Dear Hank & John - 462: Socialist Ants

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

How do I make my sea anemones fight each other? Do I have a personality? Will I be reincarnated as an alien? How should I support my author friend? How do I fight imposter syndrome? How can I help Sierra Leone? Which Premier League team should I support? Can I still enjoy reading with a newborn baby? …Hank and John Green have answers!This episode was recorded July 22nd!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.

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Hello and welcome to dear Hank and John. Gors, I prefer to think of it, dear John and Hank. It's a podcast. For two brothers answer your questions, give you to be advice, and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon, John. Catherine recently said that I should do more lunges because it would be good for my knees and ankles.

And I said, well, that would be a huge step forward. All right, I'll allow it. Thank you. I appreciate you. I'm in a pretty good mood. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. Do you know what the

rook is called in French in chess? No. It's called the tour, which reminds me, we should talk about your tour. I'm going on tour, Hank, for Hollywood ending, my new book that comes out on September 22nd. Some of the events are already sold out, but there are still tickets at lots of places. You can find more at Hollywoodendingbook.com. I'm going to Toronto.

I'm going to Brooklyn, New York. I'm going to Birmingham, Alabama, where I went to high school, and where my conversation partner, I'm not sure I'm allowed to say this, but I'll just tell you, is going to be Saria Eurist Green, which I'm very excited about. Sarah Euris puts on a great show, and we both have deep connections to Birmingham. She grew up there. I went to high school there, so that'll be fun. Also going to Washington, D.C., Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Portland, Maine. I've never done a show in Maine before. That's where my brother and sister-in-law lives. Well, maybe they'll come if they're feeling generous. Ish. They don't live in Portland, but they ish. Okay, they live in Maine. They should come by.

They actually don't. They live in New Hampshire. Oh, okay. Well, still, they should come by. It's right on the river there. Yeah, no reason not to cross the state border if you have the chance to see the Hollywood ending tour. That's right. I'm also going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where much of Hollywood ending is set, so that feels appropriate.

I'm going to Gainesville, Florida, not too far from our childhood stomping grounds. No, yeah, but we hated Gainesville because that's where the Gators were from. That's right. We were seminal fans. I don't know how that happened to us, but we sure were. I remember I once chained a gator to a stop sign. It was a stuffed gator. Okay, I was like, that took a measure of courage that I thought you lacked. I'm also going to Nashville, Tennessee, and Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago, and St. Paul, Minnesota, and Kansas City, Missouri, and Tucson, Arizona, and Boise, Idaho, and San Diego, California, and Los Angeles, California.

So if you're in or near any of those places, please come see me on tour at Hollywoodendingbook.com. It's going to be so much fun. And every ticket comes with a free book. Do you know who your guest is going to be in San Diego? I do, but I can't say. Oh, I didn't know if we couldn't say yet. I'll just say it. It's going to be Hank Green. Noted American celebrity Hank Green. The Internet's Hank Green, 4x3 creator, 2D Glasses inventor Hank Green.

Creator of 4x3. Oh, goodness me. Actually, that thing about the Rook being called Tour, that might come up in a future four by three. So that's a bit of a hint. Oh, okay. For a future purple. Oh, that sounds very purple to me.

Yeah, indeed. That sounds very purple indeed. Well, Hank, I'm doing great in general. I'm very excited for the tour. I'm also nervous. As the book gets closer to being out, I feel more and more anxious about it. But there is nothing I can do now to make it better or worse. Absolutely.

I'll tell you, I have had so much experience doing this job. And then I'll be in, I was on a podcast interview yesterday and it got like kind of tricky. And I was scared. Oh yeah. No, you'll get the armpit sweat if it starts to get testy or tricky. Was it testy or tricky? It was tricky. It wasn't testy.

They wasn't testy. They were all very nice. But it was tricky. It was just difficult topics about like misinformation and how the internet is structured and what science is. And I was like, oh, gosh, I don't know if I got all my bricks in the right place. for this chat right now. I did an interview with Pablo Torre,

who's a brilliant journalist and great podcaster, and also the show is produced by a friend of mine from high school. So I did an interview with Pablo Torre, and he was like, what's it like to be the number two most band author in America? And I was like, not great. I don't love it. I would prefer to not be on that list

and not have to talk about this stuff. And I try to do what I always try to do, which is to center the actual heroes of the intellectual free. Freedom Story, who are teachers and librarians, not novelists. And then he started to read the passage from Looking for Alaska that results in the book being banned so often. And I haven't read Looking for Alaska Hank in 21 years, okay?

Like, it has been half my life since I wrote that book and half my life since I read it. And he started to read it out loud. And my armpits were pouring sweat. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we keep sticking our necks out, man. I know.

