Dear Hank & John - 221: Favorites of the 2010s

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

In this special episode of the pod, John Green and Hank Green discuss their favorites of the past decade! Topics include: Favorite bookFavorite poemFavorite dad jokeFavorite TV showFavorite tripFavorite songsFavorite sports momentFavorite Cheeto Guy momentBest conversationFavorite weird enthusiasm We'll be back to giving dubious advice next week, so send your questions to [e-mail]! Join us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn. Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn Subscribe to the Nerdfighteria newsletter! https://nerdfighteria.com/nerdfighteria-newsletter

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Goroz, I prefer to think of it dear John and Hank. It's a comedy podcast where two brothers don't answer your questions, don't give you to be a soon-to-beast and vice, and don't bring you news. We just talk about the last ten years of the world. That's right. In this episode of The Pod, it's our special end of decade spectacular, and we're going to be talking about our favorites of this decade. Now before we start, Hank, we do need to establish one thing, which is that lots of people

are going to write in and say that the decade is not ending because the decade begins with year one and ends in year 11. And that may be true according to some definitions of decade. Two things. First off, the idea of a decade is a made up idea. And secondly, I cannot wait until January 1, 2021 for this decade to be over. So I hear by, I had decided that in my mind, the end of the decade is December 31st, 2019. Well, people are going to talk about it as the 2010s, you know, and that's going to be from 2010.

Yeah, we don't remember the 80s as ending in 1991. We just don't. So we're not going to remember the 2010s or 20 teens or whatever we end up calling them as ending in 2021. It's ending now. This is the end of the decade, at least according to certain colloquial definitions. And what Hank and I are gonna do today

is go through some of our favorites. You've suggested favorites you think here. From our favorite bridges of the decade to our favorite songs of the decade. Our favorite movies, our favorite rapper of the decade, to our favorite songs of the decade, our favorite movies, our favorite wrapper of the decade, but hey, let's start out with our favorite books of the decade. Of course, that's where we will start out. I went deep, I have several questions about this question.

Is it books I read this decade, or is it books that came out this decade? I'm interpreting it as books I read this decade. I can tell by the notes you have made in this decade. I'm interpreting it as books I read this decade. I can tell by the notes you have made in this document. I've got a couple of corrections. I've got a couple oldies. Yeah, that's not how I interpreted it. It's very hard to not be recency biased. This year, I read there there by Tommy Orange. I think I'm feeling like that might have been my favorite book of this decade that was written this decade. Great book. And I just was, and then I

write after, and like by chance, right after I read it, he was giving a speech at the university. I didn't know he was going to be there when I started reading the book and And he was just he blew everybody's socks off. He was so smart. He was so like his comments were so poignant and it was so insightful and I also just think that Native American experience in America is really under examined and really important and That we don't and like and that we don't, and that there's so much great native literature

that we don't look at. Yeah, there was also one of my favorite books of the year. My favorite book of the decade that was published in the decade was Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. That's a book that I think we may be reading in 30 or 50 years. And one of the crazy things about Colson Whitehead. That's a book that I think we may be reading in 30 or 50 years. And one of the crazy things about Colson Whitehead is that just two years later, he published another one of my favorite books

in the decade, The Nickel Boys. And then when I was thinking about this, I wasn't just thinking about what are the books that I enjoyed reading the most. But also what are the books that kind of changed the way that I look at the world or the way that I look at at what literature can do or look at a genre? And so on the YA front, I thought I think the hate you give

by Angie Thomas was just a tremendously influential book, another book that I think we're reading 50 years to try to understand what now felt like. There was a book that I think we're reading 50 years to try to understand what now felt like. There was a book that I don't think is going to make a lot of best of the decade lists because it's a textbook, but it did change my life in a pretty deep way and certainly changed the way that I spend my money. My doctor, Joy and Mukherjee called an introduction to global health delivery that talks about global health and how global health has been addressed historically and why those failures have led to such high child and maternal mortality rates in poor countries.

And that really changed the way that I think about systems and healthcare systems and the way that systems serve people and expanded my understanding of what might be possible, you know, how in the next decade or two, we could see real dramatic progress in the healthcare systems that serve the world's worst people. So that was a really big book for me. I do think we should make space though for the books that we enjoyed reading the most. Space Opera by Cat Valente was that.

