Dear Hank & John - 238: The Meteor Men

Episode Date: May 4, 2020

Why don't people paint their houses black? How do I deal with loneliness? What are some good triplet pranks? What are the Google Street View must-see attractions? What's up with money? How much is one lock of hair? Where can I find a "Kirskagard" journal? John Green and Hank 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

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Thoriz, I prefer to think of it dear John and Hank. It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions, give you to be as advice and bring you all the weeks news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon John. Yeah. It's my birthday this week. I know. And when Catherine gave me my 40th birthday card,

I was like, are you kidding me? 40 cards is too many. I mean, I got it. I don't know what else to say. It's a twist. It's not. It's a twist. It's not what you're expecting.

She gave me 40 cards. That was the 40th one she'd given me. First off, there's no way she gave you 40 cards. I know, Catholic. So it's not believable. Yeah, stretching for jewelry. Yeah, okay. There's that, but then there's also just the fact

that it's just not great. It's not great. Listen, you've told good ones in the past. Don't do that. Don't tell me a different one because I didn't like the first one. John. John. Yeah. tell me a different one because I didn't like the first one. John, yeah, I would, I've been thinking about how I'm bundled up now,

but I need to wait until I get older, but the media, your men begged to differ and they've been looking at this hole in the satellite picture. And that at the beginning of the verse, yeah, it was like, it's a cold place. And at the end of the verse, it was like, it's a cold place. And at the end of the verse, it's like, it's a hot place. And I'm like, where were we going here? Yeah, it's not just a hot place. Exactly. And we're talking about the lyrics to a pop song that Hank and I both have a deep and long

term fascination with. It's not just that the world starts out cool and they say it's getting colder. Yeah. It's that we don't just end with the water getting warmer so you might as well swim. Yeah. We end with my world's on fire. Yeah. The world is actually, it's on fire. It's a cold place, but it's on fire. Yeah. But also he likes it that way. Yeah. Which they say it gets colder. At the beginning, he seems very concerned about the fact that it's a cold place. He doesn't like it. Yeah. And it's a hot place. And he does like it. So at least he's like got some consistency there that he prefers the heat. Right. He's a warm weather person. Yes. And he needed to talk

himself in to warm weather. So as you know, Hank, I think that the entire song All Star by Smash Mouth is about being a very famous rock star. Yeah. But that it was written by people who were not yet very famous rock stars. And that's true. This was sort of the thing that did it. The thing that makes the song so brilliant

is that now like a hundred nights a year, Smash Mouth, seeing about what they thought being famous would feel like before they were famous. But now they are singing it as famous people. Right, and what they realize is the world, the world is neither warmer nor colder. It is actually very similar and they remain just people. Right. And what they realize is the world, the world is neither warmer nor colder. It is actually very similar and they remain just people. Yes. But the question is there's still some weird stuff happening. Like, I bet it is weird on a day-to-day basis

to be smash-mouse. Oh, certainly. Yes. Absolutely. Now, we've left out the middle part of the verse, which is about the meatier man. Yeah. They do beg to differ with the initial assessment that the world is cold and they say it gets colder. Right. So whoever they is, it's not the meatier man who are, who are saying it's, it gets colder. Right. The meatier men are presumably climate scientists or, or, meatierologists. I think they forgot what, I think they forgot what meteorologists are called to, they called them meatier men, which is obviously you shouldn't, it's an inclusive term meteorologists, which is obviously, you shouldn't, it's an

inclusive term meteorologists, while meteor men less so. Yeah, but if you try to put meteorologists into that meter, it's a nightmare. Although God knows that didn't stop the melts wear in the song. But I mean, this is nice. It is a nice feeling sound though, but the meteor men back to different, that's nice. Yeah. That's nice. I, I understand why they did it.

