Dear Hank & John - 454: Flippin’ Heck

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

How do I adjust to a new school? Are ducks up to something? Why are puzzles so satisfying? Do ocean mammals drink salt water? How did Hank come up with 2D glasses? If the sun disappeared, would earth eventually find another star to orbit? …Hank and John Green have answers!If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail] us for monthly livestreams at patreon.com/dearhankandjohnProduced for Hank and John Green by ComplexlySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Real quick, everybody, straight message. Here from Hank Green, I have had a really weird career. I've done a lot of really cool things. But by far the thing that I get thanked for the most in public and am most proud of and am most amazed by, because, of course, like, this is not a thing that I did. It is a thing that many people did that I helped with is Crash Course. YouTube.com slash Crash Course. It is really good.

It helps people learn in situations where they need that help. It helps lower the barrier to getting information. information in your head. We've never charged anybody for it. We've never advertised it. We've never convinced a school board to buy it. The only reason people use Crash Course is because a student decides to use it because they think that it's going to help them or a teacher decides to use it because they think they're going to help their student. That's how we want Crash Course to be. The only reason it's successful is because people are choosing to use it. And I know that sounds crazy, but in educational media, that is not often how things go. But there are two true things

about the world. Number one, making Crash Course is expensive. It's a lot more expensive than making the average YouTube video because you got to get things right. You got to have consultants. You got to have a lot of review. And a second thing that's true is that some people, and not most, but some people have extra money. And this is the only reason that Crash Course works. It is because some people who can pay for it so that not everyone else has to. And now that Complexly is a nonprofit, that's a thing that happened this year, Complexly, the parent company of Crash Course is a nonprofit. So we belong structurally, officially, to the public. And so that, That's going to help out with this situation. And the other thing that helps out is that right now, the 2026

CrashCoursecoin is here and is only available until May 29th at CrashCoreScoin.com. Not everybody has the money to buy a CrashCoursecoin, but everybody has the time to consider whether or not they're the person who should. And if you just considered that, you've done the job because some of you considered it and said, you know, actually I am. And some of you considered it and said, no, I need to make responsible financial decisions right now. That's all I'm asking. Everybody who considered it did their job, and the ones who realized that they could financially support CrashCores, those people, they are now going to CrashCorescoin.com, right? They are now on their way to CrashCorescoin.com to get these beautiful coins. Every coin helps us reach thousands

of learners and your purchase is tax deductible, which I am told I should mention. It also happens to be true. You can find more of the specifics at CrashCourseCoin.com because the 26 CrashCourseCoin is available for only a short window. If you could support the that Crash Course does, please do. It is so great. They do such a good job, and they provide so much value for the world. They should be able to do more. Go to Crash CourseCoyne.com.

You're listening to a Complexly podcast. And welcome to Dear Hank and John. Or as I prefer to think of it, dear John and Hank. It's a podcast where Two Brothers answer your questions, give you devious advice, and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, what did the ducks say after he bought his chapstick? Quack?

Just put it on my bill. Oh, yes. Of course, that's what the duck said. Hank, it's my 20th anniversary today. I am recording a pod in the midst of my 20th anniversary celebration. Why? Also, what are you doing? Because I need ideas.

I was told this. I was told this was a requirement or I wouldn't be doing it. Thank you. I didn't tell you that, but I'm sure somebody did. And I appreciate you doing it. I, we're just going out to dinner. We're not doing anything fancy. We, um, we've been traveling so much, both of us for work that we just really wanted a week at home. So it's been nice to have a week at home. And, uh, this is a beautiful time of year in Indianapolis. The trees are lush and it's raining

all the time and it's just, it's great. I love it. I'm so, the plants are in the ground, all the pepper plants with my mom, also your mom, that we used to make hot sauce every year. It's just great. I am living in the spring dream. I wish I was out there. It's the time of year to be here. Getting drizzled on while I tend to the peppers. There you go. That's what you're correctly imagining. The other day I was sitting in here just like what my wife calls clicky-clacky, you know, just type in a way. Never clear what I'm never clear what I'm never clear what. I'm typing, but I'm always typing something. It could be so many different things.

