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Register 2025: hedges and bits

Statements from 2025 that are not plain sincere assertions: sincere claims the speaker hedged or marked as uncertain (with the hedge words quoted), and statements made as a bit. Plain sincere, unhedged statements are on the video pages. Back to the overview.

John

1182 statements · sincere 89% · playful 11% · other bits 0% · hedged or unsure 5%

Sincere but hedged (50)

Split by hedge type (derived from the quoted hedge words with a fixed word list — see the overview): epistemic doubt 24 · wish / hope 3 · opinion marker 3 · other hedge 14 · hedge words not recorded 6.

Epistemic doubt (24)

real uncertainty about whether it is true

  • 2025-01-21 · Do Audiobooks Count As Reading? — John says back then, asked whether audiobooks counted as reading, he would probably have said maybe; he worshipped written language and thought its nuances didn't translate to audio. — hedged: “i guess i probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:46)
  • 2025-02-25 · EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS — In a comment, John says the century-old BCG vaccine prevents severe TB in young children but is not very, possibly not at all, effective in adolescents or adults. — hedged: “possibly” [epistemic doubt] (creator comment)
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John says the next few weeks will be weird, stressful and overwhelming, and he might not make a video every Tuesday, though he will do his best. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:37)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — John says US government spending cuts mean, by one estimate, a probable 30% increase in drug-resistant tuberculosis in the next couple of years. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:20)
  • 2025-04-08 · DOGE Is Not Cutting Government Spending — John says a cut to the overall federal budget may eventually come, but has not yet and is unlikely while everyone focuses on tiny spending categories. — hedged: “unlikely” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:26)
  • 2025-04-08 · DOGE Is Not Cutting Government Spending — John says actually cutting the deficit would require real austerity measures, probably both decreasing spending and increasing taxes. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:24)
  • 2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John says he really believes we might be able to stop it. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:26)
  • 2025-06-17 · My Religion — John considers himself a Christian, but Christianity, like Islam or Buddhism, is tremendously diverse; his may be unorthodox or heretical to some, though it fits his Episcopalian denomination. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says that means humans may have lived without coffee for 98% of human history, which he calls terrible to imagine. — hedged: “may” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:29)
  • 2025-09-29 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US! — John says this might be his favorite Pizzamas year ever. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:18)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John is not sure he wants to be making videos, at least not every Tuesday, at 58 or 68. — hedged: “I'm not sure” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:53)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John also keeps going because he feels he can maybe help viewers, if only to feel less alone in an increasingly isolating world. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:20)
  • 2025-10-07 · Luck vs. Work vs. Skill vs. Privilege — John thinks talent is to some extent real: many skills can be learned, but our gifts incline us in certain directions. — hedged: “I might be wrong” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-10-07 · Luck vs. Work vs. Skill vs. Privilege — John proposes a better framework: what we do deserve, our fundamental rights to love and be loved and be treated as full human beings, and building a world where people get it. — hedged: “I think maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:45)
  • 2025-10-09 · I Like Being Alive — John suggests that one answer, which first occurred to him yesterday, is that he should do what makes him like being alive. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:59)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says the changed value proposition may be part of a long-term structural change in how many people read books, why and whether they read them. — hedged: “may” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:52)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says books will continue to be a small business and may even shrink somewhat over the next decade. — hedged: “may even” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:21)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John thinks linear television will probably go away. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:21)
  • 2025-10-28 · Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway — John believes Guimaras could be the first TB-free region of the Philippines, and if it is possible there, it is possible everywhere. — hedged: “could” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:53)
  • 2025-10-28 · Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway — John says that with Guimaras as a blueprint for the world, he might live to see a world that no longer loses over a million people a year to TB. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:53)
  • 2025-11-13 · Fighting TB in Kids: A Discussion with Doctors without Borders — John says the most recent study showed maybe 20% of people who should get TPT are getting it. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:10:19)
  • 2025-11-13 · Fighting TB in Kids: A Discussion with Doctors without Borders — John thinks the 20% figure is misleading and the real share is probably more like 10%. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:10:49)
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — Asked about new books, John says a new book is coming but not this year (2025) and probably not next; that morning he emailed Julie asking what publication target a second draft by January 1 would allow. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:07:43)
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John says, as a Reddit post noticed, Good Store donated far more in 2023 than this year (2025) or last; this year (2025) will probably be a little up on last year (2024) but down from 2023. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:11:51)

Wish / hope (3)

a wish about the future, not a claim about what is true

Opinion marker (3)

marks a view as the speaker's own; not doubt

  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John cites an estimate that within two years, without restored funding, TB deaths will rise from 1.25 million to 2 million, up 750,000; TB is the deadliest infectious disease. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:15:51)
  • 2025-07-01 · What #1 New York Times Bestseller Actually Means — John thinks the new Hunger Games book sold 750,000 copies in a week. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-08-12 · On Balance — John says a kind of vertigo called, he thinks, BPPV can be cured by the Epley maneuver within seconds without further tests. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:01:50)

Other hedge (14)

a hedge that matches none of the word lists

  • 2025-02-11 · What's at Stake — John says interrupting TB care in the middle of months of treatment is potentially catastrophic, both for individuals and for society. — hedged: “potentially” [other hedge] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-02-25 · EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS — John says it was common then, and perhaps still is, to tie illness to some deficiency, failure or past mistake, like a German doctor blaming a barking dog. — hedged: “I suppose” [other hedge] (00:01:57)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — John recalls that nothing happened when Looking for Alaska came out: no TV, he went to work, came home and had a glass of wine with Sarah. — hedged: “If I remember correctly” [other hedge] (00:01:23)
  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John says the double will last nearly two straight days, especially if Wimbledon win, since the party will go on all night. — hedged: “if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise” [other hedge] (00:02:26)
  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John says that without Marcus Browne he is genuinely not sure Wimbledon would be in the play-off final. — hedged: “I'm genuinely not sure” [other hedge] (00:04:22)
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John worries that by contributing to the unhealthy internet, not just ingesting it, he is not just smoking cigarettes: he is cigarettes. — hedged: “I worry” [other hedge] (00:04:40)
  • 2025-09-23 · Why Can't I Take My Meds? — John says failure to take medication appropriately is a huge problem: something like 50% of prescriptions for chronic conditions are not taken as prescribed. — hedged: “something like” [other hedge] (00:00:29)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says about 30% of books from major publishers sell fewer than 1,000 copies, and around 90% sell fewer than 10,000. — hedged: “About” [other hedge] (00:00:29)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says the best-selling book of 2024 sold about 1.6 million copies, while the year's best-selling movie sold about 80 million theater seats, in a business said to be in structural decline. — hedged: “about” [other hedge] (00:00:29)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says about 75% of American adults report reading a book in the last year, and younger adults are more likely to have done so than older adults. — hedged: “about” [other hedge] (00:01:01)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says publishing is in a bit of a decline: per Publishers Weekly, year-over-year sales for the most recent month are down around 10%, which he calls pretty dramatic. — hedged: “around” [other hedge] (00:02:28)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says that while most people report reading at least one book in the last year, only about 20% report reading at least 10. — hedged: “about” [other hedge] (00:02:53)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John recalls making a Vlogbrothers video around 2007 or 2008 arguing a movie costs $10 for two hours of entertainment while a book costs $10 for 14 hours. — hedged: “2007 or 2008” [other hedge] (00:03:23)
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John describes his favorite P4A perk, the Nerdfighter Art Perk: people worldwide make art valued at about $30, from plushies to paintings to knitted stuff, which is sent to someone who gets the perk. — hedged: “about” [other hedge] (00:05:19)

