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Project for Awesome 2026 part 4!

2026-02-14 · other · John, Hank, Sarah Urist Green, Alice Green, Vicky Reed, Charlotte McDonnell, Orin Green, Destin Sandlin · 7 h 20 min · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Nerdfighteria, Art & visual culture, Science & nature, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Announcements · tags: calendar ritual, fundraising ask, civic or action cta, self promotion, community lore, guest or collab

In the fourth part of the 2026 Project for Awesome livestream, on the evening of February 14, John announces that the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone has delivered its first baby, lets Alice and Sarah write donors' initials on his face and watches Charlotte McDonnell eat a poll-built British sandwich; Hank takes over, does a Roll for Loca with Orin and talks with Destin Sandlin about astronauts, goals and who controls our minds online.

What is said

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

00:03:06 — The first baby born at the Maternal Center of Excellence; from a bed-sheet presentation in 2019 to Sierra Leone's first NICU

  • ★★ John recalls that in 2019 he and Sarah went to Sierra Leone, where at the time one in 17 women were dying in pregnancy and childbirth. — 00:03:06 · Sarah Urist Green, Sierra Leone, maternal death
  • ★★ In 2019 Partners In Health told John that $25 million was needed even to break ground on the maternal hospital in Sierra Leone, and he almost had a panic attack. — 00:03:54 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ John says that in the end Nerdfighteria raised $32 million of the $50 million needed to get the Maternal Center of Excellence off the ground. — 00:04:18 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John announces that a couple of hours earlier the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital in Kono District, Sierra Leone, delivered its first baby. — 00:04:18 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Koidu Government Hospital, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John says the Maternal Center of Excellence offers safe emergency C-sections, potentially for 5,000 births a year, and has the first neonatal intensive care unit in Sierra Leone's history. (hedged) — 00:05:41 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John calls the first birth at the Maternal Center of Excellence a testament to what people can do when they work together and take a long-term focus on a long-term problem. — 00:05:41 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★★ John says nobody deserves to die in childbirth, and cutting maternal mortality also makes children likelier to go to school and be healthy, raising the health of a whole community. — 00:06:26 · maternal death
  • ★★ Thanking donors, John says Nerdfighteria is not the hero of the Maternal Center of Excellence: the heroes are the Ministry of Health staff and the builders, mostly women, many of whom will give birth there. — 00:06:55 · Nerdfighteria, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John says the Maternal Center of Excellence will also be a teaching hospital training the next generation of Sierra Leonean physicians. — 00:07:36 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John finds it metaphorically resonant that the first birth came during the Project for Awesome, since the hospital would not exist without the P4A and the community pushing the brothers toward charity. — 00:07:36 · Project for Awesome, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John recalls that when he was ill in March 2007, about 270 viewers sent pictures with stuff on their heads to cheer him up, the first moment he and Hank thought of doing more with the community. — 00:08:24

00:09:27 — Alice's collage portraits and naming rights, books from John's library, $2.7 million

  • ★★ John says the 2026 Project for Awesome is just ahead of 2024 and just behind 2025 but has more matching funds, and he is confident it can catch up with 2025 if donations keep their pace. — 00:09:27 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says a $100 donation to the 2026 Project for Awesome buys the right to name one of the collage faces made by Alice and Sarah. — 00:10:33 · Alice Green, Sarah Urist Green, Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John says the money raised at the Project for Awesome over the years is now close to $30 million. — 00:12:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Every year John takes ten books from his own library, signs them and donates them as Project for Awesome perks. — 00:13:36 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says the 2026 Project for Awesome has just passed $2.7 million, $300,000 short of $3 million, and every dollar donated now counts as two. — 00:15:58 · Project for Awesome

00:16:27 — Skiing, pacifist Fortnite, the Galápagos episode of The Anthropocene Reviewed, donors

