Ask Gary: Questions & Answers

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Let’s start with the big issue this month, which comes in the form of a question from Doug Huffer, who asks: How much do you care about the pronunciation of names and places – ie original vs. typical American vs. your own? Eg., Van Gogh is pronounced differently in Dutch vs. American English, or Arkansas is pronounced differently in Kansas vs. Arkansas.

This is one of the biggest issues I deal with daily when recording the show. This month, it showed up in the episode on New Madrid, which I pronounced as New Madrid.

English is a very weird language. We pronounce words differently in different places, and some place names have unique local pronunciations that make no sense based on the spelling alone.

There is a city in Wisconsin called New Berlin, but it is pronounced New Ber-lin. The change in pronunciation was deliberately done during the First World War.

Some words in English just make no sense. There really is no reason why Arkansas isn’t pronounced Ar-kansas, or why Kansas isn’t pronounced kan-saw. That’s just how it is.

English often has different pronunciations for foreign words, even if the foreign word is perfectly pronounceable. Rome instead of Roma, Paris instead of Par-ee, or Moscow instead of Moscova.

In Van Gogh’s case, the proper Dutch pronunciation uses a sound that isn’t in English, so it is pronounced differently.

When you get to Chinese and other tonal languages, again, English doesn’t even have tones, so words tend to be Anglicized or Latinized.

In many cases, there really is no good solution to the problem. If you use local pronunciations for all proper nouns, people won’t know what you are talking about, or you’ll just come across as pretentious.

Often, there’s no way to know what a local pronunciation might be unless you’ve been to that area, especially if the place is more obscure.

While I try to use correct local pronunciation whenever I can, I often have to make judgment calls. In the episode on Van Gogh, I used the traditional English pronunciation, not the Dutch Van Gogh.

I say, Julius Caesar instead of Iulius Kaiser, which would be the proper Latin pronunciation.

While I recognize that New Madrid is the local pronunciation, I also don’t think New Madrid is the end of the world.

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Finley211 Any activity/game that you are outrageously good at? Like how I found out that my friend is a top Brawl Stars player

I was one of the top-ranked priests on Classic World of Warcraft for a while. I was ranked in the top 1500 in the world on the Sporcle quiz site.

About 25 years ago, we had a team that played the first-person shooter Tribes really well.

I can’t think of anything else.

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menegato asks: I think I’ve heard the sound of pages being turned when listening to some episodes. So my question is, do you read the script on paper or on a screen? If it’s paper, do you keep each episode, and if so, would you ever publish a book with the script of the episodes?

If you are hearing pages being turned, I have no idea what you are hearing. No paper is involved in producing the podcast. The scripts are written and read on Google Docs.

Maybe you are hearing my chair or some other background noise, but it certainly isn’t paper.

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Kristen asks: I know you try to make Encore episodes the least listened to episodes, but I’m curious how many fewer times they’ve been downloaded? Thank you! Love your show ?

An episode’s download count has nothing to do with whether it is selected for an encore episode nowadays. The process is mostly random. When I run one, I just look for something interesting that was published at least one year ago.

The truth is, there isn’t a whole lot of variance in episode downloads. There is some, but it isn’t enough that I’d make decisions around it. Moreover, if I did use downloads as the criteria for encore episodes, I’d pick more popular episodes, not less popular ones.

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Ralf Meuris asks: I just listened to the encore episode “The never-ending Voyager mission”. These probes have been flying through space since the 70s. How come they survive in space for such a long time without any protection against cosmic radiation and things like that? If you look at the Tesla that was sent into space in 2018, it is heavily disintegrated because of the extreme conditions in space.

For starters, the Tesla that was sent into space to test the Falcon Heavy rocket hasn’t disintegrated. It would take millions of years for cosmic rays and micrometeorites to cause any level of disintegration.

So, the structure of the Voyager probes is fine. The danger to any deep-space probe is the electronics. A high-energy particle can strike a memory cell or processor and flip a bit, corrupting data or causing a computer fault.

The Voyager probes protect themselves by hardening their electronics, adding shielding, and redundancy.

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Derrin Brown asks: You’ve mentioned before that you’re unsure who the winners will be in AI. Now that we’re seeing reports of companies like Uber burning through their entire annual AI budget in just four months, and critics arguing that firms like OpenAI and Anthropic can’t actually afford their own compute costs, do you think the current ‘tokenomics’ model, where companies charge by usage, but the underlying infrastructure requires massive, ongoing debt, is fundamentally sustainable? Or are we looking at a structural bubble similar to what we saw with the dot-com crash?

I have no idea what the end business model for AI companies will be. I’m not even sure what the AI industry is going to look like.

Things are changing at a fast pace, and I don’t think even AI companies know what the future holds. Not only are AI models getting more powerful, but they are also getting cheaper and lighter. It is now possible to run some LLMs on desktop computers.

I do think we are in an AI bubble, and honestly, that is what is to be expected. Everyone can see the potential of artificial intelligence, just like how in the past everyone could see the economic potential of the internet and railroads.

Lots of money is going into AI, just like money flowed into railroads and internet companies before. During those bubbles, most of the railroads and internet companies failed, but the ones that survived became giants.

The valuations AI companies are getting are not justified by the revenue they are bringing in or their profits, which are nonexistent.

I’m not an investment expert, but it seems like there will be a correction at some point. I don’t know when or how big it will be, but it seems inevitable.

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Kevin O’Keefe asks: So I now have two granddaughters- two years old and six months old and I’m constantly thinking about their future. Of course no one can predict what our world will look like but many people are starting to make educated ?guesses. I think you would agree that there’s been a huge shift in terms of what type of jobs we will have 20 years from now. With all the research that you’ve been doing regarding learning, where do you think the younger generation should start these days?

It is quite literally impossible to make such a prediction. About 25% of the US workforce today works in job categories that didn’t exist in the 1960 census. About 60% work in jobs that didn’t exist in 1940.

Of the job categories that existed in 1960, only one has been eliminated: elevator operator.

There is no way someone in 1960 could have predicted jobs such as web designer, podcaster, cyberathlete, or hundreds of other modern jobs.

One of my mottos is that the ability to adapt is more important than your ability to plan. When the World Wide Web was introduced in the 90s, I was in the middle of things, and we just had to learn as it evolved. When a new programming language comes out, you learn it by doing, not by taking a class. Everyone figuring out AI right now is learning as they go.

Future-proofing yourself isn’t about learning any particular set of skills per se. It is the ability to learn and adapt to whatever might change in the future.

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Heather Swisher asks: My daughter asked me which animals hibernate and why some animals don’t. I have no idea.

There are different types of hibernation, and the word is often used to describe different sorts of behavior in which animals reduce their metabolism for periods of time.

While cold- and warm-blooded animals can both reduce their metabolism, only warm-blooded animals can truly hibernate. Some animals hibernate annually, while others hibernate as needed when food supplies are low.

Hibernation is a technique used by animals to survive periods of low food supply. This usually happens in colder climates when food is scarce in winter. Animals like bears gorge themselves to build fat reserves so they can live off that fat during winter hibernation.

This might be a topic worth going into more detail in a future episode.

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Jacob Felty asks · I’ve got a few questions. Do you have a favorite skyscraper, and why? Did you get to visit the old World Trade Center before 9/11?

My favorite skyscraper, I would have to say, is Taipei 101. This is simply because I visited it very early in my travels, and at the time I visited, it was the world’s tallest building. They also have a massive mass-damping ball at the top of the building, designed to counteract movement during an earthquake.

I did get to visit the World Trade Center. It was back in 1998. I took a business trip to New York, and I always took a day or two after meetings to go exploring.

I went to the World Trade Center, but I didn’t get to the top or anything; I just visited the lobby and the plaza outside.

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The final question comes from Govind Chettiar, who asks, In the past couple of years or so, how has AI impacted your daily life, if it has?

If I can’t find a photo I took, or if there isn’t a stock image that works, I’ll use ChatGPT to make show artwork. It’s cheap and fast.

Another use, but I’m not really sure if this is AI, is Grammarly. I’ve been using Grammarly for over ten years, and I’ve used it on every episode of this podcast. It is basically a glorified spell checker. All of the writers have accounts as well.

It now claims to be powered by AI. I’m not sure how much of that is true, or if it’s just marketing. I’m also not sure what the difference is between AI and a good computer algorithm.

But I’ve noticed that Grammarly now does a better job correcting grammar than before, and it can also correct spelling in context for proper nouns, which is actually quite impressive.

In everyday use, I basically use it as a glorified search engine. For example, I had a question a few weeks ago about potato consumption in Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries. ChatGPT was able to perform an analysis on it quickly and much faster than trying to search for papers published on the subject.

In fact, as I’m sure everyone has noticed, even if you do a search on a regular search engine, you’ll usually get some sort of AI-generated answer at the top of the results.

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Tom Allen on Patreon asks, Have you had a chance to SCUBA dive Monterey Bay yet, and to visit the aquarium? At your site, I found a number of articles on SCUBA but only one podcast. I think the podcast listeners would enjoy hearing more of your personal experience of what it feels and looks like down there. In an old article on your 10 favorite SCUBA sites, you mentioned you had not visited Monterey. Did you ever get there?

No, I have never dived in Monterey Bay, and it is still on my list of places to dive. Nor have I visited the aquarium there yet.

When I first started traveling, one of the very first things I did was get SCUBA certified in Lahaina, Maui. From there, I did, I estimate, about 120 dives around the world

I didn’t usually visit places with the express purpose of diving, but I tried to dive if the opportunity was available. I eventually got my advanced open water certification, Nitrox certification, and my rescue diver certification.

It’s been many years since I’ve been SCUBA diving, so if and when I do it again, I’ll probably need a refresher, but I figure it will be like riding a bicycle.

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William Stott asks: Hey Gary! Bill Stott here, President of the Cornhusker Completionist Club. In the past, you talked about starting to study Latin when COVID hit. With it being a ‘dead language’, I have never heard it actually used conversationally that I know of, other than the many short phrases we commonly have incorporated into speech: “Carpe diem”, “veni, vidi, vici”, or the one you sometimes use on the show – “Mea culpa”. Could you please use it in a couple of sentences for us?

Latin is a dead language, but it is not an extinct language. There is a difference. No one speaks Latin as their native language, but there are still Latin speakers out there. You can find quite a few YouTube videos of people speaking Latin fluently, and there is a small group of Latin speakers out there.

Mea Culpa is just Latin for my fault. It has been used in many contexts throughout history. The term has remained in Latin and has been used in English as a phrase. It is also used in the Catholic Latin Mass.

In the city of Sienna in the 12th century, those guilty of murder, as part of their penance, had to throw themselves on the ground three times and say Mea culpa; peccavi; Domine miserere mei, which translates to “Through my fault. I have sinned. Lord, have mercy on me.”

The next time you bump into someone, instead of saying “my bad” just say “mea culpa.”

I won’t say that I’m great at Latin, but the act of learning it has taught me more about grammar, including English grammar, than I ever knew before.

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Krista Hawco asks: I live in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. You talked about our province during your episode about animals that really exist (Giant Squid), and I think one other time about Pirates or Vikings (we have had both). How many times has our province been discussed on your show? Have you ever traveled here?

I have been to your province several times, and in fact, I’ve been to both Labrador and Newfoundland. I’ve been to Gros Morne and Terra Nova National Parks; I’ve been to L’Anse aux Meadows; I’ve been to Battle Harbor in Labrador as well as Red Bay.

Newfoundland and Labrador is certainly worthy of its own episode in the future because its history, as I’m sure you’re aware, is very different than that of any other Canadian Province.

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Ellen Schrader Stutts asks: How do you assign which one of you guys is responsible for each topic? I know Joel is a history teacher, but sometimes Olivia covers history topics as well. At the end of each episode, I like to guess who did it.

For the most part, episodes aren’t assigned. We have a weekly meeting online where we talk about what topics we are all interested in writing about. I keep a master list of show ideas that I’ve talked about before that anyone can pick from, or if they have their own ideas, the writers are open to pursuing those ideas as well.

I will often suggest categories that we haven’t covered in a while. If we haven’t done a profile on a country or a WWII episode in a while, I’ll mention that we are due. Likewise, I’ll throw ideas out during the meeting that anyone is welcome to take if they find them interesting.

I don’t assign specific episodes because if the writer doesn’t find it interesting, they probably won’t be motivated to write it.

I should also note that, even though I don’t credit myself, I’m the editor of every single episode. I often change words to sound more natural when spoken, and I often rewrite the introduction and the concluding paragraph. I might add or change sections to make it make more sense. In a few rare cases, I’ve had to do major surgery on a script, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore.

I have noticed, and I think both Joel and Olivia would agree, that it becomes much easier once you’ve gotten some episodes under your belt. In fact, now that I do more editing, I’ve decided I’m not going to accept any one-off script submissions, just because it takes time to get the format of the show down.

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Kevin O’Keefe asks: I LOVE the weekly episodes with Joel. I started binge-listening to them backward from the most recent to the first one. Can we call someone who has listened to all the weekly episodes the 100 percenter club? But serious question. I think everyone should listen to the weekly shows; it just rounds out the knowledge, and you guys add so much to the individual episodes. I really feel like the knowledge level has doubled from listening to your commentary on the episodes. After talking through all the different episodes, is there one episode that you would want to do again to correct or change things, etc or one episode that really launched so many more new episode ideas?

First, thanks for the shoutout for Everything Everywhere Weekly. It is the weekly recap show that Joel and I record every week, where we cover the previous week’s episodes. We will talk about things that didn’t make it into the episode and often go off-topic into other subjects.

Everything Everywhere Weekly is available on Patreon to all tiers of supporters starting at just $2/month.

Completionist Club members who have also listened to every episode of the weekly show can append an oak leaf cluster to their membership.

As for which episode spurred the most episodes, I have no clue. It would have to be a very broad subject, perhaps the episode I did summarizing the Mongol Empire.

However, if you listen to the weekly show, you can listen in on the thought process for how episodes are born.

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Chuck Tomasi asks, How have you changed the show (technical, format, process, etc.) since you first started in 2020?

I have changed almost nothing regarding the production of the show. The biggest thing is that I changed the sound effect used before the outro because people complained that it was too jarring, and I could see that.

Before I launched the show, I developed a very simple format, and I stuck with it. For the most part, I use the exact same tools as I did on episode one. I got a new microphone, and I’ve recorded in different spaces as I’ve moved, but the software I use, GarageBand, hasn’t changed.

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Ken Warden asks: The Okefenokee Refuge has gotten a UN-recognized status. Can you give us an update and advise on steps we can take to stay aware and provide a check on actions we may need.

At the recent UNESCO convention, the Okefenokee Refuge was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There is absolutely nothing you need to do or be aware of. It was added to a list. That’s it.

It is basically like being elected to the Hall of Fame for parks and heritage sites. There is nothing that changes. It has the same management as before, except they might now put up a plaque.

I’ve been to over 400 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They are all operated and managed differently depending on their location.

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Mae Dingman asks: Now that you have added AP course support to your website, do you plan to extend that program, and if so, to what other subjects?

The thing with the AP courses is that there is a set curriculum that teachers have to follow to prepare for the test. So it’s pretty easy to slot episodes I’ve done into that curriculum.

We currently have a page on the website for AP World History and AP US History. There are many other AP courses, but they don’t necessarily lend themselves to this podcast. A few episodes might be applicable, but only a few.

That being said, any teacher is free to use whatever episodes they want in their curriculum, for whatever course they might be teaching. I’ve created a Facebook group for teachers who would like to use the podcast as a resource.

I know Joel plans on assigning an episode a day. Listening to episodes is optional, but it gives students a more in-depth explanation of some topics and also allows for coverage of topics that might not be covered in class due to time constraints.

Also, if you plan to incorporate the podcast into your classroom, I can record a custom message for your students.

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BAM asks Do you plan to cover more events from post- World War 2 history that have not been covered yet, or were only mentioned in passing before? For example, Joe McCarthy, Watergate.

I actually have done quite a few shows covering post-WWII history. I’ve done episodes on the Vietnam War, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and many other Cold War topics. We have a Watergate episode already written that will be released very soon.

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Joshua Felty asks: Hi Gary, are you open to delving into religion and philosophy topics more? It seems like you might be after your recent episode on Confucianism. I was thinking you could make great episodes that stay fact-based on other belief systems or topics (like the making and influence of the King James Bible).

Yeah, I’ve done some episodes in the past, and I’ll be doing more in the future.

I’ve actually considered doing episodes on the King James Bible and the origins of the bible as well, including the Council of Hippo, St. Jerome, and how the books of the bible were selected. There are several apocryphal books that were not included. For several hundred years, there was no “bible” per se; it was just a collection of letters and books.

I’ve considered doing an episode on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which has an interesting history.

Joel had recently mentioned doing an episode on the early 19th-century Great Awakening, and I’ve thought about 19th-century utopian communities.

There are some philosophy episode ideas as well, but they tend to be harder to write because the boundaries of what should be in the episode are more ambiguous than in a straight history episode.

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Let’s jump into the questions, the first of which was emailed by Sean Pratz. He writes.

As I’m sure you know, because you’ve mentioned your affinity for the Foundation series, Isaac Asimov was an amazingly prolific writer. He penned over 500 books over the course of his career. All told, estimates of his total published word count, not counting books he edited or letters he wrote, come in at around 7.5 million words.

By your own estimate, you’ve written over three million words for Everything Everywhere Daily. Assuming you’re still going strong into the next decade, you should surpass Asimov’s word count somewhere around episode 5000, or roughly 14 years after your first episode.

It took Isaac Asimov an entire lifetime to write seven and a half million words. You’ll do it in only 14 years. So my question is this: Are you a cat person or a dog person?

The answer to the literal question is dog person. The answer to the implied question is that I could surpass Asimov, but since I hired writers, the amount I write has decreased. Asimov was publishing honest-to-goodness books, although he was sort of a machine and could pretty much get whatever he wrote published. I can publish whatever I want whenever I want.

If you include everything I wrote before I started the podcast, that is probably another million words easy.I have no intention of stopping what I’m doing, so it should continue for the foreseeable future, albeit not at the same rate as the first five years.

So, I think it is possible I could write more than Isaac Asimov, but it’s under totally different circumstances. I think if he had lived in the internet era, he might have been even more prolific.

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CGHDUN asks, Have you seen an international rugby match, and if so, what was your favorite?

Not only have I been to an international rugby match, but I was at the semifinals and finals of the 2011 World Cup in Auckland…a fact that I love to taunt kiwis with.

I was invited by Qantas, who were there to support the Wallabies, and I got a bunch of Wallaby swag.

I saw New Zealand beat Australia and France beat Wales, and then I saw the All Blacks beat France in the finals. I was glad that New Zealand won because I feared there would be mass suicides in New Zealand if they lost.

It was a great experience, and I’d do it again.

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Andrew Greig asks, Hey Gary, I’m curious: with so many episodes, are you able to remember what you have covered? Or do you ever have an idea for a show pop into your head only to realize you have already done it?

For the most part, yes, but there have been a few instances where I went down the path of starting an episode only to realize that I’d done it earlier.

Pretty much the first stage in researching any episode, for the other writers and me, is checking whether there is already an episode on the topic.

That being said, there are often different ways to tackle the same subject. There are many topics that I could do again, but in a completely different way. We are in no danger of running out of new episode ideas. I suggest you listen to Everything Everywhere Weekly on Patreon, where Joel and I, in the course of almost every episode, will come up with new episode ideas just talking about the episode of the previous week.

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Steve Augustino asks, Gary, since the chapters of the Completionist Club are dispersed and maintain their own records, I wonder if you have an estimate of the total number of Completionist Club members? It cannot exceed the number of downloads of your least-listened-to episode, but other than that, is there any helpful information for sizing the club?

The honest answer is that I don’t know, and there is no way to know. Podcast stats are very imperfect, and I have no idea who listened to every episode because IP addresses change frequently, and you listen on a mobile device.

Based on feedback, and the vast majority of listeners do not give any feedback, I’d say that there are several hundred members of the completionist club, and maybe over a thousand. At the end of the day, that is just a guess. Absent perfect reporting, there is no way to know. The good news is that if you are a podcast listener, your privacy is more secure listening to podcasts than it is browsing the web.

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Jarom Nelson on Facebook asks Hey Gary, you seem like a guy that would prefer to fix your own electrical problems around the house. Any success or epic fail home improvement stories? Jarom from Livermore, DOE National Labs completionist club.

Actually, I wouldn’t screw around with the wiring where I live. First of all, I rent, so I’d have the building do it. Second, I know just enough to be dangerous, which is the worst sort of knowledge to have. I think knowing your limitations is important. Could I figure out how to properly fix my own electrical issues? Probably. But I haven’t, and I wouldn’t want to take the risk when I can hire someone who has experience and expertise.

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Max Feng asks, I don’t remember if this has already been asked, but do you have advice for running a podcast/researching for it? I have one called Musical Vitamins; I just started, and I think it’s really fun, but research can be a little hard, and so can social media/distribution. Any advice on this? Thanks so much. Oh, also, to add to that, how did you find good theme music?

First, I got the theme song from Stockmusic.net. It was very affordable. I just found something I liked, and that was that.

I did check out your podcast. Its a good idea, and there are other successful podcasts out there that have similar premises.

You have discovered the biggest thing with podcasting. Creating something that people want to listen to isn’t easy. There is no shortcut. The premise of this podcast was that if I covered topics I was interested in, others would probably be interested as well.

One thing I’d do is give some attention to the albums considered among the greatest of all time. You might get more traction on Spotify than on other platforms, since Spotify is a music platform and people searching for music might come across your episode.

Also, don’t limit yourself to one genre of music.

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Michael Tervo asks, I read a book called “Natural Born Heroes” that, among many things, posits that ancient “pankration” fighters from the island of Crete traveled with Alexander the Great’s army into Asia and planted the seeds for what eventually became King Fu. What do you think? ?

Without having done any research into this topic, my gut says that this is probably not true. There are all sorts of historical theories that involve nothing more than vague coincidence, and this strikes me as one of them.

To prove the theory, you’d need to show some sort of transmission from west to east. Why aren’t there similar martial arts between Greece and China? How was this knowledge transmitted? How long did it take? Again, not having researched it, it seems more plausible that martial arts were independently discovered than that it was transmitted that far that long ago.

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Tim Manchester asks: What are your favorite educational TV shows for adults?

First, educational TV shows are not just for adults. I can’t think of any off the top of my head which wouldn’t be suitable for children.

Second, given the nature of online media, I wouldn’t look for a single show, but rather services that have a wide variety of shows. There are multiple streaming services that have tons of educational content, many of which are extremely cheap.

I’d recommend CuriosityStream, Nebula, and The Great Courses Plus. All of these have great educational content and are rather affordable compared to most streaming services.

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Friso Pas asks Hi Gary, do you listen back to your episodes áfter you’ve recorded and edited them, so just before you put them on the podcast app? The reason I’m asking is that this week, even though I’m not English or American (I’m Dutch), I think I heard you mispronounce a word 2 episodes in a row. I could be wrong though, as it’s not my native language. In Ep. 2211, you said ‘preferable’ with the emphasis on …fer… , not on the first syllable. And in the intro of Ep. 2212, you said ‘divisive’, with the second syllable pronounced with a ‘short i’ sound, not as in I, which I also never heard before. In short, in what way is there quality control for each episode?

Most episodes are recorded hours before they go live. Once an episode is recorded, my focus is on getting the next episode out.

What you are noticing might, as someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language, seem odd. There are often multiple ways to pronounce the same word, and they are often regional variations.

Preferable and preferable are both acceptable. Likewise, divisive and divisive are both legitimate pronunciations.

I’ve found that many non-English-speaking Europeans learn British or American English depending on where they live. What they learned isn’t wrong, but it is also not complete.

English is a weird language. There is no one correct way to speak English. It is a language with many different accents and dialects, and the language evolves, often at a rapid pace.

I speak a midwestern American dialect, and that’s how I speak.

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Crystal D asks Do you record in one take or have to do many? What happens if there is a word stumble or a sneeze?

I’m glad that you think I can record an episode in one take. I have never done that. Each episode is recorded in multiple segments, often dozens. I record until I flub up or want to do it over. I stop, go back, and start where I left off. The longest single uninterrupted segment I’ve probably ever recorded is about five minutes. It takes me about 30 minutes to record 15 minutes of content.

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Drew “Dr.C” Clinkenbeard asks, The recent Timur episode really hooked me (I feel like I shoulda known about it already). I have 2 questions: 1: how do you think it would have gone if he’d have made it to China? 2: it seems like China did everything first; I feel like it should be the dominant culture- why not? (My assumption: Mongols.) Anyway, keep on going Gary; I’m getting close to wanting to join Patreon… I like your work that much.

I think Timur would have gotten bogged down. Ghengis Khan didn’t conquer China. That was left to his grandson, Kublai Khan. China was big, and conquering it would have taken a long time.

As for why China didn’t dominate the world, I think it is more a cultural thing. China viewed itself as the center of the world. The Middle Kingdom.

During the Ming Dynasty, they abruptly stopped the voyages of exploration by Admiral Zheng He. When Europeans arrived, they didn’t want any of the goods that they had to trade.

China was highly centralized, whereas Europe was made up of highly competitive nations, who were looking for an advantage over their rivals.

This contentment ended up being their undoing.

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Sable826 ask What is your favorite genre of music? Any chance of an episode on Pink Floyd? Got to see them live in Nashville, and it was the concert of a lifetime. Love your podcast. TN completionist club member at least twice over. Keep up the excellent work.

Most of what I listen to would be classified as contemporary classical. That sounds like an oxymoron, but if you remember back to my episode on classical music, it is mostly just newer composed music.

That being said, I have a wide range of musical tastes. I have a giant playlist on Spotify with over 800 songs that covers almost every genre of music.

Also, we are looking at doing episodes on popular and influential musical acts and Pink Floyd would certainly qualify, but there are no plans yet.

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John Waldrop asks: I would like to get back into photography. I currently have a digital SLR camera. What would be your suggestion for some good online courses or books to get me started?

The truth is you don’t need any books or classes. I never read a book or took a course.

Learn about the exposure triangle and then start practicing with your camera so you know the settings intuitively. Then work on composition.

Once you’ve mastered that, the key is just put yourself in front of things at the right place and the right time. That is really the key to high-end photography. It isn’t gear or settings; it’s being present when there is something worth photographing.

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Todd Whitcomb asks: When traveling, how do you go about meeting the people who live there without being that pushy American tourist? I want to go to Scotland/Ireland, where I am ancestrally from, but I don’t want to offend or bore people.

Being an outsider, which people will probably figure out immediately from your accent, is usually a good start. If you are in touristy areas, it probably won’t raise an eyebrow because people will meet Americans all the time. However, if you get out of the big cities and go visit some more obscure and lesser-visited areas, you’ll find that people are just as curious about you as you are about them.

Also, stop into a pub. Just any old random pub outside the main tourist areas. Ask whoever serves you what they recommend and get that.

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With that, let’s start with the first question, which comes from therat_mafia on Discord, who asks, I recently re-watched Back to the Future 3, and something occurred to me that I never considered the last time I watched the movie 20 years ago. Why didn’t Doc Brown distill his own gasoline? Crude oil was relatively accessible, and surely they had access to kerosene for mining lamps. Isn’t oil refining just about heating the oil to a certain temperature?

You are correct that distilling petroleum is really just a function of heating petroleum in the absence of oxygen. Different heat levels produce different types of fuel, such as kerosene, gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The process is called fractional distillation.

I think it is fair to assume that Doc Brown would have known that if he was smart enough to discover time travel.

However, I would disagree about the accessibility of oil. According to the movie, Doc Brown traveled back to Hill Valley, California, in 1885. Hill Valley is fictional, but Back to the Future 3 was filmed in Sonora, in the Central Valley, so let’s assume that it is somewhere around there.

The first oil well in California was only drilled in 1876, nine years before Doc arrives in the past. The best information I can find is that several hundred barrels per day were produced in California around 1885.

So he probably could have easily ordered a single barrel of oil and had it shipped by train. Approximately 20 gallons of gasoline can be produced from a barrel of crude petroleum, and the DeLorean had a 13.5-gallon gas tank. In theory, you could distill gasoline from something akin to an alcohol still, but it might be dangerous and inefficient.

So, yes, that could be done, but it would take time; hijacking a train is much easier and makes for a better story.

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Kevin O’Keefe asks Gary as a teacher, I’m constantly struggling over AI. And I teach Second Grade where they’re not yet exposed to it. Yet in 20 years, they clearly will be living in a different world when it comes to learning. There’s so much that we can leverage using this powerful new tool in terms of learning and it being positive yet at the same time it could be a crutch with students and the public at large using it in a way that could erode our cognitive abilities. With all your research into learning for your book and without giving too much away, what do you see as the future of learning? ?

When AI systems first went public, no one was ready for it. Kids found them right away and used them to do their homework and to write papers, before their teachers knew what was happening. Many teachers have already adjusted for this by returning to in-class essays written in long hand and other means of evaluating students that are AI-proof.

Basically, like other tools, AI can be used to make us better or to make us worse.

Having AI write a paper for you is an example of making us worse. There is nothing that is gained by having AI do this work for you.

However, just like with treadmills or gym equipment, AI can make you stronger if you use it correctly. In fact, I think if used correctly, AI can be the greatest advance in human learning the world has ever seen.

Here is some of the research I’ve been doing for my book…

The question of what is the best way for people to learn has been well known for a while. In 1984, an educational researcher named Benjamin Bloom identified a system of learning that was a full two standard deviations better than regular classroom instruction. That is an astounding improvement. An average person using this method could perform at the 98th percentile of someone who received normal classroom instruction.

What is this magic method? Individual tutoring. Individual tutoring lets the student learn at their own pace, get all of their questions answered personally, and allows the instructor to teach for mastery, meaning you don’t move on until the student has mastered the subject. There are no Bs or Cs. This isn’t just after-school tutoring. This is full-time personalized instruction.

Various studies have produced different estimates of the benefits of individual instruction, but they all point in the same direction.

There is, of course, a problem with this that might jump out at you immediately. You can’t really scale individual tutoring for thousands or millions of people. Bloom called this the “sigma 2 problem.”

The first real tool we have that can solve the sigma 2 problem is AI. Right now, as I speak, some kids, the bright and curious ones, are figuring out that with AI, YouTube videos, and even podcasts, they can basically speedrun school. They can cover an entire semester-long course in just a few weeks.

If you don’t believe me, try this yourself. Go to your favorite AI program and tell it you want it to tutor you in something you know very little about. Ask it the dumbest questions you have that you might otherwise be embarrassed to ask someone. Ask it to explain it to you like you are 10 or 5 years old if necessary.

AI is now capable of passing the bar and medical board exams, and it is now solving unsolved problems in mathematics. In a recent panel of theoretical physicists, 100% of whom were using AI to assist them in their research.

The current system of schooling isn’t set up for this world.

However, there is a catch to this. You have to want to learn. If you have no desire to learn and are not curious, then all the technology in the world will not be able to help you. There are schools that are experimenting with this currently, and the results so far are extremely promising.

So my advice for a 2nd-grade teacher is to stoke their curiosity and make sure they have the basics of reading and writing. Then in a few years, give them the tools to really allow them to run with their desire to learn.

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Jerry Mellon asks Hey, Gary since you’ve traveled the world in the past. Is there a particular airport that was your favorite, and a particular type of aircraft you would rather fly on?

The best airport, without question, is Changi in Singapore. Vancouver also ranks high on my list.

The type of plane is secondary to the type of seat. A business class seat on any plane is better than an economy class seat on any plane.

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Landan Shay asks What is the most memorable or interesting conversation you’ve had with a stranger while travelling, never to see them again?

I have had many, many such conversations all over the world. Maybe the most memorable was the night I stayed up drinking vending-machine beer at a hostel in Tokyo with a rap group from Delaware who were there to perform.

Had we both not been there, I probably never would have met these guys otherwise.

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Joshua Felty asks Inspired by Memorial Day, have you or anyone in your family history ever served in the military? If so, any interesting stories?

I almost joined the Marines after high school to pay for college, but didn’t end up going that route. I went to the recruiter and got the highest score they had ever seen on the aptitude test, so I had that going for me.

My dad served in the Marines in Vietnam. My grandfather served in the Navy in World War II. My great-grandfather was in the army in WWI.

The best story would probably come from my great-uncle Bob, who served in the Army in the Pacific during WWII. He cut General MacArthur’s hair while in Papua New Guinea.

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Findaer on Discord asks, What is something that you’ve heard repeatedly is very difficult to understand but for you it comes rather easily? Conversely, what is something you’ve heard is really easy but you find it rather hard to understand?

The thing I’ve never had a problem with was nuclear physics, that being the mathematics and physics of the nucleus, isotopes, radioactive decay, etc. I took a graduate-level class when I was studying geology, and I aced the course. To me, it was much easier than something like organic chemistry, which is far more complicated.

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Maaky on Discord asks, Which book series do you feel is well overdue a film or tv series?

Now that the Dune movies have been released, I can’t say Dune anymore. However, Denis Villneau is going to stop after Dune 3 which covers Dune: Messiah and Children of Dune. However, every Dune fan would really like to see God Emperor of Dune, which takes place 6,000 years after the events of Dune.

Even if Denis Villeneuve doesn’t want to direct it, I hope he would at least produce it and give the world the same feel as the first films.

I’ll also put in an argument for a faithful adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. The Apple TV series really shares nothing other than the name at this point, and can’t even be called an adaptation.

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Richard Welsher asks Every time I travel I feel like I have forgotten to pack something. Forgetting about something like a visa or passport, have you ever gone somewhere and forgot “that thing” and then couldn’t get it where you went. For example, a razor or toothbrush and in the desert you couldn’t get either?

This wasn’t really too much of an issue for me because I was traveling full-time and had everything with me all the time. When I checked out from somewhere, I always did a basic check of the important things: wallet, passport, camera, computer, phone, etc.

One thing you quickly learn when traveling is that you can get almost anything you need when you are on the road.

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VladSander from Discord asks, Hey, Gary. Recently, there was a Meteor that reportedly exploded off the Massachusetts coast. Could it have been something similar to the Tunguska event?

No, it wasn’t nearly as big. It was a daytime fireball, which is quite rare, and it was notable for that reason, but it was nothing on the scale of the Tunguska Event, which was basically the power of a 10 to 15 megaton nuclear weapon.

It was probably closer or smaller to the Chelyabinsk meteor which landed in Russia in 2013. It broke windows and set off car alarms, but didn’t kill anyone, although there were a lot of minor injuries from the debris.

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The last question comes from sooner on Discord who asks Gary, can you see yourself in 5 years? If so, are you still doing this podcast or will you have turned the show over to another host and entered new opportunities?

Let me put it very bluntly: I got a really good thing going here. I’m able to research, write, and talk about whatever I want. It took a while to get the show off the ground, but now that it’s going, I have no plans on stopping.

I have no intention of having someone else host the show. Maybe if I were hospitalized or something and I physically couldn’t do it, I might get someone to step in temporarily, but the actual recording of the show is the easiest part of the entire process.

Now that I have some writers helping me, it has taken a load off my shoulders and made continuing the show much more sustainable. Editing an episode takes much less time than writing and researching a full episode from scratch.

I might expand what I’m doing. I’ve considered doing live shows or expanding into another show, but I see no reason to stop doing this. You have to do something.

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Kevin O’Keefe asks How is the book on learning coming along? What’s been the most difficult part of putting it all together? And have you had any lightbulb moments or any nuggets that you could share that would get us excited about the content in the book whenever you are able to finish it? Thanks, Gary!I’m making progress. Right now, I’m gathering data and doing research. I have a lot of ideas, and now I need to put them into some coherent form.

The biggest thing getting in the way of the book is, not surprisingly, having to do the podcast every day. I’m getting close to the point where I’ll start writing, but it is going to be a very rough process. I imagine it will take several iterations to get it to a point where I can publish it. The research on learning is actually remarkable. What makes it remarkable is the strength of the consensus about how effectively a single person can learn and what works. There are also many things happening on the cutting edge right now, which is why the research can be difficult.

I’m excited to be working on this, and I have absolutely no clue what the business case is for the book or if there is any at all, but that really isn’t my concern at the moment.

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Linda Rosholt Hash asks Do you have to buy the rights to broadcast the little clips from movies, songs, or commercials you sometimes have at the ends of episodes? Are there other intellectual property aspects you need to deal with? And for the other angle, how is the content of your podcasts protected?

Let me provide a brief explanation of copyright law.

In the United States, the Copyright Act of 1976 creates exemptions for what is called Fair Use.

Under fair use exemptions, you can use copyrighted material for several reasons. This includes criticism and commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, and parody. The other overriding principle is that you can’t hurt the business of the copyright owner. So you can do something that would discourage people from purchasing or using the original copyrighted material.

With that being said, and I know I’m biased, I think I’ve established a very strong track record over the course of almost six years of this being an educational podcast. No one is coming here to avoid purchasing other content.

I have a strong fair use case for the content I use. In fact, I think you could make the case that a podcast like this falls squarely within the legitimate fair use exemption.

That said, the fact that I can make a solid legal argument for fair use doesn’t mean someone couldn’t make my life a real pain.

Practically, movie studios don’t bother to pursue copyright claims unless someone is trying to copy, sell, or pirate entire movies. You’ve probably seen screenshots or very short video clips of movies that have been turned into memes.A movie clip is not a substitute for an entire movie. It would be extremely difficult to prove that playing a clip would somehow be taking money away from a studio.

The music industry, on the other hand, will literally check every podcast for the slightest bit of copyrighted content. They are notorious for filing claims for the slightest things, even when they don’t own the copyright.

This is a major problem on YouTube. Channels that explicitly do music education videos often receive strikes from record labels. Go check out Rick Beato’s videos on the subject.

So, if I use music on this show, which I don’t do that often, I’m almost always using music that is in the public domain. This is a pragmatic decision because of how difficult record labels are.

For example, in my episode on extremely large numbers, at the end, I played a short clip of the song “Barney Google,” recorded in 1923 and in the public domain.

As for my content, there isn’t much you can do beyond claiming a copyright. As with fair use, if someone were to use a clip from my show, I wouldn’t really care. I think that is fair use. However, I’ve had people who tried to copy the entire show wholesale, and that would be violation of copyright.

Ultimately, anything and everything you want to enforce comes down to the law and how much you want to spend trying to enforce it.

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Neil Garrett asks What’s the most important lesson you’ve ever learned in life?

The ability to adapt is more important than the ability to plan.

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Derrin Brown asks How likely is it for Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be adopted for longer haul transport?

The odds are very low. Hydrogen is not an energy source per se; it is a method of energy storage. To create hydrogen, you need to split water molecules, which itself requires energy.

There was a brief period several years ago when everyone was talking about hydrogen and the new hydrogen economy. That never happened. The fact is, hydrogen is dangerous and very difficult to work with. Creating an entire infrastructure around hydrogen would be very difficult and expensive.

We’ve already seen that batteries have been adopted at a much higher rate than hydrogen fuel cells. In fact, there really aren’t any hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the market today.

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terinjokes asks If my count is right, this is the 42nd Q&A, so I must ask: What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything everywhere daily?

The answer to life, the universe, and everything everywhere daily is to get out the next day’s episode.

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Swimming_ants What got you into podcasting, and have you ever thought about doing a monthly theme for episodes?

I’ve talked about the podcast’s origin several times in previous episodes, so I’m not going to repeat it here. As for doing monthly themes, that will never happen. The entire point of this show is to provide something different every day. If you aren’t interested in today’s topic, you might be interested in tomorrow’s.

My goal is to create an antidote to the content algorithms you experience online. Algorithms will feed you what you think you want to see based on your previous consumption.

This show is human-based serendipity, where you might hear something that you didn’t even know you didn’t know about.

So, there will be no month-long themes.

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Sylia Gray asks, ” Do you have plans to do an episode on Korean culture and history, like Hangul (Korean alphabet)? Or how about the Battle of Myeongyang (which was like Korea’s own Battle of Thermopylae, against Japan), which Korea won despite their massive numeric disadvantage thanks to their legendary admiral Yi Sun Shin?

The writers and I have a weekly meeting where we cover what episodes we will be writing over the next week.

One of the things I brought it was covering areas that have been undercovered in previous episodes, and one of the topics that suggested was Korea.

So the short answer is yes, we will have some more Korean-themed episodes coming up.

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BAM asks Is there anything on your list for possible future episodes that was an idea sparked by watching a Ken Burns PBS documentary?

I can’t say that I have ever done an episode based on a Ken Burns documentary. That being said, there have been many episodes that I’ve done that have shared topics with Ken Burns documentaries.

The biggest topic Ken Burns has done a series on that I want to cover in a future episode is the history of jazz.

I’ve tried to do an episode on jazz before, but I found the subject too vast. There isn’t just a single thing called jazz that I could narrow it down to.

I’m sure I’ll try to tackle the subject again in the future, or at least put some parameters around it to make it doable.

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Drew “Dr.C” Clinkenbeard asks If you could get an answer to one (or two) questions from any of your episodes, what would it be? in other words, what is one unsolved mystery you’d crack? (The Everest episode made me think about this)

The question I would be interested in resolving is the authorship of Shakespeare’s works.

I’ve read more on the subject since I recorded the episode, and it is shocking just how little evidence there is that the man from Stratford-on-Avon wrote the works that we attribute to him.

Almost everything we think we know about Shakespeare has no evidence to support it. Almost all of it is based on supposition.

This isn’t a conspiracy. There wasn’t anyone trying to cover up the truth.I think it is the greatest case of misattribution because someone used a pen name and wanted to keep their identity secret.

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Bananaman5000 asks What is your favorite hot springs? Love the podcast, keep it up :)My favorite hot springs are the Takhini Hot Springs, outside Whitehorse, Yukon. They are about a 30-minute drive outside Whitehorse and are especially great places to visit in the winter.A very honorable mention has to go to Hot Springs Island in the Haida Gwaii Islands off the coast of British Columbia. I say it gets an honorable mention because the hot spring was turned off after an earthquake in 2012.

I have heard reports that the hot water has started slowly trickling back, but I haven’t had it confirmed.

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Eric Dombrowsky asks Hey Gary, I know that ever since you started this podcast, you’ve been very focused on churning out a new episode each and every day (much appreciated by the way). However, I also understand you haven’t traveled much during this time. Do you ever miss the travel photography days when you were constantly traveling the globe and going to far-flung places? Do you have any international travel plans for the future, if so where?

I haven’t been out of the country since I started doing this podcast. Having to post a show every day has made traveling very difficult. That being said, I don’t miss it as much as most people think I do. It isn’t that I don’t like traveling, so much as I really got my fill from being on the road for so long.

I’ve traveled more by an order of magnitude than most people ever do in an entire lifetime. That doesn’t mean I’ll never travel again. I’m very certain that I will. It’s just that I don’t have some desperate yearning to fulfill my bucket list, as I’ve done most of that already. It is sort of like asking someone who was just at a buffet if they are hungry. Just because they are full at the moment doesn’t mean that they will never eat again.

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Let’s get right into things. The first question comes from Brian Dougherty, who asks, Since there are over 2000 episodes to be listened to in order to reach the completionist club, would you consider recognizing those of us that have listened to more than half of the episodes? I was thinking “Living on a Prayer “, since we are halfway there.

First, Brian, a correction. You do not have to listen to the episodes in order. You only need to listen to all of them.

I’ve been considering this for a while now. The completionist club will only become harder to join over time as more episodes are produced.

The completionist club will always be the pinnacle podcast listening achievement.

However, for those working on membership, there are several milestones that can be recognized along the way to completing it.

Every 500 episodes will have a status that will be recognized on the way to completionist club membership.

Those who listen to 500, 1000, and 1500 episodes will earn the corresponding 500, 1k, and 1.5k status.

Those who have achieved episode milestones will be eligible for limited amenities at local participating completionist club chapters. Terms and conditions may apply; contact your local completionist club concierge for details.

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Heike Caldwell. Have you ever met someone famous during your travels, and if so, were you surprised by how nice or not so nice that person was?

The only famous person I can say I met, and I use the term met loosely, was Anthony Bourdain. Just a few months before he died, his film crew was staying at the same hotel I was staying at in Lafayette, Louisiana, during Mardi Gras.

Every morning, he would be outside the main door of the hotel smoking a cigarette and texting with someone. He was there, waiting for his crew to pack up their van and head out to shoot for the day.

It did say hi to him, and he was very nice and gracious, but that was about the full extent of it.

I know a bunch of people who are podcasters and influencers, but I’m not sure if you’d call them celebrities.

That being said, I’m not really that big on celebrities and famous people. If I did meet someone, I almost certainly wouldn’t ask for a selfie.

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Tony Grubb asks If we could harvest an extinct animal for food for the world, what would be best? Dino burgers or Dodo chicken wings?

That is an easy question to answer because I actually did an episode on the subject. It would be the aurochs, the extinct ancestor of modern cattle, that our ancestors hunted.

The aurochs is basically just a bigger version of what we already have, so we have the infrastructure to use these animals today.

We don’t yet know how this would work. It might be that the aurochs can’t be domesticated in the same way that modern cattle can, and the entire project would be a failure.

That being said, I think it would be a lot easier than trying to raise dinosaurs….that and the whole Jurassic Park thing.

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Joshua Felty asks There’s a lot of movies coming out in theaters in 2026. Are you looking forward to any of them in particular?

Yes. Dune Part 3. Dune Parts 1 and 2 each covered one-half of the original Dune book. Dune Part 3 is going to cover two books: Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

The first two movies were fairly true to the books. By nature of covering two books with one movie, it will require more adaptation than the first movies did.

Denis Villeneuve has indicated that his involvement will be over with this film; however, a lot of people are wondering if someone might do God Emperor of Dune at some point in the future. Many people think that God Emperor is the best book outside of the original, and it wouldn’t require the same cast members, save for one.

