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William J. Rates (born 2000), better known online as KhAnubis, is a German-American YouTuber that talks mainly about social sciences and social studies, usually regarding history, geography, culture, and other subjects regarding how the world works. Rates now moves between living in Portland, Oregon and Berlin, Germany, though they only have an American passport.

Early life
Rates was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, and was raised in the Washington, D.C. area before moving to Portland, Oregon at the age of eight.

Their father’s family was traditionally Catholic, and their mother’s family was Jewish. Rates self-identifies as Jewish.

Despite living partially in Germany, Rates has no German relatives and did not grow up in the country. They are a native English speaker who learned German from scratch in their teenage years. Rates also knows some Spanish and some Turkish.

Interest in ancient Egypt
When Rates was 9 and 10, they were in a phase of fascination with ancient Egypt despite never learning about them in school.

During the phase of interest, Rates dressed up as a pharaoh for Halloween. The costume included a hat, which Rates eventually got so used to that they didn’t bother taking it off. After going through a second hat, Rates stopped wearing the hat in 2021, wishing to go around like a normal person without hiding behind it.

As part of the obsession, at age 9, Rates saw the movie Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. The film’s main antagonist was the fictional pharaoh Kamunrah, which Rates thought was a combination of “ka”, which they assumed to be spelled “kah”, and Amun Ra, chief of the Egyptian gods. Liking the name, but not wanting to copy it, Rates thought of other Egyptian gods beginning with A. Anubis came to mind, leading to the name KhAnubis, where the A is supposed to be capitalized to emphasize the connection to Anubis.

Beginning of channel
I first started my channel in 2009, initially making stop-motion videos with Playmobil toys. It wasn’t until 2013 when I started doing the explainer-style videos I do to this day. I was very much inspired by channels like CGP Grey, MinutePhysics, Crash Course and the like to pursue this path with my channel. I never really had a goal with my channel, but I guess nowadays it is to help try to unite and connect the world and everyone in it, by garnering followers from all corners of the Earth, all interested in semi-animated videos about basically how the world works.

I also love travelling around the world, and also have a strong interest in space travel, which may not be as obvious from my videos but is still just as strong as my other interests. I guess I have always had a sort of adventurous spirit. I am always curious about different cultures around the world, whether it be in places to go to, or even just new cuisines to try in that restaurant on 42nd Avenue I haven’t tried yet. Nowadays, whenever I travel to somewhere new, I try to feed the new knowledge and experiences into my channel, be it from making a video about automated mass transit in Vancouver, BC, or full profiles on small and somewhat obscure countries, like what I did in Luxembourg.

Rates first started KhAnubis in 2009 making stop-motion animation videos with their Playmobil toys. I have always enjoyed the idea of using film and video to tell stories and educate others, so I suppose it’s no wonder YouTube drew me in so much.

I eventually figured out how to use iMovie to put together these short films, though at first, the only way I knew how to make them was by putting all the pictures together in this animation program called Scratch… and then recording the screen with a camera.

Around 2012 to 2013 though, I began to watch more educational YouTubers like Vsauce, CGP Grey, MinutePhysics, Crash Course, etc. and also enjoyed what they were doing. So I gradually phased out the Playmobil videos in favor of the more explainer-type videos I make today. I still used iMovie for the first couple of years, so I liked to joke that these videos were like “glorified slideshows” in terms of production quality. I finally started editing with Final Cut Pro in 2016, which is what I’ve been using ever since.

My channel barely grew at all during all that time, only reaching 1,000 subscribers by summer 2017. After joining a community of fellow educational YouTubers (EduTubers) called WeCreateEdu, the channel started to grow more quickly, eventually exploding from 4,000 to more than 20,000 subscribers in November 2018 after posting a video titled “How the Soviet Anthem Became a Meme” (and presumably also having a large stockpile of other videos for new subscribers to watch).

Current KhAnubis content
According to Rates, KhAnubis is fed by their strong interest in world culture, history, and languages.

