Geography Now

Geography Now is a YouTube channel and web series created and hosted by American educational vlogger Paul Barbato (born: ), commonly referred to as Barbs or Barby. Through its main series and namesake, it covers the geography, history, politics, culture, and diplomacy of a sovereign country every episode.
Geography Now examines every United Nations member state in alphabetical order. The show started with Afghanistan in October 2014, and will conclude with Zimbabwe in October 2024.
Barbato also includes friends of his as co-hosts in his videos. Current co-hosts include:
*Keith Everett: Music segment, co-host since the TBA episode.
*Hannah Bamberg: Culture segment, co-host since the Eswatini episode.
*Noah Gildermaster: Food segment, co-host since the TBA episode.
*Kaleb Seaton: Wildlife segment, co-host since the TBA episode. He often went under the alias "Gary Harlow", as a knockoff Steve Irwin, but "revealed" his true identity in the United States episode.
*Arthur "Art" Napiontek: Sports segment, co-host since the Poland episode.
Some of his other series include Geography More, an extension of the main series; Geography Go, in which he creates vlogs of his travels; and Flag Fridays, a spin-off centered around the flags and symbols of countries already covered in the main series.
==Content==
Content usually discussed on the channel are about countries and their interesting things, e.g. flag, capital cities, disputes, relations, etc. The videos have even been featured on some countries' media articles. He collaborates with people from the countries he makes videos on, like Nick Uhas for the Hungary episode, or PPPeter for the Slovakia episode. One of his most prominent collaborators is his Serbian high school friend. 
===Production===
In the channel's early days, episodes were filmed in Paul's old house, with the background being the blank screen of a television. Starting from the Bahrain edition, episodes were filmed at the YouTube space studios in Playa del Rey, Los Angeles, California. Early episodes filmed from this location contained crisp audio, as well as a downgraded quality of the video. 
Occasionally, episodes would have to be filmed in Paul's residence, most of the time either booking the YouTube space at the wrong time, or not even having time to book the space. 
Recently, Paul has been filming episodes in his office due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent temporary closure of the YouTube space studios.
In February 2021, YouTube announced the permanent closure of their Los Angeles studios. After finding out, Paul has announced that he has had enough of his filming condition and decided to construct his own studio.
===Geography Now (main series)===
Paul's flagship series; it includes Paul talking to the viewer in a black background, with his friends as side actors. The countries discussed follow the United Nations alphabetical list of members, meaning non-UN members such as Kosovo and Taiwan are not included, while the Republic of Macedonia, like in the UN is 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. English names are also used, so an episode is "Ivory Coast" and not "Cote d'Ivoire." The latest episode is Zambia, released on August 13, 2024.
====Dissecting the Flag====
Information about the country's flag and the significance that each part of the flag symbolizes – as of May 2016, the Flag Dissection has been replaced by a separate series, "Fan/Flag Friday" to be able to upload more videos in a shorter time.
====Political Geography====
A closer look and analysis on the borders, capital, cities, roads, enclaves, exclaves, regional divisions, overseas territories, autonomous regions, and constituent affiliated territories under the countries sovereignty as well as famous landmarks, buildings, and places of interest.
====Physical Geography====
An overview of the landscape of the country and what the physical components of the land are made up of. This includes forests, deserts, mountains, lakes, rivers, arable land, agriculture and economic production, land cultivation, and domestic resources. This part of the episode is also dedicated to exploring the biodiversity of the country.
====Demographics====
A study into the population of the country, the people, the races, the diversity, the culture, the traditions, the language, the government, the notable citizens, the legislation, the heads of state, minor historical anecdotes (however generally history is not highly expounded upon extensively as the show tries to maintain a condensed yet compact lesson covering every category in about 10 minutes).
====The Friend Zone====
A section that discusses all the diplomacy and international affairs of the country and how it relates to the rest of the world. Which countries are allies? Which countries are enemies? Why? Typically, the section ends with the "Best friend" of the country.
===Geography More===
In Geography More, Paul discusses additional information that was researched but somehow was not included in the main series. It is also a time for Paul to clarify any mistakes in his episodes. It is filmed in Paul's Los Angeles home.
