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My Lungs Are on the Outside of the Body

2026-10-13 · Q&A · John, Hank · 7:25 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Personal life, Nerdfighteria, Science & nature) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab, community lore

Exhausted at the end of his 20-city Hollywood, Ending tour, John is joined by Hank for a reunion Q&A: Juniper or Kai, a sequel to The Anthropocene Reviewed, art as making something better than it needs to be, the 30,000 people John met on tour, lungs as a sack of outside, a favorite poem, boats and Orlando.

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's exhaustion after his longest tour; Hank sets up a reunion video

  • ★★ John tells Hank he is very tired: not the worst he has ever felt, but the worst he has ever felt while healthy. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says his Hollywood, Ending tour is the longest tour he has ever done: 20 cities and 20 hotel rooms in 21 days. — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★ Hank announces that the brothers will make a reunion video that is "so reunion". (playful) — 00:00:00 · Reunion video
  • ★ Asked which brother is more of a Juniper and which more of a Kai, John says Hank is more of a Juniper and he is more of a Kai. — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending

00:00:41 — Juniper or Kai and ambition; horse or cabbage; Pleistocene Reviewed and an Anthropocene Reviewed sequel; chips; last photos

  • ★★ Hank: Feeling complimented to be likened to Juniper, Hank sees himself as a professional in his craft and says people, especially with young women, act as if ambition is bad, but wanting to make good art is good. — 00:00:41
  • ★★ John says many people on his tour asked why he hasn't written a sequel to The Anthropocene Reviewed; he wants to ask why they want a sequel to his least commercially successful project. (playful) — 00:01:09 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
  • ★ The last photo John took was of Brandon Sanderson. — 00:01:09

00:01:52 — Hank's P4A Hanklerfish practice; art as better than it needs to be; Hank's Target punishment day

  • ★★ Hank's photo before the one of the pillow tripod was of a Project for Awesome Hanklerfish he is making; he is practicing to see what he might make. — 00:01:52 · Project for Awesome, Hanklerfish

  • ★★★ John says we should think of more of what we put into the world as art, like a home-cooked meal or a hand-knitted sweater: turning Earth's raw materials into something transformational and better than it needs to be is art. — 00:01:52 · Hanklerfish

    “transformational and better than it needs to be. That is art.”

  • ★★ Hank calls "better than it needs to be" an interesting definition of art; while not defining art, he likes it as a guide. — 00:02:22

  • ★★ Hank: Asked his favorite part of his day of punishment in Target, Hank recalls a nerdfighter coming to the Target's Starbucks (not yet a Starbucks then) with little penguin art (as heard) for him: a nerdfighter gathering of three. — 00:02:22 · Punishment, Nerdfighteria

00:02:51 — The 30,000 people John met on tour; the sneezing person; best city; Uncrustables on tour

  • ★★★ John says he met 30,000 people on his Hollywood, Ending tour and enjoyed it so much; too tired to take it in yet, he will spend much of his life buoyed by the last month. — 00:02:51 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★ After a sudden sneeze during the lightning question, John says he met the "sneezing is never normal" person on tour. (playful) — 00:03:19
  • ★★ Having been from Maine to Florida to Idaho to Southern California in the last month, John says the best city in North America by a country mile is Indianapolis, where all his people are. (playful) — 00:04:07 · Indianapolis, Florida
  • ★ Hank names Missoula, Montana as the best city in North America. (playful) — 00:04:07 · Missoula, Montana
  • ★★ John's publicist Elyse Marshall Pfeiffer, to whom Hollywood, Ending is dedicated, loves Uncrustables, so every tour stop has them; John eats the leftovers, even five, right before bed. — 00:04:07 · Hollywood, Ending

00:04:43 — Lungs as a sack of outside; the alternate-universe brothers

  • ★★ Hank: Asked whether lungs are inside or outside the body, Hank says lungs are a sack of outside carried inside: nothing closes them off from the outside air. — 00:04:43

00:05:19 — Favorite poem, Berryman by W.S. Merwin; favorite boats

  • ★★ John says his favorite poem right now is Berryman by W.S. Merwin, which ends with the advice that a writer can never be sure the work is any good and dies without knowing: if you have to be sure, do not write; better to be unsure than to not write. — 00:05:19
  • ★ John says his favorite boat is the one that "bears us back ceaselessly into the past" even though we are rowing. (playful) — 00:05:48
  • ★ Hank's favorite boat is from Scuppers the Sailor Dog, which bears him back endlessly into the past. — 00:05:48

00:06:20 — Orlando, raising kids to leave the nest, Alice and college; sign-off

  • ★★ John's favorite thing about Orlando, Florida is the people he loves who live there; his second favorite thing about it is nothing. (playful) — 00:06:20
  • ★★ When his kids ask why he is raising them in Indianapolis, John tells them it is important to want to be launched from the nest and go somewhere else. — 00:06:20 · Indianapolis
  • ★ John asks Alice whether she wants to go to college in Indianapolis; she says no, and doesn't know where: Paris, Des Moines, London. (playful) — 00:06:56 · Alice Green, Indianapolis
  • ★★ John says that by the time the video comes out he will be sitting in a chair staring into the middle distance until his body comes back into his body. — 00:06:56

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description John calls his Hollywood, Ending tour a pure joy and the gift of a lifetime, saying he didn't get tired until about the 19th day. — video description · Hollywood, Ending

Humor (significant)

  • Asked how he is, the exhausted John answers honestly. — 00:00:00

    “This is not the worst I've ever felt, but it's the worst I've ever felt healthy.”

  • After choosing cabbage over horse to eat, they imagine a book and podcast reviewing only the Pleistocene. — 00:01:09

    “That's a significantly better idea than The Anthropocene Reviewed, too.”

  • A sudden sneeze interrupts the question about the shape of lightning. — 00:03:19

    “That's weird. That's not normal.”

  • John eats the leftover Uncrustables before bed; Hank asks what if there are five. — 00:04:07

    “Then I eat five, Hank.”

  • Learning that nothing closes his lungs off from the outside air, John is horrified. — 00:04:43

    “Oh, my God, my lungs are on the outside of my body.”

  • Imagining alternate-universe brothers, they make Hank an old-school stand-up comedian of about 65. — 00:05:19

    “He's like, take my wife, please.”

  • Asked the best thing about Orlando, one brother praises its spelling. — 00:06:20

    “I like a place where it's got two O's.”

  • Asked where she wants to go to college, Alice lists her options. — 00:06:56

    “Paris? Des Moines? London?”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: art

Also: People: Alice Green · Brandon Sanderson · Elyse Marshall

Projects: Project for Awesome

Works: Berryman · Hanklerfish · Hollywood, Ending · Scuppers the Sailor Dog · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · The Great Gatsby

Organizations: Starbucks · Target Corporation

Rituals: Punishment · Reunion video

Places: Florida · Idaho · Indianapolis · Maine · Missoula, Montana · North America · Orlando, Florida · Southern California

Characters: Juniper · Kai

Products: Uncrustables

Only in the description or credits: W. S. Merwin

Also centred on art: The Point of Life · the most powerful attention-consuming tools in the history of the world · Make Your Art.

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