Dear Hank & John - 56: Is It Going to Throw Up?

Episode Date: August 2, 2016

How do I dad? Are expiration dates just suggestions? What do I call the people I work with? Do I really need to get drunk on my twenty-first birthday? And more!

It's called open, John. You want to do a cold open today. So that must mean there's big news. The last time we did this, I think it was because I was announcing the creation of Leon Mus on Twitter. Yeah. It is news in the history of our projects together. So I assume we only do cold opens for big moments.

Yeah. Not only was it the creation, but also the announcement that he had a very active Twitter profile, which has continued. Despite my belief that it was not going to. Though I still hold out that in a year's time, there will not be a lot of Leon Musk happening in the world. But who knows? Who knows? First off, you're completely wrong about that. Secondly, I assume that we're doing this cold open so that I can announce the Snickers thing.

Is that what we're doing it for? Definitely not. No. It's even bigger news than the Snickers thing, which I guess we can talk about later if you really want to. I'll hold off on the Snickers thing. I am definitely going to talk about it, but what is this bigger news than the Snickers thing? Well, today we are announcing, I am announcing,

for people who are not extremely careful watchers of the Hanks channel, channel, that Catherine and I are going to have a baby human child. I'm so excited! A little person, we're gonna be parents. And it's probably gonna happen in late October, which is why I am not going to be at NerdCon Stories as people have been asking me, Hank,

you're not on the guest list of NerdCon Stories, WTF. That's what's going on this. Well, that's, I mean, the fact that you're not gonna be at NerdCon Stories is a very, very small detail in what is a very wonderful turn of events. I am so excited, Hank, and I have to tell you, our kids are so excited. Oh, yeah, there is widespread widespread talk at home about what the baby is going to be like. Is it going to throw up?

Is it going to throw up white or green or yellow? Oh great lots and lots of baby talk at our house So I'm so happy for you and very excited. And that is worthy of the cold open. But I'm wondering if we can move on to my Snickers news. Before we do that, I just want to give a very brief message from Katherine, which is that while I chose this public, weird life, she didn't. And it's stressful enough to be a pregnant person without feeling that the whole world is watching and thinking about you. So she just wanted me to put that out there so people would behave with that in mind.

And we are very happy for all the people who are very happy for us, though. So thank you, thank you all very much. Yeah, no, everyone's excited for you, but it's an important thing to be able to have privacy within your family and to have a family life that's separate from your public life. I know that's hard to ask when you have a public life, but it is really important.

So should we move on to the intro? Yes. Hello and welcome to Dear Hanket John. Or is that for the sake of a dear John and Hank? It's a comedy podcast where me and my brother John, we answer your questions, give you a devious advice, and bring you all the weeks news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. Do I say Mars?

How you doing, John? I'm doing well. Mostly, Hank, do you remember in our last episode, how I mentioned that I dearly want to have some kind of corporate sponsor in my life? Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, it just so happens that this very week, 478 Snickers bars arrived at my office.

How did this magical for me? The nice folks at Mars, the nice folks at Mars sponsored VidCon and while I was talking to them at a sponsor party I mentioned that I'm a long time supporter of their company via my affection for Snickers bars Apparently this went up the chain somehow and so a refrigerated box full of delicious, cool Snickers bars, 478 of them arrived at my office yesterday. And first off, I just want to say thank you to my personal sponsor Snickers. Secondly, I just want to say other companies looking to sponsor me, please feel free to send me 478 of your products. So what you're saying is that you were just having a chat at VidCon, first of all, I have to say, we sell all of the sponsorships out of my office. We have those relationships. We have lots of, and never did it ever cross my plate

that an option for a part of the VidCon sponsorship was just a gigantic house size box of Snickers. That didn't show up on any of the deals. And I'm a little frustrated that apparently all I had to do was have a conversation with somebody. This is like the weird life of the public YouTuber where it's just people are like, hey, yeah, you like our thing here, have two years worth of them.

If you- I wouldn't say that 478 Snickers bars is two years worth of Snickers bars. I'd say it's closer to, it's a solid month though. I mean, I'm gonna have a great month of August. Let's put it that way. I like Snickers very much, but 478 Snickers bars is like 10 years worth of Snickers. I'll report back next week and tell you how it's going. But I have to think of what else to the people that work. No, to the people at the Mars company, not to people of the planet Mars, I must say,

I really, really like peanut M&Ms. A lot. By the way, I also love peanut M&Ms for the record. If the people at Mars are looking to have this being ongoing in a relationship. Stop stepping on my communications with the Mars people. Hank, I'm wondering if there are other products out there that you would like to receive 478 of?

Yeah, if I could receive 478 Hartford Whalers hats, are you a fan of the Hartford Whalers? I like them because they have a really nice logo and also they don't exist anymore as a team. Right, so that makes it a slightly less good investment from the company's perspective just because they no longer have a brand to promote. I completely disagree. They have a tremendous brand to promote.