===Flag/Fan Fridays===
Flag/Fan Fridays is where Paul discusses the flag and emblem of the country featured in the main series' most recent episode. Like the main series, it is also the work of some of Paul's crew and friends, most notable animations on the recurring trend of flags with the color red symbolizing "the blood of those who fight for freedom." It also features Paul reading and showing off fan mail from Geograpeeps. The series was made as a spin-off from the 'Dissecting the Flag' section of the main series after the latter was removed.
==Viewers==
Fans of the channel are called 'Geograpeeps', who often contribute to the information provided in Geography Now's videos. Paul gains a lot of fan mail, which often consists of souvenirs and letters from the receiver. Paul also makes fan videos from video clips of his fans sent to him.
==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. Currently, the series is on the letter "Z". The longest episode is the United States at 1 hour, 5 minutes and 29 seconds, and the shortest episode is a tie between Afghanistan and Andorra at 6 minutes and 42 seconds.
===Episode list===
#Afghanistan (October 15, 2014)
#Albania (October 21, 2014)
#Algeria (October 30, 2014)
#Andorra (November 12, 2014)
#Angola (November 26, 2014)
#Antigua and Barbuda (December 17, 2014)
#Argentina (January 5, 2015)
#Armenia (January 16, 2015)
#Australia (January 24, 2015)
#Austria (February 6, 2015)
#Azerbaijan (February 26, 2015)
#The Bahamas (March 16, 2015)
#Bahrain (April 10, 2015)
#Bangladesh (April 18, 2015)
#Barbados (April 25, 2015)
#Belarus (May 15, 2015)
#Belgium (May 20, 2015)
#Belize (May 25, 2015)
#Benin (May 31, 2015)
#Bhutan (June 26, 2015)
#Bolivia (June 30, 2015)
#Bosnia and Herzegovina (July 9, 2015)
#Botswana (July 18, 2015)
#Brazil (August 15, 2015)
#Brunei (August 29, 2015)
#Bulgaria (September 6, 2015)
#Burkina Faso (September 15, 2015)
#Burundi (October 1, 2015)
#Cambodia (October 10, 2015)
#Cameroon (October 21, 2015)
#Canada (November 10, 2015)
#Cape Verde (December 12, 2015)
#Central African Republic (December 21, 2015)
#Chad (January 8, 2016)
#Chile (January 17, 2016)
#China (February 7, 2016)
#Colombia (February 27, 2016)
#Comoros (March 9, 2016)
#Democratic Republic of the Congo (March 29, 2016)
#Republic of the Congo (April 14, 2016)
#Costa Rica (May 7, 2016)
#Croatia (May 11, 2016)
#Cuba (May 18, 2016)
#Cyprus (May 25, 2016)
#Czechia (June 1, 2016)
#Denmark (June 15, 2016)
#Djibouti (June 22, 2016)
#Dominica (June 29, 2016)
#Dominican Republic (July 6, 2016)
#East Timor (August 3, 2016)
#Ecuador (August 10, 2016)
#Egypt (August 24, 2016)
#El Salvador (August 31, 2016)
#Equatorial Guinea (September 21, 2016)
#Eritrea (September 28, 2016)
#Estonia (October 5, 2016)
#Ethiopia (October 12, 2016)
#Fiji (November 15, 2016)
#Finland (November 23, 2016)
#North Macedonia (November 30, 2016)Then known by the descriptor "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". The country officially changed its name to the "Republic of North Macedonia" in 2019.