Why do we do it? I told some people that I didn't want to do any press for this book because you've read the book. You know what it's about. And they were like, well, that's not realistic. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not real. You can't not do it.

And it's like, well, I guess I should have just not written a book, I guess? Yeah. I mean, I could not do it if I really wanted to. But I want to be a good steward of the book. I want the book to reach a broad audience. I want it to find the people who are going to care about it. And so you get torn between these competing interests. And you tell yourself a story that makes it make sense for you to go and do those interview shows again.

Yeah. And you never, it's crazy because you never know what the problem's going to be. You think that making like a cute little word game like Smush, adorable. No problems in Smush. Yep. And then, you know, it's like, oh, but what words are? Yeah. What constitutes a word?

We have to choose a word. We have to choose, like, we have to decide what bad words are. Sometimes a dictionary might not think that a word that I quite don't like, it shouldn't be put into the categories of like for review and it pops it into the system. You're like, ah! Oh, man, I'll tell you what. Yeah. You never know. You never know what you're taking on.

You never know what you're taking on in this world. All you can do is your best. And that's what we try to do. And that reminds me actually of our first question, Hank. It's from Mariam, who is trying to do her best. Merriam writes, dear John and Hank, I'm a marine biology student, and for an independent project, I'm making sea anemones fight each other. When this species of anemone fights, it covers its foes in stinging cells from special fighting tentacles.

For my project, I have a group of anemones whose only job is to cover my study subjects in stinging cells. The problem is that these anemones are cowards. They will not attack my subjects. They will not inflate their fighting tentacles, and they keep trying to escape their cages. Actually, get me out of here. I wouldn't say they're cowards. I would say they're heroes. It sounds amazing.

They just want to live free lives, Mary. I have a lot of respect for these little spiky boys suddenly. Brothers, how do I make these brainless invertebrates fight each other? Any and all dubious advice is appreciated. They're not actually spiky. I'm sorry. Nor do I thought sea anemones and sea urchins were the same thing for a moment. There was a nice long pause when you were reading that question, John, when you said when this species of anemony

fights. Yeah. Because you were skipping over anthoplura elegantissimo, which I just, you know, come on, John, give it a try. No, I couldn't. Just because of the way I'm filming today, the screen is a little bit further away from me than usual, which means I can only read at a very specific distance with any clarity. So anyway, what are we going to do, Hank? How are we going to get these sea enemies to fight each other?

First, we're going to call them anemones, and they're going to be like, that's not what we're called. They're like, we're not enemies? Oh, anemones. You got to stop calling anemones and call them anemones, because they are enemies. That might work. I mean, I think it's going to not work since I don't know that they can hear. Yeah, they can't.

they probably can detect some vibrations in water. I'm not sure they can speak English, though. I think what you, and I certainly don't know that they can speak English to a degree that they're going to get a pun and get mad about it like I do. You're not mad because you're calling them enemies? You're just mad because it's a pun? I'm just mad because you're making a dad joke when we established that the dad joke portion of the program is at the very start and only once.

Another thing you could do is deprive them of resources, but tell them that the reason they're being resource deprived is because of the other, not because of some larger power structure? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The larger power structure has to be invisible, which is great because they're anemones. Yeah. And so it's probably going to be. Yeah.

But also, we find it to be invisible so often. We do, and we're supposed to be smart. Yeah. I wish I had actual advice. Like, I really wish I had, like, I'm like, okay, Hank Green Science, Brandon. I'm like, I know nothing about these guys. I know nothing. Well, I mean, I think that I have actual advice to.

deprive them of resources until they become angry and spiteful. They might become, yeah, that's actually worth a try. Well, it's certainly what power structures do to maintain their power sometimes. For sure, it works. So I assume it works among CNNEs. I'm getting less confident as we go. Let's move to another question. Okay.

This question comes from Chloe, who asks Steer Hank and John. During my time in middle school, I was told a group of girls who I thought were my friends. said that I, quote, have no personality. And ever since then, that thought has stuck in my head. I feel like I'm hyper aware of every time I can't carry a conversation. And I feel painfully awkward in most social situations. I never feel like I know what to say. Do I have a personality?

