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 Yech, and more 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. Oh and welcome to Dear Hank and John! Or is that preferred to think of it here, John and Hank?
It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions and give you to be a advice and bring you all the weeks news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, do you know why some fish like to swim in salt water? I don't. Because if they swim in pepper water, that would make them sneeze.
It's not even a joke. There's no pun. John, I've just been feeling in general like my jokes have been too good lately so I wanted to toss that one out for you. Oh, we're trying to take it down a notch to lower my expectations so that when you in a couple weeks you're building up to an amazing joke like Euripides.
My all-time favorite joke. Like you have told a funny joke in that segment and every time I think to myself is this going to be like- Another Euripides? Is this going to be like the tailor who's named Euripides? No.
No, it's going to be- It was a good one. Fish don't like to swim in pepper water because they might sneeze. Which no part of the joke makes sense. Speaking of no part of anything making sense, how about 2021?
The Project for Awesome is ending as we are uploading this. But you might have a little bit of time to get in and get those last perks. You might have a little bit of time to still get some perks at projectforasm.com.Donate. Yes.
Wonderful perks that will be gone forever if you do not grab them quickly. I mean like don't text and drive obviously pull over, put the car in park and then go to projectforasm.com. And get your perks including a Project for Awesome exclusive episode of Dear Hank and John in case you don't get enough of this crap. Yeah and thank you everyone who joined us during the Project for Awesome.
We don't know how that went because we're recording before it happened. Hopefully it was okay. I bet it was great. I hope I survived.
I think you'll be fine. That's a good old time. Oh man, I can't wait for the Mars news this weekend next week. I can't wait for the AFC Wimbledon news this week.
So exciting times. This first question comes from Elizabeth through right. Steer John and Hank, would it be possible to train a whale to use a very long snorkel that attached to its blowhole so that it could swim underwater forever without coming up for air? What about dolphins and scuba gear?
Queen Elizabeth. I love, I'm not sure that this question came from her Royal Highness. Queen Elizabeth? But I like to imagine the possibility that Queen Elizabeth II is a regular listener to Dear Hank and John and is very curious about whale snorkels.
This seems like the kind of thing that Prince Charles would be into so I'm a little surprised that it's Queen Elizabeth. Yeah. Well maybe she's passing along. Hank, you don't spend as much time as I do thinking about the English royal family.
But man, do I spend a lot of time thinking about those rascally rabbits. Queen Elizabeth Hank wants to know is it possible for a whale to use a snorkel? Yeah. I mean, I think maybe Prince Charles does and she's just passing along.
That is exactly right. Prince Charles was like, hey, I'm embarrassed to ask this question about if you ask and you'll get an answer. I got a history of wacky ideas, mom. But maybe you can, yeah.
There's a couple potential problems here. I mean, one is that they're already very good at this. So like a lot of whales, you're talking about you need a very long snorkel because they got to go down real deep and then you've got some physical limitations here. You need a rigid snorkel so it doesn't like push behind them and then also the volume of this snorkel if it's very long, even if it's very skinny, will contain a lot of air.
And so if they're not, if their lung capacity is equal to the volume of the interior of the snorkel, then they won't actually get air exchanged with the outside world. There's also a giant pressure differential here. That's going to be a big problem. There's a number of limitations.
The main one though is that dolphins and whales are already super good at this and they don't like, it'd be like birds evolving more wings. Like they don't need more wings. They're good. Like whales, yeah, probably there is there's an advantage to being able to stay underwater for longer for especially for like sperm whales who are deep sea hunters.
But for the most part, they've got to figure it out. Man, they're amazing. But I do want to see it all in a scooby suit for sure. Anytime you're inventing an invention, you've got to first ask the question, what problem am I trying to solve?
And I'm just not convinced that in the case of whales or dolphins, like they have problems. Don't get me wrong. It's just that their problems are us. Yeah, largely.
And I don't know that a certainly a giant snorkel is going to is going to increase their ability to avoid us, which I suppose so. Alternately, we would just start scanning the ocean for large snorkels. That's not the biggest problem. I don't trust humans any further than I can throw us.
And most of us, I can't throw it all. Oh, yeah. So I feel like we need to probably harness our resources around trying to do a better job of understanding and internalizing and acting out the fact that like it or not, we are now the dominant species on the planet. And we, to a very large extent, decide how things go for whales, at least for the moment.
