Is human life getting better; is now the best time to be alive?
Hank has said since 2010 that the world is getting better and bad news hides it; in 2015 he called now the best time to be alive, and in 2023, during chemo, the best time in history to get cancer. In 2025 he warns that this progress will stop and reverse because of the US-led pullback in global health funding.
Axis: much better and improving ... not better / getting worse
Concept: progress
Positions by date: 91 records in 91 videos. The position was refined (2017, 2018, 2019, 2024, 2025, 2026), never reversed, in these records.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-02-04 | first on record | John would live in the present over any other period of history, asking why anyone would want another. | QUESTION FRIDAY: Spelling is Hard Edition 00:01:15 |
| 2013-12-31 | restate | John argues, from a list of welfare statistics, that human life is getting better: the progress is tenuous and partly unsustainable, but real and worth celebrating. | GOOD NEWS: 14 Reasons 2014 May Be the Best Year Ever 00:03:24 |
| 2014-01-21 | restate | John says more than 6 million children died in 2013, the fewest in hundreds of years despite population growth: horrible, but progress. | Are Poor Countries Doomed? 00:00:01 |
| 2014-07-22 | restate | John says data on income, food security, literacy and infant mortality over twenty years show real progress, not anecdotes. | Ambiguous Victories and Real Progress: Behind the Beautiful Forevers 00:02:51 |
| 2014-07-29 | restate | John says Ethiopian under-five mortality fell from more than 15% to less than 7% in twenty years, faster than in the world overall. | Listen: Thoughts from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 00:01:22 |
| 2014-08-19 | restate | John says Ethiopia's health progress is real and should be celebrated, though far too many children still die. | Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia 00:03:07 |
| 2014-09-09 | restate | John says Ethiopia's young people have seen the greatest drops in poverty and infant mortality in its history, though tens of thousands of children still die. | Going to College (in Ethiopia) 00:03:39 |
| 2014-09-23 | restate | John says there is much to be excited about in Ethiopia: child death down by more than two-thirds in 20 years, more schooling and college graduates. | Looking Away 00:01:27 |
| 2014-11-28 | restate | John: childhood death around the world is decreasing at an astonishing pace. | Global Health and Human Hair: What the Vlogbrothers are Thankful For 00:00:40 |
| 2015-01-27 | restate | John notes that hundreds of millions have left absolute poverty in 25 years, child mortality has halved and more kids than ever are vaccinated. | Will Life Get Better for the Poor? 00:00:16 |
| 2015-09-22 | restate | Overall it has been a really good 25 years for humans: people are less likely to be poor, hungry or illiterate, girls more likely to go to school, mothers less likely to die or lose a child. | Is Poverty Necessary? Looking back at the Millennium Development Goals 00:03:20 |
| 2015-11-24 | restate | John holds that US life has improved since 2010 (less crime, less joblessness, growth, more reported happiness, best health ever) even as most Americans feel the country is headed the wrong way. | Crime and Outrage 00:03:13 |
| 2015-12-11 | restate | John cites halved infant mortality, more kids in school and diminished global poverty as evidence that progress is real. | The Refugee Crises: Project for Awesome 2015 00:03:00 |
| 2016-02-23 | restate | John says that too often we refuse even to acknowledge these problems, and that must change now if the next 200 years are to continue the successes of the previous 200. | How Energy and Time Change Everything 00:03:36 |
| 2016-04-19 | restate | John says the US economy has grown each of the last six years, unemployment has dropped through the 2010s, crime is down and 90% of Americans have health insurance, the highest since the 1970s. | Literally Hitler 00:01:07 |
| 2016-08-16 | restate | John holds that, though much needs to change, humanity has shown it can make broad positive changes, citing a year of good-news trends. | Some Good News: 16 Ways 2016 Is Not a Total Dumpster Fire 00:03:34 |