I do say that that is the job of the influencer. Everyone thinks it's a lot of glamour, but it is mostly clicky-clacky. Clicky-clacky. So I was in here clicking and clackin, and I looked up and I saw our, you know, 75-year-old parents, like kneeling in the garden, working away as I clicked and clacked, and I felt a little guilty. It felt a little like I wasn't pulling my weight in the garden. Yeah. Hank, what is the point of it all? Oh.

You know, that's what they come to Dear Hank and John for. That is. We don't get that question that often, but I feel like it's beneath a lot of them. You know, people are trying to get to what's the point of it all. But they're getting at it through. My roommate wants to put this poster up and I don't. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, really, the question underneath all the question. is what the hell are we doing? And it's a great question. To some extent, though, it is interesting to have a nine-year-old because he, that question isn't under anything. There's no what is the point of it all for Oren yet, nor for my cats, you know? They don't think about what the point of it all is. They're like, like the point is to do what I want to do right now, which is go outside and

eat meat. That's the cat life. So, but, you know, we ended up the way that we ended up. And so what is the point of it all actually seems to matter quite a lot? Yeah. We actually get into this and I've just listened to our episode of humans, which we recorded together. I was about to ask you about humans. We know the answer to that question.

We talk about it in that podcast, which is the rock is better than nothing. And if a rock is better than nothing, then a lot of other things become true. Yeah. Yeah. Two rocks become better than one rock. Yeah. A person becomes better than a rock. Yeah.

I mean, there's a number of other steps on the way, but yeah, I would agree. A person is better than a rock. Yeah. And if you're able to make those value judgments, you can make some other value judgments. We should mention that Hank has a new podcast coming out. It's called Humans. It's an interview show. Hank and I are becoming sort of, I would say, de-list McElroy's, where we are launching

pods within pods. So I have a new podcast about the World Cup called The Away End with my friend, the brilliant Peruvian novelist Danielle Aracon. Hank has this podcast, Humans, where he interviews a huge variety of humans on the subject of being a human. And we've got Dear Hank and John. And that's not even to mention the universe with Katie Mac, our attempt to explain the entire history of the universe. There's also SciShow Tangents, which you can still listen to and even delete this, which you never know. Could we could. Could come back.

Could come back at any moment. Could come back any day. Same thing with the Anthropocene reviewed. The other day, I almost recorded an episode of The Anthropocene reviewed, but then I made it a project for awesome. Oh, good for you. Good for you. That makes sense. And humans launch is basically in a week.

So the day you're listening to this, it's, if it's around when it came out, then you got a week, but you can go subscribe to it right now. That was a very strange sentence. It was. I didn't do great. I will fess up to the fact that I didn't do. do great. And no McElroy would have allowed that to end up in a finished pod. Yeah, but it's in this one. I know. I know it is. What I'm saying is the day that this podcast comes out is a week before the

first episode of humans comes out, which is with me and John. It's going to be very similar to this, just a little more serious. It's a little more existential. There's some funny moments, but it's a little more existential. But let's say on the topic of existential with this question from Evan, who writes, Dear John and Hank, my name is Evan and I am nine years old. I am changing schools next year and I don't know what it will be like.

I'm concerned about what my new school will do differently from my old school. Do you have any tips about making new friends or starting somewhere new? Older than seven, but not 11, Evan. P.S., I know you're a top podcast for teens and sleeping and everything, but your podcast is my favorite thing to do

when I bring him to school in the mornings. Thanks for sharing your pod with us. I think that's from a parent. It does indeed say dad. Oh, yes. It's fantastic. What a lovely, it's, I cannot believe the spot that we have earned in Evan's life. Yeah, it's a real honor. Remember Ian Scholes? We are Ian Scholes to Evan. Yes. We have a seat at the table in Evan's young life as he goes through these difficult things. Now, part of the reason this is hard, Evan, is probably because you've never done it before, right? So when you're doing anything for the first time, it's hard. And, you know, now, If I were to enter a new school, it would still be stressful, but it would be a lot less stressful.

