Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 3

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

Ladies and Gentlemen of the podcast audience, I would like you to consider Chewbacca.  Chewbacca is an 8-foot-tall Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the moon of Endor. Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? It makes no sense.  Why am I talking about Chewbacca in the introduction of this podcast? It makes no sense.  Soooo, let's do questions and answers volume 3 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen of the podcast audience, I would like you to consider Chubaka. Chubaka is an eight-foot-tall wookie from the planet Kishik, but Chubaka lives on the moon of Endor. Why would a wookie, an eight-foot-tall wookie, want to live on Endor with a bunch of two-foot-tall e-walks? It makes no sense. And why am I talking about Chubaka in the introduction of this podcast? It makes no sense. So, let's do question and answers, volume three, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time 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 get into the questions. The first one comes from Michelle Dars Conroy, who asks, I have noticed that in earlier episodes you use CE and BCE in noting timelines, but in later episode you revert back to AD and BC. Why is that? That is a very good question, and I actually

address this in a previous episode titled Year 1. If you listen really close, I actually do not say AD, but I do say BC. I explain this kind of in its entirety in the episode, but basically saying CE and BCE basically mean the same thing as BC. So for the purpose of this podcast, any year which people would consider CE or AD, I don't even mention at all. I'll just say the year 500, the year 750 or something like that. And then for anything before the year one, I will use the term BC because, well, that's exactly what it's dating. I may have used a slightly different system in some of the very first episodes I did,

but ever since I did that original episode on year one, I've been pretty consistent in how I've been doing my dates. Beth Wittlesey asks, former high school debater here. I wasn't good enough for the pros. How did you get started in debate? Well, before I answer that question, I just want to say, for everyone listening, especially if you are a parent or a teacher, the absolute best thing that I ever did in my life probably was join the debate team, hands down.

and pretty much everyone I know who was on the debate team either in high school or college usually agrees with me. And everyone I know who did debate, both the people I debated with, against, and coached, have all gone on to reasonably successful careers in whatever field they chose. And it's one of the best things that you can actually do while you're going to school. And the reason is it's because you're not graded. You have to win or you have to lose. And if you want to win, you have to put in a lot of work.

and research. I got started like anyone else. I was a sophomore in high school. I went to a three-year high school and the debate team was having a meeting and so I went. I thought it was something I'd be good at. And it turned out I was. I also competed in high school in an event called extemporaneous speech where you had 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech that answers some question usually about international or domestic politics. And in that, I actually went to the national tournament and placed in the top in the country. And I was later recruited to debate in college for a team that at the time was actually pretty good. They'd won a national championship the two years before I got there. And I debated there for four years, did pretty well and placed in the top 10 both my junior and senior years of

college. And then I went on to coach for several years. So it was something I did for a long time. Being a very serious competitive debater actually made most of college a joke. My ability to do research and crank out a 2,000-word script every single day for this podcast is in large part due to the skills I learned in debate. Erica Tolly asks, is this podcast your full-time job or a side gig? Fair question, this is my job, this is what I do. There's no way I could put in this much time trying to put out an episode every single day if this was just a side hustle. That being said, it's taken me two years to get the show to a point where I can make a living off of it, but yeah, this is my job now. I am a podcaster. Gary Klenner asks, how many passports have you filled up

visiting all the countries that you have? I am currently on my third passport. That being said, my second passport got extra pages put in, and then in an emergency, before I got on a trip that was going to go up the west coast of Africa and I needed a whole bunch of pages, they put in extra extra pages when I went to the consulate in Cape Town, South Africa. And they aren't technically, technically supposed to do that, but they did it because it was an emergency. So my second passport is actually one of the thickest passports in the world. And sadly, my third passport, which is the one I'm currently on right now, I can't find it because it got lost when I moved two years ago. I'm sure it's sitting in a box that I packed it in somewhere, but as of right now, I don't know

where it is. Mark Hyman asks, how do you become associated with a podcast production company? Do they court you or do you have to shop your podcast to them? And what are the functions of the executive and associate producers you credit at the end of each podcast. A good question. For starters, I don't work with a production company, meaning they don't actually do anything with the production of the show. All of the research, the recording, the show topics, everything is done by myself. The company I currently work with Glassbox Media simply helps me sell advertising and market the show. As for the executive and associate producers, those are simply credits that you can buy by supporting the show over at Patreon. It's a good.

as simple as that. And lest you think that's kind of fishy, that is pretty much exactly the way the film industry works. And there's a whole lot of producer credits that get given out simply because people provide funding. Chris Gordon asks, at what point did you upgrade the sound system? Beginning listening to you about eight months ago, now that I've started going back to the beginning, the sound is quite different, not by the way the quality of the information. Ben Brian asked a similar question, what equipment you use for podcasting and what software do you use for editing? The truth is, I only upgraded my equipment about a month ago. I'm currently using a sure SM7B microphone that ties into a FocusRite Vocaster 1, and then that goes from a USB cable into my computer. So it's actually pretty

simple. The reason why it sounded different when I started had to do with the acoustics of the room that I recorded in. At first, I was recording in a room that had hardwood floors, and I was about 10 feet away from a running refrigerator. Now I'm in a room that has softer surfaces, there's carpet and the acoustics are just better. And as far as software, the only thing I use is garage band. That's it. Because I'm doing a solo scripted show, it is one of the easiest things to record, whereas if I was doing an interview show, it would be much more difficult. Janelle Alvsted Mattson writes, If you're playing a game of general trivia or bar trivia, what would you consider your weakest subjects?

