Crash Course: launch of the brothers' educational channel (2011)
project history · status: running · last event: milestone (2026-05-26)
Announced in November 2011, Crash Course is the brothers' educational channel, which began in early 2012 with John teaching world history and Hank biology. It grew past two million subscribers by 2014, and both brothers later credited John with the idea.
Parts: Crash Course Chemistry: launch of the Crash Course chemistry series (2013) · Crash Course US History: production of the series (2013) · Crash Course Psychology: Hank's next Crash Course series (2014) · Crash Course curriculum materials (2014) · Crash Course partnership with PBS Digital Studios and its four new courses for 2015 (2014) · Crash Course Astronomy: launch of the series hosted by Phil Plait (2015) · Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology: launch of the series (2015) · Crash Course Intellectual Property: introduction to IP and copyright law (2015) · Crash Course Kids: launch of the educational channel for kids (2015) · John asks viewers who value and can afford it to support Crash Course and SciShow on Patreon (2015) · Crash Course Philosophy: production of the new series (2015) · Crash Course Literature: another mini-series planned for summer 2016 · Crash Course 2017 expansion to five or six videos a week, funded by Patreon (2016) · Crash Course translation into multiple languages (2016) · Crash Course Business: Soft Skills (2019) · Study Hall: Crash Course and Arizona State University's free learning-playlist series (2020) · Crash Course coin: collectible coins sold to fund Crash Course (2021) · Crash Course in Spanish: Spanish-language Crash Course made from scratch, starting with chemistry (2023) · Crash Course Lectures: launch of the long-form lecture series, starting with John's lecture on tuberculosis (2024) · Crash Course Pods: The Universe: John and Katie Mack's podcast about the universe (2024) · Crash Course Religions: Crash Course series on world religions (2024) · Hank (for Crash Course): Crash Course videos will always be free for everyone (2025)
Told alongside: SciShow: launch of Hank's science channel (2011) · Crash Course and Complexly begin from John's 2010 Gchat proposal and $10,000 of Hank's money (2010) · John asks viewers to subscribe to Crash Course and SciShow (2011) · Hank asks viewers to buy a Crash Course coin to fund Crash Course (2021) · Dear Hank and John: the brothers' advice podcast (2015) · Hank asks viewers to subscribe to vlogbrothers, SciShow, Crash Course, HankGames and Truth or Fail (2012)
About: Crash Course, Indianapolis
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-11-07 | announced | John announces Crash Course, filmed partly in this Indianapolis studio: from late January 2012, 40 weeks with John teaching world history and Hank biology, then other courses. | IS THIS HEAVEN? 00:01:19 |
| 2011-12-14 | announced | John teases that Hank will soon find out about Socrates in episode 3 of Crash Course. (playful) | Greek Phallic Disco Golf Balls: A Free Association Game 00:02:43 |
| 2012-01-02 | announced | John announces the brothers will teach biology and world history on their channel Crash Course in 2012. | Changes to Vlogbrothers 00:01:37 |
| 2012-01-06 | announced | Hank says Crash Course will launch January 25. | Kill your TV 00:03:06 |
| 2012-02-07 | launched | John presents Crash Course as the brothers' 'new show', now teaching viewers, and plays a preview. | 10 Misconceptions Debunked! 00:03:08 |
| 2012-09-14 | milestone | Hank says the brothers' educational channels both have more than 200,000 subscribers. | 1000 VIDEOS!!! 00:02:11 |
| 2014-08-22 | milestone | Hank reports Crash Course just hit two million subscribers. | Kidneys, LlamaJohn, Frankenstein, Back to School, and The Nerdfighter Online Video Workshop! 00:01:07 |
| 2014-11-07 | looked back | Hank looks back on almost three years of Crash Course, now used by many teachers and students and kept free, with a montage of clips. | New Crash Course and Pizzamas! 00:00:23 |
| 2015-01-16 | milestone | Hank says Crash Course, the brothers' educational YouTube channel, is starting to cover topics more off the beaten path for that reason. | Is School Broken? (Also...ANNOUNCEMENTS OF IMPORT) 00:02:22 |
| 2016-09-06 | milestone | John says four Crash Course videos have gone up each week in 2016, currently on literature, the history of games, physics and philosophy. | How We're Spending Your Money: The Bank of Nerdfighteria's Quarterly Report 00:01:28 |
| 2016-10-07 | looked back | Hank recalls that the brothers' videos on the French Revolution and the circulatory system led to Crash Course. | Changing Our Business a Bit 00:00:47 |
| 2018-11-09 | looked back | Hank replied asking whether it had to be a university, which is what they then called Crash Course. (playful) | I Don't Know What Work Is 00:02:26 |
| 2020-04-03 | looked back | Hank recalls launching SciShow and Crash Course in 2011; both are now way bigger than Vlogbrothers, with over a billion views each. | 11 Little Tips for Better Video Chat (For Teachers...and Everybody Else) 00:00:00 |
| 2021-06-15 | milestone | Hank says Crash Course reaches about 70 million students a year, and they want to keep being able to do that. | VLOGBROTHERS REUNITED!!!! 00:02:27 |
| 2021-06-25 | looked back | Hank replied that it was a great idea, John said he would do it, and that, Hank says, is how Crash Course was born. · also in: We Just Sold Our Company for $0 | The Surprising Origin of Crash Course 00:00:29 |
| 2021-08-06 | looked back | Crash Course is by any measure a bigger deal than Vlogbrothers, but not to Hank: Vlogbrothers is the core of what they do, and without it Crash Course would not exist. | Remembering What's Special 00:01:56 |
| 2022-03-25 | milestone | Hank announces a new Crash Course course, Crash Course How to College, covering the options a person in the US faces about their future, from financial aid to admissions to majors and careers. | US College Students Need Help 00:01:56 |