Hedge words not recorded (6)

marked as unsure, but the hedge words were not quoted

  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John wonders whether he and Stuart, having aged since the first double, still have the endurance, and says only time will tell, but he will enjoy every minute. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:02:55)
  • 2025-06-17 · My Religion — John does not know why evil exists, and it bugs him. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:04:22)
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John says he has no solution or resolution to offer, and suggests Hank may have one on Friday. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:04:57)
  • 2025-09-16 · After seven long years… — John wonders what the next seven years hold, hopes they are less dramatic, and wonders whether he will still be on YouTube at 55. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:03:24)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John says maybe MatPat is right that he will just know, but he doesn't know how to calculate it. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:02:22)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John guesses the channel may taper from a few weeks off to most weeks off, or end abruptly; whenever it ends he hopes they still have projects together and will feel much gratitude. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (00:03:50)

Joke (2)

a gag; not a claim

  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John repeats Mark Twain's quip calling Congress the country's only native criminal class, then says he probably shouldn't make that joke to a senator. (00:07:55)
  • 2025-04-22 · The Unimportant Things — John jokes that Wimbledon have conceded heartbreaking late goals presumably to give the documentary maximum drama. (00:03:23)

Hypothetical (2)

a thought experiment or "what if"

  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John says that if it is another nine years before they return to Wembley he will be 56, and hopes he will still be biking to the race. (00:03:24)
  • 2025-07-01 · What #1 New York Times Bestseller Actually Means — John says a bestseller can mean 10,000 copies a week for 200 weeks, making you quite wealthy, or 1,500 copies for one week, which does not. (00:02:55)

Playful (129)

