Dear Hank & John - 234: I Know About Drowsy, Too, Buddy
Episode Date: April 6, 2020Are the astronauts stuck on the space station right now? What crafts or books can I use to pass the time? Will books still come out on schedule? How do I paint something other than animals in dresses?... What does "under the weather" mean? Do chickens go through menopause? What's the best human law for a cat to break? Can you make your website less confusing? Why does rubbing alcohol evaporate? How do I stay positive while on the front lines of a pandemic? Hank Green and John Green have answers!If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at hankandjohn@gmail.com! Join us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn. Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn Subscribe to the Nerdfighteria newsletter! https://nerdfighteria.com/nerdfighteria-newsletter
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John!
Dores, I prefer to think of it Dear Johnny Hank.
It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions,
give you the advice and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon, John.
Yeah.
I have a racing snail.
I took off his shell because I thought I'd make him go faster, but it just made him more sluggish. H- made me feel like the whole last week has made me feel.
It can't be that bad.
I tried to turn it around for you.
It's just a consistency, John, as what it's all about.
It's finding the things that we can continue to do in our new kind of lifestyle.
But it says there's some questions from our listeners.
You don't want to talk about Tiger King.
I guess we can talk about Tiger King.
The internet is a buzz.
Or at least it was back in March when we're recording this.
Don't know how things are going in April, everybody.
With the news of the Tiger King.
You told me to think the percentage chances that they're better.
I'm just saying.
It's possible.
It's possible. This is how John sold me on Tiger King.
He said, most media I am consuming these days, highlights how the world is different
now and how that world in which the media was made was more normal.
Tiger King did not make me feel that way.
And I was like, yeah, okay, I get it.
Yeah, there was not a single moment in Tiger King
where I found myself thinking,
oh, I wish I lived in that world.
Tiger King is a seven-part Netflix documentary
about the world of people who own lots of exotic cats
like tigers and lions and stuff.
And you know, it's a different world,
but also a worse one.
Yeah, it makes me think.
So one of my chief goals I've always said
is to not ever have a controversy section
of my Wikipedia page.
And now I have a new one,
which has superseded that by a mile,
which is that I would never want to have a seven
part Netflix documentary series made about my life for the area of my world in which I inhabit
or people like me at all in any way.
Yeah, that's a really good goal.
They don't make seven part Netflix documentaries about people who are crushing it.
There's a reason that the Mr. Rogers doc was an hour and a half long.
Yeah, that's because Mr. Rogers was great and yay.
It was uncomplicated.
Yeah.
The twists, it was like six episodes in before he even got through all the information.
How did it take that long?
There were a lot of twists and turns.
The main theme of Tiger King so far as I can tell
is actually a really optimistic one,
which is that most people are good,
and indeed most people have to be good,
because whatever structures supposedly prevent us
from being good don't function well.
And I know this because all of the Tiger King people got away with a huge variety of crimes
for many decades.
Yes.
And so somehow most people manage to be good most of the time, even though seemingly there
are minimal consequences to being a monster. Yeah, especially because it's not like they were smart
about it.
It's not like anybody was like,
No.
Boy, we're really gonna mastermind our way around this.
They'll never catch us.
They were just like, well, whatever, let's just do crimes.
There's such a big disconnection between like the world
of CSI and law and order and the actual world of crimes.
Yeah.
All right, Hank, let's answer some questions from our listeners.
This first one comes from Sarah who writes, dear John and Hank, are the astronauts on the
International Space Station doing okay like during the pandemic?
Are they just trapped up there in space?
No, they are not trapped up there in space.
So they're, they're, yes, they are trapped up there in space.
Well, yes. I mean, like, no, I mean, they're sort of not. They can leave it anytime.
They have a thing that they could get into and leave and abandon the space station if
they needed to. It would be very bad because then all the experiments we are currently doing
on the space station would have to either pause or just not happen. So we really don't want
to have them leave. So they obviously are staying.
