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Reddit

platform · in 77 videos (2008–2026)

Online community site Hank praised as unusually thoughtful, which became one of Nerdfighteria's hubs, with its own Nerdfighter subreddit. John blocked it with other social media for a year from December 2018, but later says he gives in to checking it again.

Makes: Reddit Secret Santa

Videos by year: 2008: 1 · 2010: 1 · 2011: 3 · 2012: 4 · 2013: 5 · 2015: 7 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2019: 11 · 2020: 15 · 2021: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2026: 2

Threads

Also named in the threads: John turns his phone into a 'dumb phone' and changes how he follows the news (2016) · John's luxury pea dish: cooking his tiny pea harvest as a gourmet snack (2018) · Pizzamas 2020 edition · John asks viewers to buy Pizzamas 2020 merch at pizzamas.com before Pizzamas ends (2020) · John: keeping up the growth of the brothers' merch-project charity donations will be really challenging (2024) · John asks viewers to propose dates and human achievements for his family's beef days (2024)

Often together

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

Facebook (19) · Twitter (26) · Instagram (11) · YouTube (20) · Google (8) · Tumblr (7) · Crash Course (8) · attention economy (3) · Australia (3) · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast) (3)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2008

  • 2008-12-29 · Comment Haters and Christmas — ask: Hank asks for people interested in environmental technology and people active in social news sites like Reddit and StumbleUpon to email him about a project he and a friend are working on. — 00:02:58

2010

  • 2010-06-09 · Should We Sue Viacom? — Hank thanks those who featured John's video, especially the Reddit community, rare on the internet for being thoughtful, respectful and intelligent. — 00:02:32

2011

  • 2011-03-30 · The Ice Cream Changes — Hank shares something fascinating he recently discovered while searching for songs to play on guitar, not on Reddit: the '50s progression. — 00:00:00
    • Hank writes that he found the progression and every song in the video himself, except Slipknot's use of it, which he learned from a Justin Bieber and Slipknot mashup he found on Reddit while already working on the video. — video description
  • 2011-04-06 · Live on YouTube — announcement: Hank describes the planned livestreams: John reading nineteenth-century poetry, Hank talking theoretical physics, browsing Reddit together, reading books and playing songs. — 00:00:39

Also named in: Homeless Man with a Golden Voice Gets a Job

2012

  • 2012-02-24 · CUTE-OCALYPSE! — Hank proposes a mock cute tax on over-quota viewers, Emergency Puppy followers, Reddit subscribers and Pinterest otter searchers, to balance the national psyche and budget. (satire) — 00:02:13
  • 2012-09-14 · 1000 VIDEOS!!! — Hank says they have been on the front page of USA Today and the New York Times and, more importantly, of Reddit. — 00:01:56
  • 2012-12-11 · Economics and Dentistry: YOUTUBE'S FAVORITE TOPICS — John says Nerdfighteria used to be a YouTube-based phenomenon but now has many places, listing Minecrafteria, Facebook groups, the Ning, Our Pants, Reddit, Tumblr and Kiva, and probably more. — 00:00:58
  • …and 1 statement more in 2012 — all statements of 2012

2013

  • 2013-03-01 · Top 25 Life Hacks of Reddit — Hank says he is translating a Reddit page of the 25 all-time top-rated Life Pro Tips, formed by user submissions, curation and algorithms, into a video. — 00:00:08
    • Computer tips include the Alien Blue app for Reddit, VLC for nearly any video format and its audio mixer, adding /zip to an Imgur album, and Ctrl+Shift+V to paste without formatting. — 00:00:52
    • Hank recommends the LifeProTips subreddit and says the nerdfighters subreddit is a pretty cool way to spend time. — 00:03:24
  • 2013-03-15 · Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes — ask: Hank invites Nerdfighteria to discuss, in the comments, Our Pants and the Nerdfighter subreddit, what they love, how to broaden, how content is discovered and whether there is a better way to fund it. — 00:03:13
  • 2013-03-20 · Ads Work...but for Whom? — John asks how to make interesting, important projects without a million views sustainable, and says the comments on Hank's last video offered five models. — 00:02:07
  • 2013-12-27 · The Kidney That Was In 3 People - And Other Amazing Science Things — ask: Hank says he is going on Reddit right now to do an AMA and invites viewers to join and ask him anything. — 00:03:26
  • …and 1 statement more in 2013 — all statements of 2013