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Steve Augustino asks Long-time Completionist Club member here. I continue to be fascinated by the 1000+ “future topics” list. Is it actually helpful in guiding new episodes? In my work, when I would compile “to do” lists, I always stopped at 12, figuring that others below that number were not important enough yet to pay attention to. Does this principle apply to your list as well? For example, is the fact that some topics have lingered on your list for a while perhaps evidence that they are just not worthy of an episode in this podcast?

The list currently has around 960 topics, and it ebbs and flows as episodes are recorded.

The purpose of the list is to keep track of items, so I don’t forget them. Ideas can come from anywhere. Articles I read, videos I watch, and movies I see are all fair game for ideas.

If I come up with an idea that is even remotely viable as an episode, I put it down. I don’t worry about if or when I’ll end up using it; I just write it down.

That said, you are correct that not everything on the list will make it into an episode. Sometimes, after further review, it just doesn’t seem like it will make a good episode. Other times, it might just wind up being mentioned in another episode about a broader subject.

There is also a recency bias. I’m far more likely to do an episode on an idea I just came up with, just because it happens to be top of mind.

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Mands on the Discord Server asks, Hello Gary, I have finally completed and listened to all of your episodes.. I came across it by accident one day on my commute to work, and now it’s my daily visit. I do have a question though.. have you ever visited Cape Town, South Africa, and what are your thoughts on it?

Yes, I’ve been to Cape Town several times, and I have spent a fair amount of time there. I had to go to Cape Town to take a ship to the island of St. Helena, and I had to board a ship to sail up the west coast of Africa.

Cape Town is a great city. It is arguable the best city in Africa, and the city it reminds me most of in terms of climate is San Francisco.

That being said, I’m also partial to Durban and Swakopmund in Namibia.

Cape Town and the whole Cape Region are definitely worthy of a future episode because it is so unique culturally, geographically, and even botanically.

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Crystal D asks, Hello Gary, do you generally have a schedule of when you want to publish shows? Will current events, holidays or anniversaries prompt you to adjust the schedule of a topic? Thank you and keep up the amazing work!

I don’t usually time episodes with events or anniversaries. I’ve already covered the major holidays and probably won’t be revisiting most of those unless there is a unique take on the story.

I also don’t want to get stuck in the “This Day in History” format. I want the flexibility to record an episode whenever I want.

That isn’t to say I’ll never do it, but I don’t usually. The only date I have something planned for going forward is July 1, and to give you a hint, it isn’t about Canada Day.

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Alien_potato asks, Hello, Gary! Big fan of the podcast! When you travel abroad, do you just go around using English, or do you make the effort to learn some words in their language to make communication easier? And if you do, do you use language learning apps/programs or have another person to teach you?

The dirty secret is that you can pretty much travel around the world using English. English is the international language of travel and tourism. That being said, you should at least try to learn the basic words for hello, please, thank you, excuse me, and goodbye.

To learn basic phrases, you don’t need to use an app or buy a book. Just a simple online search will get you the basic words and phrases you need.

Learning the phrases isn’t a matter of needing them to function; it is just a way to show the local people you interact with that you respect their language and are making some sort of effort.

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Fat Yankee asks, It’s seems most of my history podcasts either have recently done or are planning to do live episodes or performances. You’ve been there and done that. Do you have any further plans to take the show on the road? Also, what role do you see live episodes and live one-off performances having in history podcasts or podcasting in general?

I’ve considered it, and I’ve been considering it more.

Now that I have some help, I have more flexibility in my schedule. Also, when I had the anniversary party, I wanted to see how many people would come to the middle of Wisconsin to gauge how well a live event would go over.

I was pleased with the turnout and how far people were willing to travel, so I’m open to doing something in a larger city where people wouldn’t have to travel.

My show doesn’t really lend itself to doing a live performance. I have done it, and there are two live shows that can be found in the feed, but they are only about 15 minutes long.I would need to come up with some sort of format to keep everyone entertained for a longer period of time. Because I don’t have a co-host, I can’t really just talk about history on a stage. At the anniversary party, I spent about two hours answering questions and sharing photos and stories from my travels.

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BSxNÄZT aka Nate asks How’s your Latin coming along? Is there another language that you’ve jumped into learning? I’ve recently started learning Russian. Nathan from Cairns, Queensland.

I do a little bit of Latin on Duolingo every day. That said, I’ve come to the conclusion that, unless they make major changes, Duolingo is a horrible platform for learning Latin. It isn’t nearly as developed as their courses for other languages.

What I need to do is set aside about an hour every day to start going through the Lingua Latina per se Illustrata books again.

These books are like children’s books that have become the most popular way to teach Latin. There are no translations in the books. They start with the simple phrase “Roma in Italia est,” and you go from there, learning vocabulary and grammar as you go.

There are other online resources out there for learning Latin, and I am playing around with some of them as well.

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BAM asks, Is there a specific reason that you never say your own name Gary Arndt in the credits at the end of every episode?

Yes. My name is on the show. If you look at any podcast app, my name is clearly listed as the publisher. It just seems like it would be repetitive to say my name in every single episode.

There are a lot of podcasts in this space that do the exact same thing. I only think it is necessary to give credit if someone else is providing assistance for an episode.

Even if I’m not listed as the writer, I’m still involved in editing every show. Sometimes the edits can be extensive, and sometimes I don’t need to edit much at all.

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Our last question comes from VladSander, who asks Hello Gary, Greetings from Binghamton, home of the Twilight Zone. My question is thus: How much knowledge do you think was lost during the burning of the Library at Alexandria?

The short answer is that it was a significant loss, but the popular version is exaggerated.

The common story is that humanity lost an enormous chunk of its ancient knowledge in a single fire.

That’s not how it worked. There was no single “apocalypse” event that wiped everything out at once. Ancient texts were copied and circulated across the Mediterranean, and copies existed in Other libraries, such as those in Pergamon and Rome.

Undoubtedly, some texts that didn’t exist anywhere else were probably lost, but not nearly as many as most people think. The policy in Alexandria was that any text brought into the city was confiscated for copying. The unique texts were probably those created by scholars in Alexandria.

The amount of surviving ancient texts is probably 1% or less. This is not due to the fire in Alexandria, but rather because papyrus or parchment doesn’t age well because it is organic.

I touched upon this in my episode on the Herculeum scrolls. There are texts we know of because they were referenced in surviving works, but we have no copies of them.

All of the texts we have from ancient Rome, for example, can fit on a single bookcase. Everything else created over the course of centuries has been lost.

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Let’s start with the first question, which comes from Dave Hudson on Patreon, because membership has its privileges. He asks,

Hi Gary, long-time member of the completionist club, I love this show. Thanks so much for my daily dose of great knowledge! My question is – are there any alternatives to the format of college debate? I remember seeing a story about it (I think it was 60 Minutes), and I was shocked at the speed. I understand the concept that it is about the number of points the debater can make. My question is, are there any other debate societies in college or beyond that focus more on a measured approach that scores based on the quality of the argument as opposed to the quantity?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, academic debate at its highest level is a very fast-paced activity. For most of my debate career, in both high school and college, I was first affirmative and second negative. The first affirmative constructive, the first speech in a debate round, is the easiest as it is scripted. The first affirmative rebuttal is usually considered the hardest speech in a debate round, as you are responding to 12 to 15 minutes of arguments in just 4 or 5.

As such, you have to talk very fast. Likewise, knowing their advantage, the negatives might try to speak quickly and put forward many arguments to cause problems for the first affirmative.

So, that was me. Like everyone else, I had to learn to speak very, very quickly, at a rate that most people probably couldn’t comprehend unless they were trained to listen at those rates.

My college debate coach was Scott Nobles, who was the very first National Debate Tournament champion in 1947. When I was debating in the late 80s and early 90s, I asked him how this style of debate developed, as he had been around for the entire history of the activity by then.

He said it started in the late 1960s. The team most notable for the style, known as spreading, was a team from the University of Houston, known as the “men in black” because they always dressed in black. So, this style has been around for over half a century.

Needless to say, not everyone liked this. In the 1980s, an attempt was made to create an alternative form of debate called Lincoln-Douglas Debate or LD, in high school. It was one person instead of two people, and the intent was for debaters to talk more slowly.

However, LD soon fell into the same habits as two person debate, known as policy debate.

In the early 2000s, another form of debate, called public forum debate, was developed. Public forum was similar in structure to policy debate, except that the speeches were shorter, the topics changed more frequently, and, most importantly, the debate rounds were judged by lay people from outside the activity, not by professionals within it.

As such, it remains much slower-paced.

In college there is a format called parliamentary debate, which is more akin to public forum, and it has been around a while.

That being said, the speed at which debaters talk is not a reflection of the quality of their arguments. It is still usually the quality of an argument that will win.

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Niels from the Discord server asks, In team sports, there’s a lot of special positions, knuckleball pitcher, long snapper, place kicker, etc. What is your favorite niche position and why? Seeing I’m from Denmark, the place kicker in football holds a high place in my heart. Thank you for a great podcast. I was delighted to hear your episode on the evacuation of the Danish Jews during World War II. Regards from elite platinum status member Niels from Aalborg, Denmark

It has to be the long snapper, because it is such a waste of a roster spot on a football team. While you certainly want someone who can long snap, it is a skill that could and should easily be developed by anyone who plays the position of center. It is a single movement that can be practiced over and over at any time. It doesn’t require any special physical attributes that the center wouldn’t already have. If you can develop the skill, it just makes you that much more valuable to any team.

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Kevin O’Keefe from the Facebook groups asks, Gary, How do you use AI in your research now, and how do you know if your sources are accurate? Just very curious how you evaluate all the information you’re getting from the internet in terms of what sources are more accurate than others?

There were many AI-related questions, and I’ll try to address them all here. As most of you know, I use AI to create the cover art for many episodes. This is because certain topics don’t have any images available, or the topics are so broad that it is difficult to find an image to represent them.

I’ve had people complain about this and have said that I should hire humans to create it. That will never happened. I’ve worked with many graphic designers in my life, and the process of getting custom artwork would take days at a minimum, if not weeks, and cost at least hundreds of dollars per image.

Both the budget and time constraints render that impossible for this show. If I couldn’t use AI images, I just wouldn’t use cover art for episodes.

I use AI as tool to understand things better. I use it as a tutor, a topic I’ll be addressing in my book, which I am working on.

For example, I’ve been working on an episode about quantum computers. Before I do the quantum computing episode, I feel that, on a scale of 1 to 10, I have to understand it at a 6 or 7 level to do an episode that explains it at a 4 or 5 level.

The beauty of using AI is that you can ask it questions about anything you don’t understand. No question is too dumb.

I’ve also used it to solve things I couldn’t find. I could swear I once read a quote by President James Monroe about the ‘tyranny of space’, that being the vast overland distances in the United States were a huge problem. I asked an AI agent where the quote came from, and it couldn’t confirm it. It was probably just my imagination and the Mandela Effect.

Likewise, I had an episode idea about the five laws of stupidity, which I had read were attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Again, no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find a source. When I asked an AI agent, it told me that it wasn’t Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it was actually the Italian economist Carlo Cipolla. Mystery solved.

I’ve had some weird comments over the last month, in which people have accused me of using an AI voice to create the podcast. Those of you in the completionist club who remember me recording episodes while I was almost hoarse from a bad cold might chuckle. But it has gotten to the point where anything posted online can be accused of being generated by AI, and I’m not sure how you can prove a negative.

I’ve used Grammarly for over ten years and have used it on every episode since episode one. It was just software that was a glorified spelling and grammar checker, but now they claim it is powered by AI. I don’t know how much of what it does is actually AI or if it is just marketing.

I’m also working on an episode about artificial intelligence, but it is such a rapidly changing field its hard to pin down. I’m looking at installing an AI agent called Open Klau on one of my spare computers just to play around with it. I’ve found the best way to learn things is usually just to jump in with both feet.

As to the biggest question you asked, how do you verify a source, this is actually an issue that has existed for thousands of years. Myself, Joel, and Olivia have all encountered the same problem that different sources will often give different dates or names for the same event. Usually, the difference is only a few years apart, say 1842 or 1844. Rather than spending hours trying to pin down the correct date, the simpler solution for the purpose of script writing is usually to just say “early 1840s.”There are many historical sources, often primary sources, that differ in their accounts of basic facts. Basically, you just try to look for consensus. It is an issue that is actually further up the food chain from AI and existed well before it.

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Oleg Ulogov asks Why doesn’t the USA have a standard national ID? Is the fact that your identity is not documented consistently anywhere a source of all kinds of problems? If two people with the same name are born on the same day or die on the same day, how do you know who is who?

This is an easy one to answer. The first is that the United States is a union of states. Each state has its own sovereignty to handle its own affairs, such as driver’s licenses.

Second, everyone in the US has a unique identifier in the form of a Social Security number. Also, passports are federal documents that are universally accepted as identification.

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Shana Hallam asks Gary… My husband and I have enjoyed your podcast since the beginning. Thanks so much for enlightening us to the world around us. As many have asked you about the possibility of writing a book about your podcast, I wanted to know what it takes to write a book, get it published, and be on the New York Times bestseller list.

Book publishing has sort of become a ridiculous industry. More and more people are bypassing publishers. Publishers are incredibly slow, do a horrible job of picking what books will be popular, and don’t even do much in terms of promotion. The author has to do most of the work.

The number of sales to make it on the NYT bestseller list is shockingly low. As few as 5,000 sales can be enough for a non-fiction book to make the list. As such, many authors have cooked up all sorts of schemes to get on the list, including buying their own book or using a book as a way to launder bribes.

I really don’t want to shop my book around and go through the process. Throughout my life, I have consistently struggled with systems that rely on gatekeepers, so my inclination is to just publish it independently.

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MrBillMcBill on Discord asks As an American who is going to start traveling abroad soon, what can I do to avoid the negative stereotypes of American tourists? I’m afraid of being seen as just another annoying American to be dealt with, and if I’m perceived that way, I think it will prevent me from fully experiencing the culture of the place and people. Any tips?

I’ve never had a problem. Almost everyone understands the distinction between people and governments. The further you get away from the US, the less of a problem the negative stereotype becomes. Australians have a negative stereotype in Bali, and the English do in parts of Spain. Whenever a place gets a lot of tourists from one particular place, that place that sends the tourists will get a bad reputation.

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Erick Flores on Facebook asks, Hi from Mexico! Now, with the help of ‘The’ Olivia Ashe and Joel Hermanson, what are the odds of getting a double or even a triple episode every now and then?

Erick, that is never going to happen. I do appreciate you wanting more content, but if I had that much bandwidth, I’d just work ahead so I could actually take a proper vacation, or I’d produce special content for Patreon.

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Joshua Felty on Facebook, who asks, What do you think of the upcoming Artemis missions? And how do you think they’ll compare to SpaceX and other private space companies?

I did a full episode on the Artemis program back in August of 2022.

If/when Artemis missions actually launch, it will get a lot of attention on the news, and it will be pretty cool if they can make it back to the moon, or even orbit it like Apollo 8.

However, the entire program is a one-off. Like the Apollo Program, it is using incredibly expensive disposable rockets, and it isn’t creating anything that can be built upon in the long term.

The Artemis Program is the last disposable rocket program in history. It makes no financial sense and isn’t sustainable for long-term programs. The problem is, Starship isn’t ready for prime time quite yet, so we might be a few years away before we can really make long-term progress on establishing a presence on the moon.

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The final question comes from Bananaman on Discord, who asks, I heard you say you really love the Dune series in a previous episode. Do you have a favorite movie, game, or book? Personally i really like Dune: Awakening. Also, I love the podcast, keep it up.

That is correct. I’ve read all the books, including all the prequels and sequels, and I’ve read the core books multiple times. I own all the movies and both Sci-Fi channel miniseries on disc. I even recently got the collector’s edition of the David Lynch version from the 1980s.I have never played any Dune video games, so I can’t really speak to them.I might do an episode someday about Dune, and maybe one on the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the book and the movie.

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Let’s start off with Deborah Wales from Patreon, who asks, What cuisine in all the kinds you’ve tasted in your travels is your favorite?

That is an easy one as I’ver literally written an article on the subject on my website. My favorite would be Japanese food, followed by Spanish and Argentine.

Almost everything in Japan is good, including random foods you can find at food stands or even convenience stores.

It is almost erroneous to say Spain has a single cuisine, as it has many regional cuisines, but Spaniards take food very seriously.

As for Argentina, I just love Argentine asado, which is basically just a barbecue.

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Thomas Nicolaysen from Patreon asks, “Space travel seems to be on a trajectory toward becoming safer and more affordable.” If you could take a 24-hour trip into low Earth orbit for the cost of a first-class trans-Atlantic flight, would you go?

Assuming the cost of flying to space were the same as a trans-Atlantic flight, I’m assuming that the level of safety would be about the same as well. If that were the case, then, yeah, I’d do it. Why not? I think weightlessness would be an interesting thing to experience, and you’d get a pair of astronaut wings.

That being said, I’m not sure that we will ever get to that point in our lifetime. The cost of reaching orbit has dropped dramatically over the last 20 years, and it looks as if it will continue to drop for the foreseeable future.

However, there will always be an issue with energy. Getting to orbit will always require more energy than a long-haul flight. Likewise, entering the Earth’s atmosphere from orbit is always going to be difficult.

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Green Nolan from Patreon asks Have you ever been caught in a natural disaster while traveling?

Not really. I was in Maui when the tsunami that hit the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 crossed the Pacific. There was a lot of concern at the time about a tsunami hitting Hawaii, but nothing major ended up happening.I’ve never been in a hurricane. I’ve only experienced minor earthquakes. Enough to feel the earth move, but not enough to do damage. I’ve experienced some very bad thunderstorms and have been close to a tornado, but that wasn’t while I was traveling. That was just something that happened at home.

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OctoberSky on Discord asks a similar question: What is the coolest temperature you have experienced? Was it in Antarctica? The coldest temperature I’ve ever experienced was not in Antarctica, and it’s not even close.

A few things to understand about Antarctica….. While it is true that the coldest temperatures on Earth have been recorded in Antarctica, those temperatures were recorded far inland, away from the coast, and during the summer hemisphere winter. Moreover, these locations in inland Antarctica are at very high elevations. The vast majority of tourists who visit Antarctica visit the Antarctic Peninsula, which lies mostly north of the Antarctic Circle and near the sea, and must do so during the summer. So, the temperatures in Antarctica really aren’t that bad if you visit. For example, the temperatures around me the last two weeks have been MUCH colder than they have been on the Antarctic Peninsula. As I’m recording this episode, the temperature at Port Lockroy, the British research base, is 33°F, while it’s 12°F here. When I was in Antarctica, I would go out on the deck of the ship just wearing a sweater. The temperatures weren’t bad.

The coldest I’ve ever experienced was in Whitehorse, Yukon, in the middle of the winter when the temperatures dipped to about -50F or -45C.

In 1996, it also dipped down to around -40F in the Twin Cities, which I remember because I made the bad decision to walk several blocks to a Target.

When things get that cold, you really shouldn’t even go outside, as the air can damage your lungs.

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Findaer on Discord asks, If you were teleported back in time to the year 1CE in Rome and magically had the ability to speak the language, and also not be killed immediately as an outsider, what is something you could ‘invent’ for the people of that age from the modern era?

After giving this some thought, the simplest thing you could do is to bring back the germ theory of disease.

This doesn’t require building or inventing anything. If you can transmit the idea that germs exist, then you can dramatically improve life expectancies. Get people to wash their hands, sterilize medical instruments, cook food properly, wash food-preparation areas and utensils, and boil water. Disease and infection were one of the biggest health issues in the ancient world, and this knowledge would make an enormous difference.

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Geronimo Ritcheson on Facebook asks, Will there ever be a point at which you might consider ending this podcast, or would you have a designated successor take over the podcast? I don’t mean to sound morbid, but this question has been burning in the back of my mind for over a month now. Keep up the good work! Well, all things do come to an end eventually. That being said, I have no plans to end the show. I have over a thousand show ideas, which will keep me busy for years at a minimum, and I’ll probably come up with hundreds more. That being said, there is no succession plan. While the show has done well, I don’t think I’m at the point to worry about that.

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violettt414 on Discord asks Any predictions on third places that’ll start to evaporate? (like how movie theaters are getting beaten out by at-home streaming)You are definitely right about movie theaters. TV sets are getting bigger, cheaper, and better. It is actually quite shocking how good and cheap they are getting. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a sizable film collection on disc, and physical media has been gaining popularity, even though it remains a pursuit of a minority of people. Movie theaters are not the only type of establishment that has seen decreased business. Alcohol consumption has been decreasing, and restaurant spending has also gone down. Spending on food delivery has gone up.

Participation in all sorts of organizations has been decreasing. Malls have been in decline for decades now. So, as far as I’ve seen, there has been an across-the-board decrease in almost everything. This is due to a combination of economics, demographics, and technology.

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AllzweckAffe on Discord asks How does it feel, now after 2000 episodes where you did all the writing for the episodes yourself, that you now have a ‘staff’ of co-authors that take over some topics?

Honestly, it has made the podcast much more sustainable. Doing the research, writing, and recording of a podcast every single day for five years, even taking the occasional day off, wasn’t easy. Getting help has allowed me to get a show out the door every day and work on other projects as well. As many of you have notice number of encore episodes has dropped dramatically over the last few months. Over the last two months, I moved into a new place and have been taking things out of storage that I originally put there 19 years ago when I began traveling. The extra help has made that possible.

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Brian Evans on Facebook asks How did you come up with the name of the show? I know originally it was going to be a longer format, but were there any other names considered? Also, just asking for your blessing to start a competing podcast called “Nothing Nowhere Never.”

So, for the record, I came up with the name well before the movie came out. I also had the name well before I launched this podcast.

When I decided to travel around the world, having a website for my travels was a natural next step. I thought about what to call the website and eventually settled on “Everything Everywhere”. This was back in 2006.

It was an incredibly broad name, so when I pivoted to launch a podcast, I was able to keep the same name because it was generic enough to work for both a travel blog and a podcast. So, 2026 will be the 20th year I’ve been using the Everything-Everywhere.com domain name.

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Archibald Canfield on Facebook asks How do you feel about Wikipedia? Do you make changes if you see something not accurate?

Wikipedia is actually not bad for technical subjects. It is horrible for controversial subjects. That being said, it isn’t hard to find discrepancies on Wikipedia.

When I’ve found these discrepancies, it is almost never worth editing Wikipedia. Despite what they claim, not everyone can edit anything, at least not make a permanent edit. There is a relatively small team of editors and regular writers at Wikipedia who control what gets published. Long story short, I don’t find it worth the time and effort to make changes. Michelle Jaques on Facebook asks What is the piece of art that you have seen that really stuck with you?

My favorite sculpture is the Pieta by Michaelangelo which is in St Peter’s Basilica. In terms of more recent art, I’m a big fan of the late sculptor Frederick Hart. He created the sculpture at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (the statue, not the wall) and is also known for his work Ex Nihilo at the Washington National Cathedral. He was also a pioneer in working with acrylic sculptures. His acrylic work is gorgeous, and it is relatively affordable for fine art. He was considered to be a member of the arrière-garde movement, which was the opposite of the avant-garde.

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Joshua Felty on Facebook asks, Hi Gary, we’ve now been introduced to two writers who have done research and scripts for you. Olivia Ashe and now Joel Hermansen. Have either of them expressed any interest in hosting an episode? If not, would you consider letting them or anyone else fill in for you? They have never expressed any interest in hosting the show, and that probably wouldn’t happen. The main issue concerns recording and editing. I’m the one who has to edit and upload the final audio file.

Given my current workflow, I can record and edit almost simultaneously, which makes it very easy get an episode out the door. For a daily podcast, the ability to efficiently produce the show is vital.

If someone else is recording, it would slow down the process. Editing would take longer, the recording would sound different, and sending files back and forth would take time. That said, I might consider a guest host on a one-off basis in the future if the circumstances are right. However, it isn’t something I’d do on a regular basis.

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The last question comes from Brian Grant on Facebook, who asks, I’ve seen some of your photographs that you done over the years in different countries (which are outstanding!), but have you ever done astro photography?

As anyone who does astrophotography would define it, I have not done any astrophotography. This has to do with the specialized equipment necessary.

You need a telescope, a motor to compensate for Earth’s rotation, and a custom digital CCD camera that works with the telescope.

I have a telescope that I purchased before I started traveling, but the motor doesn’t work, and I would need to get it fixed.

That being said, I have taken many photos of the night sky. It is possible to capture the Milky Way without too much difficulty with a wide-angle lens. You just can’t leave the shutter open for longer than, say, 20-30 seconds before the stars start to streakI also took a photo of the full moon rising over the Rocky Mountains with a 600 mm lens. I had an app that told me exactly when and where on the horizon the moon would appear, so I was ready at the right place and time.I’ve also done photos of the northern lights and solar eclipses.

While these are images of the sky, I don’t consider it astophotography. You can’t take an image of a planet or a galaxy with normal camera equipment.

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The first question comes from Dianna Meade on Patreon. She asks, I have loved your look-backs on the past centuries, and these will end after episode 2025. Will there be anything like this in the future?

I have received many different questions this month, all asking basically the same thing, and I’ll use Dianna’s question because she is a Patron supporter.

Membership has its privileges.

The answer is, yes, I am planning something; however, the current series is going to end in 2025 because that is, for all practical purposes, the present.I am not going to predict what the world will be like in 2050 because that would just be making stuff up, and I have no clue how to predict the future. That being said, I started the current series on episode 1500, and there is a lot of history that happened before that, so there will be episodes covering earlier eras. You will just have to stay tuned.

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Max S from the Discord server asks, Is Spain the only country to have reached out about ads? I always appreciate those episodes as they help build my knowledge about a specific topic. How did that relationship come to be? Is there a country that you’re surprised to have listeners from?

Every advertiser whose ad I read has reached out in some way. However, the relationship with Spain is special. They were the very first advertiser for the show. In fact, they reached out to me very early on in the show to ask how we could work together. My relationship with Spain goes back to 2010. I had been traveling around the world for 3 years and had grown my travel blog to a pretty good size at the time. A representative from the Valencia Tourism board, shout out to Joantxo if you are listening, reached out to me and asked if I would speak at a conference they were holding on tourism and the internet. It was the first time anyone in the tourism industry, anywhere in the world, reached out to me.

Since then, I’ve returned to Spain many, many times. Despite all my contacts in the travel and tourism industry, Spain has been the only destination that has truly grasped the power of podcasting.

As far as a country I’m surprised to have listeners from, that would have to be Eritrea.

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Kelli Kerns Brockington from the Facebook group asks, How do you keep your voice & throat healthy while talking up to 20 – 25 min per episode?

Very easy. I don’t talk for most of the day. It isn’t that I’m trying to protect my voice, its just that I live alone and I’m not talking to anyone most of the time. I will literally go some days without seeing another human and just be working on the next show.

Someone like a teacher who is in front of people talking all day would have far greater issues with their voice than I ever would.

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Barb Grass-Miller from the Facebook group asks, Is there a destination in the U.S. that you haven’t visited but you’ve always wanted to go?

There are many places I haven’t been, but at the top of my list are the remaining national parks I haven’t visited.

I’ve visited the vast majority of US national parks, and I was set to finish visiting them back in 2020, but the pandemic changed that. The remaining parks I have yet to visit are the US Virgin Islands National Park, Big Bend National Park in Texas, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Channel Islands in California, and New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia.

None of these parks is particularly challenging to visit; I just haven’t gotten around to them yet. Thankfully, I’ve already been to the most difficult-to-visit parks in Alaska and American Samoa.

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Deborah Wales on Patreon asks, Which city do you prefer and why: Amsterdam, Paris, or Munich?I have to take Munich off the list because I haven’t really spent any time there. I just drove through it while on a trip visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites in Bavaria. Amsterdam is a much more comfortable place to visit as an English speaker. You can get around Amsterdam, and most of the Netherlands, for that matter, just fine using English. Paris requires a bit more work, not a lot, but there is more to see and explore, I think. If I were to create a list of things I haven’t seen in both cities, my Paris list is probably longer, even though I’ve been to Paris more times than I’ve been to Amsterdam.

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Henry Suski from Patreon asks, How much time did you spend with expats or western tourists (from Aus, NZ, Europe, North America) while traveling? The dirty secret of traveling is that you are going to meet more travelers than locals. If you think about it, this is actually to be expected.

If you are staying at a hotel, a guest house, or a hostel, you are going to interact with other tourists. When you visit tourist sites, it is going to be other tourists who are there.

Depending on where you are traveling, there might be a language issue. Locals who work in a tourist-facing business will see an endless stream of visitors coming and going.

I actually stayed at a hostel once in Minneapolis, which I where I lived for years before I started traveling, and while I was there I mostly interacted with foreign tourists who were staying there…just because they happened to be there.

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Alan Massaro on Facebook asks, What is your Favorite historically based film and one you wish they would make?

That is an easy question. The greatest historical movie, and my favorite movie of all time, is Lawrence of Arabia.

Oddly enough, despite my love of the movie and my several visits to Wadi Rum in Jordan, I have yet to do an episode on either TE Lawrence or the Great Arab Revolt.

A great historical movie doesn’t necessarily mean it was accurate. There is always dramatic license taken when adapting history for the screen. Other favorites of mine include:

Patton

A Man for All Seasons

Cleopatra

A Bridge Too Far

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

The Last Valley

Kingdom of Heaven (the Director’s Cut)

As far as what I would like to see, I think a film on the Battle of Alesia would be really interesting.

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Matt Moehring from the Facebook group asks, Was there any legal wrangling when the movie ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ was released?

Nope. I have been using Everything Everywhere since 2006, the year I registered the Everything-Everywhere.com domain name. Back in 2010, T-Mobile and Orange Mobile in the UK merged, and their new name was Everything Everywhere. They actually reached out to me because I think they were more worried about me than I was about them. In the end, they were in a different business and a different country, so there were no real issues with the name. The same is true of the movie. If anything, more people have discovered the website and the podcast accidentally in the process of searching for the other brands, so I’d say if anything it was a very small net positive.

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Chris Delloiacono on Facebook asks, What is the most extreme or daring adventure or stunt you did during your travels?

I wouldn’t call it a stunt per se, but I did go bungee jumping twice in New Zealand. I did a jump in Queenstown and once off the Auckland Harbor Bridge.I haven’t been skydiving, and I have no desire to do so.I’ve been in the water with great white sharks in South Africa, but I was in a cage, and it sounds far more dangerous than it actually was.

I’m not sure I can say I’ve really done anything else I’d call extreme. I’ve done a lot of fun things, but I’m really not an adrenaline junkie.

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Tracy Swanson Romig on Facebook asks, You have traveled so much but now you stay home to work on this wonderful podcast. Have you ever thought about a pet? If so, what kind would you want?

Unfortunately, the building I live in doesn’t allow cats or dogs. The closest I’ve ever come to pets was a huge 175 gallon saltwater coral reef aquarium I had before I started traveling. It was beautiful and really stood out, but it was also a lot of work.I’ve considered getting a nano reef aquarium, something around 20 gallons or smaller, but haven’t made it a priority.

Currently, the only thing I have are houseplants.

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Daniel Thomaschek asks Do you have a favorite metal band to listen to?

I would not say that I’m a heavy metal fan per se. I listened to Metallica and Black Sabbath in high school, but I actually listened to Black Sabbath coming from a blues direction, not a metal direction.

There are two bands I have a soft spot for, and again, I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of them per se.

The first is Rhapsody of Fire. Wikipedia calls them an Italian symphonic power metal band.

I discovered them in the weirdest way possible. Sometime, about 20 years ago, I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. When I woke up, I don’t even remember the channel it was on, I remember seeing a flaming skull on the screen.

It was a music video that also had Christopher Lee in it, who played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings movies. The song was Unholy Warcry, and the Band was Rhapsody, now known as Rhapsody of Fire due to a trademark conflict.

The other band is the Japanese band Baby Metal. It is a cross between a cutsie Japanese Kawaii band and heavy metal. It sounds ridiculous at first, but it actually works.

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Markus Brütsch asks , Gary, when you set out to travel the world (like a high-class bum ? ), what logic did you use for your destination countries and places? Alphabetical? Bucketlist? Ranking World Heritage ranking? Throw of a dice? Thank you for your good work! When I first started, my plan was pretty simple. I went west. I crossed the Pacific Ocean and jumped from island to island as best I could. I never really planned more than a week or two ahead of time.

It took me most of 2007 to cross the Pacific. When I got to South Korea I began going south until I got to Australia.

After a few years, my travels became more opportunistic. I’d go places where I was invited, or I’d manage to go somewhere for a conference and then take side trips in the region.

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The final question comes from Richard Short who asks When did North American people begin to speak in a distinctly North American accent. In other words, Gary, when did your voice, that we all know and love, historically evolve into how we hear you now.

Basically, the evolution of the North American English accent began almost immediately once people arrived and were separated from England.

I should note that there isn’t one single accent. There are multiple accents that can be found across the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. That being said, for the most part, there has been less diversity in accents in North America than there has been in the UK, where towns just 20 miles apart might speak with very different accents.

Many of the North American accent features are actually elements of 17th and 18th-century accents from England, which died out over there, but remained here. In particular, the pronunciation of the letter ‘r’.

This is probably a subject for a full episode, but there are some places, like Smith Island, Maryland, which speak an accent that is considered to be the closest accent to what might have been spoken in Elizabethan England.

This is not just an English thing. Once populations are separated, changes start to occur. That is why French spoken in Quebec is spoken with a very different accent from French spoken in France, and why there are so many different Spanish accents in the Americas.

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Let’s get started. Alan Massaro on Facebook asks Gary, You have to pronounce many foreign names and places. What do you do to make sure you’re getting them right? Love the show!

Alan, you get a special sticker on your homework because this is the one question I have been waiting for someone to ask.

This is actually one of the most difficult things I do, and it is something that I have to go through at least once per episode, if not multiple times.

So, for starters, I’m not sure I always get it right. That being said, I do try very hard to get it right, at least as well as I can, given that I speak English. If the word comes from a very common language, such as Arabic, Spanish, or Chinese, the simplest and easiest thing to do is to put the word in Google Translate and let it pronounce it. I’ll also usually see what it sounds like in English. Google Translate is not always correct. The next option, if available, is to check the IPA pronunciation. IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet, and you might have seen this at the beginning of some Wikipedia entries. If the article has the IPA pronunciation, I can cut and paste it and put it into a site called IPA-reader.com. If Google Translate and the IPA pronunciation agree, then I’ll usually go with that.

However, sometimes, there is no IPA pronunciation available. In those cases, I’ll try to find another source. This will often mean finding a YouTube video where someone uses the word.

Some online dictionaries provide pronunciations as well.

Where it really gets confusing is that sometimes there are different pronunciations floating around.I think I’ve gotten better at it over time, but even if I can get the correct pronunciation, I still have to actually say it, which is often the sticking point because some sounds are just hard to say in some languages. In such cases, I just sort of do the best I can.

The point is, there is a lot more that goes into getting a correct pronunciation than most people realize. There have been rare cases where I have spent the better part of an hour trying to find someone saying a word

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Thomas Nicolaysen on Patreon asks, With the holiday season upon us, I was wondering about gifts. What is a meaningful or useful gift you have received? Maybe something that you use when you travel, do photography, or record your podcasts?

Generally, I don’t like technical gifts. This is mainly because if I need something for photography or podcasting, I want something very specific, and unless you happen to know a lot about those subjects, and most people I know don’t, then you aren’t going to get the right thing.I usually get stuff like clothing or household items because I usually forget to buy that sort of stuff for myself.

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Jordan from the Discord server asks, I have an inside baseball question; do you record different ads for different localities? For example, are there ad reads you do for ads that will only air for listeners in the US, and others only for listeners in the UK, and so on, or is every sponsor the same globally?

The answer is no. This is because almost every advertiser is just looking to advertise in one country. About 80% of this podcast’s audience is in the United States, which is the market that almost every advertiser is targeting. If it is a digital product that can be downloaded, there’s no real need to run different ad reads.

If you are listening in a different country, the ads you hear will be very different. Some listeners outside of the United States and Canada will hear mostly inserted ads that are not read by me. If you are in the US and Canada, you might hear mostly ads read by me.

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Dog on a Swing on the Discord Server asks a similar question, Hey Gary, do advertisers have any say In what type of episodes their ads will appear in? I imagine some companies wouldn’t want to see their products associated with the Bataan Death March, but would be happy to be in front of an episode on Roller Coaster or Pumpkins. The answer is no, and in fact, the subject has never even been brought up. I think most advertisers know what they are getting themselves into when they advertise on this podcast and they realize that even if the subject isn’t a cheery one, it will at least be handled in a responsible way.

Also, even if they wanted to just appear on certain episodes, I couldn’t really do that because I often don’t know what I’m going to be doing on an episode on till a day or two in advance.

The only exception to this is if someone is doing a baked-in ad on a fully sponsored episode. I’ve only done a handful of these since the show began.

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Carl Freuden from Facebook asks, We’re on a one-day cruise stop at Villefranche-sur-Mer, halfway between Monte Carlo and Nice. Given such a short stop, which city would you choose to visit and why?

Carl, the good news is that you can’t really make a bad decision here. Both Nice and Monaco would be good options. If I were you, I’d go to Monaco, if for no other reason than you can say you visited Monaco, which is an independent country. Monaco is really small, and you can literally walk across the country in about an hour. You can also see all the luxury yachts that are there, check out the Monte Carlo Casino, and pretend you are a high roller for at least a few hours. If you do go to Nice, I’d suggest visiting the Matisse and the Chagall museums.

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Tom Allen from Patreon asks, What is your rule-of-thumb for how “stable” a topic needs to be before you make an episode? Historical stuff is pretty stable — interpretations change slowly, but technology topics that are very important to our lives may evolve quickly. I’m thinking of energy, EVs, AI, humanoid robotics…

It isn’t an issue of stability. There needs to be something to actually talk about. Of the topics you’ve listed, I’ve actually done episodes on most of them, including electric cars and most forms of energy.I’ve seen lots of theoretical technologies that have been talked about that never really pan out. So, until something has actually been developed, I don’t think there is much to talk about.I have done episodes on the James Webb Telescope and Starship, both of which were in its early stages when I did the episode, and I’ve done follow up episodes since. That said, I’ve been researching topics like Artificial Intelligence and quantum computers, but I’m not really sure I’m ready to do an episode that makes sense given the show’s time constraints.

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heyfaulk from Patreon asks, I love to hear about the many UNESCO sites, and how many you have visited – please keep it up! As you do so many WWI & WWII episodes, what was the most interesting or moving site you have visited during your travels? Cheers from the Vancouver completionist club!

You can see the complete list of UNESCO sites I’ve been to on my website. As of this recording, I have been to 414 sites around the world. As far as moving sites related to WWI and WWII, it would have to be either Auschwitz or the American Cemetery at Normandy in France. That being said, there are a lot of interesting WWII-related sites in Belgium and the Netherlands as well. The museums in Bastone, Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and others are among the best war museums.

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Karl Williams on Facebook asks, With Olivia doing the research for some of the episodes, do you let her choose from the list, or is the episode choice solely yours?

She actually has quite a bit of leeway in what ideas she wants to pursue. I do have a master list of show ideas, and some of those do come from that list, but she has also come up with her own ideas. We meet once a week to go over which episodes will be worked on, so I have an idea of what she’ll be working on and can approve it before she puts in the work researching and writing. It is a lot easier to write and research an episode if you are interested in the topic, not just doing something because you are told to do it.

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Kevin O’Keefe on Facebook asks, It’s a simple but complex question. In the age of AI how can people make money off of just being curious and learning?

I’m not sure why learning and curiosity are things you need to make money from. Curiosity is, by its nature, something exhibited because you are interested in something. If your goal is just making money, then it isn’t real curiosity. There is certainly nothing wrong with learning something to improve your employability. That being said, I don’t think that AI is cause for doom and gloom, at least not for people who are willing to learn. Artificial Intelligence might very well replace many white-collar jobs that are busywork, but there will always be a need for people who are knowledgeable and learned. Also, AI can be used to turbocharge your learning. Some of the initial research I’m seeing on the use of AI as an educational aide has been simply astounding.

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Nina Schmidt on Facebook asks, I am a language teacher. Based on your extensive travels, what do you think are the most important phrases someone should know when visiting a foreign country?

Hello, goodbye, yes, no, please, thank you, excuse me, how much is this, and then basic phrases for getting food, lodging, and transportation. With that, you might not be able to have a conversation, but you will be able to perform basic tourist functions.

Beyond, I’m sure you can think of other scenarios that would probably be worth knowing phrases for.

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The final question comes from Elizabeth Lowe on Patreon, who asks, Gary, I’m very reluctant to become a member of the Completionists’ Club, despite all the impressive benefits. I make quilts, which means I sit at my sewing machine for several hours at a time, and I love immersing myself in your episodes. If I become a Completionist, I’ll only have one episode at a time! I currently have only about 150 episodes to go before I join that elite group, but I’m holding back. Love the podcast, and I’ve gotten several friends hooked on it too. Well, Elizabeth, there is a very simple way to resolve your dilemma. Once you join the completionist club, you can then begin your journey to Elite Platinum status in the club by listening to every episode twice. If you achieve that, then there is the Diamond Ultra status for those who listen to every episode three times. Beyond that, you probably need to seek professional help.

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Let’s jump right in. The first question comes from Soren Landblom on the Discord server, who asks: “What’s your dream car, and what’s your dream place to live?

Honestly, this might be hard to believe, but I don’t really have a dream car. I have no fantasies about sports cars, as I think sports cars are incredibly impractical. Even if I won the lottery, I would never buy a car like a Lamborghini. They are expensive, fragile, and you can’t use them anywhere close to their potential, given speed limits. Even cars like BMW or a Mercedes, I can recognize that they are quality cars, but I don’t think I’d ever buy one. They seem more for impressing other people, which I have no desire to do.I drive a Jeep Wrangler. I’ve had nothing but Jeeps since about 1997. They have excellent resale value, are extremely customizable, and there is a community of people surrounding the vehicles. Almost everyone who has a Wrangler waves to anyone else driving one who passes them.

As for where I would live, I’ve been to cities all over the world. Many of them are great places to visit, but that doesn’t mean I’d want to spend the rest of my life there. At this point, I’d rather find a place to build something rather than just move to some city.

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Maaky asks, “I’ve recently started listening to the first tranche of episodes you released, and they are seemingly much shorter but nonetheless still very enjoyable and informative. What would you say is the biggest improvement you’ve made over the years to the podcast content or production that we may not have noticed?”

Well, you’ve noticed the biggest change. The length of an average episode has increased significantly since I first launched the show. The average length of a script is 2000 words, and that is the metric I use when writing scripts.

How long that translates to time depends on how fast I talk and other factors.

I think there was an early episode that was only 1200 words long, which I look back on in horror today. The longest episode, I think, was about 2700 words long.

The sound quality on the early episodes wasn’t very good either. That was because I was recording in a horrible location with hardwood floors and a refrigerator running 10 feet away from where I was recording.

The biggest thing is that, having done hundreds and hundreds of episodes, I’m just much better at the process of researching and writing episodes. The time it takes to get an episode out on average is much less than it took when I first started.

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Pt asks, “Have you ever thought about ending the podcast or only releasing weekly?”

Nope. This show will remain with this format. If I were to change the format, I’d just launch a new show.

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Max S asks, How many takes does the podcast usually take?

I don’t do takes as you are probably thinking of it. I only read through a script once, but I might reread particular paragraphs or sentences multiple times. There have been occasions where I’ve had to reread certain passages, maybe as many as a dozen times, if there are difficult-to-pronounce foreign words. If I had to guess, the longest I’ve done one uninterrupted take was about 5 minutes in length.

The benefit of the system is that by the time I’m done reading the script, I’m done recording the podcast. Turn-around time is actually one of the biggest things I prioritize when producing a daily show.

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You can’t deny me Gary! asks Hey Gary, have you ever been to Tokyo? And if so, what was your experience like? Love the show.

Yes, I have been to Tokyo. I spent several weeks there back in 2007, near the start of my travels. It’s a great city and I’d love to go back to spend more time there and visit many of the places that I didn’t get to visit the first time.

The Lion Cafe is a place I would really like to visit. It is one of the original listening bars in Tokyo.

Also, just for everyone’s reference, if you want to know if I’ve been to a place, you can just go to my website and search. You can also browse my photos, of which I have many 10,000s available online.

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Jim Kohn asks, “Why do you think it took until the late 19th and 20th centuries for medical care to advance when many other areas of science advanced even in the ancient world?”

For starters, there really wasn’t much in the way of scientific insights in the ancient world. Even if they got something right about how something worked, they almost always get it wrong when explaining why it worked.

The 17th and 18th centuries really began advances in systematically understanding physics. Likewise, if you remember back to my episode on John Snow, there was some progress in medical matters in the early 19th century. What often results in big advances is a theory that explains how everything works within a field. Natural selection did that in biology. Plate tectonics did that in geology. The structure of the atom and Newton’s Laws did that in physics.

A similar revolution in genetics took place with the discovery of the structure of DNA. Germ theory was the key that unlocked the big improvements in medicine. Sanitation, antibiotics, and vaccines all came from that understanding.

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Kyle MacLea asks Do you have any science questions you’d like to tackle on the show but don’t think you’ll be able to, just because getting enough background to discuss the topic would take too long?

Yes. I’ve been thinking about an episode on the Standard Model for a long time, and also one on the Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics.

Both are difficult to explain without oversimplifying them and doing so in the amount of time allotted for this podcast. There are many other science and math-related topics that I’m thinking about, and I’m sure I’ll eventually get around to some of them

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Clif King asks Since you also host the Respecting the Beer podcast and seem to enjoy a 547 once in a while, what is the most interesting beer or alcoholic beverage you have tried in your travels?

For those of you who don’t know, I’m also the host of another podcast called Respecting the Beer which covers the science, history, culture, and economics of beer and brewing. For those of you who attended the 5th anniversary party, you know the answer is Basque cider.

