I am speaking these words in the year 2021. You might be listening to them in a different year, but whatever year you happen to be in right now, it will be a year using the same number convention for years that we do now. But why did we start counting years at year 1? What did they do before that? Who picked year 1 and why? Why isn’t there a year zero? And what is the deal with AD and CE? Learn more about why we count years the way we do on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more...
Sep 30, 2021•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast During the second world war, one of the biggest efforts of the war was the Manhattan Project: the secret American program to create an atomic bomb. The scientists and staff of the Manhattan Project were in a race to beat Nazi Germany to be the first country to build the A-bomb. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, and Americans detonated the first device in July, they had seemingly won the race. But was it in fact a race at all? How close were the Nazis to actually building an atom bomb? Learn ...
Sep 29, 2021•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the year 331 BC, fresh from his conquest of Egypt, Alexander the Great established a new city in Egypt named after himself. This new city, situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at the end of the Nile Delta, would go on to become one of the most important cities in the world, and Alexander’s city is still alive and vibrant today. Learn more about Alexandria, the "Bride of the Mediterranean" on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...
Sep 28, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast During World War II, the US Army assigned statistician Abraham Wald the task of statistically figuring out where extra armor should be added to American bombers. After analyzing the evidence and sharing it with the Army, he recommended the exact opposite of what the Army assumed. The reason was that the Army had engaged in a logical fallacy. Learn more about survivorship bias and how it manifests itself into everyday thinking, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your...
Sep 27, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast When most people think of World War II, they think of the Allied power of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, versus the Axis power of Germany, Italy, and Japan. However, this wasn’t always the case. At the start of the war in Europe, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union actually coordinated with each other to invade their neighbors. Learn more about the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 26, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Statistically speaking, about 90% of you listening to my words right now are right-handed. Of the rest of you, almost all of you will be left-handed. The question of why so many more people are right-handed as opposed to left-handed is one that people have asked for centuries. It is an imbalance that has existed throughout history and across every culture. Learn more righties and lefties and why the imbalance between them exists, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about y...
Sep 25, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast The ancient world had many great accomplishments. The Pyramids of Giza, The Great Wall of China, and the Colosseum are just a few of the great wonders which are still standing. However, one of early humanity’s greatest achievements is one that didn’t leave any physical monuments. Its legacy is the people who live on the remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. Learn more about the Polynesian navigators and how they explored the Pacific on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about...
Sep 24, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Great Pyramid of Khufu, is a structure in which superlatives don’t really do justice. It isn’t just old, it’s really old. It isn’t just big, it’s really big. It has served as a sentinel to some of the most important people and events in history, and it has also been the focal point of speculation about the past. Learn more about the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Learn mor...
Sep 23, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the late 19th century, several of the world’s foremost investors engaged in a public battle for the future of electricity. The battle was fought in boardrooms and newspapers, and there was seemingly nothing that was off-limits. The battle eventually took the lives of several people…..and several dogs. Learn more about the current wars between George Westinghouse, Nikolai Tesla, and Thomas Edison, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...
Sep 22, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1961, the United States figure skating team was one of the top programs in the world. The year before at the 1960 Olympics, they took the gold in both the men’s and women’s competitions. Then on February 15, 1961, the team suffered a terrible catastrophe. One which took the better part of a decade for the US program to recover from. Learn more about Sabena Flight 548 and the fate of the 1961 US figure skating team, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choic...
Sep 21, 2021•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1910, a German Earth scientist noticed something about the map of the world. South America seemed to fit into Africa. North America seemed to fit into northwest Africa and Europe. He proposed that the continents may at one time have been joined and subsequently moved. The scientific community laughed at him and rejected his idea. Learn more about Alfred Wegener and the theory of Continental Drift, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...
Sep 20, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ahoy ye mates! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So I be thinking tis time to talk about the pirate life and how much of the legends of the pirates be true. Did they bury their gold? Did they fly the Jolly Roger? Did their dogs have scurvy? ...and did they really talk like this? So join me as I cast me pod on tis episode of Arrrverything Arrrverywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 19, 2021•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast At 9:30 am on July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., James Garfield, President of the United States was fatally shot. It is an event that, quite frankly, doesn’t really get the attention that other political assassinations have received. The story behind how and why it happened is as fascinating as any in American History. Learn more about the Assassination of President Garfield and his assassin, Charles Giteau, on this episode of Everything Everywhere D...
