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Essential videos of 2020

44 of the 108 videos uploaded in 2020 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: 15

  • 2020-01-28 · John · Looking Away (Again) · Global development, letter vlog
    • John reports how far Koidu Government Hospital in Kono has come since 2014 and how inadequate it still is, admits he looked away from a dying child there as he had in Ethiopia years earlier because he had not treated these preventable deaths as emergencies, and asks viewers to give and pay attention to the Maternal Center of Excellence. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, self-critical argument about attention, preventable deaths and long-term solidarity, backed by concrete figures from the hospital and PIH's annual report.
    • Replies to: 2014-09-23 Looking Away
  • 2020-02-04 · John · practice · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • Starting without a script, John says the true part of Ray Bradbury's '52 short stories' advice is that you have to practice: writing 175-word Booklist reviews and 13 years of vlogbrothers videos taught him that practice works, and that the practice of finding and expressing thought leads to more thoughts. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, well-argued essay on practice as both preparation and the real thing, grounded in John's reviewing career and video-making.
  • 2020-02-11 · John · 1,100 Days: A Mental and Physical Health Update · Personal life, letter vlog
    • Three years after 100 Days, John reports on 1,100 days of regular exercise: some benefits plateau and can start a vicious cycle, others keep improving, his mental health is probably the best it has been, and he no longer imagines his mind as separate from his body. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A candid health update that argues a clear idea about exercise, plateaus and the mind-body split.
  • 2020-02-18 · John · wintry mix · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • Using Indianapolis's grey winter and the Midwestern wintry mix, John argues that the pathetic fallacy works because weather really does affect our emotions and because we cannot help seeing the world through ourselves: what you're looking at matters less than how you look and who you're with. (00:02:54)
    • Why it is here: A compact essay from a literary device to a claim about perception, with a personal close.
  • 2020-03-03 · John · Consciously Experiencing Human Dignity · Pop culture, letter vlog
    • Prompted by a YouTube comment calling The Art Assignment's videos 'exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity', John says that is what he seeks in art and beyond: recognizing the dignity of oneself and others, since humans, for all their harm, are the most interesting thing that ever happened on Earth. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, carefully argued essay that names a principle John applies to art, philanthropy and human worth.
  • 2020-03-17 · John · together. · Health, letter vlog
    • John calls togetherness humanity's superpower, built on collaboration, and says the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly stops us from gathering; we must listen to experts and isolate, but also find ways to stay connected, because the only way through is together. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, argued essay on collaboration and connection under pandemic isolation, with concrete ways to stay together.
  • 2020-03-20 · Hank · The Sudden Obliteration of Expectation · Health, letter vlog
    • Retelling his ulcerative colitis diagnosis, Hank describes the sudden feeling that the story you told yourself about the future is gone, argues that swinging between denial and fear is a strategy for finding a new normal, and says the pandemic feels similar: it will take time, but we will reach stability together. (00:02:02)
    • Why it is here: A long, carefully argued personal essay with concrete lessons; its framing of uncertainty and the new normal is the point.
  • 2020-03-24 · John · Mental Health Tips from People Who've Been There · Health, list
    • After a hard week for his anxiety and OCD, John shares the ten mental health tips for social distancing from Partners In Health's head of mental health, Dr. Bepi Raviola, drawn from people who lived through outbreaks, with how each works for him. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: Practical, sincere advice list with personal commentary; the tips themselves are the content.
    • Replies to: 2020-03-20 The Sudden Obliteration of Expectation
  • 2020-03-31 · John · Let's take a walk. · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • With his anxiety overwhelming in early spring, John takes Hank and viewers on a calming walk through Indiana woods, creek and floodplain, quoting Annie Dillard, Leanne Shapton, Wordsworth and Lucille Clifton; he ends calmer, finding hope in 'the future is possible' and the feeling of being really here, alive on this intricate earth. (00:02:53)
    • Why it is here: A quiet, carefully written meditation: calm from nature and borrowed lines, ending on hope and presence.