  • ★★ Playing Fortnite as a pacifist, John hides in bushes; he and Stan once finished second on the high ground, and he tried to tell other players they should not let Epic Games make them commit violence. (playful) — 00:18:15
  • ★★ John says his exclusive new episode of The Anthropocene Reviewed is about the Galápagos Islands and Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galápagos. — 00:18:41 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★★ John says the Galápagos episode tries to articulate his belief that humanity can be good news: it is miraculous how much we understand about the world, and much would be lost if we ceased to exist. — 00:19:10

00:22:07 — Zombicorns; a London AFC Wimbledon trip vetoed by Alice; Indy Ignite and the Indy 500

  • ★★ John says his zombie apocalypse novella Zombicorns is about corn monoculture and the love between sisters, the only story he has written in which anyone has a sibling. — 00:22:40
  • ★★ John, who must go to New York on Friday (20 February 2026) on Complexly business, floats flying on to London to see an AFC Wimbledon game with Nerdfighters as a perk. — 00:26:17 · Complexly, AFC Wimbledon, London, New York City

00:29:01 — The art in the room: Byron Kim, Miyoko Ito, Lindsey Lord, Jarid Del Deo; the last pressed pennies; the artificial intelligence portraits

  • ★ John shows Byron Kim's Sunday paintings: every Sunday the artist paints the sky wherever he is and writes a diary entry on the painting. — 00:29:01
  • ★★ John says 2026 is probably the last year of the Project for Awesome's pressed pennies, a perk since the fundraiser began, because pennies are no longer made. (hedged) — 00:32:30 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John is relieved that a painter spells his name Jarid, because the Jared of Project for Awesome lore is very problematic and has gotten into AI big time. (playful) — 00:34:34 · Project for Awesome

00:37:34 — Sharpie Face: Alice and Sarah write donors' initials on John's face

  • ★★★ John lets Alice write on his face with a Sharpie the initials of donors giving over $100 in the last 14 minutes of the hour; Alice and Sarah cover his face with names. — 00:37:56 · Alice Green, Sharpie, Sarah Urist Green

00:47:23 — $2.757 million, voting, and the Queer Liberation Library featured video

  • ★★ John tells viewers who cannot donate that they are still essential to the Project for Awesome through their votes at projectforawesome.com, which decide where the money goes. — 00:47:51 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ John introduces a featured video for the Queer Liberation Library, which connects LGBTQ+ people with literature and gives online access to queer and trans ebooks and audiobooks across the US. — 00:48:20

00:53:13 — A face full of names, a dad sneeze, nearly $30 million, and what the first birth means

  • ★★ John calls the 19th Project for Awesome a really special one because the Maternal Center of Excellence delivered its first baby that day. — 00:55:02 · Project for Awesome, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★ John asks viewers to donate at projectforawesome.com/donate. — 00:56:28 · Project for Awesome · first in: 2026-02-14, Project for Awesome 2026 part 3!
  • ★ John wonders why people use negative words like sick, stupid and ridiculous for good things, and would love a linguist's view. (unsure) — 00:58:53
  • ★★ When John got the message from Peyton (as heard) that the first baby had been delivered by emergency C-section, with the mother safe and the baby in the NICU, he burst into tears. — 00:58:53 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★★ John says thousands of people had to come together to make the Maternal Center of Excellence happen, as is usually the case with things that truly transform a community. — 00:59:33 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John made an Instagram video about the first birth at the Maternal Center of Excellence and says he may make a Vlogbrothers video about it. (hedged) — 01:00:24 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Instagram
  • ★★★ John says the first birth is a reminder of what is possible when everything feels impossible, and that there is reason for hope even though so much is going in the wrong direction. — 01:00:24
  • ★★ John recalls looking at his newborn son and thinking he was zero days old; now a brand-new baby in Kono is getting the care it deserves. — 01:01:22

01:02:14 — Charlotte McDonnell's most British sandwich: crumpets and HP sauce; signatures; Valentine's Day and love languages

