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Friends of Complexly like Mark Rober, Katie Max, Simone Yech, 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 PBS eons and Crash Course and Bizarre Beasts for nearly 15 years and 6 billion views. But this year, we have 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 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. And welcome to Dear Hank and John! The words I prefer to think of it dear John and Hank.
It's a podcast where two brothers and no rions give you answer your questions, give you advice and bring you all the weeks from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, did you know that early on in the history of Jeopardy! One of the little clu- like things, the puzzle, it was the movie, A Street Car Named Desire and that was the first Noel. What?
It was the first Noel. No L? A Street Car Named Desire? That doesn't have an L.
It was the first puzzle that didn't have an L. The first Noel of all of Wheel of Fortune. I say Jeopardy! Wheel of Fortune.
That's the worst! So for that joke to work, you would have to say Wheel of Fortune instead of Jeopardy! Which you really- I don't know if I'm confusing for me. And then secondly, I would have to instantaneously know by a listening experience, not a visual experience, that a Street Car Named Desire is a name of a play that doesn't have an L in it.
Yeah, that was a play. So I have- let's just move on to my topic. I'd like to discuss with you Hank. So I'm going to write in the high of that experience all day.
That was so bad! Well, if I was with the podcast, know that when Hank and I were children, we were huge fans of a roast beef restaurant called Rax. R-A-X. And there are now five Raxes left in America.
But hey, I have some interesting and somewhat exciting news in the field of Rax. So for whatever reason, because I guess we are public facing Rax enthusiasts, I have sort of been hooked into a group of people who I like to call the Rax-erati. These are hardcore Rax fans who define themselves like a lot of very small communities. It's also really intense.
And I received a word over the weekend that while it is still not confirmed, on November 22nd, a new corporation filed for its existence, like when you're a baby, you're born, but when you're a corporation, you file. And it is called Rax New Carlisle. Oh, I did. I can't- I can't- I can't- I can't imagine.
This is a good idea! Which implies two Rax enthusiasts that there is a new Rax opening up soon, hopefully, in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, which is only two hours from my house in Indianapolis. And this dramatically increases the chances of me actually committing to the bit. So this is- so New Carlisle is a town.
Yeah. And it is outside of Dayton. And it's two hours from your house. Yes.
Can you wait until I get back? I think I have to. Also, it's not that much of an inconvenience to not drive to New Carlisle, Ohio. Your part of the country is absolutely wild.
Leaving between Indianapolis and Dayton, Ohio, there are two large roads, 40 and 70, and they just run parallel to each other the whole way. Yeah. They just- they're like, which one do you want? Whichever?
They're not. They're like 30 feet apart. Yeah. It's like, which one's better for you?
Which is- it's- it's- it's how you feel today. There's going to be a lot of traffic on either of them. I mean, there's like- Where Hark was in Montana. There are 12 fields between these two very, very busy roads.
Yeah. I mean, they go to different places. They go to Dayton! Well, I mean, after Dayton, though, they go to different places.
It is true that there is arguably too many lanes of interstate going through Dayton. But after that, they go to very different places. Okay. Well, you guys are well connected.
Yeah. I mean, where are the Indianapolis is the Crossroads of America, Hank? Okay. I mean, look at a picture of it.
It does look like that. It looks like the Crossroads of America now. What is Dayton, the- what is Indianapolis? What is- what is Dayton to Indianapolis?
Is it like- Is Dayton like Indianapolis is Miami? No. No. Like- No, I would say that Dayton is a little bit- and I don't want to- I don't want to offend anybody from Dayton, but I would say that Dayton is a little bit like Indianapolis is Fort Myers.
You know what I mean? Yeah. All right. Yeah.
I get that. You get it. Uh-huh. Yeah.
It's got a little Fort Myers energy, but without the beaches. John, I'm- as you might have expected, I'm scrolling around Google Maps right now. And in between Cincinnati and Dayton, which aren't really close to each other, right in the middle is a little town called Middletown. They knew what was going on.