| 2016-11-09 | restate | John says Orin was born into a better America than his grandparents', made better by people whose hope, from Alabama restaurant counters to Normandy's beaches, held the line in far darker times. | My Post-Election Thoughts 00:02:53 |
| 2016-12-09 | restate | John says there are similar stories around the world: in the last ten years the global absolute poverty rate has fallen by more than half. | The Difference A Decade Makes: The 10th Annual Project for Awesome Is Here! 00:01:21 |
| 2017-01-17 | refine | Whatever progress we have made toward justice, equality or shared prosperity is fragile because it is new. | How Young Is History? 00:02:49 |
| 2017-02-07 (said on 2017-02-02, implied) | restate | Humans on average are living longer, healthier and more prosperous lives than ever before in human history. | Good News, YA Books, and Bears: It's Question Tuesday 00:00:31 |
| 2017-02-14 | restate | John says the world of 1998 was worse than today's: more child deaths, fewer vaccinated children and far more absolute poverty. | Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. 00:00:17 |
| 2017-07-18 | restate | John recalls Hank's idea that bad news usually comes all at once and good news slowly: declines in absolute poverty, child mortality and violent deaths go unreported because they are decades-long processes, not events. | Accio Decade Hallows 00:00:09 |
| 2017-08-01 | restate | John says human life is getting better in almost every way: we are healthier, more prosperous and less likely to die from violence than ever. | Death and How to Avoid It (...for a while) 00:00:28 |
| 2017-09-19 | restate | Though initially disastrous for their inhabitants, settlements eventually led to better lives by almost any measure: we are less likely than ever to die of infectious disease, malnutrition or violence. | Why Cities? 00:02:36 |
| 2017-12-12 | restate | John says many tragedies demand better responses, but on average the human population is healthier, more prosperous and better educated than it ever has been. | 2017 is the Best? 00:01:27 |
| 2017-12-19 | restate | John says unequal access to health care and education is not permanent: we have seen dramatic reductions around the world. | History Is Happening 00:02:44 |
| 2018-01-23 | restate | Change is visible: life expectancy in Sierra Leone is low but rising, and its woefully underfunded health system is better than decades ago. | On Emergencies 00:02:44 |
| 2018-02-06 | restate | John says it does mean we can make progress: seen through lifetimes, both the pace and the nature of change are really encouraging to him. | Sawdust Bread 00:02:15 |
| 2018-05-15 | restate | John calls the benefits staggering: 522,000 mothers died in childbirth in 1991 and 303,000 in 2015; there is a long way to go, but that is real progress. | Seven Maps to Better Understand the World 00:02:41 |
| 2018-07-10 | refine | The early 17th century is a reminder that progress is never simple, universal or guaranteed. | The General Crisis 00:03:40 |
| 2018-08-21 | restate | Investing in fragile systems sometimes fails and progress is often not simple or linear, but it is real. | SYSTEMS!!!! 00:03:38 |
| 2018-11-20 | restate | At a societal level, John says, US median household income is higher than ever and the poverty rate is declining, though not as fast as it should given economic growth. | Cause for Celebration 00:00:29 |
| 2018-11-27 | restate | John thinks building norms and systems that protect the weak, from the Geneva Conventions to child labor laws, has made the world safer and more just for all of us. | On The Melian Dialogue 00:03:24 |
| 2018-12-07 | restate | John says yesterday's babies were born into the healthiest, best-educated moment in human history, more than twice as likely to survive to adulthood as children born in 1990. | BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here… 00:01:17 |
| 2019-06-25 | restate | John says one reason fewer people will starve this decade than in any decade in thousands of years is that we've become good at moving species to where they thrive. | Seemed Like a Good Idea: Eugene Schieffelin and the European Starlings 00:02:55 |
| 2019-08-06 | refine | John says none of that improving data invalidates the contemporary horrors. | Uncertain and Afraid 00:01:27 |
