YouTuber Casey Neistat joins WIRED to answer his most searched questions from Google. Does he edit his own videos? How does he get away with flying drones over New York City? How did he meet his wife, Candice Pool? What's his best marathon time?New York Road Runners presents the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon Sunday, November 5, 2023 https://www.nyrr.org/Director: Trevor LockeDirector of Photography: Josh HerzogEditor: Jason MaliziaTalent: Casey NeistatCreative Producer: Katherine WzorekLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Kameryn Hamilton; Paul GulyasProduction Manager: D. Eric MartinezProduction Coordinator: Fernando DavilaTalent Booker: Meredith JudkinsCamera Operator: Rahil AshruffSound Mixer: Lily Van LeeuwenProduction Assistant: Albie SmithPost Production Supervisor: Alexa DeutschPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds
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TechTranscript
00:00 (crickets chirping)
00:03 I'm Casey Neistat,
00:04 and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.
00:07 (upbeat music)
00:10 Ah, well I mean I'm a little nervous
00:12 whenever I Google my own name, it gets a little sketch,
00:14 but I'm here for it and I am ready.
00:16 (upbeat music)
00:19 Okay, what made Casey Neistat famous?
00:23 Probably it's like my striking good looks,
00:26 I think is what put me out there in front.
00:28 You know, if not that, maybe the early viral films
00:30 that my brother Van and I made.
00:31 2003, three years before YouTube,
00:34 was the first time we had a movie that went super viral.
00:37 Is this all one take?
00:39 What did Casey, you should have one that says,
00:41 does Casey Neistat bite his fingernails?
00:43 'Cause the answer to that is a strong yes.
00:46 What did Casey Neistat do before YouTube?
00:49 So I've really only ever had two professional
00:52 like endeavors in my life.
00:54 One is being like a filmmaker, YouTuber or whatever,
00:57 and the other one is being a professional dishwasher.
00:59 I worked in like a kind of a dumpy seafood restaurant
01:02 in New England and I would like scrub chowder pots
01:06 and pots and pans and I'm still a good dishwasher,
01:09 I just don't do it professionally.
01:10 What camera Casey Neistat uses?
01:13 Whatever I have in my hand.
01:14 My favorite camera right now is like the Sony A7S III,
01:18 I think it's just easy and it looks super pro,
01:21 but also it's like whatever cell phone I'm using
01:22 at the time is a camera that I'll use.
01:24 GoPro is like rock solid, Insta360 lets me do like tricks
01:28 and people think I have like a crew with me,
01:30 but it's just like a little $200 camera.
01:32 Whatever's at arm's length is my favorite camera
01:35 in that moment.
01:36 What sunglasses does Casey Neistat wear?
01:39 Okay, I always wear the same sunglasses,
01:41 this isn't necessarily an endorsement,
01:43 I mean unless Ray-Ban you wanna, you can call me,
01:47 but they are Ray-Ban Folding Wayfarers.
01:49 So then I fold and I find the folding ones
01:53 wrap around your head better,
01:54 I got a huge head so they stay on better,
01:57 but then like the paint and all that is,
01:59 that's more me, not Ray-Ban.
02:01 What app did Casey Neistat make?
02:04 In 2015, my partner Matt Hackett and I
02:08 launched a social app called Beam, B-E-M-E,
02:12 and Beam was like kind of like a predecessor
02:14 or a rougher version of like Snapchat Stories.
02:17 And unfortunately, Snapchat Stories is just better.
02:20 We did really well with the app,
02:21 but we never had like the broad appeal of Snapchat.
02:23 But starting that company, making that app
02:25 was one of like the greatest endeavors of my life,
02:27 I love doing it.
02:28 How does, how does, how does,
02:34 who's got fingernails or a Sharpie?
02:37 How does Casey Neistat fly drones in New York City?
02:43 Okay, flying a drone in New York City is against the law.
02:46 But.
02:48 [beep]
02:51 But somebody told me that, and that's how I fly drones.
02:53 You'll always notice my New York City drone footage
02:55 is like garbage 'cause it's like a little baby drone.
02:57 How much does Casey Neistat sleep?
03:00 Short answer is as much as possible,
03:02 but usually that's like five hours, six hours a night.
