Dear Hank & John - 231: Bouquet Trebuchet (Live in Raleigh, NC!)

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

Have you ever added a strange fact to a book? How does a teacher inspire their students? How do I figure out if NASA has aliens? Do lobsters feel pain? How do I focus on one book at a time? How do I keep my family from bringing a siege engine to my wedding? How do I tell someone my name without embarrassing them for getting it wrong? Is only ever wearing one color attractive? How do I get to know my new city? Is being in a spoon cult an interesting enough fact when I introduce myself? Hank Green and John Green have answers!If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [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

Cold Open! Hello! You are about to listen to our live show from Raleigh, North Carolina. It was a very fun time, just as we managed to have a very fun time in Columbus and Indian apolis this week, and very nearly but not quite in Ann Arbor as well. To all those Ann Arbor rights and other Mishaganders, we're very sorry we had to cancel, but also very pleased to be doing what we are told to do in these uncertain times. We still have your questions and your email addresses, though, so expect to hear from us soon regarding what we are told to do in these uncertain times. We still have your questions and your email addresses, though, so expect to hear from us soon regarding what we are going to be doing with those resources.

We'll also be in touch soon if we haven't already about refunds. We know that these are difficult and uncertain times in many parts of the world. If you're anything like me, you're constantly swinging back and forth between overreacting and underreacting and never quite sure which one of those things you are doing.

I think that's really normal in times of uncertainty and I think that the only way out of that is time and the certainty that comes with it. And the best way to spend that time, as we must, is taking care of ourselves and providing care for others when it's needed. Thanks for being awesome and for hanging out with us whether you did it in the real world or you're just doing it here and please enjoy this episode of Dear Hank and John. And welcome to Dear John and Hank. It's Dear Hank and John. It's called Dear Hank and John. It's a podcast where two! Dear Haken John! It's called Dear Haken John! It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions,

give you TV, sit by, and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC woman and John! Yes! I was very elegantly done, Hank. You know... John, John! Yes! Of course, yes! Do you know what an acorn is?

What is an acorn? In a nutshell. It's an oak tree They're cheering do you yeah The problem with that joke is that it was funny. It was a good joke But that that's going to encourage you to tell more jokes and all the others are so bad So it was that is that is a good joke. It's so good that I'm pretty confident you didn't write it. Oh, no.

I did find it on our dad jokes on Reddit. Oh, there's so much of my material already. So you're a joke thief. But I don't think it counts as a joke thief. If you're not a comedian, you just tell bad dad jokes. I think that's, I think that's okay. That's just being a dad.

Right, yeah. We are here in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is the City of Oaks, which is why I did an Oak joke. Whoa! I'm scared. I think that's why I got an extra tear. If my guess, are you aware that you're the City of Oaks? Okay, good.

Yeah, Missoula is not really the city of, they call it the garden city and I'm like, that's, that's just New Jersey. But is it New Jersey? They call it the garden city? I know, I know I've been there. You can see on all of the turnpike signs that it's the garden state, then you look and you're like, hmm, that looks like a refinery, but okay. It's a different kind of garden than I'm used to. But we're not here to criticize New Jersey. Yeah, and alienate any people here who are from New Jersey.

Who? As is apparently half of you guys, you guys are everywhere. Wow. All right, let's answer some questions from our listeners, or in this case our viewers and listeners because all these questions came from you. And the way that we're going to identify you is via your ambulance song. Some people may be new to the podcast and they don't know what that's a reference to.

I had a million dollar idea, or maybe someone else had it and I stole it. It's hard for me to remember sometimes. And the million dollar idea was that instead of having that annoying really piercing siren when you're in an ambulance, which is a terrible thing to hear when you're sick or in crisis, you should have an ambulance song that you kind of pre-file. And then if you ever find yourself in an ambulance, they play your song the whole way there. So it's really loud.

It's really loud. And so people know to get out of the way, but also you get to listen to a song that's better than the actual ambulance siren. There are some problems with this million dollar idea. We don't need to get involved. Then lots of people have pointed them out to me. But it's a fun thing to dream about.

It is, this would be part of my, if I ever wrote a dystopian novel, believe you me, everybody would have an ambulance song. And it would cost so much. Oh, yeah. It's like everything in the healthcare system. John. Yeah, let's answer this question from Abby and Ryan,

whose ambulance song is? Shake it off by Taylor Swift. God, I have some good vibes going in that situation. They write. Hello, this is Abby and Ryan. Our question is, have either of you ever come across an odd topic or strange fact while doing research for one of your books?