It's Hartford Whalers merch. Merge for a sports team that doesn't exist anymore is exactly what people like me who like logos, but not sports is looking for. Are looking for. I myself, I'm a long time fan of my Chevrolet Volt. I've had my Volt since 2012, and I would love 478 Chevrolet bolts. If the, if the Neantic company could send me 478 Pigeys, that would be fantastic. Because that would really help me with the leveling up.

I mean, if we're requesting 478 Pokemon at a time, Hank, I can provide you with 478 Pigeys. They're sitting there in my frickin' list of Pokemon right now. What I need is 478 Jolteons or whatever. Vaporeons. Where are my 478 Vaporeons, Niantic? I feel like I'm the greatest ambassador for your product ever. In fact, Hank, while we've been recording this podcast, I've been studiously catching retinas which grow in Indianapolis like an actual weed.

Nah, that doesn't sound great. It's every Pokemon is important though. You can't say that one is important, it less important just because there are lots of them. That's not a very nice way to feel just because they're successful, successful animals and are weird, weird, you know, human habitats, pigeons and ratatas, and drowsies. They've been very successful in the places where we live, and that's fine. I think we should reward them for their success. I tell you what else I'd enjoy, Hank. 478 pairs of the sweat pants that I wear. I just, I'm sorry, I'm stuck on how, how, how many Snickers bars I received and it's given me hope that I'm, I'm really just

a request away from the 478 Diet Doctor Peppers that I desperately need to go on living. What about, wait a second, what about if we could get a brand deal with the US Mint and they could send us 478 hundred dollar bills. I mean, I feel like that's a Yeah Is that an option? Are they are they open to brand deals? Today's podcast is sponsored by the US Mint The US Mint providing you with high quality $100 bills since 1881? Do you know when the $100 bill first went into circulation, John?

Yes, Hank, it was 1881. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. I also, not that I want in any way to problematize my relationship with the Mars company, maker of the greatest candies in the history of the world. But there are some other candy companies that I wish would also sponsor me. Okay. The makers of Fundip, if I could have 478 fundips,

that would make me really happy. I like Fundip because you put sugar on sugar and then you eat it. Big League 2, I would love 478 pouches of Big League 2. 478 Abazables, please. Maybe 400 to me, watch them at cards. Oh God, I love a good watch them at cards. Who makes watch them at cards?

Why aren't they sponsoring us? Probably Mars. Can I get the 478 pockets? Some pockets, hang, please. Watch them at cards are made. Watch them at cards are made by the Hershey Company? Oh, oh. We need to reach out to them.

If anybody listening happens to be the CEO of the Hershey Company, let me just say that next to Snickers bars, what's your McCulloch's are my favorite candy bars? Hank, we need to move on. This is not ultimately a podcast about us trying to acquire 478 items. It's ultimately a podcast in which we answer our listeners questions and provide them with exceptionally dubious advice. All right, John. We have a question here. It's from Hank,

who asks, dear Hank and John, I'm going to be a dad soon and I'm terrified, hell. I'm gonna be a dad soon and I'm terrified hell. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha quantity time over quality time. The second piece of advice, I believe I've given this before on the podcast, is to only read one parenting book. I don't actually think it matters which one you read, but just to only read one, because if you accidentally read two or three, there will be all this competing advice in your head while you're trying to parent at three o'clock in the morning. And you'll be like, am I supposed to change this diaper and then put them to bed or am I supposed to change this diaper and then feed them

and then put them to bed, just read the one book so that you're not fighting with yourself in your head at three o'clock in the morning. And the third piece of advice I will give you, when my son was born, I remember calling mom and dad and saying, I am sorry, because this whole time, I thought that parenting me was a joy, minute by minute in your life,

and that my presence was a constant gift to you. When in fact, like, parenting is a joy and the presence of a child is a gift, but it's also lots and lots of work, especially when they're little because the amount of waste that they produce, the number of diapers that they go through is just astonishing and they don't know what time it is and all that stuff. So it's a lot of work at first and they don't know what time it is and all that stuff. So it's a lot of work at first and they don't give you much back because they can't really respond to stimulus except by crying.

But I'm still, I'm so excited for you. So that's my advice. But the other piece of advice I would give you is not to listen to anyone's advice, which is also a great piece of advice in general on this advice podcast. Especially on this advice podcast. Yes. I've got a question here, John, that I feel like is tailored more to your expertise than

mine, and since we've already decided that this podcast is going to be the ones where one of the ones where you talk more than me, let's just do it. It's from Tachana, who asks, dear Hank and John, I'm currently studying to be a nurse, and therefore often encounter people at the worst times of their lives. At these times, I'm sometimes asked whether I believe in God, and as an atheist, these moments bring me a lot of anxiety. I completely understand that they're looking for comfort

in a time of desperation, but feel it's wrong to lie to them. I am simply et al-Ass as to how to react in these situations. Any Dubies advice would be greatly appreciated. Yeah, I think this is difficult, but ultimately, it might not be a matter of lying. It might be a matter of stating your beliefs in a way that's respectful, you know, like by saying that you think care and love is important at difficult times and that you've seen a lot of people find that care and love from religious places or Turning it around and asking them what they believe or where they find strength or saying that like I

Also think you can just say I'm not an expert on that stuff. I'm a nurse, I am not a spiritual advisor. However, here at the hospital, we do have wonderful chaplains, and would you mind if I called one for you, or would you like to talk to one of the chaplains? I think using the resources at the hospital, or I assume that you're at a hospital, given that it sounds like you're with people when they die.

