jpg A Trick to Repairing the Truck Paint A text from Van's stepmom contained the solution to a problem he had been trying to solve. The scratch on the truck is a crater that paint alone cannot fill: a bike dragged on the road, forcing a brake lever deep into the hatchback. The trick: mix super glue with baking soda. Hardens instantly. Rock hard. He could use Bondo, but he ain't got no Bondo.Two minutes and thirty-three seconds. Sand, paint, done. Good enough. That is the whole repair philosophy in four words. https://www.youtube.com/embed/851gNLjODMk 153 2021-04-13T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Loctite super glue Arm & Hammer baking soda Bondo Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-value-of-mentorship/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/87PtZqA1j1Q/maxresdefault.jpg The Value of Mentorship Van's Simpsons is Tom Sachs. He looks around his world and the echo is constant. Sachs already did it. The Swiss Army knife engraving Van thought he originated in 2010? Sachs had it on a museum piece dated 1999. The episode is about apprenticeship as formation. Van got the job because Joe Torksen at Scholastic Publishing kept saying "you should work for my friend Tom Sachs," and one day brought Sachs to the cafeteria. The studio visit that followed was life-changing: the first time Van saw contemporary art and understood why it was art. Not beautiful in a museum-historical way, but art about his people, made by his people. The crossroads: stay at Scholastic as a corporate guy, or quit and build sets for an artist. The Sachs studio was like the military. Eliminate your identity, serve the mission. But this mission had creativity in it. The big thing Sachs taught him: the ability and significance of earning a living from your talent. https://www.youtube.com/embed/87PtZqA1j1Q 1051 2022-05-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Swiss Champ Swiss Army knife Tom Sachs Trey Parker Matt Stone Joe Torksen John Ferguson Rachel Williams Sean McPherson Eric Goode John McEnroe Le Corbusier https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-was-done-with-la/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/8kPkMk5vA7s/maxresdefault.jpg I Was DONE With L.A. A reckoning with Los Angeles that most transplants perform privately, if they perform it at all. Van lays out the case for leaving: the friction, the cost, the particular exhaustion of a city that demands constant reinvention. When the 2025 fires hit and leadership let it burn, the case closed itself. Then something more interesting than following through. The title's past tense ("I Was Done") signals that the story has already turned, and what remains is the archaeology of why he stayed.What keeps this from being another "I almost left LA" video is the specificity of what pulled him back. Not the weather, not the industry, but Topanga Canyon: a pocket of resistance within the city where the analog life Van advocates actually has room to breathe. The video opens with a repair. A great-grandmother's sewing stool, pulled from the ash and rubble of the fires, its wood charred but recoverable. A screw extractor bit snaps off in hardened steel. The bit broke. That's the turn. The tension between being done with LA and being unable to leave it is the tension that defines the channel itself. https://www.youtube.com/embed/8kPkMk5vA7s 557 2025-12-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Zocdoc Dremel vice grips screw extractor bit linseed oil Toyota Land Cruiser Sasha Dr. Rich https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-camera-rituals/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/8ohazmE6Qvo/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Camera Rituals Two new cameras arrive and Van realizes he has a ritual. Immediately out of the box: set to 24 frames per second progressive. Add a lanyard. Name them after film cameras: the GoPro 8 is the Arriflex, the GoPro 10 is the Panavision, the new GoPro 11 is the Bolex. The old Olympus became a Leica. The fourth ritual: build a foot so the camera can stand on its own. Van has made custom feet for every camera he owns: the iPhone, the Canon TX1, the Fujiroid (with a quarter-inch tripod insert embedded in VHB tape). The Sony ZV-1 foot needed a GoPro mount cannibalized from a spare Hero 8 for tilt. His car-mounted system required a heavy base, so he smelted fishing weights into a crucible from Revival Cycles, poured the molten lead into a mold made from an old camp stove heat shield. Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable. https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ohazmE6Qvo 402 2022-09-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro 11 GoPro 8 GoPro 10 Olympus Canon TX1 Canon T2i Sony ZV-1 Fujiroid 3M VHB tape GoPro mounts iPhone Casey Neistat Alan (Revival Cycles) https://vanneistat.com/videos/dream-boxes/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/94mEl1HsTW4/maxresdefault.jpg Dream Boxes Dream boxes. Military cases Van has been schlepping across the country for over a decade. Good solid roofs that tolerate neglect and protect their contents no matter how fragile or precious. One box: obsolete cameras, non-camera equipment, reflectors, old tapes, an unopened drone. Filmmaking dreams past, present, and future. One box for tool and hardware transport. One box for the dreams he's living right now. And the ephemera box: dreams already lived, little bits of residue. One day, God willing, he might live in a big enough house to hang a poster for a movie his buddies made. A movie he was in, actually. Alas, dreams end. https://www.youtube.com/embed/94mEl1HsTW4 87 2025-01-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man military cases (Pelican-style) DJI drone (unopened) https://vanneistat.com/videos/apples-worst-product/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9FFzBfJy-Qk/maxresdefault.jpg Apple's Worst Product Not the $4,000 ski goggles. Not the iPad. The Apple Pencil. A $100 finger that requires batteries, configuring, double-tapping, and a four-step eraser workflow that took ChatGPT ninety-eight seconds to decode. Van demonstrates the absurdity live: flip a real pencil over to erase versus navigating Apple's settings labyrinth. The punchline lands because the frustration is universal and the comparison to analog tools is devastating.The thesis in seven words: Apple makes toys, not tools. A clip from the flagship episode. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9FFzBfJy-Qk 141 2026-05-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Apple Pencil Apple iPad Apple Vision Pro ChatGPT Notes app Chris Rock https://vanneistat.com/videos/what-sobriety-feels-like/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9JlWWp4B8X0/maxresdefault.jpg What Sobriety Feels Like Fifty seconds. Either this is the happiest I have ever been in my life, or I am having a nervous breakdown. Chopping through a door to save someone from heroin. Exploring an abandoned insane asylum. Motorcycling through Maine. Van describes sobriety not by arguing for it but by naming what it feels like from the inside. They call this the Big Book, and the title on the cover is nearly illegible so outsiders cannot tell what you are reading. He protects his sobriety with all his might. He understands it makes everything else possible. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9JlWWp4B8X0 50 2024-05-31T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short sobriety feels like https://vanneistat.com/videos/fixing-roadside-junk/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9LBBGeKGkag/maxresdefault.jpg FIXING ROADSIDE JUNK Van's son finds a little wooden banjo in a garbage pile. The main thing broken is the drum skin, which turns out to be goatskin. They ordered one from Amazon for about seven bucks, soaked it in water for an hour, then accidentally left it in a Ziploc bag for a month and a half. It stank.The principle: stretch and clamp the wet skin, and when it dries it contracts and gets tight as a drum. Van thought about the puzzle of clamping for about a month, but the stakes were zero. This was garbage. So they winged it, used stripped twist-tie wire as a belt, popped the drum into the banjo, and clamped it. Dried in the sun. It kind of feels like a miracle that it worked. Whoever owned it before engraved her name: Margie Smith, with the mysterious number 412-4567 USN. Was she deployed overseas? Van wishes she had written the date on it. Now it is the boy's little garbage treasure. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9LBBGeKGkag 259 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Amazon goat skin Thomas Edison Margie Smith (USN) https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-ami-sioux/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9Ry8rS7zqWU/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: AMI SIOUX Americans in Berlin 2003: Ami Sioux. She came to Berlin from Paris, could not afford her apartment, arrived for an exhibition and got stuck. Squatted for six months in an office building with no hot water through the coldest winter of her life. She was on Hester Street in New York on September 11, 2001. The interview was filmed on September 11, 2003. Van was 28 years old, living in Berlin for the Sachs installation at the Deutsche Guggenheim. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Ry8rS7zqWU 1273 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Ami Sioux Tom Sachs Brandon Rivard https://vanneistat.com/videos/when-life-feels-like-its-falling-apart/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9dCX4WfMZlM/maxresdefault.jpg When life feels like it's falling apart A chilly room in a mansion where someone has reached out. It's pumpkin season: the boy's favorite. All year it's been jack-o'-lanterns and pumpkin this. Van is in a beautiful house, a beautiful neighborhood of dead ends and well-groomed trees, and the room is clean and tidy and not his. The video cuts between this present-tense collapse and the last best day of Van's life. Snowboarding in Aspen with his brothers Dean and Casey, all three on the same flight home on January 15, the day an Airbus A320 crashed into the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, and everyone survived. Van started the day snowboarding and ended it on the same model plane. It was the best day of his life. What life feels like when it's falling apart is the distance between that day and this room. It's okay to look at the past, but don't stare. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9dCX4WfMZlM 359 2021-10-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Bruce Springsteen Jimmy Cliff Casey Neistat Dean Neistat https://vanneistat.com/videos/making-my-stuff-mine/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9in8AIHH8dA/maxresdefault.jpg Making My Stuff Mine A ninety-second catalog of annoyances: cords that don't fit, power buttons in the wrong place, nowhere to put the mic, no tripod threads, no lens filter, no selftimer, things that won't stay put. Van attributes the creative impulse to a quote he can't quite source. 'We create because we are annoyed.' The video is the proof. Every frustration is physical, tactile, the kind of problem you can feel in your hands.The promise at the end: to rectify all of it using 'the most powerful technology that man hath wrought.' A teaser clip from the flagship episode. Names the annoyances, withholds the fix. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9in8AIHH8dA 91 2026-05-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leica Q2 (implied) AI (implied) Mammoth (uncertain attribution) https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-film-photography-guide/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/9m61WNj3i24/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Film Photography Guide Van's film photography guide in 38 seconds: shoot, shop, album. Give the best ones away. The frames have to be right: plain wood, 4x6, one and a half inches deep so they can sit freely atop a Steinway concert grand. The guide is practical and philosophical at the same time. Thirty-six exposures per roll forces you to care about every single one. I love this. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9m61WNj3i24 38 2024-11-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Steinway Concert Grand https://vanneistat.com/videos/artistic-success-vs-financial-stability/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/A8Y8L8FGvoo/maxresdefault.jpg Artistic Success vs. Financial Stability Many professional creators start out like other kids in their cohort. Elementary school, high school, maybe college, maybe a big city to find their medium. Then the chasm opens: the gap between creative success and financial success, filled with a red sea of bills, debt, and financial responsibility. Across it lies the green land of financial security and better work. Some choose the advertising industry. Some choose martyrdom. Or academia. Or teaching.And some of us, with the help of others, build a little boat and row across. There are many chasms and red waters. But we do the work and have faith. One minute. No padding. https://www.youtube.com/embed/A8Y8L8FGvoo 60 2023-06-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short artistic success financial stability https://vanneistat.com/videos/roadside-repair-tool-kit/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/AH8ICayJZoE/maxresdefault.jpg Roadside Repair Tool Kit The philosophy: tools that can hopefully unstrand you before AAA arrives and takes the truck to a garage for a week-long repair. Small metric socket set, 3/8, Craftsman. An Olfa. Stainless steel zip ties Van has never really figured out how to use properly. Plastic zip ties with the steel locking tongue. A 6-in-1 screwdriver sent by a viewer. Vice grips, the 7WR, with the little clipper in the jaws.Craftsman wrenches. Urethane bungees he has probably had for a decade, the tool he uses most often. An embroidery thread sewing kit he cannot bring himself to throw away. Deep-well sockets for the turbo plumbing. Silicone tape that doubles as pencil grips and hose sealant. A short, dense inventory of redundancies, each item justified by a specific scenario Van has either faced or imagined. https://www.youtube.com/embed/AH8ICayJZoE 115 2025-04-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Craftsman (sockets and wrenches) Ula stainless steel zip ties Vice-Grips 7WR Toyota (OEM parts) silicone tape https://vanneistat.com/videos/inside-van-neistats-new-handmade-la-studio/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ATcOOBNXTDY/maxresdefault.jpg Inside Van Neistat's New Handmade LA Studio If Van were a rich man, no need for money, he would be a full-time bricoleur. No cameras. The studio is 50.5 by 45 by 98 inches, and it contains nearly every tool he needs. Shallow shelves discourage stacking and allow one-handed operation. He is really big on one-handedness. Charlie, now a designer at Apple, did the tabletop. There are 22 coat hooks total in the studio. You can never have too many.The tour catalogs the space with the specificity of an inventory: the procrastination space, the overhead shooting rig, the Destroyer lamps made from 8-pound sledge bases and 60-watt bulbs diffused with white garbage bags, the Snap-on stickers on the rolling chests to feel rich (he cannot afford Snap-ons), the custom-shortened extension cords made from leftover power-strip cords. A cooling fan he and his son made from salvaged junk found magnet fishing. The recording studio where he takes a nap every day. Believe it or not, this job gets stressful. If he were a wealthy man, he would be a bricoleur. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ATcOOBNXTDY 490 2025-09-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro (C-Mount) Snap-on Epidemic Sound Charlie Chris Schwar https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-dream-of-owning-a-vintage-truck/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ah5iiDGVcG0/maxresdefault.jpg The DREAM of Owning a Vintage Truck The bank accounts are drained and the engine swap is done. Van flies to Bozeman, Montana, met by Scott Myers: his oldest friend, met at five. Seventeen months and a teacher's annual salary to pull off this project. Why not buy a new 4Runner? Something to do with protecting his inner child. Van set up a camera on the dash to capture the exact moment his inner child appeared: the first drive in the new truck, four-wheel drive in the Montana snow. The Sony camera failed. Recorded nothing. It's the second time the camera has betrayed him. But the 35-year-old truck with her new heart transplant has a perfect record: R2.8 turbo diesel, Toyota H55F 5-speed, dual diaphragm brake booster, front and rear differential, electric fans, custom exhaust. Ready for remote and far-away trips. Ready for his woman, his inner child, his outer child, and his child child. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ah5iiDGVcG0 463 2022-12-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser Sony (video camera) Cummins R2.8 turbo diesel Toyota H55F 5-speed transmission Scott James Bond https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-have-a-creative-breakthrough/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/AkG1TcGh8q8/maxresdefault.jpg How to Have a Creative Breakthrough A framework for creative breakthroughs that rejects the myth of inspiration in favor of a structural account. Breakthroughs don't arrive. They're manufactured through the deliberate accumulation of failed attempts, lateral connections, and the willingness to stay in the problem longer than feels comfortable. The creative breakthrough is the last thing that happens, not the first.Van's filmmaking career. From early internet video in 2000 through HBO's The Neistat Brothers to the Tom Sachs collaborations. Provides the evidence base. Each phase produced breakthroughs that were invisible at the time and obvious in retrospect, which is the pattern the video maps for viewers currently stuck in the pre-breakthrough accumulation phase. https://www.youtube.com/embed/AkG1TcGh8q8 442 2021-05-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Musicbed Panasonic Jam Cam David Lynch Josh Safdie https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-vintage-truck/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/B81OthfUeT4/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Vintage Truck Fifty seconds. The bank accounts are drained, the engine swap is done, and Van flies to Bozeman, Montana, for the pickup. An 1,125-mile test drive: Bozeman to Provo, Provo to Topanga. Five degrees in Bozeman, negative seven in West Yellowstone. The old engine redlined and overheated at 45 going over passes. New engine? She does not care. 80 all day. The 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser with her new heart, ready for remote and far-away trips with the family. https://www.youtube.com/embed/B81OthfUeT4 50 2024-06-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/burnout-is-this-the-end/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/B9RSWg9OXj8/maxresdefault.jpg BURNOUT. Is this the end? Brain shuts down at 11 a.m. Used to be 5 p.m., then 3, then 1. Energy vanishes, body follows. Van used to summon the last emergency bits with anger and rage. He can't do that anymore. The routine (developed and refined over three years) is the job. One of the MasterClass writers hammered it home: routine over everything. But the routine itself is exhausted. The fatigue feels fake, cunning, baffling. He suspects it begins in the spirit, not the body. Nietzsche: he who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Van quotes the philosopher who lost his mind while asking whether his own fatigue is laziness, or cowardice disguised as laziness. The fix is white knuckles. Switch the run from 6:20 a.m. to 9 a.m. to keep writing sessions uninterrupted, plan a trip, plan a big break. Slow down but don't stop. This is the part of the marathon where you swallow your pride and walk. https://www.youtube.com/embed/B9RSWg9OXj8 395 2022-07-13T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Friedrich Nietzsche https://vanneistat.com/videos/may-3-2000/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/BIoP1Djzf9o/maxresdefault.jpg May 3, 2000 Van is pretty sure this is his 125th YouTube video. It is not a significant number. He knows what he is making next week but has to wait on a ladder to come in the mail. So: what the hell should he make for a video? The honest biggest conflict in his life, week to week, is figuring that out. Casey estimated Van's YouTube output has eclipsed everything they made together before. Six weeks per HBO episode to produce 13 minutes. The YouTube machine moves faster. That is both the problem and the engine. https://www.youtube.com/embed/BIoP1Djzf9o 1001 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man iMac Dremel Triumph Bicycle Final Cut Pro Casey Neistat Nina Millen Jesse https://vanneistat.com/videos/no-vacation-from-the-camera/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/BMeqbad4UZk/maxresdefault.jpg No Vacation From the Camera The title promises a vacation video; the opening admits to a bait and switch. Van takes his camera to Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts: a New England road trip that becomes a meditation on missing people and the hero's-quest structure that governs how we narrate absence. Patti Smith surfaces as a reference point, and the Fuji Instax instant camera operates as the episode's visual motif: a technology that produces singular, unreproducible images in an age of infinite digital copies.The concept of "the boon" (borrowed from Joseph Campbell's hero's quest) provides the structural key. The hero ventures out and returns with a gift for the community. Van's internal conflict is whether the camera itself prevents the genuine experience that would constitute the boon, or whether the footage is the boon. He doesn't resolve it, and a reference to climbing Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak anchors the question in physical reality: some experiences are too large for the camera to hold, and the honest filmmaker admits it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/BMeqbad4UZk 518 2022-09-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Fujiroid (Fuji Instax) Patti Smith Graham Clinton Keller Casey Neistat https://vanneistat.com/videos/puzzle-thinking-makes-you-clever/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/BS1EM_Jj9Og/maxresdefault.jpg Puzzle-Thinking Makes You CLEVER. It helps to think of projects and problems as puzzles. Puzzles are not mysteries. Chasing mysteries can ruin your life. Puzzles are fun and solvable. Van demonstrates with a beach umbrella holder. The PVC pipe with a screw goes into sand easily, but how do you drive it into the sundried baked-clay dirt at a California soccer game? Three puzzle pieces: a strong stake, a way to hold the stake in the pipe, and a way to keep it from spinning.Van falls asleep thinking about solutions to puzzles and often wakes with the answers, hence the sweatsuit. The second puzzle: getting two tables flush when the floors are not even. The solution involves shims, relocated power strips, a Dremel cut-off wheel (requiring a 12-mile round trip for a single replacement), and turn buttons that let the tables separate without tools. A magnet clips them together. Took all day. He thought it would take half a day. Nine minutes on the proposition that your mind is a puzzle-solving machine, and the addiction to using it is the best kind. https://www.youtube.com/embed/BS1EM_Jj9Og 565 2024-10-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp PVC Dremel AI Mute sound panels Charlie Isabelle https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-tool-van-neistat-cant-live-without/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/BYyXaqd2X8g/maxresdefault.jpg The Tool Van Neistat Can't Live Without The Pentel P209. The pump that brings up the ideas from the well. Family folklore says Van's first word was pencil. He doesn't really believe it. But he nevertheless hopes it's true. Before it's anything, it's lead in a pencil. 41 seconds. The choice of tool reveals the work, and the work reveals the person. https://www.youtube.com/embed/BYyXaqd2X8g 41 2025-06-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Pentel P209 https://vanneistat.com/videos/my-every-day-carry-the-swiss-champ/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/BtTAu7A62Wc/maxresdefault.jpg My Every Day Carry: THE SWISS CHAMP The Victorinox Swiss Champ: not the Swiss Champion, which doesn't have pliers. Without the Swiss Champ Van is useless. He once packed only a Swiss Champ on a Europe trip. He's used every tool in it at one time or another: the scissors most often (sauce packets, string, cord), the saw yesterday for kindling, the file that cuts steel and aluminum. He replaced the stock pin with a needle. The hook (which the Swiss manual says is for carrying pastry boxes) is for putting a chain back on sprockets without getting your hands dirty. If you're going to own only one tool, own the Swiss Champ. Victorinox brand only. Look for the funny-shaped shield, not the square one. Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds of a man and his favorite object, and the conviction that a $30 pocket tool is as essential as breathing. https://www.youtube.com/embed/BtTAu7A62Wc 158 2022-02-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Victorinox Swiss Champ Leatherman https://vanneistat.com/videos/solving-my-truck-paint-problem/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/CHvtmTVRnLA/maxresdefault.jpg Solving My Truck Paint Problem Fifty-eight seconds. The 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser has a scratch from Van's own negligence: a bike dragged on the road. Super glue mixed with baking soda fills the crater, sanded smooth, painted over. Not a repaint but a repair, honoring the truck's accumulated surface rather than erasing it. Patina is biography. You do not erase biography. https://www.youtube.com/embed/CHvtmTVRnLA 58 2024-09-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Bondo super glue + baking soda https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-monday-112122-9am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/CWoj7m5a8Ew/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM MONDAY 11.21.22, 9am PST A Monday session from November 2022. Van answers viewer questions and talks through what is happening in the workshop that week. Monday sessions are rare. https://www.youtube.com/embed/CWoj7m5a8Ew 5657 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Stanley (tape measure) Liquitex Basic Acrylics Uniball Signo pen Pentel Presto jumbo correction pens GoPro Insta360 Home Depot Klein (wire strippers) Ecoflow Capsule (pharmacy delivery) Volkswagen diesel Audi convertible Honda Civic Type R David Lynch Casey Neistat Tom Sachs Oxana Todorova Jack Conte Ari Shaffir Patrick Bet-David Adam Curtis Bill Burr Jordan Peterson Blink Sculpting in Time 12 More Rules https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-sewing-guide/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/CmFDdr2kK5I/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Sewing Guide Van's sewing guide in 53 seconds. Use strong thread, not 100% cotton. Use a strong needle with a pretty big eye. Tie a knot that's bigger than the hole the needle bore into the fabric. Tie off your stitches before the thread gets too short to tie a decent knot. That's all he was ever taught about sewing. The rest one can figure out on one's own. The guide is pitched at people who've never threaded a needle, which is most people. https://www.youtube.com/embed/CmFDdr2kK5I 53 2024-10-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short neistat's sewing guide https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-dont-hate-computers-i-hate-apple/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/CuKBWfJ07LY/maxresdefault.jpg I Don't Hate Computers. I Hate Apple. Van's 26-year grudge against Apple, distilled into four and a half minutes of filmmaker fury. The thesis: Apple builds ever more complicated software requiring ever more complicated hardware that self-destructs in an unreasonably short duration of time. That's not a side effect. It's the business model. The specific trigger is Final Cut Pro's compound clip behavior. Change one compound clip and it changes every instance across every project on the drive. Van's been editing on Apple since his first iMac in 2000, held hostage by a 13-year archive of Final Cut Pro projects. The dream, stated plainly: that AI and Nvidia will do to Apple what digital did to Kodak. This clip is drawn from Using AI to Live More Analog: Long-Form Ep. 1, the channel's first flagship-format episode. https://www.youtube.com/embed/CuKBWfJ07LY 275 2026-05-25T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Apple Final Cut Pro iMac Nvidia Pentel P209 Kino Lorber Kodak Xerox Wispr Flow Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/solving-my-blind-driveway-problem/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/D5cqSHeBUGo/maxresdefault.jpg Solving My Blind Driveway Problem Sixty seconds on the blind driveway in Topanga Canyon. Van has been trying to solve this for years: someone doing 60 in a 35 on a blind curve while he backs out with his family in the car. That is not an acceptable variable.The fix: park the Tacoma where the garbage cans go, mount a light bar on the roof visible from far enough away to brake in time. The brake-light test involves hiding behind a tree like a kid. It works. Good enough for me, he says. That is science. https://www.youtube.com/embed/D5cqSHeBUGo 60 2024-07-12T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Tacoma light bar Isabelle https://vanneistat.com/videos/mexico-dangerous-or-magical/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/DezjGRoKpRI/maxresdefault.jpg MEXICO: Dangerous, or Magical? There is a particular kind of travel that rewires you: not tourism, not escape, but the slow overland immersion that dissolves the assumptions you didn't know you were carrying. In the winter of 2014, Van drove a Ford F-350 from the Bronx to Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, for his 40th birthday, and what begins as a road trip becomes something closer to a thesis on why Americans misunderstand Mexico. The fear story collapses on contact with the actual country: its generosity, its intact culture, its refusal to optimize beauty out of daily life.The deeper thread here is the philosophy Van borrows and never returns: "nothing works and everything works out." It sounds like a bumper sticker until you watch it operate as a genuine epistemology: a way of moving through a country where broken infrastructure coexists with extraordinary human warmth. Mexico is where The Spirited Man was conceived, not as a YouTube channel but as an orientation toward living. The footage sat for years before this edit, which says something about the weight of the material. Some things need to age before you can cut them with any clarity. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DezjGRoKpRI 862 2022-05-27T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Ford F-350 Chloe https://vanneistat.com/videos/are-you-really-a-film-maker/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/DlKzbzo5ql8/maxresdefault.jpg Are You REALLY a Film Maker? Van probably has the most sought-after job in the world. There are 30 million YouTube channels. He makes a good living at this. No one that he knows of has ever been paid to make little movies like the ones he makes. The Patreon DMs have become an advice column, and he enjoys it, but the credibility to give advice comes from the pursuit itself: the freedom to make things for a living and sell them on his own terms.Three pieces of advice. One: don't do it. Two: get out of your parents' house immediately and pay your own rent. Three: if you are trying to figure it out, go to trade school, not college. Nine months, a fraction of the cost, and you will have money and a job. Van wanted to be a writer at 17 after reading Hunter Thompson, but discovered he did not have the focus for sitting at a desk. His friend Mike, a photographer and filmmaker who built his company from scratch, calls himself a problem solver, not a filmmaker. Twenty-two minutes on the distinction between what you call yourself and what you actually do. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DlKzbzo5ql8 1378 2024-05-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Werner Herzog Josh Safdie Ben Safdie Casey Neistat Tom Sachs Jonathan Caouette Gus Van Sant Albert Watson David Mamet Norm MacDonald The Peregrine Bambi vs. Godzilla https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-reality-of-owning-a-vintage-truck/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/DloMkje1JFY/maxresdefault.jpg The Reality of Owning A Vintage Truck Van's 1987 diesel Toyota Land Cruiser is our family car in Topanga Canyon. I bought it before our son was born. The deal was I buy the truck, he pays for maintenance. After three years he's put in about the same amount I spent buying it. The heart wants what the heart wants. The video is Van treating material desire with the moral seriousness most creators reserve for spiritual subjects. He's found TLC 4x4: a company that builds these trucks to museum-quality perfection. Soundproofing, locking diffs, a 420-horsepower Corvette LS3, heated seats, secret compartments. Mr. Ward takes 15 minutes to rattle off the details. The price is somewhere between the annual salary of the President and the Senate majority leader. Van doesn't have that kind of scratch. Not even remotely close. But he won't give up on the dream. He wants to take it overland to Panama for our son's fifth birthday. The question he's actually wrestling with is whether desire at this scale is compatible with the person he claims to be. A man who crowdfunded his YouTube channel. He names the greed, can't resolve it, and builds a shrine. That's the ending. He builds a shrine. