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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More
Questions and Answers: Volume 44
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The number 44 has great significance. It's the atomic number of Ruthenium. The 44th Roman Emperor was Claudius Gothicus, and the 44th Pope was Sixtus III. But perhaps most importantly, 44 was the number worn by the great Milwaukee Braves player Hank Aaron. In his honor, I give you the 44th installment of questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by hexclad. You've heard me talk about how I've been using hexclad in my kitchen for about a year and a half now. Well, now hexclad is taking its hybrid technology outdoors with a barbecue collection. Designed for foods that usually treat grill grates like an escape hatch, the hexclad barbecue grill pan is perfect for vegetables, seafood, fish and kebabs. Its perforated design allows heat and smoke to circulate so you still get the real grilled flavor. It combines the searing power of stainless steel, the durability of cast iron, and the convenience of non stick. It's heat safe up to 900 degrees, dishwasher safe, easy to clean, and backed by a lifetime warranty. So if you're planning on spending time behind the grill this summer, don't make it harder than it needs to be. Stop losing food through the grates, stop fighting cleanup and upgrade your backyard cooking setup with hexclad's barbecue collection. For a limited time only, my listeners get 10% off their order with my exclusive link. Just head to hexclad.com daily. Support the show and check them out at hexclad.com daily and make sure to let them know I sent you. This episode is sponsored by Square. There's a local cafe I visit where paying is almost effortless. They use Square, and whether I'm tapping a card or leaving a tip, the whole process takes just a few seconds. That smooth checkout means the staff can spend less time wrestling with technology and more time dealing with customers. That's what Square does for businesses. It brings payments, point of sale, inventory, staffing and online sales together in one system. Its AI powered tools can handle routine tasks, while real insights help owners make smarter decisions. Square can work for someone opening their first location or a business expanding into several. With Free plus and premium plans, transparent pricing and no long term contracts, Square helps you run your business more smoothly, bringing payments, operations and insights together in one place so you're ready for whatever next. Right now, listeners can get up to $200 off square hardware when you sign up at square.com God, that's sq U-A-R-E.com godaily get started with Square and build a setup that works the way you do. Let's jump right into the questions, the first of which was emailed by Sean Pratz. He writes, as I'm sure you know because you've mentioned your affinity for the foundation series, Isaac Asimov was an amazingly prolific writer. He penned over 500 books over the course of his career. All told, estimates of his total published word count, not including the books he edited or letters he wrote, comes in at around 7.5 million words. By your own estimate, you've written over 3 million words for everything, everywhere, daily. Assuming you're still going strong in the next decade, you should surpass Asimov's word count somewhere around episode 5000, or roughly 14 years after your first episode. It took Isaac Asimov an entire lifetime to write 7.5 million words. You'll do it in only 14 years. So my question is, are you a cat or dog person? The answer to the literal question is dog person. The answer to the implied question is that I could surpass Asimov, but since I hired writers, the amount that I've been writing has decreased. Asimov was publishing honest to goodness books, although he was sort of a machine and could pretty much get whatever he wrote published. I can publish whatever I want whenever I want without any gatekeepers. If you include everything I wrote before I started the podcast, that is probably another million words easy. I have no intention of stopping what I'm doing, so it should continue for the foreseeable future, albeit not at the same rate as the first five years. So I think it's possible that I could write more than Isaac Asimov, but under totally different circumstances. I think that if he lived in the Internet era, he might have been even more prolific. Chgdun asks, have you seen an international rugby match? And if so, what was your favorite? Well, not only have I been to an international rugby match, I was at the semifinals and finals of the 2011 World cup in Auckland, a fact that I love to taunt Kiwis with. I was invited by Qantas, who was there to support the Wallabies, and I got a bunch of wallaby swag. I saw New Zealand beat Australia and France beat Wales in the semifinals, and then I saw the All Blacks beat France in the finals. I was glad that New Zealand won because I feared there would be mass suicides in New Zealand if they had lost. It was a wonderful experience and I would gladly do it again. Andrew Greig asks, hey Gary, I'M curious, with so many episodes, are you able to remember what you've covered? Or do you ever have an idea for a show pop into your head only to realize that you've done it already? For the most part, yes, I can remember what I've done, but there have been a few instances where I went down the path of starting an episode only to realize that I have done it before. Pretty much the first stage in researching