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Project for Awesome 2026 part 5!

2026-02-15 · other · John, Hank, Rosianna Halse Rojas, Alice Green · 5 h 14 min · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Nerdfighteria, Books & writing, Personal life, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Announcements · tags: calendar ritual, fundraising ask, civic or action cta, self promotion, community lore, guest or collab, recurring series

In the fifth and last part of the 2026 Project for Awesome livestream, on the morning of February 15, John takes over from Rosianna Halse Rojas, lets Alice do his makeup at $3.3 million and says seven years on his novel taught him writing is also for himself; Hank arrives 45 minutes early, uploads a Vlogbrothers video mid-stream to draw viewers, and the 2026 P4A becomes the biggest ever, passing $3.7 million.

What is said

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

02:08:41 — Rosianna hands over for the final three hours; the power boost and John's perks

  • ★★ Talking with Rosianna Halse Rojas in the final three hours of the 2026 Project for Awesome, John says that when the next goal is hit, Alice will do his makeup. — 02:09:07 · Alice Green, Rosianna Halse Rojas, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says they know what it takes to make this the most successful Project for Awesome of all time, but also that it is okay if it is not: both things can be true. — 02:10:39 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ John calls Rosianna Halse Rojas a long-time Project for Awesome hero, involved since 2007. — 02:11:09 · Rosianna Halse Rojas, Project for Awesome
  • ★ John releases more fish prints and book recommendations as perks and skips Alice writing names on his face, as he did Sharpie Face the night before, so Alice can do his makeup. — 02:11:09 · Alice Green
  • ★★ Thanks to a power boost activated by website manager John Lee, every dollar donated counts as $2.50 to the 2026, or arguably 2027, Project for Awesome until the boost runs out, so John says now is the best time to donate. — 02:12:21 · Project for Awesome

02:12:52 — Thanks to the team; P Fern A leads the mascot poll; the Maternal Center of Excellence and a productive corner of the internet

  • ★★ John thanks the Project for Awesome team: the Foundation to Decrease World Suck board, producers Laura Chernikoff, Lindsay Ballantyne, Sari Riley, Sylvia Roma Miller and Amy Darling, the web, design, perk and social media staff, moderators, video reviewers and matching donors. — 02:12:52 · Foundation to Decrease World Suck, Project for Awesome
  • ★ John says P Fern A is winning the poll for Project for Awesome mascot, good news for him since he has never had a mascot: Hank always is the mascot. (playful) — 02:14:05 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John says the Project for Awesome and the Maternal Center of Excellence are separate projects, but without the P4A the hospital could never have existed, since Nerdfighteria would never have grown as it has or had its values. — 02:15:23 · Project for Awesome, Maternal Center of Excellence, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says many corners of the internet gather 100,000 or 200,000 people every week, but very few are as productive as Nerdfighteria, which he is really proud of. — 02:15:23 · Nerdfighteria

02:15:53 — A $3.3 million goal for Alice to do John's makeup; book recommendations and Nerdfighter art; Alice's phone at 13; Pythagonal's $12,000

  • ★★ John sets the next goal at $3.3 million raised in total, and Alice will do his makeup once it is reached. — 02:15:53 · Alice Green, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John explains his book-recommendation perk: a 10 or 15 minute Zoom conversation about the donor's taste in books, then a list of recommendations; if all sell, they will have raised about $75,000 for charity. — 02:16:22 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John explains the Nerdfighter art perk: someone somewhere makes an artwork and sends it to the DFTBA warehouse in Montana, which sends it to a donor of $55, connecting the two; 392 of 1,475 are left. — 02:17:47 · Nerdfighteria, DFTBA Records, Montana
  • ★ John says that playing Fortnite as a pacifist with Stan, hiding inside ferns and bushes, they once finished second and once 98th out of a hundred. (playful) — 02:18:37
  • ★ John bought a Hanklerfish perk to replace the Hanklerfish behind him, paying extra because he thought it worth more than its price. — 02:19:37 · Hanklerfish
  • ★ After pausing while thanking Tiltify, John corrects himself: Tiltify is great, has helped raise many millions of dollars, and the new livestreaming platform worked well although they started using it only three weeks before. — 02:20:59
  • ★★ Alice is almost 13, and John asks what she will do differently; she will get a phone, mainly to text her friends. — 02:22:47 · Alice Green
  • ★★ When John was 13 he got a key to the house as his present, so he could come home and let himself in as a latchkey child. — 02:24:20
  • ★ John says this year's (2026) Project for Awesome T-shirt shows a giant squid attacking New York City, in the name of good, alongside the P4A sweatshirt. — 02:24:20 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John likes having his makeup done because being touched on the face kindly is actually really rare. — 02:25:12
  • ★★ A $12,000 gift from the donor Pythagonal takes the 2026 Project for Awesome over the $3.3 million goal, to $3.308 million, and John says he is a little sick. — 02:25:59 · Project for Awesome

