A Conversation with the Queen(s) Behind Coffee and Cults.
Ash Silver is the creator and host of Coffee and Cults, a (very) popular YouTube channel focused on media culture, celebrity power structures, and institutional accountability. Working primarily as an independent researcher, writer, and on screen narrator, she produces documentary style deep dive videos that are as illuminating as they are addictive.
Since launching Coffee and Cults, Ash has built a 350k+ subscriber base through detailed sourcing (which she shares publicly), primary material review, and informative exposés into complex public narratives. Her reporting has examined figures such as Danny Masterson, the ex-Prince Andrew, and The Kardashians alongside broader analyses of digital influence and celebrity power.
Operating without any brand sponsorships, Coffee and Cults is funded exclusively through platform monetization, allowing her to keep full editorial control and draw the line for her own ethical boundaries.
So “sit back, relax, grab a drink and a snack and let’s dive in.”
If tomorrow YouTube could no longer be monetized, I would still make the same videos, the same length, with the same research.
Defining the Work Without Claiming the Title
CD: You and I have actually talked about this a little bit before; the fact that you do not necessarily consider yourself a journalist.
What would define journalism for you? Your channel, Coffee and Cults is essentially journalistic reporting, because you do genuine, legitimate research and speak to sources, both on and off the record.
However, you are also reporting it through the prism of your personal perspective. How do you define exactly what you do in terms of journalism, entertainment, etc.?
Ash: I recently read the book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie for my video about the former Prince Andrew, and I also watched nearly every interview Andrew Lownie has done. He talks a lot about citizen journalists.
I guess he is probably talking more about people who do not have an actual platform and post to Reddit, those who email people and things like that, so I probably sit somewhere in between those realms.
A lot of people in the comments will say very kind things like, “I love your documentaries, I love the journalism.” But I do not know whether I have the credentials or resources to agree with them.
Some people label what they do as documentaries on YouTube, but I just say I make YouTube videos, because I really love making YouTube videos. At the end of the day, I am just one person; I have my friend Evelyn Darr who helps me edit portions of the videos, but otherwise, it is just me.
It is hard to define what makes a journalist in the world today, especially with everything changing so rapidly and drastically. I hear traditional journalists talk about how terrible it is for newspapers and magazines, but social media is booming, especially YouTube; mainly due to that fact so many traditional journalists have moved into YouTube, Substack and these other places.
I mentioned the author Andrew Lownie, he’s doing some amazing work on YouTube, going on other channels and on his Substack. Then you also have journalists like Marina Hyde who’s hosting a very popular British pod ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’.
I have no problem saying I make YouTube videos that are intended to inform people, tell a story & entertain people. That’s what I hope for at least!
I never want someone to click on one of my videos and think ‘well I could have got the same info by reading the Wikipedia article or spending five minutes Googling. I always try to make my videos so that someone with no information can come in and easily follow everything, but also someone who knows a lot can still come in and learn something they didn’t already know.
Analysis, Originality, and Where Authority Comes From
CD: I’m going to challenge you on that stance. I absolutely think you *are* reporting. Not to mention, your presentation of the material always dives deeper than what has already been reported. There is analysis in there.
Would you agree? How do you feel about the fact that you often present new information?
Ash: Usually with a topic, if there is nothing I can add, I don’t have a huge desire to cover it. I have to be very interested in something to do a big deep dive.
There’s definitely a range of videos, sometimes there is completely new information and sometimes there isn’t a video telling the entire story with all the surrounding information that fills in the story.
I’m completely fine with whatever people want to label my work as. I’ve no issue with people calling it a journalistic endeavor, the same way I don’t have any issues with people saying “oh yeah, that crazy woman who makes YouTube videos with her cat.”
YouTube as THE Medium, Not a Stepping Stone
Ash: With YouTube, a lot of people see it as a stepping stone to something bigger, or as a vehicle to becoming an influencer. All I really want to do is make the best YouTube videos I can.
