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Essential videos of 2021

36 of the 106 videos uploaded in 2021 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: Hank: 20 · John: 16

  • 2021-01-15 · Hank · Influencers and Insurrectionists · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Hank argues that online creators seek affirmation and status, not money, and that the Capitol rioters filming themselves were influencers as well as insurrectionists, caught in a creator-audience feedback loop and an arms race of radicalization; the word influencer names something bigger and scarier than we thought. (00:01:10)
    • Why it is here: A sustained argument about incentives in online creation and how they feed radicalization, pegged to the Capitol siege.
  • 2021-01-26 · John · The Sycamore Tree: The Anthropocene Reviewed · Philosophy & meaning, recommendation
    • In an Anthropocene Reviewed essay, John describes his depressive brain's game 'What's Even the Point', argues that despair and ironic detachment are unproductive and that the questions of philosophy matter, and finds an answer of sorts in the shade of an old sycamore tree, which he gives four and a half stars. (00:01:08)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued personal essay on depression, meaning and refusing despair, with checkable sycamore facts.
  • 2021-01-29 · Hank · The Gamestop Short Squeeze in 4 Minutes · Economics, explainer
    • Angered by a former SEC head comparing the GameStop short squeeze to the Capitol siege, Hank explains how hedge funds' bets against GameStop became promises to buy more stock than existed, how a squeeze turned into a mini pyramid scheme and gamble, and argues the instability came from hedge funds, not Reddit; manipulators should be regulated out of existence but were instead memed out of existence. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued explainer of a market event with predictions and a clear position on regulation.
  • 2021-02-02 · John · I Predicted the Pandemic (over and over and over again) · Health, letter vlog
    • John recalls how often he predicted a pandemic, argues pandemics are historically routine and we should be prepared, and, drawing on Melinda and Bill Gates's annual letter, calls for global health as a shared worldwide effort (alert systems, access to health care, vaccines, and fixing the inequities that let disease hit the vulnerable hardest), since we choose how ready we are. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A sustained argument about pandemic preparedness, health equity and how history sidelines disease.
  • 2021-02-12 · Hank · Doing Better · Global development, letter vlog
    • Hank argues that unequal access to water, health care and other basics is unacceptable, names three excuses our brains make to explain it away, praises people who build lasting systems to fix it, recalls saying yes to John's request to commit his money to that work, and announces that the 2021 Project for Awesome starts today. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere argument about how people rationalize global inequity, closing with P4A logistics.
  • 2021-03-02 · John · What's Not in the Frame · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • John reveals that the last two weeks were his most stressful in a while because a family member had COVID, explains why weekly videos make it hard to say how he is really doing, and reflects that the social internet shows only what is inside the frame, asking viewers how to navigate it better. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A candid, carefully argued reflection on curation, privacy and authenticity in weekly online video.
  • 2021-03-26 · Hank · Why I'm Worried about 2021 · US politics & society, letter vlog
    • Starting from two women judging moms who take kids to McDonald's, Hank argues that as vaccinations spread and mask mandates lift, people will make different pandemic choices that average into the total disease burden, and worries that a year of social media and a divisive president will deepen our judgment of each other. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A clear argument about public-health averaging and acceptable disease burden, joined to a sincere worry about judgment and social trust.
  • 2021-04-06 · John · How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? · Health, letter vlog
    • Starting from his favorite meme, How Do You Do, Fellow Kids, John says he can't know other people's experience from the inside, sympathizes with vaccine hesitancy from his own anxiety, argues that shame doesn't work and that immunity is a public space, and asks the worried to seek help and supporters to offer it. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A careful argued case for encouraging COVID vaccination through empathy rather than shame, with the idea of shared immunity at its core.
  • 2021-04-16 · Hank · Gene Editing and Intelligence: A Bad · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Responding to talk of gene editing prompted by a book about Jennifer Doudna, Hank argues that editing children for intelligence is a dangerous misunderstanding: genetic potential is realized through environment, and intelligence means being well-suited to one's own time, so designing people for today would rob us of the diversity the future needs. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A dense argument about genes, environment and what intelligence is, grounded in Hank's own ADHD and sensory processing disorder; the description adds further points.
