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 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 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. Welcome to Dear Hank and John. Where's that perverted thinking of the Dear John and Hank?
It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions, give you other weeks from both Mars and A.S.C. Wimbledon and... For Dubious Spice. For Dubious Spice, John, do you know that Rick Astley will absolutely loan you any Disney movie?
He will. Except for one. Oh, he is never gonna give you off. Good job.
Good job. Hey, so listen, we need to talk about the elephant in the room, I think. Is it you the fact that you are in the room? No.
Because that... I don't know if we haven't told people that. That is an elephant in the room. Hank and I are in the same place the same time.
We're in lovely Southern California for assorted work obligations. But the elephant in the room is that Hank and I were making a TikTok the other day, a collab, as the young people call it. I was trying to jump on some of that Hank hype train. Okay, good.
I'm trying to get to that two million vowel word mark. Which I did. Nice. And I saw in the reflection, as I was recording the TikTok, I saw in the selfie camera a triangle on the inside of the word arm.
This is a fantastic TikTok because the face my brother made. When he found out, I did not tell him that I got a tattoo. Which is my first tattoo and the first tattoo and the entire green family. I don't even think any of our 17 cousins have tattoos.
Yeah. You think so? Oh, f***. I can't talk about it.
We don't talk about f***ing tattoos. I think we probably got some too. But the point is that you have a tattoo. It is of a triangle.
You're gonna bleep those out or just cut it. Okay. They're public figures. Sure.
Sure. That's all I always think about. F***ing. Um, just internet celebrity.
So you have a tattoo of a triangle. It is a permanent tattoo. That is correct. Yeah, yeah.
And you chose not to tell me or are you just neglected to tell me? I felt like it would be a thing. I just didn't want the thing to be a thing. Like you didn't want me to be like a kid with you got a tattoo.
I'm so horrible. No. I just just like, it's like at any given moment there's something else to talk about. I just feel like if you'd said John I got a tattoo, I would have been like, that's great.
That's so cool. I'm really glad that you and your friends. Well, here's what happened with mom. Okay.
Catherine told mom that I got a tattoo. And then mom said to me, Do you have a tattoo? Oh, that's a little passive aggressive. That's what, like, like, are you trying to catch me in a lie right now?
Mom, I'm 42 years old. Is this still happening? Anyway, I said, yes. I said, what do you know?
No, I said, no, what do you know? And then we fought like we were, I was a teenager. Really? No.
Okay. Good. Good. I like the tattoo.
I have a couple of constructive criticisms. Oh, no. Don't do that ever. No, one thing I've noticed a band of people is that they really like it when you give constructive criticisms of their tattoo that they can't change that's on their body.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, I do. I really like it.
I love a simple geometric tattoo. I'm a big fan of shapes. And it's just a triangle. So I don't have an issue with it.
It's just the fact that you got a tattoo and didn't tell me. I thought we were close. Like I've always thought of us as being close. And my shock was not like, I can't believe he got a tattoo.
My shock was I can't believe I'm finding out he got a tattoo while filming a TikTok. But like, isn't that the best possible way? Because you literally, we got your face on camera. In fact, if I had gotten us my favorite Star Wars character on my face as a tattoo, you would have been super shocked.
But because you couldn't believe the Luke on my face, the Luke, Luke instead of Luke. That was tortured and not very funny. However, it reminds me that I went to Disneyland. Yeah, this is what I was trying to get to Disney this whole time.
Okay, good. So I went to Disneyland. It's like, you forgot, I also went to Disney today, though. I went to California Adventure.
Right. Because we couldn't get tickets to Disney. Well, it turns out that you couldn't get tickets to Disney Land because it's not like, oh, they decided like, we have enough people. It's like, oh, this is the maximum number.
We've reached the point where one square foot of land is occupied by each person. Yeah. It was the most crowded experience I've ever had. I was shoulder to shoulder with so many strangers.