It was like Europop Douglas Adams, but like a 2019 Douglas Adams, and it's just hilarious every single line. And then of course the Martian, which I, you know, it was the perfect book for me. Yeah, that book I could have been cooked up in a Hank Green Test Market PR firm. I just brought up a bunch of Hank Greens

into a room and said, what do you think about this choice? What about this one? What about this one? Yeah, just tell me more about the poop potatoes. The funniest book I read this decade was Where'd You Go Burn It? It by Maria Semple, which I just found to be uproarious and also very sad and lovely. And I just ate it right up.

So those are some of our favorite books of the decade. Hank! John! We're going to move on to one of our listener suggestions. So we asked our listeners, what kind of favorites do you want to hear from us? And one person wrote in to say, I want to hear about John's favorite poem of the decade

and Hank's favorite dad joke of the decade. Like, that we featured on the show? Or just broadly? I don't know, do you have a broadly favorite dad joke of the decade? Well, I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be...

I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be...

I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it might be... I mean, it it. It doesn't, not everybody listens every episode.

I don't even listen to every episode. I zone out for the whole time you're doing the dad job. What was it? And then you just groan. It was the one that you really liked. So a Greek playwright walks into the tailor with some genes and he hands him the tailor and the tailor says,

Euripides and then he replies, Humanities. Euripides and then he replies humanities. Yeah, it's just too good. Oh, it's perfect. My favorite poem of the decade, Reasonsy Bias, acknowledged, is by Paige Lewis from their book Space Struck, which is one of my favorite books of the decade. I can't read the whole thing. It's long and you'll hear it on a future episode of ours, Poetic Art Show at the Poetry Foundation.

But what I love about this poem is that it's funny, and then it gets very dark, and that's my kind of poetry. It's called the Terra-Hot Planetarium rejected my proposal for more tactile audience participation. And sure, their decision makes sense if you consider the fact that no one likes being pelted by meteorites if you consider the fact that I'm a miserable excuse for a planet. And then later in that poem, Hank, there's a part that I think will really resonate with you,

which goes, I'm like a snake who, having swallowed its fill of goose eggs can no longer escape through the gaps in the cage. Oh, dang. in the cage. Oh, dang. Hmm. Hmm, I have had my fill of goose eggs. That had a lot of goose eggs in this decade.

I'm a little overstuffed and it's a little bit hard to get through the little, that's a little bit hard to get out of the cage. Yeah, oh gosh, is that just like a metaphor for getting older where you get sort of too much in you and you can't get out anymore? I think it's also a metaphor for, you know, getting stuff, getting collecting power, collecting resources. I remember when I was 22 and I needed to move,

it took me about four hours to pack up my car with all of my belongings and drive them to a different place. You were such a sleek little snake. You were so wiggly and little and you could fit through the holes in a screen window, John. Now I'm about to go on a 10-hour road trip with my children for a five day Christmas vacation. And we are seriously considering having to put one of those ridiculous things on top of the call.

Oh my God. Oh yeah. Oh, I've had my fill of goose eggs. Hey Hank. Yes. Euripides. Ha ha ha. Humanities?

Hahaha. Just a couple old friends running into each other. What was your favorite TV show of the decade? It's hard. Again, there's not hard. It's not hard. You're incorrect. There's so many different kinds of TV show now. I know. And that's very true. I know what you're gonna say.

And I'm right. It is the best TV show of the decade by at least an order of magnitude. I stopped watching it. And so I don't know. I haven't got a- I'm not caught up. How?

Oh my God. I'm sorry. All right. What was your best TV show of the decade? Watchmen. I, well, it's on my list show of the decade? Watchmen. It's on my list. That's my hour long drama. Yes.

Okay, is Watchmen. Watchmen was one of the 10 best hour long dramas of the decade, but it was several orders of magnitude behind the best hour long drama of the decade. Okay, well, now we have to, because we've done it for so long, not we're going to give a little more space before we find out what John's favorite, uh, out of

long drama is what's your favorite half hour comedy? To be honest, I didn't really watch any television this decade, except for Watchmen and the Americans. So that's just generally the case with people who have extremely strong opinion. Right. My opinion is not very well informed. Oh, that's that's one of the best takes I've heard this decade. Yeah. So my favorite, my favorite TV show of the decade was The Americans, which is about, it's about marriage. And there have almost never, there's almost never been a TV show, at least that I know, that has explored like the longitude andality of marriage.