Basque cider is very hard to find outside of Spain. I had to make a special order to get some here. I’ve seen it in a few specialty liquor stores, but it’s not something that you’ll find in most stores.

My favorite red wine is Argentine Malbec. My favorite white wines are Vino Verde from Portugal and Txakoli from Spain.

I’m not really much of an IPA guy, so I don’t have 547s that often. I prefer lagers, pilsners, and sours for beer. My test for a bartender is to have them make a Bloody Mary. The reason is that there is no set recipe for a Bloody Mary. They can be very good or truly awful.

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Michelle Hebert asks, “Why have there been relatively few episodes about Australia?” Is it because the flights are so blasted long?

No particular reason. I’ve done some and I’ll be doing more. It is a long flight to Australia, but I’ve learned to break up the flight there by stopping along the way in Hawaii or Fiji.

I’ve personally spent over six months in Australia and have been to every state and capital city. There are some more Australia-themed episodes on the list, and I might be getting to some of them soon-ish.

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Jarom Nelson asks Hey, Gary! I drive my daughter to school every weekday, and we listen to EED on the way. She loves your podcast. Her questions are: Who decides how much a dollar is worth in China? And why is school so early? Jarom and Amy from Livermore, CaliforniaFirst, let me say that school starting early is a holdover from when most people lived on farms. There is a fair amount of research that shows students perform better when school starts later, and kids stay out of trouble when the gap between school ending and parents getting home from work is smaller.I have no idea why school starts so early.

Depending on how you define it, there are over 150 different currencies in the world. Most of them have a floating exchange rate. Meaning that how much of it you can get for another currency depends on what the market will bear. Some countries have a peg, usually to the US dollar, because of its status as the world’s reserve currency. They will set an exact amount of dollars that someone can convert their currency for. What China does is somewhere in between. They have a managed float, which means that they will let the market determine the exchange rate, but only within certain parameters. Once the exchange rate goes outside of those boundaries, the Central Bank of China will step in and sell or buy Chinese yuan to keep the exchange rate within the parameters.

I might do a full episode on the subject of exchange rates and foreign currencies.

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Elizabeth Nobles asks Why do we have different names for foreign cities other than what the country itself calls it? For example: Rome/Roma or Moscow/Moskva. Like, why did English speakers meet people from a foreign city called Firenze… and say, “Nah, Imma tell people your from Florence”

This is a very good question, and there is no simple answer. It doesn’t apply to every city. Berlin is just Berlin, but Pari-ee is Paris, Roma is Rome, and Muscova is Moscow.

It’s really just a function of tradition and history.

This isn’t just a thing in English. Other countries do the exact same thing with cities in English-speaking countries. In Spanish, New York and London is Nueva York and Londres, but Milwaukee is just Milwaukee.

There is no simple or universal answer I can give you because the etymology of each city will be different.

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Gareth Morgan asks What is the deal with the Hawaiian forbidden island and how do American laws and rights apply?

The island you are referring to is Niihau.

Ni?ihau is a privately owned Hawaiian island purchased by the Sinclair family in 1864 and still controlled by their descendants, the Robinsons.

It is often called the “Forbidden Island” because access is strictly limited: only Native Hawaiian residents, invited guests, and the owners are allowed. The restriction is meant to preserve traditional Hawaiian culture, language, and way of life, which are still actively practiced there.

It is part of the United States and the State of Hawaii. All of the laws apply. It is simply just private property that happens to be an island. No different than your house being “forbidden” to anyone who might want to walk inside.

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Joshua Felty asks Are you a bookworm? Do you like browsing libraries/bookstores? Do you manage to find time to read what you’re interested in?

From middle school through college, in the pre-Internet days, I spent a LOT of time in libraries. After college, I’d go to Barnes and Noble at least once a week just to browse the books.

With the arrival of the internet, much of what I was looking for I could find online.

When I was traveling, I purchased a Kindle that allowed me to have access to the world’s largest bookstore from almost anywhere on Earth.

Nowadays, I’m shifting back to physical books and physical media in general. I’ve been trying to read and not be in front of a monitor for at least an hour a day

I’ve found that taking that time every day to read and not be online is actually really important.

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Hehehe from the Discord server asks, What are your thoughts on studying abroad? I would guess that you are very pro-get out and explore the world, but does that extend to studying abroad? As a university student, I was thinking for a long time that I wanted to do a semester abroad in Greece or Italy, but after playing with my course load, I found that I could just graduate a semester early and travel the world instead. Do you have any advice, such as it is better to settle down and try to live there, or maybe take your time, explore more things than just one city?

I personally never studied abroad, but I know many people who have. My impression is that those who take a semester abroad almost always use it to party and travel. The classes they take tend to blow off classes to facilitate their party and traveling. If you can graduate a semester early, I’d do it. There is no reason for you to pay tuition so you can go to Europe and spend money on top of that.I think your instinct here is correct. I’d graduate early. Not only will you save money, but if you do go to Europe, you’ll have much more freedom to do what you want and go where you want without having classes and other obligations hanging over your head. As for what you do when you are there, that is up to you. Personally, I’d play it by ear. If you want to stay in one place, then you can do that. If you want to roam around, you can do that too. You really won’t know until you get there and experience things yourself.

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Richard Short asks Loved your episode on mammals of Australia, and all three evolutionary branches of mammals are extant there. A semi-related question. Mammals evolved from reptiles, which evolved from amphibians, which evolved from fish, etc. What will evolve after mammals? What will a new class of animalia look like?

It is impossible to know this. Evolution takes place when creatures adapt to their environment. Adaptions that are successful get passed on, and those that are not successful die out. Mammals weren’t guaranteed to evolve from reptiles. Mammals arose because of the unique set of conditions that existed.

Without knowing what conditions might exist in the future, there is no way to know what sort of adaptations might arise.

Evolution isn’t on a set linear path. Many people think that humans are the natural end result of evolution, and that is not the case. There were countless, improbable things that resulted in the world we see today.

Mammals are pretty adaptable, so it is possible that there isn’t anything new and strange, but rather we just get better adapted and different mammals.

I should also note that mammals didn’t replace reptiles. Many reptile species died off, but reptiles as a whole are still with us.

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GongKing asks, Do you think time travel will ever be invented? How will the grandfather paradox be solved if we indeed invent time travel?

There are all sorts of different theories of time travel that people have thought of via science fiction. If the version of time travel is one that lets you go back in time to any point, then I don’t think that will ever happen because if it were to happen, we’d have evidence of it. There could, theoretically, be a form of time travel where you could go back to a particular point that was established beforehand. So if we made a time travel device, we probably couldn’t go back further than the creation of the time travel device.

That being said, it is entirely possible I’m wrong, and time travelers have already come back in time under controlled circumstances. But if that did happen, the question we have to ask is, why didn’t they kill Baby Hitler?

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Geronimo Ritcheson asks If there was a figure in American political history that you’d most want to meet, who would it be? Conversely, who would you least want to meet?

This is an easy one for me. The person I would most like to meet is Benjamin Franklin. He was a scientist and a philosopher and arguably the most interesting founding father. Not only that, but he clearly knew how to enjoy himself and I think he would be very entertaining to hang out with.

The person I would least want to meet…. that is a list that is very, very long.

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Abdelrahman Wael asks Gary I’ve been getting into photography and content creation recently. What are some of the biggest tips you can give me?

Content creation generally and photography are two very different things. The rough rule of thumb for content creation is that the more of it you do, the better you get. This is something I’ve experienced firsthand with this podcast and with my photography. I did hundreds of podcast episodes and took tens of thousands of photos to get to a point of competence. As for photography, the main thing I recommend at a meta level is to practice using all the buttons and dials on your camera and to get to know what they do. Know how to adjust your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and know how each one will affect the image. Depending on your camera, there might be certain setting that you can set to automatic, or at least let the camera determine within certain parameters. Beyond that, you just have to practice. When I was traveling, I had the good fortune to take thousands of images by visiting photogenic places around the world. You need to get out and shoot, and do so in a very deliberate fashion where you are identifying your weaknesses and trying to improve them.

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Walt from the Discord server asks, Hi Gary, my wife wants to know – What is your opinion on astrology and how it has evolved over time? Thoughts on the 13th zodiac sign?

Well, I don’t think too much about astrology. As pseudosciences go, it isn’t a very good one. There is no mechanism by which the stars can guide our fortunes. All the horoscopes are different, and astrologers can’t seem to agree on the same predictions or set of principles. Astrology would be very easy to test and to run experiments for, and yet after thousands of years, no validation of it has ever been shown.

Astrology developed from ancient astronomy. The signs of the zodiac were simply a way to divide the heavens into 12 roughly equal parts, which corresponded to the 12 months of the year.

As the zodiac is an entirely arbitrary construction, so would a 13th sign. As far as I can tell, the idea of a 13th zodiac sign is one that was developed in the 1970s.

If you can just invent a new zodiac sign, it sort of goes to show how arbitrary astrology is.

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Laura Hairston asks I’m curious about Olivia Ashe. How did she come to work on EED? She’s done an amazing job, and I’m looking forward to hearing more of her work.

I know a history professor who works at the local university. I told him that I was looking for someone to help, and if he knew any history graduates, to let them know. He spread the word, and Olivia was interested. We talked about it and that was that.

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Curtis Poole asks I love your podcast, Gary! It’s really helped to fill the time during my commute to and from work! My son even asks to put on an episode on our never-ending rides to various practices. I’m curious, what are your top 3 Empires of all time?

That’s easy.– The Empire Strikes Back

– Empire of the Sun

– The Last Emperor

Honorable mention goes to Age of Empires II and Empire Earth.

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Jerry Gardner asks, I know that you have people from all over the world who listen to your podcast. I’m curious, is your podcast just distributed in the English language? Or is there an app or people that translates the podcast into different languages? The podcast is only distributed in English. Overwhelmingly, the people who listen to the podcast live in English-speaking countries: The United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Publishing the show in another language is possible, but it would require a lot of work, and the business case for it isn’t very good.

There are AI tools that will automatically translate the show, but I have no desire to do that.

Hiring someone to do a native translation probably wouldn’t be economical, given how non-English podcast advertising works.

I have heard of some podcasts that do translations, but there aren’t many, and I haven’t heard that they’ve had much success.

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Glenn Folau asks I was watching an MLB game on YT, and there was an infield “fly”, and the team in the field purposefully let the ball drop. It created all sorts of confusion, not only were the players confused, it appears that the umpires and commentators were confused. The runner on third strolled across the home plate, only to be called back to third, and then subsequently awarded the run, which understandably caused a brouhaha between the manager and his players and the umpire. Could you shed some light on this most confusing of rules?

Glen, you are not alone in being confused by the infield fly rule. Most baseball fans don’t really understand it. The premise behind it is simple. Runners on base can’t leave the base until a ball is caught. They have to wait until the ball is caught, and then they run.

If a ball is caught in the outfield, the base runner might have time to advance a base. However, if the ball is a fly ball in the infield, an infielder has an incentive to drop the ball rather than catch it. The runner has to assume that the infielder will catch it, but if he doesn’t catch it, they can actually get a double or maybe even a triple play because the runners are forced to advance.

The infield fly rule takes care of this. If there is an infield fly, the umpire can declare an infield fly, in which case the batter is automatically out. It is equivalent to the ball being caught, and it doesn’t give the infielder the option of dropping the ball on purpose. When the infield fly rule is evoked, the runners are not forced to advance. This is uncommon, but not rare. There are about 2,400 major league baseball games played each year, and it is estimated that the infield fly rule is evoked about 300 times per season on average.

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The final question comes from Kevin O’Keef, who asks, and I have edited the question down for length…. I know you will be addressing a lot of this in your book, but to me, you are the ultimate example of someone who loves to learn. I’m not sure if you’ve ever commented on this, but could you let us all know where this foundation of curiosity came from in you and how you ended up continuing to be a lifelong learner? I think this could be instructive for so many young people. They may have enthusiastic parents and teachers out there, but how can the average person ??stay invested and continue to love learning when there’s always another paycheck and another job and another course to get a good grade in…

I wish I could tell you that there is some formula or some secret, but there isn’t.

I think that everyone is initially curious. Children incessantly ask questions about the world. Most kids go through a phase where they are into dinosaurs, astronauts, or other such things.

The key is to let them explore wherever their curiosity takes them and nurture it.

Curiosity is usually stifled in kids in school. They have to do what they are told, not what they are interested in.

The problem is that you can’t quantify curiosity. It isn’t something that can show up in test scores, which is all that really matters for most schools. Curiosity isn’t a result; it is the motivating force that leads to results. Because of this we have a world of people who are not in the slightest bit curious about the world.

Thankfully, if you are listening to this podcast, that is probably not you. This audience is rather self-selecting in that regard, and that is one of the things I like about doing it.

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Let’s just jump right into the first question, and I’m going to start this off by addressing a question that many of you asked, so I’m just going to answer all of you at once collectively. You asked what my thoughts were on the recent Micha Parsons trade.

For those of you who do not follow the NFL or perhaps live in a country that doesn’t have American Football, let me briefly explain what happened.

The Dallas Cowboys traded their star defensive end, Micah Parsons, to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for two first-round draft picks in 2026 and 2027, along with long-time Packer defensive tackle Kenny Clark.

Parsons subsequently signed the largest non-quarterback contract in NFL history for four years.

To put it bluntly, this is huge. This is easily the biggest trade in Packers history.

I asked several long-time Packer fans I know what first came to mind when they heard the news, and every single one of them said the exact same thing: Reggie White.

In 1993, Reggie signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers and was a huge part of their Super Bowl Championship in 1997. Reggie was the best defensive player in the league at the time and went on to win Defensive Player of the Year with the Packers.

The other player that came to mind was Charles Woodson. He signed with the Packers in 2006 and helped Green Bay win a Super Bowl as well, and also won a Defensive Player of the Year award with the Packers.

Micah Parsons is arguably the top defensive player in the NFL right now. If not, he is most certainly in the top three.

He is in the prime of his career and, absent injuries, is poised to have his peak seasons with the Packers. So far, he is on a trajectory to become a Hall of Famer.

Teams almost never, ever trade such players at this point in their career.

Moreover, the Packers got him for a steal. Kenny Clark had a great career with the Packers, but he’s 30 and had his worst season last year. Two first-round picks won’t mean much, given that they almost certainly are going to be picks in the mid to high 20s, which are nearly second-round picks at that point.

Micah Parsons perfectly fills the biggest hole on the Packers’ roster and does so in the best way possible.

I’ve been watching a lot of videos about the trade over the last few days, and the reaction to the trade has been almost unanimous that this was one of the worst trades in history for the Cowboys.

Time will tell the real impact of the trade, but we’ll have an idea in week one when the Packers play the Lions.

I don’t think they are a shoe-in to win the Super Bowl this year, but I think their odds went up considerably.

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Jordan from the Discord Server asks, I’ve been slowly making my way through old episodes, trying to join the completionist club, and in May 2021, you mentioned approaching 500k downloads. How many are you up to now, or are there any other listenership statistics you can share?

Yeah. I just posted it about it on my personal Facebook profile and on Instagram, but the show just passed 50,000,000 total downloads.

Assuming each episode is 12 minutes long, that means there has been a total of 1,141 years of content which has been downloaded. If you took all 50,000,000 downloads and played them all, one after another at normal speed, you would had to have started in the year 884 to have finished today.

Every month the show currently gets approximately 1.5 million downloads which is about 35 years worth of content.

Assuming there is no growth in the show, which I hope isn’t the case, that means in about two years, I should be around the year 1.

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Jesus Chan asks Hi Gary, greetings from South Texas. After hearing your recent episode on Francisco Macias Nguema, and based on current events, I am struck by how many times in history people have followed leaders who turned out to be disastrous dictators. Why do humans continue to follow such figures despite so many examples of the harm they cause? Is it human psychology, social pressures, or something else at play? I don’t want to believe that people are really that foolish, but it seems hard to explain.

Most people aren’t following dictators. They are stuck with dictators.

The path that dictators come to power can be different. Some are popularly elected and then become corrupt over time. Some come to power through a military coup. Some are revolutionary leaders who lose sight of what the original goals of the revolution were all about.

However, once they become dictators, most of them stay in power through similar means.

Staying does not require broad-based popular support. People aren’t stupid. Most of them hate the leaders of their countries.

Dictators stay in power by creating a small class of people who benefit from their rule. They are given positions of power and prestige. They often are corrupt, and a blind eye is turned towards their corruption. They are allowed to enrich themselves, although not as much as the leader.

After a while, the leader and his small group of supporters stay in power for survival. They know if they loosen their grip on power, everything could fall apart quickly. This is exactly what happened to Nicolae Ceau?escu in Romania, Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and most recently, Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

One of the things that often brings down a regime is that the dictator threatens someone close to them in their inner circle. This is what happened in Equatorial Guinea.

When dictatorships fall, they often collapse quickly, either through a popular uprising or a coup. All it takes is a general who thinks that he is going to get put up against a firing squad and decides to take action first.

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Richard Short asks, When did prehistory end and history begin? This is a relatively straightforward question to answer. History began with the invention of writing and the recording of history. Before recorded history, what we know is mostly inferred from archaeological evidence. We might know generally how they lived, but we don’t know names or even what a people might have called themselves.

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Alex Borelli asks, What is a place you’ve visited that you’ve discovered doesn’t match the popular perception (dangerous, unfriendly people, etc.)?

There are a lot of places that fit this bill. What most people know about a place comes from the news and the only thing the news reports on is bad news.

Most people don’t realize that life goes on in most places and the day-to-day reality for most people isn’t the worst things they see on the news.

The further away people get from a place, the less they know about it and the more they paint with a broad brush. I remember when there was an ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and people were canceling trips to Cape Town because they were both in Africa.

Sierra Lenoe is closer to London than it is to Cape Town, but people don’t bother to see that level of nuance. They just lump all of Africa together.

Many countries with murder rates, like Honduras, actually just have high murder rates in one city, and even then, just some neighborhoods of the capital city.

The rest of the country doesn’t reflect this high crime rate.

We don’t paint with such a broad brush the more we know about a place. If you live in a big city, you know there are neighborhoods you don’t go to, even if they happen to be near where you live.

That same level of scrutiny is lacking when people view the rest of the world they aren’t as familiar with.

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Richard Cruz asks What are some science fiction themes that are now considered engineering challenges vs. theoretical ones? What is the concept of an engineering challenge in this context?

An engineering challenge is a problem where we devise a way to accomplish something, even if it is enormously difficult or expensive.

For example, could we send a manned mission to Mars? We probably do have the technology to do this right now. A great deal of thought has been given to this problem, and we’ve sent numerous robots to the planet. Sending humans would be an engineering challenge.

Sending a probe to the closest star would be a significantly more challenging engineering task. You would probably need a new type of propulsion, such as a nuclear rocket or a solar sail. We’ve never used these methods of propulsion before, but we have an idea of how they could work. We would also need to figure out how to send messages back to Earth.

Something like Star Trek teleportation or traveling via wormholes only has the vaguest theoretical explanations. We aren’t really even sure that it is possible, especially at a large scale. We would have no idea even where to begin with something like this.

We are now past the days of early space exploration. What SpaceX and other companies are now doing is trying to reduce costs. It is working on perfecting the engineering, no longer trying to prove the validity of space flight in theory.

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Kelli Kerns Brockington asks In your travels… is there any place you went where you got sick, either from food or the weather?

Yes. I got really bad food poisoning when I was in Kuala Lumpur, and I think I got it at a Kenny Rogers Roasters.

Beyond that, I’ve been pretty fortunate. I avoided getting sick for the most part. My theory is that constant exposure to new microbes in different places strengthened my immune system. I think I’d be more liable to get sick today if I were to travel than I was 10 years ago.

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Kristen Butlap asks This is selfish, but I’m getting to explore Wisconsin a bit in October- if you could go anywhere (besides McFleischmans, it’s on the list!), where would you go? I’ve only been to Milwaukee and will be leaving from there.

The state has several different regions. In the south, it’s mostly prairie. I’d recommend visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio at Taliesin.

In the southwest along the Mississippi River is an area known as the Driftless Region. This has lots of beautiful bluffs, and there has been talk of making it a National Park, but I doubt if that will ever happen.

Door County, which is the thumb on the eastern side of the state, is the most visited area. It shouldn’t be too bad in October, and you should have great color in the trees.

I’d also recommend going up north and visiting the Northwoods. There are thousands of lakes up there, and it is mostly coniferous forest. I’d go all the way north and try to visit Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Lake Superior.

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Robert Casey asks You seem to do a lot of episodes that involve Roman history.

Do you have any special interest in Roman history? Is this something you have studied? What book would you recommend as a good short history of Rome that is also enjoyable to read?

There are several reasons for doing episodes on Roman history. Rome had an outsized impact on the development of the Western world, and perhaps more importantly, we simply know more about it than other ancient cultures.

Even though the vast majority of what was written in Ancient Rome is gone, what survived has given us a rich history of the period. We have Caesar’s commentaries, which are perhaps the oldest and most complete first-person accounts from a leader in the ancient world.

My knowledge of Roman history came from my own independent reading. If you are interested, a good place to start would be Mary Beard’s 2015 book, “SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.”

However, there are many, many books going back hundreds of years, including translations of original texts that you can read, most of which are available online for free. Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which was published in the late 18th century, is in the public domain, and you can get a print version cheap on Amazon.

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The final question comes from Kevin O’Keefe who asks, How should we be educating our students today to prepare them for a future where a machine will write for them and think for them? This is a seismic shift that our society hasn’t yet figured out. Yes, there have been technological advances like the simple calculator ,where we did not need to do long division ourselves, but when you take away the rigor of thinking for yourself and allow a machine to do that for you, how prepared will our children be for the future?

I think that the jury on AI is still out. To be sure, it can do some incredible things, but lately I’ve been hearing a lot of “where do we go from here” talk surrounding it. That being said, regardless of where it takes us, there is going to be a lot of disruption. Some of it is already happening.

I have a lot to say on the subject of AI and learning. I’m actually working on a book on the future of learning, but don’t hold your breath. It will take a while to finish and publish.

What you’ve probably heard of AI and learning so far has been students giving an assignment to a large language model and then having it complete the assignment or write a full paper.

Clearly, this makes no sense as no one is learning anything. To prevent this from happening in the future, we are going to have to change how we teach.

Our current educational system isn’t designed to teach children in the best way possible. It is designed to teach children at scale. It isn’t for teaching one person; it is for teaching hundreds of people. Many of the things we think of as staples of the educational system, such as written tests and papers, are things that can be evaluated en masse.

I think that there is enormous potential for AI to actually be the teacher. One-on-one instruction has proven to be, hands down, the best way for people to learn. The problem is, you can’t really do that in a school with hundreds or thousands of kids.

Try this yourself. Go to a site like ChatGPT and tell it that you want it to tutor you in some subject. Pick something that you don’t know very well. If you think you aren’t good at math, then have it teach you exponents or logarithms.

It will go through things step by step. Feel free to ask it questions like a five-year-old if you don’t understand it. It will go at your pace and at your level of understanding, because there is no other level when working one-on-one.

How do we evaluate progress in such a way that we can be sure that AI isn’t doing all the work?

One solution will be to require tests or essays to be done on paper or on devices that are not connected to the internet. Some places are doing this already. Another way would be to treat the classroom like a dojo. To advance, you have to demonstrate your ability to a master or a panel of masters, aka teachers. You would have to prove to them via live questions and answers that you are competent and know the subject matter. If you talk to someone and ask questions, you can quickly tell if they know what they are talking about or not. There might be other solutions as well, but what they will all have in common is that it will require a rethinking of how we currently do things.

There is a whole lot more to be said on the subject, but the short of it is the way we’ve done things is going to have to change.

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Let’s get things started with the first question. It comes from Stephen Klettke, who asks, In an earlier episode, you made mention of a time when you were launched off an aircraft carrier. Are you able to elaborate with the full story? Or is it one of those if I tell you, I have to kill you kind of things?

Nope, I don’t have to kill anyone. It is a very straightforward story.

The US Navy has a program where they invite journalists and notable people to visit their aircraft carriers when they are in port or when they are doing training exercises just off the coast.

My friend Jen Leo, who used to be a co-host with me on This Week in Travel and who also lives in San Diego, was invited to visit. After the visit, they asked her if she had any recommendations for people they should invite, and she gave them my name.

In 2015, they contacted me and asked if I would like to visit the USS Harry S Truman when it was conducting exercises off the coast of Norfolk, VA.

I drove down to Norfolk, stopping in Shenandoah National Park along the way.

It was a reasonably small group of us. In addition to myself was the head coach of the Navy Football Team, a former admiral, and a writer for Soldier of Fortune Magazine.

We flew to the carrier on a Grumman C-2 Greyhound, which is a smaller propeller plane designed for delivering supplies to aircraft carriers.

We did a tailhook landing and got the tour of the ship, and even got to stay overnight and had our meals in the galley.

The next day, we left and were launched off the ship on the same plane.

It was an incredible experience. Few people, including the crew of aircraft carriers, ever get to do a carrier landing and catapult launch. I have photos from the visit on my website.

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Eric Dombrowsky asks Very important question here. Is it Austin Oakton, or Austin Okton? I’ve heard both pronunciations in multiple episodes.

Yes, you are correct. When Austin became an Associate producer on Patreon, I had no idea how to pronounce his name. I looked around, gave it to some AI tools to try and get the correct pronunciation, and went with Oakton. What I should have done was just ask him, because despite the research I put into it, I got it wrong.

He sent me a message on Patreon telling me the correct pronunciation was OTT-ken.

I had prerecorded an outro with the wrong pronunciation, and I just haven’t updated it, which I really should do. When I read a review and do a custom outro, I’ve been using the correct pronunciation.

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Chris Armstrong asks, Gary, you strike me as an avid reader. I read many books, but I have switched to an e-reader, simply because my wife didn’t like books piling up. It’s great, but I do buy books every now and then, just to enjoy the paper, the feel, smell, and classic experience. Do you have a preference of old school paper vs e-books? Why or why not? Love the podcast!

Chris, this is an excellent question and I have a bit of a story behind it.

When I starated traveling full time in 2007, there wasn’t much in the way of e-readers. The first Kindle was technically out in 2007, but the first generation wasn’t great.

I would read a lot while traveling because you have a lot of spare time on your hands, but there was a problem. Books are heavy and english language books can be extremely expensive in non-English speaking countries.

I also hated to throw my books away or even leave them at a hotel, so I usually carried them around for far too long and eventually shipped them back home…..which was also expensive.

I eventually broke down and purchased a Kindle and it was truly game changing for travel. It was lightweight and I had the world’s biggest English language bookstore in my pocket.

Just to show how good it was for traveling, in 2014 I was in Cape Town, South Africa to board a ship that would take me to the island of Saint Helena. The ship took five days to get there, and five days to get back, with 8 days on the islands, which didn’t really have internet access at the time.

I was on the ship and it was starting to pull out of port when I realized I had nothing to read on my Kindle. I ran up to the top deck of the ship, got a 3G signal, and downloaded the entire Game of Thrones series in just a few minutes.

More than enough reading to keep me busy for three weeks.

Since I’ve stopped traveling full-time, I will still buy ebooks, but what bothers me is the fact that you don’t really own an ebook. Amazon and other book providers can and have removed access for books that people have “purchased.”Moreover, e-book prices have risen dramatically for some books, and they now cost almost as much as a print book.I’ve begun buying print books again. Ideally, I’d like to be able to buy an all-access book where you can get a print version, a digital version, and an audio version, but the publishing industry still seems stuck in the 20th century.

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Gregory Langlois asks, Hi Gary, you’ve mentioned you spent a fair bit of time in Australia, in particular Melbourne. Did you happen to visit the MCG and watch any AFL games? If so, what did you think of the stadium, and did you adopt a team to follow? Hoping to hear an episode about the AFL and how unique the game is. Best game in the world.

I didn’t visit the Cricket ground, but I did go past it. I also didn’t get to see any AFL games in person.

Normally, my support for non-North American teams is based on people I meet or places I’ve visited. I’ll often do a swap with someone I met on my travels, where I’ll agree to support their team if they agree in theory to support the Packers as their NFL team.

For example, I met a guy when I was photographing polar bears in Manitoba several years ago from Sydney. He was a huge Roosters fan, so I agreed to have the Roosters as my NRL team. I can’t say I follow them closely.

Likewise, my English Premier League team is Liverpool, my La Liga team is Bilbao, because I visited their team headquarters and stadium, and my CFL team is Edmonton. I also support Wiggan in theory, but they aren’t going to be in the Premier League anytime soon.

The position of my AFL team is still open. I’m seriously considering going to Australia for a month or two in January/February to escape the winter, so I’ll miss the AFL season, but I might be able to select a team. I’d currently lean towards St. Kilda, just because I stayed in that area when I was first in Melbourne.

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Apex POTATOe on the Discord Sever asks, Gary, much like you, I have a background in geology. What would you say are the most geologically interesting places you would recommend visiting? Thanks for being such a gneiss guy. I lava your show.

A good question. In no particular order, and based on places I’ve actually visited, I’d say:

The Black Hills of South Dakota. You can find some of the best samples of metamorphic minerals there. At least the best I’ve ever seen.

Nearby Devils Tower in Wyoming, and also in Wyoming, the Wind River Gorge. In Arizona, you’d have to put the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater.

The Big Island of Hawaii has so much interesting volcanism all over the island.

The Verfort Dome in South Africa, Purnululu National Park in the Kimberly Region of Western Australia, the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, the Dead Sea, Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, the Cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, Mount Bromo in Indonesia, Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas, and Plitvice National Park in Croatia.

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Geronimo Ritcheson asks Which do you prefer more: Star Wars, Star Trek, or something else, and why?

I’m not a huge fan of either Star Wars or Star Trek. I think both of the franchises have been extended far beyond what they should have been.

I’m a big Dune guy. I’ve read all of the Dune books, including the prequels written by Frank Herbert’s son. I own every version of Dune that has been filmed, including the David Lynch version, the SyFy Channel miniseries, and the recent movies by Denis Villneu.

I’m also a big fan of the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov. I think the current Apple TV series is……fine, but it is the least true adaptation of any science fiction book ever. It’s so different from the books they could have saved money by just giving it a different name and changing the plot just a bit.

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Grayerbeard on the Discord server asks, Yes, you are certainly an expert pervveyor of knowledge, and it saddens me that humans make too little use of (the human) race’s knowledge. I feel there are some books all should read. I favour such as those by George Orwell and Daniel Kahleman. What books would you feel would do the most good if all read?

If you like Orwell, there is a book I would recommend. One of the best books of the 20th century, in my opinion, and one that is still very applicable to the world today, is “The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer.

Hoffer published the book in 1951 in the wake of the Second World War. He tries to explain why people join mass movements. In particular, he explains why people became fanatical communists and fascists.

Hoffer was a philosopher, but he didn’t have the background of a philosopher. He was not a professor. He was a child of immigrant parents from Germany and was a longshoreman, a vagabond, and a migrant worker.

His insights into the mass movements of the early 20th century are still applicable to the mass movements of the early 21st century.

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Chloe Boyer asks Have you tried out for jeopardy? If not, would you consider it? Big fan. Waiting for my top fan badge!

To be completely honest, I have never seriously considered it, and I have no real desire to do it.

I’m also not sure I’d be very good because there would be some questions with some popular culture references, such as Niki Minaj or Taylor Swift, and I wouldn’t know what they were talking about.I know that Niki Minaj or Taylor Swift are real people who are famous, but I don’t know anything about them beyond their existence. I know they are singers, and I probably have heard some of their songs by osmosis, but I couldn’t identify them.

I also am not a regular Jeopardy watcher. I am familiar with the show, but I can’t remember the last time I saw it. This is primarily because I don’t watch traditional TV. Everything I watch is either on disc or streaming.

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David Day asks You are given exactly one year to spend at any point in history. Your objective is to make 2025 Gary Arndt the most powerful person in the world. We’re talking political power, economic power, cultural influence, military might, etc. Your basic necessities are covered so you can focus on your objective. Where —and when— do you go? What’s your plan?

For starters, if you go back too far, I’m not sure it will do anything for you. If I want power in the year 2025, going back to a period where no one today was alive wouldn’t do anything.

The last two presidents of the United States were public figures in the 1970s, so I couldn’t go back further than that. The only thing that I think going back in time would help with is money. Military and political power are intertwined today. In any democracy, any elected position is temporary.

So, the only thing I think traveling back in time would do is allow me to make a ton of money.

How would I do that? With the power of hindsight, you can do quite a bit. The big question is what resources I’d have going back in time?

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument I have nothing and I can beg, work, or scrounge my way to $1,000 in a few weeks.

I’d travel back to the year 2015, in particular about June 1, 2015.

There is a reason for this. I’d take the $1000 and bet it on various trifectas or exactas at horse tracks I assume I’m going back in time without any books, so I only have what I can store in my head. I can remember a handful of bets, so I should be able to turn $1000 into a million dollars on one or two bets.

I would then take the $1,000,000 and bet on Leicester City to win the English Premier League. This is why the date is important. Leicester City were 5000-1 odds to win at the start of the season.I don’t know of any major sports champions in recent history who were such long shots.A million-dollar bet on a major sports league is uncommon, but not that crazy.

That one million dollars would then be turned into five billion by May 7th, 2016.

I’d then take the five billion dollars and buy Bitcoin, which was at $458 on this date.

Today, that Bitcoin would have increased in value 251-fold and would have a value of $1.2 trillion, making me the richest person on Earth. The only problem with this theory is that I might be completely disrupting the Bitcoin market by putting that much into it. If that was the case, I’d scale down the investment and put the rest into Nvidia stock, which has gone up about 180-fold since May 2016.

It is most certainly possible to make investments that would do better; however, those investments would require volumes of knowledge of the trades or bets to make. This is a very simple strategy that could easily be memorized if I were to go back in time. When I was teleported back to the present on May 31st, I’d have my wealth waiting for me.

With that, I could, in theory, fund armies, buy politicians, or do whatever I want.

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Let’s jump right in with the first question that comes from Jentelson on the Discord server. They ask: Do you ever do “Alternative History” episodes? Here’s a primer for you: “How would the world be different had in 1766, the British Parliament agreed with Benjamin Franklin and granted representation to the American Colonies?” I asked ChatGPT, and the ramifications were enormous, including the likelihood that I wouldn’t exist because my ancestors wouldn’t have been able to immigrate to New York.

I have thought about it, but decided not to because doing an alternative history show would just be me making stuff up. Because it isn’t real, it wouldn’t require any actual research.

I just figured that I’d stick to episodes on stuff that actually happened that would be more informative. That isn’t to say I’ll never do it, but if I did, it would probably be on a much smaller scale.

Also, with respect to your particular scenario, it wouldn’t just be you who wouldn’t be alive. Everyone on the planet would be different. The butterfly effect would ensure that every act of conception would be slightly different, resulting in totally different people.

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Frank Soldano asks, I loved your most recent podcast. How about more that feature African nations?

I will absolutely be doing more episodes on African countries. There are a lot of countries in Africa, and each one has a unique story. We have several episode ideas about former African empires, as well as African countries.

Just off the top of my head, some interesting ones would include Botswana, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Beyond that, there is the Mau Mau Uprising, Idi Amin, the Rwanda Genocide, Timbuktu, and a host of other topics. So, yes, expect more African content.

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Matthew Coleman asks Gary, In your estimation, what early influences in your life led you to entrepreneurship, travelling, and now podcasting? How was Curiosity stoked within you, and how, in your estimation, can this Curiosity be similarly stoked in the youth of today?

Well……I’m not really sure. There is no history of entrepreneurship in my family, nor any extensive traveling. I was the first person in my family to go to college.

My house growing up didn’t have many books, yet I taught myself how to read before kindergarten by watching shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company. My first day of kindergarten, the teachers didn’t know what to do with me because I was the only kid who could read.

I have only ever applied for a real job once in my life. After graduating from college, I applied for a job with Cargill, which was a pretty low-level position that involved going out to grain elevators. I didn’t get hired, and after that, the idea of working for someone else never even crossed my mind.

I believe entrepreneurship is a mindset more than anything else. I’ve met many people who were very smart and who I think could have been quite successful. However, they were hesitant to go off on their own. They could find every excuse for why they didn’t want to do that, which is fine, but in the end, I think it was just fear.

One of the fundamental principles of economics is that there is a tradeoff between risk and reward. I am personally far more open to risk-taking than most people. I’ve had businesses that weren’t successful. It isn’t a pleasant experience to go through, but I came through it ok.

Some people are willing to risk failure, and others want more security. Both are perfectly acceptable, but opting for security means you limit your downside at the expense of your upside.

As for encouraging curiosity in kids, I think that is actually pretty easy. Everyone, early on, is curious. Kids ask tons of questions. Every seven-year-old goes through a phase where they are interested in dinosaurs.

The key is to just let them run with their interests wherever it takes them. Let them build a fort, or take them to the museum. It might be a very chaotic path as they jump from one interest to the next, but that’s perfectly fine. In the course of that journey, they’ll naturally come across topics in science, math, and history.

More importantly, because they are interested and they care, they will retain a tremendous amount of what they learn.

There is a new story I read several years ago about a kid in Iowa who was obsessed with vacuum cleaners. He developed a collection of over 100 vacuum cleaners.

This might seem odd, but consider what this would involve. Understanding how vacuum cleaners work involves understanding how electrical motors and pumps work. He would open them up and tear them apart, and eventually developed the ability to fix old vacuums. If you can fix a vacuum cleaner, then you can probably fix a whole host of small electrical appliances. No one taught him how to do any of that. He just did it himself.

So, the biggest thing is just not to inhibit curiosity, as that will eventually kill it.

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Merei Milbee asks, Spencer age 11 wants to know if you’ll be doing episodes on more recent history/ current events for your 2000th/2025th episodes.

When I get to the present day in my series on what was happening in the world in various round-number years, I’m going to focus more on things like demographics and economics that people might not be aware of, rather than trying to catalog all the various news events that everyone is probably aware of because they hear about it every day. The closer I get to the present, the focus will shift a bit because it is less necessary to cover things that people hear about every day.

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Randy Ryan asks, Hi Gary, I’d like to know when and why you changed the number of downbeats of the intro music. I have counted a different number on earlier episodes than you have currently and was just curious.

Randy, I have never changed the intro music. I created the small clip that you hear at the start of every show when I launched the podcast, and I have used the same clip ever since. Changing it would require work, and I’m all about avoiding work if necessary.

Just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten something I might have done, I went and listened to the music from the episode I recorded yesterday and episode one that I recorded five years ago. They sound exactly the same to me.

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Evan Byrne asks Hey Gary, hope you had a great Summer Solstice! Out of all the places you’ve traveled to or visited, what are some random local traditions or customs that you have taken part in?, like getting “Screeched in” in Newfoundland or the “Toe shot” in Alaska. Thanks for all the great episodes.

Well, Evan, I can share with you one particular local tradition that I’ve done. In fact, I’ve done it three times. It is the Sour Toe Cocktail in Dawson City, Yukon. It is only served at the bar in the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City. This might be what you were referring to as a toe shot.

A sour toe cocktail is any shot of liquor that contains…….a dried, severed human toe.

I know this grosses a lot of people out, but I assure you it is actually quite hygienic. I could probably do a full episode on the Sour Toe Cocktail Club.

Without getting into too much detail, I will say that the motto of the club is “drink it fast or drink it slow, your lips must touch the toe.”

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Grayerbeard from the Discord server asks, I was just listening to The David Sedaris Desert Island Disks on the BBC, and he commented that he carries a notebook everywhere to gather material for his writing. I have been using Obsidian for note taking, but somehow I also like writing on old envelopes with ideas, etc Since you also need to keep coming up with ideas, what is your favourite way to record them?

My list of episode ideas is kept in a Google Docs file. I have access to it on my desktop, laptops, phone, and tablets, so I almost always have access to it. Because it is in the cloud, I can move from device to device and not have to worry about version control.

Likewise, I also use the Apple Notes app for similar things. It is on all my devices and it synchs across everything. The ability to access the documents from anywhere is too valuable for me to want to use paper for something like this.

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treyped from the Discord sever asks, Made it. Texas Completionist Club fresh member. I really enjoy this podcast. Kafabe is a favorite along with the long awaited (for me at least) Texas episode. The Godfather episode was a surprising like for me. Do you have any other movie episodes on your list? Thanks, man. Love the show.

I will probably do episodes on individual movies, but only if the production of the movie was something noteworthy. In other words, they encountered particular problems, or they had to create innovative solutions to solve technical issues.

A few movies that come to mind that might be worth episodes, but I’m not guaranteeing it, would include Star Wars, Barry Lyndon, Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Boyhood.

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Eddie Waters asks Best regional alcoholic beverage?

My answer, hands down, is cider from the Basque Region of Spain. For those of you attending my 5th anniversary event this month, I will be bringing several bottles and will be attempting to pour it in the traditional style.

If you want to know what that is, I suggest checking out some of the many YouTube videos that are available.

If you are interested in attending the event, there is a link available in the show notes.

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Kyle Dunham asks Many of us have probably seen videos circulating of protests in Spain and other places against excessive tourism. My wife and I just enjoyed a few days in the lovely city of Prague, but the crowds on the Charles Bridge and other places were difficult to navigate. What do you think has caused the seeming spike in tourist crowds, and do you have any recommendations for would-be tourists who would like to see popular places without somehow contributing to overcrowding and more angst on the part of residents? Thanks for all the work you do, Gary!

The problem of overtourism isn’t a problem of too many tourists. It is a problem of too many people visiting the same place at the same time.

For example, you visited Prague. Prague is a great city and I’d never suggest that you not visit. However, the vast majority of visitors all visit in the summer. Moreover, they tend not to visit anywhere else in the Czech Republic because most of them don’t know of anywhere else other than Prague.

The same thing plays out all over the world. People tend to go to major cities that have cruise terminals or international airports.

Barcelona is great; however, the city of Girona, less than an hour away by train, is a place where I spent three months and loved it.

In the Czech Republic, Cesky Krumlov is a fantastic city, but not nearly as many people know about it. Likewise, Kutná Hora, Olomouc [?olomouts], and Tel? are fantastic places to visit, but hardly anyone goes there.

My suggestion is very simple. Either go at a time of the year that is off-peak season, which, to be honest, is usually a much better experience, or find out-of-the-way places that don’t get as many visitors, which is also usually a better experience.

This holds true pretty much everywhere in the world, not just Europe.…and on a related note, I have a photo I took in Prague of the Charles bridge and everyone always asks how I was able to get a photo with no people on the bridge. The answer is simple. I was jet lagged, couldn’t sleep, so I went to the bridge just after sunrise and no one was there.

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The final question this month comes from Fat Yankee on the Discord server, who asks, Gary, after 5 years, I’m glad you had time to reflect on your impact on history education. Have you ever thought about your impact beyond education? I’ve been listening for over 4 years back when I started driving Uber and my wife gifted me a Spotify subscription. In that time, I’ve changed jobs, lost 100lbs, lost my dad, and learned how to become a dad. You were there every day. 5000 ride shares, 5000 deliveries. Good days, bad days, last job, this job, next job, the hard steps and the easy ones. Your show is a constant. As a traveler, I hope you take some time to reflect on all of life’s little voyages you’ve been on with all of us. Cheers ? to 5 years! And a Roar for five more!

Thank you for the kind words, Fat Yankee, or should I call you former Fat Yankee?

Intellectually, I understand and appreciate what you are saying. I’ve received similar messages from listeners such as yourself, and I have to say it always takes me aback because I never really thought about making that king of impact when I was launching the show.

That being said, every day I have tens of thousands of people who listen, and over the last five years, I’ve had hundreds of thousands of people who have listened to at least one episode.

Unless someone reaches out, it is impossible for me to know how people are listening or the impact that it has on them. Moreover, I don’t think I really can think about it too much, or else it might get overwhelming.

My priority every day is getting the next episode out the door. The moment I hit publish, I am immediately thinking about the next episode.

I think this is true of most people who create something. You have to focus on the creation. Even if you take time to occasionally acknowledge what is happening in the bigger scheme of things, you always need to come back to the work, because without the work, there isn’t anything.

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Alice Johnson asks, You talk a lot about good emperors and bad emperors. You allude to what you consider a good leader. Could you expound? Keeps his people safe? Prosperous? Oversees justice to a broad segment of his people? Unity? The goodwill of the people. Something else?

Alice, this is an excellent question.

The bad emperors are, I think, very easy to identify. They were often crazy, cruel, and hedonistic. They spent an incredible amount of money on themselves on palaces and parties; they delusionally referred to themselves as gods or gladiators, and they often meted out barbaric punishments for the most trivial things.

Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, and Egalabus checked most of these boxes.

The good emperors were the opposite. They were rational, reasonable, and fair. For the most part, they kept the empire at peace, or at least, defended it from invasion along the frontiers. For the most part, they didn’t expand the empire very much, as most of that had been done by the time they came to power.

The good emperors tended to have longer reigns, and many of the more forgettable emperors had rather short reigns.

While good and bad are obviously subjective, most historians largely agree on who the good and bad emperors were.

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Christian Long asks, Given your origins in a relatively safe country when it comes to food and water, I am curious how you have fared throughout your extensive travels with the food and water in those exotic countries. Did you experience significant food allergies or poisoning in your travels? And what advice would you give travelers visiting countries where the standard food and water could prove a bit dangerous for those who have overly westernized digestive systems?

To be totally honest with you, Christian, this is something I never worried about or even gave much thought to during my travels. I’ve met hundreds of other extreme travelers, and I don’t recall the topic ever even coming up in that community.

The only time this would be an issue is if you are drinking unfiltered water directly from the tap, which is something I never did. If you drink bottled water, this really isn’t much of a problem.

No matter where you travel to, I’ve read that your gut microbiome will change within 48 hours of arriving somewhere. To be sure, some places will affect you more than others. I think there is a lot of truth to that.

Because I traveled so frequently, I believe that my body was more adapted to such changes. I was rarely affected by food or water issues.

