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Essential videos of 2019

50 of the 110 videos uploaded in 2019 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: 29 · Hank: 21

  • 2019-01-08 · John · I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • A month into his year without social media, John reports he is less anxious, has more time and gets bored into having thoughts, but misses it and finds that quitting platforms fixes nothing: the internet is not the problem, his internet is; his Crash Course on navigating digital information helped more. (00:02:12)
    • Why it is here: A carefully reasoned personal report that moves from a diet of blocked sites to the claim that changing one's internet means changing oneself.
  • 2019-01-11 · Hank · What is Burnout? · Health, letter vlog
    • Hank admits he does not know what burnout is and proposes that it is not one thing: work needs fuel and the opportunity to burn it, so burnout can be a fuel problem or an opportunity problem; he argues we can diversify our fuels and must value caring for each other and ourselves. (00:00:59)
    • Why it is here: A sincerely argued framework (fuel vs opportunity) that separates kinds of burnout and ties them to values and inequality.
  • 2019-01-15 · John · On Burning Resentment · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • Replying to Hank's burnout video, John recalls writing Looking for Alaska at 24 fueled by resentment: it made him productive but made the work about himself, and the book only became good once he found a warmer fuel and wrote it as a gift for others. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A personal, carefully argued essay on resentment as creative fuel, with a coined image (a fire with more light than heat).
    • Replies to: 2019-01-11 What is Burnout?
  • 2019-01-18 · Hank · Should You Burn Dirty Fuel? · Health, letter vlog
    • Continuing the burnout discussion, Hank reports what people answered when he asked on Twitter for one healthy and one unhealthy fuel, and argues, against John, that unhealthy fuels can produce good work if you recognize them, like taking on debt, while seeking more sustainable alternatives. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: Crowd answers are organized into clear categories and Hank takes a distinct position in the brothers' exchange.
    • Replies to: 2019-01-15 On Burning Resentment, 2019-01-11 What is Burnout?
  • 2019-01-29 · John · Do You Believe in Miracles? · Sports, letter vlog
    • John traces his belief in radical hope to watching Boston College's 'Miami Miracle' at seven, says hope is the correct response to the human condition and best shared, and celebrates AFC Wimbledon's 4-2 FA Cup upset of West Ham as proof. (00:00:57)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, argued personal essay: hope as a stance, grounded in two sports stories.
  • 2019-02-01 · Hank · We Have Destroyed Copyright Law · Internet & YouTube, explainer
    • Prompted by a rights holder blocking John's Tuesday video with sports clips, Hank explains YouTube's Content ID claims, blocks and strikes, defends the claiming system while naming its flaws, and argues that copyright as written is broken and online is now governed by platform policy rather than law. (00:02:55)
    • Why it is here: A sustained, carefully argued explainer about how copyright actually works on YouTube and why platform policy has replaced law.
    • Replies to: 2019-01-29 Do You Believe in Miracles?
  • 2019-02-05 · John · Deepfake: A Brief History of Unreliable Images · Internet & YouTube, explainer
    • Opening with a deepfake that puts his old mustache on both brothers, John surveys a history of staged, forged and airbrushed photographs used to spread disinformation and argues that such images work because we trust our eyes, so we must learn to live in a world where we cannot believe them. (00:02:55)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay: a well-chosen run of historical photo forgeries supports a clear claim about why images deceive even when we know they can be faked.
  • 2019-02-08 · Hank · Screwing Up: Two Stories From When I Worked at a TV Station · Everyday life, story
    • Hank tells two stories from his college summer job at Orange TV, a community access station in Orlando: a botched audio shoot that taught him to speak up when something seems wrong, and an ex-Air Force producer's 'Green, you outrank me' at his thrifted master sergeant jacket, which showed him he wore symbols of other people's identity he knew nothing about. (00:02:45)
    • Why it is here: A personal story carries a careful point about wearing others' symbols without understanding them, which the description ties to cultural appropriation.
  • 2019-02-12 · John · Are Textbooks Obsolete? · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Prompted by the Gates annual letter's claim that textbooks are becoming obsolete, John notes that textbook prices have soared while free tools like Mathigon, 3Blue1Brown and Khan Academy make them less important, and argues textbooks resist supply and demand because students and teachers rarely choose them; his own late success with geometry leaves him optimistic. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A clear argument about textbook economics and educational tools, grounded in figures, the Gates letter and a personal story.
