In the late 13th century, the Mongol Empire was at the peak of its power. It was at this time that the Mongol Emperor of China, Kublai Khan, set his eyes on the islands of Japan. On two separate occasions, the Mongols assembled the largest amphibious fleet in world history. Both times, they discovered the limits of their military conquests. Learn more about the Mongol invasions of Japan on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next trip to Spain at Spain.info! Sign up a...
Oct 22, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1569
After the founding of Rome as a city in the 8th century BC, it created a social system based on an elite few and a majority of commoners. This social arrangement wasn’t unique to Rome, and it has appeared in cultures and civilizations around the world. However, Rome was one of the first cultures to experience a conflict between these classes and for the commoners to win major concessions. Learn more about the Conflict of the Orders and the battle between Plebeians and Patricians on this episode ...
Oct 21, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1568
Approximately every eleven years, our sun experiences a cycle in which its magnetic poles flip. During this cycle, solar flares and sunspot activity increase, and then the sun returns to a state of relative calm. These solar cycles have been tracked for over two hundred years and are among the best-recorded aspects of solar astronomy. These extremes, known as the solar maximum and solar minimum, affect the sun and can have implications for the Earth. Learn more about the solar cycle and the ebbi...
Oct 20, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1567
One of the most powerful forces in economics and finance is compound interest. Not everyone understands compound interest, even though they may reap its benefits or suffer its consequences. Compounding has the potential to build fortunes and wreck empires. The effects of compounding are also not limited to interest payments. It can apply to a great many things in and out of the natural world. Learn more about compound interest, how it works and its awesome potential on this episode of Everything...
Oct 19, 2024•18 min•Ep. 1566
Every day, billions of people around the world wake up and have breakfast. Breakfast is very different than the other meals you eat in a day. The types of food that people consume for breakfast are usually much more narrow than what they might be for lunch or dinner. Moreover, the way we eat breakfast and what we eat is very different to the types of meals people ate in the past. Learn more about the history of breakfast on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next tri...
Oct 18, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1565
In 1475, Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in Caprese, Italy. Over the next 88 years, he left a legacy of paintings and sculptures unlike any artist before or since. His art shaped the city he came from, the era he lived in, and, eventually, the entire world of Western art. Today, the works he created are some of the most treasured and valuable artworks in the entire world. Learn more about Michelangelo and how he became the greatest artist of the Renaissance on this episode of Everything Everywh...
Oct 17, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1564
Two of the United States's most distant territories are located in the Western Pacific Ocean: Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Despite being separate political entities today, the two groups of islands have a shared geography, history, and culture. Today, they find themselves on the doorstep of Asia and straddling the world world of the west and the east. Learn more about Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan...
Oct 16, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1563
On December 25, 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was launched from the European Space Agency launch center in French Guyana. After six months of testing and configuring the telescope, in July of 2022, its first images were transmitted. Since then, we have received a flood of images and data that have caused astronomers to rethink much of what we know about the universe. Learn more about the discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope so far on this episode of Everything Everywhere ...
Oct 15, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1562
Insurance seems like a pretty modern concept. There are insurance commercials on television, and insurance companies sponsor major sports teams. Most of us have to buy insurance, or we are at least under someone else’s insurance policy. However, insurance is far from a modern concept. It is actually one of the oldest financial arrangements in human history. Learn more about insurance, how it was created, and how it works on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next tri...
Oct 14, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1561
From 1899 to 1900, China underwent a widespread and violent uprising. The revolt, a reaction against China’s exploitation by foreign powers, was decades in the making. In response to the revolt, a group of eight nations joined together to put down the rebellion and ultimately subjected China to yet another humiliating treaty. The rebellion wasn’t successful, but it laid the groundwork for the seismic changes that would shape the country during the 20th century. Learn more about the Boxer Rebelli...
Oct 13, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1560
In late 1944, the Allies were on a roll, and Germany was on the ropes. Some Allies, considering how fast they were advancing, thought the war might be over by Christmas. However, Hitler had a plan. He would engage in one last desperate battle, which he thought would turn the tide of the war in the West and possibly wipe out the Allies completely. The result was one of the largest battles of the Second World War and the German military's ultimate failure. Learn more about the Battle of the Bulge ...
Oct 12, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1559
For centuries, sailors told tales of gigantic waves that they encountered at sea, and for centuries, scientists didn’t believe them. However, over time, evidence began to pile up, which suggested that the legends of these freak waves were, in fact, true. These waves are rare, still not well understood, and terrifying to ships and sailors because there is almost no way to detect or predict where or when they will occur. Learn more about rogue waves, how they were discovered, and how they occur on...
Oct 11, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1558
Humans have probably had the desire to fly ever since they saw the first bird fly in the air. Flying, as it turned out, was a very challenging problem for creatures without wings. Throughout the 19th century, many people tackled the problem without success. It wasn’t until the first years of the 20th century that the problem was finally solved. Learn more about the invention of the airplane and the solution to heavier-than-air travel on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan ...
Oct 10, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1557
In the 1860s, one of the bloodiest wars in the Western Hemisphere took place….and it wasn’t the US Civil War. It was a war between Paraguay and an alliance of Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, and it was one of the bloodiest ever fought in Latin America. It was a conventional war that resulted in a guerilla war, which spawned famine and disease. Learn more about the Paraguayan War or the War of the Triple Alliance on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next trip to Spai...
Oct 09, 2024•17 min•Ep. 1556
At the end of the Second World War, Europe was a mess. The economies of most countries were in shambles and the threat of communism loomed over the continent. In a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a plan which could help get Europe back on its feet. The plan is widely considered one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history. Learn more about the Marshall Plan, how it came about, and how it worked on this episode of Eve...