03:05 I hate sleep.
03:07 Sleep, the wind, and cobblestones,
03:10 those are my enemies in life.
03:12 I respect them, I fear them, but what a pain in the ass.
03:15 How did Casey Neistat meet Yandis Poole?
03:18 It's my wife.
03:19 We were both invited to a bar mitzvah in Houston, Texas,
03:23 and we kind of like knew each other in New York.
03:25 And I remember she called me and she's like,
03:26 "Hey, I'm from Houston, if you need a place to stay,
03:28 "you can stay at my parents' house."
03:30 And I was like, "Excellent."
03:31 They like gave me a guest room at her parents' house,
03:34 and I just, you know, did everything I could
03:36 to try to sneak into Candace's room.
03:38 Didn't work out, but that's how things got started.
03:41 How does Casey Neistat make money?
03:43 I never made money until I started really with like YouTube.
03:47 You know, I was like a teenager, I was on welfare,
03:49 I had no money.
03:49 And then it wasn't like a straight line up
03:51 into the right of making money.
03:52 It was like one of these.
03:54 And like sometimes it'd be all the way down there.
03:55 Like when I started my tech company in 2015,
03:57 I was like hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt,
03:59 and I couldn't afford to pay Candace Poole, my wife,
04:02 my share of the rent, she'd have to cover for me.
04:04 So I was like in debt then.
04:06 And then I started YouTube and I sold my tech company
04:08 and like did stuff like that.
04:09 And then I started to make money then.
04:11 So like it's complicated.
04:14 That's fine, right?
04:15 What a question, okay.
04:17 Where's Casey Neistat from?
04:18 You think they mean like where was I born
04:19 or like they wanna know the history
04:21 of the Neistat lineage?
04:22 - The whole origin story.
04:23 - The whole origin story.
04:24 Nana was from Yonkers, New York,
04:27 and then moved to Southeastern Connecticut
04:29 after the war in the 40s and 50s.
04:31 And that's where my like dad was born.
04:34 And then that's where I was raised.
04:35 So like Southeastern Connecticut.
04:36 Connecticut's like a fancy state.
04:38 And most people you meet in New York City,
04:39 when they say I'm from Connecticut,
04:41 they're from like the, like Greenwich, like the rich part.
04:44 I was from like literally the other side of the tracks.
04:46 Rotten Connecticut, like a military industrial town.
04:48 When Reagan left office and Clinton,
04:51 Clinton was after Reagan, right?
04:53 Clinton came and nobody knows.
04:54 No one in here.
04:56 Clinton came in, like all my friends,
04:58 parents lost their job at the submarine base
05:00 'cause military expenditures were cut.
05:01 Like that's what I remember from my childhood.
05:03 I moved to New York City when I was 18 or 19
05:05 or something like that.
05:06 Where did Casey Neistat go to school?
05:08 Mostly in Southeastern Connecticut.
05:10 I went to Gales Ferry Elementary School.
05:12 I went to Ledger Junior High School.
05:14 I went to Ledger High School until freshman year.
05:18 And then I ran away from home
05:19 and moved to Williamsburg, Virginia.
05:20 My brother, Dan, was at William & Mary.
05:22 He adopted me so I could go to high school in Virginia
05:26 where I went to, God, I wish I could remember the name
05:28 of it, it was like something town,
05:30 Jamestown High School or something for one year.
05:34 And then that was it.
05:35 Sophomore year, I think it was the last year
05:37 of high school that I completed.
05:39 Where does Casey Neistat run?
05:41 Wherever I am.
05:42 The New York City Marathon is exactly
05:44 three weeks from right now.
05:45 I used to run a lot of marathons.
05:47 I think this will be like my 24th or 25th marathon.
05:49 Now I run one marathon a year, which is New York City.
05:51 I will never miss it.
05:52 It's my favorite day in New York.
05:54 And I'm running this year for a fantastic non-profit
05:57 called Project Healthy Minds,
05:58 which tries to destigmatize mental health issues
06:01 and it's something close to home for me.
06:03 But the New York City Marathon is just the greatest day
06:06 of the year in New York,
06:07 whether you're a spectator or a runner.