  • ★★ John says that maybe once in every thousand or two thousand signatures he looks down and finds he has not written his name but some other mark. (hedged) — 01:08:27
  • ★★ For Valentine's Day 2026 Sarah wrote John a love letter, which he calls the nicest thing anyone can do for him, and he got her a phone. — 01:13:32 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John says Sarah's love language is acts of service and his is words of affirmation; they have been together for 22 years. — 01:13:57 · Sarah Urist Green

01:17:01 — Crisps and sweeties polls; influencers and vloggers; Charlotte's parody album, Henry VIII and the Episcopal Church

  • ★★ John, an Episcopalian, finds it clarifying to belong to a church founded so that Henry VIII, a very powerful, wealthy man, could get a divorce and steal all the monasteries. — 01:29:26
  • ★★ John says how much we love something must be separated from its quality: people love Vlogbrothers videos not for the four minutes themselves but for something else, and he is grateful. — 01:31:14

01:34:09 — The early P4A and Alan Lastufka; the internet runs on division; mushy peas; Charlotte eats the sandwich

  • ★★ John recalls that in 2007 and 2008 the early Project for Awesome raised no money but hijacked the YouTube algorithm to make it about charity for a day. — 01:34:09 · Project for Awesome, YouTube
  • ★★★ John says the Project for Awesome slowly became a fundraiser and a way to draw attention to charities and get people excited about what we can accomplish together as a species. — 01:34:38 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John thanks Alan Lastufka and the others who started the Project for Awesome in 2007, and marvels at what Nerdfighteria has accomplished over 20 years. — 01:34:38 · Alan Lastufka, Nerdfighteria, Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Over a divisive poll between mushy peas and baked beans, John jokes that splitting people into camps is just what the Project for Awesome looks for, because the internet runs on division. — 01:36:19 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says Charlotte McDonnell's sandwich polls raised $5,000. — 01:43:39

01:44:26 — The Women's Foundation of Minnesota featured video

01:50:54 — Handover: the Maternal Center of Excellence, Orin's balloon gives Roll for Drink, John leaves to wash his face

  • ★★ Hank: After John dates the Maternal Center of Excellence idea to February 2019, Hank says change is slow: things do not just happen and you cannot just pull levers, but it is glorious when it does. — 01:51:44 · Maternal Center of Excellence

01:54:31 — Roll for Loca with Orin: a Twinkie filled with cottage cheese, maple syrup and peanut butter

  • ★★ John leaves the livestream to wash the Sharpie off his face so he looks normal in the morning, when he has to go to a funeral. — 01:54:31 · Sharpie, Sharpie Face
  • ★★ Hank and Orin do a Roll for Loca: a Twinkie whose filling Hank replaces with cottage cheese, maple syrup and peanut butter. — 01:55:50 · Orin Green
  • ★ Hank finds his Twinkie filled with cottage cheese, maple syrup and peanut butter much better than a normal Twinkie. (playful) — 02:00:20

02:05:50 — With Destin Sandlin: 2027, what astronauts are like, goals, the Tiltify past $1 million

  • ★★ Hank tells Destin Sandlin that for him it is already 2027: 2026 is over and every problem has been fixed. (joke) — 02:06:21 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank asks Destin Sandlin what astronauts are like, saying the many he has met are not like normal people. — 02:06:50
  • ★★ Hank says the 2026 Project for Awesome Tiltify crossed $1 million a little while earlier and now stands at $1,080,000. — 02:11:14 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank thinks he and John are probably more intentional than most people think in building what they built. (hedged) — 02:12:58
  • ★★ Hank says John wanted to sell books and he wanted people to watch his videos, and they wanted a resource they could turn toward important things. — 02:13:27

02:13:44 — Being intentional, writing as the job, fish prints, a tuna, grill scrubbers

  • ★★ Hank: After Destin Sandlin recalls John insisting he is a writer, Hank says writing is a huge part of the video job that people overlook, even when they are doing it. — 02:14:26
  • ★★ Hank says that this year (2026), as last year (2025) with another artist, the Project for Awesome had art made based on each livestream guest. — 02:18:01 · Project for Awesome

