Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Few dates carry as much significance in the United States as July 4th, but the celebration of the date has evolved over time. July 4, 1776, was not a day of celebration across the country, as nobody outside of Philadelphia knew what had happened. Just one year later, it was being celebrated and has been ever since for a quarter of a millennium.  Learn more about the history of the celebration of t...

In 1776, a work was published that challenged an empire, questioned old systems of power, and helped reshape the modern world. But this wasn’t the Declaration of Independence. It was a dense, ambitious book about trade, labor, money, and prosperity that changed how people understood nations and wealth itself. It attacked mercantilism, defended markets, and introduced ideas that are still debated 2...

In the 1960s, a generation of young people rejected the world their parents had built.  They turned away from war, conformity, consumerism, and traditional authority, and embraced music, peace, love, psychedelics, communal living, and a radically different vision of freedom.  For a brief moment, it seemed as if they might change everything. Then, almost as quickly, the movement began to fall apart...

Six years ago, in the midst of the worst pandemic the world had seen in generations, I sat down at my computer to record a new podcast. The new show was going to cover all the random topics I found interesting, and I figured if I did, other people would too.  It turns out that you did. You really did. Join me as I celebrate with all of you the sixth anniversary of Everything Everywhere Daily.  Sho...

Every July 1st, retired Major League Baseball player Bobby Bonilla receives a direct deposit from the New York Mets despite not having played for the franchise for a quarter of a century. Sports fans celebrate this date with a mix of hilarity and absolute bewilderment as “Bobby Bonilla Day,” universally mocking it as the ultimate symbol of front-office incompetence. However, that’s not quite true....

The human body was built for gravity. Take it away, and bones weaken, muscles shrink, fluids shift, and even vision can change.  For astronauts spending months in orbit, zero gravity isn’t just strange; it is one of the greatest obstacles to living and working in space.  Yet there are solutions. It might be a matter of exercise, or, in the future, the solution may be to create artificial gravity b...

In the early 20th century, the caves of Kentucky became the center of a bitter underground gold rush.  At the heart of it all was Mammoth Cave, a prize so valuable that men risked their fortunes, their reputations, and even their lives to control a piece of it.  The struggle eventually turned deadly and helped shape the future of one of America’s greatest natural wonders.  Learn more about the Ken...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! Before cowboys became the symbol of the American West, there were the mountain men.  They crossed unmapped passes, trapped beavers in icy streams, lived among Native peoples, and helped open the way for the great migrations across the continent.  Their world was dangerous, lonely, and short-lived, but their impact on American history and...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! Few figures have inspired as much fear as Lavrentiy Beria.  As the ruthless head of Stalin's secret police, he oversaw purges, mass arrests, deportations, and a vast system of terror that touched millions of lives.  Yet after Stalin's death, the man who seemed untouchable found himself facing a stunning downfall of his own. His rise and d...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! In the early years of the United States, American ships faced a threat far from home along the North African coast.  Sailors were captured, tribute was demanded, and the young republic had to decide whether it would pay for peace or fight for its place on the high seas.  The result was America’s first overseas military conflict and the bi...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! In 1986, the world’s biggest sporting event came to Mexico, producing one of the most memorable tournaments in soccer history.  It featured political tension, high altitudes, dramatic upsets, and the rise of Diego Maradona from superstar to legend.  It also had earthquakes, economic problems, and the Hand of God. Learn more about the 1986...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! When Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, the American government wanted to see him gone.  So, they hatched plots and tried to assassinate him, again, and again, and again, and again.  Needless to say, none of them worked, and some of the ideas were almost farcical.  Learn about the many failed assassination attempts on Fidel Castr...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! In the 1980s, images of starving children in Ethiopia shocked the world and triggered one of the largest humanitarian responses in history.  But behind the famine was a much deeper story of drought, civil war, dictatorship, forced resettlement, and the politics of food.  It was a disaster that changed Ethiopia, transformed global charity,...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! In 1829, a British scientist who had never visited the United States left his fortune to a foreign country across the ocean.  His instructions were simple, vague, and enormously ambitious: create an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. From that bequest grew the Smithsonian, a collection of museums, research centers, p...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! In the 18th century, a French astronomer who was a regular comet hunter kept finding things in the sky that weren’t comets, but they also weren’t stars or planets.  So, he created a list of these objects, not because he was trying to catalog the night sky, but rather to help other comet hunters avoid these common objects. It turned out hi...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! Few phrases in American law are more familiar than “You have the right to remain silent.”  They are spoken in police stations, on city streets, and in countless movies and television shows.  Yet behind those words is a real criminal case, a controversial Supreme Court decision, and a legal rule that changed policing in the United States. ...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! It is a metal that can explode in water, a part of a mineral that helped build empires, and an ion that allows your nerves to fire and your muscles to move.  It has helped preserve food, shaped trade routes, powered industries, and become one of the most common substances in kitchens around the world.  Few elements are more ordinary, more...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! Over 4,000 years ago, in the cities of ancient Mesopotamia, people told the story of a mighty king who sought fame, found friendship, faced devastating loss, and went searching for the secret of eternal life. This story is one of the oldest written stories in the world, and many of its tropes are still a part of storytelling today.  The c...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  It was described as a marvel of engineering and architecture, and it was considered stunningly beautiful However, unlike the other ancient wonders, we have no idea who built it, exactly where it was, or whether it even existed.  But this has not stopped ar...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! For thousands of years, Korea has stood at the crossroads of East Asia, shaped by powerful neighbors but never defined by them.  It has been home to ancient kingdoms, Buddhist temples, Confucian scholars, devastating invasions, colonial rule, war, division, and one of the most remarkable economic and cultural transformations in modern his...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! You might have noticed that your television screen today is rectangular, but in the past, TV screens were more square. Yet, sometimes you might have seen black bars on either the top or the side of what you are watching.  The width, or lack thereof, of a film or TV show is known as its aspect ratio. Throughout the history of cinema, aspec...

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Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! For thousands of years, one river has shaped the history, culture, and destiny of China.  Its waters helped give birth to Chinese civilization, yet its floods brought destruction on a scale few rivers in the world can match. Known as both China’s Mother River and China’s Sorrow, the Yellow River is a story of geography, agriculture, disas...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! At the height of the Cold War, the United States considered a plan so audacious that it sounds like science fiction: detonating a nuclear weapon on the Moon.  Known as Project A119, it was born from fear, prestige, and the urgent need to answer the Soviet Union’s early lead in space.  The plan was real, the scientists involved were some o...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, capable of extraordinary intelligence, complex communication, and deep social bonds.  For thousands of years, they have shaped ecosystems, carried armies, inspired cultures, and become symbols of both power and vulnerability.  They also have one of the most unique and versatile appendages i...