I'll tell you, California Adventure was busy, but it was not that busy. Also, halfway through the day, there was some lightning. And so that closes down like half the rides at Disney. Yeah.
So the half that were open, we're like, well, I'm not going on those. I guess it's corn dog time. Good for you. Yeah.
I had a number of soft pretzels, which is my preferred Disney snack. It's only $6.75 for a soft pretzel. And I happened to know what the wholesale cost of a soft pretzel is. Because I wanted to get into a business where we have the awesome pretzel company.
We'll be sending you a soft pretzel every month. I once catered an event when you have a thousand jobs during that period of your life. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's supposed to this period of your life. Yeah.
And I came home with a lot of soft pretzels. And I put them in the freezer and I ate a soft pretzel every day for over a month. And it was glorious. Oh, yeah.
It's a great life. Yeah. I mean, I really think why don't I have a freezer full of soft pretzels all the time? I know that people are not crying out for a soft pretzel subscription service.
But it's one of those things that you don't think that you want or need. But then if it starts coming to your house, you'll never cancel it. Right. Maybe we make the first month free to hook them.
Yeah. No one will ever. No one can stop. No one can stop getting a free set of four soft pretzels available at their home once a month.
Brand name for the soft pretzel subscription company. Three, two, one. Awesome. Oh, ****.
It's an easy one. All right. Let's answer some questions from our listeners. Soft pretzopolis.
That's the village that the soft pretzels come. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And I'm the kind king. It's a true company town. Yeah. I think that there's only one place of work.
All right. This first question comes from Holly. You read, so you're John and Hank this weekend. I went into a surgery for a spinal fusion.
And then a couple of things went wrong. And the surgeon had to slice me up. Hey, just don't look at your phone. Well, I was trying to close it and start applying.
I'll tell you one thing. What? One of the great things about making the podcast with Hank in person is that it's great to be in his company. One of the bad things is that you find out how little of the time he's listening to you.
What are you talking? I just, I just noticed Lizo left a comment on my tech talk. And Lizo said your brother was the post before this one. So she saw yours too.
And she knows that we're brothers. Hank, did you need to know that? No, you have a problem. I have so many problems.
But no, this is, Holly asks, do you know what kind of surgery she had? Mm-hmm. Yeah, you haven't said. I did say.
The first time when I wasn't listening, I'm listening now. This week I went into surgery for a spinal fusion. But a couple things went wrong. By the way, Holly's had a terrible day, Hank, and you're not even paying attention.
My life was in danger. Trying to open them. And you're still looking for podcast questions. I mean, how, like, that is your computer.
It's all the way over there. Can we just briefly though, talk about the problem and acknowledge that it's a problem. Oh yeah. Okay.
And this isn't an intervention, but it might someday be. We may have to have one, and I don't want to. Holly has had a very serious set of events that you still have not heard about. There's a spinal fusion surgery.
Something went wrong. My surgeon had to slice me open, sternum to me. It's a problem. Unfortunately, this now means I cannot really use my tummy muscles for normal body functions.
My doctor's and nurse really want me to regain these functions, starting with farting. But how does one go about re-learning to fart? Restarting, departed, farting, Holly. Incredible name.
Start at the party. Start at the party. Incredible name specific sign off. Very good.
Incredible question. I'm so sorry you're going through this. Oh, Hank, you fart all the time. What's the pain?
No one fucks more than you. That's not true at all. There's a bunch of people who fart more than me. But I fart a lot.
And here's, I mean, I think that before you can get the muscles, you first off, it never occurred to me that you need stomach muscles to fart. But then, after I read this question, I've been doing it a lot. You've been farting just for Holly's sake. Just for research.
And you do need doesn't you? You do need to do some. Yeah. So I think you start out, Holly.
And I'm not a doctor. And I'm certainly not a doctor. Yeah, I feel like the doctor just isn't not like a physical therapist who specializes in this. I sure there is.
But I think what you do is you begin by fake farting. Just doing that. I think left side. First of all, body position is important.