But in the same way that essential workers are working all over the place that there are essential
workers working in the European Space Agency and NASA and all over the world who are making sure
that these people remain safe. They are however not sending up the next crew until they complete a 14 day quarantine because what you don't
want is to bring the coronavirus up to the space station where there would be a 0% chance
that 100% of the people on the space station would not have it immediately.
So that's one of the sentences that had like 14 negatives.
So it's a little hard for me.
Would everyone on the space station get coronavirus?
Or yes.
If there was a single,
if there is a single coronavirus on the space station,
everyone will get it.
That's not true.
I mean, it's probably not true.
You need a higher viral load than one.
All right.
Somebody who has spent a lot of time
reading about epidemiology in his life.
Yeah.
It might be the only science thing
that I can correct you on.
Okay.
You can avoid a single virus.
Yes.
If there's a single sick person,
then I think that would be a big problem.
People, people who can stay home,
should stay home.
And that includes astronauts on the space station
whose current home is in space.
Yeah. I guess that's, I guess that's home, or at least stay where you're at.
And that's where they're at.
It's interesting how long it takes me before I think,
oh, I want to go home and home means someplace other
than my house.
If I'm on vacation for three days and I think,
oh, I want to go home, I mean, Indianapolis.
But if I'm on vacation for five days and I think I want to go home, I mean Indianapolis. But if I'm on vacation for five days
and I think I wanna go home, I mean the hotel room.
That's not how I feel at all.
All right, I think we have a question from anonymous
who writes, do you have any craft ideas
or book suggestions to kill time?
That doesn't seem like you had to ask
the question anonymously, but I respect your desire
to keep your private life at all costs.
You never know these days. I have a book, Suggestion. It's, you are an artist by Sarah Green.
Yeah. You are an artist contains lots and lots of art assignments, which are essentially craft
ideas, but also it's just a really fun, fascinating read and it comes out April 14th.
So it solves both of your problems, anonymous.
Wow.
Boom.
This is Hank, as you can imagine, not the best possible time in human history to publish
a book.
Yeah.
No, I hear that.
And so Sarah and I were really excited to go on tour together and we were going to meet
up with lots of the artists who are in the book and it was gonna be so cool to be able to
see people and make art with them and have big discussions about how to broaden and expand the definition of art and our understanding of
Who makes it?
But instead we are going to be doing all of that stuff virtually, I guess
Yeah, so if you're a fan of the Art Assignment, there will be a series of live shows over at
youtube.com slash the Art Assignment.
We might do one at Vlog Brothers as well, just to try to feel good, try to feel accompanied
in this strange time of isolation and talk about how to make stuff together.
Absolutely.
And that kind of brings us to this other question
from Erica who asks,
Steer Hankenjohn,
a friend told me that she was excited
about the next book in a fantasy series
that she's reading.
It's coming out this April.
Now we're not sure whether or not that release date
is accurate.
It occurs to me you two might have some idea
how everything is impacting the publishing industry.
Any insights persevering Erica.
God that you're persevering Erica. The, that you're persevering Erica.
The things that I've heard is that there are certain books
that do well in certain channels, as they call them.
So if you have a book that sells really well in airports,
they're probably not gonna release that book right now.
So it does come down to like sort of the nature
of the individual work.
Yeah, but that said, it's a bad time for a lot of businesses and publishing is one of those.
I think on the whole, most people still get most of their books from bookstores.
And I should say that almost every bookstore I know of is open and taking phone orders and
will ship books to you and will get books
to you.
And please take advantage of that.
It's a great time to read.
Yeah.
But it has been a, it has been a really hard time for publishing.
And I'm, I'm worried about it because, you know, it's always, it's a pretty small margin
business regardless in the best of times.
Also, John, what about this for a million dollar idea?
Uh-huh.
It's a book delivery service that uses your local bookstore.
And it gets to you in like a day because it's using your local bookstore.
But you can only order stuff that's in stock at your bookstore.
It's a good idea.
Or maybe just your bookstore does that instead of having it be some kind of...
I think a lot of bookstores are doing that.
Yeah, I was like, but they don't have all the packing materials to do that.