But most places that people die in, do have some kind of chaplaincy service. So I would encourage you to take advantage of that, because when I was a chaplain at least, I was always very grateful when I was called in in those situations. Excellent. Hit me with one John.

I have nothing to add of course. I have nothing. I, yeah, it does seem a little bit like, hey, that's not qualified for that question. Right. I'm here to stick a needle in your arm. I'm here to take care of you. I'm here to keep you healthy.

I'm not here to advise you spiritually. Yeah. Knowing what your job isn't is as important as knowing what your job is, I think. Absolutely. All right, we've got another question. This one comes from Raoun, who asks, dear Hank and John, I don't know what to do and my friends keep forcing me to get Snapchat.

I don't really want to get it mainly because I don't know how to use it. Nor will I use the Apple lot. Any dubious advice? Raoun, you have no idea how much you will use Snapchat once you have it. And you might be right, maybe you won't use it, but you don't know. So first, you have the right to do whatever you want, but this is some dubious advice for you, which is that not knowing how to do something is a terrible reason not to do it. Because then you would do nothing ever. So obviously using Snapchat, not necessarily the most adventurous thing that you might say like,

I don't know how to do that, I'm not going to do it. Snapchat, it's a little bit not user unfriendly. It's a little bit, Snapchat, it's a little bit user unfriendly. But the only way to know how to use it is to use it. And what I have discovered about Snapchat is that it is a way to personalize communication and an impersonal world of communication. I think oftentimes when we are texting with each other, it feels very functional, it feels sort of robotic.

Of course, emojis can help with that, and I think that's why emojis are so popular and successful. But Snapchat allows you to create a thing for your friend and send it to them, and kind of make a little present. Make this digital present that is going to be, you know, exist for a short amount of time, but it's a little thing that you can send to them and kind of like make a little present. Make this digital present that is going to, you know, exist for a short amount of time, but it's a little thing that you can send to them and communicate that way.

And so your friends just wanna send you a little present sometimes and they can't and that frustrates them because they're sending presents to everybody else that they, and they're a little social world and not you. And, but again, it's your choice. But if you're choice, but it isn't really

because Hank feels very strongly that you need to get Snapchat because Hank is a ambassador for Snapchat. Hank is essentially an unpaid employee of Snapchat. Can I get 473 Snapchat's please? 478 Snickers bars for the record? Those last five Snickers bars, when I eat them in early September will be very important to me.

Ha ha ha ha ha. I would add to this, you may not use Snapchat a lot. I, for instance, don't use it at all, really. But you will enjoy the filters. even if you don't use Snapchat. The filters are fun. So I think get it for the filters, and no Snapchat did not pay us to say that. But yes, Snickers did send me 478 Snickers bars. So when I say that Snickers is delicious, I am biased, but I am also correct.

Hashtag spawn. We got out of the question. I'm the first to ask. This was from Aaron who asked, dear Hank and John. In one month, I will be leaving home to attend my first year of college in a different state. I'm just beginning the process of packing up

all my belongings and clearing out my room. During this process, I have unearthed some interesting and many embarrassing artifacts from my life so far. Among these artifacts are old journals filled with Harry Potter fanfiction I wrote when I was in middle school. My question is, what should I do with these journals filled with terrible fanfiction? They are extremely embarrassing in content and in quality of writing. And if I leave them at home, I run the risk of my parents finding them and reading them. But if I take them to college with me,

I run the risk of my roommate finding them and reading them. Any dubious advice would be appreciated. Oh my. Oh, what a true quandary, John. Yeah, this is a difficult one. I mean, you can't. Aaron, you need a safe, like a fire safe,

that you only know the combination to with wrapped in chains and zip ties. That's the true only secure method of storing anything. It's just lots of zip ties. Everybody knows that if you want to preserve your middle school writings, the key is zip ties. No, I think that you should leave it at home because I think even if your parents do find it and read it,

ultimately, they won't be like embarrassed. They will still be impressed, because parents have such a low, in my experience anyway. My parents have such a low bar that I have to jump over for them to be proud of me. Oh, God. So I think just the fact that you use like periods and commas and capital letters in appropriate places, they'll just be like, this is the best fan fiction I've ever read.

Well, you don't know how embarrassing they are in content, though. But I do want to say to Aaron, I think it's remarkable that you're so certain your parents haven't read them yet. Yeah, that's the other thing. Right. Just leave them at home where your parents have already enjoyed them. I, it's been a long time since you wrote those things. Who knows? Who knows what you? What, what violations of privacy occurred?