And that'll be the case for a new school, right? Like the first day, it'll be really hard and a little stressful and overwhelming. You'll have support from teachers and everything, but it'll still be, it'll still feel overwhelming, I'm sure. And the second day will feel a little easier. And it won't be a straight line where like every day gets easier. But it will get easier over time so that by October or November, you'll be looking back at yourself in August or September and saying, wow, I've made a long journey from that young man. And here's the crazy thing, Evan, if you can believe it.

But you had a first day at your current school. Yep. And that also was hard. And it was probably harder on the first day than it was on the second and harder on the second day than it was on the third. That's kind of how it is. And also, it's so easy for our minds to obscure that we've done all of these first things before. Yeah. Especially when they work out.

Like when they work out, they don't feel like. the risk that they were. Right. That's a great point. But it's important to learn how to take risks of it and that's a big part of what you're doing. So you're doing it. You're doing the life thing. You're doing the person thing. And in the end, I think that's what it's all about is doing the thing. You know, being a person in the world in the context of other people. And you're doing that with your family and you're going to be doing that with your new friends at school next year. man all right Hank I got another question for you it's from Andy who writes dear John and Hank there are four ducks that always hang out on my cul-de-sac I don't live near any sort of water

every time I see them I feel like ducks are awesome and I should love them but they are also always a little bit looking like they're up to something should I love ducks or are ducks some sort of nefarious and conniving animal that's just putting on a front just winging it Andy John are the ducks up to something yeah I mean almost certainly right like In the same way that, you know, humans are reshaping our planet in profound ongoing ways without really trying to. So are the ducks, man. Yeah, so are the ducks. And also, like, the great news, this is great news.

We aren't letting the ducks do whatever. Right. They are still limited by their environment in a way that we are not. Yes. That has turned out to be complex, you know? Yeah. Complex for the earth and for us. But the ducks, they're still in their reign.

We were on a call recently with a Nobel laureate who pointed out that we have the ability now for the first time. It was a little bit of a brag. We pointed out that we have the ability now for the first time in human history to solve world-sized problems. And that's really true, right? But also, it's the first time in human history where we have the ability to create world-sized problems. They're both true. One thing you can say about a group of ducks on a cul-de-sac, they cannot create a world-sized problem. Are they up to something?

Maybe. Probably, especially if they're not near water. But not climate change, you know? Right. Right. Yeah. They're not up to a sixth extinction. Yeah, they're not making a 2,500th nuclear warhead.

Yeah. Right. That's a great point, Hank. Not doing that. No, they're not creating like duck chatbots that allow you. to have your own personalized conversation with an imagined duck. It wants up with duck fertility rates. They're stable.

They're super stable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably going up a little bit because they're just getting better at living around people. Well, they're clearly getting sex. Yeah, if they're able to live far away from any form of water, then like they are evolving. It's hilarious. These ducks are like moving in on the pigeons turf. I can see mallards becoming as ubiquitous and as annoying as pigeons. Oh, man, I tell you what, like, they're beautiful birds. And so are pigeons.

Yeah, no, pigeons are crazy thing about starlings and pigeons. And to some extent, seagulls, certain seagulls. No, but red-wing blackbirds, I'll give you. Oh, for sure. House Finch's gorgeous birds. Yeah. We just like, we get used to these animals, but the mallards are gorgeous, beautiful, beautiful birds. If they were rare, we would be astounded by them. That's right. You know what we would really be astounded by if it were rare?

What? Humans. Like the human capacity for sacrifice and compassion and wonder and cruelty and all of that stuff. Like, we would just be like, well, we would treat. Imagine a world where we're all raccoons. And there's a new intro to my podcast. And there's like 200 humans. Yeah.

Well, raccoons was a bad choice because there's a lot of those. No, no, no, but imagine a world where we, you and I are all raccoons. Okay. And there's like, you and I are raccoons,

eating our trash. But like we've got semi-opposable thumbs. We can get stuff done. We can turn on the faucet outside. Yeah. You know, if we need to. We've got qualia. There's something that it's like to be a raccoon, but, you know, we're not having abstract thoughts or symbolic language.

