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Essential videos of 2018

43 of the 109 videos uploaded in 2018 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: 23 · Hank: 20

  • 2018-01-05 · Hank · Making a Better YouTube · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Asked why he doesn't start a YouTube competitor, Hank frames the choice as revolt or reform and gives six reasons he won't leave YouTube (it works, his problems aren't his viewers', the algorithm, discovery, any big platform would have the same problems, attachment), arguing that you improve a place you love by working for it rather than fleeing; he plugs a creator-focused VidCon Europe. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sustained argument about platforms and communities (reform over exit) that Hank extends to countries.
  • 2018-01-09 · John · Your Attention · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • John says everyone agrees the internet sucks, notes that it always has and that any golden age of online discourse is misremembered, yet refuses to accept it: platforms like Twitter are built to capture attention, as a zookeeper paid per roar would keep a lion scared, so our power lies in choosing where our attention goes. (00:01:47)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay on the attention economy with a memorable analogy and a clear call to individual agency.
  • 2018-01-19 · Hank · Many Years Ago, Someone Gave Me a Whole Bitcoin...then I lost it. · Economics, explainer
    • After John finds the nearly whole Bitcoin a viewer named Sean sent them in 2014, worth $15,000 and donated to Partners In Health, Hank explains that market value is set only by the latest purchase: Google stock rests on Google's ability to make money, while Bitcoin rests on an uncertain bet that people will use it as currency, which he can't advocate. (00:01:04)
    • Why it is here: A clear argument about where market value comes from, with a personal story as hook.
  • 2018-01-23 · John · On Emergencies · Global development, letter vlog
    • Prompted by the New Yorker profile of Partners In Health co-founder Ophelia Dahl, John argues that humans respond well to emergencies like Ebola but neglect the long-term health-care problems behind them, as in Sierra Leone, and calls for both emergency response and long-term investment. (00:00:19)
    • Why it is here: A sustained, number-backed argument about aid priorities (acute on chronic, both-and), with a clear call to rebalance attention.
    • Replies to: 2018-01-19 Many Years Ago, Someone Gave Me a Whole Bitcoin...then I lost it.
  • 2018-01-26 · Hank · I Wrote a Book. I WROTE A BOOK. How did I do that? · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • From an independent booksellers' event in Memphis, Hank says what he really wanted was for people to read a book he wrote, and explains what finally got his novel finished: a character he cared about, scenes he needed people to know, and things to say about the internet, fame and power that wouldn't fit a four-minute video. (00:00:21)
    • Why it is here: A personal account of creative motivation that also states Hank's views on books, the internet, fame and power.
  • 2018-02-06 · John · Sawdust Bread · History & curiosities, letter vlog
    • John describes the sawdust-and-chaff bread behind the 1789 Women's March on Versailles and argues that, measured in lifetimes such as Halley's Comet's 75-year cycle, such hardship is recent, so better lives are possible but not guaranteed and change, though harder than expected, does happen. (00:02:06)
    • Why it is here: A compact historical argument about the nearness of history and how to hold hope without complacency.
  • 2018-02-09 · Hank · This is Going to Seem Dumb, but Stick with Me · History & curiosities, story
    • Hank, who has thought about sidewalks since a 2013 viewer-suggested sidewalk interview, explains Missoula's patchwork sidewalks and maker's marks, then tells how a child's footprints leading to a 1909 maker's mark made him feel connected to people long gone and part of something far bigger than himself. (00:01:37)
    • Why it is here: A small object carries a sincere argument about making things that outlast us and the hidden connections between people.
  • 2018-02-13 · John · What Can't a Billion Dollars Buy? · Global development, letter vlog
    • Pegged to the 2018 Gates annual letter and Crash Course Statistics, John argues that $4.6 billion a year cannot solve the world's biggest problems, but, as Bill Gates told him, new tools and delivery systems magnify spending, so how each of us uses money, attention and time shapes the world. (00:01:54)
    • Why it is here: A clear argued point about why some spending has outsized impact, backed by numbers (Gates Foundation budget, Green Revolution, US AIDS programme).