The only time that I think I had food poisoning was in Kuala Lumpur after I ate at a Kenny Rogers Roasters.

I’m not going to say my experience will be like everyone else’s, but it was never something I gave much thought to.

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Chip Thomas asks, At the end of each episode. You are always careful to give your production staff credit. You are well-known for doing your own writing and research. What is left in production? Editing? Uploading?

The short answer is that the show producers are just people who support the show at the highest tier on Patreon. They do not play any active role in the production of the show.

As of right now, I do everything on every episode and I have done so since the first episode.

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Dan Last asks, I found this podcast through The Amateur Traveler Podcast a few years back. It sounds like you and Chris know each other professionally, but are you friends in real life? How did you meet? Keep up the great work, guys! Dan from Cleveland, OH.

Yes, I’ve known Chris for quite a while. We were co-hosts of a podcast called This Week in Travel for 11 years. I’ve lost count of the number of countries that we’ve met each other in.

I first met Chris when I started listening to Amateur Traveler when I was traveling. I contacted him and was a guest on the show for the first time when I talked about Micronesia. I recorded the show from an internet cafe in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

We met each other in person at a travel blog conference in 2009 in Chicago.

I recently had the pleasure of inducting Chris into the Podcasting Hall of Fame earlier this year in Florida.

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Will Raber asks Have you considered adding video to your podcasts?

Yes. In fact, I’ve considered it before I even released the first episode. However, given that I’m hosting a daily show, to produce video, I’d need to hire someone to handle the video production. What I’m doing right now is already a full-time job, and there really isn’t time for me to add that to my plate….and quite frankly, I know nothing about video.

There are a host of reasons why I gave the audio podcast priority. YouTube takes a much larger cut, and you have to constantly be adapting to the YouTube algorithm….that is on top of the extra work that video requires.

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Nick Hollfelder asks, With all the places to live and complete freedom to choose where. Why did you choose to come back to your hometown in Wisconsin?

This is a really good question, Nick. I was actually living in Minneapolis as early as 2020. I had also been living in the Twin Cities for years before I started traveling, as that was where I had attended college and launched several businesses.

I considered many places to live. One of the conclusions I came to was that large cities are, for the most part, just not worth it anymore.

Cities played an important function for thousands of years. There were many trades that were much easier to ply if you were around a lot of people. As the world industrialized, jobs were available in factories, which required a lot of people living in proximity.

In some industries, you just had to live in a certain area to take part in it. If you wanted to be in the motion picture business, you had to live in Los Angeles. If you wanted to work in publishing or finance, you pretty much had to live in New York.

Technically, the internet, and socially, the pandemic, changed everything. We can just as easily communicate remotely as we can in person.

The city I live in isn’t huge; it has about 80,000 people, but it isn’t tiny either. We have multiple restaurants of almost every type of cuisine you can think of, at a quality level that is on a par with what I’ve experienced in cities around the world.

I have a fiber internet connection. There is an Amazon fulfillment center on the edge of town.

I’m hard pressed to think of anything I’m lacking living here.

While I’m not losing much, I’m gaining a great deal. Prices here are significantly less. I’d probably pay five to ten times more for a similar apartment to the one I live in if I lived in New York City. There is very little in the way of traffic. Crime is very low. There is almost no threat of natural disasters where I live. There are no hurricanes or earthquakes. I can’t recall there ever being a forest fire. The river I live on has never flooded in recorded history and probably never will, given that it has two large bodies of water on either end with dams that can control the flow.

Tornadoes aren’t even that frequent here. In the event of a drought, there are 15,000 lakes in Wisconsin, with two Great Lakes that surround the state.

People think of the cold, but the dirty secret is that it really doesn’t get that cold. Temperatures can sometimes drop below 0°F, but in many winterers, it never does, and 20°F is more normal.I also don’t think that this is just a ‘me’ thing. The cost of living in major urban areas in almost every developed country has skyrocketed. This has happened precisely at the same time when the benefits and reasons for living in large cities have decreased, mostly due to the spread of the internet.

Now that Starlink is up and running, the number of places that have become viable has increased even more.

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Bhakkawat-Top Bhasipol asks Do you have any advice for debating for a middle student, who just started debating. My daughter Kati has just joined her school’s debate team this year. She is the first member of the Thai Everything Everywhere Daily completionist club.

First, let me congratulate Kati. I do not recall anyone from Thailand being in the completionsit club, so she very well might be the first.

The key to being successful in academic debate is preparation. In American debate, this involves doing a lot of research. No matter what type of debate you do, you need to anticipate what your opponent is going to say in response before the debate round ever starts.

This is usually not difficult to do. Whatever the topic you are debating, there is probably a body of literature where people have spelled out their opposition to whatever argument you are making.

For example, let’s say there are five generally accepted arguments against whatever you are advocating. You then need to prepare your responses to those arguments well in advance. In this respect, debate is like chess. You make your move, your opponent makes their move, and you respond to their move, and so on.

It is entirely possible that you encounter an argument you weren’t prepared for. In that case, you need to have some generic argument or position you can fall back on, which you can apply to almost anything. This isn’t ideal, but it’s better than nothing, and at least you won’t be taken totally by surprise.

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Dog on a Swing from the Discord server asks, Gary – I know you have an extensive movie collection at home, but what do you think the future of Cinema is? How can the box office retain (or potentially grow) its audience as more and more people don’t see the value in attending a movie in person? More experiences? Cheaper tickets? What are your thoughts?

I have to admit, I don’t see a very bright future for theaters. Movies have gotten more expensive, while televisions have gotten larger, cheaper, and better.

I have a 75”, 4k television with HDR and Dolby Atmos. It cost me less than what I paid over 25 years ago for a CRT television that was heavier, with a smaller screen, and lower resolution.

More and more people seem to only be going to the theater for large blockbusters or epic films that really play well on a large screen. Personally, I don’t think I’ve been to a theater in over two years.

I’d rather buy the physical media, which doesn’t cost that much more than buying a movie ticket, have the film forever, and watch it from the comfort of my home on a system that is as good or better.

I’m not saying I’ll never set foot in a movie theater, but the circumstances under which I’d do so are few.

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GisselleT asks, Have you ever been to El Salvador? Will you do an episode on each of the Central American countries individually?

Yes, I have been to El Salvador. I visited San Salvador and Suchitoto. I probably will be doing more episodes on individual countries in the region in the future.

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BardTheGamer from the Discord server asks, With so many episodes about exploration and historical figures known for traveling (Ibn Battuta springs to mind), have you ever thought of taking a trip that mirrors a historical traveler’s trip while using only methods of travel available to them at the time?

Nope. They did what they did during the time they did it. I did what I did during the time I did it. I really have never had any desire to recreate someone else’s journey when I can do my own.

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Findaer asks, Since you’ve done a number of episodes on fairly complex topics, did you hit an “Ah ha!” moment for some of the bigger ones like nuclear physics or chemistry, or was it more of a gradual understanding? Do you have any favorite “Ah ha!” moments?

There are several examples, but one of the best is probably trigonometry.I took a trigonometry class in high school, and all of the trigonometric functions were just given to us as the ratios of triangle sides. We had to learn it through rote memorization, and it was never explained exactly why they were important or what the relevance of any of it was. None of it ever stuck with me.

Later in college, I had a professor explain the same thing, but this time they did it using a unit circle. Everything instantly clicked.

From that point, I didn’t need to memorize anything, because I could figure it out by knowing the unit circle…and the end points on the sine and cosine graph. From that, it was easy to know what trig function to use where, and most importantly, why.

I had a similar moment with ternary diagrams in geology.

For most things, you might have to hear it several times, and in several different ways, before something sinks in. For kids in school today, YouTube is an amazing resource precisely because if they don’t understand something, they can probably find a dozen people who all might explain it a bit differently.

It is also why I don’t feel bad about encore episodes. Even if you did listen to the original episode, hearing it again after a year is probably going to make something sink in that didn’t at first.

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The final question comes from Geronimo Ritcheson, who asks I noticed on Spotify how you can mark episodes as finished without listening to them. Would you be concerned that this may be used to falsely claim membership in the Completionist’s Club?

Just to be clear, the Completionist Club is on the honor system. I do not check, and there is no way to check, if someone has actually listened to every episode.

I can see no reason why anyone would have any incentive to lie about something like this, and if they did, they are only cheating themselves.

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It comes from Dan in Australia, who emailed and asked, Hi Gary, with all the research you have done for your podcast, have you ever thought about going on jeopardy? Thanks

Honestly, I have never given any thought to appearing on Jeopardy or any game show. Jeopardy isn’t just a matter of knowing stuff. There is a skill involved that includes properly selecting categories, better, and buzzing in.

Could I become a Jeopardy champion? I think so. But then again, I could just as easily fall totally flat depending on the categories. There are a great many things I know nothing about, including a lot of popular culture.

I’m familiar with Jeopardy, but I’m not a regular watcher. I’ll watch it if it’s on, but I don’t go out of my way to watch it.

Moreover, if you are successful on Jeopardy, you have to record the shows several weeks in advance. I couldn’t do this podcast if I were successful.

Contestants can’t reveal the results beforehand, but if I were running weeks’ worth of encore episodes, everyone would be able to figure out the results.

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HC Gamers asks on the Discord server, Gary, hello from Taiwan. Have you ever gone to Taiwan before? If so, what places do you like?

Yes, I have been to Taiwan….twice in fact. I was there in 1999 on one of my first visits outside of North America. I returned there near the start of my full-time travels in 2007.

During that eight-year period of time, Taipei changed dramatically. I can only imagine how much it has changed since I was last there.

I didn’t really get far beyond Taipei in either of my visits. The one place I would recommend people visit is the National Palace Museum.

What many people don’t know is that many of the greatest works of art from Chinese culture reside in Taiwan, not mainland China. They were taken to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war and still remain there today.

I’d like to go back at some point to see how much Taipei has changed and to see the rest of the island.

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Michael Porras from the Facebook Group asks, Hi Garry! I’m originally from Costa Rica, and I’m in the process of opening a competionist club here. Have you ever traveled to Costa Rica? Do you plan on making an episode about it? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Keep up the great work!

Yes, I have been to Costa Rica. I visited there in 2013. In addition to San Jose, I visited Rincon Volcano National Park and Tapanti National Park, both of which are World Heritage Sites.

Costa Rica has really been the shining star of Central America over the last century, as it has managed to avoid many of the problems that have plagued its neighbors, such as revolution and civil war.

Costa Rica will be the subject of its own episode in the future and will certainly get a mention in other episodes. I did an episode on Central America as a region a while back, and I need to revisit the area and do episodes on some of the individual countries.

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McKinney from the Discord server asks, Hi Gary, I’ve asked before and will try again because I love food. Since you’ve traveled plenty and ate many types of food – a hypothetical question – if you were on death row, what would you choose as your last meal? No limit on price!

I guess I’d have to go with fugu. The form of Japanese sashimi that comes from the poisonous puffer fish. If it isn’t prepared correctly, it can be highly poisonous and can kill you.

If I’m on death row, there doesn’t seem to be much risk in the proposition. Regardless, if the dish isn’t prepared correctly, I’ll be dead either way, so why not?

It is probably the only time you could have the dish in such a way that it would be a no-risk proposition.

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Fernando Díaz on the Facebook group asks, With so much knowledge on so many topics, what do you do with your money? Do you save it in a checking account, Treasury bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, gold… Do you have any simple recipes for what to do with the extra money? Is this a topic for a future episode?

I’m not going to get into the business of giving financial advice, as that is not my job, and I’m not going to get into the details of any specific investments.

That being said, I spend quite a bit of time following economic news at a macro level, and I have a few general rules that I follow.

The biggest thing is to determine large-scale, macroeconomic, technical, or demographic trends. Back in the 90s, I had a front row seat to the early Internet, and everyone at the time knew it was going to be a big deal. The trick was finding the right companies to invest in. There were many absurd companies that received funding, and some that even went public.

The general sentiment about the internet was correct, however, and it outperformed even some of the most optimistic estimates. The companies that did well did extremely well.

There are other trends today that are locked in, in particular, the demographic decline in most countries. This is something that can’t be avoided at this point.

Likewise, there is a vast amount of debt in the world today, and that is going to be impacted by the demographic decline I mentioned.

AI is probably going to be a major technology trend, but I’m not sure who will be the winners or how it is going to impact society.

The point of identifying these big-picture, long-term trends is that it helps narrow down what to invest in and what to avoid. I’m not a big believer in constantly trading. Successful investors like Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett have done extremely well with a buy-and-hold strategy.

If you don’t want to put in that much work to try to identify these trends, you can always just stick your money into an index fund, which is sort of the baseline for investing.

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Bairbre N’Cinneide from the Facebook group asks, My father took a barge off the bottom of a lake in Ireland (many years ago) He was sure it would float because rust needed moisture and oxygen. How long would a metal boat survive underwater? Have there been cases of boats being salvaged years after the sinking? The lake in question was in Ireland.

For starters, there is dissolved oxygen in water, so things can absolutely rust at the bottom of a lake.

There are some lakes that are an anoxic environment, but they tend to be rare.

How long a metal boat could last after sinking would depend on the metal used in the boat and the type of water it was in.

The deep ocean has less dissolved oxygen than the surface. The further down you go, the more difficult it is for water to be replenished. Small organic particles will sink to the bottom and oxidize, removing dissolved oxygen from the water.

For the average lake, it isn’t deep enough to have anoxic conditions at the bottom. Some bodies of water, like the Black Sea, are very anoxic and are able to preserve shipwrecks for thousands of years.

Likewise, if it is an aluminum boat, it is going to be more resistant to corrosion than if it is made of iron or steel.

So, without knowing the boat or the lake, it would be impossible to say.

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Jerry Gardner from the Facebook group asks, Since the NFL Draft was in your home state of Wisconsin, did you get to go? Maybe a good topic for a future episode would be the history of the NFL draft.

I had a bunch of people basically ask the same question about the draft, so I’m going to try to lump them all together and answer them here.

I have no idea how to evaluate a draft before anyone has actually played a down. I hoped that the Packers would draft a wide receiver and they did in the first round, but beyond that we’ll have to wait and see.

I think there is far too much time and energy put into analyzing the draft. The majority of draft picks never amount to much, and some are outright horrible.

The Packers probably had the worst draft pick in NFL history when they selected Tony Mandrich second in the 1989 draft.

The fact that Mandrich was a total bust wasn’t the bad part so much as the fact that the Packers passed up Barry Sanders, Dion Sanders, and Derrek Thomas, all of whom were Hall of Fame players, to get him.

Green Bay hosted the draft this year because the town is too small to host anything else. While a Super Bowl at Lambeau Field would be amazing, it’s too cold for the NFL ever to do it, and more importantly, there aren’t enough hotel rooms in the community to host everyone.

I, and everyone I know, avoided Green Bay while the draft was being held because it was so busy.

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Peter Ertel from the Facebook group assk, Alternative history is fraught with difficulty, exceeding predicting the future. However, if Cesar hadn’t become dictator-for-life, any guesses how Rome might have evolved from there?

My guess, and it is nothing more than a guess, is that Rome would have eventually wound up with some sort of imperial system of government at some point.

The republic was on thin ice when Caesar won the civil war. If it wasn’t him, within the next century, someone would have probably made a move to consolidate power.

The legions had shifted their loyalty from the Republic to their generals.

This is one of the reasons why another civil war happened after Caesar was assassinated.

In such an environment, I think it would just be a matter of time before someone took an army to seize power.

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Jordan from the Discord server asks, When you’re making episodes do you start from a clean slate every day (i.e. pick a topic at the start of the day, research, write, record, and publish that night) or do you constantly have several episodes at various states of completion at any given time?

The answer is…..it depends.

Ideally, I know what episodes I’ll be doing days or weeks in advance. Just knowing what the episode will be about is a huge part of the battle.

The actual writing and recording are done the day before an episode airs, but before I start writing, I need to have an idea of what the episode is going to be about and the arc of the episode.

After 1400 unique episodes, I’ve gotten to a point where once I know what the episode is going to be, the actual writing and recording can be done relatively quickly, in a few hours.

There are always a bunch of episodes I’m thinking about and some that I want to do at some point, but I just haven’t figured out how to make the episode make sense yet.

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The last question comes from The Wyandotte on the Discord server, who asks, Would you travel to space if space tourism actually becomes a thing?

It depends on what it entails and how much it costs. I can’t see spending my life savings on a 15-minute suborbital flight for a few minutes of weightlessness. That is pretty much the current state of space tourism.

The costs would need to decrease by one to two orders of magnitude to be worth it.

That being said, it is possible that such a thing might happen over the next decade or two. If Starship can fly on a regular basis and it proves to be totally reusable, there is a planned configuration where it could take about 100 people at a time on brief orbital flights.

This would still probably be expensive, but not spend everything you have expensive.

Under that sort of scenario, it would be something that I’d at least consider, that is, of course, assuming that they have proved the safety of the ship at that point with dozens or hundreds of flights.

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The first one comes from Jordan on the Discord Server, who asks, You’ve been doing this podcast every day for almost five years now, how has your process improved since you first started? Do you have go-to references for your research or a template narrative structure for an episode or something like that? Are there some episodes from early on that you wish you could redo now that you have a reliable system?

My system for writing episodes is much better now than it was when I started. I’d say I can write a full episode in half to a third of the time it took me when I first started, and the episodes are longer than they were.

Much of this has to do with the fact that I’ve done so many of them, before I even start writing, I develop an outline in my head for how the episode is going to be laid out. The arc of the episode will be different depending on the subject, but I’ve done enough of them now to have an idea how most subjects should flow.

Are there early episodes I wish I could redo? The answer is yes. When I do encore episodes, I almost never do any from the first two years of the podcast anymore. I just don’t think those episodes are at the same level of the shows I’m doing today.

I’m actually considering going back and redoing these shows. They wouldn’t be encore episodes, rather theyd be a more fully fleshed-out version. I’d probably label them as redux episodes, as it would include a lot of new content.

The big reason I want to do this is because many of those early episodes were some of my favorite ideas for shows.

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Mónica Alequín on the Facebook group asks, I’m curious. Have you ever come across any new information about a topic you’ve already done an episode on and regretted not having included it in the episode?

Given the format of this show, there is always something I have to leave out. I’ve done episodes that some people have spent entire careers studying.

As I’ve mentioned in the previous episode, I’ve done some redux episodes in the past where I’ve revisited a subject, like the James Webb Telescope.

There have been times I wish I had included something I intended to but forgot, but I don’t worry about it as I have another episode to work on the next day.

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Jesus Chan asks Hello Gary, greetings from South Texas. Does temperature mean the same thing at different scales? Can a single atom or a tiny system even have a temperature the way a cup of coffee does?

The short answer is not really.

Temperature is a macroscopic property—meaning it’s defined for systems with a large number of particles, like gases, liquids, or solids. In essence, temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system.

A single atom can’t really be a liquid, solid, or gas. These states of matter exist with respect to how they behave with other atoms or molecules. By the same token, the notion of temperature loses meaning when you refer to a single atom or molecule.

That being said, experiments have been done on the laser cooling of individual atoms. This is done to achieve temperatures near absolute zero. Likewise, scientists also talk of the temperature of particles shortly after the Big Bang.

So, A single atom has kinetic energy, but temperature isn’t just about a single particle’s energy—it’s about the distribution of energies across many particles.

So, I’d say no, an atom can’t have a temperature like a cup of coffee, but I’m guessing there are others who would disagree. It really is mostly a matter of definition.

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Jerry Gardner asks, Do you have any tattoos? If so do they represent anything, like a country,or a special place or trip? Or was it just something to do?

I do. I have an arm band that I got at the start of my travels on the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. The design is in Cook Island Mauri pictograph, and it tells the stories of my travels.

There is a YouTube video of me getting the tattoo as I filmed the entire thing. I’ve occasionally met people from the Cook Islands, and I’ve shown them the tattoo and told them I got it done by Stormy, and they always seem to know who she is. Its a pretty small island.

If I were to get another one, and I don’t know if I would, I’d commission an artist from the Haida Nation in British Columbia or Alaska to do it.

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Herb Gately asks, Ruth and I have lived in the Rhineland Pfalz Region of Germany for 3 Years. We have traveled throughout the country. What is your must-visit Hidden Gem in Germany to visit that may not be in the average Tourist Guide? By the way, we have been to 16 Countries and 65 Cities.

Yes, there are a few places I’d recommend in Germany that most people don’t know about.

One is Bergpark Wilhelmshohe. It is a landscape park in the village of Kessel. There is a giant artificial river that flows down a hill, and it’s an incredible sight when it is running. When I was there, I got to see it with the water running. I’d check the times they do this in advance because when I was there, they only did it twice a week.

The other place I’d recommend is the Völklingen Ironworks in the state of Saarland. It is a former pig iron blast furnace that operated from 1882 to 1986. This might not sound like a tourist attraction, but I found it a fascinating place to visit because there are so few sites like this in the world that have been preserved.

Both of these sites are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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GongKing on the Discord server asks, What is the most beautiful airport you saw in your travels?

With respect to airports, beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean good. There are some newer airports in Asia that are architecturally stunning, but they aren’t places I would necessarily want to be stuck on a long layover.

The airports that I think are the best airports that I’ve been to are Singapore, Vancouver, and Minneapolis. Vancouver and Minneapolis are standouts in North America. I’m not even sure which airport I’d put third. Maybe Denver, but it would be a distant third.

Singapore is often called the best airport in the world, and I agree with that assessment.

Other airports I like include Doha, Frankfurt, and Barcelona.

One of my least favorite airports is Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

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MiloDude on the Discord server asks, What’s a country you haven’t been to that you want to visit?

There are a lot of countries that I haven’t been to yet that I would love to visit.

At the top of my list would be Peru, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, and Bhutan.

There is no particular reason I haven’t been to these countries; I just never got around to it, and the world is a really big place.

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Mark Flynn asks One of the most fascinating and surprisingly beautiful cities I have ever visited has been St Petersburg in Russia. Its history, culture, and landmarks were hidden behind the Iron Curtain from most of the world for a long time, and the present political situation makes it difficult to visit, but would you consider doing a show on it? Heck, the Peterhof and Hermitage might need a show of their own.

Mark, you are absolutely correct. The creation of St Petersburg, Peter the Great, and the Hermitage would all make for great episodes.

I visited Saint Petersburg very briefly. I went there by ferry from Helsinki and took advantage of their visa waiver, which allows for a 72-hour visa if you arrive by ship in St. Petersburg.I spent about 10 hours there and I wasn’t even able to go into the Hermitage.

One thing I would highly recommend to everyone if you are interested in this subject is the 2002 film titled Russian Ark.

It was shot in the Hermitage with a cast of over 2000 people. The remarkable thing about the film is that it was shot in one continuous 90-minute take, going through 33 rooms of the museum. The documentary about the making of the film is almost as interesting.

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NuMetal Cub asks on the Discord server, What, in your opinion, are the most reliable places for an up-and-coming photographer to send in photos to be added to a magazine, book, journal, or website? I’m just asking because I’ve been at it for years now and never really cared to get published in that way but I do think it would be nice to add to my portfolio. Have you ever considered starting a photo magazine?

Ok, a couple of things you need to know….

Print publications are not all they are cracked up to be anymore. Back in the day, that was a primary means for photographers to make money. I personally know many photographers who made a career out of selling images to publications.

Today, print publications don’t pay very much, if anything. Their budgets for photography have dried up, so it is very difficult to make money that way. The same is true for websites. They don’t have money for photography, so many of them just use stock photography services.

If you are interested in just getting your stuff to appear in publications so you can say your work has appeared in publications, then I would just start sending emails with links to a portfolio of your work.

There really isn’t much more to it than that. Identify who you’d like to work with and start from there. I wouldn’t start with something like National Geographic. Start with smaller publications or websites.

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Findaer from the Discord server asks, If you could send a message back in time to your 15-year-old self, what would you say knowing all you know now?

Buy Amazon stock.

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Elizabeth Mrazek Nobles asks So this was bouncing around in my head last night at 2 am… when such thoughts often appear. We often refer to North America as the west. Asia is the east, and we have those countries in the middle east. What about the rest of the world? Is South America the Western world as well? What about Australia, they live a western culture lifestyle, but are in the east. Then Africa, is it just Africa?

The terms east and west, as you are describing them, primarily refer to culture.

The terms originally stemmed from the location of the cultures on the Eurasian continent.

“The West” referred broadly to European culture and “The East” referred broadly to Asian culture.

Asia was defined in the ancient world as that which was east of the Bosporus. Because Asia is so large, the part around the Eastern Mediterranean was known as the Near East, and the parts bordering the Pacific Ocean were the Far East.

In the early 20th century, the term Middle East replaced the term Near East. The term Middle East mostly refers to the Arab and Persian Islamic World in Asia.

When Europeans sailed west to the New World, they took their culture with them, which is why the United States and Canada are considered to be “western” countries.

For the same reasons, Australia and New Zealand are culturally considered to be “the West”, even though they would geographically be in the Far East.

Now, with respect to Africa and South America, they never really fit into the East/West dichotomy.

In the mid-20th century, a new metaphor for grouping countries was established, this time using North and South. These groupings weren’t based on culture so much as economics. The global north was considered rich, and the global south was considered poorer.

Under this, North America north of Mexico, Europe, Australia/NZ, and the richer nations in East Asia were considered to be the “north”, and everything else, in particular Africa, South America, and the Middle East, were considered to be in the South.

Just as East and West weren’t strictly about geography, neither is North and South. Australia is considered part of the West even though it is in the east, and it is considered part of the North, even though it is in the South.

Got that?

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Seth Louviere from the Facebook group asks, Do you have control over which ads are shared on the podcast, or are they decided by others?

There seems to be a lot of interest in this question so I figure I’ll answer it. If I am reading the ad, then I had control over doing it. These are known as host read ads. In most cases, unless it is a highly regulated industry, I often have broad leeway in creating the copy for the ad.

However, there are also ads that some of you hear that are not read by me. These are known as programmatic ads.I have no clue what programmatic ads are running. If you live outside the United States, you might hear ads that are not in English. There are a few broad categories, like political ads, that I ban, but that’s about it. The ads you hear might be totally different than those someone else hears depending on your location. Some ads are delivered based on your location.

I will sometimes get people who complain about an ad, but they only generically complain about advertising, and I have no clue what to do with that information.

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Aidenn from the Discord server asks, When storing your travel pictures, or frankly any pictures, do you use local storage mediums (hard drives, etc) or online backup services like Google Photos? Or, do you use other forms of backup? When you record episodes, what type of microphone do you use?

I have a multi-layered approach to backing up my photos, and it is pretty similar to what I use for my podcast episodes. All my original RAW images are on a RAID array on my desktop. That is backed up to the cloud on Backblaze.

All of my process and edited images, which is a much smaller subset, are on Smugmug. You can view all of those images by going to my website.

The microphone I use to record the podcast is a Sure SM7B microphone. It is a pretty popular professional microphone.

The quality of a laptop or smartphone microphone isn’t good enough to do a serious podcast, and the cost of a microphone really isn’t that much.

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Along the same lines, Sparky from the Discord Server asks, What equipment and software do you use to record an episode? How much editing do you do to the recording?

The software I use for recording is very simple and cheap.I use GarageBand to record the show and do editing. My editing is very simple because this is a scripted monologue show, which is the easiest type of show to produce. I edit as a record, so it usually takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to record 15 minutes of content.I then run the saved wav file through a program called Levelator. This ensures that everything is the same volume. Then finally, I convert it to MP3. The total cost of all three programs is zero.

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Amy Elizabeth Morrison from the Facebook group asks, Have you ever really despised the subject matter for an episode? Is there any subject you are completely uninterested in and refuse to touch? For instance, I don’t recall any episodes about insects. Is that on purpose? The short answer is no. If I don’t like the subject, I just won’t do an episode on it.I have no particular aversion to insects, I just haven’t done much on them. I have at least done one episode on insects. A while back I did one on the 17-year cicada.

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Similarly, Ryan Brandon from the Facebook group asks, Have there been any topics you started to research, and decided to NOT make an episode about for one reason or another? There are two episodes I started to do that I abandoned in the middle of writing them. The first was on the serial killer HH Holmes. The reason I abandoned the episode is because when I started doing research, I found the real story was so much different from the one I originally heard.I later returned to the subject and published an episode on it. The other was on the Gang of Four, the group that tried to take control of China after the death of Chairman Mao. My problem with this episode was that I just couldn’t get my head around how to tell the story in a simple way.I’m going to be returning to this subject in a future episode as well as I think I have a better handle on it now.

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Edimek from the Discord Server asks, Hello Gary! What are the odds that I reached a one year streak in learning Chinese (in Duolingo) and I’m asking for the keys to the Nigerian completionist club on the same day?

Your podcast has been my top podcast for two consecutive years on my Spotify Wrapped. Keep up the good work Gary, as I keep telling my friends about your podcast. My question is, what is your Chinese food recommendation, one that is not really common outside of China?

First, Edimek, I’d like to congratulate you on your entry into the Completionist Club. As far as I know, you might be the first member of the club from Nigeria.

That being said, if you know some Chinese, there is something that you can do at most Chinese restaurants, assuming that the owners speak Chinese. Most Chinese restaurants have a secret menu which is available to Chinese people who speak Chinese. This usually has more authentic Chinese dishes. I’ve been with Chinese speakers who have done this.

If you want to try this, the first time you go, just ask in Chinese if they have a special menu. If they say yes, then have them select a dish that they like. That will at least give you a start to know sort of authentic dishes you like.

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Dayle MacKenzie from the Facebook group asks, Hi Gary, You cover a lot of ground with the variety of topics you cover, and present your subject matter with confidence and authority. How often do you attack a subject matter on which you have no working knowledge, how do you research it, and is the time invested in research variable depending on the base subject and your particular interest in it?

Well Dayle, I never record an episode without knowing a fair amount on the topic before starting it. There are some topics I can do off the top of my head, like the recent episode I did on economic statistics.

Others take more time and research. There are some episodes that took years between being put on the list before I actually ended up recording it.

I’ll do some low-level research on a topic like reading articles to get an overall idea of the story, and then try to get more specific data the closer I get to recording.

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josu from the Discord server asks, Hi Gary, I’m from India. Have you been to India? Which parts?

Yes, I have been to India. I’ve been to Kerala in the south, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. While I have been to India, there is still a whole lot that I have yet to do and see in the country. As you know, India is a very big country and the different regions are very different from each other. I’d like to go as far south as well as the far north in Kashmir, and the Bengal.

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Geronimo Ritcheson from the Facebook group asks, I know that there is an official Instagram account for EED, and I am following it. However, I want to ask if you have plans on posting on it more frequently, if not expanding your activities on the platform (utilizing polls, featuring episodes on IG Stories, etc.).

The short answer to that question is no.

The Instagram account was created when I was traveling extensively and doing travel photography. It was pretty popular at its peak. I had 182,000 followers on it at one point.

However, with the shift to the podcast, I’ve pretty much ceased posting on Social Media outside of the Facebook group.

The truth is, it really doesn’t do anything for me anymore. Getting likes on social media is meaningless. More importantly, people on Instagram and TikTok don’t convert to podcast listeners. I have tried and tried it just doesn’t do anything.I’m not the only podcaster who has come to this conclusion.

The reason why I have no desire to post on Instagram on a regular basis is because it would take away time I could be spending on getting the next episode out the door, which I’m sure you will all agree is a much higher priority.

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Debi Barton Thompson on the Facebook group asks Have you researched your own genealogy? If so, any surprises?

Yes, I am the 20th great grandson of King Robert II of Scotland. Just to give you an idea how meaningless that is, there are over a million people in your 20th generation of ancestors, not including all the people in the subsequent generations.

I literally have one great-grandparent that this lineage comes from. She was the only ancestor I had that had any ancestry from continental Europe.

I’ve been able to trace other branches of the family tree from the 19th to the 17th centuries. It becomes very hard to do genealogy in Germany once you get to the 30 Years War because so much was destroyed.

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Christian Long on the Facebook Group asks Why can’t we have a metric calendar? Not going to happen, but the seasons and months could make more sense. Maybe 10 months, 36 days each, and an extra 5 days split between the new months Novembicus and Decembicus due to all the holidays.

OK. You aren’t the first person to have thought of this and there have been many proposals to do something like this.

The basic problem with all of the proposals is that days, months, and years do not divide evenly into each other.

Months, days, and years are all natural units of time. Creating a 36-day month would pretty much eliminate any correlation of the month to the natural lunar month.

There have been attempts at trying to decimalize everything, including splitting the day into 10 units, and splitting those into 10 units.

A metric system of units for things like length, weight, and temperature, all make sense because all of those units are arbitrary units. The second, meter, and kilogram are all things we just made up.

The second is somewhat arbitrary, but the day, month, and year are not.

The big reason for not doing this, however, is that there really isn’t any benefit to do so.

We’d have to totally change every history book, every clock, every watch…. everything.

There are enough alternative calendar concepts out there that I could probably do an entire episode on the subject.

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The final question comes from GisselleT over on the Discord Server who asks, You’ve talked a lot about UNESCO World Heritage sites, do they sometimes overlap with popular tourist attractions? Or are they stand alone? Are they as popular, always have lots of people, or are they hidden gems?

I’d say about 10% of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, maybe less, are ones that you have probably heard of. These are things like the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Statue of Liberty, and Angkor, for example.

There are a bunch of cities in Europe where the whole city is just lumped together as a UNESCO site. Venice, Paris, Rome, and others.

The other 90% are more obscure sites that you probably have never heard of and wouldn’t even know about them unless you went out of your way to visit world heritage sites.

That being said, I’d say about 90% of those are worth visiting. There are a few duds, but most of them are pretty interesting.

Most of the obvious attractions have already been put on the list so the new places that have been declared World Heritage Sites tend to be ever more obscure.

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Let’s jump right in with the first question. Dan Banowetz asks, Should we get rid of the US Penny? They cost more than their worth and seem to be unnecessary.

The short answer is yes, we should stop manufacturing them. That doesn’t mean we are getting rid of them, however.

As you mentioned, we lose money on every penny we create because the materials and the pressing cost more than the actual coin. The difference in the value of the money and the cost to make it is known as seinorage. The penny has a negative seignorage, which is a big signal that it is no longer worth making.

This is entirely a function of inflation. You literally can’t buy anything anymore for a penny. Growing up, you could at least put a penny in a gumball machine and get a gumball out. You can’t even do that anymore, assuming you could find a gumball machine.

The penny has been studied extensively and what we’ve found is that most people don’t even use them. They quickly leave circulation as people put them in coffee cans or piggy banks because they don’t want to carry them around. People literally give them away in take-a-penny containers.

This wouldn’t be the first time we got rid of a low-value coin. In the 19th century, the US had a half penny that it eventually stopped making.

The way you do it is you don’t ban the penny, you just stop making new ones. All pennies currently in circulation would still be legal tender. Over time, they will end up at banks and will be retired, but if you have any pennies, you can still use them.

There are other countries that have done this. Canada stopped making pennies a few years ago. Prices are still priced normally and are charged to the nearest cent. If you pay with a credit or debit card, you pay the normal price. If you pay with cash, you just round up or down. The most the price would be adjusted would be 2 cents, which would be a trivial amount for most transactions.

This will probably have to be addressed at some point with nickels, as well, as it currently costs over 10 cents to produce a single nickel. The cost might be lessened by changing the metals used, but it will still be an issue as inflation gets worse.

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Gabriel Cervantes asks, Why is gasoline in the USA priced to the 9/10 cent?

This is a very good question, as nothing else in the economy is regularly priced at a fraction of a cent.

This actually goes back to a law passed in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression. At the time, the average price for a gallon of gasoline was approximately 18 cents.

Gas stations, rather than rounding up, began adjusting prices in fractions of a cent to stay competitive.

The law was supposed to expire in 1934, but instead, it was extended, and the tax increased. Gas stations began adding the 9/10 to the price per gallon and it became the norm.

This was mainly due to a psychological condition known as the Charm pricing effect. For example, consumers perceive $3.499 as $3.49 rather than rounding up to $3.50.

The practice became an industry standard, and any station choosing to round up might lose customers, especially in the 1930s when that 9/10th of a cent might have amounted to 5% of the total price.

The effect of 9/10th of a cent has become smaller and smaller as gas prices have risen, but stations keep doing it because every little bit helps, especially given the low margins in selling gasoline.

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Penny Jessop asks, Besides your writing and the research that you do for that writing, do you have other artistic sides to your life.? Do you have any hobbies? What do you do to keep yourself busy on long plane rides?

I don’t take too many plane rides anymore. Since the pandemic started and I launched this podcast, my hands have been pretty full.

That being said, as far as artistic endeavors, I’m an accomplished travel photographer. I’ve been named Travel Photographer of the Year by both the North American Travel Journalists Association and the Society of American Travel Writers. I’ve done gallery showings, and my entire apartment has my photos on the walls.

Again, I don’t do much photography anymore, but I’ve done quite a bit.

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Chloe Boyer, asks, I have been involved in scouts as a leader for over 11 years along with my son. Fingers crossed he gets Eagle but it’s his journey and only he can do it. Do you have any interesting stories about your time in Boy Scouts?

Yes, I have one really interesting one. Back in 1983, my local council was celebrating its 10th anniversary and was having a big jamboree to celebrate. The big guest of honor for the event was Bill Hillcourt, aka Green Bar Bill, the man who wrote the Boy Scout Handbook.

By this time, he was well in his 80s.

When I heard about this, I took the initiative and wrote him a letter inviting him to have lunch with our troop. He accepted and I got to meet him and get my photo taken with him and had him sign my handbook.

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John Higham asks, Did you ever suffer from travel burnout? If so, what did you do to mix things up?

Absolutely. Traveling extensively can be very tiring. What I’d usually do it just go on what I’d call an anti-vacation. I’d hole up in a place and just stay there for a few weeks playing video games.

I stayed in Saigon for a month, just hanging out and working. I did the same thing in Melbourne, Bangkok, and several other places around the world.

Everyone I know who traveled full-time eventually gets burned out. Its pretty unavoidable if you travel long enough.

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Derek Alberts asks, I would imagine you must be a sensation in a pub-quiz team? Are you a fan, how in-demand are you and how do you generally fare? In addition – what are your favourite quiz questions of all time?

The truth is I’ve never been asked to be on a team, although I have run some quiz nights at a local pub. I had a reputation, not surprisingly, of having the hardest trivia questions in the area.

Most pub quizzes tend to be orientated toward pop culture questions, for which I’d probably do horribly. I do much better on the type of topics you’d here on this podcast.

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Steve Gulliver asks, Given your extensive travels have you seen or been affected by any big storms or natural phenomena that have left you awestruck??

I was in Maui during the 2011 Japan Tsunami. We had plenty of advance warning and knew exactly when it was going to hit. It turned out not to be a very big deal, but the lead-up to the tsunami hitting was really interesting.

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Kevin Carden asks, What are the hottest and coldest temperatures you’ve ever experienced during your travels, and where were they? How brutal did they feel? I have experienced -30° F wind chill in Alaska and 117° F air temp in Indio, California, but I imagine you’ve likely been in greater extremes.

The hottest I’ve ever seen was in the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia. The temperature in the exterior thermometer in the car I was in read 50C, which is 122F. I also experienced very close to the same temperature when I visited Uluru in Australia in the summer.

The coldest I’ve experienced was somewhere around -40 to -45F, which is close to the same in Celsius. That doesn’t include any wind chill, just raw temperature. I experienced that is Whitehorse, Yukon in the winter.

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Kevin O’Keefe asks, Who was your favorite teacher and why?

In high school, I have to go with my debate coach Mrs. Hoechrel. If it wasn’t for debate, I would have had a very different life.

In college, I’d have to go with several different professors. I had an economics professor, Vassant Sukhatme, who was great and taught microeconomics.I had a mathematics professor, Stan Wagon, who I took a senior seminar with on number theory. I know he sometimes. listens to the show.

I had a political science professor, Chuck Green who was a real stand out in the department.

I also had a great debate coach and argumentation professor, Scott Nobles, who was also the very first winner of the National Debate Tournament in 1947.

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OctoberSky asks, Hi Gary, I am glad to know that my favorite podcaster is a fellow Packer fan. Anyways, you have mentioned that you prefer Civilization V over Civilization VI. (I formally disagree with your opinion.) Are you looking forward to Civilization VII, or do you expect to keep playing old reliable Civilization V?

I’m certainly going to try Civilization VII when it comes out in about a week. I’m holding off any judgment until I play it. There are some things about it that I saw in the trailers that seem interesting, and there are other parts that seem sort of dumb. Picking a totally new civilization in each era seems….odd.

Given how the time between each version of Civilization gets longer and longer, it will probably be 20 years until Civ VIII is released.

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Geronimo Ritcheson asks, Have you ever met Mike Duncan of the Revolutions podcast? If so, what do you think about him and his works?

I never met him. Despite what many people think, podcasters do not all know each other.

That being said, I’ve listened to every episode of both the History of Rome and the Revolutions podcast.

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Jana Elsea asks, Do you play a musical instrument and if so, what do you play?

I do not play any musical instrument. I tried playing trumpet in grade school, and I was truly horrible at it. I was really, really bad.

I gave it up and have never attempted to play an instrument since.

I like to think that if I really applied myself, I could learn how to do most things. However, the exception to that is playing an instrument. I have no aptitude for it whatsoever.

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The last question comes from JimmyAK, who asks, When you write your episodes, do you go completely old-school and just open up the word processor and start typing? Or do you use any sort of AI tools to either “simply help” with completing sentences and grammar more quickly (Grammarly, or something similar), or full-blown AI MMLs that help generate the outline and content, where you then do some cleanup and editing?

All of my scripts are written in Google Docs. Every single one since the first episode has been written this way. This allows me to switch between my laptop and desktop computers without having to worry about version control.

I have also used Grammarly since the very first episode. It does a pretty good job of doing copy editing on the fly as I’m writing which allows me to write faster.

I’ve been playing around with AI tools, but its still pretty limited with what I can do.

You can’t just say, “Write 2000 words on this subject,” and then have it give you a full script. What it will come up with is very boring and never what I’m looking for.

I have a very specific story arc for each episode, and an AI tool can’t really give me what I’m looking for. By definition, a large language model will give you something average.

The one area I have used AI in writing is when I have a very broad subject, and I need to figure out how to narrow it down or determine what the most important points are.

For example, I’ve been working on an episode on the religions of ancient civilizations. There are an enormous number of major and minor gods, festivals, and practices that could be covered.AI can usually do a good job of providing an outline of what the important things to cover are, although it will almost always skip smaller things that are still quite interesting.

So, the vast majority of what I do is still old fashioned writing in a word processor.

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The first question comes from Christian Long who asks, Ok, this question has been bugging me for a long time now… Why WWE??? I mean, but, it is just, but why?

First, I should correct you. It isn’t just the WWE. WWE is the largest wrestling promotion. There are many other smaller promotions, including AEW, TNA, and a host of smaller regional promotions around the world.

Second, the premise of your question, I’m guessing, comes from the fact that you consider professional wrestling to be low-brow. You are probably thinking that as someone who covers so many high-brow subjects on this podcast, how could I possibly be interested in so mundane as wrestling?

The answer is that your assumption is wrong. Wrestling isn’t low-brow entertainment. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the greatest performance art in the world today.

A top-tier professional wrestler goes to school to learn their craft and might spend years honing it by performing in front of small crowds in bingo halls.

Those who make it to the big time are not only performing on television to an audience of millions of people every week, but they are also performing 3-4 times a week in front of live crowds with as many as ten or fifteen thousand people in an arena.

Professional wrestling involves a level of improvisation that most professional actors can’t copy, and of course, the physical requirements are on par with that of a professional athlete.

So, if you look down on professional wrestling, and I know a lot of people do, I would suggest you just reconsider it. When it’s bad, it can be pretty bad, but when it’s good, it can be great.

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Amy Elizabeth Morrison asks, Besides Piltdown Man, what were other great hoaxes from history? How far back are there examples of people trying to fool the masses?

Absolutely. What was unique about Pitldown Man was that it was a scientific hoax. There weren’t a lot of them before, simply because science wasn’t that big of a deal.

However, there was an enormous amount of religious fraud. I haven’t done an episode on it yet, but many people peddled fake holy relics throughout the Middle Ages.

There was an obvious incentive for people to sell them, and there was an incentive for people to buy them. A church with a significant relic could draw pilgrims from far and wide to come and venerate them.

Of course, there isn’t a way to verify a relic unless it happens to have come from a local saint who had some association with the church.

On top of that, there are tons of stories and fables that were undoubtedly made up by people, that later became legends.

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Kyle Kenyon asks What are some fun rabbit holes to go down? Historical mysteries, etc.

It is impossible to answer that question because there are so many. Literally, every episode of this podcast can lead you down a rabbit hole if it is something that you are interested in.

Just as an example, last night, I found myself reading about jerry cans. These are square fuel cans that were debuted during the Second World War.

I don’t know if I’ll ever devote an entire episode to the jerry can, but there is a whole lot more to them than I ever realized. They are incredibly well-designed and engineered. You could fill an entire ship with jerry cans filled with fuel and then deliver them to individual vehicles immediately off the ship.

The jerry can is just an example, but I go down rabbit holes like this all the time, which I suppose is why I do this podcast.

Everyone has their own interests, and what we are interested in at any given moment will also depend on chance based on what we encounter.

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Jesus Chan asks, Hello Gary. I’ve always wondered – does ‘cold’ actually exist as a separate phenomenon/distinct physical entity, or is it just the absence of heat? Could we ever design an instrument to measure ‘cold’ directly, or would it just end up measuring the lack of heat like a thermometer does?

Jesus, you will be pleased to note that you are not the first person to ask this question. In fact, ancient philosophers were asking this same question over 2000 years ago.

The answer to your question is really straightforward. Cold is just the absence of heat. Full stop.