We're not creating constellations out of the stars. Yeah. Right? But we're able to get stuff done and we're pretty, we're a really interesting species, right? Raccoons are really, a really interesting species. And then imagine that there's like 200 humans. Yeah. Maybe in like three or four different total clumps.

Uh-huh. As the raccoons, we would be like, what the flipping hell? Heck. Look at their ability to collaborate. I'm glad that Evan reminded us that we are a top podcast for people between the ages of 7 and 11 so that you could say flippin' heck just there. Flipping heck. But yeah, no, very weird. But John, let me make you a proposal.

What if humans are rare? That's a great point. Humans are really rare, right? We're rare in like two dimensions. First in the, you know, it's a big universe dimension. And second, and this has been a bit of a blink, especially in terms of there being a lot of us. Oh, yeah. Although of the humans who have been born, about half were born before Jesus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but a lot at the same time is different from a lot over a long time. Not only that, Jesus was relatively recently. Oh, very. You know, even in the context of human history, we've got 298,000 years before Jesus and then 2,000 years since. So, yeah, we're just, we are just getting started. Yeah, the fact that we even know that guy's name indicates that it wasn't that long ago. So true.

Most of the guys' names, not around. Yeah, we don't even know when people started having names, really. Oh. I'm trying to do this research. and I know I made the video about this forever ago and it's, you know, I haven't talked about it, but like research takes a while and also I'm not the most focused person

on whether, on how many names we know because I've decided that names are a word. Like John is a word for Johns. And John Green is a word for you. And I am somewhat convinced that some very large portion of the words I know are names. Right, because I know the name... And I'd like to know what the number is.

I probably know the name of 500 footballers. Yeah. Independent of the 500 people I know whose names I know, independent of, you know, Troy Savon and Alice Walker. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a great pull, John, to get both Alice Walker and Troy Savon indicates that, in fact, John Green knows a great deal of names.

I don't want to brag, but that might be the first time. that Troy Sivan and Alice Walker have appeared in the same sentence. It's possible. They don't tend to appear together. Whatever your mind did, to find them both is remarkable.

But yeah, there's just a great artists, you know? But also, we got to consider a lot of fictional people. Like, I know who Bill Bow Bagan's is. Right. And I also know that, like, the name of the ship in the expanse, the Rosinante. That's messed up. That's also a name.

kind of. Yeah, I don't remember that, but I remember the USS Enterprise. Yeah. Anyway, today's podcast is brought to you by names. Names. It's 16 minutes in. We have a lot of them. Sorry for the early ad break, y'all.

This podcast, I wasn't ready at all. It's also brought to you by Troy Savon. Troy Savon, whatever he's up to, I bet it's great. We are fans, genuinely. Yeah, he's a nice guy. Today's pot, don't know bragging. Today's podcast is also brought to you by the Nobel laureate. Hank and I were on the phone with.

Indeed. Indeed, we're not going to tell you the name of because it may come to something. Yeah, right. I mean, we weren't on the phone for fun. We were on the phone for work. Yeah. And this podcast was brought to you by ducks. Ducks. Ducks. Up to something. All right, Hank. We're back with a question from Emma who writes, Dear John and Hank, why are puzzles so satisfying? Surely there's no evolutionary reason why putting little pieces into little perfectly shaped places, scratches, little itches in my brain. Please reply by Pigeon, Post, or podcast, whichever comes fast as yours, Emma. Emma, you are so wrong. Yeah, unfortunately, you're mistaken.

That is indeed exactly. There is super strong evolutionary impulses to build things out of things, to find things that have not yet been found to, to take disorder and make it into order. Very strong. Also just to notice little patterns inside of bigger patterns, right? Yeah, very satisfying. Not just satisfying. It's satisfying because on an evolutionary scale, that means that you're noticing the edible berry amidst the plant. And you're like, that feels good.

It's like in evolution's best interest to make you like that because it's an evolution's best interest to make you like being alive, at least a little. You know? There's evolutionary pressure toward for our ancestors. There was evolutionary pressure toward figuring stuff out. Yeah. And not just, I think there's still evolutionary pressure on figuring stuff out. Yeah. I mean, evolutionary pressure is very weird in the modern era.