  • 2018-02-20 · John · When Your Friend Runs for Governor · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Telling how his mathematician friend Daniel Biss went from a seemingly hopeless first race to an effective legislator now running for governor of Illinois, John argues that imagining politicians as larger-than-life heirs and billionaires is self-fulfilling, and that politicians are people to be judged on who would do the job best. (00:02:20)
    • Why it is here: A personal story turned into a clear argument about how we imagine politicians and who gets to govern.
  • 2018-02-23 · Hank · Dear Young People, You Terrify Me · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Using mutagenesis as an analogy, Hank argues that young people are cultural mutagens built to create change; though middle-aged and frightened by the pace of change, he says society without change is doomed, cultural evolution can be done with intent, and 12-to-24-year-olds are in some ways at their most powerful. (00:01:16)
    • Why it is here: A sustained argument about youth, change and cultural evolution, built on an accurate genetics explainer.
  • 2018-03-06 · John · The Broccoli Tree: A Parable · Internet & YouTube, story
    • Retelling, in the second person, how a Swedish photographer's Instagram pictures made a lakeside 'Broccoli Tree' the social internet's most famous tree until someone sawed it down in 2017, John argues that to share something is to risk losing it, but hoarding what we love still loses it, only alone; the tree is gone but its beauty survives. (00:02:37)
    • Why it is here: A compact parable with a clear, argued point about sharing, loss and the reality of online audiences.
  • 2018-03-20 · John · The Russian Reversal · History & curiosities, letter vlog
    • John traces the Russian reversal joke from Yakov Smirnoff back to Cole Porter and Laugh-In, calls it a xenophobic Cold War weapon, finds the construction everywhere (Pollan's corn, Richard II, Piglet, Boss Baby, his own novel), and argues that reversing big forces such as algorithms and markets reveals where power really lies. (00:02:28)
    • Why it is here: An argued essay: the joke form is a lens on agency and power, with a hedged warning against ideological rigidity.
  • 2018-03-23 · Hank · Trump, Guns, and Net Neutrality...With Governor Steve Bullock?! · US politics & society, collab / interview
    • Hank interviews Montana governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat reelected while Trump won the state, about his net neutrality executive order, winning and governing by showing up, listening and persuading rather than mobilizing the base, gun policy and young people in politics; Hank closes that writing off opponents may cost the ability to govern. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: Substantive arguments on persuasion, polarization, governing and gun policy, mostly from the guest, with concrete policy examples and numbers.
  • 2018-04-03 · John · On Punctuality · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • John, who has made 323 consecutive Tuesday videos bar two illnesses, calls punctuality the cardinal virtue he suspects himself of, a way to value others' time; reading E.B. White on punctuality disturbing the peace, he concludes that extreme punctuality can become a vice. (00:00:15)
    • Why it is here: A short argued essay on identifying with a virtue until it becomes a vice, built on E.B. White's train passage.
  • 2018-04-10 · John · Who Do Tax Breaks Benefit? · US politics & society, explainer
    • Prompted by Sarah's Art Assignment video on art and tax avoidance, John uses four hypothetical families to show that, because of the $28,000 standard deduction, the charitable and mortgage interest deductions mostly benefit the wealthy, above all the richest 1% of US households. (00:00:17)
    • Why it is here: A worked numerical argument about who gains from popular tax deductions, with concrete figures.
  • 2018-04-13 · Hank · Who is in Control? · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Starting from Hugo Gernsback's 1911 prediction of personalized news, Hank argues that today's feeds are chosen by self-built programs serving platforms, that social media sells their power over us (Cambridge Analytica, AI inference from little data), that users are the product, and that if you don't control the feed, the feed controls you. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued critique of the social-media business model, pegged to the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica crisis.
  • 2018-04-20 · Hank · This Video is About Marijuana · US politics & society, list
    • On 4/20 Hank, who doesn't like pot, argues that criminalizing marijuana while alcohol and tobacco are sold everywhere is unjustifiable, giving seven reasons to decriminalize (economies, cartels, medicine, opioids, cigarettes, harms and racial disparity of arrests, the rule of law) and three complications (stoned driving, health risks, implementation). (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A structured policy argument with checkable medical and social claims and explicit caveats.