  • 2020-04-07 · John · I am an artist. · Books & writing, recommendation
    • A week before its release, John celebrates Sarah Urist Green and her book You Are an Artist: recalling their year of emails and her telling him 'you're writing so you're a writer', he argues that art-making is not optional for humans and that ideas come from paying extraordinary attention to ordinary life. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A sincere argued tribute: art belongs to everyone, comes from attention to regular life and helps us create meaning, with practical routes (library, free YouTube assignments) for the pandemic.
  • 2020-04-10 · Hank · Things I'm Finding Encouraging · US politics & society, list
    • Amid omnidirectional worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, Hank lists five encouraging things: a chance to see employer-based health care as cruel, appreciation of others' work, renewed listening to expertise, the necessity of government, and acting as a society; he names his worries, keeps his faith in humanity, and launches a weekly podcast, COVID Sucks, People Don't. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued list on health care, expertise, government and collective action, balanced by explicit worries and forecasts.
  • 2020-05-12 · John · We Could All Use a Little Change · Philosophy & meaning, recommendation
    • John says Kurzgesagt's gratitude journal is a rare book that changed his life: writing daily what he is grateful for, with his brain problems amplified by wider problems, lets him feel rather than merely know his gratitude, mostly to other people, and shows him he is not alone. (00:01:56)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, well-argued essay on the difference between knowing and feeling gratitude, grounded in a concrete daily practice.
  • 2020-05-26 · John · you'll never know · Health, letter vlog
    • Starting from Skeletor's 'I could write a book about what you don't know', John reflects that we can never know most of the past or the future yet must make informed guesses, and argues that despite COVID-19 failures, expertise has not failed: we are watching it happen. (00:02:26)
    • Why it is here: A reflective essay with a clear argument about uncertainty, guessing and how expertise develops, grounded in the pandemic.
  • 2020-05-29 · Hank · Get Paid · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Hank, in favor of creators getting paid, says everyone should know what is being sold: star power sells movies, but people won't follow celebrities to Quibi, and when creators are paid to move to Mixer or Spotify exclusives they are selling their audience, which worries him most for podcasts. (00:01:44)
    • Why it is here: A clearly argued analysis of what creators sell when paid to move platforms, with distinctions between fame, audience and open standards.
  • 2020-06-02 · John · --- · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Immensely sad during the US protests, John says their root cause is 400 years of violence and discrimination against Black Americans, that white people's context for racism is often inadequate, and that he needs to listen better, so he shares a playlist of Black creators and readings. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A short, carefully argued statement on systemic racism and listening, with concrete examples and recommendations.
  • 2020-06-05 · Hank · So Much to Do · US politics & society, collab / interview
    • Hank talks with longtime Nerdfighter and political strategist Maya Rupert about police violence and policy fixes, young activists, money in politics, learning to talk about race, and privilege as power to use for others rather than a source of guilt. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A long, substantive conversation with many distinct arguments about policy, race, privilege and allyship.
  • 2020-06-23 · John · You'll Never Shine if You Don't Glow · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Prompted by Hank's shooting-star video, John traces his changing relationship with fireflies: a childhood emblem of the world's strangeness and beauty, then, from his teens, a beauty he scorned as cheesy for fear of unironized emotion, and now an encouraging example of making light where there otherwise wouldn't be any. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A short personal essay with a clear arc and a memorable closing idea (find light, and make it where there is none), grounded in firefly facts.
  • 2020-07-07 · John · You're a Rock Star · Books & writing, recommendation
    • On release day, John tells Hank why A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor means so much to him: its hope never denies suffering yet insists on beauty, wonder and kindness, its characters take him out of himself, and, as An Absolutely Remarkable Thing made him quit the social internet, it has him rethinking how he uses his consciousness; he quotes glowing reviews and announces the launch livestream. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, argued account of what useful hope and fiction do for John, tied to his despair and his relationship with the internet.
