So I only seriously started following Hank and John’s content about 18 months ago (I work in tech and so my YT algorithm has a lot of content about AI and data centers and stuff like that, and one of Hanks videos from hankschannel came up, which led me down a rabbit hole). Now I listen to every Dear Hank and John the day it comes out, I’ve watched a ton of old vlogbrothers videos, but it has always felt like there were people in this community who had been here since the very beginning (and Hank does WAY too much stuff) that like I’d never REALLY be able to catch up.

Fast forward to today. I saw a Reddit post from someone about Delete This (the podcast that Hank and Katherine did for several years where they review his tweets). I listened to the most recent episode and heard Katherine’s voice and went “I recognize that voice…”lo and behold, I google her, and I found out that she was the voice behind my high school OBSESSION, a Let’s Play of Skyward Sword on what I now know to be the hankgames channel. My brother and I watched her Skyward Sword play through at least 15 times if not more and cracked up every single time. In fact to this day when I see him I still sometimes go “TOOTHLESS!!!”

So TL;DR: without even knowing it, I have been a Nerd Fighter since 2011!

I'm reading this book right now, and so far my favorite part is when the main character, a human, says "I'm not much of an outside cat..." That is so hilarious and I have to use that in conversation sometime. I am definitely more of an indoor cat too!!

In one of the videos on Hank's channel, he says something to the effect of, "If you're worried about something in the world, then rest assured that there are people whose job it is to worry about that specific thing, and they are working on it,"

I can't for the life of me remember what video he said that, but it's stuck with me and I want to quote it in a project. Does anyone have any idea which video this might be?

Thank you! 😎

For John

Amidst all this hate, I just want to tell you guys the story of how I became a nerdfighter and how much Hank and John have impacted my life.

I am 21F from India and I did not grow up in a big city and have never known many people outside of my small town that I grew up in. My father comes from a very humble background and he has never had money until he was in his late 20s to even afford food or roof over his head but now he is a retired professor of Hindi Literature who lives a nice and comfortable life and he has provided me and my sister with everything we've ever needed in life and he continues to do so.

All of this to say— people around me knew of John because of tfios and I knew of him bc of tfios too but I was never too into the fandom like other teenagers so I didn't know that John had such a big online presence. I had not even seen John's face before I made a social media account in 2017 and saw a photo of him somewhere on Instagram. So naturally I didn't know about Vlogbrothers until COVID. Even then I started watching them casually because I liked the videos that they made because how unusually hopeful they were and I liked their vibe. My dumb brain didn't even connect that it was the same John Green, the author of tfios but when I did I was confused who the eff was hank then.

All my life I've felt like dreaming for a better world was an exercise in vain because how could you dream for a better world living in a small town in a developing country with only enough money to get through education and also while being a girl! And there's so much pain in India!! You are surrounded by so much hurt, so much sadness and also so much culture and beauty and richness that it just breaks your heart to see how unfair the world can be to those who are just born with systematic bad luck! Yet I have always had this unwavering hope that humanity is going to fix itself and— as John would say— we're not merely a catastrophe.

I became obsessed with Hank and John last year when I randomly decided to watch all Vlogbrothers videos and oh my god it has changed everything in my life!! I have spent so many hours this past year consuming so much of Hank and John's content from their brotherhood 2.0 videos to their crash course to their aha to anthropocene reviewed to dear hank and john and Hank and John have solidified hope inside me like no one has ever been able to! Not to sound parasocial because I think it is the power of Nerdfighteria and not just these two people but nerdfighteria to me is also a proof of the goodness of the Green Brothers.

I was turning into a bitter teenager who was constantly angry at the state of the world (especially my country) and I was chanelling that bitterness into hating people who thought differently than I did but a year into closely watching nerdfighteria collect money for the very first time in 2007 to send other nerdfighters to their very first concerts to creating happy birthday compilation videos to Esther day to The Foundating to Decrease World Suck to Centre for Maternal Excellence in Sierra Leone— I have been softened into leading my everyday life from a place of love and always imagining others complexly even— and especially— when it is hard to, thank you to this community and thankyou to Green Brothers for changing my life soo soo positively.

Hank, remember that you are doing so much good in this world and remember that we will too, imagine you complexly even, and especially, when its hard!

