Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.