I can't guess much about it. But yeah, the reward circuits are there and puzzles, all kinds of puzzles, you know, whether it's a crossword puzzle or a 2,000 piece puzzle or, you know, like reading a mystery novel. All of those things are like, they are activating that thing that is rewarding about discovering things about the world. I also think it's about the reward of building a picture. I think it's like an act of, it's an artistic act. And I think artistic acts go all the way back. Thousand piece puzzles are like a big puzzle is also really fun because, it starts out hard and it gets easier and easier as you go.

Yeah. Like every piece you place is one that is no longer in the pool. In which respect, it is not like life. I mean, it's like certain parts of life. I feel like being 26 was harder than being 45. Oh, yeah, no, for sure, for sure. There's like pieces of the puzzle that are placed, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There is something terrible about when you're, when everything is still possible when you could still do anything and still have any life. It seems like a wonderful feeling but in fact it gets old really fast. Yeah, and a puzzle is such an interesting metaphor for that. I know.

Thank you. That's what I was trying to point out. But except that like you can construct the puzzle like a puzzle has one finished product Whereas when you are constructing the puzzle of your life, you're placing pieces and then you can pick one up and move it. And like, you never know what the picture is that you're making and you can do it in any number of ways. And it always, you'll always think, ah, what if I built it a little bit different? Maybe you won't, but I will.

Can I tell you how I'm feeling right now, Hank? I feel like when you explained my metaphor back to me, it's like when, it's like if you went back in time and said to William Shakespeare, like, you know, I think, I think Ham, is about the struggle to make a decision. Yeah, well, you haven't won a MacArthur Genius Grant, so... God, flippin' heck. Maybe your metaphor is not that good. I was building upon your metaphor. It wasn't that good.

I know it wasn't that good, but it's just like the fact that you win and like... elucidated it for me when it wasn't that good. I mean, if it had been that good, then everybody had been like, oh, yeah, but no, everybody already had it. John, can I ask you a question? That comes from Auden. Yeah, please. Auden asks, Dear Hank and John, the other night, my five-year-old son, my wife and I were talking about how the many mysteries of the ocean. And I asked, as a joke, do ocean mammals drink salt water?

And then we realized we actually didn't have an answer. So instead of seeking out an instant Googled answer, we tried the old school, way of calling our friends and family who might know. That's lovely. To our surprise, no one knew, and they were all equally perplexed. So can you help? We still haven't looked it up. Pumpkins and penguins, Auden, not a building castle. Auden. Duboki and I spent a lot of time on this, and we just kept uncovering more questions. Really? Yeah. So you know where a lot of marine mammals get their fresh water? Where?

By eating ocean life, which is weird because why aren't the fish salty? They live in the ocean. And then I thought to myself, are fish salty? And then I thought to myself, no, I've eaten them. Right, right. So they're definitely not. They're not salty. They're sort of, that tastes like fresh water.

And so far as it tastes like water. Yeah, yeah, you got to salt the fish. There are some ocean like crab has a little bit of the salty flavor. I've never had an oyster because I'm allergic to that kind of fish, that kind of fish. Yeah, maybe. I mean, everything's a fish, Hank. That's not true. There's no such thing as a fish.

It's all a construct, buddy. Just for clarity, oysters are one thing that are definitely not fish. None of the definitions of fish include oyster, though once they did, I think. You live in the ocean. Yeah, yeah. There was a time when like a starfish was a fish and a jellyfish was a fish. Yeah, I mean, Hank, there's two, broadly speaking, there's two kinds of things. There's fish, which is everything that lives underwater and then there's land.

I mean, this is very Galen of you, you know? This is very like, yeah, I'm fine with this. Wait a hear about my four humors. I actually have no idea what Galenal thought about fish. I'm just like guessing. They had weird ideas back in the day. And certainly marine mammals were fish. Though, where do you draw the line?

Seals? Not really. I don't live in there all the time. That's true. Salamanders. Anyway, go on. Go on. How does the fish get the fresh water?