#France (December 7, 2016)
#Gabon (January 18, 2017)
#The Gambia (January 25, 2017)
#Georgia (February 1, 2017)
#Germany (February 8, 2017)
#Ghana (March 22, 2017)
#Greece (March 29, 2017)
#Grenada (April 5, 2017)
#Guatemala (April 12, 2017)
#Guinea (May 10, 2017)
#Guinea-Bissau (May 17, 2017)
#Guyana (May 24, 2017)
#Haiti (May 31, 2017)
#Honduras (June 28, 2017)
#Hungary (July 5, 2017)
#Iceland (July 12, 2017)
#India (July 19, 2017)
#Indonesia (August 2, 2017)
#Iran (August 9, 2017)
#Iraq (August 16, 2017)
#Ireland (August 30, 2017)
#Israel (September 20, 2017)
#Italy (September 27, 2017)
#Ivory Coast (October 4, 2017)
#Jamaica (October 11, 2017)
#Japan (October 20, 2017)
#Jordan (November 1, 2017)
#Kazakhstan (November 15, 2017)
#Kenya (November 22, 2017)
#Kiribati (November 29, 2017)
#North Korea (December 13, 2017)
#South Korea (December 20, 2017)
#Kuwait (January 17, 2018)
#Kyrgyzstan (January 24, 2018)
#Laos (January 31, 2018)
#Latvia (February 7, 2018)
#Lebanon (February 28, 2018)
#Lesotho (March 7, 2018)
#Liberia (March 14, 2018)
#Libya (March 21, 2018)
#Liechtenstein (March 28, 2018)
#Lithuania (April 25, 2018)
#Luxembourg (May 2, 2018)
#Madagascar (May 23, 2018)
#Malawi (May 30, 2018)
#Malaysia (June 6, 2018)
#Eswatini (June 27, 2018)In April 2018, Swaziland officially changed its name to Eswatini. This led to the release of an Eswatini episode after the series had already passed the letter E, breaking the show's alphabetical order.
#Maldives (July 4, 2018)
#Mali (July 11, 2018)
#Malta (August 15, 2018)
#Marshall Islands (August 22, 2018)
#Mauritania (August 29, 2018)
#Mauritius (September 5, 2018)
#Mexico (September 26, 2018)
#Federated States of Micronesia (October 10, 2018)
#Moldova (October 17, 2018)
#Monaco (November 7, 2018)
#Mongolia (November 14, 2018)
#Montenegro (December 5, 2018)
#Morocco (December 12, 2018)
#Mozambique (December 19, 2018)
#Myanmar (January 9, 2019)
#Namibia (January 16, 2019)
#Nauru (January 30, 2019)
#Nepal (February 6, 2019)
#Netherlands (February 27, 2019)
#New Zealand (April 3, 2019)
#Nicaragua (April 10, 2019)
#Niger (April 24, 2019)
#Nigeria (May 1, 2019)
#Norway (May 22, 2019)
#Oman (June 12, 2019)
#Pakistan (June 19, 2019)
#Palau (July 31, 2019)
#Panama (August 7, 2019)
#Papua New Guinea (August 28, 2019)
#Paraguay (September 4, 2019)
#Peru (September 25, 2019)
#Philippines (October 2, 2019)
#Poland (October 30, 2019)
#Portugal (November 6, 2019)
#Qatar (December 4, 2019)
#Romania (December 11, 2019)
#Russia (January 15, 2020)
#Rwanda (January 29, 2020)
#Saint Kitts and Nevis (February 19, 2020)
#Saint Lucia (March 11, 2020)
#Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (March 18, 2020)
#Samoa (April 15, 2020)
#San Marino (May 6, 2020)
#São Tomé and Príncipe (May 18, 2020)
#Saudi Arabia (June 3, 2020)
#Senegal (July 1, 2020)
#Serbia (July 22, 2020)
#Seychelles (August 12, 2020)
#Sierra Leone (September 2, 2020)
#Singapore (September 23, 2020)
#Slovakia (December 30, 2020)
#Slovenia (January 6, 2021)
#Solomon Islands (January 20, 2021)
#Somalia (February 24, 2021)
#South Africa (March 17, 2021)
#Spain (April 21, 2021) 
#Sri Lanka (May 26, 2021)
#Sudan (June 23, 2021)
#South Sudan (August 4, 2021)
#Suriname (September 1, 2021)
#Sweden (September 22, 2021)
#Switzerland (October 28, 2021)
#Syria (December 8, 2021)
#Tajikistan (January 19, 2022)
#Tanzania (February 23, 2022)
#Thailand (March 27, 2022)
#Togo (April 29, 2022)
#Tonga (June 9, 2022)
#Trinidad and Tobago (July 6, 2022)
#Tunisia (August 4, 2022)
#Turkey (September 3, 2022)
#Turkmenistan (October 19, 2022)
#Tuvalu (November 23, 2022)
#Uganda (January 18, 2023)
#Ukraine (March 9, 2023)
#United Arab Emirates (March 30, 2023)
#United Kingdom (May 30, 2023)
#United States (July 4, 2023)
#Uruguay (September 4, 2023)
#Uzbekistan (October 31, 2023)
#Vanuatu (December 7, 2023)
#Venezuela (February 6, 2024)
#Vietnam (April 3, 2024)
#Yemen (June 19, 2024)
#Zambia (August 13, 2024)
#Zimbabwe (October 15, 2024)
==Filler week==
In (most of) the weeks where he doesn't upload a country episode, he does a "filler week" in which he talks about a variety of topics about geography. He often either talks about the administrative divisions of countries (Germany, India, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Japan, etc.) or other topics like self-declared or independence-wanting countries (Catalonia, Somaliland, etc.).