02:23:17 — Sharpie removal, cottage cheese, Instagram and X, Cal Newport, and why nobody fact-checks what seems true

  • ★ Hank says Sharpie, though called a permanent marker, is not actually permanent. — 02:23:33 · Sharpie
  • ★★ Hank says scrolling Instagram leaves him distracted: it is mostly a relaxation cope for when he needs not to think. — 02:29:19 · Instagram
  • ★★ Hank calls X the worst of the platforms, as if someone asked what would happen if they really did not care about anything. — 02:31:20 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank says he did an interview with Cal Newport that will be on Hank's channel in the next couple of weeks. — 02:31:44 · hankschannel
  • ★★ Hank says his own answer to a world built to grab attention, though it may not sound healthy, is to subject himself to these systems to understand how they work. — 02:32:29
  • ★★ Hank is working on something about these attention systems but does not know whether it will be a full book, a short book or a series of YouTube videos. (unsure) — 02:32:55 · YouTube

  • ★★★ Hank thinks we are misunderstanding who is in charge of our minds. — 02:32:55

    “we are misunderstanding who's in charge of our minds”

  • ★★★ Hank says media literacy pitches to Complexly get the internet wrong: they assume people believe the true things and not the false ones, which is not what happens. — 02:33:21 · Complexly

  • ★★★ Hank says nobody will ever fact-check something that already seems true to them, so the question is how to raise the flag. — 02:33:49
  • ★★ Hank says nobody could be a functional human on the internet if they checked every fact, since they would never do anything else. — 02:34:17

02:37:09 — With Destin Sandlin: typos in reference books, cottage cheese and pears, why fiber feeds the colon, Orin's reading

  • ★★ Hank says the numbers in the old big reference books of material properties were all experimentally derived by people with devices, so they contain typos and wrong values: just humans doing human stuff. — 02:37:33
  • ★★ Hank has a video coming out soon about why fiber is good for you; he had thought fiber was all about the consistency of stool. — 02:40:32
  • ★★ Hank explains that the cells lining the colon, the colonocytes, preferentially metabolize butyrate, their favorite food, and that more than 70% of the colon's metabolism runs on it. — 02:42:04

02:46:05 — Perk shout-outs, fish prints, a $30,000 donation, everyone giving what they can, handover to crunch time

  • ★★ Hank's signed fish prints are on sale as 2026 Project for Awesome perks, with 85 of 300 left. — 02:48:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank calls an anonymous donation of $30,000 the biggest the 2026 Project for Awesome has received. — 02:48:56 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank says resources are not equally distributed, but when everyone joins in, some give $30,000, some $100 and some only vote and hang out, and none of these is much better than the others: it's just people. — 02:50:14 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says that if everyone turns their attention toward a cause, each doing what is right for them, the result is millions of dollars and action. — 02:50:41
  • ★ Hank hands over to crunch time, a P4A tradition in which Miriam's dog Darcy crunches carrots in exchange for donations. — 02:52:47 · Project for Awesome

04:56:36 — Back for the last evening: Brennan Lee Mulligan's message, the night's Tiltify goal, a poll on auctioning signed chunks of Jared, $3 million

  • ★★ Hank acknowledges that he still owes chat a Roll for Loca and a Roll for Drink. — 04:58:24
  • ★★ Hank says Brennan Lee Mulligan's signed prints sell faster than John's and Hank's: 42 of 230 are left, against 64 of Hank's. — 05:00:09 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank has no doubt the Tiltify will reach the night's goal of $1,207,000, where the community-voting organizations' matching funds max out, during his shift, and thinks it should far exceed it. — 05:00:49 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says one-off auctions never really move the needle in the Project for Awesome, because they can only be done once. — 05:01:43 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank calls auctioning signed chunks of Jared, the P4A mascot, his most controversial Project for Awesome idea and puts it to a donor poll. (joke) — 05:03:28 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank announces that the 2026 Project for Awesome total has reached $3 million. — 05:07:40 · Project for Awesome

