Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

You’ve probably seen footage of a rocket launch. There is a bunch of smoke and fire as the rocket lifts off to begin its flight to achieve an altitude and velocity which will get it into orbit.  It works, but it requires a lot of energy to get even a small amount of mass into the Earth’s orbit.  What if there was a way to travel into space that didn’t require a rocket? What if going into Earth orb...

In the movie Forrest Gump, one man finds himself at the center of historical events, encountering famous people over the course of decades. While Forrest Gump was fictitious, there have been people who have served as a nexus at certain places and times in history.  One such person existed in the early 20th century, and her life intersected with several important figures in the world of art in Cent...

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a war erupted in the world of video technology. Two competing video tape formats fought to gain supremacy in the market. In the end, one format crushed the other and was left as the victor. However, legend holds that the inferior format was actually the victorious one.  Learn more about Betamax vs. VHS videotape wars and if the inferior technology actually w...

Located on the island of Honshu, in the middle of the Japanese archipelago, lies one of the most important and iconic places in all of Japan, Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji has held an important place in Japanese culture for centuries as both an important site in the native Japanese Shinto religion and as a subject for artists.  Today Mount Fuji remains an important site for tourism and a subject for mode...

In the year 480 BC, one of the most famous battles in history took place on the shore of the Malian Gulf in the Aegean Sea. Several thousand Greeks held back several hundred thousand Persians in a battle that is still remembered 2,500 years later.  While the Greeks lost the battle, they did ultimately win the war. Learn more about the Battle of Thermopylae and the 300 hundred Spartans on the 300th...

Having lost the race to the Moon, the Soviet space program decided to go in a different direction. If they couldn’t be first on the moon, then they could take the lead in the area of endurance in space and the development of space stations. In 1971 they launched the world’s first space station, and the crew of three cosmonauts who inhabited the station set the record for the longest time in space....

Every day, millions of people around the world hit the links to play a round of golf. The very best at the game are able to earn millions of dollars a year as professionals.  However, this global recreational and competitive sport has origins that most people aren’t aware of, dating back even earlier than its generally recognized origin Learn more about the history of golf and how it became the sp...

Centuries before the arrival of Europeans, one of the greatest civilizations in the Americas rose and fell.  They left behind them a rich legacy of roads and construction. They had a system of writing as well as a highly developed system of mathematics and astronomy.  However, this advanced civilization suddenly ended. The people who made up the civilization never left, but their cultural and poli...

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 abou...

In June 1942, American and Japanese naval forces squared off in what was to become a decisive naval battle of the war in the Pacific.  The fleets, dominated by aircraft carriers, met just off the coast of a remote coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean known as Midway Island.  The battle was unlike any battle before or since in naval history, and it turned out to be the turning point in the war in the P...

When we think of what made human beings into human beings, one of the first things which come up is the discovery of fire. The control and use of fire is one of the earliest things which our ancestors did, which separated us from other apes and began us on the path to becoming modern podcast-listening humans.  Learn more about how humans came to use fire on this episode of Everything Everywhere Da...

Some of the things we use every day were invented in the distant past. Other things were invented quite recently.  However, there is a category of inventions that have been known forever, but no one ever had any practical use for it until recently.  Learn more about the elevator and how it helped create the modern world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.  Sponsors Expedition Unknown ...

If you have ever looked at a map of the Caribbean, you might have noticed that the tiny islands in the Lesser Antilles consist of a whole bunch of tiny, independent countries.  All of these countries became independent around the same time and got their independence from the same country: Great Britain. Given their common history and location, why are they a bunch of separate tiny countries rather...

From August 15 to August 20, in the year 636, one of the most important battles in history took place.  The participants in the battle couldn’t have known it, but the results of that battle would shape world history for the next 1400 years.   Much of the geography of the world today, can be traced back to the results from those six days. Learn more about the Battle of Yarmouk, one of the most impo...

Located approximately 560 miles or 900 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador lies a chain of islands that are like no other in the world.  These islands have been instrumental to our understanding of both biology and geology and remain a place of intense scientific study today.  In addition to scientists, it draws tourists, photographers, and even podcasters, from all over the world.  Learn more abo...

Almost 2000 years ago, after conquering most of the island of Great Britain, Roman forces established a settlement at a strategically narrow point on the Thames River. Since its establishment, the city has grown dramatically, at one point having secured the title of the largest city in the world.  Today it is one of the world’s most important cities, is an international hub for finance, and it is...

The universe is billions of years old.  If, in the future, humanity were to explore the galaxy and visit other planets around other stars, we might be visiting places where at one time, an advanced civilization once existed.  However, if such a civilization existed, it might have been millions of years in the past. If that was the case, how would we even know that it existed?  Also, what if we ask...

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust.  However, titanium is not even remotely close to the ninth most common element in industrial or commercial use.  In fact, despite being so abundant, we didn’t even know titanium existed until the late 18th century, and we couldn’t figure out how to actually practically use it until the 1960s.  It is a remarkable metal with amazing p...

On December 22, 1808, concertgoers in Vienna, Austria, witnessed a significant event in music history.  Ludwig van Beethoven held a concert where he debuted several of his greatest works in one program. While the concert has gone down as one of the most important in history, the conditions during the concert and actual performance was….. sub-par.  Learn more about the concert of December 22, 1808,...

Unquestionably, the most popular clothing innovation of the last 150 years has been blue jeans.  They can be found all over the world, yet they have become synonymous with American culture.  While modern blue jeans are definitely American, their origin actually goes back centuries earlier to Europe. Learn more about the history of blue jeans and how they became so popular on this episode of Everyt...

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known to history as Claudius, was the fourth Emperor of Rome.  Of the emperors that came before him and all those who came after him, he was the most unlikely of emperors.  Up until the moment he became emperor, no one during his entire life seriously thought of him as emperor material. When he became emperor, he surprised everyone.  Learn more about E...

One of the biggest questions that humanity has asked is, “Are we alone in the universe?” The possibility that there are other civilizations that we could one day communicate with has tantalized people for years. However, before we can answer that question, there are other simpler questions that we need to answer, such as, is life even possible outside of Earth? The place where we might be able to...

In early 1947, a teenage Bedouin herder was looking for a lost goat from his flock when he came upon a cave near the Dead Sea.  Randomly, he threw a stone into the cave and was surprised to hear not the sound of the stone hitting a cave wall but rather the breaking of pottery.  He found a collection of clay jars, some of which were still sealed, containing scrolls wrapped in linen.  This accidenta...

Everyone knows that Europe is one of the seven continents in the world, right?  Well, there is actually a problem with that. For starters, where exactly does Europe end and Asia begin? On top of that, there is more than one Europe. While there is a geographic Europe, there is also a political, economic, and cultural Europe, and every one of those is slightly different from the other.  Learn more a...

3,110,400 seconds ago, you, the listeners of this podcast, asked me questions, and I, in turn, provided you with answers.  Now 3,110,400 seconds later, we find ourselves again in a similar palace. You have questions, and I, too, have answers.  …and once again, the endless dance of questions and answers continues.  Stay tuned for Questions & Answers: Volume 8 on this episode of Everything Everywher...