==April Fools==
Paul is known for making yearly April Fool's Day prank videos.
In 2015, he made an episode on a fictional country, "Bandiaterra" (the name fitting as the series was still on the 'B' section then), located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. According to Paul, Bandiaterra was settled by East African "Bandian" refugees and was heavily influenced by Denmark in the Age of Colonization. Bandiaterra went viral through the internet and set up its own lore and fanbase, with anthem YouTubers even uploading the "national anthem" of Bandiaterra.
In 2016, he made a parody video on educational YouTuber CGP Grey; as "PGC Brey" he discusses the "kinds of" countries, based on the video How Many Countries Are There?.
In 2017 he made a "Geometry Now" video where he discusses Math and Geometry, and claimed it was "sponsored by the government of Bandiaterra", a reference to the 2015 video.
In 2018, he did another video on the fan-made country Limberwisk. It is also fitting since the show was in the L's back then. It has close ties to Botswana and Tonga. They have their own unique language with almost no vowels that sound like "the wind".
In 2019, he made a new country in this ongoing joke. The country Patch Amberdash / Datcsh is a multi-continental empire. It has 3 oceanic territories and 2 exclaves. It is in the Dash Island (Below Cook Islands (Pacific Ocean)), Amber Island (East coast of Africa), Madam Ingolia (Tanzania), Patch Island (Mid Atlantic), Zakuska (East Bulgaria on the coast of the Black Sea) and disputed territory with French Polynesia over the islands of Rurutu and Tutuai.
In 2020, he created the small African country of Qitzikwaka. It was colonized by Buddhists from Russia, and the inhabitants live mostly underground. The economy relies heavily on natural gas.
In 2021, he created the reef nation of Sovonthak (Previously known as the Vascadam Republic). It was colonized by Cambodia and Spain, and the majority of the inhabitants live in elevated stilt homes and massively anchored yet technically mobile sea vessels known as hover locks.
In 2022, he created the landless country of quiet secret agents of Volanca (Various Operative Legislature Administrations of Nation Cooperative Associates). Nobody is born a citizen but rather trained in elite humanitarian service fields to earn it. After about 8 decades of covert existence as a recognized entity, Volanca finally disclosed their "statehood" to the public in 2014.
In 2023, he created the north american country of Ululiona-linulu, a Major Native American nation.
==Personal life==
Paul Barbato was born in the U.S. state of MinnesotaGeography Now! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — Geography Now (YouTube). 4 Jul 2023 to Korean parents. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California and identifies as a Christian.
==Trivia==
*Barbato often refers to the fans of Geography Now as “Geograpeeps”.
*He used to believe that he is of Italian, French, South Korean, and Irish descent.
**According to his DNA results, Paul's blood is significantly more mixed than he previously thought. Specifically, he discovered that he also has central Asian, Scandinavian, Sephardic Jewish/North African, and Native American DNA, and he also discovered that he has no French DNA at all.My DNA Heritage test results (I WAS SHOCKED) However, these should be taken with a grain of salt as DNA tests are not always reliable.
*His father passed away due to cancer.
*His mom often appears in his videos.
*Paul has expressed interest in remaking his earlier episodes in the style of the modern episodes with far more detail, after the main series is finished. The early episodes were notably shorter and sloppier compared to later episodes as he refined his style, thus him and his fans are interested in seeing them remade in an updated form.
==Channel milestones==
===Subscriber milestones===
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2009
Category:One million subscribers
Category:Two million subscribers
Category:Three million subscribers