06:09 But as a runner, it's like you and 60,000 other people
06:12 being celebrated all day long and celebrating the city.
06:15 Where is Casey Neistat's studio?
06:16 My studio's in Chinatown in New York City.
06:19 Tribeca is the neighborhood next to Chinatown
06:21 that's like fancy.
06:22 Sometimes I'll say Chinatown because it's right on the border
06:25 and Chinatown's the truth.
06:26 But then if I want it to sound fancier, I'll say Tribeca.
06:28 But the truth is I'm like right on the edge of, yeah.
06:31 It's a great spot.
06:32 All right.
06:33 Holy smokes.
06:34 When is snack?
06:35 Does Casey Neistat edit his own videos?
06:37 I edit all my own stuff.
06:39 A thousand videos on my YouTube channel.
06:40 And I would say every single one of them,
06:42 with the exception of a couple,
06:44 literally like two, maybe three,
06:46 I edited completely myself.
06:48 The other two or three that I didn't,
06:49 I made with my friend Max, who's a better editor than me.
06:51 And he and I would like sit together and cut it together.
06:54 But yeah, I edit everything myself.
06:55 Mostly 'cause like, I don't know what the story is
06:59 or the video is.
07:00 I do the writing in the edit.
07:02 I don't know what the video is.
07:03 I have an idea, but it's in the edit that I find the story.
07:06 A friend of mine works for Mr. Beast.
07:08 And I've been on a couple of Mr. Beast shoots.
07:09 We went to South Africa together a year ago.
07:12 And that guy, for a YouTuber, runs the level of production
07:15 that's like much closer to Hollywood.
07:17 He's got teams of people.
07:18 It's super like efficiently run.
07:20 He's got professionals everywhere.
07:22 And it's overwhelming.
07:23 It's incredible the way he does it.
07:25 So if there's like a Mr. Beast level production here,
07:27 on the other end, the furthest other end of that spectrum,
07:31 is the way I do it.
07:32 I don't even have like an office helper.
07:35 I have no one.
07:36 So I do everything when it comes to like mopping the floors
07:38 and take out my trash bags at the end of the day,
07:40 to holding the camera, doing all the cinematography,
07:43 doing all the writing, doing all the editing,
07:44 changing lenses, every aspect of the production I do myself.
07:48 And I love it.
07:49 Like it's my favorite part is the doing.
07:52 When I see these big sets, like,
07:54 two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
07:58 There are nine people in this room
07:59 to make this video right now.
08:01 You're very lovely people.
08:03 But it's like a lot of management.
08:04 It's a lot of thinking.
08:06 I just wanna be like that painter in his studio,
08:09 painting the canvas by himself.
08:10 I just don't know how to paint.
08:11 So I use cameras and my like MacBook.
08:14 Did Casey Neistat climb Mount Everest?
08:16 No, I didn't climb Mount Everest.
08:18 In fairness, there is like a really epic thumbnail
08:21 of me on YouTube from when I climbed a mountain
08:23 called Akin Kagwa, which is the highest mountain
08:26 in the Southern Hemisphere.
08:27 23,000 feet, I think.
08:29 And I climbed that.
08:30 And I had this like plan when I was younger
08:31 to climb all the seven summits,
08:33 like the seven highest peaks on all seven continents.
08:35 I did Africa, Kilimanjaro, piece of cake.
08:38 You should do that.
08:39 And then number two was Akin Kagwa.
08:40 And after we got to the top of the mountain,
08:41 I was like, fuck this, like I'm done.
08:43 Like I did two of the seven summits,
08:45 but no, I did not climb Mount Everest.
08:47 And I never will.
08:48 Does Casey Neistat own 368?
08:51 368 is a company that I started in 2019
08:55 with a fantastic guy named Paul Leys.
08:57 368 is a collaborative production event space
09:02 in downtown New York City.
09:04 And 368 is very much still alive
09:07 and operating all the time.
09:09 I don't own it and I don't run it.
09:11 When I moved out of New York City to Los Angeles
09:12 to be closer to family in 2020,
09:15 I kind of gave Paul the keys to 368
09:18 and he has been realizing that vision ever since.
09:20 So I was in there yesterday.
