Hey, so something worth knowing is a benefit for the nonprofit organization that makes Crash Course and SciShow Complexly. It's September 16th, 2026 in Los Angeles, California at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Please join us. It's going to be incredible.
Friends have complexity like Mark Rober, Katie Max, Simone Yetch, and Moore will share inspiring talks about what makes them hopeful and join Hank Green on stage for fun, interactive discussions. Complexly has been creating free educational content like SciShow and PBSEons and Crash Course and Bizarre Beasts for nearly 15 years and 6 billion views. But this year, we've become a 501c3 nonprofit and we're doing something worth knowing as an in-person event that benefits Complexly and our impactful educational media. It's the first ever Complexly in-person event and it's a fundraiser to support our mission of inspiring curiosity and lowering barriers to knowledge building because curiosity builds understanding and understanding builds a better world.
Tickets go on sale to the general public June 30th at somethingworthknowing.com. So come build a better world with us on September 16th and experience something worth knowing you can get your ticket at Complexly.info slash something. Hello and welcome to Dear John and Hank. Whereas I like to think of it, the actual name of the podcast, Dear Hank and John.
Sorry Hank, I've been gone for a few weeks and I wanted to just take control of the reins today and say come to Podcast About Death where two brothers off of you do these advice, answer your questions and bring you all the weeks news from both Mars and da da da da da da afc Wimbledon. Lead one's richest side? More to come. We are in the podcast.
There's news. John, how are you doing today? Well we are in real life together Hank. We are in Los Angeles, California.
I'm in a great mood because the movie writes to my book, Turtles All The Way Down, it's happening. Someone purchased them. Not just someone, the same people at a box 2000 who made the Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns movies, Elizabeth Gaidwar and Aaron Siminoff. How do you find out about that?
What happens when you find out that someone got the movie writes to your books as a person who has no thing that this will one day maybe happen to him? No thing. Anything drinking? A little bit.
Okay. So you get a first you get a phone call that says that somebody's interested in the movie writes and then in this case like eight weeks later after lots of conversations and talking about how to visualize deeply internal abstract thought processes, you decide to do it. I'm really excited. I'm so, I did not think that this would ever be a movie.
I didn't think that anybody could see it as a movie but I don't know. I was just so moved by the way they talked about it and the way that they're thinking about it and I can't wait. I am really thrilled. No, not everything that gets option becomes a movie.
It's not guaranteed to become a movie but it is really exciting and these, it's the same people who made the Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns movies. I trust them so much. The relationship that we've had over the years has been so cool. So it's really exciting.
How are you doing? I'm good. It's late. John, it's 9.27.
It's late for me. I'm sleepy. I got up at 440 this morning. So that's how I'm feeling.
But I'm glad we can be in the same place to make a podcast together and I'm glad that we can learn together a little bit about what people are curious about in the world and also maybe about cups. What have you been drinking? Hey, would you like a question from our listeners? You don't want to read my poem?
What's your poem? My poem that I posted about the fruit flies. You can just go ahead and read it. People can hear all your typing and it makes them think that you're not paying attention to the pod.
I'm looking up my fruit fly poem. A fruit fly flew through my window screen there between the screen she pew painted. Now too large to fit back through the screen she wanders in the sunlight searching alone. It's good Hank.
I would not pursue a career as a poet as such. I think that was very good. There's also a huge problem which is that adult fruit flies can't pew paint. It's not how it works.
Well, I'm only larva pew paint and they become adults and that's the whole thing and I feel weird that that is scientifically inaccurate and also bad poem got 2000 likes on Twitter. 2000 likes. And people really will get that hard button for anything these days. Well, I'll tell you what, that's actually one of my more successful tweets recently.
You know, I've noticed that there's this whole thing on Twitter where people are taking that great William Carlos Williams poem about the plums and turning it into lyrics from the popular music song All Star. Are you familiar with this meme? No. Do you know the poem in question?
No, but I do know All Star. Okay, great. So there's William Carlos William poem. I don't know exactly how it goes but I'm going to give you my version of it.
This is my attempt to recite a William Carlos Williams poem. I've had a couple drinks but fewer than Hank. I've taken the plums that were in the ice box and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me.
They were delicious. So sweet and so cold. And here's the version that's been making the rounds on the on the on the social media, Hank. Okay.
