Good morning, Hank, it's Tuesday.  So I have a new book coming out, which would be a great title for this video if I hadn't made an absurd and increasingly difficult commitment several months ago, but one must get the show on so here we are.

For the last two and a half years, I've been writing a podcast called The Anthropocene Reviewed, which is a little hard to describe.  Like, the premise is that I review different facets of the human-centered planet on a five star scale, like I might review the bacterium staphylococcus aureus or the concept of love at first sight or the Taco Bell breakfast menu, but that's not actually what the podcast is about.  It's about like, hope and whether it is justified and it's about how people can be so wonderful but also so horrible and how humans are at once forces of astonishing creation and gut-wrenching destruction and it's about the contemporary human paradox of being at once far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough.

Like, powerful enough to re-shape the entire climate of the planet, but not powerful enough to re-shape it in a way that's beneficial.  I don't know, though, that makes it sound very serious and I want the essays to be funny and also sometimes sad.  I'm very bad at talking about my own work. 

I guess the reviews are my attempt to pay attention to what I pay attention to, to borrow a line from my friend Amy Krouse Rosenthal and over the last year, I've been expanding and revising some of the reviews from the podcast and also writing some new ones and now, The Anthropocene Reviewed is going to be a book.

It's my first book of nonfiction and I am very nervous and/or excited.  One symptom of 2020 for me is that I genuinely can't tell if it's an and or an or, but anyway, The Anthropocene Reviewed book will be published on May 18, 2021 and it is available for pre-order now.  Also, there will be an audiobook read by me. 

The response to the podcast in general and especially to the most recent, quite personal episode has been really overwhelming in the best possible way.  I've never been as worried about sharing something as I was about that episode and people have been so generous, so thank you.  I hope you like the book.

But, wait, you ask, will you be signing the entire first printing of the book like you did with The Fault in Our Stars?  As it happens, yes.  I will be signing the entire first printing of the American and Canadian edition, which unfortunately means that if you live outside the US or Canada, even if you order an American, English language edition, it will probably not be signed.  I'm really sorry about that, but the systems of international printing and shipping just don't allow for that, but if you live in the US or Canada and you pre-order the book, it will be signed.

I would like to say that I'm doing this as a gift for people who pre-order the book or whatever, but no, I'm doing it for myself.  I would like to make a small repeated mark on a piece of paper over 100,000 times in a way that hopefully makes at least some people happy and this opportunity has conveniently emerged.

Somewhat related, look at my circles!  I have so far drawn 17,000 circles in my attempt to understand the number of 170,000.  This is so many circles that it might freak out the YouTube compression algorithm and yet, it is only 10% of the circles I need to draw.

Now, astute observers will note that I have somewhat less than 90% of the paper remaining to draw 90% of the circles.  How will this problem resolve itself?  I look forward to finding out.

Also related, it has been really lovely to see the circles that many of you are drawing, some because you're trying to grieve a loss.  Some because you are trying to understand your own large numbers, and some because you, like me, also find relief in doodling.  I'm really grateful to all of you who've shared circles on the Nerdfighter subreddit or Nerdfighter Discords and so on.

Hank, as I discuss on the most recent episode of The Anthropocene Reviewed, it has been a long and at times very challenging three years since my last book, Turtles All the Way Down, was published, but writing these essays has also been the most fun I've had writing since maybe ever.  In fact, I'm gonna go get back to it.  I'll see you on Fri--oh, wait, I should say that the The Anthropocene Reviewed book comes out on May 18, 2021 and is available for pre-order now and then I say, I'll see you on Friday.

I'll see you on Friday.  You're a good brother.  I never would have done this if it hadn't been for you, so thank you for encouraging me to do it.  Thank you.  Goodbye.