Learn something new every day!
Everything Everywhere Daily is a daily podcast for Intellectually Curious People. Host Gary Arndt tells the stories of interesting people, places, and things from around the world and throughout history. Gary is an accomplished world traveler, travel photographer, and polymath.
Topics covered include history, science, mathematics, anthropology, archeology, geography, and culture.
Past history episodes have dealt with ancient Rome, Phoenicia, Persia, Greece, China, Egypt, and India. as well as historical leaders such as Julius Caesar, Emperor Augustus, Sparticus, and the Carthaginian general Hannibal.
Geography episodes have covered Malta, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Monaco, Luxembourg, Vatican City, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, the Isle of Man, san marino, Namibia, the Golden Gate Bridge, Montenegro, and Greenland.
Technology episodes have covered nanotechnology, aluminum, fingerprints, longitude, qwerty keyboards, morse code, the telegraph, radio, television, computer gaming,
Episodes explaining the origin of holidays include Memorial Day, April Fool’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, May Day, Christmas, Ramadan, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Canada Day, the Fourth of July,
Famous people in history covered in the podcast include Salvador Dali, Jim Thorpe, Ada Lovelace, Jessie Owens, Robert Oppenheimer, Picasso, Isaac Newton, Attila the Hun, Lady Jane Grey, Cleopatra, Sun Yat Sen, Houdini, Tokyo Rose, William Shakespeare, Queen Boudica, Empress Livia, Marie Antoinette, the Queen of Sheba, Ramanujan, and Zheng He.
In 1970, one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects opened in Aswan, Egypt. It was a dam that harnessed the power of the Nile River, the longest river in the world. The dam provided electricity for half of the country and tamed the annual floods, a regular feature on the Nile. But the project wasn’t without its drawbacks. It became a point of contention during the Cold War, displaced thousands, and destroyed an unknown number of ancient artifacts. Learn more about the Aswan High Dam on t...
In the year 331 BC, one of the most important battles in world history took place. The vastly outnumbered forces of Alexander the Great lined up against those of Darius III, leader of the Persian Empire. The outcome of the battle didn’t just change the map of the world in the 4th century BC; it changed the world in a way that can still be seen today. Learn more about the Battle of Gaugamela and how it changed the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your...
It is the most expensive substance in the world by a wide margin. When it was first proposed, it was actually proposed in jest. However, decades later, the joke turned out to have been true. It is a fundamental part of the universe, and by all accounts, it should be everywhere, yet it can’t be found anywhere, and physicists aren’t really sure why. Learn more about antimatter, how it was discovered, and what it is on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your wirel...
One of the most popular card games in the world is poker. The game was played in the old west among cowboys, by dogs on velvet paintings, and by the crew of the Star Ship Enterprise. Poker is played informally among friends and family, yet it is also a high-stakes competitive game where millions of dollars can be won or lost. It is a game that has origins that go back centuries, but in its modern manifestation, it is also very modern. Learn more about the game of Poker and how it became one of t...
Perhaps the most respected and feared soldiers in the world are those who belong to Special Forces. Special Forces are considered to be the elite of the elite. Most nations have some sort of Special Forces units in their military. Some of the best-known Special Forces units are household names and others are, how shall we say, more secret. While Special Forces seem rather modern, the tradition of creating units of elite soldiers actually goes back to antiquity. Learn more about Special Operation...
On the morning of February 14, 1929, a horrific crime took place on the north side of Chicago. Seven men were lined up against the wall of an auto garage and gunned down in cold blood by machine gun fire. The event marked the low point of the violent mob wars that took place in the city of Chicago. It also marked a turning point in attitudes towards prohibition in the United States and the war on organized crime. Learn more about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, why it happened, and its repercu...
A reconnaissance satellite, otherwise known as a spy satellite, is somewhere above your head right now, collecting images and gathering intelligence on whatever it sees below it. Ten countries are currently believed to have at least one spy satellite. While these satellites can gather an enormous amount of data, they do not have the superpowers that they are often depicted as having in films and television. Learn more about spy satellites, how they work and how they have evolved over time on thi...