Hey, now here in ice box, get your plums on. So sweet. That's not the best version. That's not the best version at all.
I was on a website that was telling me these plum jokes and now there's a video playing this construction unfolds into a home in just hours and costs only $33,000. I'm like, this is not what was happening. I was not on a whole construction website. I was looking at plum.
Suddenly, Hank, we're from like Pleasant Trump to really aggressive belligerent drunk. I just don't like it with videos. Auto play. You are coming way too hard about videos.
Auto play. By the way, you know where I like videos on a playing at youtube.com slash vlogbrothers. Yeah, because it's because it's what I'm there for. How do you how do you like a moment on Twitter?
Now I'm falling asleep and she's eating my plums and he's opened the ice box and she's taking a plum. Now I'm looking for plums and my stomach feels sick. Now it's all in my head. So sweet and so cold now.
I don't really know how that song is. I say that Nick for Hank's sake. Delete that. A little bit of cold plums in my life.
There you go. A little bit of ice box by my side. A little bit of breakfast, but you need a little bit of forgiveness is what I seek. A little bit of delicious.
Those those plums little little sleep plums all night long. Here we go. Here we go. That one's got 15,000 likes.
Well, the fun start coming and they won't stop coming. Gotta hit the ice box for some more cold plum and didn't make sense to eat lukewarm plums. You got the ice box. So go chill them son.
I don't think this person's ever actually heard all stuff, but that was close. That was like an algorithm wrote a version of all-star. I heard. I heard that version of that William Post.
I saw it happening on Twitter. There were cold plums and people were talking about it. That's as far as I got into the meme until now. And I feel like I'm explaining something that everybody already knows about.
But the great thing is that because we were recording this in the relatively distant past, everyone will have forgotten about this meme by the time of the video. Yeah, they'll be like, oh I remember the good old days. Oh, I mean back when all those terrible things that have happened since then hadn't happened. Did we joked about plums?
At least it wasn't nuclear winter. This first question comes from Nick who writes, Dear John Hank, I've been sick lately. My doctor told me to try gargling with saltwater to help my sore throat while I was stirring up a the stuff using an artist I met mug I got from DF2BA.com. My number one source for Brandon Drinkware.
Man, this guy knows how to get his question. I started to notice that as more and more of the salt began to dissolve, the sound of my spoon tapping against the inside of the mug became gradually higher and higher in pitch until all the salt was dissolved and the pitch became consistent. I was able to replicate this with another mug of saltwater later on. I had a question of the difference.
But from what I could tell the pitch raised by nearly an octave. Whoa, still sick, comma. Nick. Nice.
I am impressed that you can tell the pitch change. You were like, oh, did I get it in the question asking? No, the question asking. No, it's because I'm a great singer.
Oh, right. A little bit of plum life in my life. A little bit of plum life in John's life. What is it?
What's the answer? So I have noticed this a number of times when I'm stirring Gatorade into a cup. Sure. Because you've got to stir that Gatorade.
You're going to buy a bottle of Gatorade. I buy liquid Gatorade. Yeah, but I know that you come from a humbler background. It's harder for you.
Right, humbler background. In the same home as you. Oh, just more recently. I don't just buy powder Gatorade for frugality.
I also get to make it the exact level of sweetness that I want, which is not the sweetness. I mean, obviously it's never going to be the exact preference of a person if it's standardized for everybody. So I like to be able to make my Gatorade to the sweetness that I want. And there's only one way to do that.
Two ways. You could buy liquid Gatorade and then water it down also. You could do that. But I like to do it my way.
I like what I actually like it a little bit sweeter than it comes. So what I do is I just open the bottle up and I wait for eight or nine days just for some evaporation. But everybody has a different way. But that's my way.
That's good. At all times I like aging your Gatorade. I always have 10 open bottles of Gatorade at different levels of sweetness. Why does this happen?
Was the question not how do you like your Gatorade? Well, the problem, Jaz, I don't really know. Right. Let's move on to the next question.
But I wanted to talk about Gatorade. And it's weird to me because the pitch lowers when I'm using Gatorade and apparently goes up when you use salt. So probably something to do with viscosity. But that's all I got for you know.
Somebody knows the answer to this question. In fact, I've read an article about this and I forgot it. I forgot it. Because that's what you do with information.