It's like that place right between Orlando and Tampa called Orlando and Tampa called Orlando or a Lampa. Is there a place called or Lampa? You made that up. It's real.
You made that up. Every- every place that's in between Orlando and Tampa is Orlando. Is Orlando- you know you made that up. God, you tricked me for a second.
Now I'm googling it, and you're going to laugh at me when there is no- there is no- oh, welcome to Orlando or Lampa, the tourist attraction that doesn't exist. Hank. You tricked me. And then they tricked you.
And then they tricked me. Can you call the new Carlisle Rax people and talk about the cookie situation? Because this is all I want. All you want is that like undercooked chocolate chip cookie.
I can still taste it. Yeah, no, it was a good cookie. I want the little plastic alligator that the kids drinks came in. Yeah, I just looked at them.
I got a cup. They came in an alligator shaped plastic mold. You can get it for 2550 on eBay. I mean, vintage 1994 alligator alligator plastic.
Imagine like explaining to your childhood self, one day there will be all these computers that are connected to each other, and people will be able to do almost anything through this network of computers. And what they'll choose to do is buy and sell childhood Rax alligator cups. Like if I got one of these, which I will not, I would definitely drink out of it. Oh yeah, no, they're awesome.
They actually like they were kind of like the ones that that you got at the zoo. Remember how you always get like, molded the molded wax thing, you mean? Yeah, that came out of the machine. You didn't drink out of those stuff.
They just like, no, no, no, no, like no, that's where you got your kids drinks from. Like from molded molded drinks, zoo drink. Oh, I forgot that there were characters other than the alligator. The alligator was Uncle Al alligator.
Uncle Al. Yeah, that's what I searched for. I remembered that. By the way, I know you love a dad joke.
Do you want to know the name of the holding company that owns all the Rax's? Oh, God, hit me. It's from Rax to riches. I knew that.
I actually knew that. Wow. Am I one of these Rax people, John? You might be a member of the Rax Sorati Hank without even noticing it.
The three main characters in the Rax lore are Uncle Al alligator, Hooter, the Owl, and the fearless frog who is inexplicably orange. Yeah, yeah. And unfortunately, they did not make a Mr. Delicious that you can suck right out of his head.
Yeah, suck, suck, fruit juice out of his head. That would have been great. It occurs to me. Remember saying that we are definitely deep in the Rax Sorati.
Yeah. No, like no wonder people are letting us know about this. We are, we are, we have to come without noticing it. The president and vice president of the Rax.
Well, I wouldn't say that. But John, when I was making that video about Rax's doomed advertising campaign, Mr. Delicious, I reached out to one of the guys who was in the Mr. Delicious documentary.
And I was like, Hey, I'd like to interview you about Mr. Delicious. And he replied and he was like, that would be amazing. I love that campaign so much.
I'm so proud of it. And I thought it was amazing and so good. And I ghosted him because you were like, I was like, I can't have this conversation. If you think of Mr.
Delicious is a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I missed it.
And then I waited a year to make the video. That's how awkward I felt about it. Oh, so you didn't hurt the guy's feelings. Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, and the truth is, I was going to say the truth is maybe it was a good ad campaign, but I it wasn't. It wasn't. It was really offensive on a lot of levels. It was super problematic.
It was a big mess. Yeah, it's a big mess. And it really also killed the whole childhood Rax lore in trying to become like fast food for grownups. Like what about us 11 year olds?
They're big thing. Just trying to have a Rax roast sandwich. It was like the guys who owned Rax hated fast food restaurants. Yeah, right.
Like that's what it's like going and being like, I hate this experience. How do we make it better? Yeah, I know. No children.
Yeah, it's funny. You should mention that because while researching the hot dog eating contest for the Anthropocene Reviewed book, I read two different histories of Nathan's famous hotdog stand. And that was also a big issue with Nathan's famous that like the children of the original owner were like, we don't want to just sell hot dogs. We want to sell like really good, high class, fine dining kind of food.
