The metaphor of cancer as the "selfish ant" works really well, and I feel is a good way to explain it to others.

Underneath this explaining (which is excellent, as always), I hear Hank wrestling with deeper feelings and deeper questioning. That’s what I sense, at least. Which makes total sense. Processing within while explaining outwards. We love you, Hank.

I have Hodgkin Lymphoma (second chemo session Tuesday) and this video helped me so much, especially why if I relapse later, it will be worse and can't just do more ABVD, it's because those individual cells that survived all 6 cycles are the strong bois and then they got the chance to reproduce and they need to be hit harder. Thank you Hank for this and everything else you've made! I feel much more informed about my treatment and cancer every time 💞

Cancer is like if one ant decided to be like, "Well, what if I was queen?" and started to disrupt the colony. I think that having consumed content from you and John for the majority of my life has fundamentally made it easier for me to comprehend this stuff, but I think that it's really helpful. I like the eusocial insect analogy because it allows you scale up and down more easily. Thanks Hank! Always fun to see how you think.

This was really informative for me. Personally, when you mentioned how your son has your genetics, but not your cells, that helped me to make the conceptual shift about natural selection. Also, saying, “You are extincting a species of single celled organisms that shares your DNA but is acting on its own behalf” helped with my full understanding of cancer. Thank you so much for sharing 💚

I’m so glad hank is In remission, we’ve lost too many great people to cancer. I’m glad we didn’t lose him as well.

Hank: *rambles and explains things very well for 20 minutes* Me: I am an anthill.

Have you read the essay/story "The Goddess of Everything Else"? It makes a really nice metaphor between cancer in multicellularity, selfishness in social animals, and conquest in nations

I've been watching you since I was 18 years old, and you guys inspired me to start my own KZfaq channel at that age. I'm now turning 32, and I'm still making videos haha. Congratulations on being in remission, Hank. I am happy to keep hearing you talk all these years.

I love this rant type explanation, it’s much more like a natural train of thought, and I love watching him just talk and think

I am studying medicine, and spend a fair amount of time at the hospital, and I get to bear witness to people having the best and worst days of their life. And I really get frustrated at the weakness in the 'battling cancer' metaphors, or people 'being brave ' because there are a whole range of experiences that are not accurately depicted. Cancer has this mythology and this stigma and fear associated with it, and I really appreciate you trying to find a way to explain what cancer is, partially because I will be stealing the odd metaphor to help me explain to patients what is happening and to try and demystify the experience as much as possible. Cancer sucks, but I am so impressed at how you are using this really shitty experience, to try and make it into a way to educate people.

Hank, I do have really bad health anxiety and this has helped me a lot. I’m very glad I get to share the time I’m on this planet with you also.

It was wonderful to hear you talk it through, and you had a great ant-colony analogy! My cancer (a 5" diameter stage 2C ovarian granulosa cell cancer) was "avid enhancing" (liked sugar), had its own blood supply network, and produced inhibin B hormone. I'm now 17 months post-sugery (TAH-BSO) and 12 months post-chemo with no recurrence. I'm so happy to see you doing well! ❤

I like to think about the genes being selected for kind of like a popular book--it's not the physical books themselves that are being passed on/reprinted, it's the story inside them.

Your videos about cancer are comforting.. My mother has cervical cancer that has spread, some actually rotted in her body. I made her a painting before she goes to the hospital tommorow, with a message on the back. I hope she likes it.

"Ants are wasps that learned how to work together" is a terrifying take. Thank you Hank.

I recently beat Stage 2 grade 3a Non-Hodgkins follicular lymphoma myself! Happy for you Hank!

Thank you, Hank. I'm 59 now, but I was 16 in 1980 when my 43 year old Dad died of lymphoma. You have so many people who watch you so that IF cancer affects their lives, at least they'll have a better knowledge of cancer. Believe me, it'll help. Because of you and because you LIVED! Again, thank you, Hank.

I was being diagnosed with both systemic mastocytosis (overgrowth of mast cells) and inflammatory breast cancer at around the same time. Comparing them helped me understand what makes cancer more than just "more cells." Also, the anime Cells At Work has some interesting cancer episodes that explain how it is "selfish" and stops acting in the interest of the organism, including "punching" through organ walls, etc. In mastocytosis, the mast cells are still trying to work together, there's just too many cooks in the kitchen.