I'll tell you what though, I think it, I think it is a dangerous, dangerous game to bring those with you to college, Aaron. Yes, very. I think it is a dangerous, dangerous game to bring those with you to college, Aaron. Yes, very. I think that you're sort of, I think if you bring those to college, ultimately, you're sort of playing the game of thrones, you're either gonna win or you're gonna die. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Also, how do you have space to take stuff to college with you? I remember taking stuff to college. I was like, well, if it doesn't fit in this duffel bag. I remember when I got to college, I had three books with me and I put my three books on the bookshelf and my roommate looked over at me and he said, you have three books? And I was like, no, no, man, I have more than three books. I just only brought three books. And he was like, you brought three books to college? And I was like, yeah, yeah. And then he proceeded to like roll in, you know, like three bookshelves

full of great American novels. And I was like, oh, I've made a terrible miscalculation. What? What? You don't have time to read for fun at college? You just got it. Yes, you do. You better because that's the core of my audience. I guess that's true. I guess that's true. Oh, man. Hank, let's go to another question. This one comes from Christine, who writes, Dear John and Hank, question for you. My roommate believes expiration dates for eggs and butter are a suggestion, whereas I was raised to follow expiration dates. Is he right? And if so, how can I tell when eggs and butter are expired? Really great question. Now, Hank, as you know, I'm a long time supporter

of expiration dates, but after supporting them, a bunch of people wrote in to say that expiration dates are in many cases making the problem of food worse because it creates so much food waste. So I was wrong about expiration dates, and now you are going to continue by correcting me. Yes, in many cases, they aren't even expiration dates. They're sell-by dates. So the date at which the store shouldn't sell them after, not the date in which you shouldn't use them after.

Obviously, if you buy butter on the last of the sell-by date, you don't have to throw it away the next day. They expect that you will have that butter for at least a couple of weeks. Both eggs and butter are two examples of things that are very difficult to eat after they've spoiled, because they smell awful. Like if you crack open a rotten egg,

you're gonna know because it produces like the oxidation that's happening inside of there's gonna produce a bunch of hydrogen sulfide, or the action of the bacteria in there. And hydrogen sulfide is the thing that we are very good at being able to smell because it's very toxic. And do you know the smell of hydrogen sulfide? It's that stinky rotten egg smell. And butter also has, it's very similar to like rotten milk, like milk that has gone bad,

it's sour and and yucky and but like butter and both of these things are things that last a very long time, and throwing them away because they have passed their sell by date is definitely a way to waste money and food. Okay, related question Hank. Just out of curiosity, about how long after receiving a Snickers bar in the mail, can you eat it? I'm very curious, I'm going to Google it. Even assuming that I enjoy two Snickers bars a day for the next, you know, 240 or so days, I'm wondering, do I need to

give some of these Snickers bars away or can I keep them all? I think that you could just keep them all. My guess is that they'll stop being as good. They just will be a little less fresh. I had a Snickers just the other day. It was a, I don't know, I have no idea how old this was. I literally just found it sitting around the office. And it was one of my individually wrapped little ones for Halloween times.

And I had like three of them. And two of them were like normal. And then one of them was like half hard. And I was like, hmm, this is all it'll crunchier than usual. But I ate it, I ate it, it was just fine. Hank, if we could just back up real quick, I am not okay with you saying negative things about Snickers in any way.

Even implying that you had a less than perfect Snickers experience in dangers, my really important relationship with the Snickers company. All right. By the way, it was funny when you said I had a couple of those mini Snickers yesterday because I should emphasize this is 478 full-sized Snickers bars. You don't want to go to the end.

And I had five of them. Oh, no, that's a lot of Snickers, John. That's like half your daily calories and Snickers bars. And I had five of them. That's a lot of Snickers, John. That's like half your daily calories and Snickers. I know. It was actually all that I ate. I'm going to try to see if you can lose weight only eating Snickers bars. That sounds like a real good plan, John.

Well, they have most of the things that you need. Protein, carbohydrates, vitamin C, I assume. This does snickers have vitamin C. Ask the internet. Two milligrams, point two milligrams. That's all you need. You don't want to have more than point two milligrams a day. Well, I mean, first off, I'm getting way more than point two milligrams because I'm eating several of them a day. You also get point two grams of trans fat.

My understanding is that the trans fat is the stuff that's really good for you. Oh yeah, that's the super good stuff. You should rub it all over your skin and eyeballs. Okay, we're veering dangerously close toward it, seeming like I am not incredibly grateful for these 478 Snickers bars. So I want to emphasize that I am profoundly grateful and that I think I I will say and I'm not saying this because of influence from the Snickers company that I think it's a little bit ludicrous when people eat these Nutrition bars these quote unquote nutrition bars, that have the exact same nutritional qualities

as a Snickers bar, and then they're like, oh, but it was a cliff bar, and I'm like, right, but that's the exact same thing. It's just a can. It's like, I often run across granola bars, and I'm like, that's actually a cookie, that's a cookie. That's a bunch of chocolate chips. It's a bunch of chocolate chips inside of a bunch of grains. It's delicious, that's actually a cookie, that's a cookie. That's a bunch of chocolate chips. It's a bunch of chocolate chips inside of a bunch of grains.