This next question comes from Andrew who writes Dear John and Hank, I only discovered the podcast last week and I've been listening to eight episodes a day while at work. Andrew, you work too much. Also, you listen to podcasts too much while you're working. Getting divorced after 25 years of marriage.
Well, this took a turn. Well, I know they'll be both happier after it. The whole thing is making me cynical about love. Does all love fade over time?
What's the point in trying if over half of marriages fail? How do I stop this from happening in my future romances? I appreciate your dubious advice. Definitely not a hurricane.
Andrew. First off, Andrew, not over half of marriages fail. All marriages end, either in death or divorce. A nalment.
Good point, Hank. Really good point. So all marriages fail either because nothing lasts forever, not even cold November rain as Guns N' Roses once memorably put it. All very good.
Every Rose-Satson's Thorne, just like every cowboy has a sad, sad song. Just like every two-sad. Every flums and a box. Yeah.
Every cold plums and a box. Every boyfriend eats that plum in the box. Wait, start over from scratch that seems like you're just coming up with it now. Every plums cold in a box.
That's good. And every boyfriend steals your plums from that box. That's good. You gotta hit the last note.
You gotta be like, every plum in that box. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know either. By the way, I don't think that song is November Rain. I think it is a different song from the same era. Yeah, you're right.
Yeah. That's definitely the case. Yeah. That's every Rose-Satson's Thorne.
Every Rose-Satson's Thorne. By the way, Andrew, I mean, the answer to your question is that every Rose-Satson's Thorne, man. I mean, that's true. No, and every in cold November rain, even that ends.
Yeah. And it's also true that every Rose-Satson's Thorne. Love is a Rose, so you better not pick it. It only grows when it's on the fine.
Very true. A handful of Thorns, and you know you missed it. You lose your love when you still fricking icebox plums. I don't think you still eat icebox from the plums as such.
Is that the second time we've made it as such, Joke? I don't know. If it is Nick, cut off the as such. You didn't need to go there.
Here's the thing. Andrew, I'm sorry that your parents getting divorced, but it should not make you cynical about love because love brought you into this world. Love is both how you became a person and also why you became a person to quote my own book, journals all the way down through a book for everyone. And don't be.
It's okay to go through a mourning process and a grieving process, and I think that's natural and good, but that does not mean that life is hopeless. It just means that life does involve loss. Yes. And that things that are wonderful don't last forever like Rose's maybe.
I don't know. Also like plums in the icebox. I mean no matter how cold that icebox is, they're not going to last forever. Eventually they're not going to be a little...
What are plums when they're dry? They're going to be prunes. That's why I had to eat the plums. I just...
You were saving them for breakfast, but breakfast went tomorrow. Why eat them tomorrow when you can eat them today? All right. Hey, this next question.
Oh my god. Today's it's John's question day. I missed three weeks. I've been...
I... This is... It's good. Sure.
Go. This next question comes from a nice right. Dear John Hank Lasscher participated in a stage production theater workshop thing. On the day we were supposed to present our final product to play, our lovely stage director decided to do a few exercises to calm our nerves before the show.
It only ended up making me more anxious, like everything that's ever been designed to calm anyone's nerves. Anyway, that wasn't the question. She instructed us to scream out loud as loud as we could. One after the other, only one problem.
I don't know how to scream. So while waiting on my turn, I was trying to understand the mechanism that is screaming while simultaneously asking the people next to me how they acquired the art of screaming, which only made me more confused because the kinds of advice I received went along the lines of I don't know, just let it flow. But what does that mean? How do I let it flow?
What do I need to let flow? So many questions. I didn't end up finding out how to scream and I proceeded to let out a weird guttural noise that resembled a loud snore. I am thinking to almost any advice on how to scream.
All right. Here's what I want you to do, Nius. I want you to close your eyes. I want you to imagine that there's an ice box.
You've been saving these plums. You've been saving the plums for so long. They've reached the perfect moment between plum and prune and the moment that would you love to have them for breakfast. They say that every plum has its thorn, but not these plums.
In fact, no plums. I don't think they say that. Do that? Every plum has its thorn.
Never heard that one. Anyway, Nius, I want you to picture that situation and then you open that ice box and what is in there? Nothing. Nothing.
How do you feel right now? That wasn't a scream. Where did I look? Tell me.
That's true. If we scream from you. 942. I don't want to get security.
This is really interesting to me because I think that that's awful. That's definitely not a scream. The other day... I'm going to go down one octave.