I don't know how much Holly's moving around, Hank. I don't know. Just like, get me on the left side for a little bit. Let me see how that goes.
If you turn on your left side, that's when you're most likely to go. That's when I feel like, if I'm like, ah, I got some gas, if I lay on my left side, I'm like, ah, it's like moving. I'm just wondering, like, do you practice with just the stomach before you begin to practice with the lower parts? So just like ab muscles upward.
My inclination would be to work my way down in terms of my training. It feels like it's a deep lower ab thing, the fart. I've got a little bit above the belly button. I've got a little bit above the belly button.
Maybe everybody does it differently. You don't have anything about the belly button? You don't feel like I do. Yeah, I feel like I just all low deep.
Oh, no. Like I'm doing it right now. I'm right above the belly button. If I want to like, trumpet out a big old blaster, so that the whole room here is really good.
There's another way to do it. Yeah. Oh, maybe that's the issue. I'm though LaPedomaine, but I have a lot.
I have a lot of farts. I could give you. What's LaPedomaine? LaPedomaine is the man who fell into an arctic ocean.
He drew a tremendous amount of cold water during his fall into his rectum. And ever since then, like, received the ability to basically do anything with farts. Like he could, he could, like, root him into really speak. He could play the trumpet.
You don't buy LaPedomaine. It's like the best, weirdest, like, mental floss style fact out there. Is he alive? No.
It was a long time ago. And possibly wasn't real. Well, he died of normal. He was the performer in, like, Vaudeville.
I'm really glad that you mentioned that phrase, because it's my least favorite phrase. This is going to be the, hey, could John argue about this? What did I do? He said he died of normal causes.
And I really dislike him. Right. Or like the phrase, mental causes. I really dislike the natural causes.
It's like both normal causes. I hear natural causes. He's a way of saying, like, he died a death that is acceptable to me. That I am able to compartmentalize without trouble.
Given the year of his birth, he's bound to be dead at this point. That's great. Yeah. Yes.
That's what I'm trying to get across. What I want, there's no good way to do it. It's a very complicated thing. But I think, Holly, the main thing we want is an update.
We really want to know how that goes. Because I think that you're going to be expert on this. Yeah. We just think that, like, you potentially could have a new career on your hands once you master this.
So we need to know how it goes. And hopefully you don't turn into a petamade. Yeah. And how old was he when he died?
88. He had an OK run. Yeah. He was, and interestingly, according to this, he did not fart fart gas.
He was able to draw air in and then expel it. Which is something else? Yeah, no, I'm so glad I know that now. I'm sure you did at one point and you just forgot.
Probably. This next question comes from Kiza who writes, where Kiza, who writes, you're down in a night. Every day when I walked to school, I walked past a very large sign that says, are you dreaming about invisible sounds? Is that a thing?
Like a billboard? Is there such a thing as a visible sound? Should I be dreaming about invisible sounds? What would happen if sound was visible?
I'm also partly death. So maybe visible sound is what I want. Or is that nightmarish? What's going on here?
Kiza. So Hank, my Google phrase, are you dreaming about invisible sounds? Which is what they must have wanted you to do. And no one has ever used it on Google.
Oh, so that's not what they wanted you to do. Or if it is what they wanted you to do, they failed miserably in their attempts to take a sentence. Or they intentionally pick a sentence that is sort of a lacuna, like a Google lacuna. Right.
Yes. And I love a lacuna. A lacuna. That might be worse.
I love the idea. So initially, I was like, this is a dumb sentence. Yeah. Are you dreaming about invisible sounds?
It sounds a little bit like a 19-year-old got access to a sign. Totally. It's like pretentious. I'm sorry to all my teeny girls.
No, no. The 19-year-old John, for example. I'm going to say mid-career John Green got a whole lot of time. I know what it sounds like.
It sounds like pretentious, but ultimately maybe empty. Like void of me. Yeah. Yeah.
