Philosophy Tube

Thorn began her YouTube channel, Philosophy Tube, as an educational channel in 2013 in response to the university tuition fees tripling in the United Kingdom in 2012, rendering higher education less accessible. Thorn made it her mission statement to "[give] away a philosophy degree for free".[19][20] Thorn originally planned to record her lectures and upload them, rather than appearing in videos, but her university would not allow this.[21] Her first video titled "I think therefore I am" about René Descartes was uploaded in May 2013. As of January 2021, the channel has 860,000 subscribers and the videos' cumulative view tally is 54 million.[22] Thorn makes money from both YouTube advertisement revenue and crowdfunding on Patreon.[21] The channel's style progressed over a period of years from a direct style of talking to the camera about the works of philosophers such as Descartes and Kant, to more theatrical productions.[23][21] In 2016, Thorn took part in the YouTube NextUp, a week-long training programme for YouTubers with under 100,000 subscribers.[19][24]

Following attendance at the 2018 conference VidCon, Thorn decided to change her content creation, beginning to film at a studio with costumes and makeup.[23] She also used props such as snakes and horses.[21] Kayleigh Donaldson of Pajiba described Thorn's works in 2019 as "long-form think-pieces" with "detailed production design" that use aspects of sketch comedy.[25] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox summarised that the channel covers both philosophical topics and "sociopolitical ideas of the current era from a leftist point of view".[26] For instance, a video beginning with the subject of Brexit becomes a discussion more broadly about democracy.[27] Another video about former Trump advisor and Breitbart News co-founder Steve Bannon features Thorn performing a cover of a Hadestown song, with lyrics about Bannon. VanDerWerff praised that Thorn "undercuts [Bannon's] entire shtick".[26]

In July 2019, Thorn discussed her channel on the BBC radio show World Business Report.[21] In January 2020, Dmitry Kuznetsov and Milan Ismangil, writing for tripleC, reported that the channel is a focus of an internet fan community centered around leftist YouTubers categorised as "BreadTube", including ContraPoints, hbomberguy and Shaun. The authors note fan crowdfunding, production value, criticism of the alt-right, use of citation and videos about broad topics as common BreadTube attributes that are employed by Philosophy Tube. As a case study, Thorn's Climate Grief discusses climate change through multiple personas, citing Timothy Morton's concept of hyperobjects and Terry Eagleton's Why Marx Was Right. In it, Thorn criticises some right-wing and left-wing arguments and highlights indigenous philosophy.[28]

Thorn's 2018 video Suic!de and Ment@l He@lth examines societal attitudes to mental health, along with her personal experiences: she has a history of self-harm and attempted suicide twice in her life.[23] She said in mid-2019 that she still received at least one email per day by a person who said the video saved their life.[26] Thorn's video Men. Abuse. Trauma. is about men and mental health, with reference to her personal experiences.[26] The video is 35 minutes long, with the script entirely memorised by Thorn. There are no cuts or editing,[25] and a single costume change is facilitated by a slow camera pan across the room;[26] Thorn used the second of two takes.[26] Both the script and the style of the video reference the 1944 Jean-Paul Sartre play No Exit.[26] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox praised that the "tension and vulnerability that builds" is maintained by the lack of editing, and opined that in the video, "aesthetic form is inseparable from content".[26]

In 2019, Thorn aimed to read the Complete Works of Shakespeare in order to raise money for the Samaritans, a UK charity that helps people in emotional distress. Thorn chose the charity because she said that its telephone hotline "saved [her] life when [she] was considering suicide".[6] She chose Shakespeare based on the idea that "Shakespeare features every human emotion", which she attributed to Judi Dench.[3] The stream was inspired by a January 2019 video game stream by hbomberguy which raised £278,000 ($340,000) for British transgender charity Mermaids.[6] It was announced at the end of her YouTube video Men. Abuse. Trauma., which was released in late July 2019.[25]

Streaming on Twitch,[3] Thorn began on Friday 23 August[29] and finished on Tuesday 27 August, streaming continuously with only a few hours per day for sleep.[3] Many internet personalities joined Thorn to voice roles in the plays, such as Mara Wilson as Lady Macbeth[3] and Dominique "SonicFox" McLean as Troilus and Cressida's Hector.[30] Thorn initially expected to raise between $2,000 and $5,000, but said on Twitter that the stream had raised £109,447.54 (roughly $130,000) after PayPal currency conversion fees.[6][31] Over 175,000 people watched the stream.[29] The Royal Shakespeare Company praised Thorn for the endeavour,[29] as did the Samaritans.[3]