This content is a detailed walkthrough and analysis of the 2023 community census conducted by Hank Green, discussing audience demographics, content consumption habits, platform preferences, and community sentiment, while also promoting the upcoming 2025 census.
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Hello, I am Hank Green and right now you
can fill out the 2025 census. My brother
and I since 2013 have done a census of
people who consume our content on the
internet. Basically every year, though I
have not done one. I didn't do one for
2024, but you can right now fill out the
2025 census. This is how we learn about
the people who consume our content and
and particularly the people who care the
most. Because obviously if you don't
care that much, you probably aren't
going to fill out the census. And if the
people who care more, I care about more.
So people who fill out the census help
me and John decide what we want to do in
2025 and 2026 and beyond. And because
the world has changed somewhat
substantially since 2023, there are a
number of new questions that I think are
really important. And if you want to
fill out the survey, please do. But now
what I'm going to do is I am going to go
over the 2023 census, which I have not
done yet. I keep waiting until I have a
2-hour block of time available because
it usually takes about 2 hours to go
over the whole census and I never do. Uh
so what's going to happen is I'm going
to change clothes several time during
this video and eventually I'll get
through it. All right. Well, we've got
all the censuses open so that we can
compare some years to each other. And so
we can start by looking at which census
you've participated in. None until this
one is 40%. So that that this year was
64 and then it was 40 and then it was
30. So we're dropping. This is an
interesting metric of like how new
people are to the community. So if
you've never filled out a census before,
you're a person who cares now. I mean
it's more likely to be a person who
cares now who didn't care last year.
This is the first one is 25 and this is
the first one is 20. This is going to
this is keeping going down which is
really interesting. But I think that it
starts to go up eventually again.
There's also the number of responses
total. The first censuses had the most
and then it went down and then it went
back up this year and that is because of
COVID maybe but also because of Tik Tok
like there were a bunch of people who
joined and who's like started watching
what I was doing particularly me but
also John through Tik Tok. And then this
is the first one is 36 and then in 2023
this is the first one was 33. We did
have like a long period of time there
where we basically weren't that in
enthralled by growing the community in
part because after 2014 when the fault
in our stars happened, we had that big
surge and it was it had like good parts
and bad parts. The good parts didn't
necessarily mean get didn't like
indicate to us, hey, get bigger. It's
interesting to see how this goes over
time that we've had that like sort of
large scale eb and then now we're sort
of back in to uh 30 or 40% of people are
new. Next super interesting thing to
look at is how old are you is always my
favorite part of the census. So you get
at the very beginning super fun and it's
fascinating. Uh boop boop boop boop
boop. Look at you guys getting older. So
we can start over here and we can look
at this. 17% of our audience is 13 to
15. Like most of our audience is
basically teenagers and nobody's over
35. Now I switched the numbers up the
second year but I've kept them the same
ever since. It's important to note 13 to
15 is like 3 years and 19 to 22 is also
4 years versus 23 to 30 which is many
more. It encompasses more people. As
this gets bigger it's not too surprising
that this kind of is going to shoot up
because that encompasses more people.
But it is super interesting to watch
like the the 55 plus slice go up and the
41 to 55 slice go up. But here in our
last last year in 2013 or 2023 the last
year we did a census again you can fill
out the 25 right now. We have a really
big slice like most people are between
20 and 40 between 23 and 40. It makes
sense to me that these smaller slices
would go down. It's a bit of a shame I
did this level of granularity at the
younger ages initially because that's
where more of our audience was. That's
obviously no longer the case. I think in
large part because people have just
gotten older. It's been 10 years since
we started doing the census on average.
People who were doing it back then are
10 years older than now. There's also
the fact that something else. Oh, I
think that our content is just for older
people now. If you look back, it makes
sense that that our audience was
younger. And now we're going to look at
how much people enjoy the various places
that they go on the internet, which is
fascinating and has changed a lot over
the years. Number one is going to be
YouTube the whole time. There's never
going to be a year when it's not
YouTube. This makes sense. Our our
audience is YouTube based. We're YouTube
native creators. That's where I think of
as home. The number two on this list was
Tumblr, which is wild. And you can watch
Tumblr drop down the ranks quite quickly
over the years, but then actually
surprisingly this year make a little bit
of a rebound. It's just under Tik Tok.
Vine hangs out at the bottom here and
then gets deleted musically all the way
at the bottom here. But then you can see
um Tik Tok appear and then jump all the
way to number three. That's a wild
thing. And then begin dropping. So uh
now is number four. I did add Discord
though, so you can't really count that
as as a drop. Consistent between these
two years between 2021 and 2023 is
YouTube, Instagram, Reddit. And that's
fascinating to me. That that does make
sense for our audience specifically.
That is not how things go on the
internet normally. And then a lot of
Discord use. So if you look at um how
much people enjoy their time, it's
Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Tik
Tok. And if you look at how they are
spending their time, it's YouTube,
Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, Discord,
Tik Tok. So people don't enjoy their
time on Facebook. They still spend a lot
of time there because it is a top four
here. But in terms of this list, it's
uh down here at like 1, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight. after
Pinterest. And now we continue to
scroll. This is just a very long list of
how much time people spend on the
platforms. The most interesting thing
for me on this is the never bar. 46% of
people never go on Twitter versus 20% of
people who never go on Instagram.
There's a lot of people who kind of
fairly normally go on Instagram, but not
like every day. And then the big bar for
every day is going to be YouTube. Over
50% of people are on YouTube, which
makes sense. I spend hours per day on on
YouTube for sure. There's hours there's
some people spending hours per day on on
Reddit and some on Tumblr, but we got a
lot of nevers here. Fetverse, threads,
Pinterest, Bal, Twitch, Facebook.
Facebook is people are spending a little
bit of time. I'm a never. I'd never go
on Facebook, but the only real hours per
day players are Instagram, Tik Tok, and
YouTube. Where do you watch your
swipeable video? YouTube Shorts is the
biggest thing. This makes sense. It's a
YouTube audience. That's not the case
for me. I watch most of my Swipeable on
Tik Tok and Instagram personally.
Congress is considering banning Tik Tok.