  • 2021-04-30 · Hank · Are We the Baddies?? A Quick Look at a Discourse · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Using two viral tweets about why supervillains care about real problems, Hank argues that Twitter is indispensable but dystopian, oversimplifying ideas to make people angrier, and that the deeper lesson of superhero stories is that individuals cannot solve systemic problems: only we can. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A compact argument linking platform structure, villain tropes and systemic problems, with a clear thesis about collective rather than individual solutions.
  • 2021-05-25 · John · The Anthropocene Reviewed, Animated · Books & writing, reading
    • Reading the first chapter of The Anthropocene Reviewed over animation by Meitar Almog, John tells how labyrinthitis after the 2017 tour, his Booklist years, Hank's joke name and Sarah's insight that there are no observers, only participants, led him to review the human-centered planet, and resolves to fall in love with the world. (00:08:55)
    • Why it is here: A dense personal essay: arguments about star ratings, illness as metaphor, attention and human power, ending in a statement of how John wants to live.
  • 2021-05-28 · Hank · Aliens · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Hank, who thinks life elsewhere is inevitable and intelligent life extraordinarily likely, argues that with unexplained aerial phenomena in the news 'aliens' is a bad explanation because it could explain any mystery; the right move is to say we don't know, investigate and gather data. (00:00:45)
    • Why it is here: A compact argument about how science treats mysteries, pegged to the UAP news, with clear claims about explanations that explain everything.
  • 2021-06-04 · Hank · Is Twitter Redeemable? · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Hank argues against abandoning Twitter: it heightens emotions and manufactures outrage, as a paywalled headline about the never-conceived showed, but it is too important a cultural force to leave; new media eventually become net goods, though he cannot see how the internet will. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A careful, self-doubting argument about platform norms, manufactured discourse and how societies adapt to new media.
  • 2021-06-11 · Hank · My Greatest Tool Against Vaccine Misinformation · Health, letter vlog
    • Discouraged by COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, Hank argues that rebutting claims one by one, mocking, or making pro-vaccine status an identity only deepens a partisan war; what helps is answering good-faith questions and, above all, expressing gratitude to the people who made the vaccines possible. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A short, sincerely argued essay on how to respond to misinformation, with a few supporting facts about vaccine effectiveness and COVID deaths.
  • 2021-06-29 · John · Sneezing is not normal. · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • John can't stop thinking of a Dear Hank and John listener's doctor who said sneezing is not normal and he never sneezes; he argues that absurd, outrageous statements lodge in minds in a way nuance doesn't, which rewards the loudest stupidity in our attention economy, and that with no bright line between online and real life this shapes who we are. (00:01:41)
    • Why it is here: An argued essay on attention and outrage, built from a comic anecdote; John admits he has no treatment.
  • 2021-07-09 · Hank · Wrong on the Internet · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Frustrated that online arguments run on how ideas feel rather than on data, Hank takes the claim that individual climate action is pointless or distracting and reports research showing that acting individually signals an emergency and leads people to push for more systemic change, not less. (00:01:14)
    • Why it is here: A data-based rebuttal of a popular online idea about climate responsibility, with cited research and a point about how feel-good tweets escape scrutiny.
  • 2021-07-13 · John · The Vlogbrothers Videos I Didn't Make · Nerdfighteria, letter vlog
    • John describes Vlogbrothers videos he abandoned (one on nation-states he didn't understand, one on the 'sense of impending doom' written for himself, one on Nerdfighteria factions that Rosianna warned would weaken the community) and concludes that Vlogbrothers videos are really about Nerdfighteria as a productive community, so any video that weakens it is a bad video. (00:02:26)
    • Why it is here: A reflective essay on what the channel is for, with lessons on understanding, private writing and not maximizing views.
  • 2021-07-16 · Hank · Should You Abandon Social Media? · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Hank, who worries about social media but likes it and is good at it, rejects the choice between staying on or leaving Twitter: use it the way you wish others did, refuse manufactured outrage, and fix big complicated systems rather than throwing them away, since he still believes in the internet's promise. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A personal, carefully argued position on how to live with social media and on reforming rather than abandoning large systems.
