Skip to content

Subbable

platform · in 18 videos (2013–2025)

Voluntary subscription platform the brothers launched in 2013, where subscribers pay any monthly amount, even zero, for perks; it started with only Crash Course.

Videos by year: 2013: 7 · 2014: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2025: 2

Website: subbable.com

Threads

Also named in the threads: SciShow: launch of Hank's science channel (2011) · Sexplanations: Lindsay Doe's sex-education YouTube channel, made with Hank (2013) · Hank's 'million dollar idea' phone calls to John (2013) · John asks viewers who value and can afford it to support Crash Course and SciShow on Patreon (2015) · Complexly: the brothers' production company, renamed from EcoGeek (2016)

Often together

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

URLatron (2) · SciShow (9) · Sexplanations (2) · Crash Course (11) · VidCon (6) · Complexly (3) · DFTBA Records (4) · Google (2) · Montana (2) · Pizzamas (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2013

  • 2013-05-28 · NERD FACTOR! (...And Why I Fear for Tumblr) — ask: John asks Hank to fix this problem during his paternity leave. (playful) — 00:01:09 · also in: Introducing Subbable
  • 2013-07-26 · Introducing Subbable — Hank: Cultural changes need activation energy and catalysts; Hank feels Nerdfighteria, now a powerful force, could be the activation energy and Subbable the catalyst. (hedged) — 00:01:00
    • Subbable lets you subscribe to content and choose what to pay: $0, $1, $5 or $100 a month, or a one-time amount. — 00:01:12
    • Subbable launches with only Crash Course, the brothers' educational show, which is very expensive to make. — 00:01:45
    • The Google grant that paid for Crash Course for the last two years is ending; without Subbable and its fans' support they cannot keep making it. — 00:01:50
    • Crash Course will stay free on YouTube; the hope is that enough people who can pay will, so that everyone can have access. (hedged) — 00:02:03
    • Hank asks viewers, which he calls weird, to pay for content because they want to, not because they are forced to: a cultural shift. — 00:02:13
  • 2013-08-30 · Raw Onion, Twerking, and Speech Jam — announcement: Hank says Subbable had a snafu with Amazon and recurring payments: monthly subscriptions were cancelled because they were not following all of Amazon's rules; now they are. — 00:03:00
    • Hank asks Subbable subscribers to sign back in and re-up their subscriptions; Subbable has been very successful, and if everyone re-subscribes Crash Course will be safe, but only 50% have so far. — 00:03:12
  • 2013-09-03 · Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform — John: freed from saving every dollar against bankruptcy, Hank could invest in DFTBA Records, VidCon, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Crash Course, SciShow, the Foundation to Decrease World Suck and more; none could have happened without publicly subsidized health insurance. — 00:02:55
  • 2013-10-11 · TFiOS Movie, Emma Approved, Subbable Update, etc — Hank says Subbable has averaged $100,000 a month paid out to partners over the last two months. — 00:00:29
  • 2013-11-08 · VidCon, Punishments, Comments, and Pumpkins — announcement: Hank: By coincidence, Subbable has also just launched comments, its own comment system. — 00:03:19
  • …and 7 statements more in 2013 — all statements of 2013

2014

  • 2014-05-30 · Nerdfighteria Census 2014 Results! — Hank says 40% of respondents don't know Subbable, which has been so successful that SciShow, Crash Course and Sexplanations would not exist without it. — 00:01:48
    • Hank explains Subbable as a voluntary subscription platform where subscribers choose any monthly amount, even zero, which keeps the shows available to everyone, including people who can't pay. — 00:02:02
    • Answering census comments from viewers who feel bad about not having money, Hank says never to feel bad and not to buy their things if it makes them less financially secure. — 00:02:21
  • 2014-11-07 · New Crash Course and Pizzamas! — Hank: People chose to give money through Subbable; Hank says Crash Course relies hugely on that support, which lets it make better and more content, and he could never be more grateful. — 00:02:02
  • 2014-11-10 · The Woman Without a Face - Pizzamas Day 1 — Hank shows leftovers from last year's (2013) Pizzamas: DFTBA always orders extra in case of returns and tends to give the leftovers away as SciShow or Subbable perks or for the Project for Awesome. — 00:00:58

2015

  • 2015-03-17 · What Are Paper Towns? — ask: John asks viewers who support Crash Course or SciShow through Subbable to move their subscription to Patreon, which he calls like Subbable only better. — video description
    • John reports that yesterday (16 March 2015) Subbable was acquired by Patreon, which he calls great news. — 00:00:07
  • 2015-03-20 · A Sacrifice of Individuality and the Internets — Hank thanks Patreon patrons funding SciShow and Crash Course; they are almost two-thirds of the way to pre-Patreon-switch funding levels. — 00:01:33

2020

  • 2020-12-08 · A Love Letter to My Brother, Basically — John lists ideas Hank has realized: VidCon, NerdCon, Subbable, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Truth or Fail, Crash Course, SciShow, a podcast, card games, T-shirts, Eons, books and coffee mugs. — 00:01:27

2021

  • 2021-06-25 · The Surprising Origin of Crash Course — Hank says Crash Course and Complexly have funded themselves creatively: advertising, grants from organizations that understand the mission, Subbable, then Patreon, and now the Crash Course coin. — 00:02:40
  • 2021-11-09 · Hank Green's Million Dollar Ideas — John says Hank has had many wonderful ideas, from VidCon to SciShow to Subbable, and helped make amazing things. — 00:00:29

2023

2025

  • 2025-09-30 · WHO ARE WE AND WHAT ARE WE DOING — Hank adds things they are no longer associated with, like VidCon, plus the work of Emily Graslie and Chelsea Fagan, a hard-to-run crowdfunding platform acquired by Patreon, and a third-tier English soccer team. — 00:03:40
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John says Subbable was a crowdfunding platform launched about the same time as Patreon and so similar to it that Patreon ended up acquiring it. — 00:03:53