Skip to content

Essential videos of 2010

27 of the 157 videos uploaded in 2010 were judged high on "words matter": the ideas are the point of the video, so reading or watching for the argument pays off — a reading guide, not a best-of list. Each entry gives the thesis (with a link to where the argument starts) and one line on why it was judged idea-dense. Back to the overview.

Main speaker: John: 15 · Hank: 11 · Maureen Johnson: 1

  • 2010-01-11 · Hank · Ecosystem Services 101 with Hank · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank opens a 'teaching' theme week by teaching John about ecosystem services: ecologists and economists put dollar values on what nature does for us (the Catskill watershed, a $33 trillion global estimate), so the environment is good for the economy. (00:00:50)
    • Why it is here: A structured explainer with specific numeric claims (the $8 billion plant, the $33 trillion estimate) and an argued position that ecosystems are good for the economy; it also sets the week's theme.
  • 2010-01-13 · John · Froghoppin' with Gatsby · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • Answering Hank's teaching-week jab, John corrects 'froofy' and the Gatsby billboard (the eyes, not the billboard, stand for a God who sees but does not act) and argues that critical reading and a liberal arts education teach what to think about, citing Pat Robertson's Haiti remarks; he also rides the Frog Hopper as his punishment. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: An argued reading of The Great Gatsby (God in the seeing but not the doing business) tied to a claim about what a liberal arts education is for and a critique of Pat Robertson's Haiti remarks.
    • Replies to: 2010-01-11 Ecosystem Services 101 with Hank, 2010-01-11 Ecosystem Services 101 with Hank
  • 2010-02-10 · Maureen Johnson · HOW TO GET AN AGENT · Books & writing, explainer
    • In her last video standing in for John, Maureen Johnson explains that after finishing a book you need a literary agent, whom you reach with a flawless one-page query letter, and passes on her agent's dos and don'ts. (00:00:34)
    • Why it is here: Practical, checkable publishing advice (what agents do, query letters, intake numbers, concrete dos and don'ts) carries the whole video.
  • 2010-03-03 · Hank · VidCon Schedule Spectacular! · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Hank announces the preliminary VidCon schedule and, disagreeing with John about The Marriage Ref but not about Jeff Zucker, argues that YouTube's top channels make a new kind of authentic 'social video', which is why VidCon should exist. (00:00:56)
    • Why it is here: Hank sets out an early, explicit argument that YouTube is a new medium ('social video') built on authenticity, and ties it to the purpose of VidCon.
  • 2010-03-19 · John · Foreign John Green Books and the Ultimate Concern · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Closing the ultimate-concern week from among his foreign editions, John says utilitarianism is a legitimate value system nobody lives by: we privilege people and threats close to us (he gives to breast cancer, not cholera), and the question is how to balance being safe in the world with making a world safe for all. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A compact argument on partiality and giving (utilitarian ideals vs actual behaviour, close vs distant threats) that responds to Hank and to the comments, ending on a quoted maxim.
  • 2010-04-12 · John · On the Separation of Conjoined Twins · Health, letter vlog
    • On tour in New York, John, a collector of books on conjoined twins, presents Alice Dreger's argument in One of Us that separating conjoined twins reflects our discomfort with unusual anatomy, links it to parents' obsession with normal, and asks whether twins should be separated at birth. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: An argued reflection on medical normality and consent, built on a named book's thesis and a historical case, ending in an open ethical question.
  • 2010-04-19 · Hank · I Shall BLOW YOUR MIND · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank builds up cosmic scale (Earth, the Sun, the galaxy's stars) to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, where a blank speck of sky held over 3,000 galaxies, and argues that humanity's act of understanding gives us an important place in the universe. (00:01:58)
    • Why it is here: A structured explanation with specific numbers (stars, galaxies, dates) ending in a stated philosophical claim about understanding.
  • 2010-04-30 · John · The Greek Debt Crisis Explained in Four Minutes · Economics, explainer
    • John explains sovereign debt: rich countries borrow cheaply because markets assume they repay, so debt is not inherently bad; markets' doubt about Greece makes its debt costlier in a vicious circle that could spread, and the problem is not one ideology's fault. (00:00:13)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued explainer of sovereign debt and the Greek crisis with several checkable claims (1945 debt levels, budget arithmetic) and a non-partisan thesis.
  • 2010-05-03 · Hank · Net Neutrality in the Shower · Internet & YouTube, explainer
