Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 20

Starting point is 00:00:00 The month of July is named after Julius Caesar. In 44 BC after his assassination, the Roman Senate renamed the month of Quintillus after him in honor of the month he was born. The fact that he was appointed dictator for life probably had something to do with it. All of the emperors that came afterwards never changed it, so instead of Quintillus, we now have July. So stay tuned for the Quintillus episode of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? Throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time

Starting point is 00:00:49 to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Let's jump right in with the first question. It comes from Nefisa Scott who asks, Hi, Gary. I must just say thank you for such a great, informative, and concise podcast about everything everywhere. I loved your recent episode on air conditioning and got me thinking. What do you think are the top three contributors to the advancement of today's world? Well, that's actually a very difficult question. To use your example, air conditioners have indeed been very important to the creation of the modern world for all the reasons I mentioned in the episode. However, air

Starting point is 00:01:40 conditioners are dependent upon electricity. No electricity, no air conditioning. The same holds true for something like the internet. The internet, as important as it is, is predicated on computers, which in turn is predicated on electricity. So if I were to pick three things, electricity and electrification would have to be on the list. The next thing would probably have to be the development of the heat engine. And I'm using heat engine here as a catch-all for both the steam engine and the internal combustion engine. which, while different, have a similar lineage. This would cover most transportation and industrialization, as well as the creation of electricity. And finally, I've covered this on several episodes, I would have to include the development of germ theory.

Starting point is 00:02:26 The discovery that microscopic organisms were responsible for most infectious diseases was the one thing that led to a dramatic drop in deaths and an increase in life expectancy. If you were to start civilization over from scratch, you could avoid centuries of human misery by just knowing the basics of those three things. Jesus Chan asks, Gary, hello again from South Texas. In several of the last episodes, you've mentioned that some things have been discovered simultaneously by people in different places, to what do you attribute the independent development of similar ideas across isolated human society, such as agriculture, pyramids, calendars, weapons, etc. Is it aliens, collective consciousness, genetic memory, or something else? Hazers, I think the answer is really simple, and I'll answer the question by posing another question.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Why do dolphins and whales look like fish? The answer is that similar problems will result in similar solutions. In the case of a dolphin and a fish, the problem of swimming in the water results in similar body types because that's what works. The same is true for innovations. There are many ideas which were discovered independently in different places at different times. A pyramid is nothing more than a shape. It's a cone with flat sides. Children playing in sand or mud could easily come up with the shape of a pyramid.

Starting point is 00:03:49 If you were playing as a kid, you probably reinvented the lever by just playing around with sticks. Many times the discoveries occurred centuries or even millennia apart from each other. Looking back, the difference between 7,000 and 8,000,000. years may not seem like much, but it was a thousand years. Calendors are nothing more than people observing nature and the stars, and every culture and civilization were all looking at the exact same thing, so it should come as no surprise that they were developing similar calendars based on the earth, moon, and sun. Ancient people in Mesoamerica and Mesopotamia developed agriculture, as did the people in West Africa and Papua New Guinea. But all of those places cultivated

Starting point is 00:04:33 totally different crops that they had available. However, the basic idea of planting seeds to grow plants and eat them was a pretty simple one that doesn't require aliens. The next question comes from Wayne Roth, who asks, I recently joined the Sower Toe Cocktail Club in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Would you do it? Yes, my lips touched the toe. Well, Wayne, I am a three-time member of the Sower Toe Cocktail Club.

Starting point is 00:05:01 and for those of you who are wondering what a sour-toe cocktail is, it is a cocktail served at the downtown hotel in Dawson City, Yukon, and it consists of whatever alcohol of your choice that you want, and a severed human toe. I kid you not. I will leave this as a homework assignment for all of you if you want to research it more, but the motto of the Sower-Tow cocktail club is, drink it fast or drink it slow, your lips must touch the toe.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Kevin O'Keefe asked, Most of us that listen to your show clearly are lifelong learners. And I know that you have mentioned that this is one of the objectives of your podcast to have citizens throughout the world be more knowledgeable. Anyone that went to high school or college can relate to cramming for a test. Weeks later, everything that we learn is probably lost again, because content hasn't been recycled or used or reflected on. What I'm getting at, Gary, is since you have this huge volume of content that you've learned,

Starting point is 00:05:56 have you figure out how to retain a lot of this long term. I know there's no magic pill for this, but if students, can use some tricks or strategies that you've used, I'm sure we would all be more educated as a society and better for it. Kevin, what you have identified is a huge problem. Whenever we hear people talk about education, they usually talk about students test scores. And that's fine, but student test scores is not the goal of education. The goal is to produce knowledgeable and informed adults. The result of general knowledge tests given to adults is truly depressing. Most people, after having spent years in education, come out having learned next to nothing.