Could I really know if I don't? How do I get a personality if I didn't have one before? Spiraling and existential dread, Chloe. Chloe, I would submit that if you didn't have a personality, you wouldn't feel the existential dread about something that happened in middle school. This is such a classic example of a phenomenon that is pretty much universal, which is that someone said something to you in middle school and it's stuck so hard that you can't ever let go of it. Even though you understand intellectually that middle schoolers are maybe like the least qualified people in human history to comment on other people because they don't have the capacity to pay meaningful attention to other people. and also because like you're not fully formed Chloe like they're not fully formed you're not fully formed like of course your personality is not what it's eventually going to be neither is theirs yeah yeah middle school judgments are probably not the closest thing to the accurate readings of a human soul no but they feel so accurate because i think like as you get older people have more social inhibitions and so they don't say things like Chloe you have no personality and so you just assume that's

that's what they're thinking because you assume that they're inhibiting their what they want to say to you, which is that you have no personality. I tried to channel this a little bit in turtles all the way down when Daisy says that Aza is kind of like mustard. Like a little bit of her is great, but a lot of her is too much, which is such a horrible thing to say to a person, but also so like dang memorable and sticky. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And so I think what happened, Chloe, is that somebody just said something to you that was sticky and it's not based in reality. Of course you have a personality. Nobody can carry a conversation all the time. Yeah. And social awkwardness is like a thing. And honestly, I used to have it a lot. And now I don't anymore and I wish I had a little more.

I was just at an event this weekend and I said like five things that I like bolted upright in the night sweating and was like, I cannot believe I said that. There's so many regrets. I cannot believe I said that. My God, I need a little more social awkwardness. I need to let, like, I can have this thing where I don't want to let a silent sit. And so I'm like, well, I only have one thing. I know, I've only thought of one kind of funny little thing to say right now. So I'm going to say it.

And then I say it and I'm like, and people like laugh, but like, through their teeth. I shouldn't have said it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, sometimes you want to fill a hole in a conversation, but the conversation with the conversation really needs is quiet. And I would argue Chloe seems like she's doing a great job of that. Yeah. Yeah, you got to leave space. Now, if there's like a self-consciousness and there's like a lack of confidence that that like is spurring from middle school hardness and like don't, do

not let anyone tell you that middle school doesn't hang. It hangs. I'm 46 years old. And I talk about middle school with my therapist. So. So it hangs. But there's like ways to work through this. And one of them is social situations that you feel safe in. And those can be hard to come by. And another is maybe therapy. Like there's lots of good parts of having a person who is trained to be a safe place for you.

Absolutely. I also think that there's a sense in which we all imagine ourselves as the heroes of some great story. Like we all imagine, of course, we see ourselves as the protagonist because even the people who are closest to us we see in the context of ourselves, right? My spouse, my best friend, my brother, whatever. And when you're told you have no personality, it's a way of saying, like, you are not the hero of the story. And that's true, Chloe, in the sense that you're not the hero of their story, but you do still get to be the main character of yours. And so, like, they were sort of like pushing you to the side in a way that's terrible and, probably like developmentally appropriate to middle school, but still horrible and painful.

And you have to find a way to claim your story outside of them, outside of their characterization of it. Yep. All right, Hank, we got another question from Lucas, who writes, Dear John and Hank, I do not consider myself a religious or spiritual person, but I nonetheless find it easier to get over certain life mistakes as though in the moment I subscribe to some form of reincarnation. Like, lesson learned, I'll handle it better on the next one. But then this got me thinking. If I have a soul, which is in no way limited by physicality, except for its temporary association with this particular sack of organs, then I don't see why anyone's subsequent incarnation has to be on the same planet or in the same galaxy. In fact, given the vastness of the universe, it seems like an existential inevitability that many other worlds with complex life exist and will exist. Therefore, the probability of two consecutive lifetimes on Earth seems exceedingly small. How many lives will it take for my lessons from this one to come up? This is a great question. It's a great question. I also love Lucas's sign-off, which is Lucas.

Lucas is fine. Don't worry, because Lucas is not spelled exactly the way you would expect it to me. No, but I just, I did my best. Yeah. No, I said that Lucas is fine. So a couple of things that I want to say. First of all, this is a plot point in Babylon 5. So if you want to watch a show about it, this is a thing.

second though i think i'm going to wager and that you're going to disagree with me maybe john but pretty fast i think pretty fast oh pretty fast yeah okay that surprises me i know i thought that it would surprise you because you don't think there's that much life in the universe uh i think there's lots of life in the universe i just think that there's a lot of universe huh yeah no no Lucas's point is that like given how much universe there is that like given how much universe there is and how much life there is in the universe, like your chances of being reborn on Earth are essentially nil. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, for sure. So how long does it take to get back to Earth? You don't. You never get back to Earth. I mean, maybe in, probably not, probably not.

Probably by the time you get back to Earth, there's maybe not as many humans being born, or there aren't any humans, or the way that humans are as, I don't know, well, I guess that wouldn't preclude the soul, it would continue, that we would continue to be in sold, I guess. Anyway, my point is unlikely that you would end up in a human anytime soon. But I think the lessons might be somewhat useful elsewhere. Oh, so you're saying it wouldn't be that long until you woke up and you were complex again so that you could use the lessons. Oh, I don't think that the non-complex things are in sold. So I think that the soul is only being reincarnated into things that have some amount of sociality.