And admittedly, it's not a normal marriage. They cheat on each other constantly because they're Russian spies and they have to sleep with people as part of their spying. But somehow, despite that obstacle, it managed to be a really loving show about marriage and family and parenting in extremely weird circumstances. Plus I loved the setting of the early 1980s, a time I hadn't seen, dramatized much on television. Like, for example, the bed in the Americans, like the frame of the bed with these like brass sides

and everything was our parents' bed when we were kids. Yeah. And so there was that, like the pleasure of recognition of one's past. But I just thought the show was so fascinating in the way that it explored long-term relationship dynamics. And like, a reasonably, I mean, it seems weird to say this since they were always sleeping with other people and murdering and everything.

But like, a reasonably good marriage. Not idealistically good or anything, but reasonably a reasonably good marriage, not idealistically good or anything, but reasonably good where they had to find a lot of common ground and they had to like, you know, figure out their shared values and they had to like come to consensus with parenting and stuff, including parenting around questions of whether or not to turn their daughter into a Russian spy. That's what I stopped watching. Yeah, I hear, yeah, it took some twists and turns, but the last season was perfect.

So anyway, I just, I thought it was, for me, it was destination television, and it might be the last time I experienced that feeling of destination television where like every Thursday evening I'd be like, it's happening. Right. Yeah, yeah, I can't do that. It's very hard for me to be at the mercy of the television schedule, unfortunately,

which sort of feels like I can't be a part of the zeitgeist in that way right now. Yeah. Well, I think it's much less relevant than it used to be anywhere. What was your favorite Comedy of the decade or 30 minute show of the decade. I'm not sure whether it was community or the good place When I look back at community

I just I remember a lot of the sort of you know everyday episodes, but then of course I like remember those Big big moment episodes where they like did very strange things and, and, but like, in a way that, that made very good sense for the tone of the show and the characters and the themes of the show. And also, like, it was ultimately mostly like, as is the thing that I like most, it's a show about good people in normal situations and Chevy Chase. And I feel the same way about Parks and Rec, but that doesn't quite hit my personal brand of humor exactly on the head the way that community does. And then the good place is just like so special in that

it has a lot of laugh lines, but then also is trying to outline really big questions about how to be a person which is not normal. Yeah, no, the good place is a great show. I've really enjoyed it. I mean, a couple couple other things I really enjoyed this decade on television. Deadliest catch.

Watch a lot of that. When I was signing 150,000 copies of the Fault in their Stars, I watched all of Deadliest catch. Like, I started to understand how Deadliest Catch is edited in such a deep way that I started to think to myself, you know, I could make Deadliest Catch. Like, if you gave me the raw footage, I could construct an episode.

Oh, you totally could. It's a lot of work. I have friends who work on reality TV shows and the, a ton of work. Oh, it's a ton of work. A footage that they have to work with. Yes. I'm like, it's boring. of work. A footage that they have to work with. Yes. I'm like, it's boring.

I have like a two to one ratio of footage to final cut. That is not how it goes. I have like a 12 to one ratio, but yeah, that even that is not anywhere close. So, yeah, I don't know. It's a great time to be, you know, mad men, was this decade? Yeah. Yeah. It's a great time to be, you know, mad men, was this decade?

Yeah, yeah. And my top reality shows either Bake Off or RuPaul's Drag Race. My top reality shows probably the reinvigorated queer eye. I like it a lot. I have weirdly complicated feelings about it that I desperately need to make an hour long video about.

Okay. I look forward to that. I just think the new queer eye is such an amazing exploration of how to feel like a valued member of society and it's like each one of those guys is a different way that we feel valued and like if you actually examine it through that lens, I think that there's like really good insight hiding in there. In that like hiding super like beneath the surface, like it's it's discussed, but but also that some of the some of the ways that we find value are, you know, very clearly only accessible to people who have the resources to find them. And that that show is a really good way of sort of like realizing that. I agree. Let's move on, Hank. What was your favorite trip of this decade?

