It is one of the most important inventions in history. Almost everyone listening to this has one. You use one almost every day, and if we didn’t have them, the world would be a very different place. I am talking about toilets. It isn’t something we like to talk about in public, but the sanitary removal of waste has been one of the critical components of allowing the development of the modern world. Learn more about the history of toilets and how this simple invention helped shape the modern worl...
Jun 15, 2024•14 min•Ep 1440•Transcript available on Metacast In the very long history of China, it has had exactly one female ruler. She was a woman who managed, against all odds, to inch her way closer to power over a period of years until she reached a point where she could claim power for herself. By all accounts, she was beautiful, brilliant, cunning, and absolutely ruthless. Learn more about Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-i...
Jun 14, 2024•14 min•Ep 1439•Transcript available on Metacast The Philippines is one of the largest countries in the world. With a population of 115 million people, it is the 14th largest country in the world in terms of population. However, for a period of 48 years, it was a colony of the United States. That half-century was one of the most important in the history of the Philippines. It saw two major wars, profound social and cultural changes, and laid the foundation for full independence. Learn more about the period of American occupation of the Philipp...
Jun 13, 2024•15 min•Ep 1438•Transcript available on Metacast For thousands of years, wine has been one of the most important beverages in the world. It has been consumed by common folk and by emperors, and it can be made in a surprisingly wide variety of geographies. It can be made by backyard vintners as well as by megacorporations. It is so important that it plays a central role in some religions, yet it is completely banned by others. Learn more about the history of wine and winemaking and how it has changed over the centuries on this episode of Everyt...
Jun 12, 2024•15 min•Ep 1437•Transcript available on Metacast After the American War of Independence, Britain recognized the United States, but it didn’t necessarily make them close allies. Each country had its own agendas, and a generation later, they were butting heads again over a host of issues. The result was another war, but unlike the Revolutionary War, everyone claimed victory, and no one really won anything. Learn more about the War of 1812, its causes, and its resolution on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationall...
Jun 11, 2024•16 min•Ep 1436•Transcript available on Metacast Books are one of the foundational tools of civilization. They allow us to pass knowledge and information between people who don’t know each other, and their compact form allows knowledge to be transported across vast distances. Their permanence allows information to be sent across time such that centuries might separate a writer from a reader. But how did books develop, and in the modern world, is a book still a book if it's purely digital? Learn more about books, where they came from, and how t...
Jun 10, 2024•15 min•Ep 1435•Transcript available on Metacast In the 19th century, several American universities began to compete with each other in several sporting events in friendly intercollegiate competitions. Fast forward over a hundred years, and college sports in the United States is a multibillion-dollar business. How did institutes of higher education become some of the biggest sports organizations in the world? And how did this situation come to be, and why does it only exist in the United States? Learn more about college sports and how it becam...
Jun 09, 2024•15 min•Ep 1434•Transcript available on Metacast Ninjas are awesome. They’re silent, they can turn invisible, and they can totally flip out and kill people, especially their mortal enemies…pirates. …or at least that is what popular culture would like you to believe. Were ninjas really as powerful as they are made out to be? Were they the ultimate silent assassins? Learn more about ninjas, real ninjas, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond at your local st...
Jun 08, 2024•13 min•Ep 1433•Transcript available on Metacast Depending on how you define it, there were approximately 70 Roman Emperors. They were a mixed bag ranging from philosophers to the insane, from generals to children. Some were truly horrible, but some were actually pretty good at their job. In particular, there were five consecutive emperors who reigned during the peak of Pax Romana. Learn more about the Five Good Emperors on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-B...
Jun 07, 2024•15 min•Ep 1432•Transcript available on Metacast On June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious landing in world history took place on the shore of Normandy, France. The allied forces called it D-Day. The landing marked the commencement of Operation Overlord, a strategic move that heralded the long-awaited opening of the second front in the European war. D-Day was the start of the most meticulously planned events in history and one of the greatest logistical operations of all time. It was also the day that saw some of the war's most horrific and hero...
Jun 06, 2024•15 min•Ep 1431•Transcript available on Metacast When President John F. Kennedy set the objective of landing on the moon before the end of the 1960s, no one really knew what it entailed. The Apollo program involved many incredible feats of engineering, but perhaps the most impressive was the development of the Apollo Lunar Module. The Lunar Module was unlike any spacecraft before or since. It was the first spacecraft designed to fly only in the vacuum of space and the first to land on another celestial body. Learn more about the Apollo Lunar M...