Starting point is 00:06:39 The average person couldn't pass any final exam in any class that they took past grade school. And I could talk for hours on this subject, but here are some fundamental things that I think. The first is that you are ultimately responsible for your education. If someone doesn't want to learn, if they aren't curious and they don't care, the best Best teachers cannot make them learn. You cannot inject knowledge into someone. However, if somebody wants to learn, such as the great 20th century mathematician Ramanujan, then it's hard to stop them from learning. Second is that learning never ends. Never. Too many people think that learning is only done in a classroom when you're a child or a teenager. That is when classroom instruction

Starting point is 00:07:26 ends, but it is not the end of learning. And third, is that sometimes you have to be a classroom. have to encounter things multiple times to make it stick. I took a trigonometry class in high school, which was nothing but memorizing things like the sign function was opposite over the hypotenuse of a triangle. I took a physics class and I never knew when to use the sign or cosine of something. Later on, someone explained the trigonometric functions using the unit circle. And everything clicked and suddenly made sense. My entire semester of trigonometry was learned in an instant. Once I understood that, then I didn't need to memorize everything. I could just figure it all out from first principles.

Starting point is 00:08:09 Publishing Encore episodes isn't just a way for me to take a day off, although, yeah, that's a big part of it. It's a way for people to hear something that they might have last listened to one or two years ago and serve as a refresher. When I watch a movie or read a book for a second time, I always pick up something new that I didn't notice the first time. Today, there are many different ways that you can learn almost any subject for free online. There are countless YouTube channels that will explain any topic, as well as articles and, of course, podcasts. And if you don't understand it after consuming something from one source, just go check out another. Tim Manchester asks, can you go more into what exactly podcasting 2.0 is? I listen to your show on Spotify. Am I missing out or robbing you of some benefit by not switching?

Starting point is 00:08:57 Tim, this is a great question. Podcasting was developed about 20 years ago by Adam Curry and Dave Weiner. They adapted RSS feeds, which stands for really simple syndication to audio and video files. RSS 2.0 is a new project, again involving Adam Curry, to expand the features available in podcasts. One of the big ones has been transcripts, but there are a host of other features. The problem has been a chicken and egg type of thing. People need to use podcast players that support the new features, and podcast hosts need to support them as well. The hosts have no incentive to support the features if people aren't using the players,

Starting point is 00:09:37 and the players have no incentive to adopt the features if the podcast hosts don't support them. My podcast doesn't support many of the new features because of the show's format. It doesn't really need a lot of them, and my host megaphone doesn't support them. If you want to learn more, I would suggest going to podcasting2.org, and you can learn more about what the new features are. Jerry Gardner asks, with the current heat wave in the United States, with all your world travels, what is the hottest and coldest temperature you have personally experienced? The hottest temperature was 50 degrees Celsius or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, which I encountered in the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, one of the lowest and hottest places on Earth. The coldest temperature would

Starting point is 00:10:21 have been around minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 45 and a half degrees Celsius, which I encountered in the winter in Dawson City, Yukon. John Fenland asks, have you attended pro wrestling events outside of the United States? Have you attended small indie events? Basically, what's your favorite live wrestling memories? John, I have not attended any outside of the U.S.,

Starting point is 00:10:43 but I would like to, especially in Japan or the UK. British fans are really some of the best wrestling fans in the world, and their ability to chant is on a different level from everyone else. I once went to a Ring of Honor show in Minneapolis before I started traveling, and I remember Colt Cabana putting someone in headlock for 10 minutes, and everyone started booing, and then he mocked the crowd saying that he could do this all night long.