How do you feel about this? Honestly, I
don't care is 26% and then I am very
opposed is 21. So, kind of biodal
distribution here between people who
just don't have a dog in the hunt and
people who really would like it to not
happen. Very few people are in favor of
the ban. This is still a thing that is
theoretically going to happen, I guess,
even after all these years. A lot of
people in the um other responses said
that they weren't from the US, but
there's some good takes in here that are
basically like, look, we need to do a
better job of regulating this stuff
generally. It is so addictive. It is so
much power being held. Whether or not
that's because it's being held by like
the Chinese government or because it's
being held by, you know, a few
billionaires in the US, it's still a lot
of power being held in terms of how
these algorithms shape our view of
reality, which I very much agree with.
Which of these streaming platforms do
you use? Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus,
and then a big falloff for Hulu, HBO
Max, and then we got a big hunk of
Dropout subscribers. This is the first
time I added Dropout to this list. I'm
so excited to see what the 2025 numbers
look like here. A little more than Apple
TV among our audience, which I think is,
you know, very specific to us. And not
as many Nebula subscribers as I would
expect. 11% Nebula subs. And then
Curiosity Stream, which I think comes
with a Nebula subscription a lot of the
time. and Discovery Plus really bringing
up the rear there though I don't know if
maybe that is like looped into a number
of these other platforms now but yeah
83% of people's uh I'm so ex interested
to see if that drops next year I think
that I asked this question in previous
years so this was 92 and then that moved
to 83 so yeah a little bit Paramount
Plus got a little market share peacock
got a little market share you know
Netflix a lost which makes sense to me
because like I don't love it that much
how do you feel about your relationship
with social media and online content
platforms changed this question
unfortunately pretty healthy uh not very
healthy 100% bad other police specify
one year before and then 2023 very
healthy not a lot of people pretty
healthy 52% so that's even more not very
healthy 37% and then we got a fair
number of other please specifies I don't
use platforms other than YouTube
specifically because when I use them I I
was terribly unhealthy makes sense mid I
definitely spend too much time on them
but the content I consume is pretty good
I'd say honestly that is what I'm going
for. I'm not going to stop watching
YouTube videos. I just want to like
consume it in a healthy way. I want to
spend less time not in control. I want
to spend more time choosing what to
watch rather than being on scrollable
platforms that are choosing what I
watch. Depends on the day. Don't I know
it? But what kind of videos do you like
most on Vlog Brothers? I have asked this
question basically the whole time. We've
got explanations of complicated issues.
We got discussions of big ideas, silly
videos, daily life. This is going to go
way down as time goes on. Thoughts from
places, advice, videos that involve the
community, collaborations with other
YouTubers. Uh, so explanations of
complicated issues that people love
that. Oh, it dropped down and
discussions of big ideas took over
there. Discussions of big ideas stays on
top. Silly videos. People like, thoughts
from places, people like videos about
Hankachun's daily life. Y'all choose
came back hard uh this year. And then in
2023, what do we got? explanations of oh
discussions of big ideas drops and they
want us to to explain big ideas again.
You want us to explain it's so hard.
Those videos are so hard. You should
fill out the survey now. Actually, it
occurs to me. You should fill out the
survey before you watch this video. The
format made the list. Y'all choose
thoughts from places advice. I don't
know. We're going to have to rethink
this. I think I don't actually know what
kind of videos I even make on Vlog
Brothers. Do you listen to podcasts
frequently? Occasionally, never. Do you
listen to our podcasts? I got a lot of
nevers for for delete this which makes
sense. Dear Hank and John and the
anthroposine reviewed doing well.
Tangents a lot of nevers but not that
many honestly. Not that many nevers.
Tangents and and delete this and the
anthroposine reviewed are all on pause
right now in one way or another.
Complete the sentence. If uh if the
following platform had never been
invented, I think my life would be
people for the most part think that
their life would be worse without
YouTube. With Tik Tok they're really
ambivalent with more people saying it
would be better without Tik Tok. Twitter
w also very much that same shape. Shorts
the same shape. Interesting. Instagram
the same shape. Instagram reels more
people would rather Instagram reels not
exist. Facebook people want to want to
Facebook reels. People don't care. Seems
like Reddit a little bit more ambivalent
but some people really like it. WhatsApp
people really like text messages.
Everybody's like yes I like text
messages. That makes sense. That's the
first time I asked that question.
Favorite podcasts you learn from?
Lateral with Tom Scott and Dear Hank and
John. listening to Sean Carol's I also
listen to Mindscape Cortex Worlds Beyond
Number. I wouldn't have thought that
that would be a place to go learn, but I
think that that's a good idea. There's a
bunch I don't know on here. Mike Rose
podcast, The Wild Geese, Shortwave,
Great Hi-Fi Nation. Man, I feel like I
am I'm out of the loop. Dice
exploderies. Um, yeah, allies are 99%
invisible quality podcasts. Are you a
YouTube Premium subscriber? 22% of you.
I suggest it heartily but this year it
was 15% 20% and then it held steadyish
at 22%. So it is going up. Click on any
you have attended. We got a lot of nuns
on this list. Some various Hank and John
event. That's this is a very thin slice.
We have not done live events in a long
time. So this makes sense. I did a
little bit of standup. Some people went
to my standup 347 of you and some
college gigs and VidCon and some other
kind of thing. How do you find out
what's going on in Nerd Fighteria? Vlog
Brothers videos and the newsletter. We
are here. So we here had launched in
2023 at least. So that's good.
Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter. I mean,
this is the this is the bulk of the
stuff, isn't it? But there is a there is
a Reddit community. I love the
subreddit. Paying a little visit. Would
you want to subscribe to a nice little
weekly email that features cool stuff
from the around the internet? Yes, look
at that. 83% would like to subscribe.
That actually exists. Oh, if you aren't
subscribed and you want to be, you can
put your email. Well, did I do that? I
have no idea if I did that. I don't
know. I'll check. Which of these things
do you own? Any of John Green's books?
The Anthroposine reviewed. Any Hank
Green books? Okay. 48%. Some kind of
Pizza John. Some other various
merchandise. Some awesome socks.
Awesome coffee subscription. Crash
Course Coin. Thank you to those people.