I know I think in the long arc of history, there's going to come a time when the whales decide how things go for us. And by the way, if we don't do a good job right now of deciding how things go for the whales, they may remember that. Yeah. And also that moment will come sooner because the process of no longer being the dominant species on the planet will be a quicker one.
How long have we been truly the dominant species on the planet? Maybe like 60,000 years, 40,000 years? Oh, no, I think less than that. Oh, I think we were I think we were crushing some large predator population 40,000 years ago.
Yeah, I guess, but like not dominant. We were like a dominant species. We were top three. We were not in control.
We were not in control of the world. Well, we're still not in control. But most of the we are not in control of ourselves. You know, it's in control of the world.
Hank, a single strand of RNA. You want to know running this ship right now? Like 700 nucleotide pairings. It's not fair, is it?
It's not fair. It's not even smart. I looked at a picture of it. It's not even smart.
Yeah, I don't know how long we've been the dominant species. But one thing I do know is that we are and we need to take that responsibility, in my opinion, at least just a smidge more seriously. All right, John, this next question comes from Grace who asks dear Hank and John, I'm getting my first dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine today. Do your previous discussions about how Rover Cleveland is only one man and therefore can only be a singular president?
A question occurred to me, will I be getting one vaccine in two doses or two vaccines? Your thoughts, not hazel, just grace. This is the kind of question, Hank, that we really need to be answering. This is a service that we can provide to the people.
Yeah, it's not like a medical device, so much as Pedentry. Yeah. So we are here for that. And it's very important because it extends my argument that Grover Cleveland cannot be two presidents because he's only one person into new arenas, which helps people understand that Grover Cleveland was not two presidents.
Right. And that is the mission of my life. But Grover Cleveland was was inaugurated twice, which is the case for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. But there's a scientific angle here, which is that there are some vaccines that are the same vaccine twice.
Right. And there are some vaccines that are two different things. Yes. In the case of these mRNA vaccines, like the Moderna vaccine, it is the same vaccine twice.
Basically, it's saying, we're going to expose your immune system to this protein that is part of the COVID-19 virus. And your immune system will say, Oh, that doesn't look great. But but the first time, maybe it's like, Oh, well, that didn't have a significant negative impact on me. I'll remember it.
But not as like a serious threat. The second time it comes along, your immune system says, Oh, okay, so this is the thing that I'm going to see more than once. So I'm actually going to create some robust systems to prevent you from getting this disease. And that's why with the mRNA vaccines, and with many vaccines, we have this booster system where it's like first exposure and second exposure to the same vaccine, which is the case in this case, but not with all COVID vaccines.
There are a couple that are actually two different things. And in the case of those mRNA vaccines, you are getting two doses of one vaccine. Yes. And so you are getting a vaccine that comes in two shots, which are space departments.
Now, in the case of there being a slightly different formulation to the booster shot, and this is where it's going to get controversial grace. So strap in. You are still getting two doses of one vaccine. It's just that the second part of the one vaccine that you are getting has a different formulation from the previous part.
But it is still one vaccine. Yeah. Only way you can get two vaccines is if you're in this hypothetical group that I don't think exists yet, but that has been talked about where like, some people might get the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and the second dose of the Moderna vaccine in that case, which I don't think has happened yet. But if it were to happen, that would arguably be two vaccines, because that is a Grover Cleveland and a Millard Fillmore, both entering your body, not to Grover Cleveland's.
Yeah, though, this is another thing, like, is the vaccine the individual formulation or is the vaccine whatever system is used to vaccinate you? So you could make the case that even in that even in that hypothetical, which is a thing that people are talking about, like, is it just in case measure if there are doses available for one another, would that be a single vaccination, but with two vaccines? I guess that would be the case. To me, yes, that's exactly what it is.
It's the presidency is still the presidency, but in one part of the presidency, Millard Fillmore has it in another part, Grover Cleveland has it. Now, I know lots of people out there, I'm just going to head off these emails at the past. Lots of people are going to say, if it's two different formulations, then it's one Millard Fillmore and it's one Grover Cleveland. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It's Grover Cleveland at one time in his life and Grover Cleveland at a second life is slightly different. Grover Cleveland, and he's put on a few pounds, the stress of the presidency has worn him out a little bit. Yeah, he's learned some things. Yes.
