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Europe

continent · in 70 videos (2007–2026)

John jokes that the weak dollar makes him want to move there.

Videos by year: 2007: 1 · 2008: 3 · 2009: 1 · 2010: 2 · 2011: 6 · 2013: 2 · 2014: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2019: 7 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2025: 1 · 2026: 4

Threads

Also named in the threads: Hank: living with ulcerative colitis (2007) · John predicts US health care costs will keep rising fastest in the world until the US negotiates prices like Australia and Britain (2013) · John's European Paper Towns press trip with Nat Wolff, starting in Madrid (June 2015) · John: share several Syrian refugees' stories from Jordan in the coming weeks (2016) · Awesome Socks Club: monthly sock subscription (2016) · Turtles All the Way Down film adaptation (2017) · Awesome Coffee Club: the brothers' coffee subscription for charity (2022) · Keats & Co.: the brothers' coffee and tea brand fighting tuberculosis (2024)

Often together

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

China (11) · United States (29) · Australia (9) · Canada (8) · United Kingdom (7) · othering (4) · Keats & Co. (3) · tuberculosis (8) · Rosianna Halse Rojas (4) · Sierra Leone (6)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2007

2008

  • 2008-04-28 · Ranting and Giving Stuff Away — John says the drug Hank was given is almost never prescribed in any European country with socialized medicine. (doubtful: almost never prescribed) — 00:03:14
  • 2008-06-19 · Memo to the Fourteenth Century (and to the Tobians) — John: On the future course of history, John warns 14th-century people outside Europe that they are about to be in big trouble, and jokes they should kill any dude who looks like him. (playful) — 00:03:17
  • 2008-08-18 · This Video Comes in Threven Parts — Hank says John won't see this for a while because he is on a boat in the ocean in Europe without internet; Hank never really knows what John is doing anymore. (hedged) — 00:00:00
    • Hank says John started a new, European scavenger hunt; the first clue, in Sweden, has been found and deciphered, giving the letter B, whose meaning is unknown. — 00:03:32

2009

  • 2009-03-15 · Lighting a candle for Rwanda — John says that 15 years ago the US, the UN and Europe got almost all of 'our people' out of Rwanda unharmed, leaving the hundreds of thousands killed to conclude they were 'a them'. — 00:00:54

2010

  • 2010-11-11 · REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III — John says the former First and Second Estates became enemies of the new secular state, which led to a lasting decline in the relevance of religion and class to European governments and economies. — 00:01:38
  • 2010-11-15 · Hey! You! Fix the Budget! — John: After joking that Europe has it all figured out, John says the deficit projections for most developed economies look much like America's. (playful) — 00:02:56
    • John says he leaves tomorrow (16 November 2010) for a week in Europe, doing events in Amsterdam and Vienna, with details in the description. — 00:02:56

2011

  • 2011-03-18 · TERRIBLE — John says that on taking the throne at 16 Ivan tried to make the world better: he modernized the legal code, opened trade with Europe, annexed land, and married Anastasia. — 00:01:21
  • 2011-06-15 (said on 2011-06-14, implied) · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) — John: Asked about US–Europe differences, John says the biggest is that 60% of US bankruptcies are caused by medical costs, against 0% in the Netherlands. — 00:01:05
  • 2011-07-04 · How to Turn Your Dumb Summer Job Into $162,000 — ask: John names the Nerdfighters to vote for in YouTube NextUp Europe: missxrojas, DeEelcoShow, BarryAldridge, dutchforn00bs, Beckie0, booksandquills, OMFGItsJackAndDean, tristopiatv, willsodyssey, thegearskeepturning, musicfromblueskies and tyrannosauruslexxx. — video description
    • John tells young viewers to go to a bank and set up an IRA, an individual retirement account; non-US countries from Brazil to Europe have equivalents. — 00:01:26
    • Many Nerdfighters reached the voting round of YouTube NextUp Europe; John links their entries and asks viewers to watch all the videos and vote, since they can shape YouTube's future. — 00:03:26
  • 2011-07-08 · Kill the Dollar Bill! — John: No new coins need minting, since a billion $1 coins already exist; just remove the bills. People might be slightly inconvenienced for a while, but Canada and Europe got used to it. — 00:01:56
  • 2011-11-11 · The Bank of Nerdfighteria — John says Silvio Berlusconi's resignation has not calmed the markets, and there is still great fear of bank runs and credit crunches in Europe, a nightmare for the whole world. — 00:00:28
  • 2011-12-30 · How to Tip Properly — Hank says in Europe service charges on the check, higher wages and inexpensive or free medical care mean waitstaff don't need tips to stay above the poverty line. — 00:03:02
  • …and 1 statement more in 2011 — all statements of 2011

