Wikipedia

Geography Now

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Geography Now (also stylized as Geography Now!) is an American educational YouTube channel and web series created and hosted by Paul Barbato. It profiles UN-recognized countries in the world in alphabetical order and covers additional topics related to physical and political geography. The channel was started in August 2014 and has gained over 3.38 million subscribers.

Geography Now!
The Geography Now! logo on YouTube
Personal information
NationalityAmerican
Websitewww.geographynow.com
YouTube information
Channels
Created byPaul Barbato
Years active2014–present
GenreEducation
Subscribers3.38 million
Total views466.04 million
100,000 subscribers2016
1,000,000 subscribers2018
Last updated: October 17, 2024

Team

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Main hosts, co-hosts, and crews

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  • Paul Barbato (born 1987 in Minnesota), sometimes nicknamed Barby or Barbs – creator and host. He started Geography Now! because he felt there were no channels specifically aimed at profiling every country, prompting him to create one himself. He has emphasized the importance of geography education and criticized its scarcity in American curricula.[1] As of October 2024, at the conclusion of the series, he has visited 99 countries.[2]
  • Keith Everett – Music segment
  • Hannah Bamberg, also known as "Random Hannah" – Culture segment
  • Noah Gildermaster – Food segment
  • Kaleb Seaton, formerly known as "Gary Harlow" (a "knockoff Steve Irwin") – Wildlife segment
  • Arthur "Art" Napiontek – Sports segment
  • Bill Rahko – Theme music composer
  • Vincent Kierkels – Graphic designer/animator
  • Peadar Donnelly – Graphic designer/animator
  • Jared Stevenson – Graphic designer/animator
  • Jason King – Graphic designer (formerly)
  • Ken O'Donnell – Animator (formerly)

If the specified co-host does not appear for their segment, it will either be covered by Paul or filled in by another crew member of Geography Now!. Whenever possible, the channel also features guest contributors from the country being profiled.

Channel

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Geography Now!

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The channel series began on October 15, 2014, with the country of Afghanistan and concluded on October 15, 2024, with the country of Zimbabwe. The member states of the United Nations were covered in alphabetical order, with a few exceptions, such as when the country formerly named Swaziland changed its name to Eswatini after the letter E had already been passed.[3] Another exception was the North Macedonia episode, which was released under F, because at the time, the UN listed its name as "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" to avoid controversy with Greek viewers, who consider the name "Macedonia" to be exclusively Greek. English names were also used for country titles; for example, the episode is titled "Ivory Coast" rather than "Côte d'Ivoire." Barbato has stated that he maintains a fast pace in his videos while incorporating visual graphics to enhance accessibility.[1]

  •  
    This is what Geography Now covered until the end[4]
    The Flag Dissection segment examined the meaning and symbolism behind each country's flag. After signing with Studio 71, this segment was moved to a separate video known as Flag/Fan Fridays, later changed to Flag/Fan Days starting with the Cuba episode, though it was brought back in the Zimbabwe episode. These segments included the opening of mail and packages sent by fans. In the current format, flag segments are separated into short-format videos, with fan mail openings held in separate live streams.
  • Political Geography provided a closer look at each country's borders, enclave and exclaves, territorial disputes and anomalies, administrative divisions, overseas territories, notable locations, and more.
  • Physical Geography explored each country's land makeup, demarcations, landscape, arable land, climate, biodiversity, and food.
  • Demographics covered each country’s population, plug type, driving side, people, diversity, traditions, culture, government, notable individuals, and a brief history (if not already discussed in a previous segment).
  • Friend Zone analyzed the country's positive or negative relationships with other countries.[5]
  • Conclusion wrapped up each episode into a 1-2 minute segment.

Over the course of the channel's history, the duration of the country episodes steadily increased, with more topics and information about each country included in each episode. While early episodes typically lasted 7-10 minutes, later episodes usually ran 30-40 minutes. As of October 15, 2024, the Zimbabwe episode is the newest and final episode covering a UN-listed country. Viewers have also noticed a steady increase in production quality and animations in the episodes. The episode on Barbato's home country, the United States of America, lasted 65 minutes, making it the longest episode by far.

A "new chapter" was announced at the end of the Zimbabwe episode.[6]

Flag/Fan Days

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Flag/Fan Days, previously known as Flag/Fan Friday, were companion videos to the main episodes. In these videos, a country's flag and coat of arms are explained. Barbato also sometimes uses this opportunity to discuss topics he did not cover in the original video or to correct and clarify details. Afterward, he calls crew members and opens fan mail.

There is a recurring animation in most episodes of Flag/Fan Days where the red in a country's flag symbolizes the "blood of those who fight for their freedom", which has since become a running gag whenever the red on a country's flag is said to represent the blood of those who fought for the country in the past.

Following the release of the Venezuela–Zambia episodes, Paul Barbato decided to turn four Flag/Fan Day videos into YouTube Shorts due to the long time it took to research, film, and produce the videos.

Geography Now! episodes

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The countries discussed in each episode follow the United Nations alphabetical list of members and go through them in the respective order.

Episodes

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# Country Date published
1   Afghanistan October 15, 2014
2   Albania October 21, 2014
3   Algeria October 30, 2014
4   Andorra November 12, 2014
5   Angola November 26, 2014
6   Antigua and Barbuda December 17, 2014
7   Argentina January 5, 2015
8   Armenia January 16, 2015
9   Australia January 24, 2015
10   Austria February 6, 2015
11   Azerbaijan February 26, 2015
12   The Bahamas March 16, 2015
13   Bahrain April 10, 2015
14   Bangladesh April 18, 2015
15   Barbados April 25, 2015
16   Belarus May 15, 2015
17   Belgium May 20, 2015
18   Belize May 25, 2015
19   Benin May 31, 2015
20   Bhutan June 26, 2015
21   Bolivia June 30, 2015
22   Bosnia and Herzegovina July 9, 2015
23   Botswana July 18, 2015
24   Brazil August 15, 2015
25   Brunei August 29, 2015
26   Bulgaria September 6, 2015
27   Burkina Faso September 15, 2015
28   Burundi October 1, 2015
29   Cambodia October 10, 2015
30   Cameroon October 21, 2015
31   Canada November 10, 2015
32   Cape Verde December 12, 2015
33   Central African Republic December 21, 2015
34   Chad January 8, 2016
35   Chile January 17, 2016
36   China February 7, 2016
37   Colombia February 27, 2016
38   Comoros March 9, 2016
39   Democratic Republic of the Congo March 29, 2016
40   Republic of the Congo April 14, 2016
41   Costa Rica May 7, 2016
42   Croatia May 11, 2016
43   Cuba May 18, 2016
44   Cyprus May 25, 2016
45   Czech Republic June 1, 2016
46   Denmark June 15, 2016
47   Djibouti June 22, 2016
48   Dominica June 29, 2016
49   Dominican Republic July 6, 2016
50   East Timor August 3, 2016
51   Ecuador August 10, 2016
52   Egypt August 24, 2016
53   El Salvador August 31, 2016
54   Equatorial Guinea September 21, 2016
55   Eritrea September 28, 2016
56   Estonia October 5, 2016
57   Ethiopia October 12, 2016
58   Fiji November 15, 2016
59   Finland November 23, 2016
60   North Macedonia November 30, 2016
61   France December 7, 2016
62   Gabon January 18, 2017
63   The Gambia January 25, 2017
64   Georgia February 1, 2017
65   Germany February 8, 2017
66   Ghana March 22, 2017
67   Greece March 29, 2017
68   Grenada April 5, 2017
69   Guatemala April 12, 2017
70   Guinea May 10, 2017
71   Guinea-Bissau May 17, 2017
72   Guyana May 24, 2017
73   Haiti May 31, 2017
74   Honduras June 28, 2017
75   Hungary July 5, 2017
76   Iceland July 12, 2017
77   India July 19, 2017
78   Indonesia August 2, 2017
79   Iran August 9, 2017
80   Iraq August 16, 2017
81   Ireland August 30, 2017
82   Israel September 20, 2017
83   Italy September 27, 2017
84   Ivory Coast October 4, 2017
85   Jamaica October 11, 2017
86   Japan October 20, 2017
87   Jordan November 1, 2017
88   Kazakhstan November 15, 2017
89   Kenya November 22, 2017
90   Kiribati November 29, 2017
91   North Korea December 13, 2017
92   South Korea December 20, 2017
93   Kuwait January 17, 2018
94   Kyrgyzstan January 24, 2018
95   Laos January 31, 2018
96   Latvia February 7, 2018
97   Lebanon February 28, 2018
98   Lesotho March 7, 2018
99   Liberia March 14, 2018
100   Libya March 21, 2018
101   Liechtenstein March 28, 2018
102   Lithuania April 25, 2018
103   Luxembourg May 2, 2018
104   Madagascar May 23, 2018
105   Malawi May 30, 2018
106   Malaysia June 6, 2018
107   Eswatini June 27, 2018
108   Maldives July 4, 2018
109   Mali July 11, 2018
110   Malta August 15, 2018
111   Marshall Islands August 22, 2018
112   Mauritania August 29, 2018
113   Mauritius September 5, 2018
114   Mexico September 26, 2018
115   Federated States of Micronesia October 10, 2018
116   Moldova October 17, 2018
117   Monaco November 7, 2018
118   Mongolia November 14, 2018
119   Montenegro December 5, 2018
120   Morocco December 12, 2018
121   Mozambique December 19, 2018
122   Myanmar January 9, 2019
123   Namibia January 16, 2019
124   Nauru January 30, 2019
125     Nepal February 6, 2019
126   Netherlands February 27, 2019
127   New Zealand April 3, 2019
128   Nicaragua April 10, 2019
129   Niger April 24, 2019
130   Nigeria May 1, 2019
131   Norway May 22, 2019
132   Oman June 12, 2019
133   Pakistan June 19, 2019
134   Palau July 31, 2019
135   Panama August 7, 2019
136   Papua New Guinea August 28, 2019
137   Paraguay September 4, 2019
138   Peru September 25, 2019
139   Philippines October 2, 2019
140   Poland October 30, 2019
141   Portugal November 6, 2019
142   Qatar December 4, 2019
143   Romania December 11, 2019
144   Russia January 15, 2020
145   Rwanda January 29, 2020
146   Saint Kitts and Nevis February 19, 2020
147   Saint Lucia March 11, 2020
148   Saint Vincent and the Grenadines March 18, 2020
149   Samoa April 15, 2020
150   San Marino May 6, 2020
151   São Tomé and Príncipe May 18, 2020
152   Saudi Arabia June 3, 2020
153   Senegal July 1, 2020
154   Serbia July 22, 2020
155   Seychelles August 12, 2020
156   Sierra Leone September 2, 2020
157   Singapore September 23, 2020
158   Slovakia December 30, 2020
159   Slovenia January 6, 2021
160   Solomon Islands January 20, 2021
161   Somalia February 24, 2021
162   South Africa March 17, 2021
163   Spain April 21, 2021
164   Sri Lanka May 26, 2021
165   Sudan June 23, 2021
166   South Sudan August 4, 2021
167   Suriname September 1, 2021
168   Sweden September 22, 2021
169    Switzerland October 28, 2021
170   Syria December 8, 2021
171   Tajikistan January 19, 2022
172   Tanzania February 23, 2022
173   Thailand March 27, 2022
174   Togo April 29, 2022
175   Tonga June 9, 2022
176   Trinidad and Tobago July 6, 2022
177   Tunisia August 4, 2022
178   Turkey September 3, 2022
179   Turkmenistan October 19, 2022
180   Tuvalu November 23, 2022
181   Uganda January 18, 2023
182   Ukraine March 9, 2023
183   United Arab Emirates March 30, 2023
184   United Kingdom May 30, 2023
185   United States of America July 4, 2023
186   Uruguay September 4, 2023
187   Uzbekistan October 31, 2023
188   Vanuatu December 7, 2023
189   Venezuela February 6, 2024
190   Vietnam April 3, 2024
191   Yemen June 19, 2024
192   Zambia August 13, 2024
193   Zimbabwe October 15, 2024