A Bizarre Beast pin. Best Project for
awesome mascot. This is great. What the
hell are you talking about? Says 52% of
people. That's shocking. Beanie San
Furbs, Dave the Fish, Be Dave is much
higher than I would have expected. Crank
Green, T-Rex, Jared did not get a lot of
points. Glenn of the Glenn, but Fartman,
come on. But Fartman is one of my
favorites. Old trash water. If you don't
know what I'm talking about, the Project
for Awesome is amazing and you should
enjoy it more frequently. Compared with
last year, are you watching YouTube
less? People are watching YouTube less
even though there there's still a lot of
YouTube people. This country data is
mostly useful just uh for us figuring
out how to schedule any travel or tours.
It's also very cool to see that there's
like basically somewhere somebody
everywhere mostly English-speaking
places but we our first
non-English-speaking place is Germany
then the Netherlands. We also also got
New Zealand, Sweden, India, Ireland,
Denmark, Brazil. Look, we got people in
Venezuela. We got people in East Timor,
in Ghana, and in Kosovo, in Kuwait, and
Laos. All right, what state are y'all
in? It's just going to mostly be a list
of states by population, but not quite,
I bet. California, New York, Texas. It's
mostly states by population, though.
Washington is not the fourth most
populous state. And I don't think that
Massachusetts is all is the fifth. Uh,
California, Texas, Florida. Man,
Florida, where are you on this list? Whoa,
Whoa,
we're not a big deal. They hate us
there. That's where we're from. We're
Florida people. We do not say nice
things about it all the time, though.
Washington, Massachusetts, Illinois,
Ohio. Where's Washington on this list?
That's our big That's our big place, you
guys. Washington is where it's at. We
should only tour in Washington. That's a
little bit weird. Did you see the
eclipse? I did not. I saw a partial
eclipse. Totality, baby. That's great.
Good job. 20% of y'all made it to the
eclipse. That's wild. That's wild.
Especially because obviously not all of
you are from the US. Gender woman 55%
men 32%. Now this is not what our
YouTube demographics say. So I think
there's a strong selection bias uh when
it comes to people who actually fill out
a survey toward women which is
interesting and also toward non-binary
people which is 14% of the people who
fill out the survey which is not
representative of the population of
non-binary people in the world with a
number of other people being unsure
gender fluid or agender. Next is race,
where you see that we're very white. 90%
white people filling out this survey.
Thank you to everybody who fills out the
survey. If you're not white, please fill
out the survey so that I can know what's
up with everybody. Do you think you are
an extrovert? An introvert? Uh different
on different days or somewhere in
between? We got a lot of introverts in
Nerd Fighteria. Not a lot of extroverts.
Not super surprising. What's your sexual
orientation? 43% heterosexual. It is the
largest slice, but if you add the rest
of them, they do beat out heterosexual.
We've got a a fairly large other please
specify despite the fact that this is a
somewhat robust grouping, but I know
there are other sexual orientations in
some situations. What do you even say
when you're a lesbian, but you're
non-binary or just queer or aerowce or
pansexual? Probably. Are you aware of
these things? Yes and no. An absolutely
remarkable thing. my books, John's
books. John's books got got a greater
market penetration. People know about
Patreon. That's the best of all the
things people know about Crash Course,
too. People don't know. What do people
really not know about? They don't know
about Journey to the Microcosmos, which
has been paused. We don't They don't
know about the Anthroposine review. They
really don't know about Study Hall,
though, though a lot of people do.
Microcosmos microscope, complexity
calendars, these are products. That
makes sense. Gubbins, people largely
don't know about that as a that's a
project, a still ongoing project. Good.
for people know about. We are here,
people know about. If you've ever bought
stuff from dftba.com, please check all
the apply. This is an important thing to
keep uh an eye on. We of course have
other ways of tracking this internally
at DFTBA, but this is one way that we do
it. I've never bought stuff, but then it
was a good experience. I would do it
again. I still wear and display this
stuff. I've done it multiple times. And
then also, we have this very small, it
was a bad experience, 188 of you, which
we do try to minimize as much as
possible. And we have lots of ways where
we do that internally, but I like to
look at this. It's less than 6 of a
percent. But always want to do better.
Always want to do better. We've also got
a good.store. We have even better uh
rankings here for good.store. Less than
half a percent of people had a bad
experience. A a lot of people have never
bought stuff. Uh but lots of people have
very good experience. So the project for
awesome, I don't know what that is, is
24% of people. Very few people. 73 of
you made a P4A video this year. I
donated this year. I watched the stream
this year. Uh I voted on charities this
year. I have donated. Watched in the
past. 20% active donors is a remarkable
number. We used to stream 24 hours a day
in the Project for Awesome and this year
we cut back and had some downtime. How
do you feel about that? A little bummed
said 6% of people. I thought it was
fine. I don't particularly participate
in the beef array anyway. I did not like
it. was 158 people. Think I just have to
apologize to those 158 people and we're
just going to do it the way that we
decided to do it. Oh, people to be
guests of the Project for Awesome. This
is a good idea. Let's do a word cloud on
that. And then after this one, I'm going
to disappear for a little bit. Brennan
Lee Mulligan. Well, I guess that's not
too much of a surprise. We've got Mroy,
Grace, Mamry Hart, Critical Role, Smos,
Answer in Progress, probably Brian David
Gilbert. Is this Gilbert? Britney
Broski, maybe Roman Mars, Adam Savage,
Barack Obama, Sam Rich, Pat Matt Pat,
Mythical People. It's about what I would
expect to see. And then here we have
your absolute favorite people on the
internet. We got a lot of dropout fans.