    • Hank, using his shower as the internet, argues for net neutrality: if telecoms may throttle content (BitTorrent first, then YouTube in favour of their own video), they will, killing the open, innovative internet; he asks viewers to read up at savetheinternet.com. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: An argued case for net neutrality with a definition, a slippery-slope argument, a quantitative claim (85% BitTorrent) and a call to take part in the debate.
  • 2010-05-26 · Hank · How to Be Green Without Being a Prick · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Using David Bleja's real-time Breathing Earth map, Hank argues that being green means understanding the complex problems, not buying or doing things to ease personal guilt, so that people can help create solutions that let the world prosper sustainably. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: An argued position on individual versus systemic environmental action, with fact claims about carbon emissions and land.
  • 2010-06-14 · Hank · Be The Change - vlogbrothers · US politics & society, story
    • Hank tells how Alan Turing, who helped win World War II and create the computer, was convicted for homosexuality and abandoned by Britain, and argues that change, though slow and hard for young people to see, happens when individuals change; he urges viewers to support the Trevor Project's Be the Change contest. (00:02:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere historical account with checkable dates and sentences, used to argue how social change happens and addressed to LGBTQ youth at risk of suicide.
  • 2010-06-18 · Hank · You just lost THE GAME! · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • After a mock intervention over John's World Cup obsession, Hank makes everyone lose The Game and argues the meme hides a Buddhist truth: every game is lost, so what matters is choosing the right game, and the only real way to win is not to care if you lose. (00:01:29)
    • Why it is here: An explicit argument about desire, loss and choosing which game to play, built on the meme and the World Cup; the opening is comic.
  • 2010-06-21 · John · You're Gonna Die · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Answering Hank's video on The Game, John says everyone and everything will be forgotten, but that is not nihilistic: we cannot choose whether to lose or to care, only what to care about, so he chooses nerdfighting, books and the World Cup; he then hosts a World Cup edition of Truth or Fail. (00:00:52)
    • Why it is here: A compact argument that caring is a choice in the face of oblivion, with explicit criteria for which games to care about; the World Cup is the worked example.
    • Replies to: 2010-06-18 You just lost THE GAME!
  • 2010-06-23 · Hank · GOOOOOOOL!!!! · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Hank, who doesn't care about the World Cup, marks the US advancing and YouTube winning its lawsuit against Viacom, and argues that winning is valuable only because of the hard work, frustration and losing that come before it. (00:01:34)
    • Why it is here: An explicit argument that frustration and loss give winning its value, applied to the World Cup and the Viacom lawsuit.
    • Replies to: 2010-06-21 You're Gonna Die
  • 2010-08-22 · John · Is Obama a Muslim? Examine the Evidence! · US politics & society, explainer
    • Prompted by a poll finding more than 20% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, John deadpan-tests Obama's public record against the Five Pillars of Islam, concludes he is either not a Muslim or a really bad one, stresses there is nothing wrong with being Muslim, and asks the media to talk about something else. (00:00:21)
    • Why it is here: Specific checkable claims (poll share, dates, giving rates, Ramadan dates) and careful wording about Islam and its pillars; the conclusion corrects a widespread false belief.
  • 2010-08-27 · John · Rest In Awesome, Esther · Nerdfighteria, letter vlog
    • John remembers Nerdfighter Esther Earl, who died aged 16: her character and place in Nerdfighteria, his belief in standing still with grief and bearing witness rather than rushing to a silver lining, an ask to give to the Friends of Esther Fund, and a closing clip of her saying family is important. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A eulogy whose argument (bear witness to grief rather than rush to make it positive) and description of Esther carry the video.
  • 2010-09-03 · Hank · ANOTHER Oil Rig Explosion?! REALLY?! · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank argues that the world will never run out of oil, only of easy oil, so companies take ever bigger risks to get the hard oil; because those risks fall on shared things like the Gulf of Mexico, government regulation is needed rather than industry self-regulation. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A sustained argument (easy vs hard oil, privatized risk to a shared ecosystem, the case for regulation over self-regulation) with two forecasts.
  • 2010-09-06 · John · I HATE PENNIES!!!! (Also Nickels.) · Economics, explainer
    • Inspired by Hank's regulation video, John rants that pennies (and nickels) cost more to make than they are worth, waste time and money, and fail to facilitate commerce, and proposes keeping only dimes, fifty-cent pieces and dollar coins. (00:00:21)
    • Why it is here: A numbers-heavy policy argument (mint cost, productivity loss, who benefits, proposed coin set, why reform stalls) that defines John's long-running anti-penny position.
    • Replies to: 2010-09-03 ANOTHER Oil Rig Explosion?! REALLY?!
  • 2010-09-08 · Hank · Where are the Space Aliens?! · Science & nature, explainer