And if yes, what did you discover and was it ever added to the book? So I had a scene in my book that takes place, several scenes that take place inside of an airplane. There's no one in it and things have to happen in the airplane, so I called a man. it and things have to happen in the airplane. So I called a man and his Twitter handle was like, airplane guy. I basically said, I don't think fine is experts.

Yeah, I tweeted. I was like, I need someone who's like an airplane guy. And then somebody was like, airplane guy responded. Hey, hey, yeah, no, he's totally an airplane guy. Like when an airplane thing happens, he's totally an airplane guy. Like when an airplane thing happens, he's on the cable notes. Like they call him up and like he's like a professional airplane guy.

And so I got on the phone with him. He was super gregarious and like open to helping me on however I wanted. And I was like, I need to know how you might get into a plane not through the door. And he was like, let me tell you a story. And I was like, yay!, let me tell you a story. And I was like, yay! It's like, need a story. So he wants an airplane, the door got stuck. And I don't

think there was anybody on the plane at the time. That's key. Yeah. And so you need to come out and you need to get into the airplane, but the door won't open. And so he told me how you get into an airport, which is you crawl in through the nose landing gear, and then you crawl up there, and then there's like a thing where you unscrew all the bolts, and then you can get into the airplane. And if you're ever walking around in like a 737, you can see the bolts in the floor in the front galley that you can like crawl down into the landing gear from. I can't remember the words landing gear right now. I also frequently do this where I learn something

and then put it into a book. In fact, my novel and abundance of Catherine's is essentially just a series of things that I learn to stitch together into novel form. But recently with my podcast, The Anthropocene Reviewed, like sometimes I'll discover a fact that I like so much that I'll be like, I think I've got to write 1200 words so that I can justify telling people that. The most recent example of which is that I like so much that I'll be like, I think I've got to write 1200 words so that I can justify telling people that.

The most recent example of which is that I reviewed pineapple on pizza for the Anthropocene reviewed because I discovered that in the 1960s, pineapple on pizza was invented in Canada by a Greek immigrant who was working at a Chinese restaurant and who was inspired by Chinese cuisine to put a South American food on a traditionally Italian dish, which went on to become most popular, not

in Hawaii, but in Australia, where astonishingly nationwide pineapple is the number one topping on pizza. Oh, I'm not convinced by your applause. It did seem to not to be 100% of the people. Yeah, it's a very divisive topic. And so I was like, man, given that fact, I've got to find 1200 other words to say about pineapple on pizza, because I want to tell that to the people. It's good

Oh, man. I want pizza now. Oh, not me. And there's Canadian bacon. What is Canadian? Is it Canadian bacon? No, of course It's not of course he knows that yes bacon has no nationality It's very true it belongs to the it's this to the pig It's pig bacon, thank you very much. You do not take that away from them. Actually, just leave it on. It would probably be their preference. All right, I told you it's going to be a lot of emotional whiplash.

All right, Hank, what's our next question? It comes from David, whose ambulance song is... D.S.E.R.A. I don't know what that is. D.S.E-R-A. I don't know what that is. DS-E-R-A. Oh, it's like a chant. Yeah, it's a Gregorian chant. Okay.

I mean, it's also one of the things. It's a, we'll talk about it later. It's also a Bob-Dance song. It's not a Bob. As an education. That's an education major in his final semester of university. I'm prepared to teach English in high school,

and I'm slightly afraid of not being the teacher that will inspire my students. What teachers inspired you the most in your education over the years? And what did they do to help you see their subject as tangible and worth engaging with outside of just the requirements? Not a giant killer nor a sling slinger simply David, but David was just simply David until they were like, hey, there's a guy if you need to fight. So you never know. And you are going into the education system. So you will have your share.