The other day I had a baby carrier on. It has this mechanism to push multiple buttons at the same time to unlock it so that your baby doesn't accidentally fall out or something. I only hit one of the right buttons and I pulled and the gap was created and then my finger went in the gap and then I couldn't get it out and my hand slipped and it slid onto my finger. It pinched me so hard that it broke the skin and I made this noise in the back of the car with the baby.
Catherine thinks the baby is making that noise because it's a very not human man noise. She's like freaking out like what's wrong? Well that's a very weird one that made it make. Then I pulled my hand out and I mean it...
Oh wow. I think we could loop that noise that you just made and turn it into a really bad Prince song. It would be the worst Prince song ever. There are no bad Prince songs.
That's a good point Hank. Well I could loop this down that you just made and turn it into a cover of a really bad cover of a really good Prince song. This next question comes from Warren. Did we answer that one?
Oh yeah. How do you scream? I just think this is interesting. I think that it's like knowing that you don't know how to make all the noises because it took me a while to realize that.
That there were noises I hadn't learned and I just had to learn them. Of course when I was a child and learning to speak but you can speak in different ways and gaining full use of your voice or at least more use than you once had is like a process and it's not something that everybody just does. I know a lot of people who have a hard time making that noises. I still can't.
I think it's legitimate. You have to go someplace where you know when it's listening and you're like I'm going to try to make noises like other people do. Or just don't learn and just wait for the moment when you really need it and then I bet you'll find it. Like when it's an emergency and it's not like the stage manager being like I don't know how to get rid of your anxiety.
Let's have everybody scream by themselves. Like everybody's screaming together at least then I can fake it but it's like you scream. Right. And then I don't want to yell in front of a bunch of people.
Yeah that's terrifying. But you know what's an exercise. You know what sound I can't make? What?
Almost all of the sounds associated with proper Spanish pronunciation at least according to my children because my kids learn mostly in Spanish. They speak mostly Spanish at school and when I try to speak to them in Spanish or say anything in Spanish they always say okay. I was like a young man but they literally don't know what I'm saying. They're like they're like daddy no that's wrong.
Like Alice in her ice water. Yeah Alice would just be like no no daddy in Spanish. She's always say in español you say no and then I'll be like no daddy in español we say no. That's very cute.
All right this next question comes from Lauren who writes your genre. It's so weird to have no power over the podcast. Well you know when I was going for a long time now once our holiday spectacular is over you can you can go back to answering half the guy questions and also doing the intro. I just started until Elon Musk doesn't get the Mars at the 27.
I just started seeing this person and he is literally perfect for me. Literally? Perfect is a lot of different qualities. Lauren let's if you just started seeing each other.
Let's not okay he's smart he's funny he's cute. We like him. He's great. I like him too.
That's not the too much pressure on the situation. Yeah. It was a huge catch. He's moving in four months to join the Navy Seals.
That doesn't sound perfect. That sounds like he's moving in four months to join the Navy Seals. I'm moving in seven months to start law school. Well those three months when he's in the Navy Seals and you're not in law school you guys will have a great time together.
He's gonna be tired all the time though. Before we met we had both intentionally stayed single to focus on our career. So however we both know that we have something special trademark please forget this because I know how ridiculous and cheesy I sound. We want to give things time to breathe and grow but I could already feel this ominous ticking clock.
My focus is completely on law school but I've always believed that we should love whenever and wherever we can. Any advice I ever do be is we greatly appreciate it not trying to go to a Hallmark Christmas movie. Lauren Lauren just date long distance. Yeah I mean you're allowed to live in a Hallmark Christmas movie?
Yeah. Sounds very Hallmark Christmas-y. I mean you're gonna finish law school at right about the same time that he's going to be entering his third year in the Navy Seals and then you get married or not whatever. Stop putting so much pressure on the situation Lauren it's okay.
I mean it is hard. It's hard when you've got a thing you're like this is gonna be good but then there's this thing that isn't either of you it's just the universe conspiring against this loveliness. Right like circumstances are organizing themselves not in your favor. And that is important to realize that John I've ever told you about the time with the milk when I was in middle school.
No. So I was this is a very applicable story. Okay I was I was a middle school student and some young people stole my milk. Yeah my chocolate milk my unopened 25 cent chocolate milk.