My favorite trip was probably when Catherine and Orrin and I, when Orrin was six months old, went to Amsterdam for VidCon London. And the first few days were terrible, because VidCon was happening at the same time as my six month old was trying to adjust to a new sleep schedule. But then after that,

Katherine and I just sort of did Amsterdam and had this weird hotel room literally looking down on a fair that they had built in the plaza, Plaza Square, because it just happened to be the week when that was happening. And so I could just, like, walk downstairs and get weird Dutch fare food. And you can walk anywhere and it's beautiful.

And we went to Kukenhof Gardens, where all the tulips are. And it just happened to be during the, like, one month period when Cukenhof is perfect and we like had Orn like sit down with the tulips and just look perfect or like surrounded by perfection and it was just really special to have like a sort of like when we kind of knew that it was going to be our last time we were going to get to as a couple for a long time go on a big vacation because you know it's hard to travel with kids.

Yeah it gets harder as they get older although eventually it gets easier. Kenry and I went to London last year and had an awesome time. Yes. One of my favorite trips at this decade was the two months that Sarah and I spent in Amsterdam Henry was one there. Oh right. Yeah. And it was an awesome trip and it was wonderful to spend so much time in the Netherlands. It probably would have been my favorite trip of the decade if I hadn't needed my gallbladder removed. Right. therefore, then in a lot of pain for almost the entirety of the trip, that was a real bummer.

Plus I was finishing the Fault Nars stars, and I was kind of in a weird, I was in a weird place emotionally. So I would say my best trip of the decade, it's a four-way tie. And it's the four times we went to Jamaica. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you say what I mean. Sarah and I love Jamaica. We love being there.

We love everything about it. And it's my favorite time of the year. Oh. Can I come next time? No. Oh. No, it's kind of just a serenet thing. No, absolutely. I respect that.

We'll find some other place. Yeah, I mean, it's a big island. You can go to Jamaica. You just can't go to Jamaica with us. All right, our next category, John, can we do favorite songs of the decade? And can you do it without the mountain goats? No, but I will limit it to one mountain goat song,

one favorite mountain goat song of the decade from their album Goths, which of course I loved because Hank you and I were both. I guess proto-goths in the early 1990s. That album really harkened back to those days. My favorite song on the album was the song Abandoned Flesh, which is about the other side of the mountain, a topic that has been on our mind, I would say, throughout the second half of this decade,

how do you deal with being on the other side of the mountain when it comes to some huge rush of popularity or whatever. And that song is about a band, a largely forgotten Goth band, you know, many, many years after the end of their active period of fame, and it includes so many great lines, but one very near the end of the song is, the world will never know or understand the suffocated splendor of the once-and-future Goth band. And I just love that line, I just love it.

So I'm kind of a lyrics-driven person as you know, Hank. For I am also the same, and one of my faves, here's a line for you. I'm stunting on everybody, hella raw, past the wasabi. I'm solo that my scrotums almost dragging up on the concrete. And what is that from? From McElmore's Downtown, the song about low-peds.

That is a weird pick for best song of the dick. It's so good. I'm gonna, okay. All right, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna yuck on your yum. It's so good. I think that's great. It's so good. I have others though.

Okay. Restless year by As Referman is an absolute banger, so is crushed by Tessa Violet, always on my playlist. Brandy Carlisle's The Joke. Also really, I don't know, I just love Brandy Carlisle and it's great to see her appreciate it and growing and continuing to make amazing music. Yeah, for sure. A couple more favorites from me, Taylor Swift's blank space,

which I think is an absolute bobbin, will be remembered as one of the songs of the decade when we look back. Sure, of course. What things felt like, at least before 2016, I think that's part of what they felt like. Also, it's hard to pick a favorite J Cole song for me, but I guess I would pick Fire Squad. I just think it's a really deep, fascinating song. It also contains one of the greatest lines in rap music. So ahead of my time, even when I rhyme about the future, I'd be reminiscent.

So ahead of my time, even when I rhyme about the future, I be reminiscent. Oh, God. So many great J. Cole lines. I mean, that song is about how people are constantly debating like who's on the throne as like the current greatest rapper alive and all of the things that are problematic about the idea of the throne. Yeah. And yet at the same time, with that song, J. Cole kind of announced his arrival on the throne. But by the way, I just, yeah, exactly, exactly.

There is no greatest rapper alive, but I think we all know that it is me. Other greatest songs of the decade, I can't put down the best sort of dance songs of the decade, which have to be Uptown Funk, Party Rock Anthem, and Gangnam Style. Has to be, sorry, that's just how it is. I mean, Uptown Funk definitely somewhat less sold on Gangnam Style as one of the top songs of the decade. I got up so good. We disagree on so much.