| 2020-11-17 | restate | Not long ago the Sierra Leone figure was 1 in 17 women, so maternal death is declining and progress is real, just not fast enough. | Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update 00:07:09 |
| 2022-02-22 | restate | Child and maternal mortality are the lowest in human history and health systems are strengthening even in very poor communities, but profound health inequities persist. | On the Death of My Hero 00:02:55 |
| 2022-03-01 (said on 2022-02-27, implied) | restate | When John was a college freshman, children globally were twice as likely to die before age five as today: a massive human success story. | Hard Week 00:02:26 |
| 2022-10-11 | restate | John says the median human was born 2,000 years ago because so many people died young: early death was not merely common but the norm, as dying at 80 is now. | Most People Have Never Been 20 00:02:55 |
| 2022-10-25 | restate | The year John graduated from high school, 11 million children under 5 died; this year (2022) fewer than 5 million will, which is still way too high. | Instantly Debateable 00:03:24 |
| 2022-11-15 | restate | John says that when the project began three years ago 1 in 17 Sierra Leonean women could expect to die in pregnancy or childbirth; today it is fewer than 1 in 20, still much too high but real progress. · also in: The Tea | 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next 00:06:19 |
| 2023-03-14 | restate | John says millions of kids will die needlessly of impoverishment this year (2023), but 30 years ago kids were twice as likely to die before the age of five. | The Seduction of Despair 00:02:16 |
| 2023-05-02 | restate | In Kono both maternal and child mortality have since declined dramatically. | GOOD NEWS 00:00:58 |
| 2023-05-09 | restate | John says centuries ago the man would also have got absolute power over a kingdom; making the role ceremonial is real but insufficient progress, and ongoing injustice in power and resources doesn't negate it. | on hope 00:02:00 |
| 2023-06-13 | restate | We no longer treat scrofula with the king's touch, which John argues is good on a few levels: kings are no longer thought that powerful, and treatments are much better. | touched by a king 00:03:08 |
| 2023-09-14 | restate | John says it is important to understand that progress against drug-resistant TB is possible and has happened, but it is harder than it needs to be. | Talking Tuberculosis, GeneXpert, J&J, and more with MY HEROES 00:32:54 |
| 2024-02-27 | refine | John argues that understanding the median shows both where the US is failing and where it has made progress. | I Was Wrong about the Average American 00:03:53 |
| 2024-11-26 | restate | Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is still far too high, about 100 times too high, but down about 60% in seven years. | Good News 00:02:26 |
| 2025-01-07 | restate | John says TB deaths falling from about 1.8 to 1.25 million a year is real progress worth celebrating, yet not acceptable at that pace: both are true. | The Format but it hurts to stand up 00:01:47 |
| 2025-01-28 | restate | John says this fall in child mortality was not natural, normal or inevitable, and represents the greatest success in human history. | This Is Not Normal 00:00:29 |
| 2025-02-11 | restate | John says TB deaths have fallen by more than half in the last 25 years: that progress is under threat but still real, and it shows progress is possible. | What's at Stake 00:05:21 |
| 2025-03-04 | refine | John says millions of lives are at risk and overall human health will get worse, which should stress us out. | The ANXIETY IS PALPABLE 00:02:00 |
| 2025-06-10 | restate | John says graphs of child mortality, TB and HIV deaths since 2000 all bring good news, but this progress will stop and reverse because of the US-led global pullback in health funding. | 90,000,000 Lives for $20 00:00:00 |
| 2025-10-01 | restate | John calls it a concrete example of life getting better for the most vulnerable through broad, decades-long collaboration: too slow and still insufficient, but real. | Real Reasons for Hope 00:02:26 |
| 2025-11-04 | restate | John grants there is progress to point to, such as ongoing reductions in child and maternal mortality. | The Real Question 00:03:24 |