I remember and they were passing it around on the table keep away from from a nerdy hank boy and they then swapped it for a chocolate milk that had been drunk but they had closed the little carton so they don't like it hadn't. It gave it to me and I was like oh thank you and I got mad extra mad because I thought that they were giving it and being nice but it turned out that the meanness was continuing and then I threw it back at them and then they threw it out into the middle of the cafeteria where I proceeded to go over and stomp on it and realized that it was the original not empty milk. How is this story applicable? It's applicable because they didn't intend for me to stomp on the milk.
That was like that was farther than they wanted to take it. Who who who are the like mean milk stealing jocks of this store of the story of the Navy SEALs and the law school students? The Navy SEALs in law school. Oh you mean like the institutions?
Yeah or the bad guys. We're just the situation. Okay. And it's just like that it was it was set up like it's not it's not perfectly it's not a perfect analogy.
I would actually go further than that. I would say that it's also not a good analogy. It may have nothing to do with the situation. Here's I mean so I think we've solved it for you as the good news.
Lauren you need to purchase 25 cents worth of chocolate milk, stomp on it and wait for the positive results. The school teachers and administrators then had to talk to me as if I was the one who had caused the ruckus because I had stomped on a 25 cent chocolate milk and made a mess. Yeah. And then I had to explain the situation but it nobody was truly at fault.
Yeah. I mean obviously no like they didn't they didn't want the milk to get stopped. Yeah. So no one was at fault.
It was just a situation though it did begin with bullying. So they shouldn't have done that. Yeah. This is not it's not working.
This next question comes from Mary Kate who writes Dear John and Hank. That might be the worst answer I've ever heard to a question you asked. I didn't ask it. A question I asked.
Just love love and follow your heart but don't drop out of law school. This next one comes from Mary Kate who writes Dear John and Hank I'm over to the moon excited to get married in July but I'm in a bit of a pickle. Oh I just read on it's not a literal pickle unfortunately. That would have been amazing.
I'm in a bit of a pickle. How do I get out of this pickle to get married? That's a bit birds. Beyonce reports that he keeps not on a merry pickle.
I recently accidentally came across some intel that my mom had been planning a surprise for me at my wedding. I'm a huge fan of surprises. Okay. This one is a bit much.
She intended to have a live owl fly our rings to us at the ceremony. No! I understand the impulse but you're just like if you don't know this is going to happen you're going to be like oh god giant bird attack. Who doesn't think who thinks oh what a nice surprise.
No you think we're being attacked by a bird. You know like every year or two somebody does die from an owl attack. Google it while I'm reading the rest of the question. I know she has this idea out of thoughtfulness and love.
I'm a big potter fan. That doesn't you know what like I read those books and at no point does an owl carry wedding rings into a wedding ceremony. But anyway this is clearly a no good terrible idea in so many ways. Here's the issue.
I was told this information by someone close to me because my mom wasn't able to make this happen. Really? That's a big surprise. Yeah but good.
Excellent. But they also said that my mom said guess I'll just have to come up with a different plan. I'm not supposed to know about the owl situation in the first place but what if my mom tries to bring a different species of animal to carry rings at my wedding. My question is this do I tell my mom I don't want any avian beings at my wedding or do I trust her to make a reasonable surprise quite contrary Mary Kate.
I mean do you know the story about almost definitely the murder? Yeah no I was going to talk about chocolate milk. Oh I thought we were still talking about the owl murder. But can we let go of the chocolate milk thing because it was never a good bit and now it's been going on way too long but you know what was a great bit?
The pickle? The plums. The pickle okay. Yeah I did look up the owl murder and I'm a little confused.
I'm not entirely 100% sure that the owl did it. Oh it is very controversial because you mean because the accused human killer probably killed it may have killed his previous spouse. Right. Yeah there's an argument to me that it might not have been an owl but there's also an argument to me made that it was an owl.
Who knows for sure? All we know for certain hag is that Mary Kate is in quite a pickle. Here's the thing Mary Kate what if you go to your wedding in a pickle? Wait but I think so my feeling is if you know that there's going to be a bird that it's okay for there to be a bird.
Right. So you know now that if a bird attacks you right it's just the ring bearer it's part of the plan. But I mean who wants to try to like wrestle a wedding ring from the talons of a bird but it's very well trained bird. Okay here's guess I'll just have to come up with a different plan that's the direct quote from Mary Kate's mom.
