Channel Topic Brainstorming

Workflow

1. Start from the channel plan, not from random interesting facts.
2. Prefer topics that solve one question cleanly.
3. Make the contrast legible. Good topics usually hinge on a confusion, false equivalence, or missing distinction.
4. Tie the topic to the channel's language system. A strong topic teaches viewers a reusable term, distinction, or comparison.
5. Check series value. Favor topics that naturally lead to the next episode.
6. Check audience fit. Prefer topics that can be explained through a vivid problem, a clean analogy, or a familiar social situation.

Distribution Bar

Prefer topics that have at least three of the following:

• immediate felt stakes
• a false belief to overturn
• a strong comparison
• obvious analogy potential
• clear visual or diagram potential
• clean spin-out potential for shorts

Quality Bar

• Do not pitch vague topics like “聊聊某某思想家”.
• Do not build topics that require too much background before the hook works.
• Prefer topics that can be summarized in a sharp 5-sentence brief.
• Prefer titles that sound like a real problem or confusion, not a lecture heading.
• Unless the user wants a pure map episode, keep both sides present: Western frame plus Chinese material.
• Respect the repo language rule: Chinese narration plus bilingual names and terms where required by docs/channel-plan.md.

Good Patterns

• concept distinction: 正当性 (legitimacy) vs 合法性 (legality)
• structural comparison: 霍布斯 (Hobbes) vs 韩非 on order
• institutional decoding: 国家 (state) vs 政府 (government) vs 政权 (regime)
• idea-to-governance bridge: 国家能力 (state capacity) from concept to Chinese cases
• story-led problem: 为什么有的国家看起来有制度，命令却落不了地？

Handoff

Once a topic is chosen, either:

• create or refine episodes/<number>-<slug>/brief.md, or
• hand off to channel-research.