Skip to content

England

country · in 50 videos (2007–2026)

Country of AFC Wimbledon, the fan-owned club Nerdfighteria sponsors and John travels to watch. It also comes up in history the brothers tell, from Turing's conviction and Charles II's campaign against coffee to tuberculosis in early industrial England.

Videos by year: 2007: 1 · 2010: 4 · 2011: 1 · 2012: 1 · 2013: 4 · 2014: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2026: 1

Threads

Also named in the threads: John: sign every copy of The Fault in Our Stars (2011) · John's AFC Wimbledon FIFA series on HankGames, whose ad revenue sponsors the real AFC Wimbledon with Nerdfighter-designed ads (2013) · John's trip to London for the AFC Wimbledon v Liverpool FA Cup tie (2015) · John and Henry Reider, a Sierra Leonean teenager with multidrug-resistant TB he met at Lakka hospital (2019) · Everything Is Tuberculosis: John's nonfiction book about tuberculosis (2024) · John watches AFC Wimbledon beat the Milton Keynes franchise with a last-minute goal at Plough Lane (2024)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

AFC Wimbledon (12) · United Kingdom (7) · London (4) · United States (13) · Rosianna Halse Rojas (3) · Europe (3) · COVID-19 pandemic (3) · tuberculosis (4) · Australia (2) · Everything Is Tuberculosis (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2007

2010

  • 2010-02-05 · DARE TO SUCK — Maureen Johnson: Some things, like crossing roundabouts in England, have serious consequences if you suck at them, but in writing sucking has no real serious consequences. — 00:01:28
  • 2010-06-14 · Be The Change - vlogbrothers — Hank: In the 1950s Turing went to court and a jury convicted him of being a homosexual; being gay was then illegal in England. — 00:00:48
  • 2010-06-21 · You're Gonna Die — John: Truth or Fail option one, one of two purported facts: the US goal against England in the 1950 World Cup 'Miracle on Grass' was scored not by an American but by a Haitian. (unsure) — 00:02:57
  • 2010-09-27 (said on 2010-09-28, implied) · Stop Embarrassing Yourself — Hank says the United Kingdom (of Northern Ireland and Great Britain) contains Great Britain, an island of three autonomous countries: Wales, Scotland and England. — 00:01:34
    • Hank warns that saying 'I sure love it here in England' in a pub in Wales will get you punched: England is not a synonym for the United Kingdom. (playful) — 00:01:50

2011

2012

  • 2012-08-07 · An Open Letter to Students Returning to School — John says Germany had compulsory primary education from the late 18th century, that thanks to the Meiji reforms 90% of Japanese kids were in school by 1900, and England followed around 1880. — 00:00:14

2013

  • 2013-02-01 · Football For Nerds — Hank says he is on a plane to England right now; three weeks earlier he decided to film this video, knowing America would be in a Super Bowl frenzy. — 00:00:00
  • 2013-08-23 · Thoughts from Bath: The Legacy of Wealth — Hank says Bath's hot spring was a principal resource of Roman Britain; the Romans built probably England's largest structure around it, a resort for wealthy Romans used so long their wooden shoes wore through the stone floors. (hedged) — 00:01:08
  • …and 1 statement more in 2013 — all statements of 2013

Also named in: Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?

2014

  • 2014-04-22 · Understanding the Central African Republic — John asks who the good guys were in the American Revolution: the Americans stood for freedom and democracy, except for slaves, who probably would have been better off under English rule. (hedged) — 00:04:41
  • 2014-06-17 · Old. — John says AFC Wimbledon is owned by its fans and was the first football club in England to come out against homophobia. — 00:00:42
  • 2014-08-12 · EBOLA! (...meningitis) — John says Ethiopia is as far from the outbreak as England is from Afghanistan, mocking the 'same continent, ergo Ebola' inference. — 00:00:40
  • 2014-08-29 · What's the Difference Between A and Z — Hank explains English means from England, a country inside the United Kingdom, while British covers the whole UK, including Northern Irish, Welsh and Scottish people, who may not like the label. — 00:00:55
  • 2014-11-13 · The History of Pizza and the History of John: Pizzamas Day 4 — John: John comes from a Hebrew name meaning 'God is gracious' and was the most popular name in England for about a thousand years, until it declined around the time he was born. (playful) — 00:02:22
  • …and 1 statement more in 2014 — all statements of 2014