He's not the same Grover Cleveland that he was, but he is the same person that he was. And now he is the same president that he was and the same vaccine in my very extended metaphor. But you can also make the case that I'm not really the same person I was five years ago. I oftentimes think I have already had many small deaths.
I am not who I once was in, you know, in some ways I am, but in many ways, I don't know, I might argue that in most ways I am not. I think certainly from like when I was five till now, not really similar guys. But there's a lot of continuity between those. For one thing, you have the same brother the whole time, incredibly supportive and loving and gets so little credit, but it's the same person.
But for another thing, I agree like self is a self is a fiction that we whisper to ourselves to keep going for sure. No doubt. But like, it's a useful fiction. And it's not just a fiction because we change the fiction because like we're living inside of a body made out of meat, like we're just a series of chemical reactions.
So like, I think that you're the same person, but I do relate to what you're saying in the sense that I look back on things that I did even like five years ago, like I'll watch like an interview of me during the press junket of the fault in our stars movie and I'll be like looking into that person's eyes and I know what he's thinking. And I'll just be like, wow, that guy feels very distant from me. Like I do not, I actually feel a much closer connection to the like me who at the age of 27 fell in love with Sarah than I do to like the me who at the age of 38 was on a press junket. Right.
I often will witness my own self and think I would not make that decision. Oh, yeah. I mean, all kinds of like the phenomenon where you read your writing from 10 years ago and you're like, Oh, God, oh, no, no, I hate it. It's good.
It's good to have, you know, 15 years of YouTube videos up there just staring you in the face being like, who the heck is that guy? Well, how did he decided to hunt the statue of the elk? Did he have to do it from behind? Yeah, like both who is that guy?
And how do I put that particular genie back? Yeah, yeah. Like how do I unmake that decision? It's like, which of the things I've done on YouTube truly disqualify me from public office?
Like not like there's one, but let's rank them. Yeah. Is humping the elk from behind number one? I feel like it's very high up there.
I think that an attack ad is nothing but flips of you humping inanimate objects around the city of Missoula would make it really difficult for you to become the mirror. I re-broadcast it and all it's the same footage, except as I love this town. It's got context is everything man. Speaking of which, we should probably provide some context for the 85% of our listeners who don't know what we're referring to.
Hank made a video and I still don't know like the context in which this happened. It was a punishment. Okay. Hank made a video where as a punishment, he humped H-U-M-P-E-D in case I'm not pronouncing it clearly enough.
He humped many, many landmarks in Missoula Montana. Yeah, as many as I could. Pretty much everything that is a landmark. And it seemed like a hilarious idea 12 years ago.
But even now, like if you go and you read the comments, like the recent comments because that video is still on the internet, which is part of our policy. When possible, we leave our dumb videos on the internet as a form of ongoing public shame. I guess, but like when you go and read the most recent comments of that video, it's a lot of people who are like, uh, this guy is America's chemistry teacher? I realized that we're making all of this much worse by talking about it.
But one week ago, Darby commented, I had to pause this and take a short walk in my dorm to get over the second-hand embarrassment in order to finish the video. The next most recent comment, it's so bizarre to think that I have visited every single permanent location that Hank has humped. This is the only video that lives rent free in my head. I cannot wait until TikTok discovers this.
I love the comment from three weeks ago. Wow, you taught me so much in high school. Imagine visiting Missoula to try and see Hank Green and ending up, yeah, you saw him. Hello, should I show this to my science teacher?
You look like the dude from PBS Eons. That's the best one. Anyway, one vaccine grace. That was the question.
Oh, God, which John, it reminds me of a question that we got from Ember who asks, Dear Hank and John, not long ago Hank posted a video of himself finding a taxidermy squirrel on the way to work. My husband overheard me listening to it and was curious because Hank was singing about the squirrel in the video and then he asked, what is Hank's job? And I realized I have no idea what on earth Hank does for a living. I know he wrote a couple of books and does a lot of podcasts, and I think he works for some kind of environmental company at some point.
And he sure does talk an awful lot about being busy. So I assume he does something. What does Hank do? Feel the burn.
