Bald and Bankrupt
Benjamin Rich, better known by his YouTube channel name Bald and Bankrupt, is an English travel vlogger and author. As of March 2022, his main channel had 3.50 million subscribers and 492 million views. Career. The defining characteristic of Rich's channel is his interest in the post-Soviet states. However, he first started vlogging from India after filing for bankruptcy in the UK due to a failed business venture, which (alongside his shaved head) inspired the name of his channel. Ever since he ventured into Eastern Europe, the attention to his videos has increased. On 12  April 2018, under the pen name Arthur Chichester, Rich released the book "The Burning Edge: Travelling Through Irradiated Belarus" about his experiences travelling through the parts of Belarus affected by the Chernobyl disaster. Reception. Rich's content has attracted coverage in various national media, particularly publications in the towns and regions he visits. New Delhi publication "The New Learn" reported on Rich's travels in India in January 2019. They praised his visits to refugee camps for Hindus in North Delhi stranded after the crisis in Pakistan, describing his videos as "introducing the world to an India that is real  and authentic, where people still open up their lunch boxes to strangers, where tea is the beginning of lifelong associations, where trust means more than money and where there is vibrancy everywhere". In March 2019, "Hindustan Times" reported on how he exposed scams against tourists in Delhi Airport, from inflated prices to rickshaw drivers and false claims. In June 2019, Rich was discussed in the Slovak press for his visit to Luník IX, which he described as "Europe's largest poor Roma neighbourhood". The article described how, despite warnings about the estate being among the most dangerous in Europe, he  was welcomed by local people who spoke fluent English and invited him to their surprisingly modern and clean homes, which he described as "better than [his] apartment in Britain". Swedish YouTube personality PewDiePie stated in a July 2019 episode of the YouTube podcast series Cold Ones that Bald and Bankrupt is his favourite YouTube channel. "Afisha Daily" journalist Lyubava Zaitseva wrote about Rich's choice of Russian destinations in September 2019, stating that even its Russian readers had "not seen such Russia" and praising him for "trying to distance himself from tourist places" and showing cities "from the inside, communicating  with local residents". In November 2019, "Russia Beyond" named Rich's channel in its list of six YouTube vlogs "where foreigners show you real Russia". It noted his "openness to local people and unpredictability". Incidents. Rich's video about a trip to Patamanta in Bolivia was reported by "Gizmodo Español" as "more scary than entering Chernobyl". In the video, he informed a local woman that he was a tourist, prompting her to warn him that "they burn people" in the area. Two men later approached Rich, inspected his passport, and gave him 30 minutes to explore and leave the area . Following a November 2019 video filmed on a train to Chechnya, Rich was forced to apologize on camera by Chechen authorities for referring to drinking beer with a Chechen woman in the predominantly Muslim region. In May 2020, after exploring no-lockdown areas during the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia, Rich disappeared for two months. He later revealed that he had caught COVID-19, and that he could not walk to the bathroom or breathe by the time he sought medical attention. He learned that he had low blood oxygen and was suffering from multiple organ failure before spending a week in  an intensive care unit. After uploading a video about his illness, treatment, and recovery, he urged fans to not make the same mistakes and to take the virus seriously.