Tom Scott also coming in hard. That's
good to know. I love Tom and we are we
are friends. We hang out whenever we get
the chance. Markiplier, Rhett and Link,
Britney Broki, Jenna Marbles is in
there. Elise Meyers is in there. Contra
points. Phil Danco. That'd be fun to
have Phil come back on. I had a plan. I
forgot about this. And that's what I'll
do. When we come back next time, I will
tell you why I had this. Enter a number
between 1 and 100. Fascinated to see how
it turns out. Okay, I'm going to be back
to record more later, but I I got to
stop. It's It's 5:40, so I got to get
inside and and start making dinner. And
I'm back. So, I did this for a couple of
reasons. There were two reasons. One was
just to see how the distribution would
look. And it it looks roughly as you
would expect. You know, biggest spikes
at 69, 42, and 37. Interesting 37
situation here. And you know, nobody
says 100. That's a thing. But
interestingly, there are other like
things nobody says. 61 I think is the
least used number. So people hate 61. Uh
that's fascinating. The outliers that
you would expect of 69 and 42. 42 being
the biggest outlier cuz you're a bunch
of nerds. But then also 37 and Veritasia
made a video about why 37 is an outlier
when people are asked to choose a number
between 1 and 100 and that's very weird
and I had just watched this video when I
wrote the census and so I decided to ask
this question and then later I asked a
question do you watch the YouTube series
Veritassium the YouTube show or whatever
a YouTube channel is called and then I
was able to split the data out to show
you what it looks like with just the
people who watch Veritassium and my
hypothe hypothesis was that 37 would be
much lower because they would know about
this effect and they'd be like I won't
do the effect and I was wrong. What in
fact happened is that even more people
said 37 than in the group that includes
veritassium but also not. So what
happened was the opposite thing. If you
go back and forth here you see most
things go down uh while the while the 37
group goes up a little bit. I'm not
doing like a full statistical analysis
here, but you can see the difference.
This is a surprise to me. And now my
hypothesis has changed from people who
watch Veritasium will say, "Haha, you
won't get me. I'll put something other
than 37 to I would love to indulge in
the effect. I like 37 now because 37 is
a special number that we always like to
say." And so I will say 37. And that's
not what I expected, but nonetheless, I
did see an effect. That's happen this
happens sometimes where you have a
hypothesis and then you actually get the
opposite of the hypothesis and then
you're like well I guess I have to have
a new hypothesis then but I guess the
hypothesis should have been more cleanly
and clearly stated as I have a
prediction that if you watch Veritassium
there will be a change in the number of
people who choose 37 which did turn out
to be true but that wasn't actually my
initial hypothesis while 69 went down in
that group 42 roughly stayed at the same
place which means that you're also big
nerds So, Veritassium people, big nerds.
And now we're going to go to the next
question. Have you ever had a cancer?
You don't have to answer. And we've got
a bunch of people who said nope. So,
that's great. 96% of people, the people
still dealing with active disease. Right
now, there's 64 of you. Just.19%.
That's great. But to all of you out
there, I see you. We're doing it. Good
job. Have you ever been diagnosed with a
mental illness? We've got yes at 44% and
kind of at 20 and and no at 36. This is
again I think an outlier when it comes
to the uh nerd fighteria as opposed to
the general public. Probably a lot of
this is that we are more likely to seek
mental health support in this community.
But I didn't ask any more specifics
there which is probably for the best. If
you drink coffee, what kind of roast do
you like? We have a little bit of a
spike at medium. We have a lot of no
preferences. That's not that useful. We
sell coffee through Kats and Co. and I
was hoping that we'd have like a really
really substantial spike, but indeed
not. I'm a dark roast man. I think
people underestimate a dark roast. They
think it's going to be all burned
flavor, but that's not it, man. I don't
like a I don't like a light roast. So,
too much too much bean. Too much bean
left in there. Do you drink regular or
decaf? Uh decaf is tiny, but there is a
lot of a little bit of both. For those
of you who are not doing a little bit of
both, what are you thinking? At like
3:00, if I have a coffee, I'm ruining
the rest of my day. But if I have a
decaf iced coffee, that's just a nice
little treat. Have a nice little treat.
But then also, I don't drink coffee is
36%. That's a That's a surprisingly high
number of people. What are your favorite
tees? This I also would have liked a
little bit more specificity, but
shockingly, chai number one, 42%. 42% of
you said, "Do you like chai?" This is
mind-blowing information for me. Uh,
next down we we got we got three black
teas. That makes sense. But, you know,
black tea and English breakfast are
basically the same. It's it's weird to
have like Earl Grey be above black tea
for me. It's like if I asked you what
kind of coffee you like and you said
like hazelnut.
I love Earl Grey. It's just it's like,
you know, it's a very specific flavor. I
have Earl Grrey on the weekends cuz it's
my little treat. I have my little
milkshake all gray where I put like an
extra half of a packet of sugar in and
then I put milk in it like a lot of milk
and it's like so good. It's so tasty. We
have other herbal which is a lot of
people and then chamomile
and then other please specify and then
matcha. We actually are coming out with
a matcha soon. I think I've got it on my
porch right now. It's just been
delivered to my house. I should say we
have a chai. We have an amazing chai. It
is a decaf chai but it is very good. It
It's not like decaffeinated black tea.
There's just no black tea in it. It's so
good. I had it last night. I made a cup
for me and I made a cup for Catherine
and it's and and Orin had some because
it's decaf and it's very very tasty and
you should try our chai. I'm not really
a tea drinker. Is 20%. Wait a second.
Not a tea drinker is 20%. Not a coffee
drinker is 36%.
Then why does John sell more coffee than
I sell tea? John, we have Kats and Co.
and John's sort of like on coffee. He
does the coffee and I do the tea and
John selling what? Okay. Why is John?
John sells like we sell way more coffee
than we sell tea. But more than we HAVE
MORE TEA DRINKERS THAN COFFEE DRINKERS
THAT WE REACH. WHAT IS GOING ON? THIS IS
frustrating for me. I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD
BE winning and John's winning. What are
you doing tea drinkers? How can I reach
you? How can I reach you better? I need
to change something dramatically. I'm
losing. I'm losing despite the fact that
I have more market to address. My total
addressable market is larger, at least
in our core community.
Now, I'm like making rationalizations in
my head that like maybe people drink
coffee more daily than tea and uh you
know, people are more addicted to coffee
cuz it's got more caffe. I don't know,
but whatever. The other please specify
is interesting here because I concluded
a lot of teas. Mint, we have a great
mint tea. That's that's the that's
another herbal. Berry, hibiscus,
jasmine. Jasmine is great. I don't know
why I didn't put it on the list. Decaf.