05:08:26 — Roll for Loca: a banana with Vienna sausages, liquid smoke and queso; be unacceptable

  • ★★ Hank: For his second Roll for Loca, Hank stuffs a banana with queso, Vienna sausage and liquid smoke. — 05:17:13
  • ★★ Hank says it is very important to him to keep his heart open, whatever the ingredients, to the possibility that it might be good. — 05:17:47
  • ★★ Hank says the Vienna sausage and liquid smoke add nothing to his banana loca, but there is something maybe kind of good about the queso. (hedged) — 05:18:29
  • ★★★ Hank says many of our choices are not about what is good or bad but purely about what is acceptable and normal in society. — 05:20:36

05:22:24 — Woodblock Hanklerfish and questions for donations: advice, science, books, Dropout, Congress, the worst part of being a public figure

  • ★★ Hank: To raise money toward the night's goal, Hank launches woodblock Hanklerfish perks, along with special visitors and a Roll for Drink. — 05:23:03 · Hanklerfish
  • ★★ Hank offers to answer, for the next 30 minutes, the question of anyone who donates over $50. — 05:24:42 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank: Asked what he would tell himself after the first Project for Awesome, Hank says very little: some intel on certain people he might not want to work with, and that he is headed in the right direction. — 05:29:45 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank: Encouraging a baker sad about her first negative review, Hank says any opinion that can be had will be had. — 05:30:40
  • ★★ Hank's colonoscopy tip, unique to him: sipping Coca-Cola during the prep helps him get it down in a timely fashion. — 05:31:38
  • ★★ Hank's favorite weird fact of late: colon cells do not metabolize normal sugars but short-chain fatty acids from fermented indigestible fiber; a Hank's channel video on it is coming soon. — 05:32:43 · hankschannel
  • ★★ Hank: Asked how to be a good doctor, Hank says in his experience good doctors are the ones who listen, though not surgeons. — 05:33:13
  • ★★ Hank explains that 2026 Hank cannot appear: Hank left 2026 behind without living it, brought forward into 2027. (joke) — 05:33:52
  • ★★ Hank says most people in science communication have no audience: they work at universities, in teaching or in university PR. — 05:34:36

  • ★★★ Hank's big science communication tip: never tell people about a term before explaining why the term needs to exist. — 05:35:05

    “never tell people about a term before you've explained why the term needs to exist”

  • ★★ Hank: If not Montana, Hank would live in Indianapolis, because John is there: it's all about the people. — 05:35:34 · Indianapolis, John Green, Montana