It's just like there's a constant battle. And in fact, freshwater fish have to increase the amount of salt in their bodies. And salt water fish have to decrease the amount of fish in their bodies. Salt? Not fish. No, fish. They have to decrease the amount of fish in their bodies. I stand by what I said. Okay. I've learned anything from being on the internet for 20 years, it's to immediately double down. Actually, many fish would like to increase the number of fish in their bodies because they're predators.

But it seems like, and we weren't able to get all the way down this rabbit hole, but it seems like there's like an optimal amount of salt concentration in a body, which makes sense because there's a lot of like ion gradient stuff going on with cells that makes so. that the body works at all of a fish or of a whale. And so they all have to like kind of be at a pretty freshwater vibe. And there's just a huge amount of life in the ocean, like energy of ocean life, goes toward decreasing the amount of salt in their bodies. And this is true of marine mammals, but it is also true of the fish. Hmm. Hmm. So there are some marine mammals that will actually seek out fresh water.

Like sometimes you'll see manatees. showing two places where there's fresh water coming into and they'll actually like drink there. And but seals will eat snow. But when it comes to the big ones, we're not 100% sure. We think that they're very good at filtering saltwater out of their bodies, but they are certainly preferentially trying to find sources of fresh water, which may just often be their food. Fascinating. Yeah. That's kind of how I get a lot of my water is like just eating cantaloupes.

Yeah, I love, oh man, I love a cold liquid explosion in my mouth, just a watermelon ball, a grape, a big old grape, a cold grape. What about gushers that chewing gum that has a little bit of liquid inside? I mean, I'm fine with them, maybe if I chilled them, but I do like the liquid explosion to be cold. All right, we got another question, Hank. This one's from Michael who says, Dear John and Hank, John always gives Hank a hard time about not understanding optics. I want to be clear, Michael, I also don't understand optics. Yeah. I think the number of people who understand optics,

like the number of people who really understand the details of how a mirror works is pretty low. It's pretty low. It's that in nuclear engineers have some specialized knowledge. But anyway, at the same time, John is always very quick to point out that Hank invented 2D glasses that render three-dimensional movies in a crisp of two dimensions. Did Hank's understanding of optics just peek early or are 2D glasses very odd? Optically simple. Oh, good sign off. In 2D Epe, Michael.

Oh, that's good. That's good. Oh, God. All right. So the answer is that 2D glasses are beyond simple. They're so simple. They're so simple. Well, I mean, I'll tell you.

Pitch us your incredibly complicated idea for 2D glasses. 3D glasses are not simple. I don't really understand how 3D glasses work because it's about polarized light. light can polarize and you can do a thing to a lens to make it either come through or not depending on the polarization of the light. And by the lens, I mean a plastic film. So the way the 3D glasses work is that one of the eyes is polarized in one direction and the other is polarized in another direction. And then the light that is projected onto the screen is polarized into those directions. so that one movie basically gets into one eye

and the other movie gets into the other eye and then you perceive the effect of a 3D image. In order to get a 2D image, you just have to block one of the things in both eyes. Instead of letting one through and the other through, you let the same one through both eyes. And so I reached out to a company that makes 3D glasses and I said, could you make 3D glasses?

And I said, could you make 3D glasses that had the same polarization film in each eye? And they replied and said, I mean, yes, but that would ruin the 3D effect. And I said, perfect. They were like, yeah, I mean, we can do it, but it's going to render a 3D movie in crisp two dimensions. It doesn't make any dang sense. And then Hank sold 100,000 of them. I did sell a stupid amount of 2D glasses. Thanks.

Did you know that they wanted me to go on Shark Tank with 2D glasses? Did they really? They did. They were like, they were like, come and present 2D glasses to the sharks. And I was like, no, no, no, I've seen that show.

I know which guy I'd be. Yeah. It's like when you're not a good singer and they call you back to do the special audition in front of the judges for American Idol. You're like, uh-oh. Yeah. And honestly, I'm glad I'm not in business with Kevin O'Leary.

Let's be honest. No joke, man. I mean, Hank can't handle regular capital investors. He can barely handle me as an investor. Like, the idea of Hank having to handle Mark Cuban is beyond the pale. Oh, God. What a weird world. So yeah, I said no to Shark Tank.