Like it sounds really good. And the more you look at it, there's a lot of sentences like that in English literature that the writer was so enamored with the sound of them that they got in the book. And it's in like, wooply now or whatever. Totally.
It's quote all the time. But then you're like, I don't know what that means. Or actually, that's something that is known. Right, right.
That's an obvious. Either that's obvious or I actually disagree with that sentiment. Well, there's a lot of those. I wrote a whole chapter about this in the other procedure book because there's that beautiful sentence in Gatsby where he talks about how for a transitorian enchanted moment, man, most of look at the presence of this continent, seeing for the last time something commensurate with man's capacity for wonder, which is such a great line that you don't realize that like, no.
No. But anyway, that's this kind of sentence. But then when I found out that it's not on Google, I went all the way around to like, oh, actually, it's a brilliant sentence. Any sentence that's not on Google that makes up any kind of sentence is a brilliant sentence at this point.
Are you dreaming about invisible sounds? It's not long either. Are you dreaming about invisible sounds? All sounds are invisible, right?
All sounds. I guess if the sound is really loud, it blows a hard glass off of a vote. Yeah, you can make there are ways there are times in which sound can become visible. So like, sounds being a pressure wave.
If you are in a situation where the pressure wave is strong enough and the humidity is like in the perfect spot, the humidity and temperature and pressure are all in the perfect spot, the sound would actually be visible as a condensation wave. So you can like basically a cloud will form along with the sound. But most of the time you're dreaming about sounds, you're dreaming about invisible sounds. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Also, everything else is invisible when you're dreaming. And that is inside of the mind. Oh, God. Was that true?
But if I have a dream where I see things, those things are visible, right? Well, we're not going to get the bottom of this one. OK. I think it's a construct.
I have gone all the way from thinking, I don't like the sentence to thinking that I do like the sentence. Yeah. And are you dreaming about invisible sounds? Is that it?
Yeah. They're called information voids when someone is like, you should Google this specific string. And that takes you. So it basically like instead of having a URL, you're like, I have been the only person to say this phrase a bunch.
And so you can search for that. It's often used in search of misinformation circles where like so that you can get people to the misinformation around Google's like desire to not promote misinformation. You create a new term for something. And that's a void.
Is that true? The only thing you've searched for it is things that they want to come up, come up. Is that true? Yeah.
An information void. OK. If you Google, are you dreaming about invisible sounds? It's not like a bunch of conspiracy theories.
No, no, no. But this isn't an information void because it doesn't exist at all. So information voids actually have a thing that takes you. But it takes you to the specific thing that they want you to see.
OK. So the idea is that eventually maybe they're weighing the groundwork now. Right. I mean, I want to know more about this sign.
Is it like on a Wendy's? Like better sort of a Wendy's sign? Or is it a billboard? Really?
Is it just like a yard sign, like a political? I open to Wendy's with like an ambitious owner slash person who puts up the daily messages of affirmation and sales. I mean, Wendy's going all in on cryptic sign messages. Wendy's doing full night veil.
Yes. You would be amazing. Amazing. And they totally rebrand and it's like blue and black and gray and silvery.
Yeah. And it's sort of haunted mansion vibe when you go into a Wendy's. And there's like whispers coming from the speakers instead of music. It's like whispers kind of speakers.
Country music? Yeah. That are like, do you feel a void emerging within you that's like a canyon except you yourself must cross it? You have to cross the canyon that is yourself.
Yes. Yeah. Welcome to Wendy's. Are you dreaming of invisible sounds?
Would you like to try the new triple bacon cheddar sandwich? And while you're at it, would you like to try to engage for the first time with the reality of your situation as a human, frail, dying, afraid, and ultimately alone? I mean, I know Wendy's has like a terrible time recruiting of ways right now because they don't pay enough. But that seems like a great way to get around it.