You and me, man. It's so hard to source
decaf black tea. I have to buy it off
the store shelf. Like, I can sometimes
get it at my local tea shop, but
sometimes not. It's just not there's
like no demand for it. Just tea. In
England, tea is tea, but I don't know
what it is. This is wild because if you
ask for a tea in America, they're like,
"What kind of tea you want?" And you ask
for tea in England, you get black tea.
That's what you're getting. I recently
was in England and I came home and I was
like, "Can I get a cup of tea?" and and
they like look at you like what? That's
a weird thing to say. It's just a
cultural difference. Can I get a cup of
tea? And they're like, "What do you
mean?" What? Uh, give me more
information. Did you think that that
would be enough information? There's so
many different leaves I could put in
water. Have you ever purchased something
from good.store? I have not. 71% of you
need to be. There's a lot of overlap
between that percent and the people who
drink tea. So, I have great news for
you. We got awesome socks. We got sunbin
soap. We got awesome coffee. We got
other Oh, I didn't even put Kats and Co
as like I maybe it wasn't We hadn't done
that rebrand yet. What's your current
status? Oh, a good store. I have an
active subscription. I'm a former
member. I'm a potential future member.
Unlikely to be uh swayed into
subscribing. Fantastic. Well, that's a
lot of people that we could get. 11,000
people. That would be a big deal. That'd
be a big get. So, if you're considering,
let me know. Let me know what would what
would sway you. I should have asked that
question. What would sway you? What
future products would you be most Oh, we
hadn't launched tea yet, but a lot of
people wanted us to launch tea. So, we
did. I guess I feel like we've been
doing it forever, but I guess not. But,
of course, that's still the same
situation where there's we have we still
have more tea drinkers than coffee
drinkers. That doesn't change anything.
Puzzles. We tried a puzzle. Maybe we
should do puzzles differently. H puzzles
did well. Cleaning products. Cleaning
products. We also launched and has done
very well. I that might be out selling
tea, honestly, which is you never know
with something like this. You might say
like people are super excited. They'd
prefer to have tea, but then they're
actually buying more cleaning products.
That I think that is what has happened.
And then underwear. And then we've got
an other. I don't know what other would
be. Kids socks. Very low. We don't have
a lot of kids in the community. Uh we
did try kids socks, but it did not it
did not work. More types of bar shampoo,
please. I'd love an almondscented one.
Clothes. Candles. We are thinking about
that. Board games. Short stories. Books.
Short stories. That's an interesting
thought. That's an interesting thought.
Plushies. No money in my future. Adult
socks. We have adult socks. Books or
things to write in. All right. Yeah,
that's a good idea. Well, we have the
the book of good times. So, that's kind
of a thing. Ingredients. Good store can
do whatever. Like, it is just a place
where you can buy stuff. And like, you
know, you may have heard me make
reference to the fact that like I'd love
to sort of come for Amazon in some way
at some point, but obviously that's not
where I'm at right now. Basic needs
package. Maybe double-sided razors since
they're cheap. Yeah, basic needs package
is interesting. I would probably buy
socks if I could do a one time. You can
do onetime purchases now. Solid shampoo
and conditioner. Other hair products,
things that can ship internationally. We
have a solid shampoo. I don't know. We
don't have a solid conditioner. There's
like reasons why that's hard. dislike
the environmental impact.
I mean, I'm pretty sure our
environmental impact is lower than than
other ways of buying these same things,
but of course, you can not buy the
things, which is the lowest
environmental impact. Ridiculously fun
displayable stuff. Ridiculous fun
displayable stuff. All right, I like
that as a category. I'm going to write
that down. I mean, obviously, I like
displayable stuff. I don't know what
that means exactly, but I like it. Sets
of espresso cups and mugs. Cute idea.
Nice. Please do cleaning stuff. Great.
I'm so glad we did it for you. I need a
dish soap bar. We have one of those. Uh
with a cute little drain tray. I We have
one of those. One of those nice wooden
brushes. WE HAVE ONE OF THOSE. But
great. Great. You should work for me.
Science te's, nerdy tees, funny tees,
games. I have been thinking about this
so much. I've been doing science tees a
little bit on the side at Hank's
channel. There's an opportunity there.
What's most compelling about the good
store? Good prices. I love the products.
Hank and John's involvement. The part
where all the profit goes to charity.
Okay, that makes sense. The fun. I'd say
that these first two are very nerd
fighteria specific in my experience. If
if I just am pitching this to somebody
who doesn't like as an advertisement,
some somebody who doesn't really know
who I am, then they don't trust the all
the profit going to charity message very
much. That seems like it must be fake to
them. And then obviously the Hank and
John album doesn't matter to them. I
want the products and the prices to be
higher on this list. But of course, this
is the group of people for which these
two things are going to matter the most.
Overall, how much trust do you have in
the news media? A great deal, a lot, a
moderate amount, a little, none at all.
This is actually one that I have asked
for several years. And I'm going to
pause. I'm going to pause because I'm
going to make someone breakfast. All
right, I'm back. I've been asking this
question for a few years because it
started to feel like an important
question to ask over how much do you tr
trust you have in the news media. We can
see here that actually
this has remained remarkably consistent
over the years. A little bit of change
between these two. We do see a drop in a
lot here and uh and an increase in a
little and this makes me make sense to
like I honestly I've felt more like
that. Interested to see how 2025 looks.
We've also got how much money do you
make which I think that I've asked over
a few years. Now, this is tricky because
inflation is definitely a thing. We can
see that the average amount of money
that Nerd Fighteria makes is increasing.
Uh, this this slice here of 75 to 100K
has well, I mean, this looks like it's
basically doubled uh to 5.27% from well,
not quite doubled, but that's a
substantial increase in terms of
percentage increase. But this makes
sense. You know, a lot of people are
finished with school, people are getting
older. this this group of people who are
currently uh with no income goes down
because people are graduating or
probably a lot of these people are in
school. Certainly not all of them. And
then you know you see in that middle
being thin but that that makes some
sense because that's 10 to 30,000 which
at this point is uh uh not what a lot of
people make in their professional
careers. Congrats to everybody who has
moved into uh higher higher incomes over
the last few years. We've also got click
on things that you have. People have
student loans. A lot of people have a
mortgage. 22% of you have mortgages. Car
loans. Credit card debt 15%. That's
certainly lower than the average
American. Medical debt also lower than
the average American. None of these. No
debt. None. No. No major sources of
debt. That's interesting. Is a solid 42%
of you. That's wild. That is not That is
not t That is also atypical. What's that
behind you? That's a fun question, Hank.
