Hey, so something worth knowing is a benefit for the nonprofit organization that makes Crash Course and SciShow Complexly. It's September 16th, 2026 in Los Angeles, California at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Please join us. It's going to be incredible.
Friends have complexity like Mark Rober, Katie Max, Simone Yetch, and Moore will share inspiring talks about what makes them hopeful and join Hank Green on stage for fun, interactive discussions. Complexly has been creating free educational content like SciShow and PBSEons and Crash Course and Bizarre Beasts for nearly 15 years and 6 billion views. But this year, we 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. Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Don't hesitate to think of Dear John and Hank.
It's a comedy podcast about death where my brother John and I we answer your questions. We give you to be a advice and we bring you all of the weeks news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon John. I was wondering how you're doing. You know I'm doing really well mostly because of the news from AFC Wimbledon but I'm also doing terribly because I just have gotten out of the dentist's office.
Like I have just risen from the dentist chair as I'm recording this and I am in terrible terrible pain in my lower jaw. Do they let you cast? Do they let you do the pod from the dentist's office? That's nice of them.
No I mean I then drove to work and you know now I'm here. But yeah I cannot recommend this all started as you know Hank many many years ago like 18 years ago when I was hit by a bike messenger on the streets of Chicago. His shoulder into my jaw and nose and here I am 18 years later still being I mean I was in tears. I am not I am not a brave man when it comes to dentistry.
Still suffering trying to get this problem solved once and for all but hopefully we're only one dental visit away but then again it's far too soon to count the chickens. They have not yet hatched. How are you? Good I want to ask you a quick question answer my questions John.
If you could have the opportunity to meet that bike messenger would you and if so what would you say? I mean the thing is I really I genuinely don't hold it against the bike messenger because I think that that bike messenger was forced by the nature of his profession to be going the wrong way down a one-way street at great speed and to be fair to him I was standing on the curb and he had to bike because of where the cars were very near the curb and he just didn't notice me. I was reading a book he was you know biking his shoulder my face. The one thing I do kind of wish is that maybe he'd stopped.
He did stop briefly. I lost consciousness for a little bit and when I regained consciousness I did see him but the moment I started to get up he biked away. He was like well I didn't kill him let's move on. Yeah it wasn't.
I mean I honestly don't bear him any ill will. It's just funny what's that great Fitzgerald line about you never know how much space you take up in other people's lives. Like that bike messenger has no idea how central he has become to my personal narrative. Oh man yeah you never know you never know.
I'm doing good John. It's beautiful. I'm home in Montana. It's gorgeous.
My wife is very ill. Not very ill. Not in a way that that makes that sound but she's sick and I'm taking care of her and and I am a pretty happy camper aside from that. I got a lot of stuff to do but I'm not going to stop saying that on the pod John because I keep saying it and I think it makes me sound like a broken record a little bit and also like a bit of a douche.
I don't want to always be like I'm so busy. I'm a busy man. You know the problem with being busy. I'm a very busy man John.
Back when I lived in Chicago I would often think about this because I would see business people in suits rushing to the train as if you know their time was fundamentally more important than my time and as if they're like three minutes they might save was going to make a big difference to the rest of their day. And even if that's true you're correct that it comes across as douchey. That's why I never run to the train. In fact that's why I never run.
You run all the time. You are an exercising fool. Hey could you like a short poem for today? Oh okay let's do it.
All right this poem is by Francis Darwin Cornford who Hank you'll be pleased to know was a granddaughter of Charles Darwin himself. Oh this poem is called On Rupert Brooke. Rupert Brooke was a World War One poet who died in World War One. A young Apollo, golden haired, stands dreaming on the verge of strife, magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life.
The long littleness of life one of the great phrases about human existence I've ever come across at that poem was recommended by Sam. So thank you Sam. By the way, Francis Cornford's husband was named Guess. Ah Charles Darwin.
Francis Cornford. Oh interesting. It was Francis and Francis. I would have been funny if it had been Charles Darwin and she just kept her maiden name instead of going back to her hurled.
That's what I was hoping for but I was wrong. I you know it maybe would have been my next guest John if you would ask again. Did you know that you know what you want to know what Francis Cornford's father's name was? Francis Cornford.
No Francis Darwin of course because he was a Darwin. Oh god dang it. Let's move on to some questions from our listeners. I want to say first John.
Did you know that the god Apollo was born in a place? I did not. I just think it's very strange. Like the whole like panoply like the Greek god stuff.
It's all fascinating to me. I think we understand it improperly in some ways because we are not of that world. And so we read and think about these things inside of our own frameworks and the idea that I don't know why I learned this but I was like, oh this city in Greece, the birthplace of Apollo and I was like Apollo, gods don't get born but of course they do because it's a different kind of thing. And that's all I wanted to say John.
Is it time for other things? Is it time for questions? Is that the thing that we do? I think we should I think we should go ahead and address some of the questions our listeners have sent us via the email address hankandjohn at gmail.com.
Okay, let's do that. We have one here. It's from Foster and I like this question a lot who asks it's kind of a hand question but I think you can weigh in as well. Dear Hank and John, according to the dictionary a desert is quote a region so arid because of so little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all.
Does that make outer space a desert? Yes. That's what I'm going to say. I'm just saying yes.
What do you think John? I agree. I mean it's the deserty as desert of all because the vegetation is as far as we know exceptionally sparse in the big massive universe there is just the one locale with vegetation. That we know of.
Certainly. And even if there are millions of spots of vegetation they are sparse. They are spaced apart. And it's interesting to think of the amount of rainfall in space but in a way rain does fall at least precipitation does fall from space.
We know that earth and other planets are seeded with water from comets that crash down on earth and that's part of the reason why we've been able to maintain the amount of water that we have on earth throughout the last four billion years. And so in that way it kind of does rain on these little oasis of vegetation at least in our solar system. And deserts were always kind of seen as you can think of them like oceans in ancient times because it was so difficult to cross them that they were basically like whatever's going on on the other side of that desert has nothing to do with us and kind of never will. And in that same way outer space is our desert right now.
It is the inhospitable place that we still cannot cross. And that and will remain that way at least until we get our butts to Mars John which is also a desert. Well I for one hope that we never begin to cross the desert of outer space because from what I can tell from soap operas said in space that's when all the trouble says. Oh well there's soap operas here on earth too John we start trouble everywhere we go.
Alrighty we have another question. This one comes from Isis who writes Dear John and Hank my name is Isis which is sort of the problem. I'm named after an Egyptian goddess but ever since the Salafi jihatas militant group started gaining more media attention my name is viewed from a very different perspective. Every time I introduce myself to someone new I'm scared for their reaction.
While a lot of people are aware of my struggle there are still people who like to joke about my name and people tend to associate it with something negative and I don't know how to deal with this. Do you have any advice? Lots of love Isis. P.S.
maybe I should consider changing my name to Ryan. First off Isis that is a fantastic idea. Let's just have I'm surprised that we keep getting questions from not Ryan. It's upsetting.
It's weird. In fact Hank this week we didn't get a single question from Ryan which is so odd because everyone should have changed their name to Ryan. I don't know what they were thinking. Obviously.
Maybe they just haven't maybe they just haven't gotten the memo yet but Isis I think the correct decision here is to abandon your name your family heritage and your parents and change your name to Ryan. No I don't think that's the correct solution at all. I want to point out here that Isis has put the word struggle in quotation marks. Isis is aware that this is this.
I don't want everyone to know that as well. Yeah no I think Isis is aware that it is a problem of you know limited import but still significant to Isis. Yes that blows. Is that we all have to say that word?
I'm sorry. I think we are allowed to say that something blows only if we then say chunks. I think that blows chunks Isis. I apologize for the structure of the universe that this unusual thing has happened to you.
Yeah but at the same time I think it's important not to let Isis hijack your name. Yeah you've got to continue being Isis and explain over and over and over again as annoying as it might be that you were named after an Egyptian goddess not after a recently formed jihadist group. Yeah what I mean when I from my previous comment is that we will all be in circumstances in our lives to greater or lesser extent that are unusual surprising weird coincidences that we think why has this happened to me but it's because there are so many of them that we are bound to have one of these weird unfortunate things happen to us and this is one of the ones that has happened to you Isis and when they happen the thing to do is just live your life despite it. Yeah I mean the only alternative is to start going by a nickname which I think is fine if you want to like I don't think there's anything wrong with I don't think you like this is necessarily the hill that one has to fight and die on if you want to start going by a nickname I think that you should feel welcome to and if you do choose to start going by a nickname might I suggest Ryan.