09:22 I see it every day.
09:23 I talk to Paul all the time.
09:24 I love what 368 is doing.
09:27 But like, you know, again, I'm just alone in my office
09:29 taking out the garbage and mopping the floors.
09:31 I feel like I'm finding the rhythm.
09:35 Casey Neistat electric skateboard.
09:36 Is that a question?
09:38 I got a present in the mail.
09:40 I want to say 2015.
09:41 I don't know, it's on camera.
09:42 But it was a Boosted Board,
09:43 which is a name brand of an electric skateboard.
09:45 I fell in love.
09:46 It's the greatest thing ever.
09:48 And since getting that,
09:49 like I no longer ride bikes in New York City.
09:50 I don't take the subway in New York City.
09:52 I don't take taxis or Ubers in New York City.
09:54 The only way I get around is on a Boosted Board.
09:57 Now, regrettably, Boosted Board,
09:59 the company went out of business in like 2018 or 2019.
10:02 Sanjay, the founder, it was not his fault.
10:05 These guys came in,
10:06 they're like, we got to make the company bigger.
10:08 Let's make a scooter.
10:09 Nobody wants a scooter.
10:10 And they tanked the company.
10:11 So I bought like 20 of them,
10:13 and I still ride Boosted Boards.
10:15 So yes, if that was a question, yes, Casey Neistat,
10:18 electric skateboard.
10:19 Casey Neistat YouTube stats.
10:20 I looked at my YouTube app yesterday,
10:24 and I have lost 6,000 subscribers this month.
10:27 So I think I have like 12 and a half million subscribers.
10:30 And no joke, every time I post a video,
10:32 there's like this subtle,
10:34 like I posted a video about
10:35 like when New York City got flooded a week and a half ago.
10:37 That gave me like 20,000 new subscribers.
10:39 Then sometimes I'll post videos
10:40 about like my kids or something.
10:41 And I'll lose subscribers.
10:43 Not nice world.
10:44 Up until my first, I think 170 million views.
10:48 Took 170 million views for me to get to,
10:51 I think around 300,000 subscribers.
10:54 And that was like seven years.
10:56 And then I started my daily vlog,
10:58 like a daily show on YouTube.
10:59 I posted a video every single day.
11:01 That was like kind of consistent.
11:02 So it was like an episodic.
11:04 So seven years to get to 300,000 subscribers,
11:07 12 months to get to 10 million subscribers.
11:10 Maybe it was 18 months, something.
11:11 But it was insane.
11:12 That kind of growth.
11:13 And I think that speaks to like one, flattered.
11:15 It meant people liked my videos for sure.
11:18 But I also think like to get to a place
11:20 where you're actually, people wanna subscribe.
11:22 And they're like, I would like to see more videos
11:24 from this channel.
11:25 People like to know what they're getting.
11:27 And I think that that was the first time
11:28 I ever did anything with real consistency.
11:30 And it's like, oh, here's a channel that uploads every day.
11:32 And I like this kind of stuff.
11:33 I would like to see more of that.
11:35 And now like, I don't know,
11:36 I'll go three months without uploading if I get distracted.
11:38 So like when you click subscribe right now,
11:40 I have no idea what's gonna be on the other side of that.
11:42 And I think it's a much less enticing offer.
11:45 If subscribership is a goal of aspiring creators,
11:48 it's like, you gotta be consistent and constant.
11:51 Casey Neistat's first video.
11:53 My first like real video that I think people know about
11:55 is a video called iPod's Dirty Secret,
11:57 which I made in 2013 with my big brother, Van.
12:00 And it was about how like the first iPods,
12:03 Apple wouldn't replace the battery in them.
12:05 So when like this $300 iPod died,
12:07 you had to go buy a new iPod.
12:08 I was really pissed 'cause I didn't have any money.
12:10 So I was like, Van, let's make a video about this.
12:12 And we made this funny video where we put like
12:14 cigarette warning labels all over the iPod advertisements
12:18 all around New York City.
12:19 When I think of like, what was the first real video
12:21 that kind of started the whole 20 year trajectory,
12:23 that was the video.
12:24 Casey Neistat, Bike Lanes.