What's that behind you? I don't know,
man. A chair. The summer breeze makes me
feel fine. A cat. A massive display of
tiny plastic hobs of plastic horses that
my husband is fond of. Ah, it's Jared.
It's my cat. It's a lot of cats. My bed.
My chair head. A wall was the number one
thing behind people. It was a wall. Some
people had dread. Um, 214 of you had
dread behind you. Barry. Who's Barry?
Someone needs to explain to me who Barry
is. Oh, this was just one person who
left one very long comment. Narrator:
black screen with text. The sound of
buzzing bees can be heard according to
all known laws of aviation. This is the
from the bee movie. It's it's a it's
copy pasta from the bee movie.
Everybody, if you're eligible in the US,
do you plan on voting this year? 60%
said yes. 1.4% said no. This is the
thing about people who fill out surveys.
Ah, they're got to be more likely to be
voters. But also I think in general when
I make a video that's like you should
vote I'm preaching very much to the
choir. Certainly these people matter but
uh we definitely have a solid majority
of people who vote and thanks for
voting. What is the highest degree that
you have? Give me a little bit more.
Actually that hasn't changed that much.
So people have moved into sort of more
people have college degrees
and graduate degrees. Consider the state
of the world right now. Would you say
that you're uh so overwhelmed I'm having
a hard time coping? That's I'm
definitely going to have this one again.
13% extremely overwhelmed. 22%
overwhelmed 29% troubled untroubled
2.9%. I kind of set it up for that.
That's not how you would ask that
question in a survey if you wanted to
get good science. But who isn't
troubled? You know who isn't troubled?
If you're in school, what kind of school
are you in? Not in school is now 61%. I
think I asked this. not in school,
continues to go up. That makes sense.
Specific about college degrees. I have a
college degree. I currently am working
on a college degree. I expect to begin a
college degree. That's a fairly
significant jump to 62% from 58%. We're
just getting older, you guys. I just
like lots of different questions that
that indicate people are moving through
the stages of life. Employment
situation. No. In school, no job. I have
a job. I like it. See how we're doing on
jobs, everybody? I have a job. I like
it. Is going up, which is great. That's
41%. I don't have a job and I don't like
it. Is up a little bit. That makes
sense. People are graduating from
college. I have a job and I don't need
one. That's increased a little bit, but
I'm glad to see that more people have
jobs and like it. Employment situation
part two. All of my income comes from
one regular job. Do you consider
yourself wealthy? No. Maybe. Yes. So, no
increased substantially there. Uh, which
is interesting because people have more
income. I'm not surprised that people
don't consider themselves wealthy. I'm
the the change is the thing that I'm
interested in here. It's a pretty
significant change from 12% to 10%,
inflation probably is the thing that
happened. Do you have children? We have
yes at 14%. Uh moving up from 11%,
babies do continue to happen. And then
we have our currently pregnant slice
this year.7 and the year before
6. So I mean that that matters. Do you
watch the channel Veritassium? This is
how I sliced up the data. Thank you to
the people who gave me that opportunity.
Which best describes you? There 24%
watch every new Vlog Brothers video as
soon as it comes out. Probably see every
new video eventually. That's over half
of people. I watch most new Vlog
Brothers videos. I watch when I remember
to check. That there is 70% of people.
Um, that's wild. I'll be interested to
see how that goes this year. Do you
think that a universe with humans is
better than a universe without them?
Yes. And it's complicated. Winning out
over no substantially, which is uh
encouraging. In three words or less,
what are you most worried about? Climate
is number one, appearing 4,500 times.
That uh is understandable. That is a
kind of a whole world problem. We've
also got warming in here. We've got
trans, we've got genocide, we've got
democracy, we've got housing, we've got
Palestine, we've got uh humanity, we've
got losing, we've got college, we've got
economy, we've got poverty, we've got
polarization. I am also very worried
about climate. I'm very worried about
democracy. I'm very worried about Gaza.
I am worried about Trump. It makes sense
to me. I would also do this. Would it
make sense to me that that the things we
would list would be big global things?
It took a while to get to family to get
to like something that's like one step
away from us. It'll be interesting to
see how that has changed for 2025.
What's make something making you
optimistic right now? This is always a
nice thing. People coming in at the top,
but I'm sure that there's a
qualification after people. People who
I've met incredible people. People
continue to be curious. There's still
good people out there. Smart people.
Good people fighting. People keep
fighting for what is right. Sometimes
you can find people that don't entirely
suck. Oh boy. Acknowledge that there are
good people and caring people out there.
People say it gets better. It does get
better. Watching people learn,
especially my son. When did you start
watching Vlog Brothers videos regularly?
This is fascinating. More people started
watching in 2007 than started watching
in 2017. So that's fascin 2017 was our a
weak year for us. I don't know what we
were up to, but a lot of people started
watching in 2012, which is is fault in
our stars times. This sort of uh
comeback is interesting. 2020 and not a
lot of people seeing 2021 is
interesting. Yeah, those people
certainly are there. The people coming
in from Tik Tok or from Hank's channel
or whatever, there's always going to be
a bias toward people who started
watching recently, of course, because
they're still currently watching.
Absolutely bonkers how many people are
still with us from 2008. So, thank you
to all of those people. And and also
very amazing how flat this is. You know,
there's not like a year that was big.
And you would normally expect to see
that be the most recent year being the
big year and it is. You know, it's the
biggest year, but you would expect to
see that be like funk. Uh because
people's habits change. How much time do
you spend the internet per day? 6 to 8
hours? Uh more than 8 hours? I think I
might be more than 8 hours. Uh depending
on how you count the internet, but not
surprising that uh a lot of people are
pretty significant internet users. We
really live on the internet, you guys.
Not not us. I mean us, but also all of
us people these days. How many books do
you read a year? 3 to 10 being the the
top makes sense to me. None. This is
very uh not representative of the
average American where none is is I
think over half. Um but it makes sense
to me that that the grouping would be
here. That's probably where I am. I
probably don't read more than 15 books a
year. Watch a lot of YouTube videos and
that has taken over especially these
like long videos that are really good.
