Hello!

I'm freaking out right now because I spent several months (while I was recovering from cancer treatment) writing and performing and re-writing and re-performing stand-up comedy. And somehow (I'll tell the long version of the story in my video today) I ended up with a fully-produced stand-up special about life, death, and cancer that comes out later today (7:00 Eastern time).

I am, of course, feeling grateful for about 200 different things. The fact that I was well enough to do this at all, the fact that I was able to work with amazing people like my coach Sarah Aswell and my friend Ben Acker, and of course all of the amazing people at Dropout. I'm feeling grateful that I was given the opportunity to focus on something creative and fulfilling coming out of my illness. For that opportunity, I owe thanks to all of the people at Complexly and DFTBA for giving me time to focus on this thing.

Also, during the shows in Missoula, we had a bunch of amazing comedians open for me and THREE OF THEM actually work for DFTBA.com/Good.Store. What I learned from doing those shows is that there is great comedy everywhere and you should go and see what your place has available! Almost everyone has clips online now so you can even check and make sure it's not a bad vibe! (Sometimes "comedy" can be a bad vibe...)

Anyway, now it's real!!! Dropout produced it so you have to watch it there if you want to watch it. Dropout is a fun little streaming service with comedy for a certain kind of nerd. If you are a "We're Here" subscriber you are /probably/ that kind of nerd. It's six dollars a month or $60 for the year and you can sign up here.

It's always scary to share something you worked hard on, but I'm finally getting to the point in my life where I really trust myself to know when something I've made is good, and this thing is good, so I'm proud as heck to share it.

Hank

P.S. We're Here will be taking next week off because we're all traveling for VidCon!

You can always email us at [email protected]

This Week in Stuff

• Diesel the donkey got separated from his owner on a hiking trip in 2019 and was recently spotted in an elk herd.

• A giant pencil sculpture in Minnesota got its annual sharpening.

• You can see highlights of the 2024 Project for Awesome by watching the recap!

• After falling into a lake, a baby moose was saved and reunited with its mom.

• John donned the white gloves of destiny on the Objectivity YouTube channel to randomly pick cards from the Royal Society vaults.

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

Keats & Co is here!

We’re thrilled to share an early release of extraordinary loose-leaf tea with you, which we’re calling Keats & Co. In honor of John Keats and the billion people who’ve died of TB in the last two centuries, 100% of the profits from the tea club will fund tuberculosis testing and treatment.

You can shop the collection and use promo code TryTheTea to get 50% off your first order on any tea subscription. You can cancel your subscription or swap out for a new tea blend at any time. The limited first batch is selling fast! Sign up for Keats & Co emails to be notified when the teas are restocked.

Profits from tea will fuel a new program under development with Partners in Health for tuberculosis testing and treatment. We’re excited to share more about that good news in the coming weeks as we prepare for the official launch of Keats & Co in the fall.

Human rights have improved in all world regions over the last century

Bastian Herre

Human rights are much better protected in all world regions than a century ago, according to data by Varieties of Democracy.

This recently updated chart shows an index that captures human rights. The index ranges from 0 (least rights) to 1 (most). As you can see, every world region scored significantly higher in 2023 than 100 years ago.

Although progress has not been steady, and there have been setbacks — including in recent years — the overall improvements have been substantial. These trends remain when giving more weight to countries with larger populations.

While progress has been made in all world regions, there are still big disparities across them, with Africa and Asia lagging behind. And the strong protections on other continents show that further global progress is possible.

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

Support for Dear Hank and John on Patreon helps us make this podcast, as well as all of the amazing things Complexly makes-- like Crash Course, SciShow, Bizarre Beasts, and Study Hall-- advancing our mission of free, accessible education. To keep supporting all this cool stuff, we'd like to reach 4,400 members on Patreon by JULY 10.

New and existing patrons alike will be excited to hear that by popular demand we're adding an AD-FREE podcast feed and a VIDEO version of the podcast only available to patrons at the $5 tier. Patrons at the $2 level and above get an informal monthly livestream. To celebrate this Patreon drive, we’re making our next monthly Patron livestream open to the public. Join us on July 3 at 2:30 ET for a mini version of the podcast as we answer questions submitted by patrons!

Some Games to Play!

Nerdy Connections (by Complexly)

SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress.)

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)

Download Gubbins on iOS or Android!

You made it to the end!

We’d love to see photos of your pets. We know they’re going to be good, so thank you in advance.

Send your pet pics 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.