We want to be respected. And that was of course a huge tactical mistake because the people who like Nathan's famous hot dogs like hot dogs. Yeah, I've seen that mistake made a lot of different times, John, very similar mistake to that. People make it people make it all the time in our world, all the time where they want to be on television.
That turns out it's way worse, but it's more respected. Right. Yeah, exactly. It turns out they have less control.
They enjoy their days less and they make less money, but it's a space that sort of like gets a certain amount of respect with the awards, have a lot of cash. Well, that's the same thing when TV stars always wanted to be movie stars. They were like, I'm not real. I'm not a real like, this is all just the deep insecurity that we need to work through and understand that everybody's having everybody has these these doubts about themselves.
And you should just make like long meet and people will love you for it. Be the best racks you can be. Don't try to become the Olive Garden. Oh, God.
They really did. Wow. Okay. You want to do a question?
Because this has been not very how we should just do this. I think we should just do this for the rest of our lives. All right. Well, I can't wait to go to Iraq's with you whether in Finland or not.
It was Finland. It's a state secret. This first question comes from Katie and Ariana because that can happen now. Dear Hank and John, they asked my friend's older brother just made her his beneficiary, which obviously led to the discussion of not if we should have his body bronze, but in what position he should be left to stand in for the rest of time.
My question is what would you like to be posed to doing if you were bronzed after death? I mean, we have to die anyway. Katie and Ariana. Oh boy.
Well, I want to be absolutely clear that I do not want to be in a carbonite situation like Han Solo on any level. I don't want to be frozen in bronze and I especially don't want to be frozen in bronze with a chance of later being reanimated. Well, yeah. Well, here's what I want.
No, here's what I want. You're going to upload your consciousness. I just know. No.
I mean, if it was an option, I would love to just I'd love to just be one of the pieces in Tetris forever. That's me on the L one that goes to the right. And every time one of those comes up, that's me. It has your soul has my soul.
But then it's only while it's moving, but then when it's secured, then I don't exist anymore. And then when it comes back, as soon as it's in the little window and it's like coming up next, that's me again. I'm back. I'm alive once more.
And then you twirl me around and I'm like, I have experience again. And then then I hit the ground and it's just like don't exist. And then who sensations just over and over again? It's a real joy for me.
I'm looking forward to it. That's not what I was my idea of actual hell. So is that how it works? Anyway, no, here's what I want because I've been thinking about this situation with the with what are they called the mausoleums?
Yeah. And look, I'm not going to have a mausoleum, but I'm going to pretend like I will. And I don't want my body to be in the carbonite, but I want people to think that my body's in the carbonite. I love that.
Whereas just like there's like inside they look at the window and it's just like me with my hand sticking out my face like, but it was just made like three years before I died. I love that. I think that's the right answer. Not being the Eldetris piece.
Which Tetris piece would you be for eternity, John? Well, I mean, the eyepiece is the obvious one because then you get to make Tetris's. Oh, that is fun. But more if I could be realistic about who I am, I would be the square.
I'd be that little O piece. It's just like a little bit of inconvenience. They turn you around and around, but nothing even happens. Yeah, exactly.
I actually, yeah, because of my vestibular system, I don't actually like rotation that much. So it's just fine to be found the square. Down or down faster. Those are your two options.
I think it's interesting that you say you're not going to have a mausoleum as if you're going to make the decision. Like you think my intention, oh, you're getting the mausoleum for me, is to get you a mausoleum whether you want one or not and and carbonate you. Great. I think that would be great.
Now I think it's unlikely that I'll live you, but rest assured that should I happen to, I will be building you like a Taj Mahal pyramid level monument. All right. I'm going to pour all of our collected resources. John, I wanted to put Lawrence College Fund everything into this amazing mausoleum.
Great. Great. Can it be a underground cave system? Because that's a great idea.
That is such a cool idea. I love that. But there's going to be a mausoleum in the cave. Right.