a real point made in a joking way; the paraphrase records the meant core

  • 2025-01-07 · The Format but it hurts to stand up — John says he suffered what may be the first signing-related ankle injury: his foot fell asleep while signing, and when he got up for the doorbell it crumpled and he sprained his ankle. (00:00:17)
  • 2025-01-07 · The Format but it hurts to stand up — John imagines telling grandkids that as a child he had no pocket-sized magic wands, or that it snowed regularly in Indianapolis. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (00:00:50)
  • 2025-01-14 · So I Bought My Team a Pro Football Player — John says he is in a deep, loving relationship with fourth-tier AFC Wimbledon and, for the last 12 years, has held the back-of-shorts sponsorship on the club's kit. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-01-14 · So I Bought My Team a Pro Football Player — John jokes that he is in love with Marcus Browne, now his favorite footballer of all time, replacing Roberto Firmino in his imagination. (00:01:56)
  • 2025-01-21 · Do Audiobooks Count As Reading? — When his editor said Looking for Alaska would get an audiobook, John was thrilled mostly for the $1,000 fee, but also because an actor would perform his book, the closest he expected to get to an adaptation. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-01-21 · Do Audiobooks Count As Reading? — John says he switches between audio and print by situation: audio while washing dishes since books aren't waterproof, print at bedtime because reading with his eyes relaxes him more. (00:04:33)
  • 2025-01-28 · This Is Not Normal — John notes he graduated from high school in 1995, before most viewers were born, which he calls distressing rather than encouraging. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-02-11 · What's at Stake — John says he knows almost nothing about most things, like helicopters or star distances, but knows a lot about TB and its medication from four years writing a book about it. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-02-18 · Gastrointestinal Hypermotility in Tuatara — In the mock opening topic, John says the tuatara is the oldest extant reptile species in the world, with a temporal range going back 250 million years. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-02-18 · Gastrointestinal Hypermotility in Tuatara — John says the brothers are niche YouTubers making things for an 18-year-old internet community, Nerdfighteria, not MrBeast, and should not make videos that get a million views. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-02-18 · Gastrointestinal Hypermotility in Tuatara — John says he therefore picked a title no one would casually click on; the video is not really about tuatara digestion but about the Project for Awesome. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-02-18 · Gastrointestinal Hypermotility in Tuatara — John jokes that viewers have already pre-ordered his book, and says signed copies are available wherever good books are sold. (00:01:57)
  • 2025-02-25 · EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS — John says his wife Sarah jokes that in his mind everything is about tuberculosis and tuberculosis is about everything, and she is right. (00:09:05)
  • 2025-03-04 · The ANXIETY IS PALPABLE — John finds it weird and anxiety-inducing to be a conscious mammal: his thinking, loving parts are edible, he is finite yet conceives the infinite, a bacterial colony aware of itself. (00:00:09)
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John opens by saying that now that he has a 50-foot microphone cord, nothing and no one can stop him. (00:00:01)
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John says he has a job even more important than being the book's author: being Hank Green's brother. (00:00:12)
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John tells his dog Potato he is trying to make a video and Potato has to take it down a notch and get with the Format vibe. (00:00:24)
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John says that every seven to ten days for the last 20 years Hank has called him with an idea, inevitably a million-dollar idea. (00:00:34)
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John says some of Hank's ideas are terrible, but the main thing to understand is their sheer quantity: there are so many of them. (00:01:06)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — After his CBS Mornings appearance John thinks he did all right, but says only Elyse really knows, and that she always says he nailed it. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — John admits he is tired after days of travelling around the country, and only getting started, but says he is grateful to be tired. (00:00:54)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — Correcting himself from pre-order, John says viewers can now order a signed copy, or one of the rare unsigned copies where signed ones are gone. (00:01:52)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — John hopes someday to publish a version called Everything Was Tuberculosis, but confesses that day seems rather distant. (00:02:21)
  • 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — John shows a bracelet someone gave him that says TB sucks and an amazing hand-knit sweater, as part of the magic of tour. (00:03:49)
  • 2025-03-25 · Taylor, Dr Pepper, and My Anxiety Strats: It's Question Tuesday — Joking that inventing Dr Pepper was not his only job, John says Alderton was also a pharmacist dispensing medicines, many used, ineffectively, to treat consumption. (00:00:58)
  • 2025-03-25 · Taylor, Dr Pepper, and My Anxiety Strats: It's Question Tuesday — John says the Beatles only exist because of tuberculosis, provided one accepts his stipulation that Ringo is an essential Beatle, which he really believes. (00:01:27)
  • 2025-04-08 · DOGE Is Not Cutting Government Spending — John likens it to spending $10,000 a month on rent with your spouse and then arguing over whether you can afford one $50 dinner a month: the problem is not the dinner. (00:03:53)
  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John says he has traveled nonstop since Everything Is Tuberculosis came out: Maine today, London tomorrow, then Peru, which he calls the classic reverse Paddington. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John jokes that the only thing their viewers agree on is hating tuberculosis and other diseases of injustice; Schiff plugs John's book Everything Is Tuberculosis. (00:13:09)
  • 2025-04-22 · The Unimportant Things — Calling himself the tiredest boy in tired town, John says he has traveled 28 of the last 30 days and will travel 32 of the next 40; he got in from London last night and flies to Peru this morning. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-04-22 · The Unimportant Things — John admits professional sports are ridiculous: it is genuinely ridiculous for grown-ups to be invested in other grown-ups hitting or kicking a ball. (00:00:58)
  • 2025-04-22 · The Unimportant Things — John quotes a commenter: if Ted Lasso were a documentary, it would look like this. (00:02:26)
  • 2025-04-22 · The Unimportant Things — In London, not mainly for football, John watched a match with his father-in-law, which was really special despite a goalless draw, a long way to go to see no goals. (00:02:55)
  • 2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John invites anyone in the market for socks or soap that save lives while warming feet and cleaning bodies to check out Good.Store. (00:00:58)
  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John announces that this weekend he will attempt, for 'the second time in human history', the endurance feat known locally as the double. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John says he barely kept himself from mentioning the Indy 500 in Everything Is Tuberculosis, since it, like everything, connects to tuberculosis. (00:00:58)
  • 2025-05-20 · The Double — John loves fan-owned fourth-tier AFC Wimbledon even more than the Indy 500; the club wears DFTBA on the back of its shorts, between left thigh and buttock. (00:01:27)
  • 2025-05-27 · The Longest (and best) Day — John tells Hank it is 6:15 on Sunday and invites him along on the longest day of his life. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-05-27 · The Longest (and best) Day — John's key to a great race day: put Uncrustables in your backpack frozen; they thaw by lunch. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-05-27 · The Longest (and best) Day — John admits parts of the ride were sketchy: it was all technically on bike lanes, but some were not so bikey. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-05-27 · The Longest (and best) Day — Arriving in London, John shows that Stuart made them exclusive 'double' luggage tags. (00:01:10)
  • 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John recalls telling Hank, when Hank joined Twitter in 2008, that he would never join because nobody needs to know his lunch; time proved him a liar. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-06-03 · My Lies — In the early 2000s, when John's roommate brought home Wi-Fi, he vowed never to use it because he already had a 100-foot Ethernet cord; the future made him a liar. (00:00:52)
  • 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John jokes that a few viewers will be surprised that Crash Course John Green and Fault in Our Stars John Green are the same person. (00:01:21)
  • 2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John announces he is going to curse for the first time in 18 years on Vlogbrothers. (00:03:24)
  • 2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John says the puff is out of control, but so are his stress levels. (00:05:21)
  • 2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John asks viewers to call and also make their parents, and even a weird aunt who disagrees about everything but would spend $20 a year to save children, call. (00:05:21)
  • 2025-06-17 · My Religion — John believes in evolution, and also in a heliocentric solar system and a round Earth. (00:03:53)
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John admits he is still on Tumblr, calling himself a proper internet degenerate. (00:01:24)
  • 2025-07-15 · LLAMAS Are NOT What You Think — John suggests the barracuda, which he says looks like the sound of its name. (00:01:06)
  • 2025-07-15 · LLAMAS Are NOT What You Think — John says riding a llama sounds terrible because they spit. (00:02:06)
  • 2025-07-15 · LLAMAS Are NOT What You Think — John argues that since lobe-finned fishes have leg bones, they must have butts. (00:03:05)
  • 2025-07-15 · LLAMAS Are NOT What You Think — John says their brother Dave Green doesn't think about such things: he is a practical man interested in running a Wendy's, caring for his family and paying the mortgage. (00:07:16)
  • 2025-07-29 · Dad and Daughter Play Dress to Impress — When Alice can't remember what a Robux costs in dollars, John says that's how they get you: a currency that isn't real makes you forget how much things cost. (00:03:31)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John says the brothers are on vacation together in Montana, though they are working the whole time. (00:01:22)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John wins the first event: his finger gap is nearly a foot while Hank's is a little under 11 inches, putting John 1-0 up in the 2025 Quadragocon. (00:03:42)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John refuses to add a Quadragocon link to the description: part of the one-take rule is uploading in one take. (00:05:10)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John says chess is a Quadragocon event and neither brother knows how to play chess. (00:05:40)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John says he has been watching chess videos and googling chess for dummies since Hank announced chess as a Quadragocon event. (00:06:09)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John predicts neither brother will win their chess game because neither can checkmate the other. (00:06:38)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John says he doesn't believe people who can picture things: his wife says you just close your eyes and picture anything, like a movie in your mind. (00:07:37)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — When thanked for getting people through high school, John wants to say his Crash Course team, Stan, Meredith and Zulaiha, did it; he only read the teleprompter. (00:10:57)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John says his airline pilot that day was a Crash Course enthusiast, meaning very young: their doctors and pilots are now younger than them. (00:10:57)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John says there is some continuity of self: he is stuck with his childhood memories, mostly in the form of trauma. (00:12:44)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — John teases that Hank is nice to strangers the way a town's mayor is, so strangers recognize him because he makes them. (00:14:42)