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DloMkje1JFY 704 2021-04-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser (diesel) TLC 4x4 Corvette LS3 engine (420hp) Biodiesel Buck Mr. Ward (TLC 4x4) Bernie https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-guide-to-master-storytelling/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/DyyjXFgM_6k/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Guide to Master Storytelling If your story doesn't contain a surprise, it's not a story. It's a report. Van structures the video as a demonstration of its own thesis: a Post-it note behind his iMac, two and a half years old, holds the solution to his structure problem. He'll hold it over your head until the end. Bert Kreischer tells a story on Two Bears One Cave that exemplifies the difference between good and bad storytelling: his baby daughter in the hospital, the distraught waiting room. Van uses it to build a framework: surprise is the architecture, everything else is decoration. The longest day of the year, June 21, 2022, and Van is at his typewriter wrestling with form. The Post-it note is the punchline. The video practices what it preaches: the surprise is withheld, the middle bit earns your patience, and the resolution rewards it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DyyjXFgM_6k 587 2022-06-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Bert Kreischer Tom Segura Whitney Houston Leanne Kreischer Frederick Douglass Isabelle https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-100722-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/DzTPo_tZYDA/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM, FRIDAY, 10.07.22 9am PDT An October 2022 Friday session. Viewer questions, ongoing project updates, and the usual unscripted back-and-forth with the Patreon community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DzTPo_tZYDA 5542 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs GPS shoes (Nike) Mars Yard (Nike x Tom Sachs) Rimowa luggage Costco Kill Spencer (camera bag) Revival Cycles Cake (Swedish electric motorcycles) BMW Mercedes diesel Casey Neistat Tom Sachs Jack Conte Pomplamoose Colin and Samir Bob Dylan Ice-T Dr. Dre Eminem Beastie Boys The End of the World is Just the Beginning The Obstacle is the Way Stillness is the Key Moby Dick https://vanneistat.com/videos/a-few-fixes-builds/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/E067JiLwMcE/maxresdefault.jpg A Few Fixes & Builds Sixty-six seconds. Keys engraved by location because they all look the same. A rig for keeping revolver moon clips preloaded for the range. A rag box built three years ago with hinges made from glove fingers that has always annoyed him. A plug on the verge of failure saved with five-minute epoxy and shrink tube. A bent IMI trophy straightened with sheet metal screws. Each repair gets seconds, not minutes, which is exactly the amount of time most real repairs deserve. The rhythm of a working shop: problem, solution, next. https://www.youtube.com/embed/E067JiLwMcE 66 2025-09-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man five minute epoxy https://vanneistat.com/videos/gift-giving-tricks/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ECYDFNqUsT8/maxresdefault.jpg Gift Giving Tricks Gift-giving tricks. All gifts should have some element of surprise. Expensive, not costly: a $10 piece of chocolate is expensive chocolate but it's not a lot of money. A postcard counts. Van's friend Chloe sent him a postcard from Beirut that said "Today is your birthday." He gets choked up thinking about it. His friend Ariel Schulman is the master of postcards. An 18-year postcard relationship. When giving a postcard, don't brag about where you are. Make it about them. Put a joke or a drawing in there. I love that. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ECYDFNqUsT8 86 2025-07-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Chloe Ariel Schulman https://vanneistat.com/videos/a-thing-i-love-about-america/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/EKQ654Oxu6I/maxresdefault.jpg A thing I love about America. Van had a rough week in which getting a puncture in a brand-new tire was the fun part. Not enough time left to write something complicated. So he jumps on his motorcycle with a couple of cameras and visits places he loves in Los Angeles, trying to tell you about them.First stop: Bobby's, an American diner, maybe his favorite restaurant in all of LA. Diners were the first restaurants where teenagers could afford to eat with their own money. Two eggs, toast, and coffee for $2.75 in 1992. Then Mulholland, where Van thinks about Steve McQueen outrunning the cops in a Jaguar race car, and Eric Burdon's observation that McQueen smelled like gasoline, black powder, and weed smoke. McQueen invented the translucent gas tank for dirt bikes. Then the PCH, where Van ritually visualizes Hunter Thompson's essay Midnight on the Coast Highway, which begins with a remembered line from a long-forgotten poem: all my life my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Thompson said it was his favorite thing he ever wrote. Eleven minutes on a motorcycle, and the video is a love letter to the American diner, the canyon road, and the coast highway. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EKQ654Oxu6I 687 2021-10-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Jaguar (race car) Bobby's restaurant Steve McQueen Eric Burdon (The Animals) Hunter S. Thompson Tom Sachs Midnight on the Coast Highway https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-built-a-homemade-super-8-movie-viewer/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/EUFnyvjUjWI/maxresdefault.jpg I Built a Homemade Super 8 Movie Viewer One of the things that makes Super 8 remarkable is that the film you watch is the same film that was shot. The film was there. It is an artifact from the experience, and that makes you want to keep it forever. The video is almost entirely without words, just the footage of Van building the viewer and the delight when it works.Five minutes, mostly set to music. The homemade viewer lets Van watch his own Super 8 footage without sending it to a lab or digitizing it. Physical film, held up to light, projected through a handmade device. The medium is the message, and the message is: the original is irreplaceable. I love that about this one. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EUFnyvjUjWI 313 2022-03-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canva Pro Super 8 film https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-built-a-diy-playhouse-is-it-worth-it/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/EcppStMSaVc/maxresdefault.jpg I Built a DIY Playhouse. Is it worth it? The playhouse assembler quoted $500. Van wants to know: how many hours of labor will it take to save that $500, and how much per hour will he end up paying himself? He pulled out 200 staples. The kit requires six 2x6 base slats sold separately. The Home Depot trip involved an ATM chip failure, a bank withdrawal, a second Home Depot trip. Two hours before a single piece was assembled.The wood split despite pre-drilling, which makes him crazy. The door faced the wrong way. The laser-cut pieces do not actually fit into each other. A shipped board was cracked and glued at the factory, requiring a mending plate. The roofing nails couldn't be hammered because there was no clearance, so Van had to make a little tool. Six minutes of everything going slightly wrong, and the video is a cost-benefit analysis where the benefit is not the playhouse but the education in welding clamps, 11R vice grips, and the patience to fix manufactured garbage that was not built to last. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EcppStMSaVc 391 2022-01-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Vice-Grips 11R Home Depot Unfabricate https://vanneistat.com/videos/why-dangerous-toys-are-good-for-kids/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/EfoxW3exaok/maxresdefault.jpg Why Dangerous Toys are Good for Kids Van was on a chairlift once, maybe 18 or 19, sitting next to a psychiatrist. In the chair ahead, a kid, maybe nine years old, worked his butt off the seat and dangled from the safety bar, eight or ten feet off the ground. The mom screamed. The psychiatrist yelled at her: you are freaking your child out. Then turned to Van and said: your job as a parent is to teach your children to be masters of their environment, not to fear it.Four disclaimers before the footage. The boy worked up to these activities over years. Always within arm's reach. Drawn to them of his own accord. Van is not recommending you do this. The drill has its clutch turned all the way down. The bit is dull. The cordless drill builds hand and forearm strength, improves manual dexterity, teaches focus. The danger is the pedagogy. That is the argument, and it will make safety-conscious parents uncomfortable. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EfoxW3exaok 559 2022-01-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Greg Lukianoff Jonathan Haidt The Coddling of the American Mind https://vanneistat.com/videos/my-favorite-things/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Et7IHJpYHOs/maxresdefault.jpg My Favorite Things A few of Van's favorite things: three-euro Eiffel Tower statuette from the steps of Montmartre, Blade Runner chest piece from Robert in Arizona, call-to-prayer clock from Berlin from Chloe. A 3/4-inch Scotch tape dispenser, a 2-inch packing tape dispenser, an invitation dispenser. A machine manufactured sometime between 1936 and 1941 with a glorious violence to using it effectively. Each object embodies a significance way beyond its value. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Et7IHJpYHOs 72 2025-02-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Scotch tape dispenser (3/4in) packing tape dispenser (2in) silicone tape grip Pentel P209 https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-6-march-25-2022-900am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Eu1OCJ5QxGU/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM #6 March 25, 2022 9:00am PST Livestream number 6, March 2022. Van takes viewer questions and continues settling into the live-session rhythm with the Patreon community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eu1OCJ5QxGU 4296 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon 1DX Canon T2i GoPro 10 GoPro 8 iPhone Super 8 iMac DV Sony (video camera) Casey Neistat Tom Sachs Braxton Haugen Gray Sorrenti Ariel Schulman Henry Joost Neve Schulman Josh Safdie Ben Safdie Lena Dunham Sid Field screenplay book https://vanneistat.com/videos/yes-sew-it-yourself/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ey1TWxrjCfs/maxresdefault.jpg Yes, Sew It Yourself. Yes, sew it yourself. Use strong thread, not 100% cotton. Use a strong needle with a pretty big eye. Tie a knot thicker than the needle. Van put a padlock on a pair of lefty scissors 13 years ago and that is why they are still sharp enough to cut fabric. If you use fabric scissors to cut paper, they will fail you when you need them most. He sews lanyards from grosgrain ribbon, cauterized with a lighter so the threads do not fray, cut into little arrows so the scars do not stick out. Overkill is his sewing philosophy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ey1TWxrjCfs 411 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Levi's 501 grosgrain ribbon https://vanneistat.com/videos/my-addiction/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/F2ayhXbUXNs/maxresdefault.jpg My addiction. A confession about podcast addiction that works precisely because Van treats it with the same seriousness he'd bring to a more dramatic vice. The structure follows the addiction narrative: what he listens to, why the habit is initially beneficial (constant learning, ambient intellectual stimulation), where it tips into compulsion (filling every silent moment), the attempted quit, the relapse. The week without podcasts reveals what the podcasts were covering up.The puzzle-pieces metaphor at the end reframes the addiction as a symptom of something architectural. Van isn't addicted to podcasts; he's addicted to having every gap in his attention filled with someone else's ideas. The silence the podcasts displace is where his own ideas would live if he let them. Nine minutes about earbuds that's actually about the relationship between consumption and creation. The real story here isn't the habit. It's the silence. https://www.youtube.com/embed/F2ayhXbUXNs 552 2025-03-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Kill Spencer CW Morgan bag Lex Fridman Rich Roll Marc Maron Chris Williamson Colin and Samir Peter Zeihan Theo Von Joe Rogan Duncan Trussell Adam Carolla https://vanneistat.com/videos/giving-ai-another-chance/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/FBZvG506-ZA/maxresdefault.jpg Giving AI Another Chance Van's first encounter with ChatGPT in March 2023 went badly. Wrong answer about the Leica Q2 histogram. Wrong starter motor part number. He walked away. Then a misattributed quote sent him scrubbing through three and a half hours of No Direction Home before a Patreon subscriber identified the real source: Charles Eins, not Bobby Neworth. AI had failed him, but community hadn't.The turn comes when Isabel starts using Claude to build children's courses about money, then Bower, a pod school platform Van describes as 'LinkedIn plus Airbnb plus school.' Hundreds of thousands of dollars of engineering replaced by months at two hundred a month. That's what made Van reconsider: not AI getting smarter, but watching someone he trusts build something real with it. The multicam problem he'd avoided for four years suddenly looked solvable. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FBZvG506-ZA 161 2026-05-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man ChatGPT Claude Bower Leica Q2 ATEM Mini Pro No Direction Home Patreon Isabel Bobby Neworth Charles Eins https://vanneistat.com/videos/are-you-spirited/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/FKjJLGR6VII/maxresdefault.jpg Are YOU Spirited? The term spirited man was probably coined in a book Van read, though the author doesn't specifically define it. Van got to that part and thought: that's me. I'm like that. A spirited man is what I am. And a spirited man is what I want to be. Spiritedness may be allied with the spirit of inquiry, the prideful basis of self-reliance. It is characteristic of the spirited man that he takes an expansive view of the boundary of his own stuff. The question is not performed for an audience. It is an invitation. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FKjJLGR6VII 76 2025-07-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Matthew Crawford Shop Class as Soulcraft https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-may-6-2022/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/FNiJ4W3ptY0/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM MAY 6, 2022 A May 2022 live session. Van fields questions from patrons and discusses the channel's direction. Early days for the livestream format. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FNiJ4W3ptY0 4272 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Husqvarna (motorcycle) BMW G650X Country Corona Standard typewriter Smith Corona Hermes typewriter Olivetti Lettera 32 IBM Selectric Braun/Nizo (Dieter Rams) iPhone 4 Tesla Model X Ford KLR 650 Suzuki DR 650 Yamaha TW200 BMW 2002 Bert Kreischer Tom Segura Christina Pazsitzky Marc Maron Joe Rogan Theo Von Shane Gillis Louis CK Tom Sachs Isabelle Shop Class as Soulcraft The Catastrophe of Success Autobiography of Malcolm X Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees https://vanneistat.com/videos/forbidden-workshop-practices-part-2/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/FRF9Jv2belY/maxresdefault.jpg Forbidden Workshop Practices, Part 2 Part 2 of the Forbidden Workshop Practices series. Tools belong where they live. No robbing Peter to pay Paul: the Land Cruiser has its own vice grips, the workshop has its own. No hoarding materials. When making straight razor cuts, do not use a straight edge as a guide. Draw the line, then freehand along it. Finish a project of its kind before you start another project of its kind.The series format (short, numbered, no disclaimers) is building a library of practical knowledge that contradicts the approved curriculum. Van's workshop credentials provide the authority. The videos don't argue for recklessness; they argue for competence-based judgment over rule-based compliance. That's the turn. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FRF9Jv2belY 114 2025-03-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Vice-Grips Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-november-8-9-am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/G1pdJh18alc/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 8 9 am PDT A November 2024 Friday session. Van fields patron questions heading into the holiday season. End-of-year planning on the bench. https://www.youtube.com/embed/G1pdJh18alc 3042 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Klein canvas tool bags Kill Spencer (camera bag) Bobby's Restaurant Toyota Land Cruiser (new models) Ford Bronco Yamaha TW200 Super 73 David Lynch Braxton Andrew Ariel Schulman Henry Joost Spencer Niosi Sarah Hoover https://vanneistat.com/videos/boots-are-more-important-than-cameras/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/GSMDXRSCEGM/maxresdefault.jpg Boots Are More Important Than Cameras Van started wearing boots after September 11, 2001. Before that, flip-flops in New York. He bought Swiss Army surplus boots. Probably from the 1970s or '80s, stamped with the word Minerva, goddess of wisdom and the crafts. Red laces because Max Fischer wore red laces in his Rod Labers. He's had three pairs, alternating them for 16 years, resoling and restitching until the perforations from the sewing needle ground the leather into pulp. Now it's time to retire them and start from scratch. Van flies to a boot shop: a perfect shop with names and sizes on every pair, even the used ones. They size him the old way, with a piece of cowhide. The video's thesis is in the title: boots are more important than cameras. Longevity, durability, repair: the boots outlasted every camera Van owned during those 17 years. The tool you wear on your feet matters more than the tool you hold in your hands. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GSMDXRSCEGM 599 2024-07-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Swiss Army surplus boots Peter Limmer and Sons hiking boots Nike Max Fischer (Rushmore character) Adam Limmer https://vanneistat.com/videos/outfitting-the-truck-for-isabel/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/GotPcHPP9_4/maxresdefault.jpg Outfitting The Truck For Isabel The VanMoof fits on the Land Cruiser rack but it's too big for me. The Super 73 is my size but too heavy for the rack and too heavy for me to load into the Tacoma. Sure, just throw the bikes in the bed. But then they tangle, and that does not solve the too-heavy-for-Isabel problem. Van's fix: six products from Amazon, a step bit to bore out wider rack slots for fat wheels, D-rings drilled and tapped into the bed, a urethane bungee system, and an 18-pound aluminum ramp rated for 400 pounds. The Super 73 goes up the ramp into the rack. Can she do it on her own? She can. Four minutes of our guy engineering his wife's independence with a drill press and some bungee cords. That is the whole video. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GotPcHPP9_4 250 2021-04-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man VanMoof (e-bike) Super 73 (e-bike) Toyota Tacoma Toyota Land Cruiser urethane bungees Isabel https://vanneistat.com/videos/man-vs-nature-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-3-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/GpAh0dWVryc/maxresdefault.jpg Man vs. Nature: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 3 of 7) Part 3 of the Baja series covers the Texas-to-Arizona leg. Steak and eggs breakfast at the Whistle Stop Cafe somewhere in Texas. Petrified wood station. The American Southwest is the first terrain in the series that pushes back with genuine physical force: heat, distance, isolation, the kind of emptiness that makes a motorcycle feel like a very small thing.This is the episode where the twelve-year-old footage starts justifying the wait. The desert landscapes have a visual weight that earlier road-and-highway footage lacked, and Van's editing rhythm slows to match the terrain. The man-versus-nature framing could be cliche, but Van earns it by not winning. The nature doesn't yield, and the man adapts. That's the difference between adventure filmmaking and tourism. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GpAh0dWVryc 489 2021-07-13T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Nintendo DS Yaniv Scott Matt Neivers https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-april-4-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/HGOy_Njrjd0/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 9am PDT An April 2024 Friday session. Van answers questions from the community and talks through current builds. Spring projects on the bench. https://www.youtube.com/embed/HGOy_Njrjd0 6453 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tight Bond (wood glue) Shoe Goo / Goop / E6000 Leica Sony Super 73 Hermes Patagonia BMW (motorcycles) Toyota Chevy (V8 engines) Home Depot (premixed chainsaw gas) Tacoma (chainsaw in back) Land Cruiser Cross pen (18k gold-plated) David Lynch Natalie Lynn Werner Herzog Les Blank Rick Rubin Stephen Pressfield Andy Spade Kate Spade Mickey Drexler Jenna Lyons The Creative Act The War of Art Born Fighting Swiss Watching No One's Coming to Save You https://vanneistat.com/videos/diy-custom-cinder-block-shelf-build/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/HUpFmlVpLXY/maxresdefault.jpg DIY Custom Cinder Block Shelf Build A DIY custom cinder block shelf build in 59 seconds. If your walls are brick, concrete, or cinder block, it's fundamentally the same technique: use Tapcon. 5/16 inch driver, 1/4 by 1 and 1/4 inch Tapcon with the hex head. Mark one hole, find the center, hammer drill, drive it in tight so it stays on its own, level, mark the other holes, drill, drive all four loosely, then tighten all the way home. Anchored into concrete or brick or cinder block, these things are VERY strong. The cinder block is Van's favorite building material for the same reason he drives a Land Cruiser: it's honest about what it is. https://www.youtube.com/embed/HUpFmlVpLXY 59 2024-08-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tapcon (concrete screws) https://vanneistat.com/videos/your-tardy-friends-suck-7-principles/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Hm4mr7jzSpQ/maxresdefault.jpg Your tardy friends suck. 7 Principles Tardiness is not an insignificant quirk. It is among the most disrespectful behaviors you can bestow upon your fellow man. Van delivers this lecture: the one he dreams of giving to habitually late people while waiting for them. With the moral seriousness of a sermon. The threshold: you are allowed to be late once per month. Not once for work and once for friends. Once total, for everything. If you have 80 things to do this week and you're on time for 79 of them, you're habitually late. The video opens with Van 90 minutes before a meeting at a place he's never been, already knowing he's running late, already knowing he'll make it. Seven principles, 21 minutes, and the underlying argument is that punctuality is a form of respect: not a personality trait, not a scheduling preference, but a moral position on whether other people's time has value. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hm4mr7jzSpQ 1307 2023-10-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man CleanMyMac X Emily Post Kevin Jack Etiquette https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-future-is-dark-then-bright/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/IIccg0X6Ijg/maxresdefault.jpg The Future is Dark (Then Bright) A sequel to Van's breakout Fourth Turning video, this episode confronts the most uncomfortable prediction in Neil Howe and William Strauss's generational theory: that the current crisis era: the "millennial saeculum". Will climax in a confrontation comparable in scale to the Civil War or World War II. Van walks through the historical pattern with the same diagrammatic clarity that made the original video resonate: the 80-year cycle of High, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis, mapped onto figures from Elvis to JFK to Reagan.The title ("The Future is Dark (Then Bright)") holds the paradox that makes Strauss-Howe theory compelling rather than merely terrifying. The darkness is not the endpoint; it's the compression that precedes institutional rebuilding. Van draws an explicit parallel between the pre-WWII crisis block and the current one, arguing that recognizing the pattern doesn't prevent the crisis but might shape how we endure it. Howe's 2023 book The Fourth Turning Is Here provides the updated framework, and Van treats it less as pop sociology than as a lens for understanding why everything feels like it's accelerating toward something. https://www.youtube.com/embed/IIccg0X6Ijg 573 2023-09-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Neil Howe William Strauss John F. Kennedy Ronald Reagan Elvis The Fourth Turning Is Here The Fourth Turning https://vanneistat.com/videos/unfabricate/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/IQzRI2gCPCU/maxresdefault.jpg UNFABRICATE UNFABRICATE: a short exploring the concept of un-making. Taking something apart with the same care used to put it together is a skill most makers never develop. Van argues it deserves equal attention. Destruction as craft. https://www.youtube.com/embed/IQzRI2gCPCU 82 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Unfabricate SodaStream https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-82622-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/IUNveTopzc0/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, 8.26.22, 9AM PDT A late August 2022 Friday session. Van takes patron questions heading into the Labor Day weekend. Summer winding down. https://www.youtube.com/embed/IUNveTopzc0 5373 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Ecoflow GoPro 10 Canon Sony iMac JetBlue Fujiroid (Fuji Instax) Yokohama Geolander tires linseed oil Cummins KTM Six Days Enduro Toyota Land Cruiser (1987, 2H diesel) Overland Outfitters (Bozeman MT) Casey Neistat Tom Sachs David Mamet Lex Fridman Ed Bradley Joe Rogan Colin and Samir Lena Dunham Greta Gerwig Josh Safdie The War of Art https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-12822/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/IcIMl-n_MiI/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, 1.28.22 A January 2022 session, early in the channel's livestreaming history. Van takes viewer questions and finds the format. Everything has to start somewhere. https://www.youtube.com/embed/IcIMl-n_MiI 4679 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Opinel (knife) ARRI Alexa Canon T2i Final Cut Pro 10 iMovie Audio-Technica shotgun mic Panavision lenses Tom Sachs Casey Neistat Isabelle Josh Safdie Ben Safdie Ariel Schulman Werner Herzog Andrei Tarkovsky Lars von Trier Bela Tarr The Coddling of the American Mind Catcher in the Rye https://vanneistat.com/videos/cowards-dont-fail/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/IicTWaameAU/maxresdefault.jpg Cowards don't fail. The title inverts the motivational cliche into something sharper. The coward doesn't fail because the coward doesn't attempt. Failure requires the courage to begin, and Van spends eleven minutes making the case that the sting of failure is infinitely preferable to the slow rot of never having risked anything. Cowardice isn't a feeling. It's a strategy, and the strategy's long-term returns are catastrophic.The question isn't whether to let your kid ride a motorcycle or whether to cross the Baja Peninsula. It's whether to make the thing you've been avoiding making, say the thing you've been afraid to say, start the project that might not work. The brevity of failure versus the permanence of regret. That's the actual risk calculus. The math is not close. https://www.youtube.com/embed/IicTWaameAU 673 2026-01-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Zocdoc Michael Jordan Fernando https://vanneistat.com/videos/improving-my-life-by-3/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/IqpOMOnCB2A/maxresdefault.jpg Improving My Life by 3% The Toyota Tacoma (nearly 20 years old, a gift) still drives like a rental car. One problem: the passenger side door lock sometimes auto-locks when you pull the outside handle. Not every time. Frequently enough to torture you. Van's fix after months of suffering: leave it open until it needs security. 49 seconds. An improvisational repair that improved his quality of life by up to 3%. The video is a miniature of Van's larger argument: the best repairs aren't heroic, they're observational. A 3% improvement compounded across every small annoyance you actually bother to solve is the difference between someone who endures friction and someone who doesn't. Most people endure. https://www.youtube.com/embed/IqpOMOnCB2A 49 2024-06-13T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Tacoma https://vanneistat.com/videos/once-there-was-a-treeand-she-loved-a-little-boy/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ItO6h6ArDfY/maxresdefault.jpg Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy. The video was supposed to be a motorcycle diary for Patreon. The fuel pump broke. And then October 7th happened, and then something else happened. Van opens with a declaration: he is not officially a Jew, but his spirit is a Jewish spirit. Irish blood, Jewish heart. His storytelling gift comes from his Irish heritage. What he connects you to is his Jewish soul, built by the Jews who saved and nurtured him throughout his life.He has been listening to podcasts and accounts of the October 7th attacks, seeing the footage of antisemitic rallies on college campuses. At a very young age, he was warned these things would come again. Thomas Sowell says hostility toward Jews is beyond all proportion to any other group, that the reason is because Jews succeed in a way that threatens the egos of others. Twenty-one minutes, and the title references The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The video is Van at his most personally exposed, naming what he owes and to whom. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ItO6h6ArDfY 1262 2023-10-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Steven Spielberg Tom Sachs Jonas Salk Thomas Sowell Albert Einstein Shel Silverstein The Giving Tree https://vanneistat.com/videos/vintage-truck-vs-the-birds/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/JBAjDUzciaI/maxresdefault.jpg Vintage Truck vs. the Birds Van tries to be a man of integrity and as such will not drive around in a car with bird on it. He does not mind dirt. God made dirt. But bird is undignified. A conventional car cover is a pain in the neck. Those anti-bird balls do not work. For months he conceived a custom parachute cover as he fell asleep at night. 20 minutes to wash. 1 minute 45 seconds to deploy the chute. 5 minutes 23 seconds to furl and stow. Total: 7 minutes 8 seconds per use. Ok. Fine. https://www.youtube.com/embed/JBAjDUzciaI 244 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/escaping-the-la-fires/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/JgKIUvM0Uzc/maxresdefault.jpg Escaping the L.A. Fires The Palisades fire is coming up the canyon. Van gets on a dirt bike, finds a private road past the police blockades, and rides into the belly of it. He grabs my passport, opens the doors for the fire department, shuts off the propane, and kneels on the spot where our son was born: a tile inlay that reads the date, July 25, 2018, at 7:42 a.m. He says if the house doesn't survive, he loved it. Our son took his first steps here. Our daughter too. The video is 11 minutes of a man sorting what matters from what doesn't under genuine threat. The camera runs because Van can't not document. It's compulsion, not performance. When the winds shift and the fire advances, he evacuates us to Sherman Oaks, watches the smoke from the 405, and waits. The firefighters hold the line. The house survives. Friends lose theirs. Colin and Samir, Carly and Jay with four kids. Van lost nothing but time. He knows that. https://www.youtube.com/embed/JgKIUvM0Uzc 697 2025-01-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man EcoFlow Watch Duty Colin and Samir https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-make-better-to-do-lists/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/JkGR29C6dfY/maxresdefault.jpg How to Make Better To-Do Lists Sixty seconds. Our to-do lists contain the molecules of our achieved goals. Van distills his system for better lists from the full-length to-do list video into its most actionable insight. The clip format works because the advice is structural: a framework change, not a step-by-step process. Structural changes only need to be stated once clearly. That is the whole point of a list. https://www.youtube.com/embed/JkGR29C6dfY 60 2023-07-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Post-it Notes cardstock https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistat-fantasy-fixing/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/K65UQy6t6KQ/maxresdefault.jpg VAN NEISTAT: Fantasy Fixing Fantasy Fixing is Van Neistat's origin story told as a confession: the gap between the job you have and the work you were built for, and the summer 20 years ago that closed it. The essay runs 10 minutes and turns a broken dishwasher into a repair that explains the whole channel. The trigger is small. A new German dishwasher arrives, stainless and expensive, with one flaw: the front panel ships separately, so the door won't stay down without its weight. Once the frustration passes, this is exactly the kind of problem Van loves. He describes the feeling it gives him as giddy, like skipping school, like an outlaw rush or therapy. Most people have a fantasy job they daydream about when the real one frustrates them. Van has two: Land Cruiser mechanic and repairman. The repairman fantasy is real history. Nearly 20 years ago Van helped build a Tom Sachs art installation in a greasy New York warehouse, a building that shows up in Mean Streets and is now luxury apartments. About 60 people built it. It shipped to Berlin and went up at the Deutsche Guggenheim, and out of all of them Van was the one chosen to live there and keep the installation running, because everything eventually breaks and he could fix nearly everything. He fixed the little cars, the McDonald's model, the ring of fire, the DJ booth, the boombox, the bong-hit station. He was the caretaker. He's always been the caretaker. Then the detail that became the channel. Museum visitors saw the repair station and assumed it was for everyone, so they started bringing broken things from home. Van fixed their gadgets and trinkets and loved it, and so did they. He can't help it. He's not a replacer. The video closes with a montage of his actual fixes: a tape dispenser rebuilt with plumber's epoxy and a jigsaw blade, a truck breaker held with plywood and a finishing nail, a dishwasher door solved with pose clamps, quarter-inch plywood and a dumbbell. The fantasy of bringing the repair station on the road is the seed of The Spirited Man itself. What Van Uses: plumbe https://www.youtube.com/embed/K65UQy6t6KQ 600 2021-03-12T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man plumber's epoxy Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/hunting-down-a-bike-thief/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/K8JBcenA2EQ/maxresdefault.jpg Hunting Down a Bike Thief Van's bike got stolen while they were playing skee-ball at the Santa Monica Pier. The tracking app said it was two hours before they'd send the ping. Van made one mistake: he did not check the ping until 8 a.m. when he should have checked it at 4 or 5. The bike was not just his; it was his and his son's. First footage of them ever riding it together. He got a ping: 11th and Arizona, Santa Monica. He grabbed his son's T-ball bat and went. Best bike he ever had. I love that bike. https://www.youtube.com/embed/K8JBcenA2EQ 1012 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro GPS tracker Dean https://vanneistat.com/videos/im-launching-a-youtube-channel-by-van-neistat/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/K96S2qroRN4/maxresdefault.jpg I'M LAUNCHING A YOUTUBE CHANNEL by Van Neistat 35 seconds. Van announces he's launching a channel about the kind of person who builds a stand-in dummy so he can properly focus his camera to take a photo of himself changing a light bulb. The channel is called Van Neistat. The series is called The Spirited Man. That's the entire video. The announcement IS the proof of concept: the description of the person is the pitch, and the pitch is self-selecting. 