Right. And all it's all going to be like very Disney looking. It'll just be like spray foam insulation over dirt. This reminds me of some really important breaking news, which is that Hank Green has signed his will.
I did do that. For a second, I was like, did I do it? I forgot. And my voice caught and I was like, did I not do it?
But I did. I did do it. Oh, it's a big relief. Actually, somebody emailed me a few days ago and said, has Hank signed his will?
Because I think about it all the time. Yeah, it's just sat there for a long, long time where the guy and we just even we were like, Hey, can we do this? And I was like, yeah, it's already like these parts. And I was like, they look fine.
I'm going to be honest with you, buddy. I think that it's better that I have a will than I have it perfect. Because I'm not planning on it. You can fix it later.
You can fix it later, but it's good to have something in place. Yeah, he kept saying we could fix it later. And he also was like, now we're going to put a copy of this in the vault. Oh, good.
The fireproof vault. And it was like, do you want to take it home or do you want us to store an art fireproof vault or a new art fireproof vault at home? And I was like, I think you should put in your fireproof vault because my fireproof vault is made out of wood. And it's a bookshelf.
Yeah. It doesn't have a front on it. Well, it's interesting you say that because we have most of our important documents and maybe I shouldn't say this on a podcast, we have most of our important documents, like pressed into a book, but only we know what the book is. Well, the fire knows where all the books are, John.
Exactly. Yeah, no, none of this is fireproof. But it is a pretty good strategy because if you're like in our house, you might think like, oh, I bet they put some important documents in a book, but you won't think of which one. And there are a ton of them.
Yeah, like an actual ton. So there's very little chance of success. Yeah. All right.
Hank, let's move on to another question. This one is from Megan who writes, Dear John and Hank, I'm new to the podcast. I'm listening to the catalog in reverse. Megan, it's a fascinating listen when you started in 2016.
There's a lot that I didn't see coming. You might want to ignore a couple of the things we say. I'm currently on episode 259. That's incredible.
Congratulations. It came out in September of 2020 and Hank is discussing how he feels 2021 will go considering the nature and state of the pandemic. He is very worried about 2021. That being said, how did 2021 go for you compared to your expectations?
And do you feel any more hopeful or confident going into 2022? That's a great question. I always worried about next year, Megan. I thought this was a great question, Hank, because this is our last podcast of 2021.
Yeah. I don't know why we didn't like have that be part of the whole thing. Probably should have ended with that banger with Ryan Reynolds, but no, it's this one. It's this one.
Oh, how do you feel going into 2022, Hank? And how was 2021 compared to your expectation? Well, I can't remember my expectations at all. That's one of the great things about being a human is that we forget how we felt about things once we experience them.
And then we retroactively apply how we felt about it to how we thought we would feel about it. Yeah. So I don't remember 2021 had its advantages. I like vaccines.
That's great. Yeah. Was that this year? Yeah.
Feels like it was this year. That was this year. You and I got vaccinated this year. Wow.
Gosh. And boosted. So yeah. So that's that's good.
I am a pretty optimistic guy. Yeah. I think that things are going to be okay next year. But I don't have a ton of confidence that we're going to get to a really solid, stable place like we had for a few decades after I was born in the next 10 years or so.
I think it's going to be a bit messy. I think we've got a bit of a messy time ahead of us, honestly. Yeah. I feel a lot of apprehension about the next few years in general.
So it's a little hard to piece that all together. What I will say about 2021 in retrospect versus 2020, you said that we change our projections to fit our experiences. And that's true to some extent. But I was definitely not the way I felt about 2020.
Like when I think back to December 2019 and how I thought that year was going to go and how I looking back at the end of December 2020, like it did not go how I thought it was going to go. And I was acutely aware of that. And in that sense, this has been a return to normalcy because I thought 2021 would be challenging. And it has been.
I am very worried about the next few months. And then I'm very worried about like the overall arc of the next decade. Yeah. I mean, one of the things about COVID has been that a lot of my worry has been around the disease itself and and the effect that it has on individuals.