  • ★★ Hank's best frog is one that is terrible at being a frog, which got a Bizarre Beasts episode. — 05:35:34 · Bizarre Beasts
  • ★★ Hank is enjoying J.M. Miro's creepy series with Ordinary Monsters, set in industrial London, which he likens to X-Men but horror. — 05:36:41 · Twitter, London
  • ★★ Hank: Asked for a fact from researching his new book on cancer, Hank says gene fusions can blast traits into a cancer super fast: that is how Ewing sarcoma works and often how prostate cancer turns aggressive. — 05:39:21
  • ★ Hank's top three cities are Philadelphia, London and New York, ahead of Chicago and Los Angeles. — 05:39:50 · London, New York City, Chicago (city), Los Angeles
  • ★★ Hank and Orin are on the third book of the second Warriors series; Hank's favorite cat is Brambleclaw, whom he understands as someone both ambitious and driven by values. (hedged) — 05:40:17 · Orin Green
  • ★★ Hank does not expect to do a meet and greet at Open Sauce: it's lovely, but too scary for him these days. (hedged) — 05:40:55
  • ★★ Hank: Asked which period of early Nerdfighteria he would relive, Hank picks the very beginning: it was so weird and so fun. — 05:42:22 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank's favorite Project for Awesome mascot of all time is his friend Beanie Sanfurbs. — 05:43:16 · Beanie Sanfurbs, Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank: If he had to run for Congress, Hank would campaign on regulating away the structures that serve only to divide us and survive because they are politically useful: gerrymandering and money in politics. — 05:43:16 · United States Congress
  • ★ Hank prefers Don't Forget to be Awesome to Darling Fetch the Battle Axe as the meaning of DFTBA. — 05:43:57 · DFTBA
  • ★★ Hank says more runes for Focus Friend are coming soon and thinks a bedroom is being beta tested, with some people having access. (hedged) — 05:43:57 · Focus Friend
  • ★★ Hank: Asked why he draws anglerfish, Hank says he wrote a song about the anglerfish called A Song About an Anglerfish. — 05:43:57
  • ★★ Hank: Looking it up live, Hank finds that Titan's methane raindrops would make larger rainbows, likely red outside and blue inside against an orange sky, so a moon in the solar system has rainbows. (hedged) — 05:45:04
  • ★★ Hank still thinks about the film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which had a lot of impact on him. — 05:45:47
  • ★★ Hank's music disappeared from Spotify when DFTBA shut down its account with the service it used; they will do something about it eventually, but it has not been a priority. — 05:46:13 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank has not seen Heated Rivalry or Steven Universe: he doesn't watch a lot of TV but watches a lot of YouTube. — 05:47:00 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank recently finished Percival Everett's James, which he calls really good. — 05:47:00
  • ★★ Hank has still not met Bill Nye but assumes it will happen someday. — 05:47:50
  • ★★★ Hank: To a viewer in ICE-occupied Minneapolis, Hank says change is not one big thing but a million little things, and thanks them for being part of this change. — 05:49:06
  • ★★ Hank's number one piece of advice to a viewer turning 26 is to try stuff. — 05:50:11
  • ★★ Hank's boundary: posting is not the end of something, so he won't post unless he also has time to stay and see how it goes. — 05:52:37

  • ★★★ Hank always says that everything you see is him, but you don't see all of him. — 05:53:06

    “everything you see is me but you don't see all of me”

  • ★★ Hank would like to go on Dropout's Very Important People, though unsure he'd be good, and would most like to be on Dimension 20 again, the most special experience. — 05:53:31

  • ★★ Hank's least favorite recent facts are a number of things from the Epstein files. — 05:54:00
  • ★★ Hank: The Ask Hank Anything questions that took longest to research this season were probably Jason Mantzoukas's science questions, such as on allergies; he has a terrible egg allergy. (hedged) — 05:54:00 · Ask Hank Anything
  • ★★ Hank's dream Ask Hank Anything guest is Bob Mortimer, definitely over James Acaster. — 05:55:35 · Ask Hank Anything
  • ★★ Hank does not know what it would take to be on Taskmaster and knows he is not there, since Jason Mantzoukas set a bar and Kumail Nanjiani is going to be on it, but thinks he would do great. — 05:56:28
  • ★★ Hank thanks the matching donors, everyone behind the scenes making the Project for Awesome happen and all the guests, saying he hasn't said it enough. — 05:56:55 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says he would not be good at Dropout's Make Some Noise, as he is not as good at improv as its performers, but would really love to be on Smartypants. — 05:57:39
  • ★★ Hank: Asked which celestial body he would live on with his community, Hank picks Earth: it is the most interesting one, with all the life on it. — 05:58:03
  • ★★ Hank says there is only heat and no cold: cold is just less hot. — 05:59:54
  • ★★ Hank listens to They Might Be Giants more than to any other band he has ever listened to. — 05:59:54
  • ★★ Hank's favorite of his projects is Crash Course, which he calls such an important thing in the world. — 06:01:36 · Crash Course
  • ★★★ Hank says the worst part of being a public figure is being a target, probably worse than being bothered in public. (hedged) — 06:02:07
  • ★★ Hank feels it is easier to be sad when you are young, having little sadness to compare to. (hedged) — 06:02:34