It's delicious, it's great. I don't have any problem with a granola bar, but don't try to pretend that it's healthier than a cookie. It's the same thing as a cookie. It's just a cookie. It's a cookie that you're supposed to eat while you're outside for whatever reason. This is an outside cookie.

It's a hiking cookie. It's a hiking cookie. It's a cookie for hikers. Lombus bread. Anyway, John, I made the Lord of the Rings reference. Now I feel like a nerd, I'm going to ask you a question. It's from John, who asks, fear Hank and John, is what allowed to refer to their superiors in a workplace as a coworker

or to their inferior in a workplace as a coworker? or to their infirures in a workplace as a coworker. Does this create a power imbalance, or a power equality that is undesirable to parties involved thank you for all your work? The first thing that I would say is that you are definitely not allowed to refer to your infirures as your infirures. No, that's not a thing. That's not okay.

I think that people do sometimes call those people subordinates. Oh, that's terrible. That's not okay. I think that people do sometimes call those people subordinates. Oh, that's terrible. That's terrible. Oh man, subordinate to me. No, I think you're allowed to call, yes, you're allowed to call them co-workers, in my opinion, at least. I mean, we have a somewhat weird office, but I call everybody here co-workers, and I assume they call me a co-worker. But I think you can also refer to people who are your bosses as your bosses. But I don't think that you can refer to them as superiors or infieriors, at least not

here, because it just creates a hierarchy that I don't think is helpful to the running of the organization, like we aren't the army. Yeah, I think that the, so different workplaces are different. And the safe bet is to go, if you're talking about somebody who's at the same level as you, at your company, the safe bet is that those people are your coworkers.

And then if there are other people, you can call them colleagues, and that is safe. But I think there are some people who would feel It in like big corporate structures who would feel sort of weird about calling someone who was you know their bosses boss a co-worker But you could still call that person a colleague that person works at your company and you work together on the same project But if you work at Amazon, can you call Jeff Bezos your colleague? Not really. Not really.

No one I mean. Can you call him your coworker? No, you can't call him your coworker. I'm saying that our advice is so dubious that I already disagree with it. Yeah, yeah. So what do you call that person? I think you have to call Jeff Bezos Jeff.

Just call him Jeff. Yeah, I think you just have to be like, you know, I was at dinner with some of my coworkers and Jeff was also there. Yeah, well, yes. I think you kind of can't, it's very weird to me. I was just at Comic Con and there was a lot of like single naming happening

when referring to particularly famous people. And I was like, Patrick who? And people would just be like, you know, Patrick. It's a Patrick was there. Patrick who was Patrick Rothfuss. Uh, who? Oh Patrick Rothfuss is a great man. I'm not sure that he's quite gotten to a place where he's the only Patrick. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Uhhuh. Though I did, uh, I was in an elevator with Joss, uh, which is- Now, Joss is the only Joss. Well, first of all, his name is Joss, which is pretty weird.

Secondly, he's the only Joss. I mean, if I say I was in an elevator with Joss, then I was indeed, you know, you know what I'm saying. However, I, when I do not know someone, I always work very hard to say their first and last name in conversation because I think if you don't, you sound like a jerk. Like, frankly, if you were like, I was in an elevator with Joss, it makes you sound like you're his friend.

And I find that kind of problematic. Right, because clearly not, though, do you wanna hear the whole story? Not really, but I can tell that you're gonna tell it regardless. So I was leaving a party that Joss, my friend Joss had been at. And I heard that he had been at the party,

but I didn't see him and I was like, oh, bummer. And then I was walking back to my hotel because I had had enough of that noise. It was not the most pleasant place I'd ever been. And me and my friend Laura, or we're walking down this causeway that was sort of limited in size. And there was this group of people

that were walking quite slowly that had clearly come, just come out of the party. And Lauren, I were walking much more quickly because it was bedtime. And she had to push past them to get us through. And as we got far enough away that they couldn't hear, I had to tell Laura that she had just kind of shoved to Joss with it.

And she was like, what? And I was like, that happened, it happened. You touched him and a little bit pushed him out of the way, he was the sweaty one. And she turned around and looked and she was like, yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep, that's what happened. And then I went on to get into the elevator to my hotel and they caught up while I was waiting for the elevator.

And we got in the elevator together. And one of the people that were hanging out, she recognized me and was like, are you Hank Green? And I got to be Hank Green in front of Jos Weedon, which made me feel special. But not too, Jos Weedon. It wasn't like Jos Weedon looked at you and said, are you Hank Green?

No, he sure did not. No. In fact, I did not say anything because I was terrified and so I didn't say anything at all. So I feel like Joss might have not known that I knew who he was at all, which probably is not a thing that matters to him. Now that I think about it. No, no, it does not matter to him. And also, as is always the case with any kind of celebrity interaction, you have way overanalyzed the situation. Yes. Definitely, definitely.