I can see how this was difficult to articulate and I think you did a good job. The ant metaphor helped a lot to help me follow you. At any point that someone with a fair amount of science background starts talking about what cells "want" and "think", I'm like, ok we're in deep here lol. Glad to hear you're in remission and wishing you all the best moving forward. (... And selfishly waiting for more Delete This/Wet or Dry because Katherine is my favorite in the Vlogbrothers universe.)

Hank is one of the greatest educators of our time. Not only is he constantly seeking knowledge and sharing it in a fantastic way, he is doing it as he's going through one of the greatest horrors one can go through.

I love the ant analogy, I’ve done quite a lot of research on cancer and I’ve found something else that helps my understanding is looking at what people used to believe cancer was before they really knew about cancer, (The Emperor of All Maladies is a great read on the history of cancer). Maybe in a broader context than what the cells are actually doing, but could expand understanding.

I know you hear this a lot lately, but I have an immense amount of respect for how you've turned this arguably traumatic health crisis into a learning experience for you and for us. I followed what you were saying, and you're right, it's pretty wild to think about.

This is awesome content. It's like being in the writer's room and knowing Hank is not at his best but it's so important to him to communicate science he has to wing a 20 minute video. This is a bitter bliss, listening to Hank mind dump.

Thank you for this, Hank. I was treated for cancer last year (no evidence of active disease so far, yay!) and this explanation made me tear up. i'm so grateful to have new perspective on it.

I like how Hank's two props that he had on hand to use were 2 pointy sharp things

I had testicular cancer diagnosed last September. Had surgery on my birthday 4th of October 2022. Surgery went well and first scan after surgery showed the cancer was gone. My second scan cancer came back and was now in a lymph node in my back. 9 weeks of hell later I got the all clear. Funnily on the same day I got the all clear my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. My 2 scan after getting the all clear is in 2 weeks. Beyond scared but hopefully. Mother is really struggling. Cancer is a fucking dick but pulls out the fighter in us all. Stay strong brother better times ahead 💙 Love from a brother in Ireland trying to kick cancers ass 🇮🇪🤛

I absolutely LOVE this hank talking through his through process...I could listen to fucking HOURS of this... I want more of these...all the time...anytime you're thinking through anything...PLEASE do it like this. This is the hank I never knew I always wanted. I also love how introspective and grand your thought processes have been since your diagnosis. I know that, it must have been a horrible time, going through the scariness of cancer and the pain and vulnerability of taking us along with so much of that ride... but, I think when we as humans glimpse our mortality and thus our humanity...it makes us think differently not just in how we see the world but how we think about or even talk about the world. our internal and external vocabulary for how we talk about and describe the world and concepts around us...changes. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. For someone who is already so intelligent and has such a strong vocabulary and ability to think in the abstract...it's having an even more outsized effect and I love it on you. it looks good on you man. I could see you drinkin' some mushroom tea or DMT or Ketamine or something and blowing my mind with what thoughts and ideas came to you from that... This idea of thinking of your individual cells as ants apart of an ant colony and cancer being one stray ant that ain't going with the plan definitely has some promise. With a little more talking it out I think you'll get there. It's like a comedian when they think of something funny but are trying to figure out how to make it a joke...you got all the pieces you need, i think you just need to figure out how to put the pieces together. As always, Love ya bro. Looking forward to more for you, esp if they are deep thought vids like this.

TierZoo's video on eusocial insects was my first real encounter with the gene as the unit of natural selection. Since bees share more genetic material with their siblings than they do with their parents, their hives very strongly select for behavioral traits that encourage having as many siblings as possible, leading to individual bees being more loyal to the hive than they are to themselves.

I don't understand the sciencey stuff, but I think in TFIOS it's phrased more like cancer is "made of you", which is similar to "cancer is you", but not quite the same. I'm not sure that's what you're getting at, but sometimes shifting a little bit can help? (also I love hearing the trains of thought that get you to the Fancy Science Thought that we normally hear!)

I always love when you explain a topic better than multiple courses of my bio major did. Thank you!!

I hope you create more videos like this. Honestly, I really enjoyed hearing you talk through these ideas.