I don't work at Wendy's if it became like a haunted mansion of existential- But do you like to supersize your dread? Would you like some a biggy sized crisis with that? Wendy's is biggy, right? Yeah, the only way I'm giving you a frosty is if you look me dead in the eyes and say, I don't know why I'm here and I understand that I never will.
This question's a Megan. I don't know if we answered the question, but I think we got it. I don't know what it means. I think we did what we were supposed to do.
Megan says, can you use a vacuum inside a vacuum? Oh, no. Can you use a vacuum? And no.
No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. You can't, no, you can't. I'm there.
You definitely can't. The vacuum works by creating an area of low pressure and you pull things into that area of low pressure. You can't create a low pressure in the vacuum. Okay, but that's the way.
So that doesn't do it by electricity? What? You have to. Okay.
Yes, you use the electricity to create the area of low pressure. But that pulls stuff from the area of high pressure. Okay, but my argument is this. If what a vacuum does at its core.
The vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner. Yes. I don't know what a vacuum of space does at its core.
I don't think any of us do. That's actually one of the things that Wendy's. What is the difference between emptiness and nothing? Welcome to Wendy's.
We understand that vacuum exists, but why? Welcome to Wendy's. The space between two things is nothing, but it exists. Welcome to Wendy's.
The space between galaxies exists is nothing and is expanding at an accelerating rate. So here's my argument about a vacuum cleaner. If you could somehow plug it in a vacuum or get electricity to it in a vacuum. The wheels would still spin.
So the wheels would spin. In that sense, you can vacuum a vacuum. You're not going to get anything up into your who's he was, but you're not going to do that anyway. You're not vacuuming the vacuum though.
The things spin, but nothing's happening. You're wondering if you can get a vacuum. You're not sucking anything in. Yes, of course.
There's nothing too. Well, no, no, no. It's not just that. It's like it's.
I would actually argue that is the main thing. Yeah. There's nothing to suck in than the vacuum. It doesn't matter what the pressure of differentiation is.
There's no thing to suck. There's no thing to the vacuum. I don't know. It feels like it matters to me.
Why? Because the reason that you can't vacuum a vacuum isn't that there's nothing there. It seems to me that it is. So if the pressure inside of the vacuum was a positive pressure and the thing outside of the vacuum was the same positive pressure, it still would not vacuum.
It would not do a vacuum even if there was something there. So the problem is that the pressure inside and outside of the vacuum cleaner is the same. I think the problem is that there is nothing too vacuum. Well, I think it's totally possible that we have proved the same fact in two different ways.
I think that's the situation. Well, I think my proof is vastly more elegant. Well, now we're mathematicians. That's what math actually is.
That's the real math is. Is mathematicians arguing about whether their proof is better? Regardless of the fact that both of them do prove the thing. I feel like my proof would be the annals of mathematics and your proof would be in my vacuum month.
I disagree. I think mine is more mathy and yours is more like the vacuum doesn't have anything to suck on. I'm not going to argue that is the much more fundamental issue. Welcome to Wendy's.
Hey, there have been a number of questions related to horses in Montana. Okay. I think I don't know some viral YouTuber made a video. I don't know what happened, but I feel like we have to answer one of them.
I know that if you write a horse to school, the principal must care for that horse while the student is in class. Is this a real thing? Does the principal have to have knowledge on horse care in order to get the job as the principal in Montana? Could I have been saving money on gas this whole time by writing a horse keeping it real?
Well, John, I have taken some time to Google and it seems like this is a real law. Yeah, but it's one of those laws. Yeah. Like anytime you hear like a weird law on today, I learned on Reddit or you hear weird law on YouTube video compilation.
It's worth remembering that most of these weird laws are still on the books precisely because they are never a problem. Yeah. Why would you get rid of a law that is not a problem? It's not like it's taken up on just space.
Nobody's like, wow, so many people are bringing their horses to school and the principals have to care for them and it's a massive unending issue. Though apparently three or so years ago, a bunch of students found out about the law and did write the horse to school and the school had to take care of them. I think so. Now, now you're the reason that they're going to have to get rid of the law, which of course, like they will if it becomes a problem.