Okay, let's move on to another question from one of our listeners. Hank, this one comes from... But I've got more to say about just knowing. Oh God. This one comes from Kathy who asks, dear John and Hank, my 21st birthday is coming up on August the 2nd, and everyone is telling me that it is incredibly important

that I get drunk. They say everyone should be drunk at least once, and that you really should do it on your 21st birthday because it is a right of passage, etc. But my question to you guys is, do you really think it's that important? I don't really want to get drunk. I hate the idea of being drunk and not being in control of myself or in a situation. And also alcohol tastes bad. So alcohol tastes bad. First off, Kathy. Alcohol does not taste bad.

Maybe, well, I mean, you don't like the taste of some... Pure ethanol tastes bad. Maybe pure ethanol tastes bad. Maybe you don't like the taste of some alcoholic beverages. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water, okay? There are some delicious alcoholic beverages out there. Have you ever had a really top quality margarita?

I'm eventually going to get to the fact that you don't need to get drunk on your 21st birthday, but I just wanna disagree with your premise a little bit first, or a really, really good old fashioned, a well-balanced old fashioned with really top quality bourbon, there is nothing wrong with the taste of alcohol.

That said, you don't have to get drunk on your 21st birthday. What a ridiculous idea. Yeah, I gotta say, an old-fashioned is not for me, but have you tried a Zima? Mm. I just gotta give one of those Mike's Hard Lemonades, or like a strawberry wine cooler, like some boons farm. Yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah. These might be the three most embarrassing things that you've ever said in your entire life, Hank. The last five minutes of this podcast has been some of the lowest quality hank I've ever received in my entire life. Ha ha ha. I just, John, I just want 438 Zimas.

First off, I'm trying to get us a corporate sponsor here. You need to memorize the number of Snickers bars that I got. How many is it? It wasn't 438? It's 458. Oh, God, it's hard to remember all that numbers. Second off, if anybody sends Hank 458 Zimas, I will be so happy because Hank may say that he likes Zima.

He might remember something from the 90s when he enjoyed A-Zima, but he does not want to drink 458 Zimas. No one on Earth wants to drink 458 Zimas. By the way, I'm not even sure they still make zima Hank. So nobody probably even gets this joke. If I got 458 zimas, it would definitely be because somebody went back in time Or somebody's just sitting on a stockpile from from 2007 because I think that's the last thing they made Oh, wow. Yeah production ceased in October of 2008. So going back to our question of when food spoils,

I'm not sure that you really want to enjoy 458 eight year old Zenas. Especially because it would take me like several years to finish all of them. I will say as someone who is currently not drinking but I have enjoyed drinking, I do like, I do like to get a little bit tipsy on occasion, that again, just like our previous Snapchat friend,

you don't know whether you'll enjoy something until you try it. Of course, that's not necessarily a reason to do it. Like, I mean, you can say the same thing about crack cocaine. Right. Right. Like, and I'm, I like, I'm not, like, people are like, you got to try skydiving. It's so fun. And I'm like, no, no, never. That is not a who I am. And if it's not who you are, that's fine. But it is, I would suggest, of course, doing whatever you want to do. But if you want to try drinking, just have a glass of white wine and see how you feel about it.

Don't, like, put a bunch of pressure on it. It's just like it's a thing that some people do and enjoy, and you might as well try it. And I also think, like, I find the American obsession with binge drinking really weird and scary. And I think that it's great if you can go out on your 21st birthday and have a glass of red wine or even split a bottle of red wine with a friend or something or white wine or rosé which is the best of both worlds. I just have to say that if Kathy doesn't like the, like, think that she likes the taste of alcohol,

like, white wine is like not a lot going on, which I really like. It's cold. It's like, it's just, it's basically spright. If you get like a really sweet reason, and that, then it's like a very approachable first step. Whereas Red Wine, it always seems to me like, ah, there's a whole lot going on here. Heck is trying so hard to get Kathy to drink on her birthday. approachable first step. Whereas red wine, it always seems to me like, ah, there's a whole lot going on here.

Hank is trying so hard to get Kathy to drink on her birthday. I mean, this peer pressure is way worse than the peer pressure that she's getting from her friends. Anyway. I'm saying, is you gotta find a Zima. Get yourself a Zima and you'll be so happy that you did. Go. Drinking great.

You're on your 21st birthday. I would say, like, I think it's fine to go out on your 21st birthday and celebrate the fact that you can drink legally, but being responsible about that is the reason, ostensibly, that you're allowed to drink legally, right? So I think the coolest thing you can do is, in my opinion, is either not drink or go out and have a couple glasses of wine with your friends and enjoy it and go home that night and not wake up the next morning vomiting or whatever. Like, it is a health problem to drink to the point of extreme intoxication.

It is a risk to your health. It is a danger to your health, it is a danger to your health, and I want to underscore that. Yeah. I do not want to be part of the romanticization of binge drinking in American culture. And it could be a very overwhelming thing, especially if you've never done it before, to think that that's what drinking is, because that's what we romanticize, and that's what we think of as like the 21st birthday celebration.

