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Unspun Studio. We explain what happens behind your screen.

Short videos about the algorithms that pick what you see, the fakes you scroll past and the numbers nobody checks. Sources on screen.

  3. 14Ranking systemMind the Algo
  4. 16Accounts and reviewsBotspotting
  5. 18The number in the captionMythmatics

FIG. 1Behind the screen of a feed. Point at a number.

Three channels, one subject each

Each channel sticks to its subject. Each video takes one question from it and answers it with the source in the picture.

Mind the Algo banner: polygraph traces labelled like, share, follow, comment, watch time, sound, hashtag, country and device, with the line We unpack the invisible systems that steer you online.
FIG. 2

Mind the Algo

We unpack the invisible systems that steer you online.

Your feed, the price on your screen and the ad that follows you around were all picked by software. Mind the Algo opens that software up and shows how it decides.

Most videos follow one decision from start to finish: how a feed picks the next clip, how a map app picks your route, how a dating app sorts profiles. Others look at prices that change while you shop, or at what happens to your click before an ad loads. When a company has explained its own system, you see its words. When it hasn't, we say what is known and what isn't.

unspunstudio.com/algo
Botspotting banner: a dotted canvas full of mouse cursors, some framed in blue boxes labelled Bot, one in a red crosshair labelled Bad bot, with the line We spot what's fake on the internet.
FIG. 3

Botspotting

We spot what's fake on the internet.

A lot of what looks human online is software, or someone paid to pretend. Botspotting takes one kind of fake at a time and shows how it works.

Some videos count: how much traffic, how many accounts or reviews aren't what they claim, and how sure anyone can be about that number. Some take a fake apart, like a review farm, a follower shop or a bot network in a comment section. Some are tests where you guess what's real before we show you.

unspunstudio.com/bot
Mythmatics banner: a white pin-art field where numbers and charts rise out of the pins, a few clusters in blue, with the line We check the numbers everyone repeats.
FIG. 4

Mythmatics

We check the numbers everyone repeats.

Ten percent of your brain. Eight spiders a year in your sleep. Some numbers get repeated so often that nobody asks where they came from. Mythmatics asks.

Each video takes one famous number, finds where it first appeared and checks it against the best data there is. Some hold up and some don't, and the video tells you which. The number is built on screen out of pieces you can count, so you see how big it is instead of taking it on trust.

unspunstudio.com/myth

How we make the videos

The videos are short, built in code and open with a question that gets its answer by the end. Every one of them goes through the same five steps.

FIG. 5: the five steps behind every video, drawn as five plates. A claim gets circled, the source gets stamped, bars are measured against the claim, pins rise into a chart, and the final frame assembles with its source box.
FIG. 5
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    One question

    A video answers one question. If a topic has two, it becomes two videos.

  2. 32

    The original source

    We go back to where a claim started: the company's own page, the study, the survey. An article about a study is not the study.

  3. 34

    Checked against the data

    We read what the source measured, how and when. If the evidence is thin, the video says so.

  4. 36

    Built in code

    The pictures are programmed, not filmed. Every bar, pin and dot sits where the data puts it, and anything only illustrative is marked.

  5. 38

    The source stays on screen

    While a claim is on screen, so is its source: who published it, the title, the year.

Questions and answers

What is Unspun Studio?

A small studio that makes short explainer videos in English. It runs three channels with one subject each. Mind the Algo is about the software that decides what you see online. Botspotting is about fakes. Mythmatics is about famous statistics.

What do the videos look like?

Mostly vertical videos of about a minute, for YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Longer YouTube videos come later. Each one opens with a question and answers it by the end. The pictures are animation written in code, not stock footage.

Where can I watch?

On YouTube and Instagram. Every channel has its own accounts. The links are on this page and on unspunstudio.com/algo, /bot and /myth.

How do you check facts?

We go back to where a claim started and read what the source measured, how and when. While the claim is on screen, the source is too. If the evidence is thin or comes from one source alone, the video says so instead of rounding it up.

Who is behind it?

Unspun Studio is run by Esteban Martin. The legal details are in the imprint.

Can I suggest a topic?

Yes, please. Send the claim, the system or the number you want looked at to hello@unspunstudio.com, with a link to where you saw it if you have one.

How can I reach you?

Email hello@unspunstudio.com. That works for questions, corrections, press and partnerships.