06:03:42 — Roll for Drink: vanilla Peep pudding; Hank plays Being Alive

  • ★★ Hank says the Tiltify is $10,000 from the night's goal, reached mostly through the questions rather than the Hanklerfish, of which 75 of 85 remain. — 06:03:42 · Hanklerfish
  • ★★ Hank: For his Roll for Drink, Hank rolls Peeps, vanilla and pudding, and has a vanilla Peep pudding. — 06:05:13 · Peeps
  • ★★ Hank: Before the special guests, Hank plays his song Being Alive on guitar. — 06:08:18

06:13:03 — Donors' names on the board and on Hank's face; the Tiltify goal surpassed; a matching power boost

  • ★★ Hank: To reach the night's goal, Hank tells donors that a donation over $500 gets their name written on his face. — 06:14:01 · Sharpie
  • ★★★ Hank announces that the 2026 Project for Awesome has hit its Tiltify goal for the night with time to spare. — 06:29:13 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank activates a power boost of matching funds; the match will be used up when the Tiltify reaches $1.5 million, after which each dollar donated is one dollar to charity. — 06:33:46 · Project for Awesome

06:39:09 — Weird fruit from Miami Fruit; $1.216 million; the special guest found under the guitar

  • ★★ Hank eats weird fruit sent for the Project for Awesome by a Nerdfighter in Miami who runs a weird fruit business, Miami Fruit. — 06:39:09 · Nerdfighteria, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank: With the goal reached, Hank sets the next aim at $1.5 million, where the match maxes out; the Tiltify stands at $1.216 million. — 06:53:12 · Project for Awesome

07:02:09 — Dr. Billiam Feathersby's message: everybody's trying, the Earth is spared again, Crevice College

  • ★★ Hank: Speaking as the alien Dr. Billiam Feathersby, Hank tells viewers that things can feel like they are going badly, but everybody is trying and the effort is seen. (playful) — 07:03:03
  • ★ Hank: As Dr. Billiam Feathersby, Hank says the aliens have once again decided not to kill humanity and invites viewers to Crevice College, out in the woods past Old Trashwater's farm. (joke) — 07:03:24

07:05:02 — Hooray for 3.1 million; final songs: We Are All Bat People and All Star

  • ★★ Hank celebrates the 2026 Project for Awesome reaching $3.1 million. — 07:05:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank: Taking requests for a final song, Hank plays We Are All Bat People, the most requested in chat, though he does not know if he has ever played it himself. — 07:06:38
  • ★ Hank says that whenever We Are All Bat People was played live, the band played it, never he. — 07:10:02
  • ★★ Hank ends his guitar set with All Star, which viewers asked whether he knew. — 07:10:02

07:14:05 — Power boost active until $1.5 million, the last morning's perks, the mascot poll, the first baby, goodbye

  • ★★ Hank says the last power boost of P4A 2026 matching funds is active, multiplying donations 2.5 times. — 07:14:39 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says the power boost stays active until the Tiltify reaches $1.5 million, which it might not, leaving matching money on the table, and urges viewers to push to $1.5 million. — 07:15:17 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says the 2026 Project for Awesome livestream will go hard for its last couple of hours on the morning of 15 February and sell all the perks left. — 07:15:17 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank lists the P4A 2026 perks still available: 34 of his signed fish cards, two chapters of his audiobook, digital downloads, an exclusive Dear Hank and John and Fortnite played as a pacifist. — 07:15:52 · Dear Hank and John, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank: In the poll for the P4A 2026 mascot, the P-Fern-A (as heard) leads, with 2027 close behind and Bat Hank, Non-Fungible Jared and Party Worm among the other candidates. — 07:15:52 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank backs the fern in the P4A 2026 mascot poll. — 07:16:35 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank gives a shout-out to the first baby born at the Maternal Center of Excellence, after a lot of hard work by a lot of people. — 07:16:35 · Maternal Center of Excellence

Humor (significant)

  • Relieved that a painter spells his name Jarid, John recalls the problematic Jared of P4A lore — 00:34:34

    “He's gotten into AI. Big time.”