  • 2025-08-08 · I'm Glad I Ignored That Billionaire — John says this is his first major step forward in underwear since discovering the boxer brief in 2003. (00:02:30)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John likes that stopping focus mode makes the bean's knitting evaporate and the bean look disappointed: he doesn't want to disappoint the bean, so he leaves his distracting apps alone. (00:01:12)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John bought the John Bean for $5.99 to support the app and jokes that it is a 70-year-old bean, though it drinks Keats & Co. coffee and its shirt is on point. (00:02:40)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John's main complaint: he still has a diminishing number of brown hairs, yet John Bean is entirely gray; he asks to be at least salt and pepper. (00:02:55)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — With his daughter, her best friend and the friend's younger brother Sammy, who is learning his colours, John heard Sammy name everyone's hair colour and say John has gray hair; John insists his is brown with silver at the temples. (00:03:09)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John says that apart from forcing him to reckon with his own mortality, Focus Friend is pretty great. (00:03:38)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John says that ever since inventing 2D glasses Hank has been on a non-stop run of making things; each new idea gives John gray hairs, so he asks Hank to slow down. (00:03:50)
  • 2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — After the sign-off John marvels that Hank keeps doing it, wonders where his energy comes from, and calls being the tail to Hank's comet a full-time job. (00:04:30)
  • 2025-08-26 · Not to Criticize Hank… — John says that on Sunday, his birthday, Hank texted him at 10:12 p.m. with nothing but 'Happy birthday' and two exclamation points. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-08-26 · Not to Criticize Hank… — John says that as Hank's brother, oldest friend and closest collaborator he feels there is room for improvement in Hank's birthday-text game. (00:00:20)
  • 2025-08-26 · Not to Criticize Hank… — John reasons that people who send lots of birthday texts might be very likable, so John, who does not, could be someone one sees more than one likes. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:15)
  • 2025-08-26 · Not to Criticize Hank… — John ranks the joy of birthday greetings: card, then call, then text, then Hank's late two-exclamation-point text; the birthday call is a nearly lost craft. (00:02:55)
  • 2025-08-26 · Not to Criticize Hank… — Checking his own texts, John finds that on Hank's birthday, May 5th, he texted Hank only 'happy birthday' with two exclamation points, so he too has work to do. (00:03:24)
  • 2025-08-26 · Not to Criticize Hank… — John tells Hank to expect a long and florid birthday text message on May 5th. (00:03:45)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says he treated the drug's side effect, in a classic American way, with another drug, coffee, and slowly developed a deep, profound love for coffee. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John offers a theory he admits has no evidence: tea stays more popular because it is older and better established in cultures, not because it is better. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (00:01:56)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says Hank's video did not quite criticize coffee but came close, strongly implying tea is better because of a chemical giving chill vibes with awareness. (00:01:56)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says he needs no chill vibes in 2025: in the morning he needs a rocket ship, coffee, specifically Keats & Co.'s Octavia Blend, available at good.store. (00:02:26)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says the only explanations are that coffee is better or that he is a better salesperson, and they both know he is not. (00:02:55)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John says that after his most recent birthday he needs no evidence that he is approaching old age, but he has it anyway. (00:03:24)
  • 2025-09-09 · Sorry, Hank, but Coffee Is Just Better — John concludes coffee is far better than tea, unless coffee is a kind of tea as Hank argued, in which case coffee is the best kind of tea. (00:03:53)
  • 2025-09-16 · After seven long years… — John says he will tell Hank about the most impressive YouTube feat the channel has ever accomplished. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-09-16 · After seven long years… — John says they started making YouTube videos before the iPhone existed, when MrBeast was eight, five presidents ago. (00:01:27)
  • 2025-09-16 · After seven long years… — Showing Hank as he looked at three million subscribers, John notes Hank then had no books, no kid, no cancer and no number one app in the App Store. (00:03:24)
  • 2025-09-19 · Let's Just Be Stupid For a Moment — In the opening clip, John says it is a one-take video, so the commitment is binding. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-09-19 · Let's Just Be Stupid For a Moment — In the first event, holding fingers exactly 12 inches apart, Hank's gap is a little under 11 inches and John goes 1-0 up. (00:01:06)
  • 2025-09-19 · Let's Just Be Stupid For a Moment — John wins tortilla slap, a game one of them learned about on TikTok, without having to slap Hank. (00:07:02)
  • 2025-09-29 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US! — John says he did not grow a pizza mustache this year (2025) because he made a call to stay married. (00:01:03)
  • 2025-09-29 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US! — John reveals his Views shirt, a Hawaiian shirt he wears when he wants views because it looks cool and fits well, and that it has been turned into a Pizzamas shirt. (00:01:26)
  • 2025-09-29 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US! — John says his children use the fidgets and so does he, as a wonderful distraction from (gestures broadly) everything. (00:04:01)
  • 2025-09-29 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US! — Welcoming new Nerdfighters at their first Pizzamas, John says he has no idea how his briefly having a mustache in 2008 led to all this. (00:04:31)
  • 2025-09-29 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US! — John notes that Pizzamas lets him say words he used to say a lot but now rarely does: he will see Hank tomorrow. (00:05:00)
  • 2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John thanks Hank for recalling that the talk page of his proposed Wikipedia page said having a notable brother does not convey notoriety; Hank may be the more notable brother today, but John will always be the first notable brother in the eyes of Wikipedia editors. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John does not think a career in online video is exactly like being a professional athlete, though he jokes he is an extraordinary physical specimen. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John calls himself a geriatric YouTuber, though the upper age limit of YouTubers seems to rise a year every year as Rhett and Link and the Green brothers age. (00:01:53)
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John notes that Hank didn't take any time off even when he had cancer, so this may not be an issue for him. (00:02:22)
  • 2025-10-07 · Luck vs. Work vs. Skill vs. Privilege — John jokes that he doesn't deserve to have people buy a Pizzamas keychain featuring his mustachioed face as a cat, available only for the next few days. (00:05:16)
  • 2025-10-09 · I Like Being Alive — John says he will miss Pizzamas desperately but needs to go back to having a real life. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-10-09 · I Like Being Alive — John says Alex is a really good carpenter and John a rank amateur who mostly followed instructions, yet over one long weekend they made something that had not existed before. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-10-28 · Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway — John calls Guimaras one of the loveliest places he has visited, and not only because he got a mango necklace and welcome signs. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-10-28 · Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway — John says he ate a truly extraordinary mango there, by far the greatest of his life. (00:01:56)
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John says it's November with snow on the ground, which means it is time for his annual psychophysical decline. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John says, as Hank always reminds him, he is just 30 trillion cells trying to maintain homeostasis, which is hard work, so things will go wrong all the time. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John says a world where nothing matters and helping cannot improve anything would be depressing but convenient, since he could stay in bed; instead there is work to do. (00:00:58)
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John explains that Good Store finds the world's best stuff, sells it rather than giving it away, and donates 100% of its profit to charity. (00:03:04)
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John calls Alec his current favorite YouTuber, a self-made dishwasher expert who serves as an unpaid intern for EcoGeek and their sock company because he is kind of an angel. (00:04:03)
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John tells Hank that the idea Hank texted him last night is nice but not important, and asks for no more ideas while they are still building Good Store, Hank's idea from five years ago. (00:11:01)
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John warns that giving EcoGeek dish soap or laundry sheets may tell someone you expect them to do the chores, whereas a bath bomb says you want them to take a great bath. (00:14:03)
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John recalls a college gig in Binghamton where a man who had received his brother's sock subscription for three years asked when he could assume they were his; John said that time had passed. (00:27:33)
  • 2025-11-24 · Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John — John says being a boxer, as Henry is, means being really tough, while John is the opposite of tough. (00:46:15)
  • 2025-12-02 · The Meaning of Life with Hank and John — John says he went to seminary for only a day and his degree is in religion. (00:01:58)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — Wondering how many things Hank has created or co-created, John presents the A to Z of Hank Green. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John jokingly calls Crabulous Hank's most profound contribution to culture: a social media platform that can only be joined during the Project for Awesome and sends periodic crab photos or illustrations, and it is real. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John names a wildly popular YouTube channel that Hank somehow updates often because vlogbrothers and other duties don't consume him enough. (00:01:29)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John jokes that most of Hank's million dollar ideas are in fact single digit dollar ideas. (00:03:53)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John says Hank has updated people on his life on X since 2008 and still posts and visits, though he knows it is bad for him and for the social order. (00:04:52)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John says Hank has never created anything starting with Z (no Zen meditation retreat, Zootopia film or zoological society), though he has every other letter covered. — hedged: “as far as I can tell” [other hedge] (00:05:21)
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John tells Hank his next project had better start with a Z, and predicts that, knowing Hank, it will, and soon. (00:05:50)
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John says today's video, like the 2023 television adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations, comes in six parts. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John says the Financial Times wrote a lovely article about the brothers and their work, but its sub-headline credited the Fault in Our Stars author and his brother. (00:00:00)
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John says in real life he is Hank Green's brother: at an art show last week (week of 8 December 2025) someone recognised Sarah from The Art Assignment and asked if she was married to the brother. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John says at least a third of the time he is recognised, it is for being Hank Green, from people thanking him for organic chemistry to a woman shouting 'Hank Green!' in Philadelphia. (00:00:29)
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John says it is easy to forget you are a mammal because you are busy having consciousness, which is a weird blessing and curse, so give yourself a little slack. (00:02:26)
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John got home last night from his final work trip of the year, speaking to scientists who study the implementation and dissemination of knowledge, a field he says is under threat from the social internet. (00:03:24)