| 2022-05-31 | milestone | John says that in 2021 alone Crash Course helped tens of millions of people learn, about everything from organic chemistry to Black American history. | A Casting Announcement 00:02:38 |
| 2022-06-10 | looked back | Hank says that when they started Crash Course he hoped it would help students learn but could not have predicted that it would succeed, or why; now he understands why. | My Embarrassing Dermatology Story 00:00:29 |
| 2023-05-30 | looked back | John says he did come up with the idea for Crash Course: he loved making educational videos on Vlogbrothers but wanted to do it bigger and better, and knew they couldn't do it alone. | How Does He Do It? 00:00:29 |
| 2025-05-23 | looked back | Hank reminds everyone that Crash Course was John's idea, and congratulates him. | I Can’t Believe How Few People it Takes. 00:06:14 |
| 2025-09-16 | looked back | John says the channel had about 9,000 subscribers after its first year and about 640,000 when Crash Course launched in early 2012 with The Fault in Our Stars, and only reached a million in March 2013. | After seven long years… 00:01:27 |
| 2026-05-26 | milestone | John says Crash Course got 154 million views last year (2025) and is used in thousands of schools around the world, making education more accessible. | Hank Green Is a Fool 00:05:50 |
What is said about it
22 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2011-11-07 · IS THIS HEAVEN? — announcement: John says the studio he is in is where the Indianapolis episodes of the brothers' new channel, Crash Course, will be filmed. — 00:00:34
- 2011-11-07 · IS THIS HEAVEN? — John says the brothers have long dreamt of an educational YouTube channel that is both genuinely informational and genuinely entertaining, and now have the opportunity. — 00:00:34
- 2011-11-07 · IS THIS HEAVEN? — announcement: John says that afterwards they will teach other courses, such as literature, chemistry or physics, whatever Nerdfighteria wants. — 00:01:19
- 2012-01-06 · Kill your TV — announcement: Hank says he and John offer at least six YouTube videos a week across vlogbrothers, SciShow and Crash Course (launching January 25), more than doubled with HankGames and Truth or Fail. — 00:03:06
- 2012-02-07 · 10 Misconceptions Debunked! — announcement: John plugs the brothers' new show Crash Course, which teaches 'stuff', and plays a preview. — 00:03:08
- 2012-09-14 · 1000 VIDEOS!!! — Hank says they started educational channels that both have more than 200,000 subscribers, plus a record label, a web series and a conference. — 00:02:11
- 2014-08-22 · Kidneys, LlamaJohn, Frankenstein, Back to School, and The Nerdfighter Online Video Workshop! — announcement: Hank: SciShow is about to reach two million subscribers, Crash Course just reached two million, and SciShow Space is about to reach 200,000; Hank thanks viewers. — 00:01:07
- 2014-11-07 · New Crash Course and Pizzamas! — Hank recalls that almost three years ago he and John set out to do something hard; Crash Course became a thing used by many teachers and students, and it has been kept free. — 00:00:02
- 2016-10-07 · Changing Our Business a Bit — Hank says a video with someone he met at a tiny Missoula research museum led to The Brain Scoop, and their French Revolution and circulatory-system videos led to Crash Course. — 00:00:42
- 2022-03-25 · US College Students Need Help — Hank says they understood none of this when starting Crash Course; over the last couple of years he, John and many at Complexly had a crash course in how US higher education works. — 00:01:56
- 2022-05-31 · A Casting Announcement — John says almost everyone who recognises him on errands knows him as the Crash Course Guy, his favourite nickname, even more than 19, because he is proud of the people who make Crash Course. — 00:02:38
- 2022-06-10 · My Embarrassing Dermatology Story — Hank says starting Crash Course as YouTubers mattered: on YouTube you compete by grabbing and holding attention, and by doing it inexpensively. — 00:00:58
- 2022-06-10 · My Embarrassing Dermatology Story — Hank says holding attention with educational content means making it really good, and doing it cheaply means cutting everything else; that produced Crash Course's focus on lowering barriers to education. — 00:00:58
- 2022-06-10 · My Embarrassing Dermatology Story — Hank says Crash Course lowers the learning barrier by being as good as it can: finding stories, giving context that matters to students, and emulating styles they already like. — 00:01:56
- 2022-06-10 · My Embarrassing Dermatology Story — Hank says Crash Course tackles the access barrier by being free and available to anyone with an internet connection and good English. — 00:01:56
- 2022-06-10 · My Embarrassing Dermatology Story — announcement: Hank adds that Crash Course has made a course in Arabic and is working on a biology course in Spanish. — 00:01:56
- 2026-02-04 · We Just Sold Our Company for $0 — Hank says his earlier tellings made it sound like John had an idea for a video, but John was clearly proposing a big idea: they discussed finding time, taking investment and dropping VidCon. — 00:00:38
- 2026-02-04 · We Just Sold Our Company for $0 — Hank offered the $20,000 he had just made in affiliate marketing; John took $10,000, which funded the initial test episodes of Crash Course and became the seed of Complexly. — 00:01:17
- 2026-02-04 · We Just Sold Our Company for $0 — Hank says Crash Course is an educational video resource used in nearly every high school in America. — 00:01:40
- 2026-05-26 · Hank Green Is a Fool — John is proud of the impact of Crash Course and Complexly, especially now that the only priority is serving the public well with reliable information. — 00:04:40
- 2026-05-26 · Hank Green Is a Fool — announcement: John says he did actually leave Crash Course and Complexly: he will still appear in videos sometimes and contribute however he can, but did not join the board. — 00:04:52
- 2026-05-26 · Hank Green Is a Fool — John says he is not very good at the job, since he can't read a spreadsheet, so he will help Crash Course by writing and hosting rather than running it. (playful) — 00:05:21