It's okay, it's a bump. So if I had to pick the greatest dance song of the decade, it would be by the avid brothers. Is it the avid brothers? The avid, I don't really know how you say their names Okay, but they are a folk rock duo and they can they can rock out wow and Their album I and love and you which was produced by Rick Rubin that guy who produced the Beastie boys and all those great Johnny Cash albums at the end of Johnny Cash's career full of bops straight

Unrelenting bops. It's hard to even pick a favorite song off of that album, but I guess for me, it would be the perfect space. I couldn't even tell you one of their songs. Oh, I wanna have pride like my mother had and not like the kind in the Bible that turns you bad. I don't feel like this is a song for dancing. It's songs for very slow dancing.

We mostly just kind of move in your head just a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right. Oh, okay. John, what's your favorite sports moment of the decade? It's a tough one. It's a hard one, Hank. I've had some good sports moments in this decade. I've had some bad ones. I've had some heartbreak, a lot of devastation.

My favorite sports moment this decade, I know a recency bias might be factoring into this. But Liverpool winning the Champions League felt pretty good felt Felt pretty felt pretty Pretty darn good and then just after you know after Liverpool won the Champions League to be In a bar in New York City with a Kila Hughes who has no relationship to Liverpool drinking beers in pretty quick succession, singing songs about Bobby

Firmino and Virgil Van Dyke and Devon Carighi and the other heroes of that wonderful night in Madrid. That is a memory I will long treasure. And then coming home on Alice's birthday and asking Alice how old are you and her saying six and me saying and how many times does Liverpool won the European Championship and her smiling so big and saying six. Just magic. I mean so special. You know, it's just just an incredible feeling. Followed closely by seeing Wimbledon promoted to the third tier of English football with our dad and Rosiana and Meredith and Stuart. Those were both great moments, but, you know, yeah, I don't know, they were both one A and one B, hard to pick a favorite, both were really good.

Mine are all like Olympics stuff because when I thought about this question, I was like, I don't really watch a lot of sports. And then I was like, oh, I watched the Frick at Olympics. And I love it. I got to love the Olympics. So I think best sports moment of the decade, 2016 Summer Olympics, US women's gymnastics, Simone Biles, et cetera, just blowing everyone's mind over and over and over again.

Yeah. That was good. Yeah. I want to keep feeling that feeling so much, and that must be what it's like for you with your sport stuff. It's what it's like sometimes, and then other times it's just you're an adulterated partner. The one for the feeling is what it is.

Right, you're always wanting that feeling, but there's only one way to get it. Yes, it does, I mean, sports allow me to feel things with a sense of purity and uncomplication that the rest of the world does not allow me to feel things. Roger Bennett of the great podcast Men and Blazers was the first person to kind of articulate that for me. But it's only through sports that I can hug strangers, enjoy and in sorrow. It's only through sports that I can feel just really pure elation or pure sadness.

I don't know. I mean, not only through sports. There are other ways to feel pure elation and pure sadness, but it's just a wonderful, wonderful path to feeling, to like being close to the something essential about human experience, something essential about about emotional experience. I don't know if this one's gonna work Hank, but I wanted to ask it. Okay.

Somebody suggested your favorite Cheeto guy moment. And for those who don't know, Cheeto guy, I actually don't think they were actually Cheetos. I think they were a different kind of cheesy dibbles, but there's a famous video in which a guy is like walking across Antarctica and he's left a package for himself and he has forgotten that in this package that he left for himself, he included some form of Cheetos or cheesy divils.

And he gets so excited. He goes, yeah. And he gets, he's almost in tears. He's so shocked and excited and overjoyed. Did you have a moment like that this decade? Yeah, I totally did. I had multiple moments like that this decade. I think that having a child, not like just the moment,

like in the moment I wasn't like, like throw my arms up in excitement, but like there's a lot of relief that comes with it. There's a lot of sort of just like euphoric, you know, like everything's okay, kind of feeling. But then the entire process of raising a child is there are many moments like that where you're like, oh my gosh, you could do that now.

