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Hank Green, from A to Z

2025-12-09 · list · John · 6:07 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: community lore, self promotion

John runs through an A-to-Z of things Hank has created or co-created, from An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Crabulous and Dear Hank and John to VidCon, We're Here and 2D Glasses, praising hits and teasing abandoned ventures; finding nothing that starts with Z, he says Hank's next project had better.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — John fails to recall Hank's 1990s Mars website and sets up the A to Z of Hank Green

  • ★★ Trying to recall the name of Hank's 1990s Mars website, John scrolled past a completely wrong Google AI response and learned from Wikipedia it was Hank Green's Mars Exploration Page. — 00:00:00 · Google, Wikipedia, Mars
  • ★★ Wondering how many things Hank has created or co-created, John presents the A to Z of Hank Green. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John says An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank's first novel, was an instant number one New York Times bestseller, about an art student who late one night discovers a statue that might be alive. — 00:00:00 · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

00:00:20 — A to H: Hank's novels, Crabulous, Dear Hank and John, Edward Spoonhands, Focus Friend, Good Store, a YouTube channel

  • ★★ John calls A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor the wonderful and thrilling sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. — 00:00:29 · A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
  • ★ John notes B could have been Bizarre Beasts, a Complexly YouTube channel about unusual organisms, and C could be Crash Course or Complexly. — 00:00:29 · Bizarre Beasts, Complexly, Crash Course, YouTube
  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says Dear Hank and John, a weekly podcast, has dispensed advice plus the news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon for over 10 years. — 00:00:58 · Dear Hank and John, Mars, AFC Wimbledon
  • ★ John names Hank's Tumblr, Edward Spoonhands, which keeps the 2008 bit's name; Hank is on Tumblr much less than John. — 00:00:58 · spoon fingers, Tumblr
  • ★★ John says Focus Friend, co-created by Hank, was the Google Play Store's 2025 app of the year; it helps you use other apps less so a little bean in your phone can knit socks. — 00:00:58 · Focus Friend, Google
  • ★★ John says a Hank invention (Good Store, named in a lost passage) has for several years donated millions of dollars a year to charity by selling socks, coffee and other things, like Newman's Own. — 00:01:29 · Good Store
  • ★ John names a wildly popular YouTube channel that Hank somehow updates often because vlogbrothers and other duties don't consume him enough. (playful) — 00:01:29 · Vlogbrothers, YouTube

00:01:56 — I to P: ihatei4.com, Journey to the Microcosmos, Koidu, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, music, Nerdfighteria, Origin of Everything, Pissing Out Cancer

  • ★★ John recalls ihatei4.com, one of Hank's first viral sensations, which brought local news to their house; on it Hank railed against car culture in Central Florida, where I-4 is notoriously terrible. — 00:01:56 · Florida
  • ★★ John says Journey to the Microcosmos was a YouTube show Hank hosted about the vast life of microscopic organisms. — 00:01:56 · Journey to the Microcosmos, YouTube
  • ★★★ John says Hank helped fund the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu's government hospital, which triples the region's maternal beds and gives Sierra Leone its first ever NICU. — 00:02:26 · Koidu Government Hospital, Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John says The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a YouTube-based Pride and Prejudice adaptation that became wildly popular about 13 or 14 years ago, won Hank his Emmy. — 00:02:26 · YouTube
  • ★★ John says The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was deeply enjoyable and deserved its Emmy. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John says Hank, with his band the Perfect Strangers, is a Billboard-charting artist who has released three albums of what might be called nerd rock. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John says Hank's three albums are all phenomenal. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John describes Nerdfighteria as the made-of-awesome community that grew up around this YouTube channel. — 00:02:55 · Nerdfighteria, made of awesome, Vlogbrothers, YouTube
  • ★★ John says Origin of Everything is a PBS show Hank helped produce. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John calls Pissing Out Cancer Hank's hit stand-up comedy special, which debuted on Dropout.TV. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John tells Hank that his becoming a stand-up comedian after chemotherapy is both the least likely and the most Hank thing he can imagine. — 00:02:55 · chemotherapy

00:03:24 — Q to V: QI, Read It First, Study Hall, Subbable, Titansgrave, URLatron, VidCon