Ember. Nice. That's good. I don't really know what Hank does.
So I'll be interested to see how he answers this question. Well, it is an evolving situation. I continue to be doing a number of things. I am a professional Tiktoker.
That's new. Yeah, you make money from Tiktok. I do. You better donate that money to Partners in Health.
Otherwise, you have to. It's a requirement. My Tiktok audience has selected a separate charity. I let them decide where I donate it.
Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, that's good. So we, John and I started an educational media company together called Complexly.
It makes shows like PBS Eons and Crash Course in SciShow and a bunch of other shows. And I run that business, which means a lot of meetings, trying to get business, trying to get shows funded, trying to be there for our employees and never being there as much as I should be. Yeah. And trying to have that company continue existing.
And I also do that with another company called dftba.com where we help creators create products and merchandise and sell those to their communities. And likewise, I'm plenty of meetings for that business. And likewise, I try to be there for the employees of that company. I'm also, I'm not there for them enough.
So it is, in general, too many things and a lot of responsibility and a lot of great people who work really hard and who I am tremendously in debt to. As far as the how does Hank make a living portion of the question? That's a good point. Hank gets paid a salary by Complexly and he gets paid a small salary by dftba.com.
But the majority of money that Hank makes is from book sales. That is correct. You've got it in one, John. And people often ask how I make a living.
And in my case, I make a very small salary from Complexly and then I make almost all of my money from Book Sales. So that's how the money part of it works. Yeah. But my job, I think I spend most of my time on is Complexly and dftba.
Yeah. But that's not where I'm at. That's my money. Which is nice.
Those companies don't have to have expensive CEOs. They can have me. Yeah. I mean, there's a downside.
You get a cut rate CEO, you pay a cut rate price. I'm just kidding. I'm very grateful to you for being our cut rate CEO because if it weren't you, it'd be somebody who's way worse. Me.
Speaking of dftba. Hank, this question comes from Alice in who writes, dear John and Hank, I've purchased two hoodies from dftba.com and both have a small pocket on the inside of the hoodie pocket. What is this pocket for dftba? Alison, I have also noticed this Hank because I also have some dftba hoodies.
I bought them just so I'm not accused of double dealing. I bought them and there is a pocket inside of the pocket. It's like you think that you're a marsupial, but it turns out that it's an inception situation where even the marsupial has a marsupial. Right.
So you got your hands in your pouch and then there's a pocket inside the pouch. Right. What's it for? You know, I don't know.
But it does seem nice. It does seem like a perk. It does it? Oh, hey, another pocket.
Whoever said, oh, no, too many pockets. An extra pocket is great. I guess you could slide a single credit card in there or something. So I guess you want to go running in a hoodie with only your ID and a credit card and a $10 bill.
That's now possible. I still wouldn't trust it. If it doesn't have a zipper, I don't put I don't put things in hoodie pockets that I don't want to lose. Yeah.
So after consulting, we don't know what the purpose of the pocket is, but we kind of like it. Actually, that reminds me Hank that today's podcast is sponsored by dftba.com dftba.com putting more pockets in your hoodies than you would ever expect. So for high pockets, this podcast is also brought to you by the self. A lot we whisper to ourselves.
And today's podcast is brought to you by America's favorite cut rate CEO Hank Green. Hank Green. He's the not the CEO you deserve or the CEO you need right now, but he is you can't beat him on price. I think you're I think you're a really good CEO and I feel like we've been way too hard on you in this bit.
But yeah, I like the bit in the podcast is also sponsored by the elk in that humping video that elk statue at the Mizzou Art Museum. They have since removed it. They had to. I mean, it became a tourist attraction with thousands of Google reviews.
I came here on a pilgrimage to see Hank Green humping. John, there will not be an episode of the podcast next week. Just so everybody knows that we were we're taking a break because we need to recover after the project for awesome, which yeah, as you are listening is today is the day after the project for awesome as we are recording that is the day we would usually record. And so we are sleeping.
Yeah, one of the joys of being an independent podcast again is that we can take some time off and we don't want to take a lot of time off because we like talking to each other and we like hearing from y'all. But occasionally we do need to take a week off and this week is one of them. This episode of your Hank and John is brought to you by Shopify. There are a lot of things that stand between I have an idea and this is an idea that actually exists in the world and people are buying things from me.