627,000 people watched a 35-second announcement, which means they recognized themselves in a single sentence. That's a market thesis most brands spend millions trying to validate. https://www.youtube.com/embed/K96S2qroRN4 35 2021-03-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man YouTube https://vanneistat.com/videos/road-of-trials-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-5-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/KJImuHefuno/maxresdefault.jpg Road of Trials: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 5 of 7) Part 5 of the Baja series. The Road of Trials. A couple of guys ride back down and one falls over in a McDonald's parking lot, punches a hole in his crank case. Leaking oil. Motorcycle shops closed on Sunday. They have to figure out how to fix this themselves. Then Scott drops his bike again and breaks the crank case. So they reassess the whole adventure.Every adventure requires some suffering. When you're learning to ride a motorcycle, you drop it a lot. That's part of the learning. Five episodes in, the viewer has enough investment to feel the trials rather than just observe them. Van is building a seven-part argument that adventure is a technology for producing a specific kind of self-knowledge, and the trials are the mechanism. The suffering isn't cinematic; it's the accumulation of heat, mechanical failure, and the dawning recognition that the difficulty is not a bug. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KJImuHefuno 523 2021-07-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man McDonald's 1966 Jeep Gladiator https://vanneistat.com/videos/rules-for-an-organized-life/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/KqB1j3cYWts/maxresdefault.jpg Rules for an Organized Life Fifty-six seconds. Only stack identical items: dishes, bowls, cups. Unique items must never be stacked. Kit your stuff. Find your organizational talismans: binder clips, Super Sticky Post-its, number 64 rubber bands, hooks. Learn to build shelves. A clip from the full-length organization video, extracting the rules. Physical order is not the goal. Physical order is infrastructure for the work that matters. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KqB1j3cYWts 56 2023-07-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man binder clips Post-it Notes #64 rubber bands push pins hooks https://vanneistat.com/videos/what-its-like-to-make-it/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/KuM5std0LpI/maxresdefault.jpg What It's Like to 'MAKE IT' E.B. Sollis asked the question: is there a moment in an artist's career when the passage from innocence to experience is fully realized? Van knew exactly what he meant. Innocence is your fantasy of what the adventure will be. Experience is the reality of what the adventure actually is. Hunter Thompson said he drank and drugged so much to withstand the constant barrage of punches to his innocence gland.Van tells three stories. The first: Susan, his friend's mother and intellectual guardian, bought him a Canon XL1 in June 2000 for $2,000. His rent on 13th and 8th in Manhattan was $1,100 a month. Between depositing the check and buying the camera, September 11th happened. The second: Fred's birthday party. The third: the HBO series. Making it, as Van defines it, means two things. Earning a living from your talent. And the living allows you to live like a successful dentist. Successful dentists have $10,000 in pocket money at all times. Nineteen minutes on whether we ever arrive, or whether the passage from innocence to experience repeats itself, again and again and again. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KuM5std0LpI 1162 2022-03-05T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon XL1 Adorama Tom Sachs Tom Healey Casey Neistat Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton Lillian Vernon E.B. Sollis https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-love-hooks/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/L51_bA9_rfQ/maxresdefault.jpg I Love Hooks! I love hooks. Ladders, bicycles, extension cords, twine, hooks. The chief instrument of organization. God help you if you come into Van's studio and drape your coat over the back of a chair. There are about 50 hooks in there. Four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty. One from Japan that fits magnifying glasses perfectly. One porcelain hook Tom Sachs made with his NASA stamp and signature. A stainless steel one from Amazon with holes far enough apart to anchor into drywall. And a hand-drying towel Van made out of a restaurant napkin. I love hooks! https://www.youtube.com/embed/L51_bA9_rfQ 86 2025-08-25T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs porcelain hook Amazon stainless hooks Japanese hooks Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/whats-in-my-camera-bag/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/LEpJJC6A8tA/maxresdefault.jpg What's In My Camera Bag The contents of Van's road bag, itemized. Spare SD card, passport, a goodie bag reinforced with two-inch packing tape containing pencil leads, white-out, shrink tube, a flash drive. Extra headphones and earplugs for hotels. An emergency whistle in case you crash-land in the woods. Stationery from the Park Hyatt in Tokyo and the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca. A Swiss Army knife he has brought on many airplanes; they only seized the blade once.The main pocket: laptop, stationery, maps, chopsticks. A carbon fiber tripod. A Leica Q2. Yes, extremely expensive. Yes, the Sony is probably a little bit better. Sonys are for technicians and Leicas are for idiot artists. Van has recently made amends with the Sony ZV-1 because it has an audio input and his big fumbly hands stop accidentally hitting the little buttons when it is mounted on the rig. Keep it simple, keep it light. Or: if you are really neat with all the aspects, you can be really messy with one of them. https://www.youtube.com/embed/LEpJJC6A8tA 380 2025-01-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Kill Spencer CW Morgan bag Leica Q2 Sony ZV1 GoPro https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-philosophy-of-driving-stick/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/LK2uDUndpww/maxresdefault.jpg The Philosophy of Driving Stick Van turns a manual transmission tutorial into a philosophical argument about the relationship between humans and machines. The Toyota Land Cruiser's stick shift becomes a case study in what Matthew Crawford would call "manual competence": the cognitive and sensory engagement that disappears when you automate the interface between yourself and a 4,000-pound vehicle. The mechanical explanation is precise (clutch, friction point, rev matching), but the real payload is the claim that driving stick is a creative exercise.The Mexico accident Van references mid-video grounds the philosophy in consequence. Manual engagement with machinery carries real stakes, which is precisely why it develops a kind of attention that automatic systems erode. This is the Topanga Canyon worldview distilled into six minutes: the analog life isn't romantic, it's a practice, and the practice is the point. The connection he draws between shifting gears and creative work isn't metaphor. It is diagnosis. Six minutes. Watch it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/LK2uDUndpww 416 2023-03-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/a-desperate-plea-to-home-depot-psa/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/LQJpCa_cQTA/maxresdefault.jpg A Desperate Plea to Home Depot (PSA) A public service announcement: Van's first. Addressed to Home Depot corporate: please, for the love of God, turn off the music. Silence or classical. Those are the only acceptable choices. Van is a citizen of Topanga Lumber and Hardware Company, which is silent like church. But Topanga Lumber can't stock everything, so he drives to Home Depot with the resigned commitment of a man who carries their Visa. The music is cruel. Cruel to patrons, cruel to employees. Whoever chooses it either doesn't like music or doesn't like people or doesn't shop at Home Depot. Van has been working to acquire enough influence to make this appeal. 367,000 subscribers, deployed toward a single objective: flip the switch. God bless hardware stores everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/embed/LQJpCa_cQTA 290 2021-05-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Home Depot Topanga Lumber and Hardware Company https://vanneistat.com/videos/berlin-2003-andy-penn/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/LgJQ5rNxdz8/maxresdefault.jpg BERLIN 2003: ANDY PENN Berlin 2003: Andy Penn. A portrait from Van's Berlin documentary project, capturing an American artist's experience in the German capital. Van was 28. The Deutsche Guggenheim was the anchor. The city was the subject. https://www.youtube.com/embed/LgJQ5rNxdz8 3781 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Andy Penn Tom Sachs Michael Moore https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-72222-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Lr6u_Je7Ixo/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM Friday, 7.22.22, 9am PDT A July 2022 Friday session. Van answers viewer questions and talks through midsummer workshop builds with the Patreon community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lr6u_Je7Ixo 423 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Tacoma https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-120922-9am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/LykJZ8HXPm0/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, 12.09.22 9AM PST A December 2022 session to close out the year. Van takes patron questions and reflects on the channel's year. End-of-year energy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/LykJZ8HXPm0 2197 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Rich Roll Werner Herzog Ed Ruscha Alex Kalman Josh Safdie Kate Spade Andy Spade https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-diy-table/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/M4T8__G_2aY/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's DIY Table Eighty-five seconds. Converting a Costco folding table (2 feet by 4 feet, does not fold in the middle) into a wood-top table with a sheet of quarter-inch plywood. Add 3 inches to the length, 3 inches to the width for a 1.5-inch overhang. Nerf the corners with a roll of tape as a radius guide so they can bang into stuff without chipping the laminate. Start with what is cheap and structurally sound, then replace the surface with something worth touching. The Costco base is engineering. The wood top is craft. https://www.youtube.com/embed/M4T8__G_2aY 85 2025-08-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Costco folding table Osmo wood finish plywood https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-perils-of-the-professional-creators-journey/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/M9ZjKh9tyQo/maxresdefault.jpg The Perils of the Professional Creator's Journey An unusually direct episode about the financial reality of independent creation: the chasm between artistic success and financial stability that most creator-economy content either ignores or papers over with sponsorship advice. A team led by a PhD physicist and a PhD neuroscientist backed the channel, and they asked Van to make a white paper video. Van uses Fred Rogers's 1969 testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee as the structural center: a moment when a creator made the case for public funding of work that couldn't survive on market logic alone. The Independent Media Initiative provides the contemporary frame.What makes this more than a fundraising appeal is Van's willingness to name the paradox. He's asking strangers for money while insisting he won't ask his audience: a distinction that sounds precious until you understand it as a boundary between patronage and transaction. The video is an appeal to institutional funders, not viewers, which means it's simultaneously a piece of content and a grant application performed in public. That transparency is either brave or desperate, and Van doesn't resolve which. https://www.youtube.com/embed/M9ZjKh9tyQo 744 2023-01-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Fred Rogers Senator Pastore https://vanneistat.com/videos/thinking-like-a-boy-acting-like-a-man/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/MDmysu7Af1U/maxresdefault.jpg Thinking Like a Boy, Acting Like a Man Van's son is about to turn five, and Van has spent more one-on-one time with him in those five years than his own father managed during Van's entire childhood. The video is ostensibly about building a desk, Hot Wheels track, and loft ladder for the boy's new bedroom. Racing to Long Beach for a wooden ladder, drilling and sanding in the garage. But it's really about intergenerational fatherhood. Van's dad, Barry Neistat ("Barry Nice Guy" to friends) had four kids by 30. Van has one at 48. Keeping the boy alive keeps the boy in Van alive, and the debt we owe our parents we pay unto our children. https://www.youtube.com/embed/MDmysu7Af1U 465 2023-06-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form thinking like acting like https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-make-a-diy-zine/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Mbwbnto35fs/maxresdefault.jpg How to Make a DIY Zine The most successful video Van ever made with Tom Sachs was an adaptation of a zine called Ten Bullets, written by Sachs and John Ferguson. Ten Bullets is the ten commandments for working in Sachs's studio. Some labs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory use it as an orientation video. There are people with Ten Bullets tattoos. As a graduate of the Tom Sachs educational vocation system, Van feels compelled to continue the tradition by ripping him off.The zine is 24 pages, including front and back covers. Six sheets of 8.5-by-11-inch cardstock folded in half. Van wrote out what he wanted to say in four-inch-wide columns, five pages total of type. He drew and painted the cover on the cardstock (the first one was too big, the second was better), then bound the leaves by hammering holes with a small nail down the spine and sewing with heavy-duty leatherworking thread. The process is the product. The format is the argument. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mbwbnto35fs 466 2022-05-13T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man wax layout machine Tom Sachs John Ferguson https://vanneistat.com/videos/men-cry-in-private/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/MecLsDLP63E/maxresdefault.jpg Men Cry In Private Chris Hedges said you can't understand America unless you read James Baldwin. Van read the book. What stands out: Baldwin was in Martin Luther King's funeral procession in Atlanta, April 9, 1968, and looking out the windows at throngs of poor people dressed in their very best Sunday clothes. Starched shirts, pressed suits, hats and dresses. Two types of stories reduce Van to tears. Civil rights stories and gratitude stories. They met on the streets of Georgia that day. The video pivots from Baldwin to Van's own gratitude catalog: a Super 8 projector (a gift), a camera bag (a gift), a washer dryer (a gift), the kidney that keeps his best friend alive, the young woman's heart that beats in his friend's chest. He thanks his brother Casey for making the video that drove the Kickstarter's success. He'd been borrowing money to pay the mortgage for four months. Men cry in private, he says. Which is not to say men don't cry in public sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/embed/MecLsDLP63E 418 2021-04-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Kickstarter Chris Hedges James Baldwin Martin Luther King Jr. Casey Neistat Alanis Morissette https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-struggle-of-living-in-nyc/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/MhN4aToRGUc/maxresdefault.jpg The Struggle of Living in NYC Van lived in New York City for 20 years and left for Los Angeles at 42. This video is 18 minutes of him refusing to resolve the contradiction. Structured as a trial where the prosecution and the defense are the same person. The subway is the worst he's ever ridden anywhere on earth, including Mexico City. The sirens never end. Central Park is just a giant crowded room. He drew a Venn diagram of free time, New York, and money, and named the sliver where all three overlap as the city E.B. White wrote about in Here is New York. His experience was the rest of the diagram. Rich New Yorkers don't spend that much time in New York. The people who stay are the ones the city forges, and forging is not a gentle process. And yet: he met me in New York. He found Tom Sachs in New York. He found his career and his purpose. He references Fran Lebowitz's observation that AIDS killed bohemian New York: the New York of Basquiat, of punk, of the loft era, and locates his own arrival just after that death. He bought Bob Dylan's Chronicles the day he needed to understand how someone builds a life in a city that doesn't care whether you survive. The deeper structural move is that Van treats ambivalence as a form of honesty rather than a failure of conviction. Most people who leave New York either eulogize it or burn it down. Van does both simultaneously, with equal force, and refuses to let one cancel the other. The final line. Los Angeles is my reward. Is doing real work. A reward implies the thing before it was earned, not escaped. He's not running from New York. He graduated. https://www.youtube.com/embed/MhN4aToRGUc 1116 2022-05-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man E.B. White Fran Lebowitz Jean-Michel Basquiat Tina Fey Steve Martin Bob Dylan Tom Sachs Nev Schulman Here is New York Chronicles: Volume One https://vanneistat.com/videos/film-photography-3-great-things-about-it/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/N6eKmq-SShc/maxresdefault.jpg FILM PHOTOGRAPHY: 3 Great Things About It Film photography: three great things about it. One, the cameras are cool. Van paid $200-something for a Canon from a Japanese eBay shop, rebuilt and perfect. He has wanted one since he saw Jeff Wheeler with one in 1982. He paid extra for the black model. Two, he has no idea what the picture will look like until the processor sends it back. Three, giving prints away. If you are looking to start, don't overthink it. Get an Olympus Stylus. I love this. https://www.youtube.com/embed/N6eKmq-SShc 353 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon AE-1 Olympus Stylus Nikon F Canon Power Winder Jeff Wheeler https://vanneistat.com/videos/is-fun-destructive-to-good-art/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/NaqBsnyBgtQ/maxresdefault.jpg Is FUN Destructive to GOOD ART? This episode is an experiment to see if Van can have fun while making an episode. Normally it is not fun. His theory, the one he hates: the amount of focus needed to complete a worthwhile project tends to take the fun out of said project. Focus that corrodes fun: scheduling, punctuality, perfect attendance. Shooting can be fun, building can be fun, but shooting himself building requires too much focus and corrodes both. Of course Home Depot did not have the rope he wanted. He figured out he needed a shot 20 minutes ago; it is five of five a.m. on a Thursday. https://www.youtube.com/embed/NaqBsnyBgtQ 801 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Lowe's Home Depot Johnny https://vanneistat.com/videos/14-repairs-in-80-seconds/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/NbFNASeScMg/maxresdefault.jpg 14 Repairs in 80 Seconds Fourteen repairs in 80 seconds. Baldo's camera strap, Ira's broken glasses, Josiah's pencil engraved, Johnny's camera engraved, Joe's phone case, Adakus's battery door cemented with crazy glue and baking soda. The speed is the thesis: most repairs are simple, fast, and only seem difficult because nobody showed you how. Van averaged under six seconds per fix. That number is not a flex. It is a fact. https://www.youtube.com/embed/NbFNASeScMg 79 2025-06-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs bag Leica M3 Swiss Champ GoPro crazy glue and baking soda https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-built-gopro/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Nv5qM2_r6Zk/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Built GoPro Van built a rig to shoot out the window while driving and just got carried away. Custom-built GoPro with seam-mount lenses: one for closer shots, one for further away, one macro lens for tight closeups. Inlaid lead base smelted from fishing weights so the camera doesn't fall over. Magnets and cable clamps for the Allen wrench. Wireless mic storage. Grip carved out of firewood. Adjustable height screw feet to keep the base level. I love this rig. He can't really help himself. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nv5qM2_r6Zk 54 2025-02-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro C-mount lenses https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-must-stop-screaming-at-people/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ny2yKoM-zIg/maxresdefault.jpg I Must Stop Screaming at People The title promises a behavioral correction; the video delivers a confession about shame. Van examines his own tendency to scream at people: not as a personality quirk to be managed but as a failure that requires honest accounting. The distinction matters. Most creators would frame this as "working on myself" content; Van frames it as moral inventory, closer to a recovery meeting than a self-improvement vlog.What makes this land is the refusal to resolve the tension. He doesn't arrive at a technique or a breakthrough. He arrives at the recognition that shame itself: the hot, physical experience of having been the worst version of yourself in front of people you respect. Might be the only reliable mechanism for change. The video is short (six minutes), which is exactly right. Shame doesn't benefit from extended runtime. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ny2yKoM-zIg 364 2021-07-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Isabelle https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-idea-machine/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/O-0GCPYIPOk/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Idea Machine Van's idea machine in 32 seconds: the physical system he uses to capture, store, and retrieve ideas. The brevity matches the tool's philosophy: if the capture mechanism takes longer than the idea, the idea is already gone. https://www.youtube.com/embed/O-0GCPYIPOk 32 2024-06-19T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man leaf blower steel hopper https://vanneistat.com/videos/what-should-your-first-motorcycle-be/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/OFWD201cSsA/maxresdefault.jpg What Should Your First Motorcycle Be? What should your first motorcycle be? Van borrows Isabel's TW and it is low on gas, so according to the code he must fill it up. He takes the dirt road. New tires. Normally he would never cut through the closed section, but he is on fumes. Then the bike dies: clicks into gear and just cuts out, even redlined with the clutch dumped. He could push it to the top of the hill and coast down. That will take one hour instead of three. Time is the thing. https://www.youtube.com/embed/OFWD201cSsA 560 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Yamaha TW200 https://vanneistat.com/videos/money-is-the-report-card-of-business/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/OxymuTBI8mw/maxresdefault.jpg Money is the report card of business. The title is a direct quote. Sets up a conversation with entrepreneur Andy Mai of Studying.com that most creative-economy channels would avoid. Van doesn't soften the commercial reality: if you're building something and it isn't generating revenue, the market is telling you something. The artist's instinct to dismiss that signal as philistine is itself a form of avoidance.What prevents this from becoming a hustle-culture endorsement is Van's own position as a creator who has struggled with the business side. The episode holds the tension between art-for-art's-sake idealism and the pragmatic recognition that sustainability requires revenue. Money isn't the point of the work, but its absence is a diagnostic. A report card, not a grade. That's the distinction worth keeping. https://www.youtube.com/embed/OxymuTBI8mw 568 2021-12-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Studying.com Kickstarter Andy Mai Lillian Vernon https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/P27jXgpY5IE/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN AMERICANS IN BERLIN — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/P27jXgpY5IE 775 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form americans berlin https://vanneistat.com/videos/who-sets-the-standard/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/P51bApIvQKM/maxresdefault.jpg Who Sets the Standard? Every video on the channel begins with the same shot. You never see it because once it sets the standard (1920x1080, 23.98 fps, 40 kilohertz audio) Van deletes it. The shot is of Shelley. Shelley is a retired lawyer with a workshop full of perfectly organized Swiss-made screwdrivers. He doesn't need them. He has them because he's the spirited man. Van drives over to fix Shelley's busted air compressor hose, a 20-minute job. The first order of business after the fix: top off the tire pressure on Claudia's truck. Not Shelley's truck. Claudia's. When Shelley gives a house tour, every detail is framed as "so Claudia can" or "so Claudia doesn't have to." Claudia is Shelley's wife. Their dog Mac once charmed a cop out of shutting down the Paradox Bullets shoot: the short film narrated by Werner Herzog. Shelley doubled for Ed Ruscha for three days. Van chose Shelley's shot to set the standard because Shelley is the standard. https://www.youtube.com/embed/P51bApIvQKM 550 2021-05-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Final Cut Pro 10 Dremel Swiss screwdrivers Tom Sachs Ed Ruscha Werner Herzog Shelley Claudia Mac https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-heros-reward-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-7-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/PSYbWBUZTtQ/maxresdefault.jpg The Hero’s Reward: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 7 of 7) The finale of the seven-part Baja series. Footage from the summer of 2006. Ryan Berman's Return on Courage provides the business-world counterpoint to Joseph Campbell: courage as an investment with measurable returns. The two frameworks layer over the Baja footage to produce a conclusion that's simultaneously personal narrative and mythological structure."Why we do it": the description's three words. The question the entire series has been building toward, and Van's answer is structural rather than emotional. We do it because the journey produces a version of yourself that couldn't have existed without the departure, the ordeal, and the return. The Baja Peninsula was never the destination; it was the mechanism. Twelve years of footage, seven episodes. The reward is the person who came back. https://www.youtube.com/embed/PSYbWBUZTtQ 685 2021-07-27T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BMW R1150R Joseph Campbell Ryan Berman The Hero with a Thousand Faces Return on Courage https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-uniform/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/PaRFkdeH3KY/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Uniform Van's custom uniform. Black Carhartt double knees for motorcycle days. White Roundhouse double knee pants when it's hot. Khaki shirt when it's hot. About an hour per letter to embroider the vest. A clothing philosophy grows over time like a music philosophy. The uniform isn't fashion; it's systems thinking applied to clothing, and the payoff is social: dressing like a worker means you look like you belong wherever you go. No class division. You're one of the crew, and like them, you're here to serve. https://www.youtube.com/embed/PaRFkdeH3KY 78 2024-12-27T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Carhartt double knees Roundhouse double knee pants https://vanneistat.com/videos/peer-discussion-braxton-haugen/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/PalBU7tvX9w/maxresdefault.jpg PEER DISCUSSION: BRAXTON HAUGEN A Patreon-exclusive peer discussion with Braxton Haugen. The peer discussion series treats the audience as collaborators rather than consumers, reflecting the channel's philosophy of mutual investment. A patron gets the floor. https://www.youtube.com/embed/PalBU7tvX9w 2950 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Braxton Haugen Colin and Samir Bob Dylan Patti Smith Nick Cave https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-stole-casey-neistats-gopro-10/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/PbuymBSN95w/maxresdefault.jpg I stole Casey Neistat's GoPro 10 Two criteria for a pocket camera: it shoots 4K and it's easy to use. The iPhone fails on ease. Face Recognition almost never works, the quick-open shortcut is forgettable. The Insta360 is impressive but Van is too impatient to figure out the software. His GoPro Hero 8 Black, gifted by Casey, has been his favorite for years. He painted the Arriflex logo on it because the Arriflex was Kubrick's favorite camera. One complaint: the Hero 8 takes about 4 seconds from off to shooting. His Canon SD870 from 2008 (640 resolution, obsolete) does it in under 2 seconds. Then Casey's GoPro 10 arrives in an enormous box with an RC boat meant to demonstrate horizon lock. The boat capsizes immediately. Van fishes the camera out of the lake. The video is a love letter to tools that just work, and an honest catalog of the ones that don't. https://www.youtube.com/embed/PbuymBSN95w 490 2021-09-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro 10 GoPro 8 Black Canon SD870 Canon TX1 Olympus Stylus Insta360 Casey Neistat Stanley Kubrick https://vanneistat.com/videos/give-gifts-that-make-people-cry/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/PvWwv1gP-lE/maxresdefault.jpg GIVE GIFTS THAT MAKE PEOPLE CRY A clip from the full-length gift-giving video, isolating Van's most provocative claim: the best gifts make people cry. The emotional benchmark isn't sentimentality. It's the shock of being seen. Under 53 seconds to redefine what gift-giving is for. The formula: nice, made, and thoughtful. Any two will do. Own a Dremel engraver and a wood burner. Allow two days: one to rack your brain, sleep on it, then the next to get the epiphany and execute. https://www.youtube.com/embed/PvWwv1gP-lE 53 2023-06-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Dremel engraver wood burner https://vanneistat.com/videos/good-fathers-are-vital/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Q5nItbFDIOM/maxresdefault.jpg Good Fathers Are Vital The boy turns three in three weeks, and he is finally old enough for a proper adventure. Van takes him to a Wilderness Collective trip, Vegas to Utah, and uses the trip to work through his anxiety about education. Canterbury Tales at 17. Not a single class about how to make money. That is the grudge.The real subject is what it means to be a good father rather than a present one. Van draws a line between fathers who show up and fathers who model a way of being. The outdoor adventure is scaffolding. The question underneath: what kind of man are you teaching your son to become by the way you live, not by the things you say? Good fathers are not defined by devotion but by the quality of the struggle they let their children witness. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q5nItbFDIOM 453 2021-07-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Saman Gunan Great Expectations The Scarlet Letter The Odyssey The Crucible Canterbury Tales https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistat-can-fix-anything/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/QPLy0vHEXSA/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat Can Fix Anything The Repair Station goes on the road, and deploying it is a logistical rat's nest: tools, equipment, camera gear, venue logistics. Just before the most recent deployment in LA, the starter on Van's brand-new engine burned out, so he had to repair the starter and shoot the Repair Station simultaneously.The video is a catalog of fixes for strangers. Eric wanted flare for his Sony. Kevin's son Liam needed a replacement part for his little car. Jacob had a broken key. Chasten wanted his jacket customized. Joe, who works at SpaceX and went to the same high school as one of Van's old girlfriends, had a broken belt on a bike he built, fixed with baseball-glove thread. Ross brought a Swiss Champ. A girl and her dad needed a stash box to hide her drugs and gold bullion. Each repair gets a lanyard, a date, and initials. Handbuilt show. Austin, Texas. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPLy0vHEXSA 678 2024-07-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man ClickUp Swiss Champ Leica M3 Tom Sachs bag crazy glue and baking soda baseball glove thread heat shrink tubing Sony Jonathan Ward Joe Venus Marilyn Rob https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-january-12-2024-9am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/QUB_oXe9Ir4/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY JANUARY 12, 2024 9am PST A January 2024 Friday session kicking off the new year. Van answers patron questions and previews what is coming for the channel. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QUB_oXe9Ir4 4631 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon AE-1 Kodak Portra 800 Leica Q2 DJI Mini Pro 3 Makita angle grinder Volvo 740 Turbo Tom Sachs Elon Musk What Is Art? Elon Musk biography https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-super-8-movie-viewer/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/QUet75dZ0Bo/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Super 8 Movie Viewer Van began making these things in 2012. No computer involved in the process. He foolishly hoped he could escape the digital matrix by being some kind of one-off filmmaker for rich art collectors. But what the hell did he know. He was only 37. A Fisher-Price movie viewer from the 70s and 80s, painted black, hand-drawn new label, wooden handle replacing plastic, magnets on the bottom so it stands up in the heavy 3/4-inch steel base. The film we watch is the same film we shot. It was there. That makes us want to keep it forever. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QUet75dZ0Bo 60 2025-01-31T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Fisher-Price Movie Viewer Super 8 film https://vanneistat.com/videos/why-only-some-of-us-think-in-pictures/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Q_lg6b0Osfo/maxresdefault.jpg Why Only Some of Us Think in Pictures Van discovers Temple Grandin's work on object visualizers while listening to a podcast in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and is moved to tears. Object visualizers think in pictures, not words. They excel at mechanical devices, spatial reasoning, and Ikea instructions. They struggle with algebra, linear learning, and keeping things organized. Van connects it to his own brain: why he's good at finding lost objects, why his studio is wrecked every Thursday, why filmmaking: a marriage of visual and verbal. Became his medium. The deeper argument: America's educational system is weeding out these minds by gating everything through verbal-sequential testing, and the shop classes that saved people like Van are gone. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q_lg6b0Osfo 1173 2023-05-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form only some think pictures https://vanneistat.com/videos/i-spent-1600-hours-typing-other-writers-books/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/QlRtFugjQtw/maxresdefault.jpg I Spent 1,600 Hours Typing Other Writers' Books If you haven't figured out your life's purpose by 25, find the thing that pays you the most for the skills you have. Forget finding your passion. Real life hits and you cannot waste your twenties. Van learned this lesson twice. Once finding his thing, and once straying from it. The straying: 17 years into making videos, fed up with cameras and computers, Van tried to become a gallery artist. He'd heard that Hunter S. Thompson typed out the entirety of The Great Gatsby. Van took Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, typed the entire novel on a typewriter, ran the pages through a wax adhesive machine, sliced out each line, and mounted them to a 10-foot sheet of seamless paper. Tracing every Vonnegut drawing by hand. Three or four months of full-time labor to put an entire novel on one surface you could see all at once. 1,600 hours across multiple books. The project was an attempt to leave filmmaking. It brought him back: the compulsion to make videos never left. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QlRtFugjQtw 1045 2022-04-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Super 8 Movie Viewer Kickstarter Roman Opalka Tom Sachs Casey Neistat Magnus Edensvard Hunter S. Thompson Tom Wolfe Susan Orlean Shel Silverstein Breakfast of Champions The Great Gatsby Truly Tasteless Jokes A Light in the Attic Dick Gregory's autobiography https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-cameras/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/QlkEt2W-VUU/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Cameras Van's cameras: a quick tour of the equipment that produces The Spirited Man. The Canon 1DX, GoPro, and film cameras each serve a different function in Van's filmmaking practice, and the short maps the toolset without the extended philosophy of the longer gear episodes. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QlkEt2W-VUU 39 2025-02-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short neistat's cameras https://vanneistat.com/videos/seeking-magical-places/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/RQEy9_4nQZM/maxresdefault.jpg Seeking 'MAGICAL' Places A meditation on place that begins with the search for "magical" places, locations that produce a specific, hard-to-name feeling of rightness, and takes an unexpected turn into a witnessed mystery that Van can't explain and doesn't try to. The refusal to explain is the point. Some experiences resist narration, and the honest response is to hold the strangeness without resolving it into a lesson.The video operates in the register Van uses for his most personal work. Slower pacing, less structural argument, more attention to what it feels like to stand in a particular spot and feel something shift. The seeking is active (you go looking for these places), but the finding is passive (the place announces itself). That's the whole mystery. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RQEy9_4nQZM 409 2024-05-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Ari Shaffir https://vanneistat.com/videos/5-ingredients-for-having-confidence/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/RaIAhHAOBJQ/maxresdefault.jpg 5 Ingredients For Having Confidence Five ingredients for confidence, each illustrated by a single day at a water park. Desire: Van loses his six-year-old son in the Lazy River, and every desire focuses onto one thing. Find that boy. Resolve: a stranger performs the Heimlich maneuver on a choking man, saving his life through sheer commitment. Foolishness: the boy jumped off a waterfall seven times after a grown woman turned back in fear. Practice: Van broke his wrist learning a hockey stop at 29, then mastered it in Toronto two years later. But only in one direction. Punk rock arrogance: just enough to say to the world, I'm getting this done. Five ingredients. One water park. One afternoon. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RaIAhHAOBJQ 621 2024-08-05T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form ingredients having confidence https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-5-march-11-2022-900am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/RbgoESyuTcw/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM #5 March 11, 2022 9:00am PST Livestream number 5, March 2022. One of the earliest Patreon community sessions. Van is still figuring out the live format, and the looseness is part of the appeal. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbgoESyuTcw 4704 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man American Optical safety glasses VanMoof S2 Toyota Tacoma Toyota Land Cruiser Olivetti Lettera 32 Casey Neistat Isabelle Cormac McCarthy Hunter S. Thompson David Mamet Neil Gaiman Judy Blume Margaret Atwood R.L. Stine Jocko Willink Blood Meridian The Catcher in the Rye Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas The Fourth Turning The Twilight of American Culture https://vanneistat.com/videos/garage-on-a-spool/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ry8MA7c4QQU/maxresdefault.jpg Garage On A Spool Vintage truck vs. the birds. A five-minute problem-solution video about protecting the 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser from bird damage using a cover system rigged on a spool. The reel assembly and installation process is classic Spirited Man workshop content: an improvised engineering solution to a mundane problem, executed with more care and craft than the problem strictly requires.The garage-on-a-spool concept is a compression metaphor: the entire protective infrastructure of a garage, reduced to a retractable cover. For a man who lives in Topanga Canyon without a traditional garage, the spool is both practical necessity and philosophical statement. Shelter doesn't have to be permanent to be effective. The Land Cruiser, as always, is the protagonist that connects Van's workshop practice to his broader argument about maintaining old things in a disposable world. An 8-lb sledge base for the Destroyer lamp. VHB tape holding what screws can't. Everything earns its place. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ry8MA7c4QQU 307 2024-01-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/motorcycle-for-a-3-yr-old/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/S1oXUUoiT98/maxresdefault.jpg Motorcycle for a 3-yr-old? Four gifts that led to a three-year-old's self-reliance, culminating in an electric motorcycle. The phone call from Texas, Revival Cycles, the custom motorcycle builders Jay Leno has featured, grounds the project in a real community of people who take machines seriously. The progression is deliberate: each gift scaffolds independence through increasing physical risk and mechanical complexity.The video is ostensibly about a child on a motorcycle, but the actual subject is the gravity of letting your kid do dangerous things. Van doesn't minimize the risk; he argues that the risk is the pedagogical mechanism. A three-year-old who can ride a motorcycle understands cause and effect in a way that no safety-proofed playground can teach. The independence breakthrough isn't an accident. It's the curriculum. Scary and necessary. https://www.youtube.com/embed/S1oXUUoiT98 629 2022-06-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Honda 50 moped VanMoof S2 KTM Stacyc eDrive balance bike Casey Neistat Candice Allan Jay Leno Valentino Rossi Marc Marquez https://vanneistat.com/videos/solving-my-dishwasher-problem/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/SDTGK3Q2lV0/maxresdefault.jpg Solving My Dishwasher Problem The old dishwasher broke beyond Van's will to fix it. His family was gifted a new one. One flaw: the front panel ships separately, and without its weight the door won't stay closed. Solving it conjures a giddy feeling, like he's skipping school. An outlaw rush. Hose clamps, plywood, and a dumbbell. Van applies the same engineering attention to a kitchen appliance that he brings to his workshop and vintage truck. The skills that fix a dishwasher are the same skills that maintain a Land Cruiser. Neither requires a professional. https://www.youtube.com/embed/SDTGK3Q2lV0 60 2024-10-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man hose clamps plywood dumbbell https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-reward-for-good-work-is-more-work/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/SUu1R0Sdfy8/maxresdefault.jpg The Reward for Good Work Is More Work Fifty-nine seconds. Van was scrolling through Amazon Prime when he discovered his friend had been nominated for an Oscar. The jubilation was not about the statue. It was about what the statue meant: his friend could keep working. In the words of that artist, the reward for good work is more work. A Tom Sachs Studio maxim. Van compresses a career into that single observation: mastery does not produce leisure. It produces harder problems. The people who complain about this misunderstand the game. https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUu1R0Sdfy8 59 2024-08-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Amazon Prime Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-motorcycle-wisdom/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ScrMLiw4kD4/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Motorcycle Wisdom Van's motorcycle wisdom in 51 seconds, accumulated over 33 years of riding. Motorcycles are the most dangerous thing that regular people do. UNBELIEVABLY dangerous. Never watch motorcycle crashes on YouTube. Never drink and ride, not even one beer. Never talk someone into getting or riding a motorcycle. Some people absolutely should not ride. There are motorcycle people and there are non-motorcycle people. For some of us, it's the kind of thing that keeps us alive. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScrMLiw4kD4 51 2024-08-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short neistat's motorcycle wisdom https://vanneistat.com/videos/pursuit-of-happiness-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-2-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/SihVi2oFu6Y/maxresdefault.jpg Pursuit of Happiness: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 2 of 7) Part 2 of the Baja series covers the leg from Virginia to Texas: the long American stretch before the border crossing that will define the trip. Van's birthday lunch at Keller's Farm, March 22, 2009. Steak, mixed vegetables, sweet potatoes, popcorn, checkerboard birthday cake. The pursuit of happiness referenced in the title isn't Thomas Jefferson's abstraction but the road itself: the physical act of pointing a motorcycle south and watching the landscape change.The twelve-year gap between shooting and editing gives this footage a double timeline. Van is simultaneously the younger man on the motorcycle and the older filmmaker deciding what that younger man's journey meant. The result is a road narrative that reads forward as adventure and backward as autobiography: every mile driven toward Baja is also a mile measured against who he's become since. That's the real distance. https://www.youtube.com/embed/SihVi2oFu6Y 771 2021-07-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man KLX 650 Waffle House Mr. Slice https://vanneistat.com/videos/make-your-own-gilded-swiss-army-knife/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/TN7aCJTboSw/maxresdefault.jpg Make Your Own Gilded SWISS ARMY KNIFE You might need to sharpen the wood-burner tip. Van uses a drill and a file. He practices writing what he will engrave, makes sure it fits. The knife is a Rambler. He uses a little velvet desk he made because the plastic scratches easily. The pencil tip should be about as thick as the wood-burner tip. No coffee beforehand. The key is to commit and go at the speed that melts the plastic to the right thickness and depth.He has done this probably a hundred times and still screwed up the seven. Not crazy about the eight either. He keeps a Post-it note nearby because he gets disoriented when engraving and cannot stop to think what letter comes next. The gold leaf paint is 18 karat, and he believes the package. The nib pen drags paint into the channel without breaching the walls of the numbers. Six minutes of process. I love this one. The gilded Swiss Army knife is a gift that costs almost nothing in materials and everything in attention. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TN7aCJTboSw 398 2022-01-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Victorinox Rambler Krylon 18 Karat Gold Leafing Pen Harbor Freight wood burner Sharpie Deco Color paint pen VHB tape nib pen https://vanneistat.com/videos/from-box-vs-from-scratch-competitors/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/TgMaICyY0Ns/maxresdefault.jpg FROM-BOX vs FROM-SCRATCH COMPETITORS A gingerbread house competition between a from-box competitor and a from-scratch competitor. Van, naturally, building from scratch with architectural plans. The contest format is a Trojan horse for the channel's core argument about craft: the from-box version is faster, more predictable, and perfectly adequate. The from-scratch version is slower, riskier, and produces something that couldn't have come from a kit. The question is which kind of person you want to be.Andrew's channel gets a shout-out, grounding the competition in a real relationship rather than a manufactured rivalry. Nine minutes lets the building process breathe: the architectural plans, the structural engineering of sugar and flour, the inevitable moment where the from-scratch house does something the kit can't. Van doesn't argue that from-scratch is always better. He argues that it's always harder. That's where the meaning lives. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgMaICyY0Ns 546 2024-12-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Elmer's glue Frank Gehry Stanley Kubrick https://vanneistat.com/videos/it-was-my-fault-the-neistat-brothers-broke-up/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/TlvQR2ITy5w/maxresdefault.jpg It was MY fault the Neistat Brothers broke up. In the summer of 2010, Van packed his things from 368 Broadway and moved to Los Angeles, ending a ten-year collaboration that culminated in an HBO series. This video is structured around three words: mistakes, failure, regret. The chief mistake was arrogance. Van thought the success of getting a series on HBO was due to his creative efforts alone, that concentrating solely on the art absolved him from the business. He treated Casey like his agent. Casey was always on the hustle, on the phone, taking meetings. Van was inclined to smoke pot all day and disappear into his own little world.The self-diagnosis is unflinching. All the archive footage where Van is wearing sunglasses inside means he was stoned. He reduced his role from partner to employee through his own arrogance, then blamed Casey and their executive producer Tom Scott for years. But it was his fault. The video maps mistakes to failure to regret to acceptance to wisdom, following the structure of a recovery share. Fourteen minutes, and Van names every part of it without flinching. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TlvQR2ITy5w 874 2024-09-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Casey Neistat Tom Scott Vivian Kubrick Joseph Campbell Cornel West https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-guide-to-non-miserable-vacations/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/TogJ1BrPrcI/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Guide to Non-Miserable Vacations If you must fly coach, drive. A car is a storage facility and a mini home on wheels. Take at least one month for your vacation. Splurge. Have an I-don't-care attitude about cost. This sounds like a rich guy thing, but Van has seen what Americans drive. Expensive cars, expensive clothes, expensive sneakers. Drive an old Toyota and save your money for extraordinary experiences. Go to a scary but cheap place.Mexico. It's hard to articulate the exact effect it has. Van usually just says it's magic. Whales while getting ice cream one night. It's almost like the danger is the price of admission. There's a bravery requirement, and brave people are generally rewarded. Under two minutes, and the compression itself proves the thesis. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TogJ1BrPrcI 110 2025-04-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota https://vanneistat.com/videos/build-high-status-shelves-of-the-upper-classes/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/TxBhEj4HCi4/maxresdefault.jpg Build HIGH-STATUS SHELVES of the Upper Classes A step-by-step shelf-building tutorial delivered with the precision of a field manual. 1x6 pine, 4-inch corner braces (not shelf brackets. They're in the hardware aisle), Cobra Triple Grip wall anchors, and a stud-detection method using a single screw. Van walks through drywall mounting, masonry mounting with Tapcon, and the specific torque discipline that prevents stripped anchors. The thesis is in the opening and closing line: the ability to build custom shelves is the cornerstone of a well-organized life. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TxBhEj4HCi4 683 2023-05-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form build high-status shelves upper classes https://vanneistat.com/videos/narcissism-vs-universality/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Tz_ETXDqdCU/maxresdefault.jpg Narcissism vs. Universality Van is two weeks behind on a video and the problem isn't writer's block. He's written too much. The problem is plot block. He knows the conflict (is this whole thing pretentious and narcissistic?), the resolution, and the middle bit (influence). He can't connect them. The middle bit takes him to Void, a bar on Mercer Street he'd never entered, on a night in the year 2000 when a film festival was screening 20 short films to maybe 40 people. These weren't TV, commercials, or music videos. They were art films with embedded narrative, and they changed what Van thought was possible. The conflict is the question he can't stop asking: is talking into a camera a real job? Preparing power lines for the Santa Anas so the canyon doesn't burn. That's a real job. This YouTube business is more like a hobby gone feral. Cornel West provides the resolution: anytime you give fully of yourself, elements of your old self are dying because a new self is emerging. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tz_ETXDqdCU 1908 2022-01-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Sony TRV8 Mountain Dew Tom Sachs Werner Herzog Wes Anderson Eleanor Coppola Les Blank Kurt Vonnegut Elon Musk John Ferguson Tom Healey Robert Weide https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-january-10-2025-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/U4vphWuz4mc/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM: Friday, January 10 2025 9am PDT A January 2025 Friday session. Van takes viewer questions and discusses what is on the workbench heading into the new year with the Patreon community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/U4vphWuz4mc 5688 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Watch Duty Toyota Land Cruiser Toyota Tacoma Smith Corona Silent Stihl chainsaw Kill Spencer go bag Cliff Bar electric dirt bike Anderson Cooper Gavin Newsom Michael Shellenberger Dr. Drew Adam Carolla Joe Rogan Colin and Samir Laura C Nev Schulman Andrew Huberman https://vanneistat.com/videos/inside-van-neistats-118-sqft-filmmaking-studio/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Uoa1OmMfyvY/maxresdefault.jpg Inside Van Neistat’s 118 Sqft Filmmaking Studio 118 square feet. After every video, Van cleans the studio: a meditation. Sweep the roof, reset everything, lights modular and repositioned. The plastic covering a hole in the skylight where a branch poked through. Tom Sachs calls a collection of random screws a log jam; Van has two boxes of them, always messy. The Post-its on the window age like Iberian ham. Ideas from Van and from others, some becoming entire videos. "Art is a disagreement, money is an agreement". Bob Dylan said that. The morning should begin with writing, though Van is more easily distracted than a pure writer. The studio is a compression of the channel's philosophy: every square inch accounted for, everything either useful or ephemera earning its place. The propane heater hotboxes it on cool mornings. A dehumidifier removes the stink. Our little empire, 118 square feet. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uoa1OmMfyvY 553 2024-08-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man ClickUp Leica Len O'Brien Tom Sachs Bob Dylan David Lynch https://vanneistat.com/videos/some-voices-in-our-heads-are-right/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Uvk7pGmH6gs/maxresdefault.jpg SOME Voices in Our Heads Are RIGHT. Two voices fight inside Van's head. Fran Lebowitz and Marty Fish. Fran wears a uniform, drives an old car, has never used a computer or a cell phone, spends most of her time reading, and has published only three books in her seventies. She's slow, observant, hilarious, and right. Van's natural inclination is Fran. Avoid technology, use laziness, observe. But Marty won't let him sit around and read all day. Marty Fish was an outstanding tennis player his whole life but not elite until late in his career, when he stopped having fun and willed himself into the top 10. He lost his mind doing it. The video is about the war between these two modes: the contemplative life and the driven life, and Van's inability to choose one. He uses his inherent laziness (he fixes things because he's too lazy to take them in or go shopping) but the Marty voice keeps putting him to work. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uvk7pGmH6gs 502 2023-08-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Fran Lebowitz Mardy Fish Bob Dylan https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-build-a-shelf-without-power-tools/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/VVZl_kUbS-E/maxresdefault.jpg How To Build a Shelf (Without Power Tools) A 2.5-inch by quarter-inch pine shelf out of molding, two-inch corner braces, number-six by one-inch drywall screws (coarse thread), and Scotch VHB tape. No power tools. The instructions are step-by-step and precise. Measure your wall. Measure your board. Mark it with a little dash. Line your combo square up to your mark. Cut top-down, all the way through. Aim for perfection.The VHB tape goes on one side of the corner brace only. The holes go to the outside. Mush the corner brace so the VHB can bond to the wood. The longer it sits, the better it sticks. Drive the drywall screw into the exact center of your marked hole, like a ninja. Light medium torque. The shelf-building tutorial as a discipline of attention: every step has one right way to do it, and the video names each one. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VVZl_kUbS-E 126 2025-02-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Home Depot Scotch VHB tape combo square drywall screws https://vanneistat.com/videos/an-unauthorized-repair/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/VbtR2_ZrifM/maxresdefault.jpg An Unauthorized Repair Van's most-watched video, by a factor of three: 54 seconds, more than 16 million views. He rolls up to a playground with torque bits and a folder of fake printed-out emails, dismantles a zipline that had been broken for three years, swaps out the bearings and wheels, and reassembles the whole thing before anyone can pull rank. He calls it an unauthorized repair. No permission, no committee, no work order. The mechanism is audacity plus competence. The fake emails are a prop, a smokescreen for any bureaucrat who might try to stymie the job, and the closing line carries the whole bit: the zipline runs "smooth as an unmuted lake." The torque bits are doing quiet work here. A household screwdriver does not touch playground hardware, which is part of why the thing sat broken for three years. The right bit is the line between a person who can fix the commons and a person who files a complaint and waits. It is the same competence Van shows when he insists he can fix almost anything. This is the channel's argument compressed under a minute. Repair as a civic act. Agency without authorization. The spirited man does not wait for the institution to fix what the institution broke. Sixteen million people did not watch a man change bearings. They watched someone act on the belief that a broken thing in a public place is your problem too. What Van Uses: torque bits, the specialized driver bits sized for playground hardware that a standard screwdriver can't turn, plus a printed stack of fake emails as bureaucratic cover. Related: Another Unauthorized Repair, Fixing the Zip-Line Without Permission, I Spent 3 Weeks and $599.47 Fixing a Dumb Playground Toy FAQ Did Van have permission to fix the playground zipline?No. He calls it an unauthorized repair and arrives with fake printed emails as a smokescreen in case anyone official tries to stop him. The justification is that the zipline had been broken for three years and no authority had fixed it. What was wrong with the zipline?Van's diagnosis was the bearings and wheels. He dismant https://www.youtube.com/embed/VbtR2_ZrifM 54 2024-06-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man torque bits https://vanneistat.com/videos/sean-avery-a-conversation-custom-baby-gate-build/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/VjtTqUdDm1I/maxresdefault.jpg Sean Avery: A Conversation & Custom Baby-gate Build Sean Avery, former NHL hockey player, DM'd Van after seeing six seconds of a baby gate in an earlier video. Build me a baby gate. So Van shows up with tools and they talk for 52 minutes while he builds it, because Van loves podcasts the way some people love Ritalin: they help him concentrate, reduce forgetfulness, and get into a flow state.Avery decided at age 10 he was going to play in the NHL. Complete singularity. Van does not know anyone from his county who went pro in any sport. He does not know anyone who knows anyone. The conversation runs through intuition versus coaching, Bob Ross's claim that talent is an interest pursued, and Billie Jean King knowing at eight or ten that she wanted to be number one in the world. The baby gate build is the scaffolding. The conversation is the architecture. Van left three enormous grease stains in Avery's pristine driveway. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VjtTqUdDm1I 3172 2021-09-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Sean Avery Steve Yzerman Christian Bale John David Washington Chris Rock David O. Russell Peter Berg Jake Paul Tyron Woodley Logan Paul https://vanneistat.com/videos/love-letter-to-my-toyota-land-cruiser/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/W8IC2wiiTec/maxresdefault.jpg Love Letter to My Toyota Land Cruiser A love letter to the Toyota Land Cruiser: Van's 1987 FJ60 distilled into a short that captures why this particular vehicle functions as a co-star across the channel. The truck is a character because it has a biography: every dent, repair, and modification is a chapter. https://www.youtube.com/embed/W8IC2wiiTec 69 2025-03-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 Ford F350 Power Stroke https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-throw-things-away-3-phases/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/WMvy71AB-w4/maxresdefault.jpg How to Throw Things Away: 3 Phases A three-phase decluttering system built to defeat sentimental value: the demon that destroys organization. That is the real enemy here. Phase 1: home storage in military-grade Hardigg cases until the items begin to annoy you. Phase 2: the storage unit, where you label every box with contents and date, and leave them in the truck overnight to tempt fate. Phase 3: donation, where the resentment of paying monthly storage fees has sharpened your killer instinct. The side effect of going through all this trouble: acquisition resistance becomes instinctive. Once you've decluttered, a voice in your conscience tells you not to hoard, and for a little while, you listen. https://www.youtube.com/embed/WMvy71AB-w4 564 2024-01-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form throw things away phases https://vanneistat.com/videos/customizing-my-favorite-camera/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/WUSeFDBVXkY/maxresdefault.jpg Customizing My Favorite Camera Customizing Van's favorite camera, the Leica Q2, a camera made for idiot artists and not technicians. The problem: the LCD screen stays on and drains the battery. The viewfinder has a sensor that turns off the LCD, so Van builds an eye shade from a binder clip, a chunk of walnut firewood chiseled and milled down, some #2 sheet metal screws, a piece of leather, and VHB double-sided tape. This is an indulgence. Every customization is a correction, and the accumulation of corrections tells the story of a practice. https://www.youtube.com/embed/WUSeFDBVXkY 76 2025-07-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leica Q2 binder clip VHB tape sheet metal screws https://vanneistat.com/videos/nostalgia-graveyards-an-nyc-apartment/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/WUXgxh9hIFM/maxresdefault.jpg Nostalgia, Graveyards & an NYC Apartment Van kept a 12-by-12-foot SRO apartment in New York City for 15 years. Single room occupancy. Shared bathroom with everyone on the floor. 144 square feet. His girlfriend dubbed it the Fort because it was like the ultimate treehouse: 15 years of density compressed every possession into something important, every square inch accounted for. He was the bathroom mayor. Cleaned it every time, replaced the shower curtain, did the plumbing. The video is about nostalgia as a new feeling. Van spent so much of his life in New York, which is not a nostalgic city. They tear down Penn Station, they're on their second Yankee Stadium. But now, doing the channel, he looks back constantly. Nostalgia's dictionary definition is homesickness. Missing New York means missing friends, missing friends means missing times together, and missing those times is nostalgia, and it's hitting him hard. He's bringing his son to the city for the first time, carrying a broken dream of the Fort into a city that already demolished it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/WUXgxh9hIFM 1091 2022-08-12T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Hunter S. Thompson Ariel Schulman Casey Neistat L. Frank Baum https://vanneistat.com/videos/off-to-see-the-wizard-2000-unrestricted-version/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/WWsVqzqU2pw/maxresdefault.jpg OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD (2000) unrestricted version Off to See the Wizard, July 2000. One of the earliest videos Van ever made, three or four months into filmmaking. Barnes and Noble on Astor Place, east of Broadway in Manhattan, no longer exists. Van was working at Scholastic Publishing and the Harry Potter phenomenon was something he had never witnessed: people waiting in line to buy books. Shot on a Sony TRV8 with his friend Nina, an actress. He used Donovan's "Season of the Witch" on the soundtrack and regrets it. This unrestricted version strips the music. https://www.youtube.com/embed/WWsVqzqU2pw 433 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Sony TRV8 https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-rules-of-gifting/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/WqYIkm66RSI/maxresdefault.jpg The Rules of Gifting Van's taxonomy: nice, made, thoughtful. Any two of three is a good gift. All three is the Holy Trinity. By "made" he means your hand is in it: a customized Victorinox Swiss Army knife, a $5 pen engraved with the date you first met, a tape dispenser Tom Sachs built and handed over. The framework sounds simple but the underlying argument is not: gift-giving is a form of attention, and the quality of the gift reveals the quality of your attention to the recipient. The practical advice flows from the philosophy. Own a Dremel engraver and a wood burner. $50 total. Know what flowers your girl likes (most women hate red roses, he's just putting it out there). Take your time with books. Go into a bookstore, channel the person, wander, and the book will come to you. Made gifts should be no bigger than your hand, in case they hate it. A postcard counts: his friend Ariel Schulman has maintained an 18-year postcard relationship. Getting a good present takes two days: one to rack your brain, then sleep on it, then the epiphany. The goal of gift giving is to make the receiver cry. Even if you don't really love them. https://www.youtube.com/embed/WqYIkm66RSI 823 2021-10-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Better Than Belts suspenders Swiss Army knife (gilded) Pentel white-out pen Uniball pen Dremel engraver Dyson hair dryer Toyota Land Cruiser Tom Sachs Dave England https://vanneistat.com/videos/leaving-nyc-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-1-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/X9I_D4qkRJ0/maxresdefault.jpg Leaving NYC: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 1 of 7) This is Part 1 of a seven-part Baja motorcycle adventure. Footage Van shot in 2009 and waited twelve years to edit. $750 for the truck alone. The delay itself is the tell. Most creators would have published this immediately; sitting on material that long means either paralysis or reverence, and the quality of the edit suggests the latter. The setup is deceptively simple: leaving New York City, gearing up for an off-road motorcycle trip down the Baja Peninsula.What lifts the episode beyond a standard adventure-vlog opener is the tension between Van's New York identity and the desert emptiness he's heading toward. The series format is rare for this channel. Seven parts is a commitment that signals this trip meant something structurally different from his usual standalone essays. The Baja Peninsula operates here less as a destination than as a stripping-down mechanism, removing the urban scaffolding that most of Van's work is built around. https://www.youtube.com/embed/X9I_D4qkRJ0 624 2021-06-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Kawasaki KLX Chevy truck Loctite Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-march-15-9am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/XShA9K42rKs/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, MARCH 15 9am PST A March 2024 Friday livestream. Van takes patron questions on builds, repairs, and whatever else comes up that week. https://www.youtube.com/embed/XShA9K42rKs 4700 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man William Ellery alpaca sweatshirt Lululemon Casio watch Marathon GSAR watch Timex Iron Man Canon 1DX Canon L-series lenses Sony Plano boxes Hinrich Model 6 bench punch BMW R1150R BMW G650X Country Ducati 916 Ducati Multistrada Ducati Hypermotard David Lynch Bill Clinton Chad Wright Casey Neistat Tim Dillon Matt McCusker Shane Gillis Ed Ruscha Rick Rubin Lex Fridman https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-healing-power-of-playing-catch/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/XrWQW5R9haY/maxresdefault.jpg The Healing Power of Playing Catch A family emergency consumed five production days. BC Slace, the normally invisible lucky rabbit's foot behind the episodes, suggested they make a video about playing catch. It was handy for two reasons: Van had acquired some unfamiliar cameras he wanted to test (a five-pound professional camera, a drone, a GoPro, an Insta360, an iPhone 12 Pro), and playing catch is fun.They threw a GoPro across the field to simulate the ball's path through the air. Too much spin. It didn't work. The Insta360 with its two hemispherical lenses got the shot instead. Even in your mid-40s, an hour of playing catch relieved the stress of the vanished production days. So simple, so beautiful. The snap, the achievable fraternal goals of the perfect throw and the perfect catch. https://www.youtube.com/embed/XrWQW5R9haY 109 2025-05-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro Insta360 iMac Mr. Slice https://vanneistat.com/videos/where-does-compulsion-come-from/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/XrgUKL1wDPw/maxresdefault.jpg Where Does Compulsion Come From? The BMW motorcycle's left blinker won't turn off. Van removes the instrument cluster again, suspects a single drop of rainwater shorting the circuit board, and reinstalls it. Meanwhile he builds a shelf for two bottles of cough syrup. Meanwhile he writes a lecture about why you should never shoot video vertically. Three spare vehicles in the driveway and he's still fixing the blinker. The question underneath all of it: why? The answer, arrived at during insomnia: the compulsion comes from his spirit. The artist's job is to preserve the human spirit. The blinker fix fails. The video gets done. That's the real report card. https://www.youtube.com/embed/XrgUKL1wDPw 420 2021-11-12T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form where compulsion come https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-krylon-superstar/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/YIB7NhfXMGo/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: KRYLON SUPERSTAR Americans in Berlin 2003: Krylon Superstar. A portrait from the Berlin documentary series featuring an artist known by their graffiti name. Street art and underground culture in early-2000s Berlin, before the galleries moved in. Van was 28, filming at the Deutsche Guggenheim. https://www.youtube.com/embed/YIB7NhfXMGo 1729 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Krylon Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/magical-places/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y_jK8uFEDj0/maxresdefault.jpg Magical Places Magical places. Finding them is an internal drive for Van. This is better than Disneyland for a five-year-old. He lives in one. He has lived in them since it's been up to him. Six cars in the parking lot, a room booked without a reservation or calling ahead, a loose sight-menu holder at a breakfast place in town. The short serves as a visual entry point to the longer exploration. Some locations carry a quality that can be felt but not explained. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y_jK8uFEDj0 37 2024-11-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short magical places https://vanneistat.com/videos/protecting-my-family-from-speeders/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ytwi6JBsk4Y/maxresdefault.jpg Protecting My Family From SPEEDERS Van lives on blind curves in Topanga Canyon, and every time he backs out of his driveway he risks a collision from someone doing 60 in a 35. Every single day. His brother Dean devised the solution: park the Tacoma where the garbage cans go, mount a light bar on its roof visible from far enough down the road, and trigger it wirelessly from any vehicle using a $25 remote switch and a 65-pound magnet. A brake-light test on passing cars confirms the system works. Drivers see the lights and slow down. The spirited man's version of traffic engineering: solve the problem yourself because the city won't. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ytwi6JBsk4Y 615 2021-07-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form protecting family speeders https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-gabriel-walsh/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Z2bcO9S95pg/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: GABRIEL WALSH Americans in Berlin 2003: Gabriel Walsh. Another portrait in the Berlin expatriate series. Low rents, high cultural production, a city still becoming itself. Van was 28, documenting the Americans who had landed there. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z2bcO9S95pg 1491 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Gabriel Walsh Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/why-veteran-artists-dont-quit/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Z9tgr_XvOn8/maxresdefault.jpg Why Veteran-Artists Don't Quit Why veteran artists don't quit: an investigation into the specific mechanism that keeps creative people working decades after the initial excitement has faded and the financial rewards have failed to materialize. Van's answer is structural: the veteran doesn't quit because the practice has become indistinguishable from the self. Quitting isn't retirement; it's amputation.The episode draws on Van's own longevity as a filmmaker (over two decades from The Holland Tunnel in 2000 to the present channel) and the community of veteran makers he's observed. The quit decision, in Van's framing, only exists for people who maintained a separation between who they are and what they do. Veterans closed that gap long ago. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z9tgr_XvOn8 675 2022-11-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man EcoFlow Delta Pro Nike Lego Tom Sachs Sarah Hoover https://vanneistat.com/videos/respectability-tour-2006-2007-directors-commentary/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZXv_Qwi0NIE/maxresdefault.jpg RESPECTABILITY TOUR 2006-2007 director's commentary Director's commentary on the Neistat Brothers Respectability Tour, 2006-2007. Casey edited this sequence. Shot on tapes. They drove cross-country in a $1,200 Econoline van. The adventure was loosely based on Dumb and Dumber. Ariel Schulman worked on it with them; he is now a Hollywood director. The footage is the real proof of concept for what would become the Neistat Brothers TV show on HBO. A Hunter S. Thompson quote opens it: "All my life my heart has sought a thing I cannot name." https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZXv_Qwi0NIE 1151 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Briggs & Stratton BMW Jack Spade Nantucket Nectars Hunter S. Thompson Tom Scott Andy Spade Ariel Schulman Mickey Sumner Josh Safdie Ben Safdie Werner Herzog George Carlin Robert Altman https://vanneistat.com/videos/2009-maritime-holiday-video-proposal-directors-commentary-with-music/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZiyHHoVFapo/maxresdefault.jpg 2009 MARITIME HOLIDAY VIDEO PROPOSAL Director's Commentary (WITH MUSIC) 2009 MARITIME HOLIDAY VIDEO PROPOSAL Director's Commentary (WITH MUSIC) — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZiyHHoVFapo 499 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form 2009 maritime holiday video proposal director's commentary music https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-make-your-own-diy-light-bouquet/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Zrtj_9xIrKc/maxresdefault.jpg How to Make Your Own DIY Light Bouquet Two exotic ingredients. First: little light balls from Amazon, about 19 cents each. Pull the paper tab to turn them on, jam a zip tie into the slit between the batteries to turn them off. Second: a 16-ounce glass bottle of juice from Erewhon or whatever the rich-people grocery store is in your region. Doesn't matter which juice. They all taste disgusting. The bottle costs $9, which is $72 a gallon. There is a $1.50 deposit if you change your mind.Arrange the lights like flowers. An odd number in a vase is more beautiful than an even number. If one of your snobby-ass friends asks who the designer is, tell them it's an Olafur Eliasson. You can forge his signature with a paint pen on the back of the bottle. Olafur Eliasson lamps cost around $20,000. Your friends should be impressed. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zrtj_9xIrKc 185 2021-09-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Amazon light balls zip ties Home Depot Olafur Eliasson https://vanneistat.com/videos/fantasy-jobs/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Zwv-61ltyL8/maxresdefault.jpg Fantasy Jobs Twenty-eight seconds. Fantasy jobs: chopper pilot, pool man, olive farmer. Van has two: Land Cruiser mechanic and, especially when faced with problems like dishwasher doors that will not stay down, repairman. The occupations that live in your imagination when you are frustrated by your actual job. What you fantasize about tells you what is missing from what you do. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zwv-61ltyL8 28 2024-06-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser https://vanneistat.com/videos/making-my-studio-off-grid-without-reading-the-instructions/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/_KOhKHduuNc/maxresdefault.jpg Making my studio off-grid (without reading the instructions) Van installs an EcoFlow backup power system in his Topanga studio without reading the instructions. The refusal to consult the manual is positioned not as machismo but as epistemology: you learn more about a system by failing to install it correctly and troubleshooting your way through than you do by following a predetermined path. The instructions tell you what to do. The mistakes tell you how the thing actually works.Making the studio off-grid is practically useful. Topanga Canyon's power infrastructure is unreliable, and a filmmaker needs electricity. But the symbolic weight outpaces the practical value. Off-grid isn't just an energy strategy; it's a posture toward self-sufficiency that runs through everything Van makes. Seven minutes of a man wiring batteries and inverters. Also a seven-minute argument for learning by doing. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_KOhKHduuNc 439 2022-08-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man EcoFlow 10 kWh Independence Kit https://vanneistat.com/videos/hurricane-hilary-topanga-creek-time-lapse/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/_ZFNKsosyIo/maxresdefault.jpg 'Hurricane' Hilary: Topanga Creek Time Lapse 'Hurricane' Hilary: Topanga Creek Time Lapse — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ZFNKsosyIo 91 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form hurricane hilary topanga creek time lapse https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-details-of-owning-a-vintage-truck/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/_lBwGLo0Gpo/maxresdefault.jpg The Details of Owning a Vintage Truck A companion piece to Van's breakout vintage truck video, this episode goes deeper into the daily reality of owning a 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser. Specifically, the brake repair that reveals a broader philosophy about objects, craftsmanship, and community. Jonathan Ward of Icon, Rick Rubin's The Creative Act, and Tolstoy's What Is Art? all surface as reference points, but the real thesis emerges from the brake job itself: that maintaining old things is a form of creative practice, not mere nostalgia.The surprise turn is toward generosity. The video becomes a tribute to the people (mechanics, neighbors, strangers with the right part) who made the truck roadworthy. Van frames this as the hidden economy of vintage ownership: the truck is kept alive not by money but by a network of people who care about the same things you care about. Revival Cycles and Icon get namechecked not as aspirational brands but as evidence that this community exists at every scale. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_lBwGLo0Gpo 565 2023-03-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser GoPro AutoZone Jonathan Ward Rick Rubin Leo Tolstoy https://vanneistat.com/videos/austins-gravity/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/_vjoTcZ36GY/maxresdefault.jpg Austin's GRAVITY A return to Austin, Texas, framed through the metaphor of gravity: the forces that pull creative people toward specific cities and hold them there. Van explores what makes Austin's gravitational field particular: the IMI Fest (Independent Media Initiative), the expanding city's tension between preservation and growth, and the specific quality of attention that Austin's creative community pays to the kind of work Van makes.The seven-minute runtime keeps the exploration moving. Van doesn't romanticize Austin or position it against LA. He treats it as a data point in an ongoing investigation of what makes cities work for creative people. The gravitational metaphor is earned: some cities attract by mass (New York, LA), others by density of like-minded people (Austin, Portland). The difference matters if you're trying to do work that requires community rather than audience. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_vjoTcZ36GY 418 2024-03-25T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Ducati Joe Rogan Duncan Trussell Tony Hinchcliffe Redban Ryan Holiday Lex Fridman Michael Malice Matt and Shane Tim Ferris Chris Williamson https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-gift-guide/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/_zoM5ME7OZU/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Gift Guide A gift guide priced from $7 to $25,000, and every item earned its place. The Alpha Model A nine-millimeter razor ($7). The Harbor Freight wood burner ($10). Doubles as a soldering iron. Shop Class as Soulcraft ($11), the book where Van got the name for the spirited man. The Fourth Turning ($13). The Hero with a Thousand Faces ($16). Petzl Tikka headlamps ($27). Women find them dorky, men love them. William Ellery socks ($35). The Conway Electric extension cord with USB-C. The Victorinox Swiss Champ ($107). Rich uncle territory: the Filson Seattle wool jack shirt ($400), which Van can't wait for cold weather to wear. A Rimowa carry-on bag. Van told Tom Sachs in Bangkok he couldn't afford one, and Sachs had an extra. He nearly cried when he opened it. A Wilderness Collective dads-and-kiddos Utah dune buggy trip ($7,000). Their son still asks when they're going back. And at the top: a Revival Cycles Bueller ($25,000), a Buell motorcycle customized into an enduro. Bueller. Bueller. Bueller. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_zoM5ME7OZU 297 2022-11-25T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Olfa Model A 9mm razor Harbor Freight wood burner Petzl Tikka headlamp William Ellery socks Revival Cycles Honey Pot Bernzomatic TS 4000 blowtorch Western Hydrodynamic Research hat Carhartt B01 dungarees L.L. Bean Wicked Good slippers Victorinox Swiss Champ Smith Corona typewriter Conway EXTO extension cord Milwaukee M12 Fuel combo kit Filson Seattle Wool Jac-Shirt Rimowa Original Cabin suitcase Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-under-60-holiday-gift-guide/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/a042wTpTmiM/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Under $60 Holiday Gift Guide A hard ceiling of sixty dollars per item. The Olfa Model A 9mm razor, $7. The Harbor Freight wood burner, $10 (also a soldering iron). Shop Class as Soulcraft, $11. Petzl Tikka headlamp, $27 (women find these dorky, men love them; Van stashes them everywhere, car, motorcycle jacket, studio). William Ellery socks, $35. The under-$60 limit is a philosophy as much as a budget: the best gifts are tools, not trophies. https://www.youtube.com/embed/a042wTpTmiM 88 2024-12-19T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Olfa Model A 9mm razor Harbor Freight wood burner Petzl Tikka headlamp William Ellery socks Revival Cycles Honey Pot Bernzomatic TS 4000 blowtorch Western Hydrodynamic Research hat Carhartt B01 dungarees https://vanneistat.com/videos/does-this-count-as-therapy-or-procrastination/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/a5ufhYzDxnU/maxresdefault.jpg Does this count as therapy or procrastination? Does this count as therapy or procrastination? — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/a5ufhYzDxnU 381 2022-07-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form count therapy procrastination https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-september-2-2022-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/aLLR7CQaT9o/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022, 9am PDT A Labor Day weekend 2022 session. Van takes patron questions heading into September. Short session, end-of-summer feel. https://www.youtube.com/embed/aLLR7CQaT9o 5053 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp BMW G650X Country Ducati 916 Ducati Multistrada Ducati Hypermotard Buell Toyota Land Cruiser 80 Series Gray Gersten Flea Wes Anderson Martin Scorsese Bob Dylan Quentin Tarantino Tony Scott Terrence Malick Casey Neistat Tim Dillon https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-importance-of-details/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ambx4r_nqxs/maxresdefault.jpg The Importance of Details The Importance of Details — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ambx4r_nqxs 60 2023-09-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short importance details https://vanneistat.com/videos/fixing-a-problem-i-cannot-live-with-any-longer/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bI2yADkRf2A/maxresdefault.jpg Fixing a Problem I Cannot Live With Any Longer The Tacoma was a gift, nearly 20 years old, 147,000 miles, and it still drives like a rental car. State-of-the-art 2002 technology. Freezing air conditioner. Watertight moonroof. One problem: the passenger-side door lock that automatically locks when you pull the outside handle. Not every time. Sometimes. Frequently enough to torture you but not frequently enough to justify a trip to the mechanic.Van catalogs the workarounds: leaving the window down, carrying a key, yanking the handle quickly to beat the lock. You could tape it open, but then the door never locks and your baseball mitts and tin of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups become susceptible to theft. Four minutes of suffering and diagnosis, and the solution is a simple, elegant, improvisational repair that improved this spirited man's quality of life by up to three percent. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bI2yADkRf2A 246 2021-05-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Tacoma https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-books-that-changed-my-life/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bIeYKR5BxpM/maxresdefault.jpg The Books That Changed My Life Five eras of mind-altering books, not five books. High school: The Catcher in the Rye (the feelings he identified with were universal enough to be assigned reading for 50 years) and Walden (didn't care then, understands now it's a prototype for how Americans think). Drug books: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas launched an insatiable Hunter S. Thompson phase, then Hell's Angels and Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Chapters in both books describe the same party at Ken Kesey's ranch from different angles. America-now books, starting after September 11: Morris Berman's trilogy. The Twilight of American Culture (2000), Dark Ages America (2005), Why America Failed (2011): each published at a crisis inflection point. The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss. Dark Money by Jane Mayer. The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner, which explained the feedback loop between news, fear, and advertising and made Van less afraid. I love this one. Sixteen minutes of a man mapping his intellectual formation through what he read and when he read it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIeYKR5BxpM 973 2022-04-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Herman Melville J.D. Salinger Henry David Thoreau Hunter S. Thompson Tom Wolfe Ken Kesey Morris Berman Neil Howe William Strauss Jane Mayer https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-february-20-2026-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bNIuR4UdKAQ/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, February 20, 2026 9am PDT A February 2026 Friday session. Van answers patron questions and discusses early-year projects with the community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bNIuR4UdKAQ 5822 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Blackmagic Mini Pro switcher Canon 5D Canon 1DX Milwaukee Makita 18V Bosch DeWalt Aventon electric bike Sur-Ron electric bike TW200 AG1 Patagonia Moog synthesizer Toyota Land Cruiser ChatGPT David Lynch Tom Sachs Colin and Samir Marty Supreme Josh Safdie Francis Ford Coppola Quentin Tarantino Tom Bilyeu Neil Howe Ray Dalio https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-ron/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bZUtxZ660kE/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: RON Americans in Berlin 2003: Ron. Van was 28, living in Berlin as part of Tom Sachs's Nutsi's installation at the Deutsche Guggenheim. He began filming these interviews on September 11, 2003, two years after September 11, 2001. Ron's apartment is full of art from Ricardo, most of it found in the garbage or gifted after karaoke shows. He got almost kicked out of an art opening hosted by the Bolivian ambassador for not having a formal invitation, then introduced himself as "Karaoke Monster" and the ambassador's hands went in the air. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bZUtxZ660kE 1399 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-angie-reed/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bbHVhj1-zWg/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: ANGIE REED Americans in Berlin 2003: Angie Reed. An American musician and artist in the Berlin expatriate community. Part of the documentary series Van started filming on September 11, 2003. The interviews are character studies and cultural snapshots at once. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bbHVhj1-zWg 919 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Angie Reed Tom Sachs Barbara Brockhaus https://vanneistat.com/videos/essential-car-toolkit-landcruiser/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bihjKg3l4Ns/maxresdefault.jpg Essential Car Toolkit (LandCruiser) Land Cruisers are United Nations spec, designed to perform for 200,000 miles with minimal repair in developing countries. Built like Legos. Van once replaced the heater/AC blower basket for $15 in 10 minutes with a Phillips-head screwdriver. The philosophy behind his roadside repair kit: tools that can hopefully unstrand him before AAA arrives and takes the truck to a garage for a week-long repair.Small metric socket set, 3/8, Craftsman. An Olfa. Stainless steel zip ties. Plastic zip ties with the steel locking tongue. Vice grips, the 7WR, the most versatile. Urethane bungees he has probably had for a decade. Silicone tape for pencil grips that can also seal hoses. A tire-plug kit and compressor for city-style punctures, no need to jack the truck up. Tom Sachs gave them a beautiful tire iron, but thank God they haven't had to use it yet. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bihjKg3l4Ns 271 2022-02-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Craftsman socket set Olfa stainless steel zip ties plastic zip ties with steel locking tongue 6-in-1 screwdriver Vise-Grip 7WR Craftsman wrenches polyurethane bungee cords deep well sockets silicone tape Stanley FatMax 16ft tape measure Toyota Land Cruiser Tom Sachs tire iron Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-things/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bkKSKAk3vxg/maxresdefault.jpg These are a few of my favorite things. Stolen from The New Covetables by Charles Eames, prompted by a Patreon patron. Generation X is a nation of nomads, and they schlep their sacred objects in their sacred baggage. The black hole: Connecticut, Vermont, West Virginia, Virginia, New York, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, Los Angeles. The Arc'teryx. The Charles W. Morgan bag, custom-made, 40-something states, Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand.Cameras have a smell. Van's smell of nail polish, linseed oil, and hands. Good cameras are dense like a firearm. Some are milled from a solid block of magnesium. A Swedish hatchet kept chisel-sharp. A three-quarter-inch Scotch tape dispenser, a two-inch packing tape dispenser, an invitation dispenser. A three-euro Eiffel Tower statuette from the steps of Montmartre. A Blade Runner chess piece from Robert in Arizona. A call-to-prayer clock from Berlin. Each memento embodies a significance way beyond its form, way beyond its value. Six minutes of inventory as autobiography. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bkKSKAk3vxg 370 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Arc'teryx Scotch tape dispenser (3/4 inch) packing tape dispenser (2 inch) silicone tape Toyota Land Cruiser Charles Eames Jack https://vanneistat.com/videos/neistat-brothers-respectability-tour-part-3-2007/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/boN-sERge1w/maxresdefault.jpg NEISTAT BROTHERS RESPECTABILITY TOUR PART 3, 2007 Neistat Brothers Respectability Tour Part 3, 2007. Cross-country in the van, visiting Plum TV affiliates in luxury resort towns like Aspen and Vail. Tom Scott, co-founder of Nantucket Nectars, funded the network and the Neistat Brothers show. Archival footage documenting guerrilla filmmaking and grassroots audience-building before the platform era. All shot on tapes. https://www.youtube.com/embed/boN-sERge1w 715 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Volvo Casey Neistat Ariel Schulman Owen Wilson Nev Schulman Pablo Picasso Jordan Gallon Rel / Mr. Slice https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-most-powerful-tool-in-the-world/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/bpbYyF-FBqU/maxresdefault.jpg The Most Powerful Tool in the World Family folklore says Van's first word was pencil. He doesn't really believe it, but he hopes it's true. Before it's anything, it's lead in a pencil. The video arrived the same week Crisis passed one million views, the channel's first seven-figure threshold.The Pentel P209 is the pencil. A few dollars, fits in your pocket. Van calls it the pump that brings up the ideas from the well. The video is a merch drop, which Van tells you upfront. The t-shirt and lightweight sweatshirt are about this pencil. Three minutes, and the argument is compressed into a single image: the most powerful tool in the world costs a few dollars and fits in your pocket. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bpbYyF-FBqU 224 2021-06-25T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Pentel P209 Rescue Tape ProPoxy Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-tool-kits/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/cCyuVoTt_mg/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Tool Kits If Van's life depends on it, it gets its own tool kit. The bicycle, the Toyota Land Cruiser, the BMW motorcycle, the snowboard, the house, the workshop. Each one has a dedicated set. The rule is absolute: tools do not migrate between nests. The Land Cruiser screwdriver is the Land Cruiser screwdriver. It is not the workshop screwdriver, not the studio screwdriver, not the BMW screwdriver. The closing line is a joke that doubles as a worldview: "No, you may not borrow my tools. My tools come with me. I and my tools will help you." Under the bit is a real argument. The point isn't tidiness. It's the elimination of friction between intention and action. If the right tool is always exactly where you need it, you never get an excuse to skip the thing in front of you. The dedicated kit is the precondition for the repair, which is why this 35-second short sits upstream of almost everything else Van makes. It's the operational version of the agency he shows when he fixes a playground zipline nobody authorized him to touch. The organization isn't the content. It's the infrastructure that makes the content possible. What Van Uses: a dedicated screwdriver and tool kit for each vehicle and space, the Toyota Land Cruiser and the BMW motorcycle among them, kept separate so nothing wanders. See the full vehicle setup in the Land Cruiser toolkit breakdown. Related: 5 Principles of Organization, Rules for an Organized Life, The Essential Tools in Every Vehicle FAQ What is Van Neistat's tool organization philosophy?Every vehicle and space gets its own dedicated tool kit, and tools never move between them. The Land Cruiser screwdriver stays with the Land Cruiser, the workshop keeps its own, and so on. The goal is that the right tool is always where you need it. Why won't Van let people borrow his tools?Because a borrowed tool is a tool out of place, and his system depends on each kit staying complete. His line is, "No, you may not borrow my tools. My tools come with me. I and my tools will help you." He'll do the job. He won't lend https://www.youtube.com/embed/cCyuVoTt_mg 35 2024-06-05T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser BMW motorcycle https://vanneistat.com/videos/trailer-the-spirited-man-long-form-episode-1/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/cJ4VIEqqguQ/maxresdefault.jpg Trailer: The Spirited Man Long-Form Episode 1 The trailer for The Spirited Man's first long-form episode. In this episode Van pulls the trigger on an idea he has been afraid of for four years: 20 short videos clipped together, testing whether AI can help him live more analog. "I used to think I hated computers. I don't think I hate computers. I hate Apple." One minute and 50 seconds of statement of intent. This is what the channel becomes when given room to breathe. https://www.youtube.com/embed/cJ4VIEqqguQ 110 2026-04-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Apple Kevin https://vanneistat.com/videos/fixed-livestream-sorry-110824/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/cMN-S9XK5-8/maxresdefault.jpg FIXED LIVESTREAM (SORRY) 11.08.24 A November 2024 livestream recovery after the original stream failed. Van fumbles through Patreon's interface trying to repost, cannot figure out how to copy a link from the browser, cannot get the scheduling to work, and eventually starts over from scratch. The technical struggle is the content. https://www.youtube.com/embed/cMN-S9XK5-8 3764 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Home Depot Amazon Final Cut Pro RODECaster Tascam iZotope Nectar Elements Tajima pull saw Speak & Spell Texas Instruments Master Class David Lynch Norm MacDonald Scott Galloway David Letterman Jerry Seinfeld Woody Allen Isabelle Michael Jordan Theo Von Sean Ryan https://vanneistat.com/videos/justify-your-expensive-film-photography-habit/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/cSTxlc4JpaA/maxresdefault.jpg Justify Your Expensive Film-Photography Habit. A practical companion to the earlier "Film Photography: 3 Great Things About It": this episode addresses the economic objection head-on. Film photography is expensive. Van's justification isn't sentimental. It's material: buy frames from Jerry's Artarama (Ambiance Gallery Wood Frame, 4x6), inscribe them with a Posca paint pen, and the cost-per-photograph reframes from "expensive habit" to "affordable heirloom." The framing formula and inscription guide are specific enough to be actionable.The sacrifice Van references isn't just financial. It's the sacrifice of convenience. Every dollar and minute spent on film photography is a dollar and minute not spent on the infinitely cheaper, infinitely faster digital alternative. Film produces objects that exist in the world, not files that exist on a server. Three and a half minutes, no filler. That distinction is the whole argument. https://www.youtube.com/embed/cSTxlc4JpaA 206 2024-05-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Jerry's Artarama frames Uni Posca paint pen 7mm white https://vanneistat.com/videos/im-never-doing-this-again/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/cjUSYQytLEM/maxresdefault.jpg I'm never doing this again. At ninety-two seconds, this is a list, not an argument. No flip-flops outside of the beach, pool, or showers. No shorts outside of beach, exercise, or pool. No baseball hats outside of baseball. No sneakers outside of home. Skateboarding, done. It became tacky after the age of 35. Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes. Quit couch surfing at age 41 in 2016. No more redeye flights. No more nondirect flights in America. No more QR-code-only menus.The American system of air travel is garbage. If you still have a QR code only menu, you can go. Every item is a line drawn in permanent marker. Some experiences are best honored by refusing to repeat them. https://www.youtube.com/embed/cjUSYQytLEM 92 2025-03-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form never doing again https://vanneistat.com/videos/hopper-proposal-directors-commentary/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/coLFthbLkCw/maxresdefault.jpg HOPPER PROPOSAL & DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY The Hopper Proposal and director's commentary. Model number 6146. A confetti-shower machine Van built for a Twitter job proposal. Patented rolling floor, patented sweeper system, patented pine battens, patented garage track. Balls balloons streamers stars even giant flip-flops. Approximately 4 feet by 8 feet with approximately 6 feet of clearance. The dual-track format layers the original proposal footage with Van's retrospective commentary. I love this thing. https://www.youtube.com/embed/coLFthbLkCw 306 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Twitter ARRI Alexa Cheerios Christopher Messina Casey Neistat https://vanneistat.com/videos/a-15-second-video-that-took-2-days-to-make/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/d4Gk1UYxb-A/maxresdefault.jpg A 15-Second Video That Took 2 Days to Make. A 15-Second Video That Took 2 Days to Make. — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/d4Gk1UYxb-A 139 2021-05-25T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form 15-second video took days make https://vanneistat.com/videos/exploring-the-la-flooding-with-a-5yr-oldquicksand/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/d4O3kiF13Do/maxresdefault.jpg Exploring the L.A. FLOODING with a 5yr Old—'QUICKSAND!' Topanga Canyon at 8am after the flooding, and Van takes his five-year-old into it. The "QUICKSAND!" in the title is the child's word for the saturated ground, and it captures something that adult language misses: that natural disaster and natural playground can occupy the same terrain. The flooding is dangerous. The flooding is also fun. Both things are true, and Van doesn't collapse the paradox.The footage moves from Topanga Canyon to Red Rock Canyon State Park, and the L.A. flooding becomes a lens for examining how children process environmental disruption differently than adults. The adult sees property damage, infrastructure failure, risk. The child sees mud, water, and an adventure that wasn't there yesterday. The video argues implicitly that the child's response is not naive but correct. Nature's disruptions are invitations if you're willing to get your boots wet. https://www.youtube.com/embed/d4O3kiF13Do 390 2024-02-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form exploring flooding old—'quicksand https://vanneistat.com/videos/is-perfectionism-a-form-of-cowardice/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/dBqK6e9A9bE/maxresdefault.jpg Is PERFECTIONISM a form of COWARDICE? A two-part thesis refined on a morning run in Topanga: perfectionism is a form of arrogance; disruptive perfectionism is a form of cowardice. Van tests it against his own practice. Last year he made 300 minutes of content: three feature films. Wes Anderson made one. He's a good-enough artist, optimized for speed and reliability, not excellence. Last year he made 300 minutes of content solo. Wes Anderson made one film with a full crew. Both are valid routes to excellence: chase perfection until you achieve it (Lombardi), or repeat good-enough so many times that your standard rises (Van). Then a Patreon subscriber named Ari delivers a gift: a handmade tool chest in rift white oak with zero-tolerance joinery, and Van has to reckon with what excellence actually looks like when it arrives at your door. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dBqK6e9A9bE 946 2024-02-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form perfectionism form cowardice https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-21624-9am-pst/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/dDsahdqOowg/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM Friday, 2.16.24, 9am PST A February 2024 Friday session. Van fields viewer questions on upcoming projects and workshop builds with the Patreon community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dDsahdqOowg 4060 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Limmer Boots GoPro iPhone 12 Bosch Milwaukee Husqvarna KTM Kill Spencer Klein American Optical Hunter S. Thompson Tom Sachs Paul Thomas Anderson Stanley Kubrick Guy Ritchie Jane Campion Lynne Ramsay Werner Herzog Martin Scorsese Francis Ford Coppola Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hell's Angels Songs of the Doomed Elon Musk biography The War of Art https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-april-22-2022-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/dRiH7LTNZjk/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2022 9AM PDT An April 2022 Friday morning session. Van takes questions from patrons and discusses spring projects. The workshop is waking up. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dRiH7LTNZjk 4742 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Apple iPod EcoFlow Ritalin Max Verstappen The Fourth Turning Born Standing Up https://vanneistat.com/videos/diy-studio-renovation/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/daF8hxyUPCc/maxresdefault.jpg DIY Studio Renovation Van's 118-square-foot Topanga studio has skylights he can only shade by climbing onto the roof in motorcycle jackets and setting up a ladder. The fix: two waxed cotton tarps on a string-and-pulley system, controlled from inside the studio. Pull east-side strings to close, west-side strings to open. No ladders, no motorcycle jackets, no cardboard shades. Six minutes of engineering a sliding tarp system against friction, gravity, and a very grippy roof. Correcting a design flaw with rope and stubbornness. https://www.youtube.com/embed/daF8hxyUPCc 361 2021-06-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form studio renovation https://vanneistat.com/videos/thousands-on-a-gopro-why/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/dk5i2dieeMc/maxresdefault.jpg Thousands on A GoPro. Why? Could have bought a brand-new Sony Alpha 7 Mark IV for what Van paid for this rig. But then again, screw Sony. The reason for building a $2,500 GoPro is not a reason at all. It is irrational. It is emotional. He wants a camera he can like again. Maybe even love. He fell in love with the GoPro's ultra slow-mo mode, sank more money into it, bought a longer lens, went down a rabbit hole. The macro lens focuses at 3 inches. Felt like building a lower-resolution, more fragile Canon 1DX. But then he fell in love with it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dk5i2dieeMc 389 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro Sony Alpha 7 Mark IV Canon 1DX Sol LeWitt https://vanneistat.com/videos/diy-solar-powered-playhouse-ac-does-it-work/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/e0m7c38yids/maxresdefault.jpg DIY Solar Powered Playhouse A/C. Does it work? An Earth Day project that doubles as a case study in Van's approach to problem-solving: his son's playhouse is too hot in a Topanga Canyon heat wave, so rather than installing conventional air conditioning, he rigs an EcoFlow solar panel system to power a cooling unit off-grid. The project is deliberately over-engineered for the problem size. A playhouse doesn't need solar infrastructure. But the over-engineering is the point.Seven minutes, tight enough to function as a build video and loose enough to let the philosophy breathe. Battling canyon heat with portable solar panels isn't efficient, but efficiency was never the metric. The metric is whether the kid understands where cold air comes from. And whether the father enjoyed the afternoon of tinkering that produced it. He did. https://www.youtube.com/embed/e0m7c38yids 431 2022-04-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man EcoFlow EcoFlow Delta Max 5000 BTU air conditioner https://vanneistat.com/videos/my-5-favorite-computers/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/e9F01466fFE/maxresdefault.jpg My 5 Favorite Computers Van's personal ranking of the five best digital machines, ranked by love, not specs. The Leica Q2 takes the crown after a mid-video re-ranking (resilient design demonstrated by pulling the battery mid-interval-shoot and having it recover flawlessly). The Atari 2600 with a 1983 cartridge mod by a nuclear submarine engineer earns #2. Game Boy Color hacked for live chiptune music is #4. iPod Nano 3rd gen, hard buttons, no camera, no speakers, is #3. The Franklin Language Master is the sentimental original #1.The through-line: every computer Van loves has physical buttons, works without menus, and survives being interrupted. Every computer he hates requires configuring, breaks when you look at it wrong, and holds your work hostage. That's the test. The video ends where the flagship episode picks up: the switcher cart reveal. https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9F01466fFE 464 2026-05-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leica Q2 Franklin Language Master iPod Nano 3rd Gen Game Boy Color Atari 2600 Blackberry Apple iMac iPhone Kim and Ben's dad Kevin https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-essential-tools/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/e9UXIaLftQs/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Essential Tools A sub-minute tour of Van's essential tools. Swiss Champ, Leatherman, Pentel 0.9mm, sledgehammer, vice-grip. Each tool is a commitment to a specific kind of problem-solving, and the collection as a whole maps Van's working philosophy: manual, repairable, and built to outlast the person using it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9UXIaLftQs 58 2024-11-27T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leatherman Swiss Champ DeWalt Makita Bosch Milwaukee Dremel 200 combo square level tape measure https://vanneistat.com/videos/what-your-deepest-desire-says-about-you/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/eJIXX14pBbg/maxresdefault.jpg What Your Deepest Desire Says About You Van wants to paint a word on the back of a chair he did not buy and did not pay for. A $250 chair, more than he paid for his first car (not adjusted for inflation). The word is Russian. The idea is stolen from his mentor, Tom Sachs, who hand-painted Tarkovsky's name on the threshold of his studio. Stalker. 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. When was the last time you saw that?A psychological essay that uses desire as a diagnostic tool. What your deepest desire says about you is not what you want. It is what you lack, and the lack is the architecture of your personality. Van treats desire not as something to pursue but as something to read, the way a mechanic reads a symptom to find the underlying failure. The inversion is the channel's signature move: take the question the audience thinks they are asking and show them the question underneath it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/eJIXX14pBbg 513 2021-11-19T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Spanish chair Andrei Tarkovsky Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistat-the-spirited-man/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/eT6wYbaRrlQ/maxresdefault.jpg VAN NEISTAT: The Spirited Man The Spirited Man is the channel trailer, 2 minutes and 28 seconds, and Van Neistat never defines the term. He defines it by enumeration instead, stacking one specific act of fixing and making on top of another until the category becomes clear. The catalogue is the argument. He can fix a dishwasher, sort of. He spent dozens of hours converting a toy to play his Super 8 films. He was insulted enough that a magnesium supplement company shipped a tiny measuring spoon with a giant tub of powder that he screwed the spoon to a chopstick to make it right. He wears prescription shop-teacher glasses. He painted a book report on an enormous sheet of paper, and once spent three months typing out someone else's novel and mounting it. None of these is impressive on its own. Together they draw a person. The thread is repair, and the tool that organizes it is a mobile repair station he built so he can fix anything, anywhere, for anyone. A tape dispenser. A broken bracelet. A tripped breaker. He notes, flatly, that he cannot fix computers. He hasn't used drugs or alcohol since 2012, because when he did it was horrible. He mounted 65-pound magnets to a mini hoop for his son. The register never rises. The hard facts and the basketball-hoop facts get the same even delivery, which is the channel's whole tone in half a minute. The trailer also names the woman who shadows the series, a spirited woman who sailed twice around the world and fell overboard once in the middle of the Pacific while pregnant. It promises episodes one through six, with more after that depending, in Van's words, on your enthusiasm slash subscriptions. It is, per the manifesto, an unlimited series about the spirited man or woman who lives inside all of us, and fixing things. What Van Uses: a Super 8 film camera, the format he loves enough to engineer his own viewer for, and a mobile repair station stocked to fix a tape dispenser or a tripped breaker on the spot. The magnesium tub and its inadequate spoon are the kind of small wrong thing he can't leave alone. https://www.youtube.com/embed/eT6wYbaRrlQ 148 2021-03-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Super 8 camera magnesium supplement https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-december-19-2025/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/fKJMSVJ7i7I/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY DECEMBER 19, 2025 A December 2025 session to close out the year. Van takes patron questions and wraps up the channel's year. Another one in the books. https://www.youtube.com/embed/fKJMSVJ7i7I 5184 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Limmer Boots Pentel P209 Roper Gloves Kill Spencer Ebox 2 Tuttio Icon Land Cruiser FJ60/FJ62 Chevy LS engine Wilwood brakes Marathon watch G-Shock/Casio Leica Q2 McMaster-Carr Tom Sachs Rob Reiner Josh Safdie Paul Kingsnorth Julia James Davis Eric Goode Sonster Against the Machine https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-61722-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/fRRS16GJQzs/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY 6.17.22 9AM PDT A June 2022 Friday morning session. Van answers patron questions and talks through summer workshop plans with the community. https://www.youtube.com/embed/fRRS16GJQzs 3741 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Yamaha TW 200 Honda Rebel 500 BMW motorcycle Shure SM7B Tascam 200 Zoom wireless mic Rode mics Raycon Criterion Channel Lynne Ramsay Adam Sandler Peter Weir https://vanneistat.com/videos/to-hell-with-this-town/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/fa3Am-sgWi8/maxresdefault.jpg To Hell With This Town To hell with this town. In 12 hours this snow will be yellow and brown, then gray, then gone. Van maps the arc from one dream to the space between dreams. Not lost, but disoriented. His intuition speaks in cardinal directions. The quiet voice gives one-word answers, one at a time. Follow the word and the next word will come. The new dream whispers. Three minutes of compressed prose poetry. Felt like a diary page caught on camera. https://www.youtube.com/embed/fa3Am-sgWi8 61 2025-07-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short hell town https://vanneistat.com/videos/you-never-know-when-you-have-to-kick-in-a-door/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/fdTeGJnPLeM/maxresdefault.jpg You Never Know When You Have to Kick in a Door Why Van always wears boots: you never know when you have to kick in a door. Swiss Army Surplus, probably from the 70s or 80s, still findable. He's had them over 17 years. One boot has the word Minerva stamped into it. Minerva, goddess of wisdom and the crafts. Red laces because Max Fischer wore red laces in his Rod Labers. Resoled and repaired many, many times. 45 seconds on preparedness that's simultaneously practical and philosophical. Topanga Canyon, where fire and isolation are real variables, makes this less theoretical than it sounds. https://www.youtube.com/embed/fdTeGJnPLeM 45 2024-11-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Swiss Army Surplus boots Rod Laver shoes Max Fischer Minerva https://vanneistat.com/videos/what-we-can-do-about-afghanistan/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/g6xzjWdfSs4/maxresdefault.jpg What We Can Do About Afghanistan A response to the fall of Kabul in August 2021, and one of the channel's most explicitly political episodes. Van's framing: what we can do about Afghanistan. Refuses both the helpless spectator posture and the armchair-general posture, searching instead for a response that acknowledges moral complicity without pretending to have solutions. The video is uncomfortable because it's honest about the limits of individual agency against geopolitical catastrophe. https://www.youtube.com/embed/g6xzjWdfSs4 538 2021-08-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Senator Feinstein https://vanneistat.com/videos/another-unauthorized-repair/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/gDp3m_3AjpM/maxresdefault.jpg Another Unauthorized Repair Another unauthorized repair. 1 and 3/4 inch dowels cut into 1 and 3/4 inch lengths. A 9/16 hole drilled in each. Paint one side brown, one side white. Install. The devil is in two details: the dowel diameter must be exact (too small and the axle hole busts the roller in half, too big and it won't fit the slot), and the axle hole must be square and centered or it pinches little kid fingers. Three weeks and over $500 into the most boring toy on the playground. Maybe this is what Van really wants to do with his life. Walk the earth like Caine in Kung Fu, but fix things instead. https://www.youtube.com/embed/gDp3m_3AjpM 82 2025-04-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short another unauthorized repair https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-birth-of-a-dream/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/gGXcJPuXzh4/maxresdefault.jpg The Birth of a Dream Somewhere in the mountains behind Van's house lies the compound and studio of Chris Burden, a now deceased great artist. If you live in Los Angeles, you're probably familiar with his sculpture Urban Light outside LACMA. Or Metropolis 2, the world's most elaborate Hot Wheels set, currently in the permanent collection. It was Metropolis 2 and Chris Burden that brought Van to Topanga for the very first time, some 10 years ago. He helped shoot a video by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost at Burden's studio.And the dream of living in the canyon was born. Now Van lives there with a new dream: maybe if he does enough work and makes enough money, one day he can buy Chris Burden's compound. Many millions of dollars. A long shot. But he doesn't have to be successful. He just has to die trying. https://www.youtube.com/embed/gGXcJPuXzh4 91 2025-06-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Chris Burden Ariel Schulman Henry Joost https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-coat-hooks/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/gbZeAF8wq04/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Coat Hooks Sixty-five seconds. One cannot have enough coat hooks. Van learned the technique in Tom Sachs's studio: paint the wood before you cut it, draw cut lines first. These are 3-inch coat racks. The build is quick, the materials are humble, and the result is the kind of small improvement that compounds across every day you live in the space. Twenty-two coat hooks in our studio. You can never have too many. https://www.youtube.com/embed/gbZeAF8wq04 65 2025-08-18T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/inside-van-neistats-camera-bag/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/gbjShdvF2Ek/maxresdefault.jpg Inside Van Neistat's Camera Bag The road bag contents: spare SD card, passport, a goodie bag reinforced with packing tape, shrink tube, flash drive, extra headphones, earplugs for hotels. Van is always imagining crash-landing. A lighter for when you crash-land in the woods. An emergency whistle in case you are lost. A Swiss Army knife alpha brought on many airplanes, blade seized only once.A Leica Q2. Extremely expensive. The Sony is probably a little bit better. Sonys are for technicians and Leicas are for idiot artists. A carbon fiber tripod. A charger bag. A one-terabyte flash drive for dumping footage. A little nightlight for hotels. A bit of a mess is actually more efficient time-wise than a perfectly sorted bag. Keep it simple. Keep it light. https://www.youtube.com/embed/gbjShdvF2Ek 107 2025-05-05T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leica Q2 Sony GoPro carbon fiber tripod 1TB flash drive https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-july-1-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/h1o284N7DRo/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, JULY 1, 9am PDT A July 2022 Friday session for the holiday weekend. Van takes questions from patrons between projects. Summer tempo. https://www.youtube.com/embed/h1o284N7DRo 3971 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man American Optical Barton Perreira Vuarnet Hardigg cases Spyderco knives BMW motorcycle KTM Spectre Milos Forman Joan Didion Ray Dalio Mark Coma Where I Was From https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-definition-of-art/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/h9E_p_fzuP8/maxresdefault.jpg The Definition of Art The definition of art. Tolstoy spent 200 pages on it in What Is Art? Van spent months on a strange experiment: he retyped a work of art he knew in his bones to be a work of art, cut out each line of type with an X-Acto, mounted the lines to a gigantic sheet of paper, and redrew the drawings from the original. The experiment served its purpose. What made the work of art a work of art is that it preserved the human spirit. That's what a work of art does. One minute. One definition. https://www.youtube.com/embed/h9E_p_fzuP8 60 2024-07-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Kurt Vonnegut Breakfast of Champions https://vanneistat.com/videos/6-pieces-of-homemade-filmmaking-gear-van-neistat-cant-live-without/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/hUrHu_IpSRc/maxresdefault.jpg 6 Pieces of Homemade Filmmaking Gear Van Neistat Can't Live Without Six pieces of DIY filmmaking gear, each one an argument about when to build and when to buy. Six pieces, zero from a store. The overhead shooting rig (2x2s, angle brackets, and VHB tape) traces its lineage to Wes Anderson and Agnès Varda. A retired Canon T2i called "Baby Jesus." A plywood GoPro stand that folds into a pocket. A clip light with a garbage-bag diffuser. The principle underneath: build when the commercial version doesn't exist or doesn't fit your specific workflow. Buy when someone else has already solved the engineering. https://www.youtube.com/embed/hUrHu_IpSRc 604 2021-06-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form pieces homemade filmmaking gear can't live without https://vanneistat.com/videos/burning-12-hours-on-one-sequence/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/hYBmUd6nRvM/maxresdefault.jpg Burning 12 hours on One Sequence Burning 12 hours on one sequence. Step one: go get all the supplies. Camera shop, batteries, chargers. Four hours to charge. Wide angle, macro, good enough. With the macro lens on this GoPro, the focus distance is 3 inches, and a Post-it note is a 3-inch square, so Van made a little ruler thing. Then build a frame. Then frame the camera. Then realize the big black thing is part of framing the camera. Twelve hours on one sequence, and the video is an argument against the myth that good content is easy to make. https://www.youtube.com/embed/hYBmUd6nRvM 342 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro Post-It notes https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-shelf-part-1/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/hvdKrhjmJao/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Shelf, Part 1 Van Neistat's Custom Shelf, Part 1 — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/hvdKrhjmJao 59 2024-08-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short neistat's custom shelf part https://vanneistat.com/videos/directors-commentary-nbtv-prototype-episode-2-2006/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/iOTMa3WeCW0/maxresdefault.jpg DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY, NBTV Prototype Episode 2, 2006 DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY, NBTV Prototype Episode 2, 2006 — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/iOTMa3WeCW0 822 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form director's commentary nbtv prototype episode 2006 https://vanneistat.com/videos/manual-typewriter-vs-the-computer/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/iViMlNj_Ca4/maxresdefault.jpg Manual Typewriter vs. The Computer Five advantages of a manual typewriter over a computer, and the fifth is the one that matters most. Joy of typing. Reliability: this Corona was built between 1936 and 1941 and still works. No electricity needed. Speed of thought without digital distraction. But the real argument is about voice. On a typewriter you can't delete. When you second-guess a word, you cross it out and keep going, and the correction captures how you think. The machine forces commitment, and the commitment trains clearer thinking, clearer talking, clearer writing. The typewriter captures your voice in a way the delete key destroys. https://www.youtube.com/embed/iViMlNj_Ca4 660 2021-11-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form manual typewriter computer https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-greatest-blessing/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/igps0G5o5tc/maxresdefault.jpg The Greatest Blessing No story for this week's video, so Van attempts to make it with ease. He's meant to make this video for over a year. Maybe it's just for him. The gist: what he did with his son during the pandemic, on mom's days off. A recreation of the Sunday routine refined over many Sundays. The Griffith Park merry-go-round, closed for over a year, just reopened with the vaccines. It holds historical significance in American childhood culture. Van notes this and promises to return to it later. The L.A. River on bikes. Mushroom hunting. A marble found in the dirt. The boy trips on a log. The video is a document, not a story. Van realizes his son won't remember any of this and wants a record. That is the turn. Twelve minutes of a father building a childhood his son will only know through this footage. https://www.youtube.com/embed/igps0G5o5tc 747 2021-08-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Panda Express Walt Disney https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-present/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ipODCzh-LF8/maxresdefault.jpg THE PRESENT The Present. Casey got a birthday present from Tom Sachs: a potato cannon. Spray paint and a Phillips-head screwdriver loaded into the barrel. Van made a filmmaking error and pushed stop when someone said "hold on a second," missing the shot. He promises it was not faked. The screwdriver went all the way through. Felt like Christmas with explosives. The video captures the energy of grown men with a dangerous toy and zero adult supervision. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ipODCzh-LF8 125 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Casey Neistat Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/why-do-we-run/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/irA_G0TSCJE/maxresdefault.jpg Why Do We Run? Why do we run. 42 seconds. Running sucks and maybe that's why Van made this video. Four miles per day, 5 days a week. First half uphill in the dark, ideas on the way home downhill in the light, dictated into his phone. He's never experienced a runner's high. Doesn't believe it. The only runner's high he gets is when the run is over. If it turns out other people aren't lying and they do love running, they're completely different people than he. Maybe better people. https://www.youtube.com/embed/irA_G0TSCJE 42 2024-06-07T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-february-25-2022-900-am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/isM47HJTQyM/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM February 25, 2022 9:00 am PDT A February 2022 session, among the earliest livestreams. Van takes questions and figures out the format in real time. The channel is two months into live sessions. https://www.youtube.com/embed/isM47HJTQyM 4297 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Lumber Liquidators Filson Werner Herzog Chloe Zhao Sol LeWitt Bob Dylan Rodrigo Amarante Andrei Tarkovsky Ingmar Bergman Sentences on Conceptual Art https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-build-a-diy-sledgehammer-lamp/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/j3QMouEuA5A/maxresdefault.jpg How to Build a DIY Sledgehammer Lamp A gift-building tutorial for Father's Day: the Destroyer Lamp. I love this build. A 10-pound sledgehammer with a wooden shaft, a  Home Depot heat lamp, 4-inch vice grips, plumber's epoxy, and a plywood base with felt feet. The standard version barely holds together; the deluxe version uses the vice grips to lock the clamp and the epoxy to stabilize it permanently. Van prices it out (more expensive and harder than buying something store-bought) and that's precisely the point. Your dad will love it and your mom will hate it, or vice versa, and that's the perfect symbiosis. https://www.youtube.com/embed/j3QMouEuA5A 748 2021-06-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form build sledgehammer lamp https://vanneistat.com/videos/die-trying/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/jDX_QbnKh0c/maxresdefault.jpg Die Trying. A merch drop. They're trying to sell you something. But first: somewhere in the mountains behind Van's house lies the compound of Chris Burden, the great artist. If you live in Los Angeles you know Urban Light. 202 street lamps from the golden age, rescued from the city that threw them away. Burden also built an airplane robot and a flying steamroller and Metropolis II, the world's most ambitious Hot Wheels set, now in the permanent collection of LACMA. It was Burden and Metropolis II that brought Van to Topanga Canyon for the first time, 10 years ago, shooting a video for Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. Van's dream of living in the canyon was born on that shoot. Now he lives here with a new dream: maybe one day he can buy Chris Burden's compound. Many millions of dollars. A long shot. But this spirited man doesn't have to be successful. He just has to die trying. https://www.youtube.com/embed/jDX_QbnKh0c 236 2021-09-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Chris Burden Ariel Schulman Henry Joost https://vanneistat.com/videos/pre-world-war-2-vs-now/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/jgwLBPkKpBk/maxresdefault.jpg Pre-WORLD WAR 2 vs. NOW The third and most historically ambitious of Van's Fourth Turning videos, this episode maps the pre-World War II crisis era onto the present with granular precision. Where the original video introduced Strauss and Howe's generational theory and the sequel explored its darkest predictions, this installment does the structural work: catalysts, regeneracy phases, consolidation, climax, and resolution: each stage illustrated with historical parallels that make the pattern feel less like theory and more like weather.Neil Howe's 2023 book The Fourth Turning Is Here provides the updated framework, but Van's contribution is the filmmaking. He translates academic periodization into visual argument: the kind of historical reasoning that usually lives in university lectures but here reaches an audience of 130,000 through YouTube's algorithm. The video doesn't predict what happens next so much as establish the vocabulary for recognizing it when it does. https://www.youtube.com/embed/jgwLBPkKpBk 878 2023-09-19T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Neil Howe FDR Herbert Hoover Donald Trump Hillary Clinton The Fourth Turning Is Here The Fourth Turning https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-choose-which-screws-to-use/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/jhuODgxFH5Q/maxresdefault.jpg How to Choose Which Screws to Use How to choose which screws to use. Over 99% of Van's screws are tapping screws, the pointy kind that dig their own holes. Over 99% are Phillips head. Flathead screws are banned. His sheet-metal screw knowledge came from Tom Sachs, but the Wikipedia of screw information is the McMaster-Carr catalog. The smallest he uses: number 2. The largest in the shop: number 14, though he cannot find a single instance of number 14 use anywhere around the house. The video fills a gap most maker content ignores. https://www.youtube.com/embed/jhuODgxFH5Q 555 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man McMaster-Carr GoPro 8 Media Mod Atomos sheet metal screws Tom Sachs Alexander Palacios https://vanneistat.com/videos/thanks-for-1663-worth-of-gifts-shorts/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/jw4nlaUkPVI/maxresdefault.jpg Thanks for $1,663 Worth of Gifts #Shorts A 34-second thank-you note to Revival Cycles, dreaming of Texas and brushed aluminum. $1,663 in gifts from the audience: transparency about the economics of independent creation. The specific dollar amount is the point. Van doesn't round up or hedge. That kind of honesty is its own form of generosity. https://www.youtube.com/embed/jw4nlaUkPVI 34 2022-04-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Revival Cycles/Revival Motorcycles Suzuki GS650 https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-mysticism-of-motorcycles/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/k4YSxh92veE/maxresdefault.jpg The Mysticism of Motorcycles Van needs to ride about once a week or else he goes crazy. There's a line in a novel so great that he bought the book two more times to find it again. One paperback, one ebook. The passage describes what happens on a motorcycle: waking up, then waking up from that, then waking up even more. Was everything redneck actually mystical? The motorcycle as a vehicle for transcendence isn't metaphor for Van. It's phenomenology. https://www.youtube.com/embed/k4YSxh92veE 53 2025-04-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short mysticism motorcycles https://vanneistat.com/videos/materialisms-bright-side/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/k4jQNjER06Y/maxresdefault.jpg Materialism's Bright Side A defense of materialism that only works because Van defines his terms. The bright side isn't accumulation. It's the relationship between a person and the specific objects they've chosen to carry through life. Bags, cameras, tools, dispensers, mementos, scribes: each category represents a different mode of engagement with the physical world, and Van's Killspencer CW Morgan Bag anchors the argument in a specific, well-made thing rather than consumer abstraction.The seven-minute runtime forces economy. Each category gets roughly sixty seconds, which means Van has to distill his relationship with each type of object to its essential claim. The result is less an essay than a taxonomy: a field guide to the objects worth caring about, organized by function rather than price. The Patreon plug at the end is the only moment that breaks the spell, reminding you that even anti-materialist materialism exists within an economy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/k4jQNjER06Y 420 2024-04-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Kill Spencer CW Morgan Bag Arc'teryx Land Cruiser Swedish hatchet Scotch tape dispenser Hagoromo chalk Charles Eames https://vanneistat.com/videos/when-a-repair-gets-away-from-you/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/kIv1CyNN2BI/maxresdefault.jpg When a Repair Gets Away From You Three mechanics have failed to fix the oil drip on Van's 1987 Land Cruiser: a design flaw where the oil return hose sits too close to the exhaust manifold and eventually burns through. Van's improvisation: an aluminum shield clamped to the hose, plus a pudding-bucket reservoir to catch drips. The shield punches a new hole in the brittle hose. Four days of labor instead of one. No ironic twist, no clever breakthrough. Just that one bolt under the turbo that makes you question your life's choices, and a temporary fix that has to hold until the new engine arrives from a supply chain disrupted by the Suez Canal blockage. https://www.youtube.com/embed/kIv1CyNN2BI 431 2021-09-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form when repair gets away https://vanneistat.com/videos/why-we-risk-our-lives/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/kiJV5a8H_xc/maxresdefault.jpg Why We Risk Our Lives Why we risk our lives: a question that adventure content usually answers with adrenaline and most philosophy answers with abstraction. Van's answer is neither. We risk our lives because the experience of genuine risk produces a quality of attention that safety cannot. The risk isn't the point; the attention is the point. The risk is the price of the attention. https://www.youtube.com/embed/kiJV5a8H_xc 543 2024-04-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 BMW R nineT BMW 650 GoPro Yogi Berra Eric Bana Dr. Phil unknown novel with character Miranda https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-i-would-start-my-life-if-i-were-18-now/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/kloLI0j1hAY/maxresdefault.jpg How I Would Start My Life if I Were 18 Now Van started out in 1998, moved from Virginia to Brooklyn at 23 to pursue a career as a magazine writer. The thought experiment: what if he were starting at 18 now, in 2024, with his 49-year-old brain but his 18-year-old body? He does not know how to edit, use cameras, ride a shifter motorcycle, or build things. Starting from scratch on skills. But he has the wisdom.Five things. First: do not go to college. Get a job, live with Dad in Waterford, Connecticut, save $15,000, then get out. Find a contractor, learn to build. The unconventional path that actually produced his life. HBO series, Guggenheim exhibitions, Tom Sachs collaborations, an independent YouTube channel at 50. That is the evidence. The tolerance for uncertainty most 18-year-olds have not developed is the price of admission. https://www.youtube.com/embed/kloLI0j1hAY 764 2024-11-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp iMac Casey Neistat REM https://vanneistat.com/videos/17-years-with-the-same-boots/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/kpJ2G-yDCNo/maxresdefault.jpg 17 Years with the Same Boots Van used to wear flip-flops in New York until September 11, 2001. Then he started wearing boots. He bought Swiss Army surplus boots, probably from the 1970s or 1980s, for the Respectability Tour in 2006. Over 17 years with the same boots. Red laces because Max Fischer wore red laces in Rushmore. A guy in the East Village tried to buy them off his feet once and was incensed when Van refused. Resoled and repaired many times, in New York, in Mexico, in Los Angeles. They have been restitched so many times the perforations have ground the leather into pulp. Time to retire them. That is hard to do. https://www.youtube.com/embed/kpJ2G-yDCNo 506 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Swiss Army Surplus boots Limmer Boots Vibram soles Nike Max Fischer Adam Limmer https://vanneistat.com/videos/my-to-do-list-philosophy/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/lG1DaoJkuBw/maxresdefault.jpg My To-Do List Philosophy The to-do list as red shoes. Hans Christian Andersen's dancer who loved dancing so much she put on magical shoes that let her dance better than anyone, and then the shoes took over and danced her to death. Van's lists are dancing him to death. He uses Post-it notes on card stock, four quadrants that shapeshift from list to list. His friend Cynthia Rowley renamed them "do lists": not to-do, because these are tasks you're doing now, not putting off. The system works: every detail of the channel started as an entry. The label on this shirt, the pencil, the cork floor, the microphone. But the well has run dry. A Post-it from January 14th reads: "too much of my creativity comes from my todo lists these days." Meaning his creativity is coming from chores, not inspiration. He collapsed two Mondays in a row after 11 a.m. The solution is the last line item on every do list: enjoy all of the above. