We’re starting a new channel to make sense of the news

TL;DR

Johnny Harris is launching "The Bigger Picture with Max Fisher" on Newpress to deliver rigorous, visual explainer journalism without outrage or fear-mongering.

Key Points

• 1.Max Fisher is a veteran international reporter from the Washington Post, New York Times, and Vox, and co-creator of the map explainer format with Johnny Harris.
• 2.The two first collaborated at Vox around 2014–2015, producing a 6-minute Syrian Civil War explainer that reached ~100 million views on Facebook.
• 3.That video used color-coded icons for each faction, showing motivations and territory on a single evolving map — taking two to three weeks to make.
• 4."The Bigger Picture" will ask one urgent question per episode (e.g., "Why do ICE agents wear masks?" or "Why is housing so expensive?") and follow it to unexpected, larger conclusions.
• 5.Max teased one episode starting with a visual discovery: American city skylines stopped growing around 1960, while Asian and Latin American mega-city skylines kept expanding every decade.
• 6.Johnny is dyslexic, which drove him to process information visually from a young age — using maps, Adobe Illustrator graphs, and video projects — making visual storytelling his natural medium.
• 7.Newpress is a creator-led media company where the journalist's individual voice and curiosity come first, with the brand providing trust and credibility across channels including Sam's and Christophe's shows.
• 8.Both Harris and Fisher believe audiences are exhausted by outrage-driven media and are hungry for rigorous, human, transparent journalism that makes them feel informed and empowered rather than anxious.
• 9.Max left mainstream media partly due to distress from constant news consumption, and sees YouTube's algorithm as a reflection of human psychology — noting that demand for deep explainers is real and large.