Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 45

Starting point is 00:00:00 The number 45 is highly significant. It's a sum of all the numbers from one to nine. It's half of a 90-degree angle. Forty-five revolutions per minute is a popular format for vinyl records. The Colt 45 cartridge changed the American West. The Colt 45 changed the beer industry. And the Colt-Forgives were the original name of the Houston Astros. But the most important fact about the number 45th time I have answered your questions. Stay tuned. For the last, the 45th installment of questions and answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles

Starting point is 00:01:08 from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. As a podcaster, I'm often asked what podcasts I listen to. One of the shows I subscribe to and listen to every week is The Jordan Harbinger Show. The Jordan Harbinger Show is the top podcast that was named Best of Apple in 2018. One of my recent favorite episodes from this summer was the

Starting point is 00:01:56 interview he did with a Tasa Araxa Abrahemian who explained how wealthy people can buy second passports overseas. On the show, Jordan dives into the minds of fascinating people, including everyone from athletes, authors, scientists, mobsters, spies, and hostage negotiators. If you like this podcast, you'll probably like the variety and in-depth interviews on the Jordan Harbinger Show. You can't go wrong with adding the Jordan Harbinger Show to your rotation. It's incredibly interesting and there's never a dull show. Search for The Jordan Harbinger Show. That's H-A-R, B as in Boy,

Starting point is 00:02:27 I-N- as-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-Y, G-E-R, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, let's jump into things. The first question comes from Tom Allen on Patreon, who asks, Have you had a chance to scuba dive Monterey Bay yet and to visit the aquarium?

Starting point is 00:02:47 At your site, I found a number of articles on scuba, but only one podcast. I think the podcast listeners would enjoy hearing more of your personal experiences of what it feels and looks like down there. In an old article on your 10 favorite scuba sites, you mentioned that you had not visited Monterey. Did you ever get there?

Starting point is 00:03:03 Well, Tom, no. I have never dived in Monterey Bay, and it's still on my list of places to dive, nor have I even visited the aquarium there yet. When I first started traveling, one of the very first things I did was get scuba certified in Lahaina in Maui. From there, I did,

Starting point is 00:03:19 I estimate about 120 different dives around the world. I didn't usually visit, places with the express purpose of diving, but I tried to dive if the opportunity was available. I eventually got my advanced open water certification, my nitrock certification, and even my rescue diver certification. It's been many years since I've been scuba diving, so if and when I do it again, I'll probably need a refresher course, but I figure it will be like riding a bicycle. William Stott asks, hey Gary, Bill Stott here, president of the Cornhusker Completionist Club. In the past, you talked about starting to study Latin when COVID hit.

Starting point is 00:03:57 With it being a dead language, I've never heard of it actually being used conversationally that I know of other than the many short phrases we've commonly incorporated into speech. Carpe diem, witty witty wiki, or one you sometimes use in the show, Mayaculpa. Could you please use it in a couple of sentences for us? Well, Bill, Latin is a dead language, but it is not an extinct language. And there's a difference. No one speaks Latin as their native language anymore, but there are still Latin speakers out there. You can find quite a few YouTube videos of people speaking Latin fluently, and there is a small

Starting point is 00:04:31 group of Latin speakers who exist. Meaaculpa is just Latin for my fault. It's been used in many contexts throughout history. The term has remained in Latin and has been used in English as a phrase. It's also used in the Catholic Latin Mass. In the city of Siena in the 12th century, those guilty of Murph, murder, as part of their penance, had to throw themselves on the ground three times and say, Mea culpa, Pekavi domini, miserie, mei. It translates to, through my fault, I have sinned,

Starting point is 00:05:03 Lord have mercy on me. And the next time you bump into someone instead of saying, my bad, just say, mea culpa. I won't say that I'm great at Latin, but the act of learning it has taught me more about grammar, including English grammar, than I ever knew before. Krista Hawko asks, I live in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. You've talked about our province during your episode about animals that really exist, giant squid, and I think one other time about pirates or Vikings. We had both. How many times has our province been discussed in your show?

Starting point is 00:05:35 Have you ever traveled there? Well, Krista, I have been to your province several times, and in fact, I've been to both, Labrador and Newfoundland. I've been to Grossemore National Park and Taranova National Parks. I've been to Laosommeadow, I've been to Battle Harbor in Labrador as well as Red Bay. Newfoundland and Labrador is certainly worthy of its own episode in the future, because its history, as I'm sure you are well aware, is very different than that of any other Canadian province. Ellen Schrader Stutz asks, how do you assign which one of you guys is responsible for each topic? I know Joel's a history teacher, but sometimes Olivia covers history topics as well.

Starting point is 00:06:16 At the end of each episode, I like to guess who did it. Ellen, I get this question a lot, so this would be a good time to answer it. For the most part, episodes aren't assigned. We have a weekly meeting online where we talk about what topics we're all interested in writing about. I also keep a master list of show ideas that I've talked about before that anybody can pick an idea from, or if they have their own ideas, the writers are open to pursuing those as well. I'll often suggest categories we haven't covered in a while. If we haven't done a profile of a country or a World War II episode in a while, I'll mention

Starting point is 00:06:49 that we're due for one. Likewise, I'll throw ideas out during the meeting that anyone is welcome to take if they find them interesting. The reason I don't assign specific episodes is because if the writer doesn't find it interesting, they probably won't be very motivated to write about it. And I should also note, even though I don't credit myself, I am the editor of every single episode. I often change words to sound more natural when spoken because I'm the one who has to speak them, and I often rewrite the introduction and concluding paragraph. I might add or change sections to make it make more sense, and in a few rare cases I've had to do major surgery on a script,

Starting point is 00:07:28 but that doesn't happen very often anymore. I have noticed, and I think both Joel and Olivia would agree, that it becomes much easier once you've gotten some episodes under your belt. In fact, now that I do more editing, I've decided I'm never going to accept any one-off script submissions, just because I think it takes time to get the format of the show down. Kevin O'Keefe asks, I love the weekly episodes with Joel. I started binge listening to them backwards from the most recent to the first one.