  • 2020-07-10 · Hank · What a Concept!! · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • After a week of talking about A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank argues that the two ways its characters get ideas (synthesizing what's around you, and shaking a well-chosen problem with your toolkit) are the same thing, and that every new idea builds on the work of billions of normal-sized people before us, which makes ideas more amazing, not less. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, argued essay on where ideas come from, with a self-corrected attribution of the 'shoulders of giants' line.
  • 2020-07-14 · John · The ice we skate is getting pretty thin. · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Burnt out, struggling with OCD and dismayed by the US COVID-19 surge, John says a line from Hank's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, that your own joy can be something you produce, has given him permission to make joy in hard times, as he did by finally solving a Rubik's Cube, because making joy cultivates hope. (00:01:56)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, personal argument for producing joy as a source of hope, set against burnout and a public-health failure.
  • 2020-07-17 · Hank · So Much to See · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Drawing on his time on TikTok and McLuhan's 'the medium is the message', Hank argues that platforms and algorithms shape what content gets made and for whom; TikTok's lowered constraints bring us closer to a world of functionally infinite content, which fractures shared touchstones but opens access to people who never had it. (00:00:31)
    • Why it is here: A sincere media-theory essay with a thesis Hank calls worth examining: the abundance of good content has deep societal implications.
  • 2020-07-31 · Hank · Your Brain Gets Smart, but Your Head Gets Dumb · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Worried about US higher education, Hank argues it is hit by three things at once: decades of price rises driven by competition, a pandemic that makes all-online school less valuable, and a Republican and Trump-administration hostility partly fed by colleges' own elitism; he hopes it survives by bringing costs down. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A closely argued case with cost data, polling and policy, ending in a concrete claim that college prices must fall.
  • 2020-08-03 · John · you're bundled up now? wait till you get older. · Personal life, letter vlog
    • On Esther Day 2020, John remembers Esther Earl and her wish for a day celebrating non-romantic love, reflects that old college pictures show now feels permanent but isn't, tells Hank how hard saying 'I love you' once was and how working together reconnected them, and asks viewers to tell people they love them. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, carefully worded essay on time, grief and family love, with a personal confession to Hank and a ritual ask.
  • 2020-08-07 · Hank · Her Finger and Her Thumb in the Shape of an 'L' on Her Forehead · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • Stung by some reviews of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank says responding to critique is a learned skill and sorts criticism into four types: wrong (for you), possibly right and useful, merely mean, and about a work's impact on people, which he says is valid critique because craft is about impact. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A structured, sincerely argued guide to handling criticism, with a clear claim about what critique is for.
  • 2020-08-18 · John · what's wrong with taking the back streets? · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Drawing circles on camera, John explains his long-term plan to draw about 170,000 of them: imperfect repetition gives him relief and attention, widens his narrow idea of productivity, and helps him grasp a large number; in comments he says the count is US COVID-19 deaths. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A quiet essay with several real ideas (repetition, what to produce, how hard large numbers are to feel) and a hidden memorial purpose revealed in comments.
  • 2020-08-21 · Hank · The Water's Getting Warm · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Revisiting his line that climate change is humanity's first global collective problem, Hank says COVID-19 is a second: the pandemic's economic hit will leave fewer resources for escaping the carbon economy, which needs prosperity, but six months of collective action make him more hopeful that people will sacrifice when they see what's on the line. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A dense argued essay with numbers (global GDP loss vs the UN's climate cost estimate) and forecasts about growth and climate resources.
    • Replies to: 2019-05-03 What Game of Thrones is Really About
  • 2020-08-25 · John · Somebody once told me… · Internet & YouTube, explainer
    • John dissects a viral TikTok about Noah, a supposed time traveler from 2030, to show how misinformation spreads: we trust what people tell us, seek what freaks us out, and algorithms reward engagement over accuracy, so even fake claims shape our minds. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A tight argued analysis of how online misinformation persuades and spreads, with a personal admission that it still changes his own mind.