02:26:35 — Alice does John's makeup

  • ★★ As Alice does his makeup with their mother's makeup, John complains that her touch is violent, a long way from a movie-studio makeup artist's softness. (playful) — 02:27:01 · Alice Green
  • ★ With the makeup done, John says he looks pretty good, apart from red eyes, and calls the look subtle but still powerful. (playful) — 02:33:50 · Alice Green

02:34:18 — The biggest P4A within reach; rereading Zombicorns; in Cheyenne, Wyoming, writing turns out to be also for himself

  • ★★ John says both his kids are great, lovely, hardworking, good-hearted kids, all you could ask for, though he admits he is deeply biased. — 02:35:17 · Alice Green, Henry Green
  • ★★ At $3.339 million in total and $1.305 million on Tiltify, John says it is truly possible this will be the biggest Project for Awesome ever, which happens at $1.479 million on Tiltify, $174,000 away. — 02:35:45 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says the Tiltify stands at $1.305 million and the 2026 Project for Awesome becomes the biggest of all time at $1.479 million, $174,000 away. — 02:36:11 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ John says the Foundation to Decrease World Suck is a real 501(c)(3), so donations are tax deductible in the US. — 02:36:45 · Foundation to Decrease World Suck
  • ★★★ John recently reread Zombicorns, the zombie apocalypse novella he wrote about 15 years ago for the Project for Awesome, the first time he had ever reread his own work, and found he liked it and was proud of himself. — 02:36:45 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John says he has spent the last few months in "Cheyenne, Wyoming", his metaphor for working very hard on writing, and it has been incredibly fulfilling, whatever comes of it. — 02:36:45

  • ★★★ John says the last seven years of working on his novel taught him that writing, like art, is done for others but also for one's own clarity and fulfillment: it need not be read to be fulfilling. He used to think it was only for other people. — 02:37:14

    “i used to think the purpose of writing was only for other people”

  • ★ Seeing a donation from the Lockhart family, John wonders whether it is his real-life friend E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars, and thinks it probably is. (hedged) — 02:38:57

02:39:24 — Voting, volunteering at the Maternal Center of Excellence, TB Hill Day, the 2027 poll, the Olympics, Willy and Potato

  • ★★ John says voting at projectforawesome.com stays open for three days: half the money raised goes to Partners In Health and Save the Children, half to charities chosen by viewers, so they should watch P4A videos and vote. — 02:39:24 · Partners In Health, Save the Children, Project for Awesome
  • ★ Told by the chat that this is his second year as a P4A mascot, John agrees that Silly Nelson was a mascot in a past year and says he is making a comeback in silliness. (playful, hedged) — 02:39:49 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Asked how to volunteer at the Maternal Center of Excellence, John says he does not know; he thinks the focus now is training local people, and suggests asking Partners In Health. (unsure) — 02:40:17 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Partners In Health
  • ★★ John asks South Dakotans willing to travel to Washington, D.C. on March 2 and 3 to meet their representatives about global health and TB funding to reach out to the TB fighters. — 02:40:17
  • ★★ John announces a new 2027-themed poll on the best thing about 2027: living underwater, the fish having the land, six-seven being over, Harry Styles as prime minister, all human problems solved, or the lungs on our backs. (playful) — 02:40:57
  • ★★ John's day after the P4A is a recovery day with no meetings, so he can watch the Olympics, which he loves; he cries a little every time anyone wins a gold medal. — 02:42:24 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John's first dog, Willy, Fireball Wilson Roberts Green, came from Kokomo: a couple in the armed forces who were both deployed needed a good home for him; John misses him, though Willy was not actually a great dog. — 02:43:13 · Willy
  • ★★ John says Willy was not cuddly but oversaw the family; Potato is not that cuddly either but wants to be near you, and John loves both dogs equally and immensely. — 02:44:47 · Willy
  • ★★ Potato ate half of the 12-ounce block of cheese left over from John's Banana Loca and brought the rest upstairs very proudly. (playful) — 02:45:11

02:46:02 — Perks: Hank's cancer book chapters, Like Letters, a new Anthropocene Reviewed episode, the last pressed pennies, the glow-in-the-dark coin

  • ★★ John says voting on P4A videos runs to the end of the fundraiser in three days; the stream will focus on fundraising for its last two hours and 27 minutes, with Hank joining at 11 o'clock. — 02:46:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Offering two chapters of Hank's new book about cancer as a $10 perk, John says the book, which he has read, is brilliant, an exploration of the disease's biology that is also immensely personal. — 02:46:32 · Hank Green
  • ★★★ John thinks Hank's book about cancer is going to light the world on fire, making a huge impact and changing many people's understanding of cancer and of living with it. — 02:47:01 · cancer
  • ★★ John's digital perks include Like Letters, the podcast where he and Sarah read the letters they wrote before they started dating, and a new Anthropocene Reviewed episode on the Galápagos Islands and Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galápagos. — 02:47:51 · Sarah Urist Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★ John says this is the last year the Project for Awesome is offering pressed pennies, and the commemorative coin, different every year, glows in the dark this year (2026). — 02:48:49 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says they totally understand if people cannot donate; everybody should watch Project for Awesome videos and vote for the charities they want supported, and over 50,000 votes have been cast. — 02:49:18 · Project for Awesome