All right John we got another one this one is from RJ who asks Dear Hank and John I'm a biology teacher in Texas where we give a standardized test every year from the state while I'm proctoring this test I cannot read grade papers plain lessons work on my computer or otherwise do anything except stare at the students as they sweat it out for sometimes up to five hours if I break these rules I could lose my teaching license any do be a surprise on how I can pass the time without being bored to death would be much appreciated oh I don't know just burn it all to the ground that sounds awful. Yeah I'm spending that whole five hours fantasizing about a world in which we find ways to measure educational outcomes other than standardized tests that require such dedication to the prevention of cheating that we require someone to be paid I what I hope is a fair wage to sit and do nothing. My first response is just that I'm fascinated by your use of the phrase bored to death and I think there's something worth unpacking there like David Foster Wallace wrote in the pale king if can I read you a quote Hank oh of course you can maybe don't this is associated with psychic pain because something that's dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other deeper type of pain that is always there if only in an ambient low level way and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from feeling or at least from feeling directly or with our full attention and maybe that's like what's so utterly horrifying about the prospect of spending five hours doing nothing except sort of being alone with your own thoughts is that for me at least like the thought of being alone with my thoughts is rather terrifying right I get that at the same time like we're not all Buddhist monks and maybe RJ is perfectly well adjusted and fine with being alone and thinking and silence sometimes but not for five straight hours consistently several times through the year like I don't know that's just once a year is it is it I don't know well that's what it says it just says once a year once a year is not so bad to spend five hours alone with your thoughts unless there's something terrifying inherently about being alone with your thoughts which I think there is because I think the thing that it raises the like question that it raises at least for me when I spend an extended period of time just thinking is that I am not actually in control of these thoughts like I don't actually decide what to think about which is truly like a horror movie right like if you're stuck inside of a consciousness but you cannot shape the directions in which it goes you are kind of like a protagonist in a horror film okay at the same time I mean maybe maybe maybe there is a a fundamental like problem with this boredom that that's beyond just the nothing to do that is the the being inside of a brain that one cannot control that that seems to me I'm just going to disagree with you and I think that it's fine that we disagree that seems to be to just not doesn't have to be a deep philosophical problem it can just be like on board and this sucks and that's okay that's how I feel we could differ and but I I don't really have any any solution for RJ though which is what he's asking for not not a clinical diagnosis so I'm not trying to diagnose anybody with anything I'm just telling RJ that he is not alone in not wanting to be alone with his not for five hours in fact I think it's pretty much a university human yes yes and and and the people who can do it and and and like spending time even even like five minutes meditating can be very difficult with and and my mind is always racing and always doing things and even if even if I'm sitting there doing absolutely nothing that doesn't mean that I'm paying attention to these students I could be in another world right idea that I can't be listening to a podcast while I'm watching these kids is ridiculous because there's whether or not I'm listening to a podcast there's a podcast in my brain and I could be on planet Z like I'm not there and I'm I just as oblivious sitting in my chair staring into the the darkness of my own psyche as I am listening to Hank and John Green talk about the darkness of my own psyche right yeah so I think this is a dumb rule and RJ should be allowed to listen to a podcast specifically because there's a great podcast you should be listening to and he's listening to it right now hi RJ I was gonna recommend my brother my brother and me but I guess this one's all right the only thing that I would say in the way of real actual advice RJ is that when I was a kid and to some extent still now I had this trick that I used to distract myself when I had to be alone with my thoughts which was that I just doubled numbers so I would say two four eight sixteen thirty two sixty four one twenty eight two fifty six five twelve one thousand twenty four two thousand forty eight thousand one hundred ninety two eight thousand three hundred we get it John you know a lot of numbers and then I would just keep going until I couldn't go anymore and then I would just I got to the point where I would have to add very slowly in my head which is a great distraction let's move on Hank I think we spent forty five minutes answering this question maybe it's time to move on to a different one I think that's probably a pretty good idea we got one John it's from Jackie can I do another one should I do another one right now I feel like it's doing a row okay it's from Jackie and I love this question too because that's me talk about Snapchat dear Hank and John I'm on the older side of the generation sometimes called millennials and I feel like I'm unique in the fact that I just don't get Snapchat it's an all caps I have one but I don't use it I got bored what's so great about it why not just use Instagram oh Jackie you're so confused well I think the reason not to use Instagram is because Snapchat embraces the temperariness of human existence in a way that Instagram doesn't well I mean yeah Instagram is like Snapchat is a is primarily a messaging app which is not what Instagram is at all you know Snapchat has become also a social app but it started out as a messaging app so just like me sending you basically a text and this is the thing I didn't understand about Snapchat when I first heard about it when I'm sending you a Snapchat like I send Snapchat to my wife even as a 35 year old man which is weird I will be doing something that I know she will know that I spent some time on so I take a picture I draw on the picture and I leave a little note and I'm like I wanted you to see this thing and that's like it's like a new form of greeting card it's like a way of of like spending some time making a thing for a person which is like I think it's lovely of course that other person has to be on and active on Snapchat in order to get an appreciate that message but I think that's a lot of the reason why people do it and also this feature of the temporariness of the Snapchat as an object seems to you know my brain initially to be a bug not a feature like I want all things to last forever so that I don't lose the things that construct me because losing those things is kind of like little deaths all the time and I don't want to lose those things because I want to continue to keep all those parts of me alive but for someone who's been raised in a world where all things always last forever that can be terrifying and it's wonderful to think that you can create something and then it will go away you don't have to worry about it being a part of who you are forever