And I'm like, well, maybe they don't need to because they're not going to be sitting
in the store all day.
So they could just put the books in their car and like leave them on your doorstep.
Even better, less packaging in the world.
Yeah.
I'm curious about this.
I don't hate this idea.
By the way, it feels like the wrong time to be developing new ideas.
Look, we need ideas to get us through this.
I agree.
I'm not saying I want to make a bunch of money off of this.
I'm saying we need to use our brains to make our way through this situation.
Okay, John, we got a question from Jamie who asks, dear Hank and John,
I've taken up painting since COVID-19 to give myself something to do.
It's been really fun and calming.
I never know what the painting is going to be
when I started and the problem is,
they all turn out to be animals' addresses.
I don't want to draw animals' addresses,
but halfway through each painting,
I realize that I'm drawing another animal in another dress.
I will attach a PDF.
My question is, how do I stop drawing animals and dresses?
You shouldn't, Jamie, obviously. Some things somewhere has communicated with you that this, this is what you're going to focus on, and this is what you're going to focus on, and this
anglerfish and a dress that you have sent us is amazing. Yeah, we're going to post it on the Patreon
at patreon.com slash to your Hank and John. You don't have to pay or anything to see it.
It's a high quality, anger fish, and address painting.
Yeah.
I tend to agree, Hank.
I think that as long as you have to paint animals,
and dresses, you will.
Yeah.
And then when you're finished, you will stop.
Right.
Well, and I find it extremely good to have creative limitations.
And that might be the media you're working with.
It might be a four minute long video and no longer,
and it might be an animal in a dress.
And one thing that you're not gonna be is like the best painter,
but you might be one of the best animal in dress drawers.
I often think about that with us in YouTube, like we're not the best YouTubers, but we might be the best animal and dress drawers. I often think about that with us in YouTube,
like we're not the best YouTubers,
but we might be the best consistently
under four minute YouTubers.
Yeah, we know what we're doing.
Although probably not.
That's true.
There are a lot of great YouTubers now,
but we are the best YouTubers who are doing
what exactly what we're doing.
That's true for everyone,
but it is also true for us.
And I have no shame in that. I find that that is a helpful thing That's true for everyone, but it is also true for us.
And I have no shame in that. I find that that is a helpful thing
to think about sometimes though.
Like other people aren't dealing
with the exact same set of limitations
and opportunities that you're dealing with.
That's hard to remember on a minute by minute basis,
but when you can remember it,
it really helps you be less hard on yourself,
but it also kind of helps you to be less hard on other people.
Yeah. And one thing you will never be is hard on this fish and address because it's great.
It's an excellent fish and address. No one can say that's not good.
Yeah. It's probably the best fish and address painting I've personally ever seen.
Yeah. All right, Hank, this next switch comes from Skylar who writes, dear John and Hank, what does the term under the weather mean? Are we as a species normally
over the weather? All the best Skylar. We did talk recently about like where does the sky start
and how it's kind of everywhere. And so if you jump, you are on top of the sky a little bit.
Yeah. So I guess the only way to actually be over the weather would be to jump up into the air.
And then there's some weather underneath you.
Or just I guess to sit in a car, you'd have weather going under you that way.
Sure.
Swing on a swing.
A swing.
And there's a number of ways.
Just be on the second floor of a home.
Well, Hank, as it happens, that is not too far away from the actual etymology.
You look this up of the phrase under the weather. Well, Hank, as it happens, that is not too far away from the actual etymology you look
to stop of the phrase under the weather.
It is a maritime term, of course, sure.
And when people felt sick or unwell often because they were nauseated, because they were
on a boat, they would go below the deck and then they would be under the weather or specifically under the
weather bow. And that's where the phrase came from. There are a lot of phrases in English
that came to us via the world of sailors, including a lot of phrases that I have to do
with being very sad, like feeling blue, you know? That comes from sailors. And also in the doldrums, that also comes from sailors.