2013

  • 2013-08-20 · Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? — John says overutilization is not the problem: Americans go to the doctor less than Europeans and spend much less time in hospitals, though seven nights in a Dutch hospital cost what one American night does. — 00:02:13
  • 2013-10-25 · When Was it a Million Seconds Ago? — Hank: A trillion seconds ago was 31,000 years ago, when, Hank says, humans were first arriving in Europe. (doubtful: 31 thousand years ago) — 00:01:18

2014

  • 2014-01-21 · Are Poor Countries Doomed? — John says once-'incurably poor' Brazil now has, by some measures, a healthier book publishing landscape than many European countries, benefiting YA novelists in Indianapolis too. (hedged) — 00:03:27
  • 2014-03-04 · Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context — John says Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe by area. — 00:00:09
    • John says the Crimean Peninsula saw much of the fighting of the 1853-1856 Crimean War, 'sort of' Catholic versus Orthodox but mainly Europe fearing Russian expansion as the Ottoman Empire declined. (hedged) — 00:00:11
    • John says Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire defeated Russia; 500,000 people died, and it resolved very little, since Europe had World War I sixty years later. — 00:00:25
    • John says the number of 'mysterious poisonings' in Russia and Eastern Europe has skyrocketed since Putin came to power. — 00:03:14
    • John says he gave more historical context than the news because it shows that the pull between Western Europe and Russia in Ukraine is not new. — 00:06:08
    • John says Ukraine needs decades of stability to grow its own identity and have relationships with both Europe and Russia without being controlled by either. — 00:06:25
  • 2014-03-18 · Is the American Dream Real? — John says that by almost any measure, being born rich or poor predicts ending up rich or poor more in the US than in Canada, Europe or any developed country. — 00:01:19
  • 2014-04-08 · I Don't Even Know — John says several European countries admit more people to prison per capita each year than the US but give much shorter sentences, a big reason the US has the world's highest incarceration rate. — 00:01:14
  • 2014-04-11 · What Boys Look For in Girls — Hank says 19th-century European women squeezed their waists, Mauritanian girls are sent to fat camps to eat 10,000 calories a day because stretch marks are sexy there, and American women paint faces and shave. — 00:01:00
  • 2014-08-12 · EBOLA! (...meningitis) — John: Ebola is not coming for this vague 'us' either: John says it is not going to spread widely in the US or Europe. — 00:02:46
  • 2014-11-10 · The Woman Without a Face - Pizzamas Day 1 — Hank says that between 1993 and 2009 one woman's DNA was found at 40 crime scenes, from burglaries to execution-style murders, in three European countries. — 00:01:56
  • …and 3 statements more in 2014 — all statements of 2014

