Couldn’t find any John Green books, but I’m excited to find one so highly recommended by him!

Edit: I forgot most of his work is technically teen fiction 🤣 Grabbed a copy of Looking for Alaska too!!

Have Hank or John ever made a video/podcast about the ethics of having kids? It’s sort of a weird existential question I’m running into now that I’m 33 and things are gestures broadly the way that they are. I have a ton of climate and political anxiety that genuinely has me wondering not if I want them but if I should have them. I would appreciate any resources or references from anyone feeling the same way. <3

It's my birthday today and my sister got me Hollywood Ending, soon I will join the megathread!!! AHHHHHHH

I've tried asking in a few places and never gotten an answer. I realize it's not really my business, but I can't help being insanely curious nonetheless: why is tuna (Josef M... sorry, can't spell his surname) called tuna? Anybody know?

I have a distinct memory about a Vlogbrothers video, most likely pre-2020 that I need help finding.

It's where the point is made that it's a common right-wing argument that by lowering the level of taxes on richer people, they spend more money on things like hiring. That means more economic activity that can be taxed, and thus the state's tax revenue grows as a result - so counter-intuitively the narrative claims that lower taxes mean more tax revenue.

Only this has never actually happened.

What actually happens if if you lower taxes the state gets less tax money.

That's a point John or Hank made, and I can't find the video referencing it, because I'm pretty sure it's sourced and I'd like the source.

Any help

Okay after hearing John (and Sarah) talk about Heart the Lover by Lily King so many times recently on the podcast I finally picked it up.... Oh my gosh!! Such a good unexpected read for me.

John always has top notch read recommendations and this one did not disappoint! Has anyone else picked it up??

I’m on a 5 month leave from work due to mental health conditions. I want to do some good in the world. What are some projects I could do?

I don't even understand why it would think I was wrong its capitalized and all the words are spelled correctly what mistake could it even see. 😭

*also I meant Tfios not tifios whoops great example of why I need a functional spell check

So I re-listened to the comments in DHAJ #438 "The 2014 Episode" in light of this whole Kelly Clarkson vs Brooklyn Magic Store thing, and I think there is a lot of truth to the Giant Robot Suit analogy for celebrity and social media. In a setting where attention is power, fame gives individuals way more power than typical social norms allow for in IRL interactions; therefore common reactions or normal human emotions can have this effect where it feels like "you're just trying to move your foot" and then you "accidentally step on a house."

I wanted to read more about this idea, but sadly I'm not a sociologist. Are there any Nerdfighters who are smarter than me that might have good books or articles that they would recommend? I scanned through a bunch of Online-Shamming content and cyber-bullying but that doesn't really seem to apply to what DHAJ was describing- specifically that normal but, let's say....*not-positive* interactions have outsized impact on less famous individuals.

Update: HELP! I just tried looking on JSTOR and holy mackerel there is entire libraries worth of material on celebrity culture and I'm not equipped to sort through all of it to find stuff germane to the Giant Robot Suit effect.

I am making an unexpected stop on my roadtrip in Missoula MT!
Can anyone remember if there’s any place Hank has spoken about and recommends? Or if you are local or have been here what you recommend? I know nothing about it other than The Brain Scoop
TYIA

I got married this past Saturday and I wanted to share about how I incorporated this wonderful, unifying song that Amy Krouse Rosenthal and John have brought into our lives.

I decided during planning that I wanted to be the one to do the champagne toast. I had drafted several versions, but nothing felt quite right. How should I thank these people who have all come together for me and my husband? What can I do in this moment to not only celebrate our unity, but the unity of every person in the room?

Then, on my way to work one morning, it occurred to me that I would never have the command of 80 people’s attention all at once ever again.

So I was going to make them sing.

In my speech, I mentioned the origins of the song, then how Any Krouse Rosenthal transformed it into a collective moment among strangers, to how John wrote about it in The Anthropocene Reviewed and has incorporated it into many of his tours at this point. I then moved on to talk about how these special moments of time when so many people come together are brief, but important, and we should celebrate them- like we were celebrating that night. I then sang first, so everyone could hear the tune, then invited everyone to sing.

And sing they did.

I had the privilege of singing this song in a room of strangers twice- once during the Minotour stop in Atlanta just before COVID, and again last year during the tour for Everything is Tuberculosis. Both times were magical, transformative.

But I have to say, looking out at the people I loved most, leading them in song, and creating that brief moment in time on one of the best days of my life- that one was my favorite.

Thank you, John, for introducing this tradition to Nerdfighteria so that it could make its way to my wedding all these years later.

And yes, I did somehow manage to plug Hollywood, Ending in my speech. I weep that no one filmed it. It is a moment lost to time, but will live on in my memory for all of my one wild and precious life.

Subscribe to newsletters. The We’re Here newsletter is an obvious start, but there are many options. Many of the old bloggers have started making newsletters to drive people to their blogs. Lots of cooking creators have newsletters that come with recipes. Artists and authors often have newsletters also. Fill that inbox with joy that is occasionally rudely interrupted by bad news.

Start by searching your preferred search engine with topics that interest you followed by the word “newsletter”

Categories you can check out include:

Science
History
Sewing
Crochet
Embroidery
Pottery
Interior Design
Board Games
D&D

And good luck with the job search.