Also named in: Warm Things for Cold Times

2015

  • 2015-01-04 · The Best Worst Thing — John says that for the past couple of years Nerdfighteria has been sponsoring AFC Wimbledon, an actual professional soccer team in England. — 00:00:02
    • John says AFC Wimbledon play in League Two, the fourth tier; they are fan-owned, were England's first club to take a stand against homophobia, and rose from the ninth tier. — 00:00:07
  • 2015-03-31 · Hank's Haircut and Related Existential Crises — John says AFC Wimbledon is a real professional team in England that started 13 years ago from nothing but fans who had the idea to make a team. — 00:02:38
  • 2015-05-26 · Sixteen Parts — announcement: John: Rosianna Halse Rojas is here: the brothers have brought her from England to the United States on a visa; John can't yet reveal the full plan, but soon. — 00:01:14
  • 2015-11-03 · Monkey Hangers — John says Hartlepool is a city in north-east England of about 93,000 people. — 00:01:18
  • …and 1 statement more in 2015 — all statements of 2015

Also named in: The Road Less Traveled By

2016

  • 2016-06-28 · New Iceland — John: The coalition would create New Iceland: great weather, Björk, a soccer team apparently better than England's, and only a two-hour flight from New York, Madrid or Marrakesh. (joke) — 00:02:16

2017

  • 2017-08-04 · Why Bullets are Good for the Environment — Hank says that in 1937 people bought guns mainly to hunt, so the tax effectively taxed hunters to protect land for them and keep hunting from becoming a rich person's sport as in England. — 00:01:14

2018

  • 2018-03-13 · Who Should We Root For? — John: Project for Awesome donors joined John this weekend (10–11 March 2018) in England to watch AFC Wimbledon's 2-1 win over Oxford United, and greet Hank. — 00:00:02
    • His 27 hours in England reminded John that Americans get news from such divergent sources that they don't hear the same stories, let alone agree on them. (playful) — 00:00:25
  • 2018-03-27 · A Weird and Beautiful Story — John: Jerzy Dudek was a 10-year-old in a Polish coal-mining town in 1984, played for a third-tier Polish team, then moved to Holland and England, joining Liverpool in 2001. — 00:00:52
  • 2018-06-12 · Your 4-Minute Guide to ALL 32 TEAMS at the 2018 World Cup — John: Every World Cup England's fans expect an early exit; the team reaches the quarterfinals, loses there, and fans are shocked it did exactly what it always does. (playful) — 00:01:08

2019

  • 2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — John: Most Sierra Leoneans descend from long-time West Africans, but many former slaves in the British Empire were resettled there, so some trace descent to Canada, England or Nigeria. — 00:00:29
  • 2019-10-30 · this is a video about pineapples. — John says pineapples were eventually grown in Europe, never in quantity; his favorite pineapple painting shows English gardener John Rose giving King Charles II the first pineapple grown in England. — 00:01:56

2020

  • 2020-02-21 · The Muck of Millennia — Hank says 'mudlark' is the self-assigned name for people who walk muddy places in England to see what they can find. — 00:01:03
  • 2020-06-30 · i like it — John: James, a really good teammate from England, told them about English football, stadiums of singing fans, and that the best team was Liverpool; they believed him. — 00:02:07

