- We're Here
- Posts
- Finding Energy and Important Benches
Finding Energy and Important Benches
Payton Mitchell & Hank Green
March 07, 2025
Hello!
A few people wrote last week to say they wanted to hear more good ways to find energy in the world and how I've been thinking about that.
When I was sick, I experienced, for the first time in my life, a prolonged period of not being sure why I would do anything at all (in a bad way). All of the stuff I had done over the years that I thought was obviously worth my time, seemed obviously not worth my time. This felt objectively true to me. I believed it even though it was a very unpleasant thing to believe. And, look, even now, I don't have a bunch of rational reasons why it was wrong. All I know is, I'm not here on this Earth to be miserable. When my mind and body say, "THIS THING IS GOOD AND WE SHOULD KEEP DOING IT," and it's not hurting me or anyone else, I think… let’s do it!
You'll be unsurprised to hear that there are many things like this in my professional life—solving a hard problem, finding a great collaborator, getting a bunch of views, raising a bunch of money, and more. But I recently challenged myself to start listing out things that bring me energy and joy for life that aren't about professional accomplishment.
I found that there are quite a lot of them, like making people laugh, laughing, a very good story, a very catchy song, dancing to the very catchy song, walking in the sunshine, swimming in the rain, a cat, a very good cup of tea, finding out something new, looking up close, telling old stories, a second (or even third) cat.
I need energy to drive me into life, because life also draws energy out. Energy in, energy out.
Hank
You can always email us at [email protected]
This Week in Stuff
John spoke with Madhukar Pai about Everything Is Tuberculosis and our current historical moment.
A TikTok user celebrated their guinea pig by squeaking Happy Birthday.
Simon Clark explained how much progress we’ve made on climate change.
Jack Ciapciak told the story of a bench that became a landmark in his life.
WeRateDogs posted the first episode of The Dogs Were Good Again podcast.
You can watch speakers at the Washington DC Stand Up for Science rally live today, March 7th. Learn more and get involved!
Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]
Many Europeans say their nations are on the wrong track with housing
Simon van Teutem
The Ipsos Housing Monitor 2025 surveyed people across 30 countries, asking: “In general, do you think that your country is on the right track or the wrong track when it comes to housing?”.
The chart shows results for European countries, where housing prices dipped after the 2008 global financial crisis, before starting to rise again around 2013, with particularly large increases since 2015.
The Netherlands and Spain stand out, with nearly 80% believing their country is on the wrong track.
People in Poland and Sweden are less concerned than in other countries. But even in these nations, the majority feels like their country is on the wrong track.
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
Welcome to Crash Course Sex Ed! Over 15 episodes, sexologist Shan Boodram will introduce you to the fascinating, wildly diverse, and utterly normal realm of human sexuality. We'll explore the usual suspects: penises, vulvas, STIs, and pregnancy. But we’ll also answer questions about orgasms, consent, masturbation, blue balls, and more.
Along the way, we’ll also talk about how society influences what we think, what we do, and how we feel about getting it on. Like, why isn’t there a male birth control pill? What makes somebody kinky? And is virginity really a thing?
Check out the course preview now on YouTube, and join us on 3/13 for episode 1!
SciShow’s favorite band ÉKLEIPSIS returns this year to celebrate the upcoming total lunar eclipse that’s happening on March 14th. This year’s ÉKLEIPSIS shirt celebrates their newly announced upcoming album Blood Moon.
This shirt is only available until April 18th!
 |  |
Some Games to Play!
SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)
This Gubbins postcard was made by Jenna. 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)
What if you could teleport?!
Last week, we asked where you’d go and what you’d do if you could teleport anywhere in the world for a day. Thanks to everyone who sent us their teleportation itinerary!
I would teleport to my sister's house. She just bought it back in the fall and I've only been able to visit once since then. I'd stay for the day and help her paint the walls or tend to the yard and I'd give her pet pig some belly rubs.
Assuming you can only teleport somewhere you could actually survive, I would say CERN. I’ve been once before and it was amazing so I would love to visit again and just look around. If I could go absolutely anywhere on earth and was able to survive through some magical means I would choose the bottom of the Mariana Trench for the sole reason I think it would be cool, nothing more complicated than that.
I would teleport to my girlfriend, who lives far away and is going through a hard time at the moment. I would hold her and prep a ton of meals to fill her fridge. That's about it.
Aspen Colorado, just sit on a bench, drink some coffee, do some reading, listen to some music, and take in the mountains.
If I could teleport anywhere for one day, I'd go to Australia. I have an online friend there that I've known for six years. We're great friends but live on complete opposite sides of the world so have obviously never met in real life. I'd teleport to his town to visit him for a day, and just hang out.
Being over 9 thousand kilometers away from my home country of El Salvador, you might think I'd go back home. Instead, I think I would pay visit to our neighbors in Honduras, and go to the beautiful caribbean island of Roatán. In some sense, I'm always yearning for a sand so white, for a water so clear, or for a sky so blue. But the best part by far was always that embracing, comforting heat, that I only ever find in those beaches where I used to spend my childhood vacations. I think of that the most during winter's cold grey mornings. I love it here too, but if I can teleport for a day, I would do so in the name of the years when I hadn't yet discovered winter. That's more than home enough.
I'd love to teleport somewhere with beautiful scenery and pleasant temperature BUT I don't want to know where I am. For one day, being completely cut off from my daily life, with no idea of where I am in relation to where I come from, being left to just explore this unknown landscape, would be lovely I think.
I just moved as far across the world as you can get from my home for graduate school, so I'd teleport back to see my partner and my cats. We'd spend the day snuggling on the couch with blankets and books
I would teleport to Scotland and frolic through the moors, then take a train to London to see a play at The Globe Theater, and end the day with high tea inappropriately late in the evening.
I would teleport to Athens, Greece because my oldest son is doing a study-abroad semester there right now. I would spend the day letting him take me wherever he wanted me to go. I'm assuming we would do the Acropolis and eat some gyros. Maybe go to the fresh market. It would be a grand adventure!
What are some things that build up your energy for life?
Send your energizers to [email protected]
Reply