That is why there is an absolute zero, but there isn’t really an absolute hot. There sort of is, but it is a theoretical limit so far beyond what we could measure or experience that, for all practical purposes, is meaningless.

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Jason Tripp asks, As a devoted Packers fan, where is the most unique place you’ve tuned in to watch a game. Do you have any funny stories of trying to watch a game while traveling the world?

I have one good one. In January 2012, I was on a ship off the coast of Antarctica. The Packers were the defending Super Bowl Champions and had gone 15-1 during the regular season.

On January 15, they were playing the New York Giants in their first round of the playoffs. Watching and listening to the game wasn’t an option given where I was, but they did have a computer on board with a very poor yet expensive internet connection.

Several times during the course of the game, I went to get score updates while the game was in progress.

They ended up losing an embarrassing 37 to 20 upset.

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Will Raber asks, Have you considered posting your podcasts on YouTube? I think the graphics and other visuals would be interesting.

Well, Will, I do actually post every episode on YouTube. It’s an audio-only upload, and almost no one is listening to it on YouTube, but it is there.

Doing a proper YouTube channel is something I’ve always intended to do, but I would need to hire someone to do the video as I already have my hands full researching, writing, and recording the podcast.

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Aidenn asks, When you take photos during your travels, what type of camera do you use? For example, point-and-shoot, SLR, DSLR, or just a smartphone.

My current camera, which I haven’t used in a while since I started the podcast, is a Sony A7rii. It is a full-frame mirrorless camera.

Before that, I used a Nikon D200 and a Nikon D300s.

Smartphones weren’t really a viable option when I started traveling. I literally began my travels a few months before the iPhone hit the market in 2007.

The camera quality on smartphones has gotten pretty good now. For much of what you might want to use a camera for while traveling, a smartphone is probably good enough. There are some things you can do to optimize your image quality on the phone, such as saving your images in RAW format instead of using a compressed format such as jpeg. Most newer smartphones have an option that will let you save images in RAW even if they are hidden. Some third-party camera apps make this easier.

There are some things that you can’t do with a smartphone. Action and wildlife photography isn’t very good. Low-light images are poor on smartphones. Long exposures are difficult.

The limits of smartphones for photography are due to their very small sensor size and the fact that the lenses are fixed. If the light is good and you aren’t trying to do anything fancy, it’s probably good enough.

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Isaac asks, With all the traveling you have done, have you succumbed to any of the pickpocket/scam artists? Have you seen any of these teams in action? Walking around with so much camera gear, it seems like one would be targeted.

In all of the traveling I’ve done, I have never been the victim of a pickpocket.

This is due to a couple of things. For starters, I always carried my wallet in my front pocket, not my back pocket. It is far easier to slip a wallet out of a back pocket as you aren’t looking and the pocket usually isn’t as deep.

There are other small things I did to make myself a less attractive target. If you have a backpack that has zippers on both sides, don’t close the bag by having the zippers meet at the top. It is very easy to unzip. Rather, have both zippers meet at the bottom of one side. To open the bag, you have to zip up, not down.

Another thing I did was to always have my camera bag attached to myself. If I sat down somewhere, I’d put my leg through the shoulder loop of the bag. That makes it more difficult for someone to snatch and grab.

Finally, I always used clothing with zippered pockets, like pants and shirts from Scottevest. I used Scottevest clothing all the time when I was on the road.

What all of these things have in common is that it makes things more difficult for a pickpocket or a thief. They will always pick the easiest target, and you want to make sure that is not you. Real pickpocketing is an art form that is slowly being lost. There are some places, like Rome and Barcelona, where you can still find them, but a lot of street crime now is much less subtle. I’ve heard of several cases in Bangkok, for example, where purse-snatchers would ride past a woman with a purse and just grab it off her shoulder while they were moving.

As for scams, I have been the victim of a few small-scale ones early in my travels, but none of them cost me more than $20. I was in Manila when I first fell victim to the “my meter isn’t working” cab driver routine. Again, I probably paid about $20 rather than $5 or $10.

One of the things I learned from potential scammers is that they will almost always initiate a conversation with you. If you are just standing on the street and someone initiates a conversation with you that requires you to do something…..its probably a scam.

Talking to strangers isn’t a problem, but it usually is when they talk to you.

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The final question comes from Steve Augustino, who asks, As this podcast has grown, how has your choice of topics evolved? Do you choose fewer US-centric topics to accommodate an international audience? What changes do you hope to implement in 2025?

Believe it or not, the percentage of listeners in the United States has actually increased over time, not decreased. A few years ago, the United States comprised about 50% of my audience, and today it is 75%.

I’m not consciously considering the audience’s demographics when selecting shows. My biggest concern is how difficult will this be to write and how good is the episode going to be.

If there are more episodes dealing with American history, that is a reflection of me and the stories I come across more than anything else.

I would like to do more episodes on India, China, Africa, Central Asia, etc., and I will be doing more of them in the future. However, that requires me to roll up my sleeves and do more research. I have an episode on the Indus Valley civilization that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, for example. Likewise, one on the Mali Empire.

The only thing I am consciously doing when selecting episodes is trying not to do this same general topic in a row. With a few exceptions, such as Monster Week last year around Halloween, I try to mix things up. If someone isn’t interested in Roman History for example, if there is an episode on that, you can be sure that there probably won’t be one about that the next day.

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Eddie Waters, asks, I need to know about beaches. Who doesn’t love a great beach? In your travels, I would love to know which beaches you found the most beautiful, relaxing, welcoming, etc… The US beaches are being gobbled up by development and franchise restaurants. Where is the best beach experience in the world?

Well, Eddie, you are correct. Lots of people love a great beach, but what makes a great beach?

For starters, there is a finite amount of beachfront property in the world. Without getting into the very tricky question of how you measure a coast, which is an introduction to fractal mathematics, they really aren’t making many more.

Many of the prime beaches in the world have been developed. However, you’ll be happy to know there are a lot of beaches which have almost no development.

I remember being on a beach on a small island in Fiji that was about a long as a city block that I had all to myself. There wasn’t another person on the beach by myself.

When I was in the Solomon Islands, I visited an island called Rennell. Rennell gets almost no visitors and has a population of maybe 2000 people. When I was there, they took me to a beach that they said no one had visited in several years.

Most beaches, especially in tropical areas, are actually very similar. The sand is made out of eroded shells and coral, aka calcium carbonate.

What makes for a great beach isn’t necessarily the beach itself. It might be the community around it, the people you meet, or the experiences you have. There are some beaches which have great sand. There are a couple that come to mind. One is Flamenco Beach on the island of Culebra in Puerto Rico, and the other is many of the great beaches on the island of Anguilla. Again, I’m evaluating these just on the basis of the quality of their sand.

If you want to find a great beach, just go somewhere that isn’t a popular tourist destination. It is usually as simple as that. That compromises an enormous part of the world. You just need to do some research to find these places, and it really isn’t that hard.

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Jack Obergfell asks You mentioned having a degree in mathematics. Do you have any other ones? I think you mentioned some other ones at one point or another.

During my original undergraduate tenure, I had a triple major in mathematics, economics, and political science. This sounds more impressive than it was because it was largely a matter of efficient scheduling.

I was able to use courses in each department as electives in the other departments to pull it off. My primary focus was economics and mathematics, and political science was mostly to pad by grade point average.

On top of all that, I actually spent a lot of my time traveling around the country competing at academic debate tournaments. As I’ve said many times before, debate probably did more to prepare me for doing this podcast than anything else I’ve ever done.

Years later, after I sold a business, I went back to school to study geology and geophysics. Technically, I’m a few credits shy of getting a degree in these subjects because I had a case of vertigo that prevented me from attending classes my last semester, and by that time I realized I wasn’t going to pursue a career in academia, and and come up with the plan to travel around the world.

I have no desire to go back and get the final few credits in geology because I don’t really care too much about the credentials. I care more about learning than I do the piece of paper.

On top of that, via self study, I’ve probably easily, gotten the equivalent of a bachelors degree in history, just from all the writing and research I’ve had to do for this podcast.

Granted, what I write isn’t the equivalent of an academic research paper, but I’ve also written vastly more than your average undergraduate would ever have to write. I’d call it a wash, but I’m sure a professor of history would probably disagree.

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Barton Brierley asks In many of your episodes you mention a ? subject, and then say”that will be the subject of its own episode.” ? Do you keep track of all these loose ends? If so, is the list shr?inking over time or diverging to infinity?

On a related note, Steve Augustino asks At what point will your topics list become too unwieldy to be useful to you? Do you trim the list of related topics when you post a new episode? And have you considered licensing spin-offs as a way to address all the topics? (For example, Everything Roman History Daily)

When I started this podcast, I created a list of 100 episodes just to get me started. I created the list in a Google doc file.

Since then, I’ve added to the list when I have new ideas for episodes and delete from the list when I do an episode.

The current list had 935 show ideas. The list remains somewhat steady, but it will grow in spurts and then slowly fall back as I do episodes.

If I was more aggressive about coming up and documenting show ideas I could probably double or triple the size of the list.

What episodes I select is often nothing more than what I feel like doing on any particular day. I try to mix it up so that the same general subjects aren’t done in the same week.

As for spinning off a new show, that is a theoretical possibility, but I have absolutely no plans to do so anytime soon. I have my hands full just keeping up with this show.

If I were to spin off a new show, like a Roman history show, for example, it would have to be in a different format. I’m not sure bouncing around a topic would work for a show like that. A more linear format would work better for a single-topic show.

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Abdelrahman Wael asks, Hey Gary, I have to choose between going to Athens or to Istanbul, which would you say is worth visiting more?

If it were up to me, I would visit Istanbul. That isn’t to say Athens isn’t worth visiting, but Istanbul used to be the capital of two different empires, and there is just so much to see in the old city of Constantinople.

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Brent Forliberty asks, What is your take on cold weather?

Cold is a function of adaptation. Let me give a few examples to illustrate the point.

I was once in the Kingdom of Tonga when temperatures dipped to a very unusual 68 degrees Fahrenheit, or 20 degrees Celcius. Not unheard of, but colcer than normal. People there claimed to be freezing because they weren’t used to it.

I was in Key West, Florida, once when temperatures dipped into the upper 40s Fahrenheit, or about 8-9 degrees Celcius. Again, people were flipping out about how cold it was as it was nearing a record-low temperature.

On the flipside of that, I was in Whitehorse, Yukon, in the winter once when temperatures reached about -50F or about -45C. It was cold, but people went about their lives. They wore jackets, but many of them would walk from their cars to whatever building they were going to with it unzipped.

I was in Antarctica on a ship, and out on deck, I wore a sweater and a hat, but no jacket. Temperatures were a few degrees above freezing. I’d call that chilly.

However, other passengers from Australia were completely bundled up for the same temperature because they weren’t used to it.

So, cold is mostly an issue of adapting, accepting, and dressing appropriately.

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Teresa Black asks What is your favorite (Wisconsin) cheese?

That is easy—fresh cheese curds from the DuPont Cheese Company in Marion, Wisconsin.

They must be eaten at room temperature, which is how you normally purchase them.

I’m not even sure if you can find them all over the state, as it is a rather small company.

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Robert Alan Nassif Jr asks What custom, habit, regulation, or law have you encountered abroad that seemed odd, arbitrary, or absurd?

The dumbest law I encountered was on the island of Barbados. When you fly into many countries, especially island countries, they often require you to have an outbound ticket already booked.

That is reasonable, and I’m used to that.

However, when I first landed in Barbados, I was asked by the person at immigration if I had a ticket out of the country, and I said yes. I had a ticket to the island of St. Vincent in just a few days.

However, she then kept prying. She insisted that it wasn’t enough that I had a ticket out of the country, I had to have a ticket booked to my home country.

I was detained for two hours while they debated letting me in the country.

I later met representatives from Barbados and they said that they had never heard of the law and had never heard of such a thing happening before.

I spent hours searching for this law after I left Barbados, and I eventually found something. However, it was very obscure, and it was never enforced. I just happened to be the wrong person in the wrong line with the wrong immigration officer at passport control.

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Ajayi Samuel asks Hey Garry. What are your favorite books?

Likewise, Atak Lumo on the Discord sever asks, Do you have any literary “must-reads” that you would recommend to your fans? What are your favorite books?

My favorite book is Frank Herbert’s Dune.

I have read Dune many times, and every time, I get something new from it. I’ve read all of the Dune Universe books written by Frank Herbert and almost all of the Extended Universe books written by his son.

I even have all of the adaptations of the book for both film and TV.

I’m also a big fan of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. I am less of a fan of the current Apple TV Foundation series, which seems to only share a title and some character names with the books.

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I’m going to end with a question from Jesus Chan who asks, Why has no one since Ted Williams been able to hit over .400 in MLB?

Jesus, this is a very good question and one I could probably talk about for an entire episode.

For those of you outside of the United States or who don’t follow baseball, a batting average is the percentage of times you get a hit based on your number of at bats, which doesn’t include base on balls.

If you get a hit 2 out of every 10 times, you are probably going to be released or demoted to the minor leagues. If you hit .200 and remain on the team, you must have something else good goin on. If you get a hit 3 out of every 10 times, you are one of the best players in the league.

Hitting .400 means getting a hit four times out of every 10 at bats, or to look at it a different way, it means failing 60% of the time.

Hitting .400 is extremely rare and if someone could do it, it means that are having one of the best seasons in all of history.

A .400 batting average has always been a major accomplishment, but it was more common before the Second World War.

The last player to hit .400 was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941. No one has done it in over 80 years.

The closest anyone has come was Tony Gwynn, who hit .394 in 1994, and that was in a strike-shortened year.

So, why has no one been able to do this for the better part of a century, and why is it so hard?

There are a host of reasons, but basically, the game isn’t played the same way it used to be. This mainly has to do with better analytics and statistics.

For starters, batting average isn’t as highly valued anymore as is home runs and total bases. Through analytics, people eventually realized that a .250 hitter with power was more valuable than a .300 hitter without power.

Pitchers have become more specialized. They throw harder and are replaced more often, which means that pitchers can throw their best stuff more often than they would if they had to pitch a full nine innings.

Also, every .400 hitter played under a 154-game schedule. Eight fewer games means more opportunities to fail and regress to the mean.

Finally, anyone who were to flirt with .400 nowadays would be the center of a media storm. Not only that, but every team would try to get this guy out every game they played against him.

All of these things have conspired to work against having another .400 hitter.

That being said, could it happen? I think yes, but the odds are obviously slim. There are things that happen in baseball every year that are unprecedented or that haven’t happened in decades.

I think the most likely scenario would be for baseball to implement some sort of rule change that would make it easier for hitters. Something like limiting the number of pitching substitutions in a game.

So, it is possible that someone could just put together an amazing season, I just wouldn’t bet on it.

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The first question comes from Merei Milbee who asks What has been your favorite episode idea that you’ve researched (whether or not it’s made it to air)? Can you name any that you’ve researched and decided NOT to make an episode on the topic once you started the research?

So, I don’t have a favorite, but I do have a recent example. I figure I should share this here because it isn’t going to make it into a full-blown episode, and this would be the best place to tell the story.

It has to do with Yang Kyoungjong. He was a Korean soldier who fought in the Secon world war.

He was conscripted into service in the Japanese Imperial army. He was brought to fight in China, where he ended up being captured by the Soviets.

He was conscripted into the Soviet army and was forced to fight in Eastern Front in WWII, where he was captured by the Germans.

The Germans then forced him to fight for them on their western front in France, where he was captured by the Americans after D-Day.

That is an incredible story and when I first heard, my initial reaction was that it would make for a great episode.

However, the more research I did, the more I realized that the story was almost certainly fictitious. There is one source for the story…..and nothing else.

I couldn’t, in good faith, do an episode on it.

Another episode where I had to switch plans in the middle of research was my episode on HH Holmes, America’s first serial killer. My initial research mostly consisted of rehashing the stories of the day. However, again, the more research I did, the more I realized that the stories of the time were exaggerated and sensationalized.

He was a murderer, but not to the extent that the papers would have you believe at the time.

Another episode I abandoned was the Gang of Four. This was the group led by Mao Zedon’s widow, who ruled China after the death of Mao.

My problem here was putting together a coherent story. I feel I’m in a much better position to do so now than I was when I first came up with the idea.

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Kevin O’Keefe asks; I teach 2nd grade. Knowing what you know now as an adult, if you had to go back to second grade, would you do anything differently? Would you focus on certain areas? What advice would you give yourself or others? ?

I don’t think second grade is about any particular knowledge or advice. It is about skills. It is about mastering literacy, basic mathematics, facts, and how to conduct yourself.

Any advice given to second-grade me would have been quickly forgotten because I wasn’t at a point where such advice mattered.

So, my advice to second graders would be no advice at all. Master reading, arithmetic, and basic knowledge such that when you are older you will be able to use those skills.

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Kate Adams Berich asks, How do you determine which episodes to use for encore episodes?

It is largely random. I can’t say I put a lot of thought into it before I make a selection.I never select an episode that was published within the last year and I also never republish and episode that was recorded in the first year I did the show.

I just don’t think the early episodes are up to snuff to run them as encore episodes any more.

i also try to not do a similar type of episode to once which was recorded within the last week or two. So, if I’ve recently done an ancient history episode, I wouldn’t post an encore episode about ancient history.

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Margarite Pardue Anderson asks What are your thoughts on the recent pushback on tourism in places like Barcelona or the Canary Islands where locals are marching through the streets to protest all the foreigners coming to these locations? I actually have a lot of sympathy because of the problems caused by overtourism, but I don’t really see an effective solution. I think you might have some good ideas.

I have a great deal of sympathy for cities and towns that suffer from overtourism. I’ve experienced it firsthand many times.

That being said, the problem with overtourism isn’t too many tourists per se. There are too many tourists in the same place at the same time.

Most people only know about a few placed and so where they will visit will be limited to what they know.

Most people also only have a certain window when they can travel, usually in the Nothern Hemisphere summer.

I’ve been to Barcelona many times in different times of the year. Visiting in December is a vastly different experience than visiting in July. Likewise, I’ve been to Ibiza and Mallorca in December and there were almost no tourists.

Ultimately, the solution is to do what Venice does and charage tourists and entrance fee. It would limit tourism and bring money into the community

If you don’t want to pay the fee, then you need to go somewhere else. There are lots of amazing places in the world, the problem is most of them are not top of mind for most people.

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Steven Zopfi asks, When did you get your amateur radio license? Why did you decide to get this and are you active? What is the process to get licensed?

I got my ham license a few months before I started traveling. I have a uhf/vhf radio, but I currently live in an apartment so I can’t really set up a rig and an antenna.

I never was very active because I began traveling soon after I got my license. I still have my radio, but it is still in storage.

I let my license expire earlier this year just because I found the renewal process really difficult online.

Getting a ham radio license has gotten pretty easy compared to how it used to be.

From what I understand, and I’m 100% positive there are people in the audience more qualified than me to talk about this, everything is easier now including the test to become certified to talk on high frequency bands.

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Daniel Rosenberg asks I never did debate in school. Now that I am older and hearing how debate has helped you in creating this show, I am interested in learning more about it. Do you have any recommended resources/tips for learning debate/research skills as an adult that is no longer in school?

For those of you new to the podcast, I’ve spoken often about my experience in academic debate in both high school and college. It was far and away the most rewarding thing I did, and everyone I know who competed seriously had the same opinion. That includes a great many people I know who went on to get PhDs and JD’s.

One of the ways that debate helped me in doing this podcast is in research. Debate is mostly about research. Most debates are won or lost before the debate round actually starts.

If you didn’t do debate, the thing I would suggest is to read everything, and listen to everything, very critically.

Even if someone says something you agree with, they might not actually make an argument that supports their conclusion. Someone you disagree with might make a good point that doesn’t lead to the conclusion that they claim.I’m to the point where I can read something and say “this part makes sense but this part doesn’t.” You need to have a very honed BS detector, especially for things you might be included to believe in. As the great physicist Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

This isn’t easy to do. It requires a great deal of skepticism. The other thing is that you always have to hold out the possibility that you might be wrong. Treat your beliefs as hypothesis which are open to proof or disproof.

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Donna Morris asks In a number of recent episodes you have mentioned that “is for a future episode”. How long is that list now? What are your upcoming episode list you are most looking forward to doing?

As of the recording of this episode, the number of episodes on my to do list is 938. Not all of those will end up becoming episodes. They might be merged into other topic or might never be recorded at all.

Mostly, in the course of doing research, I come across something else which I think would make for a good episode.

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Dean Koutsoubis asks, Are you considered a member of the completionist club if you’ve listened to every new episode once but have not listened to all the encore episodes?

I will leave this up to your interpretation as membership in the completionist club is ultimately on the honor system.

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Glenn Folau asks This question may have been asked before, but are you one of the 2 percent of Americans who have been to every state in the US? Secondly, I have just heard that the Cleveland Browns have decided to move to an undercover all purpose stadium and leaving their traditional home. I have read that this is a trend among some franchises. Any chance the Packers would ever move to an all purpose roofed stadium?

Yes, I have been to every state. In fact, I’ve been to every state twice. If I were to drive around New England again, I’d have visited every state three times.

Domed stadiums are becoming the norm in the NFL. They remove the elements and are more comfortable for fans.

That being said, the Packers will never move into a domed stadium.

One of the big reasons for building a domed stadium is that it can serve as a venue for concerts and other bing events. There are no big concerts that come to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The town is so small, there is nothing but football.

The Packers have invested a lot of money into Lambeau Field, and as more and more teams build indoor stadiums, the advantage of playing outdoors, especially in a cold climate, becomes greater.

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Abdelrahman Wael asks Hey Gary, I recently went on a trip to central Europe after not traveling for 12 years, and now I’m planning on seeing the world, but I still have a tight budget. So, given that you’ve been all over, what are your tips for traveling on a budget?

If you travel extensively, you want your money to go as far as possible.

The single biggest thing which determines how much money you spend is where you travel to. If you visit Zurich or Oslo, even the cheapest option is going to be extremely expensive.

The cheapest dorm room bed in a hostel in those cities will get you a nice hotel room in Southeast Asia.

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Berkleigh Rathbone asks Hi Gary! I have a really silly question but a question nonetheless. Throughout your podcast you’ve made comments about candy corn and pineapple on pizza. Would you rather eat a large handful of Brach’s candy corn or a personal sized pizza covered in pineapple?

That is an easy answer. I’d take the pineapple-covered pizza any day over the candy corn.

I have no problem with pineapple, per se. I just don’t like to mix it with pizza.

Candy Corn, however, are the devil’s seeds.

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My final question is from AmyElizabeth who asks, In your travels, have you ever found yourself in a potentially embarrassing situation culturally? If so, how did you gracefully extricate yourself?

Not really. I think this is largely overblown. Maybe in the 19th century, this could have been a problem, but not in the 21st century.

The closest thing I can think of took place in Thailand when I was told how to say hello. A woman told me to say Sawadee Ka.

The problem was, the way the Thai language works, what you say isn’t just dependent on who you are talking to, but also who you are.

Sawadee Ka is how a woman would say hello, and I went around saying Sawadee Ka.

Thai people understood that I was a foreigner, so they didn’t say anything. Eventually, someone told me I was saying something wrong. I was saying it like a woman. Men should say Sawadee Kap.

Again, not really embarrassing, but that is the closest I’ve done.

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Walt from the Discord server asks If you were suddenly teleported back in time to the year 0 and appointed to a position of power in any society, how far do you think your current knowledge could advance society? Could you spark the Industrial Revolution?

Putting aside the fact that there was no year zero, the answer to your question is no, I don’t think I or anyone else could spark an industrial revolution.

Maybe, at best, I could speed things along such that it would take place centuries earlier, but it certainly couldn’t happen within my lifetime.

Telling people 2000 years ago about the modern world would be the equivalent of telling them science fiction stories. I don’t think you can jump ahead that far.

Let’s take, for example, the steam engine. To make a working steam engine, you first and foremost need fuel. Wood simply wouldn’t work. It doesn’t have a high enough energy density, and within the span of years or decades, you will have chopped down all the forests around you.

The Industrial Revolution didn’t take off until coal started to be mined as a fuel source.

The other thing you need for an industrial economy would be some sort of organized civilization.

Returning to year 1, we find such organized civilizations in China, India, Persia, and Rome.

Of those, Rome had little in the way of coal deposits. The biggest deposits were just outside of the borders of Rome in Germany. Later, they conquered Britain, where there was also coal, but being on an island made it difficult to use.

Likewise, there was little coal in Persia or India. China has lots of coal, and it would have been the best chance of an Industrial Revolution 2000 years ago.

I think you’d need to introduce mathematics and science first before you get into engineering. To do that, you’d need to introduce mathematical symbols and probably the base ten system of numbers, and maybe Indo-Arabic numbers as well, to really speed along mathematics. You’d also have to teach people that the world is made of atoms and the germ theory of disease, as well as generally trying to convince intelligentsia of the period of the scientific method.

To do all that, you’d probably have to demonstrate that these things work, create tools such as lenses, and simple inventions that could be used immediately by people so they would believe you. Maybe if you could pull that off, and there is no guarantee that you could, you might light a spark that will catch fire several generations after you.

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Xristerj from the Discord server asks, Gary, you said when you decided to travel the world, you sold your house and bought a camera you didn’t know how to use. Then the pandemic ended your traveling phase. So do you now live in a house again? Do you rent an apartment? Or do you live in the back of a van by the side of the highway with a microphone and an Internet connection?

I actually had an apartment for about three years before the pandemic that I used as a home base between my travels. After a decade, I had gotten burned out, so I had a place I could go between trips. I was still on the road about half of every year at that point.

Today, I still have an apartment. I rent instead of own because I don’t want to get stuck with a long-term mortgage should I want to move somewhere else. I’ll most certainly be traveling again at some point, but it wont be traveling full time and living on the road like I did in the past. I’d probably stay somewhere for three to six months before moving on to somewhere else.

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Courtney Klassen asks, Can computers think? And what does it truly mean, “to think”?

My answer to this is no. Computers, even advanced AI, cannot think as we humans do. Moreover, it is my opinion that no silicon-based machine can ever really think.

We can create machines that can ape intelligence, but they are simply providing an output for a given input. All computers, as they are designed today, are based on boolean logic. They are rapidly undergoing a series of steps and executing a program. If you put in the same inputs, you will get the same outputs. You can add randomness to change the output, but the process is the same. People are impressed with how large language models can answer questions, but no AI ever asks questions. It doesn’t know if it’s wrong, it doesn’t care if it is wrong, it can’t adapt and learn to correct itself if its wrong. There is no will. There are no desires. Anything that can be done with an integrated circuit could, in theory, be done with transistors, vacuum tubes, or even on paper. It would be many orders of magnitude slower and inefficient, but it could be done in theory. Computers and AI will get more impressive, but that doesn’t indicate true thought.

I know there are a lot of people who disagree with my views on this, but I think it is a fundamental limitation of anything digital.

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Jason Scott asks Have you traced your family genealogy and traveled to the destination where they are from?I’ve spent a lot of time on ancestry.com, which has a lot of resources. I’ve been able to trace all but two my ancestors back five generations. That would be my great-great-great-great grandparents. They mostly came from Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. However, I have one great-great grandmother that had a totally different ancestry. Her ancestors were largely English and Scottish. Some of her ancestors were very early arrivals living in the Plymouth Colony in Massachuttes. Through her lineage, I’ve been able to link myself to King Robert II of Scotland. He is my 20th great-grandfather. That might sound impressive, but it really isn’t. When you go back 20 generations, you have 2^20 ancestors from just that generation or 1,048,576 ancestors.

Going the other way, King Robert II probably has millions, if not tens of millions, descendants. For the majority of my ancestors, there is a huge black hole of information around the time of the 30 years’ war which ravaged northern Europe. Many churches were burned, and the birth, death, and marriage records were all destroyed with them.

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Nonato Nonnie Ramirez asks When you were traveling the world at your peak what camera gear did you use?I started using a Nikon D200, which was the top-of-the-line crop sensor camera at the time. I then upgraded to the D300s when it came out.

I waited for years for Nikon to come out with an upgrade and they never did. Meanwhile, Sony had become a leader in camera innovation. I eventually just completely switched over to Sony and to full frame cameras. The reason for the switch is that my biggest challenge doing travel photography was low light. I couldn’t use a flash in the vast majority of situations, so I needed a camera that performed well in low light.

I have a Sony a7rII, which is a bit old at this point, but I haven’t really done much photography since I started the podcast. I normally only carried three lenses with me when traveling: a super zoom, a wide-angle lens, and a 50mm f/2 lens. I also have a 600mm lens I use for wildlife photography, but I didn’t normally travel with it as it was so large.

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Shana Hallam asks We are very impressed by the fact you have completed 3 national park passport books. We’ve currently trying to complete our first book. What is your secret to visiting each one?

Just to be clear, I have three national park passport books. They are not necessarily filled. I purchased three because I had a couple trips where I forgot mine and just bought a new one.

That being said, I’ve been to 226 of the 431 units of the National Park Service. Of the 63 sites that have been given a National Park designation, I’ve been to all but six: New River Gorge, Big Bend, Virgin Islands, Channel Islands, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia. The remaining six are not that hard to visit. It is just a matter of making it a priority and doing it.

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Tom Allen asks With the recent surge in disinformation, has your research effort gotten harder? No, and that is due to the nature of this podcast. As I deal with subjects that are historical or scientific, they are for the most part immune from organized misinformation campaigns. Most misinformation campaigns are conducted for some purpose. They want to sway public opinion about some current issue or policy.

As most of the topics I do episodes have little bearing on current events, it isn’t something that really affects me or my research.

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Enio Nery asks, When and where did the Concept of playing Sports to make a living Start? I’ve been meaning to know the answer ever since i’ve learned that the 1st ever person to win at the Original Olympics was a cook now, of course i’ve done my research but i think it would make an Interesting topicI don’t know if it’s possible to know the first person, but I would say the first people to make a profession out of competitive sports were probably Roman charioteers. In a previous episode, I covered the life of Gaius Appuleius Diocles. He was the most successful chariot racer in Rome and became one of the wealthiest men in Rome as a result.

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Martin Hanley asks What would you tell a high school junior or senior about choosing a college (4 year/ 2 year/ trade), military, straight to work, “gap” year, or crash in parents’ basement and play video games?

The advice you give totally depends on the person you are giving the advice to. Given the cost of college and the potential debt burden, I wouldn’t go into it lightly. People often say that you will make more money if you have a college degree. However, it overlooks all the people who went to college and didn’t graduate yet were still stuck with all the debt. So, I honestly wouldn’t recommend college unless you are sure you are a good enough student to graduate in four years or less.I also don’t think that college is wise if you don’t know what you want to do. It is a very expensive attempt to figure things out. I’d recommend traveling for a year as it is much cheaper than college.

The one bit of advice I always give people who are starting out is if you want to ensure long-term success in life to be great at something. It almost doesn’t matter what it is. Many skills don’t even require a formal education. The editors behind Everything Everywhere All At Once won the Academy Award for editing, and they learned how to do it on YouTube. Playing video games in your parent’s basement isn’t just a waste. It shows a lack of ambition. There is nothing wrong with playing video games per se, but time spent in the basement doing that could just as easily be spent in self-study learning something.I’ve made massive career shifts several times in my life. Each time, I threw myself into whatever new thing I was doing. Sometimes, it took a few years of study before I could claim any sort of mastery.

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Davan Woolley asks With four years of the podcast and climbing, and all the fact-checking, research, editing have you thought about scaling down to Everything Everywhere Weekly? I’m always amazed at the amount of work and effort that goes into each and every episode. The short answer is no. The entire premise and format of this podcast is that it is a short-form daily show. Yes, its a lot of work, but I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.

Four years isn’t very long in the big scheme of things, and after a thousand episodes, I’ve got a good system down for doing this.I know I’ve mentioned it for a long time, but the plan is to hire someone to help out eventually. Getting help will be a much more sustainable solution rather than changing the entire podcast.

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The last question comes from Ja Teng who asks, What kind of music do you enjoy listening to the most? What is your favorite instrument and why?

I mostly listen to classical music and more often than not contemporary classical music. Usually composers like Philip Glass and Max Richter, but also some newer composters like the Polish musician Haina Rani. That being said, I also have an extremely eclectic taste in music. I have an enormous playlist on Spotify where I dump anything I like. In there, you’ll find everything from big band to hip hop to jazz to country to rock and everything in between. The only thing in common is that it is something I like.

As for my favorite instrument, it would have to be the pipe organ. I have to respect any instrument that makes you come to it.

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The first question comes from Patricia Kemmer, who asks,“Why do lithium-ion batteries catch fire? Love your podcast.”First, lithium-ion batteries catching fire is rare, but it can happen. It is due to something known as thermal runaway.

It starts when there is some sort of damage to the battery. This could be physical damage, such as a cut in the outer skin of the battery. It could also come up with a manufacturing defect or an internal short circuit.

These defects can cause a localized temperature increase where the damage occurs. The temperature increase can cause defects to occur in adjacent parts of the batter, which can then cause more defects, more temperature increases, and so on. This is how it becomes a runaway effect. This can be made worse if as the temperatures increase, the gasses which are produced are trapped inside the enclosed battery increasing pressure.

This is one of the many reasons why researchers are trying to develop solid-state batteries that don’t have a liquid or gel electrolyte. In addition to having higher energy density, they would also be much safer.

This is also why you should never use a damaged lithium-ion battery.

Again, this is a pretty rare phenomenon and, for the most part, easy to avoid.

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Davan Woolley asks, Hadrian’s wall is 73 miles long what would that be in Roman miles? What’s the difference?

Good question, Davan.

A Roman mile is close to the imperial mile that we still use in the US and the UK. In fact, the imperial mile was based on the Roman mile.

The Roman mile was called a mille. In Latin, mille is just the world for one thousand.

The Roman mille came from the fact that it was measured to be 1000 paces. The Romans measured a pace by the number of times your left foot was set down. We might measure a pace as one step, but the Romans would have measured it with two steps.

As you can probably guess, this was a very inaccurate method of measurement. The length of the mille was based on the length of a pace, which depended on the person’s stride.

Agrippa, the number two guy to Augustus on whom I’ve done a previous podcast, standardized the Roman foot to….his foot. He also defined a pace as five feet, which made the Roman mile 5000 Roman feet.

It is believed, based on distances between Roman mile markers, that the Roman mile was 91.9% of an imperial mile. So, Hadrians Wall would be 79.4 Roman miles.

In England, the old mile was based on 5000 feet, but they had a different definition of a foot. Under Queen Elizabeth I they modified the mile to being eight furlongs which ended up being 5,280 feet. The change was made for tax reasons.

The origin of Imperial Units should probably be its own episode because all of the units have such a bizarre origin.

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Megan Sandmann asks, I assume tasting the local cuisine and photographing major attractions are of top priority when you are traveling. Is there anything else you prioritize doing at all the locations you visit?

One of the big things I did when traveling was visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There current 1223 World Heritage sites and I’ve visited a 412. Some are very easy to visit and some are incredibly hard.

Most UNESCO Sites have some sort of cultural or natural significance, and that is what usually draws me to visit somewhere.

Food isn’t nearly as big of an attraction as most people think it is. You can eat many types of cuisine and many different places, and much of it is quite good. For example, Chinese and Indian restaurants can be found everywhere around the world, as can sushi.

That is not to say you can’t have good culinary experiences in certain places, but food is something that can be transported easily. Cultural, historic, and natural sites cannot.

Susan K Emerson writes, Hi Gary Arndt long time listeners here, Eliza (11) Nellie (8) and mom. We are wondering if you could go back in time to when you were a kid what would be the place you would most want to travel and why.

If you were ask me when I was 8 or 11, I probably would have wanted to go to Disney World.

If you asked me when I was 13 or 14, I would have definitely said Cape Canaveral to see a space shuttle launch.

I should add that my family didn’t travel very much so both of those things were never really options.

Now, however, as an adult, if I could retroactively fund some sort of travel for my younger self, I would have tried to go to someplace that doesn’t exist anymore. Perhaps go visit West Berlin before the wall fell down.

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Mike Varoz asks Gary, have you ever visited or crossed the Boundary Waters connecting Minnesota and Canada? Is there an episode on the area? Your library is getting vast – is there a better way to search than asking in Q&A?

To answer the first part of your question, I have been to the boundary waters. I visited Vouyagers National Park and I did one of their boat tours that go into the park. There are sectionis of the tour where you actually, technically cross into Canada in the middle of the lake, but there is no one around the check.

The Kettle Falls Hotel Bar is one of the most interesting places in the park and very hard to get to.

As for searching past episodes, If you go to my website Everything-Everywhere.com, I have a page with all 1500 episodes on a single page. It is easy to search by title.

There is also a search function which lets you search the script of every episode.

I will confess that the search functionality isn’t great. I had an AI tool that would read all of my scripts and answer questions on the Discord server, but it no longer works.I’m looking at putting in a similar AI search functionality on the website because I too find my current search setup very frustrating when I want to look for something.

Right now there are a ton of AI search tools available and I just need to find a good one that works well.

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Derrin Brown asks How do you combat and filter miss information? aka fake news?

This is one of the most important skills that someone can learn and it isn’t easy to do. It takes constant practice and diligence.

The first step is to be skeptical of everything. Don’t just blindly accept anything you read or hear.

One good start is to start applying Betteridge’s law of headlines to articles you read. Betteridge’s law of headlines states that any headline that is a question can be answered with “no.” That is because if it were true, they wouldn’t need to phrase it as a question.

Don’t assume that someone you agree with generally is always right and that someone you disagree with is always wrong. They might be wrong for reasons that are true, but they draw the wrong conclusions.

By the same token, someone might be right for the wrong reasons.

Sometimes, it can be hard to know if something is right. Even if you think something is right, I would never accept it 100%. I’d always accept the possibility that it might be wrong.

One of the things I try to do is to have a working hypothesis rather than an opinion. Once people develop an opinion, they have a natural tendency to stick to it nad defenend it, even in the face of evidence which might be contrary. However, if you hold something as a hypothesis, then you are much more likely to be willing to modify your position and would be less willing to defend it to the death.

Finally, sublty and nuance is important. There is always a desire to make things black and white, but the truth is usually not so simple.

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Randy Ryan What motivates you to keep pumping the fantastic podcasts out day after day? Can’t be the money, or can it?

Well, the podcast is my livelihood at this point, and that certainly is a motivation.

However, I’m in a fortunate position to be doing something I think i’m well suited for and something I enjoy. That is something that few people can say.

It is a lot of work, I can’t deny that, but there are a lot of people out there who go to work every day and put in just as much time under much worse conditions than me.

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Angela Acuna asks, Do you play any video games? If so, what do you play?

The game I spent the most time playing, by far, is World of Warcraft Classic. I am in the top horde raiding guild on the Mankrik server, and my primary character is an undead priest.

I also play turned based or real time strategy games. Age of Empiers II, Rome Total War, and Civilization V. All of those games are pretty old I realize, but they are also, I think the best version of those games.

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Jesus Chan asks Gary, greetings from Laredo, Texas, the once capital of the Republic of the Rio Grande! With all the excitement around human space exploration and the prospects of traveling to the Moon and Mars, what do you believe is the most critical issue we must address to ensure success? Is it a medical advancement to protect the human body in space, the development of a revolutionary propulsion system, the creation of artificial gravity, or something entirely different?

That is a very good question. There is a lot that we don’t know about making such a trip. For starters, we have only sent 18 humans beyond low earth orbit. All 18 were part of the Apollo program and they spent a very limited amount of time beyond low Earth orbit.

This is important because the further away you get from Earth and our protective magnetic field, the more radiation you will experience in the form of solar wind and cosmic rays. We have zero experience of human beings in interplanetary space.

The second problem is gravity. We’ve had many people now who have spent extended periods in zero gravity. While they can survive in that environment it isn’t ideal. Extended time in zero gravity results in bone loss, muscle atrophy, and a host of other problem.

Artificial gravity seems like an easy solution, but we’ve never actually tried it before. At some point, we are going to need some sort of revolving space station with artificial gravity if nothing more than as a proof of concept.

Finally, in terms of propulsion, if you remember back to my episode on the subject, nuclear rockets could dramatically reduce the time it takes to get to Mars. If we had a nuclear rocket, the first trip there might be a quick there and back to plant the flag and declare victory.

However, in the long run, you’d probably need to send supplies up beforehand for an extended stay base. Something close to the movie The Martian with Matt Damon…although the dust storms in the movie were highly exaggerated. The air pressure is too low to do that much damage.

In terms of the moon, because it has no atmosphere, you’d probably want to put a base either in a lava tube or at least cover it with lunar soil to protect it from radiation.

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Stephen Hultgren asks What is the most interesting or unique sporting event you’ve seen while traveling?

That is easy. I got to witness a Buzkashi game on the shores of Song-Kul up in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

Buzkashi is a traditional Central Asian sport where horse-mounted players compete to grab and place a goat or sheep carcass in a goal.

I’ve also watched people playing sepak takraw in Bangkok. Sepak takraw is basically like volleyball, except you can’t use your hands.

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My last question comes from Abdelrahman Wael asks, Hey Gary, love the show. I have two questions: why do you make more episodes on ancient Rome than on ancient Greece, and who do you think was more influential in the history of human civilization?

There are more episodes about Rome than Greece simply because there is more writing that has been preserved, and there is more drama and stories that come from Rome. Rome was a unified empire with powerful rules that lasted centuries. Greece was, save for the very short period of Macedonian rule, a collection of city-states.

Rome was heavily influenced by Greece, but that was mostly cultural. Most wealthy Romans had Greek tutors for their children. Most of the influence that ancient Greece had on the world was through and because of the Romans who they influenced.

Also, Christianity arose during the Roman period, and that alone had a lasting legacy that we often forget. Latin was the lingua franca for centuries in Europe in a way that Greek never was.

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The first comes from Brian Faulkner, who asks, “The name of your podcast is quite similar to a very successful movie… Was there any fallout (positive or negative) from the publicity during and following the buildup, premier, and theatrical run?”

For the record, Brian, I began using the phrase Everything Everywhere back in 2005, well before the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once was ever conceived.

As anyone can verify by doing a WhoIS search, I registered the domain name Everything-Everywhere.com on April 17, 2005. I had previously decided to sell my house to travel around the world, and I knew I was going to have a website associated with the trip. I came up with the name while I was in my car, thinking of possible names to use.

Once I came up with Everything Everywhere, I knew instantly that it was the name I was going to use. What I didn’t do, which I now regret, was register the domain name without a dash. It would have cost me $2000 to get it, which seemed like a lot, but I had no idea I’d still be using the name almost 20 years later.I decided to stick with the name when I made this podcast.

The movie wasn’t the first time some other entity used the name. In 2010, T-Mobile and Orange Mobile merged in the UK, and the name of their new company was Everything Everywhere. They eventually stopped using the name and now just go be EE Mobile.

I had a lawyer look into what options I had, and basically, there was nothing I could do to them and nothing they could do to me. We were completely different business in different countries, so there was no confusion as to the name.

As for the movie, I’d say it was almost entirely positive. A few people I know discovered the podcast when searching for the movie.

The only downside is that some people, not knowing the history, think I took the name of the podcast from the movie, which is not the case.

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Matt Bitner asks I’ve been enjoying your other podcast, Respecting the Beer. What is your go-to type of beer?

For those of you who don’t know, I am hosting another podcast with my friend and astrophysicist-turned-brewer, Bobby Fleshman, called Respecting the Beer. The podcast covers the science, history, and culture of beer and brewing.

Bobby is a truly fantastic brewer, and he makes a wide variety of beers in every style you can imagine. Stouts, ales, lagers, pilsners, sours, cask beers, nitro beers, and many many others. His brewpub will usually have about 20 different beers on tap, with other beers rotating throughout the year.

My favorite beer is usually something that changes throughout the year. Right now, I’ve been having gose. Gose is a slightly sour, lemony beer with a low alcohol content. It is great to have in the summer.

In the fall, I’ll probably shift to the Oktoberfest beers that come out that time of year.

I am a big fan of barrel-aged beers, which I never really had until relatively recently. These are beers that are usually aged for about a year in used bourbon barrels. I can’t really drink more than about 7 oz and it is more for sipping.

Along those lines, my absolute favorite is Eisbock. Eisbock is a barrel-aged doppelbock that is stored outside and frozen in the winter. It is made in very limited quantities and is very rare.

The reason why it is so hard to find in the United States is that, legally, letting beer free is considered freeze-distillation, which requires a distilling license, not a brewing license, even though it requires absolutely no distilling equipment.

However, if you import Eisbock, it is imported as a beer, not a spirit.

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Tim DeLong asks, You often mention the NFL. As an avid fan of auto racing, I’d like to know if you’ve ever been to an auto race, either in the US or abroad? Road America, in Elk Heart Lake, Wisconsin, is a stunning venue. However, I’m partial to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course.

Well, Tim, I wouldn’t consider myself to be an auto racing fan per se. I don’t really follow the support other than occasionally checking a few times a year to see who is leading the Formula One or NASCAR standings.

That being said, I have attended several races. Growing up, my dad used to take me to the Wisconsin International Raceway, which is where the great Dick Trickle used to race.

In the course of my travels, I’ve attended two races. I attended the Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia, Spain, in 2011 where I had the opportunity to ride in an actual Formula One car that was retrofitted to allow passengers to sit between the wheels.

I also attended a Formula E event in Riyad, Saudi Arabia, in 2018.

For both events, I was accredited as media, so I had access to the paddocks and I was able to see how everything worked behind the scenes.

Believe it or not, I’ve never been to Road America, even though I don’t live that far away. For those who don’t know what it is, Road America is probably the top road racing track in North America, and it hosts multiple racing events throughout the year.

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TwoBuck Howie asks, All my life, I was told that there is nothing that can go faster than the speed of light. Then I heard a physicist say that galaxies are moving away from each other faster and faster until one day, they will be moving away from each other faster than the speed of light. Then I see online that a different physicist claims 4 things that are faster than the speed of light. Is there anything that moves faster than light? Is Einstein’s theory incorrect?