  • 2019-02-26 · John · The Necessity to Struggle / The Futility of Effort · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Waiting at an airport gate, John spirals from noticing that everyone there will be dead within a century into nihilistic despair, then argues that both despair and joy in the human enterprise are correct, that the useful question is which view is productive, and that effort is never futile while people share in it and benefit from it. (00:02:26)
    • Why it is here: A short argued essay on meaning and despair; the turn from 'which is true' to 'which is productive' and the Fitzgerald balance are the substance.
  • 2019-03-08 · Hank · Does "The Press" Hate YouTube? · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Responding to MatPat's video on negative media portrayals of YouTube, Hank argues that the press covers YouTube, like Montana, only when it is threatening because its powerful readers and ad buyers don't understand it; YouTube also has real problems and power, and either there is no mainstream media anymore or YouTube is part of it. (00:01:11)
    • Why it is here: A reasoned piece of media criticism built on the Montana analogy and Hank's own news-writing experience.
  • 2019-03-12 · John · Going Home with Alaska and Miles · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • After showing Looking for Alaska's Hulu leads Charlie Plummer and Kristine Froseth and director Sarah around his old high school, John reflects that he wrote the novel to go home to 1993 and to attempt time travel, that novels don't heal wounds, and that watching the actors walk away he finally let the story go: it's theirs now. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A personal essay on authorship, autobiography and letting go of a book, argued with care.
  • 2019-03-15 · Hank · Why We Stopped Making Explainers: EXPLAINED · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Recalling the channel's decade of explainers since John's 2007 Nepal toilet-paper video, Hank asks why they stopped: 'explained' promises an honest whole story he doesn't trust himself to give, society blurs journalism and opinion, others do it better with editorial rigor, and audiences increasingly trust charisma over rigor. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A careful self-examination of the channel's role in explanatory journalism and trust in charismatic sources.
  • 2019-03-29 · Hank · The Largest Theft of All Time · US politics & society, explainer
    • Ranking history's biggest thefts (the 2005 Fortaleza tunnel heist, a 2015 bank hack, MacGregor's Poyais scam, Madoff), Hank finds US wage theft, $20-60 billion a year, exceeds all other property crime combined; few officers police it and almost no one goes to jail. (00:02:16)
    • Why it is here: A numbers-driven argument whose comparisons build to one claim about wage theft and its weak enforcement.
  • 2019-04-09 · John · The Only Psychiatric Hospital in Sierra Leone · Global development, documentary visit
    • Visiting Kissy Psychiatric Hospital, Sierra Leone's only mental health hospital, John shows how chained patients and collapsed infrastructure gave way, with Partners In Health support, to medication, power, water and care at home, and argues that isolated interventions fail: only investing in whole systems, and listening, brings systemic results. (00:04:39)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued case about aid design (systems over one-off fixes, listening first) grounded in concrete detail and John's own mental illness.
  • 2019-04-16 · John · Doing Somethings · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • After a night at a live Harry Potter and the Sacred Text recording, John reflects that doing nothing feels like a passive default rather than a choice, which leaves him vulnerable to misinformation (about medication, flu shots, philanthropy); passive choices are still choices, and he is always choosing which something to do. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued essay on passive choices, with concrete examples and a clear coined conclusion.
  • 2019-04-19 · Hank · Making your Nothings into Somethings · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Replying with a cold to clips of John's 'Doing Somethings', Hank agrees passivity is part of doing nothing but splits choices into active and passive nothings and somethings, and argues the best use of limited choice-making energy is to set up 'passive somethings' (habits, meal kits, weekly days) so his non-choices aren't nothing. (00:00:52)
    • Why it is here: An original framework (active/passive x nothing/something) argued explicitly in reply to John.
    • Replies to: 2019-04-16 Doing Somethings
  • 2019-04-30 · John · The Thing with Feathers · Sports, letter vlog
    • Telling how fan-owned AFC Wimbledon, last in English football's third tier for most of the season, fought out of the relegation zone, John argues that humans' best trait is relentlessness, that every reprieve is temporary, and that since you can't know which effort will work you put the effort in every time, a lesson for his writing. (00:01:55)
    • Why it is here: A personal essay on hope and futile-seeming effort, grounded in a concrete season and John's abandoned stories.
  • 2019-05-03 · Hank · What Game of Thrones is Really About · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank argues that Game of Thrones is an analog of the geopolitics of global warming (a collective-action, prisoner's-dilemma problem where nations that do nothing gain), but that climate change is worse because it can't be beaten, isn't evil and can't be seen; still, resources, technology and coal-to-wind shifts give reason for hope. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued analogy essay on why climate action is hard and how to think about hope, with checkable energy figures.