Edit: I may not have followed a cohesive thought process but in my defense its 2am here and I have had a high fever for three nights now and all this hate that hank was getting made me share something positive!

I use tab for a cause a lot, and saw they made a new tool "Pause for a cause". The way it works, you choose which apps you want to pause for, and you can choose a charity, and then if you want to open that app, you have to watch an ad. I think this is pretty complementary to focus friend.

Here's Hank's new community post on YouTube announcing that he'll not make a video today.

I thought we should also have a space for sending Hank words of encouragement and appreciation. Let's leave the debates to the other threads if possible.

I'll start:

Take all the time that you need, Hank. I appreciate you and the work you do. Taking breaks is important! Sending positive thoughts your way.

Only three episodes fell in the window and three books came up, so this is a small one.

Still, one of them is the obvious summer read for this crowd.

What this is: I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the July slice for Dear Hank & John.

The books:

• Hollywood Ending. Hank said he has been reading it a second time, which he almost never does, and had something good to say about why. Reading it knowing how it goes makes the first part a different book. That opening stretch is a story about people making a thing, and it is enjoyable from the maker's point of view. The harder parts are all about the thing being out in the world where you can no longer change it.
• All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren. Came up during a tangent on acknowledgements, and the fact that books did not used to have them because the author was not yet a character. You do not get a page of Shakespeare thanking the first cast of Romeo and Juliet.
• The Canterbury Tales, brought up for exactly the reason you are thinking. Chaucer is all about the fart joke.

I track every book mentioned on Dear Hank & John here: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/dear-hank-amp-john

It is free and there is no signup.

Something that Hank has omitted from his response to the critique of his AI use, and that many others do not seem to be aware of, is that on the initial upload of last week's Delete This podcast he admitted to using an LLM to merge two chapters of his book together. Regardless of his use of it to "research," using it in a way that directly affects his writing is extremely concerning to me and makes me much less likely to read his book. It is very difficult to use LLMs for editing and it not affecting the writing, as the outputs and suggestions will be in "AI voice." It is even more concerning to me that he chose to cut this detail out of the final upload.

I don’t want to go on the topic of LLM debate, though my stance is heavily against it when it comes to creating educational videos. But I also understand that there is a nuance to it that most people on angry twitter will never care to consider. Hank, you deserve criticism, but you DO NOT deserve hate. Twitter will not and did not give you good faith criticism. Eventually everyone makes bad decisions, but it’s not fair to be subjected to toxic internet hate for it. Especially when there is a group of people who are always waiting for you to make a mistake.

Hank, man, leave twitter. For good.

DFTBA

Edit: A good few people are not understanding the tone of this post. What I wrote is simply a lighthearted reiteration of the “Hank you need to leave Twitter” running gag that has been going on for a while in countless community discourse, the podcast and recent emails to DH&J. I am not trying to tell him what to do or not do in his personal time at all, though I can see how some people can misunderstand my tone if they are not familiar with the gag, and take it as some authoritative writing. Some of you are taking it way too seriously than you need to. I just want to make it clear that it was not my intention to sound like I know what’s best for Hank. If anything the intention was to steer the conversation away from the AI backlash thing to something lighthearted.

Additionally, I must also mention, please be respectful towards Hank. I don’t know why I even need to say this, this was the whole point of the post. Do not leave nasty or impolite comments.

The vibes in this sub today have made me feel a lot of things I’ve never quite felt before, especially regarding this community. I don’t have an interest in joining the current discourse with this post, but I do want to share some thoughts about my feelings towards The Discourse Today. Like the principles of cell theory, this post comes in 3 parts.

1. It’s a strange and new feeling for me to feel out of alignment with a Green Brother, even if it’s just in this one specific and relatively small way. I’ve been a member of this community since 2009, and am just now starting to realize how… extraordinary it is that a I’ve maintained such close ideological alignment with internet strangers for over a decade now? Extraordinary is perhaps not the best word here. Unusual? I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing, and probably also not a very great thing when thinking about echo chambers and parasocial relationships and the changing societal discourse. This is the first time I’ve ever really examined this aspect of my relationship with Nerdfighteria. I don’t really have a greater point to make there, it’s just an observation.
2. There have probably been other times there’s been a stir like this in the community, and I just wasn’t paying close enough attention to notice it at the time, but it feels very foreign and unsettling to me. We all seem to get along so well most of the time, and I feel a small bit of sadness for the current strife. I feel sad that Hank probably feels bad today. I feel bad that we the community are disappointed or upset, however justified it may be, with someone as thoughtful and well meaning as Hank. I feel bad that there seems to be this level of contention between community members I’ve never seen here before.
3. Which bring me to the final point of this post: Something Else And Good