The weatherman doesn't work. The meteorologists, it doesn't work. The climate scientists, it doesn't work. So I would almost argue that, but the meteor men beg to differ is the greatest line in the greatest pop song ever made. You're right. It is good. It's good because both it's a referencing directly meteorologists, but it's also kind of referencing the media, the media men. Right. And sort of like the main, and like the people who are the ones who like actually

are supposed to have it right, but like maybe we don't actually, they're just trying to pull one over on us with their whole and the satellite picture, which I'm not entirely clear what that is. Yeah. I think maybe Smash Mouth, and this isn't,

and that unusual have gotten the ozone hole mixed up with climate change. It does happen, I understand. Yeah, mixed up with climate change. It does happen. I understand. Yeah. I think that's what happened there. Yeah. That line right after the judging by the hole in the satellite picture does sort of like make

that particular couplet a little less impactful for me. Oh no, that's a disaster of a rhyme. The power of that meteor men begging to differ line is in understanding as the meteor men presumably do climate science, which then it seems like maybe smash mouth doesn't. I mean, maybe that's very meta. Maybe they're understanding themselves in that line. Yes. They're like being like, they're basically saying, look, we don't, we have such a disjointed

view and like the world is so complicated. How am I supposed to understand all this? That like, well, what are those media guys know? The whole of the ozone layer blah, blah, blah, when really they mean climate science? Because how are we supposed to understand everything that we're supposed to understand these days? There's just too much.

There's too much asked of the average person and Smashmouth here is outlining that, that is also the case for people who presumably are rock stars. That's exactly right. And it reminds me of a different line in Smash Mouth's All Star. Interesting.

When they talk about how the years start coming and they don't stop coming. Yeah. Which I think is an experience that's very true to life. But I also think that there are similar experiences about how like information starts coming and then doesn't stop coming. And it just overwhelms us because once the information feed is turned on, it's a fire hose in our face.

That's true. And I think that the more that we understand about the world, the more we realize we don't understand. Yeah. And that is very analogous to the experience of things that start coming but don't stop coming. So like the moment that it begins, it really the sort of floodgates are unleashed.

And interestingly, in the same way, like in early life years, they come so slowly. And then as we get older, they come much more quickly. And that is also very true. It seems to me of the news where it once came to a more manageable pace and now really does not. John, do you wanna answer some questions from our listeners? I mean, not really.

I wanna keep doing this for the next couple hours. But I think we should answer some questions from our listeners. Okay. This first one comes from Kevin who writes, hey, John and Hank, have you ever noticed there are no houses painted black? My wife and I have been taking our kids on a lot of stroller rides around the neighborhood

lately, and at least in Minnesota, we haven't seen any houses painted black. Why do you think no one chooses this color for their house? Besides Darth Vader, I bet he would like a black house, not five, not six, not seven, Kevin. Nice. First of all, I think all of Darth Vader's houses are pretty demonstrably gray. Yeah, I mean Darth Vader has chosen a color for his home, the Death Star.

Yeah, and it is silver or gray. Yeah, gray, that's not really shiny. His clothes are black. I would say it's a bit of a dulled silver. Okay, you can say what you want to say. And hey, show me a picture of the Death Star. You can't say, hey, on a podcast, John, all these people,

all over the world. Right, sorry. Okay, show me a picture of the Death Star. Is that okay? No, it's a problem. Okay, I'm looking at a picture of the Death Star now, and I'm going to agree with you Hank. I would say it's two shades of gray.

And I kinda dig that in a house. I dig it when a house is like a light gray with like the trim, you know, like on the sides of the windows and everything, that's a darker gray. I've always thought that really pops. I mean, I have seen some red doors that I wanted to paint black, but I've never seen a red house and been like, I just want to make that into a haunted mansion.

And so there are ways that black houses work, but it's always modern, contemporary house, right? Yeah. You have these huge windows, and so the window is more the house, and then the black is just sort of the, that sort of box around it. The frame. Yeah. Whereas if you take like an older home and paint it black, like sort of the, that sort of box around it. The frame, yeah. Whereas if you take like an older home and painted black,

like it's the Adam's family up in here. There's no other way to get around that. It's what happened. It looks like you're in a home of mourning. Yeah, you know, like your queen Victoria and your husband just died or something. Or because your husband was the king, you have to live in a black house like forever now.