And he gets very excited and that makes me very excited. I also had that definitely with publishing my book when certain people would say very nice things that would be like, okay, well, I'm just gonna turn my computer off and this is gonna be the feeling that I'm feeling for a little while. I'm gonna have that and hold it and not discount it,

not try and try to explain it away, but just hold on to the feeling of I made something, it took a long time, I worked really hard and people like it. Yeah, the most dramatic feeling like that I've ever had in my professional life was in 2007 when your video was featured on the front page of YouTube. Absolutely, yeah. And I went from having a very normal day to having an overjoyed day. And then the other one was in January of 2006 when I found out I'd won the Prince Award

for looking for a last game, which was just a pure, like, a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky and a really joyous occasion. But I did have a couple of this decade. I agree with you that the moment your kids take their first steps, for instance, is just like, oh my gosh. But you kind of see it coming, you know, like you. Yeah, a little bit. I was actually a little bit surprised

because we weren't alone. Our friend was over and our friend, who has kids, was just sort of like, Orn was holding onto the table and standing up and our friend was like, come over and Orn just like walked over to her and we were like, those were, that was it! That was you did it! Did it! You did it! What? Oh, that's great. Yeah. So it was a little bit surprising. So I'd always been published in the UK, but always for like extremely poultry advances. Like I think $800 was maybe my biggest advance in the UK, something like that. Yeah.

And when the Fault in Our Stars was published, I'd already signed a book deal with my American publisher years before. And so I got paid a reasonable amount for it, but like normal, not six figures or whatever. Yeah, people often think that authors make lots of money because their books are in stores, but most authors are just working.

Yeah, and that was my experience until the fall in their stars, and then things got very crazy. But first like way I knew that things were going to be very different and like this this like big moment that really did change my life Was that I just said no when they Asked me for the UK rights. I just told all of the publishers know and I was like no, I don't want to publish there and I don't I don't like it. I don't, I don't like it. I don't like this 800 dollar book. You've treated me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little bit.

I did kind of take it a little personally, I guess. And then they were like, so for the first couple weeks after the fall in their stars was published. Like people were importing copies of the book from the US. And all these people telling me, like I just couldn't keep doing this. And I was like, yeah, I think I can. Like everything seems to be going fine.

I'm, yeah, it's a global world. Yeah. And then a UK publisher called me and said, well, how much would it cost? And so I thought of the biggest number I could possibly think of. And they just said yes. That is a really good feeling.

I think that it's important to recognize that the feeling of knowing that you're going to be okay. Oh yeah, I mean, almost no one ever gets to feel that feeling and like, and I certainly never expected to feel it. And like in that moment, I was just like, oh, oh my God. Okay, great. Thank you. Great, yes.

Done. It was a little bit like Hank. I don't know if you remember. Have we told this story on the pop before? I don't know. It's, oh my God. I think we should, I don't know if you remember. Have we told this story on the pop before? I don't know. It's, oh my God. I think we should, I don't know if we should tell the story.

Should we tell the story but not name the network? Yeah, definitely. We shouldn't name the network. All right, so early on in like maybe 2000, I don't know when it was. It was at some point. At some point, Hank and I were in talks with a cable network about a development deal.

And the thing that we were really excited about was like making YouTube videos out of their awesome library of content. Like, we thought like, these people have an amazing library. They have access to all this footage that we don't have access to. This could be so many cool YouTube shows. Right. And they just wanted us to make like a regular TV show that we didn't have much interest in making.

But at the same time, like, we didn't have a ton of money and like, we definitely wanted money. Yeah. I mean, it was interesting, like, maybe this would be an interesting thing. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe it would be like a way to kind of professionalize this stuff that we've been doing and make a good living from it.

And so we had all these meetings and all these like we flew out there, back and forth, and yada yada, and then they sent us an email. And the email offered us a two year deal. And I don't $2,000. Don't say what the number was. It was $2,000. Okay. And I replied to John and I wrote back,

this number is literally missing two zeros. That is what you replied, but you did not reply just to me. You replied to everyone. You reply all this number is missing two zeros. This number is literally missing two zeros and they wrote back and they said okay., and I was like if you were gonna give us $200,000 if that was on the table and you offered us 2000 I will never work in your world ever I won't just not work with you. I won't work with anyone from your town just not work with you. I won't work with anyone from your town.