Jun 05, 2024•15 min•Ep 1430•Transcript available on Metacast Located between Mexico and Columbia, in a strategic area connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific, is the region we call Central America. The countries that makeup Central America were mostly former Spanish colonies, but unlike other Spanish colonies to the north and south, Central America wound up as a series of small countries rather than one big one. But why? Learn more about the history of Central America and how the current borders came to be on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. S...
Jun 04, 2024•16 min•Ep 1429•Transcript available on Metacast Money is a very strange thing. All of us use it. We spend it, earn it, and save it. We know it when we see it. Yet, even some of the world’s best economists have a very hard time defining it. It has been around for thousands of years, yet innovation is still being made with it today. Learn more about the history of money, how it came about, and how it developed over time on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bon...
Jun 03, 2024•14 min•Ep 1428•Transcript available on Metacast A common occurrence at many universities is that they have contentious relationships with their local community. This is not a recent development. It is something that has existed ever since universities were developed. The relationship between colleges and local towns was probably at its worst in 1355 when an outbreak of violence occurred at Oxford University. Learn more about The St. Scholastica Day Riot and its 500-year legacy with the local community on this episode of Everything Everywhere ...
Jun 02, 2024•14 min•Ep 1427•Transcript available on Metacast The month of June was originally called Iunius by the Romans. It originally had 29 days and was the fourth month of the year. Today, it has 30 days, and it is the sixth month of the year. It used to be a bad omen to be married in June, and now it is the most popular month to be married in. However, despite all the changes in June, there is one thing that has remained constant: questions and answers. Stay tuned for the 19th installment of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everyw...
Jun 01, 2024•15 min•Ep 1426•Transcript available on Metacast In August of 1964, an event occurred off the waters of North Vietnam that would have repercussions that would echo in US foreign policy for decades. Two alleged confrontations between US Navy vessels and North Vietnamese ships set off a chain of events that resulted in a dramatic escalation in the United States' involvement in Vietnam and a subsequent backlash that would change military policy to the present day. Learn more about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the event that began the large-sca...
May 31, 2024•15 min•Ep 1324•Transcript available on Metacast One of the most iconic images of America is the cowboy. Cowboys have defined entire genres of literature and movies and are the basis for entire styles of fashion. But how did cowboys come about, what exactly did they do, and who exactly became cowboys? Perhaps most importantly, how realistic is our image of cowboys? Spoiler: It's not very realistic at all. Learn more about Cowboys, how they came to be, and how realistic their portrayal in media is, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily...
May 30, 2024•14 min•Ep 1424•Transcript available on Metacast In the year 79, Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located east of the modern-day city of Naples, erupted. Vesuvius had erupted before, but this eruption was different. It ejected an enormous amount of ash, which completely buried several towns and cities below the mountain. Almost 2,000 years later, the largest of those cities, Pompeii, was rediscovered, and what archeologists found revolutionized our understanding of the ancient world. Learn more about the destruction and rediscovery of Pompeii on this...
May 29, 2024•14 min•Ep 1423•Transcript available on Metacast There are millions of different insect species in the world. All of them fill some niche in the ecosystem in which they live. However, some species are more important than others. In particular, insect species that are members of the family Apidae, or what you probably know as bees. Bees are some of the most important pollinators in the world. They are responsible for a large amount of plant reproduction worldwide. Learn more about bees, what they are and their importance on this episode of Ever...
May 28, 2024•15 min•Ep 1422•Transcript available on Metacast The world as we know it is made up of 193 countries, Antarctica, and a host of territories. However, between all of those places are the high seas or international waters, which are not controlled by anyone. But where do international waters begin? What can you do in international waters? And how close can you actually sail to another country? Learn more about the Law of the Sea, how it was created, and what it stipulates on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationa...
May 27, 2024•14 min•Ep 1421•Transcript available on Metacast On December 8, 1941, as the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, they were simultaneously attacking other Allied positions around Asia. One of the biggest attacks was on Manila in the Philippines and the Filipino and American forces that were entrenched on the Bataan Peninsula. Filipino and American forces ended up surrendering, which began one of the most brutal and horrifying episodes of the entire war. Learn more about the Bataan Death March and how and why it happened on this episode of Every...
