Archives for December 2018

These were my most popular new blog posts in 2018:

• What The AAP And Intactivists Don’t Understand About Each Other
• How Doctors Can Make Money By Saying NO To Circumcision
• Institution Building: The Future of The Intactivist Movement
• The Future of Intactivism: How To Get People Talking About Circumcision
• The Most Important Article of 2018

Note: I’ve excluded straight news updates from this list, like the “my film is now available!” blog posts, and old posts that remain popular over time.

Of course, the biggest thing I published this year was my documentary American Circumcision. You can watch it yourself here.

There are maybe ten to twenty platforms that matter – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkdin, iTunes, Spotify, certain podcasts, YouTube, Amazon, etc. and Netflix.

Of those, most have an algorithmic feed or a feed determined by who you follow. My Facebook feed does not look like your Facebook feed. My twitter follows are different than yours.

Except for Netflix. Netflix is unique, and the most powerful platform platform in the world for five reasons.

Curated feed. Netflix is the only major platform with a curated feed – meaning that although Netflix suggests a movie based on what you just watched, it isn’t an open network. Any artist can list their song on iTunes, and any merchant can sell their product on Amazon, but Netflix only buys certain movies. Netflix’s selection is limited when you compare it to the number of users.

Reach. That brings us to the second power of Netflix – their disproportionate reach. Netflix streaming has over 137 million subscribers. To put this in perspective, Twitter has 326 million users. Getting a movie on Netflix is be like getting a tweet in front of over a third of Twitter users. Except, a tweet is 140 characters, and a movie is two hours.

Depth. The third power of Netflix is depth. A video on YouTube will come and go. Facebook content is constantly updated. However, a movie will stay on Netflix for 1-2 years. Whereas most social media content is moving towards short form – like 60 second Instagram videos – Netflix content is moving towards the opposite direction – 10-hour seasons of deep story telling. With Netflix, you can do a six part documentary series that last six hours.

Attention. Netflix users are more likely to watch on a large screen with undivided attention, than other platforms where the user is likely to have multi-tasking or be watching on a palm-sized phone screen with the sound off. If you want to make a complex argument or deep exploration of a topic, you couldn’t ask for better than Netflix. There is no contest between the persuasive power of a one minute video you flip past on your phone, and getting someone’s undivided attention for two hours.

Audience. Lastly, Netflix targets an audience pre-disposed to like your film. The more people that watch the movie, the more it is recommended. Those recommendations comes from data from previous user behavior. It may sound obvious, but people who watch documentaries on Netflix are more likely to want to watch a new documentary on Netflix. With Netflix, you’re reaching an audience that is selected to be interested in what you have to offer.

Given all this is it any wonder that my film which did well on tour, at festivals, and on video, is suddenly experiencing a massive wave of attention on Netflix?

Since our Netflix release, it has been hard to keep up with the number of comments and tweets about the film I’ve seen. Not only are people watching the film, but they are talking about it on other social media platforms in record numbers. Because we are a hit on one platform, we are becoming a topic of conversation on others.

For years, activists on the circumcision issue have been trying to reach the tipping point, a point at which a critical mass of the population cares enough about circumcision to change mainstream opinion. Could this be the start of that moment?

P.S. My movie is on Netflix now. Watch here.

Now that my documentary American Circumcision is out on Netflix, I’ll be sharing the full director Q&A videos from our national tour.

In this Q&A, featuring Ryan McAllister of the famed Circumcision: Elephant in the Hospital presentation, we talk about the best thing activists can do to make a difference, potential sequels to American Circumcision, and the psychology of doctors who do circumcisions.

Watch the same talk on Vimeo here.

P.S. Watch Ryan’s viral presentation here. Nearly 500,000 have already seen it.

And of course, watch my documentary American Circumcision here.

Watch More: Social Justice Film Festival Screening Q&A for American Circumcision Documentary

Today, my first feature-length documentary American Circumcision is now on Netflix!

Watch here or search “circumcision” on Netflix to find the film.

• Direct Netflix link: https://www.netflix.com/title/81000861

Note: Netflix US only. International viewers can get the film on Vimeo here.

It feels good to see my name on the platform. I’ve been keeping this a secret since May 2018. Very excited to now be able to share it.

Here are some ways you can help share the film’s Netflix release:

• Invite people to the Facebook event for our release here.
• Share our Netflix announcement on Facebook, Twitter, and tag friends on Instagram.
• Use our social media content, and our trailers in your own posts. (Netflix specific trailer here.)
• Share info cards with your friends. (Get info cards in our store here.)
• Watch the film on Netflix, so that it gets on their trending page.

Yes – Netflix has a trending page – so the more people who see the film on Netflix, the more people Netflix will recommend the film to. Let’s feed the algorithm, and get as many people as possible watching this film.