Cool, cool, cool. So where's the line? Ants? No. Okay, I'll have to let them know. They're going to be disappointed. I had a moment where I really fought not to say ants aren't social because of course they are.

They're very social. They're like the socialist of socialisms. Socialist of socialisms. Yeah, no, they're pretty socialist, actually. That reminds me of something I said recently to a young person where I was kind of joking around to them. and I said, are you a socialist? And they responded, I think they're seven or eight,

they responded, I'm not very social. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's, that'll drive the socialism out of you. Yeah. If you're not interested in the welfare of others. All right. So we're going to draw a line.

Can we divide the soul up? Like if somebody does, like, if an animal doesn't need, like, a total soul, like, we need a lot of soul. Okay. So you're saying that, like, there's more soul, but there's still some soul in ants, but there's more soul in humans. In which case, if you were reincarnated as an ant, you'd actually be reincarnated as a lot of ants. It's what I'm saying. Yeah. Okay.

I'm into it. Yeah. Or like a bunch of ants and also an ant eater and also maybe a squirrel too. Right, right, right. So I think about this all the time because like Lucas, I don't actually believe in reincarnation, but I find it a helpful thought experiment in the same way that I don't actually believe that I'm going to go up to the gates of heaven and St. Peter's going to be there and tell me I drank too many lacroys and I have to go to the bad place. But I find it a helpful thought experiment. Like what would I have learned from this if I could have learned something or what would I be doing if I were trying to live in such a way that I'm so in line with my values that I would get up to St. Peter. and be like, open the doors, buddy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I think it's interesting, and I do think that we need to define the human soul as six possum souls. Yeah. Yeah, and, you know, I think that's safe. One human is essentially six possums in a trench coat. Soul-wise. If one human is six possums,

done some terrible things. Terrible things. Well, we have. Wait until you find out about humans. We're a nightmare. We're a nightmare. How many chickens is a human? Because if it's not like a billion, we're coming out real on the wrong side of the math.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting a little depressed thinking about your thought experiment, Hank, so I want to move on to another question. Yeah. It's from Alex, who writes, Or possibly Elise. I've seen this name, A-L-Y-X pronounced both ways. Anyway, dear John and Hank, one of my friends is publishing her first book, and I pre-ordered it because I was so excited for her.

I have now been invited to a reading and signing event, but the copy of her book that I pre-ordered won't arrive until after the event. Brothers, what is the least awkward way to navigate this event and show my friend I support her without buying a second copy of the book? Publishers and P-Lex, Elise, Alex. P-S. You don't have to read out the title if you don't want to promo it, but the book is, is called The Flayed Man by Chloe Louder. I looked up this book, I think it looks awesome. It's like a vampire novel that's also about the relationships

between mothers and daughters. Ooh, cool. Cool. I have an idea. Okay. And I don't know if it's going to work, but Chloe probably has written something else. Probably not a book,

maybe not a book, but probably something. Okay. Is there a short story that you can go to Kinko's with and get it printed out and have your friend Chloe sign something else that Chloe has made. So I'm going to push back on this on a couple levels. Okay.

First off, this is Chloe's first novel. Okay. I wasn't surprised by that. Otherwise, this would not have been an issue at all. Right. So I think that maybe you could print out a short story. I'm going to throw it out there. And this is an author response, Alex.

So bear that in mind, but I'm going to throw it out there that you should buy two copies of the book. It reminds me I met a great picture book author once, and I said, oh, I read your book to my kid every single night. And he said, I find it best if you read them a new copy each day. Look, you don't understand how few copies I sell. Yeah. Well, actually he was doing fine, but I think in general, authors, it's, or return your pre-order. Just cancel your pre-order. The main thing is you have to buy the book at the event.

You have to. You have to. I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to overstate it. But like, when I did my first author event and there were only two people there and they'd both already bought the book. And so the bookstore sold zero copies of the book at my book launch. Yeah. Even though they had ordered 150 of them, that was bad. Don't let that happen.

Mm-hmm. Don't let that happen. That's a great point. And look, I've many times have I accidentally gotten two books because I pre-ordered it twice. Mm-hmm. How many times has this happened to me? And then sometimes recently, I got Griffin McElroy's book twice accidentally, and then he sent me a copy.

So you have it three times. Now you have two to give away. I did, and I have. They're great books for like birthday parties. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. All right.

I think we've solved the problem. Either return the pre-order or buy two books. Do not show up at that event and not buy a book. Yeah. It does seem that the Flayed Man probably isn't great for nine-year-old birthday parties, but probably other birthday gifts it would be great for. I bet Alex has some great. grown-up friends that they could give it to.