| 2026-02-13 | restate | John says that since he graduated from college, yearly child deaths have fallen from 11 million to 5 million: still far too high, but huge progress that is easy to forget. | Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! 01:46:24 |
| 2026-03-10 | restate | John calls that progress absolutely insufficient, since nobody should die of TB, but it is still 70 million people who lived longer, healthier lives. | Is Hank Green Running for Congress? 00:05:02 |
| 2026-08-25 | restate | In the fight for better human health, John says, progress is never final, but it is also possible. | The Great Thing about Infectious Disease 00:05:21 |
| 2026-09-08 | restate | John says holding the complexity that the world is safer for humans than it used to be, but less safe than it ought to be or may be in future, is hard, especially online, but essential. | The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die 00:05:50 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-09-17 | first on record | Hank holds that the world is getting better and that people feel discouraged only because they hear the bad news and never the good. | Positive Prank Calls!! 00:03:20 |
| 2011-10-26 | restate | Hank says that, with falling birth, disease and poverty rates and rising education, humanity is doing surprisingly well compared with expectations 40 or 50 years ago. | 7,000,000,000 People 00:02:11 |
| 2013-05-31 | restate | Hank: a graph of health and wealth from 1900 to 2011 shows every country better off; humans constantly solve huge problems but never notice. | Optimism is Not Insane 00:01:51 |
| 2014-01-03 | restate | Defending John's good-news video against doubting comments, Hank argues that biases make the world seem worse, but in fact the world is okay. → refers to GOOD NEWS: 14 Reasons 2014 May Be the Best Year Ever | The Golden Gate Bridge Didn't Collapse!! 00:03:19 |
| 2014-02-07 | restate | Hank thinks humans are pretty good at creating more than they destroy and are getting better at it. | Kill All The Humans 00:02:26 |
| 2014-12-12 | restate | Hank calls increased access to health care and decreased suffering an ongoing success story that supporters of Partners in Health can join. | NONSENSE: P4A 2014 - Partners in Health 00:01:07 |
| 2015-05-15 | restate | Addressing a 'future dead person', Hank says the viewer is very likely one of the luckiest and most powerful people who has ever existed. | Happy Graduation, Future Dead People 00:00:22 |
| 2015-09-25 | restate | After the sign-off Hank says he is honestly amazed at how far we've come, with infant mortality down and education and access to clean water up. | Pissed Off for a Better World 00:02:45 |
| 2015-11-27 (said on 2015-11-26, implied) | restate | Hank holds that, objectively and on average, now is the best time to be alive in human history, citing antibiotics, vaccines, marriage equality and the end of segregation. → refers to Crime and Outrage | Never Satisfied: The Story of Humans ¦-/ 00:01:49 |
| 2016-01-29 | restate | Hank believes previous generations made life better for him than it was for them, citing same-sex marriage, cheap streaming and safer cars. | Why the Word "Millennial" Makes me Cringe 00:02:55 |
| 2017-06-16 | restate | Hank says life expectancy has gone up a lot over the last 200 years, but it has also gone up for each viewer, and goes up every day, for an unexpected reason. | When Will You Die? 00:00:16 |
| 2017-08-18 | restate | Hank says the great story of human progress is not only science and technology but increasing tolerance, diversity and human-to-human understanding: a process, not an event. | What I've Been Thinking About 00:02:50 |
| 2019-05-03 | restate | Global warming doesn't want to kill us; it results from people trying to improve their lives, and there is less suffering because of fossil fuels, so calling them immoral while exonerating users rings false. | What Game of Thrones is Really About 00:06:35 |
| 2019-12-27 | restate | Hank says that in many ways the world, even just America, got better over the last ten years. | Why I'm Worried about 2020 00:00:25 |
| 2021-10-22 | restate | Hank says the last hundred years' gains in quality of life and in the value placed on human lives needed coal, oil and gas, fuels that created many problems. | A Tool with No Blood on It 00:01:56 |