It doesn't say that's going to be a bird it could be a whale. That whale could be a walk in ring bearer. A ring bearer. Ring bearer.
A ring bearer. Oh my god. Mary Kate your mom is going to hire a panda to come to your wedding. Oh it's a koala.
It's going to be a non-bear bear. Walk with me here. So the bear obviously isn't going to be able to hold the wedding rings right. What's it going to do?
Well I think you just strap it to him. Wrong. Dead wrong. Right like three hours before the wedding you feed the koala two wedding rings and then right and then the koala walks down the aisle.
It poops out they come. Dig them out of the koala poop. It's like that like extra awesome coffee that's been through the digestive system of a cat. Exactly.
With this ring I.D. wed. Yeah that's it Hank. We solved it Mary Kate.
Tell your mom to hire a koala to pick the wedding rings. But make sure you know a good amount about koala digestion because I think that might be real slow and so you might have to feed it to him like a few days ahead. You might have like a four-day wedding. We got a lot of weird wedding traditions in America but we don't have that particular one.
Yep. You feed a koala two wedding rings and then the wedding lasts until the koala poops. And sometimes it's just like a 10 minute wedding and then other than it's like a six week wedding you know. Oh man.
This is just to say I retweeted the plums that were in the icebox tweet which you have probably already seen. Forgive meme. Nice. That's good.
It's got it. It's it's got a surprise ending. Hank we're gonna answer one more question before we get to the all important news from Mars and Aussie Wimbledon. Okay.
But first I have to let you know that today's song. Christmas episode? Yes. It's brought to you by koala poop.
Koala poop. The future of weddings. This podcast is also brought to you by Really Bad Prince songs. Really Bad Prince songs.
They don't exist. And of course today's podcast is brought to you by the plums that were in the icebox. No longer. No longer.
Not thorny. And this podcast is finally brought to you by aged Gatorade. Mmm. Been sitting on that shelf there for seven days getting slightly sweeter so that John can like it the way that he likes it.
Right. So delicious and so cold. Hank. You're done.
Before we get to the news from Mars and Aussie Wimbledon. I want to just clear a couple things. I have a couple of corrections to give. I've been gone for like a month because of my vertigo.
But before I left I said that Facebook might be listening to everything that we say through our phones. I was kidding but lots of people took that seriously. Facebook is not listening to everything we say through our phones. They get plenty of data just from what we choose to give them.
And I apologize if that wasn't clear. Also one other thing. Sierra wrote in. Hey, you may remember in a previous episode of the podcast there was a young person who was trying to figure out how to take their secret pet snake with them to college.
Right. The parent was like, you can't have a snake. They got one anyway. Hit the snake for more than a year.
Yeah. And then had to go to college and but didn't want parents find out about the secret snake. Update. Sierra writes, dear John and Hank, I'm a freshman in college and one of my greatest fears has recently been made a reality and it's all your fault.
There is a snake loose in my dorm. Wait, is it? Is it all our fault? Apparently one of the residents had a secret pet snake in her dorm room and now it is loose wandering the halls ready to ruin my life.
I can't help but assume that someone in my dorm is a fan of the fawn and has listened to your ludicrous advice regarding secret snakes. And because of that, there is a snake roaming the halls in my building. This is more of a complaint than a question. Sierra.
Yeah, there's the dear Centennial residence housing and residential life staff recently learned that a resident in Centennial Hall had an unauthorized pet snake in their room. The pet snake escaped this resident's room. We were currently writing to notify you about this and assure you that the snake does not pose a physical threat to anyone in the building. A psychic threat.
Yes, an existential threat maybe but not a physical threat. The coldest of all comforts, right? You won't worry. The bear that we've said, Lucid, your dorm has been declawed.
It's so there. There's a physical threat. All right. It has been fed two wedding rings any minute now.
All right. This last thing comes from Sarah who says, why are you cutting down honeysuckle? It is super sweet and lovely. If you eat it, please, it will change your life.
Google how to eat honeysuckle. Here's the thing, Sarah. Before my vertigo, but after I got home from the terms all the way down to her, I spent several weeks cutting honeysuckle out of my backyard while building this path that was partly a metaphor but also like a thing that took 90 hours of my life. And honeysuckle is an invasive plant and it is a disaster to natural Indiana plants.
