Cat Meows and Feeling Stuck

AuthorAuthor

Payton Mitchell & Hank Green
February 07, 2025

Hello everyone,

I am OVERWHELMED. I'm being told about 10 ways that the foundations are my country are being eroded PER DAY while also being told that me feeling overwhelmed is the point but, like, the fact that it's working doesn't make me feel any better. If you haven't, I do think you should watch Ezra Klein's "Don't Believe Him" on YouTube. I don't know if anyone has a good grasp on the moment, but Ezra seems like a better source of information and analysis than the screaming on my feeds (and the whimpering of my brain).

The world, of course, also marches on, and it is worth celebrating two things right now.

First, in 2017, Doctors Without Borders set a target price for the tuberculosis medication bedaquiline that everyone thought was absurd. The goal was to make that drug available to way more people because it's a very important medicine in treating drug-resistant TB. But the price target, around $90 for a full course of treatment (which involves many hundreds of pills) was seen as entirely unattainable. Well, in part because Nerdfighteria fought to stop Johnson & Johnson from artificially re-upping its patent on the medicine, that "impossible" price target has now been met. It's a 54% reduction in the price SINCE 2023!!

A lot of people are going to live longer, healthier lives because of this.

And the second piece of good news is that, thank the Lord, the Project for Awesome is just a week away. I'm always a little overwhelmed by the P4A, of course, but I am just so excited about it this year because I just want to focus on doing good and being in community with folks. Tomorrow is the last day to submit videos! You can find out how to get involved at projectforawesome.com.

Hank

You can always email us at [email protected]

This Week in Stuff

Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]

Global average life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900

Bastian Herre

We can expect to live more than twice as long as our ancestors in 1900.

As the chart shows, global average life expectancy was just 32 years at the beginning of the 20th century.

This was a short life by today’s standards: in 2023, the average life expectancy had increased to 73 years. That’s 41 years longer.

This remarkable increase is due to improved living standards, like better nutrition and sanitation, and advances in healthcare, such as antibiotics and vaccines.

While large declines in child mortality have been crucial, they have not been the only reason for the increase in life expectancy; it has increased across all ages.

Our World in Data is a UK-based non-profit organization that publishes research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. You can find more of their data insights here.

This Week at Complexly

The octopus is a pretty odd animal under even the most ordinary circumstances – or ordinary by octopus standards, at least. So when folks start calling out one type of octopus as the strangest, there’s probably something special about it. And the argonaut, also known as the paper nautilus, lives up to the hype.

Every day, airplanes fly over the Panama-Colombia border and drop millions of flies from the sky. It's part of an intense effort to control a deadly pest called screwworms, and believe it or not, it works.

Some Games to Play!

Battleships (by Luke Rissacher)

SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)

Download Gubbins on iOS or Android!

This Gubbins postcard was made by Sarah. Send yours to [email protected]

If you post your results on social media, we’d love it if you post a link for folks to subscribe to “We’re Here” (https://werehere.beehiiv.com/subscribe)

Letters to our future selves

Last week, we asked you to write a letter to your future self. Thank you to everyone who shared your letter with us!

Dear You,

I hope you're doing alright. I hope you're hanging in there. I hope you're surviving. All of these are wonderful news to me...because it means you're here. There. Something like that. I love you. Do you love me too? This letter is your permission to have a little treat. It's on me ;)

Love, Me

Kaylee

Hey love,

I hope you’re ok. The future looks a little scary from back here in 2025. I try to look forward to see you, but it’s so hazy.

This was the season that you got really into EPP and made a lap quilt for Grandmother. I hope she liked it and got lots of time to cuddle under it, a hug to always remind her of your love.

I do love that about you, that you’re always creating things, trying new things, and making things for others. I love that you’re always looking for ways to spread comfort and love. I hope you have some comfort and love in your life when you read this. But if you don’t feel like you have enough, remember you can ask the people you love. And if that’s not enough, you can make your own.

Past Sj planted all the crocus bulbs in the yard. That’s hope! And now, I am starting to see a few of them poke up their little heads. That’s progress! I hope that when you read this, the whole backyard is full of flowers for your birthday, a lovely carpet of color.

Remember that summer when it all got Really Bad? And we stomped out into the yard to plant sunflowers in the rain? We lived to see those flowers bloom and so, so many more.

I will plant flowers for you. We will hold on to this thread of hope.

Sj

Hi there,

I'm not really sure which future self this letter is going to, but I want it to go to the self that has accomplished the goals I have in mind now. Or maybe the self that's exactly half way to finishing those goals, and say "Woah! You're half way! Keep it up!" I'm so proud of you for keeping up the effort - it hasn't been easy, but hopefully it's gotten easier with practice. And I know you're proud of me for starting now. And we're both going easy on the self that didn't start earlier. Some of these goals might not really have an ending, but I'm proud of every future self that dedicates time to it. I guess that means I'm also proud of myself today :)

See you soon

Rachel

At age 12 I wrote a letter to my (17 yo) self saying lots of things, but among them was the line "I don't know where I'll end up or how I'll get there, but I know I'll like the view". Flash forward a few years; I'm 28, and touring around the US looking for postdoctoral research jobs, feeling really nervous about my future. So I wrote a song about that feeling and the places I was seeing, and folded in that lyric from my 12 year old song into the chorus!

Ben

Today, I cried over the Scooby socks while going through the dresser to sort donations. I put the socks in the crawl space with the other clothing that is no longer usable, but I just cannot bear to part with.

Two years from now, if you still have those socks, please know that it is okay to hold on to things because it’s not actually about the socks.

Two years from now, if you no longer have the socks, please know that that is also okay because it’s not actually about the socks.

Katie

That’s all, folks!

Is there a Project for Awesome livestream moment you love to think back on? Is there a recurring P4A bit you always look forward to? Tell us about your favorite P4A things!

If you’ve never participated in P4A, you have SO MUCH to look forward to! You can check out some highlights from last year’s livestream here. 

Send your P4A thoughts to [email protected]

We're Here is the newsletter of Nerdfighteria; the community of people that sprung up around Hank and John Green's YouTube videos. That community has many focuses and has spawned many projects but the overarching theme is that hopelessness is the wrong response to imperfection. What makes the world better is groups of people trying to understand and solve problems, and people can only do that for an extended period if they're having at least a little bit of fun.

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