  • ★★ John says QI is Hank's favorite TV show, which he recently found a way to be a guest on. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ John calls Read It First one of Hank's many abandoned projects: a newsletter about new book-based movies so you could commit to read it first, meant to fund itself through affiliate sales, which never worked. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ John jokes that most of Hank's million dollar ideas are in fact single digit dollar ideas. (playful) — 00:03:53 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John shouts out Study Hall, the YouTube-videos-to-college-credit path Hank helped build with Complexly and Arizona State University. — 00:03:53 · Study Hall, Complexly, YouTube
  • ★★ John says Subbable was a crowdfunding platform launched about the same time as Patreon and so similar to it that Patreon ended up acquiring it. — 00:03:53 · Subbable
  • ★★ John says Titansgrave was a wildly popular RPG show hosted by Wil Wheaton and co-starring Hank. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ John calls URLatron one of Hank's less successful ventures, like Linktree before anyone needed one: not a bad idea, just ahead of its time. — 00:04:22 · URLatron
  • ★★ John says VidCon, a more successful venture, grew from a hotel basement into one of the largest US conferences; it still exists, but the brothers have not owned it since before the pandemic. — 00:04:22 · VidCon, United States, COVID-19 pandemic

00:04:52 — W to Z: We're Here, X, YouTube shows, 2D Glasses, no Z yet, and the sign-off

  • ★★ John says We're Here, the Nerdfighteria newsletter Hank helped found a couple of years ago, is something he loves getting weekly; it reminds him of old-school Nerdfighteria. — 00:04:52 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:04:52 · Twitter, the social order
  • ★★ For Y, YouTube, John says he hasn't mentioned half the shows Hank helped produce, such as PBS Eons, Animal Wonders, Brain Scoop and Mental Floss. — 00:05:21 · YouTube, Eons, Animal Wonders, The Brain Scoop
  • ★★ 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. (playful, hedged) — 00:05:21
  • ★★ John says Hank even has numbers covered with 2D Glasses, which render 3D movies in two dimensions and which he invented fifteen years ago. — 00:05:21
  • ★★ John tells Hank his next project had better start with a Z, and predicts that, knowing Hank, it will, and soon. (playful) — 00:05:50 · Hank Green

Humor (significant)

  • Passing over Crash Course and Complexly, John picks C for Hank's greatest cultural contribution. — 00:00:29

    “let's make it for Hank's most profound contribution to our culture, Crabulous.”

  • John notes Hank is not on Tumblr nearly as much as John is. — 00:00:58

    “Then again, no healthy person is.”

  • Read It First was supposed to fund itself through affiliate sales, but never did. — 00:03:53

    “because most of Hank Green's million dollar ideas are in fact single digit dollar ideas.”

  • Hank still posts and visits X, the site he has used since 2008. — 00:04:52

    “even though he knows it is bad for him personally and also for the social order.”

  • After covering every letter, John reaches Z. — 00:05:21

    “as far as I can tell you have never created something that started with a Z.”

  • Having found no Z project, John gives Hank an assignment. — 00:05:50

    “In short, Hank, your next project better start with a dang Z.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Wil Wheaton

Projects: Animal Wonders · Bizarre Beasts · Complexly · Crabulous · Crash Course · Dear Hank and John · Eons · Good Store · Hank Green's Mars Exploration Page · IHateI4.com · Journey to the Microcosmos · Origin of Everything · Project for Awesome · ReadIt1st · Study Hall · Subbable · The Brain Scoop · URLatron · VidCon · We're Here newsletter

Works: 2D Glasses · A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing · Edward Spoonhands · Focus Friend · Hank Green's stand-up comedy special on Dropout · Pride and Prejudice · QI · The Lizzie Bennet Diaries · The New York Times Best Seller list · Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana · Zootopia

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · Arizona State University · Billboard · Dropout · Emmy Award · Google · Koidu Government Hospital · Linktree · Maternal Center of Excellence · Mental Floss · Newman's Own · Patreon · PBS · Tumblr · Twitter · Wikipedia · YouTube

Groups: Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers

Terms: made of awesome · the social order

Concepts: chemotherapy · neonatal intensive care unit · stand-up comedy

Places: Florida · Interstate 4 · Mars · Sierra Leone · United States

Events: COVID-19 pandemic

Products: Google Play

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