And the reason I was cutting it out is so that we can have some sweet regular homemade Indiana shrubbery, not gross, stupid honeysuckle. So I don't care how good the juice from the flowers taste, it is an invasive weed except it's tree sized. Could we like harness it? And like maybe people would want it so bad that we'd over-farmer like we just like over-harvest it and it'd all be gone?
Because apparently it's pretty good I found honeysuckle. It's tasty. No, we can't. That's a good idea Hank because humans are traditionally good at over-harvesting anything that we like but we literally cannot like honeysuckle enough to get rid of all of it.
I could find the rest of my life cutting honeysuckle off the property. Like it seems like a bit of a diggle thing to like bottle like one bud and then you suck it out and spit it into the bottle and then one and it's gonna take a long time and you can get rid of it as available at school. Alright Hank this last question comes from Emma who writes, you're John and Hank I was confronted at work yesterday evening with my first official Get Well Card signing. I waffled and I found myself at a Wallister what to write.
I waffled between ideas for a solid five minutes before settling on a short unfeeling Get Well soon. I can't help but feel like a horribly unsympathetic person for not thinking of anything else but it is for a co-worker and all so anything more emotional just seemed weird. What the heck is one supposed to write in a Get Well Card? It feels like signing yearbooks when you write something repetitive and codified that is totally disconnected from any of your genuine feelings.
Also I can't help but feel like telling someone to get well soon is rather insensitive since it's not usually up to them whether they get well soon or not. It's just like the great point. Why are you telling like is that an order? I already had that idea.
It's like oh my god until I read your card it hadn't crossed my mind. I've never thought about that. That's weird. Yeah I hope you get well soon.
I hope you are feeling yes. I work with a lot of elderly people so I'm afraid this will slowly become a more pressing issue. Please help with my dill Emma. With mom dill.
She's in a pickle. Do Emma? But also she's in a pickle. You did it.
Do Emma. You just got it. There you go. Take it a second.
Good. Emma what you're writing this is a great question. I thought I was a different. I recently got a get well card from all the people at our office because of the incapacity and vertigo that I had and I don't want to criticize anybody because we work with very many nice people but some of them said get well soon to which my reaction was I already thought of that.
I've already tried that strategy. It did not work and here I am still not well less soon than I want. The one that I like the most, the one that I found the most helpful personally was I hope you feel better. I hope you feel better is good because I can never not true.
Even when you're good I hope you feel better. I hope you feel better. You feel better now. I hope you feel better soon.
I hope you feel better soon. It is a universal lift up. You're never feeling all the way. Sometimes I think people don't need to feel better than they're currently feeling.
Another strategy I'm like that. You need to feel a little worse than you're feeling. It's a case not almost never but occasionally. Another thing that Emma could do since she knows that she works with a lot of elderly people is she could write I understand that you are an elderly person and this will probably become more and more of an issue as time goes on.
I don't know if that would be incense. I hope that you feel better soon. But likely this will continue to be a problem. If it's not too bad of a vanilla, I would draw fish.
Sure. Then I draw a little line, comes out of the fish's butt and then it says, poot. That's the best. That's a good story.
I haven't heard it's a story that good since the milk story. The milk story is great. I said a good story. What is the news for Mars?
Maybe it was a little misplaced. What is the news for Mars? NASA. You've heard of them.
They're great. They are working on the next generation Curiosity rover thing, Mars 2020 rover. You may have heard that Curiosity's wheels are not great shape. Oh yeah, it's a big problem.
Yeah. So they've actually got to start driving Curiosity backward. Just trying to get the tread worn on the other side. Yeah.
Well, yeah. The first wheels hit the rocks first. Yeah, I get it. So NASA is working on new wheel designs and they have just let people know about this cool flexible chainmail wheel that's made out of chains.
That's going to give us the traction we need, but also the flexibility and the durability that you want in a wheel that's going to be driving around on the surface of Mars for hopefully five, maybe even 10 years with the mission like this. This wheel, I believe, it uses, okay, so yeah, nickel titanium shape memory alloy. Such alloys remember their original shape and spring back immediately after deforming, meaning they retain their original shape and performance. So it's a cool, cool new wheel design coming out of NASA to make Curiosity's new cousins more durable and long lasting.