  • 2018-04-24 · John · This Video is about Red Eyed Tree Frogs? · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Inspired by the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and his belief that beauty is mostly a matter of attention, John looks closely at the red-eyed tree frog, at Henry's suggestion: its flashing red eyes may teach predators to look for the wrong thing, as people chasing the novel, loud and bright miss subtler insight; if you only look for red eyes, you miss the frog. (00:00:03)
    • Why it is here: A compact essay turning animal facts into an argument about attention and where insight comes from.
  • 2018-05-04 · Hank · When to Attack a Moose · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Hank asks why negative events affect us more than positive ones: an evolutionary answer (one lost fight with a moose, or ostracism from the tribe, is fatal) is plausible but a cheat; he argues that we build our identity as a story of self, negative feedback forces costly revisions felt as threats to ourselves, and how we respond shapes who we become. (00:01:44)
    • Why it is here: A compact, original argument about identity and negative feedback, hedged and offered as a sketch; the ideas are the whole video.
  • 2018-05-15 · John · Seven Maps to Better Understand the World · Global development, list
    • Arguing that data reveals larger truths that anecdotes hide, John walks through seven maps (world population in tenths, years of schooling, CO2 emissions, temperature change, the age of national borders, attended births and maternal deaths, life expectancy) that show a bigger world and real progress, giving him hope and, when appropriate, fear. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: Dense with checkable figures on schooling, emissions, borders, births and life expectancy, used to argue that human life is measurably improving.
  • 2018-05-22 · John · The Liger Delusion · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Using a dream in which he reasoned his way to two escaped ligers in his backyard, John argues that much political discourse suffers from the 'liger delusion': starting from the conclusion and finding explanations, believing allegations that confirm one's worldview, and treating opponents as sheeple; he resolves to stop speculating ahead of the facts but does not know how. (00:01:05)
    • Why it is here: A sustained argument about conspiratorial and confirmation-driven thinking on both left and right, with a news example and a self-critical conclusion.
  • 2018-05-25 · Hank · Please Unsubscribe · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • After a creator reported that their subscription feed was no longer chronological, Hank argues that the sub feed, though shrinking and messy, is YouTube's contract with creators and users, the one place not controlled by a computer; YouTube must not fix it by breaking it, and he asks viewers to unsubscribe from what they don't watch. (00:00:10)
    • Why it is here: A clear argument about a platform design choice, backed by Vlogbrothers analytics figures, with concrete suggestions for viewers and YouTube.
  • 2018-06-08 · Hank · Intentionally Ignorant: Does Free Will Exist? · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Hank says he rationally accepts determinism (nothing he does was not fixed at the Big Bang) but chooses to ignore it in daily life, because accepting it would hurt his flourishing; he lives in intentional ignorance of a few realities, such as the death of the last human, since his goal is happiness, not perfect understanding. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A short, sincere argument about free will and choosing what to ignore, carried through comic asides.
  • 2018-06-26 · John · How's the Water? · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Using David Foster Wallace's two-fish joke, John says he once believed adulthood would make him the wise older fish and often played that role in vlogbrothers videos, but he does not know what we are swimming in, distrusts the very certain, and suggests that asking the question may be its own answer. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere essay on certainty and humility that also states John's uncertainty about the social internet and outrage.
  • 2018-07-03 · John · How Does This End? · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • On vacation, John asks how things end online: his Myspace survives only as nostalgia, YouTube has big problems but is amazing, and his real concern is how Vlogbrothers ends, which he wants to keep sustainable and fun; he asks viewers what they get from the videos and, via a survey, for three weeks of unpunished vacation a year. (00:00:19)
    • Why it is here: A sincere reflection on platform and channel endings, with clear views on YouTube's flaws and on the channel's smaller, engaged audience.