  • 2021-07-27 · John · Savoring: The Sunset Series Returns · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Watching the sun set over Lake Michigan, John argues for savoring (taking slow, thick time to take in good things that happen slowly), says we go on because despair is untrue and life is beautiful despite its pain, and hopes Hank savors a sunset too. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A quiet essay on savoring and why we go on, with a sincere, carefully worded argument about attention and despair.
  • 2021-07-30 · Hank · Can You Trust Science Too Much? · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Hank argues you can trust science too much, since treating its findings as gospel is unscientific, but that alternatives escape science's harsh constraints and are judged by laxer rules; using ivermectin for COVID as the example, he says science is not facts or an ideology but a human system very good at uncovering truth. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A careful argument about the limits of scientific knowledge and double standards, grounded in a current example with checkable claims.
  • 2021-08-03 · John · I L*** Hank · Nerdfighteria, letter vlog
    • On Esther Day 2021 John tells Hank he loves him, reflects on why vulnerability makes it hard to say, honours Esther Earl's legacy in This Star Won't Go Out and Nerdfighteria's projects, and asks viewers to acknowledge the love in their lives. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A sincere ritual essay on vulnerability, grief and legacy, with a concrete charity plug.
  • 2021-08-10 · John · My Physicalmental Illness · Health, letter vlog
    • Using his labyrinthitis, treated with psychotropic drugs and brain-retraining therapy much like his OCD, John argues that the line between mental and physical illness is a limited category, that mental illness is stigmatized partly because it is poorly understood, and that other people's pain is as real as our own. (00:00:27)
    • Why it is here: A compact argued essay on stigma, categories and the mind-body dichotomy, grounded in John's own illnesses.
  • 2021-08-13 · Hank · How We Fix the Climate · Science & nature, explainer
    • Prompted by the week's IPCC report, Hank argues that one of the most important things anyone can do about climate change is understand climate policy, and explains carbon pricing (carbon tax, fee and dividend, cap and trade, paying for removal) and the US 'everything else' approach of standards, investment and justice, favouring all of them. (00:04:35)
    • Why it is here: A long, structured policy explainer with concrete mechanisms, trade-offs and recommendations; the ideas carry the video.
  • 2021-08-17 · John · Who Owns Nerdfighteria? · Internet & YouTube, letter vlog
    • Prompted by Jennifer Burek Pierce's book Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media, John asks who owns the value made in an online community like Nerdfighteria (creators, YouTube, viewers who expand the work), notes that laws, norms and platform terms all govern it, and argues that money is far from the most important thing Nerdfighteria makes. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A dense, sincere essay on value capture in online communities with concrete numbers (Google's 45% share) and open questions about the brothers' own income.
  • 2021-08-31 · John · The Woman Who Invented Stuffed Animals · History & curiosities, explainer
    • Arguing that inventions come from broad collaborations rather than lone individuals, John tells the life of Margarete Steiff, a disabled woman who built a stuffed-animal company from felt clothing and magazine patterns, to show that history is shaped both by circumstance and systems and by individual choices. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A substantive argument about systems versus individuals in history, carried by a well-told life story with many dated facts.
  • 2021-09-21 · John · how we spend our days · Everyday life, letter vlog
    • Starting from Annie Dillard's line that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, John argues that our choices about our days are limited by circumstances not our fault, and that by widening productivity beyond what the world recognizes, to include joy, thinking and being with those we love, he feels better about how he spends his days. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A clearly argued essay redefining productivity, with quotable lines from Dillard and Hank.
  • 2021-10-01 · Hank · A Lie I Heard this Week · Global development, letter vlog
    • Starting from a false TikTok claim that 'news' is an acronym, Hank explains folk etymologies and that 'news' just means what is new, argues that our bias for the new hides ongoing crises such as infant mortality in Sierra Leone, credits John and the community with raising tens of millions for Partners In Health, and announces Pizzamas text updates. (00:00:58)
    • Why it is here: A clear argument (news is novelty, not importance; strong communities look past it) with numbers on Sierra Leone infant mortality.