Other content

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Filler week videos occurred when the team was in the process of researching and creating scripts for upcoming episodes. Topics discussed in these videos included states or subregions of countries, current or cultural events, physical geography, specific ethnic groups, and infrastructure innovations.

Geography Go is the channel's travel vlog series. Countries visited include Qatar, Finland, Estonia, Greenland, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Singapore, and many more. Paul also later started posting YouTube Shorts on his channel about his travels to other countries like Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, the Central African Republic, Togo, and many others.

A Geograbee is the geography equivalent of a spelling bee, where participants are tested on geography. So far, Barbato has hosted these events in Hargeisa in Somaliland, Somalia, and Alaska.[7] Other educational content is also uploaded.[8]

For April Fools' Day, Geography Now! uploaded videos profiling fictional countries created by Barbato (with the exception of the 2016 and 2017 videos). These included:

  • Bandiaterra (2015), a Danish-speaking island nation in the Indian Ocean.
  • Limberwisk (2018), a Nordic country whose language consists entirely of whispers.
  • Patch Amberdash / Datcsh (2019), a confederation of islands spread across three continents.
  • Qitzikwaka (2020), a former Russian colony situated mostly underground in the Sahara.
  • Sovonthak (2021), a country situated on eight shallow reefs with a legally-recognized and taxed bartering system.
  • Volanca (2022), a country with no territory, founded by UN interpreters, with citizens' residences serving as legal lodging.
  • Ululiona-Linulu (2023), a sovereign Native American country created as a buffer between Mexico and the United States after the Mexican–American War.
  • Geolandia (2024), a federation comprising all previous April Fools' countries, which united in the "April Union." Citizenship is acquired by subscribing to Geography Now and purchasing merchandise on the Geography Now website (including clothing, accessories, and a figurine of Barbato).