When in fact, that is not what drinking should ever be. Yeah, but I mean it's it is very closely associated. Alcohol consumption and binge drinking in the US are so closely associated. Hank, we need to answer one more question before we get to the news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, I feel like you're criticizing me for having said the wrong number of Snickers bars, but I feel like you have said different numbers. Yeah, I've probably also been inconsistent. All I know is that there are between 438 and 478

Snickers bars currently in my home And that yesterday They're at home you brought them home just for you. Yeah, of course. I brought them home You think I'm gonna share them with all the people who work here. Oh those are my Snickers bars Hank I feel like if you have that many Snickers the letter to be clear was not addressed to everyone who works at John's office The letter was be clear was not addressed to everyone who works at John's office. The letter was addressed to me. Okay. All right. Sarah and the children are also not welcome to have any of them.

Those are my Snickers bars. All right, John, maybe one more question. This one's from Eddie who asks, dear Hank and John, I recently went through some old vlogbrothers videos. I stumbled across a video from January 2009 with the title, President Barack Obama inaugurated some historical background. In this video, John offers, quote,

maybe someday I will tell you this story of how the Declaration of Independence almost didn't happen because a dude got drunk in a bar. I know this is maybe seven years too late, but I really wanna hear that story. Hey, me too, John. Yeah, so about that story, it turns out to be something of a historical legend

that is not true. So the reason I never told the story is because in the comments of that video, a bunch of people were like, I can't believe John bought into that legend. It totally isn't true. Here are some reputable sources. So back in a way, I backed away seven years ago,

and I'm just gonna keep backing away. Which reminds me Hank, that today's podcast is brought to you by quietly backing away from your seven year old mistakes, quietly backing away from your seven year old mistakes, the only real strategy. Today's podcast is also brought to you by the use of the word jokes, as if it means cool, a thing that we thought that we were creating, but in fact already existed, and

so, uh, we also backed quietly away from that, back in 2008. And furthermore, this podcast is brought to you by babies! Babies! Babies! Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh God, oh God. And finally this podcast, of course, is brought to you by Zima.

Bottle cold fresh, malt liquor available in 2008. Oh man, the poor folks at Snickers didn't even get a sponsor slot. I think they should be happy. I think they got enough. I hope we've done a good enough job talking about how much we enjoy receiving 400 odd copies of something for us to get 400 odd copies of something else in the mail sometime soon. In the meantime, Hank, it is time for us to discuss the week's news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. Would you like to go first?

Sure. By the way, no short poem today. Just, we've got to know. Oh yeah, that didn't happen. What can you do? Life moves on. We were too busy talking about the all-important Snickers news.

Yeah, yeah, and all of our 400s, whatever. Well, if I could have 400 or anything, John, it would be Mars Curiosity Rovers. Yes, that's what Mars needs. It needs more minivan. So there is currently on the surface of Mars that extraordinary piece of technology, the curiosity rover, among other things that the rover can do.

It can shoot Martian rocks with laser beams vaporizing the surface of those rocks, and then it can detect and sniff up the chemicals that come off of the rocks, and do some spectroscopy on it to figure out what's in the rocks and the chemical composition of Martian geology and it's great. So every once in a while, we beam a new software to the curiosity rover. It's basically like you're updating your Xbox, new firmware, new hardware, not new hardware.

They'd be really nice if we could beam new hardware to it, but we can. And we just send a software update to the Curiosity Rover that allows it, instead of needing to wait for humans to tell it when to shoot its laser and where to shoot its laser, which of course takes a ton of time because we are really far away from Mars, and it takes 15 to 30 minutes for our signal to get there.

So instead of waiting for all that time, the Curiosity Rover now has an algorithm that allows it to decide for itself where it should shoot its laser beam and what rocks to take measurements of, which is gonna save time, and it's gonna allow us to do more science faster on the red planet, and that's exciting.

And the good news is, for people who are concerned about robots that can choose for themselves where to shoot their laser guns, that this one is very far away, and humans are not anywhere near by it. So you're saying. Yeah, I mean, that was gonna be my first question. My second question, however, is,

let me give you a hypothetical situation. Okay. Imagine, if you will, that we create software that essentially allows machines to have a consciousness. Sure. And now imagine that we are able to update the Mars rover so that it gets a software update, essentially giving it self-awareness and giving it consciousness.

OK? OK. In that situation, would you attempt to argue that there is a person on Mars? I mean, not until this moment, but not it up. Absolutely. In fact, it's already, John, it's already making autonomous decisions. I don't know that we can't say that there isn't already currently a person on Mars. I see, I had a feeling

that you were gonna get there eventually. So I just wanna say right now that the bet that we made is whether or not there will be a human being as a member of Homo sapiens. I'm not sure, but we thought about on Mars before 2020. I think we said persons. I do not think that we said persons. So I just, I want to establish that A, machines are not people yet and b the bet is whether a homo sapiens will be on Mars by

2028 I am not putting at risk what I think of as the most important issue in my life right now Which is whether we are only? 12 short years away from having a podcast called dear John and Hank in 12 short years away from having a podcast called Dear John and Hank in AFC Wimbledon news. So as you know, Hank, right now it's the preseason. AFC Wimbledon is getting ready for their third tier campaign. Right now, literally right now, as we're recording this podcast, they are playing in a preseason friendly match.