you can change and people who are young change very fast and they kind of don't necessarily want those parts of themselves that are that are representative of who they were once to be representative of who they are forever and that's a very understandable thing to me that and that to me is the is the sort of core functionality of Snapchat and how most people use it which is not mostly how I use it I use it as a way to interact with an audience because I have I enjoyed that answer and I don't want to add to it because I think that this might be one of the few episodes where you talk more than me so instead we're just going to move on to another question from Matt who writes Dear John and Hank love the podcast thank you Matt I have I have real trouble dealing with laughs that are just too far over the top I make me think that nothing can possibly be that funny I find it very hard to concentrate or enjoy myself when around and over the top laugher how do you deal with this well Matt fortunately I don't have to because I myself am an over the top laugher and so I don't even know what it's like not to be one as am I we just aren't going to hang out you and you and me Matt it's just not going to work out between us do you like this podcast I feel like we over the top last all the time hey oh I so I went to a play recently that my friend that wolf was in who's also in the movies paper times the Faulkner stars and right as soon as the play ended I got a text from that that said it just said I could hear your laugh the whole time and I was like I was like it's not that loud it's not that loud of a laugh and he was like I could hear your laugh and only your laugh and it was almost impossible to be in the play and not be like that is John laughing I once watched a movie in a small movie theater like a little independent movie theater and then afterward a woman came up to me and she said I think your laugh is lovely I don't get compliments on my laugh I just get observations about it yeah yeah I well it's the only time but I was very pleased and it made me feel good because I don't like I like I'm Matt I do worry that the people around you will will notice and and laugh less and I think that laughing is one of the best things and so I worry about the potential effect that your your opinions of laughter might have on the people around you and make them laugh less because they're worried they're self-conscious about their laughter which I never want anyone to be yeah I have one friend who has what seems to me a weird laugh and I can't help but notice it whenever they laugh I'm not even going to risk gender identifying them for fear that they will know about this and be devastated and I know that I have that laugh for a lot of people like I know a lot of people are like oh my god like he's a nice guy but that laugh is he kidding yeah no I'm not kidding I'm just in love with the world I think now we're both so self-conscious I'm gonna laugh like this I have this problem when I edit myself when I edit like especially conversations I will you know when I'm just being normal Hank and right now I'm sort of being podcast Hank so I have more of a robust laugh but like normal Hank laugh is very like especially if it's sort of it's just like laughing at the the fun little parts of the conversation that aren't super funny you're just sort of like you're reacting is very it's like a wheezy noise it's like like that that I just hate and I always do it on top of people's sentences so it's very difficult to edit the video because I hear this like weird wheezing begin as soon as it's time for like right before the end of their sentence yeah and then you think like well I guess I just need I guess I need to keep the laugh in because otherwise people won't will be confused by what that wheeze is but like I hate the laugh and also it's an unnecessary three seconds in the video I can totally relate to that which has nothing to do with Matt's question no it's not you're so far off the rails and we sure are we can say Matt is that you you just judge silently always it's okay to be a silent judge it's better than being a loud judge her put it on a shirt but that went on a shirt we have another question Hank this one comes from gypsy who asks dear john and Hank I have a beautiful greyhound named Alaska I adopted her because of lemon and hanks videos I adopted her because of lemon and hanks video on saving greyhounds I'll think that's so sweet and she's a lot's good I did it I did it she falls asleep as soon as I start playing your podcast your voices must be very soothing for her she howls and cries whenever we leave the house I was thinking if I could play your podcast for her while we're gone it might calm her down how do you suggest I do this as I cannot obviously leave my phone at home playing it and I don't have an iPod and she'll definitely destroy my laptop if it's left out do you have any suggestions yes gypsy I have a solution that suits both of us very very well which is that Hank and I would like to send you an iPod in exchange for you playing our podcast on a loop over and over to your greyhound which will be great for our download numbers and great for your greyhound and third great for you because free iPod so write us at hankajonajima.com we'll get you an iPod oh damn we're giving away iPods now John no just that one just just one and only because the person agreed to listen to our podcast over and over at least I've heard her dog listen okay I love it I love it we got another question this is from Sarah John you want to hear a question from Sarah yes she asks dear Hank and John I find myself in awkward situations quite often but there is always one that seems to be recurring when people compliment me it's interesting that you say that it's recurring people compliment me so often I just don't know what to do I always seem to just smile and not along with and awkwardly laugh how is someone supposed to respond to compliments do I compliment back please help well I was just talking about this time that a woman came up to me in public and complimented me on my laugh and she was a stranger and and that was well into my history with figuring out how to deal with this because I used to suck at it a lot and I think that there is there is kind of a problem with the way that we are taught to respond to compliments which is just to basically say no I'm not that great and basically invalidate their opinion by saying like you're wrong I'm nothing special right what you want to do instead is you want to acknowledge the compliment and share with the person who complimented you how it made you feel so some way of saying you know thanks that's very that's very kind or thanks you know I really needed that today I don't think it makes sense to respond immediately with a compliment of your own because it's weird right so like like for instance if someone says to you oh my gosh I love that dr. who t-shirt you could say thank you what you don't want to say is thank you I love your scarf because if you say I love your scarf it's good we all know what you're doing there right like that isn't that isn't born of a natural love for the scarf it's born of like a panicked looking at the person and trying to identify something that's a compliment about them and all when you say I love your scarf all it makes me think is oh wow every other part of me must be totally reprehensible because this person needed to find a compliment and the only thing they could find was my scarf though you can compliment them on their compliment by saying something like oh I love dr.