Reception

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Geography Now! generally receives positive feedback from newspapers and magazines in the countries covered, such as Japan Today,[9] Télérama,[10] Dutch Metro,[11] RTL,[12] Nezavisne Novine,[13] Life in Norway,[14] Lovin Malta,[15] and Zoznam.[16] It has also received endorsements from educators and travel writers.[17][18] The channel has appeared on several lists of recommended educational YouTube channels,[19][20][21] including one by the Van Andel Institute.[22][23] A few criticisms typically relate to tone and pronunciation, particularly in earlier episodes.[24]

The top 10 country episodes with the most views as of October 2024 are:

1. Germany (8.56 million)

2. Japan (7.37 million)

3. Indonesia (7.22 million)

4. Israel (6.30 million)

5. China (PRC) (6.21 million)

6. North Korea (DPRK) (6.16 million)

7. India (5.52 million)

8. Russia (5.08 million)

9. Denmark (4.91 million)

10. Philippines (4.52 million)

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Episode 19 - Geography Now!". The Lost Geographer (Podcast). Archived from the original on January 23, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  2. ^ Barbato, Paul (October 15, 2024). "I Traveled to 99 Countries and Learned We All Seek the Same Things". Newsweek. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  3. ^ Aronow, Sam (June 22, 2018). "Geography Now! Night Thread". The Avocado. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  4. ^ ZIMBABWE! (THE LAST ONE!)
  5. ^ "Educational YouTuber Covers the Philippines". DG Briones. 3 October 2019. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  6. ^ Glaze, Virginia (October 15, 2024). "Meet the YouTuber who spent 10 years profiling every country on Earth". Dexerto. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  7. ^ Schirm, Cassie (March 3, 2018). "Youtube star hosts GeograBee at Gruening Middle School". KTVA. Archived from the original on October 19, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  8. ^ "GEOGRAPHY NOW: BARBS' 10-YEAR GLOBAL JOURNEY – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW". The Travel Pocket Guide. October 15, 2024. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  9. ^ Ruide, Koh (February 17, 2018). "Informative video condenses everything about Japan into 16 minutes of pure gold". Japan Today. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  10. ^ "La France vue de l'extérieur". Télérama (in French). December 9, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  11. ^ Visser, Jemel (February 27, 2019). "Geography Now lanceert uitlegvideo over Nederland". Metro (in Dutch). Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  12. ^ "Kako nas Amerikanci vide: pogledajte što sve znaju o nama". RTL (in Croatian). May 16, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  13. ^ "Kako stranci vide BiH: Icar konzerve, piramide i tri jezika". Nezavisne Novine (in Bosnian). July 10, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  14. ^ Nikel, David (May 23, 2019). "Geography Now Comes To Norway". Life in Norway. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  15. ^ Micallef, Chiara (19 August 2018). "WATCH: Malta Featured On Popular Youtube Series About Countries And Geography". Lovin Malta. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  16. ^ "Státisíce videní za pár dní: Toto video o Slovensku je absolútnym hitom!". Zoznam: Hashtag (in Slovak). 4 January 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  17. ^ "YouTube Excellence #2: Geography Now". Tome of Trovius. March 27, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  18. ^ "Geography Now Videos". Laddingford St Mary's C of E Primary School. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  19. ^ Nicholas Pardini, Brian Peotter (September 15, 2018). "82. Geography Now with Paul Barbato". Nothing Exempt (Podcast). Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  20. ^ Stoyanof, Tania (December 14, 2016). "Lights, Camera, Action….Geography Now!". Black Label. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  21. ^ Lawton, Georgina (February 2, 2017). "7 YouTube Channels Everyone Should Follow, According To Reddit". Bustle. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  22. ^ "5 Useful (and Fun) YouTube Channels for Your Classroom". Van Andel Institute. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  23. ^ Lee, Joshua (January 12, 2018). "From maths and science to liberal studies, these are the 7 best YouTube channels that will improve your grades". YoungPost. South China Morning Post. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  24. ^ "My thoughts about Geography Now". Medium. January 26, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
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