2015

  • 2015-06-08 · Monday Bonus Video! — announcement: John: Next week (week of 15 June 2015) John tours Europe with his wife and friends: a sold-out Berlin event on Tuesday June 16, meeting people outside a Paris bookstore Wednesday, London on Thursday (place and time to be determined). — 00:00:06
  • 2015-06-16 (said on 2015-06-13, implied) · Paper Towns Madrid with Nat Wolff! THE TOUR BEGINS — John says it is actually Saturday and they are on their way to Europe, and asks Henry where they are going first; Henry answers North Carolina. — 00:00:01
    • In Asheville, John's parents, 'noted American heroes Mom and Dad', will look after John's kids for the week while he is in Europe. — 00:00:16
  • 2015-07-07 · Understanding the Financial Crisis in Greece — John concludes there is much blame to share, but without listening to others' narratives and imagining all members as an 'us', Europe cannot share a continent, let alone a currency. — 00:07:23
  • 2015-09-08 · Understanding the Refugee Crisis in Europe, Syria, and around the World — John: After thousands of refugees died this year (2015) trying to reach Europe, three-year-old Aylan Kurdi's body washed ashore in Turkey; he drowned with his five-year-old brother and mother heading for Greece. — 00:00:25
    • John says the smugglers are essentially the only ones benefiting from Europe's inconsistent, inhumane and disorganized response to the refugee crisis. — 00:02:34
    • European countries owe refugees nothing until they arrive, then have legal duties; so governments want the trip hard and benefit when it is dangerous, which is why boat smuggling continues. — 00:04:01
    • John calls some European governments' xenophobic responses shameful; Hungary's prime minister, saying Muslims must be kept out to 'keep Europe Christian', denies Europe's multi-religious history and international refugee law. — 00:06:28
    • 13-year-old Syrian refugee (clip) (quoted): In a clip, the 13-year-old Syrian refugee pleads for help for Syrians now: just stop the war, and they won't want to go to Europe. — 00:08:44
  • 2015-09-24 · Continents are Dumb — Hank: In America, at least, people are taught there are seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and Antarctica. (hedged) — 00:00:38
    • Europe and Asia are by any geographical definition the same continent; Europe is separate only because Hank was taught by culturally European people who wanted it to be. — 00:01:29
  • 2015-11-13 · Feeling About Paris — Hank says it is hard not to think about the global effects and those on Europe, but right now he wants to think about those who risked their lives to help, those who lost people, and those lost. — 00:02:07
  • …and 6 statements more in 2015 — all statements of 2015

2016

2017

2018

  • 2018-02-16 · Thoughts from VERY Dead Animals — Kallie Moore: Kallie says today's horses in the region were imported from Europe, while the original horses started here and then left or died out. — 00:01:13
  • 2018-07-10 · The General Crisis — John: From Africa to Asia to Europe to the Americas there was a lot of crisis, oddly, since the human species overall was getting much wealthier and better connected. — 00:00:54

2019

  • 2019-01-01 · How to Make Goals, Not Resolutions — announcement: John wants to edit and host 46 episodes of a new Crash Course History series about Europe. — 00:03:15
  • 2019-03-29 · The Largest Theft of All Time — Hank says the largest bank robbery was in 2015: hackers in China, Russia and Europe took $300-900 million from many banks with common malware; no one was caught and nothing was recovered. — 00:00:43
  • 2019-06-21 · How to Lie While Telling the Truth — Hank cites the headline that Carnival cruises released ten times more pollution than all cars in Europe combined: technically correct, but it plants a lie. — 00:02:13
    • Hank explains the pollution meant is sulfur dioxide, which cars basically no longer produce, especially in Europe, which removed sulfur from fuels. — 00:02:13
  • 2019-06-25 · Seemed Like a Good Idea: Eugene Schieffelin and the European Starlings — John: The American starling population has grown from 60 birds to around 200 million; there are now more European starlings in the Americas than in Europe. — 00:00:58
  • 2019-10-08 · Looking for Alaska (...with Alaska) — announcement: The description lists further outlets: HBO in Central Europe, the Nordics and Spain, BBC3 in the UK and Stan in Australia (October 19th). — video description
    • The series also comes out on BBC3 in the UK and in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and many other places; more info in the doobly-doo. — 00:00:29
  • 2019-10-30 · this is a video about pineapples. — John says pineapples fill old still lifes because rich people bragged about them; a single pineapple in the US or Europe could cost the equivalent of $10,000 today. — 00:00:58
    • John says pineapples were costly because they need tropical climates; their story is the Columbian Exchange: almost all eaten in Europe in the 16th-18th centuries were grown by colonized or enslaved people. — 00:01:27
    • 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
    • John suggests rich visitors from 18th-century Europe or North America would ask not why we put pineapple on pizza, but why we don't put it on everything. (hypothetical) — 00:02:55
  • …and 1 statement more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2020

2021

  • 2021-06-22 · Mindblowers with Hank and John — Hank says science communicators made bananas a scale for radiation: eating one exposes you to a little radiation, so a jet flight to Europe can be measured in bananas. — 00:00:53
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: The approaches can be combined, and exist widely: China, Canada and the EU have cap and trade; Japan, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and much of Europe have carbon taxes; nearly everywhere has some regulation. — 00:14:19
  • 2021-08-31 · The Woman Who Invented Stuffed Animals — John: The zither was becoming very popular in Europe, around the time Johann Strauss II wrote solos for it. — 00:01:27
    • In her mid-twenties she started a tailoring business with her sisters, then sold ready-made clothing, especially felt underskirts; felt had reached Europe via Central Asia. — 00:01:56
    • Part of what makes stuffed-animal history important is that it was one of the few places a disabled woman in 19th-century Europe could succeed in business. — 00:04:52