02:50:53 — John's first jobs: Corrine Brown's office, Steak 'n Shake and Outtakes; Zombicorns under Creative Commons

  • ★★ John's first technical job was working for Congresswoman Corrine Brown, later ousted for corruption; his first real job was the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. graveyard shift at Steak 'n Shake, and his second was at Outtakes, a 50s Hollywood-themed restaurant in Alabama. — 02:50:53
  • ★ John says Outtakes was way better than Steak 'n Shake, where staying up all night was hard, tips were poor, and people there at four in the morning were not always having the best day. — 02:51:27
  • ★★ Asked whether Zombicorns may be custom printed, John says yes: it is released under a Creative Commons license, so people can do whatever they want with it, including publishing Zombicorns fan fiction. — 02:52:01
  • ★★ In the congresswoman's office John answered constituent calls and emails, writing down what people needed; sometimes they just needed to yell at someone, and at about 17 he was that someone, which still beat Steak 'n Shake. (hedged) — 02:53:19
  • ★★ The 2026 Project for Awesome passes $3.4 million; John says about $117,000 more on Tiltify will make it the biggest ever, thanks to matching donors who put up over $1.5 million. — 02:54:09 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Thanking a donor on his 17th P4A, John says being trusted with a place in people's lives for 17 years is very special, and welcomes first-timers: they always need new Nerdfighters. — 02:55:36 · Nerdfighteria, Project for Awesome

02:56:02 — Long-time Nerdfighters, the digital download bundle, pressed pennies; crowdfund the money, crowdsource where it goes

  • ★★ When readers email him questions about Looking for Alaska, John cannot answer: he wrote it 22 years ago and has no memory of what happens in it, but is grateful they keep it alive. (playful) — 02:56:02 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ John says Nerdfighteria has been game-changing in his life; his family talks and thinks about it a lot because it is such an important part of their lives. — 02:56:32 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John was 29 when they started and is now 48; he does not know if he will still make videos every Tuesday when it is half his life, but suspects he will still be doing the Project for Awesome. (hedged) — 02:56:32 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ John says they love all forms of love, not just romantic love. — 02:57:19
  • ★★ John calls the $75 digital download bundle, with every digital perk including two chapters of Hank's new book, the steal of every Project for Awesome. — 02:57:19 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast), Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Of 1,200 pressed-penny perks designed by Rachel Calderon Navarro only 258 are left; John says taking pennies out of circulation is good news for our species, though probably not important news. (playful, hedged) — 02:58:03
  • ★★ With "all human problems being solved" leading the poll on the best thing about 2027, John says that in early 2026 it felt far away, and getting it done in a year is a testament to humanity. (joke) — 02:59:08
  • ★★ John explains that Hank's book chapters come only as audio because shared text leaks faster; publishers get annoyed, and his own publisher, the first year he did it, asked why before eventually forgiving him. — 03:00:17
  • ★★ John explains that $1.36 million has been raised on Tiltify, but with the over $1.5 million matching donors raised before the P4A, the total is $3.416 million. — 03:00:57 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John asks people not to donate if they cannot afford it: deciding where the money goes matters as much as raising it, since the P4A has always crowdfunded the money and crowdsourced its destination, from big organizations to small ones. — 03:01:29 · Project for Awesome, Save the Children, Partners In Health, This Star Won't Go Out (charity)

03:03:00 — The early P4A as a YouTube front-page takeover; Hank's lateness; a wig; John Orange; maxing out the match; signed stickers

  • ★★★ Agreeing with a viewer, John says the first few Project for Awesomes were not fundraisers at all but an attempt to take over the YouTube front page and hijack an algorithm that was then unsophisticated. — 03:03:00 · Project for Awesome, YouTube, recommender system
  • ★★★ John says YouTube is now larger and more complex, with an algorithm better at capturing and holding human attention as long as possible, the only thing it is trained to do, so the P4A now fights on a different front. — 03:03:00 · YouTube, attention economy, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says the grand total chart looks like a straight line up and the 2026 Project for Awesome appears on pace to beat 2025, at least for now. (hedged) — 03:03:46 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Asked whether YouTube once helped host a P4A, John says they don't talk about that year: they raised little and it was weird, though Bo Burnham was there. — 03:04:16 · YouTube, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says Hank is almost always three minutes late to their meetings, leaving John to make awkward small talk; Hank almost never annoys him, except when he is late. (playful) — 03:04:42 · Hank Green
  • ★ Having green as a last name is a blessing and a curse; someone in Sarah's family asked if she really would take a name that is a colour, and John could not name a child Forest. (playful) — 03:07:42 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John says $1,466,129.92 on Tiltify will max out the power boost and all matching funds; at $1.351 million, about $110,000 is left. — 03:08:09 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says the best thing about the Project for Awesome to him is that Nerdfighters around the world make stuff and Nerdfighters around the world get stuff. — 03:09:03 · Nerdfighteria, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ A viewer suggests John sign blank stickers so international fans can make their books signed; John loves the idea of an unsigned book becoming signed, but it may not ship in time this year (2026), so it is a good idea for next year (2027). — 03:10:44