As far as we know, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. As say, “as far as we know” because you always have to leave open the possibility of some future discovery.

When we say nothing can go faster than the speed of light, we are referring to a fixed starting point. If you turned on a flashlight in space, the photons from the flashlight would move at the speed of light from the flashlight.

Now, let’s say the flashlight could shoot light in opposite directions at the same time. The photons from each end would travel from the flashlight at the speed of light.

However, the photons would travel away from each other at two times the speed of light. Neither photon is traveling faster than the speed of light relative to their starting position in the flashlight.

The fastest the space between two moving objects can increase is two times the speed of light.

In the example you gave of galaxies, there is another wrinkle. In that case, space itself is expanding between the galaxies, which I confess is a very difficult thing to get your head around.

This is a much bigger subject that I can answer on a Q&A episode, but suffice it to say no object or energy can go faster than light, but that doesn’t hold for space between objects.

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Larry Slavens asks, Since I was slow in asking last month… Did you attend concerts in your younger days in Wisconsin and Minnesota? Favorite or notable shows? Did you attend concerts on your world travels, and if so, were they US/international acts, or did you seek out local acts?

This answer is going to make me very unpopular, and I know that I am in the minority in this subject, but the truth is, I really do not like live music or attending concerts.

I have been to some concerts, and I did not enjoy the experience. I hate large crowds, and I hate loud noise.

I had a friend take me to see Prince when he opened up his Lovesexy tour in 1988 at the Met Center in Minnesota. I went to see Guns and Roses at the Target Center in 1992.

I’m not into bands and performers like other people are. I am the opposite personality type of a person who might be a passionate Taylor Swift fan today.

That being said, if it was a very small venue and if the sound wasn’t amplified, I’d have no problem attending. This would be something like a jazz club or an orchestra hall.

The great Canadian classical pianist Glen Gloud held the belief that the advent of high-quality recordings basically made live performances obsolete. I’m sympathetic to the idea, although I understand the appeal of a live performance.

For me, it boils down to disliking large crowds and loud music.

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Jesus Chan asks, Hello again from Laredo, Texas Gary and you’ll be glad to know that this question does not involve aliens. Do thoughts, ideas, dreams, and memories have physical weight or mass? If not, then how are they, like memories able to persist or exist for an entire lifetime?

That is a fair question, Jesus. Information doesn’t require mass. It requires energy.

When you put data on a hard drive, the hard drive doesn’t get heavier. You are using energy to organize the magnetic bits on the drive, assuming its a magnetic drive, in such a way that the information can be read.

If you write something down on paper with a pen, the total mass of the pen/paper system is the same. What you are doing is providing energy to provide order to the ink to store information.

Think about it if you have a collection of letters for a letter board. What is required to turn those letters from a random collection into something legible is the energy to put the letters into some sort of order. No mass has to be added to the letters.

The same process goes on in your brain. Your brain uses a tremendous amount of energy. Your brain uses energy to build new circuits and connections between neurons, which is how memories are stored.

So, memories do not have mass any more than the data on a hard drive has mass. It uses energy to provide order to previously existing bits of matter.

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Jana Elsea asks When you travel, do you prefer hard side or soft side bags? Checked or carry on, Rolling or carry? Also, how many passport stamps/additional passport pages do you have?

During the entirety of my travels, I used a soft-sided bag. My primary bag for much of that time was an Eagle Creek Gear Warrior. I always checked that bag when I flew.

The reason why I checked a bag is because I had to. I lived on the road, and I couldn’t fit everything into a single carry-on. My tripod also made it impossible to have a smaller bag that I could fit in an overhead bin. The only times I’ve had problems with my checked bag, I could count on one hand. Three of those incidents involved Air Canada.

I have no idea how many stamps I have. I have used three passports in the course of my travels, and my second passport has three extra sets of pages, which is something you can’t do anymore.

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Nikcap, from over on the Discord sever asks, your episode on statistics got me thinking why do we have to learn advanced math in school. When will I ever need to know what a sine or cosine is, or what the quadratic equation is used for. These are grips I hear from high school students and their parents, but I don’t really know what the good arguments are to support the learning of high school mathematics.

There are several things I’d say:

First, you don’t know what career you will have when you are in school. It is easy to look backward and say, “I don’t need to know that.” However, it is impossible to look forward and know what you will need to know.

If you don’t study math, or science, or history, or anything for that matter, you are basically locking yourself out of a host of possible careers before you ever get a chance even to make that choice.

If you use the “I don’t use that knowledge” as the basis for what to learn, then for most people, you don’t have to learn anything beyond basic arithmetic and literacy. We could go back to not having to get anything beyond a 6th-grade education.

The second thing is that it is worthwhile to learn some things because they teach you a system of thinking. Mathematics teaches you how to think rigorously. I’ve gotten value from almost everything I’ve ever studied, not because I use it every day but because it is a way to think about the world.

I’ve talked to many adults who feel that they are “not good at math.” This is almost entirely based on their experience in high school because. I always suggest they go back and try learning it again as an adult. Try learning it without the pressure of getting grades or taking a test. There are plenty of resources online to help you do this. There are free courses at Khan Academy, for example, which will take you from 1+1=2 all the way through college-level mathematics. If you don’t understand something, you can find other sources online to explain it in a different way.

Finally, I do think that we should change how we teach mathematics. I’m very open to the idea that we should put a higher priority on statistics, which most people do encounter every day, rather than calculus.

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Let’s jump right in. The first question comes from Nafeesah Scott, who asks, Hi Gary! I must just say thank you for such a great informative, and concise podcast about everything everywhere! I loved your recent episode on air conditioning. It got me thinking: what do you think are the top 3 contributors to the advancement of today’s world are?

That is a very difficult question. To use your example, air conditioners have indeed been very important to the creation of the modern world for all the reasons I mentioned in the episode.

However, air conditioners are dependent on electricity—no electricity, no air conditioning. The same holds true for something like the internet. The internet, as important as it is, is predicated on computers, which is predicated on electricity.

So, if I were to pick three things, electricity and electrification would have to be on that list.

The next thing would probably have to be the development of the heat engine. I’m using “heat engine” as a catch-all for both the steam engine and the internal combustion engine, which, while different, have a similar lineage. This would cover most transportation and industrialization, as well as creating electricity.

Finally, and I have covered this on several episodes, I’d have to include the development of germ theory. The discovery that microscopic organisms were responsible for most infectious diseases was the one thing that led to a dramatic drop in deaths and an increase in life expectancy.

If you were to start civilization over from scratch, you could avoid centuries of human misery by just knowing the basics of these three things.

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Jesus Chan asks, Gary, hello again from South Texas. In several of the last episodes, you have mentioned that some things have been discovered simultaneously by different people in different places. To what do you attribute the independent development of similar ideas across isolated human societies such as agriculture, pyramids, calendars, weapons, etc? Is it Aliens, Collective Unconscious, Genetic Memory, or something else?

Jesus, I think the answer is actually really simple. I’ll answer the question by posing another question: why do dolphins and whales look like fish? The answer is that similar problems will result in similar solutions. In the case of a dolphin and a fish, the problem of swimming in the water results in similar body types because that’s what works.

The same is true for innovations. There are many ideas which were discovered indepenetnly in different places, at different times. A pyramid is nothing more than a shape. It is a cone with flat sides. Children playing in sand or mud could easily come up with the shape.

If you were playing as a kid, you probably reinvented the lever just by playing around with sticks.

Many times, the discoveries occurred centuries or even millennia apart from each other. Looking back, the difference between 7000 and 8000 years ago might not seem like much…..but it was 1000 years.

Calendars are nothing more than people observing nature and the stars….and every culture and civilization were all looking at the exact same thing, so it should come as no surprise that they developed similar calendars based on the Earth, Moon, and Sun.

Ancient people in Mesoamerica and in Mesopotamia developed agriculture, as did the people in West Africa and Papua New Guinea, but all of those places cultivated totally different crops that they had available. However, the basic idea of planting seeds to grow plants to eat was a pretty simple one that doesn’t require aliens.

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Wayne Rothe asks, I recently joined the Sour Toe Cocktail Club in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Would you do it? Yes, my lips touched the toe. Wayne, I am a three-time member of the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. For those of you who are wondering what a Sour Toe Cocktail is, it is a cocktail served at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon. It consists of alcohol of your choice….and a severed human toe.I kid you not.

I will leave this as a homework assignment for all of you, but the motto of the Sour Toe Cocktail Club is….”Drink it fast, or drink it slow; your lips must touch the toe.”

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Kevin O’Keef asks Most of us that listen to your show clearly are lifelong learners and I know you have mentioned that this is one objective of your podcast- to have citizens throughout the world be more knowledgeable. Anyone that went to high school or college can relate to “cramming“ for a test. Weeks later everything that we learned is probably lost -again because content hasn’t been recycled or used or reflected on. What I’m getting at Gary -is since you have this huge volume of content that you’ve learned have you figured out how to retain a lot of this long-term? I know there’s no magic pill for this, but if students can use some tricks or strategies that you used, I’m sure we will all be more educated as a society and better for it. ?

Kevin, what you have identified is a HUGE problem. Whenever we hear people talk about education, they usually talk about students’ test scores. That is fine, but student test scores are not the goal of education. The goal is to produce knowledgeable and informed adults.

The result of general knowledge tests given to adults is truly depressing. Most people, after years of education, come out of it having learned…..next to nothing. The average person couldn’t pass any final exam in any class they took past grade school.

I could talk for hours on this subject, but here are some fundamental things I think.

The first is that you are ultimately responsible for your education. If someone doesn’t want to learn, if they aren’t curious and don’t care, the best teachers cannot make them learn. You cannot inject knowledge into someone. If, however, someone wants to learn, such as the great 20th-century Indian mathematician Ramanujan, then it is hard to stop them from learning.

Second, is that learning never ends. Never. Too many people think that learning is only done in a classroom when you are a child or a teenager. That is when classroom instruction ends, but that is not the end of learning.

Third, is that you sometimes have to encounter things multiple times to make it stick. I took a trigonometry class in high school, which was nothing but memorizing things like the sine function was the opposite over the hypotenuse of a triangle. I took a physics class and didn’t know when to use the sine or cosine of something.

Later on, someone explained the trigonometric functions using the unit circle….and everything clicked and suddenly made sense. Once I understood that I didn’t need to memorize everything, I could just figure it out from first principles.

Publishing encore episodes isn’t just a way for me to take a day off (although that is a big part of it). It is a way for people to hear something they might have last listened to one or two years ago and serve as a refresher. When I watch a movie or read a book a second time, I always pick up something new that I didn’t notice the first time.

Today, there are many different ways you can learn almost any subject for free online. There are countless YouTube channels that will explain any topic, as well as articles and of course, podcasts. If you don’t understand it after consuming one source, go and check out another.

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Tim Manchester aks Can you go more into what exactly podcasting 2.0 is? I listen to your show on Spotify, am I missing out or robbing you of some benefit by not switching?

Tim, this is a great question.

Podcasting was developed about 20 years ago by Adam Curry and Dave Weiner. They adapted RSS feeds, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, to audio and video files.

RSS 2.0 is a new project, again involving Adam Curry, to expand the features available in podcasts. One of the big ones has been transcripts, but there are a host of other features.

The problem has been of a chicken and egg type. People need to use podcast players that support the new features, and podcast hosts need to support them as well. The hosts have no incentive to support the features if people aren’t using the players, and players have no incentive to adopt the features if the podcast hosts don’t support them.

My podcast doesn’t support many of the new features because the show’s format doesn’t need them and because my host, Megaphone, doesn’t support them. If you want to learn more, just go to podcasting2.org

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Jerry Gardner asks, With the current heat wave in the United States, with all your world travels what is the hottest and coldest temperature you have personally experienced? The hottest temperature was 50C or 122F which I encountered in the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, one of the lowest and hottest places on Earth. The coldest temperature would be around -50F or -45.5C, which I encountered in the winter in Dawson City, Yukon.

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John Fenlon aks Have you attended pro wrestling events outside of the US? Have you attended small indy events? Basically, what’s your favorite live wrestling memories?

I have not attended any outside the US, but I’d love to, especially in Japan or the UK. British fans are really some of the best wrestling fans in the world, and their ability to make chants is on a different level from everyone else.I went to a ring of honor show in Minneapolis before I started traveling, and I remember Colt Cabana putting someone in a headlock for ten minutes, everyone booing, and then him mocking the crowd, saying he could do it all night.

My favorite show was a WWE house show I saw at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Ric Flair was there, who grew up in the Twin Cities, and he cut a great heel promo on how he hated the town and left. However, the main event was between Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin, who both wrestled at the amateur level for the University of Minnesota. For the first 10 minutes of the match, they wrestled for real, and everyone could tell what they were doing. They’d get the other into a hold and then break it and do it again, smiling at each other. After a while, the referee told them to get back on script, which they did.

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Janelle Alvstad-Mattson ask, Do you have recommendations for a lovely tropical-like beach destination, that is somehow magically not humid?

Yes, I do. The answer is Aruba. It’s basically a desert.

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Josh Gazo asks Gary while I really appreciated the cheeky Monty python reference a few months ago, I remain genuinely curious as to what is your favorite color. Not a sophisticated question, but one all the same ? My favorite color is yellow. I have a yellow car. I had a yellow bag traveling around the world for years. Yellow, to me, is the color of adventure.

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Anson William Sheck asks What is the best way to support your (and other podcasts): downloads? Plays? Ratings?

Honestly, the best thing you can do is tell your friends. Podcasting isn’t like YouTube, where an algorithm shows people content based on what they’ve watched. It relies on good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Ratings and reviews always help, but people are more likely to listen to something recommended by their friends than anything else.

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Sophie Bass aks Who is your favorite painter? And why?

My favorite painter is a little-known painter by the name of Gerrit van Honthorst. He was a Dutch painter who lived in the 17th century.I discovered him when I saw one of his paintings, one of my favorite, the Denial of Saint Peter, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. One of America’s most underappreciated museums.

What grabbed me was his use of light. Many of his paintings are of people illuminated by candlelight. I’ve been to other museums around the world and even though I am far from an expert on him, I found myself being able to identify his work before I read the name of the painter.

While you didn’t ask, I’ll add it anyhow: my favorite sculptor is Frederick Hart. He was a 20th-century American sculptor who pioneered working in acrylic. His work can be seen at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington as well as the National Cathedral.

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Mark Hyman asks Have you considered compiling the transcripts from your most interesting and popular episodes into a book or publication for download? And where are the researchers and writers you planned to ease your podcast production burden?

I have considered it, and if I did, I’d probably have to spend time editing the scripts. One of the reasons why I’m able to produce a show every day is because the ear is more forgiving than the eye. We talk and hear people speak in a first draft every day. However, when we read, we are more discerning.I’d need to hire an editor to go over the scripts and edit them for print.

As for the researchers, I haven’t found any yet, but to be fair, I also haven’t looked very hard. I did put out a job posting in one of the travel writer groups I’m in, and the responses I got back seemed to indicate that they just don’t understand what the show is about, and it would take them weeks to do what takes me a few hours.

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Kyle Dunham asks Have you considered making merchandise available to the general public and not just to subscribers? Everything Everywhere Daily merch would make for nice gifts to fans of the show, and it would be fun to get the word out to more people about the podcast. Thanks for all you do.I absolutely have considered it, along with a host of other projects like an ad-free subscription version of the show. The only reason things are available only on Patreon right now is because I didn’t have to do anything. It all comes down to the same thing. Every day, my top priority is getting out the next episode. While I’d love to launch some of these other projects, ultimately, it has to take a back seat to the daily necessity of getting a show out the door.

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Lets start with the first question that comes from Timothy Johnson who asks, I’m curious about Harry’s Razors. You mentioned that you heard about them on a podcast. Is that podcast “Our Fake History”? More seriously, If you had to pick your five favorite castles in Europe what would they be? Thanks!

The podcast where I first heard of Harry’s Razors was the Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan.

As for the top castles in Europe, in no particular order, I’d say:

Neuschwanstein in Bavaria

Prague Castle

Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany

Bran Castle aka Dracula’s Castle in Romania

Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal

These are places that would be fortified, not just palaces. If it included palaces, it would be a very different list.

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Kevin Hultgren asks, Why do all the Scandinavian flags have the same design? Finnish names seem to have different conventions than do Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. Might that have something to do with the Vikings?

As for the language, Finnish is a completely different beast from all the other languages in Nordic countries. Finland is basically the difference between Nordic countries and Scandinavian countries. Finland is not a Scandinavian country because Finnish is not a Scandinavian language.

You are correct that all five of the Nordic Countries have very similar flags. They all have what is known as a Nordic or Scandanavian Cross. It all started with the Danes. The oldest of the flags is the flag of Denmark which dates back to the year 1219. It is considered to be the oldest flag in the world.

The Danes were the most powerful country in the region for centuries. They ruled Norway, and Norway eventually adopted a flag based on the Danish flag, save for a blue cross in the middle of the white cross.

The Danes also controlled Iceland, and when Iceland became independent in 1918, they adopted a flag based on the Danish flag. Actually, it is simply the Norwegian flag with the red and blue colors switched.

Sweden was controlled by Norway and adopted the current flag in the early 20th century, again based on the same design but with the Swedish national colors.

Finland selected their flag from a contest in 1917, and the design was selected happened to be similar to other countries in the region.

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Associate producer Cameron Kieffer asks, Gary, not sure if you’ve read the three body problem, Netflix did an adaptation of the book. But my question is if there is an intelligent life in the universe, should humans actively try to find and communicate with it? Personally, I think if SETI could transmit your episodes daily, we’d find the only life worth finding.

If you remember back, I did an episode on the Fermi Paradox. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question, if there are alien civilizations, where are they?

The Three Body Problem’s approach to the question is what is known as the Dark Forest Hypothesis. In fact, the Dark Forest Hypothesis is based on the Three Body Problem books.

The Dark Forest Hypothesis proposes that the reason why we can’t see alien civilizations is that everyone is hiding from each other. If they make themselves known, they run the risk of destruction. Likewise, if you were to find another civilization, you should want to destroy it before they do the same to you.

I think the Dark Forest Hypothesis is highly, highly unlikely. I don’t think there will ever be a technology that makes interstellar travel easy. There is no need to attack another civilization for resources. There are ample resources in pretty much any solar system and the cost of going to another star system to steal another civilization’s resources is just too high.

The only thing of value you could get from an intelligent civilization is information. Information can be shared and is far more valuable than any physical resource, and it is much easier to trade than trying to physically travel.

So, if you wanted a movie that would accurately depict what would happen if we found an intelligent civilization, I think it would be Contact.

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Elizabeth Coykendall asks How about the information Terrance Howard is coming out saying? Changing the way we look at the periodic table and what not. The things he is stating are super intriguing, especially if he is on to something.

Elizabeth, I’m going to put this as bluntly as I can so there is absolutely no misunderstanding. Terrance Howard is insane.

I don’t even mean that as an insult or as a pejorative. I think he actually is suffering from a mental illness.

His statements are so crazy and delusional I don’t know what else you could conclude other than he suffers from severe narcissistic personality disorder.

The foundation of his beliefs is that 1×1=2. Yes, you heard that right. When you hear his explanation, he clearly doesn’t know the difference between addition and multiplication, which most people learn in 1st or 2nd grade.

Then, he thinks that the square root of 2 is rational and that 13 equals pi.

He claims to have discovered a grand unified theory of everything at the age of seven, wrote it down, and lost it when his dog ate it.

He uses fancy-sounding words that he doesn’t know the meaning of, and the context in which he uses them doesn’t even make sense.

Like most people with narcissistic personality disorder, he believes he is persecuted by some conspiracy. “They” are trying to hide the fact that 1×1=2 from the world. It is all the work of big math.

He claims to have developed a new form of flight, which he can’t prove. His ideas of the period table are based on something developed by an artist named Walter Russell.

Famous scientists often receive rants from people who claim to have single-handedly reinvented all of science, and “they” are prevented from the world from finding out about their discovery.

The only difference between Terrance Howard’s rantings about how he has rediscovered all of math and science and someone shouting on a street corner is that he’s a celebrity, so other talk show hosts humor him.

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10-year-old completionist club member Spencer asks, “Do you remember your first trip to another country? Where was it, and what did you do?”

The first trip I took to another country was when my family went on a road trip to Niagara Falls when I was ten years old. We crossed into Ontario and drove to the Canadian side of the falls.

After that, I never left the United States again until I was in college, and the national debate tournament was in Bellingham, Washington, just over the border from British Columbia.

The first trip I took outside of North America was in 1999 when I did an around-the-world trip for work that took me to Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, and London.

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EmuKing on the discord server asks, What’s the topic that’s been on your list the longest, and why haven’t you covered it yet.

The running list I keep of potential show ideas currently has 921 items. When I add something new, I put it at the bottom of the list. When I do an episode, I take it off the list. The idea which is currently sitting at the top of the list is the US occupation of the Philippines. The reason I haven’t done it? There is no particular reason other than I wanted to do several episodes first, which I’ve done, including the Spanish-American War and the History of the Philippines.

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VladSander asks, Of all the topics you have ever covered or want to cover, which has been the hardest to separate fiction from reality?

There is one episode I had to abandon in the middle of writing it. It was the episode on the first American serial killer, H.H. Holmes. The reason I had to abandon it is because so many of the stories I read about him turned out to be false.

The newspapers of the time greatly exaggerated the crimes he committed and when I began to research it I put it on hold because the his reality was so different from the story I thought I was going to be telling.I did eventually do the episode, but it was very different from what I thought it would originally be.

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Wayne Rothe asks, I’m Canadian. Years ago I met an older man in a military museum in Boston who insisted that the U.S. has never lost a war. I mentioned Vietnam and left it at that. You could also make a case for losses in Iraq, Afghanistan and the War of 1812. Do you think the U.S. has lost any wars?

It depends on what you mean by winning and losing. There is losing on the battlefield, and then there is failure to achieve objectives.

I’m not sure anyone won anything in the War of 1812. No territory changed hands. Neither side was definitely defeated. Both sides can claim that there were defensive reasons for why they could claim success.

In Vietnam, the United States clearly didn’t achieve its objectives. The communists took over the whole country, so I think that would be a loss.

In Iraq, the objective of the first war was the liberation of Kuwait, and the objective of the second war was the removal of Saddam Hussein, both of which were successful. Both conflicts also had lopsided victories on the battlefield for the Americans.

In Afghanistan, the initial objective was the removal of Al Qaeda training camps from Afghanistan, which was successful. However, the Americans then stuck around for 20 years and eventually just…..left, with the Taliban back in power.

When you get down to it, very few wars result in unconditional surrender or a complete one-sided victory.

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Connie Faour Carroll asks Have you ever been on a river cruise! If so, which river? If not, which river would you choose first? I would choose the Nile. (submitted from a 6th grade Social Studies teacher).

Yes, I have, but I’ve only done one, and that was on the Nile River. I went by train from Cairo to Luxor and then back up via a river boat, which took several days. Along the way, we stopped at some smaller temples that most people never get to visit, particularly the Edfu and Kom Ombo Temples.

I’ve never done a river cruise in Europe, but I’ve been to many cities where riverboats dock in the middle of town.

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Mfein from Discord asks Who is your favorite Wisconsin Badger of all time? Football, basketball, or otherwise. (Assuming you’re a Badger fan)

In football, it has to be Ron Dayne, the NCAA all-time leading rusher, if you include bowl games. On defense, I’d have to go with JJ Watt.

In basketball, I have to go with Frank Kaminsky, who led the Badgers to the finals of the NCAA tournament.

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Jesus Chan asks Gary, good morning from Laredo, Texas. If humans have been around for approximately 190,000 years and we live on a planet covered by over 70% water, why haven’t we been able to find an efficient method of desalination for seawater?

For starters, the fact that humans have been around in some form for hundreds of thousands of years doesn’t really explain why something hasn’t been discovered.

In reality, we are only 1 to 3 centuries into the scientific revolution, depending on how you define it, and maybe a bit over 100 years from having a detailed understanding of the structure of the atom.

That being said, the problem of desalination is trickier than it seems. Ions of sodium and chlorine float around in water at the atomic level. Removing the sodium and chlorine atoms from water is difficult, given their size.

One option is to boil the water, which takes energy. You can increase the temperature of the water, reduce the pressure surrounding the water, or both. Regardless of how you do it, it requires an input of energy. Assuming you have enough energy, desalination is very easy.

The other option is to use some sort of filter. If you had a filter that could filter out the ions, you still have a problem. If ions can’t pass through the filter, they pile up on the other side, making it difficult for the filter to work. Filters can also wear out and get clogged up over time and require replacing.

Absent any sort of miracle technology, which could come in the form of a membrane, desalinization will require a great deal of energy or expensive filters.

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The first question comes from Tim Manchester, who asks, “What are your top 5 favorite bridges in the world?”OK, in no particular order, based on the bridges that I’ve visited, the first bridge would be the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful iconic bridge. It was an important bridge in engineering history, and if you are ever in San Francisco, it is a great experience to walk across it and back.

The second bridge will be the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Kobe, Japan. I visited there back in 2007 when, at the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. They have a very nice observation area on the bridge where you can experience the size of the bridge.

The third bridge will be the Vizcaya Bridge, which is located in the Basque Country of Spain. The Vizcaya Bridge is often called a hanging bridge. Instead of a normal bridge where the deck covers the bridge and allows people to cross, a hanging bridge only has a small deck that is ferried back and forth by cables. It is sort of a combination of a cable car and a ferry.

My fourth bridge will be the Stari Most bridge in the town of Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina. It is a historic bridge that was commissioned in 1557 by Suleiman the Magnificent and is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

My fifth bridge would have to be the Millau Viaduct in France. This is the tallest bridge in the world, having a structural height of 336.4 meters or 1,104 feet. It is a beautiful bridge and driving across it was a very heady experience given how high up in the air it was.

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Jerry Gardner asks, “Would you ever do a “live Show “ event? Possibly narrating your podcast while showing your photography.”

The short answer is yes. Not only would I do it, but I’ve actually considered doing it. However, I think I’d have to do something a bit more interesting than just reading a podcast episode on a stage. It would need to be something different from what you’d get on the podcast.

What such a live show would be, I don’t know, but yes, it is something I’d consider doing.

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David Corbly asks What’s your favorite alcoholic drink after all your world travels?

I have a very simple answer to that question. Cider from the Basque Country of Spain. I first had it when I visited a cideria in 2010. You can find it easily enough almost anywhere in Spain if you go into a bar, but finding it outside of Spain is very difficult.

The cider has a very unique way of being poured where the bottle is held as high as possible, and the glass is as low as possible. The cider is aerated when it pours into the glass which enhances the taste.

I’ve tried looking for it everywhere in the United States can I could never find it. I eventually went to a local wine shop and asked them if they could order it. It turns out they could as their distributor carried it. I bought an entire case of it, and I still have several bottles today.

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Troy Price asks What advice would you give someone who wanted to start working in travel photography today?

My honest advice would be to not try to go into it as a business. Travel photography is not a great business. Many travel publications have gone out of business. Many of those who survive no longer pay for photos.

Almost everyone I know who is still working as a travel photographer is making a living by teaching people photography or running photography tours.

There are a few people who are doing well, but there are very few of them, and they have only been able to do it after years and sometimes decades.

I always considered myself a traveler first and a photographer second. If you want to make a living as a photographer, there is a lot more money to be made photographing weddings.

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Mark Hyman asks, Do you know Bob Krist, freelance photographer and filmmaker? (He’s giving you some competition with a video course titled Fundamentals of Travel Photography.) I certainly know of Bob, but I haven’t actually met him in person. We are both members of the Society of American Travel Writers, and we have both won their Travel Photographer of the Year award. Bob has been a travel photographer much longer than myself and has had a much more accomplished career.

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Nonato Nonnie Ramirez asks Since you travelled the world. Do you recommend one of those around the world airplane tickets? Or better yet an episode on your personal world wide travel for a given year.

The answer is it depends. I never purchased such a ticket but I also had an open-ended schedule. There was nowhere I had to be, so I was in no rush.

If you have a very set schedule and you know exactly where you want to go, then an around-the-world ticket might be a good option. They do offer a great deal of flexibility and usually, the only requirement is that you have a set amount of time to use all the tickets, and you have to generally go in one direction around the world.

I preferred the freedom to go wherever I wanted when I wanted. However, if you prefer a more structured itinerary, then it might be a good option.

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Chris Harris asks, Have you tried ethnic foods in countries other than their country of origin? Have you had tacos in Tokyo, pizza in Prague, or a banh mi in Brasilia? If so, how was it compared to the US, or to its country of origin?

Absolutely. If you are just on a short vacation, then I understand that you might want to only eat the local cuisine. However, when you are traveling long term, you might want to get Chinese or pizza, regardless where you might be at the time.

I used to go to a Mexican restaurant in Bangkok to work; I’ve been to Chinese and Indian restaurants all over the world.

Most large urban areas around the world will have a multitude of dining options. I’ve had a few bad experiences, but for the most part its fine.

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Michaela Clarke asks The word “curry” can describe many different dishes, sauces, and spices around the world. Do you have a favorite type and can you recall the best curry you’ve eaten in your travels? Maybe curry is worth its own episode!

First of all, you are absolutely correct that Curry would make for a great episode.

You are also correct that the word curry can describe many different dishes, all of which originate in South Asia.

My go-to meal when I go to an Indian restaurant is lamb masala, usually with a side of dal and some plain nan.

My favorite curry experience was probably at a very affordable restaurant in Singapore that catered to Indian workers. All the meals were served on banana leaves, and there were no utensils.

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Terry Laurie asks My daughters are going to vacation in Scotland/England at Christmas time. Any hints on driving on the opposite side of the road that would help them out? Are most rental cars automatic drive? Thank you. Love what you do, and I’m a member of the Michigan Chapter of the Completionist Club.

The idea of driving on the other side of the road, no matter which side of the road you are used to can be terrifying. If you are an experienced driver, much of your driving is instinctual.

The first time I ever drove on the other side of the road was in 2007 in New Zealand. I rented a camper van that I was going to stay in for two weeks, driving around the country.

However, I had to pick up the van in the middle of Auckland. When I got to the van, I turned off the radio to avoid all distractions, put both hands on the wheel, and focused.

Once you spend an hour or two doing it, you get the hang of it. One of the things I do is not think of right and left but rather have myself as the driver on the middle of the road.

Almost all rental cars in North America have automatic transmissions. There are many more manual transmission cars in Europe, but automatic transmission cars are usually available, even if they are at a higher price. If you drive a manual transmission, the way you shift is usually the same. So, when you are in a left-hand drive car like you find in much of the world, you increase your gear number my moving out from where you are sitting. In a right-hand drive car, you shift inward.

Basically, it’s doable. You just need to be very focused when you first start.

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Merei Milbee asks What are your must see sights in Scandinavian or Nordic countries? (& what’s the difference between Scandinavian and Nordic?)

First, let me address the easy question. There are five Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.

Three of those countries, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, are definitely Scandinavian. Finland is a Nordic country but not a Scandinavian country because its language is not Scandinavian.

Iceland is usually not considered a Scandinavian country due to geography, but it is sometimes considered Scandinavian due to language.

As for what to see, I think the entire Nordic region would be an ambitious trip. I’d certainly visit the capital cities. I’d go and see the Vasa in Stockholm, on which I’ve done a previous episode.

You can see the northern lights, depending on the time of year. There are stunning castles in Denmark. You can drive the Golden Circle in Iceland and see many of the waterfalls outside of Reykjavik.

It all really depends on where you are going to be.

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Jesus Chan asks If there are millions of vehicles on our roads and highways, why aren’t there piles of rubber from all the worn tires, on the sides of the roads? Where does all that rubber go?

Jesus, this is a really good question, and the answer is something you will probably find disturbing.

You might have heard of something called microplastics. Microplastics are, as the name would suggest, microscopic pieces of plastic. They have been found……everywhere. They have been found in Antarctica, in the deep ocean, in the rain, in the air, in food, and in our bodies. Microplastics have been found in human blood in our lungs.

The subject of microplastics is probably something for a future episode. However, the biggest source of microplastics, by at least two orders of magnitude, comes from automobile tires.

So, the reason you don’t see piles of rubber is because it gets spread everywhere.

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Josh Crawford asks Who is your favorite Packer of all time? And most despised rival player??

My favorite Packers are Ray Nitschke and Reggie White. My least favorite players from rival teams would be Randy Moss and Dick Butkus.

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Elizabeth Mrazek Nobles asks How do earthquakes occur in the middle of a continent? I get subduction zones, but a random fault line in Illinois.. I don’t quite get.

That is a very good question, Elizabeth. What you are describing are known as Intraplate earthquakes. They are much more rare than earthquakes on the edges of tectonic plates.

The most famous is the New Madrid Seismic Zone which is in southern Missouri and northwestern Tennessee.

It is believed that it might come from an ancient fault that existed back when all the continental plates were merged together to form the supercontinents of Pangea. These ancient faults slowly fill up with liquids and can cause an earthquake.

The truth is, geologists aren’t totally sure what causes them because they are so rare and difficult to study.

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Anno Dominic asks Do you consider the Eastern Roman/Byzantine empire a direct and literal continuation of the Roman Empire? And I mean right up until 1453. As they considered themselves Roman, and the term Byzantine only came about centuries later. How do you feel about the designation Byzantine?

Yes, I do consider them the continuation of the Roman Empire because they quite literally were. Granted, their language and customs changed dramatically over the centuries, but there is a very straight line that can be drawn.

As for the word Byzantine, I have no problem with it. While the Byzantines were the direct continuation of Rome, they were different, and having a different word to describe them simply helps clarify things.

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Kevin Werner asks Is Wisconsin just like Ireland?

Wisconsin is absolutely nothing like Ireland. It rarely snows in Ireland for starters. Ireland has a coastal climate with few trees. Wisconsin is in the middle of the continent. In the south, you have prairie. In the middle, you have deciduous forests, and in the north you have an area that was once covered in glaciers and is now heavily forested with thousands of lakes.

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My final question this month comes from Luie Smit who asks Do you have a favorite Roman history podcast or book? Everything everywhere has really piqued my curiosity about everything Roman and I would love to learn more.

The book I would recommend to get started with Roman history would be SPQR by Mary Beard. It is a great introductory book that will give you a starting point from which you can dive deeper into other topics. As for a podcast, I’d have to recommend The History of Rome by Mike Duncan. The podcast ended over 12 years ago, but it remains one of the best Roman history podcasts. It is a liner telling of the story of Rome from its founding to the fall of the western empire.

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Mike Candelaria asks, “Do you plan on doing episodes that are music centric? Whether the evolution of specific instruments or music types, like the blues or hip hop or jazz?”

I’ve done some music-related episodes before. I’ve done an episode on the history of the piano, and I’ve done episodes on particular pieces of classical music like the 1812 Overture and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. You will note that all of these have to do with classical music. One of the problems with doing episodes on music is that it really helps actually to play music during the episode. For certain old pieces of music that are close to 100 years old, this is not a problem. However, for newer music, it becomes a big problem. If I put even a short clip from anything recorded in the last 60 years, I’ll probably get a copyright notice. Some of you who are familiar with copyright might be saying that there is a fair use exemption, and an educational podcast such as mine would be a clear case of fair use….and I agree with you 100%. However, it doesn’t matter. The fact that I would have a valid fair use claim doesn’t mean that I still won’t get a takedown notice from the owners of the rights to the music. Once I get that, it is an enormous hassle that I’d have to deal with, even if I was in the right.

That being said, I’d love to do some episodes on the origins of contemporary music. I was listening to an interview with record producer Rick Rubin several months ago, and he talked about the origins of hip-hop. Because hip-hop is relatively new, we know its history in greater detail than we do for other older forms of music. It is a fascinating story that starts in the Bronx in the early 1970s, and one way or another, I’ll do an episode on it someday.

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Nafeesah Scott asks, “I’m still making my way through the podcasts, and I don’t know if these have been answered, but two questions I had were: 1. What’s your process when getting information for the podcast? Where are some go-to sources you started from? Do you add citations in your notes? 2. Why did you choose the major you did in college? Do you think your studies have benefited you in what you did/do now?”

There is no process per se. How I get information will differ from episode to episode. Ideas for episodes can come from anywhere. It might come from a book I read long ago, a movie I watched, an article I read, or something I visited on my travels.

Once I get an idea for an episode I usually have a rough idea of what the story is and what I’m going to say.

Much of the research I do at that point is filling in facts and details. Given that I have to produce a show almost every day, and because the episodes are relatively short, most of the research has to be done online.

I do not publish citations or footnotes, because I’m not trying to produce an academic paper. I’m just trying to tell a story in an audio format. Doing full citations would significantly add to the time required to produce each episode.

In college, I received a triple major in mathematics, economics, and political science. However, most of my time was actually spent on academic debate, which required me to research and understand a wide variety of topics.

After selling a business, I went back to school in my 30s and pursued majors in geology and geophysics.

Given what I do now, I’d say my majors gave me a very broad foundation to do a show like this. I certainly never planned to do this so many years ago, but it has worked out well.

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Chris Fagg asks, “Have you ever been to Bermuda? And if so, thoughts?!”I have. I visited Bermuda in 2014. I was in New York and I had a little under a week to kill before an event I had to attend and I really didn’t want to stay in New York that entire time. So I got a ticket to Bermuda and hung out there for about four days.

Bermuda, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is actually not in the Caribbean. It is out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There is a lot of history on the island, and it is still technically a British territory. Bermuda is expensive. I’m not going to lie. I enjoyed it, and the place that reminded me the most was Barbados, which has a history similar to Bermuda.I’d love to go back to Bermuda to explore it more.

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Muninn Myrkvi Ua Ímair asks, “Are you planning on doing an episode on Bhutan? Fascinating place.”

I don’t have any immediate plans, but you are correct that Bhutan is a very fascinating and unique place. Given the episodes I’ve done on individual countries, Bhutan would be make for a great episode.

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Michaela Clarke asks, “When traveling, do you try to adopt the local lingo for things? Like chips instead of fries, take-away instead of take-out… Have there been certain local terms you just feel silly saying in your American accent while abroad?”

I’m a believer in the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” So, if I’m in a commonwealth country, it is far easier to just use the local words rather than using my Americanisms. So, yes, I’ll say chips, lift, bonnet, aubergine, torch, and whatever other words the locals use, including referring to soccer as football. It would only sound odd to another American, not to whoever I’m talking to.

Otherwise, doing so would add needless complications to communication.

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Jeroen De Boer asks, “Hey Gary. Being a teacher, i sometimes use the information in your podcast to give general overview of a topic and get the children interested and excited before they dive in deeper. Have you ever considered teaching?”

Jeroen, the short answer is…..no. At least not in the way that you probably are asking.

I used to be an academic debate coach in which I worked in schools and had an upfront exposure to the educational system. The one thing I came away from it with was an absolute lack of desire ever to be a teacher.

I saw the bureaucracy that teachers had to deal with I didn’t want to have to deal with that.

That being said, between coaching and this podcast, I’d say I am a teacher. The difference is that I don’t lecture in a classroom.

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Alan Massaro asks, “As a seasoned traveler, what’s your go to items you always bring with you no matter where you go? Backpack vs luggage? Always carryon rather than check bags? Thanks Gary! Huge fan of the show!”

What I use as luggage has changed over time. When I started, I literally had a backpack. However, over time, I switched to a soft-sided bag with wheels that I would check on flights. The bag was rather lengthy, and the main reason why I used this bag was because it could fit my camera tripod, which was rather long, and because I was living out of a bag and I had more stuff than most people did when they travel.

My camera bag was my carry-on, and it held almost all of my electronics.

However, when I stopped traveling full-time and just did extended trips, then I moved to just traveling with a carry-on bag that held everything. I also travel with a small backpack that I keep with me in my seat and it holds all of my electronics.

There are a host of things I always travel with, including my laptop, an external battery, and a travel power strip.

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Frank Soldano asks, “Has China ever invaded another country (at least in the last 100 years)?”Yes. China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The Sino-Vietnamese War was a response to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia to oust the Khmer Rouge government, which was backed by China. The story of the Khmer Rouge is most definitely going to be a future episode.

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Josh Crawford asks, “During your travels, have you ever been stranded by or experienced any extreme weather or geological events, such as earthquakes, typhoons volcanic eruptions etc…?”

Yes. In 2010, my father was hospitalized, and I was stuck in Spain because a volcano in Iceland was erupting. It canceled all transatlantic flights for days.I was also in Maui in 2011 when the tsunami hit, which originated off the coast of Japan. It ended up not being that big of a deal, but no one knew that at the time. The tsunami warnings went out and everyone got ready for it, but it ended up being very minimal.

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Nick Bibbee asks, “You must have such a routine with the podcast being able to research and record on the almost daily. Due to Limited time, do you cook your own food, or have you gone back to your travel days and gotten food almost everyday? If you do cook, what does your typical lunch look like?”

I do cook most of my own meals nowadays. However, I do try to get out of the house every day, or else you go stir crazy working in the same place you live. A couple days a week, I take my laptop to a restaurant to work over lunch. Sometimes, I’ll just go to a grocery store to buy something to make for dinner.

I don’t really have a typical lunch. I might cook a steak, but some days, I’ll go out for sushi, to a BBQ joint, or an Indian restaurant.

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Sam Robinson asks, “How many countries have you actually driven in?”

That is a good question and one that I had to think about.

USA

Canada

Mexico

Argentina

Costa Rica

Ireland

UK

Netherlands

Belgium

Luxembourg

Germany

Sweden

Norway

Poland

Slovakia

Hungary

Czechia

Austria

France

Spain

Andorra

Portugal

Greece

Macedonia

Kosovo

Serbia

Bosnia

Croatia

Cyprus

Montenegro

Albania

Fiji

Japan

NZ

Australia

Guam

St Vincent

South Africa

Botswana

Swaziland

Oman

Jordan

Trinidad

I had to literally sit down and count, and the number I came up with, which I’m sure I probably missed a few times, is 43.

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Fryxell-Sealey Patrick Brendan asks “You got me through the hell that is factory thirdshift. Bless you for that. My question is why do you think there are so few movies and art forms that deals with factory work. I have my answer would love to hear yours.”

My guess, and this is totally a guess, having done zero research on the subject, is that writers don’t tend to work factory jobs. It isn’t their world, and they don’t know much about it, so you don’t see many works about factory life. By the same token, not many factory workers set out to write books and screenplays. It isn’t just factory work. New York and Los Angeles are overrepresented in movies and television by an amazing amount, far more than their populations alone would merit.

Basically, writers and other artists are limited by what they know. It is difficult to create something about what you don’t know and most people wouldn’t ever think to do it, because they don’t know anything about.

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Turin Turambar asks, “What is your favorite civilization to play as in Age of Empires 2?”

I’d probably have to say the Byzantines, just because of their bonus to walls. However, I like the Britons and their longbow bonus, as well as the Turks and their gunpowder bonus.

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David Lilienstein asks, “How much of what you discuss do you retain? At a party are you a wealth of knowledge on almost any subject? Or, is it more you recall talking about a topic once but cannot remember the details?”

I don’t have perfect memory, but I can speak extemporaneously on a great many subjects that I’ve covered in podcast episodes. Just this week I went into a rant at a local tavern about the origin of the Julien and Gregorian calendars.I have demonstrated Cantor’s diagonal proof to show that there are infinities larger than other infinities, which is always a bit hit at parties.

I also have a trick where I can list every country in the world off the top of my head.

Some things require a very brief refresher. Even just 15-30 seconds of looking over a show script will often bring everything flooding back to memory.

As with anything, the more you go over any topic and the more you read about it the more you are going to retain.

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Tracy Cameron Baker asks, “The Polymath in you is strong. Is there any single subject that draws you back to it over and over to learn more?”

My interests are always changing based on whatever I’m interested in at the moment.

The one thing that ties everything together, however, no matter what the subject, is always history. Science, mathematics, economics, and even current events are all tightly intertwined with history.

I think it is difficult to understand the world or even individual subjects, without knowing the history behind it. To me, understanding how certain ideas were developed helps to understand the ideas themselves.

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Let’s get right into things. The first question comes from Michelle Jaques, who asks, “What is your favorite topic to learn about?”

Well, there isn’t one single topic. I think you can probably gather from the nature of this podcast that my interests are all over the place. What I’m interested in is going to change all the time.

I’ve gone through phases of what I’ve been interested in throughout my entire life.

When I was in Junior High School, I read voraciously about the space program. When I was younger, I memorized statistics about baseball. Before I started traveling, I had a large coral reef aquarium, where I learned about marine biology and the behavior of corals and anemones.

When the pandemic started, I started to teach myself Latin, a subject for which I still have a long way to go.

I think this is really the best way to become an autodidact or a self-learner. You have to follow whatever your interests are and be willing to move on to something new when your interests change.

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Jeremy Sparks asks, “How did you fund your decade of travel? I don’t mean to delve into your personal finances, but it’s so expensive to go to the places that are so distant and non-touristy.”

It is certainly not a problem, as I’ve gotten this question many times. The initial answer is that I sold a business and my house before I started traveling, so I had savings I could use for the first many years I was traveling.

Later, my travel blog became popular, my social media accounts gained large followings, and I was able to make money from doing brand ambassadorships and photography projects for travel brands.

However, one of the big things that most people don’t realize is that if you travel full-time, it is far cheaper than most people think.

When most people think of the cost of traveling, they are doing so as an expense added on top of all the other expenses they already have.

However, if you travel full-time, you forgo many of the expenses you have from daily life. No rent or mortgage. No utility bills. No property taxes. No miscellaneous repair expenses.

Moreover, you almost never stay at expensive hotels, and depending on what part of the world you travel to, it can be extremely affordable. I’ve met people who were able to get by on just a few hundred dollars a month, although I admit that level of spending isn’t for everyone.

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Next, I have two questions that are very similar, so I’ll just lump them together. Alan Massaro asks “Gary, congratulations on your success. Wondering if you know anything about who’s listening? Age? Sex? Country?”