And what I think that we don't think enough about is the effect or what I didn't expect is that to the effect that it, you know, a long lasting pandemic would have on society. And I feel like that that's the thing that is giving me a lot of apprehension. I am, you know, very discouraged by the lack of folks who have gotten through this together, you know. Yeah.
And I continue to prioritize the people who need to be prioritized. And I, you know, I feel so much empathy for people in healthcare right now who are on, you know, on the edge of having done this for years, almost, and now are looking toward another really rough time. And that, you know, something that I keep in mind a lot. Yeah, I think that it's going to be very hard to consider the effects of COVID from where we are, because we're too much in the middle of it.
Like, Stan always says that when you're living in the middle of history, you can't know what it means. And I try to remember that because my impulse is to think that I know what it means. Yeah. And to think that I have a straightforward narrative that is the full narrative, but we aren't going to understand, you know, we just don't have that perspective right now to really understand what what it means and what it means for us as a society moving forward.
What are the lessons that we're going to learn and which ones are we not going to learn? And the thing that I'm most worried about is the long term impacts. I mean, I'm worried about the impacts, obviously, that it has on individuals on a day to day basis, you know, all the people who are struggling with COVID or losing family members to it or losing their lives to it. It's of course the biggest concern, but there are long lasting societal implications for this that I don't understand and that I don't have any perspective to understand yet.
And I don't know what that's going to be. I know that my daughter doesn't know doesn't meaningfully remember what it's like to go to school and see her teacher's mouth move. Yeah. And I don't know when Alice is going to be in a learning environment where she does.
And I think that will have a big impact on her. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's impacted learning for millions and millions of kids.
Yeah. And I think it's impacted our sort of like collective ability to rely on each other and to trust each other and feel comfortable with each other. And that has huge impacts on mental health. But we also know that humans are super resilient and that we find ways to deal with different structures and different ways of societies working.
And like we are dealing with dealing with a lot of that right now, we're in a huge transition with regards to how people communicate with each other, which is always a really tumultuous time before we figure out how to do it properly, which takes decades and minimum to figure out how to deal with revolutions in communication, like the internet, but also the internet plus sort of a reaction to the pandemic. So it's a very we're cursed to live in interesting times. And they and do you ever think about when we were kids and we would think like, Oh, I wish I lived in an interesting historical moment. Now I very yes.
But before I will say before before I was living in a more interesting historical moment, I did realize I think that I didn't actually want that. I remember people talking about golden ages. And then like one day, like in college, I was like, Oh, this is one. This is like, we this will be sort of looked back.
Like it's obviously not perfect. Like as we're none of the golden ages. But like this is a very comfortable time for me anyway. And boy, do I think that sometimes we don't notice?
Yeah. So that's how we're feeling, Megan, we're feeling great. But you know what? Going into 2020, I remember like lifting my champagne glass to my friends and being like, here's to the best year ever.
And I was wrong. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong again. Maybe maybe a hot boy summer is coming at last.
I'll tell you what we are good at anything. Hank and John specifically, but humans in general are good at being wrong about the future. John, it's so wrong. This next question comes from Maggie who asks dear Hank and John, the logo for Complexly, which is our educational media company.
It looks like a maze. It has an entrance, but no exits. Is this on purpose? Or is the designer trying to confuse and trap us trapped in the sea?
Maggie, I got to say Maggie, I just like how it looked. I think I'm too deep. I don't I now I'm concerned. Didn't you make it?
No. Oh, it looks to me like a Hank Green design. Maybe well, it's the one I I I approved it. So yeah, it is funny though that there's no way out of the maze.
Well, you just go back out. You go in. This is this. Oh, yeah.
Go in and you look around and you find some stuff and then you leave. That's yeah. That's education. Right.
You go out the same way you came in. Naked and alone and scared. Thanks for coming to our educational media company. Oh my God.
Oh boy, it's real dark around here. Oh, geez. Oh, geez. I wasn't ready for this.