  • 2020-09-08 · John · That's the way. · Sports, letter vlog
    • Borrowing Donald Hall's idea of a 'third thing' that two people attend to together, John argues sports are at core shared sites of joint rapture, and holds up fan-owned AFC Wimbledon, now returning to Plough Lane, as a model where the third thing belongs to the people whose attention makes it valuable rather than to the rich. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued essay that names a borrowed idea, applies it to sports and contrasts two ownership models with concrete history and numbers.
  • 2020-09-15 · John · All That Glitters Is Gold · Pop culture, letter vlog
    • John reflects on the lyric 'all that glitters is gold' from Stairway to Heaven and Smash Mouth's All Star: though the proverb says otherwise, he cares less about what the band meant than about how the lyric names magical moments when you can feel a memory forming, and says loved songs hold the warmth of past memory and future hope. (00:02:26)
    • Why it is here: A short argued essay on a lyric, with a proverb history, a view on art and authorial intent, and a sincere closing claim about music and memory.
  • 2020-09-18 · Hank · They Say it Gets Colder · Science & nature, explainer
    • Prompted by this week's report of unexplained phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, Hank explains why Venus's temperate cloud layer is a candidate for microbial life and why the claim needs a mission to confirm, then argues that life elsewhere in the universe is not an extraordinary claim, since what happened once can probably happen again a lot. (00:02:08)
    • Why it is here: A dense science explainer with figures (temperatures, altitudes), a news peg and an argued thesis about how likely life beyond Earth is.
  • 2020-09-22 · John · the world is gonna roll me · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Feeling tossed by forces beyond his control, John walks outside on the first day of autumn and contrasts Melville's terror at nature's indifference with Mary Oliver's comfort in it; siding with Oliver, he argues that nature is not truly indifferent to us because we are nature, utterly interdependent with the oceans and each other, and hopes that knowledge carries us through isolation. (00:00:52)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay built on two literary readings and a claim about human interdependence with nature.
  • 2020-09-29 · John · How 'bout Yours? · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • After thanking pre-orderers of The Anthropocene Reviewed book, John walks in the woods and, through a Wallace Stevens poem and a memory of Esther Earl noticing his fear on a bridge, argues that we can only say 'my bridge is terrifying, how about yours?' and must truly listen to and believe in others' experience; a repeated walk reminds him that how he is now is not how he will always be. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A compact, carefully argued essay on the unshareability of experience and the duty to believe others' answers.
  • 2020-10-12 · Hank · What Matters · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Starting from how he writes fiction, Hank argues people feel they matter through the overlap of traits they value and traits they think they have; cultures supply those values, but mattering is subjective, a story we find ourselves in, and since adaptability is the most human trait, what matters to us can and will change. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sustained abstract argument about self-worth and value, with practical consolation for people who don't fit their culture's defaults.
  • 2020-10-15 · John · Civilization and the Lies We Love · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • John debunks the viral Margaret Mead quote that a healed femur is the first sign of civilization (no evidence she said it, animals do survive broken femurs, and civilization means writing, records and state power), then argues the lie seduces because its core is true: compassion, empathy and self-sacrifice predate civilization, and protecting the vulnerable makes the human project stronger. (00:02:26)
    • Why it is here: A carefully sourced debunking that turns into a sincere argument about where compassion comes from.
  • 2020-10-20 · John · How to Sign Your Name 150,000 Times · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • In a second-person guide to signing 150,000 sheets for The Anthropocene Reviewed, John covers the 300 hours and the physical technique, then what the mind does: gratitude for readers' attention, doubts about publicity and commodification, a childhood memory of being refused an autograph, and the flow state on the other side of monotony. (00:00:53)
    • Why it is here: A crafted personal essay: signing as thanks for readers' attention, the commodification question, and monotony giving way to presence.
  • 2020-11-06 · Hank · Just Some Election Thoughts… · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Two days after the 2020 US election, before a winner is called, Hank says the result is not the clean verdict on Trumpism he expected: a likely Biden win is a lifeboat, not a repudiation; he explains right-wing populism as the belief that some people are not 'real Americans' and says that belief is not going away. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A sincere, argued post-election reading of what the vote shows about the country, with predictions about its aftermath.