03:11:22 — Signed books abroad, yachts and labyrinthitis, the self-care bunny, fishing boat proceeds, the 19th P4A, the Pizzamas RPG, Stan

  • ★★ John says getting his signed books to international readers is hard because of the machinations of international publishing; he has tried since 2011, for 15 years, and it has not gotten easier. — 03:11:22
  • ★★ John does not need a yacht: he dislikes boats because a vestibular disorder from his labyrinthitis in 2017 makes him sick; he is glad they are hiring community health workers in Lesotho. — 03:12:33
  • ★★ Rosianna's self-care bunnies remind John that it is important to take care of himself as well as others; they can coexist, and often what feeds him also feeds others. — 03:14:09 · Rosianna Halse Rojas
  • ★★ Asked about fishing boat proceeds, John says he still has never had any: it was his Tumblr name and a 2007 Nerdfighter joke; his friend Joe owns a fishing boat, which is easier to turn into losses. (playful) — 03:15:26 · fishing boat proceeds, Tumblr
  • ★★ John says this is the 19th Project for Awesome; they have done it or something like it since 2007, in long livestreams full of silliness, joy and hope. — 03:15:49 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says this is his 19th P4A and he has never missed one; he has a cold, likely brought home by a sixth grader, and slept badly because he kept his phone by the bed despite Sarah's objection. — 03:16:45 · Project for Awesome, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ A big-donor perk still left is Pizzamas the Second Slice: a donor and three friends get the RPG and a four-to-five-hour session run online by its author, Kathleen DeVere, unless they can get to Victoria, British Columbia. — 03:18:34 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ John says hanging out with Stan, whether at trivia, Fortnite or FIFA, is his favorite thing, and asks no one to tell Stan. — 03:20:04

03:21:01 — $3.5 million, over $30 million in P4A history, the matching donors; Hank arrives 45 minutes early

  • ★★★ The 2026 Project for Awesome reaches $3.5 million, which John celebrates with Henry's choco pies, at 10:13 in the morning with an hour and 47 minutes left. — 03:21:01 · Project for Awesome, Henry Green
  • ★★★ John says that with $3.5 million raised, the Project for Awesome has now raised over $30 million in its history. (hedged) — 03:21:37 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ At $1.372 million on Tiltify, $107,000 short of the biggest P4A in history, John says they will definitely get there; the open question is whether during the livestream or after. — 03:22:05 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John thanks the Partners In Health matching donor, who gave $100,000, the Save the Children matching donors, who gave $500,000, and about 700 Nerdfighters who formed a $1.5 million matching fund matching donations up to $1.492 million. (hedged) — 03:22:50 · Partners In Health, Save the Children, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank arrives 45 minutes early, which John calls a Project for Awesome miracle, and John goes to get coffee while Hank hosts. (playful) — 03:23:16 · Hank Green, Project for Awesome

03:24:02 — Hank posts on Threads to bring people in; the fish print race; famous New York Times bestselling authors

  • ★★ Hank says the 2026 Project for Awesome is about to pass the biggest grand total ever raised: it needs $3.7 million and stands at $3.5 million, less than 10% away. — 03:24:55 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank: Calling a single-digit percentage small, Hank jokes that it is what his doctor said his chance of not getting cancer again was. (joke) — 03:25:23 · cancer
  • ★★ Hank: With only 3,200 people watching, Hank asks viewers to get more Nerdfighters into the room, and posts on Threads and Bluesky, asking people to repost, like and share the link on Instagram stories. — 03:25:49 · Nerdfighteria, Instagram
  • ★ Hank posts the link in a follow-up rather than the first post because Threads penalises posts that send people off the site. — 03:27:20
  • ★★ Hank says he only uses Threads now, not Bluesky, which he thinks is the most old-person thing about him. (playful) — 03:28:08
  • ★★ John calls the idea that a viral thread will save the 2026 Project for Awesome ludicrous, as it is doing fine; Hank answers he is just trying to do the best they can and reach people who forgot. (playful) — 03:29:41 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says voting and the Tiltify fundraiser end on Wednesday, February 18 at 11:59 a.m. Eastern, while the livestream ends in an hour and 38 minutes. — 03:30:36 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says Hank being early made his day, the biggest thrill of the Project for Awesome in 19 years for him; Hank admits he thought he was 15 minutes late. (playful) — 03:31:05 · Hank Green, Project for Awesome
  • ★ Comparing the signed fish prints left, John boasts that he is beating Hank by 45 fish prints. (playful) — 03:31:31
  • ★★ Hank says he is mostly famous as an internet person, while people who do not know him know John because of The Fault in Our Stars; John calls it weirdly one of the best-selling books of all time. — 03:32:36 · The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
  • ★ John and Hank agree Hank should focus on being on the stream rather than writing an inspirational thread to draw in stragglers from Threads. — 03:34:01
  • ★★ Hank: To send subscribers a notification, Hank records a Vlogbrothers video on the stream, telling John it is the last hour of the Project for Awesome and asking everyone to join, then edits and uploads it. (playful) — 03:35:31 · Vlogbrothers, Project for Awesome