In the 1960s, a New York clinical psychiatrist and an adoption agency conducted an experiment. They separated multiple sets of identical twins and one set of identical triplets into different families to test how much of personality is due to genetics or the environment. None of the children or families were ever told about this. The results of this experiment, and other cases like it, have proved to be fascinating. Learn more about identical twins and triples that were separated at birth on thi...
Located off the coast of South America and in the Southern Atlantic Ocean is the Falkland Islands. The Falklands are an almost treeless archipelago where sheep and penguins outnumber the people. It has little in the way of natural resources beyond fish and grass for grazing. Yet, these sparsely populated islands have been the subjects of international disputes and even war. Learn more about the Falkland Islands on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your wireles...
Sometime about 3,200 years ago, one of the most famous wars in ancient history took place. Maybe. It has been the subject of some of the greatest works of Western literature, and it has given us some of the most enduring cultural references. It was also the subject of one of the greatest archeological finds of the 19th century. Learn more about the city of Troy and the Trojan War on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mi...
One of the most common and versatile forms of energy in the world is natural gas. Natural gas is used for cooking, heating, electrical production, and powering vehicles. Entire economies are dependent on its consumption, and others are dependent on its production. As such, it has become one of the most important commodities in the world. Learn more about natural gas what it is, where it comes from, and how it's used on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your wi...
Depending on how you define it, there are about 193 to 200 countries in the world today. Over the last 100 years, that number has been constantly increasing. Sometimes, the number goes up a lot in short periods of time, and other times, there might be decades between the creation of a new country. There hasn’t been a new country created since 2011, but it is entirely possible that we might make new additions to the list of nations before this decade is out. Learn more about the world’s next poss...
In the 1950s and 1960s, the British Intelligence community was shocked by a series of high-profile defections to the Soviet Union. These defections proved to be devastating to British intelligence during the Cold War and may have led to the death or imprisonment of hundreds of undercover British operatives. These defections changed Western intelligence gathering forever in ways that can still be felt today. Learn more about the Cambridge Five and how they influenced the Cold War on this episode ...
In the early 20th century, as automobiles became more and more popular, the need for a national system of roads in the United States became more evident. One of the suggested roads connected the city of Chicago, Illinois, on the Great Lakes, with the city of Los Angeles, California, on the Pacific Ocean. In 1926 the route was established, following paths and trails which had been used for centuries, and quickly found itself as a central object of popular culture. Learn more about Route 66, its h...
Located in East London is the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Passing directly through the observatory is an imaginary line that extends from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line is significant because it is the reference point for every other line of longitude in the world. What is even more remarkable is that there is no objective reason for this particular line to be so important. Learn more about the Prime Meridian and why it is where it is on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily....
This episode delves into the brutal Battle of Stalingrad, a pivotal point in World War II. It explores the strategic decisions, the harsh conditions, and the immense human cost on both sides. The discussion covers key operations like Operation Uranus and Winter Storm, highlighting Hitler's fatal orders and the devastating aftermath for German prisoners of war.
The most significant event in American history was undoubtedly the Civil War. The Civil War was, of course, the result of the institution of slavery, which had existed for generations by that time. By the same token, the opposition to slavery had existed for just as long. The opposition to slavery began amongst devoutly religious people but eventually spread into a mass social and political movement. Learn more about the abolitionist movement, its origin, and its growth on this episode of Everyt...
The United States consists of 50 states, each of which is represented by a star on the American flag. Most of those states consist of some section of North America divided by lines on a map that separate them from other states, Canada, or Mexico. But there is one state that is not like the others. It isn’t located in North America. It doesn’t have a land border with anything, and its route to statehood was unlike that of any other state in the union. Learn more about the long and controversial w...