KhAnubis videos are usually around 10 minutes long, and the videos seek to answer questions about different aspects about the world, which are usually explained through narration over stock footage and animations. KhAnubis uploads every other Sunday and has merchandise available for sale.

In a Q&A video, Rates stated channels such as Vsauce, Minutephysics, CGP Grey, etc. were inspirations for making educational videos. KhAnubis has also done numerous collaborations with other educational YouTubers, such as Mr. Beat, Up and Atom, Jordan Harrod, DSM: Wannabe Linguist, Corporis, MrBettsClass, Spaghetti Road, and several others. KhAnubis has also edited videos for ibxtoycat's second channel, ibx2cat. KhAnubis is subscribed to ibxtoycat.

KhAnubis has also joined other history YouTubers, including Potential History, AlternateHistoryHub, and many others on a subscription-streaming service created by The Armchair Historian, of the same name.

KhAnubis does a livestream for every ten thousand subscribers they get. For their 100,000 subscriber livestream in November 2020, they hosted a trivia game with other EduTubers, featuring JJ McCollough, Mr. Beat, Kathy Loves Physics, DSM: Wannabe Linguist, Virginia Schutte, Amor Sciendi, and Mythology with Mike.

KhAnubis on YouTube KhAnubis on YouTube

Answers to questions you didn't even know you had -

By John Krejcha

-

Every other Sunday, my 14-year-old and I try to see who can be the first to watch the new video that KhAnubis will post to their YouTube Channel as both of us love geography and learning about our world.

The KhAnubis YouTube channel is dedicated to teaching its viewers about the world and how everything works. It is education made fun. From facts about Luxembourg to important tips for going through immigration while traveling internationally, you can learn a wide variety of things. The video, “The Anthems You‘re Not Supposed to Sing - Behind the Anthem” recently reached over 1 million views.

I was excited (geeked out to be honest) to have the chance to interview Willie “KhAnubis” Rates and learn more about how this entrepreneurial autistic video maker and EduTuber is helping to make our world easier to understand.

Q: What is the history behind your KhAnubis YouTube channel?

A: I first started back in 2009 making stop-motion animation videos with my Playmobil toys. I have always enjoyed the idea of using film and video to tell stories and educate others, so I suppose it’s no wonder YouTube drew me in so much.

I eventually figured out how to use iMovie to put together these short films, though at first, the only way I knew how to make them was by putting all the pictures together in this animation program called Scratch… and then recording the screen with a camera.

Around 2012 to 2013 though, I began to watch more educational YouTubers like Vsauce, CGP Grey, MinutePhysics, Crash Course, etc. and also enjoyed what they were doing. So I gradually phased out the Playmobil videos in favor of the more explainer-type videos I make today. I still used iMovie for the first couple of years, so I liked to joke that these videos were like “glorified slideshows” in terms of production quality. I finally started editing with Final Cut Pro in 2016, which is what I’ve been using ever since.

My channel barely grew at all during all that time, only reaching 1,000 subscribers by summer 2017. After joining a community of fellow educational YouTubers (EduTubers) called WeCreateEdu, the channel started to grow more quickly, eventually exploding from 4,000 to more than 20,000 subscribers in November 2018 after posting a video titled “How the Soviet Anthem Became a Meme” (and presumably also having a large stockpile of other videos for new subscribers to watch).

Q: We’ve heard you’re quite the world traveler. Where are some of your favorite places to visit?

A: So far I’ve been to 21 countries across four continents. Of the cities, I would say my five favorites are Berlin, Germany; Hong Kong; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Istanbul, Turkey; and London, UK (though this is far from an exhaustive list).

Q: Where do you get your ideas for your explainer videos?

A: You know that moment when you’re sitting around doing nothing or taking a shower or doing some other work? Yeah, that’s when I’ll usually get some of my best video ideas, and whenever I do, I have a Google Docs document full of different ideas, which I may come back to if I need a topic for a particular week.