    • Continuing his Hubble Ultra Deep Field video, Hank explains the Fermi Paradox and its possible resolutions (self-destruction, transformation, hiding, a zoo, our short broadcasting history), concluding that the one civilization we know must be protected from itself. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A structured explanation of the Fermi Paradox with numbers and a moral conclusion about humanity's self-destructiveness.
    • Replies to: 2010-04-19 I Shall BLOW YOUR MIND
  • 2010-09-20 · John · Life Is Like Pizza · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • In an open letter to 15-year-old Hank, John argues that critical reading (shown through Bloom's definition of a nation in Ulysses) reveals there are no easy definitions separating 'us' from 'them', and that reading is a way into seeing other people as we see ourselves. (00:00:48)
    • Why it is here: A compact argument for critical reading: Ulysses on nationhood, insiders and outsiders, authorial intent, and reading as empathy, with the pizza metaphor as its frame.
  • 2010-10-13 · John · On Hope and Chile · World affairs, letter vlog
    • While watching the Chilean miners' rescue, John reports on the Beckoning of Lovely and Nerdfighter tattoos, offers a playlist of It Gets Better videos instead of making one, and argues that in a broken world humans are right to hold on to hope. (00:02:10)
    • Why it is here: Ends on a compact argument that hope is reasonable, illustrated by the miners' 17 days without knowing anyone would come.
  • 2010-11-01 · John · Consider the Lemming · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Using Disney's staged lemming suicide in White Wilderness, John argues there is a gulf between information and education: the internet is good at interesting facts but education needs their often boring context, which the brothers will try to provide in an educational week starting Friday. (00:01:47)
    • Why it is here: States a position on information vs. education online, with checkable claims about lemmings, White Wilderness and French Revolution trivia, and announces an educational week.
  • 2010-11-05 · John · God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I · History & curiosities, explainer
    • John explains the causes and first events of the French Revolution (debt, famine, Enlightenment ideas, the Estates General, the National Assembly, the Bastille, the Women's March), arguing that in 1789 France went from a stable if broke monarchy to a country where no one knew who was running the show. (00:01:42)
    • Why it is here: A structured history lesson with many checkable dates and figures (debt service, bread prices, estate sizes) and a judgment on how well the Revolution protected the rights it declared.
  • 2010-11-10 · John · Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II · History & curiosities, explainer
    • John continues his French Revolution explainer from 1790 to early 1793 (Varennes, the Champ de Mars, the 1791 constitution, Pillnitz, war, the republic, the guillotine and the king's execution), arguing that none of it fixed hunger or bankruptcy and that yesterday's revolutionaries became 'the man'. (00:01:58)
    • Why it is here: A structured history lesson with many checkable dates, names and figures (50 killed at the Champ de Mars, the coalition list) and a general claim about revolutions in economic contractions.
    • Replies to: 2010-11-05 God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I
  • 2010-11-11 · John · REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III · History & curiosities, explainer
    • John finishes his French Revolution explainer (price controls, the Committee of Public Safety and the Terror, the calendar, the Directory, Napoleon), concludes France went from one supreme ruler to another, and argues history is worth studying because the past still shapes the present and studying it is an exercise in empathy. (00:00:46)
    • Why it is here: Checkable figures (16,000 guillotined, guns vs guillotine, the calendar, the first draft) and an explicit argument for why to study history.
    • Replies to: 2010-11-10 Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II
  • 2010-11-12 · Hank · Blood!!! · Science & nature, explainer
    • On his way to give blood, Hank explains the human circulatory system by following the life of one red blood cell, 'Arby', from its creation through the lungs and back, and urges viewers to give blood. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A structured biology lesson with checkable claims (hemoglobin counts, heme, carbon monoxide, arteries vs veins, carbonic anhydrase, a ~100-day cell life) plus a give-blood appeal.
  • 2010-12-17 · John · PROJECT FOR AWESOME 2010: Save the Children and Partners in Health · Global development, announcement
    • John launches P4A 2010, pledging with Hank a penny per comment (up to a million) to Save the Children and Partners in Health; through a story of Iraqi graffiti that read 'happy birthday, sir, despite the circumstances', he argues we wrongly imagine distant people as 'other', while Nerdfighteria's projects show they are part of 'us'. (00:00:47)
    • Why it is here: A short argued essay inside the launch: the graffiti story as a lesson about othering, Nerdfighteria's evidence that distant poor people are part of 'us', and why giving helps givers too; plus a concrete penny-per-comment pledge.

← 2009 · 2011 →