The way I've understood Genes as the fundamental unit of Natural Selection is that in order to reproduce, you must have the information required to do so. Genes are the fundamental unit of information in any organism, and if a gene carries information that allows it to be reproduced, then it will be reproduced. Natural Selection can only act on this level of information because all higher levels of organization are pre-determined by the genes, so even if it "wanted" to act on the cell or organism level, there is no mechanism through which it can.

Love you Hank. I am so proud of you for keeping us updated with you . Also teaching so many of us . Most of all doing it while I’m pain and sacred. As someone who suffers from chronic pain and other ailments. I know it’s so hard to do the everyday and show up for others. Keep kicking ass love ❤❤❤

This was very informative and I want to say that seeing your thought process trying to explain something has value on itself, so this video is much more valuable than you might initially perceive Hank! Happy for your remission and hope you keep feeling better and better now :)

I loved this video. A sense of something bugging you at night and you just talked it through. I was anxious that it would worm round to news about your diagnosis but Im pleased youre just musing -, trying to make the complex understandable and reaching out to your community for their input. I think you nailed it at the end.

I've been watching you and John since your Brotherhood 2.0 era- middle school days for me. I hadn't thought about cancer with this frame of perspective and I'm now, once again, so gratful that you have made me, over nearly 15 years after finding Vlogbrothers, made me consider what makes things do what they do.

Thank you for putting out content in this format of conversation-like familiarity! Your cadence and the subject matter and the way it felt, it reminded me so much of my dad who I lost in May this year. We would sit and have discussions and teach each other about subjects and talk through things that we were learning together so we could solidify in our minds and find ways to communicate the info to others who weren’t as attuned to each others wavelength as we were to each other. He would have liked your videos Hank. He loved to think and spent most of the last few years reading every article he could and watching documentaries since he couldn’t work physically anymore.

As someone who has lived with increased cancer risk my entire life (family history, living in Southeast Kentucky, being alive in the 21st century, smoking for 7 years, drinking for 12, etc), this gives me a little more perspective on what to expect when it finally does hit me. Thank you, Hank, you're the best.

Hank - I have been watching you and SciShow since your earliest of days there I lost my father to lung cancer in 2011 - he died the day after my 30th birthday; it was a long sad road for him, he was diagnosed in February and he passed in December - I was his caregiver taking him to his appointees and cooking and cleaning for him, I was his rock…. it was tough, I’d never dealt with someone I know having cancer nor had I ever lost anyone close to me before - I remember watching SciShow even back in those days and the sound of your voice and content always provided much relief during the time my father was fighting for his life - I’ll never forget it Once again you have provided great insight with this video - thanks much for the upload Take care of yourself brother - you have a big fan rooting and cheering for you right here - keep the awesome content coming and don’t ever stop my friend, don’t ever stop…. 💪🔥🤙

We love you Hank, I loved watching your train of thought on this. Can't wait for you to feel 100% again

I love you Hank! You’re my biggest inspiration to move forward and keep learning in life!!

I followed that entire explanation. Thank you for taking the time to break it down in a way that no one has before.

so glad to hear you are doing better. hope you are feeling better. you and your brother both have brighten my day on so many occasion. hope you always the best from Northwest Indiana.

I like you, Hank, am a huge D&D nerd. Cancer IMO, in D&D terms, is a Lich. A good wizard gone bad. Someone who got lost in the sauce and got obsessed with immortality and decides to do whatever it takes to survive. Damn the cost or the collateral damage. You can kill a Lich but it comes back unless you kill the phylactory. Cancer has huge Necromancy vibes.

This made me understand how cancer works for the first time! The ant analogy was helpful to start and then go deeper into cancer in a human body and the genes driving things

Hi Hank. Thanks for producing this video. I’m struggling through cancer myself and have spent a lot of time trying to understand what cancer actually is, and how it comes into being. It plainly sucks and I feel unlucky. I really do relate to the topic and I hope that you have a favorable outcome and will be making science accessible for as long as there are interesting topics to cover and willing listeners that have a strong curiosity to understand (or at least try to understand) the nature of reality. Keep it up, please. Science geek, out.

This was very illuminating for me! So glad to hear you're in remission, and are able to share what you learned from your experience.