any episode nowadays is for other writers than me to check to see if there is already an episode on the topic. That being said, there are often different ways to tackle the same subject. There are many topics that I could do again, but in a completely different way. We are in no danger of running out of new episode ideas. I suggest you listen to everything Everywhere weekly on Patreon, where Joel Hermanson and I, in the course of almost every episode, will come up with new episode ideas. Just talking about the episodes from the previous week, Steve Augustino asks Gary, since the chapters of the Completionist Club are dispersed and maintain their own records, I wonder if you have an estimate of the total number of Completionist Club members? It cannot exceed the number of downloads of your least listened to episode, but other than that, is there any helpful information for sizing the club? Well, Steve, the honest answer is I don't know and there is no way to know. Podcast stats are very imperfect and I have no idea who listened to every episode because IP addresses change frequently, especially if you listen on a mobile device. Based on feedback that I've gotten and the vast majority of listeners do not leave any feedback, I'd say that there are several hundred members of the Completionist Club and possibly over a thousand. At the end of the day. That's just a guess. Absent perfect reporting, there is no way I could possibly know. And the good news is that if you're a podcast listener, your privacy is more secure listening to podcasts than it is browsing the web. Jerem Nelson asks Hey Gary, you seem like a guy that would prefer to fix your own electrical problems around the house. Any success or epic fail Home improvement stories? Jerum from Livermore DOE National Labs Completionist Club actually, Jerem, I wouldn't screw around with the wiring where I live. First of all, I rent, so I just have the building do it. And second, I know just enough to be dangerous, which is the worst sort of knowledge to have. I think knowing your limitations is important. Could I figure out how to properly fix my own electrical issues? Probably, but I haven't taken the time and I wouldn't want to take the risk when I can hire someone who has experience and expertise. Max Feng asks, I don't remember if this has already been asked, but do you have advice for running a podcast and researching for it? I have one called Musical Vitamins. I just started and I think it's really fun. But research can be a little hard and so can social media distribution. Any advice on this? Thanks so much. Oh, also to add to that, how did you find good theme music? First, I got the theme song from stockmusic.net it was very affordable. I just found something I liked and that was that. I did check out your podcast and I think it's a good idea. There are other successful podcasts out there that have similar premises, which is a good thing. You've discovered the biggest catch with podcasting Creating something that people want to listen to isn't easy and there's no shortcut. The premise of this podcast was that if I covered topics that I was interested in, others would probably be interested as well. One thing I'd do is give some attention to the albums considered amongst the greatest of all time. You might get more traction on Spotify than other platforms, since Spotify is a music platform and people searching for music may come across your episode. Also, don't limit yourself to just one genre of music. Michael Turvo asks, I wrote a book called Natural Born Heroes that, among many things, posits that ancient Pankration fighters from the island of Crete traveled with Alexander the Great's army into Asia and planted the seeds for what eventually became Kung Fu. What do you think? Well, Michael, without having done any research into the topic, my gut says that this is probably not true. There are all sorts of historical theories that involve nothing more than vague coincidence, and this strikes me as one of them. To prove the theory, you would need to show some transmission from west to East. Why aren't there similar martial arts between Greece and China? How was this knowledge transmitted? How long did it take? And why did it wind up in China when Alexander the Great only went to India? Again, not having researched it, it seems more plausible that martial arts were independently discovered in different than it was transmitted that far that long ago. Tim Manchester asks, what are your favorite educational TV shows for adults? Well, Tim, first, educational TV shows are not just for adults. I can't think of any off the top of my head which wouldn't be suitable for children. Second, given the nature of online media, I wouldn't look for a single show, but rather services that have a wide variety of shows. There are multiple streaming services that have tons of educational content, many of which are extremely cheap to subscribe to. I recommend CuriosityStream, Nebula, and the Great Courses Plus. All of these have great educational content and are rather affordable compared to most other streaming services. Hi Gary, do you listen to your back episodes after you've recorded and edited them? So just before you put them on the podcast app? The reason I'm asking is that this week, even though I'm not English or American, I'm Dutch. I think I heard you mispronounce a word two episodes in a row. I could be wrong though, as it's not my native language. In episode 2211 you said preferable with an emphasis on fur, not the first syllable. And in the