Also named in: 42 Amazing Maps

2015

  • 2015-02-13 · Draw My Life + 16 Other Suggestions — Hank says that, with nothing pressing to make a video about, he turned this one over to the Nerdfighters of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Reddit to decide what he would do. — 00:00:01
  • 2015-02-17 · Places I've Never Been — John: Last week (week of 9 February 2015) John found a copyright-subreddit post saying a friend's Tumblr line was attributed to him and sold as a poster; he illegally downloaded a pirated copy of his own novel, searched it, and the line was not there. — 00:01:20
  • 2015-03-13 · Screaming Into Pillows — announcement: Hank teases two big secret things: one announced early next week (week of 16 March 2015) with his Reddit AMA on Monday, the other a week later, if all goes to plan. (hedged) — 00:02:03
  • 2015-03-20 · A Sacrifice of Individuality and the Internets — Hank says the internet enabled crowdfunding (Patreon, Indiegogo, Kickstarter), crowdsourcing that built Wikipedia, and the wisdom of the crowd: upvotes on Reddit and choices on YouTube and Facebook that help curate content. — 00:01:01
  • 2015-07-17 · Is YouTube Good for Humanity? — Hank is ambivalent about some cultural effects: the recent user revolt at Reddit over the site's move against hateful and abusive communities confuses him. — 00:01:21
  • 2015-08-07 · Is This Video Cool? — recommendation: In the description Hank recommends a Reddit linguistics discussion of when and how slang becomes cultural appropriation as one of the best he has seen. — video description
  • 2015-11-13 · Feeling About Paris — Hank says whatever response people have is appropriate: disengaging, staring at live feeds from Twitter and Reddit, or being terrified for friends, family, themselves or just people. (hedged) — 00:01:20

2016

  • 2016-08-23 · The Ocho! Sports I Want on TV — recommendation: John points to a subreddit called The Ocho with highlights of lesser-known sports, from remote-controlled truck racing to tug-of-oars, which he finds incredibly entertaining. — 00:01:10

2017

  • 2017-01-03 · 10 Years on YouTube (...and MORE GREAT NEWS) — announcement: John: Colorado Nerdfighters will watch the game at the Three Lions Pub in Denver; there may be other places to watch with Nerdfighters, and John started a Reddit thread on it. (hedged) — 00:02:47
  • 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John: On a friend's advice, a month later after an egregious bout of twittering, John made his phone a dumb phone: no Twitter, Facebook, email or Reddit, and he deleted Pokémon Go, breaking his son's heart. — 00:00:49
  • 2017-06-06 · My Favorite Subreddits: Joy, Wonder, Knowledge, and Birds with Arms — John describes Reddit as a link aggregator of communities called subreddits; browsing it uncurated is a little unpleasant and at times kind of toxic, but it has many wonderful corners. (hedged) — 00:00:12
    • John points to the Nerdfighters subreddit, where you can follow along with all the happenings in Nerdfighteria. — 00:00:22
    • John recommends collaborative communities like Reddit Gets Drawn, where people submit photographs and others draw them; it makes him happy. — 00:02:34
    • John says he must get back to work but will need a break, and asks to be told in comments about viewers' favourite corners of the internet, on Reddit or elsewhere. — 00:03:50
  • 2017-08-22 · The Causes of Cholera — John admits he pays more attention to crises in distant Europe or Australia than elsewhere because people there feel close to him: he watches them on YouTube and reads their Reddit posts. — 00:03:24
  • 2017-11-21 · Two Love Stories — John: Before the Turtles tour returned to Cincinnati, Kenny wrote John on Reddit that he met his girlfriend at John's signing five years ago and wanted advice on proposing. — 00:01:53
  • 2017-12-01 · Let's Talk About Stress! — Hank finds nothing works except overpowering his lizard brain and doing what he knows will help, such as exercise, contemplation or talking to someone, rather than running away to Reddit or linguistics. (hedged) — 00:03:22