A good friend of mine found out he had cancer ( I believe Hodgkins Lymphoma) not long after hearing about Hank. It was hard for me because like myself he's a father with a baby daughter at home. Listening to Hank explain everything and be so positive has helped me understand and have hope for my friend. He's a great new father and I really hope he's around long enough to see his little girl grow up.

So cancer is a selfish ant! That's a great way to think about it. Glad to hear you are in remission hank! Thanks for a great video ❤

Thank you for sharing yourself and your time. It is precious.

I love the relaxed frankness of this. It feels I'm two drinks in with my smart friend and he wants to tell me something really interesting and I'm all ears and I hope I remember it all. Thank you for the format. It's comfortable.

It's really cool to see this part of science communication, the initial thoughts in service of a better explanation

This video made perfect sense to me somehow lol 😅 thanks hank for explaining it in such a way that it's easier to understand ❤ I hope you're feeling better 🫂

This was one of your best videos ever. I feel like I took a giant leap in understanding not only cancer but also evolution and natural selection.

I really enjoyed this uncensored exploration. Thank you for sharing it. I have a much better understanding of Cancer now and hadn't quite made all those leaps. I was able to follow it, though I suspect you will be able to put it in more succinct phrasing shortly. But the basic idea of our bodies being a multicellular organism that work together and the cancer cells being like "yea, Imma gonna go back to every Cell for Itself" is really neat. And screwed up.

I’m currently seeing a haematologist-oncologist to investigate possible lymphoma/leukaemia. (They say they’re not sure yet which it is coz I have labs and symptoms consistent with both groups!). It’s very scary, but Hank’s videos really help me. Thank you Hank. This episode reminds me of the SciShow episode about the “single cellular dog.”

That was really cool! I've never thought about cancer like that. It absolutely blew my mind when I realized that ants were basically an extension of the queen rather than individuals. Ants really are like single celled organisms and its crazy that that works for them (and wasps etc.)

Your "working through it" turns out to be significantly more succinct and self-consistent than a lot of my "final version" efforts. I'd say you've basically arrived at an effective way to communicate these concepts. Either way, it's a great think piece. I immediately digressed to thinking about human societies as the control mechanisms that allow individual humans to cooperate for the advancement of society rather than strictly individual benefit … and how selfish/individualistic/power hungry persons behave exactly the same way as cancerous cells-transgressing and subverting those cooperative mechanisms. Ultimately to basically the same effect.

God I wish more of youtube was more like this... Hank you're an utterly brilliant man, who is a gift to the world. I can only imagine how your mum must feel and must have felt as she watched you growing up, listening to you pour your brain out to her and others, just in awe at what she created. Well done to her, and well done to you my fellow awesome human..

This is how I rant when I'm drunk, and I'm loving every second of it!

Thank you for taking us with you on this thought journey, it is clear to me now that my thought processes are a lot slower than yours. I am not saying that it is a bad thing, I just found it slightly hard to follow all your thoughts throughout the video, but at least I found it interesting. I got a little bit stuck on the fact that ants are mostly identical copies with the same genes that they get from the ant queen. Thinking about the difference between cells in our bodies and that they normally don't work for their individual good, but for the good of the organism, it then becomes profoundly interesting that cancer cells seem to break that pattern in order to create more of themselves, which is not good for the body and organism. Contrasting that to how different humans can be within the limits of a human being, it is surely a lot to take in and deal with in terms of thought process and sorting out what we want to use, maybe to increase our own chance of survival. Thank you again for all these thoughts, it sure is a lot. Then again, if we can't improve ourselves from dealing with facts, how are we going to improve our chances of survival? This will be on my mind for quite some time.

Cancer is a selfish cell instead of a selfish gene. Throughout my education the greatest barrier to understanding both cancer biology and evolution (because they are so intrinsically linked) was anthropomorphizing the processes. It is so hard to look at natural selection and not see a grand plan, or species "making choices" to adapt to their environment. Adjusting the mindset to remove intentions from biology helped with my understanding a lot.