I first thing I want to say about this is like, you don't have to be that thing for every student. Because that is, it's not how it works. It's not like we all come out of the education system. And we all picked, like everybody who had Mrs. Grant, thinks Mrs. Grant was the one. I think that we all find our own teachers. Yeah, no matter how inspirational my algebra two teacher was, that just wasn't going to be the person. For you. But I actually have a lot of friends

who would cite our algebra two teacher as like the most inspiring, most wonderful teacher. He was a great teacher. It's just he happened to be teaching algebra two, to which I am not inclined. For me, the people who made the biggest difference. So when I was in school, I often felt like I was being asked to jump over a series of arbitrary hurdles for no reason, like they do in hurdle races. Like whenever I watch a hurdle race,

I always think to myself, if they've just removed the hurdles, this would go so much faster. And that's how I felt in school. I was like, now they're going to make me jump over the algebra two hurdle. And now I have to jump over the American history hurdle. Why? Because the hurdles have been placed here. By forces so much larger than me that I cannot begin to imagine them. And it all felt like quite arbitrary. And it felt like the main thing I was trying to do

was to get a piece of paper that said that I had learned enough to be a grown-up. And the teachers who mattered to me were the teachers who were so passionate about what they were doing. They were so passionate about their work, about their subject matter, that somehow that passion became infectious.

And I began to see it not as a series of hurdles but instead as an opportunity, an opportunity to understand my place in the universe and to understand the universe, an opportunity to understand like how in different periods of history people have communicated themselves, the ideas that matter to them, the questions that matter to them, and how to have conversations through space and time with the magic of reading and things like that. That was the stuff that really got me. So I think for me, it comes down to passion and finding a way to hold on to that passion,

even when you're around students who, if there anything like me, are super difficult and can be kind of annoying. Yeah, and I think that being open to that kind of passion in front of a bunch of maybe somewhat intentionally detached in order to protect themselves, students. Right. It can be difficult because like they are in a world to some extent where they have to protect their identities because like it's not easy in high school or middle school to be a person.

And so I think a lot of the sort of aloofness that comes with high school is, you know, it's protection. And so like breaking through that. It feels, definitely feels like if you show the world your vulnerable bellies, that it will devour you. I mean, because like, yeah, I felt that way throughout middle school and then through most

of high school. By the way, if you're in middle school or high school right now, and it's great, that's I'm so happy for you. And if it's not great, it's okay. And I'm sorry that it sucks, but I promise it will get better. High school is temporary. You will not always feel the way that you feel in high school. I feel like the biggest achievement in my life in a lot of ways was making it too adulthood.

I'm extremely proud of that and all I ever want to talk about when I see old friends is, oh my god, can you believe that we're here? This next question comes from Meredith who would like to hear highway to hell by ACDC while they're on the way to the hospital. Meredith is working, dear Anchor John, says Meredith, I'm working at NASA this semester as an intern awesome. So I'm like 0.001% sure that they might be hiding alien somewhere at the research base I will be at.

I want to be on the lookout in case we are living in that very small percentage chance universe. Can you help me come up with a game plan? How do I find the potential secret aliens? Where might they be? What if my co-workers is one of them? In fear of inevitable heat death marative. I mean, first of all, that shouldn't even be in your top thousand worries. No it should. Why disagree? Yeah no what you gotta do. So the main thing hold on let me get out my pen. It's gotta add you don't even have a list. You haven't even finished your top thousand yet have you? 999 spiders crawling in my mouth won't sleep. 1,000 heat deaths.

Oh no. Of universe. Should I move it up? The heat doesn't think the universe are the aliens. Oh, the heat of the universe. I'm not. Aliens aren't even in my top 10,000. Yeah, no.

No, you've. We don't have to worry about heat death. Oh, the heat of the universe. I'm not, aliens aren't even in my top 10,000. Yeah, no. No, you've, we don't have to worry about heat death. Oh, right. I'm back. You're going to die way before that. Yeah. Oh, well, I'll be. Oh, with the heat.

There's no way. This whole thing will be long gone before the heat death of the universe. But what a party we will have had. Aliens, they've got to be keeping them the basement, right? So that's just my assumption. So, you gotta go down as many stairs as you can. This is also what I do anytime I'm in a new building.

I just wanna go down as far as I can. I like to find out what's down there, and then I'm in a venue like this one, and they're like, why are you down there? Last night Hank was like walking up and down staircases, and there was like a velvet rope, and he was just like jumping over the staircase and like pulling on all the doors.