It's a lonely life out there. Hank, on the great wide open seas. Yeah. I wonder why the weather
bow is the one you want to be under. I think that's the side that all the weather's coming from.
Yeah, it's the bow toward the wind. Right. The side of the bow toward the wind. So I guess you want to be there because it's tilted up.
Well, I think you're stuck under it because you can't stop puking.
Oh, okay.
I don't think it's like for fun.
You're just like that sort of where you roll too, maybe.
Like what is your relationship with boats?
I'm not great at boats.
I did go on a cruise once, I guess twice.
I went on a cruise when I was a child,
then I went on a cruise once as an adult.
The big cruise ships, I did not get nauseated on,
but every little boat I have been on
that had any significant seas.
I sort of just have to go to bed
and take a drama mean.
Cause I do get seasick.
I usually have to barf and then I feel better.
Oh, I haven't tried that.
It's not great.
I don't love boats, but a boat is the subject of my all time
favorite joke on a television program.
It's from an episode of the TV show,
it's always sunny in Philadelphia.
And at the very beginning of the episode,
one of the characters is buying a boat. And the boat's houseman says, what are you looking for in a boat? And
the guy says, well, first and foremost, the investment value.
I was on a boat once that somebody inherited from Rupert Murdoch.
Like Rupert Murdoch died. And no, I didn't hear about it. No, like he got it in a divorce.
Okay.
And I was like, how did this happen to me?
I was on a boat once with some IndyCar drivers,
like a very nice boat.
And I was told how much the boat cost.
And I was like, it's not that nice.
You guys should sell this.
You know what's better than this?
Is that amount of money?
Or a house house Like I mean
Just a home. It's like a boat. Yeah, but like it you don't barf. Yeah, that said
I know we have a number of listeners
We we genuinely do have a number of listeners who are like career boat people and I think that's great
Oh, yeah, and be into whatever you're into like I have expensive hobbies
Okay, and I don't like it when people make fun whatever you're into. Like I have expensive hobbies, okay?
And I don't like it when people make fun
of my expensive hobbies.
What's your expensive hobbies?
Mostly sponsoring third-tier English soccer teams.
So that's a big one.
Yeah, mine is like Pilates.
That is neither expensive nor a hobby.
That's how you feel.
Okay.
John, this next question comes from Caitlin
who asks, do chickens go through menopause,
asking for a friend, Pumpkins and Penguins Caitlin?
John, I really needed to answer this question
because there is a thing, it's called henopause,
and it's not just a joke, it's when
hen's stop laying eggs so often.
Now, menopause is a thing that is scientifically defined
as a human thing.
So kind of no other organism goes through menopause
because of the way that we have scientifically
considered menopause.
But there are animals that the female of the species
will exit out of the time of their life
when they can reproduce.
That is pretty uncommon, and hens kind of don't do it.
They just get much more sensitive to their environment and will make fewer eggs, so they
need better food and the weather needs to be perfect.
So as they get older, they just sort of have less resources to devote to making eggs. They can still make them, though, they don't run out of eggs or anything.
Whereas Orcas do and can live decades and decades after they go through a kind of Orca
menopause.
It's pretty uncommon in the animal world, but it does happen.
But henopause is the name for the thing where hens start to lay fewer eggs or completely
cease laying eggs as they get older.
Fascinating.
Yes.
I'm just glad that I just needed everybody to know about that there isn't indeed a Wikipedia
page that is titled henna pause.
All right, Hank, we got a great question that I really want to ask you.
It's from Joseph who writes, dear John and Hank, in the song McCavity from the musical cats,
it is clearly stated that McCavity, the mischief cat, has broken, quote, every human law. Seeing that
there is a large variety of human laws, most of them, by the way, explored in the seven-part
documentary Tiger King. And McCavity has broken every single one. What's your personal favorite to think
that a strange anthropomorphized cat man has broken?
Mine is tax evasion.
That's a good one.
Ge-L-E-J-O-S-F.
Oh gosh.
Well, I don't think that you could break every human law
without having a tiger king moment,
without like being in charge of a big cat operation
for some amount of time.