They will if enough kids. And there was a time when it was it was important for people who would get to school on their horses to have someplace some way to have their horses be taken care of while they were in school, otherwise kids couldn't get education. But no, do you write to the horses to school anymore in Montana? Nobody, three kids did.
Years ago. And the folks in Montana generally find the horse stereotypes to be a bit much. Oh, do we hear it a lot? Oh, yeah.
Yeah, they're like, oh, the horses and it's like, it's just a state. Do you have a horse? Well, I didn't think you had a horse, but I also didn't get a tattoo. So I'd explore the crisis for me.
Yeah, welcome to Wendy's. You never know if someone has a horse. The first question is from Caitlin who asks, dear Hank and John, I have an issue with the phrase keep an ear out for. Like what?
How do I keep an ear out? Is this just like a semi mid-south Oklahoma saying? Thank you. Keep an ear out, Caitlin.
I have heard this before. I have the theory about it that's probably wrong, which is that places where you say keep an ear out are places where I don't want to say Caitlin that there's not a lot to look at, but places where sound travels. Let me say this differently. I have heard this before.
We're more accustomed, I think, to hearing keep an eye out for something. Keep looking for something. Still awful weird. It is weird.
But what I like about keeping an ear out for is that it's much more realistic because sound travels over very long distances. Sure. And so you can keep an ear out for the train, even if you can't see it, because you'll be like the train is here. I don't tell from the people.
Yeah, I like the idea with the hoop. I like the idea that you're not keeping an eye out. Like if you're not keeping an eye out for something, you're just like, close your eyes. You're like, I'm done.
I'm not looking. I put the sleep mask on and wrap my head with an expanded gem. I think when people say keep an eye out for, they mostly mean like, hey, don't check tiktok every 13 seconds. Keep an eye out.
Keep an eye out for that package. But I'd rather keep an ear out. Like if I honestly rather have all of my sensing organs in, like connected to my body, like not like definitely not out of my house. Out of what?
Yeah, I think it's keeping an ear out of what? Out of what? Keep an ear out for. Keep an ear out for.
It's not of though. Keep an ear out for. What am I keeping it out of for something prepositions? The more I think about it, the less I like it, which is the opposite of our Wendy's.
I actually think that better. I think that's a rebrand that that would crush. Yeah, I don't even think that has to do the whole thing. I think that just the messages on the board.
Yeah, well, you start with just the messages on the board and then it gets creepier and creepier and creepier. People like, why is Wendy's going full creepy? And all the kids are like, time shouldn't go to Taco Bell anymore. Yeah, Taco Bell became cool for it.
And still has been like the cool kid place. We're like 30 years. They have to reinvent themselves every six months. How did it?
I don't know how they do it. But they do it. Wendy's it's right there. It's got to get super weird.
How weird though. You've got to go to a place where Taco Bell's life. It seems safe for our brand. It's low quality.
Oh, I love it. I love it so much. It reminds me actually that today's podcast is brought to you by Hank and John's takeover of Wendy's. Hank and John's hostile takeover of Wendy's.
We're pouring all of our Dear Hank and John Patreon. Forget it. We're not paying for some show and craft for some more. We're hoarding it so that we can have a hostile takeover of Wendy's.
We're going to need all of it for money to give us $10 each. It can't be that much for Wendy's. How much is it? John's looked it up.
What's Wendy's? Three billion. How many people listened to Dear Hank and John? They didn't even have to give a million dollars.
What's three billion divided by 200,000? You'll be shocked. The answer is 15,000. Okay.
So we need everybody to give us 15,000. I mean, that's like, that's less than most college educations and you get Wendy's. You're saying we, first off, what we're saying to them is take out some student loans. We're saying to them.
Don't get an education. Give us your life savings because we are going to decrease its size. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to make Wendy's awful.