And I was like, I think they probably locked her in. I didn't know you saw me do that. Yeah. But whatever, I'm so used to it at this point. Like we both have like the hearts of urban explorers, but you also have the courage of one. Um, here's the thing, and I feel very strongly about this Meredith. The reason I don't think, there's a lot of reasons I don't

think that NASA is holding onto aliens. One is that conspiracy theories are almost always wrong, and two is that the more people who would have to know about something, the more like the conspiracy theory is to be wrong. And three is, imagine with me a situation in which aliens are somehow like smart enough to make it to earth and to either like travel faster than light or nearly faster than light, things that we are pretty sure are impossible. And they get here and then somehow us, our species. People, people, human beings who work at NASA are able to capture them and put them in a basement. And then these people who traveled like 82 light years to get to Earth are like,

how are we going to get out of the basement? Yes, we'll just stay down here. Wait for Meredith. So the point that John has made, which I like, is that in order for there to be aliens very few people have to know about them. So what must have happened is that they, someone found out about aliens, but then they forgot. And there was only one person. So there's an alien somewhere and nobody knows. It's just like, it's dead. I'm assuming it's dead.

And it's just in a free stride in a box. So you just gotta open a bunch of boxes. As my only suggestion, you gotta be. Meredith, we are gonna get you fired. Open every box. So, and if your supervisor asks what you're doing, you just look at them and you say, like, why do you ask?

Is it because you do have the aliens? It's gonna be a great semester at NASA Meredith. You're welcome. These podcast men told me. All right, we got another question. This one comes from Jamie, who writes, I'd like any Lady Gaga song to be played in my ambulance on the way to the hospital. Just a mixed tape. Do lobsters feel pain? I keep hearing...

Hank, it's the evening of emotional whiplash. I keep hearing that they don't feel any sort of pain, but that sounds like the kind of thing that we would say. This is a great point. Jamie, I think you're right to not trust humanity when it comes to other organisms. We've got a very questionable track record. They look really good in Bisc and I don't want to stop ordering them. Jamie. Well, so there's only one way to find out. You've got to get a lobster and then you've got to hurt it and ask.

No, no, no. Do you feel it now? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and ask. No, no, no, no. Do you feel it now? Do you feel it now? Do you feel it now? Does it hurt yet? Does it hurt now? That's too bad. Stop it. I'm not having fun with that.

No, there's a great essay about this. It's called Consider the Lobster and just read that essay. And at the end, if you're like me, you will have had your last lobster. I mean, lobsters feel way less pain than most things like it. Sorry. I just had a properly sandwich back stage and all right, let's move on. Pain occurred. Yeah. Well, I mean, I do think that we should, I do think that we should grapple honestly with our role in the ecosystem. But this next question comes from Leo. He's really moving fast. He doesn't want to hear about plots just anymore.

I'm sorry, John. Leo's an ambulance song would be stairway to heaven by Led Zeppelin. Nice. It's good. It's good. It's a little pessimistic. Not as pessimistic as highway to hell.

I like it. I like it. I love reading, but I have a tendency to start a book and then imagine another book might be even better or more exciting. It's like FOMO, but for books. Well, people look at a Snapchat and they're like, I could be at the dance party and you're like, look at your other book. Yeah, I love it.

I didn't know, by the way, I didn't know what FOMO meant until I was like 39. Well, it's a new thing. Yeah, but no, I mean the idea of fear of missing out had had long existed It's just that the acronym with you. What do you be advised? Can you give me for focusing on one book at a time? I think that I try to make decisions based on what I will enjoy not what I feel like I Will feel bad about missing, you know, sometimes I'm like I will feel bad about missing. Sometimes I'm like, I'm gonna, like I have to do that because I'm gonna feel bad if I don't do it.

I don't wanna make decisions based on my bad feelings. I wanna make feelings based on my good feelings. So when I'm in a book, I wanna have good feelings and if I'm not having good feelings about the book, I'll totally move on. But I wanna be in that good feeling and focus on that. And yes, to the exclusion of all other books and I don't Have a problem without any more. I feel like I I definitely did at one point

But now I can give it I can give in so you gotta let yourself go give into the book But there's so many versions of this in a human life though, right? Like your life could always be a little bit different and you always think like well What if my life was a little bit different this way it might be better. But if you think about you have to think that way. If you spend all the time thinking about what you don't have you will literally you know like you can't be satisfied because there will always be something that you don't have. And when I actually read more than one book at a time a lot of times, which

I know is terrible and I shouldn't do it or whatever and a people have criticized. Do you, John? Huh? Do you? Do I what? Do you? Do you? Do you? It's a phrase. You do you. Be, enjoy being the way you want to be. Oh, oh! Do you? Do you? Yeah. You, like, you be the person you want to be. Yeah, do you? It's been a long time since I was on Twitter. That's probably a Twitter thing. Yeah.

