YouTube Channel Geography Now Completes All 193 UN-Recognized Country Episodes
After 10 years and 193 United Nations-recognized countries, the YouTube channel Geography Now reached the end of an era.
In a 50-minute special episode about Zimbabwe, the last in the alphabetical list of UN member-states, it showed channel owner and showrunner Paul “Barbs” Barbato and some of his closest and most important fans enjoying the sights and scenes of the country as most of the footage used for the video was recorded in the southeastern African nation.
Typically, the video format for the episodes begin with the physical geography of any given country. However, Barbato returned to the old format of incorporating flag and heraldry of the country being talked about, which became its own spinoff series called “Flag Friday.” The old intros of the channel’s country episodes were also re-edited alongside the current one for nostalgia purposes.
The end of the UN member-states episodes also meant the apparent end of the appearances of Barbato’s co-hosts, most of whom are close friends. Of particular note to all of them are Ian and Hannah Bamberg, who were already married by the time of their involvement in the channel, specifically the Eswatini episode, but grew to a family of three recently by the birth of the couple’s first son.
Ian is a private jet pilot while “Random Hannah,” as the female Bamberg is called by Geography Now fans, is a television actress and acting coach who also has her own YouTube channel.
Geography Now is not limited to the general information of UN-recognized countries as he also expressed his intention to cover non-recognized states, territories, and locations once the 193 UN member-states were completed. There are also deep dives into several topics like a country’s geographical divisions, ethnolinguistic peoples, self-imposed challenges, hilarious depictions and compilations, memes, and open letters to the countries he visited, among many others.
It is understood that, aside from country episodes, Barbato shares his personal experiences traveling to several locations in the world, some of which were made alongside his mother, as well as his own perspectives of the countries he talked about. He has also been open with his own life by sharing things about his family, channel updates, and other plans.
Future Plans
By the end of the Zimbabwe episode, Barbato thanked all of the people who watched and supported his mission of learning about the world, one country at a time.
“I wanna say a huge ‘thank you’ to all of you that have been with me for 10 years,” he said. “This truly is the most amazing thing I’ve ever accomplished, and I love you guys. Class dismissed.”
Barbs also hinted at what he called “the next chapter of Geography Now” in a post-credits addition, which revealed that content other than country episodes would continue.
This only solidified the things Barbato detailed in a video uploaded in September 2023, in which he revealed his future plans to travel the world more frequently once the Zimbabwe episode was uploaded.
“For about a decade of my life, I have been in a studio talking about the world,” he said. “Now I think it’s about time that I go out and see it.”
It is understood that the channel has a series called “Geography Go,” in which Barbato travels to several places in the world, some of which are to collect video recordings for his country episodes, but he said such trips were “not enough.”
He shared that Geography Now was fueled by his childhood curiosity about the diverse background of his Chicago neighborhood growing up and his California dream of being a travel show host, specifically for the program “Globe Trekker.”
“All I knew was that I love learning about the world, I love meeting people around the world, and I love traveling,” he added. “I wanted to do all of that somehow in my life, and YouTube was usually a good source to go to if you wanted to learn things.”
As of Oct. 17, Geography Now has 3.38 million YouTube subscribers, making it the first and largest channel that provides comprehensive profiles of countries around the world.
Check out Geography Now’s Zimbabwe episode below: