Hey, I know this is not the focus of the video, and I love the work you're doing for Sierra Leone, but can you please address the crushing international debt they are under. They are still paying off debts related to (among other things) the Ebola outbreak, and this is affecting their ability to pay for public services like healthcare and climate change adaptation measures. I haven't seen any mention of it in your videos, and Sierra Leone and other African countries that are in a similar economic position have been calling out for debt relief. From a June 2023 IMF report: "Sierra Leone’s debt service will increase substantially going forward and is expected to remain elevated in the medium-term with PPG external debt service staying at around 25 percent of revenue until 2026".
@@phoebelambdon2019 feels so weird now. It was in the before times. Surely it happened, right? It feels so distant now. Yet individual memories feel like they're from the beginning of this year? I don't know if it's just me not being a child anymore, or was the pandemic really this world altering.
@@vlogbrothers I am also really excited! Someday, my dream is to have one of my questions picked, haha. But regardless, always love hearing you and Hank do the podcast.
@@knaughta.masso-kist5944 Yes it did. In case you're unaware of the history, this wasn't just a "Haha Milton Keynes bad" joke. MK Dons are called "Dons" because of the decision by the owner of Wimbledon, affectionately called the Dons by their fans, to move their football club to Milton Keynes, in much the way that franchises are done in US sport, particularly American football. This is not at all how English football works. Clubs are part of the community. Many have been around for over a century. It was devastating for the fans of the local club to be left without a team, and left them with the only solution being to create their own club and start from the absolute bottom of England's "football pyramid". It's been a long, challenging road for AFC Wimbledon to get to where they are now, and it's for good reason that John celebrates them now being above "The franchise currently plying its trade in Milton Keynes."
@@craigsalmon1371 I completely forgot about that lol. I was thinking more of something happening at the AFC Wimbledon/Wrexham game since there's a couple of them now that they are in the same league.
As someone who just watched Welcome to Wrexham and is fan of the Vlog Brothers, Ryan Reynolds, and a little bit of Rob McElhenny, I actully would love to see a collaboration episode.
@@RayJJohnstonTLDR: AFC Wimbledon got bought by some idiot and moved them to a new town. It was renamed MK Dons. The current AFC Wimbledon is a team started by fans of the old team. John did a video about it a while back.
@@sIightIybored But that makes them a fourth English tier soccer team, not a fourth tier English soccer team. Actually that should be fourth English tier football team.
@@samc2i think johns point was that afc wimbledon is completely owned by fans whereas for wrexham fans probably only own like half the club cause ryan and the co owner owns the other half?
The DH&J hiatus has had some strange fallout: just this week I inexplicably found myself, at 3am, looking up AFC Wimbledon scores. For context, I watch maybe two football games a year. So thanks for the update, and for making us care about this special team. Enjoy your day at Plough Lane!
It is amazing to me how two fourth-tier teams slowly but surely have grown to become my favourites in England. I still watch Manchester United most games, but it is just not as fun as watching Wimbledon and Wrexham who are actually by and for their communities, as football teams should be.
I'm sorry if this comes off as pedantic, but Wrexham is not an English team, they're Welsh. The two countries share their professional football league system.
@@davidmoule3067to say the truth, wales & england dont share their professional football league. wrexham is only allowed in the english league because at the time they started rising there wasnt an established a welsh football league
@@jameskilgour387 Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County, Wrexham AFC and Merthyr Town all play in the English league for historic reasons. Llanymynech play in an English league because their stadium is in England, weirdly Chester plays in England but their stadium is in Wales
Hank led a widespread discussion about a scientific debate. John went to the UN General Assembly _and_ he announced that collective effort from activists had convinced a corporation to work to improve access to healthcare. But the highlight was still, unmistakably, Hank with a mustache.
I regret to inform you that it's actually currently a 21-way tie for 3rd, though may I recommend my local team Stockport County for anyone looking to break that tie by filling the bronze medal slot on their list. The team recently got promoted back into the fourth tier and has very quickly made attempts to go even further, and they play in the heart of the community at Edgeley Park (which formerly hosted our local rugby team as well).
@@coolstertothecore the air raid shelters are safer...but I get annoyed that Luton Town are also named the Hatters so I feel like we need to cement our hatters status and choose the Hatworks
I’m so here for the visual AFC Wimbledon news experience!! You mean I can actually SEE what the players look like while John is talking about them????? REVOLUTIONARY!
As a Philadelphia Union fan, “We’re never gonna be the kind of football club that can buy big stars, so we’re gonna have to make them, and we’ve done a really good job of that” is such a mood.
Proud part owner of AFC Wimbledon here. Thank you for continuing to celebrate our story and successes with us, and supporting our community. I'm very grateful to be part of 2 excellent groups of people :)
Bought everyone in my family a different one of the shirts this year. hope everything goes well, you boys have been doing a lot this year, both of you and those around you are endlessly impressive.
I don't care about football or the fact that John is weirdly into it. Yet, in less than 5 minutes he's managed to convince me to look into possibly supporting AFC Wilmbledon. Who knew that the best marketing is being a genuine, interesting person?
Oh I super appreciate this actually! I've really missed my weekly Dons updates since the podcasts been on hiatus. (But I can't wait for its return this month!)
Go Dons! Reminds me of our new expansion MLS team in STL. Everyone expected our team of rejects from other clubs to be bottom of the bunch and we just clinched the top spot in the West. Merry Pizzamas and hope the pod returns soon!
I love when that kind of thing happens. I don't follow MLS much but that reminds me of what the Vegas Golden Knights did their first year. All the players that were pretty good but didn't fit with their existing teams and came together and made a run at the Cup. I'm rooting for you St Louis.
I am grateful for the update. You are right, I've lost all knowledge of how the team is doing. Thanks for the pics and ... good news! Those short shorts are excellent.
I love that team photo of them at 3:39 because it's such a stark contrast to all of the hackneyed, picture day line-ups of stone-faced players that you normally see. Here, you actually get to see the people behind the kit, and it's so warm because of it.
I loved to London in 2017 and since then I never found any reason to support any team that wasn't from my hometown in Porto, but a friend introduced me to AFC last month and I've been to the stadium a few times since then and I'm really rooting for our boys now! Would be good to get back to League One. What a wonderful story that would be!
As an Aussie I did not expect to find my people in a comment section of an American RU-vid channel talking about 4th tier English football but as an MK hater, lover of Wrexham and AFC Wimbledon, lover of underdog stories, and even a fan of Philadelphia Union who I have spotted some fans of here, I am very happy to be here
Oh wow, I hadn't realized that I wasn't getting updates about AFC Wimbledon due to the pod being on hiatus until you just straight up said it in this video. I'm really looking forward to the return of the pod and future AFC Wimbledon updates on it. And I'm glad to hear they're doing surprisingly well now
When I moved to London from Chicago last year, I looked for housing exclusively in SW London so I might be able to get to Cherry Red Records Stadium easier. Happy to say I’ve been to upwards of a dozen Dons games in the last 12 months 🎉
Your enthusiasm is infectious! Love that you're pointing at your problem from a positive perspective. To achieve notoriety by creating well-known players. Brilliant!
Love the stories of communities coming together and doing something good for themselves rather than needing to maximize profit for shareholders. Community ♥
i appreciate the visual aids in this update, i had been imagining all of AFC Wimbledon including the star players you talk about often as just human-shaped blobs, but this really brought them to life for me
As invested as I now am in Wrexham's fortunes, I'm always gonna be rooting for AFC Wimbledon as the true feel-good underdog story of the fourth division!
You guys have been a huge inspiration for me, specially how John made me feel heard and acknowledged the challenges of having OCD, for someone who has it and continues to go to therapy for it, it genuinely felt very special when he put out the video "What is OCD like for me?" and I also wish Hank the best health and post chemo recovery. I have and have loved all of John's works but Looking for Alaska and Turtles all the way down are my favorite. Been watching vlogbrothers since I was 13 and now I am 17, exactly the age of Augustus. They both have been greatly influential on the lives me and my friends, namely Suhani Nagle, Sayee Pradhan, Parnika Joshi, Atharva Shidhore, Ria Jadhav and Manasi Kulkarni, these are just the ones on top of my head right now, rest there are many more, I have tried contacting him through other ways before but it hasn't really worked out yet, hopefully this happens, thank you so much for everything that you are doing, would be absolutely astonishing if this does seem to work out like The fault in our stars but one can only hope.
thanks for the update, John. I've been trying to reduce my screen time recently and undoing so that has led me to listen to dear hank and johns that I had missed, and after listening to probably 5 episodes already today, I have been thinking a lot about AFC wimbledon which I just now am realizing is spelled with a D and not a T. Anyways, glad to know they're doing well, excited for the pod to come back!
I didn't realize how much I was missing the news from AFC Wimbledon at the end of the pod until now. Please continue to update us, John! Hope you're having fun!
Getting you and everyone else get to see Aron play is an absolutely delight. There’s only more academy kids coming up to absolutely steal your heart (Paris Lock (on loan rn), Ed Leach amongst others)
Can't wait to travel and see AFC Wimbledon play in person rather than online or with highlights. So happy your introduced me to the club all those years ago while you played some FIFA. I love stories like theirs and I am happy to be a supporter. DFTBA.
I always assume we are doing bad when I don't have updates on Afc W (and I will only hear updates from John). But Man is it good to hear some good news!
as a dons trust shareholder for almost 10 years because of this channel, who will never forget watching on an illegal choppy stream the day we got promoted at Wembley, we deserve this run of form after such a hard few years. Up The Dons!
I have genuinely missed the weekly afc wimbledon updates, and hey if you need a reason to brag to hank... I do about monthly google afc wimbledon to see how the standings are, but i haven't once googled mars news in the interim. So I guess one of you got me more than the other. I was shocked yesterday to see them in 2nd!! what a moment to savor
I've only started listening to Dear Hank and John after Hank first revealed the news about his cancer (so I've not had the pleasure to listening to a new episode with the two of you), but I've already listened to all the episodes from December last year until now, and I've grown accustomed to hearing the latest news from AFC Wimbledon (and Mars 😉), so I can't wait to hear more from them in the new episodes. P.S: Wimbledon's t-shirt is basically the same as argentinian club Boca Juniors. Was that deliberate?
Iraqi here, we're very happy with Ali's time at Wimbeldon, we hope he plays just as well for the national team and scores more hattricks for yall and goodluck!
of course the season there is no weekly updates is the season AFC wimbolden does the best i would have loved to hear john excited at the end of every podcast
I enjoyed my first visit to the 'new' Plough Lane in September (as an impartial viewer). The game against Crewe seemed typical of AFC's inability to secure a win (2-0 ahead) & Crewe's habit of making a comeback - match ended 2-2. As you say, John, very entertaining. 🙂
I get my AFC Wimbledon updates from Ryan Bailey on The Total Soccer Show and love hearing about your club and will support them whenever they’re not playing Tottenham or Ipswich. Come On You Dons! P.S. - You need to do a guest spot on a Total Soccer Show podcast with Ryan about Wimbledon.
IT IS SO WEIRD to SEE these players. I'm so used to just hearing about them on DH&J updates for so long that I just never pictured them inside my mind's eye.
its almost cute seeing you overwhelmed at the rolled up shorts because thats so common here in brazilian football. i cheer for galo so im so used to seeing hulk's thighs i dont even notice them anymore
I just fimished a lovely novel called Britt Marie was here that was about soccer and had very nice things to say about AFC wimbledon and I immediately though of dear hank and john lol