Right. Kevin, the other thing about houses painted black is that they tend to fade, like the color tends to fade faster. Oh, oh, it's true. In some cases, the color can also sort of ship faster. So it's a little bit less efficient from a how often do I have to paint my house perspective. That said, I have seen in my research about this question a couple of like all black houses that were like Victorian style houses and they looked awesome.

They do look very good. They looked like the kind of house you want in your neighborhood so that all the kids can like bet each other $2.00. They won't make it up to ring the doorbell. I love it. Yeah. And, but maybe a little splash of color. Just the door or a couple window frames some red in there to make it extra dramatic.

Because otherwise it just sort of blends in architecture with John and Hank. I know what I'm talking about. This next question comes from Heather who asks, dear Hank and John, I live by myself. And I spent the last six weeks totally alone with only a few momentary exceptions. I partake in regular video calls with groups and individuals, but it's not quite the same as being together in person

and it's making me lonely and sad. How should I cope with the loneliness when it is seemingly unavoidable? H and H, Heather, I'm not sure what H and H stands for. Hanson and Halle Berry? Yeah, Hank, I don't know what your experience of this has been. And I do think that it's different for everyone because everyone's in a different circumstance. We all have different stresses, etc. But my experience of it has been that when I am on a Zoom call

with my friends, it's great. And I'm happy it's happening. And it makes me desperately, overwhelmingly aware of how not like real life it is. Like there is something chemical about being in a person's physical presence, feeling the touch of another person. And it is really hard to have that taken away from you suddenly with like no chance to prepare and no timeline for when you will have that back. And I think that it can be great to have those virtual calls and those experiences.

I think they're really important. And my friend Levin said, I thought this was perfect. He said it was like powdered milk, like it provides sustenance. And it reminds you of the taste of milk, but it ain't milk. Yeah. And that's how I feel. It reminds you of the taste of milk, but it ain't milk. And that's how I feel like.

And so if you're quarantined alone, the interactions that you're having, they aren't the same as real interactions with people. Yeah, there's also a practical, and I don't know if this is going to be practical for you, but maybe it will be for somebody out there reality, which is that if you, if there's two people who are friends, who are both isolating, those two people seeing each other and like being sort of each other's

like quarantine family and like having a weekly hangout isn't actually substantially dangerous. It would be very similar to having the same relationship that I have with, you know, the people who are in my home. And, you know, Aaron Carroll talks about this where you can sort of have, if you have two families who are self-isolating, those families can sort of merge their bubble into one bubble, as long as you imagine that as your single bubble. And we have, we have done that now with Catherine's parents so that we can spend time with them after having spent a month isolating from them. And it's just, it's so nice to have, like some other people in the world that we can sort of hang out with. And they don't come into the house, we hang out in the yard, and like that sort of makes it feel a little bit safer.

But that is something that like, as we sort of, like, because there won't be like a moment when this all ends, there will be sort of gradual step-by-step kind of process. And I think that part of that step-by-step might be, you know, starting to merge a bubble here and there. This next question comes from Naomi who asks, dear Hank and John, my sister is an I.I. identical triplets. We didn't do any pranking related to being identical triplets

when we were kids and now that we are adults, I feel like we really missed out on that. Do you have any suggestions for triplet pranks we could pull now? I've attached a picture for reference, turnips and peaches, Naomi. Yeah, I have a lot of suggestions Naomi. Oh good. This is the peak moment for triplet madness. Yeah. Number one, starting tomorrow, all three of you have different jobs. You have whatever job the sibling with the name nearest you has. And you show up for zoom calls at the exact right time, but in a different apartment with a different background. And that's great. And you crush it. You know, you just, you do everything you can

to crush the meeting. And they'll be like, was that Naomi? Yeah. And then the other, so the long-term advantage of this Hank, because I think this is something that you continue doing as long as this lasts, just mixing it up and the long-term advantage of it. Professional skills development is one thing.