So it's definitely the case that McCavity ran a big cat place
that exploited cats and sold them illegally.
Yeah, I mean, that's one of the laws, right?
That's like a whole other level of bad though, right?
Because the cavities are cat.
Is he though?
Yes, the musical is called cats.
Yeah, but it's called cat's exclamation point.
And I've always felt like the humans
are inside of that exclamation point.
Cats.
I mean, it doesn't even surprise me
that that the cavity might have done tax evasion.
When you're an anthropomorphized cat, you probably have some income.
Yeah.
And if you have some income, it is very easy to evade taxes.
Well, but you shouldn't.
I mean, it's very, oh, yeah, just for clarity, you shouldn't.
Yeah, I mean, in general, I think all of the ones that are fun to imagine are white collar
crimes.
Imagining like a cat fudging some mortgage papers is a lot of fun.
Insider trading is fun.
Like, McAfatite gets gets word in advance that Purina is about to have some kind of safety
violation.
And so, right.
Yeah.
Cells all of his Purina stock and then ends up going to jail for three months,
Seta, nice joint with tennis courts.
Not, it's deeper than that.
One, maybe McCavity was working at the Purina plant
and intentionally poison to the cat food
in order to tank the stock.
And so not like it got to have double whammy.
It's because you gotta be breaking a lot of laws. You gotta And so not like it was, you gotta have double whammy. It's because you gotta,
you gotta be breaking a lot of laws.
You gotta be doing them all at once,
like the people from Tiger King do.
This is a great idea.
I won a lot of time.
This is a great concept,
by the way, for cats too, Hank.
Cats too.
Like what a great premise for a movie.
It's like, remember that movie Brewsters Millions
where Richard Pryor plays
a character who inherits a bunch of money and he has to lose all of the money in a set
period of time in order to inherit a bunch more money.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, it's a bunch of cats and they have to break every law.
Yes, he breaks every law. Oh, good. And if he does, if he succeeds in breaking every human law, I mean, what does McCavity want just to tacos?
No, maybe like if you don't succeed in breaking every single human law,
you have to go to jail for the rest of your life,
but if you do, there should be like a loophole where if you break it,
every law, you're good.
You're good.
It's like how Mr. Burns and the Simpsons is 400 years old,
but he's still alive because he has every disease,
but they're in perfect balance.
Right.
That should be the out.
It's either McCavity is going to jail
for a very, very long time, or McCavity gets the little known,
you committed every crime, get out of jail free card.
However, if that were the case,
if we had such a deal in the US system, everybody from Tiger King would be fine.
And that reminds me, John, that this podcast is brought to you by committing every crime.
The people from Tiger King tried so hard, but they didn't quite get there.
I don't know, but I have to spend a lot of time thinking about what crimes the nobody
and Tiger King committed.
Yeah, today's podcast, of course, also brought to you by Fish's Indresses.
Fish's Indresses.
That's right, I pluralized fish.
This podcast is also brought to you by The Weather Val.
We hope that you are not under it.
And of course, today's podcast is brought to you by the International Space Station,
the International Space Station,
currently with zero cases of COVID-19.
Woo-woo, we got a project for awesome message here
from Claire from America, but in England.
It's DeCorn and Felix and then AB,
Colin, Shannon and Bethany.
My dearest boys, you're probably wondering
if this message is for you.
It is.
I wanted you to know how happy it makes me
that we listen and laugh together at this podcast.
Even you Felix, I see you laughing.
We talk about weird American things,
big important things and silly things.
It's so great.
Love to all of you.
Thank you, Hank and John, Furby and Y'all.
And thank you, Claire, who is a big supporter
of our work with Partners in Health in Sierra Leone
and the building of the Maternal Center of Excellence.
So thanks for joining the project for Awesome
and in general for being awesome.
Woo, woo, woo.
This next question comes from Thalu, who asks,
dear Hank and John, my boyfriend loves your show
and I'd like to take him to see you guys live.
Can you please make your website less confusing?
I can't find your tour anywhere.
