Media → Product · Science Storytelling
Enchiridion: science as a product
A science & paleontology channel I built from zero to 128K+ subscribers and 38M+ views — and the media practice now becoming the narrative engine for interactive science products under Ailiur.
Role
Founder · Writer · Director · Editor
Timeline
2020 — 2026
Reach
128K+ subs · 38M+ views
Type
Science Media → Interactive Products
Overview
An audience is a product you have to earn every week
Enchiridion is a science and paleontology channel I started from nothing and grew into a 128,000+ subscriber audience with 38M+ views across 139+ high-production videos — earning YouTube’s 100,000 Subscriber Creator Award.
I wrote, directed, edited, and produced it. But the real artifact isn’t the videos — it’s the practice: turning dense scientific research into stories people choose to finish, and choose to come back to. That is the same discipline that makes a product retain.
This case study is about how a media practice becomes product thinking — and where Enchiridion is going next.
Audience
Who it's for — today and next
The channel already has an audience. The platform direction serves the same curiosity, one step deeper.
01
Today — the science-curious
128K+ subscribers who want paleontology and deep-time science told rigorously and watchably — not dumbed down, not dry.
02
Next — the active learner
The same curiosity that wants to explore, not just watch — students and hobbyists who would manipulate a simulation or timeline.
03
Next — the educator
Classrooms and creators who need accurate, explorable science assets — a place the storytelling becomes a teaching tool.
Reach & Recognition
Built from zero, sustained for years
The numbers matter less as bragging rights and more as evidence of a repeatable skill: making complex science legible and compelling enough that an audience grows and stays.
128K+
Subscribers grown from zero
38M+
Lifetime views across the channel
139+
High-production educational videos
Recognized with YouTube’s 100,000 Subscriber Creator Award — an independent, verifiable milestone for the channel.
The Craft
A production pipeline tuned for attention
Each episode is an end-to-end production: research and scripting, motion graphics and visual design, voice and edit, then thumbnails and titles tested to earn the click honestly.
Over years, this became an analytics-driven pipeline — every step measured against whether viewers kept watching.
The stack was solo but instrumented: editing and motion-graphics tooling for production, YouTube analytics as the feedback loop, and A/B testing on thumbnails and titles. The platform direction is where real web and interactive engineering enters — the surface Ailiur’s AI-native build practice plugs into.
Thumbnails as interface — the first design decision a viewer ever interacts with. A/B tested to optimize click-through without over-promising.
Research Rigor
Synthesizing real science into visual narrative
The work behind a watchable episode is research synthesis — reading paleontology and physiology, then translating it into accurate, high-fidelity motion graphics a general audience can actually follow. This is the scientific-imagination layer that ties Enchiridion to the rest of my product work.
Why It Maps to Product
Retention is a design discipline
A channel lives or dies on the same thing a product does: do people come back? Years of optimizing for retention is years of practicing the exact instinct a product designer needs.
I optimized for retentionWatch-through & return rate and CTRHonest click-through for years — which is to say, I’ve been designing for whether people come back the whole time.
01
Hook in seconds
The first frames decide everything — the same problem as a product’s first session. Earn attention fast, then keep the promise.
02
Test, don’t guess
A/B tested thumbnails and titles against real CTR and retention curves — instrumented iteration, not taste alone.
03
Clarity as kindness
Making hard science feel effortless is the same craft as making a complex protocol feel manageable in Qetos.
What's Next · Direction
From a channel to interactive science software
Enchiridion proved the audience and the practice. The next step — actively in progress, not yet shipped — is to turn that narrative engine into interactive science products: tools that let people explore the same ideas instead of only watching them.
That work lives under Ailiur, the studio I’m building for AI-native products across science, health, and learning. Enchiridion becomes the storytelling and research layer; the products become the place people learn by doing.
| Dimension | The channel (proven) | The platform (direction) |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Passive video you watch | Interactive, explorable science |
| Engagement | Watch, then leave | Explore, manipulate, learn by doing |
| Core asset | A library of 139+ episodes | A reusable narrative engine + built-in audience |
| Home | YouTube only | A science platform under Ailiur |
Proven
The audience and media practice (128K+ / 38M+)
In progress
Interactive science products under Ailiur — direction, not yet shipped
One engine
Story + research feeding products people explore
A 128K-subscriber science channel is really a six-year course in the one question every product has to answer: will people come back tomorrow?
In Summary
The two-minute read
For recruiters & hiring teams
A designer who independently built and sustained a 128K+ audience by obsessing over the exact metric products live on — retention — across a 139-episode, analytics-driven production pipeline. Brings research synthesis, visual storytelling, and instrumented, test-don’t-guess iteration.
For founders & operators
A 0→1 operator: built an audience, a brand, and a content engine from nothing, then saw the platform play — turning a media asset into the distribution and narrative layer for interactive science products under Ailiur.
Next project
CurioXR