Starting point is 00:07:58 Can we call someone who has listened to all the weekly episodes, the 100% or club? But serious question. I think everyone should listen to the weekly shows. It just rounds out the knowledge and you guys add so much to the individual episodes. I really feel like the knowledge level has doubled from listening to your commentary on the episodes. After talking through all the different episodes, is there one episode that you would want to do again to correct or change things or one episode that really launched so many more new episode ideas? First, Kevin, thanks for the shout out of everything everywhere weekly. It is the weekly recap show that Joel and I record every week where we cover the previous week's episodes.

Starting point is 00:08:35 We talk about things that didn't make it into the episode and often go off topic onto other subjects. Everything Everywhere Weekly is available on Patreon to all tiers of supporters starting at just $2 a month. Completionist club members who have also listened to every episode of the weekly show can append an oak leaf cluster to their membership. As for which episodes spurred the most episode ideas, I have no clue. It would have to be a very broad subject, perhaps the episode I did summarizing the entire Mongol Empire. However, if you do listen to the weekly show, you can listen in on the thought process for how new episodes are born. Chuck Tomassias, have you changed the show technical format process, etc., since you first started in 2020? Chuck, I have changed almost nothing regarding the production of the show.

Starting point is 00:09:28 The biggest thing is that I changed the sound effect I used to use before the outro because people were complaining that it was just too jarring and I could see that. Before I launched the show, I developed a very simple format, and I stuck with it. For the most part, I used the exact same tools as I did on episode one. I got a new microphone, and I've recorded in different spaces as I moved, but the software I use garage band has not changed. Ken Wardness, the Okie-Finoki Refuge, has gotten a UN-recognized status. Can you give us an update and advise us on steps we can take to stay aware and provide a check on actions we may need? At the recent UNESCO nominating convention, the Oke-Fanoke Swamp was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Starting point is 00:10:14 There's absolutely nothing you need to do or be aware of. It was added to a list, and that's it. It's basically like being elected to the Hall of Fame for parks and heritage sites. There's nothing that changes. It has the same management as before, except it might now put up a plaque. I've been to over 400 UNESCO World Heritage Sites all over the world, and they are all operated and managed differently depending on their location. May Dingman asks, now that you've added AP course support to your website,

Starting point is 00:10:44 you plan to extend that program and if so, to what other subjects? Well, the thing with AP courses is that there's a set curriculum that teachers have to follow to prepare for the test, so it's pretty easy to slot episodes we've already done into the curriculum. We currently have a page on the website for AP World History and AP US History. There are other AP courses, but they don't necessarily lend themselves to this podcast. A few episodes might be applicable, but only a few. That being said, any teacher is free to use whatever episodes they want in their curriculum for whatever course they might be teaching. I've created a Facebook group for teachers who would like to use the podcast as a resource. I know Joel plans on

Starting point is 00:11:30 assigning an episode every day. Listening to an episode is optional, but it gives students a more in-depth explanation of some topics, and also allows for coverage of topics that might not be covered in class due to time constraints. And also, if you plan to incorporate the podcast into your classroom, I'm happy to record a custom message for your students. Bam, on the Discord server asks, do you plan to cover more events from post-World War II history that have not been covered yet, or were only mentioned in passing before, for example, Joe McCarthy Watergate? Well, bam, I've done quite a few shows covering post-World War II history. I've done episodes on the Vietnam War, the Gulf of Tonkin Revolution, and many, many other Cold War topics.

Starting point is 00:12:15 And we have a Watergate episode that's already written and will be released very, very soon. Joshua Felty asks, Hi, Gary, are you open into delving into religion and philosophy topics more? It seems that you might be after your recent episode on Confucianism. I was thinking that you can make great episodes that stay fact-based on other belief system or topics like the making and influence of the King James Bible. Well, Joshua, yeah, I've done some episodes in the past and I'll be doing more in the future. I've actually considered doing episodes on the King James Bible and the origins of the Bible as well, including the Council of Hippo, St. Jerome, and how the books of the Bible were selected. There are several apocryphal books that were never included in the Bible.

Starting point is 00:12:59 And for hundreds of years, there really was no Bible per se. It was just a collection of books and letters that were traded between local churches. I've also considered doing episode on the Hage, the Pilgrimage Temeca, which has an interesting history. And Joel has recently mentioned doing an episode in the early 19th century Great Awakening. And I've thought about doing one on 19th century utopian communities, which is closely related. There are some philosophy episode ideas as well we've talked about, but they tend to be harder to write because the bad, boundaries of what should be in an episode are much more ambiguous than they are in a straight history episode. That concludes this month's Q&A episode.

Starting point is 00:13:39 If you want to leave a question for next month's show, you have to join the Facebook group or Discord server, or better yet, support the show on Patreon, where you can both ask a question and listen to Everything Everywhere weekly. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord.

Starting point is 00:14:11 That's where everything happens that's outside the podcast. And links to those are available in the show notes. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you too can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 45

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