Looking for researcher and scriptwriter for Disrupt | Disrupt – $100-$300 Per Project
Disrupt is a YouTube channel with 1.4M+ subscribers focused on technology, systems, and the strange ways they change the world.
We’re developing a new generation of Disrupt stories centered around emerging technology, near-future possibilities, surveillance, AI, robotics, biotechnology, human behavior, and other subjects where reality is beginning to feel like science fiction.
We’re looking for a Researcher / Story Developer who can help find those stories before they become obvious.
This is not a role where you’ll simply be handed a topic and asked to summarize articles. A major part of the job is discovery: digging through research papers, court cases, niche journalism, academic work, government reports, online communities, product demonstrations, historical archives, and strange real-world incidents to find ideas with genuine narrative potential.
A typical story might begin with a small real-world development — two Harvard students using smart glasses to identify strangers, an unusual AI experiment, a new surveillance capability, or an emerging scientific breakthrough — and expand into a much larger question about where that technology could lead.
We are evolving our current format to a broader style and are looking for the right writer to help bring that vision to life. We are not looking to build just another essay style youtube channel. We want to tell stories through unpacking the right questions, highlight granular stories that become more fascinating the more you zoom in and challenge predictions, narratives and the “status quo”
Ideal Candidate
You are intensely curious and naturally fall down research rabbit holes.
You have strong story instincts in addition to research ability. You understand that an interesting technology is not automatically an interesting story — the story usually lies in what the technology enables, disrupts, or unexpectedly changes.
You’re especially good at identifying connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.
For example:
smart glasses + facial recognition + public databases + generative AI
is more interesting to us than any one of those technologies individually.
You should be comfortable moving between subjects such as:
AI and autonomous agents, surveillance and privacy, cybersecurity, robotics, biotechnology, future economics, energy, social systems, scientific research, emerging consumer technology, strange historical parallels, and speculative near-future scenarios.
Strong candidates may come from backgrounds such as investigative journalism, documentary research, long-form YouTube research, OSINT, science/technology journalism, screenwriting/story development, academic research, or similar fields.
Most importantly, you should have excellent judgment about what is actually fascinating.
We would rather receive three exceptional ideas than thirty mediocre ones.
Job Requirements
- Excellent internet and primary-source research skills
- Ability to distinguish credible evidence from speculation, marketing, and hype
- Strong understanding of narrative structure and documentary storytelling
- Ability to find original or under-covered angles rather than simply following trending news
- Comfortable researching unfamiliar technical/scientific subjects
- Ability to locate and organize primary sources, archival material, images, video, court filings, studies, government records, and other supporting evidence
- Strong written communication and concise research summaries
- Familiarity with YouTube storytelling and what makes a compelling opening, reveal, and narrative progression
- Ability to clearly separate documented fact, reasonable inference, simulation, and speculation
- Comfortable using AI research tools while independently verifying important claims
- High attention to factual accuracy and sourcing
A major plus if you have experience with:
- investigative journalism
- emerging technology research
- science or technology writing
- documentary development
- screenwriting or narrative development
- archival research
- YouTube documentary channels
Extra credit: Find one real development from the past 24 months that you believe could become a great Disrupt story. In 300 words or less, tell us what happened, provide the strongest primary source, explain the non-obvious larger implication, and describe where you think the story could go if the underlying technology continues developing.
Please do not submit generic topics such as “AI will replace jobs,” “robots are getting better,” or “social media is dangerous.” We are looking for a specific factual starting point that leads somewhere surprising.