Also, he says you only go to Weird Midwestern cities, but we live in DC.
Could you please come here?
I live in a shoe, Thaloo, or Thaloo, I'm not sure.
Anyway, first of all, we're not on tour.
We're not going on tour now or for a while.
Yeah, we don't only go to weird Midwestern cities,
we don't go anywhere.
Yeah.
But I do agree with you on the fact that our website
is more confusing than it needs to be.
And I...
Some of this is Hanks fault because he does too many things.
So yeah, if you go to hankanjohn.com,
there's a who we are section,
which is pretty self-explanatory.
Then there's a project section,
which is just way too complex, and that's Hanks fault.
Then there's appearances currently empty.
Yeah.
And that's why it's confusing.
Yeah, there's a listen.
Should say something.
Could our website be a little more contemporary?
Yes.
That's the end of our plans.
That's the end.
That's the end. Also, it That's the end. That's the end.
Also, it says upcoming appearances is really big text and it used to be that there were
things there and there would be things there if we had upcoming appearances.
Yeah.
I mean, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the website and then it's
on the left side to find the word tour, which I think is the word that people are looking
for.
Yeah.
And that is a problem. But is it a problem right now? No. Is it like one of the 10 problems
that Hank and I have to solve before the end of the day or very bad things will happen? No.
So, so I don't know when things are going to start getting done around here. Thelu that are not
proper emergencies, but it may be a while. But we hear you and we agree.
This next question comes from Rebecca,
who asks, dear Hank and John,
why does rubbing alcohol evaporate?
If I left a full bottle of rubbing alcohol open
on my bathroom counter,
how long would it take before all of it was gone?
Social distancing and self-discinfecting, Rebecca?
I know the answer to this question and it's wild.
Well, I don't know the answer to this question,
but I have an answer nonetheless,
which is that the reason rubbing alcohol evaporates
Rebecca is because everything evaporates
because this whole thing is temporary,
and that is the end of the answer.
Well, in fact, rubbing alcohol is,
you know, temporary in fact, rubbing alcohol is, you know,
temporary in the way of all things,
but the evaporation does not make it go away.
The alcohol is still there.
It's just floating around in the air
and blowing out of the vents in your house
and going somewhere else.
Matter is neither created nor destroyed, John.
So in that one way, everything is permanent.
Well, not permanent, but very long term.
No, matter is permanent.
We don't know that for sure.
We don't know it for sure,
but we have no evidence to the contrary.
Did you know that most of the water on Earth
is older than the sun?
Well, I mean, what does that mean?
Most of the water, not all of it,
but most of the water on Earth is older than the sun. It has been water in this area of the water, not all of it, but most of the water on Earth is older than the sun.
It has been water in this area of the universe since before the sun was the sun.
Right, yeah. I did know that. I did not know that.
In fact, it was only figured out two years ago. So we are still figuring things out.
Oh, yes. We are definitely still figuring things out.
We used to think that, well, of course, water has been water for a long time, et cetera,
but we used to think a lot of it formed here in chemical reactions, but no.
Yeah.
Most of it, yeah, it forms in the interstellar medium, which is wild.
Do you want to answer the question, though, John?
Yeah.
It's because in any given cup of a liquid, you put your thermometer in there and it'll
tell you that it is room temperature.
But that is the average of all of the molecules.
It is not the temperature of each individual molecule.
And inside of a glass of water or a glass of alcohol, the molecules are all going very
different speeds.
So they might have like two molecules run into one molecule and that one will get going
really fast and then it'll run into something else and it'll slow way down.
And heat is the speed of molecular motion.
That's all we're measuring there.
And so some molecules in a glass of water are above boiling, and some molecules are below freezing. But because they are never
sort of matched up with other molecules that are also above boiling or below freezing,
and so the entire glass averages out to room temperature. But those individual molecules that
get above the vaporization point of that liquid, they escape if they are on the top,
if they're at the very top of the surface of the liquid, they will escape in that liquid, they escape if they are on the top, if they're at the very top of the surface of the liquid.