They were like, come fly to New York. And I was like, that's not happening. It's hard to get Hank on an airplane these days, any days. It's always been there. Yeah, no, even back in 2015 when I was the CEO of 2D glasses. I think it was closer to 2010. You're right. I don't know when anything happened.

It was a long, long time ago. A lot of water under the bridge since then. You can still buy 2D glasses. It's just that 3D movies aren't not much of a thing anymore. Yeah. No, I mean, but if you, you know, they're still available at DFTVA.com. All right, let's answer one more question, Hank, before we get to the all-important news from Mars and AFC Wimbled, and this is from Martina who writes, Dear John and Hank, but mostly, Hank, you recently discussed what would happen to Earth if the sun disappeared.

If the sun disappeared, if the sun disappeared, we lose light, but we would also lose our orbit around the sun, because the gravity that's pulling us toward it ceases to exist, right? So now we're catapulting through space really, really fast, which seems kind of terrible for a bunch of reasons. But it made me wonder if this might lead us to find another star to orbit. Surely if we slingshot it in the right direction, we'd eventually find another bit of gravity to hang on to. Could we survive if we found a star quick enough? How cooked would we be? Slinghots and sunsarshine, Martina. Ah, Martina.

Great thought. We would shoot off. So basically the moment the sun disappeared that the curvature of space time that it was created would no longer exist. And we would move off in a new direction, which I think would have no effect on us, Basically, obviously the sun not being there would have an effect on us physically. Would we still spin? Not reaching us. We would keep on spinning.

We would just be moving. And there's a very low chance. I mean, I'd probably say a practically zero percent chance that we'd run into another planet. Yeah. Because they'd all go off shooting in their own directions too. And there might be like a tiny possibility that we'd end up in orbit around Jupiter or something. but tiny. However, we're not going that fast right now in the scale of things.

So, yes, indeed, we would be well dead by the time we ever potentially encountered another star, which would probably never happen. The galaxy is very empty. And even if it did happen, we're talking on the order of like tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. I would actually say more like tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years, would be a guest. Yeah. So look, Martina, we're not going to be here for tens of millions of years regardless. That's what John thinks.

We have this fight on our first episode of humans coming out in one week. I feel like I need to be plugging the away end as hard as you're plugging humans. Probably I should plug my new book, Hollywood ending, available for pre-order now, now that I think about it. Anyway, I don't. I don't. I think that there is a lot that can go wrong, period. Which is the subtitle of John Green's new book, Hollywood ending. Hollywood comma ending.

A lot can go wrong. Hey, have you read my book yet, by the way? I'm like 40% of the way through. It's getting good. Oh, great. I'm glad it took 100 pages to get enjoyable. That's not what I mean. I see you setting the scene.

I know what's happening. It's so cool people. It's interesting things happening the whole time. Yeah. But then it starts to click into high gear. Yeah, it's getting messy. It gets a little messy. Things can go wrong.

Things can go wrong. The brighter the star, the more dangerous the star. Yeah, don't it. Yeah. True for both kinds of stars. Yeah. All right, Hank, it's time for the all-important news. from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. What's the news from Mars this week?

The news from Mars. We've found a strange thing happening in Mars's atmosphere. So the Maven Mission in 2023, scientists looking at data from the Maven Mission found evidence of charged particles looking like they were getting squeezed through a tube, which is weird. So charged particles can happen in the atmosphere of a planet and do, we have on the Earth, we have the ionosphere, which is a high layer of the atmosphere. where the sun is sending high-energy particles and it's ionizing molecules from the atmosphere. And Mars also has one of these. And on Earth, we have these ionized particles being squeezed through a tube vibe

because we have a magnetic field. And that's what happens. They are being directed by the magnetic field. And I'm like, why would that be happening on Mars? They don't have a magnetic field. By the day, I mean a planet and all of its rocks. Yeah. This has a name.