I could make shorter videos or not spend so much time researching, but that’s what I absolutely love doing and I just couldn’t be more passionate about making videos.
I’ve been approached with offers to “level up” or “scale” my channel and videos, but I love the research, writing and editing I do. This obviously might change in the future, but currently, I couldn’t be happier just making my videos.
My biggest goal is to make sure my current audience enjoys the content and hopefully I can keep growing my channel. I’m okay not being a millionaire or a million plus channel!
One of the only channels I watch features a creator who does YouTube and Patreon exclusively, does not do sponsorships, does not have a podcast or a book, does not go on tour, and, outside of the odd interview, it is just her making videos about things she is very passionate about. That creator is Jenny Nicholson. I am sure there are many more, but Jenny is absolutely the best of the best on YouTube to me. Her videos are amazing.
It is an incredibly privileged position to be a YouTuber. I worked 20 plus years in “real jobs,” most of which were not enjoyable.
My first ever job was when I was nine and appeared in a Julie Andrews movie, but my first real job was at a fish and chip shop when I was 13. I had to get a work permit to work since I was so young.
I have had a million jobs since then, and while YouTube is stressful and hard work and I work seven days a week, there is no comparison between any of my previous jobs and YouTube. I absolutely love it, and I know I am very privileged. I could not be more grateful to my audience, who allow me to have what is, to me, the best job in the world.
Oversaturation, Authenticity, and Why Audiences Are Shifting
Ash: In this day and age, there are very few paths for someone to take a significant step up financially. Social media became a much more accessible path to career and financial success, compared to traditional careers. Social media changed everything.
Thirty years ago, if you graduated high school and entered the working world, or went to college and then did so, you could get a job that would allow you to work your way up. You could stay at a company, get raises and bonuses, and live a pretty nice life.
Today, it is hard to get a job, period. It is hard to keep a job. Most jobs grossly underpay, and everything from rent to groceries is wildly expensive.
Social media is incredibly appealing because you are your own boss. If you have decent views, you make good money and receive many other benefits. Of course, there are creators making millions, but there are far more people making somewhere between $30,000 and $300,000.
A big factor in the appeal is that technically most people can do social media if they have a smartphone. When I started, I filmed and edited everything on my phone for over a year because I did not even have a laptop.
Of course, so many people love YouTube. If you look at all the stats, YouTube is growing at an insane rate; it dominates against all the streamers.
So while a lot of people, especially younger people, want to make content, which is awesome and I love seeing it, there are also a lot of companies coming into YouTube. Of course, companies have always been there, but they are very incentivized at the moment, with Hollywood not being in a great spot and all the money and growth surrounding YouTube.
These companies do not know a lot about YouTube. Many of them, including celebrities, have tried to make YouTube videos the Hollywood way, but they have started to realize that does not work. They have also realized how viewers today, especially Gen Z and younger, want authenticity and realness, well curated authenticity and realness.
So what you get now is this blurring of the lines, where these companies are buying successful channels you would not know are owned by private equity, and are even setting up channels and creators where they look like me, a crazy woman filming in her living room with her cat talking about her hyper fixations, but they are a whole machine.
The living room or bedroom will be a set, and there will be a whole team with researchers, writers, editors, and people standing behind the camera filming, and it is not super obvious a lot of the time.
I think the popularity of YouTube and content creation outside of cable, movies, and even streaming is because people want realness and authenticity. People are sick of manufactured content, carefully crafted PR, and being sold garbage through lies, and they are just done with it.
Maybe not everyone, but I think the tide is turning.
Sponsorships, Money, and Platform Constraints
CD: This leads to the topic of sponsorships. You do not have any sponsorships on your channel as a firm rule.
How has not being beholden to sponsorship morally impacted you, or provided more freedom with creativity and transparency with your content? Has it opened things up or alternatively, limited you?
Ash: Right off the bat, it does suck when a company offers thousands of dollars for a short sponsorship. That could pay my rent for months. And the more unethical a company is, the more they usually pay.
