American dystopia

In 2020, Joey Evans lost his job as a barman as Covid swept across America, as did his wife Nicole, a waitress. The two Texans decided they had little hope of returning to the workforce.

- Russell Brown

But they did have the house they'd owned for 20 years, which was worth four times what they'd paid for it. They decided to sell up and put the proceeds towards a road trip taking in all 50 US states.

They wouldn't just hit the road, they'd capture their experience and put it on YouTube. Evans had some skills: he'd written and directed a series of risible horror films that had screened at fringe film festivals and even on Prime Video. He rebranded his existing “weird news” YouTube channel as Joe & Nic’s Road Trip and off they went. It didn't go well. The first dozen or so videos made unremarkable travel fare and got little engagement. Then they went to Jackson, Mississippi's state capital.

Their first video from Jackson, “A look at the second most dangerous city in America”, has been watched 750,000 times. (“You come here and it’s hard to believe that this is the United States,’ Evans sighs to the camera in a forlorn, broken neighbourhood. “It's just like it's bein’ forgotten.”) Their most popular video, a roll through the urban ruins of Gary, Indiana, has had 11 million views.