Skip to content

John Green's Brother

2025-12-16 · letter vlog · John · 5:06 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Books & writing, Philosophy & meaning, Projects) · mode: Personal update · tags: timely hook, self promotion, heavy topic, community lore

In a six-part video, John jokes that the Financial Times called Hank his brother while in real life he is recognised as Hank Green's brother, reflects on PEN America naming Looking for Alaska the most banned book in the US, praises Hank's Zonderia, and closes a long, hard year of tuberculosis travel and personal loss by announcing a break and borrowing Kurt Vonnegut's call to fight loneliness and isolation together.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Part one: the Financial Times sub-headline calls Hank John's brother, while John is often recognised as Hank Green's brother

  • ★ John says today's video, like the 2023 television adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations, comes in six parts. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:00:00 · The Fault in Our Stars, Hank Green
  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Sarah Urist Green, The Art Assignment, Hank Green
  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Hank Green

00:00:58 — Part two: PEN America names Looking for Alaska the most banned book in the US; thanks to librarians and teachers

  • ★★★ John reports that PEN America announced Looking for Alaska, his quiet young adult novel about grief, is the most banned book in the US over the last four years. — 00:00:58 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★ John finds this weird because he wrote the book, or at least some past version of him did. — 00:00:58 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ John says the coordinated effort to ban Looking for Alaska and hundreds of other books has never been more intense. — 00:00:58 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ John finds it very strange that many people assume him to be a pornographer when he thought he was writing a novel about radical hope and how we live with guilt. — 00:01:27 · hope, Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★★ Though honoured to share a list with Beloved, The Color Purple and The Handmaid's Tale, John wishes people would let librarians and teachers do the jobs they trained to do. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Part three: you are a mammal maintaining homeostasis, so give yourself a little slack

  • ★★ John is most grateful to the librarians and teachers on the front lines of the battle for intellectual freedom who still share Looking for Alaska and other books despite challenges. — 00:01:56 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ John tells Hank and viewers they are organisms of 30 trillion cells trying to maintain homeostasis, which is not easy. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Part four: congratulations on Zonderia and praise for its nine-hour air-handler video

  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John congratulates Hank on launching Zonderia, his ridiculous and beautiful channel that uses white noise to make money for charity, and says he uses it to sleep and focus. — 00:02:26 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John recommends Nine Hours of the Low Hum of an Industrial Air Handler: unlike YouTube clickbait it delivers exactly what its title promises, and it is another Hank project that improves his life. — 00:02:55 · YouTube

00:03:24 — Parts five and six: the weather, the end of a long hard year, a holiday break and Vonnegut's message

  • ★★ 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. (playful) — 00:03:24 · social media
  • ★★★ John says he travelled over 130 days this year (2025) spreading the message that the world's deadliest infectious disease is curable and preventable: thrilling, terrifying and exhausting. — 00:03:53 · tuberculosis · also in: Tuberculosis and Hank's Shingles
  • ★★★ John says it has also been a long, hard year personally for him and many people close to him, dealing with unexpected loss and existential weariness. — 00:03:53
  • ★★★ John says the work continues because it has to: easing suffering among those we love, making a safer and more just world, and figuring out how to live with each other. — 00:04:18
  • ★★ John is grateful for however long he gets to do that work, even when it is hard and he is discouraged, which he confesses he currently is. — 00:04:18
  • ★★★ John is taking a couple of weeks off from Vlogbrothers for family time at the end of the year, so this is his last video of 2025. — 00:04:18 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ John's message for his longest year, borrowed from Indianapolis's Kurt Vonnegut: we must find ways together to fight the terrible diseases of loneliness and isolation; he thanks Hank for helping. — 00:04:47 · Indianapolis, Hank Green

Humor (significant)

  • The Financial Times sub-headline credits the Fault in Our Stars author and his brother. — 00:00:00

    “you are still John Green's brother, at least according to the Financial Times, Hank”

  • John says whatever Hank achieves, headlines will always frame him as John's brother. — 00:00:29

    “the Fault in Our Stars author John Green's younger brother wins Nobel Peace Prize”

  • After strangers recognise him as Hank, John concludes about Sarah. — 00:00:58

    “So yes, Sarah Green is married to the brother.”

  • Book banners assume John a pornographer, though his novel was about radical hope and living with guilt. — 00:01:27

    “which are important themes but not like notoriously hot ones”

  • John praises a nine-hour air-handler video for living up to its title. — 00:02:55

    “Just when you think it's gonna end after six hours, it doesn't.”

  • Part five, a check on the weather outside. — 00:03:24

    “well it's pretty but miserable like me in my 20s”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: book censorship · loneliness · Looking for Alaska (novel) · mammal · Nine Hours of the Low Hum of an Industrial Air Handler · Zonderia

Also: People: Charles Dickens · Kurt Vonnegut · Sarah Urist Green

Projects: The Art Assignment

Works: Beloved · Great Expectations · The Color Purple · The Fault in Our Stars · The Handmaid's Tale

Organizations: Financial Times · Nobel Peace Prize · PEN America · YouTube

Concepts: clickbait · consciousness · guilt · homeostasis · hope · social isolation · social media · tuberculosis · white noise

Places: Indianapolis · Philadelphia

Also centred on book censorship: Brotherhood 2.0: May 2: Book Banning · I Am Not A Pornographer · On the Banning of Looking for Alaska · My Religion and My Banned Books · About THAT Scene in Looking for Alaska

Also centred on loneliness: Catcher in the Rye, Part 1 · Cheez Doodles Guy, Ringo Silver, and Dad Jokes (Pizzamas Day 4) · On Loneliness

Also centred on Zonderia: The Economics of a YouTube White Noise Video

Later videos replying to this one