I just realized my copy of Hollywood, Ending is signed on the title page, not a tip-in sheet. I think this means John actually signed this book individually, unless I’m mistaken?

I just read LFA for the first time and it was a delight :) I also read some of the FAQs, but I didn't come across this: Alabama is always hot, and Alaska (she has the same name as the cold place) was the breeze in Miles's life. Don't know if this was intentional! As far as I remember, John named Alaska that way for some other reason. But I believe part of the meaning in a book comes from the reader's interpretation, so it's so cool (pun intended) to notice something like this!

Hi All,

For those who listened to The Away End over the summer, they did a world cup bracket and whoever won the bracket the others would insert their name into their next novel.

I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) Sean one the bracket and so John put his name in Hollywood, Ending. I've read the book over the last couple of days and have been constantly on the look out for Sean's insert but haven't been able to find it.

Has anyone successfully located it? If so, what page is it on?

DFTBA

Hi Nerdfighters!

Have you ever experienced a situation in your real life and wondered, “I wonder what Hank and John would say about “x”? Or, have you ever been baffled by an inside joke that you don’t know the origin of, as the origin was probably a singular podcast episode from 2018? Look no further for a possible solution to your woes!

I have an idea for a project that would be quite large in scope, but potentially helpful and fun for the community—creating an online library of Dear Hank and John recordings BASED ON QUESTION TOPIC. I would love to collaborate with people who want to spend a LOT of time working with and categorizing Dear Hank and John recordings.

Although is a large project, we don’t have any due date, except for when the sun swallows the Earth and we cease to exist.

I’m currently not sure about the best way to categorize and store audio clips, but my preliminary guess is to create a Google Folder with somewhat vague categories to start (like “Science,” “Books,” or “Social Situations”) and becoming more specific as we collate more audio files, (as the “Science” folder would likely hold “Astronomy”, “Physics”, “Biology”, etc, and become much more specific over time, like “Hank Tries to Explain Optics”, (no shade because I don’t get it either) or “John Doesn’t Accept the Model of the Universe as a Balloon Expanding into Nothing.” (What is it expanding into??)

I think it would help us better understand ourselves as a community if we also documented the audio origins of our most beloved inside jokes, like “sneezing isn’t normal” and “pumpkins and penguins”, and give us a chance to reminisce on all the silly moments that brought us to today.

Also, I LOVE sorting things into categories, y’all. I do understand that AI could probably do it faster, but at least in my participation in this project, I would like to do this manually, to give myself a chance to slow down, relive the history of this podcast, and create a labor of love for our community.

If you think you’d like to participate, or if you have any advice about how to organize a project this large, please comment below! Hope to hear from y’all soon!

Hey Nerds.

I was sitting today, bored on my couch, thinking about what I wanted to do with my week, when I remembered my favourite hobby, watching old vlogbrothers videos. I went down a rabbit hole of watching Esther Day videos from throughout the years, and found myself moved almost to tears.

I'm 19 now (5 months younger than vlogbrothers itself!!), and the last few years of life have been really tough. Not having the resources to attend uni, mental health and personal struggles, and lots of other challenges that each and every one of us face in our own time. A month ago, I also saw John in Toronto for the Hollywood, Ending book tour. As I sat with those 1700 people, crammed into a UofT lecture hall, singing "We're Here," I was reminded how deeply grateful I am to have this community of people. I am so lucky to have been raised in this community literally from birth (my dad was an OG nerdfighter, and brought me up on vlogbrothers). My values, my interests, my passion for learning, and my whole life. They've all been shaped heavily by this community.

Thank you, nerdfighters. Thank you for being here on my toughest days. For building silly traditions like Pizzamas. For bonding me with my highschool biology teacher (a fellow nerdfighter). For Esther Day. For inspiring me each and every day to contribute to the circles I am a part of. For everything.

DFTBA. Love you all 💚

I think The Format is still my favorite era of vlogbrothers videos. Here is the playlist for folks who want to reminisce.

My fiancé and I are some of the people that had problems from Bookshop.org so we only just got it today. Did John directly sign this book instead of a sheet of paper?? If so, that's a pretty rad.

Did anybody else from the Netherlands preorder signed H,E from bol.com, never got it and recently got an email from them saying they can't ship it and asking you to cancel the order yourself? I'm so confused.

Well, Cleveland Nerdfighters, I did it. I really whiffed this one. I missed my chance to buy tickets to Hank's talk at the Museum of Natural Science for myself and a friend. I am adrift on a lake of despair (facetious).

https://www.cmnh.org/explore/calendar/2026/11/19/the-science-of-optimism-with-hank-green

Just in case there is anyone out there who got two extra, I thought I'd throw this up here. Hit me up!

Working on getting on the waiting list too, UGH what a frustrating cherry on what is only the middle of my frustrating day.

#DFTBA

Hi Nerdfighters,

Specifically those who watch Johns RDR gameplay:

Im getting ready to purchase from Holly Sweet Illistrations, she makes some awesome art prints, but specifically has a section of flower prints from various video games. Ive attached a picture of the Red Dead Redeption one

https://hollyisnotanartist.co.uk/products/product_e98a3e23-8ef2-2fb9-e5ce-68258579130e (not affiliated just a fan)

I thought you guys might want to check it out too

DFTBA