who do you also love dr. who I find that great people love dr. who or thanks for saying that it's always it's I really appreciate people who take the time to say nice things to people like that sort of thing like like like I like the idea of appreciating people's appreciation and because I think that that breeds more and I think that appreciation is one of the vital currencies of human interaction that is in demand and in short supply. Hey I like that we've gone back to agreeing after our brief fight over the deathliness of boredom.
I'm really glad that we've gone back to just the old school Hank and John always on the same page business speaking of which let's answer I was gonna say I think we should disagree more there has to be some tension in the unfortunately I just don't often disagree with you at least not about important things I disagree with you about silly things like you know zombies versus unicorns or whether Batman is an interesting superhero but we don't disagree about like the core deep down stuff I think possibly because we were raised by the same parents right like Snapchat we agree on Snapchat I do I like Snapchat more than I used to because I now understand it to be a messaging app not a social media app and I like it you know like Sarah and I have also started using it and it is it's like a sweet way to as you said like make a greeting card so I am I would say 40% converted to Snapchat but in general I have to say that I find my overall interest in virtual experiences and virtual networks to have declined in the last year yeah for the first time in my whole life I mean since I was you know 12 and my dad brought home the internet I have liked the internet more every year until last year and that's kind of a distressing turn of events in my own life but I'll get over okay well you should make a video about that I'd love to hear more and I am I'm kind of there with you I don't know how to make a video about it though I don't know how to talk about it because I think it's very sad it I'm gonna seem ungrateful I think if I talk about it honestly like I'm gonna seem yeah I'm gonna seem like the kind of person I don't want to be which maybe I am I don't know but I I don't think I'm settled enough to make a video about it instead I think I'm gonna make tomorrow's video about how Looking for Alaska was just announced as the most challenged book of last year by the American Library Association but Panama papers John I need you to explain it to me I was gonna make a video about how to make a million dollars a year and only pay forty five thousand dollars in taxes but then it proved to be so complicated that I gave up on it the Panama Papers are complicated because corporate law is intentionally complicated because that's how tax avoidance basically at its core works is by being too complex to effectively unravel and so trying to make a video about it is just completely overwhelming to me and I'm working like day and night on my novel and so I don't really have a ton of energy to spend on the Panama Papers but I hope you make a video about it I would greatly enjoy your take it's not gonna happen because I got a lot of other stuff to do I'll see you there we're both in the same boat let's answer one more question before we get to the all-important news from AFC Wimbledon and the slightly important news from Mars okay John do I have what that I've wanted to ask since the beginning but I haven't got to yet sure this is a more serious question John it's from Margaret who asks do you think John I'm in a rather dire need of some dubious advice I'm very passionate about gymnastics I practice four hours a day and six days per while but I have recently fractured my spine and even though it will heal and it's not as threatening as it sounds I have to take six months off I'm pretty devastated and I was wondering what you think are good ways to find joy and happiness and purpose when I cannot do what I want to be doing this is something I think about a lot because I am also a dedicated gymnast I'm not actually I am not touching my toes but I am worried that the thing that I love and want to do will somehow be taken away from me whether that's because it will just become like the this thing will become less interesting culturally whether that's the pod or it's the videos or because like some terrible thing will happen in my life where I can't do it anymore so I do think about this do you want to talk about it John I should just die well I actually have a little bit of direct experience in the field without being like overly dramatic after my book The Fault in Our Stars came out the like a tension and wide readership and success of it was so overwhelming and paralyzing to me that it became totally impossible to write which I had never been a problem in my life and I'd always made fun of writer's block and it wasn't that I couldn't write words down on a page it was that I couldn't have the experience of writing that I loved which was this experience of sort of being alone inside of a story navigating my way through it feeling like I wasn't stuck inside of my body or myself and all of that was taken away from me because I was just so hyper conscious of the audience and what people would think and what people would say and the fact that I might have to publish it someday and I couldn't get that stuff out of my head and I think that's a pretty common problem among writers who have successful books and a lot of times it's the end of you know it's the end of their career like for a couple writers come to mind JD Salinger never wrote a novel after Catch Another Eye and Harper Lee never wrote a novel after Killmockenbird and I think it was really hard it was a bad time in my life and it's only really just ended in the last 10 months or so and what I did and what I would recommend you do Margaret is I found other stuff that I liked doing and I tried to treat this setback as an opportunity to explore those things so I couldn't write and that sucked and I had you know really every pretty much every day since 2002 and I couldn't do that but I could do other stuff that I liked doing that's a lot of where the initial energy behind Crash Course World History came for me a lot of the energy behind the podcast came for me lots of other things too I just had to find other things that I liked