Exactly. At the end of it, all three of them will be qualified to do all three jobs Amazing. Yeah, yeah, if only we could all do this. I know maybe we should imagine if I started like showing up as you at your Please do first off that that's my idea of hell to have to go to the meetings that you have to go to Sometimes I see your schedule, like I see your Google calendar, and I get sick to my stomach. I mean, I've only got, I've only got five today. Do you seriously have five meetings today? Yes.

Oh my God. One of them was very short. Oh my God. All the rest of them are long. Oh my God. It's okay, John. We're, we're each doing our own thing. That's why there's different people in the world, John. We're doing our own thing. That's why there's

different people in the world, man. Also, Triplet prank. You guys all got to go grocery shopping, go grocery shopping at the same time, but then like space out your checkout five minutes, but go to the same teller. And you're all wearing different clothes, though, because you can't have her be like, why you keep coming back? You gotta have it be a moment of deep confusion. Yeah, because this is the amazing thing about triplets. Like if you see two people, then you're like, ooh, but the third, you're like, everything is over. Right. I can't handle, I can't, I can't, no.

Because if you see two people who look alike, you think twins, if you see three people who look alike, you think there's a glitch in the matrix. Yeah. And they're just repeating forms for me because I'm playing a video game. Yep. By the way, I have never felt more like I am

in the middle of a simulation that I do right now and I am super unhappy with some of the choices that have been made. Yeah. If this is a simulation, I have some questions for the programmers. If this is a simulation, I have questions for the programmers the whole way through. I think they've done a terrible job. Like in general, they've done a terrible job. Well, but this seems punitive is the word I would use.

It's also makes me feel a little bit like, are we just going for entertainment value? Are we just fun? Right. It's just fun for you. Right. That's how I feel. Yeah. I know how I play the Sims.

And it's like when you've built your beautiful city and you just start throwing disasters at it. But then you just like reopen from the old save. Are they going to reopen from the old save, John? Yeah, but I don't think we'll know. That's where in this save. Ah, we're in this save. John, I've got one. You go to the grocery store and you buy a jar mayonnaise and then when you're checking

out, you open it and start eating it with a spoon. It doesn't really require that you're a triplet. I just want to freak the people. I think especially in the COVID era, the last thing that America's grocery store employees need is more weirdness or stress. Okay, that's a good point. Yeah. If you're all in the same house, anytime any of you are on a hangout, another of you can be dressed exactly the same walking around in the background.

Yeah. That feels like a win. Like if that's an option, if you're ever in the same place. Yeah, and then you could pretend to be a ghost. Potentially. Yeah. So you could say ghost like things or or or or you could pretend to be a person vastly different from who you are. So you you could be on your own phone call in the background of their hangout. You could you could be like, I don't care that there's no NBA games right now. I'm betting $45,000 on the Sacramento Kings

to win by seven points tonight. Yes. Yet, well, okay, John, we didn't realize this. Oh my God. So first you set up that you are your sister and you've been in a Zoom call and they recognize your background. And then suddenly another person joins the call,

and it's you again, and then a third, and it's you again. And then you have to synchronize several things that you're gonna say so that one person starts, and then the next person picks up halfway through the sentence, and then the other person finishes the thought. Yes, and when people are like, that's choice.

Naomi, who are these other people? You'll be like I am Naomi and All three of you have to say it exactly at the same time. It's all three at the same time. Yeah, yeah Where you're just like I am Naomi nice. Oh, this is great. I love it. I apologize in advance for getting you fired, but it's worth it Okay, Hank let's continue with this question from Marco who writes, dear John and Hank here in Spain, we've been on lockdown for six weeks now. And I only get to leave the house once a week for the 30 minutes.