Hank

1523 statements · sincere 91% · playful 9% · other bits 0% · hedged or unsure 10%

Sincere but hedged (141)

Split by hedge type (derived from the quoted hedge words with a fixed word list — see the overview): epistemic doubt 97 · wish / hope 5 · opinion marker 12 · other hedge 17 · hedge words not recorded 10.

Epistemic doubt (97)

real uncertainty about whether it is true

  • 2025-01-03 · My 2025 Bingo Card — Hank says he might make a 2025 bingo card later and, if he does, put it here. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:37)
  • 2025-01-24 · Am I OK? — Hank says mentally it has been a trial: he is far more anxious and maybe has a little less energy than before. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:21)
  • 2025-01-24 · Am I OK? — Hank says that, of his short-term memory loss and his anxiety, the anxiety is probably worse for him. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:01)
  • 2025-01-24 · Am I OK? — Hank says his therapist thinks he may not have an anxiety disorder but a normal response to a life full of responsibilities and threats, which seems right to him. — hedged: “may not” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:01)
  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — Hank says perhaps, instead of creating durable change, Trump is governing largely through executive orders and other untested, probably illegal, unilateral actions. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:55)
  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — Hank's second reading: perhaps a flood-the-zone tactic, keeping everyone distracted and trying everything fast to occupy the press, courts and public and see what sticks. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:43)
  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — Hank's third reading: perhaps Trump wants change but knows legislation with narrow House and Senate majorities would likely fail, and he hates the idea of failing. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:54)
  • 2025-02-14 · Let's Do a Good — Hank says USAID's funding may stay interrupted for a long time. — hedged: “may” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:16)
  • 2025-02-28 · We Will Eradicate Measles — Hank says measles is more infectious than smallpox: a smallpox patient maybe infected three to six others on average, a measles patient 12 to 18. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:46)
  • 2025-02-28 · We Will Eradicate Measles — Hank says everyone seems to agree USAID should continue its life-saving missions, including Marco Rubio, who runs USAID. — hedged: “seems” [epistemic doubt] (00:06:08)
  • 2025-03-07 · How Social Security Fraud Actually Works — Hank says there is probably also some good in the lifestyles of Sardinia and Okinawa. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-03-07 · How Social Security Fraud Actually Works — Hank says that since nearly all centenarians collect Social Security, a little mental math shows centenarian fraud might exist, but it is not a massive deal. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:04)
  • 2025-03-07 · How Social Security Fraud Actually Works — Hank says $8 million is both a lot and not a lot; it might have been well spent to prevent today's avalanche, but the bureaucrats perhaps did not expect powerful people to care so little for the truth. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:53)
  • 2025-03-07 · How Social Security Fraud Actually Works — Hank says porting the Social Security database to a more modern system would probably be good and would eventually save on administrative costs. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:06:22)
  • 2025-03-07 · How Social Security Fraud Actually Works — Hank suggests that people may not respect the system partly because they are constantly told it is corrupt. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:07:20)
  • 2025-03-14 · Probably the Luckiest Thing in my Life — The description says that without this lucky thing, all the other lucky things in Hank's life would probably have brought him to worse places. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (video description)
  • 2025-03-14 · Probably the Luckiest Thing in my Life — Hank says it was maybe likelier to work than with a random person, since they share parents and many genes, though they are pretty different and get energy from different things. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:23)
  • 2025-03-21 · The Second Most Important Book in Dublin — The description says John's tour and press seem to be going amazingly. — hedged: “It seems like” [epistemic doubt] (video description)
  • 2025-03-21 · The Second Most Important Book in Dublin — Hank retells a story he was told: a college president (name given as Leckie) opposed admitting women, died the day the first woman was admitted, and women graduates now pose with his statue. — hedged: “I guess” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:24)
  • 2025-04-04 · Morality — Hank says he has been thinking a lot about morality, maybe because of John's book or society at large, and his understanding of the word has been changing. — hedged: “Maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-04-04 · Morality — The description says this project and community have a deep morality, usually called values, and perhaps it is time to own that morality and be proud of it. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (video description)
  • 2025-04-04 · Morality — Hank says it seems we decided for a while that anything that makes money is definitely good. — hedged: “seem a little bit like” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:43)
  • 2025-04-11 · How Actually Crazy is This Mess? — Hank says bets on a market rise spiked just before the announcement, indicating people with insider knowledge of the administration took money from those without it. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:15:02)
  • 2025-04-18 · I Still Don't Have Cancer (and I'm Still Scared) — Hank says that 10 or 20 years from now, when leukemia would be most likely for him, maybe there will be better treatment or monitoring, if science continues, which he never used to worry about. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:31)
  • 2025-04-18 · I Still Don't Have Cancer (and I'm Still Scared) — Among the many places his anxiety could rest, Hank lists economic uncertainty for projects he cares about, maybe an actual constitutional crisis, and activists grabbed in the street and detained without being accused of a crime. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:41)
  • 2025-04-18 · This one's for your mom — Hank muses about a new kind of movie made for a vibrant, collaborative theater experience, but says it probably won't happen. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:50:15)
  • 2025-04-25 · How We Form Opinions — Hank feels we have lost many of those taboos, but perhaps we will see the negative effects and reinstate them soon. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:08:43)
  • 2025-05-02 · I Found the Dumbest Time Zone — The description says Hank found a few other real oddities that he will probably put in Hankschannel videos. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (video description)
  • 2025-05-16 · No One Knows When They Don't Die — Hank says he got a cancer, a disease often fatal, got medicine for it, and now seems likely to die of something else, so he knows he didn't die. — hedged: “it seems like” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-05-16 · No One Knows When They Don't Die — Hank says he and everyone around him got the measles vaccine when young, so he has never had measles and probably never will. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-05-16 · No One Knows When They Don't Die — Hank warns that if we don't understand this, the things that didn't happen might very well begin happening again. — hedged: “might very well” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:24)
  • 2025-05-23 · I Can’t Believe How Few People it Takes. — Hank is angry that Crash Course is so useful to teachers and students yet underfunded, maybe because they make it look easy or YouTube seems a low-budget, less legitimate medium. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-05-30 · My Rare 'Disorder' — Hank is not diagnosed and feels he is handling it well, but is pretty sure he has delayed sleep-wake phase disorder. — hedged: “I'm pretty sure” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-05-30 · My Rare 'Disorder' — Hank says that, possibly, getting older helps too, since age sometimes brings earlier bedtimes. — hedged: “possibly” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:00)
  • 2025-06-06 · The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech — Hank says he is good at having an idea he believes in and just doing it, consequences be damned, which has served him well though it is not relaxing, on the shifting ground of online video and social media. — hedged: “it seems like” [epistemic doubt] (00:11:35)
  • 2025-06-13 · Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways) — The description says Hank probably needs to stop thinking about whether he is winning or losing and ask whether he is acting in concert with his goals. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (video description)
  • 2025-06-13 · Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways) — Hank says the Taoist view holds that all the pushing and trying to control things pushes everything further from the natural harmonious path, where one ends up anyway. — hedged: “probably also getting this wrong” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:20)
  • 2025-06-20 · 'Influencer' Must Die. — In a comment Hank predicts creators will probably end up with a variety of mostly existing words, such as comedian, filmmaker and science communicator, applied online. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (creator comment)
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Hank thinks the cigarette metaphor is dangerous: a simplifier, and one must ask what a simplification obscures, which here is a lot. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:58)
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Hank says scarcity of calories has been the human story: malnutrition has likely played a role in more human deaths than any single pathogen or weapon. — hedged: “likely” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:35)
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Brilliant people design ever more appealing Doritos and we are at the stage where we are bad at this, but Hank has seen signs we may be getting better. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:10:04)
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank reads the device as good news: not the first air-to-fuel demonstration and less efficient than a large plant, but maybe useful off-grid. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-07-11 · The Ones Who Love Us — Hank can't stop thinking about Keanu Reeves being interviewed on a TV show by a host he guesses was named Jimmy, for five different reasons, two of which he may talk about. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-07-25 · The Molecule that Changed Everything — Hank says, noting debate, that tree roots exposed fresh rock that absorbed carbon dioxide, causing a reverse greenhouse effect and cold that probably also contributed to the Devonian extinction. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:33)
  • 2025-07-25 · The Molecule that Changed Everything — Hank says John's At Least There Are Trees shirt is still available, probably for the last reminder, with all proceeds to the Nature Conservancy to honor their dad, who is still at it. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:07:30)
  • 2025-08-01 · We Stole a Man's Blood — Hank says a better match makes the recipient's life easier, better and probably longer. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:39)
  • 2025-08-03 · Why I Actually Love My Brother — Hank says the reluctance is not that bad in itself, but what it is a symptom of, which he can't quite name, is probably not great: a knot in culture that needs to be massaged. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:55)
  • 2025-08-08 · I'm Glad I Ignored That Billionaire — Hank says the Quadragocon video is coming but not next week (week of 11 August 2025): editing it will likely take even longer than doing it. — hedged: “I suspect” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:12)