Q: How long does it usually take you to create, edit and publish a video? A: Now that I make my videos on a two-week schedule, I usually spend about a week researching and writing (which for me is the same step, because writing the script is actually how I personally learn the subject matter best), and then probably 5-7 days editing. Then, if a video has a sponsor, I’ll send it over to a sponsor about a week early so they can review it and make sure they’re comfortable with how I present them in the ad at the end. Because of the sponsorships, I actually staggered my schedule by a week, which means whenever I release a new video, I’ve probably already finished the script for the next one.

Q: You’ve now passed 110,000 subscribers on YouTube. That’s awesome! How did you celebrate passing 100,000?

A: I hit 100k back in November 2020 and we didn’t really do anything special on that day, but in the weeks after, I applied for YouTube to verify my channel (that little checkmark next to my channel’s name, which I got within a few days). Then about a month later, I got my silver play button award, which is basically this big slab of silver with YouTube’s logo embossed at the top, and with the text “Congratulations to KhAnubis for passing 100,000 subscribers” at the bottom. It was really exciting to receive that because I had made it a goal to get my play button sometime in 2020.

Q: How long did it take you to monetize your channel?

A: I believe I first got monetized back in 2014 or 2015, but getting monetized back then was very different than how it is now. Nowadays you need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours on your videos (i.e. people have watched your videos for a cumulative total of 4,000 hours).

As far as how long it takes, everyone is different, some may reach that in a couple of months, while others might take a couple of years.

Q: Do you have any future expansion of KhAnubis?

A: Oh absolutely! In the near future I really want to take on someone to help me out with the art and/or animation, as well as maybe someone to help me with the scriptwriting and research, once I have enough money to be able to pay them of course. I’ve also been working on expanding to another channel called Celestium, which will be all about space, space exploration, and the future of humanity in space. In a Q&A video, Rates revealed a second channel (KhAnubis Unplugged)

Subscriber milestones

 * 5,000 subscribers: November 14, 2018
 * 6,000 subscribers: November 17, 2018
 * 20,000 subscribers: November 30, 2018
 * 25,000 subscribers: December 14, 2018
 * 80,000 subscribers: May 23, 2020
 * 100,000 subscribers: November 26, 2020
 * 200,000 subscribers: April 20, 2022

Impact of autism on work
In an interview with Autism Life Magazine, Rates revealed the impact of autism on their work.

Q: Hi Willie. Please tell us a little about your background.

A: I have one sibling, a younger brother named Jake, who is more severely impacted by Autism and is non-verbal. I myself have Asperger’s.

Q: How does your autistic neurology impact you when you travel?

A: I guess one plus (for me personally) is that I’m really good at memorizing maps ‒ especially of metro systems ‒ of different cities, so I kind of always have a kind of internal GPS in my head.

Whenever I start a trip and arrive in my first city though, I have found it best to immediately go to my hotel and spend the rest of the evening there, which I guess kind of gives my brain the chance to fully digest that we are not at home, which I’ve found lets me better enjoy my trip. I only really get sensory overload in extremely loud or overwhelming places though, so personally, I just try to avoid those places wherever I can.

Q: What advice do you have for autistic youth or adults who might want to start their own YouTube channel? A: Well first, if you’re asking about money, my greatest advice would probably be: don’t do YouTube just for the money! Growing a YouTube channel is a labor of love and not something you should do purely for the money, because the truth is we don’t always make that much (which is why we have to ask brands to sponsor our videos or our fans to support us somewhere like Patreon).

In general, however, I’d say my greatest piece of advice for an up-and-coming YouTuber is to remember that growing a YouTube channel takes a really long time, so if you’ve had your channel for two years and still have 100 subscribers, that’s completely normal! I would also say that, while making good videos is really the key to growing big on YouTube, if you’re just starting out and you think your first videos are going to suck, let them suck! Even if you aren’t proud of your first videos, making videos and putting them out is how you learn to make better and better videos!

Q: What else is important for Spectrum Life Magazine readers to know?

A: Talking especially to parents of children on the spectrum (or children in general really), the best thing you can do for your child is allow them to be who they are and follow whatever passion they want to pursue.