They got that far before I mentioned to social media Hiatus, everybody. That was a long time. I quit using Twitter. It's like when someone tells you that they went to college just outside of Boston. Yeah. And you have to be like when someone tells you that they went to college just outside of Boston. Yeah. And you have to be like, where'd you go?

They're like, oh, Harvard. But yes, it's true, I don't use Twitter. Although I just look at it. Yeah, I was going to say, I do look at it all the time. I just don't post to it because I feel like, you know, it has enough information. Anyway, I read more than one book at a time and partly that is maybe because I sometimes I get bored or I want to be thinking about a different thing. A lot of times I'm reading a novel and a nonfiction book at the same time because the nonfiction

books are like long and big and they, I kind of can't stick with them forever. But whenever I'm reading something or watching TV or engaging with any kind of art, I try to think about what I am doing and not what I'm not doing. Because if I think about what I'm not doing and I'm just kind of perpetually dissatisfied. Good. I think that's a great sort of microcosmos for one of the big problems that it's hard to avoid in life,

which is always thinking about what that other decision might have led to. And there's no productivity there. Truly. This next version gives you... It's time for a million dollar idea, another million dollar idea. Somebody on the internet tweeted this million dollar idea, it's from Craig. Thanks Craig.

I'm Twitter. Million dollar idea, 12 volt axe body spray warmer fits in cup holder maybe? Well, okay, does it warm the pressurized can of ax body spray? Yes. It gets it just warm enough for it to be warm, but not so warm that you have a fire. The worst cause of death. The worst one. Axe body spray fireball.

It's a Mazda. You know, I was gonna say, I was gonna say in PT cruiser. I'm not a Mazda. I hate everything about this idea. I mean, even scientifically, it doesn't work. I hate everything about this idea. I mean, even scientifically, it doesn't work. Like, pressurized gas is cool when they're unpressurized. So even if you warmed it up pretty good,

it still be cold. Also, just use less if it's unpleasant, because no one's ever complained about not like two little ax body spray. I've never heard that complaint. I really enjoyed our date. The only thing was that I felt like the ax body spray. I've never heard that complaint. I really enjoyed our date. The only thing was that I felt like the ax body spray was a little subtle. It was too light. Yeah. This is the slightest bit subtle. But like, I, okay, so let's, we can all laugh. But journey back with me, if you will, those of, those

of you who are like older than 14, journey back with me, if you will, those of you who are older than 14, journey back with me, when I was 14 years old, I remember getting ready for a dance, and I had this clone, and I mean, it made me feel like a man. It made me feel confident, it made me feel like I was attractive, and I did not under spray it. No.

You know? Like, I would like do two things and then like walk through it. And then I'd like walk away for a bit. And I'd kind of be like, nah. Yeah, just something. And I, you know what? Like, I was a pretty smelly boy. And I probably smelled way better.

Then, yeah. Or at least you could have for sure. I didn't have this with, this is, we're gonna get deep. I didn't have this with, with Cologne, but I did have a, a jar of tic-tacs and I flip it with the tic-tac lid and I go, and that made me feel super cool. I just like hit one tic-tac out of the little plastic tic-tac container. Oh, it's funny all the weird things that you do when you're a kid that you think like people saw that and they were like,

that kid's cool. Yeah. That kid's got to be a guy. I've really made my decision. Yeah. My finally. I mean, by the way, thank God you were just like flipping in tick-tacks. Meanwhile, your brother's dipping.

Oh! I feel like we're in North Carolina. Do you know what dipping is? Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't dip anymore. The last time I dipped was at my cousin's wedding

and my grandmother, my nanny, from outside of Milan, Tennessee, was at the reception. And she walked past me, and she looked at me, and she said, are you dipping? And I was like, no. Just athletic. And I was it, man. I was going into my career.

Goodness gracious. All right. Which reminds me, John, that today's podcast is brought to you by Never Dipping. Probably best not to start. Today's podcast also brought to you by Oak Trees. I guess. Woo!

Oaks! Oak Trees. The symbol of the great city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Woo! It really is a great city, by the way. I mean, I wish that we could export some of what Raleigh has to Indianapolis. It's amazing. This bygones is also brought to you by Gregorian Bops.