  • 2021-10-07 · Hank · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong · Internet & YouTube, explainer
    • After Facebook's outage and Frances Haugen's leaked research, Hank argues we are at the very beginning of a communication revolution and bad at it, that platforms' promotion feeds a loop of fear and righteous superiority, and that Facebook, already regulating society, should be responsible for what it promotes. (00:06:45)
    • Why it is here: A long, carefully argued essay with a mental model of social platforms and a specific position on platform responsibility and regulation.
  • 2021-10-13 · Hank · The Web of Care · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Praising John's 17-mile run and a Heavyweight episode about him, Hank uses a vaccinated friend's frustration at catching COVID and his own voting to argue that we act as individuals but the world acts on us collectively, so no one need care about everything: we live in a web of care and can trust others to do their part. (00:00:54)
    • Why it is here: A clearly argued essay (individual risk vs collective effect; the web of care) with a coined phrase.
  • 2021-10-22 · Hank · A Tool with No Blood on It · Science & nature, letter vlog
    • Using Vavilovian mimics such as false flax, weeds that evolved to resemble crops, Hank argues that solutions create new problems, as agriculture, fossil fuels and the internet did; borrowing Maggie Nelson's 'tool with no blood on it', he says no such tool exists and the human experiment aims only at a slightly better world. (00:01:56)
    • Why it is here: A carefully built argument from a biological example to a general position on progress, harm and imperfect solutions.
  • 2021-11-02 · John · enough · Philosophy & meaning, letter vlog
    • Starting from Joseph Heller's reply 'enough' to Kurt Vonnegut, John argues that escaping precarity is impossible (everyone dies) and undesirable, and that if having enough means insulating himself from others' suffering, enough is simply too much. (00:00:27)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued personal essay on wealth, security, legacy and giving, with a sharp self-critical conclusion.
  • 2021-11-12 · Hank · Everything a Normal Person Needs to Know About Helium · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank explains why helium is special (unreactive, tiny, nearly unfreezable) and widely used, and argues the 'running out of helium' story is half true: it comes as a vented byproduct of natural gas and a US reserve sell-off crashed prices, but dedicated drilling and new reserves have ended the shortage for now. (00:01:27)
    • Why it is here: A dense, structured explainer with many checkable claims and a clear corrective point about the helium shortage.
  • 2021-11-16 · John · Orbital Sunrise: The First Art Made in Space · History & curiosities, story
    • John tells how cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, after nearly dying on the first spacewalk in 1965, calmed himself by drawing the orbital sunrise, the first art made in space, and argues that art is a window into worlds we will never see and a landing site when we do not know where else to go. (00:00:00)
    • Why it is here: A carefully argued essay on why humans make art, built on a detailed and checkable history of Voskhod 2.
  • 2021-12-14 · John · MAKE. BELIEVE. · Books & writing, letter vlog
    • Back from his sabbatical, John says he rediscovered how much he enjoys writing: all writing is rewriting, both in revision and in translating thought into language, writing brings him calm, and working on a story gives his wandering mind the joy of make-believe; he updates on his foot and asks viewers to take the Census. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A reflective craft essay with clear, quotable ideas about revision, calm and imagination.
  • 2021-12-17 · Hank · What State of Matter is Fire · Science & nature, explainer
    • Hank tackles a question that seems easy but is not, what state of matter fire is: like a waterfall, fire is not matter but a process, and its reacting molecules, glowing soot and excited gas fit no single state; he closes by plugging the new Project for Awesome calendar. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A compact science argument (fire is a process, not matter) built on the waterfall analogy and a soot demonstration.
  • 2021-12-24 · Hank · 29 Days of Astronomical Terror · Science & nature, explainer
    • On the eve of its Christmas launch, Hank explains why the James Webb Space Telescope must observe in infrared from a cold, shielded orbit, walks through the tense 29-day deployment timeline, and says curiosity is close to the root of being human. (00:00:29)
    • Why it is here: A clear, timely explainer of why the telescope's design and deployment are so demanding, with a closing reflection on curiosity.
    • Replies to: 2011-02-02 Top 5 Awesome Things About the Webb Telescope

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