03:36:00 — Hank uploads a Vlogbrothers video from the stream; Pretzel Tube; from TikTok back to YouTube; the mods; unsent tweets

  • ★★ John says he really loves Keats & Co. coffee, and is not kidding. — 03:39:14 · Keats & Co.
  • ★★★ John says Vlogbrothers videos are known for the best comments because they have the best moderators; livestream chats are not known for quality, but P4A conversations are meaningful and full of wonder and hope thanks to good mods. — 03:39:56 · Vlogbrothers, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank realised he was putting about 60% of a YouTube video's effort into a TikTok, while a YouTube video is far better for the world; he now makes far fewer TikToks, having once made three a day. — 03:41:03 · TikTok, YouTube
  • ★ John says Hank, once addicted to TikTok and now to Hank's channel videos, will be making videos when he is 90. (playful) — 03:41:29 · Hank Green, TikTok
  • ★★ Hank says his next platform will be Jared's vibe-coded pretzel factory, which accidentally became a content platform, Pretzel Tube. (joke) — 03:41:51
  • ★★ Hank: The 2026 Project for Awesome passes $3.6 million, $72,000 from the biggest ever; Hank's 37-second Vlogbrothers video, titled "I'm deleting this video in one hour", has eight views. — 03:42:41 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank: With 4,166 people watching, Hank says the Threads post did not work, but the Vlogbrothers video seems to be bringing people in. — 03:44:35
  • ★★ Hank: Perks include exclusive episodes of Dear Hank and John and Hank's channel, and a podcast where Hank and his wife discuss tweets he saved but decided not to post in recent months. — 03:45:25 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★★ Hank says sometimes you want to explore a thought in public but do not, because public is a bad place to explore right now. — 03:45:52

03:46:18 — Nerdfighter art; Hank's grasp of the algorithm; the power of negative thinking; voting; maxing out the match

  • ★★ John says over $206,000 has come from the power boost alone; the 2026 P4A is past $3.6 million in total and $1.418 million on Tiltify, $60,000 from the biggest ever. — 03:46:18 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank says the small canvas Hanklerfish perks, 84 left, are made on four-by-four-inch canvases by Hank himself. — 03:47:12 · Hanklerfish
  • ★★ Hank says he has not seen donations come in like this since 2026, the year they did not actually live because things went bad, until the Project for Awesome turned everything around. (joke) — 03:47:39 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ With viewers up by 1,000 to 4,457, John apologises for doubting Hank's video: Hank understands the YouTube algorithm in ways John does not, sometimes retitling John's videos without permission to get them more views. — 03:48:58 · Hank Green, recommender system, YouTube
  • ★★★ John thanks Hank for genuinely trying to use his ability to understand and manipulate the algorithm and human attention for good, unlike some people they know. — 03:49:25 · Hank Green, attention economy
  • ★★ Hank explains the Nerdfighter art perk, where people volunteer their time to make things that raise money and donors get something unknown, and calls it the most fun perk; John gets it every year. — 03:49:53 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John gets the Nerdfighter art perk every year because it connects him with a random Nerdfighter who made something just for him; of 1,475, only 246 remain. — 03:50:36 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says that besides positive thinking there is the power of negative thinking: as he discussed with his therapist, worry does a job, and the correct amount of worry is not zero. — 03:51:39
  • ★ When Hank says they will use all the match, John warns that with an hour and 16 minutes left Hank underestimates how far things can fall apart. (playful) — 03:53:13
  • ★★★ John says people who cannot afford to donate still have an important role: watching P4A videos and voting for the charities that receive half the money; if you are broke, don't donate, do vote. — 03:54:05 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank adds that everyone should vote on Project for Awesome videos and also vote in general, one of the ways they fixed everything in 2026. (playful) — 03:54:34 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ The cage behind John is Potato's night crate; John has never seen a dog love a crate so much, and Potato would happily sleep 22 hours a day. — 03:54:34

03:56:27 — The biggest Project for Awesome of all time; confetti; HOAs and living in a society; $1.5 million on Tiltify