P.S. After you’ve seen the film, consider getting the bonus features here.

Humans learn through pain. Most do not change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. What pain could possibly be great enough to make us reconsider the unnatural pollution of our industrial society?

Enter Sperm Count Zero: https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

The article Sperm Count Zero published in GQ Sept 4, 2018 poses a few terrifying agreed-upon facts. First, western testosterone and sperm levels are declining. Second, this decline is due to endocrine disruptor chemicals, commonly used in almost all products of the industrial revolution – especially plastics. Third, if this trend continues, we will hit sperm count zero – a state where no men in Western society are capable of reproducing or producing testosterone. In other words, the end of the species.

And worst of all – these effects are epigenetic, meaning they are passed down from one generation to the next. If your father had 50% of normal male sperm, you start at 50% normal male sperm. And if you drop to 30% over your lifetime, your kids… You get the idea. Not good.

The article was written by Daniel Noah Halpern. I have searched for this author but cannot find him (If you know him, let me know). There is no twitter, email, facebook, etc. listed anywhere for the author. I’m fairly certain this is a pseudonym. Why someone would publish such a bombshell only to make themselves obscure I’m not sure. His only other article is about Singularity. If what this article says is true, it is the most important thing written in 2018, and maybe this decade.

Solutions

If this article is true, I see only a few solutions at present:

Dramatically change your lifestyle. On a personal level, we have to stop using plastics, and “single serving” products. There are a lot. When I did an audit of the plastics in my life, I realized even my cellphone screen was plastic. It also means doing an audit of your food – eating only what’s natural. Even “organic” or “grass-fed” products are often wrapped in plastic. Plus, we haven’t even gotten into the chemicals used in clothing.

Going fully chemical-free might require either entirely new industries (the way health-food industries or companies catering to vegans have arrived in the last thirty years) or living a self-sustaining off-the-grid lifestyle in intentional communities. Grow your own food, make your own tools, sew your own clothes, etc. Yes, this is extreme. But so is handling tons of estrogenic BPAs everyday. Start small – get the best water filter you can, or stop handling receipts (which are printed with BPAs).

Discover a new medical breakthrough. While we can do things that stop the continued decreases of testosterone and sperm counts in our own lives, reversing the damage that has already been done will require a new medical breakthrough. Thankfully, in the coming years this may be possible – but it may not be affordable to everyone.

Technologies like gene editing would allow people to reverse the genetic effects of these chemicals and allow the wealthy to maximize their sperm and testosterone production. Because of my interest in regenerative medicine, and companies like Foregen, which seek to regrow the male foreskin, I’ve explored a lot of this future tech.

I suspect much of the technology we want for both regenerative medicine and gene editing already exists, just not on a public level. Recently, a Chinese scientist claimed to gene edit babies. It could have been a scam, but the technology is possible. Even technologies like cloning already exist on a commercial level.

The ultra rich won’t pay for the crimes of their companies. They never do. They will find a way out, though it may come at great cost. Although this technology might exist, not every family will be able to afford it. This would have a Darwinic effect on Western populations, where only the most successful are able to continue their line.

Change on a civilizational level. Everyone knows our current level of pollution and waste is not sustainable. In the book Ishmael, a character describes modern civilization as like a car driving off a cliff. For the first few seconds you’re in the air, it might feel like you’re flying, but then you start to fall into disaster. Compared to the entirety of human history, the industrial revolution has only been a few seconds. Does it feel like we’ve been flying with technology?

Humans will have to heal themselves and the planet. They will have to find ways of meeting their needs that do not use chemical waste or pollute the sky, soil, and water. Of course, this will require companies, who are currently making a fortune producing these products, to change their behavior, and people who are currently enjoying the easy of single use products to dramatically change their lifestyle. And what did we say at the beginning of this article?

Most people only change when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. Maybe this will be enough pain for people to consider what they are doing to themselves, their fellow humans, and the earth.

Slow Moving Disaster

Unfortunately, it won’t be the people who created this problem won’t have to deal with it. It will be their children. The sins of the father will be visited upon the sons.  Let’s make sure we don’t give our children a world where they struggle to have children of their own.

I am hopeful people will find a solution before it is too late. Scott Adams has what he calls the Law of Slow Moving Disasters, which basically states that if humans have enough time to see a disaster in the future they can prevent it. According the article in Sperm Count Zero, the majority of the west will have trouble reproducing by 2035. Clock is ticking, let’s get on this problem.

Read: Sperm Count Zero

I did a podcast talking about the recent court ruling that federal laws against female genital cutting are unconstitutional. Watch to here my thoughts on these new developments in the circumcision debate:

For a more in depth look at the circumcision debate, check out my documentary American Circumcision. You might want to watch the film, because what I’ve predicted has already started to happen.