12:25 I guess that I could have said too.
12:27 Bike Lanes was like the first video on my YouTube channel
12:30 now that really popped off.
12:33 So like before YouTube, you know,
12:35 I was like doing commercial direction
12:36 and I had a show on HBO that my brother Van and I
12:39 wrote and directed and edited.
12:40 And we did all kinds of stuff in the movie world,
12:43 but like, you know, YouTube didn't come out until 2006.
12:46 And then 2008 or nine is when I started my channel.
12:48 And I made a video called Bike Lanes shortly thereafter,
12:51 where I got a ticket from an NYPD, like a cop,
12:55 for riding my bike like outside of the bike lane,
12:57 which is preposterous.
12:58 If you've ever been to New York City,
12:59 there's no way to stay in the bike lanes.
13:00 So I made this video that just showed
13:02 you can't ride in the bike lanes
13:03 'cause you'll crash into stuff.
13:04 I illustrated that by crashing into everything
13:07 I found in the bike lanes.
13:08 That video went crazy.
13:09 That video had like millions of views
13:11 and brought all kinds of attention to my channel.
13:14 That video, you know, maybe more than anything else
13:16 on my YouTube channel really motivated me to like,
13:18 oh, I should be taking posting videos online more seriously.
13:22 Casey Neistat equipment.
13:24 I don't romanticize the equipment.
13:26 In fact, I find like when I meet photographers,
13:29 cinematographers, filmmakers,
13:30 and they wanna talk about the gear,
13:32 it's like talking to John Mayer
13:35 about what guitar he likes to use.
13:36 I wanna know about your music.
13:38 Like how do you come up with those sounds?
13:40 Like how do you come up with your lyrics?
13:41 Like how do you do what you do?
13:43 So like when people wanna talk about gear,
13:45 I don't, like I kind of, I think it's like an insult.
13:48 It's like when you say somebody's nice,
13:49 it's the worst thing you can say about them
13:51 'cause it means you have nothing interesting to say
13:52 about that person 'cause you just say they're nice.
13:54 Do we have more of these or?
13:56 This is the last one?
13:58 I mean, we can bust out the computer and just keep going.
14:00 I have so many more answers.
14:02 Casey Neistat marathon time.
14:03 Am I supposed to start up top?
14:05 Is it gonna screw up the whole video?
14:06 Do you want me to like go in reverse?
14:09 I'm giving the whole story.
14:10 How much film do you have in these cameras?
14:12 It's digital, they can roll forever.
14:13 In 2006, something like that,
14:15 I got in a motorcycle accident.
14:17 This whole leg had to be rebuilt out of metal.
14:20 So from my knee to my hip,
14:21 and my hip eight inches in is all titanium.
14:24 My orthopedist said to me, "You'll never run again."
14:28 And he's like, "You might be able to chase after your kids,
14:30 "but you're never gonna be a runner again."
14:33 And since then, I've run 24, 25 marathons
14:37 with a single goal,
14:38 and that single goal was to break three hours.
14:41 And three hours is like,
14:42 if you watch like the Fast Guys,
14:43 the winner's three hours as slow as can be.
14:46 But for like a novice, three hours is like a real benchmark.
14:49 It means you're running a six minute and 54 second mile
14:54 26 times in a row.
14:56 That is like the goal for me.
14:58 And in 15 years and 24 marathons, I've never done it,
15:02 but I have run a 301 this close.
15:05 Casey Neistat knee injury.
15:07 Hey, I kind of addressed that.
15:08 Really wove that one in.
15:10 It's a femur injury.
15:11 My knees now are also messed up.
15:13 Because of this injury, I compensate
15:15 because it's all metal over here.
15:16 That messes up my knees, but like the legs are fine.
15:19 I did nine miles this morning.
15:20 Did 18 yesterday.
15:21 I'm good.
15:22 Casey Neistat airplane.
15:23 I know what they're getting at here.
15:25 Flying first class was like something that was like
15:29 the thing that you like walk through
15:30 and try not to make eye contact
15:31 because it's like this dream that I could never imagine.
15:34 Like if a ticket costs 600 bucks,
15:36 in what world are you gonna spend two grand
15:38 to sit in a slightly better seat?