That's exciting. But not as exciting as the AFC Wimbledon. Duh duh duh duh duh. So AFC Wimbledon played, I think, I can't remember who, I think Charlton in the second round of the FA Cup.
The FA Cup is this competition in England where for the first two rounds teams from the lower leagues play each other and then if they can make it to the third round of the FA Cup, that's when the Premier League teams and the teams from the second year in England, the championship come in, okay? So like a few years you might remember that a few years ago, you might remember that AFC Wimbledon made it to the third round of the FA Cup and they played Liverpool. Remember? And I was very difficult for me as a group, a Liverpool fan and I was like, they're not going to be Liverpool.
So indeed they did, they lost two one. But they played Liverpool at home, which is great because it's like a big club and they come and it's on TV and everything. But it wouldn't have been, it's not as good as if we played Liverpool at Liverpool. And do you know why that is?
Because the Liverpool sells more tickets. 60,000 tickets as opposed to AFC Wimbledon Stadium, which sells out at 4,800. What if I told you that the third round of the FA Cup, Wimbledon made it to the third round of the FA Cup thanks to a goal scored by the Montsaradian Messi Lyle Taylor, the resurgent Lyle Taylor. He's on fire.
He's on fire. Got rid of those frosted tips. Just not the frosted tips. Nobody's perfect.
So they made it to the third round of the FA Cup. They could have drawn any team. They could have drawn Swindon. They could have drawn the franchise currently flying at straight Milton Keynes.
But they drew the best possible draw. Tottenham away, which means that they are going to play at Wembley, the national stadium because Tottenham is currently building a stadium. So they're playing this season at Wembley, the place where they won the league two playoff to go to league one. Dad was there.
My friend Stewart was there. You were unable to attend. Rosie Onum was there. It was magical.
You would have had a great time. I don't know what you're doing parenting or something. So they're going to play at Wembley in the third round of the FA Cup against Tottenham. And here's the great thing Hank.
Two things. First off, AFC Wimbledon has never lost a game at Wembley. Ever. Ever.
They've played two and they won them both. So first off, we're probably going to win. Secondly, even if we don't win, it is so much money. It's so much money.
One game against Tottenham is so much money. Like we might stay up entirely because we happen to draw Tottenham away. So you guys spend this money immediately. I would hope so.
We're like, hey, hot shot 22 year old. More likely like, hey, last guy on Tottenham's bench. You want to spend the last three months of the season on a loan in South London? And he'll be like, yeah, of course I do.
Great. Come on, man. We can afford your wages for three months. So it's very, it's incredibly, it's funny.
Sometimes in football results matter. And sometimes in football, you just have to pull Tottenham away in the third round of the FA Cup. And like if we win or tie, that would be amazing. But it also doesn't matter.
If we lose, also amazing. I just win. Everybody. Everybody.
Everybody go to the game. Get a ticket. Get a ticket. Is it going to sell out?
I don't probably not. Not them fans. Get tickets to the third round of the FA Cup. It's probably the only time you play AMC Wimbledon ever.
Don't miss this opportunity, Tottenham. It's incredibly exciting. Is that ever at the same time? And then we giggled the same and I'm uncomfortable.
Well, the last thing I want to say just before we close the podcast, Anne Hank is that you know my favorite character from the DC universe. Yeah, Paul Manafort. It's like really familiar with him. It's really good joke.
Yeah. People say like, well, the DC universe is exactly like, well, Paul Manafort is an amazing story. You can't write this crap. Paul Manafort just had his bail revoked.
What does that mean? He was on he was out on bail because he's been charged with conspiracy against the United States. He was out on bail. What do you do?
He says bail revoked because he's been working with a Russians five. Well, under house arrest. What? On an op ed piece about why we should have better relationships with the Russians.
What? Yes, they revoked his bail. I mean, this DC universe stuff is so amazing. Hank, what's happening at DC universe right now?
The Justice League stuff is great. You got the mewer on the one side. You got the crazy man of the other side with this three passports and his password to his email being bond 007. It's gold.
Gold, gold, gold. I just want to congratulate the writers of the weird timeline in which we found ourselves. This is great. This is great stuff.
I'm recording this in the past, by the way. So if in the interim, the president has resigned and or fired the special counsel and or whatever, it's gold. It's all gold. It's terrible.
It's awful. We should I hate myself for paying attention to it, but it's also gold. Hank, thank you for plotting with me. Yes, John.