  • ★★★ A big donation uses up all the matching funds, leaving the 2026 Project for Awesome $5,000 from being the biggest ever. — 03:56:27 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ The 2026 Project for Awesome becomes the biggest of all time, pushed over the line by a donation John credits to Azra the cat, an hour and ten minutes before the livestream's end. — 03:57:19 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ After a weak confetti cannon, John says he makes his kids clean up the confetti; Hank, who has only one kid, says he should make his do it too. (playful) — 03:58:02 · Henry Green, Alice Green
  • ★★ Hank lives in a neighborhood where people put things out on the corner, which he loves; he has no HOA, one of its most appealing features. — 04:00:21
  • ★★ John's neighborhood had an HOA, and when it was due for renewal around 2014 the neighbors collectively decided to let it expire. — 04:00:49
  • ★★ Hank: Recalling a condo committee, Hank says negotiating with neighbors is annoying but is the nature of living in a society: figuring out together how to get things done is an essential part of adulthood. — 04:01:15 · collective action
  • ★★ The 2026 Project for Awesome passes $1.5 million raised on Tiltify. — 04:02:56 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank notes they just raised more in ten minutes than ever before, about $100,000, maybe the biggest ten minutes in Project for Awesome history; the end is bigger than the beginning. (hedged) — 04:04:03 · Project for Awesome

04:04:44 — The biggest ten minutes; a real charity, not a yacht; the first baby at the Maternal Center of Excellence

04:08:41 — The first baby, C-sections and a NICU at the Maternal Center of Excellence; disasters that don't feel like events; a blueprint for the world; good and fun are not opposites

  • ★★★ John says people can now get safe emergency C-sections at the Maternal Center of Excellence, which has a functioning NICU for the first time in the history of Sierra Leone, a game-changing difference in maternal and infant health care in the Kono region and beyond. — 04:08:59 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ Hank recalls that when John first emailed him about the Maternal Center of Excellence project, John said people are good at responding to events that feel like disasters, but not to disasters that don't feel like events. — 04:08:59 · John Green, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★★ Hank says the problems that are just the way things are right now are real and the biggest, and need not be accepted: attention can be sustained on one thing for a long time, as with the Maternal Center of Excellence, which took six years of fundraising. — 04:09:34 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John says the Maternal Center of Excellence also took six years of work with Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and of training health workers, midwives, nurses and traditional birth attendants; many lives were saved along the way, and it will now be a teaching hospital. — 04:10:00 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ John says that since Sierra Leone's government took on maternal health as a priority, the share of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth has fallen from one in 17 or one in 20 to closer to one in 80. — 04:10:30 · Sierra Leone, maternal death
  • ★★★ John says maternal deaths in Sierra Leone are still much too high, but have fallen 75% in seven years, and will keep going down because of these investments. — 04:10:59 · Sierra Leone, maternal death
  • ★★★ John says the work in Sierra Leone is a blueprint for the rest of the world: if better maternal care is possible in the epicenter of the maternal death crisis, it is possible anywhere. — 04:10:59 · Maternal Center of Excellence, maternal death, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John says the people doing the maternal health work want to do it and just need funding, and they can raise it while having a good time. — 04:11:21

  • ★★★ John says the Project for Awesome is impactful and brings together a community at the same time, a reminder that doing good can also be fun: good and fun are not opposites, and it is his favorite time of every year. — 04:12:08 · Project for Awesome

    “it's a reminder that like doing good can also be fun that like good and fun are not opposites”

  • ★★ Hank says 25 of his Hanklerfish artworks, made over the last year, are still available as perks and might actually sell out. — 04:12:08 · Hanklerfish

  • ★★ Hank says the digital downloads include an audiobook of John's novella Zombicorns and an audio version of the first two chapters of Hank's nonfiction book about the biology of cancer. — 04:12:08 · cancer

04:12:57 — $3.8 million and the biggest P4A ever; Carhartts at premieres; donor numbers; the people in chat and the focus that does the work

  • ★ John adds that Hank's book about cancer is also about Hank's personal cancer experience. — 04:12:57
  • ★★★ The 2026 Project for Awesome passes $3.8 million raised, the biggest of all time. — 04:14:10 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ John teases that Hank does not know what a suit is, having attended two of John's movie premieres not in a suit. (playful) — 04:14:10 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John says that last year (2025) it took until three days after the livestream to reach $3.7 million. — 04:14:39 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ With 54 minutes left, John asks viewers to hang out for the rest of the P4A on this Sunday (22 February 2026) morning, with the Olympics in the background, as he is doing. — 04:14:39 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says the Project for Awesome had 19,000 donors in 2024 and 24,000 in 2025. — 04:18:17 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Of the signed prints showing this year's (2026) guests as fish, John thinks Tyler Thrasher's turned out the coolest, though they are all pretty great. (hedged) — 04:18:17
  • ★★ Hank says the success of the P4A is a function of the number of people in chat and asks viewers to get people they know into the chat in the last hour. — 04:20:00 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John is not sure the number of people in chat decides the P4A's success; he thinks it is partly due to the quality of the people in chat. — 04:20:00 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says some streams with even more viewers than the P4A livestream raise less money, and the P4A has a lot to be proud of. — 04:20:28 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank says many viewers have no money to give and many do, but everyone is focusing attention on the Project for Awesome at once, and the focus is the thing that does the work. — 04:20:57 · Project for Awesome