My mum got diagnosed about the same time as Hank. I found it to be painfully poetic seen as I’ve followed the green brothers for the best part of their KZfaq careers! I dunno the best way to describe it, but, I guess fundamentally it helped me feel less alone & give me lots of hope along with information. Obviously non of this is about me, but, it’s impossible to not feel something seeing someone you love to through all this. It’s real hard to reconcile the fact i shouldn’t be thinking about how I feel but at the same time been super upset. Very weird feeling. All this has been eye opening for sure. It’s absolutely staggering how far medicine has come! Good to see you doing well Hank x

❤ You’ve given hope to a lot of people. Also, very good explanation.

Holy wow! Well, I would like to say congratulations on your own personal extinction event! Glad to still have you around, explaining the intricate world around and within us and just being generally awesome. I feel like "congratulations on your own personal extinction event" could be a sticker or something lol

This was actually so fascinating and I was able to follow along your train of thought! Thank you so much for sharing, always love seeing your face!!!

God i loved this format bc this kind of meandering, constantly readjusting of phrasing, but still trying to move forward towards the point, or complete the thought process, way of trying to explain something to yourself or to somebody else (either in your vicinity or just in the hypothetical) is EXTREMELY relatable and kinda validating ngl. Like i hope you dont feel self-concious, Hank, bc i’ll do this exact same thing when im trying to figure out the way i want to say something while also trying to more succinctly rap my head around the thing itself. Stay awesome and never stop posting bc its always a treat to hear your voice, my man. ❤ and congrats on extincting that new species of ur own cells that tried to colonize your body btw, gOOd jOb! 👍😀

no comments? sending love to you, hank. happy you’re doing well.

This is a totally unrelated comment but I’ve genuinely been enjoying watching you on mentopolis and I just wanted to share that haha. DFTBA! Edit: congrats on entering remission - please continue to take care of yourself!

Really good that you talk so much about cancer, it's what I'd be doing if I had it as well, diving into all the intricacies helps destigmatizing it and as a public figure you probably also influence one or the other into researching it. Awareness and information is always good.

I had never thought of cancer in terms of evolution, but now it makes so much more sense! I'm definitely going to be using the ant colony analogy if I ever need to explain it to anyone else.

the sci-show video about the "immortal dog" is what made me make the conceptual shift in my head about cancer. i think the concepts you were wrestling with here combined with that could be synthesized into a more succinct explanation of what you're getting at. seeing you work through this in real time made me laugh a bit because i know i must sound similar when i'm stream-of-adhd-consciousness working through something to people at my university.

Thanks, Hank. Very interesting way to describe cancer, but I'm pickin' up what you're layin' down. I'ma gonna watch it again before discussing with others, but I like it!

Thanks for sharing your process as you come to an understanding of your experience. Pleased that you're in remission. Stay well.

My rare desmoid tumor was so slow moving that I didn't notice it until it was in a very dangerous area but as I went through the experimental treatments for it (bc there is no set care plan or at least there wasn't at the time) some of them actually sped the cell growth so much I could actually feel it growing in size and scans confirmed that. It's all weird stuff all the different tumors and cancers really because no one in my family has any sort of experience with my type of tumor so the question goes...what is in my genes that activates now but never activated before. It can drive you crazy really. But there is nothing lost in the pursuit of knowledge so I'm glad you are looking for a way to process things on a clear explanation level. I find no matter how many words I have no one truly understands what happened and if I'm fully honest...I probably don't understand things myself as well as I would like to. Thanks for your effort on this.

The Selfish Gene is a great book to help conceptualize this topic! I would like to comment how much I enjoyed my personal takeaway from the The Selfish Gene. The Gene Theory took away an egotistical perspective I had on the reason for my being here. From what I understood, I (and other humans and organisms combined) are just a byproduct that arose from genes just trying to create hosts to better their fecundity, their reproductivity. That means my whole experience and the experiences combined of all organisms (memories, affect, knowledge, our brains, hearts etc.) were never the main goal, it was a lucky byproduct that came from genes needing better hosts to reproduce. Therefore, humans were created! (And animals, and plants, and all other organisms that inherit genes alike!) Some people I talk to find my takeaway sad and even hopeless to think that human beings and their ability for consciousness, feelings, etc are "just" a byproduct, and I can understand that. But I ultimately think there's something kind of cool about having sentience, memories, experiences, and consciousness and all of this experience that I (and all organisms, including humans) experience while not even being the primary goal. It's kinda cool to be the sidebar occurrence, or the unsuspected happening, but still feel like the main character... And above all knowing that, I'm not. I am not the main character at all. (I as in myself, but really as the human race.) **All this is only to be applied if we accept the assumption I proposed in that humans are indeed a byproduct of gene survival, which could 100% be a false perspective** :)

I appreciate this explanation so much because it's direct enough for anyone to understand. Often, I am impatient with people who say they want "a cure for cancer." This is a good way to say, "It's not that simple." Thanks, and best wishes.

