Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.