This question comes from Sarah who asks, dear Hank and Sean, I'm an 18-year-old who's really into a niche martial art. It's called Subbacdo. And it has a tight-knit community. I love all the people I train with, but I can't help comparing myself and feeling like I don't belong. I just went to one of my first national events and I had so much fun, but once I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I can't do.

How do I start feeling inspired by friends instead of just inferior to them? I logically know that I can't keep up, but I just keep being overwhelmed by imposter syndrome, literally, internally screaming, Sarah! That's a good sign off. Yeah. I think this is the case, not just for practitioners of Subbakdo, but for literally anyone who goes to literally any conference. Like, I think that the dental sales conference, I think at the dental sales conference, people have a good time and then they leave it and they go like, oh, I can't believe I'm not as good as some of the other dental sales conference. I think at the dental sales conference, people have a good time and then they leave it and they go like, oh, I can't believe I'm not as good as some of the other dental salespeople. I think that this is, I remember that at VidCon. Like I would go to VidCon and come home and be really energized, but at the same time, like, wow, I am so far away from ever making a Weezy Waiter video. Yeah. Yeah. And the important thing is that, like, you're not making a Weezy Waiter video. It's just hard to remember that. It's especially hard to remember that in a martial art when, like, there is a gradient of skill built into the system. That's kind of also the thing. It's one of the things I like about martial art is, like, what I know is Taekwondo. You're not supposed to be a good green belt when you're a yellow belt. You're supposed to be a good yellow belt. Like, this is where you are. You are put it in like, that's what you're, and like, you're as

much a part of the thing is everyone else. You're just in the group of your skill level. And there are lots of things that define your skill level. There's how hard you work. There's how old you are. There's what your level of ability is. There's what your sort of like temperament is. And so I've watched a lot of kids spend this sort of the same amount of effort on

Taekwondo and come out with very different outcomes. Right. And this makes sense to me as a person who's like actually seen those kids. Like there is difference there. And so and but like nobody like, like of course the kids compare themselves to each other. But everyone feels a part of it. And it sounds like you let you feel like you're a part of it. And so it's the thing is working, which is amazing.

This is very actually hard to do. But it sounds like you feel like you're a part of the community and you're included in it. And that's that's the thing you're trying to do. Right. You just want to be part of the community. I think that, so when I was a kid, I've told this story before, probably a million times on the podcast, but when I was in middle school, I only started one soccer game. And at halftime, the coach subbed me out and said, you know why I started green because at least he tries, which was a devastation at the time,

because I was being used as a motivational tool rather than as a player. And I thought I'd come up against my big break and I was going to be, you know, out on the field. starting every game. But I just wasn't very good. And the reason I wasn't very good wasn't because I didn't try hard. It was because I have something called Afantasia and I literally could not see, you know, I can't see space very well

unless I'm looking directly at it. I can't imagine space outside of my visual stimulus. Yeah, man, Messi must have the opposite of A Fantasia. He does. He just, like, knows where everything is all of the time. He has Fantasia, absolutely. But I don't.

And then also, like, I wasn't very fast. I didn't have very good hand eye coordination or foot eye coordination or whatever. Like, I just didn't have the gifts necessary to excel at the sport. But I did have the gifts necessary to enjoy and participate in the sport, which I think is what mattered. Like, looking back, I now see that story, not as a story of, like, me being humbled or embarrassed or humiliated, but instead, like, a story that I can really celebrate something about myself, which is that I do try. I do have hustle.

I do, you know, want to be good even when I'm not. And I see those now as good qualities, not as like weaknesses or failures. Yeah. Which reminds me, John. We did it together. Look at us. Incredible. After 462 episodes, we finally did it at the exact same time.

You do it. Which reminds me that this podcast is brought to you. Well, what did you want to do? Maybe yours is better than mine. Mine is just John's middle school soccer hustle. Okay. Which reminds me that this podcast is brought to you by my brother John's middle school soccer hustle. John's middle school soccer hustle, it's real, you know?

It's real. And of course, today's podcast is brought to you by the insold chicken. The insold chicken should be a source of concern for many of us. This podcast is also brought to you by anemone fight club. Anemone fight club, not going great. And this podcast is brought to you by Hyperfantia. Hyper Fantasia. It's what Messi has. He has a joy to watch. You know what was happening when the final goal was scored, the one and final goal of the last game of the World Cup?

You on what? I was playing in the corner of the room I was in. And I was getting a presentation on the ablative foam heat shields from Artemis I. from a NASA engineer. Oh, Jesus. That sounds disastrous. Was there an uproar? There was an uproar. There was a true uproar.