May 26, 2024•15 min•Ep 1420•Transcript available on Metacast When Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, there was a rush of people who moved west to claim the free land that was offered. However, there was a problem. Creating physical divisions for plots of land on the prairie was difficult when there was no stone or wood. Eventually, there was a solution to the problem, which offered a cheap way to divide land…and created a whole host of new problems as well. Learn more about barbed wire and how it shaped the American West, warfare, and much ...
May 25, 2024•12 min•Ep 1419•Transcript available on Metacast In 1428, a young girl from the village of Domrémy, France, audaciously set out to meet the heir apparent to the French throne, the Dauphin, and told him what he had to do to defeat the English occupying her country. She claimed that she was told what to do by God. Against all odds, the Dauphin took her advice, and it worked. After a series of military victories, the Dauphin was crowned king, and the young girl went on to become one of the greatest heroes in French history. Learn more about Joan ...
May 24, 2024•15 min•Ep 1418•Transcript available on Metacast On May 11, 1960, an auto worker who went by Ricardo Klement stepped off the bus after his shift at a Mercedes-Benz automotive plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As he was walking home, he was abducted by several men and thrown into a vehicle. This was no ordinary kidnapping, however. There was no demand for ransom. That was because this was no ordinary autoworker. This was actually Adolf Eichmann, one of the masterminds behind the holocaust. Eichmann wasn’t the only member of the German Nazi Part...
May 23, 2024•14 min•Ep 1417•Transcript available on Metacast From 1929 to 1992, several governments ruled over the Balkans, all of whom used the name “Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavia was a country that began with a dream but was born out of war and ultimately ended in war. While the nation of Yugoslavia no longer exists, Its legacy can still be felt in the countries that formerly compromised it. Learn more about Yugoslavia, its rise, and its fall on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottle...
May 22, 2024•15 min•Ep 1416•Transcript available on Metacast Most of our major divisions of time are based on some sort of natural event. A year is one orbit of the Earth around the sun. A month is one orbit of the Moon around the Earth. A day is one rotation of the Earth about its axis. However, one of the most commonly used units of time has no natural analog whatsoever. Learn more about why there are seven days in a week and where the names for the day of the week come from on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, ...
May 21, 2024•13 min•Ep 1415•Transcript available on Metacast Inside you right now are most probably millions of, possibly even trillions of viruses. Some viruses are extremely deadly, but the vast majority are completely benign. They can be found in almost every type of life, including plants, animals, and bacteria. Yet viruses are completely different from any other type of life form. In fact, it is debatable whether they are even life forms at all. Learn more about viruses, what they are and how they work on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. ...
May 20, 2024•15 min•Ep 1414•Transcript available on Metacast On August 9, 378, one of the most important battles in history took place. While largely forgotten today, it was a critical battle that contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire. It wasn’t just a loss for the Roman army; it also resulted in the death of an emperor, and it also contributed to the rise of a group known as the Visigoths, who would go on to spread throughout much of Europe over the next several centuries. Learn more about the Battle of Adrianople and how it changed the course ...
May 19, 2024•14 min•Ep 1413•Transcript available on Metacast There was no product more important to the economy of the ancient world than silk. Silk was transported thousands of miles to be purchased by people so far away from its source that they had no clue where it came from. The source of silk, however, was China, and for centuries, they had a monopoly, which brought them tremendous wealth. That was until they didn’t. Learn more about how the secret to silk was smuggled out of China, and the silk monopoly was broken on this episode of Everything Every...
May 18, 2024•13 min•Ep 1412•Transcript available on Metacast When the United States entered the Civil War, the Union needed a plan for conducting the war. Its senior military commander, General Windfield Scott, devised a strategy that would play to the Union's strengths and exploit the Confederacy's weaknesses. He hoped that it would bring about a swift end to the war and minimize the loss of human life. The plan didn’t bring about a swift end to the war, but it did play an instrumental role in the conflict. Learn more about the Anaconda Plan and the Unio...
May 17, 2024•13 min•Ep 1411•Transcript available on Metacast 