They will escape in that moment, they will evaporate, and that's what evaporation is.
It's basically individual boiling. It's just like one molecule boiling at a time, and the evaporation temperature,
the boiling temperature of alcohol is significantly lower than water, so that happens faster at the same
temperature for a glass of alcohol than for a glass of water.
This is also why if you have a glass with a wider opening
that has more area on the surface,
it evaporates faster.
Yeah, because if it gets going super fast
and it's in the middle of the cup,
it's got nowhere to go.
It'll just hit another molecule.
It has to fly off into some place where there's nothing else to run into or much less stuff to run into.
It's interesting.
When I drink water, I don't feel aware of the fact that some of the molecules are below freezing
and some are above boiling.
But when I drink bourbon, I do feel aware of that fact.
I don't know why that is.
That's interesting. It's just an observation. I like it. I like it.
That sounds like really great. You can really taste both. Sounds like a good copy for a bourbon ad,
but not necessarily scientifically accurate. I mean, to be fair, very little in the field of
bourbon marketing is based on proper science. Right. And that's one, that's one of the rules. McCavity is going to have to break false advertising.
So it's going to get a, get a job on Madison Avenue, just for that one.
Almost, almost positive, but that law is never enforced.
It doesn't matter.
It's true.
It's got to break it.
You don't have to get arrested.
It's true.
All right, Hank, before we get to the all important news from Mars and AFC woman, then
I wanted to answer this question from Jen who writes, dear John and Hank, I live in the UK and I'm classified as a key worker
during the coronavirus crisis.
I work in a hospital and even though my usual job is administrative, I am rightfully now
being prepared to work in another team when needed, such as catering or housekeeping or
healthcare assistance.
This means I still have to go out and get my regular two buses and go into work every day.
On top of this, I had to postpone my wedding, which was meant to be in July.
And also, I am doing a distance learning English literature degree.
My tutors are being very understanding, though.
I'm young and I'm fit, and I don't have children, so I feel I am better placed than most people
to be in this position.
But I'm struggling, and I know that the worst is yet to come and it scares me a lot.
So my question is, how do I stay positive now that I find myself unexpectedly on the
front line of a pandemic?
Well, Jen, first, thanks very much.
One of the kind of weird things about this crisis is Hank, so many people are being asked
to take big risks and real risks in this crisis.
And Jen is one of them.
People who are conformacies and grocery stores and hospitals are having to do really difficult,
scary work.
And these people really are heroic.
And I think it's great that we are celebrating and acknowledging them as heroes, but I also think it's really important to do what we can
to support them.
Like instead of just being like,
oh, you're such a hero, the question becomes for me,
well, what can we do to support these people?
Now, for the healthcare workers in my life,
that means reaching out to them more,
offering to bring by dinner in a socially distant
delivered to the curbside kind of way. It also means staying home because I can stay home and I can
help flatten the curve and that means that I can lower the risk that those front line people
are taking on by minimizing the potential damage
that I personally do in this outbreak.
Yeah, so hopefully, John, one thing you can know
is that a lot of people are thankful for your work,
what you're doing, and that we're also doing
what we can to make that better,
and to have that a little bit of solidarity there.
Now, of course, not everybody is going to be doing,
or even is able to do the kinds of stuff
that you will be up to.
But we all have a part to play in this.
And so one thing that I hope you feel
is that there is support and you certainly have hours.
And I think everybody listening to feels that same way.
Yeah, I hope that offers some strength.
I hope there is a real feeling of solidarity there.
And that hopefully there are support structures for for people when they they need a break from this.
And I hope that is that is the case for you. Yeah, the last thing I'll say about this is that
when I worked at a children's hospital, it was certainly day and think, well, that mattered.
And what you're doing matters, it matters so much, not just to the patients that you're serving,
but also to their families and to their friends and to the entire community. A lot is being put on you,
and I'm really sorry about that, but your work is very important. It has deep, deep meaning,
and I hope that there might be some comfort in that. All right, John, it is time for the news from
Mars and AFC Wimbledon. I have news.
