A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Geography Now! | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Geography Now! logo on YouTube | ||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Nationality | American | |||||||||
| Website | www | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channels | ||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Barbato | |||||||||
| Years active | 2014–present | |||||||||
| Genre | Education | |||||||||
| Subscribers | 3.32 million | |||||||||
| Total views | 452.1 million | |||||||||
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Last updated: 4 May 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.
Team
Main hosts, co-hosts, and crews
- Paul Barbato (born in Minnesota), sometimes nicknamed as Barby or Barbs – creator and host. He started Geography Now! because he felt there were no channels with the specific goal of profiling every country, and thus decided to create one himself. He has stressed the importance of geography education and criticized the lack of it in American curricula.[1]
- 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 – graphics designer/ animator
- Peadar Donnelly – graphics designer/animator
- Jared Stevenson – graphics designer/ animator
- Jason King – graphics designer (formerly)
- Ken O’Donnell – animator (formerly)
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.
Channel
Geography Now!
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]
- Flag Dissection, about the meaning and symbolism behind the 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. These were accompanied with opening of mails and packages sent by the fans. In current format, flag segments are separated into a separate shorts format video and a separate live stream for fan mail openings.
- Political Geography, giving a closer look at the country's borders, enclave and exclaves, territorial disputes and anomalies, administrative divisions, overseas territories, notable places found inside the country and more.
- Physical Geography, about the country's land makeup, demarcations, landscape, arable land, climate, biodiversity, and food.
- Demographics, about the country's population, plug type, driving side, people, diversity, traditions, culture, government, notable people, and a quick history of the country (if it wasn't covered already in a past segment).
- Friend Zone, an analysis on the country's positive or negative relationship with other countries.[3]
- Conclusion, wrapping up the entire episode into a 1-2 minute segment.
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
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.
Paul Barbato Heritage
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, here are the results 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)
Geography Now! episodes
The countries discussed in each episode follow the United Nations alphabetical list of members and go through them in the respective order.
Episodes
| ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Country | Date published |
| 1 |  Afghanistan[a]
|
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 (Cabo 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[b]
|
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 |