2018

  • 2018-01-09 · Your Attention — John thinks that is true not only of Twitter but of YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and so on. (hedged) — 00:00:28
  • 2018-05-08 · Old Man Yells at Cloud — John: Without a sense of obligation John doesn't think he would be on Twitter, Reddit and the rest, and maybe he shouldn't feel obliged to be in virtual spaces that make his life worse. (hedged) — 00:02:21
    • The internet pulls John back: he doesn't want to miss out, wants to share his work, books he loves and causes he cares about, and feels an almost physical urge to check. — 00:02:32
  • 2018-06-01 · Destroying My Router with a Hammer (and etc.) — Hank says folks on the Nerdfighteria subreddit have been having a good time, and shows several of their posts. — 00:00:07
  • 2018-08-17 · My Worst Job Search Fail — Hank asked on Twitter, and in an AskReddit post, for unexpected ways candidates had disqualified themselves, and got many good replies. — 00:02:13
  • 2018-09-25 · You Did It! — recommendation: John: When John feels that way he finds comfort and joy in the Boot Too Big subreddit, which he shares with Hank. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — John spends something like 20 hours a week on Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, mostly scrolling and skimming, and his attention has become extremely fractured. (hedged) — 00:00:00
    • John thinks many people use these platforms productively and fulfillingly, and that they connect people and give more people a voice in public discourse. (hedged) — 00:00:58
    • John's first problem: he lacks the willpower to resist the allure of Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter. — 00:01:27
    • John will take a year off: he will block Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter from his browsers and truly dumb down his phone so he cannot access them. — 00:02:26
    • The year off starts next month (December 2018) when the Project for Awesome ends; on YouTube things stay much the same, with a Vlogbrothers video every week. — 00:02:55
    • John asks viewers who have tried a version of this, or have tips for him, to tell him. — 00:03:24

2019

  • 2019-01-01 · How to Make Goals, Not Resolutions — announcement: John: As discussed in a previous video, John aims to post zero times to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook; easy in principle, but he is worried he can't do it. — 00:02:17
  • 2019-01-08 · I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going — John: Tomorrow John will be one month into his year without social media; he left the platforms because he couldn't regulate his time or experience there and checked his phone hundreds of times a day. — 00:00:03
    • John learned that, without being aware of it, he typed Reddit, Twitter and Facebook into a web browser dozens of times a day. — 00:00:58
    • John will stay off social media for the rest of the year; he doesn't know that he recommends it generally, but it is necessary for him to discover what lies beyond boredom. — 00:03:30
  • 2019-04-05 · TOO MANY MILKS — Hank says a Reddit thread made him realize he pictures one specific bar, never visited, with a very weird layout, when he hears a 'man walked into a bar' joke. — 00:02:21
  • 2019-05-14 · An Open Letter to Professional YouTubers — John says it is important to find places to be a person, a Reddit account or offline, or you start believing both those who think you more than a person and those who think you less. — 00:02:26
  • 2019-11-07 · I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. — John likes his life much more now: his average daily phone time has fallen by more than 80% and he is getting more work done. — 00:01:27
    • John is not going back to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram or Facebook, not because they are evil but because right now they don't work for him; he is happier and more productive without them. — 00:02:15
  • 2019-11-19 · Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit — John saw a Reddit post with 129,000 upvotes titled 'Kylie Jenner thinks she owns the phrase rise and shine'. — 00:00:09
    • John says that story became a tweet, a screenshot and a Reddit post with 129,000 upvotes, and it is entirely false, denied by Jenner and by the t-shirt company. — 00:01:57
    • John says this applies to much larger news stories too, and not only on Reddit: all over the place, headlines misrepresented the truth. — 00:03:35
  • 2019-12-10 · On Loneliness — John: Quitting the social internet helped his loneliness, since he used those platforms unhealthily, in superficial connection that left him feeling deeply alone. — 00:03:09
  • …and 11 statements more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2020

  • 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John also wants to continue not losing large swaths of his life scrolling through Twitter as dread washes over him. — 00:03:09 · also in: Looking Back at My 2020 Goals
  • 2020-01-14 · Foolish · Beautiful — John asks Hank whether he should go back to his sports Twitter account, @sportswithjohn, rather than regular Twitter. — 00:03:11
  • 2020-05-05 · YOU'RE AN ALL STAR! — John says the Nerdfighter subreddit made a version of All Star using only clips from the brothers' videos. — 00:01:19
  • 2020-07-07 · You're a Rock Star — John: Hank's first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, was the main reason John quit using the social internet in 2018. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-09-15 · All That Glitters Is Gold — ask: The description says the video contains a clue leading eventually to a secret livestream, and invites viewers to solve it with others at Tuataria or the nerdfighters subreddit. — video description
  • 2020-09-22 · the world is gonna roll me — ask: The description says the video contains a clue leading to a secret livestream and invites viewers to solve it with friends at Tuataria, the nerdfighter subreddit or other nerdfighter communities. — video description
  • 2020-09-29 · How 'bout Yours? — ask: The description says the video contains a clue leading to a secret livestream, best solved with others, and invites viewers to join a clue-solving team at the nerdfighters subreddit, Tuataria or other nerdfighter groups. — video description
  • 2020-10-07 (said on 2020-10-06, implied) · The Golden Age of Vlogbrothers — ask: The description says the video contains a clue leading to an unlisted livestream, easier to solve with others in comments, the nerdfighters subreddit or Tuataria. — video description
  • 2020-10-09 · The Rax Guy — John notes that right after his video on no longer trying to maximize Vlogbrothers views, Hank made a video that hit Reddit's front page and got lots of views. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • 2020-10-27 · The time I met Joe Biden — The description says this video, like all John's recent ones, contains a clue leading to a secret livestream, easier solved together via r/nerdfighters or Tuataria. — video description
  • 2020-11-03 · Alaska for Looking — John: Like all his recent videos, this one contains a clue leading to a secret livestream, repeated four times near the end. — 00:03:24
  • 2020-12-08 · A Love Letter to My Brother, Basically — ask: The description says the video contains a clue leading to a secret livestream: the clue is where John started this videoblog. — video description
  • …and 5 statements more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