Likewise, Kyle Dunham, asks, “What are the demographics of your listeners? Do they tend to be older or younger? Are they primarily in the US or in other countries? Do your analytics affect your podcast topics??”

I should note that there is only so much you can really know about a podcast audience. Some data you can be quite certain of, and other data is more speculative and you have to extrapolate.

What I know with a high degree of confidence is the data that comes from IP addresses. IP addresses are roughly assigned by geography, so you can have an idea of where people are downloading the show from.

As of the day I am recording this, my audience is 73% in the United States, 8% in Canada, 3% in the United Kingdom, 3% in Australia, and then 1% in Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland, South Africa, and France.

This has changed dramatically over the last few months. In December, the audience was only about 60% American, and the growth in the show since then has been almost entirely in the US.

The top cities over the last 30 days are Chicago, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Sydney, Portland, Atlanta, Denver, and Melbourne, Victoria.

As far as demographic information, such as age, sex, or income, it is impossible to decipher that from simple internet data. However, some listening platforms have that data and share it in the aggregate. In particular, Spotify had demographic data.

Spotify only accounts for 16% of my total downloads, but it’s the only data I have. I have no clue if the demographics on Spotify are representative of every other platform.

According to Spotify, the audience is 70% male and skews older, with 31% between 45-59, 28% between 35-44, and 18% between 28-34.

I have a suspicion, but cannot prove, that the audience on Apple Podcasts would not skew as male or as old, simply given the nature of iPhone owners.

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Matt Goulet asks, “Being unfamiliar with how debate competitions work, is there ever a case where you’ve had to defend a subject from the side you don’t agree with? And if so, how hard is it to put aside your personal beliefs to debate the other side?”

That is an excellent question Matt.

There are several different types of debate. The type I did in high school and college, and what I coached after college, is known as policy debate. In policy debate, you debate on a team with a partner.

A typical debate tournament would have six or eight preliminary rounds to determine seeding, followed by elimination rounds to determine the champion.

In the preliminary rounds, you will have an even number of debates on the affirmative and negative of whatever the resolution is. In the elimination rounds, you would flip a coin unless you debated the team previously, in which case you would just switch sides.

So, the answer is, yes, you are debating something you don’t believe all the time, and that is one of the benefits of the activity. Being forced to debate both sides of an issue makes you take a perspective on something that you otherwise wouldn’t.

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Kevin Hultgren asks, “Why is Christopher Columbus credited with discovering the Americas when the Vikings had a settlement in Newfoundland centuries earlier? Or did they?”

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: neither Columbus nor the Vikings ‘discovered’ the Americas. The discovery was probably made by some unknown person walking across the Bering Land Bridge around 20,000 years ago.

That being said, in a previous episode, I covered the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. There is ample evidence that there was a Viking settlement in North America centuries before Columbus arrived in the New World.

Putting aside the issue of discovery, why was Columbus given so much more attention than the Vikings when the Vikings were there first?

For starters, no one knew the Vikings had arrived until a team of archeologists discovered their settlement in the 1960s.

Second, and most importantly, nothing became of it. There are a great many things for whom credit is given, not the person who does it first, but the person who does it first, the best.

It was the voyage of Columbus, for better or worse, that led to the exchange between the new and old worlds and the creation of the world as we know it today.

The Viking settlements were the equivalent of an evolutionary dead end. The settlement ended, and no follow-up was ever made.

This isn’t the only case like this where someone technically might have come first but isn’t given credit. The electric incandescent lightbulb is often credited to Thomas Edison. Getting an electrical current to incandese isn’t particularly hard. Just run enough current through a wire, and it will start to glow.

Many people created bulbs that could create light from electricity, but their systems weren’t practical.

However, Edison created a practical system that could be used anywhere.

The same is true with the printing press. The first printing press was developed in China. However, this technology was highly controlled, and the system they used was difficult. Gutenberg’s printing press unleashed a revolution, which is why he’s usually given credit. It was his system, which came later, which was the foundation of modern printing, not the Chinese system.

In fact, in almost every episode I’ve done on inventions, there is usually some early inventor who created some impractical version of something who doesn’t usually get the credit.

The same is true with the Vikings and Columbus.

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Ja Teng asks, What type of travel is your favorite? For example, backpacking on foot, cruising down a river, bus, train, plane, or something else I can’t think of?

I don’t really think there is a type of travel. All of the things you listed are modes of transportation. Depending on where you want to go, you might have to take different modes of transportation.

When I was in Egypt, I went from Cairo to Luxor by train, but then I went back up by taking a riverboat that stopped at various temples along the way. I took a bus to get to Abu Simbel in the desert.

Different modes of transportation all for pretty much the same purpose.

If you want to visit Antarctica, you are probably going to have to get on a ship. There are flights to Antarctica, but they usually involve landing on a glacier and not being able to see much beyond ice.

I took the Blue Train in South Africa, which was a totally different experience from the one I had on a road trip around South Africa. If there is a ‘type’ of travel, I would say it has more to do with your budget and the type of accommodations you stay in, not your modes of transportation.

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Jordan from the Discord server, and yes, I do have a Discord server, asks, In your travels, what’s your favorite place you’ve spent less than 48 hours in? What’s your favorite place you’ve spent at least two weeks in?

For a place where I’ve spent less than 48 hours, I’ll probably have to go with Macau. I visited Macau on Christmas Day 2007. I took a very early ferry from Hong Kong and spent the entire day exploring Macau. Macau isn’t very big, and I visited most of the major attractions while I was there. I ended up taking the last ferry back to Hong Kong, which was an extremely full day, but it was only one day.

There are several places where I’ve spent more than two weeks. By that, I’m only counting locations where I stayed at the same accommodations in the same city for at least two weeks straight. That would include Melbourne, Bangkok, Saigon, and Apia, Samoa. However, I’d have to say my favorite place was Girona, in Catalonia, Spain. Girona is about an hour north of Barcelona, and I spent three months there.

Girona was used as one of the shooting locations for Game of Thrones, and it is a very overlooked city, mostly because of its proximity to Barcelona.I was able to get to know the city quite well and was there long enough to become a regular at some pubs and restaurants.

If you are in Catalonia, I highly recommend visiting Girona.

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My last question comes from Fat Yankee, also on the Discord server. He asks, Gary, I lived the first 29 years of my life like I wasn’t going to see 30. Now I just turned 40, and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to rebel and delve into whatever it is young adults are doing, like pickleball and TikTok, or just accept it and start yelling at neighborhood kids to get off my lawn… Any suggestions? My suggestion is to not worry about it. You get old, and things change. By all means, I would not suggest trying to act like you are in your 20s when you are in your 40s because then you will just be the creepy old guy.

Pursue your interests, and don’t worry about what you should be doing.

Also, I think we’ve lived with social media long enough now that we can see that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It is largely a waste of time, and I think everyone’s time is better off being spent on longer-form content where you can learn something, not tiny bits of text or video that offer nothing more than opinions or fads.

…and while I do not play pickleball, I know some people who do, and I’m pretty sure it is not something that the kids play. It mostly attracts adults, actually, as it is easier and less stressful than tennis.

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Sean Vergowven asks, “It might have been asked before. But is there any place you wouldn’t want to visit again? Either because you had a bad experience or you saw everything.”

The first thing I’d say is that you can never see everything. I don’t think you can ever be “done” with a place. I’ve returned to places a second and third time and have had different experiences every time.

Your experience in a place will depend on a host of factors, including the time of year, the weather, and who you happen to meet.

So the short answer is no, there is no place I wouldn’t return to.

That being said, there are some places where that are not high on my priority list for returning. Probably number one is Russia. Russia has very onerous visa requirements for Americans, and when I was last there, I was harassed at the border control. and I don’t think things have gotten any better since I was last there.

Visa issues and the difficulty getting into a country are always a big factor in determining where I would visit.

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John Higham asks, Do you ever get used to the sound of your own voice? Whenever I hear a recording of myself I cringe.

Yes, it is something you get used to. The thing I found awkward when I first started this show wasn’t hearing my own voice, it was recording myself talking when there was no one around.

I was used to recording podcasts where I was having a conversation with someone else but not recording something when no one was around.

However, I realized that if this show was going to happen, I had better get over the awkwardness pretty quickly, so I did.

If you find the sound of your own voice odd, it is just because you aren’t accustomed to hearing that way. If you do it a few times, you’ll get used to it, and you won’t think about it at all.

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Bairbre N’Cinneide asks If the oldest wheel in the world was a potter’s wheel. What other ubiquitous invention started out having a different use?

There are a great many inventions that were originally used for something else completely different. One of the most common things that will often change from their intended use is pharmaceutical products. Viagra was originally intended as a heart medication.

However, the best example I could come up with of something that had a totally different original use intent was……bubble wrap.

If you’ve experienced bubble warp, it is hard to even conceive of what else it might be used for other than a packaging material.

However, it was originally developed in 1957 by two inventors, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, who created the product to be a form of textured wallpaper.

The use of the product as wallpaper was an absolute flop. However, they managed to pivot and established the Sealed Air Company in 1960 to sell bubble wrap as a packing material, where it was a great success.

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Max Shemtob asks Where do you see this podcast in 5 years from now? Still making daily episodes?

This podcast is a daily podcast. That is sort of its raison d’être. So I don’t particularly can’t see anything that would cause me to stop the show. If that were to happen, it would have to be something unforeseen.

I do assume that there will be changes in how the show is produced on the back end. That hopefully will not affect the end product but will make life easier for me in getting a show out every day.

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Margarite Pardue Anderson asks, In general, when you travel, do you prefer to keep on the move to see as much as possible, or do you like to go slowly and soak things in? For example, I would love to just rent someplace and stay for a month (such as a house in the Scottish Hebrides or an apartment in Vienna,) but it is hard to convince myself to spend that much money and then just see one place.

It is a mix. If you move around constantly, you will get burned out. You can keep up that pace for a few weeks, but eventually, you’ll have to slow down.

When I was traveling full-time, I had to do this every so often. I spent a month in Melbourne, Saigon, Honolulu, and other cities just because I got burned out from moving around so much.

Spending an extended amount of time in one place is just a different way of traveling. It is the classic tradeoff between breadth and depth. I would have no problem spending a month in the Hebrides or in Vienna.

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Ja Teng asks What language do you find most fascinating? Would you want to learn it?

I began studying Latin during the pandemic, and I’ve been keeping up with it, although not nearly as much as I should be.

I know a smattering of languages, but not enough that I could really claim fluency in anything.

Many people think that Latin is easy because it is the basis for so many Romance languages and because there are so many words in English that have Latin roots.

From a strict grammar standpoint, that’s true, but the structure of Latin is very, very different from any of the Romance languages. Latin is highly inflected, which means that the ending of words determines how they are used in a sentence. The order of words is largely irreverent in Latin, and there are no articles like ‘the’ or ‘a.’

On top of the structure of the language, there is the whole ancient aspect of the language and how it opens the door to understanding the past.

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Seth Louviere asks How do you construct your shows? I can’t imagine you simply copy and paste from one source like Wikipedia. How many sources do you usually try to get information from? Do you have some sources that are a go-to?

There is no single source for anything because every topic is different.

I have no problem with Wikipedia per se, but there are issues with using it.

For starters, I often find data that doesn’t jibe with other sources. When that happens, I often have to dig around to find the correct year something happened or at least check the original source that Wikipedia sites, and to be honest, there often either isn’t a source or the link to the source is broken.

There are some articles that are simply too long and too in-depth, and there are other articles that have almost nothing written. My goal is to tell an approximately 10-minute story, which requires trying to figure out the essence of what to say. That will often mean explaining the background of something or leaving out details that aren’t necessary.

Cutting and pasting anything wouldn’t really work because writing for the eye doesn’t usually translate well into writing for the ear.

One of the things I have to figure out for each episode is how I’m going to structure the episode and tell the story. Once I can figure out how the general arc of the episode is going to go, then it is just a matter of writing the script, which takes time but isn’t necessarily that difficult.

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Henry Suski asks Do you ever try engage both locals and tourists to be more interested in culture and history in the areas you’ve traveled too? When traveling, it’s been a common occurrence for me to talk to locals, who haven’t visited cool attractions in their own backyard.

Yes and no. I often meet people, but I don’t go out of my way to do so. Either it happens organically, or it doesn’t.

You are right that most people don’t visit tourist attractions where they live. It is one of the ironic things about people who say they want to travel like a local. People who live in a place aren’t traveling, and they aren’t thinking of doing travel things.

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Otterpaw over on the Discord server asks, What was your first experience travelling to another country and how did it happen?

My first trip outside of the United States was a trip to Canada my family made in 1979 on a road trip to Niagara Falls. I can still remember it, but mostly how everything was the same but just a bit different.

The first time I traveled out of North America was in 1999. I had sold my company to a much larger, international firm, and they sent me on a trip around the world. My first stop was in Japan, and I remember staying up all night watching Japanese TV because I was jet lagged and because I found it all fascinating.

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TheArchVillager asks on Discord, What do you think the world would have looked like if the Byzantines won at Yarmouk?

Honestly, I don’t think the world would be that much different if the Byzantines had won. The Byzantine Empire was in a very long, slow decline, and Islam was on the rise in 636.

If, for whatever reason, the Byzantines had won that particular battle, it wouldn’t have changed the overall trend of what was happening.

Instead of the battle of Yarmouk, it would probably be some other battle that we would remember.

Individual battles like Yarmouk often punctuate much larger trends. The battles usually are not the trend itself. There are exceptions, like the Battle of Gaugamela, but those are not the norm.

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Fat Yankee asks on the Discord Server, How does the increasing popularity of the podcast affect you? Is it more stressful? Does it give you more drive knowing more and more people love your work?

The funny thing is, what I do on my end of the microphone is almost completely disconnected from the number of people who listen on the other end.

The production of the show today isn’t that radically different from what I was doing three years ago. In fact, one of the great things about podcasting is that it can scale almost indefinitely.

That being said, I’m certainly aware of the size and growth of the audience, and it does factor into the attention I give each episode.

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The first question comes from Sean Vergowven, who asks, “Curious as a Wisconsin fan (which we don’t hold against you) what are your thoughts on the new Big Ten”

For those of you who don’t know what the Big Ten is, it is a college sports conference. It used to consist of ten large colleges in the Midwest that would also play each other in various sports. These tended to be large land grant institutions such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Iowa.

In 1990, they expanded to eleven teams by allowing Penn State to join, but they kept the name Big Ten. This addition wasn’t really that bad.

Then, in 2010, three more universities joined: Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers. Nebraska made sense, but Maryland and Rutgers were completely out of wack and took away from the Midwest nature of the conference.

Recently, USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington announced that they would be joining the Big Ten, bringing the number of teams to 18.

So, my thoughts are…..

18 teams is too much for a conference, and the conference no longer has any regional focus. The reason this is being done, of course, is for money. College sports, especially football and basketball, are big business.

The current trend of dismantling and merging conferences makes no sense, especially considering that it is only for a few sports.

College football should consider a complete reorganization that only affects football and leaves every other non-revenue-generating sport alone. Even he current system of determining a champion is a bit ridiculous, selecting four teams by committee rather than determining a champion on the field.

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Graham McIntosh asks, “How do you and other Americans celebrate the New Year?”

Personally, I do absolutely nothing. I go to bed and wake up as if it were any other day.

That being said, I’d say the most popular things are fireworks and drinking. Some people watch the ball drop in Times Square in New York, and there is a tradition of singing the song Auld Lang Syne, even though most people don’t know the lyrics beyond the first few lines.

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Gabriel Cervantes asks You’ve been all over the world, shooting photographs. Where can we see your images?

You can see all of my images if you go to my website Everything-Everywhere.com. In the menu bar up top just click on “photography,” and you can view the many tens of thousands of photos I’ve taken all over the world.

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Fabio Fidanza asks “Do you know/practice computer programming? if yes, what’s your favourite language? Thanks!”

Well, I used to, sort of, but I haven’t in ages. Back in the 90s, I found myself at the right place and at the right time. It was right at the beginning of the World Wide Web, and my roommate at the time developed a tool known as Cold Fusion. Today it is owned by Adobe.

It was a markup language with elements of a programming language that allowed you to easily and quickly integrate databases with websites, which was a difficult thing to do at the time.

When he was building the product, some companies asked to have websites created with the tool, and he didn’t want to do it, so I began using the tool to develop these data-driven websites, and long with SQL statements of varying complexity.

I did this for a while, but I soon brought other people on board, and my focus shifted to running the company, not doing the actual programming.

I’ve considered going back to goofing around with some simple scripting to do things on my own network, but I usually never get around to it because I have other things going on.

So the short answer is I did in the past, but I haven’t done so in a long time.

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TwoBuck Howie asks, In all your travels, have you ever come across fellow explorers like Albert Lin or Josh Gates?

First, just because someone is on TV doesn’t make them great explorers. I know a LOT of people who are far better traveled than most TV personalities.

That being said….

We had Josh Gates as a guest on my old podcast, This Week in Travel, but I wasn’t on the show that week because of scheduling.

I once met the Australian photographer Peter Lik at the Camuy Caves in Puerto Rico. He was there filming a show for the Weather Channel.

I also stayed at the same hotel as Anthony Bourdain in Lafayette, Louisiana, during Mardi Gras in 2018, just months before he died. Every morning, I’d see him outside the front doors of the lobby smoking a cigarette, texting as his crew got their equipment ready for the day.

I also know a fair number of online travel influencers that I’ve met during my travels around the world. However, I’ve lost touch with many of them as I’ve shifted to podcasting.

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Derrin Brown asks Can we determine the average length of an empire/commonwealth/superpower’s reign?

Yes, you can, but there is a problem with the question. You can get an average from almost any dataset. You can get an average from random numbers.

However, I’m not sure that such an average would be meaningful. Each empire existed with its own logic and forces that caused its rise and fall.

Pharaonic Egypt lasted through 33 different dynasties over thousands of years. Nazi German lasted a little more than a decade. The Soviet Union existed for only 74 years.

Moreover, technologies have changed dramatically, rendering whatever lessons we could learn rather moot.

So, yet you can calculate an average, but I’m not sure that it is meaningful.

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Matt Goulet asks “Why do Americans call chocolate bars candy bars ?”

It is because chocolate is a candy.

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Steve Gulliver asks Do you suffer burnout from researching so much??

The answer is yes. Sometimes. I have no one to help me research, write, or record the show. The nature of the show is such that I have to get a show out the door every day.

So, the production schedule of the show is sort of akin to that of a newspaper or a newsroom.

The only break I get is the occasional encore episode. Thankfully, I’ve done so many episodes now that no one really seems to mind them so long as new episodes are still being produced.

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Ayo Abíólá asks, would you use AI like ChatGPT to just draft the script in a second? If you did, has it made this venture easier?

There has been a lot of talk about AI within the podcasting world. While I recognize there might be some use for AI, literally creating entire scripts just isn’t possible. Just for the heck of it, I actually tried to get several AI systems to write a script, and the results were horrible. If I actually tried to release something totally written by AI, people would stop listening. Moreover, a great deal of what I’ve seen is simply factually incorrect. You’d still have to fact-check everything, which is difficult enough when you aren’t using AI.

That being said, there are two things I have found AI useful for. The first is creating images for episode artwork. The second is to create an outline of major points for topics that are extremely broad. Trying to summarize some topics into 10 to 12 minutes is extremely difficult, and it can be helpful to help summarize.

Once it lists the major points, however, It’s up to me to make sense of it, and write and research the episode.

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David Javid writes, Gary, you are probably the most interesting person at any dinner table, but if you could host a dinner party, who would you host, living or dead? Second, if you could live in any time in history or civilization, with, of course, with the help of modern medicine, which time or place would it be? Third, I love your podcast and am an avid listener.

Well, I’m not really sure who I’d want to have at a dinner party. The obvious answer is usually famous and accomplished people. However, some people I’d love to meet from history would probably not make for great dinner guests.

Benjamin Franklin, Richard Feynman, and Peggy Guggenheim, I think, would make for great dinner guests. I’m not sure that Ted Williams or Emperor Augustus would be very entertaining.

Second, I wouldn’t want to live at any point in the past. By almost every metric, things are better today than they have ever been. I wouldn’t mind visiting the past, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

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Abdelrahman Wael asks Hey Gary, love the podcast. I’m from Egypt, where sports like baseball and American football aren’t played often, but I have gotten to love football as I could understand it through movies but I can’t do the same with baseball. How do I understand the rules of baseball, and how do I get into it as a non-American. Much love from Cairo.

Abdelrahman, your view of American Football and Baseball is quite common.

Football is easy to grasp the gist of what is happening. Each team tries to march down the field, and if you can get to the other side, you get points. There is a lot more to it than that, but that is most of the game.

Baseball is more complicated. Basically, there are four bases you have to run around without getting out, and you have to go all the way around to score a point, called a run.

There are a lot of obscure rules in baseball as well, many of which are rarely evoked.

What I recommend to learn how the game is played the same way I learned about cricket. I just watched games. When I encountered something I didn’t understand, I looked it up. At first, there will be a lot of things you don’t understand, but over time, it will become less and less.

I’ve done episodes on the history of baseball, but maybe an episode explaining baseball for people who don’t live in baseball countries might be in order.

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Findaer asks, Have you ever gone into a topic for an episode expecting that you know a good bit about it only to realize you were completely wrong as you continued to research it?

The only episode I can say where something like that happened was the episode on the serial killer HH Holmes. I had heard that story that most people heard, but then, as I started researching it, I found that almost everything in the common telling of the story was exaggerated by tabloid newspapers of the era.I eventually had to abandon the episode, and I put it aside for over a year.

That was an exception. Usually, I don’t find that something is totally wrong so much as I find that there is just more to the story. Most historical events either have more nuance or details than most people are aware of.

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Dog on a Swing asks, I believe in the last Q&A you mentioned that some episodes can take years to be created as you figure out how you want to approach the subject. What are some examples of episodes with long lead times?

Yes, there is often a long time between coming up with an idea and doing an episode on it. Sometimes, like the recent episode on salt, it is just a matter of never getting around to it.

Likewise, the episodes on how horses came to North America and the episode on Quasi-War took a long time to come to fruition.

Other times, I’m just not sure how to explain a subject to an audience with a wide range of backgrounds. There are episodes on the standard model and quantum physics that I like to do, but I’m not sure how to structure the episode and how to explain it in an easy-to-understand way.

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I’ll conclude with a question from Oatmeal who asks, What audiences do you think the podcast caters toward?

My intent has always been to create a show for people who are curious about the world and love to learn. Regardless of where they are from or what their background is, if you are a curious person, and most people are not, then this is the show for you.

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Let’s get started with the first question. Andrew Reck asks, “When you were doing travel photography, what did your kit include? (what was your) Go to lens for urban or streetscape photos? Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc?”

When I began traveling, I purchased a Nikon D200. It was a crop sensor camera, which was fine, but I always had issues with how it performed in low light. I eventually upgraded to a Nikon D300s and waited for years for Nikon to upgrade their crop sensor line.

After years of waiting, I finally gave up and decided to switch platforms completely. I eventually purchased a Sony a7rii. It was a big switch not only going from Nikon to Sony but also from a crop sensor to a full-frame camera.

I never carried very many lenses with me. It just isn’t practical for doing travel photography. Lugging everything around got in the way of getting shots, and having to change lenses in the field caused problems as well.

I only used three lenses on a regular basis. A 50mm f/1.2 prime lens, which I have to admit I seldom used, a 16-35mm wide angle lens, and a 24-240mm super zoom lens.

Those lenses really were able to do pretty much everything save for wildlife photography. I had a 600mm lens that I used for wildlife, but I wouldn’t usually travel with that.

That being said, since I started the podcast, I haven’t taken my camera out of my bag.

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Matt Goulet Top asks, “Do you think if the Allies were successful in assassinating ? Hitler, it could have turned the war in Germany’s favor, given a more competent military leader could fill his place?”

It totally depends on when the assassination happened. The most serious attempt to kill Hitler was Operation Valkyrie, which took place in July 1944. The plotters behind the assassination didn’t plan to fight the war better. They wanted to come to terms with the Allies.

Honestly, I don’t think there is anything the Germans could have done once they invaded the Soviet Union. In the big picture, the resolution of the Second World War wasn’t a matter of decisions on the battlefield. A more competent ruler might have made the war go on longer, but I don’t think it would have changed the outcome.

Once the United States was in the war, the industrial advantage, coupled with the Soviet’s manpower and the British navy, put the Germans in a position they couldn’t win.

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Craig Oliver asks, “Outside of the Packers, what sports teams do you follow?”

I tend to support all of the Wisconsin teams. This is definitely a down year for football in the state, but the Bucks are doing OK and recently won a championship, and the Brewers are perpetually disappointing.

There are several sports that don’t have teams in Wisconsin. In those cases, most people either support teams in Chicago or the Twin Cities. Given that I lived in the Twin Cities for years, I tend to support the Wild in hockey and Minnesota United in soccer.

Outside of the state, I’ve adopted Liverpool as my English Premier League team., and Bilbao as my La Liga team. In International Rugby Union, I tend to support the All Blacks, which I saw win the World Cup back in 2011.

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Michael Miller asks, During your travels, have you ever encountered paranormal activity, voodoo, or something akin to that? If so, what happened, and do you believe in the paranormal?

Nope. I have never experienced anything like that, and I don’t really believe in it. There has been an explosion in cameras over the last ten years. Billions of people around the world now carry a camera in their pockets every day, yet there hasn’t been an increase in photographic evidence. What little exists is still blurry photos.

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Sevy asks over on the Discord server, “What’s the most and least popular episode by listens? Usually, you do encore episodes that are statistically less listened to. Do you incorporate the data back in to see what the new popularity is?”

The honest answer is that I don’t know. There aren’t wild swings in downloads per episode. They are all pretty much the same. This has held true over the last few years.

The least downloaded episode is probably one of the earlier ones, and one of the most downloaded episodes are a recent ones.

That being said, when people tell me what their favorite episode is, I never get a consistent answer. Different people like different episodes.

One of the fundamental premises of the show is that the topics are somewhat random every day. I don’t want to let individual episode popularity determine what episodes I do in the future.

I’ll just keep doing whatever topics I find interesting.

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Nonato Nonnie Ramirez asks, Have you been to the Philippines, and what is unique that you can have a podcast about it?

Yes, I have been to the Philippines on two different occasions. I’ve explored Luzon, going up to Baguio, Banaue, and Vigan, and I also went to Puerto Princessa to visit the underground river.

I haven’t done many episodes on the Philippines, but I do have several on my list. Topics I have in mind include Jose Rizal, the Siege of Manila, the history of Manila, and the Philippine–American War.

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Nonato Nonnie Ramirez also asks, “What is the most dangerous travel adventure experience you had? Risky travel due to weather or extreme sport or natural disasters or crime?”

The most extreme thing was probably a hike I made to the Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia. The people organizing it told us nothing about what it entailed. In fact, we didn’t even know we were going to be hiking.

Erta Ale is basically an open lava pit, one of the few like it in the world. It is also located in the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest places on Earth. As we were driving there, the temperature reached 50C or 122F, probably the hottest I’ve ever experienced.

Before we got started, they gave us beers, which it turned out was a horrible thing to do because alcohol gets you dehydrated. We still had no idea what was in store. It turned out we began the hike after sunset because of the temperatures. We walked for hours in the extremely hot night desert…and we had no water, and our guides were walking so far ahead of us they had no idea we were getting dehydrated.

Were it not for the fact that a guy with a camel was following behind us with water, I’m not sure what would have happened in the pitch dark of the Ethiopian desert.

When we finally got to the volcano, there were noxious fumes. Other groups that were there had gas masks because they knew what they were getting themselves into. We did not. We had to put ourselves upwind to avoid the fumes we had no idea we would be encountering.

In the middle of the night, we began walking to get back before sunrise.

What made the entire episode so bad was that I had no idea we would be doing it. We weren’t prepared.

I’d actually do it again, but only because I know what I’d be getting myself into now.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Tim DeLong asks, “Have you ever been recognized by a listener because of your voice? Like in a checkout line or while ordering at a restaurant?”

Nope. It has never happened, and to be honest, I’ll be shocked if it ever does.

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Fabio Fidanza asks, “How did you come up with the title music?”

I selected the music from a stock music website. It is only a small snippet of a much larger piece. I actually played the entire piece on episode 100 of the podcast if you want to listen to it.

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Jerry Gardner asks, “Did you dress up for Halloween? If so, who or what? Instead of handing out candy, did you give trick-or-treaters cards with fun facts on them?

No, I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in probably 25 years. That isn’t to say I never will, but I’ve spent a lot of the last several years in places that didn’t celebrate Halloween.

Also, I didn’t give out any candy because I live in an apartment building that doesn’t have very many kids.

That being said, if I was giving out something, I wouldn’t do something so lame as giving out cards with facts on them. If I did that, kids would rightfully toilet paper me or throw eggs at my door.

If you are going to give something out for Halloween, do it right. Don’t give out fruit or popcorn balls. Fun-sized candy is the baseline. If you give that out, kids won’t hate you, but they also won’t love you. They will just forget you.

What you really want to do is give out full-sized candy bars. Yes, this will cost a bit more, but you will be remembered forever. I can still remember the houses that gave out full-size candy bars decades after I got them.

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Brian Ross asks, “What was the most memorable food you ate on each continent?”

In no particular order:In Africa, it would be foul—a bean dish I had with shaved dried beef that I had in Cairo. I’ve never had it before or since, but it really stuck out in my mind.

In Europe, I’m going to go with Calçots. These are usually only found in Catalonia. These are large green onions that are roasted over a fire, served on a terra cotta roof tile, and they are only served at the beginning of the year.

In Asia, I’m going to go with a Japanese dinner that was served to me on the island of Yakushima. To this day, I’m not sure what I was served, but it was amazing. I think I’ve mentioned this meal before in a previous Q&A episode.

In Oceania, I’m going to go with Poisson Cru. This is the national dish of Tahiti. It is raw fish in lemon juice and coconut milk. I had it from one of the food trucks that go around the island known as La Roulottes.

In South America, I have to go with an Argentine Asado, which is their version of BBQ. Argentina has the best beef in the world, and an asado is one of the best culinary experiences you can have.

In North America, I might go with a Boucherie than I had in Lafayette, Louisiana. It is a Cajun tradition where they use all the parts of a hog in a community celebration.

…and I actually have an answer for the best thing I had in Antarctica. The answer is….ice. And no that isn’t a joke.

When we’d go out from our ship in a zodiac, we would look for bits of glacier ice that were floating in the water. However, we had to find pieces that were crystal clear and didn’t have any bubbles inside to cloud it. We would bring it back on the ship, and it would be used in the evening in the bar for drinks. We would literally be drinking part of the Antarctica ice sheet.

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Finally, the last question comes from Janelle Alvstad-Mattson, who asks, “You’ve made so many episodes at this point that it made me curious if there are any topics you have told us about that you have already forgotten the details of.”

The answer is yes and no. For a long time, I figured there would come a day when I’ve done so many episodes that I accidentally did one that I’ve done before.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes I’ll come up with an idea for a show and then remember what I’ve already done it.

It isn’t an issue of forgetting things so much as a matter of recall. Once I see the episode artwork, everything tends to come back immediately.

I would say that I could extemporaneously talk about the vast majority of the episodes I’ve done without any preparation. And for some episodes, I could probably talk ad nausem about them.

The remainer, I think I’d probably just need a few minutes to review what I have already done.

So, it isn’t a case of completely forgetting, but just needing a refresher.

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Let’s jump right into things, John Higham asks,

What counts as “visiting a country?” My litmus test is “Did I spend the night?” By that measure, I’ve been to 51 countries. But I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Vatican City, and unless you know the right people, you’re not spending the night. Does that count as a country visit? Or I once spent several hours on a tour along the wadis in Oman but did not stay the night. Is that a visit?

What’s your standard for “a visit?”

John, this is a good question and one that comes up quite often in various travel communities.

I understand why people use a stay overnight standard, but it is one that I don’t subscribe to. Let me explain.

Back in 2007, I visited Macau. I took the very first ferry in the morning from Hong Kong to Macau, and I spent a full day in Macau. I walked all over the island. I explored all the major attractions. I had three meals there, and then I took the last ferry back from Macau in the evening.

I didn’t say overnight, but I think I absolutely visited Macau.

Consider this compared to someone who flies into Macau, gets a room at an airport hotel, sleeps, wakes up in the morning, and goes directly to the airport to leave.

Most of their time in Macau was actually spent unconscious in a closed room. They didn’t see or experience anything, yet they technically spent a night in Macau.

To me, visiting a place involves doing and seeing things, not being holed up in a room sleeping.

So, what constitutes a visit is going to vary depending on where you are visiting.

So, I’d say you have absolutely visited Vatican City. It’s the smallest country in the world. If you’ve been inside St Peter’s and the Vatican Museum, you’ve literally explored more of the country on a percentage basis than you probably have for any other country.

I’m not sure why being asleep in a closed room would make your experience any more meaningful.

On the other side of the coin, a few years ago, I spoke at a conference on Hainan Island in China. I was at a resort hotel for several days, but I can’t say I really saw anything beyond the hotel. That is the only time I’ve been in the People’s Republic of China proper, not including the Special Administrative Regions.

Have I visited China? I guess technically, yes. But have I really visited China? No, I don’t think so, not really.

I think trying to force a rule for every country doesn’t make sense because every country is different. I literally walked across the country of Monaco, but I didn’t spend the evening there. I stayed in Nice.

The criterion I use is, was it a meaningful visit? That is going to vary from person to person and place to place.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Fabio Fidanza asks, are you into cooking?

While I could answer this question with a simple yes or no, the actual answer is a bit more involved.

From about 2007, when I started traveling full time, to about 2020, when the pandemic started, I rarely cooked a meal for myself. I didn’t have a kitchen to cook in or store food. Even when I was staying somewhere like a hostel that did have a kitchen, I didn’t find the idea of storing food in a communal refrigerator and waiting in line to use pots and pans very appealing. Especially when I could just go get a cheap, decent meal somewhere nearby.

When I did finally get a place that I could use as a home base, I kept doing what I had been doing for years. I ate out pretty much every single meal.

Eventually, I slowly started preparing my own food, but I was doing it with a George Foreman grill. George Foreman…. great boxer. One of the greatest heavyweights of all time, however, I found the gill to be horrible.

Eventually, I got to a point where I was making almost all my meals at home, and I was becoming more adventurous with what I was making. I’ve been working on particular recipes, experimenting with them, and working on making incremental improvements.

One of the things I’ve worked on is perfecting the recipe for Scotch Eggs. Scotch Eggs is pretty simple. The first time I made it, I just used a standard recipe.

With that starting point, I began making incremental improvements. I realized that you couldn’t just use any hard-boiled egg. You had to have one that was medium-boiled, such that the yolk wasn’t hard but also not runny. That took me down the rabbit hole of trying to find the perfect eggs as well as determining the perfect method of cooking them that could be replicated.

I’ve switched from ground pork to a ground pork and beef mixture and experimented with seasonings, coatings, and other things.

I’m currently going through a similar process with crispy pork belly. My first attempt was a solid B-.

I’ve also recently become a devotee of cast iron. It turns out a cast iron pan that I use, that my father used to use to fry fish with, is actually around 80 to 90 years old.

So, to answer your question more directly, I wasn’t into cooking, but now I am.

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Trina Wellington DeAnda asks, “What is the longest you’ve been stuck somewhere you didn’t plan to be while traveling? Where? What happened?

Probably the longest was in 2010. I was stuck in Spain when the volcano in Iceland erupted, which stopped transatlantic flights for five days, and then there were more delays on top of that as all the flights that were canceled had to be resolved.

It wouldn’t have been so bad, but for the fact that my father was in the hospital, and I really needed to get back to the US.

Other than that, when you are traveling full-time, you are never really stuck. I was going to visit Tokelau, a small set of islands in the Pacific, but the boat going there was broken. I went to American Samoa and Tonga, came back to Samoa, and the boat was still broken, so I just left and never made it to Tokelau.

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Nik Cap asks, “You may have answered this in some form or another; Visiting the Seven Wonders in the World are on my bucket list, but besides the Seven Wonders of the World, are there Seven little know or overlooked wonders that should also be be on the list?”

First, Nik, I assume you are talking about the New Seven Wonders, not the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, because there is only one of them still standing.

The short answer is, yes, there are a whole bunch of places that are overlooked. A good place to start would be the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are currently over 1,100 natural and cultural sites. I’ve personally been to over 400. I’d say 9 out of 10 are worth visiting.

Not everything has to be an ancient ruin. There are some incredible sites which are part of the history of the Industrial Revolution. You can find many of these in Europe, especially in England.

There are incredible Roman ruins that are almost never mentioned. You can find fantastic sites in Southern France, Jordan, Algeria, and Spain.

There are some amazing national parks that almost no one visits. Nahaanni National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and Torrengat Mountains National Park in northern Labrador are two of the greatest parks I’ve ever visited, and they both get fewer than 1,000 visitors a year.

Most people visit places because they know about it. That is why everyone visits the same few places…because they don’t know anything else.

If you do just a little bit of research, you’ll find a plethora of great, underappreciated places almost anywhere you visit.

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Evan Byrne asks Two parter: 1) how are you doing? Evan, I am doing well.

2) when do you plan on touring the global clubhouses of the completion club?

Not anytime soon. The schedule of researching, writing, and recording a daily podcast doesn’t leave much time for exploring the world.

For the last three years, the production of the podcast has been a solo affair. Every aspect of every episode was done by me. I’m now in the starting stages of getting help, so maybe at some time in the future, I might have the ability to travel again.

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JimmyAK asks over on the Discord server, When you take a vacation and line up 5 or 6 episodes to play while you’re away, do you need to still uploaded them each on the day they are scheduled to play? Or do you get to upload all of them at once and set them to their day somehow. I’m just wondering how “automated” your vacation actually is. (Stay safe in PR!)So long as they are already recorded, which my encore episodes are, it is easy to schedule everything in advance.

Recording and scheduling is the easiest part of what I do. The hard part is researching and writing. If I had everything written and ready to go, I could easily record and queue up weeks or months of shows.

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Derrin Brown asks What are your thoughts on the future of AI and its practical application to our lives. Especially through the context of historic technological innovation

There is obviously a potential for huge disruptions in certain fields. We are already seeing this with large language models that can produce well-written answers to questions. One of the best uses currently is in the area of customer support. If there is a set knowledge base of information, using AI is a quick and easy way to get answers from that knowledge base.

However, there are still huge problems. People ask me if I’ve used AI in the creation of this podcast. The truth is, I’ve tried, but the results have not been very good. There are very serious factual errors I’ve found in almost every search I’ve done on ChatGPT.

As of right now, it can create something that seems impressive, but it has no idea if it is right or wrong. It also doesn’t care if it is right or wrong.

I’ve had people suggest I could use an AI-rendered voice of myself reading an AI-generated script. If I did that, it would be a horrible experience for everyone.

So, right now, it seems to work better on a limited data set, not a generalized one. That is not a bad thing. One of the best applications I’ve seen for AI has to do with education.

For centuries, it has been known that the best way to teach someone is via individual tutoring. The problem is that tutoring doesn’t scale very well. One tutor can, at best, serve only a few students, and even then, it is expensive.

However, an AI tutor can provide custom teaching for every person. It can correct particular mistakes that a person makes to help them better understand. Khan Academy is already doing this online. There is also potential in applications that involve analyzing large sets of data. This could be revolutionary for the diagnosis of diseases.

It is hard to know exactly where AI will go because the term is so ambiguous. Everyone is excited about it right now, but I don’t think anything revolutionary has happened to justify the excitement. It is just that some tools have been made available to the public. Its become a buzzword that people are not using to generate interest in their products and inflate their value.

Many of the fears people have about AI, I think, are unfounded because computers don’t have a will. They have no desire other than what they are programmed to do.

Computers can do many remarkable things that mimic human intelligence, but ultimately, they are not the same as a human brain. Underneath, at least given how computers currently are, it is all still boolean logic. So, I’m not too worried about AI taking over the world.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

FatYankee asks, Sometimes your episodes correlate with the release date. Some are a history of the holiday, like Canada Day, but others correlate in a broader sense, like American Flag history on July 4th or a father/son-themed episode aired on Father’s Day.

How do you decide which special days get such an episode? Do you limit these types of episodes so as not to become a daily history podcast? I love these types of episodes and hope you add a Count Chocula episode in time for Halloween. Thanks, Gary, this podcast is my first listen to every day.

FatYankee, you basically nailed it.

There are only a few days on the calendar that are meaningful to people, and most of them are holidays. There are a few days people remember when something historic happened, but as you get further away from the event, we tend just to remember the year it happened.

In the case of holidays, it would be sort of weird to do a history of Saint Patrick’s Day in September. It makes a lot more sense just to release the episode on Saint Patricks Day.

However, I don’t necessarily want to be straight-jacketed by having to have every episode associated with a particular date on the calendar. Many of my episodes have nothing to do with any particular date. Some topics from ancient history have no dates associated with them that we are aware of.

There is also a marketing angle to doing that. Some podcast directories, like Apple Podcasts, will promote podcast episodes around certain holidays, and people often search for those episodes on those dates.

So, yeah, sometimes I do release episodes associated with a specific day, but that only happens a few times a year. If anyone has a suggestion for a particular holiday or national day in your country that you think would make a good episode, don’t hesitate to send me your suggestions.

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Sylvain Charbonneau asks If you could change one thing in professional sports, any sport, what would it be?

One of the first things I’d do is put a hard salary cap in major league baseball. Baseball is the one North American sport without a hard salary cap, and it results in massive differences in payroll between teams.

For example, the Philadelphia Phillies this year have a payroll of $215 million dollars, while the Oakland A’s only have a payroll of $33 million. I’d institute a cap as well as a floor because right now, teams can make good money by losing by just not spending money on players.

I would also take an extended break in the middle of the baseball season for a single-elimination playoff tournament. This would be taking a page from the single-elimination tournaments which are held in Europe, like the FA Cup. Like the FA Cup, I’d allow minor league teams to take part as well, with major league teams getting a buy to later rounds.

One thing I like about the way European sports are organized is that there are multiple trophies that a team can contend for each year.

Another thing I’d change is the odd way Major League Soccer signs players. Technically, every MLS player is signed by the league, not the team, which is bizarre. Each team also has odd rules about the amount that can be spent on which position, so defenders are usually underpaid.

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Chuck Ferraro asks, How many items are on your list of future episodes?

As of the moment I am writing this, I have 919 show ideas on the master list of future shows.

Not all of these ideas will see the light of day. Some might get rolled into other topics for an episode that covers a bigger subject.

Before I started the show, I began with a list of 100 show ideas, and many of those ideas I still haven’t done episodes on.

The list tends to grow in fits and starts. I’ll sometimes do an episode that will spawn five other episode ideas. Sometimes I’ll just be watching TV and come up with an idea. Other times I’ll be having a discussion with someone who has a good idea, and I’ll take out my phone to add an idea.

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Alex Ketner asks, What is Your Mt. Rushmore of Packer players?

That is a very difficult question. Would it be the people who had the biggest impact on the franchise? Would it be my favorite players? Would it be the best players?

I’m going to go with a mix of those and say Reggie White, Ray Nitschke, Vince Lombardi, and Aaron Rodgers.

Honorable mention goes to Sterling Sharpe, Don Hudson, Curly Lambeau, Bart Starr, Brett Farve, Tony Canadeo, Jim Taylor, Dave Robinson, Forrest Gregg, and James Lofton.

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David Kessler asks, What inspired you to start making podcasts?

I was a very early Internet user, and I can remember listening to very early Internet audio on software like RealAudio.

I was part of a live videogram streaming program back in 2000 before podcasting was even a thing, and I would stream music to my Everquest guild around that time using Shoutcast on Winamp.

I co-hosted a podcast called This Week in Travel starting back in 2009, and I was appearing as a guest on podcasts as early as 2007.

I have always been comfortable speaking. I was a very successful competitor in speech and debate in high school and college.

Podcasting, I guess, was a natural thing for me to do.

I’m also just a big believer in podcasting. Hearing someone’s voice is far more impactful than just reading an article from someone who is nothing more than a name online.

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Amanda Carlin asks, “What are some of your favorite sites in the US that you think are underappreciated/recommended/visited?”

I’d have to start with Alaska. Most Americans, and in fact, most Alaskans, haven’t explored much of the state because most of the state is difficult to reach.

When people visit Alaska, they will usually take some sort of cruise along the inside passage and then maybe go up to visit Denali National Park. These are all wonderful things, but there is a whole lot more to the state than that.

One of my big recommendations is Wrangell/St. Elias National Park. It is one of the parks that can be reached by car, and it is also the largest national park in the United States. It is larger than Switzerland. I had a great time there, glacier hiking, and it should be a part of any Alaska visit.

In the lower 48 states, I’d recommend places in the middle of the country that are often overlooked.

My first would be Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. This is a highly overlooked national park in the grasslands that has some of the most accessible bison, mule deer, and wild horses that you’ll see in any national park. It is also located right off Interstate-94, so it’s easy to reach if you are willing to make the drive.

I’d also recommend Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. The island is technically part of Michigan, but it is easiest to reach from Northern Minnesota. The park is mostly wilderness, and it is one of the best places for backwoods camping in the US. It is the least visited National Park in the continental United States because it is an island and because it is closed in the winter.

Another great spot is Antelope Canyon in Arizona. It is on Navajo land, and you have to be on a guided tour, but it is well worth it if you are in the Four Corners area.

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Benjamin Arndt, no relation, asks, What’s the best travel experience you’ve had after making a wrong turn?

It wasn’t a literal wrong turn, more of a metaphorical one, but I had a flight scheduled from Samoa to Tonga. At the time, the countries were on opposite sides of the international date line.

