Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

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.