15:40 It was an unimaginable thing.
15:41 Okay, then I had to fly to Australia for work
15:44 and I was flying for Google.
15:46 Google's got the, you know what I'm talking about.
15:49 See how it says YouTube right there?
15:50 Yeah, they're getting paid for this.
15:52 It flew me business class,
15:53 which is nothing to shake a stick at.
15:55 And I was so blown away about the business class
15:57 that I made a video flying to Australia
15:59 about how awesome business class was.
16:01 The airline saw that video while I was in Australia.
16:05 On my way back to New York from Sydney,
16:09 I'm in the airport and like somebody comes up to me
16:11 from the airline and they're like,
16:12 "Oh, Mr. Neistat."
16:13 And I was like, "Shit, busted for something."
16:17 And instead they were like,
16:18 "We've upgraded you to first class."
16:21 And I got to like sit in first class
16:23 with like a lay flat bed and like a door and all this stuff.
16:26 But I had my backpack with all my camera gear with me.
16:29 So I produced this like highly produced video
16:31 of what it was like to experience first class.
16:33 I posted that video on YouTube
16:34 and that video has done more views
16:36 than any video I've ever made.
16:37 I think it's like 60 million views or something outrageous.
16:40 And like got all this news press
16:42 'cause nobody ever really like made that thing
16:44 kind of video before.
16:45 Now there's like 10,000 of those videos.
16:47 They're all interesting.
16:48 But there was a shower on the plane.
16:50 You're in the sky and you're showering.
16:53 There's a little light.
16:54 It goes green, yellow, red.
16:57 And you gotta get all that soap off before it hits red.
16:59 Otherwise it's gonna be a very sticky flight home.
17:02 He's nice at Nantucket.
17:03 In 2007 or six or something like that,
17:06 my brother, Van and I met a guy
17:08 who started a juice brand called Nantucket Nectars.
17:11 His name is Tom.
17:12 And he went on to like produce our HBO show.
17:15 And then Tom and I were partners.
17:17 Because of that, I got to like go to Nantucket,
17:19 which was a place that was like a home for him.
17:22 And we premiered a video.
17:23 It might've been our HBO series
17:24 at the Nantucket Film Festival.
17:26 So we always had this relationship with Nantucket,
17:29 which is like this little tiny island
17:30 off the coast of Massachusetts.
17:32 I always loved it there.
17:33 My family and I vacation there.
17:34 It's a really special place.
17:35 Like I'd rather be there than anywhere in the world
17:38 except for New York City.
17:40 It's my second favorite place in the world.
17:42 Okay.
17:42 Does this mean this is the last question?
17:44 You know what I could do?
17:45 No, it doesn't work.
17:46 Okay.
17:47 This is a terrible, uninteresting question to end on.
17:51 We can Sharpie a final question here.
17:54 Vlog music.
17:55 I have like people all around the world
17:58 that email me or DM me and they're like,
18:00 "Hey, can I send you some music
18:01 for me to use in the videos?"
18:02 And I say, "Totally."
18:03 They do.
18:04 And that's where I get my vlog music from.
18:06 I don't know how to make music.
18:07 I just know what sounds right.
18:09 And my rule with people who send me the music is like,
18:11 "If it's just a video I post on YouTube,
18:13 I credit you and I'll say as much attention as I can.
18:16 If it's like a commercial,
18:16 I can figure out how to get paid for it.
18:17 I always send them a nice cut."
18:19 Is there any other question that's better for me to end on?
18:21 I have to admit, I was like a little bit timid
18:23 because I know that like sometimes if you Google somebody,
18:27 you might see some stuff that's unsavory.
18:30 But I would say you guys did an excellent job
18:32 of protecting me from that.
18:34 So now that I've seen the behind the scenes,
18:36 I just appreciate the discretion.
18:38 Appreciate you guys looking out for me.
18:40 Thank you for having me.
18:41 And I look forward to doing the sequel to this,
18:43 but we're gonna have to come up
18:44 with like 60 more questions about stuff.
18:47 I don't think we can talk about running anymore.
18:49 All right.
18:50 Thanks for having me.
18:50 (beep)
18:52 It sucks because I can't look.