Our method
How we tell stories
A tale is only worth telling if it's true. These are the rules every Talecules story follows, from the first question to the last frame.
We start with a question about today
Why does something look, work or cost the way it does? We begin with a thing you can see right now and go back through the record until we find the people and events that made it so. If a story doesn't explain something about the world as it is, we don't tell it.
We check it against the record
- Records first. Official records, original documents, scientific papers, museum and archive collections. Encyclopedias and articles help us find them; they are not the last word.
- Two solid sources. Every important claim in a video rests on at least two independent, reputable sources, or on one primary record.
- No invented numbers. A figure on screen comes from a named source. We never round a guess into a fact.
We name legends as legends
Some of the best-known stories in history are legends, or rest on one person's account. When we tell one, we say so clearly. When historians disagree, we tell you that they disagree, and why.
The best tales don't need embellishing. They need finding.
Pictures and sound
Our animation, maps, diagrams and music are made by us. Historical photographs and film come from public archives and collections whose material is free to use, and we keep a record of where every picture comes from.
We correct in public
If we get something wrong, we correct it under the video and in the pinned comment, and we fix it in anything we make afterwards. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us at hello@talecules.com. We read every message.