  • 2018-07-10 · John · The General Crisis · History & curiosities, explainer
    • Curious when the global human population last declined, John learns via Our World in Data that it was 1648, the end of the General Crisis (1608–1648), when disease after the Columbian Exchange, the Atlantic slave trade, the Thirty Years' War, the Ming collapse, silver-driven inflation and the Little Ice Age cut population despite growing wealth. He concludes that progress is never simple, universal or guaranteed, that a changing climate can fuel instability, and that wealth is only good news once we learn to share it. (00:00:39)
    • Why it is here: A compact history explainer whose closing argument about progress, climate and shared growth is carefully worded and quantified.
  • 2018-07-13 · Hank · Why Do So Few Countries Have Nukes? · World affairs, explainer
    • Prompted by John's video on the General Crisis, Hank explains why only nine of about 195 countries have nuclear weapons: the history of nuclear states, the non-proliferation treaty, cost, sanctions, alliances, luck and a norm against nukes. He warns that sanctions can push isolated states toward nukes, that barriers are falling, and that after 73 good years we may be getting complacent, and he thanks the people whose work kept the peace. (00:04:17)
    • Why it is here: A structured argument with a numbered list of reasons and a carefully hedged conclusion about sanctions, falling barriers and complacency.
    • Replies to: 2018-07-10 The General Crisis
  • 2018-07-27 · Hank · Why Environmentalists Hate Captain Planet · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Hank, an environmentalist, argues that Captain Planet and the Planeteers, though it taught good habits and built support for environmental policy, turned people in extractive industries into subhuman caricatured villains, dehumanizing those environmentalists must negotiate with and deepening a rift that mirrors today's politics. (00:01:12)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued critique of how an environmental cartoon vilified real workers, with a general point about caricature and political division.
  • 2018-07-31 · John · On Prepositions · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • John walks through the maddening rules of English location prepositions (in, on, at) and argues that we are not 'on' our phones but 'in' them: a disembodied, thrilling, terrifying and weird space for which he lacks both understanding and language, more like a city than an island. (00:01:58)
    • Why it is here: A playful language tour builds to a sincere, original reflection on what phone life feels like and the limits of our words for it.
  • 2018-08-03 · Hank · How Do Adults Make Friends? · Everyday life, Q&A
    • On Esther Day, Hank tells John he loves him, answers viewers' Twitter questions about family and friends, and argues that adults find friendship harder not because it is harder but because we forget how hard we worked to value others and be valued; friendship and love take time, energy and work. (00:01:36)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, reasoned answer to a common question, openly mixing guesses with one firm conviction.
  • 2018-08-10 · Hank · My Giant Robot Suit · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Hank borrows Patrick Rothfuss's metaphor that everyone online wears a robot suit they cannot see: a big one brings reach, money and influence but also makes harm easy and you look invulnerable, so the powerful must see their power in others' reactions, handle criticism without feeling victimized, and step lightly and kindly. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: An extended, carefully built metaphor for online influence and responsibility, with a concrete one-step guide.
  • 2018-08-21 · John · SYSTEMS!!!! · Global development, letter vlog
    • Starting from his own tetanus shot, John argues that boring, interdependent systems (roads, electricity, supply chains, health-worker training) are the key to healthy, productive lives: improving them creates virtuous cycles, as in Thailand, while weak systems, as in Sierra Leone, create vicious ones; he praises Partners In Health's systems focus and says progress is real. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A substantive argument about health systems and development, backed by data on Thailand and Sierra Leone.
  • 2018-08-28 · John · The Book Was Better? · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • After reading Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker's screenplay of Turtles All the Way Down, John corrects misconceptions about book-to-movie adaptation: authors mostly decide only whether to sell the rights, studios do care about fans but need far larger audiences, and the book is not always better, only different, since a great adaptation can be a great movie. (00:02:59)
    • Why it is here: An argued insider account of how adaptation works and why book and film are different arts, with concrete numbers and the Nat Wolff casting example.
  • 2018-09-04 · John · The Eisenhower Matrix · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Stressed by urgent demands that crowd out his novel, John explains the Eisenhower Matrix (do the urgent and important, delegate or automate the urgent, drop the unimportant unless you love it, schedule the important but not urgent), notes humans do the same with climate change, and argues life is about fulfillment, not efficiency. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A clear practical framework joined to an argued view that productivity should leave room for joy and that time is what we have.
