Skip to content

How to Make Potatoes While Dread Presses In from Every Direction

2022-02-24 · explainer · John · 3:32 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: fundraising ask, self promotion, calendar ritual

In a mock-solemn cooking lesson, John teaches roasted potatoes from his digital cookbook (a P4A 2022 perk) while musing on gut microbes, kinship with potatoes, phone distraction and the weirdness of being human, then announces the P4A fundraiser is live.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Premise (potatoes despite dread) and the digital cookbook as a P4A perk

  • ★★ The recipe comes from John's digital cookbook, whose new version is available only during this year's (2022) Project for Awesome at projectforawesome.com/donate. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome

00:00:29 — Prep: gut microbes and cravings, cutting the potatoes, oven, oil, herbs, kinship with potatoes

  • ★★ John says food cravings are dictated partly by your cells and partly by gut bacteria: studies show people with certain gut microbiomes are more likely to crave refined carbohydrates. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says that when cooking you also feed the trillions of microorganisms that colonize you and influence your every thought, though they are not, narrowly, you. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John's method: little red potatoes cut into sixths or eighths, on a greased pan, oven at 350 degrees (375 to take a risk), drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John advises not to overthink the size of potato wedges, but not to underthink it either, a key for most things, not just cooking. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★ For herbs rosemary is ideal and thyme also good; John is unsure about oregano. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Since there is not enough joy in the world, John urges feeling kinship with potatoes recently grown in the soil of Nebraska, Idaho or somewhere you've only driven through. (playful) — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Roasting: phone and TikTok distraction, flipping, the weirdness of being human, judging doneness

  • ★★ During the 15-minute bake John sketches the drift of attention: a New Yorker piece on King Tut, a phone search, email, just one TikTok, then the timer. (playful) — 00:01:56 · TikTok
  • ★ John says that, rather than tuberculosis, King Tut might have died of a fractured femur. (hedged) — 00:01:56 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John finds a weird comfort in letting a random TikTok loop: another human voice in the room saying the same thing over and over. (playful) — 00:02:26 · TikTok
  • ★★ John reflects on how weird it is to be human: a mammal eating nightshade storage organs to sustain its departure from chemical equilibrium. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★ Risk-averse like John, leave the potatoes a little undercooked; the daring try to time them perfectly and pull them out a couple of minutes too late. (playful) — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John tells Hank the Project for Awesome fundraiser is live now, with great perks at projectforawesome.com/donate. — 00:02:55 · Project for Awesome

00:03:24 — The P4A fundraiser is live; livestream at noon tomorrow

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says John's digital cookbook is available as its own perk or as part of the digital download bundle. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Unlike people who cook for love or refined palates, John explains his own motive. — 00:00:00

    “I cook because I am hungry.”

  • Mid-recipe, the instructions catch the cook out. — 00:00:58

    “Oh no, you forgot to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.”

  • A New Yorker piece, a phone search, email and one TikTok swallow the whole baking time. — 00:01:56

    “And now, suddenly, the timer is beeping, and literally, where did the time go?”

  • Flipping potatoes prompts a biochemical description of eating. — 00:02:26

    “like you're a mammal eating the storage organs of nightshade plants in order to sustain your own departure from chemical equilibrium”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: potato (concept)

Also: People: Tutankhamun

Projects: Project for Awesome

Works: John's digital cookbook

Organizations: The New Yorker · TikTok

Concepts: human microbiome · tuberculosis

Places: Idaho · Nebraska

Also centred on potato (concept): Question Tuesday: The Potato Edition

← Previous: On the Death of My Hero · Next → When You Can't Fix Everything…