My main reason for not doing sponsorships is that I have found the vast majority I look into have issues, bad products, questionable business practices, and things like gambling sponsors. I do not think I could do that. It would keep me up at night thinking about someone starting to gamble purely because I was getting a check.
I also hate the thought of one of my viewers who might only have a spare $50 a month to get themselves something, that was absolutely me, and thinking about my viewer using that $50 to treat themselves that month and getting some terrible product on my recommendation. It would keep me up.
I do not care what anyone else does. This is just how I feel about myself, and I also know how my own crazy mind works.
I am also sick of constant sponsorships as a viewer. I am lucky that I can make a living from YouTube ads, but that is not the case for everyone. My content is longer, so the RPM is higher, but it varies wildly.
“Editing CD”: Revenue Per Mille (RPM) is a metric that represents how much money you’ve earned per 1,000 video views on YouTube. RPM is based on several revenue sources, including: ads, channel memberships, and YouTube Premium revenue.
Ash: Sometimes videos are demonetized, and you are never told why. When that happens, I am basically paying to make the videos.
Do I like muting words? No. But if, after working for two weeks or a month, you were told, “If you say any of these words, your paycheck will be torn up,” I think most people would not say those words.
These limitations are mostly platform based. It is very frustrating, especially because you do not know one hundred percent what is okay and what is not.
It is extremely frustrating to upload a video you have worked on for a week, two weeks, however long, and have it demonetized so you have essentially worked all that time and are not being paid.
I also pay Evelyn to help me edit, and I am very passionate about paying people well, making sure they get performance bonuses, Christmas bonuses, etc., so it really hits me when that happens because I do not do sponsorships.
Sponsorships also come with constraints: contracts, deadlines, wording restrictions. Sometimes I need 15 days to produce a video instead of 8.
I feel those things would ultimately impact the video’s quality.
I would not be able to sleep at night recommending something I do not believe in.
Responsibility to the Audience
CD: You feel a strong responsibility in everything you say and represent. Has that sense of duty changed as your audience has grown?
Ash: As the channel grows, the main thing I worry about is not letting people down. I want the video to be good enough that if someone sits down for an hour and a half, it is worth their valuable time. Especially with how little free time people have today.
I am so grateful when someone chooses to spend that time watching one of my videos and hanging out with Ms. G and me.There are many videos I have started and abandoned because I felt they were not good enough.
My responsibility is always to my audience. They are the reason I have this awesome job, so I just want to make sure I am doing the absolute best work I can for them.
I can only do deep dives when I am genuinely interested. I will not usually cover something just because it is trending.
Sometimes I am really interested in something that is trending and I cover it, like an early video about the Murdaugh Murders or the video I just released about Tyra Banks.
I have had her on my long list of topics for ages, but when I saw the Netflix series about America’s Next Top Model was coming out, I decided to do it just before that show comes out.
As the channel grows, the main thing I worry about is not letting people down.
Queen Gloria and Accidental Iconography
CD: The moment has finally arrived. Can we briefly talk about Ms. G (government name, Gloria) and her trajectory as a cat influencer?
Ash: She is much more popular than me, which is exactly how it should be. People would truly riot if I filmed without her! About 80% of the comments mention her.
One of my favorite comments of all time was from someone who had been listening exclusively on audio platforms for almost a year and only realized she was a cat when they started watching the videos.
Everyone in my life knows her. People call her Queen G. Even the vets call her their “celebrity client.”
CD: All bow to Queen Gloria.
Ash: Long may she reign.
Check out Coffee and Cults on YouTube.com/@coffeeandcults and support the show on Patreon.
Merch: The Ms. Gloria Limited Edition Collection is now available for purchase. T-shirts, caps, commemorative hoodies: honor the Queen.
IG: @coffeeandcultsyt and @TheAshSilver.
Follow Ms. G @MsGloriaTheCat