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lG1DaoJkuBw 529 2022-07-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Sleepy Jones F-350 Post-It notes Cynthia Rowley David Lynch Hans Christian Andersen https://vanneistat.com/videos/they-treat-art-workers-fancy-too/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/lMJ_kLLgXFM/maxresdefault.jpg They Treat Art WORKERS Fancy, Too... Van travels to the Bangkok Art Biennale with Tom Sachs and turns the trip into an examination of what it means to be an art worker rather than an artist. The distinction is the engine of the video. You build the crates, you hang the pieces, you troubleshoot the installation. Then you eat at the same table as the collectors. I love that.The nearly fifteen-minute runtime allows Van to stay inside the experience rather than rushing to a thesis. Bangkok operates as both exotic backdrop and mirror, reflecting the strangeness of being flown across the world to do manual labor in a silk-glove context. The Tom Sachs Studio relationship, decades long, built on shared obsession with craft and protocol, provides the subtext. The real story here isn't the luxury. It's what it looks like when an art worker has been doing it long enough to hold the paradox without flinching. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lMJ_kLLgXFM 891 2022-10-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Amazon Home Depot Tom Sachs Joseph Conrad Apinan https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-81222-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/lwMsxZNyGl0/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM 8.12.22 9AM PDT An August 2022 Friday session. Van answers viewer questions and works through project updates. The workshop never stops. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lwMsxZNyGl0 4936 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Apple Moog synthesizer/Mini Moog Pentel pencils Leatherman Nike Mars Yard BMW Manhattan Insta360 Oculus Panasonic Toughbook Lamborghini Countach Ferrari F40 West Systems resin Cab-O-Sil Overland Cruisers David Lynch Tom Sachs Marcy Klein Lorne Michaels Seth Meyers Tina Fey Steve Martin Andy Spade David Spade Tom Scott The Outlaw Bible of American Literature The 12 Million Dollar Shark https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-most-dangerous-place-in-the-world-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-4-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/mBIurwEdHjg/maxresdefault.jpg The Most Dangerous Place in the World: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 4 of 7) Part 4 of the Baja series. The single-word description ("Thwarted") tells you everything about the tone. A dust storm shuts down the highway. Ten wrecks, worse than any snowstorm. Nevada police checkpoint. Neistat goes down in a Las Vegas parking lot, bike sliding on knobbies, miraculously landing on its kickstand. The good-omen logic of motorcycle culture: a small fall early means no big fall later. Hopefully.The series structure earns its weight here. Four episodes of momentum have built an expectation of forward progress, and Part 4 breaks it. Being thwarted isn't failure. It's the thing that separates adventure from tourism. The episode sits at the midpoint of the seven-part arc, exactly where Joseph Campbell would place the ordeal. Van knows it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/mBIurwEdHjg 658 2021-07-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Ray-Ban Sam Scott Ryan Berman https://vanneistat.com/videos/peer-discussion-stephen-bajkiewicz/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/mEiHW_A_UjM/maxresdefault.jpg PEER DISCUSSION: Stephen Bajkiewicz A Patreon-exclusive peer discussion with Stephen Bajkiewicz. The series gives Spirited Man patrons a platform to share their own experiences with craft, creativity, and the spirited life. Van listens as much as he talks. That is the point. https://www.youtube.com/embed/mEiHW_A_UjM 1255 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Overland Cruisers Cummins R 2.8 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 Toyota Celica GT Toyota 22R engine Spectre Off-Road Harbor Freight chain hoist Chevrolet 350 engine Haynes manual Stephen Bajkiewicz https://vanneistat.com/videos/we-had-to-evacuate-when-a-wildfire-threatened-our-home/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/mHltH-8wWZ4/maxresdefault.jpg We had to evacuate when a wildfire threatened our home Three and a half minutes. A wildfire that threatens your home is not like a hurricane back east. It is a different disaster experience. Wildfires are a surprise, too fast for the news. This fire is four months early. Van spotted it on the way to a playground. If we have to leave, he thought, I am packing just the hard drives this time.The helplessness and fear diminish with each new fire season, giving way to preparedness, execution, and respect. Respect for the fire. Respect for the folks who put it out. The firefighters did not act like authorities. They acted like fellow members of a community, like friendly neighbors. One explained the status, the techniques, the hundreds more firefighters over the ridge on foot. Another snapped a photo of our family for our holiday card. The next day all evacuation orders were lifted. No philosophy, no framework. Just the raw footage of leaving and the relief of return. https://www.youtube.com/embed/mHltH-8wWZ4 212 2021-05-18T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form evacuate when wildfire threatened home https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-perfect-vacation-a-failed-adventure/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/mXlZ3GFf3PI/maxresdefault.jpg The Perfect Vacation & a Failed Adventure At nearly eighteen minutes, this is one of the channel's longest episodes, and the runtime earns itself through a structural gambit: two stories braided together, one about a perfect vacation and one about a failed adventure. The juxtaposition isn't decorative. It's the argument. The perfect vacation succeeds by being bounded, predictable, contained. The failed adventure fails by being ambitious, open-ended, and honest about its own limitations.The deeper question Van is circling is whether failure in adventure is worth more than success in comfort. He doesn't answer it cleanly, which is the right call. The failed adventure produces better footage, better stories, and better self-knowledge. The perfect vacation produces rest. Both are necessary, and the tension between them is what keeps a creative life from collapsing into either burnout or complacency. https://www.youtube.com/embed/mXlZ3GFf3PI 1056 2025-08-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Epidemic Sound Land Cruiser GoPro Thermacell David Lynch Werner Herzog https://vanneistat.com/videos/what-does-it-mean-to-be-spirited/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/my0aNuPUEhQ/maxresdefault.jpg What Does it Mean to be Spirited? The channel's thesis statement in video form. Van does not define spiritedness with a dictionary entry. He defines it by showing it: a child who learned to walk eight weeks ago covering nearly a mile today, a dog who never lost the instinct, a man who read Shop Class as Soulcraft and thought, yeah, that is me. All children are spirited. When they lose it, they are no longer children.The title's question mark matters. Van is not declaring what spiritedness is. He is investigating it, and the investigation is ongoing. Every subsequent video on the channel is a data point: each repair, each road trip, each philosophical tangent adding texture to an answer that never quite completes itself. I love that about this project. https://www.youtube.com/embed/my0aNuPUEhQ 201 2021-04-02T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Matthew Crawford Shop Class as Soulcraft https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-september-8-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/nFBMCcZvJi4/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM Friday, September 8, 9am PDT A September 2023 Friday morning livestream. Van takes questions from the Patreon community and talks through whatever is on the bench that week. https://www.youtube.com/embed/nFBMCcZvJi4 4678 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Simpson helmet Bell Bullet Leica Q2 Sony Alpha 7 Canon 1DX Canon XL1 Canon 5D Carhartt double knee work pants Smart Wool socks Swiss Army Surplus boots Limmer Boots Costco folding table Dynamat Revival Cycles Cake electric motorcycle David Lynch Casey Neistat Tom Sachs Josh Safdie Ben Safdie Wes Anderson Stanley Kubrick Andrei Tarkovsky Ingmar Bergman Lars von Trier Blink 48 Laws of Power https://vanneistat.com/videos/one-minute-repairs-bootleg-braun-wall-clock-shorts/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/nPu_3QEMPss/maxresdefault.jpg ⏱ ONE MINUTE REPAIRS: Bootleg Braun Wall Clock #Shorts ⏱ ONE MINUTE REPAIRS: Bootleg Braun Wall Clock #Shorts — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/nPu_3QEMPss 60 2022-06-10T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short minute repairs bootleg braun wall clock #shorts https://vanneistat.com/videos/5-principles-of-organization/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ncZ1mO8mA44/maxresdefault.jpg 5 Principles of Organization Van delivers organizational philosophy as liturgy. Each principle gets a commandment and a violation. No stacks (unique items must never be stacked, stacking invites chaos. Kit your shit) decentralize your mess, never migrate kit contents. Find your organizational talismans. Binder clips, Post-its Super Sticky, number 64 rubber bands, hooks (American hooks AND Japanese hooks bought in Japan). Learn to build shelves. Customize. The biblical cadence is deliberate. "In the beginning there was shelves" is not a joke, or it is, but Van means it. Organization is the precondition for the creative and repair work that defines the rest of the channel. The jumper cables stored in a repurposed flare gun box in the engine compartment aren't about tidiness. They're about being the kind of person who carries jumper cables because they're organized enough to have them when someone else needs them. The principles serve the philosophy. The philosophy serves other people. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ncZ1mO8mA44 311 2022-06-03T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Post-It Super Sticky notes #64 rubber bands binder clips push pins https://vanneistat.com/videos/virtue-of-courage-baja-motorcycle-adventure-part-6-of-7/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/oCb1pWrzkHI/maxresdefault.jpg Virtue of Courage: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 6 of 7) Part 6 of the Baja series. The worst day of the trip. Sam breaks his bike. Then Sam breaks his bike again. Sam, Van's second oldest friend, the one who taught him the value and importance of reading books when they were kids. The virtue named in the title (courage) is not the Hollywood version. Sometimes you just have to keep going, and that's it.By Part 6, the series has established enough physical and storytelling context that the courage Van describes carries real weight. The Baja Peninsula has been dangerous, grinding, and indifferent to the riders' intentions. Continuing isn't heroic in the cinematic sense. It's stubborn, embodied, and sustained by nothing more than the refusal to let the peninsula win. https://www.youtube.com/embed/oCb1pWrzkHI 715 2021-07-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BMW motorcycle Sam Scott Neve Ryan Berman https://vanneistat.com/videos/because-computers-are-stupid/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/oZh17PnMi74/maxresdefault.jpg Because Computers Are Stupid. A sponsored video for Marathon watches that transcends its commercial obligation through a genuine philosophical argument about analog timekeeping. Van builds the case methodically: computers are stupid because they do everything, watches are intelligent because they do one thing, and the distinction between a Marathon GSAR diver's automatic and a smartwatch isn't feature set but orientation toward time itself. The tritium tube illumination (radioactive gas providing 25 years of permanent glow) becomes a metaphor for technology that doesn't require updates, charging, or your attention.The entity density is revealing: Omega compared to Range Rover, Rolex to G-Wagon, Audemars Piguet to Rolls-Royce, while Marathon maps to Van's own 38-year-old Land Cruiser. Purpose-built, military-grade, indifferent to luxury signaling. The $21 Amazon analog watch he wore before the Marathon sponsorship grounds the argument in biography rather than aspiration. Worn & Wound's behind-the-scenes interview extends the conversation for watch enthusiasts, but the video works as standalone philosophy for anyone suspicious of the assumption that newer technology is better technology. https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZh17PnMi74 478 2025-04-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Marathon watch Marathon GSAR Marathon CSAR Chronograph Automatic Worn & Wound Land Cruiser Apple iMac Omega Rolex Audemars Piguet Amazon Kia TLC Land Cruiser by Jonathan Ward Casey Neistat Joe Rogan Jonathan Ward Taylor Kealy Kyle https://vanneistat.com/videos/why-do-details-matter/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ooTN3dkYXQM/maxresdefault.jpg Why Do Details Matter? Van opens with a question he can't answer: why do details matter to him? Is the compulsion trauma, control, paranoia? He doesn't know. What he does know is that he's willing to endure any consequence. Three days on a truck grille badge when the factory replacement costs $159.84, a 1936 Corona Standard typewriter chosen because it's the only model that fits a military case, two years to engineer a plumber's epoxy eraser mount, Super Sticky Post-its in golden yellow (not canary yellow, adhesive at the top, not the accordion kind). To get the detail right. The video catalogs these obsessions without resolving them. The resolution comes from me. He asked if his detail fetish was harming others. My reply was off-handed: I love that about you. Van says it ignited an epiphany. What I think actually happened is simpler. Someone he trusted named the compulsion as a virtue instead of a pathology, and that was enough. The video is about the difference between those two framings. Most of what makes Van's work distinctive lives in that gap. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ooTN3dkYXQM 489 2021-04-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Pentel mechanical pencil plumber's epoxy Post-It Super Sticky notes Corona Standard typewriter Olivetti Lettera 22 25% cotton pleating paper Toyota Land Cruiser stainless steel 3/4 inch #4 flathead sheet metal screws https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-shelf-part-2/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/orjkHtvrwPg/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Shelf, Part 2 Fifty-nine seconds. Part 2 of the custom shelf build: pre-drill your holes like a ninja, mount your corner braces, screw in 1.5-inch sheet metal screws, check level. The Spirited Man approach to domestic infrastructure in under a minute. Build it yourself, build it to last, build it to fit the specific life you are living rather than a catalog's approximation. That is the whole idea. https://www.youtube.com/embed/orjkHtvrwPg 59 2024-08-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man corner braces sheet metal screws masonry bit triple grip anchors https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-71522-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/p5NAU7fumLM/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY 7.15.22 9AM PDT A July 2022 Friday morning session. Van answers questions from patrons and works through the week's projects out loud. Summer in the workshop. https://www.youtube.com/embed/p5NAU7fumLM 4219 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Series Twitter Kickstarter Patreon Tom Sachs David Lynch Stefan Sagmeister Tibor Kalman Jack Conte Jane Campion Neil Howe Tony Robbins Jordan Peterson David Rubin The Fourth Turning https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-82225/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/pJ4r-u8MgMk/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM 8.22.25 An August 2025 live session. Van takes questions from the community and catches up on summer projects. Late-summer workshop energy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pJ4r-u8MgMk 7525 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Limmer Boots Makita Milwaukee DeWalt Bosch Toyota Land Cruiser Moto Tote Final Cut Pro Netflix HBO Opal Tadpole Leica Q2 Nike Tacoma Swiss Champ David Lynch Paul Thomas Anderson Dean Neistat Tom Sachs Timothee Chalamet Ben Stiller Joe Rogan Seth Godin Alex Hormozi Cody Sanchez Revolutionary Spring The Death of Money The Fourth Turning https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-custom-swiss-army-knife/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/pK5SpHb8as8/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Custom Swiss Army Knife Forty-seven seconds. The Swiss Champ, not the Swiss Champion (which does not have pliers). Once packed a Swiss Champ and only a Swiss Champ on a Europe trip. The scissors get used most often: sauce packets, string, cord, twine, line. The saw cut kindling yesterday. The file cuts steel and aluminum.He replaced the stock pin with a needle. The hook, which the Swiss manual says is for carrying pastry boxes, is for putting a chain back on sprockets without getting your hands dirty. God bless those classy Swiss soldiers. If you are going to own one tool, own this one. Victorinox brand only. Look for the funny-shaped shield, not the square one. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pK5SpHb8as8 47 2024-07-17T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Swiss Champ (Victorinox) https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-essential-tools-in-every-vehicle-landcruiser/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/pKUmSDYkiTU/maxresdefault.jpg The Essential Tools in Every Vehicle (LandCruiser) The philosophy: you need two kits. One for fixing the car, one for non-car repairs on the road. If your car is newer than a 2005, you are not fixing it. Get a AAA card. Keep a Swiss Champ or Leatherman in the center console and a roll of clear tape. Not that Magic Tape crap. Duck Brand Crystal Clear is the gold standard. Clear tape is the fundamental repair material.Van's Land Cruiser center console looks like a junk drawer, but each item is thought out. Disposable gloves for the engine compartment. A lighter, even if you don't smoke, because lighter plus glue stick equals hot glue gun. Two red pens because pen borrowers steal pens. A tape measure with his name on it. Thread with a stripe of hot glue on it so it doesn't unravel. Lefty scissors retired from his desk because they have a nick in the blades. One piece of white cardstock and one piece of bone cardstock: an arts-and-crafts kit or a save-the-day kit or an emergency birthday-present wrapping kit. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pKUmSDYkiTU 186 2022-02-11T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser Swiss Champ Leatherman Klein Canvas Tool Bags Scotch tape Duck Brand Crystal Clear tape Pentel 0.7mm BMW GX650 gaff tape Sharpie (red) Post-its https://vanneistat.com/videos/master-adventurers-have-this-in-common/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/pSUm2tHv4h0/maxresdefault.jpg Master adventurers have this in common What master adventurers have in common, distilled in 56 seconds. Begin packing when you know your departure date. Do not pack more than you can carry all by yourself for a distance of one quarter mile. You never know if the car is going to break down when you're in Morocco. That happened to Van once. The common trait isn't fearlessness or fitness. It's a particular relationship with preparation that most people skip. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pSUm2tHv4h0 56 2023-07-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short master adventurers common https://vanneistat.com/videos/three-birds-one-stone/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/pcM0F10ol2Y/maxresdefault.jpg Three Birds, One Stone The title suggests efficiency, and the five-minute runtime delivers it without padding. Van demonstrates the principle that good design addresses multiple constraints at once. The best fixes don't just solve the immediate problem. They collapse adjacent problems into the same intervention. Look for the move that accomplishes three things, not one.The brevity is itself an application of the principle. A longer video would belabor what a short one proves: that elegant fixes are, by definition, compact. Five minutes. Three problems. One fix. Van doesn't theorize about efficiency; he demonstrates it, and the demonstration is the argument. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pcM0F10ol2Y 343 2021-11-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Patreon https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-7-friday-april-8-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/pl3Uvf7BrcM/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM #7 Friday, April 8, 9am PDT Livestream number 7, April 2022. Van takes viewer questions and continues finding the rhythm of these Friday sessions. Seven livestreams in and the format is starting to hold. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pl3Uvf7BrcM 4454 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Range Rover EcoFlow Red Dot Design Award Final Cut Pro Adobe Premiere iMovie Dremel Ray-Ban Wayfarer IKEA Barton Perreira (glasses) Ferrari Red Bull BMW R1150R Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 David Lynch Mike D Miho Hattori Scotty Kilmer Tom Sachs Oksana Todorova Adam Savage Alex Wales Amy Adams Kurt Vonnegut Breakfast of Champions Slaughterhouse Five The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry I Remember The Talmud https://vanneistat.com/videos/should-you-ride-a-motorcycle/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/q7mQ1PZWcig/maxresdefault.jpg Should You Ride A Motorcycle? When Van is broke, motorcycle insurance is the first privilege he loses. When he's flush, it's the first one that comes back. Riding is the most dangerous thing regular people do. 27 times more likely to die per mile than in a car. Van doesn't watch motorcycle crash videos on YouTube. He won't allow those images in his subconscious. His rules: helmet, jacket, gloves, boots, pants for every ride. Never drink and ride, not even one beer. 50% of accidents involve at least one drink. When people ask if they should ride, he asks if they do adventure sports where the consequences can sometimes be death. Never talk someone into getting a motorcycle. Some people absolutely should not ride. The video is a 20-minute loop through the Santa Monica Mountains shot on Insta360, and underneath the canyon beauty is a sober accounting of risk from a man who considers riding a spiritual activity. https://www.youtube.com/embed/q7mQ1PZWcig 669 2021-06-08T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Insta360 Go Insta360 ONE R GoPro Ducati Harley Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/off-to-see-the-wizard-2000-with-original-music/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/qlDZCayqD3Q/maxresdefault.jpg OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD (2000) with original music OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD (2000) with original music — Watch and explore show notes from The Spirited Man with Van Neistat. https://www.youtube.com/embed/qlDZCayqD3Q 432 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form wizard 2000 original music https://vanneistat.com/videos/2-things-to-know-about-women/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/rTYH943jiEo/maxresdefault.jpg 2 things to know about women Van is alone in Mexico. Truck, motorcycle, books, solitude. He sought counsel from a spirited woman: a sailor who'd been twice around the world, a friend, not a lover, and came back with two insights he treats with the weight of revelation. The first is diagnostic: he had been perceiving women as drugs. Medicine to treat his ails, chemicals to bring him joy. He names the pathology plainly, without performance. The second is literary: he finally understood what the poet meant: that women are the other half of the sky. The shift is from consumption to recognition. From instrument to counterpart. It's one of the quietest videos on the channel, and one of the most honest about the kind of man Van was before he became the man making this. https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTYH943jiEo 297 2021-03-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form things know women https://vanneistat.com/videos/livestream-friday-80922-9am-pdt/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/rYcNycRghUE/maxresdefault.jpg LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, 8.09.22, 9am PDT An August 2022 Friday session. Van fields questions and talks through current builds with the Patreon community. Midsummer pace. https://www.youtube.com/embed/rYcNycRghUE 5554 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser Cummins R2.8 turbo diesel Fantado (china ball lights) Klein wire strippers Ferrari F1 Red Bull F1 Final Cut Pro 10 Adobe Premiere iMovie Dremel Barton Perreira (glasses) BMW R1150R Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 Yamaha TW 200 Honda TransAlp Scotty Kilmer Tom Sachs Oksana Todorova Adam Savage Alex Wales Kurt Vonnegut Frank Ocean Patti Smith Ray Dalio Casey Neistat Breakfast of Champions https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-every-digital-thing-should-work/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/rbqJNTByDkc/maxresdefault.jpg How Every Digital Thing Should Work Van Neistat pulls the SD card and battery out of his Leica Q2 mid-shoot and loses nothing. The camera's recovery becomes his standard for every digital thing. The clip runs about 90 seconds, cut from Long-Form Episode 1, and it had 73,463 views within days. The demonstration is specific. Interval mode, one photo per second, click click click. He pulls the SD card while it's shooting. Then the battery. Then he puts both back, turns the camera on, and it asks whether he'd like to make a video from the stills he already took. Ten or fifteen seconds of processing, boom, and playback picks up where it left off. Nothing erased, no error screen. The camera's reasoning, as Van narrates it: well, we stopped at shot 500, let's make a movie out of that. The thesis lands in the last 20 seconds. The Leica treats interruption as normal use rather than failure, and that's the bar: "That's how every digital thing should work." He should be able to tear the cords out of his iMac and have it work perfectly the next time it turns on. It's the same argument that runs through his Held Hostage By Apple For 26 Years and the whole analog living thread: tools should be resilient the way physical things are resilient. What Van Uses: a Leica Q2 in interval shooting mode, the same camera that earned a slot on his 5 favorite computers list. The test instruments are an SD card and a removable battery, pulled mid-shoot on purpose. Related: Using AI to Live More Analog: Long-Form Ep. 1, My 5 Favorite Computers, Apple's Worst Product FAQ What camera is Van Neistat using in this video?A Leica Q2 set to interval shooting, one photo per second. He names it in the video description and ranks it among his five favorite computers, because to him it behaves the way a computer should: it survives interruption without complaint. What happens when he pulls the SD card and battery mid-shoot?Nothing is lost. When he reassembles the camera and powers it on, it offers to build a video from the 500 stills already taken, processes for ten or fifteen seco https://www.youtube.com/embed/rbqJNTByDkc 90 2026-05-31T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leica Q2 SD card iMac (Apple) https://vanneistat.com/videos/making-a-shrine-for-my-friend-so-she-wins-an-oscar/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/rcZrUYEw3HM/maxresdefault.jpg Making A Shrine For My Friend So She Wins An Oscar Van discovers on Amazon Prime that his friend Garrett Bradley has been nominated for an Oscar. His joy is mortifying: not for the statue, but because the nomination means she can keep working. Keep doing what she does. The video is structured around two things Tom Sachs taught Van that apply to Garrett's nomination. The first is Sven Nyquist's 1974 Oscar speech. 15 seconds, the greatest ever delivered: the award will give him the possibility to make much better work. The reward for good work is more work. The second is sympathetic magic. If you want something badly enough, make your version of it out of whatever you have. The universe may align. Van builds an Oscar shrine for Garrett Bradley and her film Time. Sounds stupid. But it works even if you don't believe in it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/rcZrUYEw3HM 315 2021-03-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Garrett Bradley Tom Sachs Sven Nykvist https://vanneistat.com/videos/is-it-honest-to-call-this-service/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/rkcs-o06oPs/maxresdefault.jpg Is It Honest to Call This Service? Two obstacles delayed the free repairs station for two years. One technical: how to power his tools without running the dirty stinky loud diesel engine or hauling a gas generator. Divine intervention: an EcoFlow power station, basically a big battery with plug holes. Two hours to charge, runs 99% of house appliances, quiet as a laptop. The moral obstacle is harder. Aren't we meant to be quiet in our service? This service has a sponsor. This service garners publicity. What makes him so sure this is actually service? Van takes the question to Rabbi Weiss, who cites Maimonides: the greatest level of giving is when the giver doesn't know the receiver and the receiver doesn't know the giver. But that's the highest level: the lower levels still count. The video wrestles with whether public service is self-serving, and decides the wrestling itself is the answer. https://www.youtube.com/embed/rkcs-o06oPs 589 2022-03-21T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man EcoFlow Delta Max Toyota Land Cruiser Rabbi Weiss Maimonides Joshua Williams https://vanneistat.com/videos/running-sucks/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/sOSEGYBy8d8/maxresdefault.jpg Running Sucks. Discipline is doing something that you hate as if you love it. Mike Tyson said that. Van runs four miles a day, five days a week. First half uphill in the dark. He's tried to quit since 2005, when a woman doctor talked him into it. The health benefits are too economical to abandon. He ran one marathon. His finishing time (held secret) broke his running spirit. A 50-year-old grandmother in a homemade t-shirt passed him at mile 20 as if she were on mile four. He'll never run another. He hates the maroon sweatpants Casey gave him on a family cruise, wears them because they embody his hatred of the activity. One morning on the Boy Scout Trail he saw a mountain lion charge a rabbit a hundred feet ahead. Never ran that trail again. The only runner's high he gets is when the run is over. He doesn't believe Malcolm Gladwell. Running uphill is the drilling of a well into his idea aquifer. Running downhill is the pumping. https://www.youtube.com/embed/sOSEGYBy8d8 549 2021-04-28T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Nike Mike Tyson Marc Maron John Waters Casey Neistat https://vanneistat.com/videos/2500-gopro/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/t4u5TxWoFGY/maxresdefault.jpg $2,500 GoPro Could have bought a brand new Sony Alpha 7 Mark V for what Van paid for this rig. $2,500 for a custom GoPro. The reason for this build is not a reason at all. It's irrational. Van wants a camera he can like again. Maybe even love. A camera that gives him a good feeling. So he thinks. 