2021

  • 2021-02-02 · I Predicted the Pandemic (over and over and over again) — John: Almost 700 years ago a chronicler of the Black Death in England wrote that virtually none of the lords and great men died in the pestilence. — 00:02:26
  • 2021-02-09 · Lesser Known YouTube Channels I Love — recommendation: John loves Rosianna's videos, especially her unhurried travel vlogs, such as bicycling across England. — 00:02:23
  • 2021-07-13 · The Vlogbrothers Videos I Didn't Make — John finds nation-states weird: England and Scotland are different nations in international soccer but the same one leaving the European Union, which is not a nation though it does most things nations do. — 00:00:33
  • 2021-07-30 · Can You Trust Science Too Much? — Hank: A big, well-designed ivermectin study is under way in England; it is worth running because several non-randomized, non-placebo-controlled observational trials showed strong positive effects. — 00:02:04

2022

  • 2022-07-12 · Nauseous Puddle Water — John says that in 17th-century England King Charles II, concerned about political talk in coffee houses, began a PR campaign against coffee that included an anonymously written petition, which says coffee leads men to waste their time and money on nauseous puddle water. — 00:00:00
    • In a comment John wryly calls England impressive for keeping a semblance of hereditary rule, then wonders whether inherited power and property, like nepotism and land inheritance, are also problems. — creator comment
  • 2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says in early-1800s Sweden a 10-year-old's life expectancy was around 46, and in 1841 England a 20-year-old's was around 60. — 00:01:27

2023

2024

  • 2024-03-05 · THE BEST DAY — John says teams sometimes move in American sports, like the St. Louis Rams becoming the Los Angeles Rams, because US teams are franchises; it had never happened in England, where teams are community assets. — 00:00:20
    • John jokes Wimbledon have not been good since returning to professional football: no professional team in England has lost more games in the last five years. (playful) — 00:01:08
    • John says only four of England's 92 professional teams were profitable last year (2023), Wimbledon among them because, with no rich owners, it has to be. — 00:01:17
    • John does not care that the club is perpetually underfunded: he is in love, so he flew to England with his friend Stuart to cheer against the Milton Keynes franchise. — 00:01:30
  • 2024-08-20 · Thoughts from Places: BROMLEY! — John says this is Bromley's first season in England's professional football league, an old-school experience from the narrow turnstiles to the away fans' lounge. — 00:00:58
  • …and 1 statement more in 2024 — all statements of 2024

Also named in: BELIEVE: The Jimmy Glass Story

2025

  • 2025-02-11 · What's at Stake — John says densely populated communities fared worse: in early industrial England about one in three people were dying of tuberculosis. — 00:02:26
  • 2025-03-25 · Taylor, Dr Pepper, and My Anxiety Strats: It's Question Tuesday — John: Asked to connect Taylor Swift to TB, John cites a line of her song about the lakes as a reference to England's Lake District, where poets and others with tuberculosis were often sent to recover. — 00:00:00
  • 2025-04-25 · How We Form Opinions — Hank says Lady Mary had the procedure performed on her son in Turkey and became its advocate on returning to England. — 00:01:27
    • Hank says English anti-royalists did not cite their hatred of the king but said the procedure came from scary Muslims and stood in the way of God's will. — 00:03:56
    • Hank says many overcame the effect: some Boston doctors were convinced, and in England public enthusiasm, strongly anti-smallpox, quieted the dissenters. — 00:04:25
  • 2025-05-02 · I Found the Dumbest Time Zone — Hank blames England: the Royal Society proposed two whole-hour zones for India, but the colonial government found that too complicated and went halfway between them. (playful) — 00:02:35
    • Hank says Spain belongs in England's time zone but uses Germany's, because Franco put it there to curry favour with Hitler, so Spaniards eat lunch and dinner late. (playful) — 00:03:04
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John tells Hank he has been traveling to Denmark and England; in Denmark he attended the Union Conference on Lung Health with Henry Reider, whom viewers know from Everything Is Tuberculosis. — 00:00:00

2026