All those good ol' Gregorian Bops to dance here. Oh my God, that is such a good idea. That is an actual million dollar idea. Kids Bop, but for Gregorian chance. Oh! Tweet it, John. You can't. Sorry.

Somebody call Craig and tell him that the Axe Body Spray warmer is on the outs. Today's podcast, of course, also brought to you by the Axe Body Spray Fireball. The Axe Body Spray Fireball, avoid it. It's so easy to avoid it. Just like dipping. Do not plug in your body spray.

That's the only, the only necessary step. Ooh, boy. I've got another question. Yeah. This is from Ellie, whose ambulance song would be Karma by AJR. I don't know that one. Yeah, AJR fans in the audience that might have just been Ellie.

Recently, I was at a wedding and at the reception I was standing with my older brother and my mother talking about what I wanted at my wedding when I get married. Oh my god, this is an amazing question. I was trying to tell them that I wanted to trellis with flowers, but I accidentally told them that I wanted to trebuchet. Which is a catapult for those of you who like me did not know what trebuchet meant? It's a siege weapon. It's not a catapult.

It's a siege weapon. Sorry, it's not a catapult. It's a same catapult. Exactly like a catapult. But hey, it doesn't look anything like a catapult. It does similar things to a catapult. It throws rocks. It's a large rock thrower. Anyway, my brother and mother found this very amusing and told my father and my

best friend, now they all call me Trebuchet girl. And my brother, who has built a trebuchet before. Welcome to Joy North Carolina. Has started the designs for my trebuchet, for my future wedding. What do I do to make everyone forget about this? Trebuchets and tragedies, Ellie, Ellie, lean in. Lean in. I know you wanted your trellis to be covered in beautiful flowers, but your trebuchet

can be covered in beautiful flowers, but your trebuchet can be covered in beautiful flowers too! Ellie, the number of people who have had really, really beautiful trebles is that their weddings is high. Yeah. The number of people who have had amazing high-quality trebuchets that catapult the bouquet! Oh! You got a trebuchet the bouquet. Oh. You got to, you got to trebuchet the bouquet. Yeah. They, they sound similar. It's trebuchet. Million dollar idea.

Oh. I don't know how close you are to getting married. It's not clear in this. It could be that you're, you're, you're concerned. Seems, it seems, I'm going to guess that it's, there's a considerable distance between you and, and your marriage. And so it's possible that in's a considerable distance between you and your marriage

and so it's possible that in the intervening years you'll be able to maybe like just hope everybody forgets but I'm gonna be honest with you Ellie it's very unlikely. Yeah no. This something stick is it's gonna stick. It's this one's a sticker. And I think that you should have like an amazing trebuchet wedding. I think you should have like a 21 trebuchet salute. Yeah.

No, you have to come to the wedding, you have to bring a trebuchet. Not a big one. Or no, medium size. No, you just need to bring something that the trebuchet can carry on. You can bring a watermelon. You know, it's up to bring something that the Tribusche can carry on. You can bring a watermelon. You know, it's up to you.

Right, any kind of gourd, melons are great. Don't put the mixer on there. That's for, you know, you're the rest of your life, but everything else. Yeah, don't register for presents. Only register for like cannonballs. That's not interesting. I think you got a real opportunity here, absolutely.

All right, this next question comes from Megan, who asks, I attend a tiny school and play for the rugby team, so I'm fairly well known around campus. However, there is a girl I pass almost every day who, without fail, will wave at me and say, hello, Matt. This brief interaction brightens my day and she seems genuinely happy to see me. But my name, as mentioned earlier, is Megan not Matt.

To the best of my knowledge, we've never talked before, so I'm not sure where she got this idea. How do I tell her my real name without making the greeting awkward or worse, having her stop it all together? So far, I just wave back and act as if nothing is a miss. So your only real concern here is that Matt spreads. Like, which I would argue. I would argue. I'm wrong one Matt person because I have I have many people like this in my life Who think my name is something and are wrong and I just it's fine

I also have many people they all think my name is Hank I I once walked into a bar and a guy pointed at me with both fingers and said Vsauce And I was like Fine with me. Yeah, yeah that works. Yeah V-sauce. And I was like, fine with me. Yeah, that works. Yeah. Earlier today, Hank and I were in an airport, and I like snuck up on Hank while he was working on his book,

and took like a surprise selfie, you know, to post to the community tab of our YouTube channel. And afterwards, like 15 minutes later, when Hank got up, a young woman walked up to him and said, I'm really sorry about what that fan did. That was really inappropriate. And I just want to say, I really like your work and what you've done on Crash Course has made a big impact in my life.