  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — Hank says the cap would be a big deal for schools relying on grants, might terrify them and chill their independence from the whims of a single man. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:38)
  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — Hank thinks those two reasons might be more like nice side effects for authoritarians. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:13)
  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — Hank says universities are embedded in local economies, so even voters suspicious of elite institutions like Harvard probably still support their local university. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:09:28)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — Hank told his child that a family might be a non-living thing made of living things, or perhaps just an idea in our heads. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:20)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — Hank says languages kind of do evolve through selection: people choose their words and how to say them, preferring familiar structures and sounds and easy words. — hedged: “kind of” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:10)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — Hank says languages might even respond to stimuli, his own main criterion for life: he always says life wants. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:40)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — Hank says languages kind of want: through changing loan words and new inventions they drift toward being optimized for their own use, like an organism drifting to light. — hedged: “kind of” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:04)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — Hank suggests language may be even more fundamental than religion, though he is willing to lose that argument. — hedged: “Maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:38)
  • 2025-08-29 · Does Anyone Else Have This? — Hank guesses, admitting he is talking out of his butt, that his trouble with poetry has to do with the very hard work his brain did early on to understand spoken and written words. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-08-29 · Does Anyone Else Have This? — Hank wonders whether forcing effort is part of the point of poetry, adding that he does not know and that it seems hard for him but not for John. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:58)
  • 2025-08-29 · Does Anyone Else Have This? — Hank says that if there is any truth here, which there probably is not, listening to poetry as an adult might help him understand what language was like for himself at six, seven and eight. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-09-05 · Caffeine is Very… — Hank says all living things do chemistry on adenine, so plants occasionally making caffeine is unsurprising, probably as an accidental byproduct of adenine-related synthesis going wrong. — hedged: “Probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-09-05 · Caffeine is Very… — Hank says caffeine also poisons plants by mimicking adenosine; caffeine-making plants evolve immunity, and the caffeine may give them a further advantage by poisoning the soil for non-immune plants. — hedged: “could” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:55)
  • 2025-09-05 · Caffeine is Very… — Hank says some interesting research suggests the amino acid L-theanine in tea can combine with caffeine to give a calmer effect while keeping you alert, and feels he needs to make a whole video about it. — hedged: “can kind of” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:41)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — The description names the Nature paper, 'Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars', and says it could go down in history as a pretty important moment. — hedged: “could” [epistemic doubt] (video description)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank thinks the recent discovery could be quite a big deal. — hedged: “could” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:00)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank explains that the iron and sulfur sit in a stable high-energy state that normally needs heat to escape, yet inside the spots they seem to have spontaneously dropped to a lower-energy state. — hedged: “seem to have” [epistemic doubt] (00:06:07)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says we could probably tell whether Martian life had its own biochemistry or shared a single origin with Earth life. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:12:31)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says that if Mars once had life and has warm subsurface water, it seems entirely possible that living microbes are still in Mars, which would be so cool. — hedged: “it seems entirely possible” [epistemic doubt] (00:14:37)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says finding life beyond Earth in his lifetime is totally possible, but as a slow tipping of the scales it probably won't be a big news story, though it would be the biggest story ever. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:18:02)
  • 2025-09-26 · I've Not Been Doing Well — Hank says it might be a more significant manifestation of anxiety than he has had before, or his body changing as he ages. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:46)
  • 2025-09-26 · I've Not Been Doing Well — Hank has wondered whether he has a delayed bout of long COVID; many of his symptoms overlap with post-viral syndrome. — hedged: “possibly” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:46)
  • 2025-09-26 · I've Not Been Doing Well — Hank has the idea, just now, of deleting other social media from his phone for the two weeks of Pizzamas. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:07:14)
  • 2025-10-02 · You are Probably Underestimating Jane Goodall’s Impact — Hank suggests Goodall saw past this because early in her career she was outside the scientific establishment, a young woman without a PhD with a notebook and binoculars. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:07:16)
  • 2025-10-08 · Being Alive — Hank says that, much as he has benefited from and loves the place he actually lives (gesturing, not at Montana), he feels he may have mislaid some of the bricks. — hedged: “may” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:46)
  • 2025-10-08 · Being Alive — Hank says there will probably be discounts near the end of Pizzamas, when they find out which products were overordered; future Hank will announce them. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:46)
  • 2025-10-08 · Being Alive — Hank calls the D&D one-shot probably their coolest item and reads its creator's Bluesky post: DFTBA asked for another D&D game, full of nerdfighter jokes but enjoyable without being a superfan. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:16)
  • 2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank feels that the feeling of being disempowered is tied to a feeling of purposelessness; they don't seem related, but he thinks they are. — hedged: “I don't know” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:49)
  • 2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank says he over-focuses on the scariest thoughts, about lacking agency, and forgets that maybe the thoughts themselves stress him: maybe it is the frame rather than the reality. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:49)
  • 2025-10-17 · We Never Know What Anything Means — Hank says AI is going to be economically weird and is probably a bubble. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:50)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank thinks the way our attention now works might bring a functional innovation of books. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:35)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank feels serial publication could easily come back and probably already is in some ways. — hedged: “could easily come back and probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:03)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank thinks there was a way around the objections and with real clout he could have made them do it, but maybe not. — hedged: “But maybe not” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:13)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank says tradition may be hardest to overcome, because books still hold a rarefied space that changing them too much might diminish, one of their biggest assets. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:13)
  • 2025-10-31 · We Did It… — Hank says a third quality, which he calls visibility, might matter more than size and difficulty. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:56)
  • 2025-10-31 · We Did It… — Hank says visibility matters a great deal, perhaps more than the magnitude of the suffering or the ease of the solution. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:55)
  • 2025-11-07 · Filming at Space Center Houston, Hank tells John that the video he made replying to… — Hank says he will probably also make content about the space center visit, but has no time to edit a whole video about it now. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-11-10 · My Cancer Treatment was Not Cutting Edge — Had he gotten sick maybe 20 years earlier, Hank would probably have had about six months of treatment; he had two months of chemo then targeted radiation, cutting his long-term risks. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:53)
  • 2025-11-14 · The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) — Hank says that 15 years after John first called for its destruction, the final US penny has likely been minted. — hedged: “likely” [epistemic doubt] (00:00:07)
  • 2025-11-14 · The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) — Hank suggests that perhaps no one wanted to drop the penny back then because it was still too unpopular, and that it no longer is. — hedged: “perhaps” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:31)
  • 2025-11-28 · Three Things! (Wait, no, actually four...) — Hank has been watching QI for probably decades, though not legally back then. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:12)
  • 2025-12-02 · The Meaning of Life with Hank and John — Asked on Ask Hank Anything who the most interesting person he has met is, Hank decided interesting means easy to pay attention to; the person he has paid most attention to is his wife, who grows more interesting the more he does. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:02:42)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank says he will probably make a Hank's Channel video reviewing how his 2025 bingo card went. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:01:28)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank says 2026 might bring the popping of the AI bubble, taking a substantial part of the economy down with it. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:03:54)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank says that if the bubble pops the government should probably intervene, and the oligarchy side of Trump's coalition will want him to stop a crash. — hedged: “probably” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:23)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank says giving taxpayer money to billionaires who bet the whole economy on technological determinism would be hard to do from a populist base. — hedged: “does seem like” [epistemic doubt] (00:04:23)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank's alternative: the bubble doesn't pop because AI really is worth tens of trillions and successfully eats many jobs, a future that would also make the coalition hard to hold together. — hedged: “maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:22)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank allows that it may all happen gently and the coalition may hold regardless of how ridiculous it seems. — hedged: “who knows, maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:22)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank thinks such loyalty holds only until people start to suffer consequences, and that suffering consequences might now be unavoidable. — hedged: “might” [epistemic doubt] (00:05:51)