  • Back from a break with donors' initials all over his face, John sees himself on screen — 00:53:38

    “I look like Post Malone or something.”

  • After a loud sneeze on air, John accepts what fatherhood has done to him — 00:56:28

    “I am a dad, and I dad sneeze now.”

  • John explains why he praised Vegemite in Australia although he did not like it — 01:12:20

    “I don't like it, but I also am on an island that's also a continent, and I don't want to offend anyone.”

  • Needing to pee, John refuses to leave Charlotte McDonnell alone on the stream for a moment — 01:20:48

    “I am the anchor Charlotte.”

  • Praising the taste of fresh garden peas, John stops himself mid-phrase — 01:42:33

    “I was going to say penis of the peas, but I realized I shouldn't say that.”

  • Hank surveys the food and props piled on his desk after a day of balloon tasks — 02:03:40

    “an archaeologist could come by and tell you the whole story of the Project for Awesome by the layers on my desk.”

  • Hank tells Destin Sandlin that in his 2027 every problem is solved, at a price — 02:06:21

    “We have had to swap, and the fish got the land, and we got the ocean.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Maternal Center of Excellence · Project for Awesome

Also: People: Alice Green · Bill Nye · Bob Mortimer · Brennan Lee Mulligan · Byron Kim · Cal Newport · Charlotte McDonnell · Chris Waters · Destin Sandlin · Eddie Izzard · Felix Mallard · Helen Hunt (actor) · Henry VIII · James Acaster · Jason Mantzoukas · Katherine Green · Kumail Nanjiani · Kurt Vonnegut · Orin Green · Post Malone · Sarah Urist Green · Tahereh Mafi · Tessa Violet · Vicky Reed

Projects: Ask Hank Anything · Awesome Socks Club · Bizarre Beasts · Complexly · Crash Course · Dear Hank and John · DFTBA Records · hankschannel · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Works: A Song About an Anglerfish · All Star · Beanie Sanfurbs · Being Alive · David Duchovny (song) · Dimension 20 · Epstein files · Focus Friend · Fortnite · Galápagos · Game Changer · Hanklerfish · Heated Rivalry · Helen Hunt (song) · James (novel) · Make Some Noise · Marilyn Hanson · Mother Pheasant Plucker · Ordinary Monsters · Puss in Boots: The Last Wish · Smartypants · Steven Universe · Taskmaster · Turtles All the Way Down · Very Important People · Warriors · We Are All Bat People · Zombicorns

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · Dropout · Epic Games · Episcopal Church · Instagram · Johnson Space Center · Koidu Government Hospital · Miami Fruit · Ministry of Health and Sanitation (Sierra Leone) · NASA · Partners In Health · Queer Liberation Library · Spotify · Tiltify · Twitter · United States Congress · Women's Foundation of Minnesota · YouTube

Groups: They Might Be Giants

Terms: DFTBA · Sharpie Face

Concepts: campaign finance · colonoscopy · Dietary fiber · Ewing sarcoma · fact-checking · Fusion gene · gerrymandering · love languages · maternal death · media literacy · monoculture · neonatal intensive care unit · orbital cellulitis · pacifism · prostate cancer · rainbow · Short-chain fatty acid

Places: Chicago (city) · Galápagos Islands · Indianapolis · Kono District · London · Los Angeles · Miami · Minneapolis · Montana · New York City · Philadelphia · Sierra Leone · Titan · Toronto

Events: Indianapolis 500 · Open Sauce · Valentine's Day

Characters: Brambleclaw · Dr. Billiam Feathersby · Jarrod · Old Trashwater

Products: Coca-Cola · Marmite · Nintendo Switch · Peeps · Sharpie

animal: Darcy

Only in the description or credits: Alan Lastufka · J. M. Miro · Percival Everett · Rachel Calderon Navarro

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