04:22:25 — Thanks to the team; the giant squid of 2026; colds; we're here because we're here; Nerdfighter art sells out; the bandana loca

  • ★★ John thanks the Project for Awesome team, saying their work is a year-round thing, and he is proud to work with such amazing people on such an amazing project every year. — 04:23:12 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Showing the P4A shirt, John jokes that the giant squid came upon Earth and solved all their problems by uniting humanity: the giant squid of 2026. (joke) — 04:25:40 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John thanks Hank for joining when he did and giving the livestream a big boost, because John was flagging a little. — 04:26:56 · Hank Green
  • ★ Hank says Katherine has a cold and he has one too, perhaps caught from her, during the P4A. — 04:26:56 · Katherine Green, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Chat's "we're here because we're here because we're here" always makes John emotional, as it makes him think of his great friend Amy Krouse Rosenthal. — 04:27:41
  • ★ The Nerdfighter art perk officially sells out during the 2026 Project for Awesome. — 04:27:41 · Nerdfighteria, Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank says leftover mystery signed 2024 posters, quotes from guests designed by Kenton Hoppas, are still available as perks. — 04:28:49
  • ★★ Hank says more than $100,000 in unmatched dollars has been raised since he sat down. — 04:30:27

04:31:34 — Hank's Threads post and Instagram; a straight line up on the graph; Pretzel Tube; Hank's perks; ideas for the 20th P4A

  • ★★ Hank wants to know that time invested in a social media platform can lead to an outcome he cares about, like the Project for Awesome doing better, and thinks the answer is no. — 04:31:57 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank: One viewer in chat says they came from Hank's Threads post, and Hank celebrates. (playful) — 04:32:54
  • ★★ Hank says Destin asked him the day before, with surprise, whether he still has Instagram on his phone, leaving Hank to wonder whether they are not doing that anymore. — 04:34:15 · Instagram
  • ★★ John says he still has Instagram on his phone though he does not want to; he knows it is bad for him, like cigarettes, which he smoked for a long time and took a long time to quit. — 04:34:38 · Instagram
  • ★★ Hank says that this morning the 2026 P4A was about $100,000 behind earlier years, and now it has caught up and shot past. — 04:35:19 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank thinks the late surge shows many people waited until the last possible second to donate, as he did himself. — 04:35:19
  • ★ Reading a poll on whether people will join Jared's new social media platform, Pretzel Tube, John tells Hank he knows it is Hank's dream to make one, because Hank loves drama and misery in his life. (joke) — 04:36:41 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John explains that digital perks come over the year, like signing up for a streaming service that releases a couple of pieces of content per month; the Dear Hank and John episode needs viewers' questions first. — 04:38:31 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★ John calls the last two hours the most stunning in the Project for Awesome's history. — 04:38:31 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank gets the commemorative coin, the sticker pack and the digital download bundle as his own perks. — 04:39:48
  • ★★ John says next year (2027) will be the 20th Project for Awesome and asks for fun, silly, nostalgic ideas, such as bringing back the best perks of past digital download bundles or every year's mascot. — 04:41:09 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says the Project for Awesome is truly one of the oldest fundraisers and is more powerful than ever. — 04:41:47 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank: For the 20th P4A, Hank suggests calling YouTube's head honchos to bring back the most discussed page for one day, hard-coded to show only Project for Awesome videos. (playful) — 04:41:47 · YouTube, Project for Awesome

04:43:36 — Orin arrives; $4 million within reach; the baked beans bean; 7,000 in chat; $200,000 since Hank sat down

  • ★ Hank's son Orin comes into the room and heads straight for the shelf on the other wall. — 04:43:36 · Orin Green
  • ★★ At $72,000 short of $4 million, John thinks they will get there, probably not on the livestream but eventually. — 04:47:28 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says Focus Friend users can get the baked beans bean, and that money also goes to the Project for Awesome; John thanks him for making a bean just for the P4A. — 04:48:58 · Focus Friend, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says 7,000 people are in chat, which he believes is the most in about ten years. (hedged) — 04:51:22
  • ★★ Hank: As the 2026 P4A passes $1.7 million on Tiltify, Hank says $200,000 has been raised since he arrived. — 04:53:15 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says he thought $3.9 million was the stretch goal, but now there is a real possibility of reaching $4 million in the next twelve minutes. — 04:56:46