We're going to take. It's going to maybe not exist in like a matter of months. Like, what I can tell you is our branding ideas are probably pretty bad, but our how to run a restaurant ideas are definitely bad. They're like meat logistics.
Knowledge is very low. So true. Like, I don't know what I don't know about meat logistics. The unknown unknowns are many.
Yeah, take it from the two guys whose favorite fast food restaurant racks was killed by a single advertising campaign. We can do this. This podcast is also brought to you by meat logistics. Meat logistics.
Somebody's got to do it. But not us. It's good. Good work if you can get it.
Today's work is also today's podcast also brought to you by the vacuum vacuum. The reason it won't work is because you can't vacuum nothing. And also this podcast is brought to you by an ear. An ear.
Keep it out. Keep it out for something. We've also brought some message from an outlet from an outlet from an outlet from an outlet from an outlet to my family now with 50% more humans. Bits.
Welcome to the Earth, buddy. I can't wait to watch you grow and help guide you to be a loving, thoughtful, compassionate human. Hannah, congratulations, and welcome to motherhood. You will be an amazing mother.
You are exactly the partner I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love you both very much. Lovely. That is beautiful.
Welcome to the world, Fitz. John, you know what, Kurt Vonnegut said about that? No one. Welcome to the world, babies.
It's hot, wet, and crowded, and there's only one rule. You gotta be kind. Aww. This episode of Dear Hank and John is brought to you by Shopify.
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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, and 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 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. You can also look at the jobify 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 DearHank. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash DearHank. With new subscription only, while supplies last until September 27th, 2026.
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Now available in Canada too, that's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash deer hank for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash deer hank. This episode of Deer hank and John is brought to you by Factor. Imagine for a moment that you are absolutely immersed in some work where you're creating something beautiful or useful 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 p.m.
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With new subscription only, while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See website for more details. John, I have a question I'd like to ask you because I hope that you have an answer for it because I also would like to know it deep desperately at Stromaddy who asks deerhank and John. What?
Hank? I'm an absolutely remarkable thing, priced at $40 for a hardcover and I wonder if I have a hardcover since listening to your podcast but I can't afford it at $40. I also don't recall ever seeing a hardcover price that high. I appreciate you so much but I'm confused.
23 without finding the name specific, anything, Matty. What the heck's going on? That's wild. I do not like this.
The first thing you should know, Matty, is that Hank does not decide the price of the hardcover. Sure but that's also not the price of the hardcover. Right, but the hardcover is not widely available. This is a very weird thing about publishing that it just needs to get over.
Like people, I'll give you a counter example. Currently on Amazon, the only paperback edition of the Anthropocene Review is the Large Print edition which is for people who like to read with much larger text and the marginal. That's very weird. But the reason is because the paperback isn't out yet because traditionally hard covers come out and then a year later, paperbacks come out.
But contemporary readers, a lot of them don't know about this weird rule that exists for no reason except for it to generate more money. So they expect, I think, quite reasonably, to be able to choose how they want to read a book. And on audio, they want to be able to do that from day one. Paperback from day one, hardcover from day one.
If they want to buy a special, really beautiful edition, an amazing cover, they want to be able to do that from day one. And some people have figured this out. But these billion dollar publishing companies just have to figure it out. Well they definitely don't want to figure it out because they like to have that more expensive year of hard covers before paperbacks which are cheaper.
Yes, and I guess I understand that but if they were making premium hard covers, they could more than make up for that. If they were making, if they were actually a $40, it was worth it. And actually a marketing that was worth $40 because it was because it was better. Right now, this hardcover is not being sold by Amazon or my publisher.
It's being sold by some random person. Yeah. And that's what happens at Amazon when a book is no longer available from the publisher. Because the publisher is like, oh no, the hardcover's over.
We're in paperback now. And we'll never make hard covers again. We'll never make hard covers again. We'll be in paperback for the rest of forever because that's how books work.
Right. But that's only how books work because that's not the public. Because they've decided to consume. Yeah.