doing and get excited about them yes and I'm sure that there are those things in your life whether it's reading or writing you know fan fiction about Chubakan and Han Solo having a romantic relationship whatever it is that you just find that stuff and you celebrate it and get excited about it and sort of use that as a focus for your energy until you can get back to training yeah I that is a lot of exactly what I wanted to say John you we agree too much I will also say that in general when we dedicate ourselves to things day in day out and those things then you know temporarily or forever go away that can seem like a tremendous end and that and almost like a waste like we've spent all of this time doing this thing that we can no longer do but while you know there are certainly things that you have learned while doing gymnastics that aren't directly applicable to other stuff there are lots of things that we when we dedicate ourselves to anything that we learn that will be very applicable to anything else and like things like how to how to you know control yourself how to dedicate yourself how to get excited how to interact with other people how to you know like like self-control is just a huge thing in all of our lives and will always be and obviously something that you have you have found a way to to get at and I think that's the important thing like that you find other ways you know in the six months and in the future when you are no longer doing gymnastics because that's not 10 doesn't tend to be something that people do for their whole lives that you find ways to dedicate yourself in like find those same wells of passion for new things and and and find ways to apply the skills that you have learned to the new things that you are into and I'm sorry to hear about your injury and I hope that you recover quickly and this podcast is brought to you by the rapid recovery of Margaret the rapid recovery of Margaret hopefully six months or less and this podcast is also brought to you by over enthusiastic laughter over enthusiastic laughter this podcast is also brought to you by judging silently judging silently the correct response to over enthusiastic laughter and of course this podcast is brought to you by boredom boredom the closest thing we have to understanding death itself uh the unavoidable darkness inside of all of us and I also want to say this podcast is brought to you by our supporters on patreon if you want to go there and participate in the community we also do a monthly live stream before we record so that we can talk a little bit with y'all and those are always really fun tends to be the first Tuesday of the month and uh is that right john i think it's i don't know can i say one more thing about Margaret though but yes thank you to our patreon subscribers you know i was i was just thinking you love gymnastics but that doesn't mean you are gymnastics and a lot of times those two ideas get kind of co-mingled in our heads like i mean for me specifically as a writer you know in a way you are you're writing because i say i say out loud i am a writer or i am a gymnast which i'm not um and that makes you think of it as not just something that you love but something that's that's you and when that's taken away it feels like you have lost you um but you haven't of course because you are a gymnast but you're also of course many other things and i would just uh encourage you to remember that yeah absolutely this episode of fear hand comes on 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 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 check out 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 dot store or dftba dot com or being the size of like matel 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 dot com slash deer hank start your free truck shopify dot com slash deer hank 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 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 as 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 dollars their teas are soft enough to live 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 dot com slash deer hank 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 deer hank for free shipping and 365 day returns quince dot com slash deer hank to the cupboard and just eat several fistfuls of peanuts because those are my two choices unless i have a factor in the fridge you 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 it has the deliciousness i need what about garlic herb roasted barramundi 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 a hundred rotating weekly meals including globally inspired flavors like Mediterranean and Asian factor shops perhaps cooks and delivers straight to your door so you have more time for everything you love this spring head to factor meals dot com slash deer hank 50 off and use the code deer hank 50 off to get 50 off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only wild supplies last until September 27th 2026 see website for more details um we got some news from maras john if you're interested in that yeah i wanted to do a couple quick update tank if we could oh about other things besides maras and i have to go just previous things that we talked about on the podcast first off i just wanted to say ryan's name a couple times ryan ryan and then the other thing is a orianna road in and i thought this was a really interesting comment because when we were talking about drive through drive throughs and who like should be allowed to use the drive through lane and the fact that we think that families with ten children should be allowed to use the drive through lane because it's such a pain to unhook your kids from their car seats orianna road in and she made a great observation which is that we were thinking about that only from the perspective of the people using the drive through lane she writes near john and hank we need to talk about drive throughs and your recent comments on them i'm a university student who supports herself by working part-time during the school year at an establishment which includes a drive through drive throughs are supposed to be fast wait a few minutes so this is so much the case that most corporate fast food businesses impose mandatory drive through time standards where i work at peak hours where a lot of the maximum average of 50 