And that is what Shopify makes easier when you start with Shopify, the tools to design and launch and take payments. They're all there from day one. You don't have to build a whole machine before you can start building the business. And this is important because you also have to like look good and with Shopify's templates you could get a site set up really quick.
That looks credible and professional without needing to code or duct tape a bunch of different tools together. And when things look real, that works on my brain to be like, I'm doing a real thing. It also works on other people's brains to be like, this is legitimate. Shopify also has one of the best checkout systems on the internet.
It's built to help customers finish the purchase effectively and efficiently without a bunch of roadblocks. Returning customers can check out with a single click. That means less friction and fewer abandoned carts and a smoother experience for everybody. That stuff gives you confidence early on and it gives other people confidence in what you're doing.
You're not wondering whether the payment system is going to work. You're not wondering whether customers can get through the process. Shopify handles that foundation so you can focus on the thing that you're actually trying to do. It's really kind of amazing to me that Shopify is a tool that works from the first day your store launches when you're just starting to get customers all the way up to being the size of good.store or dftv.com or being the size of like Mattel and Gymshark.
When you build a Shopify, you're building with tools that already work at every scale. All you need is the idea Shopify handles the rest. You can start your free trial at Shopify.com slash deerhank. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash deerhank.
With new subscription only, while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See website for more details. One thing I love about summer is how easy everything feels. The days are a little more relaxed.
My kids don't have to wake up at five in the morning and I find myself reaching for the same comfortable go anywhere pieces again and again which is why I keep coming back to quince. I often wear either a long sleeve or a short sleeve button down from quince and it fits well and I never have any complaints. In fact sometimes I get compliments about it. I was at the airport a couple days ago.
I often find myself in airports and someone said I like your shirt and I said thanks. It's from quince. Quince is 100% European linen pants and shirts are breathable, easy to throw on and the summer upgrade your rotation needs starting at just $34. Their teas are soft enough to leave in all day and the lightweight cotton sweaters are exactly what you want when those summer nights cool down.
So that's why I'm wearing quince this summer and you can make your summer wardrobe easier by going to quince.com slash deerhank for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too, that's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash deerhank for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash deerhank. Or useless and ugly but you love it anyway and you look up and suddenly you have a feeling and that feeling is that it is 2.30 pm and you did not eat lunch.
What are you gonna do? Are you gonna get meal delivery that's gonna cost too much and maybe be a bit of a mistake or are you gonna go to the cupboard and just eat several fistfuls of peanuts. Those are my two choices unless I have a factor in the fridge. You can get smoky barbecue chicken breast with potato mash, cream corn and peppers.
You can get creamy lemon pepper chicken with veggie rice peel off broccoli and carrots. This has the fiber I need. It has the protein I need and it has the deliciousness I need. What about garlic herb roasted baromunty with potato zucchini and burr blanc sauce?
I don't really know what that means but it sounds delicious. What about a black bean taco bowl with corn salsa and cilantro crema? A delicious high-fiber high-protein meal that no animals had to die for. Any of those can be ready in two minutes.
Fresh, never frozen, over 100 rotating weekly meals including globally inspired flavors like Mediterranean and Asian, Factor shops, Preps, Cooks and Delivers straight to your door so you have more time for everything. You love this spring. Head to factormills.com slash deerhank.50 off and use the code deerhank.50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box. With new subscription only, wild supplies last until 27th, 2026.
See website for more details. John, I have a really important question from Gracie, a question I never thought to ask myself but I feel like you were the right person to ask deer, Hank and John, how many popes per square mile are there in the Vatican City dealing spacey, Gracie? God, what a great question. What a good question.
So Gracie, there are a lot of angles to your question. Yeah, the first and most important thing to know is that there are currently more popes in the Vatican City per square mile than at any time in recorded history because assuming that you count retired popes as like Pope Emerituses or whatever because right now we have two, we have a Pope, Pope Francis and we've got retired former Pope but not content to like be completely retired periodically making himself hurt again in public Catholic spaces, Pope Benedict. And John, before you go here, I have to first mathematically, if you are only counting the current Pope who is technically the only Pope at the moment, then there are five popes per square mile in the Vatican City. That is incorrect.
