Cat Whiskers and Anxieties

AuthorAuthor

Payton Mitchell & John Green
October 11, 2024

Hello!

Greetings from the Indianapolis Airport, where I find myself more and more these days. I'm traveling a lot, mostly to talk about tuberculosis but in this case for a family vacation. Yesterday was the seventh (!?!?!?!) anniversary of the publication of my novel Turtles All the Way Down, and I've been thinking a lot this week about how my writing life has and hasn't changed since then. I've mostly written nonfiction since Turtles came out—that book felt like the end of a certain kind of fiction writing for me, like the culmination of the previous twelve years of writing stories. But now, as I approach (and it is approaching!) the announcement of a new nonfiction book, I am finally starting to miss writing made-up stories again.

For the past several years, I've felt like I didn't know what I could or should do in the world of make-believe, but lately, I've been writing fiction simply because it's pleasurable, because there is a big part of me that still enjoys playing with words and trying to make stories real through those words. I used to have a lot of fancy ideas about why we write stories, but at the moment I think I'm writing one because it is merely, wondrously, thrillingly fun.

I hope you're having a bit of fun wherever you are in the world this week.

John

You can always email us at [email protected]

This Week in Stuff

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

Democracy is still young in most countries considered democratic today

Bastian Herre

Most electoral democracies are younger than the oldest people who live in them.

The chart shows that almost two dozen democracies are younger than 18 — as young as the children in these countries. Others are only as old as their young adults. This is based on data from Regimes of the World.

In these younger democracies, most people have experienced life under authoritarian rule, and older people lacked democratic political rights for most of their lives.

A larger group of countries have been electoral democracies for one to three generations. In these countries, children and young adults have only known life in a democracy, but their parents and grandparents have experienced non-democratic rule.

Only ten countries have been democratic for more than 90 years. In these places, democracy is older than almost all of their citizens.

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 Eons team's favorite holiday is coming up: National Fossil Day is October 16! To celebrate, let's play National Fossil Day Bingo! In signature Eons style, we've devised a fun, lightly-competitive scavenger hunt and bingo game to truly get into the Fossil Day spirit. Follow us on social media to get your Fossil Day bingo board and compete for the honor of sharing Kallie's coveted title of Champion of Deep Time.

Study Hall fall courses start next week! If you enjoy fall and want them to stay around a few more decades, consider taking our new sustainability course. Learn how to apply sustainability principles to environmental, social, and economic challenges, while working toward a more equitable and resilient future!

You could also learn the basics of human communication, refresh your pre-civil war US history knowledge, or sharpen your math skills - all while earning college credit! Preview the course material on the Study Hall YouTube channel and join an online class led by ASU professors for just $25.

Courses start next Wednesday, October 16th. Learn more at studyhall.com!

Some Games to Play!

SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)

Download Gubbins on iOS or Android!

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

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The things we’re collecting

Last week, we asked you to tell us about what you collect. Thanks to everyone who emailed us!

I collect my cats fallen whiskers. I started when my cat was a baby, and lost his first whisker, and now he's 9 and I have a BUNCH.

Larissa

It is not terribly unique but I collect magnets from countries and other places that I've traveled to! -Emily

I have two main collections: anxieties and random items vaguely related to Leonhard Euler. I actually inherited both collections from my father, but I prefer one over the other.

Tori

You could say I collect a lot of things: glass bottles, hobbies, and art videos. But my favorite thing to collect is stories. fake, real, happy, sad all of them.

Hailey

My dad is Welsh so when I was younger and we would visit our family in Wales, I would get a Welsh lovespoon. My siblings and friends, unable to get me Welsh lovespoons in the US, would instead give me different unique spoons as gifts. I love them all so much and so my collection went from specifically Welsh lovespoons to awesome spoons in general. -Abby

I'm a freshman in college this year, and I've been slowly collecting ingredients in our tiny dorm kitchen. I like people being in our dorm, and I like that I'm creating a place where people can eat together, even though the only thing I can cook is breakfast. I've slowly been acquiring more and more supplies, and broadening what I can make. It's nice being able to pick, so deliberately, the things that occupy that limited space.

Kit

I used to have a large collection of rubber duckies and they all had their names written on the bottom. I have dwindled my collection down in recent years (because I have to share space with my husband, toddler, dog, and two cats) to just some favorites/special memory ones. I donated a bunch to my preschool class for water play. My favorites are a pair of purple devil duck earrings named Fred and George.

Shannon

I collect dice. Shiny math rocks make the click clacks. This isn’t even all of them. -Nathan

For my eighth birthday, my grandfather gave me one of those mid-size manila mailing envelopes covered in random stamps and filled to the brim with “birthday” cards. Some of those cards were indeed birthday cards, but many others were, in true ecclectic grandpa fashion, cards for other occasions and seasons that he had modified to become birthday cards. With a sharpie, he had crudely crossed out letters and words, written in new ones, and made other edits as needed. I’ve held onto every birthday card I’ve received since then to add to the collection! I hope someday to display them all on a wall somewhere meaningful in my home.

Jaylin

Recently I have started to collect acorns. I live in an area which has a lot of different oak trees, and I pass by many of them on my daily walking commute. Everytime I see a nice looking acorn, I pick it up, polish it, and bring it home to my acorn jar. I have all sorts of shapes and sizes, and each one has a slightly different pattern and color, which I think is fascinating! I love my new acorn collection!

Ayelet

That’s the end of the newsletter!

Tell us about your favorite holiday. Do you have any traditions you look forward to? Is there a special childhood memory you look back on fondly? Let us know!

Send your holiday cheer 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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