seconds for the entire process of ordering paying and receiving food there's a timer over the window that counts as the person sits there trying to find their change and begins to fast read after 20 seconds if people sit at the speaker thinking about what they want for two minutes that counts toward our times if we don't consistently meet our corporate standards our store risks being shut down which makes owners come down hard on managers and managers come down hard on employees so if you have ten children perhaps consider sending one of the adults into the store to purchase the food if this isn't an option and you must come through the drive through at least figure out what everyone wants before you pull up and try to have your wallet out and your payment ready when you get to the window that's a great observation thank you aurean i mean there is there is a piece of me that is very frustrated with the the established corporate structure that should accept that there are places and times when lots of families will be going through the drive through and thus there is a reason that has nothing to do with employees why it is taken yeah but that said we live in the world in which we live so if you're using a drive through remember aureana bring your have your payment and your order ready yes have your payment in your order ready and especially if you've got if there's a line it would it amazes me when i feel like there's a line i've been waiting in the drive through for like six cars and then the car ahead of me has like one person in it and then they're clearly just thinking and i'm like what are you thinking about you've had you've had like 20 minutes to the side there's only so many items on the menu all right i also want to point out one other thing nichole and steven wrote in dear john and hank on this week's podcast you mentioned that your gpa in college does not matter while this may be true for you it is not true in certain fields which is a really good point they include medical school or other specialized grad schools most phd programs especially in the sciences and uh and if you apply for certain positions in the scientific industry like doing benchtop work at wet labs they look at your lab gpa so sometimes your gpa in college does matter yeah i've been thinking about that question a lot actually i've continued to think about it and and and i don't know that we did the best the best job of answering that particular question which was about whether like house frustrating it can be to watch to struggle with work while watching other people cheat and get good grades in college yeah no i agree we might have it we were pretty dubious we're generally dubious but we might have put put it like a little bit of dubious sauce on the dubious burger it sounds delicious though can i get it in the trash that's a great point nichole and steven and i also just like there's uh in thinking about that question i have i have continued to think that it is just so it is always so difficult to feel like direct injustice um and to know that like this thing is happening and i'm being negatively impacted by doing the right thing yeah it is annoying and uh and i do want to i do want to commiserate with people who are in in those situations and certainly not invalidate their field i agree hank what is the weeks news from so john you know uh how here on earth we spend a lot of time you know you particularly worrying about uh things that could cause the destruction of the human race like uh like asteroid impacts comet impacts that kind of thing uh you would say you know maybe that the impact of a comet large comet the size of say west virginia or something that's pretty big but we'll just say that uh would be a bad thing for earth life on earth right um i think it would be very bad so that would be a very bad thing for life on earth however according to recent research the uh the periods of time when things asteroids and comets bombarded early in the sort of formation of the solar system bombarded earth and mars and a lot of the inner planets and probably a lot of the outer planets though there's less evidence out there because they're made of gas uh in created like all the creators on the moon and a lot of creators on mars uh these uh periods of time are thought of as uh hostile times right but according to recent research it looks like they might have been very good times for life on mars because uh in addition to the uh the the constant bombardment of of of and and the changes to the surface of this would create in the instability that would create both earth and on mars it would add water and heat to mars which are two things that would be very good for mars uh in terms of the being habitable good for life and so you would see things like a sort of yellowstone national parky areas places where there's uh there's heat uh that could be used for for life there's uh weird chemicals that are forming and those chemicals could be digested uh that they might contain be formed because of the heat and then as they cool off they could be digested and the energy that was stored in them by the heat could be used by organisms and so you have these geothermal areas you have more water and in general the uh best time on mars for life might have been those periods of time which we would consider the least hot the least like sort of conducive to life for earth but indeed also may have been good times for microbial life on earth and more and more we're thinking that mars might have a really good place for microbial life uh just at this point no longer uh one of one of the uh sort of oases of the universe that earth has become where not just life exists but life is on the life that is on the life there's so much life it's everywhere and you can't get away from it uh even even in your own body john you're covered in love oh really especially in your own body uh covered in life both inside and out it's like uh it's like oh just a life what is it what is it like it's like you're uh it's like you're a life sandwich where i am the meat in the middle and i got a life on the inside and outside of me you're more of a life don't not john okay let's get to the news from afc wibble that i am distressed by the news from mars um so Hank you uh may know that your six-year-old nephew henry my son is a soccer player he plays