It takes me to go to the supermarket and come back to stay sane and get a bit of the outside experience. I've started spending more time exploring the world with Google Street View. And I've been asking friends for places they recommend that I visit. And that got me wondering, what places do you recommend exploring in Missoula and Indianapolis? So I have also been doing this. Really, I have. The businesses that I frequent that have allowed Google to like come in and photograph the walk through experience. Right.

Yeah. I've been walking through like restaurants I loved and walking through the other day I walked through like the indoor playground where my kids and I like to go. Wow. I didn't realize how sad that was until I said it out loud. Yeah. No, it's it's it's it no, it's kind of wrecking me. But here we are.

Here we are, Marco. Mizzoula is a beautiful place. Mizzoula is a beautiful place. And I walk around in Google Street View all the time, but I usually choose places that I don't normally go. So I kind of like get a feel for a strange city. But for my city, where would you go? I gotta tell you, it's not that interesting of a place.

That's not true. What kind of what I like about it? That's not true. You could walk the mean streets of Missoula and see a lot of kind of third-tier casinos. Ha ha ha ha. We, the only kind we have. In Indianapolis, I really recommend Google Street viewing the Monon Trail, which is this former railway line that's now a

30 mile trail that goes all through the center of the city and then also well north of the city. And it's just a pleasant walk. It's right through the east side of town and you get to go over some bridges. There's a few moments where you can see the White River, which is my favorite, my favorite of all the rivers. And I think that I think that you would enjoy virtually walking along the Monon Trail. Nice. So I have an idea for you.

Occasionally, because we can, because it's safe to be inside of a car, we will go for drives and we will drive down south up the Bitterroot River. And that is a beautiful drive. And I bet if you did a Google Street View of that, you could see all the beautiful. You can, all the mountains, and they did this on a nice day too. It was fall, so all the trees have other leaves-changed color. That's very nice. So we go on this drive fairly frequently,

and I do love it. It's actually quite a lot to recommend in Montana on the Google Street View front. Yeah, it's real pretty. I mean, I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now.

I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now.

I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. I'm going to be doing it right now. It's quite enjoy. I'm having I feel like I'm walking. You can also kind of do that to the at the garden of the thousand Buddhas Just because people have uploaded their photos of it so much that you can kind of click around it pretty effectively and and easily For some reason someone put a garden with a thousand Buddhas in Montana and It's a nice place to go visit great

I'll make my way there next, but right now, I'm walking up to the, to the M. I'm walking along a beautiful, is this called, what is this called? It's called Prairie when there's not a lot of vegetation. Sure. I'm walking along a beautiful prairie. I feel like I'm going uphill.

This is, you know what? Maybe I, maybe I am going gonna make it through this whole process. Now that I know that I can walk up to the M on Google Street View, that's probably the best thing that's happened to me today to be quite honest with you. That's kind of wild. I mean, this is nice because walking up the M on my feet is actually pretty hard. Yeah, it's a challenging walk. Earth bones with John and Hank Green. Those are good bones. Hank, you want to answer this question we got from Cooper, comma, age 10? Absolutely.

Dear John and Hank, how does money work? Like, how do companies get money and pay their employees? How did money come to exist instead of trading items? An answer would be super Cooper. Nice Cooper. Very good. Very good.

Sign off Cooper. You've got a bright future in the name's specific sign off business. Cooper. Nice Cooper. Very good. Very good. Sign-off Cooper. You've got a bright future in the name specific sign-off business. Cooper, I think the entire idea is that like trading items was a little inconvenient. Yeah. And sometimes they would be big. Sometimes people would be like, I have this sheep and I would like those shoes and you'd be like, I don't need a sheep right now. Like, I just have enough sheep.

I'm a shoemaker. I don't need a sheep right now. I just have enough sheep, I'm a shoemaker. I don't need sheep. I need leather and laces and those little holes, grommets is what they're called. I need grommets. Yeah. And the sheep guys, I only got sheep, man, and I need shoes.

