Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 7

Starting point is 00:00:00 In June of every year, the sun has its solstice. In the north, the days are long, in the south, the days are short, and we can plan our calendars around this event. And just as certain as the sun follows its path in the sky, so do the listeners of this podcast have questions. And just as certain as there are questions, so too do I have answers. Stay tuned for Volume 7 of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep, only to have your mind start racing the moment

Starting point is 00:00:40 your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. Let's get right into the questions. The first question comes from Gavin Wilkinson. He writes, what episode did you dread doing before researching and recording, but then actually loved it the more you dove into it. When I dread writing a particular episode, it isn't the subject matter that I dread. If I didn't find it interesting to begin with, I never would have put it on the list, and I wouldn't have considered doing the episode in the first place. The episodes I dread doing are topics that are interesting, but can be overwhelming in terms of trying to explain them. For example, I've been thinking about doing an episode on quantum physics for over two years, but I'm still not sure exactly how I would encapsulate everything

Starting point is 00:02:07 into the time limits of the show. I'd probably have to chop the subject up into multiple episodes with some sort of overview episode first. Likewise, I would like to do an episode explaining how blockchains work. It's something that people hear about all the time, but most people really don't know how they work under the hood. In this case, it's trying to figure out just how much detail I should go into explaining everything. Other topics are just enormous, and trying to condense them down as more of an exercise of trying to figure out what to omit. I did an episode in the past that gave a brief history of the Mongol Empire, and it was challenging for that reason. The episode on how horses arrived in North America was a topic I found really interesting,

Starting point is 00:02:46 but I dreaded doing it for a long time because I felt the topic was daunting. Preston Smith asks, How do we suggest new topics? How far in advance does the idealist go? How do you decide if a topic is too obscure to tackle? Preston, sending me a show idea is really easy. However you can communicate with me works. You can send a message on a Facebook.

Starting point is 00:03:07 Facebook, or make a post in the Facebook group, or you can send me a tweet on Twitter, or you can send me a message on Instagram, or you can post something in the Discord server, or you can send me an email. Any and all of these are ways that people have given me suggestions for future episodes. As for the list itself, the list was originally 100 ideas that I came up with before I ever published the first episode. Since then, I've added to the list as I've come up with new ideas and taken things off the list as I do them. As of this moment, there are currently 867 episode ideas on the list. They are in no particular order. Some of them may never get recorded, or they might be merged into other episodes. If you are a supporter of the show on

Starting point is 00:03:48 Patreon, you have access to the actual document of future episodes, and you can make suggestions right in the document itself. As far as what is too obscure, I guess that's a judgment call. I get a lot of suggestions from people that are really just facts. They aren't the sort of things you can develop an entire episode around. Whatever it is, it needs to be something that has an interesting story around it. So long as it's interesting, it really doesn't matter how obscure it is. Ola Yuligov asks, as a person from the USA traveling around the world, what do you think people who have never been there get the most wrong about the USA and the people who live there? Do you have stories of funny stereotypes or misconceptions you've faced around the world? This is actually a great

Starting point is 00:04:30 question, Oleg. The thing with being an American traveling is that everyone you encounter is aware of the United States, at least to some degree. Their knowledge of the United States almost exclusively comes from what they've seen in movies or television. As such, most people think they know more about the country than they really do. For example, I got into a big argument with a guy from England about how many states there were. I explained to him that there were 50 states, and he was adamant that there were 52 states because Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico were states. I tried explaining to him that those were in fact not states, and if he wanted to verify the number of states, all he needed to do was count the number of stars

Starting point is 00:05:10 on the flag. I've met people who, when I said I was from the United States, would then say, California, New York, and that was what they asked because they didn't know about anything else beyond those two places. Maybe they might have heard of Texas or Florida. There are some people have met who assume that everyone carries guns around and that there are police shootouts and high-speed chases all the time. The vast majority of people I've met who had been to the United States usually only visited a few places, New York City, Disney World, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. Maybe Washington, D.C. if they worked for some organization. Very seldom would I meet people who visited anywhere in the country beyond the major coastal cities. I was on the road during

Starting point is 00:05:52 four different U.S. presidential elections. I saw local coverage of it pretty much everywhere I went. The problem with everyone paying attention to American politics is that they view everything on reciprocal terms with their own country. They would say, I know who the leader of your country is. Why don't you know who the leader of my country is? And that sounds reasonable at first, but the same thing can be said by someone in almost every country. My response would be to ask them who the president of South Korea or Switzerland was, to which almost no one had an answer. Everyone I encountered had the same level of ignorance once you turn the spotlight to some other third country. Many people also just don't realize how big the United States is. Many U.S. states are on a par with many countries in Europe, with economies or populations just as large or larger.

Starting point is 00:06:41 I met one British couple that was planning to flight in New York and then drive to Chicago for the day. I had to explain to them that that wasn't going to work. There is a stereotype that Americans aren't that well-traveled. It really depends on how you ask the question. If you ask people how many countries they've been to, the average American will have been to fewer countries than the average European. However, if you look at the distance people travel, Europeans and Americans travel about the same distance.

Starting point is 00:07:07 The difference is what you can find in that distance. For example, if you draw a circle with a radius of 1,000 kilometers centered on Prague, within that circle you'll find 32 different countries. If you draw a circle with a radius of 1,000 kilometers centered on Kansas City, Missouri, Every point in that circle is still within the United States, and it only touches 23 states. David Day asks, how profitable is the podcast? Is it supplying a full-time income for you yet? And do you have any tips for someone wanting to get into podcasting?