Wish / hope (5)

a wish about the future, not a claim about what is true

Opinion marker (12)

marks a view as the speaker's own; not doubt

  • 2025-01-03 · My 2025 Bingo Card — The description says Hank meant to answer fun questions but ended up rethinking his life again, which he thinks will be a big theme for him in 2025. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (video description)
  • 2025-01-24 · Am I OK? — Hank says he finished chemo about 18 months ago and is probably about as recovered as he will get, which is pretty good. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:00:00)
  • 2025-01-31 · Thanks, Shmed — Hank thinks Shmed was quite proud of the silly, stupid things they made together. — hedged: “i think” [opinion marker] (00:01:58)
  • 2025-05-09 · OK, I MESSED UP. — Since the immersion still worked on him as co-writer and proofreader, Hank thinks it will still work despite the error in the second edition. — hedged: “i think” [opinion marker] (00:05:36)
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — The description says only small and medium mystery socks are probably left in the sale, still $40 instead of $90 with the code 'lookatthisgraph'. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (video description)
  • 2025-08-05 · ONE TAKE JOHNNY — Hank says John started the Quadragocon strong and he thinks John will win the chess too, so Hank hopes to do well in the Orin curls, lifting his son. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:15:36)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank says, he thinks, that the longest ancient scroll is about 24 feet long. — hedged: “I think I looked this up” [opinion marker] (00:00:58)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank points out John is doing serial publishing right now with his secret Patreon, which Hank thinks is not currently accepting new members. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:04:03)
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank thinks that if publishing is suffering it may need to break out of the boxes it built for simplicity, efficiency and tradition. — hedged: “I think there's a chance” [opinion marker] (00:05:13)
  • 2025-11-14 · The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) — Hank says that historically, and in Obama's reading, 'necessary' meant however many pennies commercial demand requires, and every Treasury secretary read it that way. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:01:55)
  • 2025-11-28 · Three Things! (Wait, no, actually four...) — Focus Friend has two new rooms (all users should now have the kitchen), a count-up timer and changeable wallpaper colors. — hedged: “I think” [opinion marker] (00:03:53)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank predicts that AI, a big new force one side loves and the other hates, has a good chance of doing a lot of damage to Trump's coalition. — hedged: “I feel like there's a pretty good chance” [opinion marker] (00:03:25)