So they came up with money. And so money was invented as a way of facilitating that exchange. Yeah. Really money is just a made up idea that together we kind of trust. And Cooper, there are all kinds of these ideas that are technically made up, but they're real because we believe in them. Right.

Like pants. I mean, to some extent, it's not a great example of what I mean. And we'll likely confuse Cooper. I mean. And we'll likely confuse Cooper, I think. I think. I was thinking more along the lines of human rights. Pants are just an idea that we all agree on. Both equally good examples of how together we come up with ideas

that we believe in and honor and make real right through our collective belief in them. And once upon a time, there was real like value stored somewhere. And of course, like all values kind of made up to the idea that the US dollar used to be backed by gold. And it'd be like for every dollar of dollars there are out there, there's a dollar of gold and a safe somewhere. And if you wanna go to the bank and get, get your dollar of gold, you can do that. We stopped doing that because it turns out that the idea of what a dollar is

was even more powerful than gold because ultimately, gold's useful industrially but mostly it's valuable because we'd say it is. Yeah. It's the same thing as dollars. Right, it's another idea that we've decided has a lot of value. Value beyond what we call it's intrinsic value. So gold has a certain intrinsic value because it's used in lots of different ways of making

stuff, but the value of gold goes beyond that and has for a long time. Right. So that is how money came into being we think. Yeah. And that is why money exists today. Right. Usually companies use the money that they have made to pay their employees. Sometimes they use money that they have borrowed to pay their employees.

And sometimes recently they use money that the government has given them to pay their employees. So how that money comes into being changes based on what the company's up to. Yeah, but that's a sort of broad level overview for you Cooper and this has been bad planet money with Hank and John. What? Also Cooper, I really recommend that you listen

to the NPR podcast planet money. It's so good. It's even, it's so good. My 10 year old listens to it all the time Cooper. And so I think you'll like it as much as he does. Which reminds me, Jonathan, this podcast is brought to you by Fiat Currencies. Fiat Currencies.

I'm pretty sure they're the ones where it's all just backed by thoughts, thoughts and promises, Hank. Not just thoughts, but commitments. Right. Today's podcast also brought to you by Google Street View. Google Street View. We thought it was just for looking at what our childhood house looked like now 20 years later,

but it turns out that now it has lots of other uses, like letting us feel as if we can go outside. Yes, it is the powdered milk of going outside. The podcast is also brought to you by the media, men. They beg to differ. Hahaha. Hahaha. Hahaha.

I don't know why, but that's like my favorite joke you've ever made in the whole podcast. Hahaha. Hahaha. I think it's just like I have such a deep and ever deepening love for all star. Oh God. And lastly, it's by guys brought to you by that creepy house in your neighborhood, that creepy house in your neighborhood.

I'll pay you five bucks if you go up there and ring the doorbell. By the way, don't ring strangers doorbells right now. Don't do that. That should go without saying. All right, John, we got a project for us, a message from Devon White in New York, who has asked, this is cruel. Says Hank, please sing the Hogwarts school song, I guess, is what this is. I will do my best.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Teach us something, please. Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling, With some interesting stuff. This isn't great. For now they're bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff. So teach us things worth knowing, bring back what we forgot. Just do your best, we'll do the rest and learn until our brains all rot.

Or something like that. Great. All right, Hank, we have another question. This one comes from Eliza. It's short, it's sweet, and it's extremely complex. Steer John and Hank, how much is a lock of hair? Yolo, Aliza. What? Nobody says Yolo anymore, Aliza. Dogoth and thank goodness. Yeah, that's one of the best things, and I know that there aren't a lot of good ones,

but that is one of the best things about 2020. Nobody's shouting Yolo, you know, and unless they're gonna go to the grocery store, I guess. I saw, as I do almost every day on the internet now, an abbreviation that I didn't know what it was. And so I had to imagine it. Like for the longest time, I thought that SMH, I always thought it meant so much hate. But the one I saw today was W F H. And I was like, what the heck? What the heck? That was my, I was trying to, I was working with what and heck and trying to make it, uh-huh, make it work. But it turns out I should have been working with work, work from home. Obviously

I've seen this one. We got to abbreviate everything these days. But WFH feels like what for heck? Yes. And I'm not backing off. Like every time I see it for the rest of my life, somebody will be like, oh man, I'm WFH again. And I'll be like, you're what for hecking? Yeah, good luck. Enjoy.