And again, I'm really sorry. And I just like people aren't like that. And I just turned, turned to look at John with just daggers. No. We explain the situation. What were we talking about? Matt. Matt.

Megan. No. I think it's Matt. So the way that I would deal with this, 100 times out of 100, is to just let it slide. And then like, three years into college when you're out a party together, and somebody says, hey, Megan,

and the person is like, wait, what? You could be like, yeah, no, my name is Megan, but like I always like to call me Matt, and yeah, I don't tell you. I should have mentioned it at some point, but like, I didn't know when. Yeah, it seems like you're so genuinely pleased to have this person in your life.

Don't mess it up. Yeah, I like the way that we've solved this problem by just pushing it on down the line. Absolutely. Okay. We're going to ask a few people up to give your questions in person. Grab the mic and tell me what's up. What's your question? Hello. Oh, sorry.

It was very loud. Hello, my name is Benjamin. I've worn entirely yellow since 2016. I know I'm not the only monochromatist, because I see... Monochromatist, someone who wears only the same coat. There's more of us. There's so many of you, there's a name for it. Well, I mean, I made the name.

You made the name. I don't know if anyone's agreed on it yet. But I know there's at least three. There's a pink lady, a green lady, and a yellow lady. Okay. So you're four. Well, I suppose there might be more. We know we've done up. However, in these videos that I've seen

in the internet of these people, none of them mentioned any romantic relations. And I haven't had much luck myself yet. So my question is, do you think wearing only one color is attractive in a date? Is yellow a sexy color? What? That's a good one.

That's a good one. I have some follow-ups. Yeah, first of all, thank you for coming down so that I can see the whole situation. It is not just clothes, it's also your hair. But I like that you've accented with your belt in a not yellow. The belt is yellow. It's a yellow leather. It's a yellow leather. Okay. First off, I love this. I just think it's wonderful. Thank you for doing it. Oh, thank you I it does it brings me such joy I Can't not imagine that it would be a I mean, maybe I'm wrong But it doesn't seem like it would be like an inherent like red flag or yellow flag I guess in this particular case. It's not the yellow side. I guess it depends on the person

Yeah, but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a yellow flag for me. I would be kind of psyched, because then I would get to like, know what I was working against every day. Right, you know how to dress. Yeah. You know exactly. Many times Sarah will like put on an outfit for a big thing and I'll be like,

oh geez, now I gotta like figure out how to look good next to this work of art. Thanks for gesturing at me. This stand in for my wife, my brother. I feel like it wasn't weird till you made it weird. You always know the first conversation you're gonna have, and that's a huge weight off. It is true.

It's always the first conversation with someone I meet. Yeah. You could have a card. This is something we've discussed in the podcast before where people are like, are you wearing all yellow and you just have the card and it's like, yes. I've actually considered this. Yeah.

So I just assigned it my friends to do the spiel we all know. Yeah. Everybody. Yeah. You know the questions that are coming. Do you suspect that you will be a monochromatic for the rest of your life? I truly hope so.

I truly hope so. It doesn't go wrong up here, and I decide to abandon it. And unless something goes terribly wrong, you're going to be wearing only yellow for your... I love it. I love it. Keep it. Stay near this Benjamin.

Yes. But nothing holds you back. It's going to be us. Yellow is a very sexy color to answer the one yes and no question. Thank you. Thank you, Benjamin. Our resident monochromatist, which is my new favorite word. Hello. Hi, I'm Natalie. I don't only wear one color. Yes, multiple colors, polychromatists unite. And my question was, so I've been going to college for about a year and a half now, but I still feel like I haven't gotten to know the small city I live in that well.

So I was wondering when Y'all go to a new city, what are some of the first things you do or the first places you try to go to to know a place? I went to a college and I just went back to the place where I went to college. So I was in St. Petersburg yesterday where I went to my undergrad. And I went, whoa, St. Petersburg, just you. Love it. And I went downtown and I was like, this was here? All of that stuff, not all of it,

but like a lot of it was there. There were so many, like, there were like three different art museums in St. Petersburg that I have never been to despite living there for four years. My main suggestion is to actually go to the places where places are, which is sort of the downtown, and then walk the streets. Also, I might suggest finding a haunt.