Crystal Palace, their longtime South London rivals. Crystal Palace currently play in the Premier League. AFC Wimbledon play two leagues below in League one. So it's definitely a game where you would expect Crystal Palace to win. It's a preseason game, so there's tons of substitutions. They don't always play their best players, et cetera. However, Crystal Palace scored early in the first half.

Connor Wickham, really great player, scored that goal. And it was looking like the natural thing was going to happen. AFC Wimbledon was going to lose to a much stronger squad. But then the Messi from Montserrat, the Cristiano Ronaldo of the Caribbean. Lyle Taylor, Lyle Taylor scored a goal in the 38th minute to make the game tied at one and the second half just started. So it's one, one, very encouraging preseason news for AFC Wimbledon.

And I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that we can go into the start of this season, feeling good, feeling excited, and feeling like we can stay up in League 1. So I feel like, sorry John. Why are you yawning? I just didn't have enough oxygen in my brain.

I feel like I didn't get a lot of updates on, like AFC will be doing like rebuilding its team in the team in the team in the time before the... Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say that AFC Wimbleman has signed a ton of new players yet. Next week, I will be giving you an update on the overall kind of lay of the land with the squad, but frankly, we should be fine. We have Lyle Taylor, he does nothing but score, and that should be enough.

We'll see. I'm a little worried as well about the fact that we haven't signed a ton of new players at League One level, but maybe the core of the group is good enough for League One. We shall see. All right. All right.

I have no idea how soccer works. Frankly, neither do I. But I love it. I also have no idea how soccer works. No, frankly, neither do I. But I love it. I also have no idea how Mars works, but I like that as well. I will remind you, though, Hank, that this week, as is the case every week, Leon Musse over at Twitter, Twitter.com slash Leon Musse 4 Earth is doing the hard work to make sure that humans do not go to Mars until at least 2028.

Well, he now has 9,077 followers, John, including many, many people I know personally as friends. So well, you may not know this, Hank, but Leon Mus has actually become the world's leading anti-Mars exploration advocate. Well, there is no one on Twitter with more followers whose job is primarily centered around making sure that humans stay on Earth until at least 2028. I do. I really feel like creating like a Swindon town Twitter. Like, Swindon must beat AFC Wimbledon. Like, that's the only thing this Twitter is about. You know, Leon Mus is newest tactic, Hank.

I don't know if you're familiar with this, but Leon Mus has become strongly pro-moon exploration. Leon Mus is like, wait, what happened to the moon? Let's bring back some moon exploration Leon Mus is like wait what happened to the moon? Let's bring back some moon exploration while this emphasis on Mars so far away so cold so distant the moon very habitable. It's well it's cost-buy there's no doubt about that. What do we learn today John? Well hey the most important thing by far is that we learned you're going to be a father. Yes.

Yeah, it does seem like all the other things that we learned might be a little bit less impactful by comparison. I'm not really sure how to follow that one up. Yeah, no, I mean, that's definitely the biggest news. Of course, the second biggest news is we learned that in the coming weeks or possibly months, but I suspect weeks, I'm going to be eating a lot of Snickers bars. Yeah, you may have a whole Snickers baby. And we learned that Jeff Bezos, if you work at Amazon, it's not your colleague, he's just Jeff. Just Jeff. And lastly, we learned that Hank really, really, really wants you to get Snapchat.

that Hank really, really, really wants you to get Snapchat. And have some Zima. I'm just a pusher. I think it's what we devoted his career now to advising you to drink Zima while using Snapchat filters. That's actually sound like a pretty good time. No, it doesn't. That sounds like a terrible time,

not least because the Zima is going to make you sick on account of it being at least eight years old, possibly more. Thank you for listening to our podcast. You can send us questions at hankandjohnatgmail.com. Also, you can now send us questions at deerhankandj John at gmail.com. Thank you to Sammy, who with her friends from our forum, your pants,

started the deerhank and John Tumblr, deerhank and John.tumblr.com. They have very generously given us access to deerhank and John at gmail.com. So we can now see your questions there as well. Thank you. A lot of people have been sending questions to deerhank andohn at gmail.com. So we can now see your questions there as well. Thank you, please. A lot of people have been sending questions to dearhankinjohn at gmail.com. But the email address is hankinjohn at gmail.com. The email address one more time is hankandjohnatgmail.com.

That is the place to email us. Don't, yeah. Yep, that's the place. The, our podcast is edited by Nicholas Jenkins. Rosiana Hals-Rohas helps out with the questions. Our intern is Claudio Morales. The music that you're hearing right now is from Gunnarola and as they say in our hometown. Don't forget to be awesome.

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