Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.