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BRING IT IN 2018

2018-01-02 · announcement · John · 3:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: History & curiosities, Books & writing, Everyday life) · mode: Announcements · tags: self promotion

Saying that promises others have heard are more likely kept, John announces his 2018 goals: at least four Cooking History episodes with Sarah, at least ten episodes of his new podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed (with an excerpt on Dr Pepper), and perhaps a podcast about a forgotten book such as Tom Grogan; he asks for feedback and for viewers' own goals.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Happy 2018: John will name three things he wants to bring into the world, since public promises are more likely kept

  • ★★ John says that if you promise to do something and people have heard that promise, you are more likely to actually do it. — 00:00:13

00:00:18 — Cooking History with Sarah, modelled on The Art Assignment's Art Cooking; asks for recipe ideas

  • ★★★ John wants to collaborate with his wife Sarah in 2018 on at least four episodes of a new YouTube series, Cooking History, uploaded at least initially on the Vlogbrothers channel. — 00:00:18 · Sarah Urist Green, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ John praises Art Cooking, a series on Sarah's PBS Digital channel The Art Assignment (e.g. Salvador Dali's crawfish tower), for teaching food and cooking together with art. — 00:00:27 · Sarah Urist Green, The Art Assignment
  • ★★ Cooking History will attempt recipes from periods of history, such as French bread before the bread riots that presaged the French Revolution and 3,700-year-old porridge, while learning how food shaped history. — 00:00:46
  • ★★ John asks viewers to leave other ideas for Cooking History in the comments. — 00:01:00

00:01:05 — The Anthropocene Reviewed podcast: ten episodes, born as a joke with Hank; first episode on Canada geese and Diet Dr Pepper

00:01:23 — Excerpt: Foots Clements, Dr Pepper's untellable taste, and pepper sodas named for how they make you feel

  • ★★ In the excerpt, Woodrow Wilson 'Foots' Clements, nicknamed for his oddly shaped toes, took Dr Pepper from a regional brand to a global juggernaut by understanding what made it significant. — 00:01:24
  • ★★ Woodrow Wilson Clements (quoted): Clements maintained that you cannot tell anyone what Dr Pepper tastes like because it is so different: not apple, orange, strawberry, root beer or even cola. — 00:01:41
  • ★★ The excerpt says that, unlike cola or Sprite, Dr Pepper has no real-world flavour analogue. — 00:02:01
  • ★★ US trademark courts categorize Dr Pepper and its knockoffs as pepper sodas, although they contain no pepper. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ The 'pepper' in Dr Pepper refers not to the spice but either to someone's name or to pep, making it the only soda category named for how it makes you feel. — 00:02:12

00:02:27 — First episode due by end of January; a possible podcast on a forgotten book such as Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith

  • ★★ The first episode of The Anthropocene Reviewed should be up by the end of January. (hedged) — 00:02:29 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★ John would like to do another podcast, about an old book nobody reads anymore; the idea is not yet well formed and may launch late in 2018 or not at all. (hedged) — 00:02:33
  • ★★ The book John has in mind for now is Tom Grogan by Francis Hopkinson Smith. (hedged) — 00:02:44
  • ★ Tom Grogan is about an Irish-American woman who takes the name Tom Grogan from her maybe-dead husband and becomes a successful dock worker. — 00:02:49
  • ★★ Tom Grogan was the best-selling novel in the US in 1896 and its author was wildly famous, but it has been out of print for decades and is almost forgotten. — 00:02:56 · United States
  • ★★ Francis Hopkinson Smith also designed and built the base of the Statue of Liberty. — 00:03:07
  • ★★ John wants a forgotten book from a deeply polarized time in American history that might be relevant to us now. (hedged) — 00:03:14

00:03:22 — Goals and accountability: asks for feedback and for viewers' own goals; sign-off

  • ★★ John finds it nerve-wracking to talk about goals not yet accomplished, but thinks it can increase accountability. (hedged) — 00:03:27
  • ★★ John asks viewers for feedback on any of his ideas, since there is still time to change all of them. — 00:03:32
  • ★★ John invites viewers to leave a goal of their own in the comments, so they can return in 12 months and say they did it. (hedged) — 00:03:37
  • ★ John is going back to writing about the astonishing history of Diet Dr Pepper. — 00:03:46

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Cooking History · Diet Dr Pepper · Dr Pepper · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast) · Tom Grogan

Also: People: Francis Hopkinson Smith · Salvador Dalí · Sarah Urist Green · Woodrow Wilson Clements

Projects: The Art Assignment

Organizations: PBS Digital Studios

Concepts: Anthropocene · Canada goose · political polarization · trademark

Places: Statue of Liberty

Events: French Revolution

Products: Sprite

Also centred on Dr Pepper: What's This Video About? · Dr Pepper Enthusiast John Green Taste Tests Dr Pepper and Its Misbegotten Pretenders

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