Yeah. We love all the you'd by 99% you accidentally replied all and we we we thought that you were calling our bluff. And so yes, we will go up by a factor of 100. That was this, that was the summary of the deal. And then Hank was like, no, no way. Not for all the, not for all the tea in China. You know what? Instead, why don't I build my own company and do it all by myself with a lot of help? John, what was your favorite conversation you had this year? To be honest, the best conversations I had this year were probably the opportunities I had to be part of people's make a wish.

So having an hour or two to really, talk to someone who cared about my work and listen to them about their lives. And yeah, I don't know. I always find those conversations to be really, really wonderful. And I guess chief among them, and it was in 2010, this gets to another important topic,

which somebody wanted to hear about our favorite bridge of the decade. Okay. So this is my favorite bridge of the decade as well. Was being part of Esther's make a wish and having a day with Esther and her and her friends where and her parents and her sister. Yeah. You know where we could all just talk together about life and death and Esther's family did such a wonderful job of. I remember they had this like a volleyball that had a lot of

different topics on it and we could kind of throw the volleyball to each other and then there would be a question and sometimes it'd be like a light question, sometimes it'd be a really deep question like what do you think happens after death and then other times it would be like what's your favorite Harry Potter character and we would all kind of go around the room, Esther's parents and her sister and Esther and all our friends and me talking about talking about these big questions. And I thought that just gave us a structure to the that first conversation. And then later in the day, we all went to like a coffee shop, which Esther just really wanted to do. She wanted to get like coffee and gelato and, you know, I guess kind of maybe imagine a world of being, you know, I always thought of it as imagining being in the world of a 20 something who goes and gets like coffee with her friends, you know.

And she was in a wheelchair and we all took turns pushing the wheelchair across this big bridge. And it was one of those bridges that you can see through the grates to the ground below, to like the river below, and I was so freaked out, like I hate heights, I hate being able to see, I see through a surface that I'm walking on, and they were all, like at first they were making fun of me, which is totally appropriate, you know, because I'm an adult and it was like, you know,

yeah, appropriate to make fun of me for that. But then like Esther became very empathetic about it and she was like, no, it is scary. I'm like, I'm like, and then we went, yeah, we went to, so we crossed this bridge, that was my favorite bridge at the decade. And we got coffee in Jolato and yeah, talked about life and death.

And it was just great. It was just really, that was a very special day in my life. And one that I will always be grateful for. It means a lot, as you know, Hank, when somebody wants to include you in a moment that's so important to them. That's great. And it's also great to see that that conversation was something that was a little bit guided. It doesn't have to be this wonderful spontaneous thing that happens when you're in a foreign place, but like, you know, friends, people who know each other, deciding to have a conversation together, is not, does not make that less special. And then that vein, I think that like probably a lot of the best conversations

in my favorite conversations that I've had this decade have been, you know, between the cracks on Dear Hank and John or recorded live on Dear Hank and John. Some of the stuff doesn't make it in when we just start to chat. And when we talk before and afterward, I do have talking to you and I don't know that we say that to each other that much. And it's great to have somebody who knows all the same things

as me has all the very similar values to me, and I feel like is always gonna be there. When I'm having a rough time, when I'm frustrated by something, when someone's let me down, when I feel like I've let someone else down, and isn't there to excuse me, but is there to help me feel okay about being

in my own shoes and being in this world right now. That's kind of you to say, yeah, I feel the same way. We have actually had fewer fights, I would say, in the 2010s than we had in the 2000s. Yeah, even though we've had far more time together, almost as if, far more conversations.

Yeah, almost as if communication Far more conversations. Yeah. Almost as if communication helps with that. It does, yeah. Yeah, I mean, we really, I only remember one fight in the 2010s. Yeah, no, me too. Ah, no, there were two. There were two. There was the one fight where you said, stop looking at me.

Yeah, no, I said, I don't know where to put my eyes. Very high-stressed moment, yeah. And there was, yeah, there was another one more recently. What, what were we fighting about? The one I remember more recently was, is not for the pod. So we're going to cut here and I'll explain to Hank what it was. I was, I was going to say it's, it's interesting that we didn't really have any arguments on tour in 2012 or last year or 2017, whereas we did have a number of arguments in 2008 when we were on tour. But I think the difference might have been that in 2008 we were in a minivan and we were together for 18 hours a day. Yeah, and for weeks, weeks. I don't know, man. Oh, that was...