The flight was a weekly Air New Zealand flight that started in LA and stopped in Samoa and Tonga on the way to Auckland. Because of the dateline and time zone difference, I accidentally read my ticket wrong and thought the landing time was the takeoff time.

When I arrived at the airport in Apia, I literally saw the plane taking off and realized what had happened.

I went back to the guesthouse I was staying at and had to try to get my ticket changed to the next flight in a week.I ended up spending the next week on the island of Savai’i, which I otherwise wouldn’t have visited. I had a great time, Air New Zealand was sympathetic and changed my ticket, and it was an experience I wouldn’t have otherwise had if I had made the flight.

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Sam Robinson asks, What is the most interesting topic that you don’t think you’ll ever do an episode on?

Last month I said that I’d probably never do an episode on the Kennedy Assassination. That simply has to do with the fact that no matter what I say, I’ll have to deal with very passionate people who will find fault with anything I say.

However, there are a host of topics that I haven’t done episodes on yet, that I would like to do at some point in the future.

At some point, I’ll do an episode on quantum physics and one on the standard model.

I have an episode covering the various Chinese dynasties that has been staring me in the face forever, and I have several covering various South and Southeast Asian empires.

Ultimately, whatever topic I do an episode on, it is something that I have find interesting, I have to have some knowledge about it, and I have to be able to explain it in such a way that it can be understood by a wide variety of people.

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The first question comes from Bob Green, who asks:

Which meaning of Grand Slam came first, baseball or winning a series of tournaments? Certainly not breakfast at Denny’s.

Bob, this is a great question, and before diving in to find the answer, my instinct said that the baseball reference came first. However, I was wrong.

It took me a good two hours to get an answer to my satisfaction.

The origin of “Grand Slam” actually comes from card games. In the early 19th century, the first use of the term ‘grad slam’ was used in conjunction with the game of whist in July 1800.

A grand slam was if someone were to take every trick in a single hand.

The game of bridge then adopted the use of grand slam in the late 19th century for similar use.

The definition at this point was simply to convey something that was a complete success.

The first use outside of the world of card games was in 1930 when Golfer Bobby Jones won the American Amateur, the British Amateur, the US Open, and the British Open in a single year.

At the time, those four were considered the major tournaments.

His complete success in winning every major tournament was dubbed the grand slam.

Jones’ accomplishment was all over the news, and it brought the term ‘grand slam’ into widespread use.

In 1933, the first use of ‘grand slam’ with respect to the four major tournaments in tennis was used when Australian Jack Crawford won the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in a single year. He was runner-up at the US Open that year, losing in the final by a single set.

The first use of the term to describe a home run with the bases loaded only occurred in 1935. As early as 1920, there were interviews with Babe Ruth where he used the term ‘grand slam’ to describe simple home runs.

Both the golf, tennis, and baseball grand slams involved the number four and the definition of a grand slam changed slightly from ‘a complete success’ to ‘winning four of something.’

For those of you outside the United States, Denny’s is a national diner chain that is famous for its breakfasts. In 1977, Denny’s in Atlanta, Georgia, offered up a meal deal called the ‘grand slam’ in honor of the great Hank Aaron, who played for the Atlanta Braves.

The original Denny’s Grand Slam consisted of two buttermilk pancakes, two eggs, two bacon strips, and two sausage links.

There are now grand slams in many different sports and activities, usually revolving around winning four of something.

Of course, Operation Grand Slam was the plot hatched by Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond movie of the same name.

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Sylvain Charbonneau asks,

Hey Gary! Is there a subject you know you will never talk about in the show?

There are a whole bunch of subjects that I have no desire to talk about. I don’t really want to get into current events. I don’t want to do shows on divisive topics.

If there is one show from history I’m probably not going to do an episode on, it would probably be the Kennedy Assassination.

I’ve actually read quite a bit about the Kennedy Assassination. Probably close to a dozen books in my life. I’ve been to Daily Plaza and been up in the Texas Schoolbook Depository.

The reason why I wouldn’t do an episode on it is that no matter what I say, people would come out of the woodwork who have never listened to the show before to criticize it.

It is a no-win situation. To use a Star Trek reference, it is the Kobayashi Maru of episodes.

Even though it took place sixty years ago, there are still people who are very passionate about it.

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Bertram Atleo asks:

Have you ever been to Port Alberni, BC, on Vancouver Island?

No, I have not.

And follow-up question, if the answer is no, have you been to Tofino or Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island,

Yes, I have been to Tofino. I drove there while visiting Pacific Rim National Park.

If yes, then you’ve been through Port Alberni, as it is (on) the only highway to Tofino and Ucluelet.

Very well, I would like to amend my original answer and say, yes, I have been through Port Alberni.

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Kelvin Cook asks

[The question text is corrupted in the available transcript. The response below is preserved from that source.]

That is a very easy question to answer, Kelvin. I had one show. I recorded it and released it and then began working on the next show after that.

Fast forward three years later, and that is still pretty much my system.

Most people I meet, especially other podcasters, assume that I have a buffer of shows ready to go. That is not the case. If I were doing an interview show, I could probably do that because interviews are relatively easy.

The time-consuming part of doing this show is the writing and research. Doing more than one a day is difficult if I want to do anything else with my day.

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Trina Wellington DeAnda asks,

Now that you have found your passport, where are you going first?

Just a bit of background to the question, I moved back in September 2020, and when I moved, I was in a bit of a rush. I literally packed up everything I had in a single day.

In the process of moving, I thought that I had packed my passport in a box, and I even wrote “passport” on the box so I would know where it was.

When I later checked the box marked “passport,” I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it in any of my boxes, almost all of which remained packed up. It wasn’t until April of this year, when I moved again, that I went through the process of unpacking everything I had originally packed back in 2020 and most of the stuff that I had put in storage back in 2007.

I did eventually find my passport. It was in a plastic bag with my other old, expired passports.

So with that, where will I go first? As of right now, I have no set plans to go anywhere other than Puerto Rico in September, and I don’t actually need a passport to travel there.

If I go anywhere, it will probably be to one of the few countries in the region that I haven’t been to yet. Jamaica, Cuba, Colombia, or Nicaragua. Jamaica or Colombia would be the easiest to get to by far, and both would be a nice break in the winter.

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Dan Last asks,

You have unlimited time and an unlimited budget – where would you go and why?

If money were no object, I would do a couple of things. One would be visiting the South Pole. It is doable but expensive. The same is true with the North Pole.

What I would really want to do is hire a ship and sail around the South Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean and visit many of the islands that basically get zero visitors. Herd and McDonald Islands, Bouvet Island, the Kerguelen Islands, and Tristian da Cunha.

Maybe even sail up and visit one of the islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory.

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Sam Garrett asks

If you could only travel to one country per continent, which countries would you choose?

That is easy. I’d choose places on each continent I haven’t been to before. North America would be Nicaragua, South America would be Peru, Europe would be Moldova, Africa would be Kenya, Asia would be Bhutan, and in Australia, I’d go to Christmas Island.

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Lores Tyler Steury asks

Do you have a favorite photo you’ve taken on a trip?

I don’t know how many photos I’ve taken, but just counting every time I clicked the shutter, it has to be a couple hundred thousand.

Of those, there are a few tens of thousands that I’ve uploaded and are available publicly. Of those, there are probably a few hundred that I think are actually decent.

It is hard to pick just one, but it might be a photo I took on the island of Dominica. It was of a woman, who I don’t know who she is, standing up with her arms outstretched with her back turned to the camera in front of a waterfall. She couldn’t have posed better if I had planned it.

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Kyle Dunham asks

Are there any updates on an Everything-Everywhere cruise or tour in the future?

Sadly, no. I’ve reached out to several river cruise companies, and I haven’t even got so much as a reply back from anyone.

I’m still interested in doing it. I think the next step might just be to get a list of people who would be tentatively interested in attending an Everything Everywhere river cruise.

If there are enough people interested, then economics might just compel getting an answer from someone.

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Andrew Reck asks

If you were to quit EED and start a new podcast, what type of program would you do?

I would most probably do some sort of deep dive history podcast. Probably something that combined a linear narrative story with some expert interviews.

I’ve also thought about doing a limited series, which is something I could probably do while still doing this show. The problem is that limited series, from a business standpoint, are very difficult to do because, by the time you build up interest in the show, it’s over.

I’ve been interested in doing a rewatching podcast of the 1976s BBC series “I, Claudius.” It is a 12-episode series based on the 1934 novel of the same name, and it tells the story of the Roman emperor from Augustus through Claudius through the eyes of Claudius.

In addition to commentary on the episodes, it would be possible to interview some of the cast who are still around, and I think it would be a lot of fun.

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Fabio Fidanza asks

What is the most welcoming place you’ve ever visited?

That is difficult to say because people can be welcoming in different ways. I found places like Samoa and Fiji to be very warm and welcoming.

In Arab countries, people maybe aren’t as warm, but they can be extremely hospitable. They will take you into their homes and feed you. I had a stranger in Oman give a ride of over 100 kilometers and refused any payment.

If you go to a pub in England or Ireland and people hear my American accent, I can be guaranteed to have an interesting conversation.

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Evan Byrne asks

In your opinion, what is the busiest “tourist spot” that you’ve been to? And while there, what did you avoid due to the amount of people that were there that you would have otherwise liked to have seen?

Because I usually travel solo, I tend to avoid busy places during peak tourist seasons. If a palace is busy, it usually means high hotel prices, and I just go somewhere else.

There have been a very small number of times when I have been on a cruise ship. I’m not talking about expedition ships that go to remote areas with a relatively small number of people or river cruises, but the really big cruise ships that have thousands of people.I’ve never actually paid to do such a cruise, but I was invited to attend by some cruise lines. For the most part, I didn’t mind the cruise experience, and being on the ship was better than I thought it would be.

However, on one of the cruises, we made a stop in Sicily. I went on an excursion to the town of Taormina. It turned out that there were five cruise ships all in port that day, and the small town of Taormina was just crushed with tourists. There was a flood of people who all hit the same place at the same time. It was far more people than a town like that could reasonably expect to host.

The thing was, it was over soon after it began. By 5 pm, the town was probably empty because everyone had to be back on the ship.

The problem with overtourism isn’t too many tourists per se. The problem is too many tourists at the same palace at the same time. There are lots of great places that people just don’t know about. Most overtouristed places are so because they have an international airport and/or a terminal for cruise ships.

People go there because it’s easy to get there.

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Let’s get right into things. The first question comes from Gavin Wilkinson.

He writes: What episode did you dread doing before you researched/recorded, but then actually loved it the more you dove into it?

When I dread writing a particular episode, it isn’t the subject matter that I dread. If I didn’t find it interesting, to begin with, I would never have put it on the list, and I wouldn’t have considered doing the episode in the first place.

The episodes I dread doing are topics that are interesting but can be overwhelming in terms of trying to explain them.

For example, I’ve been thinking about doing an episode on quantum physics for over two years, but I’m still not sure exactly how I would encapsulate everything into the time limits of the show. I’d probably have to chop the subject up into multiple episodes with an overview episode first.

Likewise, I’d like to do an episode explaining how blockchains work. It is something people hear about, but most people don’t really know how they work under the hood. In this case, it is trying to figure out just how much detail to go into explaining it.

Other topics are just enormous, and trying to condense them down is more of an exercise in trying to figure out what to omit. I did an episode that gave a brief history of the Mongol Empire, and that was challenging for that reason.

The episode on how horses arrived in North America was a topic I found really interesting, but I dreaded doing it for a long time because I felt the topic was daunting.

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Preston Smith asked, How do we suggest new topics? How far in advance does the “idea list” go? How do you decide if a topic is too obscure to tackle?

Preston, that is really easy. However, you can communicate with me, works. You can send a message on Facebook, or make a post in the Facebook group, or you can send me a Tweet on Twitter, or you can send me a message on Instagram, or you post something on the Discord server, or you can send me an email.

Any and all of these are ways that people have given me suggestions for future episodes.

As for the list, the list was originally 100 ideas that I came up with before I ever published the first episode. Since then, I have added to the list as I have come up with new ideas and taken things off the list as I do them. As of this moment, there are currently 867 episode ideas on the list. They are in no particular order. Some may never get recorded or they might be merged into other episodes.

If you are a supporter on Patreon, you have access to the actual document of future episodes, and you can make suggestions right in the document itself.

As far as what is too obscure, I guess that is a judgment call. I get a lot of suggestions from people that are really just facts. They aren’t the sort of thing you can develop an entire episode around. Whatever it is, it needs to be something that has an interesting story around it. So long as it is interesting, it really doesn’t matter how obscure it is.

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Oleg Ulogov asks, As a person from the USA traveling all around the world, what do you think people who had never been [there] get the most wrong about USA and people who live there? Do you have stories of funny stereotypes or misconceptions you faced around the world?

This is actually a great question, Oleg.

The thing with being an American traveling is that everyone you encounter is aware of the United States, at least to some degree. Their knowledge of the United States almost exclusively comes from what they’ve seen in movies or on television.

As such, most people think they know more about the country than they really do.

For example, I got into a big argument with a guy from England about how many states there were. I explained to him that there were 50 states, and he was adamant that there were 52 states because Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico were states.

I tried explaining to him that those were not, in fact, states, and if he wanted to verify the number of states, all he needed to do was to count the number of stars on the flag.

I’ve met many people who, when I said I was from the United States, would then ask…. California? New York? That was all they asked because they didn’t know about anything beyond those two places. Maybe they might be aware of Texas or Florida.

There are also people who assume that everyone carries guns around and that there are police shootouts and high-speed chases all the time.

The vast majority of people I met who had been to the United States usually only visited a few places. New York City, Disney World, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. Maybe Washington, DC, if they worked for some organization. Very seldom would I meet people who visited the country and actually went beyond major coastal cities.

I was on the road during four different US presidential elections. I saw local coverage of it pretty much everywhere I went. The problem with everyone paying attention to American politics is that they view everything on reciprocal terms with their country.

They would say, “I know who the leader of your country is, why don’t you know who the leader of my country is.” That sounds reasonable at first, but that same thing can be said by someone in almost every country.

My response would be to ask them who the president of South Korea or Switzerland was, to which almost no one had an answer. Everyone I encountered has a similar level of ignorance once you turned the spotlight to some other third country.

Many people also don’t realize just how big the United States is. Many US states are on par with many countries in Europe, with economies and populations that are just as large or larger.

I met one British couple that was planning to fly to New York and then drive to Chicago for the day. I had to explain to them that wasn’t going to work.

There is a stereotype that Americans aren’t that well-traveled. It really depends on how you ask the question. If you ask people how many countries they’ve been to, the average American will have been to fewer countries than the average European.

However, if you just look at the distance people travel, Europeans and Americans travel about the same distance. The difference is what you can find in that distance.

If you draw a circle with a radius of 1,000 kilometers centered on Prague, within that circle, you will find 32 different countries.

If you draw a circle with a radius of 1,000 kilometers centered in Kansas City, Missouri, every point in that circle is still within the United States, and it only touches 23 states.

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David Day asks How profitable is the podcast? Is it supplying a full-time income for you yet? And do you have any tips for someone wanting to get into podcasting?

Right now, the show is allowing me to make a living. It is paying for rent and expenses, but I haven’t purchased a new car or anything. Advertising and the support I get from the supporters on Patreon are paying the bills.

I’m getting very close to the point where I am going to be able to hire someone to help me with some of the tasks in managing the show.

As for advice, I could talk about that for hours. The thing I would recommend is not to expect any success immediately. Podcasting isn’t like YouTube or social media, where things can go viral. The vast majority of podcasts never make it to episode 10.

Don’t just have a subject for your podcast, but actually develop a format. If you’ve listened to this show long enough, you are pretty familiar with the format of the show. I stick to it pretty rigorously and it has worked.

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Jeff Loftus has another question about the show and asks, “Do you have any interesting interactions with the advertising side of this show that you care to share?”

I am not involved in the day-to-day selling of advertising. I work with Glassbox Media out of New York, which handles selling advertising. Producing the show by myself every day takes up a lot of time, and I don’t have the bandwidth or the talent to do advertising sales properly.

That being said, I can’t say I really have a lot of interesting stories. I have rejected some advertisers because they aren’t a good fit for the show, and I have turned down quite a bit of money because it would have required adding another ad spot. When I started the show, I set a limit of no more than 2 ads per episode, and that is something I’m going to stick to.

Almost all of the ads you hear me read are written by me. Most advertisers give quite a bit of leeway in letting you say what you want so long as you hit a few key points.

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Bairbre N’Cinneide asked I was rewatching “A Few Good Men” and I was wondering about the obsession with Cuba. Has Cuba ever invaded the US? I seem to remember the US trying to invade Cuba.

I could probably make an entire episode on the relationship between the United States and Cuba. I’d recommend listening to my episode on the Spanish-American War to give an historical background for the movie a Few Good Men.

Cuba is the largest country in the Caribbean by a wide margin. It has more land and people than every other island combined. It also happens to be very close to the United States, although technically, the Bahamas is closer.

In the 19th century, there was talk of taking Cuba from Spain and making it a US state.

The US invaded the island when it was still held by Spain in 1898. The US occupied the island for a few years, and when Theodore Roosevelt became president, he was a big supporter of Cuban independence, so they became independent in 1902.

In 1903, Cuba allowed the US to establish a naval base at Guantánamo Bay for an annual payment. A 1934 treaty established the lease as being perpetual and the annual payment to be $4,085 US dollars.

The base was actually a large employer for local Cubans up until the commumist revolution in 1958 when the based was sealed off. Guantánamo has been a sore point in US/Cuban relations ever since, and the current Cuban government has refused to cash the annual lease payment checks the US government sends every year.

Guantánamo Bay is definitely worthy of an episode of its own in the future.

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Sara Fredman Aeder asks, What spots in Israel outside of Jerusalem do you think are worth the visit?

The good thing is that Israel is a pretty small country, so you can actually visit quite a bit just by taking day trips outside of Jerusalem.

The place which is closest is Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park. This is a collection of huge caves which were actually excavated by hand. There are also active archeological digs in the city of Maresha where the public can take part in a dig.

Normally, archeologists wouldn’t let the public do this, but what they are excavating are actually garbage pits, so there isn’t as much in the way of stratigraphy to worry about.

Another recommendation would be the Nahal Me’arot Nature Reserve. This is located on Mount Carmel and is not far from Haifa. It is one of the most important sites for documenting early humans and human evolution.

Masada can be visited on a day trip and it will give you an excellent view of the entire Dead Sea.

I’d also recommend visiting one of the tels. A tel is a human settlement that over the course of thousands of years, developed into an artificial hill as people continuously built up on top of the ruins of what came before them.

There are three in Israel which have UNESCO World Heritage Status: Megiddo, Hazor, and Beer Sheba. Beer Sheba is probably the closest to Jerusalem, but Megiddo is probably the most interesting and best to visit. I’ve been to all three, and I recommend checking out the ancient water systems that they developed. They were quite sophisticated.

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The final question comes from Sevy, who asks, What are your favorite unorthodox travel hacks?

To be totally honest, I don’t really have any. I’ve never focused on things like travel hacks. I am aware that there is a very large number of people out there who are focused on travel hacks, frequent flyer miles, getting status with airlines, etc. Some of them are downright obsessed about it.

I’ve never really cared about those sorts of things. I’ve always been more interested in what I was seeing and where I was going rather than the minutia of getting discounts on flights and hotels

My travel hacks can be summarized as follows: get a credit card that has travel rewards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, use it frequently, show loyalty to a particular airline or hotel chain if you want rewards.

That’s about it.

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With that, the first question comes from Lenny Zuriff. He asks, how long does it take to produce one episode, to include all the research you have to do?

The amount of time it takes is totally dependent on the type of episode it is.

For every episode, I have a rough idea of what I’m going to say before I even start. I have a running list of episode ideas that I write down when I come across them. When I write an idea down, I have a kernel of an idea of the story I want to tell.

The smaller the story, the easier it tends to be to write an episode. For example, if an episode is about a single person or a single event, it is much easier to write. Episodes that have a larger focus are more difficult to write because I have to condense an enormous amount of information into a small amount of time.

In some episodes, I’m trying to condense a subject that could be someone’s lifetime work down to about 10 minutes. That means making decisions about what to put in an episode and what to keep out.

With that being said, I’d say the average amount of time it takes to write and record an episode is around four to six hours. Sometimes it takes less, and sometimes it takes more.

I will often select an episode based on how easy it is to write and how much time it will take. I have several episode ideas that have been staring at me for, in some cases, years. I really want to do them, but they are just daunting in how difficult they would be to write.

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The next question comes from Matt Bitner. He asks, On your website there’s a picture of you wearing a racing suit that says “Best Lap F1 Event”. Where did this take place? Did you meet any current or former drivers?

That took place during the 2011 Gran Pre of Europe, which took place in Valencia, Spain.

I was there with a group of travel journalists who were invited to the race by the Valencia Tourism Board.

As part of the event, we got to visit the behind-the-scenes of the race, including going into the paddocks where the cars were being worked on.

As part of the events surrounding the Formula One race, there was a company which set up at a local race track that provided a Formula One experience.

They owned an actual Formula One car that had actually won a Formula One race several years earlier. The company acquired the car and put a custom body on the chassis. The new fiberglass body had seats for two passengers between the wheels.

So, the company would offer passengers rides in an actual Formula One car with a professional driver. I believe our driver raced on the Formula Two circuit.

We did three laps around the track, and it was really an incredible experience. What I learned, in a very visceral way, is that the key to Formula One cars isn’t their top speeds but rather their acceleration.

We hit about 180 miles per hours in the straightway, but that is possible to achieve in some high end luxury cars. Where Formula One cars shine is in their acceleration. The acceleration I experienced riding as a passenger in a Formula One car was second only to the acceleration I experienced getting launched from an aircraft carrier.

That, however, is another story.

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The next question comes from Sharon Nelson DuBois. She asks, Any updates on the travel program you talked about a year or so ago?

That is a very good question, Sharon.

My original idea was to lead an in-depth tour in Rome to visit all of the things most tourists never get to see. I had a lot of interest in tour and worked behind the scenes to make it happen.

That was quite a while ago. Since then, the number of people listening to the podcast has increased dramatically. The number of people interested in going on the tour is now vastly greater than the number of slots which would be available.

Moreover, given that this is a daily show, taking extended time off from the show has consequences.

I’m still interested in doing a tour with listeners. However, I now have to figure out how to accommodate a larger number of people.

My current idea is to do a river cruise that could accommodate more people. It would also solve several problems, including managing accommodations and allowing for lectures on board in the evening.

Right now, I’m trying to find a river cruise company to work with. When i have more information, I will provide it.

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The next question comes from Jeroen De Boer in the Netherlands. He asks, Hey, Gary. When I talk to my friend and colleagues about your daily podcasts, I always mention one or two that I find great. The Colosseum and why the sky is blue. I was wondering, do you have a favorite episode that you recommend to others to get them to listen to your podcast? Greetings from the jacuzzi in the completionists club.

I do not have an episode that I refer people to. When I ask listeners what their favorite episode is, the answers I get are all over the map. I don’t even know if I’ve had two people mention the same episode as their favorite episode.

When I tell people about the podcast, I usually just tell them to pick any episode they think looks interesting and start from there. Either they will get it immediately, or this podcast just isn’t for them.

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Sara Fredman Aeder asks, What’s your favorite Taylor Swift song?

That’s easy. It would have to be the one about her ex-boyfriend. You know, the one. The one song about her ex-boyfriend. I believe she only wrote one song about it, so that is the song I’m talking about.

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Mathew Lehmann asks, You made a comment a while ago about a WrestleMania event that was so interesting you rewatch it every year. Can you explain why, as someone who has never watched wrestling before, insight into why it is appealing or special would be nice.

OK, Matthew, I’m going to tell you the story of one of the most famous professional wrestling matches in history. The Undertaker vs. Mankind Hell in a Cell match at the 1998 King of Ring show.

This single match has been the subject of documentaries, has its own Wikipedia page, and, twenty-five years later, is still the number one question they get.

The Undertaker, aka Mark Calloway, and Mankind, aka Mick Foley, were scheduled to have a Hell in a Cell match at the King of the Ring show. A hell-in-a-cell match is just like a steel cage match, except there is a roof on it. The entire structure is made out of chain link fencing. This was to be the third hell in a cell match in history.

In planning the event, Foley was talking with hall of famer Terry Funk about how they could top the previous hell-in-a-cell matches. Funk suggested that they fight on the top of the cage, and maybe the Undertaker could throw Foley off the top of the cage.

This was an unprecedented suggestion. The top of the cell was 16 feet off the ground. The Undertaker was concerned that this could kill Foley. While professional wrestling matches are scripted and the outcomes predetermined, the action in the ring is all real.

Being thrown 16 feet off a structure can’t be faked.

They lied to WWE officials about what they were going to do. The announcers weren’t aware of it.

When the match came, they climbed up to the top and sluggishly hit each other. It turns out chain link fencing wasn’t designed to support people walking on it, especially two guys who were both around 300 pounds. In fact, they both almost fell through.

They eventually get to the edge, and they perform the spot where the Undertaker threw Mankind off the top of the cage and he crashed through the announcer’s table.

Everyone in the area was shocked. The announcers were shocked. No one had ever seen anything like this. A stretcher was brought out, which was not an act. He was put on the stretcher to be taken out to an ambulance. If that was the only thing that happened, it would have been one of the most memorable moments in wrestling history.

However, Mike Foley then wakes up on the stretcher, gets up, and climbs back to the top of the cell.

Everything at this point was unplanned. They keep fighting on the top of the cage, and the Undertaker then does a chokeslam on Foley onto the top of the steel cage. Normally, this is a very safe move on a wrestling mat.

However, as I mentioned, the top of the steel cage wasn’t designed to support the weight of people walking on it, and certainly not a 300-pound man landing on it.

Foley broke through the top of the cage and fell into the ring below. On top of the fall, a folded steel chair that they were using fell down with him and hit him in the face.

Once again, staff and medical officials went into the ring. Foley refused to be sent out on a stretcher twice in one match, so he was assisted out of the ring walking. On the camera, you can see something in his nose that looked like a booger. It turns out it was his tooth that was sticking out of his nose.

This still wasn’t the end of the match. Foley goes back in to continue fighting, and the final spot of the match was Foley spreading thumbtacks on the mat, real thumbtacks, and getting slammed once again into the thumbtacks by the Undertaker.

At that point, the match ended, and everyone was in disbelief as to what they just saw. There had never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again, as there is no way something so dangerous would ever be allowed.

It wasn’t technically a “good” wrestling match, but it is one of the most famous ones in history.

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Graham McIntosh asks, Have you ever been to Scotland? If so where? Have you ever had haggis? Irn Bru? Deep fried Mars Bar?

I have been to Scotland. I’ve been to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and I visited the World Heritage Site at New Lanark. However, I’ve never been further north.

I have had haggis, and I didn’t really see what the fuss was about. Haggis and neeps really isn’t that different than shepard’s pie.

I haven’t had Irn Bru or a Deep fried Mars Bar, but I also have to say that deep-fried candy bars I don’t think are uniquely Scottish. I’ve actually seen them all over the world.

I’d like to visit Scotland again and visit the highlands and possibly visit the Hebrides, Shetland, and Orkney islands as well.

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Jerry Gardner asks, Hey, Gary I understand through the podcast that you’re a big Green Bay Packers Fan. I live in Kansas City, and we just hosted the NFL Draft here, and there was a Hugh Chiefs fan turnout. Though your world travels, who do you think is the most enthusiastic ?and passionate fan base for a local team? I’m guessing Football (Soccer) is the world’s most popular sport. What do you think are the second and third most popular sports in the world?

Enthusiastic fans can be found all over the world. I’m not sure there is any one team or sport which has an edge over any other.

In terms of popular team sports, after football, it would probably be cricket, basketball, baseball, or rugby, depending on how you want to define popularity.

The biggest sports league in the world in terms of revenue is actually the NFL, but interest in American Football drops off dramatically once you get outside of the United States and Canada. There has been talk of creating an NFL franchise in London. American football is about as popular in the UK as the English Premier League is in the United States, however, when taken over the entire population, the numbers might be enough to support a team.

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Glenn Folau from New Zealand asks, Why your disdain for the Chicago Bears? Is it because they, like the Green Bay Packers, are from the Northern States, and you share a regional rivalry, or are they as you say, just truly horrible? Cheers

The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers are the two oldest NFL franchises. They have the longest rivalry in American football, and they have played the most games between each other.

The Packers have the most championships in NFL history with 13 and the Bears are second with 8

Since their first meeting in 1921, the all-time series has the Packers up 105–95–6.

On top of that, there is the social and geographic aspect of the rivalry. Chicago is one of the largest cities in the United States. Green Bay is the smallest city with a professional sports team. People from Illinois are always driving north into Wisconsin for vacation, and they have developed a reputation for driving extremely fast and being obnoxious.

Moreover, the teams tend to be good when the other team is bad. The Bears were last good in the 1980s when the Packers were horrible. However, over the last 30 years, the Packers have been good, and the Bears, for the most part, have been bad. They did have one super bowl appearance where they lost.

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Glenn Folau asks, “Have you visited The Diomedes, or St Lawrence Island?”

No, I have not, nor are they high on my list of places to visit. The Diomedes are interesting because they are located so close to Russia and the International Date Line, but other than that, there isn’t much about them that is interesting. Likewise, St. Lawrence Island is interesting in that it is closer to Asia than mainland Alaska, but that’s about it.

Both of these places are very difficult to get to, and there are other Alaskan islands and parts of Alaska which I think are more interesting. For example, Round Island is a sanctuary for walruses, which I think would make for great photography and would actually be something to go and see.

I have planned a trip to Western Alaska in my head which would involve flying to Nome and visiting the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument.

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Mark Hyman asks, “Have you visited North Korea, Bouvet Island, or the Crozet Islands?”

The answer to this is also, no, no, and no.

I almost technically set foot in North Korea at the DMZ. If you visit the DMZ, you can step inside the building where the cease-fire was signed, and you can technically step over the line into North Korea. However, the day I was scheduled to go, there was an ice storm, and they closed it to tourist access.I’ve also looked into doing a proper trip to North Korea, but I’ve just never pulled the trigger on it.

As for Bouvet and Crozet islands, they are extremely hard to visit. Extremely.I know some extreme travelers who have tried to visit Bouvet on a ship, on a trip that cost well over $10,000 per person and weren’t able to land because of weather. No one lives there, and there are no regular ships that visit.

Crozet is similar, except there is a small French scientific outpost on the island.

These islands, along with Herd and Macdonald islands in the Southern Indian Ocean, are some of the hardest places on Earth to visit. A ship might only visit some of these islands once every five years if even that.

To visit these islands is an incredible undertaking in time and money, and not something I have any plans to do.

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Will Murphy asks, “Hi Gary do you think that rugby union is better the American football, and have you ever seen the All Blacks play?”

As all of you know, I am an American and a big fan of the Green Bay Packers NFL team. Other than just watching scores online, it is difficult to follow rugby from the United States.

There is a big streaming service in the US, Peacock TV, which now offers Rugby League matches from English Premier League as well as some rugby sevens tournaments. However, I’m not sure how to watch Rugby Union games. It would probably involve using a VPN to watch it from another country. As for the All Blacks, I have, in fact, watched the All Blacks. In fact, I was in the stands at Eden Park in 2011 to watch New Zealand beat France to win the World Cup.

A fact that makes Kiwis envious every time I mention it ?

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Jason Scott asks, “Do you really love ScotteVest?”

Yeah. I’ve been wearing Scottevest gear for years. If you go look at some of my photos, you’ll see photos of me in Antarctica and the Arctic Circle wearing Scottevest jackets. There are lots of other photos of me wearing Scottevest shirts and pants.

I’ve been wearing their stuff for years before I started this podcast.I’m friends with the owner of the company Scott Jordan, and I’ve visited their headquarters in Sun Valley, Idaho. Scott is also a fan of the podcast and is probably listening to this right now.

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Sergio Ortiz Orendain asks, “Hi Gary Arndt, given your background in math, is there a specific branch in math you are interested in?”

If I had continued to pursue math, I probably would have focused on number theory. I did a project in my senior year of Fermat’s Little Theorem and pseudoprimes.

This branch of mathematics has become relevant with the increased importance of cryptography.

But I also don’t think I’d make a good researcher or academic. My interests are too varied to focus on a single subject.

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Graham McIntosh asks “Who in your opinion was the best James Bond? What was the best James Bond Theme Tune? Your favorite Bond film?”

I think that you have to go with Sean Connery as the best Bond, but I would also think that Daniel Craig is a close second. I think the quality of Bond movies has been a U-shaped curve with the best movies being the earliest and the most recent.

The best song is probably You Only Live Twice by Nacy Sinatra.

As for the best movie, that is easy. Goldfinger. I’m not even sure there is any debate on that subject.

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Bairbre N’Cinneide (kin-ade-ah)asks, “As a Northern American citizen can you explain why Americans associate leprechauns with the Irish. Our traditions have the “little people” which are closer to fairies. Leprechauns look more like German traditions. Love the podcast, and I’m telling all my fellow artists about it ??”

The answer is that leprechauns are Irish, and they were originally considered fairies.

In particular, leprechauns were considered solitary fairies, as opposed to fairies that lived in a fairy tree or a fairy mound. Over time they were ignored in Irish folklore until they were repopularized by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats in the 19th century.

The leprechauns were traditionally portrayed as wearing red clothing.

The portrayal of leprechauns wearing green was a function of the Irish diaspora in the United States. Green was the traditional Irish color, so leprechauns started wearing green.

From there, leprechauns just became a symbol of Ireland, along with shamrocks.

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Ayo Abíólá asks, “Tell us more about EE-Weekly. Why did you decide to do a weekly podcast. Why a different format (has a co-host? How long will it be? Will EED eventually become EEW or will both co-exist. Any overlap????”

For those of you not on the Facebook group, I’m launching a new weekly podcast called Everything Everywhere Weekly, which will be available to supporters over on Patreon.com

The weekly show will be a guest and me talking about the previous week’s episodes in a rapid-fire format, plus a few more from the back catalog.

This show will not change at all, and the weekly show is designed purely as an extra bonus for all the show’s supporters.

I’ve already recorded the first episode with Chris Christensen, the host of the Amateur Traveler Podcast.

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Robyn Lingard asks, “Some time ago, you mentioned attending a podcast conference. Without giving away the secrets for creating your daily magic, what were some tips you picked up?”

Well, I’ve been to lots of conferences over the years, and you learn almost nothing at conferences. Pretty much anything you need to know you can learn quicker, easier, and better, online.

The reason to go to conferences is to meet people and network.

That being said, I can and have talked about the subject of podcasting for hours. Basically, you have to put in the work. Most podcasts never make it to episode seven because they give up.

You can do a podcast for fun. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you want to take it seriously, you need to put in the work and treat it like a business and a media property.

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Kyle Kenyon asks, “Can you recommend any books or resources that give a good (high level) overview of ancient cultures?”

There are a lot of books, but there are two which come to mind off the top of my head that I really like.

The first book is 1491 by Charles Mann. The book covers the latest research on what we know about native peoples who lived in the Americas before European contact. My of my episode on the Great Dying of the Americas was based on his book.

The second is SPQR by Mary Beard. In it, she gives a good overview of the rise of the Roman Republic from a single city to the leading force in the Mediterranean.

Even though I have a pretty good basic understanding, I’m personally looking for recommendations for books about Carthage and Phoenicians, and Ancient China. Feel free to leave them in the Facebook group if you have any.

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Dave Bitschy asks, “Do you listen to podcasts? I’ve always wondered if podcasters listen to others. Maybe they are too busy producing their own they have no time. My other favourite is Dan Carlins hardcore history. It’s the complete opposite format to yours.”

I certainly do listen to podcasts. I’ve listened to Hardcore History since it first came out. In fact, when I came up with the idea for the format for this show, I purposely did the opposite of what most other podcasts were doing with long-format shows.

There are a lot of shows which go in-depth on single topics, and I figured there was room for a show which was more frequent, covering a wider variety of topics.

I don’t listen to as many podcasts as I used to because I can’t listen to podcasts while I’m working on a show.

I do listen to podcasts when I’m doing other things.

Most of what I listen to nowadays are either history podcasts or podcasts about podcasting.

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The last question comes from Evan Byrne. He asks, “Out of all the places you have been in the world, if you had to choose one place to “retire” for the rest of your days, where would you choose and why?”

I get this question a lot. The truth is that there are a lot of great cities in the world. Places like Vancouver, Singapore, London, and Rome are all great places that I enjoy visiting.

Narrowing things down to a single city is difficult because it depends on where you live in any particular city. There are also many cities which are nice but are incredibly expensive.

So, I don’t know if I have an answer to that question.

There are certain spots I’ve found around the world which I felt would be a great places to build a house. There is one spot I found in Montenegro near Lake Skadar that has an incredible view.

There is another spot I found on a rather remote corner of a remote island in the Pacific. I visited a beach that had close to no visitors, even locals, in the last ten years because you had to walk down a long flight of stairs down a cliff to get to the beach.

Getting shipments of anything there would be difficult, but it is an amazing place.

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Let’s get right into it. The first question comes from Shelby Frizzo. They asks, “Of all the cultural & religious celebrations that you have been to across the globe, what has been your favorite and why?!”

I haven’t really been to a lot of religious celebrations, and it isn’t something that I go out of my way to experience. That being said, I have found myself at the right time and place and have experienced a few.

I was in Singapore exploring the city when I came across a Hindu Holi celebration. I didn’t really know anything about it, and I had no idea what to expect. I ended up spending several hours there photographing everyone, and it was extremely messy. If you haven’t seen a Holi celebration, it is basically a giant fight with colored powder. The powder gets into everything. My hair was pastel colors for a week, my clothes were basically permanently dyed, and I had to spend a whole lot of time cleaning my camera.

I also happened to have been in Jerusalem during Holy Week. Again, I didn’t plan it, but I was there before Holy Week was starting, so I just extended my stay there to experience it.I got to experience Passover in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Easter Sunday for western Christians and Palm Sunday for Orthodox Christians.

I could probably spend an episode talking about everything I learned and experienced that week, but those two would definitely be the highlights.

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Kevin Hultgren asks,

Was your interest with Rome and The Roman Empire brought on by your travels or were they the reason for your travels? My suspicion? You’ve always been interested and traveling it gave a much better base of knowledge.

It was definitely something that was developed while I was traveling. I had read several general books about ancient Rome before I started traveling, but it was definitely something that piqued my interest while I was on the road. There are simply a LOT of Roman ruins around the Mediterranean, many of which are in pretty good shape for being 2000 years old. Many of them can be found in places that you don’t think of as being Roman, like the city of Jerash in Jordan, Caesarea in Israel, Merida in Spain, and a whole host of what are some of the best sites in the world in North Africa, most of which I have yet to visit.

We simply know more about the Romans than we do about the Ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Sumerians, etc., because they left behind far more written material. Most of what we have from other Ancient cultures consists of stone engravings or archeological finds.

In comparison, we have Julius Caesar’s first-hand written account of his campaign in Gaul.

Also, as you probably might have seen from the various episodes I’ve done, the western world is still profoundly influenced by ancient Rome, down to our calendar and alphabet.

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Joey Warren asks,“With all of your travels is there one thing or place here in the states that you find particularly interesting?”

Absolutely. I’ve been to every US state twice, and I’ve visited half of the 426 sites in the National Park Service.

Probably the one thing that really stands out is the trips I’ve taken in Alaska. In particular, the lesser visited parks such has Katmai National Park, Wrangel-St. Elias National Park, and parks above the Arctic Circle,

Some of these, like Wrangle-St. Elias, aren’t particularly difficult to visit, it’s just that Denali and Glacier Bay get all of the attention and are even easier to visit.

I could talk for hours about all the great attractions which can be found in the United States. There are a few places that get most of the visitors, like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon, but there is plenty of great stuff beyond that.

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Amy Elizabeth Morrison asks, “Will Thor Thompson be running in the 2024 presidential election?”

No Amy. Thor does not run for president. Countries run to led by Thor Thomsen.

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Chris Gordon asks, “While you were away did you record new episodes or did you double up before left? Taking time off can be exhausting.”I did not. I produce and record all the episodes of the podcast just before they are released.

I was attending a podcast conference, which forced me to adopt a slightly more normal schedule. Instead of staying up really late, I started waking up really early.

I’ve kept to that schedule since I’ve gotten back, and I’m working on trying to get ahead of things a bit.

However, until I can hire someone to help out, I assumed I’ll always be producing the shows at least the day before.

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Jeff Loftus asks, “I assume you track listens on individual episodes. Can you name 1 episode where you’re surprised at the lack of listens and one episode where you’re surprised how many listens it received?”

While I do know the stats for each episode, there isn’t a whole lot of variation in downloads. The growth of the show tends to overwhelm any individual variation in episode topics, so it is hard to separate that from the data. There have only been a few cases where an episode was shared on Reddit or something, and that resulted in a sort term spike, but it is impossible to predict those. One was the episode on Alan Francis, the world’s greatest horseshoe pitcher, and another was the episode on morse code.

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Mallory Moyer asks, “Did you know there are volcanoes on Io the moon?” – Luke Who is someone from history you’d like to get a cup of coffee or a beer with?

Luke, I did know that. There have been photos taken of the volcanoes erupting by probes sent to jupiter. You can clearly see the plume of the volcano against the backdrop of space.

As for who I’d like to have a drink with, I actually have an answer to that: Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a very smart guy with a wide range of interests who lived just before the scientific and industrial revolutions of the 19th century.

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Trina Wellington DeAnda asks, “Did you find your passport?”

No, I did not, but I also haven’t really looked. I’m going to be moving within a month and when I do I’ll have an opportunity to go through all my boxes.

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Millie Shaw, asks, “As a public speaking teacher, I so deeply appreciate your well-crafted messages with a clear thesis and structure. Each podcast is a beautiful example of an engaging informative speech. How do you manage the gargantuan task of sifting through the available information and narrowing your focus to fit a roughly 10-minute episode? I find that this is often the biggest challenge for my students. Do you start with a really strong thesis and work from there? What advice would you give a novice speech builder on how to choose the best/most relevant info?”

First, Millie, let me say that I competed in academic speech and debate for years, and was also a coach for about ten years as well. I competed in Expemoranesou Speech in high school and was one spot away from making the final round at the national tournament.

My background in competitive speech was, far and away, the most important thing I’ve done in terms of my ability to do this podcast.

Most of what I do nowadays is pretty intuitive. I don’t start with a thesis so much as just something which is interesting. That has to be the kernel of any episode. There has to be an interesting story behind whatever the episode is about.

This podcast usually isn’t about crafting an argument or defending a thesis. My episodes are usually not trying to persuade anyone. I’m just trying to tell an interesting story about some person, place, or thing that most listeners might not be familiar with.

Filtering out the unnecessary information is more of an art than a science. I’m often trying to condense something very complex, something which someone probably wrote an entire book or did an entire doctoral dissertation about.

In trying to explain something in a short amount of time, the most important thing is that people walk away with the gist of the story. The thing you have to ask yourself is does this support the core of the story, or does it detract from the story.

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Michael Miller, asks “What are your thoughts on the in-depth tours now that things are getting back to “normal”?

I absolutely still want to do it and I’m talking to a company about planning the tours.

The problem is that when I first floated the idea, the show was about 10% the size of what it is now, and I still got a ton of interest. Now, I assume it would be even greater.

I really don’t want to run a large tour that has to move around by bus. However, if it is a small tour, it becomes difficult to justify taking so much time away from the podcast.

One possibility I’ve considered is something like a river cruise, where we could, in theory, take over an entire boat. It would much simpler for me to organize as I wouldn’t have to deal with hotels, it could support a larger group, and we could do special events on the ship each night, including special lectures.

Not exactly what I was originally thinking, but probably much more feasible.

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Katherine Friedman asks, “What are some of your favorite books?”

My favorite book series, by far, are the Dune books by Frank Herbert. There is a lot to the original Dune book that most people miss, and when you read the later books, you realize that the hero of the story is in fact, not the hero at all.

I’m a big fan of the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov.

Most of what I read is, not surprisingly, non-fiction. The list of great non-fiction books I’ve read is pretty long.

Two good ones I’ve read recently include 1491 by Charles Mann. This was the inspiration behind my episode on the Great Dying of the Americas. It tries to condense all the latest research on what exactly life was like in the Americas before Europeans arrived.

The other is The Second World Wars by Victor Davis Hanson, looks at the second world war in a larger framework looking at economic and industrial policies that all but guaranteed the outcome.

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Doug Lori McDonald asks, “Are there any show ideas that, while researching, unexpectedly took you down rabbit holes, leading to a multitude of new show ideas?”

Absolutely. It happens all the time. Take the subject of volcanoes. I initially did one on the Mount Tambora Eruption of 1815. That opened the door to Vesuvius and Paricutin, and a general episode about volcanoes. However, there are tons more volcano-related topics including big eruptions like Mount Saint Helens and Krakatoa, as well as culturally significant ones like Mount Fuji.

I’ve done or am in the middle of similar series on the planets, elements, rivers, and small countries.

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Graham McIntosh asks, “Have you ever been to Northumberland in Northern England? Many castles. Roman Wall and forts. Wonderful coast line.”

I have not. Unlike many countries, my exploration of England has mostly been piecemeal. I used to visit London every year for a conference, and I would then take a week afterward to explore a different part of the country. I have yet to get north of the Midlands.I’m aware that there is a lot of great stuff up there, but I just haven’t gotten there yet.

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The last question comes from Benjamin Pister “Are there any topics you’ve decided to avoid because they would potentially be too controversial or political?”

I try to stay away from any and all current events. The reason for it is that there is a lot of content on the internet that deals with topics in the news. I’m not really sure there is anything I can contribute which isn’t already being done by other people.

It isn’t so much a matter of staying away from politics or controversy as it is just trying to find a niche that I think is underserved. I think that there is a huge need for general knowledge about the world. If people have a better understanding of the world, and its history, they can better understand and process the information they get from the news.