04:57:24 — The 2026 P4A passes $4 million on stream; how the money is shared; thanks and sign-off

  • ★★★ The 2026 Project for Awesome passes $4 million during the livestream, reaching $4,018,000: the first time the P4A ever came near $4 million, they blew past it. — 04:59:42 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank says that as a professional Project for Awesome pay-attentioner he had said they would not get to $4 million, and then they did. (playful) — 05:01:25 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ John also did not think they would reach $4 million and was trying to manage expectations, but they did it with eight minutes to spare. — 05:01:25
  • ★★ Hank says 56,924 votes for charities have been cast at projectforawesome.com. — 05:01:54 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank explains how the money works: it all goes into the Foundation to Decrease World Suck; after paying perk shipping costs, half the pool goes to Partners In Health and Save the Children and half is shared among the organizations voted for at projectforawesome.com, and the Foundation zeroes out its bank account every year. — 05:03:22 · Foundation to Decrease World Suck, Partners In Health, Save the Children, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John thanks Nerdfighteria for being an astonishment and says never to underestimate it. — 05:04:09 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says that two hours earlier the 2026 P4A stood at $3.2 million, and now it is at $4.03 million. — 05:05:38 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says about $70,000 was raised in the ten minutes before the $4 million mark. — 05:06:27 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says everyone who gave, $1,000 or $5, made it happen together: it was not one person. — 05:06:48
  • ★ Signing off from the livestream, John says Hank is going for a walk and John is going for a nap. — 05:08:24

Humor (significant)

  • Alice pats foundation onto John's face hard — 02:27:01

    “It's like being hit by Henry.”

  • Asked whether he has had fishing boat proceeds yet, John explains the economics of his friend's boat — 03:15:26

    “It's easy enough to have fishing boat investments.”

  • A donor votes that the fish having the land is the best thing about 2027, and Hank trusts the fish — 03:35:03

    “Can't mess up land without hands. They all had signs at the protests.”

  • John says Hank will keep moving to whatever platform comes next — 03:41:51

    “I think it's going to be Jared's vibe-coded pretzel factory. He accidentally made it into a content platform.”

  • Writing donors' names backwards on his face for the camera the night before — 04:11:43

    “i thought dan was such a short name and i wrote nad on my face”

  • The brothers say humanity banded together to fight the squid on the P4A shirt, just like in Watchmen — 04:26:07

    “Sometimes you need a shared enemy, Hank. And for us, it was the giant squid of 2026.”

  • John explains that the bandana loca celebrates the banana loca, a device that allows you to insert almost anything into a banana — 04:29:45

    “Almost was doing a lot of work there.”

  • John credits Hank's Threads post for getting them over $4 million — 05:00:10

    “You know, I'm a professional thread strategist.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Project for Awesome

Also: People: Alice Green · Amy Krouse Rosenthal · Bo Burnham · Charlotte McDonnell · Corrine Brown · Destin Sandlin · E. Lockhart · Harry Styles · Henry Green · Katherine Green · Kathleen DeVere · Kenton Hoppas · Kurt Vonnegut · Lil Yachty · Orin Green · Rosianna Halse Rojas · Sara Sandoval · Sarah Urist Green · Stan Muller · Tessa Violet · Tyler Thrasher

Projects: Animal Wonders · Dear Hank and John · DFTBA Records · Foundation to Decrease World Suck · Keats & Co. · Pizzamas · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Works: FIFA (video game series) · Focus Friend · Fortnite · Galápagos · Hank's book about cancer and cancer biology (untitled here) · Hanklerfish · Like Letters · Looking for Alaska (novel) · The Fault in Our Stars · Watchmen · We Were Liars · We're Here Because We're Here · Zombicorns

Organizations: Bluesky · Creative Commons · Instagram · Maternal Center of Excellence · Ministry of Health and Sanitation (Sierra Leone) · Partners In Health · Rax Restaurants · Save the Children · Steak 'n Shake · This Star Won't Go Out (charity) · Threads · TikTok · Tiltify · Tumblr · YouTube

Groups: Drawfee

Terms: fishing boat proceeds

Concepts: art · attention economy · Caesarean section · cancer · collective action · community health worker · crowdfunding · crowdsourcing · fan fiction · giant squid · labyrinthitis · maternal death · neonatal intensive care unit · pacifism · recommender system · refugee · romantic love · Worry

Places: Alabama · Cheyenne, Wyoming (city) · Galápagos Islands · Kokomo, Indiana · Kono District · Lesotho · Montana · Sierra Leone · South Dakota · Washington, DC

Events: Olympic Games

Characters: Jarrod · Ron Weasley · Self-Care Bunny

Products: Banana Loca

animal: Potato (animal) · Willy

Only in the description or credits: John Lee · Laura Chernikoff · Lindsay Ballantyne · Rachel Calderon Navarro · Sari Riley

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