  • 2020-11-10 · John · On Immunity, Inoculation, and Individuals · Health, letter vlog
    • Inspired by Eula Biss's On Immunity, read by Life's Library, John retells the usual story of Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccine and corrects it: milkmaids, China, African communities and Onesimus knew inoculation first, and the vaccine did not end smallpox; innovation is species-wide collaboration, so a new vaccine deserves monuments to cooperation, not statues. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A tightly argued essay using the history of smallpox inoculation to claim that breakthroughs come from collaboration, not lone geniuses.
  • 2020-11-13 · Hank · How We Teach: Individualist Stories · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Replying to John's video on individual genius versus collective progress, Hank argues that education is not only information but also stories that serve as shared lenses; simple individualist stories help people remember facts and teach some responsibility for one's fate, but taught alone they harm, so we should teach that nobody does anything alone and everybody contributes. (00:00:44)
    • Why it is here: A dense, carefully argued essay on what the stories used in teaching actually teach, extended by a long description.
    • Replies to: 2020-11-10 On Immunity, Inoculation, and Individuals
  • 2020-11-17 · John · Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update · Global development, announcement
    • A year after announcing the brothers' Partners In Health maternal health project in Kono, Sierra Leone, John reports that the Maternal Center of Excellence is still set to break ground in April 2021, that over $18.5 million (93% of the $20 million needed) has been raised, and asks for monthly and large donations to close the gap. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A substantive progress report arguing why maternal deaths are preventable and why the full sum must be raised before building, with detailed figures.
    • Replies to: 2019-10-22 Why We're Donating $6,500,000
  • 2020-11-20 · Hank · Would I Take a COVID Vaccine? · Health, letter vlog
    • After promising phase 3 results from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and others, Hank says he would absolutely take a COVID-19 vaccine, for three reasons: vaccine safety testing was not changed or rushed by politicians, preventing infection protects others and keeps hospital beds free, and it helps frontline health-care workers. (00:01:30)
    • Why it is here: A clearly argued case for vaccination with explicit reasons and an account of what is still unknown.
  • 2020-11-24 · John · personal risk · societal risk · Health, letter vlog
    • Before Thanksgiving 2020, John distinguishes personal from societal COVID-19 risk: even when individual risk is low, the toll is unequal, the pandemic's costs stem from the disease rather than regulation, and an overwhelmed health system kills many more, so he asks Americans who can to stay home. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued public-health case with data and examples (Sweden and Norway, Ebola in Sierra Leone).
  • 2020-12-01 · John · The Utah Monolith, What It Means, Why It Matters, and Whether It's Aliens · Pop culture, letter vlog
    • Using the Utah monolith, a metal sculpture found by wildlife biologists in a remote desert and soon removed, John argues that what thrills him in art is not mastery but mystery: the monolith waited unnoticed for years and vanished once noticed, and the unanswered maybes are what make art feel visceral. (00:01:11)
    • Why it is here: A compact essay on art, wonder and mystery with concrete examples (Sun Tunnels, Stein, Gatsby) built on a news hook.
  • 2020-12-18 · Hank · How to Change What you Want · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Hank argues that we cannot stop wanting things but can steer our wants by what we engage with, since engagement teaches us stories about value; society's defaults make some wants easy, so the most successful people are often the least interesting, and prizing the weird keeps you out of societal ruts. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay on how desire is shaped by engagement and social praise, with a clear personal method.
  • 2020-12-31 · John · Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed · Philosophy & meaning, recommendation
    • In an Anthropocene Reviewed episode John interweaves the history of Auld Lang Syne, from Robert Burns to the 1914 Christmas Truce and the soldiers' 'We're here because we're here', with his friendship with Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who launched his radio career and later died of cancer, and argues that the song holds longing without romanticizing it and that hope is true; five stars. (00:09:20)
    • Why it is here: A dense, carefully argued essay on loss, time and hope, with checkable history.

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