Starting point is 00:11:05 My favorite show was a W.W.E. House show that I saw at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Rick Flair was there, who grew up in the Twin Cities, and he cut a great heel promo on how he hated the town and left. However, the main event was between Brock Lesner and Shelton Benjamin, who both wrestled at the amateur level for the University of Minnesota. For the first 10 minutes of their members of match? They wrestled for real, and everybody could tell what they were doing. They would get each other into a hold and then break it and then do it again, and they kept smiling at each other. After a while, the referee stepped in, told them to get back on script, and that's how they finished it. Janelle Alvested Mattson asks, do you have recommendations for a lovely, tropical-like beach

Starting point is 00:11:47 destination that is somehow magically not humid? Janelle, yes I do. And the answer is, Aruba. It's basically a desert. Josh Gazzo asks Gary, while I really appreciate the cheeky Monty Python reference a few months ago, I remain genuinely curious as to what is your favorite color. Not a sophisticated question, but one all the same. Josh, my favorite color is yellow.

Starting point is 00:12:12 I have a yellow car and I had a yellow bag while traveling around the world for years. Yellow to me is the color of adventure. Anson William Sheck asks, What is the best way to support your and other podcasts? Downloads, plays, writings? Honestly, the best thing that you can do is to tell your friends. Podcasting isn't like YouTube where there's an algorithm that shows people content based on what they've watched.

Starting point is 00:12:38 It relies on good old-fashioned word of mouth. Ratings and reviews always help, but people are more likely to listen to something recommended by their friends than anything else. Sophie Bass, or maybe Sophie Bass, asks, who is your favorite painter and why? This is a really good question, Sophie. My favorite painter is a little-known painter by the name of Garrett Van Honthorst. He was a Dutch painter who lived in the 17th century. I discovered him when I saw one of his paintings, one of my favorite, the denial of St. Peter at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, one of America's most underappreciated museums. What grabbed me was his use of light. Many of his paintings are of people illuminated by candlelight. I've been to other museums

Starting point is 00:13:24 around the world, and even though I'm far from an expert on him, I found myself being able to identify his work even before I would read the name of the painter. And while you didn't ask, I'll add it anyhow, my favorite sculptor is Frederick Hart. He was a 20th century American sculptor who pioneered working in acrylic. His work can be seen at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, as well as the National Cathedral. And if you don't know who Frederick Hart is, I highly, highly recommend looking him up. Mark Hyman asks, have you considered compiling the transcripts

Starting point is 00:13:58 from your most interesting and popular episodes into a book or publication for download? And where are the researchers and writers you plan to ease your podcast production burden? Well, Mark, I have considered it, and if I did, I probably need to spend time editing the scripts. One of the reasons why I'm able to produce a show every day is because the ear is more forgiving than the eye.

Starting point is 00:14:19 We talk and hear people, speak in a first draft every day. We're used to it. However, when we read, we are much more discerning. So I would need to hire an editor to go over the scripts to edit them for print. As for the researchers, I haven't found any yet, but to be fair, I also haven't looked very hard. I did put out a job posting in one of the travel writer groups that I'm in, and the responses I got back seemed to indicate that they just don't understand what the show is about, and it would take them weeks to do what takes me a few hours. A last question comes from Kyle Dunham, who asks,

Starting point is 00:14:54 Have you considered making merchandise available to the general public and not just to subscribers? Everything Everywhere Daily merch would make for nice gifts to fans of the show, and it would be fun to get the word out to more people about the podcast. Thanks for all you do. Well, Kyle, I absolutely have considered it, along with a host of other projects, like an ad-free subscription version of the show. The only reason things are available on Patreon right now is because they handle everything and I don't have to do anything. It all comes down to the same problem.

Starting point is 00:15:23 Every day, my top priority is getting out the next episode. While I'd love to launch some of these other projects, ultimately it has to take a backseat to the daily necessity of getting a show out the door. That concludes the questions and answers for this month. If you want to ask a question next month, then just join the Facebook group or the Discord server, the links to both of which can be found in the show notes. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever.

Starting point is 00:15:56 I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:16:23 Thank you.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 20

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