From the New York Times, I'm Catchin' Ben Hold, and this is The Daily.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as Mr. Beast, has become a sensation on YouTube, with ostentatious

and sometimes absurd acts of altruism that go viral.

Today, journalist Max Reed on the rise of YouTube's most popular star, and what it tells

us about the platform and its users.

It's Wednesday, July 5th.

Max, hello.

Hi.

So, I had a strange experience earlier this year.

I have three kids, and they're very into watching videos on YouTube.

In full disclosure, my husband works at YouTube, so I'm probably the only one in my family

who doesn't obsessively watch YouTube videos.

But one day a few months ago, my teenage daughter showed me this video.

And this video works during a thousand people's blindness.

It was called 1000 Blind People See for the first time.

And in this video, this goofy-looking young guy with the scraggly beard

explains how he pays for eye surgery for 1000 people.

And we're just getting started. We still have 980 lives left to change.

And I was like, what's going on here? Who's this guy?

Thank you, Mr. Beast. Thank you.

And my daughter said, you haven't heard about Mr. Beast?

Yeah, that's kind of the perfect video to get an introduction to Mr. Beast, isn't it?

...