Which of these books have you read?
Fault in our stars 77% looking for paper
towns. anthroposine turtles. Absolutely
remarkable thing. I beat one of John's
books. I also beat two of John's books
that were co-authored. Do you support
our projects on Patreon? Yes, I do this
in part so that I can send those people
a special special message a special
message. Do you have worries or
critiques for us? This is always like a
surprisingly nice little thing to read,
but of course people have critiques for
us, which I appreciate. Not spending
enough time with family. Y'all seem so I
hope I hope you are. I read that as
you're not. Isn't that amazing? Am I?
Sometimes Vlog Brothers has become too
self-promotional. A lot of make sure you
buy this thing. I get that you guys are
trying to do good in the world. We try
to balance this and uh and part of how
we have evolved into balancing it right
now is having other ways. if there's
more content being made, if there's more
stuff that we're doing, then the
promotions can be more spread out
between those things. So, if you're
doing one video a week and one promotion
a week, then you're doing every video is
a promotion. But if you're doing two
videos a week and one promotion a week,
basically like that. So, Hank's channel
is a big part of that and the newsletter
can be part of that. And then like
making good store into a thing that can
promote itself, that it can do its own
marketing and it it doesn't rely just on
nerd fighteria. And same thing with
complexity, like it's it's building its
own way of promoting or or like I'm not
not Oh, someone's knocking on my door
again. We have a visitor in the room.
He's going to play with some rocks that
I got. Don't be fooled by him, Orin. I'm
still Hanky from the block. I'm afraid
for John and his book tour situation.
Yeah. No, it's a lot. Uh, so this is
from 2025. I'm worried for the day
either of you rightfully retire. John
and I have been talking like we see so
much in in politics people holding on
too long and like we are a little bit in
politics and so I like John and I have
have talked in in that frame where we
have been frustrated with people in
power holding on to that power for too
long that like we should keep that in
mind and and you know as we have these
fears about what the world is like when
we retire we have to recognize that
that's part of the way that things work
and that we have to let go of that.
Might regret Twitter Tik Tok addiction,
taking time and energy from family.
Yeah, that's true. I worry about your
stress and mental health. I think I'm
mostly okay. Hanks overwork and John's
general mental health. Yeah, it's
tricky. The ones that we've gotten so
far are like, "Take care of yourselves
and you're doing a lot of promotion."
And that's true. Every single vlog where
this video does not contain a sales
pitch. I will say maybe there was a time
when it when it was more like that, but
it's not like that right now. The other
thing is how much moving on from the
4-minute rule has helped with this.
Because if we're stuck in the 4-minute
rule, then we have to include the sales
pitch in the 4 minutes. But if we can
make a 4-minute long video or a 5m
minutee long video and then be like,
"Oh, and by the way, there we've got a
sale going on a good store." Then that
doesn't feel as like crunched and people
are like, "Oh, it's a post roll." That's
another thing is that I I initially
didn't do this on Hank's channel and
people didn't like it. I would just like
make the pitch. But what that what
people are to better is when I say this
video is brought to you by Goodstore.
Even though I'm not being paid for that,
it's it's still like kind of true. Like
maybe I wouldn't be making the video if
it weren't an opportunity to market
goods. All right, there isn't much more
survey left, but I'm not done with it
all the way and I got to go to uh the
gym. You'll see me in just a second. All
right, I got a half an hour and I'm
going to try and finish it in the half
an hour that I have. I one know
absolutely unhinged thing that I just
said to Katherine. I said, "Whoa, third
shirt in three days." That's what the
summer's like in Missoula. So, so now
you know, one of the ways I save time is
just not changing clothes. Just wake up
and go to work in the same clothes I
went to sleep in. But usually that's
okay cuz it's not sweaty times, but it's
currently sweaty times. I've been
looking through this since I sat down.
But the negatives of Tik Tok and other
short form content easily outweigh the
positives. Therefore, I think it is
immoral to make content for it. And I
don't know if that's right. It's a
conversation that I continue to have.
It's obviously a conversation that I was
just having on the Vlog Brothers
channel. I don't know when this video is
going to come out, but I was making the
video about how starved we are for
information and how like bad we are and
like is it cigarettes or not? And I feel
like it's more like food where there's
good food and bad food. And should there
be no good food? Should it only be bad
food? Am I bringing people to these
platforms when they shouldn't be? I
don't know. Let's bring back shorter
videos on blog brothers. This is
actually something that we have been
doing like every once in a while. I try
to get one that's under four minutes. I
usually miss. It turns out that that
last bit of work to get it under four
minutes is is quite a lot of work. We
always doing a lot of work to cut stuff
down and oftentimes making the videos
worse in doing that. Cutting out things
that I think are funny or important or
useful. For me, 5 minutes seems to be
actually a slightly better length than 4
minutes, but I do try to get under five
fairly frequently. And when I go longer,
I like to go like way longer. I don't
know how John's doing it. Stop having
cancer so much. Thank you. I did. Only
that I'm late to the party. Doing this
this year probably won't get counted in
your stats. Well, I look at me. I made
life a little bit easier for you, didn't
I? Don't be so hard on yourselves. Don't
forget to take care of yourselves. I
mean, this is a hard thing. It's a lot
of responsibility. The sort of work that
we do, it is a balance. It's a thing
that that I think we are constantly
balancing and trying to figure out. I do
put a lot of pressure on myself, but I
think that I should put a lot of
pressure on myself. That doesn't
necessarily have to be a bad thing. The
last thing that's on the main census is
if there's anything you like to say to
say it, and thank you so much for
filling out the census. I'm a new fan,
but I really like your work. Thank you
for everything you do. I'm just going to
scroll and like like get us peppering.