It was very intense. Oh, my God. Yeah, everyone was like stacked in the corner watching. Oh, my God. Which was great. I mean, it's very cool. Yeah, it's a good memory. The first World Cup final, we were at the first VidCon.

I mean, in the 2010 World Cup final, we were at the first VidCon. No, we were in like a gold tent. Yes, we were in a big room. And I didn't care. I remember not caring at all. I care so much more now. Yeah, well, there you go. Football's gotcha.

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That's quince.com slash dear Hank. Q-U-I-N-C-E-D-C-E-D-R-Hank. All right, let's answer another question from Julian who writes, Dear John and Hank, John, your book on tuberculosis has inspired me to write my paper on the systemic inequities of health care globally as a graduate social work student. Thank you so much. That's so cool.

My husband is a big fan of your guys' work and has been slowly introducing me to your videos and books, and now I am too. We're both very motivated to make the world a better place even under the current circumstances, but what are some ways we can help out Sierra Leone specifically, whether that's in person or virtually, including going there? I'd be happy to share the critical analysis paper with you when it's complete, because that's how the French cut their vegetables, Julien. Well, that is a lovely question, and thank you for caring about Sierra Leone.

I think, you know, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. It depends on where you're trying to lower barriers to access. If you're trying to lower barriers to health care access, I think Partners in Health is one of the strong, places you can give because they've been in Sierra Leone for a long time and are committed to staying for a lot longer. I think if you're looking to lower barriers to educational access, you might look into different charities. And then if you're looking to lower poverty as poverty, the best way by far is to give money directly to people and their organizations like give directly that help you do that. As far as going to Sierra Leone, it's a beautiful country,

lots of amazing beaches, mountains, hikes. I mean, it's a phenomenal place. It has no or almost no infrastructure for tourism. And so it's hard to go there when you don't have a local friend or guide just because you have to do so much pre-researched by yourself. But it is possible. I know lots of people who do it. John, this next question comes from Whitney, who asks, Steerhanker, John, the World Cup ending is giving me and my husband dopamine withdrawals. based on solely lore alone.

Which Premier League team should we support football and fiction, Whitney? So, Whitney, you should support the Premier League team, AFC Wimbledon. Not currently in the Premier League, but headed there within the next century. This is going to be your great legacy, John. They're owned by their fans, Whitney. And John Greed. It's a different kind of football club entirely than anyone you can root for in the Premier League. It's beautiful. You can follow it every week here on Dear Hand and John. Now, John, I think

that it was a given that Whitney is passionate about AFC Wimbledon. Okay. But perhaps she wants to watch, and I know that I'm saying these words, and I apologize for them, a higher quality soccer. Yeah. Well. Because the World Cup, one of the things about the World Cup is you're like, wow. Yeah. They kick it right. A number of impressive things that occurred in sequence. They kick it right where they wanted to go. Which is not the AFC Wimbledon story To be fair

When those like 40-yard Cross-field passes happen And they land right at the foot of the player If that's what you like about football Whitney, I would not recommend AFC Wimbledon If you like the drama And investing in personalities and everything

AFC Wimbledon is great But if you're looking for The highest quality football, maybe not So in terms of vibes I'll give you a few of the top Premier League teams, but I think you should watch the Premier League for a few weeks and kind of find where your heart goes, is my honest advice. I mean, I grew up a Liverpool fan.

I love Liverpool. There's a song that Liverpool fans sing before and after each game. You'll never walk alone from the musical carousel that I think is one of the most beautiful shared experiences in the world today. You know, 50, 60,000 people singing together and you'll never walk alone is a beautiful, beautiful thing. But there are also other great, football clubs in England. I would caution you against supporting Manchester City because that's just

glory hunting at this point. They're too good. They've been too good for too long. They have too much money behind them. They're owned by an actual country, which is a big structural advantage. Like a sovereign wealth fund? Correct. They're owned by a sovereign wealth fund. As is Newcastle United, so I would kind of recommend against following them unless you have a specific and deep tie to Newcastle. I find Aston Villa very likable. Arsenal has a lot of American fans. So if you're looking to watch soccer at a local soccer bar in America, Arsenal might make sense or Liverpool might make sense

because they both have a lot of American fans. But I think you've got to watch the game and see who calls to your heart. Got to watch the game and see who calls to your heart. There's not, I would just assume that you're going to say whichever club you like. Well, I like Liverpool the most. I think you should be a Liverpool fan. It's a good life. And Liverpool are pretty good, but they're not so good that they're going to, like, be the Yankees and win all the time.

