November 5, 2026: Episode 8 scheduled on YouTube

• Long-form: https://youtu.be/sciCFGo4sX8. Short: https://youtube.com/shorts/ryKmJprpI7A ("Comfort Him... or Need Him? #shorts", links to the full video). Both go public December 26, 2026 6:00 PM (GMT+5:30), a week after episode 7 (Dec 19); Dec 12 stays free for episode 6.
• Set: thumbnail MAIN ("PAID FOREVER?"), full description with sources and 12 chapters, 15 tags (Short: 8), Education, English, not made for kids, no paid promotion, AI-use disclosure = Yes (as episodes 4, 5, 7). YouTube's checks found no issues on the long-form; the Short's checks were still running at scheduling (as for episodes 5 and 7).
• Upload route: Claude in Chrome plus a private localhost file server readable only by YouTube Studio (shut down after). Chrome was on Shilika's Press Lounge account; switched to Open Ideas for the upload and back afterwards.
• After it goes live: pin the comment from the package, add an end screen, set Status = Published. Before Dec 26: listen once at 1x; it can be unscheduled back to Private if a fix is needed.

November 5, 2026: Episode 8 rendered ("What If You Never Had to Work Again?")

• Video: long-form 6:40 (1080p24, neon style with a gold human world, 79 shots, −14 LUFS), Short 0:52 (9:16, captions, 16 shots), 3 thumbnails (MAIN = A "PAID FOREVER?"; B "WHO NEEDS YOU?" (Nani's bell); C "MONEY OR MEANING?"), chapters and description ready. Files in videos/08-you-never-had-to-work-again/. Status = Rendered. Not uploaded yet.
• Voice (free, local): the channel narrator (same as episodes 3–6), plus Indian voices for you and Imran, ep3's older-Nani recipe for Nani, a gruff voice for Mr. Bhatt, and the Kokoro machine voice for the Living Income SMS. 150 wpm; 57/61 chunks scored ≥0.92 and the other 4 were only number formatting. Notes in voiceover_notes.md.
• Learnings from episodes 1–4 applied: pause caps with longer story beats, a voice per character, one consistent narrator, names respelled for TTS but scored against the script, one TTS job at a time with orphaned workers killed by PID, builders starting on a dry-run timeline while the voice generated, a contact sheet of every shot before the full render.
• New this episode: the voice plan is generated by cutting script.txt at anchor phrases, so it matches the script exactly by construction; the "spiky" hair option draws as cat ears, so "you" uses curly hair; a final frame-every-10-s QC caught the Alaska cheque showing "$0" before the narrator said the amount (now blank until it rolls to $3,000+).
• Next: listen once at 1x, check the (verify) facts, then upload and schedule. Next free weekly slot after episode 7 (Dec 19) and the Dec 12 slot kept for episode 6: Sat Dec 26, 6:00 PM IST.

November 4, 2026: Episode 5 scheduled on YouTube

• Long-form: https://youtu.be/r-oFhpQCbU4. Short: https://youtube.com/shorts/W06se1wWJ6w ("Send the Perfect Message... or Go? #shorts", links to the full video). Both go public December 5, 2026 6:00 PM (GMT+5:30), a week after ep4 (Nov 28).
• Set: thumbnail MAIN ("FRIEND OR APP?"), full description with sources, 12 chapters, 15 tags (Short: 9), Education, English, not made for kids, no paid promotion, AI-use disclosure = Yes (as ep4). YouTube's checks found no issues on the long-form; the Short's checks were still running at scheduling.
• Upload route: Claude in Chrome plus a private localhost file server readable only by YouTube Studio (shut down after). Chrome was on Shilika's Press Lounge account; switched to Open Ideas for the upload and back afterwards.
• After it goes live: pin the comment from the package, add an end screen, set Status = Published. Before Dec 5: listen to "Yaar... dil jeet liya" (0:09); it can be unscheduled back to Private if a fix is needed.

November 4, 2026: Episode 5 rendered (free TTS)

• Video: What If Your Best Friend Was an AI? Long-form 7:03 (1080p24, dusk style, 84 shots, −14 LUFS), Short 0:51 (9:16, captions, 12 shots), 3 thumbnails (MAIN = A "FRIEND OR APP?"; B "SEND OR GO?", C "AI FRIEND / REAL FRIEND"), chapters and description ready. Files are in videos/05-your-best-friend-was-an-ai/. Status = Rendered. Not uploaded yet.
• Voice (free, local): same narrator as episodes 3–4 (Chatterbox + Kokoro am_michael, the closest free match to ep2's Romero), 149 wpm. New cast picked by audition (word accuracy, pitch, distinctness from the narrator): Neel (Indian male, liveliest pitch), Tara (Indian female), Omar (flattest pitch, for the deadpan flatmate), Mom, a coworker, and Juno the AI on Kokoro af_heart (a different engine keeps it a shade less human). Whole-file alignment 96%. Notes in voiceover\_notes.md.
• Applied from episodes 1–4: pause caps (0.75 s) with 0.9–1.3 s story beats, a voice per character, per-line emotion styles, Whisper check + automatic retakes below 92%, runaway-take kill, room tone, −16 LUFS voice stem, one TTS job at a time.