  • 2018-10-09 · John · How Big a Problem is Mental Illness? · Health, explainer
    • John explains the disability-adjusted life year and argues that, measured this way, mental illness is one of the world's leading health problems, from the US to Sierra Leone; drawing on his own medication, he says it is mostly treatable and access to care must improve. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A data-driven argument that DALYs reframe mental illness as a top health burden, with a personal case for treatment access.
  • 2018-10-19 · Hank · This is the scariest graph I've ever seen · Science & nature, explainer
    • Using an ice cube that stays frozen in a warm room, Hank explains the 'scariest graph' he has seen, of sea level rise commitment: today's warming already commits us to more than a meter of long-term sea level rise, and the worst-case path to 2100 to six meters; humans solve problems well, but only ones they recognize. (00:00:48)
    • Why it is here: A clear, number-backed explanation of committed sea level rise and why delayed effects make climate change worse than 2100 projections suggest.
  • 2018-10-23 · John · Why Are Humans Suddenly Getting Better at Tetris? · Pop culture, explainer
    • John explains why top players of 1989 NES Tetris have suddenly improved, with max-outs and level 30 now within reach: a small, tightly knit community of enthusiasts connected online and off, the Classic Tetris World Championship and live streaming; he concludes that there is no single internet, only each person's own, which he wants to make better. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A well-argued case study about how small, passionate, connected communities drive progress, applied to the internet.
  • 2018-10-26 · Hank · The Rigged Election · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Ahead of the 2018 US elections, Hank contrasts the close 2000 Florida result, which Gore and Democratic leaders accepted despite fraud claims, with President Trump's unproven claims of widespread voter fraud, arguing that such lies erode the faith democracy depends on and should be unacceptable to everyone. (00:01:23)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued case about democratic norms and electoral legitimacy, with checkable historical claims.
  • 2018-11-01 · Hank · Should I Feel Guilty? · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Starting from a tenant who felt 'made to feel guilty' about pulled-up wildflowers, Hank separates guilt for things one did from guilt for unearned advantages such as never needing student loans, and argues that deserving is the wrong frame: the question is what to do with advantages, letting guilt motivate helping others rather than weigh one down. (00:02:18)
    • Why it is here: An argued essay on guilt and privilege with a clear, original resolution (deserving is the wrong frame; use guilt as motivation).
  • 2018-11-06 · John · Taking a Year Off · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • John says his own internet isn't working: social internet companies have hacked his unusually susceptible attention to monetize it, his attempts to cut back have failed, so after the Project for Awesome he will take a year off Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter while staying on YouTube. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued personal case about attention and platform incentives, with a concrete year-long commitment.
  • 2018-11-09 · Hank · I Don't Know What Work Is · Projects, letter vlog
    • Starting from reading 45 science fiction novels before his book came out, Hank wonders whether turning everything he loves into work is a good habit or a need to justify joy, thanks John for teaching him (in a 2011 pitch chat) that a good idea must do good, and says he believes in their projects as sustainable engines for good, since work is part of life. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: An argued personal reflection on work, joy and doing good, with a concrete origin story for Crash Course.
  • 2018-11-27 · John · On The Melian Dialogue · Global development, letter vlog
    • John retells Thucydides' Melian Dialogue, in which Athens answered neutral Melos with 'the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must', and argues that although the powerful often prevail (as in child malaria deaths), human life is not a zero-sum game: protecting the weak makes life better for everyone. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay: a historical case, a counter-thesis against power as the logic of history, and supporting numbers on malaria and progress.
  • 2018-11-30 · Hank · We just had our first interstellar visitor...and it's weird. · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank lays out what is known about Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar object, weighs the comet against the alien solar-sail hypothesis, and argues that because he wants it to be a spaceship he cannot trust himself on it: the universe being weird is perhaps the best argument against aliens. (00:06:35)
    • Why it is here: A careful explainer with a real epistemic point about wanting a story to be true, headlines and the Sagan standard.

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