There is one Pope for every one fifth of a mile in the Vatican City because that's the same thing. Five popes per square mile? No, no, that's an example of you using the magic of algebra knowing that I don't understand it to try to make something I know isn't true because it can't be five popes per square mile because it can't be five popes. So the answer to the question is that there is one Pope for every one fifth of a square mile in the Vatican City unless you count Pope Benedict as being a kind of Pope Emeritus, in which case there are two popes for every one fifth of a square mile in the Vatican City unless one or both of them is not currently in the Vatican City.
The real question is you count all of the dead popes, and also the retired Pope if you count all of the popes in the Vatican City right now, including those who have passed away, but their remains are in the Vatican City. I have a number, John, how many popes per square miles do we have? We have 510, which is again, more than the total number of popes there have been, but because it's only a fifth of a square mile, you have to multiply that by five. Wait, there's only been 105 popes?
That's wrong. No, 164 of them are buried elsewhere. Oh, yeah, that's what I would want. Yeah, so there are a little hard for me to engage in the hypotheticalization of imagining what my life would be like if I were Pope, but I think I would want to be buried in Indianapolis.
Next to all the vice presidents. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on there on that that tomb at the top of the hill to be like, I feel very strongly about being buried in Crown Hill Cemetery because it gets just so much tourism traffic from being the home of more dead vice presidents than any other location on earth. I mean, you should see Crown Hill on a Wednesday morning.
I mean, the tourists just come in by the thousands. I'm just kidding. It's always me alone walking there. I'm the only person who regularly walks there.
There's a couple other like high level cyclists who use the hill in Crown Hill to, you know, experience what it passes for topography in Indianapolis. But yeah, it's mostly just me looking at those old vice presidents. I love this sentence. Approximately 100 people tombs are at least partially extant.
So we don't exactly know which is amazing. There is an area that is a fifth of a square mile and we're not sure how many popes are in it. Yeah, approximately. Well, welcome to history, Hank.
I mean, it's all like that. There's a lot we don't know. Just go through. Just do a cross-sectional walk.
The records aren't that good. The popes you come across. But we don't know for sure if we're coming across a pope. That's true.
And then also there, there's I think a number of levels. It's not just like sort of a flat area. There's below and above ground structure. Sure.
Five more minutes from Dan Brown. It's that the back and city goes a long way down. All right. There's either one pope or 500 or two depending on how you construct the various definitions.
This next question comes from Catherine who writes, Dear John and Hank in sci-fi movies set in space. Characters almost never experience weightlessness inside their spaceships. They just walk around. As if they're on Earth.
Now, obviously, this is a story convenience, but I think Star Trek explains it away by saying that the enterprise has artificial gravity. But is that possible in real life? What kind of technology would be required to simulate gravity inside of a spaceship? Could any of it ever be practical for space travel in the real world?
No. Well, okay. So there is artificial gravity where we sort of hand wave, which is Star Trek, where they just say there's artificial gravity. And it's not really explained as to how it is created.
We from our current understanding of how gravity works, there isn't a way to do that. So to create the gravity field, you would have to create the mass and then you have to push the mass around, which would be entirely impractical, because it would be the mass of the Earth. So, so to create that kind of just like artificial gravity through some kind of gravitational field, we don't think that's possible. That would be, we don't think it is.
Now, there are also actual ways to create gravity like things in space. And that would be spinning structures. So you have a ring, or you have a cylinder and that ring or cylinder spins, and that creates a force as you spin along, because as you are moving, the ground is sort of always curving as if you are in a carnival game, being squished against the floor. And if you have a large enough- That's my favorite kind of gravity.
That'd be fun. I would love that version of space travel, where I barf on the people next to me every like eight seconds for years and years. Well, so that the trick of this is that the ring is big enough. Then it does, it just feels like gravity.
Now, if the ring is small, you have these the situation where your head actually experiences a noticeably different amount of gravity than your feet, and that is would be pretty disorienting. And so you need to construct a really big ring or cylinder in order to create gravity that would be comfortable for the average person, and it would be like healthy to be in. But that is totally doable. Like there isn't a technical limit on our ability to make a big ring in space.