I love that you’re looking for a fun way to explain cancer.

Hank for president 2024!!!

it just breaks my heart that one of the penultimate educators of our entire generation is freely having this brain storm about the absurdity of advanced multicellular existence and that most people consuming this will probably not have the capacity to really grapple with the existential discomfort of it to have independent conversations outside of this. Love you Hank, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experience. You're a treasure.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel like this explanation was flawless. I learned a lot, and it also maps on to what I already knew about cancer in a very enriching way. Hanks always teaching us something. ❤

This made me more comfortable thinking and talking about cancer than anything I’ve heard in my entire life

Dawkins with extra cursing- the Hank Green edition 🧪🧫✨🤬🧬

You’re newest video on climate change was privated while I was watching it. Suddenly in the middle it was unavailable, that’s never happened to me before!

I caught my bladder cancer before it got horrible when I was 25. This speaks to me in a way I could never truly express. Thank you for everything you have done but this might be the best to me. Keep it up and I’m happy you are doing ok.

I am loving watching you on Dimension 20. You are a light to the world. I wouldn’t ever want to see a world without you in it. You’re a champ. :) thank you for being you.

"what is cancer" bro's truly a philosopher, a Socrates of 21st century asking questions we desperately need answers for

@5:30 I'm reminded of a realization in the Baru Cormorant books that gay, lesbian and ace people can be societally/biologically important by contributing to the safety and wellbeing of their reproducing family members! And now I wanna cry again a little. Love you Hank!

Hank, watching this video has finally made an old video, either from SciShow or Eons, make sense for me. It was about "the oldest dog still alive" which was some contagious canine cancer cell from hundreds of thousands of years ago that's still going around. I'd never understood how it worked until you explained it like this!! Thank you for continuing to be an absolute inspiration and fountain of knowledge even through the tough times :)

Just wanted to say I actually really enjoyed that and it made a lot of sense to me. The natural sellection at the gene level thing I’d forgotten and not understood propperly. Some very cool analogies in there. And congratulations. I like all others here I’m sure are glad to hear about the remission if that is indeed the case of course I’m a lazy researcher :) so just happened across that in another comment on this vid. But yeh. I love your work, and the content from all the channels you’re aphiliated with and I’ve learnt heaps and had a bunch of laughs from a bunch of them. Also liked the analogy of the genes being the story reproduced rather than the physical book… if we remember what those are these days of course :) also from another comment on this vid. To take that one step further, if the book is the multicellular organism and the story is the genes maybe cancer is what happens when a page of the book learns to change its own story to reproduce itself… or maybe a better analogy is where that book is scanned into an eBook and the file corrupts itself so one page or chapter or whatever just keeps getting copied and copied until the file becomes so long and disorganised that it becomes unreadable? Sorry all. This was meant to be a short comment but I don’t really know how to do those especially when its after midnight in New Zealand and I’m being nocturnal as usual.

Why'd you delete the climate video?

I think this was an accidental publish Edit - appears to be fixed now

This is, I think, my *favorite* Hank Green video ever. This unedited work through style is fucking beautiful. More of this please. You can just forget editing. This is good.

I love that you can still call cancer “neat” after everything that it’s done to you. Hank, you can truly get along with anyone 💜

I'm enjoying the rambling nature of watching you worl thru this

A really interesting video and I loved hearing how your thoughts tracked through this Hank!

It’s so much fun watching Hank sink. I feel like I learned a conceptual mapping mechanism there, or at least got a glimpse of one.

This was a great video. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us all these years.

thanks for the existential crisis Hank, it's chilling, as usual. i fully get what you mean when you say 'and this is also true of humans' at 15:09, i just wish the rest of the world would this video was soooo good, i love this peer into your mind. we are so alike