We've all been there. I've what for hecked before. Do you have abbreviations in your brain that aren't words or letters? They're just like sort of rough sketches of concepts that you refer back to? Oh, yeah. I have a number of them. Okay. Just check it. Wait, are yours like words or are they... I'll give you one of what I mean, and then you can tell me what you mean.

Okay. What I thought of is, for instance, we often say it's not about the rock in our family, which is a reference to one time many years ago when you and one of our cousins was forced to roll a rock back up a hill. Yeah. Yeah.

And so anytime there's a big argument that's going on when the argument isn't really about what's being argued over, we say, I think this is not about the rock. Yeah, that is correct. And I don't always have like a term for it. But like, you know, John and I, we often say to each other, we don't want to make the walkman, which is a thing. Yeah. Anything that's going to get made by someone else, and it's going to be just as good or better if someone else does it. Let the other person do it. Yeah, let just let them do it.

Yeah. If it's going to happen anyway, and it's not going to be worse if they do it. Yeah, so a lot of times when Hank has an idea, I say that seems like a Walkman thing. But I don't always have a word for it. I have this thing that I remember all the time that there are many things in media

that I'm experiencing for like the fifth time and to meet as a trope. But for people who are, you know, this new piece of media is their first introduction to this. It's fresh and new for them. Like Christopher Paley needs, Eragon books. Use a similar style of magic that Ursula Laguan uses.

And to me, it was like, oh, like that. So that wasn't fresh, but for some people it is. And so I like to always try and remember that everybody is experiencing media differently because they have experience to different media. Yeah, like a lot of times even critics will say that somebody popularized something or that somebody is responsible for some trend in YA

fiction. And I'll think like, no, I mean, Jackie Woodson did that 25 years ago or Walter Dean Myers did that 40 years ago. And it frustrates me from both angles where like someone's in credit for something someone else has done or somebody's getting criticized for doing someone else, someone has done. I'm like, no, it's neither of those. Yeah. Those are both wrong. Everybody is building on each other's thoughts and works and drawing from the same words. Each one of those words was created by a group of people somewhere. I think the reason this is such a problem is because we like to imagine that the greatest books are made by individual geniuses and that they are truly revolutionary and unprecedented.

We still want this tale of the genius who arrives from nowhere, the Shakespeare who lands upon the shores and writes Hamlet in three weeks. Like we just love that story so much. But in the end, like we're being troped by a trope. I can't just not how it works. Yeah. How much is a lock of hair?

How much is a lock of hair? How much is a lock of hair? It's, I thought about this. It's more than 100 hairs, but it's less than 1,000. You think I think you could get a lock of hair with 75 hairs. It's more than 50 hairs, but it's less than a thousand. You think I think you could get a lock of hair with 75 hairs. It's more than 50 hairs, but it's less than 800. I was recently going through a bunch of stuff from Catherine's parents that they gave us,

and I found some of Catherine's mom's baby hair. Oh, I know. It's a, but it's like, wow, hair. Yeah, that's stuff. It lasts. That's stuff it lasts that stuff lasts We should we should build things out of this Before we get to the all important news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon I just want to read this from Diana who writes dear John and Hank