In fact, there are lots of ways that people imagine that we could do this. My favorite is hollowing out an asteroid. I think that that's our main space future is living on the inside of asteroids because living in a space station just has all kinds of cosmic ray particle problems where you just your cancer risk goes way up. But if you live in the inside of an asteroid, you can create a very large amount of asteroid between you and space and that will protect you.
But it'll be dark in there. And so you have to find other ways of getting light as you need a lot of energy. Anyway, that's I'm a big fan of that. Not not no work.
We don't know how to do a lot of things, but we can imagine how to do them. Like we can't imagine how to create a gravity field. We can imagine moving an asteroid into orbit around Earth, carving out a big area of the inside of it, spinning it up, and then having people live on the interior of that. So there's no like technical reason why we couldn't, except for just resources and also, you know, I personally don't know how to hollow out an asteroid and I don't think that anyone does.
But you can imagine it being done. Yeah, I think you just use like an advanced sort of spoon. Yeah, you know, some kind of robotics, very hot robotic spoon. Just carve it out a little bit at a time.
Yeah, and then the advantage of that is that, you know, if you use a metallic asteroid to do that, which would probably be the best kind to use because those are pretty sturdy. You also get a lot of metal and a lot of people are interested in that metal for its uses on Earth or in space. You could use it to forge the hardest rocking heavy metal band of all time. Potentially or it could just be, you know, steel that we could build buildings with.
Boring. For batteries, cobalt. Well, why have cobalt when you can have rock and roll? Well, I think space rock and roll will be very interesting, John.
We'll have to see what that looks like. I am excited for what music sounds like in different kinds of atmospheres. I feel like that's going to be one of the first things that we try to figure out. I forgot about the other kind of artificial gravity, John.
If you're still curious. I'm very curious. So a popular show right now is the Expanse and the Expanse. You will sometimes see people walking around in like mag boots basically, so they're like clamps to the floor.
Right. So they're walking around, but it's sort of like looks like artificial gravity, but it's not. They're just sort of magnet to the floor. But they do also have a kind of gravity or artificial gravity in the Expanse, which is just that their ships go very fast.
So the ships are constantly accelerating at like 9.8 meters per second, which if the ship is moving that fast, if the rocket engine is pushing out from below and you are standing like basically right on top of the engine, then it's pushing up into you and that is creating the gravity of the Expanse. And so in the books ships go at different speeds basically to simulate different gravities. And then when they've reached the halfway point in their travels, they just turn around, decelerating at 9.8 meters per second. And then you are still have that artificial gravity.
That would require just a tremendous change in how we accelerate spacecrafts that we currently don't have. Right. Because we just need a lot more reaction mass than we can currently carry around reaction mass being the stuff that you spell the back of the spacecraft in order to create the acceleration. It's funny you should mention that because reaction mass is also the name of my hypothetical heavy metal band.
It's pretty good. It's a great band. Hank, as you know, AFC Wimbledon fired their manager, Glenn Hodges after 14 consecutively games without a win, including a devastating loss to the franchise currently applying its trade in Milton Keynes. The new interim manager, Mark Robinson, coaches are kids.
Oh, God. John, do you think you'd be a good soccer coach? I'd be great. Like, one of the things I've been thinking about is that expertise is important, but not as important as like dedication and shared values.
Do you have the dedication and shared values to be the new coach of AFC Wimbledon? No. Do you have the ability to reside legally in the United Kingdom? Also, no.
There are a lot of reasons why I would not be a good coach for AFC Wimbledon. But for a long time, Mark Robinson coached the under 18 AFC Wimbledon team. And not only did he have amazing results, the kind of like loyalty and love that his players have for him is like something I have almost never seen in football. He's been with the team as a youth coach since almost the very beginning of the Wimbledon rebirth.
He's worked his way up first as the under 18s manager, then eventually as the first team coach and the loans manager. And now he is having an opportunity as the interim manager of AFC Wimbledon. And I have to say personally, I am rooting. I mean, I would love for him to become the permanent manager because he's just, to your point, he is one of those people who just makes you believe.
You know, he just like, you listen to him talk and you believe it's possible. You believe that the impossible is possible. You want to run through walls. So in his first league game in charge, we were playing Wiggin Athletic on the road.
We went up to nil, which of course, we all know how that ends, right? I mean, we've spent enough time loving it in the season to know what a two-know lead means. It means that Wiggin are going to score two goals. It's going to be two-two.