Like if there's a coffee shop downtown that you can be at and get comfortable and then have that be your base of operations. Right, and then you build have that be your base of operations. Right, and then you kind of build the hubs from that... He's built the spokes from that hub, right, sorry, got it. The other thing I would recommend is going to museums, not just art museums, but also weird museums. Yes, we have in Mizzoula the Museum of Mountain Flying, where they have planes that flew over mountains, apparently.

But it's one of those things like you go there and you go there kind of as a joke, but then while you're there, you're reading a plaque and you're like, oh, I did not know that and I did not know that about my hometown. Like I live quite close to the world's largest ball of paint, which is now like, I don't know, much larger than a human being and it started out as just a baseball that one guy has obsessively painted for 40 years. And I went to the world's largest ball of paint like as a joke.

And then while I was there, I was like, this is beautiful and it is everything that I love about humanity. And I am so glad that I saw it in real life, and tears sprouted to my eyes. So you never know. You never know. There are so many wonderful public amenities that very few of us end up taking advantage of going to the Indianapolis library as one of the great joys of my life.

It's one of the only places where everybody walks in and is truly equal, and everybody has true equal access to information. So yeah, go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And our final question of the evening.

Hello. Hi. Hi. Hi, I'm Pritha. My ambulance song is Don't Stop Me Now. Oh, of course. Yeah, you did put that in there, John Ditton Coppian. Sorry.

So I'm just starting college, New semester, New classes. And you always have to do introductions, and you have to give a fun fact usually. And so my go-to fun fact is that in middle school, I was in a spoon cult. Um, so I'm trying to see, is that a good fun fact? Is that a good fun fact? Is this the middle school spoon cult?

I have a follow-up. Yeah. Now there's a lot of kinds of spoon cults. Right. If you'd been asked in middle school spoon cult. I have a follow up. Now there's a lot of kinds of spoon cults. Right. If you'd been asked in middle school to say three of your top identities, would one of them be like, and I'm a member of a spoon cult?

Absolutely. OK. And the spoon cult, was it about one particular spoon or all spoons? So mainly plastic spoons. OK. Can you give me some examples of some of the things that you would do to express your sacrifice toward the spoon or your willingness to give everything for it?

So we wanted to raise awareness Okay, we made bumper stickers Okay, and we would put them on random people's cars It's not allowed John not allowed to approve of that John not allowed to approve of that. John, that's bad. Do you want to know something amazing, Prieta, that I think Hank is about to tell you? Yeah, I was.

Hank Green was in a spoon cult. I was college though. So like, it took me way longer to get there than you. So really I maybe should have known better. What was the word? It was called the Darth Spoon Cult. Or occasionally the Cult of the Darth Spoon. I read your question and I looked up at Hank and I was like,

weren't you in a Spoon Cult? How common are they? Now, so my concern is that it might not be an interesting fact about yourself, because it might be that everyone was in a spoon cult. Can you raise your hand if you were in a spoon cult? Okay, it's just us. And one other person.

One other person. I think, so I think that we've discovered that spoon cults are interesting. I feel good about this fact. I know that it's not the only one about you. You have many to go on, but it's a good starting point for sure. I like that.

And I might use it now, because I kind of forgot about my Spoon Cult. Thank you for bringing it back into my life. And I really like, if you're going to, I love to tell a story that's like 60% true. So I'm just going to give you advice. I said he sure does. Yeah.

Um, well, it makes them better. Uh, I would say you put the bummer stickers on random people's cars. What that's what she said. I thought she said houses. No. Oh, it turns out you had the story perfect to start. I'm sorry for trying to make it worse. Proof at it.

You're a genius at spoon cults and congratulations on being interesting and going to college. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you for being here with us in this special night. The only time that all of us will ever come together and be in the same place at the same time, just statistically. And, John, thank you for being on this podcast with me. It's been a joy. Thank you for supporting our work over the years for listening to our pods and for being here with us and making this such a special night.

Our live show coordinator is Monica Gasper. This episode was edited by Joseph Tuna Mettish. Our producers are Rosie Yon Halsey-Ruhassen shared in Gibson. The music that you're hearing now and the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola. And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. Bye guys! you