I've been wanting to keep a gratitude journal to change my neural pathways and be more mindful a few weeks ago John mentioned he is doing this with a curse cookcocard journal, and I can't find that on the internet. Help. Yeah. What the heck is it? Is it better than the other options? I think it's better than the other options. I've tried other gratitude journals. This one is my favorite. I don't think that you need a formal gratitude journal to keep a gratitude journal. Like, my kids do it in a college-ruled notebook and that works fine for them. So, I'm not putting like pressure on you to purchase something, but this particular gratitude journal is beautiful and I do really like it. And it's made by the people at Kurtz Gzot. I think I said that right. I probably didn't close enough. Here's what you do. You type in gratitude journal and then

you type K-U-R-Z-G. And that should be enough. And if it's not, just kind of go symphonic on the keyboard and just see where it takes you. Kurtz, yes, it's a German word, Kurtz Gzot. You'll get there. You can do it. It starts with KURZ. Yeah, and it is German for In-N-N-N-N-T-Shell. So if you also search for In-N-N-N-T-Shell, you will find it.

That's true. All right, Hank, what's the news for Mars this week? And news from Mars this week, researchers are working on the next generation of Martian aircraft by turning to cardboard to inspire that next generation. It comes out of the University of Pennsylvania where a group of scientists have designed these tiny flyers that are about as heavy as a fruit fly using a special material called Nano-Cardboard, which is not cardboard.

It is a hollow plate made of aluminum oxide walls that are only a few nanometers thick. The cardboard part comes from, I don't understand this, just for clarity. So I'm gonna say what this, I'm gonna give you my best approximation of what's happening. There's ridges inside the cardboard that are formed by microchannels along the plate,

and they help this thing levitate, because if one side heats up, then it creates this temperature gradient that pushes gas through it in a process called thermal creep, so whatever that is. And then you could use that airflow to make these things hover. And what you need to do is to heat up one side of it, and so you do that with lasers. So you shoot one side of the cardboard with a laser and then you can sort of steer it around with the laser, like which part of the cardboard you're pointing at changes the direction that it will move in the air. And researchers, I want to use this

levitating ability to fly things around on Mars, maybe. So they're testing it in a low pressure chamber that mimics the Martian environment, and while they could be used in a number of different ways, Mars is appealing because it has thin atmosphere and a weak gravity that mean that it could potentially carry a decent amount of stuff on the cardboard, like sensors or even like samples that it gathers from the air or from dust in the air or something like that. So that, wow, is something that they are thinking about is sort of lasering these tiny little

flat fruit fly weight slabs around Mars to see if they can sense more of the planet. They couldn't land except back where they came from or they would never get back up again. That is really genuinely mind blowing. Yes, weird. I don't know if I don't know if we're ever going to do this, but it's cool. That is very cool and very, very weird. Well, the news from AFC Wimbledon is also cool and encouraging the AFC Wimbledon Foundation, as I talked about last time Hank has really taken on a lot of community work. This is included getting laptops or tablets to kids.

It is also included lots and lots of setting up outside of grocery stores so that people who are in need can supplement their groceries with free groceries, as well as delivering food to people who are in need. And this has become such a big thing that the Don's Local Action Group, which you can follow on Twitter at Don's Local Action, they were on TV, and also I hear that other people who are doing this work are also wearing yellow and blue Even though they are not football fans and do not understand why we wear yellow and blue And I find that so cool. I find that very lovely and moving that AFC Wimbleton fans have started something that is now, you know, spreading to the wider community

even outside of football. It's really, that's just so beautiful. So thank you to all of the volunteers who've been working so hard and taking this time away from football to do some some big, important good in the community. Awesome. Thanks, John. And thanks to everybody who sent in your questions, you can do that using our email address hankinjohnatgemail.com. We didn't get to very many questions today. Boy, we didn't. Sorry. Well, we'll save some of these ones for next week, I think, because there were a bunch of good ones that we didn't get to.

But you can email us at hankinjohnatgemail.com to for that. We're off now to record our Patreon exclusive podcast. This week in pretty good stuff. This podcast is edited by Joseph Tune of Medicine. It's produced by Rosiana Halsey and Sheridan Gibson. Our communications coordinator is Paola Garcia-Prieto and the music you're hearing now at the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola.

And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. you