It's called the Zwan Wolf Effect, which is great. It helps us study solar winds. We've seen the Zwan Wolf effect in planetary magnetosphere. We've never seen it in an atmosphere of a planet with no magnetosphere, but now we are seeing it in Mars's ionosphere, and this is weird. It turns out that Mars does have like a weak magnetosphere of a kind that is made of the ionosphere, kind of. So it's just interactions between solar wind and the ionosphere. It's size and shape change with the solar wind and with space weather. So scientists think that the swan wolf effect might

always be going on up there, but only does it become observable during certain like solar weather. The exciting bit, this is new physics in Mars's atmosphere that we didn't know was possible, and it could become a tool for studying how Mars is affected by space weather. And I love that we call it space weather. We just didn't have a better term for this. Space weather is a great term. Yeah. Hank, there is a World Cup coming. I'm making a podcast about it called the away end. Yeah, it is. There's a World Cup coming. It is going to be an interesting World Cup. FIFA has tried very hard. FIFA has maybe flown too close to the sun when it comes to charging absurd prices and making it very difficult for people to attend games around the country. around the three countries where the World Cup is happening, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

It'll be very interesting to see how it all shakes out. But one, former AFC Wimbledon player will, of course, be playing in the World Cup. That's Iraq's own Ali al-Hamity. But the news from AFC Wimbledon is that you can watch, if you live in Southwest London, or indeed anywhere in London, you can watch England's games at AFC Wimbledon Stadium on the big screen at the Cherry Red Record Stadium all three of England's games it's 10 pounds but your first drink is free

so it's basically free I'm so excited for Ali al-Homody it's so cool that a former AFC Wimbledon player is going to be playing in the World Cup I mean that's just that's the big time Hank that's as big as it gets and I know it's going to be a tough tournament

for Iraq probably and like they're their underdogs in every game they're going to play and everything but it's just I got to of the World Cup. I mean, it's impossible. It's a whole world. It's the only thing that most humans pay attention to at the same time.

Oh, fascinating. It's the only thing we have where more than half of people are engaged in the same thing. And yet not me. Well, I still think we can win you over. Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. I mean, just watch a path. Just watch the World Cup and it'll happen naturally.

Just like turn on a game one time and don't listen to Alexie Lawless and just enjoy the World Cup. You're going to have to hit my phone with a hammer. But then I'll be there. Okay. I've got a problematic relationship with the phone. John, can I read you a, we also get what we call responses. We've got a response from someone named Frito. Dear Hank and John, Frito says, my take and instinct on.

Doritos as a Frito-Lay employee is to look at animals. It is interesting that Frito works for Frito-Lay. Seems like a strange coincidence. Foods high in fat sodium, sugar, calories in general, are often most appealing to animals. You do not have to look hard to see animals putting themselves in danger to get human food, be it seagulls and parking lots, raccoons in the dumpster, or bears raiding cabins. Mammals are especially well-conditioned at identifying the signatures of fats and sugars in food because our brain, are wired to reward us when we find it. So I believe any human alive at any time would likely enjoy the junk food that we make today,

chips and dips, Frito. And look, I do think that there was an amount of bias here as a Frito-Lay employee. But they agree with me. Okay, well, let me read you this response from Keat, who writes, Dear John and Hank, but mostly Hank, I am a red-blooded, freedom-loving American raised in the honest, hardworking heartland of our country. For my entire life, I have had access to both turnips and Doritos, and if given an opportunity to choose between the two, a hundred times out of a hundred, I will opt for the turnip. Though in the minority, I know what I like to eat, keat. So there you go.

And thus the argument that all humans would prefer Doritos to turnips has been refuted by one human, ergo you're wrong. And thus the brotherhood ends. Isn't that what they called the episode? What a clickbaity title. Yeah. Well, look, we're not in charge of that. No, we don't do that. We don't do the titles.

Don't let us do that. All right, Hank, well, thank you for potting with me. Thanks to everybody for listening. You can email us your questions at Hank and John at gmail.com. This podcast was edited by Linus Obenhouse. It was mixed by Joseph Tunamettish. Our marketing specialist is Brooke Shotwell. It's produced by Rosiana Halls,

Ohas and Hannah West. Our executive producer is Seth Radley. Our editorial assistant is to Boogie Truck Rivardi. The music hearing now, and at the beginning of the podcast is by the Great Gunnarola. And as they say at our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.