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Podcasts and P4A

Podcasts and P4A

Hank Green & Payton Mitchell
January 17, 2025

Hello!

Good god, y'all...what a week. Bizarrely, as a true ceasefire is finally signed, AND we prepare to start the next four years of another Trump presidency, AND a spaceship breaks apart and burns up over the Caribbean, AND Los Angeles continues to grapple with fire, many people around me are most focused on whether TikTok is about to go away in the US. As of this email, the Supreme Court has upheld the ban, but there are still a number of ways this could go.

And, like, I think that actually makes a lot of sense. I have spent a long time arguing that internet platforms are much more than we think they are. For creators, especially, but also for many users, they are places where we live a substantial portion of our lives. I remember talking to Viners who were completely in disbelief that this thing that had been such a huge part of their lives for so long could just be...gone.

I do not think that we have a good understanding of how impactful these platforms are in the world. "Social media platform" seems extremely antiquated, like a term from another time. But the only word I can think of that actually makes sense to me is "place." TikTok is a place that contains many places, and some of those places feel like they are mine. Without that understanding, we also don't have good rules for what to do with them. I think that the lack of good rules extends all the way to the Constitution, but I also think it is inside of me.

I've realized over the last four years that I need to be more careful with the places I choose to inhabit (hence me mostly leaving Twitter), and we all collectively need to be better stewards of those places. I don't know what that looks like, but I'm confident we will a hundred years from now.

Seems like it's gonna be a messy hundred years, though.

In the meantime, the Project for Awesome is here for us. I have just posted a video about how things will change this year. (They always change a little!)

The Project for Awesome, I think, is also a kind of place and I am excited to see you there.

Hank

You can always email us at [email protected]

This Week in Stuff

Hank was featured in After the Fact by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Charlie, a Nerdfighter, created a song called Stingray Shuffle using audio from Delete This.
Essential Craftsman explained why we use nails to build houses instead of screws.
AFC Wimbledon signed a new player thanks to John and the power of Nerdfighteria!
PBS Terra asked, “When will we stop moving to the riskiest climate regions?”
Pizza John made it to Antarctica!

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

Life expectancy has continued to rise in the longest-lived countries

Saloni Dattani

Record national life expectancies have been climbing for over a century.

In 1840, Swedish women had a life expectancy of 46 years — the highest of any country recorded that year. By 1921, Australia held the record at 63 years.

For most of the 20th century, Iceland, Norway, Australia, and Sweden competed for the top position before being overtaken by Japan in 1984. Hong Kong and Japan have held the records since then.

These countries didn’t merely catch up; they’ve continued to push the limits higher.

Japan added six more years to female life expectancy between 1984 and 2010, rising from 80 to 86 years.

This remarkable rise has resulted from many advances in medicine, public health, and living standards — breaking many predictions of the “limits” of life expectancy.

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.

Project for Awesome Matching Fund

The 2025 Project for Awesome (P4A) livestream will run from February 14th to 16th, less than ONE MONTH AWAY! P4A is Hank and John’s annual charity event, so join us in raising money and awareness of charities. In Hank's video today, he talks about what's changing and what's staying the same this year!

From now until February 11th at 11:59am EST (UTC-5), anyone interested in giving $500 or more can become a matching donor for P4A. If you become a matching donor, you can help build excitement during the livestream and get thanked in an on-screen graphic (max 30 characters). In previous years, Nerdfighters have even collaborated to make a matching donation together that they couldn't make alone—there's power in community!

The P4A Matching Fund accepts donations via credit card, PayPal, check, donor-advised funds, and foundation grants at projectforawesome.com/matching.

This Week at Complexly

SciShow posts a new video 5 times a week, and our science-backed videos were viewed 140 million times last year. But SciShow has always needed your help to keep going, and that’s true now more than ever! We’re selling limited-edition postcards to help us fund another year of SciShow. Check them out, get access to a secret video, and know that you’ve made a difference.

What does it mean to be a feminist in the 21st century? How have the movements that brought us here shaped the ways we understand feminist political theory? And, perhaps most importantly, what comes next? Watch the latest episode of Crash Course Political Theory to find out!

Some Games to Play!

Squeezy (by Hey, Good Game)

SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)

Download Gubbins on iOS or Android!

This Gubbins postcard was made by Gia. 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)

10 Years Ago…

Last week, we asked for photos from January 2015. The world was very different but, in some ways, scarily similar. Thanks to everyone who took this trip down memory lane with us.