EP. 54 - I Asked NileRed For Life Advice [VIDEO]

**Nigel** (0:00)
The moment I feel something's easy, I don't feel it's valuable. I think that chemistry's very dangerous. I built something to chase my goals and aspirations. I can't just quit. I'm able to make a video that gets views that will make more money than the video cost.

**Eric** (0:16)
Are you happy?

**Nigel** (0:16)
That's a very good question.

**Eric** (0:21)
Nile Red's made cotton candy from cotton balls, moonshine from toilet paper, and uranium glass from uranium. All in his garage. He's a rogue super scientist who makes YouTube videos about his experiments. And today he shares why he does this, how he's built a business supporting it, and what's the dream.
Three, two, one. Nigel, when I first watched your content, my immediate thought is you're a modern day alchemist.

**Nigel** (0:51)
Okay.

**Eric** (0:52)
Cotton balls into cotton candy, paint thinner into cherry soda, transparent wood. And I've, as I've gotten to know you more, I've begun to think of you less as an alchemist and more as a renegade. It's very controversial what you do. You're kind of like-

**Nigel** (1:06)
Controversial.

**Eric** (1:07)
The traditional educational system that was terrible at teaching me chemistry.
I'm just gonna teach people myself and I'm gonna do it by producing the dangerous chemicals that school always tells you not to worry about in my own garage and show them that it's okay, even if you spill concentrated acid on your fingers, you might just be fine. So I'm curious, you started your channel nine years ago, 2014

**Nigel** (1:30)
Well, you have so much information.

**Eric** (1:31)
We've gotten lunch together, Nigel. I know you.

**Nigel** (1:34)
No, but I wasn't prepared for such a, such a like, you know.

**Eric** (1:38)
Well, I never asked this to you before, but like 2014, you make your first video. What was the motivation behind that?

**Nigel** (1:45)
I've always liked just making and doing things. It's like as a kid, I wasn't into chemistry. I liked fireworks, I liked firecrackers, you know, classic stuff.

**Eric** (1:54)
Things that explode.

**Nigel** (1:55)
A lot of what I did was build things. So one of the early projects I did was I tried to build, I tried to build a quarter pipe, because I skateboarded and went on like, you know, the kick scooters with my friends.
So I wanted to just have a quarter pipe, because I thought that was like really cool to be able to just do tricks on it on the street or something. So I went to, you know, the hardware store and I bought wood and I spent, I think, an entire summer. I did build it. I screwed up because the angle is too steep.

**Eric** (2:19)
So you can't even use it.

**Nigel** (2:21)
You couldn't use it. But I was always trying to build stuff. Mostly out of wood, I'd build like little boxes to store, you know.
Stuff I would try to like, I'd build shelving. I don't know. I liked doing that. And I was probably like 12 or something.

**Eric** (2:33)
So you were like very handsy.

**Nigel** (2:35)
I've always liked that stuff. I liked metalwork and my dad let me use power tools when I was very young. It wasn't until I started actually seeing some internet videos where people were doing more of the chemistry type stuff. And I started to realize that a lot of my interests more aligned with that. I think construction or like building, carpentry, all this stuff, it's interesting.
What really I found intriguing was more from chemistry. I never even answered your question.

**Eric** (3:02)
No, I kind of get that because I have this story in my head. You're like a young 12 year old, you're building your quarter pipe with wood and you made it wrong.
And it's cool. You're transforming wood into a quarter pipe. But with chemistry, you're transforming something that is like a bunch of liquids in clear bottles into an entirely seemingly new thing.

**Nigel** (3:27)
Chemistry offered to me the same reason why I was building the half pipe. It offers it to me as an adult. And what I mean by that is like, I built a half pipe as a kid because you can't just buy a half pipe. If that makes sense. It's like, you can't buy it. And also I have no money. So building it was a way to attain something that was otherwise impossible.
The reason I started getting into chemistry was not necessarily that I was like specifically just into chemistry. It's that I found that what you could do with it, you could do things and attain things that money could not necessarily just buy. When I started, I had no credentials, no anything and I'm in a garage. Well, actually technically I started at my university, but then I eventually went, once I left the university, I was in a garage.