I'm going to see John at at Northwestern
in a few weeks. I'm excited. I've been
trying to do connections on hard mode
like Hank, but it's still too hard for
me. It is hard. It is hard. I'm not
going to play Connections at the end of
this cuz it's already quite a long video
and we don't need that, do we? Keep up
the great work. Thank you for your
stuff. You guys are a positive force. I
love the census. It's still not a
census, Hank. I know it's not a census,
but it's a nice it's a nice word. I' I I
actually have never heard that feedback,
but I am aware that it is not officially
a census. Unfortunately, there is no way
to do a census of an online community as
far as I know. Just be like, you can't
be a part of it anymore unless you fill
this out. You've got it's the law. John,
the anthroposine reviewed is by far my
favorite book. It's so good. It really
is. John is a special freaking guy.
Exceptional. and uh trying to write my
cancer book and try thinking about how
good John's writing is is very
inspiring. I'll say it's motivating to
try and do something really good. I
don't know where to start. Thank you for
everything. I've met friends through
Nerd Fighteria, learned so much from
Crash Course Eons, laughed with Dear
Hank and John, and feel generally more
connected to the world and the people
around me. That feels great. Thank you
so much for saying so. You guys are
awesome. My mom calls you those green
boys. That's That's funny. When Orin
listens to the Adventure Zone with us
and we we say, "Do you want to listen to
the Mack Boys?" That's what we say. You
know, a couple of years ago when he was
little where he would say, "I want to
listen to Maroy Adventure." I don't get
involved much, but I spread the word and
really believe you're too amazing. Thank
you. That's very sweet. I don't know if
I'm the target demographic as someone
who's mostly been tangentially aware, if
at all, of most things brought up here,
but I figure you also actually reach
many people in that situation. Yes.
Thank you so much for filling out the
survey. If you are tangentially aware, I
definitely want to hear from you. That's
very important. Congrats, Hank and John.
You should get your famous Tik Tok
brother to get you a role on Dimension
20 so you can flirt with Bleam. I don't
know. I feel like this had already
happened by that point. Did you not know
that that I was on dimension 20 and in
dimen like on camera had my character
flirt with his with with a character he
was representing? That's a real thing
that happened. I listened to every
episode of Dear Hank and John twice. A
that's so nice. I love that. We're back,
man. We're back. We're trying to do it
every week again. Your work has meant
the world to me as it has inspired and
guided me in my studies, my work, and my
personal life. I'm so grateful to have
it as a part of this community for over
15 years. You uh keep being an
inspiration to do better and do good for
the world. That is a lot. This so like I
will say the pressure I put on myself is
because like we have a lot of
responsibility. We have a lot of power.
I wouldn't necessarily put that on
myself if I had less of those things.
Just for clarity, the world asks a lot
of us sometimes. Sometimes I feel like
way too much. If it's getting you out of
bed and doing stuff, then I think that
that's good. If it's feeling like a
weight that is making you overwhelmed
and you can't handle it all, I don't
know, man. I There's a lot of stuff that
I feel like I should do that I don't do,
and I try not to feel bad about it. Love
y'all's channels and all the science
knowledge and life updates that make
people feel like they are not alone. It
would be cool if y'all could do tours.
We would love to do tours. I was just
talking to Katherine about it right
before I came out here. uh we have a lot
of opport like we could absolutely I
think that we could book pretty large
theaters and it would be totally
worthwhile in terms of you know money uh
and in terms of like time spent but uh
very hard to get John and I's schedules
to overlap to do a tour together and
very hard to get just time away in
general. A tour takes a lot of time
takes a lot of time to plan takes a lot
of time to actually be on tour. people
who f who say that they do Patreon, they
get some special stuff, including some
extra questions, but also some stuff I
won't show you as part of the survey.
Don't lie though, but not just Patreon,
but also anybody who supported our work
financially. So, it's just a little
thank you message that we send. So, what
do you support on Patreon? We got Dear
Hang John is our biggest thing. Crash
Course is second and then Sihow. That
makes sense. The coin, uh, I did not
hear about it is very small, SO THAT'S
GOOD. A LOT of people. Wow. It was a
thousand people of the, you know, I
think 20,000 people who filled out the
survey. Not as much as it looks like,
but uh a lot of people didn't get one,
but this is great. This is great numbers
regardless. Do you plan on keeping up
your patronage for the next year? No.
Probably not. Probably definitely.
Great. Thank you very much. Here's some
uh what other things do you support on
Patreon? That's really interesting to
see. Podcasts. Dang it. I would I was
hoping to see something more than P.
It'd be great to see this as a list. Oh,
I can see it as a list. Podcasts,
nothing. Artists, creators, worlds
beyond number. Worlds Beyond Number, CGP
Gay, Physics Girl, If Books Could Kill,
Smarter Every Day, Smarter Every Day,
Content Creators, uh, Maintenance Phase,
Jenny Nicholson, Technology Connections.
You guys have the exact same taste as
me. Like, these are like I did not read
a single thing that I'm not into on this
list. Why did you support our work this
year? Let's see this as a list. Crash
course support, think, believe, good.
It's funny. It's like like I'm reading a
sentence here, but not in in uh like
semantic order. Also important content,
good work. Uh help education make world
people much more world better. All that
stuff. Hank John want support. Way enjoy
money learning. Me too. Way enjoy money
learning. Some of my favorite things.
And I did it. I have indeed even a
little bit of time to prep for this call
that I have to do. I love a great
lawyer, but I hate needing a great
lawyer. And this has nothing to do with
like somebody suing me or anything. This
is just like uh company things. You
know, giving money to charity is hard.
They like the IRS assumes that you're
trying to dodge tax to just do tax
dodges somehow. I'm going to wrap it up
now. As much as there's always way more,
you could always go deeper, there's
always more to learn. I really
appreciate people who take the time to
fill out the survey. It very much
informs how I think about the work that
I do. I know that it very much affects
the way that John thinks about our work.
The survey because I feel like the world
has changed and and my work has changed
a fair amount in the last year and a
half. I think the 2025 survey is going
to be structured a little bit
differently. I always am fighting to
make it shorter. I regret when I make it
shorter, of course, because I lose
questions and can't compare yeartoear as
easily. And also things are are going to
change like the the social internet has
changed a lot in the last couple years.
And the I think that the things I'm
worried about and the things that I'd
like to see, I've been making more
political content. It's very hard for me
to not do that and uh and see how people
are feeling about that. There's a lot
that I'd like to learn and so I really
much very much encourage you to to fill
that survey out. Thank you for your time
watching this whole dang video. Wow.
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