Geography Now! | ||||||||||
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Personal information | ||||||||||
Nationality | American | |||||||||
Website | www | |||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Channels | ||||||||||
Created by | Paul Barbato | |||||||||
Years active | 2014–present | |||||||||
Genre | Education | |||||||||
Subscribers | 3.31 million | |||||||||
Total views | 449 million | |||||||||
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Last updated: 15 April 2024 |
Geography Now (also stylized as Geography Now!) is an American educational YouTube channel and web series created and hosted by Paul Barbato, profiling UN recognized countries in the world in alphabetical order as well as covering other topics regarding physical or political geography. The channel was started in 2014 and has since gained over 3.32 million subscribers.
If the specified co-host doesn't show up for their segment, then it will either be covered by Paul or filled in by another crew member of Geography Now!. Whenever possible, the channel will also feature guest contributors from the country being profiled.
The channel series started on October 15, 2014, with the country of Afghanistan and will conclude with the country of Zimbabwe. The member states of the United Nations are covered in alphabetical order with few exceptions, such as when Swaziland changed its name to Eswatini after E had already been passed. [2] However, the Republic of Macedonia, like in the UN, was titled "Macedonia (FYROM)" for "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" in order to prevent controversy from Greek viewers who identify the name "Macedonia" as purely Greek. As such, the Macedonia episode is on the "F" category. However, it was changed as the country changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia. English names are also used, so an episode is "Ivory Coast" and not "Cote d'Ivoire." Barbato has said he ensures his videos keep a fairly fast pace while including visual graphics for accessibility. [1]
Over the course of the channel's history, the duration of the country episodes have steadily increased, with more topics and information about the countries being included in each episode. While the episodes for the first several countries usually only lasted 7-10 minutes, episodes toward the end of the series usually lasted around 30-40 minutes. Viewers have also noticed a steady increase in production quality and animations included in the episodes. Barbato's home country, the United States of America, had by far the longest episode, lasting 65 minutes.
Flag/Fan Days, previously known as Flag/Fan Friday are companion videos to the main episodes. A country's flag and coat of arms are explained in these videos. Barbato also sometimes uses this as an opportunity to discuss topics he did not get to in the original video, or correct and clarify details. After that he calls crew members and opens fan mail. There is a recurring animation for most episodes of Flag/Fan Days where the red stands for the "blood of those who fight for their freedom", which has since became a running gag if the red on the country's flag represents the blood of those who fought for the country in the past.
Following the release of the Venezuela episode, Paul Barbato has decided to turn the last 5 Flag/Fan Day videos into YouTube shorts due to the long time it took to research, film and produce the videos.
As part of an interesting filler week video uploaded in May of 2022, Paul Barbato took an DNA test using the MyHeritage website to determine where his heritage comes from, and the results are as followed from first mention to last...
25.2% Japanese and Korean
17.8% Chinese and Vietnamese
9.2% Central Asian
6.6% Italian
8.8% Irish, Scottish and Welsh
6.5% English (England)
11.0% Scandinavian
13.6% North African
1.3% Native American (USA)
The countries discussed in each episode follow the United Nations alphabetical list of members and go through them in the respective order.
# | Country | Date published |
---|---|---|
1 | Afghanistan [lower-alpha 1] | 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 (Czechia) | 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 [lower-alpha 2] | 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 (Côte d'Ivoire) | 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 (DPRK) | December 13, 2017 |
92 | South Korea (ROK) | 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 [lower-alpha 3] | 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 | Micronesia (Federated States of) | 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 (Aotearoa) | 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 | St. Kitts and Nevis | February 19, 2020 |
147 | St. Lucia | March 11, 2020 |
148 | St. 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 (Türkiye) | 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 | TBA |
192 | Zambia | TBA |
193 | Zimbabwe | TBA |
Filler week videos happen when the team is in the process of researching and creating scripts for the next few videos. Topics discussed include states or sub regions of countries, current or cultural events, physical geography, specific ethnic group of peoples and infrastructure innovations.
Geography Go is the channel's travel vlog series. Countries visited include Qatar, Finland, Estonia, Greenland, Iceland, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Ukraine, 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 other countries.
A Geograbee is the geography equivalent of a spelling bee in which people are tested on geography. He has so far hosted them in Hargeisa in Somaliland, Somalia, and Alaska. [4]
For April Fools' Day, Geography Now! uploads videos profiling fictional countries made up by Barbato. These include:
Geography Now! generally receives positive feedback from newspapers and magazines in the countries covered, such as Japan Today , [5] Télérama , [6] Dutch Metro , [7] RTL, [8] Nezavisne Novine , [9] Life in Norway, [10] Lovin Malta, [11] and Zoznam. [12] It also receives endorsements from educators and travel writers. [13] [14] The channel has appeared on several lists of recommended educational YouTube channels, [15] [16] [17] including one by the Van Andel Institute. [18] [19] The few criticisms are usually to do with tone and pronunciation, particularly in earlier episodes. [20]
As of April 2024, these are the top 15 Geography Now! videos based on number of views, along with the reason for the high view counts:
1. Germany - 8.477 million (High population count, high English-speaking population, international recognition)
2. Indonesia - 7.169 million (High population count)
3. Japan - 7.164 million (High population count, international recognition)
4. Israel - 6.213 million (Likely due to their relations with neighboring Palestine)
5. China (PRC) - 6.101 million (High population count, international recognition)
6. North Korea - 6.094 million (The country's unusual practices)
7. India - 5.447 million (High population count, high English-speaking population)
8. Russia - 4.989 million (High population count, 30+ minute long video)
9. Denmark - 4.877 million (Either their high English-speaking population or the YouTube Algorithm)
10. Philippines - 4.445 million (High population count, high English-speaking population)
11. The difference between Arab countries [filler week episode] - 4.098 million
12. Italy - 4.083 million (Relatively high population, international recognition)
13. Canada - 3.951 million (High English-speaking population, international recognition, migrants)
14. The Netherlands - 3.815 million (High English-speaking population, relatively high international recognition)
15. Afghanistan - 3.751 million (First episode of Geography Now)
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