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Explore how organized crime in New York City transitioned from chaotic gangs and Black Hand extortionists to the structured Five Families and the Commission. Learn about the impact of Prohibition, the Castellamare War between Masseria and Maranzano, and the pivotal role of Lucky Luciano in creating a governing body for the mafia.
On October 15, 1991, a cosmic ray detector in Utah observed something that had never been seen before or since. It was a cosmic ray with more energy than anything ever observed and more energy than most scientists thought possible. When one of the first researchers saw the data, they responded simply, “Oh, my God!” Learn more about the OMG particle, what it was, and what it means on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mi...
One of the most popular categories of beverage in the world today is soft drinks. Soft drinks can be found almost everywhere in every country, from corner stores to restaurants to vending machines. Unlike other popular beverages, soft drinks are a rather recent invention, despite there being early antecedents to soft drinks that go back to antiquity. Learn more about soft drinks, their origins and how they became so popular on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut...
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian Revolutionaries stormed the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took 66 American diplomats and citizens hostage. Over the next 444 days, the hostage crisis dominated the news and became the single biggest foreign policy issue for both the United States and Iran. Even after the hostages were released, it has affected US/Iranian relations for the last four decades. Learn more about the Iranian Hostage Crisis, its causes and how it was resolved on this epis...
Since its creation, the Central Intelligence Agency has been tasked with gathering intelligence on foreign adversarial governments. Exactly how they were to go about doing this was not exactly spelled out in advance. This gave them an enormous amount of leeway and creativity in how to go about their mission. Some of their ideas were truly inspired, and others were, how shall we say, odd. Learn more about the Acoustic Kitty and other crazy CIA plots on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily....
In the early 12th century, a military monastic order developed in the Middle East with the express intent of protecting Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. Despite its rather modest mission statement, over the next 200 years, this organization became one of the most powerful entities throughout the Middle East and Europe. However, its success and power eventually planted the seeds of its own destruction. Learn more about the Knights Templar, their rise and spectacular fall, on this ep...
Airplanes are wonderful things. They fly through the air and move people and goods at rapid speeds around the world. However, they have some downsides. In order to take off and land, an airplane requires an enormous amount of land for runways. So, for over a century, aeronautical engineers have been trying to create a vehicle that has all the strengths of an airplane but could take off and land like a helicopter. ….and they’ve kind of done it. Learn more about vertical take-off and landing aircr...
Malaria is one of the oldest known infectious diseases, with a history spanning thousands of years. It has shaped human civilization, influenced wars, and driven scientific advancements in medicine and public health. However, humanity has been making strides against this ancient disease over the last 250 years. We have learned what causes it and how it is transmitted, and we might be close to eradicating it completely. Learn more about malaria, how it has impacted humanity, and the quest to elim...
Every twelve years, one of the greatest gatherings of people on Earth takes place in India. As many as a hundred million people will converge on four different locations on sacred rivers to engage in one of the most important rites in the Hindu Religion. But what are the reasons so many people undertake the pilgrimage, and how exactly do you handle the logistics of so many people going to the same place? Learn more about the Maha Kumbh Mela, its history and how it works on this episode of Everyt...
One of the biggest controversies in the world of sports over the last several decades has been the use of performance-enhancing drugs and substances, or PEDs. It seems as if there hasn’t been a single sport that hasn’t been touched in some way by the use of PEDs. But what exactly are PEDs, and how do they give athletes an advantage? Do they really work, and if they do, just how big of an advantage do they give? Learn more about performance-enhancing drugs and how they have impacted the world of ...
Humanity has seen a lot of bad things throughout history. There have been horrific wars, natural disasters, and pandemics that have killed millions of people. Many of these awful events were awful over a period of weeks, months, or years. It raises the question, what was the worst single day in history? What day was the absolute worst when all the horrible things were punctuated in one twenty-four-hour period? Learn more about the worst days in history and arguably the one that was the very wors...