It's so it's it is an interesting time, John. Oh, yeah. I let's be clear though. It could be so much worse.
Oh, yeah. And that's a big. Oh, yes. No, the all of the worst worst ways that it could be would be more interesting ways.
I would like things to be really boring. That's that's my ambition for 2022 is the most boring year on record. I mean, I will say lots of interesting, powerful stuff. Like, like good, interesting things have also happened.
Like the the difference between the efficacy of mRNA vaccines and all the other vaccines said this to Catherine is incredible. The other day we were pulling into the house and I was just sort of like waxing poetic about vaccines and I said that what people don't understand is that like the difference between an mRNA vaccine and like the normal like live attenuated vaccines that we still use, like it's like the difference between a computer chip and like offense. Like it's just like these old ways of doing things of making vaccines were so like labor intensive time consuming really like subjective and just messing around and hoping like a lot of hoping and now these mRNA vaccines can be applied to a lot of different situations and the more that we know about them, the easier it will be to do that and pandemics are going to be so much specifically viral pandemics are going to be so much easier to deal with in the future. Yeah.
And we will be able to hopefully respond to them quickly if we build up the kind of capacity and resiliency in the healthcare system that we need to have. Yeah. Yeah. And I have a ton of faith also if we can science right now, but I am frustrated at you know, our lack of ability to communicate with each other to feel good about each other to connect and not sort of villainize each other constantly.
Yeah. And also I think we've seen a lot of the places where you know, private enterprise doesn't do it. Yeah, doesn't work. And that's been a real frustration for people living in low resource settings with healthcare systems for a long time.
Yeah. You know, like we frankly could have had effective vaccines for a lot of illnesses that cause a lot of suffering and death if the incentives have been the same over the last 20 years and we could have saved millions of lives. But the second best time to do that is today. Yeah.
And we can save millions of lives over the next 20 years if we put our resources in the right places. And so that's another takeaway for me. But on an individual level, it just sucks. It sucks.
And a lot of people are dying and a lot of people are losing family members and a lot of people are in incredibly stressful situations because of COVID and it sucks. Hey, we got another question from Melanie who writes, Dear John and Hank, I'm sitting at my gate right now at the airport. I'm 24 years old and it's my first flight alone. Do you have any suggestions for someone flying alone for the first time?
Not melody. Melanie. So this person has flown before, but never alone. I don't you feel like it's better to fly alone?
Well, because you're never really alone is the problem. You will have a neighbor. I would much rather sit next to Catherine. So there's two parts of this experience, right?
Hank, there's the flight and there's the part in the airport before the flight leaves. Yeah, what do you like to do in the airport? What's your main go to airport activity? Because mine is answering emails.
Oh, no. No, I like to take full advantage of the space that I'm in. Almost every airport has some kind of art gallery or history, diorama or something. They all have chapels and the chapels are weird and really cool.
And so I like to visit the chapel. It's almost always empty. It's also a quiet room where you can hang out with the door closes, which is nice. I love to go everywhere in an airport.
I love the convenience stores. How are there still so many magazines? That's one of my main feelings when I'm in an airport. I'm like, this is great.
Look at all these. Man, these come out every month. I think a huge thing is a good playlist. So I love or like your favorite album.
I love to cruise through an airport, like being on the moving walkways and just listen into some like 1960s punk rock or some like weird 80s synth wave and you're just like, ah, nobody knows how cool my music tastes are. Look at all these people with their briefcases. Nobody's rocking out like I am. Of course they all are in their own ways.
And then I like to have a podcast or audiobook that I know two things about. It's not going to make me cry. And it's not going to have a big old surprise sex scene because I am made very uncomfortable by sitting next to a person and listening to a description of two characters enjoying each other's physicality in that way. So I like to know enough about the piece of media that I'm going to be listening to.
And I know it because I have listened to podcasts that have made me weep sitting next to a businessman from Dayton before. And it's a little much. I think that's better actually than the kind of podcasts where you burst out laughing out of nowhere. They're like, you're like in the gym and everybody's just doing in the gym stuff they're all listening to their synth wave, you know.