I can say this. When I play Trivial Pursuit, the category that I always go after last is literature. I am really not strong on things like fiction and poetry. And if it was something like bar trivia, I would actually be pretty bad at things like pop music. I recently took a look at the Billboard Hot 100, and I didn't recognize hardly any of the names. I never heard of any of the music. And I just know nothing about it. And I am pretty cool with that being a big gap in my knowledge. Preston Smith asks, in today's politically charged climate, how do you avoid third rail topics?

Well, that's actually really easy. One of the founding principles of this show is that I really don't want to deal with current events. There are plenty of places where you can get that information. There are plenty of people that talk about it. And I don't think I'm adding anything to the conversation by having yet another podcast that needs to deal with those topics. What's ever hot in the news right now comes and goes, whatsoever a big deal today is not going to be a big deal a month from now. And I think it's far more important that people learn about history and science and geography in the things that make up our world.

because if you know that, then you can make informed decisions about what's actually happening around you today. Jerry Gardner asks, In your home community, are you a celebrity? Has a local or regional media outlet ever done a feature story on you? Or do you prefer to be low-key about your life and work? Pretty much nobody around here, I think, knows that I do a podcast unless I tell them. And just looking at my statistics,

I don't think there's actually more people that are listening to the show where I live in Wisconsin than are from any other part of the country. So, no, I am absolutely in no way, shape, or form a celebrity. I have had stories done on me in the past, but that had to do with travel and photography and nothing to do with podcasting. Nathaniel Smith asks, what is your favorite tongue twister? As an accomplished traveler, how many languages can you speak? When you travel, did you specifically try to visit world heritage sites? Okay, in order, my favorite tongue twister was one that was told to me by my great aunt. I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, Upon the slitted sheet I sit.

And for all the parents listening with your kids, you're welcome. How many languages can I speak? Well, the answer is only one fluently, English. But I know bits and pieces of a whole bunch of different languages. And I can pretty much say, hello, please, thank you in a whole bunch of different tongues. And I can get by in like German, Spanish, French, Italian, as far as things like ordering food or getting a hotel room.

And when I traveled that, I specifically try to visit World Heritage Sites. And the answer is, yes, absolutely I did. World Heritage sites, nine times out of ten, are going to be extremely interesting, even if you've never heard of it before. There are more obscure ones than famous ones, but they're still pretty interesting, and they're places that most people just don't know about. So if you're ever wondering what to do or see in a certain area, you could do a whole lot worse than just going to whatever the closest World Heritage Site is.

Dave Bitchie asks, how do you plan your travels? Do you choose a location, then scope out the interesting things to see or do, or do you pick interesting things to see and do and then plan a trip around it? Normally I'm looking for places I haven't been before. And that could be anything from a country to a national park that I haven't visited. When I do travel, I tend to just wing it.

I've been traveling for so long now that I don't tend to plan things out. And there have been many, many, many times where I will just land in a place and not have a hotel room and just make stuff up as I go along. And I just figure out what to do once I'm there. I'm guessing when I get back on the road in the future,

I'll probably be traveling a little bit different simply because I have a podcast now and I won't be running around as much. My plan would simply be to go somewhere and then stay there for multiple months while I work. On a similar note, Glenn Fowlow asks, what should happen should you decide to travel? Would podcast continue? Do you have portable equipment capable of broadcasting? The answer is the podcast is not going anywhere even if I do start to travel again. I'll simply take all my stuff with me and then record from wherever I am. All of my podcasting gear is pretty portable, especially considering that I spent 12 years traveling around the world with professional photography gear. The only thing I would really be missing is a desktop computer with two monitors,

which is something I really like using. And the last question comes from Abdul Rahman Waal from Cairo, Egypt, who asks, why don't you like Civilization 6? The answer really is how they do cities. They have those hexagons, and the cities takes up multiple spaces on the map, and I really just don't like how they do that. I like the games where it's like Rome Total War or Civ 5 or even Civ 4 where your city is just kind of one spot on the map. And whatever you do in the city doesn't actually appear on the map.

The map is used for maneuvering units and establishing trade routes and things like that. And I don't know, I just never got into Civ 6 for that reason. That does it for questions this month. If you would like to ask a question next month, just join the Facebook group. I'll be putting out a call for questions in the first week of every month. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Sean over at Podcast Republic.

They write, This is one of my favorite daily podcasts. I've not listened to them all yet, but that is my goal for this new year. Thanks, Sean. When the day arrives that you join the Completionist Club, you will be welcome into the clubhouse with open arms. Trumpets will sound,

doves will be released, and the skies will open, and a beam of sunlight will shine upon you. And you'll also really enjoy our selection of cheeses. Remember, if you leave a review or send a boostergram, you two can have it read on the show.