Starting point is 00:07:37 Well, as of right now, the show is allowing me to make a living. It's paying for rent and expenses, but I haven't purchased a new car or anything. Advertising and the support I get from the supporters on Patreon are managing to pay the bills. I'm getting very close to the point where I'm going to be able to hire someone help me with some of the tasks in managing the show. And all of this has only taken three years. As for advice, I could talk about that for hours. The thing I would recommend is not to expect any success immediately. Podcasting isn't like YouTube or social media where things can go viral. The vast majority of podcasts never make it to episode 10. Also, don't just have a subject for your

Starting point is 00:08:14 podcast that you want to talk about, but actually develop a format. If you've listened to this show long enough, you're pretty familiar with the format of the show. I've still. I've still. Stick to it pretty rigorously, and it's worked for me. Jeff Loftus has another question about the show and asks, do you have any interesting interactions with the advertising side of the show that you can share? I am not involved in the day-to-day selling of advertising. I work with Glassbox Media out of New York, which handles selling advertising for me. Producing the show by myself every day takes up a lot of time,

Starting point is 00:08:44 and I don't have the bandwidth nor the talent to do advertising sales properly. That being said, I can't really say I have a lot of interesting stories. I have rejected some advertisers because they just weren't a good fit for the show, and I've turned down quite a bit of money because it would have required adding another ad spot. When I started the show, I set a limit of no more than two ads per episode, and that is something I've stuck to. Almost all of the ads you hear me read are written by me. Most advertisers give quite a bit of leeway in letting me say what I want just so long as you hit a few key points.

Starting point is 00:09:17 Barbara Nie Kenejja asks, I was re-watching a few good men, and I was wondering about the obsession with Cuba. Has Cuba ever invaded the U.S.? I seem to remember the U.S. trying to invade Cuba. I could probably make an entire episode on the relationship between the United States and Cuba. I'd recommend listening to my episode on the Spanish-American War to give a historical background for the movie a few good men. Cuba is the largest country in the Caribbean by a wide margin. It has more land and people than every other island in the Caribbean combined. It also happens to be very close to the United States, although technically the Bahamas. is closer. In the 19th century, there was talk of taking Cuba from Spain and making it a U.S. state. The U.S. invaded the island when it was still held by Spain in 1898. The United States occupied the

Starting point is 00:10:05 island for a few years, and then when Theodore Roosevelt became president, he was a big supporter of Cuban independence, so they became independent in 1902. In 1903, Cuba allowed the United States to establish a naval base at Guantanamo Bay for an annual payment. And in 1934, a new treaty established established the lease as being perpetual and the annual payment to be $4,085 U.S. dollars. The base was actually a large employer for local Cubans up until the Communist Revolution of 1958 when the base was sealed off. Guantanamo has been a sore point in U.S. Cuban relations ever since, and the current Cuban government has refused to cash these annual lease payment checks the U.S. government sends every year. And Guantanamo Bay is definitely worth a future episode of its own.

Starting point is 00:10:50 Sarah Fredman Ader asks, What spots in Israel outside of Jerusalem do you think are worth the visit? The good thing about Israel is that it's a pretty small country, so you can actually visit quite a bit by just taking day trips outside of Jerusalem. The first place I'd recommend, which is the closest, is Bet Guvrin-Marehia National Park. This is a collection of huge caves which were actually excavated by hand. And there are also active archaeological digs in the city of Maratia, where the public can take part in a dig.

Starting point is 00:11:20 Normally, archaeologists wouldn't let the public do this, but what they're excavating are actually garbage pits, so there isn't that much in the way of stratigraphy to worry about. Another recommendation would be the Nahal Marat Nature Reserve. This is located on Mount Carmel, and it's not far from the city of Haifa. It's one of the most important sites for documenting early humans and human evolution. Masada can be visited on a day trip, and it gives you an excellent view of the entire Dead Sea. And I also recommend visiting one of the Tells. A tell is a human settlement that, over the course of thousands of years, developed into an artificial hill as people continuously built up on top of the ruins of what came before them. There are three tells in Israel which have UNESCO World Heritage status, Magito, Hazor, and Beersheba. Beersheba is probably the closest to Jerusalem, but Megito is probably the most interesting and best to visit.

Starting point is 00:12:13 I've been to all three, and I recommend checking out the ancient water systems that they developed as they were quite sophisticated. The final question comes from Sevi over on the Discord server who asks, What are your favorite unorthodox travel hacks? To be totally honest, I don't really have any. I have never focused on things like travel hacks. I am aware that there's a very large number of people out there who are focused on travel hacks, free-win flyer miles, and getting status with airlines, etc. And some of them are downright obsessed about it.

Starting point is 00:12:44 I've never really cared about those things because that wasn't why I traveled. I've always been more interested in what I was seeing and where I was going, rather than the minutia of getting discounts on flights and hotels. My travel hacks can be summarized as follows. Get a credit card that has travel rewards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, use it frequently, show loyalty to a particular airliner hotel chain if you want rewards. That's it. Oh, you should also bring a pen with you if you're going to be flying into any airport where you have to go through passport control. That concludes this volume of question and answers. have a question for me, you can ask it for next month's episode over on the Facebook group

Starting point is 00:13:22 or on the Discord server. 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 Riven 33 over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, great podcast. Wonderful podcast. I constantly share the info I learn with family and friends, and it's even to help me when watching Jeopardy Masters. I will continue to listen to this podcast as long as you make it. However, I have one bit of criticism, and admittedly it's derived from personal history. I just got done with the Banana Republic episode from 2021, and you pronounced the word potable incorrectly. Many people have been told a fable that the word means good enough for a pot

Starting point is 00:14:05 when in actuality it's pronounced potable. Keep the episodes coming, and my apologies for the trivial criticism. Thanks, Raven, if I mispronounce the word, then I stand corrected. Mayaculpa, Mea Maxima Calpa. Remember, if you live there. leave a review or send me a boostagram. You two can have it right on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions and Answers: Volume 7

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