And also we traded from the Chrysler town in country to the Kia Sedona halfway through, and it was just like, it was like trading from being inside of like Michael Phelps' body to suddenly being in my own, you know? And it's just like, I moments ago felt like a god in that town and country. And now I just feel like I'm rolling down the street

and the tires are made of ham. It really was like a flinstone vehicle. Like the Chrysler town and country, and we're not here to advertise one brand over another, was the greatest vehicle I have ever been inside. It was so, it was like so next level to what I had always driven before that. Yeah, like, yeah.

I mean, I've been a passenger in a Tesla Model X and not for a second, did I ever think it was as nice as that 2007 price for town and country? I still see those old town and countries driving around and I'm like, hello, friend. I miss you. It's crazy to me that they stopped making them. Like how did the town and country not on its own keep Chrysler in business? I think they still make them. They don't. The last year was 2016.

I don't wanna get a minivan in the sense that I'm a big believer in like keeping your cars until they no longer function as cars. And I've had my Chevy Volt for eight years now and it's a great car and I have no complaints. But I will confess that when I see a minivan, like when I, my friend Chris has a minivan and when I see him get into that minivan every time I think like, oh, it wouldn't have to be the life. Absolutely, I know.

I like, the only reason I want to have another kid is so I can justify a minivan. I see him open up those side doors just by like pressing something in the roof and I just think oh my god That's awesome. The future is now. It's like Star Trek. That's my favorite our favorite car of the decade Christ, I got a fair car the decade is no no competition. It's the Christ go town in country. Oh There's no competition. It's the Christ go town and country. Oh boy. We've been at this for a long time, this, all of this stuff that we've done, John.

There was another question that was like, what is your favorite, like weird enthusiasm that you discovered? And the Marble and Things was definitely that for me where I was just like, oh, this is perfect and I love everything about it. I love that question though, because it makes you look back on the last 10 years

and understand that the stuff that you're into has changed and grown and expanded in ways that 2010 me could never have imagined. Like if I told 2010 me, you know what you're gonna start doing? Gardening. 2010 would have been like, not interested.

Yeah. Yeah. So I cannot wait to find out what 2020s me enjoys. Yeah. Yeah. And that like, it's funny. Like, those things arrive in your life and you have no idea you're going to to to want them and then suddenly you do so deeply. Yeah, and I also kind of thought that when I was younger

I kind of thought that adulthood meant like finding what you were into and then just like staying there for 50 years. Right. Yeah. Rather than like making a series of ongoing discoveries about the world and yourself that opens up all kinds of new interests and passions. Like our mom is a great example of this. Our mom showed absolutely no interest that I can remember in making art until she was like 58 years old and now she is a very accomplished painter. So I think it's great. I can't wait. What

am I going to be into in 10 years? I know. And I'm going to be like really into like electronic music. Yeah, well that's another thing. Like we talked about like the best songs of the decade, but there's also like the songs that I found out about this decade that I didn't know about before that are old as heck, but I didn't know about them. There's a song by ELO called I'm Alive, and now it's my song that I listen to when the plane takes off.

I get it ready, and like, as the plane starts to go, I turn it on and it's just like, I'm amped. I'm ready to get into the sky. And I, it's fun. I have a song like that, but it's not an amped song. It's hard traveling by Woody Guthrie. That I listen to when I'm like in an airport or the plane sticking off. Yeah, and it's just a song about, I mean,

I will admit that Woody Guthrie had significant, harder traveling than I do. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Certainly, more work per mile. It's a great song, no. It's a great song. Well, honestly, Hank, I think this has been our best ever end of decade's spectacular.

I agree. One thing that I will say about it is we recorded a little long and I'm pretty hungry now. Yeah, I was also saying that as a way of wrapping up because I gotta go home and pack my car full to the absolute gills and hope I do not have to put a car top carrier on top of my car for a four day family trip. You'll survive. This podcast is a co-production of WNYC and Complexly. carrier on top of my car for a four day family trip. Bill survives.

Bill survives. This podcast is a co-production of WNYC and Complexly It Is Addited. In this particular case, by Nicholas Jenkins, thank you, Nick, for editing this episode. It's produced by Roselle on Huls Rojas and shared in Gibson our head of community and communications is Victoria von Jornos

and music that you're listening to right now. And at the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola, and as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.