Sep 18, 2021•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast According to legend, sometime in the 5th century, a king of the Celtic Britons named Vortigern hired Anglo-Saxons mercenaries to help him fight his domestic enemies to hold his grip on power. His plan worked really well. Until it didn’t. And then it blew up in his face. Learn more about the Treachery of the Long Knives on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 17, 2021•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Who matter where you are right now, no matter what time you are listening to this, there is one thing that I can safely say about you right now. Your body is being bombarded with cosmic rays. In fact, pretty much every moment of your life since you’ve been born, you’ve been hit by cosmic rays. Learn more about cosmic rays, what they are and where they come from, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 16, 2021•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast On July 17, 1944, one of the worst disasters to befall the American military during World War II occurred. It didn’t occur in Europe or the Pacific, however. It took place on US soil. The events leading up to this calamity and its aftermath permanently shaped the United States military. Learn more about the Port Chicago Disaster, and the lasting changes it brought about on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 15, 2021•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1994, a German archeologist named Klaus Schmidt was investigating a site in southeastern Turkey which had been know to be a source of ancient stone tools. What he found was far greater. His discovery totally upended the world of archeology and has changed everything we thought we knew about early human civilization. Learn more about Göbekli Tepe and how it changed our views of early human civilization on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...
Sep 14, 2021•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ever since humans have understood the workings of the atom, the potential has existed for humanity to exploit the energy source which powers the stars: fusion power. Yet, for decades fusion power has been just out of our grasp. Some have said fusion is the power source of the future, and always will be. Learn more about fusion power and why it is so hard and has taken so long, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 13, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Located 1,500 miles south of the nation of Cote d’Ivoire and about 2,500 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, lies one of the most remote human settlements on Earth: The island of St Helena. Given its remote location, St. Helena has had a history unlike most other islands, and people who live there are unlike any others in the world. Learn more about the island of Saint Helena, its history, and life on the island, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Lear...
Sep 12, 2021•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Prior to their destruction in 2001, the World Trade Center in New York was a marvel of architecture. It was a collection of seven different buildings which served as the center of New York’s financial district. The planning for the complex was decades in the making and during its brief history, it was witness to several significant events. Learn more about the history of New York’s World Trade Center on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...
Sep 11, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast On September 13, 1848, a 25-year-old man named Phineas Gage received a horrific brain injury while working on a railroad in Vermont. The odds of anyone surviving such an accident were a million to one. Yet, despite astronomical odds, he survived his injury and he became a case study for neuroscientists ever since. Learn more about Phineas Gage and his incredible story, and how it helped us to understand the workings of the human brain, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more a...
Sep 10, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the week of July 1, 1946, there were two explosions that shook the world. One was a physical explosion and the other was cultural. These two events, seemingly unrelated, are now linked forever due to the circumstances of that week. Learn more about what an atomic bomb test and a two-piece swimsuit have in common, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 09, 2021•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Earth is pretty old. Our current, best estimate is that it is 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus 50 million years. Since then, however, a lot has happened. To help clarify the Earth’s timeline, geologists have divided the Earth’s history into various eras and periods. Each division of time represents a change in something, which happened on the planet. Learn more about the Earth’s history and geologic time scales, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad ch...
Sep 08, 2021•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast It is the American Revolutionary War. A rider on horseback sets out on an all-night ride to warn the militia of nearby towns that the British were coming. I am of course talking about the ride of Paul Revere, right? Nope. I’m talking about the ride of Sybil Luddington. Learn more about Sybil Luddington and her role in the Revolutionary War, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 07, 2021•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast The era of presidential aviation began on October 11, 1910 when former president Theodore Roosevelt took to the skies in a Wright Brothers Flyer at a county fair in Saint Louis. The flight only lasted a few minutes. Fast forward 110 years, and the President of the United States has one of the sweetest rides on the planet. Learn more about Air Force One, the airplanes which have served presidents, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm...
Sep 06, 2021•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast On September 1 and 2 of 1859, people all over the world were treated to something quite rare. Auroras were seen in the skies as far south as the Caribbean and as far north as Brisbane, Australia. However, some astronomers and telegraph operators experienced something different. If this same event were to happen today, it might bring out society to its knees. Learn more about the Carrington Event and what it means for our modern world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more ab...
Sep 05, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a previous episode, I spoke about the Drake equation and the odds of there being intelligent extraterrestrial life. Many people have used the Drake equation to argue that it is almost impossible for there not to be intelligent life in our galaxy. However, in the summer of 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi pushed back against this by asking a very simple question: if there are so many intelligent civilizations, where are they? Learn more about the Fermi Paradox Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...
Sep 04, 2021•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1844, the Philological Society of London began investigating the creation of a new English dictionary. This initial foray would lead to a dictionary that would be unlike any other dictionary ever created. It would not just give the definition and spelling of a word, but a complete history of each word and where it came from. It would be one of the most ambitious literary projects in history. Learn more about the Oxford English Dictionary on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn m...
Sep 03, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast What did the first Chinese Emperor Qin, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Gengis Kahn, the Queen of Sheba, and all their contemporaries who lived when they did have in common? None of them ever ate a potato. The potato is a rather new addition to the diets of the old world, and one which revolutionized civilization. Learn more about the potato and how changed world history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 02, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Beginning in 1801, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, the Earl of Elgin, began a project to document the sculptures located at the Parthenon in Athens. He then took it one step further and took half of the sculptures at the Parthenon and shipped them back to England. It has been a source of controversy and diplomatic conflict ever since. Learn more about the Elgin Marbles on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 01, 2021•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