    • Replies to: 2019-04-30 The Thing with Feathers
  • 2019-05-07 · John · How I Read and Why · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • John, a former Booklist and New York Times Book Review reviewer who favors reviewing, argues that criticism matters most when it lifts up work worth attention rather than cataloguing flaws; he reads to be moved, calls a good book one that repays generous attention, and admits he is now uncertain about everything. (00:01:01)
    • Why it is here: A compact argument about what criticism and reading are for, from someone who has reviewed professionally.
  • 2019-05-14 · John · An Open Letter to Professional YouTubers · Internet & YouTube, list
    • In an open letter to professional YouTubers, John shares lessons from 12 years of online video: careers are short like athletes', learn personal finance, weigh value against money, remember luck, stay a person amid adulation and hate, and, as Hank says, diversify your identity. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A dense, sincere list of argued lessons about creator careers, money, luck, fame and identity.
  • 2019-05-17 · Hank · Keanu. · Pop culture, letter vlog
    • Hank dissects Keanu Reeves's answer to Stephen Colbert's 'What do you think happens when we die?': by answering the question as asked ('the ones who love us will miss us') Keanu broke late-show protocol and suggested that what happens to everybody else may matter more than what happens to us. (00:01:38)
    • Why it is here: A close reading of one TV moment that turns into a sincere argument for turning thoughts about death outward.
  • 2019-05-21 · John · Keanu Reeves: A Love Letter · Pop culture, letter vlog
    • John, wary of the celebrity machine, explains why he loves Keanu Reeves: a great actor who listens carefully in interviews and keeps a private self inside the 'Mickey Mouse suit' of fame, a lesson that everyone can be kind and listen carefully. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A sincere essay that turns a celebrity appreciation into an argument about fame, the private self, listening and kindness.
    • Replies to: 2019-05-17 Keanu.
  • 2019-05-28 · John · 3 Minutes and 58 Seconds of Darkness · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • John reflects that cameras both record and distort: his camera cannot show the night sky he saw over Indianapolis, yet images feel like proof; citing Susan Sontag, he admits he documents to fix himself in time and warns that seeing through a camera misses everything it doesn't see. (00:01:04)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued essay on images, memory and documentation, with a closing invitation to look at tonight's sky.
  • 2019-05-31 · Hank · Uncomfortable Nuance: Natural Gas Edition · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank argues that coal's collapse in the UK and US, very good news for the climate, was largely brought about by cheap natural gas from fracking, which is genuinely bad for local environments; he urges accepting that climate solutions carry their own environmental costs rather than inventing villains. (00:00:40)
    • Why it is here: A nuanced energy argument with specific claims about coal, natural gas, fracking and renewables.
  • 2019-06-04 · John · On Sharing the Walk · Sports, story
    • John tells how his unreliable gut, and thoughts on treasuring versus sharing, led him to give a stranger his Steven Gerrard-signed jersey before Liverpool won the Champions League, and argues that sports matter because they remind us that what we share outweighs what we have: you'll never walk alone. (00:02:30)
    • Why it is here: A personal story building to a sincere argument about sharing and togetherness in sport.
  • 2019-06-11 · John · Why I Haven't Written a New Book · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • On the day the Turtles All the Way Down paperback comes out, John explains why he has not written a novel in 510 days: besides other work, publishing a successful book overwhelmed him with fear and destabilizing attention, so he has been writing The Anthropocene Reviewed, a quieter place. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A candid argument about the difference between writing and publishing, and what success does to a writer.
  • 2019-06-14 · Hank · What /Actually/ Happened at Chernobyl · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank explains the physics behind the Chernobyl explosion: the cheap RBMK design (water coolant, graphite moderator, two-way control rods), xenon buildup and nearly all rods pulled, so reinserting the rods spiked neutron flux; the 'graphite tip' is a simplification. (00:06:03)
    • Why it is here: A careful step-by-step explainer correcting a popular simplification; the substance is the causal chain of the accident.
  • 2019-06-21 · Hank · How to Lie While Telling the Truth · Internet & YouTube, explainer
    • Hank names the 'head lie': a true statement that becomes a lie once it hits your head, often in headlines. Three examples from one week (US birth rates, Tesla Autopilot safety figures, Carnival's sulfur pollution) lead him to argue that misleading true information is little different from lying, and that informers are obliged not to do it. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A clearly argued media-literacy point, illustrated with checkable examples and a call for mandatory car safety data.
  • 2019-06-25 · John · Seemed Like a Good Idea: Eugene Schieffelin and the European Starlings · History & curiosities, explainer
    • John tells how Eugene Schieffelin released some 60 European starlings in Central Park in 1890, now about 200 million destructive birds, but argues the acclimatists responded reasonably to history, since moving species around has fed the world; we too have bad ideas that seem good, and history is littered with stories of starlings. (00:02:26)
    • Why it is here: A history told to argue humility about our own ideas, while resisting the easy 'don't mess with nature' lesson.