And you're like, which? Which is what Dear Hank and John is for? We're a podcast that's not that funny and it's not going to make you cry. So it's perfect for airplanes.
Also, there's a zero percent chance of kissing scenes like you never have to worry about that. No romance here. It's not going to make you uncomfortable. It's a world without romance here on Dear Hank and John.
And I think that I think that having having your ears occupied, unless you are into the potential of having a stranger conversation, which I sometimes am, but if- Maybe that would be good at this point, Hank. Like I haven't been on a plane in a long, long time, but maybe I want to have it. Like maybe that's something that post-pandemic me is gonna be like, I like having conversations with strangers. I just need to talk.
I mean, I was at the thrift store the other day and I started to talk to the lady at the front as she was checking my, and I was like, what am I doing? I'm like, I just like told her about my whole day. I'm that guy. Real it in, buddy.
Yeah, so maybe talk to a stranger, but also maybe just listen to a podcast or see how it goes, have a podcast ready and you'll get through the flight, no problem. I don't miss airplane flights. I do really miss airports. I love airports.
There's such sites of joy and connection because you see people reuniting, you see people saying, goodbye, it's just, it's incredible. You see all of the human drama in an airport. And I miss that. I also love airports because it's all these people who work to make something very complicated happen.
Almost always on time. And I see all the little carts driving around and the people doing the things and everybody's gotta be at the place at the right time and then it all works. Now it sometimes doesn't all work. But it works fairly well in the scheme of things.
But if you're appreciating it when it does work, then when it doesn't work, you're like, well, yeah, I did notice that there are about 30 vehicles involved in the getting of this plane ready to go. So I can see how maybe sometimes it wouldn't work perfectly. Which reminds me, John, that this podcast is brought to you by Alachhart, the company that makes the little cars that drive around and refill up all of the snacks on the airplanes. I think that's what that company's called.
One of our childhood friends, dads worked for that company when we were kids, remember? No, I don't. Doug, yeah. I knew he worked at like airport stuff.
Yeah, none of that's what he did. He recently died and I have to say, this is the wrong vibe for the podcast, I know. But he was the funniest person I have ever met who was never mean. Yeah, that's a credible sense of humor that did not in any way rely upon cruelty.
He was so funny. That's a big win. That's a big win. Yeah.
Today's podcast is also brought to you by Hank's death cave. It's real hard to know how to make that transition. And I guess I just kind of went for it and it did not work. Hank's death cave, hopefully we've transitioned away from sincerity well enough to talk about Hank's death cave.
This podcast is also brought to you by the very, very, very important book that is located somewhere in John's house. No one knows where it is except fire. Oh God. And of course, today's podcast is brought to you by the L Tetris piece.
It's Hank's consciousness is going to be uploaded inside of a Tetris piece and it will be the L. Just once I'm gone, just think about me every time every time that L shaped one comes down. I think you might last longer than Tetris. Absolutely not.
I think you got a chance. That's like saying I'm going to last longer than chess. No. Well, I don't know if you've been following what's happening in the world of classic Tetris, Hank, but basically some people have gotten so good at Tetris that it's almost broken now.
They can just go forever. Yeah. So like the highest score in the world for a long, long time was 1.4 million. And it took like 30 years to get to 1.4 million.
It took like five years to get from 1.1 million to 1.4 million. And then this guy cheese invented a new way to hold the controller that allows you to move the pieces much, much, much faster to the left and to the right. And then he got a score that was 2.6 million. So like he almost doubled the best score ever by basically playing forever.
All right. He plays so beautifully. Like honestly, when I was watching that game, I thought, I would like to make a vlogbrothers video that is just a 25 minute breakdown of how incredibly beautiful this game of Tetris is. Oh, God bless.
It's so beautiful. I teared up a couple times where I was like, how can somebody take such a simple game and make it so beautiful? Anyway, well, well, this is the thing. Games need innovation sometimes.