| 2023-05-19 | restate | Hank told John that this is the best time so far in human history to get lymphoma, which he calls a very Hank Green thought. | So, I've got cancer 00:04:14 |
| 2023-06-23 | restate | Hank credits decades of work by researchers and patients, to whom he is forever in debt, for making today the best time in human history to get cancer. | Understanding Cancer Survival Rates 00:11:18 |
| 2023-06-27 | restate | Hank says it's easy to forget that a hundred years ago people did not expect to be cured of a disease; doctors mainly told them which direction they were headed. | Alone on the Cancer Boat: A Vlogbrothers Reunion 00:04:06 |
| 2023-07-14 | restate | Hank calls chemo the least fun thing he has ever done and hates it, but finds it amazing and powerful, and feels lucky to have access, a nearby hospital, and decades of refined treatment plans. | The Good News Video 00:06:11 |
| 2023-09-28 | restate | Hank says we can make different choices because we already have, showing charts of world deaths by age since 1950, polio burden since 1980 and TB death rates since 1990. | What the Heck is the UN? 00:07:13 |
| 2023-12-08 | restate | Hank says 10 years ago his treatment would have been worse, 30 years before that horrible and probably disabling for life, and 30 years before that nonexistent. | Did Natural Cancer Treatments Save My Life? 00:05:49 |
| 2024-06-14 | restate | Hank wants to think about the billions before him who built an imperfect but better world, all of whom made mistakes, laughed and grieved, and that things only got better when people believed they could. | Some Reasons why People Suck 00:07:46 |
| 2025-01-03 | restate | Hank says the value of a human life has kept increasing, a win; 2025 will be a messy year, no doubt, but the context of history always helps. | My 2025 Bingo Card 00:02:57 |
| 2025-02-28 | restate | Hank says we are so lucky to be alive right now. | We Will Eradicate Measles 00:05:02 |
| 2025-11-10 | restate | Hank says a solution has two components, the first being whether it exists at all: it is easy to forget how long we had no tools for our bodies' failings, and now we have many. | My Cancer Treatment was Not Cutting Edge 00:04:50 |
| 2026-01-09 | restate | Hank warns that turning yourself into a moral calculator ignores the real path of progress: lives keep getting more valuable because people believe they are, and that value drives better lives. | There is Only One Source of Value 00:02:26 |
| 2026-05-01 | restate | Hank says the graph is not of things naturally getting better or diseases getting less dangerous, but of millions of little efforts aimed at people who wanted better lives. | Despair is Not Wisdom 00:02:39 |
| 2026-05-08 | restate | Hank says 60 years after the first curative therapies were cutting edge and available to a select few, they are now available to most of the world's people. | My Deathday 00:04:52 |
| 2026-08-21 | restate | Hank thinks there is more genius, beauty, thriving and creativity now than in Mozart's era, even if we will not remember it the same way. | Not (Just) Dunking on Jeff Bezos 00:09:45 |
| 2026-08-28 | restate | Hank says smallpox was among the five worst human diseases, but its qualities made it a good candidate for eradication, so we now live in a better world. | Why the Deadliest Virus Was the Easiest to Kill 00:09:44 |
| 2026-10-30 | refine | Hank sees two reasons things have gotten worse since 2016; the first is that the media environment is worse, which makes people make worse decisions. | The Last Normal Year 00:04:25 |
Background
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-03-18 | background | John quips that being middle class in the 21st century beats being incredibly rich in the 15th, since people very rarely die of leg boils now. (playful) | TERRIBLE 00:00:39 |
| 2014-04-25 (said on 2014-04-26, implied) | background | In the song, Hank says the century he would pick to live in is right now, thanks to science's comforts and not being dead. (playful) | I Love Science (Clean Version) (Uncensored link in the Description) 00:00:52 |
| 2015-12-18 | background | Hank offers lots of good news against the bad news of death: US-Cuba flights, emissions flat while the economy grew, Saudi women voting. (playful) | We're All Gonna Die - A Song 00:02:49 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).