  • 2019-07-02 · John · On Sunlight · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Looking out from the shore of Lake Michigan, John reflects that all life runs on sunlight, that the sun is god-like and impossible to look at directly, and that its strangest creation is consciousness; a sunset shows how small he is, yet how wondrous it is to be not just in the universe but of it. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A short, carefully built essay moving from geography and the physics of sunlight through myth and literature to a claim about smallness, consciousness and wonder.
  • 2019-07-16 · John · star struck · Pop culture, letter vlog
    • John describes being starstruck on both sides: nervous and blabbering around people he admires, and weirdly surprised when fans recognize him; on either side he mostly wants to say a believable thank you but can't, and he tells fans embarrassed by their encounters with him that it's okay. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A short but personal essay on fame as relative and strange, gratitude, and the irony that blocks sincere thanks.
  • 2019-07-23 · John · What to Love and How · Sports, letter vlog
    • On a family trip to see Liverpool play a pre-season friendly at Notre Dame, John argues that shared loves bind people into communities that ease loneliness, but that we must be careful how we love so our 'us' does not need a 'them'; lifting the European Cup, he concludes the point of it all is to gather. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, carefully argued essay on fandom, belonging and othering, with a memorable closing line.
  • 2019-07-26 · Hank · The Best $10,000 I Ever Spent · Economics, letter vlog
    • Hank says the best money he ever spent was over $10,000 on prescription drugs while uninsured, then argues that prevailing economics wrongly equates making more money with creating value: price hikes on insulin or his own drug serve fewer people and destroy value, while drug companies favor buybacks and patent extensions. (00:01:16)
    • Why it is here: A personal, clearly argued critique of how economics measures value, with concrete drug-pricing claims.
  • 2019-07-30 · John · The Mexican Repatriation · History & curiosities, explainer
    • John recounts the Mexican Repatriation of the Great Depression, when the US deported at least 400,000 Mexican-Americans, most of them citizens, notes that deportations did not reduce unemployment, and argues through Jose Lopez's story that telling it is never unpatriotic. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A carefully sourced history lesson with a clear argument about jobs, citizenship and remembering.
  • 2019-08-06 · John · Uncertain and Afraid · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Approaching the 80th anniversary of W. H. Auden's poem 'September 1, 1939', John confesses feeling uncertain and afraid amid rising hatred, polarization, loneliness and falling US life expectancy, despite data supporting his hope, and holds to Auden's lines that we must love one another or die and may show an affirming flame. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere essay weighing hopeful data against a sense that something is wrong, anchored in a poem.
  • 2019-08-13 · John · How I (barely) Passed 11th Grade English · Books & writing, story
    • A week after Toni Morrison's death, John tells how he nearly failed 11th grade English and, to pass, read her novel The Bluest Eye, which wrecked him, showed him that skipping class was squandered privilege, and made him an enthusiastic reader; her books survive her. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A personal tribute that argues what figurative language is for and how privilege hid in his teenage indifference.
  • 2019-08-16 · Hank · ...Not My Proudest Moment · US politics & society, story
    • Prompted by John's near-failing story, Hank tells how a teacher let him pass an 11th-grade class even after he kicked a locker door off, and argues that privilege and prejudice are biases we all have: the more you have, the more people are wary of taking it from you. (00:02:11)
    • Why it is here: A short personal story turned into a clear argument about privilege, everyday racism and inequality.
    • Replies to: 2019-08-13 How I (barely) Passed 11th Grade English
  • 2019-08-23 · Hank · The Amazon isn't "Burning" - It's Being Burned · World affairs, explainer
    • Hank argues the Amazon is not 'burning' but being burned: the fires are set to clear land for cattle under Jair Bolsonaro, driven by money and a nationalist ideology that sees the world's concern as a threat, though losing the rainforest's rain would harm Brazil most. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued news explainer: the framing of the headlines, the political and ideological causes, and the climate and food stakes of losing the rainforest.
  • 2019-08-30 · Hank · The Earth Shouldn't Have Oxygen · Science & nature, explainer
    • Correcting last week's claim that the Amazon makes 20% of the world's oxygen, Hank explains the carbon cycle: oxygen accumulates only because some ocean carbohydrates never get burned, so losing the Amazon would not suffocate us, but it would release a huge carbon sink. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A compact, carefully reasoned explainer that retracts a popular fake fact and replaces it with the real stakes (carbon storage, other services the Earth provides).