So I think the Tetris will make it. It will just be finding new ways to be itself. That's lovely. This episode of Dear Hank and John is brought to you by Shopify.
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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 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 could 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 deer hank.
Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash deer hank. With new subscription only, while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See you website for more details. One thing I love about summer is how easy everything feels.
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I love that. Before we get to the all important news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon, I do need to read you one critically important response. Okay. From Jonathan, who writes, Dear Brothers Green, I am a PhD student at Purdue University currently studying chickadee ecology in Indiana.
And I realized I may be able to provide some insight into your chickadee debate on a recent episode of the podcast. You'll recall that I saw a chickadee and Hank said it wasn't a chickadee and I said it definitely is. And here comes Jonathan. Was it?
Here comes Jonathan the expert to let us who's getting a PhD in literally chickadee ecology. Indiana has two species of chickadees. The Black-capped chickadee and the Carolina chickadee. Black-capped chickadees are in the most northern part of the state.
So all the chickadees in the Indianapolis area are Carolina chickadees. Meanwhile, Montana has four species of chickadee. The Black-capped chickade, the boreal chickadee, the chestnut backed chickadee and the mountain chickadee. Carolina chickadees often formed mixed species flocks with nut hatches and tufted tit mice in the winter.
So it is very common to see them together. I've attached a file that illustrates the various chickadees species and compares them to a nut hatch. Regardless, they do look similar, so it would be understandable to mix them up. By the way, while the chickadees in Indiana are likely similar in size to the ones in Montana, John was right about the ones in Indiana being special.
My research has been analyzing the song culture and song types of our local chickadees and so far their songs are more diverse than for chickadees anywhere else in the country. As we have found over 100 song types, best Jonathan B. Jenkins, person who proved John right. Did that happen or was I looking at a tuftedit mouse and you were looking at different chickadees somewhere?
I guess that's possible. They were forming a mixed species flock. Which is cool. I didn't know about mixed species flocks.
Also, I think I may have seen a TikTok from this guy recently because I did recently see a TikTok that was like here are the different ways to understand the vocalizations of chickadees and they have over 100 different calls. And the linguistics of chickadees is very complicated. And is that the guy? Was that the same guy?
Good of it. I mean, I bet they know each other if not. In that case, the 4U page really does know you or alternately you sure do watch a lot of TikToks. Well, I get all the ones about birds.
Well, it's time for the news from Mars and Nancy Whittle that I'll go first then I'll be brief. Whittle didn't games have been canceled. Oh. We were supposed to play over the weekend, but there were a lot of COVID cases in Portsmouth, the team that we were supposed to play.
And also some of our players have COVID, some of almost every team currently playing in England has COVID. So right now there are no games. I don't know when that will change. There was one game over the weekend.
And I was watching it and thinking, I wonder if I'll see more football this year or when I will see more football. And I don't know. So that's the news. Let's move on.
I'm sorry about that. Well, in Mars news, if all, we're going to cut here because at the moment I'm too scared to talk about anything with regards to space. Oh, the James Webb Space Telescope is really stressing me out. I just need it to work so badly.
That's what it does. I need it to work. I need it to rest as people else. I need it to be.
I need it to go well. This is how I felt about Perseverance. And Perseverance has gone amazingly well. So we've got that.
Well, Hank, I hope that was a good update. Thanks for plotting with me. Thank you for podcasting with me, John. You can send us your questions at Hankandjonajino.com.
This podcast doesn't exist without them. So thank you to everybody who sent some in. Thank you to Alec for inspiring the really terrible dad joke at the beginning of this. I butchered it, but I like it a lot.
This podcast is edited by Joseph Tuna-Maddish. It's produced by Rosie Anna Hals-Rohas. Our communication coordinator is Julia Bloom. All right, there's a story of Assistant, Mr.
Billy Chakravarti. The music you're hearing now is by the great Gonna Rova. And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.