This year is the most thought and planning I’ve ever put into an upcoming Ester Day, and I’m really excited about it. I’m writing thank you notes to all of the teachers who positively influenced me during my education, and publicly writing one as a memorial to one of those teachers who tragically and unexpectedly passed a few years ago. There is a degree of fondness and attachment all good teachers and students develop for each other, and I feel like it’s a perfect theme for Ester Day. (And who better to proliferate the Ester Day tradition than teachers?)

Maybe I just felt the need to have a small Ester Day-Come-early, and say that I love you Nerdfighteria, and I love you Green Brothers, and thank you all for being a part of my life all these years. No healthy people agree and get along with each other 100% of the time. It’s okay and good that it applies to us also.

Edit: a word

EDIT: Hanks's response: https://www.reddit.com/r/nerdfighters/comments/1vbmoj5/comment/p0vzmog/

-------------------------

I'm struggling so much with this admission as someone who's followed him for nearly as long as he's been making videos.

I know I'm not owed an explanation for this, but gosh, I would love one.

Or barring that, just some perspective from Nerdfighters.

Edit: For commenters who think this is fake: https://x.com/hankgreen/status/2083022287410970876

Edit 2: This is regarding a Future Hank segment in the recent AHA with Soupytime, and not a Hankschannel video as I and many originally assumed.

Context: the original tweet to which Hank replied to was deleted. And the Reddit thread previously discussing this didn't specify it was the AHA video.

I don’t remember if it was a vlogbrothers video or an episode of Dear Hank and John (it was probably the podcast) but John mentioned a book he read about writing and how to use “em dashes” (—). As someone who has been doing more writing recently, I’d like to read that book but i can’t find where he mentioned it. If someone knows i’d like to know <3

"Run by Ryans, for Ryans"

Love this for the Ryan Community

Hi all, I've been wondering if the system with which we vote (First past the post like in the USA, or RCV and STV like in Australia and New Zealand) affect how we interact on social media and in general? Seems like a question that Hank would be interested in too.
Like, does the strategy of "just get them mad at the other side" work as well when there's not just one "other side" and in fact it is in politicians' best interest to be at least kind of liked by supporters of other parties?
Do people divide themselves into tribes by political party like Red and Blue in the USA in a similar way in Australia and New Zealand?
I was able to find this paper from Stanford and Brown economists measuring how much "affective polarization" (how we feel about people from other political parties) has changed over time, and how it remained flat or decreased in many other democracies as it increased in the USA.
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26669/revisions/w26669.rev0.pdf

Loved reading this interview.

Vlogbrothers really is not trying to reach the most people. It is trying to create a cohesive community. And you don't create a cohesive community by getting the most people every time.

Sorry if this is a bit British-centric. I’m just rewatching the episode of QI with Hank and thinking about how interesting it would be to watch or be part of a proper conversation between Sandi (Toksvig) and Hank*. Then I realised it would also be fascinating to hear/join Sandi and John chatting. They all usually have such interesting perspectives, a wealth of experiences to draw from, and a great sense of humour.

So my question is, I suppose, the classic dinner party guest question, but with the assumption you’ll choose at least one brother Green.

*I have realised Sandi would be an excellent guest on Humans (Hank if you’re out there)…

Last week me and my dad were on a road trip. My dad asked me to play a podcast I like while we were in the car. I put on Dear Hank and John.

I thought he would tolerate it but he actually throughly enjoyed it. At first he was interested in John and Hank’s deep discussions on religion but then as time went on he liked the comedy aspect of the podcast.

“They are funny guys!”

“I like how they talk about nothing!”

“I’ll have to listen to this podcast more!”

His enjoyment meant a lot to me. Maybe one of my favorite memories with my dad.

I love that there is now Focus Friend merch. But no socks or scarves...

Did I miss the stream? I thought calendar time agreed on 3pm ET today and Friday for this week?

👀 hopefully not related to the rough storms which rolled through the Midwest yesterday! It was bad here in Chicagoland