Other hedge (17)

a hedge that matches none of the word lists

  • 2025-03-28 · Is This a Million Dollar Idea? — Hank says many of these YouTube white-noise videos have around 39 million views. — hedged: “like” [other hedge] (00:00:18)
  • 2025-04-11 · How Actually Crazy is This Mess? — Hank calls 'biggest stock-market gain ever' headlines A-tier crazy: a day is an arbitrary unit and retirement accounts are still about 6% lower than last week (week of 31 March 2025). — hedged: “like” [other hedge] (00:10:39)
  • 2025-04-25 · How We Form Opinions — Hank says the story is much bigger and he is excited to make a long video about it someday. — hedged: “someday” [other hedge] (00:01:27)
  • 2025-05-30 · My Rare 'Disorder' — Hank says some people, likely including him, have a sleep phase starting more than a couple hours after average; this is fairly rare among adults and more common in young people. — hedged: “we think” [other hedge] (00:01:56)
  • 2025-05-30 · My Rare 'Disorder' — Hank says he used to think the problem was with him, then with society, but suggests a third option: the problem just is. — hedged: “But what if” [other hedge] (00:06:40)
  • 2025-06-06 · The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech — Hank guesses it will be really easy to focus on the compelling and, he says, not that complicated problem of building ever more powerful tools, and never notice that the problem space is much bigger. — hedged: “my guess is” [other hedge] (00:14:06)
  • 2025-07-15 · LLAMAS Are NOT What You Think — Hank says baldness happens when the chemical signals telling the body to make hair stop being received, because they are not made or the receptors break down. — hedged: “or something like that” [other hedge] (00:06:22)
  • 2025-07-18 · OK, but What Are The Other 403 Errors? — Hank says error 418 'I am a teapot', a late-1990s joke from a mock coffee-maker protocol, is the only Easter egg he knows built into many HTTP instances; Google still reports it at google.com/teapot. — hedged: “that I know of” [other hedge] (00:04:18)
  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — In a channel comment replying to a struggling adjunct professor, Hank concedes it is possible academia's structure actually is pretty screwed up. — hedged: “it is possible” [other hedge] (creator comment)
  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — Hank thinks there is a pretty tight overlap between authoritarians and powerful narcissists. — hedged: “correct me if I'm wrong” [other hedge] (00:03:40)
  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — Hank says this doesn't mean it will work in the US: America is potentially particularly resistant. — hedged: “potentially” [other hedge] (00:08:52)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says Earth's oldest life evidence is limited by its oldest rocks; Mars could preserve early steps Earth erased and help explain how chemistry became biology. — hedged: “potentially” [other hedge] (00:13:37)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says the scale is starting to tip toward there having once been life on Mars; it could tip back, but to him, after long interest, it feels like it's going one way. — hedged: “i'm not saying that it couldn't tip back the other way” [other hedge] (00:18:43)
  • 2025-09-26 · I've Not Been Doing Well — Hank says the internet, the place where he lives, appears on balance to have been a bad idea, though there are obviously good parts. — hedged: “appears to have been” [other hedge] (00:06:16)
  • 2025-11-14 · The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) — Hank agrees the presidency has grown much more powerful, but says a big reason is that Congress appears to have intentionally given the presidency its power. — hedged: “appears” [other hedge] (00:04:50)
  • 2025-12-12 · The Economics of a YouTube White Noise Video — Hank says orders placed now from Good Store or DFTBA.com will probably, though not guaranteed, arrive by Christmas or the end of Hanukkah. — hedged: “there's still a pretty good chance” [other hedge] (00:04:54)
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank says this only matters if people feel AI in their lives, and it is possible they won't. — hedged: “it is possible” [other hedge] (00:06:20)

Hedge words not recorded (10)

marked as unsure, but the hedge words were not quoted

  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — Hank does not know whether USAID is a good first target for this, since it does not immediately affect many Americans and so has few defenders at home. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:01:46)
  • 2025-04-11 · How Actually Crazy is This Mess? — Hank's only explanation is that Trump values loyalty to himself above loyalty to the country, the Constitution or the rule of law. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (00:14:22)
  • 2025-05-02 · I Found the Dumbest Time Zone — Hank says he is still unclear why Kiribati chose UTC+13 and +14 rather than UTC+12. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:05:31)
  • 2025-06-20 · 'Influencer' Must Die. — Hank admits he has no good word for creators and does not know what to call them; he has started saying 'maker of things', which sounds ridiculous. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:02:32)
  • 2025-07-25 · The Molecule that Changed Everything — Hank says he does not know whether this will become a second apocalypse-level event caused by the same trees, and he does not like not knowing. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:06:40)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — The description adds that languages differ from life in not competing inside an ecosystem, or maybe a language is an ecosystem whose words compete and fall out of use. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (video description)
  • 2025-08-22 · Are Languages Alive? — The description wonders whether words rather than languages are alive, a language being a superorganism of words, but says it's probably best not to worry about it. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (video description)
  • 2025-09-12 · This Might Actually be Happening — Hank says planets swap material through impact ejecta, so life might have moved from Earth to Mars, Mars to Earth, or from elsewhere to both. — speculative (hedge words not recorded) (00:13:00)
  • 2025-11-28 · Three Things! (Wait, no, actually four...) — Hank thinks the show starts around six, West Coast time, but does not know for sure. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:02:52)
  • 2025-12-12 · The Economics of a YouTube White Noise Video — Hank says he doesn't know if this will work, and maybe it won't. — explicitly uncertain (hedge words not recorded) (00:02:55)

Satire (2)

a mock position (e.g. a fake moral panic) — the opposite of what is meant

  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — Hank voices the first, Trump-sympathetic view: the US is so corrupt and broken that the Constitution must be set aside for a while, letting the world's richest man into the Treasury to stop payments at his whim. (00:03:09)
  • 2025-02-07 · What Trump's Doing — Continuing that view, Hank voices removing security professionals for obeying the law and letting the president take the power of the purse from Congress, because he alone can fix this. (00:03:25)

Joke (3)

a gag; not a claim

Hypothetical (1)

a thought experiment or "what if"

  • 2025-08-15 · What Trump is Doing to Universities — In Hank's example, a $100,000 grant with a 50% overhead rate, a high rate, pays out $150,000: the research costs $100,000 and overhead is added on top. (00:01:50)

Playful (135)

a real point made in a joking way; the paraphrase records the meant core

Other voices

130 statements · sincere 94% · playful 5% · other bits 1% · hedged or unsure 2%

Sincere but hedged (3)

Split by hedge type (derived from the quoted hedge words with a fixed word list — see the overview): epistemic doubt 1 · wish / hope 1 · other hedge 1.

Epistemic doubt (1)

real uncertainty about whether it is true

  • 2025-07-29 · Dad and Daughter Play Dress to Impress — Alice Green: Alice says being a fashion designer in real life may be one of her goals; John says the game lets her do that work. — hedged: “maybe maybe” [epistemic doubt] (00:08:25)

Wish / hope (1)

a wish about the future, not a claim about what is true

  • 2025-08-01 · We Stole a Man's Blood — Chris: Chris says donating meant about four hours of mild discomfort that day and a week of medication beforehand, to hopefully extend or possibly save someone's life. — hedged: “hopefully” [wish / hope] (00:00:58)

Other hedge (1)

a hedge that matches none of the word lists

  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — Adam Schiff: Schiff asks about The Fault in Our Stars' title, suggesting it was chosen partly because a person who gets sick is not at fault. — hedged: “My sense is” [other hedge] (00:19:08)

Joke (1)

a gag; not a claim

  • 2025-07-15 · LLAMAS Are NOT What You Think — both: Brainstorming a clickbait title, the brothers riff 'Elon Musk isn't who you think he is' into the video's title about llamas. (00:00:29)

Playful (7)

a real point made in a joking way; the paraphrase records the meant core