And then in the 88th minute, Wiggin are going to score a third goal and it's going to be three-two and we're going to lose just like we lose every game. And that has happened so many times that like as a fan, I was thinking, oh, it's inevitable. It's inevitable. But no, no.
Mark Robinson just made made them believe, made them believe different, made them believe that something else was possible. And instead of giving up a goal at the end of the game and losing three to two, dang, Joe Pigget didn't score his second goal of the game. And we won three to two, taking us out of the relegation zone for the first time in several weeks. And suddenly, we're in 19th place with not that bad of a goal difference.
And I think that we might be on our way to the playoffs. Well, I mean, the main thing is like winning your first game in 12 games. I know, and we have the same players. The only difference is I mean, I really, really, if you have a chance, and I know that most of the people who listen to this podcast are not fans of third-tier English soccer, but if you have a chance, go on YouTube and listen to one of Mark Robinson's post-game interviews because they sound nothing like any regular manager's post-game interviews.
He sounds like an actual human being talking to you about the actual human work of trying to win football games. It's really lovely and arresting. And I am rooting for him so, so hard. What should we take from the reality that Wig and Athletic is the second worst team in the league?
Nothing. I mean, we were losing to everybody, Hank. So it doesn't matter. That doesn't matter one little bit.
We were losing to everybody. So the fact that we won that game is huge, obviously, I mean, to be honest with you, from my perspective, those are the games we got to win. Yeah, absolutely. If you lose that game, we have 20 games left in the season, and we need like 22 points from those games.
And if we beat the people below us, we should be mostly okay. All right. Well, good. I'm glad.
The Mars news right now is tight. It's exciting. It's but it's also about the future. And it is also a little scary because it's time for all the Mars stuff that was happening in July.
All those launches to start arriving. And so by the time this podcast airs, two of them should have arrived. And one more will be only a few days away. The first two will be the UAE's Amal Orbiter, which is scheduled to get to Mars on the ninth.
And the next day on the 10th, it will be joined by China won an Orbiter Rover combo sent by China. It is already sent back its first picture of Mars taken from about 1.4 million miles away. So that's week one of arrivals and then coming soon after will be the Perseverance Rover, which we're making it final descent on the 18th. And that's will be doing a live stream on that day.
I don't know what I will be doing, but I imagine I'll be doing something. So follow me on Twitter while it's happening. It will be terrifying. Yeah, but potentially so exciting.
Well, yeah, yes, but yeah, that's it. I remember the nerves of the day. Curiosity was terrifying. Yeah.
But then it was one of the purest shared joys I can remember experiencing of that in higher decades. So I know that a lot can go wrong. And I know that there's not a lot that can be done when things go wrong. So many millions miles away.
But yeah, I will be watching with you and just trying to send good wishes and support to all of the people who have worked so, so hard for many, many years for this moment. Yeah, super excited. And best of luck to all of the mission scientists for missions that are arriving at Mars. I love that it's like due to the necessity of orbits.
It happens in these like collective moments where all these missions arrive at the same time and all them want at the same time. So it's been a while since we've had one of those. And so it's exciting to have some new Mars news. I mean, in any case, Curiosity is still an ongoing and successful mission.
And so like there will be, you know, that mission still going on. But ideally we'll have two new rovers on the Red Planet in a matter of weeks. Super exciting. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Hank, thank you for probably with me. Thanks everybody for listening. And thank you for sending in your questions at hankandjohnatgmail.com. We're sorry for all the questions we don't answer, but thank you for sending them.
They are super helpful. And even even your corrections, although I don't often agree with them. John, if you have any Prudy for awesome perks that you have not got, I think that if you go right now on Monday or Tuesday, they will still be up and available and then they will never be available. Again, so go and get them.
We are off now to record our Patreon Only podcast This Week in Stuff. That will be fun at patreon.com slash beerhankandjohn, which helps do fun, complexly's work. And we will just be talking about whatever is bringing us a little bit of joy right now. This podcast is edited by Joseph Tuna, that it's produced by Rosie Annal Hoss and Gerbsen.
Our communications coordinator is Julia Bloom, our editorial assistant is the bookie trucker. I've already eaten the podcast. It's by The Great Gunna Rolla. And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.