Right. I actually don't know if the Yankees still win all the time, but they did when I was a kid. But, you know, like when they win, it feels magical. And Liverpool also have a strong history in Europe. Like, one of the things that's confusing about English soccer is that they participate in more than one competition at the same time. Yeah. And one of these competitions is called the Champions League where all the best teams from all the European countries play each other. and that's a really fun competition to watch

and the quality of football is incredible. Can I ask a question about that? Yeah. Aren't they tired? Oh, Hank, they're so tired. In fact, I think the reason that Spain won the World Cup is because they played fewer games and less intense games than the English teams did.

And so I think most of Spain's players play in Spain, not all of them, but a lot of them do. And I think that was a little bit of, advantage. So the English players were tired because they were playing a lot of England games? I mean, they all play a lot of games. They all play a tremendous number of games. I don't mean to take anything away from Spain or France or any or Germany or anything. But like they play way too many games. It is a problem with the sport. They play often two games a week. You got this opportunity. You got to take it. You can make all this money. And then you can turn that

money to more players. And it's you got to play that game too. That is the game that they're playing. But I would argue that they've gotten to a point where the skill is being impacted, like the beauty of the game is a little impacted because you just can't ask players to play two, sometimes three games a week, sometimes 45 weeks a year. It's just too much. It's too much. They don't get any. The hockey season is so long and they put so many games. And they don't get any vacation. Like there's no off season.

During the off season, they're playing in the world. World Cup or the Euros or whatever. And like, I just, I feel really, I do, I don't feel that bad for people who make millions of dollars a year kicking a ball around. But I do feel like at some point it becomes unfair to the competition. Yeah. Well, one thing you know, if there's a bunch of people getting paid millions of dollars a year getting to kick a ball around, there's also a bunch who are working real hard and nigh and paid that much in a lot of other.

Including AFC Wimbledon players who, who play 60 games. a season and don't make millions of dollars. Yeah. Does it does like everybody on a liverable football club, Liverpool football club get, get real good money? Yeah. I mean, the kids sometimes don't get real good money. Like if you're like 16 or 17.

Yeah. But the, uh, the adults, the adult, they're headed there. Yeah. Yeah. But that doesn't mean, you know, like I, the thing about a professional athlete's career that we often forget is we think about how much money they make and we don't think about how long they make it for. And so if you're in the NFL and you make $800,000 a year for four years, you made a lot of money, you paid a lot of taxes, but you made a lot of money, but I don't know that

you necessarily made enough money to live super comfortably for the rest of your life, which is basically what you're going to have to do because you may not have been in a situation where it's easy to find a job. Like being a professional football player doesn't necessarily train you for other jobs particularly well. Yeah, it can have its trainings for other jobs. I mean, one thing, knowing professional sports players who no longer are professional sports players, they are, they have a mindset that is about working hard and they are hard workers. Yes. You don't get there if you're not a hard worker. It's true. Okay, John, this one's from Kelly, who asks, Dear Hank and John, I am due to give birth to my first child one week before the release of Hollywood

ending available for pre-rearrow. order now. Thank you for reminding the people that it's available for pre-order now, even in your advanced pregnancy. I have been a John Green fan since I was a baby myself around 17 years old, and I'm very excited to read this book. I have also heard having a newborn is like really hard. Maybe I will even lose some sleep. Could just be rumors. I don't know. Anyway, do you think I should hold off on reading it until I'm out of the newborn trenches? Were either of you or your wives able to enjoy reading during that time of your life, what activity was enjoyable in those first few weeks other than sleeping, which likely won't be happening? Pumpkins, Penguins, and pregnant, Kelly.

Kelly, there wasn't a lot that was super enjoyable in those first few weeks, and I wasn't even the one doing most of the feeding. Yeah. Yeah, I would say you're likely not going to get a lot of book reading done. You might be able to get some audio reading done. So here's what I'll say. You could read over audiobook, you know, while you're feeding or dealing with diapers or whatever you're dealing with. I wouldn't, though. You know, I'd take a book that you're really comfortable and familiar with that you can fall asleep during the middle of and you're not going to miss anything and just like, and is like a comfort thing. Yeah. That's, in like the hard parts of my life when I'm exhausted, I don't want to be reading a new book. I want to read Jane Austen or James S.A. Corey or like

some thing that I've just know. Yeah, and honestly, Kelly, I'd probably prefer you to be awake when you read Hollywood ending. Yeah, it makes me think you shouldn't read the audiobook because you can fall asleep during audiobooks. You cannot fall asleep and miss a part of a book you're reading out of a physical book.

Yeah, I did do a lot of reading out loud to Henry and Alice when they were infants. And so if you're up for it, you could always read it out loud to them. I don't think there's anything that's going to, you know, affect their three-month-old brain. But I also don't blame you if it turns out you're too tired. I'm not going to take it personally, Kelly, I promise. Yeah.