intro of episode 2212 you said divisive with the second syllable pronounced with a short I, which I've also never heard before. In short, in what way is there quality control before each episode? Most episodes are recorded just hours before they go live. Once an episode is recorded, my focus is getting out the next episode, not worrying about the past. What you are noticing, as someone who doesn't speak English as a first language might seem odd. There are often multiple ways to pronounce the same word, and there are also regional variations as well. Preferable and preferable are both acceptable. Likewise, divisive and divisive are both legitimate pronunciations. I found that many non English speaking Europeans learn either British or American English, depending on where they live and what they learned isn't wrong, but it's also not complete. English is a weird language. There's no one correct way to speak English. It's a language with many different accents and dialects, and the language evolves, sometimes at a rapid pace. I speak a Midwestern American dialect and that's how I speak. Crystal D. Asks, do you record in one take or have to do many? What happens if there's a word stumble or a sneeze? Well, Crystal, I'm glad that you think I can record an episode in one take. I have never, ever done that. Each episode is recorded in multiple segments, often dozens. I record until I flub up or I just want to do it over. I stop, go back and start where I left off. The longest single uninterrupted segment I've probably ever recorded is only about five minutes. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to record 15 minutes of content. Drew Dr. C. Clinkenbeard asks. The recent Timor episode really hooked me. I feel like I should have known about it already. I have two questions. One. How do you think it would have gone if he had made it to China 2 it seems like China did everything first. I feel like it should be the dominant culture. Why not? My assumption Mongols. Anyways, keep it going. Gary, I'm getting close to wanting to join Patreon. I like your work that much. Well Drew, I think Timor would have gotten bogged down. Genghis Khan, if you remember, did not conquer China. That was left to his grandson Kublai Khan. China was big and conquering it would have taken a very long time. As for why China didn't dominate the world, I think it's more a cultural thing. China viewed itself as the center of the world. It called itself the Middle Kingdom. During the Ming Dynasty, they abruptly stopped the voyages of exploration by Admiral Zheng He. When Europeans arrived, they didn't want any of the goods that they had to trade. China was highly centralized, whereas Europe was made up of highly competitive nations who were looking for an advantage over their rivals. This contentment of being satisfied with what they had ended up being their undoing Sable826 asks, what is your favorite genre of music? Any chance of an episode on Pink Floyd? I got to see them live in Nashville and it was the concert of a lifetime. Love your podcast. Tennessee Completionist Club member at least twice over. Keep up the excellent work. Most of what I listen to would be classified as contemporary classical. That sounds like an oxymoron, but if you remember back to my episode on classical music, it's mostly just newer composed music. That being said, I have a wide range of musical tastes. I have a gigantic playlist on Spotify with over 800 songs that covers almost every genre of music. Also, we are looking at doing episodes on popular and influential musical acts and Pink Floyd would certainly qualify, but there are no plans as of yet. John Waldrop asks, I would like to get back into photography. I currently have a digital SLR camera. What would be your suggestion for some good online courses or books to get me started? Well John, the truth is you don't need any books or classes. I never read a book or took a course. All you need to do is learn about the exposure triangle and then start practicing with your camera so you know the settings intuitively. Then start to work on composition and once you've mastered that, the key is to put yourself in front of things at the right place at the right time. And that is really the key to high end photography. It isn't gear or settings, it's being present when there is something worth photographing. The last question comes from Todd Whitcomb, who asks when traveling, how do you go about meeting the people who live there without being that pushy American tourist? I want to go to Scotland and Ireland, where I am ancestrally from, but I don't want to offend or bore people. Well, Todd, being an outsider, which people will probably figure out immediately from your accent, is usually a good start. If you're in a touristy area, it probably won't raise an eyebrow because people will meet Americans all the time. However, if you get out of the big cities and go to some more obscure and lesser visited areas, you'll find that people are just as curious about you as you are about them. Also, just stop into a pub, just any old random pub outside of the main tourist areas. Ask whoever serves you what they recommend and get that that concludes this month's Q and A episode. If you want to leave a question for next month's show, you're going to have to join the Facebook group or the Discord server where I get my questions from. Links to both of these can be found in the show. Not 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. 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 on the show.