Oct 08, 2024•17 min•Ep. 1555
Every year, hundreds of millions of birds around the world migrate. Some migrate short distances, some migrate incredibly long distances, and others don’t bother to migrate at all. For centuries, people didn’t know why birds migrated, how they managed to travel such long distances every year, or where they would go. Thanks to modern science and technology we now have a much better idea of how it works and where they go. Learn more about bird migrations on this episode of Everything Everywhere Da...
Oct 07, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1554
Sitting in most homes is a deck of playing cards. Cards and card games have become almost ubiquitous They are played by children and in retirement homes. They are played at family picnics, and there are also televised games played with millions of dollars on the line. You can play games with friends, or you can even play them by yourself. Despite how common they are, most people don’t realize that they have a very ancient heritage. Learn more about the origin of playing cards on this episode of ...
Oct 06, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1553
One of the defining events of the Middle Ages took place in Constantinople on April 12, 1204. Soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, under orders of the Doge of the Republic of Venice, breached the walls and sacked one of the greatest cities of the era. The sack wasn’t just an orgy of violence and destruction, which it was. It also set into motion events that caused irreparable divisions between the Eastern and Western Christian worlds and, ultimately, the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Learn more about...
Oct 05, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1552
For over 600 years, the empire that dominated the region of Southeast Asia was the Khmer Empire. Built out of a collection of kingdoms, the Khmer Empire dominated its corner of Asia. It was an advanced civilization known for its massive building projects and its system of waterworks. Even though the empire eventually fell, as all empires do, its legacy can still be seen in the religious and cultural institutions in the region today. Learn more about the Khmer Empire, its rise, and its fall on th...
Oct 04, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1551
All around you, in the air and the ground, is the most common element on Earth: Oxygen. As you are certainly well aware, Oxygen is required for life on Earth as we know it. But you might realize that the Earth didn’t always have oxygen in its atmosphere. Oxygen has been responsible for everything from the rise of multicellular life to the space program. Learn more about the element oxygen, what it is, and how it came to be in our atmosphere on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsor...
Oct 03, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1550
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several major Americans were the battleground for a conflict between two great powers. These powers were not armies or nations; rather, they were newspaper conglomerates headed by two of the most powerful figures in the history of American media. The competition between them was furious, and it was fought not just on the pages of their newspapers but sometimes on the streets. Learn more about Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, and the newspaper w...
Oct 02, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1549
Every October in the Northern Hemisphere, leaves on the trees turn color and fall to the ground. While the leaves turn from green to the bright colors of autumn, listeners' green questions are also transformed into colorful answers. Stay tuned for volume number 23 of questions and answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next trip to Spain at Spain.info! Sign up at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to get chicken breast, salmon or ground beef FREE in every...
Oct 01, 2024•17 min•Ep. 1548
When we look at history, we tend to focus on grand things like great leaders and great battles. In reality, what makes for successful empires is often the mundane: stable laws, an uncorrupt civil service, or, for large sprawling empires, a system of roads. Roads were one of the secrets to the success of Rome, and they proved useful for centuries, even after the empire's fall. Learn more about Roman roads and how they linked together a vast empire on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. S...
Sep 30, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1547
Many places on Earth have extreme climates. However, there is one place on Earth that has a climate so extreme that it is the closest thing to it might be on another planet. Despite having the most inhospitable and unforgiving climate on Earth, researchers have been shocked at what they’ve found there. Their discoveries might help pave the way to finding life outside our world. Learn more about the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, how they came to be, and what makes them so unique on this episode of E...
Sep 29, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1546
Many people have one or more favorite sports teams. Most people support these teams because they happen to be the team close to where they live. What many people don’t realize is that many teams, especially major sports teams in North America, didn’t originate in the city where they are today. In some cases, teams have moved multiple times, changed names, and even returned to the city where they originally came from. Learn more about relocated sports teams and teams that have gone defunct on thi...
Sep 28, 2024•19 min•Ep. 1545
Located in Vatican City, just off St. Peter’s Square lies one of the plainest and most uninteresting buildings you might ever find. It has no adornments and it is just a solid beige color. However, inside that bland structure, you will find one of humanity’s greatest artistic achievements, and to enjoy it you just might get a sore neck. Learn more about the Sistine Chapel, the building, the art, and its history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next trip to Spai...
Sep 27, 2024•13 min•Ep. 1544
The United States Constitution identifies three separate branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Each branch has a set of checks and balances, which, in theory, limits the power of the others. Two of those branches are outlined in detail in the Constitution. The third, the judicial, is given very little mention in comparison to the other two, and much of its workings and its power in relation to the other two, had to be created over time. Learn more about the Un...
Sep 26, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1543
After years of war throughout the continent of Europe, in 1814, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated and was exiled to the small island of Elba off the coast of Italy. The European powers thought that they had seen the last of Napoleon. However, they were wrong. He came back and, in a shockingly short period of time, regained control of France and its army. Learn more about Napoleon’s 100 Days and the last gasp of the Emperor of the French on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors...
Sep 25, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1542
In 1972, one of the greatest movies ever made was released: The Godfather. The Godfather is not only one of the most critically acclaimed movies in history but was also one of the most successful at the box office. Despite its overwhelming success, however, it almost didn’t get made and could have wound up a very, very different film. Learn more about The Godfather and the fascinating story of its production, casting, and filming on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your...
Sep 24, 2024•17 min•Ep. 1541
In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled upon one of the most pristine tombs of an Egyptian Pharaoh ever found: the tomb of King Tutankhamun. That discovery became a pop culture sensation and revolutionized our understanding of Ancient Egypt. Learn more about King Tutankhamun, aka King Tut, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Plan your next trip to Spain at Spain.info! Sign up at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to get chicken breast, salmon or ground bee...
Sep 23, 2024•13 min•Ep. 1540
