Justin Gibs Roczniak (), also known through his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

alias donoteat01, is an American

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

. He is known for his political commentary through the video game Cities: Skylines and as the co-host of podcast ''Well There's Your Problem''.

Personal life

Roczniak is a structural engineer with a degree in engineering from

Drexel University Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

. He lives in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He considers himself to be a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. He is part of the Philly Transit Riders Union.

YouTube career

On his YouTube channel donoteat01, Roczniak uploads videos on Cities: Skylines, using the game to explain the politics and power behind the construction of American cities. In the videos, he constructs case studies of urban development, discussing topics like

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

, and parking minimums. His main YouTube series is ''Franklin'', where he discusses the historical development of cities through the fictional city of Franklin. He co-hosts the engineering disaster

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

''Well There’s Your Problem'', which was initially an offshoot of his

YouTube channel YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San B ...

. It has been characterised by

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

magazine as exposing "the darkly humorous side of capitalism destroying bridges, dams, and more" and was praised by Patrick Yocum of the

Boston Ballet The Boston Ballet is an American professional classical ballet company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams and Sydney Leonard, and was the first professional repertory ballet company in New England. ...

as being a "sarcastic and dry conversation about some of the most ridiculous and occasionally tragic accidents, blunders, miscommunications and societal failures that make the world of big engineering projects so fascinating and scary". Although Roczniak initially intended for his videos to focus on the history first and foremost, rather than be

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

, he has stated that it would not be possible to discuss history in an apolitical manner, as he considers it an "absurd standard" to hold history to.

Advocacy

Throughout his works, Justin Roczniak has advocated for many positions, such as increasing unionization, changes to urban design, rent control, and railroad nationalization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roczniak, Justin American socialists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American structural engineers YouTubers from Philadelphia 20th-century births Drexel University alumni 21st-century American engineers American podcasters