    • Replies to: 2019-08-23 The Amazon isn't "Burning" - It's Being Burned
  • 2019-09-06 · Hank · Trump is Abnormal, It's His Superpower · US politics & society, explainer
    • Using 'Sharpiegate', Hank argues that newsworthy means abnormal, not important, and that President Trump's real skill is attention: constant abnormal spectacle keeps him in the spotlight to craft a narrative that is always only about himself, which is exhausting because it is dangerous. (00:00:51)
    • Why it is here: A focused argument about news, attention and narrative in politics, pegged to a trivial-seeming story.
  • 2019-09-17 · John · 'end the stigma' · Health, explainer
    • Prompted by Dr. Bailor Barrie, John explains what causes the stigma of illnesses such as mental illness and HIV (perceived peril, origin and controllability, course instability) and argues that ending it needs better treatment and rejecting moral narratives about illness. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A researched, sincerely argued explainer with a clear thesis: nobody deserves illness, and better treatment reduces stigma.
  • 2019-10-01 · John · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? · Global development, explainer
    • Ahead of the brothers' Partners In Health Sierra Leone announcement, John explains why Sierra Leone is poor: colonial resource-extraction systems, a diamond-funded civil war, and disease burden feeding vicious cycles such as Ebola; he argues its problems are ours and that investment works, citing the Kono hospital, and is hopeful. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A structured argument with numbers and on-site evidence about the causes of poverty and why outside partnership matters.
  • 2019-10-18 · Hank · They Hacked Me · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • After hackers got into a couple of his accounts using an old reused password, Hank argues hacking is inevitable, urges viewers to check haveibeenpwned.com, use a password manager and turn on two-factor authentication, and demands that internet companies, or politicians, provide better security tools. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: Practical, specific security advice plus a policy demand on companies, grounded in his own hack.
  • 2019-10-22 · John · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 · Global development, announcement
    • John announces that the brothers' families will donate $6.5 million over five years to Partners In Health Sierra Leone; through community health worker Ruth and Sierra Leone's maternal and child mortality emergency he argues for systemic, long-term health-system strengthening in Kono, and asks viewers to donate and to pay attention. (00:00:09)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued case for systemic, long-term global-health giving, with sourced numbers and a clear plan.
  • 2019-11-06 · Hank · Can You Be a Good Person in 2019? · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Hank uses season three of The Good Place, where everyone now goes to the Bad Place, to argue that the modern world's complexity makes being good harder; moral point-counting of every choice is a flawed, individualist tool, so we should seek complex truths without judging ourselves or others as if our accounting were accurate. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A dense, argued essay with a clear claim about moral complexity and pop utilitarianism, ending in four stated lessons.
  • 2019-11-12 · John · still learning · Books & writing, story
    • John traces Auld Lang Syne to Robert Burns and his friendship with Frances Dunlop, then Burns's Comin' Thro' the Rye to Holden Caulfield's mishearing in The Catcher in the Rye, arguing he still likes learning because new learning reshapes old learning and reveals how connected we all are. (00:03:24)
    • Why it is here: A chain of literary history becomes a fresh reading of Catcher and a sincere argument for lifelong learning as seeing connection.
  • 2019-11-19 · John · Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • John unpicks a viral Reddit outrage claiming Kylie Jenner thinks she owns 'rise and shine': trademarking a phrase is not owning it, the cease-and-desist story was false, and Jenner's denial was misleading; he argues that distillation becomes deception and that outrage beats nuance online. (00:03:21)
    • Why it is here: A careful case study in how misinformation spreads, with a clear explanation of trademark law and a memorable thesis.
    • Replies to: 2013-12-03 Who Owns DFTBA? An Introduction to Trademarks
  • 2019-12-06 · Hank · It is Much Easier to Destroy than Create · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Hank, who ties his self-worth to his output, loves jigsaw puzzles because they feel like they matter without mattering; his favorite part, taking them apart, shows how much easier it is to destroy than to build, so everything that works stays built only through human action, which is why the P4A supports the 'master puzzle-solvers' at Partners In Health and Save the Children. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay: puzzles as a model of problem-solving and of how fragile built order is, applied to the P4A.
  • 2019-12-10 · John · On Loneliness · Health, letter vlog
    • After a P4A that raised over $1.3 million, John describes the loneliness that came with his depression in his mid-20s and again recently: its vicious cycles and sense of meaninglessness, broken by treating his illness as a chronic illness and by actively finding community (Liverpool, activism, his neighborhood, the P4A), which he says gives him meaning and hope. (00:00:22)
    • Why it is here: A personal essay that argues how loneliness works and what breaks it.

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