uh in a kid soccer league under sevens and uh he had a game as it happened during the exact same time as afc wibbledons game this weekend oh my goodness which made for some very compelling watching on my part henry's team one he played great and uh afc wimbledon playing plimath one of the top five teams in week two uh was winning one nil thanks to a goal from the mozzaradian messy that man lyle taylor and then uh they gave up a goal uh plimath uh is was heavily favored in the game um and then it was looking like it was going to be a one-one draw which did not suit afc wimbledon's interests really at all um and then in the 88th minute auto bio-acinfenwa the largest man in professional football scored a auto bio-acinfenwa brilliant vintage goal coming on as a substitute scores a goal afc wimbledon wins two one and suddenly finds themselves not in 10th where they were last week but in seventh the final playoff position seventh place goes into the playoffs uh four five six seven i'll play each other in the playoffs uh for one spot in in league one the third tier of english football and afc wimbledon are currently sitting in that final playoff position level on points with the teams in eighth and ninth but with a better goal difference and just two points ahead of the teams in tenth and eleventh and only three points ahead of the team in twelfth so uh there are basically a lot of teams fighting for that final playoff spot right now afc wimbledon is in the driver's seat i would also add that they have a game in hand having played one less game than all the other teams um that are uh that are looking to get that final playoff spot it is tense at the top pink it is very very tight afc wimbledon having a far better season than anyone anticipated i think it's safe to say um and and after that win uh consecutive wins against uh wickum and uh plimath both teams uh likely to go to the playoffs uh it is well i mean it's looking possible i'm dreaming that's exciting john i i cannot i i'm very pleased that afc wimbledon has had such an exciting season for us to talk about here on dear hank and john because it could easily have been super boring i mean we're very lucky because most seasons the season would be well over by now or uh you know we'd be looking down at the bottom of the table in true epic fear mhm yeah i uh so how many games are there left well that depends on which team you are if you are any of afc wimbledon's opponents uh there are six games five games left and if you are afc wimbledon there are six games left so other than port smith which is one spot ahead of us on the table all the teams that are likely to go to the playoffs have played 41 games uh we have only played 40 so it is uh it is tense and it is tight uh according to uh bookies and like gambling professionals afc wimbledon has about a 66 percent chance of going to the playoffs which i mean again that would just be an amazing result for the year but i am i am properly dreaming now i have i have i have figured out how i'm going to get to the playoff final should should they make it there wow i'm going to have to drive directly from the indian af plus 500 to the airport oh my goodness they'd have to win the first game and then go to the final after that uh the first game is actually kind of a home in a way it's two games so it's like a cumulative score over those two games you play one away and one at home and then if you win that then you get to go to the playoff final um so you know it's it's there's a 66 percent chance of afc wimbledon having a 25 percent chance of getting into week one so it's not uh you know the odds are still stacked well against them but uh i am oh hope is the thing with feathers yes indeed yes indeed congratulations john i'm excited for you and even a little excited for myself so that's saying something uh it's happening we learned today john well we learned that gypsy's getting an ipod that's what you get for adopting a greyhound uh it's the only way to be a truly good person no good people and people who don't know great uh we learned that you can accept compliments and that's a good thing to do to appreciate other people's appreciation even if it is difficult because we are taught to be humble folk we learned that you must have your order and your method of payment ready when you get to the drive-through absolutely and we learned that we are surrounded by an infinite desert that is space is it infinite i we're not sure john we're it's probably it's there's a fair chance wow 25 percent chance of there's a 67 percent chance that it's yeah if afc wimbledon make it to league one i'm announcing that the universe is infinite because how else could it have happened yeah exactly i mean only only an infinite universe full of infinite possibility can a team like afc wimbledon make it not to the eighth tier of english football or even to the fourth tier but to the third tier just two promotions away from the premier league hank oh man it's hard not to imagine a day when the john green stand is hosting uh man jester united fans but we'll see you know john i think that that may be a little out of your budget at that point it probably will be uh but you know i have an existing i have an existing relationship well hopefully by then i'll be super rich from having made the afc wimbledon movie yeah because everyone knows that's where the real money is all right john i just want to thank you for being a podcaster with me i want to thank all the people uh for sending their questions which you can do you can send the hankandjohn at gmail.com we are also hank green and john green on twitter you can find us there that's two different twitter handles not just the one uh we have our patreon at patreon.com slash dear hankandjohn which helps pay for our intern and uh and the editor of this podcast in our intern is qadi and marathis our editor is nicholas jankins rosianna hal's rojas helps us find good questions in the dear hankandjohn e-mail address again hankandjohn at gmail.com our theme music is by gunnarolla and as they say in our hometown don't forget to be awesome did i get all the things you did but i forgot to say don't forget to be awesome with you so we're gonna do it again because that's how we go out oh i did it very i did it very poorly and as they say in our hometown don't forget to be awesome