33 seconds. The premium isn't in the specs. It's in the relationship. https://www.youtube.com/embed/t4u5TxWoFGY 33 2024-10-09T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man GoPro Sony Alpha 7 Mark V https://vanneistat.com/videos/new-york-is-underwater/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/tQ24O46vaVo/maxresdefault.jpg NEW YORK IS UNDERWATER A 25-year-old Chinatown tchotchke: a scrolling New York skyline that looks like it's underwater through a little aquarium lid. Two film strips on spools spinning at different RPMs create a parallax effect. The motor is fried, the spool is crazy-glued to the hub. Van replaces the axle with a #2 sheet metal screw, taps and dies a new shaft for the replacement motor, builds a template, cuts and rebuilds the base. When it finally works, it's silent for the first time ever. Listen. Van was on West 13th Street on September 11, 2001, and this creepy, prophetic little machine became something else entirely. Jeremy found Van on the Patreon. Five years of content on there. The alternative universe to the YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/embed/tQ24O46vaVo 534 2026-02-22T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form york underwater https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-greg-peercy/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/tcPpN-trW8s/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: GREG PEERCY Americans in Berlin 2003: Greg Peercy. Another portrait in the Berlin documentary series. The project documents the American creative community in early-2000s Berlin before the city's transformation into a tech hub. Van was 28 and recording everything. https://www.youtube.com/embed/tcPpN-trW8s 1115 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man MTV McDonald's Tom Sachs Greg Peercy https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-burden-of-starting-from-scratch/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/tt5T5S5IPsQ/maxresdefault.jpg The Burden of Starting From Scratch At eighteen minutes, this is one of the channel's longest episodes, and it earns the runtime by doing something Van rarely does: reaching into his own archives to examine the gap between early work and current ability. The burden of starting from scratch is the recognition that two years of effort doesn't automatically compound into twenty: that there are plateaus, regressions, and long periods where improvement is invisible to the person doing the work.A message from a patron and a phone call to a friend provide the structural hinges. The responsibility to discourage: Van's phrase for the honest assessment a mentor owes. Sits uncomfortably next to the leap of faith that every creative career requires. Watching the tape of early work is positioned as a guide to looking back on life: the footage doesn't lie, and the distance between what you intended and what you produced is the most accurate measure of growth available. https://www.youtube.com/embed/tt5T5S5IPsQ 1095 2024-02-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Canon SD870 iMac Final Cut Pro Dremel Bolex Super 8 camera Fisher Price Movie Viewer Triumph Bicycle Scholastic Casey Neistat Tom Sachs Joe Walsh https://vanneistat.com/videos/10-ingredients-for-non-miserable-vacations/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/uGzMPMmhmz8/maxresdefault.jpg 10 Ingredients For Non-Miserable Vacations Field-tested on our first family vacation ever: a month-long overland trip to Mexico. It took Van four years to save for it. The ingredients are practical (drive instead of fly coach, travel off-season, National Parks like White Sands, electric bicycles, separate hotel rooms if you have kids) but the structure reveals a philosophy of travel built on one premise: comfort is the enemy of experience. The final ingredient (go to a scary but cheap place) is where Van puts his own advice under pressure. He made a mistake on this trip. Drove past Pátzcuaro because he was cranky and hungry, ended up in Nueva Italia de Ruiz, where two men with guns in a Mazda pulled them over on the highway. He got them out of it with a pathetic amount of money. The experience was traumatic. He includes it: the mistake, the fear, the recovery at an all-inclusive in Ixtapa, our son riding the water slide 84 times in one day. When friends ask how Mexico was, he says it was perfect and means it. The danger is the price of admission. Brave people are generally fun. https://www.youtube.com/embed/uGzMPMmhmz8 970 2023-02-20T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Toyota Land Cruiser VanMoof (electric bikes) Cuat (bike rack) https://vanneistat.com/videos/gear-everyone-should-have-in-their-car/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/uTA373RoM6E/maxresdefault.jpg Gear Everyone Should Have in Their Car Essential car gear in sixty seconds: the emergency kit, tools, and supplies Van keeps in his 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser. The list doubles as a readiness philosophy: preparedness isn't paranoia, it's respect for the fact that machines break and roads don't care about your schedule. https://www.youtube.com/embed/uTA373RoM6E 60 2024-07-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man angle grinder tire slime air compressor https://vanneistat.com/videos/how-to-build-a-shelf-no-power-tools-needed/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/v6LZfyYYJwo/maxresdefault.jpg How to build a shelf (NO POWER TOOLS NEEDED) The expanded version of the shelf tutorial. This style shelf you can build without power tools, and it is good practice for the bigger shelves. The ability to build custom shelves is the cornerstone of an organized life. These instructions assume drywall. The supplies list can be screenshotted as a shopping list.The corner braces are not shelf brackets. They are not designed for shelf building. They are in the hardware aisle at Home Depot. Alert: only one side of the corner brace gets VHB-taped. Alert: there is a difference between the left side and the right side corner brace. Alert: coarse thread. Five minutes of careful, step-by-step instruction where every alert marks a place where Van knows a beginner will go wrong. https://www.youtube.com/embed/v6LZfyYYJwo 354 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Home Depot Scotch VHB tape Phillips screwdriver Pulsar (combo square) pine molding https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistat-breaks-down-his-favorite-builds/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/v8fBoSm_jbo/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat Breaks Down His Favorite Builds A catalog of builds, each one a small argument. A homemade Steadicam from 2009 for a Canon SD870 that never worked right, now a sculpture. A ticket-dispenser made for an art show, with a cutter bar from a jigsaw blade and a reel originally for typewriter ribbon. A GoPro rig for shooting out the car window that Van kept improving because he could not help himself: smelted lead from fishing weights, inlaid base, magnets, cable clamps, wireless mic storage, a grip carved from firewood.The tool wall, built for a mobile repair station, took so much brainpower to construct that Van had no leftover capacity for shooting the build. The Destroyer lamps, made since 2012, with 8-pound sledge bases and 60-watt bulbs diffused with white garbage bags. A Fisher-Price movie viewer (not a View-Master) painted black with a hand-drawn label and a wooden handle replacing the plastic original. Eight minutes, and each object carries the same principle: the things you make for yourself are the things that last. https://www.youtube.com/embed/v8fBoSm_jbo 515 2024-06-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Canon SD870 GoPro C-mount lenses Destroyer lamp Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/tiny-tool-storage-build/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vACwqp8SJVk/maxresdefault.jpg Tiny Tool Storage Build Your first project should be building storage for each tool. Harbor Freight magnets, two for five bucks. Dremel, multi-tool, combo square, jigsaw, drill, rivet gun. Number eight sheet metal screw instead of a rivet if you don't have one. Drill with bit holder and number two Phillips bit. And level: nicest tool Van owns, gift from Tom Sachs, does not leave the property. 55 seconds. Tool storage is the infrastructure of craft. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vACwqp8SJVk 55 2024-12-10T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Harbor Freight magnets Dremel combo square jigsaw drill rivet gun Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/this-book-can-predict-the-future/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vAK8oedDEnM/maxresdefault.jpg THIS BOOK CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE For a decade Van had been reading books trying to figure out what the hell was going on. The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss: history repeats itself in 80-year blocks. Four turnings per block. The High, the Awakening, the Unraveling, the Crisis. The book was written during the last third turning but predicted exactly what's happening now. 55 seconds that introduce the generational-theory framework to Shorts viewers who may never have encountered it, serving as a gateway to the channel's deeper analytical content. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vAK8oedDEnM 55 2023-06-06T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man short book predict future https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-haunted-pumpkin-a-scary-but-kid-friendly-halloween-special/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vAL0Vvk14qo/maxresdefault.jpg THE HAUNTED PUMPKIN, a scary (but kid-friendly) Halloween Special A Halloween special that's scary for small children and sweet for everyone else. The Haunted Pumpkin is a PRODUCTION. Van rigs Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights into a red-dotted trail (the lights buried under dirt rather than mounted under eaves, repurposing the hardware), builds a story around the pumpkin, and directs the episode with the same care he'd bring to a Tom Sachs installation.Twelve and a half minutes is long for a holiday video, and the runtime signals that this isn't a themed interlude but a full episode. The "kid-friendly" qualifier in the title is doing important work, drawing the boundary that separates this from the ironic-horror aesthetic that dominates YouTube Halloween content. Van is making something for his own children, and the effort-to-audience ratio (months of setup for a single October night) is the implicit argument for how holidays should work. I love this one. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vAL0Vvk14qo 752 2022-10-14T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Govee permanent outdoor lights Govee floodlights Govee Allure smart ground lights Govee LinkStream LED string lights Govee Archos Arc https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-romance-of-owning-a-vintage-truck/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vCSwNuxUUtk/maxresdefault.jpg The Romance of Owning a Vintage Truck The 1987 diesel Toyota Land Cruiser overheats going 50 mph up a slight incline on the way to its own engine swap. The thermostat is in the red before Van reaches the desert. If he blows a head gasket, the whole budget goes to towing. Three romantic reasons for this truck. A dentist couple at the end of his childhood street: one red, one blue, sometimes both parked there. A private school girl named Martha McConnell who had an 80-series Land Cruiser when they were 17, and Van drove around with her as if she had unlimited access to the world. And Eric Good, co-owner of the Park and creator of Area: the 1980s club that usurped Studio 54. Who drove a red 62-series and later founded a turtle conservancy. Then everywhere Van traveled: the Sahara, Zanzibar, Moshi Tanzania. Land Cruisers. Jerry Seinfeld said it to Bill Burr about his Prius: have you no soul? There is no rational explanation. The romance is the explanation. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vCSwNuxUUtk 992 2022-09-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Setapp 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser Cummins R2.8 turbo diesel Prius LaQuinta Paste (app) Vivid (app) PDF Squeezer (app) PullTube (app) CleanMyMac Jerry Seinfeld Bill Burr Martha McConnell Sean McPherson Eric Goode Matt Damon Louis CK Isabelle Brandt https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-toughest-man-ive-ever-met/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vQIPFZokjUw/maxresdefault.jpg The Toughest Man I've Ever Met The Spirited Man logo: one-sixth baseball cap insignias. Jackie Robinson's Kansas City Monarchs, the Chicago American Giants, the Yankees, the Dodgers. One-sixth Steel Mark asteroids, drawn with a geometric formula from a steel company that predates the Pittsburgh Steelers. One-third rattlesnake, because Ben Franklin said the rattlesnake was a good symbol for the American spirit and Joan Didion said it's a Californian's obligation to kill one. Van's family has killed three. And one-third Scott Myers: Van's oldest friend, met when they were five. The toughest man he's ever met. The initials of The Spirited Man just happened to be Scott's initials. That's the kind of coincidence Van calls subconsciously driven. The logo is a recipe that reveals what the channel is actually made of: American craft, industrial materials, frontier danger, and a friendship that predates everything else. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vQIPFZokjUw 245 2021-03-26T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Jackie Robinson Joan Didion Ben Franklin Scott Myers https://vanneistat.com/videos/august-fixes-builds/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/v_2kFp5APKU/maxresdefault.jpg August Fixes & Builds Braxton's idea: catalog all the fixes and builds from a single month. August was a light month. Keys engraved by location because they all look the same. A revolver moon-clip organizer for the range. A rag box built three years earlier with hinges made from glove fingers that always annoyed him, now fixed. A plug on the verge of failure saved with five-minute epoxy and heat-shrink tube.A bent IMI trophy repaired with number-two sheet metal screws. A toilet seat replaced. A quarter-inch sheet of plywood under Isabel's side of the bed because it was too soft (he had already done his side). A microphone arm extended so he could be further from the tripod. Seven or eight repairs. Van says he will keep doing these because it gives him an excuse to fix and make things, which is his hobby. https://www.youtube.com/embed/v_2kFp5APKU 239 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man 5-minute epoxy heat shrink tube quarter-20 mic adapter Braxton Haugen Isabelle https://vanneistat.com/videos/americans-in-berlin-2003-nikolaus-hafermaas/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vrMWF3QzCiQ/maxresdefault.jpg AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: NIKOLAUS HAFERMAAS Americans in Berlin 2003: Nikolaus Hafermaas. The final portrait in the Berlin documentary series. Van was 28, completing a multi-part record of American expatriate creative life at a specific historical moment. The series is finished. Every name accounted for. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vrMWF3QzCiQ 1358 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Tom Sachs Nikolaus Hafermaas https://vanneistat.com/videos/39-things-ive-earned-the-right-to-quit/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vsXpbsWwb3g/maxresdefault.jpg 39 Things I've Earned the RIGHT to QUIT A catalog of refusals, each one earned. 11 flat tires changed with bare hands in the Mexican desert in 2011, one while he had severe diarrhea: no more. Cheap tools: no more. Communal bathrooms, flip-flops outside the beach, baseball hats outside baseball, sneakers outside the house. QR code menus. Tablet ordering at restaurants, including his beloved Taco Bell. Plant-based ramen. Making his own pizza. Skateboarding after 35: a dignity thing. The list itself is the argument. Van walks the line between dignity and snobbery explicitly. He was raised in Connecticut, which he calls probably the most snobby place he's ever been, snobber than France. Each refusal implies a history of having done the thing long enough and hard enough to quit it with authority, not avoidance. The closing line lands because the 39 items have already built the case: day-to-day living in 2008 was way better than day-to-day living in 2024. He's not being nostalgic. He's being precise. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vsXpbsWwb3g 463 2024-07-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Taco Bell Southwest Airlines United Airlines Keller Grayson https://vanneistat.com/videos/van-neistats-overhead-camera-rig/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/vtDAPT2Etz4/maxresdefault.jpg Van Neistat's Overhead Camera Rig Van's overhead camera rig: 2x2s, angle brackets, a 1/4-inch hole tapped into metal and wood, a channel cut from a handicapped-parking sign with a jigsaw. VHB tape for stiffness, clamped on, months of use, no give. The overhead shot traces back through Wes Anderson's Royal Tenenbaums to Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7. Van uses it for everything because next to the face, the hands are the most interesting thing humans do. Cheaper to buy store-bought. Probably better. But the satisfaction. https://www.youtube.com/embed/vtDAPT2Etz4 141 2025-06-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man VHB tape Wes Anderson Agnes Varda https://vanneistat.com/videos/whats-inside-these-boxes-of-dreams/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/w82SyI9ZqmA/maxresdefault.jpg What's Inside These Boxes of Dreams? Van opens his collection of dream boxes. Physical containers holding the objects, sketches, and fragments associated with projects he hasn't built yet. The contents are archaeological: each box preserves a specific creative ambition in its original form, before the idea was refined or abandoned. The video is simultaneously a studio tour and a meditation on creative incubation.What makes this more than a "what's in the box" video is the implication that the boxes themselves are the creative practice. Maintaining a physical archive of unrealized ideas requires faith that their moment will come, and that faith is the difference between a maker who sustains a career and one who burns out after the first good project. https://www.youtube.com/embed/w82SyI9ZqmA 246 2021-03-19T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Kickstarter https://vanneistat.com/videos/free-repairs/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/wT8SC67mv8A/maxresdefault.jpg FREE REPAIRS Free repairs at the Handbuilt Show in Austin, Texas. Eric wanted Sony Leica badges and a motto. Liam needs a spoiler replacement for his little car. Justin's phone holder engraved for Jacob. Shrink tube on a broken key. A broken belt fixed with baseball glove thread, lanyard, date, and initials. A Swiss Champ engraved and painted. An aluminum pencil holder. 8mm film trays removed to make room for journals. A stash box. A girl and her dad. Van forgot her name. Dang it. Craft as community service, one stranger at a time. https://www.youtube.com/embed/wT8SC67mv8A 84 2025-06-23T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Sony (Leica badges) Swiss Champ heat shrink tube Cessna Eric Kevin Liam Justin Jacob Joe Stewart Ross OJ Nigel https://vanneistat.com/videos/building-a-handmade-tv-for-my-sons-playhouse/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/wtDY0zcYgAg/maxresdefault.jpg Building a handmade TV for my son's playhouse A video about pace that becomes a video about building a handmade TV for the boy's playhouse. Van was going to go slow this week. Relax. But the project got away from him and he went back to his hustling pace. Making a new video every week felt like being in a burning house, collecting eight important things before burning to death. Then he heard a firefighter describe the desperation of saving a burning house built with your own hands. Making this video was nothing like that. Nothing like that. This work is a blessing. This pace is a blessing. He just doesn't know it yet. https://www.youtube.com/embed/wtDY0zcYgAg 371 2022-02-04T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form building handmade son's playhouse https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-obsessive-details-of-my-custom-uniform/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/wytNokXkEXk/maxresdefault.jpg The Obsessive Details of My Custom Uniform Van wears the same thing every day. Black Carhartt double knees. Khaki Filson shirt in heat. One white work shirt for extreme heat. 122 degrees last week. The colors change by season or activity, but the uniform doesn't. He gets the shirts tailored on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. They last about 4 years. I had four labels sewn on four new shirts for his birthday. Our son's idea. The uniform is not an aesthetic choice. It's a position on labor and class. Van dresses like a worker because it eliminates class division. Wherever he goes, no matter how fancy, he looks like he works there. When he works with workers, he's dressed like one of the crew. The details (German snaps at $8 each that lock shut at 100 mph, an hour per letter to embroider his vest, a motorcycle jacket from Hidden Treasures in Topanga with leather like old car upholstery) aren't vanity. They're a material argument that clothing communicates what you're here to do. Van is here to serve and keep things working. He dresses accordingly. https://www.youtube.com/embed/wytNokXkEXk 539 2024-09-16T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man ClickUp Carhartt double knees Roundhouse double knee pants Levi's 501 Wrangler Filson shirt GoPro BMW (motorcycle) Porsche Leica Old Glory zipper pulls German snaps Isabelle BC (Casey Neistat) https://vanneistat.com/videos/your-first-5-tools-for-building-fame-money-respect/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/xI3mB0x24x0/maxresdefault.jpg Your First 5 Tools for Building Fame, Money, & Respect Five tools, selected individually, not as some hundred-piece set from a big box store. A Leatherman multi-tool or Swiss Champ. A 12-volt cordless drill (resist the 18-volt upsell). A Japanese pull saw and/or a corded jigsaw with T-shank blades. A combo square, level, and tape measure (three tools counted as one). A Dremel 200 with an easy-lock mandrel and reinforced cut-off discs for cutting steel and aluminum. Contractor brands only: DeWalt, Makita, Bosch, Milwaukee.Van delivers each recommendation with the specificity of someone who has already made the wrong purchase. The 12-volt drill is big enough. Flat-head screws are forbidden. Barrel grip keeps your hand closer to the cut. Your first project should be building storage for each tool. The video ends with a gift from Tom Sachs: the nicest tool Van owns, number 25 of 100 in the world, and it does not leave the property. https://www.youtube.com/embed/xI3mB0x24x0 342 2022-02-24T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Leatherman Swiss Champ DeWalt Makita Bosch Milwaukee Dremel 200 Harbor Freight magnets vise grips combo square (12-inch) tape measure (12-foot) level Japanese pull saw Bosch jigsaw (corded, barrel grip, T-shank) Tom Sachs https://vanneistat.com/videos/we-are-in-a-fourth-turning-what-does-that-mean/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/xeVyfiP0cLk/maxresdefault.jpg We Are In A 'FOURTH TURNING,' What Does That Mean? Van Neistat explains the Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe's theory that American history moves in roughly 80-year cycles, and uses it to place his own repair work inside a historical argument. The essay runs 10 minutes and 21 seconds and has been watched more than 2.3 million times, the most-viewed video on the channel. His brother handed him the book. It became his favorite kind of book, the kind he calls a mind blower. The structure is simple. Each 80-year block, what the authors call a saeculum, holds four turnings of about 20 years: a High, an Awakening, an Unraveling, and a Crisis. Van walks the American version. The postwar High, when wealth was most evenly distributed and a gas-station job could buy a house, gave us Elvis, Little Richard, Hank Williams, the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Corvette. It ended on November 22, 1963, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The Awakening brought Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, Vietnam and the protests against it, Stonewall, and the first Macintosh, and it closed with Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection. The Unraveling ran from there to the financial crisis of 2008. Then the part that does the real work. Each generation embodies an archetype that pushes society toward the next High. Boomers are prophets, which is why Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both predicted a computer in every home and Gates flagged a pandemic five years early. Gen X is the nomad generation, and Van's example is Elon Musk, who builds things that move us from one place to another. Millennials, raised during the Unraveling, become the hero generation, the Parkland students and the frontline workers and Malala Yousafzai. Gen Z, born into the crisis, will be the artist generation, the next Bob Dylan or Toni Morrison or Bill Withers. The payoff is personal. Van's cohort, Gen X, is the repair generation, the one stuck cleaning up the debris and fixing the messes left by others. He calls himself the last of the analogs, the last pre-digital generation, and he happens to have a knack f https://www.youtube.com/embed/xeVyfiP0cLk 621 2021-03-30T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Macintosh (Apple) Mustang (Ford) Corvette (Chevrolet) Bill Gates Steve Jobs Elon Musk Malala Yousafzai Hank Williams Elvis Little Richard John F. Kennedy Martin Luther King Ronald Reagan The Fourth Turning https://vanneistat.com/videos/this-scene-took-12-hours-to-make/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/y5aayW7kMrQ/maxresdefault.jpg This Scene Took 12 Hours to Make A behind-the-scenes video about what it takes to make one sequence: not a whole video, just one visual effect. Step one: camera shop, supplies, four hours charging a battery. Then: framing the camera with a Post-It note ruler (the GoPro macro lens focuses at exactly 3 inches), building a black matte frame, using a projector to trace a map of Texas because Van can't draw. An entire working day consumed by setup before the camera rolls. Twelve hours for one scene. Making a new video every week is an all-consuming way of life, and interruptions are the enemy of production. That's the cost nobody sees. https://www.youtube.com/embed/y5aayW7kMrQ 465 2024-05-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man long-form scene took hours make https://vanneistat.com/videos/5-principles-of-camera-bag-design/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/yAbbcRtZdlY/maxresdefault.jpg 5 Principles of Camera Bag Design Five principles, counted backwards. Number five: security, meaning both securing equipment from breakage with crash foam and security from thieves. Van's bag looks like a tool bag, not a camera bag. Number four: durability. The bag's maiden voyage was a dirt bike trip down the Baja Peninsula. Thirteen years later, the zippers are smooth and the grip buttons snap almost automatically. Number three: repairability. The bag was designed to be fixable by any shoe repair shop in the world, for cheap.Number two: size. The gear must fit in the bag and the bag must fit under airplane seats. Number one: handmade in the USA, manufactured by Kill Spencer in Los Angeles. Mauricio, the man who made Van's first bag in 2011, just finished the newest Morgan bag, named after the Charles W. Morgan, the only seaworthy American whaling vessel that survives today. Spencer Niosi, the founder, is the grandson of Don Herbert, aka Mr. Wizard. Van asked Spencer how they were going to get rich. Spencer said: if you want to get rich, go into finance. Then he took a beat and said: but we've got soul. https://www.youtube.com/embed/yAbbcRtZdlY 322 2024-05-10T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Kill Spencer (CW Morgan Bag) crash foam Spencer Nikosey (Kill Spencer founder) Mauricio Mr. Wizard (Don Herbert) https://vanneistat.com/videos/2000-2001-with-directors-commentary/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/z3dcEhpOSuE/maxresdefault.jpg 2000-2001 With Director's Commentary Director's commentary on 2000-2001 footage. Van's retrospective narration over material from the earliest period of his filmmaking career. Over two decades between the footage and the commentary. The present self explaining the past self to the current audience. https://www.youtube.com/embed/z3dcEhpOSuE 659 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man HD cam Stanley (tape measure) Dixie cup Heinrich Model 6 deep throat bench punch Tom Sachs Casey Neistat Kate Moss Keller Grayson Tom Healey Oscar Hennigsberg Wesley Willis Stanley Kubrick Le Corbusier Elastica (band) https://vanneistat.com/videos/essential-travel-packing-tips/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/zQVqNfX5y_k/maxresdefault.jpg Essential Travel Packing Tips Begin packing when you know your departure date. Even if it is years away. That is the rule. Van has been packing for a Mexico trip since a year before departure, and part of the packing is replacing the engine of his Land Cruiser. The philosophy unfolds through rules and violations. Don't pack more than you can carry for a quarter mile. Always pack a bathing suit. It doubles as pajamas, spare underwear, and the thing you need when someone invites you swimming. Pack an extension cord for foreign outlets. His friend Chloé: a sailor who's been around the globe three times, holds three passports. Arrived for a multi-country trip packed remarkably light and still had presents for everyone. That's the standard. Van once packed nothing but a Swiss Army knife for a trip from New York to Paris to Cannes to Berlin. The underwear system in foreign countries defeated him. He'll never do that again. https://www.youtube.com/embed/zQVqNfX5y_k 673 2022-04-29T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Swiss Army knife Toyota Land Cruiser F-350 (Ford) plumber's epoxy Swiss slippers Chloe (master adventurer) Isabelle Nev (Schulman) Shackleton Endurance Moby Dick https://vanneistat.com/videos/the-essential-tools-on-my-revolving-wall/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/ziFHJLmN7rs/maxresdefault.jpg The Essential Tools on My Revolving Wall Two things Van read in a book. The first comes from Mr. Edison: opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. The second: America has three principal archetypes. The cowboy. The warrior. The inventor.The revolving tool wall is the set piece, but the video's real content is compressed into those two quotations and the workshop footage that follows. Van is a good-enough artist, not a perfectionist. The distinction matters. Perfectionism is not up to us. The excellent standard and the good-enough standard are. Everything on that wall earns its place by getting used. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ziFHJLmN7rs 227 2023-06-12T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Thomas Edison https://vanneistat.com/videos/easy-flow-state-vs-hard-flow-state/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/zmO8uGIl9gk/maxresdefault.jpg EASY Flow State vs HARD Flow State A taxonomy of creative states that most productivity content collapses into a single category. Van distinguishes between easy flow: the tinkering zone where you're fixing glasses with two-part epoxy, cutting tripod shoes, modifying flashlights with heat shrink tube, and hard flow, the writing phase where the resistance is real and the procrastination is constant. The tinkering is seductive precisely because it feels productive while avoiding the work that actually matters.The entity list alone (Jane Campion, Rick Caruso, Joe Rogan, Magnus Carlsen, a Leica Q2, the LA fires) reveals how Van's mind works during the writing phase. Lateral connections fired under pressure, the kind of associative thinking that only happens when you're deep enough in the hard flow to lose your bearings. The video is a confession disguised as a framework: the business Van has chosen requires sitting in difficulty, and gilding the repair scars is the only honest aesthetic for that process. https://www.youtube.com/embed/zmO8uGIl9gk 519 2025-02-10T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man BetterHelp Leica Q2 crazy glue two-part epoxy heat shrink tube Lufkin/Laura comp tape measure Jane Campion Rick Caruso Joe Rogan Magnus Carlsen https://vanneistat.com/videos/respectability-tour-3-2007-unrestricted-version-no-music/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/zqiKymrAs6o/maxresdefault.jpg RESPECTABILITY TOUR 3 2007 unrestricted version (no music) The unrestricted version (no music) of Respectability Tour 3, 2007. Same archival Neistat Brothers footage released without the licensed music that restricted the original's availability. The music-free version ensures the content stays accessible regardless of licensing changes. For the archive purists. https://www.youtube.com/embed/zqiKymrAs6o 715 2024-01-01T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man iMovie HBO Paramount Plus Volvo VHS camera Casey Neistat Ariel Schulman Henry Joost Yaniv (Nev) Schulman Tom Sachs Cynthia Rowley Tom Scott Jordan Gallon Pablo Picasso Owen Wilson https://vanneistat.com/videos/using-ai-to-live-more-analog-long-form-ep-1/ https://img.youtube.com/vi/zrbgbyJWih8/maxresdefault.jpg Using AI to Live More Analog: Long-Form Ep. 1 The inaugural flagship episode. Thirty-one minutes that contain the entire thesis of the channel's 2026 pivot. Van builds a multicam switcher cart using ChatGPT to configure an ATEM Mini Pro, six cameras, and a sound mixer into a single-SSD, button-driven production rig. The paradox is the point: the most powerful AI tools available were used to eliminate screens and menus from his filmmaking workflow.Interleaved with the build are Van's five favorite computers (Leica Q2, Atari 2600 with a 1983 cartridge hack, iPod Nano 3rd gen, Game Boy Color, Franklin Language Master), a detailed prosecution of Apple's planned obsolescence, the Apple Pencil as Apple's worst product, and a Wispr Flow integration that replaces typewriter transcription with voice-to-text. Isabel and Bower get a direct mention as proof that AI enables non-engineers to build serious platforms.The episode closes with Adam Curtis: AI is not the beginning of the future but the final end of the past. This is the parent video for all clips in the series. Thirty-one minutes. No filler. https://www.youtube.com/embed/zrbgbyJWih8 1892 2026-05-15T08:00:00-07:00 yes no Van Neistat The Spirited Man Apple Final Cut Pro iMac Nvidia Leica Q2 Franklin Language Master iPod Nano 3rd Gen Game Boy Color Atari 2600 Apple Pencil iPad Apple Vision Pro Blackberry ChatGPT Claude Tom Sachs Isabel (Isabelle) Chris Rock Rick Rubin Carl Rogers Adam Curtis Charles Eins Bobby Neworth Kim and Ben's dad Abner J