Yeah. It'll still be there. It'll still be there. That's the great thing about books. Like I was thinking out about looking for Alaska when Pablo Dore was reading that section of it. I was thinking both like, I can't believe this is happening to me. This is a nightmare. and I was thinking, wow, that book's still in print.

That's incredible. People are still reading it for the first time. 21 years later. To have a book in print for 21 years is such a miracle, Hank. I am so beyond lucky that that book and my other early books have hung around the way they have. I mean, actually looking for Alaska sells more copies every month than it's sold in its first year.

It's crazy. That's crazy. I will also say don't worry about spoilers because you're not going to be consuming media. No. What? Yeah. No, you're just going to be scrolling here and there, but it's going to be a lot of sleep and wake, sleep and wake. Yeah.

Sleep when the baby sleeps. All right, Hank, it's time for the all important news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. What is the news from Mars this week? NASA is planning for the Space Reactor One Freedom Mission, and that's really what it's called. Wow. That sounds like somebody wrote it. It sounds pretty American. It sounds of the American aesthetic. They've announced that the mission is estimated to cost $2.1 billion for this nuclear-powered spaceship to Mars. However, that does not include the cost of the actual science mission that will be on board, which is called Skyfall.

And, like, again, I just don't know that anybody looked up the meaning of what Skyfall is. I don't like that at all. It sounds, it's like, it's very descriptive of what it is, which is that it's dropping a bunch of helicopters onto Mars. And so like, yes. But Skyfall has quite a, quite a, you know, bunch of context that's carried along with it in terms of what it means as a term. But anyway, it will be carried on this nuclear spacecraft space reactor one. And Skyfall is being designed to send more helicopters to Mars to look for possible water sources and collect other data. but we do not have the cost of that part of the mission yet.

The spacecraft is supposed to launch in late 2028, which is wild. Just in time. We'll not have humans on it. It will be built in part from other spacecraft that are being repurposed to make into Space Reactor 1 Freedom, including elements from a lunar space station that was canceled. Wow. I really scraping things together over at NASA HQ. It's like how I write a novel.

Yeah. Pieces. I a lot of it's interesting I was talking to some of my like friends who who communicate space news and and they're like you know they're like hey look they're doing stuff we like the part where they're doing stuff so they are doing stuff. Okay. Well, sounds good. I prefer doing stuff to not doing stuff. Now Hank, you will recall that in January of this year, thanks to income from my. Red Dead Redemption 2 streams on John's channel, we were able to support the acquisition of two players

for AFC Wimbledon, James Tilly and Zach Nelson. But both of those were only through the end of the season. However, I have great news, which is that we have re-signed both James Tilly and Zach Nelson to permanent contracts. And so now they join Marcus Brown as players brought into AFC Wimbledon through this ridiculous program of live streaming on John's channel and spending the money on AFC Wimbledon. Now, three 11th of the starting lineup has been supported by our community, which is absurd and beautiful and also maybe an indication that the playing budget isn't what it needs to be. Oh, God. There you go. There's some news from AFC Wimbledon.

That's wild. You're collecting players? I'm collecting players. Well, but is AFC Wimbledon collecting players? Like, is there going to be a team? AFC Wimbledon has collected enough players to start fielding players for their preseason friendlies. I don't know that they've collected enough players to stay up in League 1, which is the job this year. That remains to be seen.

But we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope that Craig Cope, our director of football operations, some more tricks up his sleeve he usually does he likes to operate that football he loves to operate those football operations yeah somebody's got to operate him that's right he's like the money ball guy he's the guy who figures out you know this guy's going to be a star but currently he's only 21 and he hasn't performed yet but when he comes to wimbledon he'll become a star and that's worked out pretty well so far but everybody else is doing at the same time you got to figure out how to money ball the money ball. I know. We aren't the only people trying to moneyball. Yeah. It's hard out there for an NFC Wimbledon, which reminds me if anybody who's listening is a billionaire, support poverty

relief efforts. But if you're a billionaire who refuses to help the poor, looking at you, Elon. Don't take, don't take his money. That's enough. That's enough. Don't take his money. What'd you say? I said, don't take his money. Not that he's offering. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. And I would take almost anyone's money. That's understandable. It's understandable. All right, John, thank you for making a podcast with me. People of the world, if you'd like to send us to hit his questions, we sure do love them. And you can send them to Hank and John at gmail. My name's Hank. His name's John. They both have an H in them.

This podcast was edited by Linus Ovenhouse, mixed by Joseph Tuna Meddish, and our marketing specialist is Brooke Shotwell. We're produced by Rosie Anhaus-Rohas and Hannah West. Our executive producer is Seth Radley. Our editorial assistant is Toboki Chakravardi. The music you're hearing now and at the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola. And as they say in our hometown,

don't forget to be awesome.