 Good morning, John. I spent a bunch of time at the dftba.com warehouse this week because it's getting into the busy season. Not that they don't have it handled, I mostly just sign stuff. It was a really big place filled with a bunch of really cool stuff. We work with a ton of amazing creators now, Hannah Hart and Rhett and Link, and Glozell Green, and MinuteEarth, and this star won't go out, and we sell shirts and hats and posters and mugs and tea. And I'm just happy that we get to send people stuff that they like and help creative people do what they want to do for a living. And today, the day after Thanksgiving, I'm actually recording this on Thanksgiving, and also the day after, John, you made a video about how we are apparently incapable of understanding how good the world is comparatively. I gotta say, sometimes it is hard to keep in mind how nice your life is. Like, thought experiment here, say a week your cancer, tomorrow. Mass celebrations, right? Like, people would not be able to stop smiling for days. And for years, we would continue feeling the amazingness of that achievement. But 20 or 30 years later, we would still know that it was great. There would be less suffering in the world, less death. But we would normalize. We'd just live in a world without cancer. How do I know this for sure? Well, it's happened before. I mean, we used to not have antibiotics and vaccines. Those things have saved billions, billions of lives, and yet we go on every day just sort of thinking, yeah, you know, if antibiotics and vaccines, they're nice. But we aren't deeply and emotionally touched by the magnificent magic that is this ability to not die the way that humans always used to die. Another example, I was born into an America where two people could be denied the right to marry because of their gender. And so was everyone else watching this video unless you are less than six months old, in which case... But we've already kind of stopped being excited about that. And maybe that's good that we're not designed to say, well, I guess we've done pretty well. Might as well stop progressing. Objectively, on average, this is the best time to be alive in human history. I mean, I know I say that as someone who, like, literally wearing, like, the most preppy thing I've ever worn on vlogbrothers. It's Thanksgiving. I'm dressed up. But we have achieved so much to decrease the suffering of people. During my grandmother's life, there was a war in which 60 million people died. 60 million. My mother was born into an America where black people had different schools and different bathrooms. But it's impossible to go through life feeling all of these accomplishments every second. And maybe we shouldn't. Maybe it's beautiful that we move on from our successes and immediately fret over the next giant magnificent problem that we have to overcome. But if we never look back and never think about what we've done, then it all looks hopeless. It looks impossible. Which is why it has to be a mix of dissatisfaction with the way that it is and what could be better and we have to work for that. And also recognizing that we've done a great deal of remarkable things as a species and as individuals. Like, I get to live in a world without smallpox and in a world with 21 pilot songs and pumpkin pie. One day a year of Thanksgiving is not enough days of the year. This is something that I think really is powerful and motivates me and makes me happier and more effective. Just to be thankful for the literal billions of people who have worked hard to make life better for their children, because I'm one of those children. And I hope that I can honor the memory of those people by both appreciating what they've done and also building on it. John, I'll see you on Tuesday. In addition to everything at dftba.com being 20% off this week, we also have Bubble John and also Bubble Hank. Why do you look so grumpy? My hair is very, very nice. You can make us kiss. Oh, that was actually... Don't do that. Welcome to Dear Hank and John. As I prefer to think of it, Dear John and Hank. It's a comedy podcast where me and my brother John answer your questions, give you dubious advice, and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. And today we're doing it LIVE! Together!