2022

  • 2022-09-30 · COMMIT TO THE BIT — John cites a Reddit user who began a 'your mama' joke in 2012 and returned in 2021 to finish it, nine years later. — 00:02:28

2023

  • 2023-01-10 · Introducing: The Format — John says that sometimes, reading the "I'm 14 and this is deep" subreddit, he thinks the posts actually are kind of deep and its users are just jaded. (playful) — 00:02:08
  • 2023-07-14 · The Good News Video — Hank says that after John's video Nerdfighters went nuts on Reddit, Twitter and other social media, with letters and phone calls; he hopes everyone was polite. — 00:00:58
  • 2023-10-31 · How to Make Hot Sauce for Just $65 per Bottle — announcement: John says he has written grief-stricken and worried thoughts on the current conflict in a Reddit post. — video description
    • Asked why his conflict statement is not a video, John says a Reddit post in their community usually reaches more readers over time than an average vlogbrothers video. — creator comment
  • …and 1 statement more in 2023 — all statements of 2023

2024

  • 2024-05-28 · A Midlife Crisis — John calls Nerdfighteria the most important part of his professional life; it has grown around hubs on YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere. — 00:01:56
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank thanks viewers thinking through beef days, including those calculating their potential impact on the subreddit and those suggesting days and people and things to honor. — 00:08:15
  • 2024-08-23 · Is Google Training AI on YouTube Videos? — Hank's example: he cannot publish a storybook from r/nosleep stories, which belong not to Reddit but to the people who wrote them. — 00:14:23
    • Hank shows that a month ago Reddit's robots.txt left almost all of Reddit open to search engines, while today it disallows all robots. — 00:20:13
    • Hank says Reddit, blocking all scrapers, has done deals with OpenAI and Google letting them train on its data for pay, sending it to them directly. — 00:21:21
    • Hank says what Reddit sells is not Reddit's: its users created and own those posts, yet Reddit sold the right to train AI on them. — 00:21:50
    • Hank reads Reddit's user license: a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, transferable, sub-licensable license including to prepare derivative works, much like YouTube's. — 00:22:28
    • Hank's case: if the derivative-works clause is good enough for Google's lawyers to train on Redditors' content, it is good enough for YouTubers' content. — 00:22:57
  • 2024-08-27 · How The Internet Is Rigged — John: Agreeing with Hank's Friday video, John says YouTube differs from TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and Instagram, which take content, monetize it and give users only an audience and karma. — 00:04:06
    • As a third way forward, John says governments could regulate terms of service so Reddit can't sell users' intellectual property without permission and Google can't use every hosted video for billion-dollar products. — 00:06:19

2025

  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John: Now a little voice tells John to check the internet while he reads or works; he resists, gives in to the craving, checks Reddit, Tumblr and Bluesky, and it is cigarettes all over again. — 00:01:03
    • John did quit for a couple of years, a very productive time in some ways, but he missed the connection and the high. — 00:03:40
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John says, as a Reddit post noticed, Good Store donated far more in 2023 than this year (2025) or last; this year (2025) will probably be a little up on last year (2024) but down from 2023. (hedged) — 00:11:51
  • …and 1 statement more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

2026

  • 2026-02-13 · Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! — John says someone posted an embarrassing 2003 video of him to Reddit; he can't believe that was him, or that his wife fell in love with that person. — 01:22:24
  • 2026-06-23 · A Very French Reunion — John says football songs spread organically at stadiums, sometimes starting on Reddit. — 00:02:23