Lies, Damn Lies, and Bart Giamatti

2026-05-12 · letter vlog · John · 4:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self correction

John tells Hank that for over 20 years he said his 1999 Kenyon commencement speaker was Bart Giamatti, who died in 1989 (it was Fay Vincent); memory is not a recording, flashbulb memories only feel accurate, and we do well to remember that we can't remember accurately.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — A livestream remark sends John to Wikipedia: his remembered commencement speaker Bart Giamatti was Paul Giamatti's father

★★ John says he graduated from Kenyon College in 1999 and for over 20 years has told people his commencement speaker was former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti. — 00:00:00
★ John explains that once a month he and Hank host a livestream for Dear Hank and John supporters, talking and answering questions perhaps too transparently. — 00:00:10 · Dear Hank and John
★★ Talking on the livestream about giving Rice University's commencement address, John named Giamatti as his speaker; someone marvelled that Paul Giamatti's dad spoke, so John checked Wikipedia. — 00:00:20 · Wikipedia
★★ John finds that Bart Giamatti, the seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball, was indeed the father of actor Paul Giamatti. — 00:00:29
★★ John says he remembers a fair amount of the address, such as the speaker opening with a joke that there are only two kinds of commencement speeches, short and bad. — 00:00:45

00:00:58 — John learns Bart Giamatti died in 1989; his actual 1999 speaker was Fay Vincent

★★★ John learns Bart Giamatti died in office in 1989, so he never gave the Kenyon address in 1999 and was never a former commissioner. — 00:01:27
★★★ John later worked out that his actual commencement speaker was Fay Vincent, the eighth commissioner of Major League Baseball, who made the short-and-bad joke. — 00:01:47
★ John says Fay Vincent was a movie producer before becoming commissioner and produced, he thinks, Tootsie. (hedged) — 00:01:56
★★ John says memory is a slippery beast, especially his own, which always fills in holes with narratives. — 00:02:10

00:02:26 — Memory as fallible impressions: flashbulb memories, salient stories, a line from his own book, and the sign-off

★★ John recalls Mark Twain's line that trouble comes not from what you don't know but from what you know for sure that just ain't so. — 00:02:35
★★ John says the Giamatti episode made him a little less nervous giving the commencement address at Rice University this weekend. — 00:02:44
★★★ John says the episode reminds him to hold his memories less tightly, as fallible impressions rather than an unchanging record: memory is not like a recording device. — 00:02:55
★★★ John says studies have shown that even vivid memories can be unreliable. — 00:03:08
★★ John says flashbulb memories of important events (such as a national tragedy or a college graduation) are no more reliable than others; as one study put it, they are special only in perceived accuracy. — 00:03:20
★★★ John says knowing we can be wrong is essential for the adult mind, because believing we are invulnerable to misinformation and misremembering makes us more vulnerable to it. — 00:03:30
★★ John says humans construct stories that make sense even when they may not reflect what actually happened. — 00:03:40
★★ John suggests his memory stored Bart Giamatti because it is a better name than Fay Vincent: more salient, more sensible, more pleasing to the brain. (playful) — 00:03:53
★ John reminds Hank that he does not reread his books and dislikes thinking of them as present-tense things rather than his past. — 00:04:05
★★★ John quotes a line he wrote 21 years ago that has been on his mind: you don't remember what happened; what you remember becomes what happened. — 00:04:22

“You don't remember what happened. What you remember becomes what happened.”
★★★ John says he doesn't think we can remember accurately, but we do ourselves and the world a favor when we try to remember that we can't. — 00:04:27

In the description and comments

★★ The description invites viewers to join the Dear Hank and John Patreon for more accidental dishonesty. — video description · Dear Hank and John

Humor (significant)

John cannot believe the acclaimed actor could be a baseball commissioner's son — 00:00:29

“Paul Giamatti is a nepo baby of the son of the seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball variety”
John lists what his real speaker, Fay Vincent, told him — 00:01:56

“Faye Vincent told me to never give up and never surrender.”
After the Tootsie detail, John sums up baseball's commissioners — 00:01:56

“A very strange bunch Major League Baseball Commissioners.”
John renames the speaker he misremembered for 20 years with his death year — 00:02:26

“Bart died in 1989 Giamatti”
John was less nervous at Rice because graduates misremember their speaker anyway — 00:02:44

“half these people are going to remember their commencement speaker as noted internet celebrity Hank Green anyway”

Threads in this video

first on record · Can people trust their own memories? — John says the episode reminds him to hold his memories less tightly, as fallible impressions rather than an unchanging record: memory is not like a recording device. (00:02:55)

Mentioned

Central: Bart Giamatti · Fay Vincent · Reconstructive memory

Also: People: Mark Twain · Paul Giamatti · Winston Churchill

Projects: Dear Hank and John

Works: Tootsie

Organizations: Kenyon College · Major League Baseball · Rice University · Wikipedia · Yale University

Concepts: flashbulb memory · Intellectual humility · misinformation · narrative fallacy

Events: September 11 attacks

Only in the description or credits: Lies, damned lies, and statistics · Patreon

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