2022

  • 2022-03-15 · Ukraine and Russia: What Caused the War? — John says Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe by area and, as of three weeks ago, home to over 40 million people. — 00:00:00
    • John says Putin has repeatedly attacked the humanitarian corridors set up for civilians to flee besieged cities to western Ukraine or Europe. — 00:02:55
    • John says Ukraine shouldn't need to be Russia-friendly or Europe-friendly but its own country, making its own choices with its borders and sovereignty protected. — 00:08:07
  • 2022-11-11 · Elon Was Right — announcement: Hank announces the club now ships from the EU, so members in Europe need not worry about customs. — 00:03:24

2023

  • 2023-05-16 · Did TB Cause World War I? — John recalls the usual causes of World War I, as taught by Crash Course: Europe's complicated alliance system and the growing militarization and expansion of empires. — 00:00:00
    • John says TB had earlier been romanticized in Europe as a beautiful way to die, a disease of civilization and refinement affecting beautiful, intelligent and sensitive people. — 00:01:57
  • 2023-06-13 · touched by a king — John: Not long ago, at least in Europe, the most reliable cure for scrofula was widely believed to be the king's touch: being touched by the king. — 00:02:19
  • 2023-07-18 · Tuberculosis Fighters Have a Posse — John says new HIV treatments still did not reach impoverished communities until activists in the US, Europe and the Global South worked together to build that constituency. — 00:01:56
  • …and 1 statement more in 2023 — all statements of 2023

2024

  • 2024-04-04 · The New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie looks WEIRD!!! — announcement: Hank makes an extra Thursday video to announce that the Turtles All the Way Down trailer is out and the release date is May 2 on Max, formerly (and still in Europe) HBO Max. — 00:00:00
  • 2024-08-16 · I Have Uncovered an Olympics Mystery… — Hank notes Europe's 160 bronze medals: 0.21 bronze medals per million people, far more than the US's 0.12. — 00:04:39
    • Checking earlier Games, Hank finds it no 2024 fluke: continental Europe won 114 gold and 155 bronze in 2021, 113 and 139 in 2016, 108 and 138 in 2012. — 00:04:39
    • Hank argues the pattern controls for events, population and affluence: the same countries and events every Games, yet every Olympics for the last 20 years, possibly longer, shows continental Europe with significantly more bronze than gold. — 00:05:29
    • Hank's second guess: bronze placings may be more random, gold winners being truer outliers, so Europe's larger number of athletes yields more bronze medals. (hedged) — 00:06:28
  • 2024-08-19 · The Olympics Mystery Explained!!! — Hank proposes that Europe's excess of bronze medals may simply be due to more bronze medals being awarded. (hedged) — 00:00:29
    • In an added pop-in, Hank explains his method: for each medal type, Europe's medals won per medal of that type available, normalizing to the total medals available. — 00:01:50
    • Charting the normalized data, Hank finds the Europe effect simply goes away, with no statistical significance in the graph. — 00:02:43
    • Hank says he never claimed to know why the effect existed, only that it existed; it is explained by a mathematical thing, not a cultural human thing. — 00:03:24
  • 2024-09-10 · The world will change. — John: Up to 35% of Native Alaskans could expect to die of TB, John says, a rate higher than at the peak of Europe's 18th-century epidemic. — 00:00:00
    • To support the project they officially launch Keats & Co. today: the Awesome Coffee Club rebrands as Keats & Co. Coffee, adds tea, and ships to Europe. — 00:03:24
  • 2024-11-19 · Let's Talk about Money — John: The coffee has over 10,000 subscribers and has raised over $580,000 this year (2024), with steady growth helped by now shipping to Europe. — 00:02:42
  • …and 12 statements more in 2024 — all statements of 2024

2025

  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says an early use of coffee in Europe was likewise religious: priests, monks and nuns drank it to wake early for predawn prayers. — 00:00:58
    • John says coffee was seen as good for health, especially the gut, with people from Africa to the Americas to Europe praising it for the stomach. — 00:00:58

2026