Do you think I do have some news from AFC Wimbledon this week from just a few hours ago, actually,
which is that AFC Wimbledon's great player, Scott Wagstaff, just had a daughter, Isabella.
He and his wife, Ellie, had a baby.
And Scott said it was honestly the best moment of my life.
It's been a long week with little sleep, but worth every minute.
It's just a nice reminder that there are still really, really, really cute babies coming into this
world. They posted a picture of Scott with his daughter and oh my goodness gracious. It is a cute cute baby head over
to ANC will then Twitter if you just if you need a great baby picture right now and if you're anything
like me you do desperately. Well good that's that is news John. In Mars news the Preserverance Rover
which is our our what we were used to be calling the Mars 2020 rover. It is getting assembled, all put together,
and it has a new accessory, and that accessory is the names of 10,932,295 people. They were all
submitted as part of NASA's Send Your Name to Mars campaign. So if you put your name into that
website, you are now part of science history. The names are etched onto three silicon chips
with an electron beam, along with,
because they didn't have enough stuff,
essays from 155 finalists in the name
Eurover contest.
So the silicon chips are each, how big would you think
that would be?
10 million names, 155 essays.
How big?
Like a square inch.
Yes, like a thumbnail, like a size of a thumbnail.
I was actually did a great job answering that question.
You did.
We got it right on.
The team is also in addition to doing that
is has reconfigured some parts of the rover
so that it can ride on that Atlas V rocket
along with attaching the name chips,
these steps are being taken by the Preservier and Steam
to keep the Rover prep on schedule for the July launch.
All right.
Preservier and Rover and a beautifully foolish endeavor,
both launching in July.
One, maybe slightly more important,
but we're trying to keep on schedule.
I love that they named it Perseverance.
That the name becomes better by the day.
Can I tell you one more thing about Scott Wagstaff
and his AFC Wimbledon baby?
Yeah.
There is a woman Sharon Armfield,
who is a huge Wimbledon fan
and who sells programs at the games.
And she knits a blanket for every single baby
born to every single AFC Wimbledon player
and has done this for many years
and I just think it is the best. It is the best thing.
Yes, Lauren, hello. Hi. Hi, Lauren.
I just got I just got choked up, Lauren, talking about Sharon Armfield making blankets for all the Wimbleton players.
Lauren, do you want to come be on the podcast? Football podcast.
My podcast.
You're a podcast.
Well, it's more my podcast, Orrin.
It's also Uncle John's podcast.
Can you say hi, Uncle John?
Hey, Orrin, how's it going?
Hi, Uncle John.
Hi, buddy.
How you doing?
Good.
Yeah?
Are you feeling kind of drowsy?
Mm-hmm.
And you're drowsy. Oh, are you? It's probably like the word drowsy? Mm-hmm, and you're drowsy.
Oh, are you?
Oh, I'm totally like, like the word drowsy right now.
Yeah, are you happy, Orin?
And I make play with the switches.
Yeah, we got...
Because it goes...
What'd you get?
Psst!
We got new lights in my studio because we're filming SciShow in here now and he likes to play
with the switches.
Oh, cool.
Orin, do you know what you're gonna be when you grow up?
Um, and then,
not it going all the way,
okay?
Cool.
It's going all the way that way.
It's going all the way that way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
It's making up,
orin's.
Do you think it'll be like a journalist or a nurse?
He doesn't know about jobs yet.
Lauren, you don't know about jobs?
I know about drugs.
You know about drowsy.
I know about drowsy too, buddy.
I know about drowsy too.
All right, buddy.
Oh, what is on you?
What is this?
All right, I think this is our hands too.
I just ate a chocolate bar.
You just ate a chocolate bar?
I think this is our time to end the podcast.
Thank you for being with me.
This podcast is produced by Rosie on All's Real House
and shared and gives it its edited by Joseph Tudor Mettish.
The music that he was listening to right now
in the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola
and as they say in our hometown, say it or in.
Don't forget to be awesome.
Don't forget to be awesome.