Geography Now! | ||||||||||
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Personal information | ||||||||||
Nationality | American | |||||||||
Website | www | |||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Channels | ||||||||||
Created by | Paul Barbato | |||||||||
Years active | 2014–2024 (main series) | |||||||||
Genre | Education | |||||||||
Subscribers | 3.38 million | |||||||||
Total views | 466.04 million | |||||||||
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Last updated: October 17, 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 10 years ago in August 2014 and has gained over 3.38 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 concluded on October 15, 2024 with the country of Zimbabwe. The member states of the United Nations are covered in alphabetical order with few exceptions, such as when the country formerly named Swaziland changed its name to Eswatini after E had already been passed, [3] or how the North Macedonia episode was released under F because, at the time, the UN listed its name as "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and in order to prevent controversy from Greek viewers who identify the name "Macedonia" as purely Greek. English names are also used, so an episode is titled "Ivory Coast" and not "Côte 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. As of October 15, 2024, Zimbabwe is the newest episode and the last UN listed country episode. 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, lasted 65 minutes, making it the longest episode by far.
A "new chapter" was announced at the end of the Zimbabwe episode. [5]
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 Venezuela—Zambia episodes, Paul Barbato has 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.
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 | 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 |
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, 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 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. [6] Other educational content is also uploaded. [7]
For April Fools' Day, Geography Now! uploads videos profiling fictional countries made up by Barbato (with the exception of 2016 and 2017 videos). These include:
Geography Now! generally receives positive feedback from newspapers and magazines in the countries covered, such as Japan Today , [8] Télérama , [9] Dutch Metro , [10] RTL, [11] Nezavisne Novine , [12] Life in Norway, [13] Lovin Malta, [14] and Zoznam. [15] It also receives endorsements from educators and travel writers. [16] [17] The channel has appeared on several lists of recommended educational YouTube channels, [18] [19] [20] including one by the Van Andel Institute. [21] [22] The few criticisms are usually to do with tone and pronunciation, particularly in earlier episodes. [23]
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)
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