Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Humans and rats have lived in an uneasy relationship for millennia. Rats have spread diseases like the bubonic plague, destroyed grain harvests, and stolen our pizzas. In return, rats have given humans…...pretty much nothing. As such, humans have waged a relentless war against rats which for the most part has gone nowhere. However, there are some fronts where we have had amazing success. Learn mor...

If you visit a different country you might need to get some of the local currency. You might get Ringgit in Malaysia, Pesos in Mexico, Kip in Laos, or Tala in Samoa. However, there is one country where you have to be careful what currency you get because there are different notes produced in different parts of the country, and the different notes aren’t accepted everywhere in the country. Learn mo...

Since the year 1790, New York City has been the largest city in the United States. Given the population density of the city, the vast majority of the people there rent apartments. Now imagine if everyone in New York who switched apartments had to do so on the exact same day every year. Well, this was the reality in New York for over a century. Learn more about moving day in New York City on this e...

The printing press is considered to be one of, if not the greatest invention in history. The printing press allowed for an explosion in information and it ushered in the renaissance, the enlightenment, and the scientific and industrial revolutions. As such, Johannes Gutenberg is often considered one of the most important people in history. But did Gutenberg actually invent the printing press? Shou...

There is a number, a very special number, which is inside all of us. It is inside you, inside me, and inside every person on Earth. It dictates our social interactions. It has determined the size of communities, Christmas Card lists, and has implications for social media. Learn more about the Dunbar Number on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...

On November 24, 1971, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper purchased a $20 ticket for a short 30-minute flight from Portland to Seattle. He had with him a briefcase filled with dynamite and wanted $200,000. After getting his money, the plane took off again, Dan Cooper took the money, jumped out of the plane and into history. Learn more about DB Cooper, and the world’s only unsolved skyjackin...

There are many foods that are considered an acquired taste. Foods that might not be very palatable the first time you try it, or something that just doesn’t sit right with most people. It could be something as simple as blue cheese, or something like the Filipino delicacy, balut, which is a boiled, fertilized egg with the embryo still inside. Sweden has its own acquired taste delicacy which has sp...

Before Spain became Spain, it was part of the Roman province of Hispania. To understand the language, and geography of not just Spain but of the entire Iberian Peninsula, you have to understand Hispania. Learn more about one of the greatest provinces in the Roman empire, and how it created modern Spain on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

Odds are, if you have ever seen a photo of the president of the United States over the last 60 years, there has been someone in the background or walking a few steps behind, who had in their hand a leather satchel. In that bag was everything the President would need to start armageddon. Learn more about the Nuclear Football, what it is, and why it is always around, on this episode of Everything Ev...

The musical Brigadoon is about a Scottish village which appears for one day every 100 years. The village can be thought of as a metaphor for things that are fleeting, or why we must take advantage of opportunities when they appear. Brigadoon doesn’t exist in our world, but we do have the next best thing. The Mc Rib. Learn more about the sandwich which only occasionally appears on this episode of E...

In the year 1184 in the Dutchy of Thuringia, in what is today the country of Germany, a conflict raged between the Count of Thuringia and the Archbishop of Mainz. To resolve this dispute, the German King Henrich VI called the parties to the city of Erfurt to settle their outstanding issues. Things did not go as anyone planned. Learn more about the Erfurt Latrine Disaster on this episode of Everyth...

In the 1970s NASA embarked on a mission it had never attempted before. Due to a fortunate alignment of planets, they were going to attempt to send robotic probes on a flyby mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, before being sent to deep space, out of the solar system. Some of the mission planners figured if they were going to send a probe all that way, maybe they might as well add somet...

Wars often start with a bang but end with a whimper. Often an attack or an invasion will begin a war, but even one when one side surrenders, it can take days, weeks, or months for word of the capitulation to get out to everyone. While the European theater of World War II officially ended on May 8, 1945, the word didn’t reach everyone right away. Learn more about the last Germans to surrender on th...

I’m sure all of you have heard the 12 Days of Christmas song. It is the holiday equivalent of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, and no one ever sings it to completion because it’s so long. But it does raise the question, what are the 12 days of Christmas? Why are there 12? And why am I doing an episode on this in January well after Christmas is over? Learn the answers to these questions on the episo...

If you think of Spain as the country on the Iberian Peninsula which is sandwiched between France and Portugal, you are not wrong, but you are also not totally right. There is also a significant part of the country which is located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Morocco: The Canary Islands. Here you will find things that you aren’t going to find in mainland Spain or even the rest of Europe...

On Christmas Day, 2020, Reginald Foster passed away at the age of 81 in a nursing home facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a few days before. This episode is not necessarily about his passing however, it is about his life, and in particular how he had one of the most unique jobs in the world. Learn more about Reginald Foster, the world’s foremost Latinist, on this...

In the waning days of the 19th century, a passenger steamer crossing the Pacific Ocean en route from Australia to Canada did a particular thing, at a particular place, at a particular time. If it wasn’t for a last-second decision of the captain of the ship, we wouldn’t be talking about the ship today and it would have been forgotten in history. Learn more about the SS Warrimoo, and how it and its...

New Year’s Day is not only the day we turn over a new year on the calendar, but also a day where people start resolutions, companies begin new budgets, and everyone screws up writing checks. While documenting our trips around the sun makes perfect sense, why do we use this day, January 1, as the starting point for our calendar years? Why not some other date? Learn more about how January 1st became...

Located approximately 100km east of Rotterdam, the city of Nijmegen is a mid-sized Dutch city situated on the Waal river that few people outside of the Netherlands are familiar with. For the last several years, every single day regardless of the weather, the people of Nijmegen have honored events that took place in the city 76 years ago. Learn more about the city of Nijmegen and the daily Sunset M...

Many people think that politics and elections in the United States are the most controversial they have ever been. History, however, begs to differ. Perhaps the oddest and most controversial presidential election in American history was the election of 1824. It is an election that doesn’t get a lot of attention given who won and the lack of major issues at stake, but it is one that more people sho...

If there is one song almost everyone knows it is Happy Birthday to You (yes, that is the actual title of the song, even though everyone just calls it Happy Birthday). Not only has the song been sung at countless children’s birthday parties, but it has also been mentioned in Supreme Court decisions and was the subject of one of the most important copyright cases in history. Learn more about the mos...

One of my dirty secrets is that I’m a fan of pro wrestling. Whenever I tell people this the first thing I inevitably hear is, “you know it’s fake right?” This idea that people think professional wrestling is real comes from the concept that wrestling insiders call kayfabe. Learn about the history of kayfabe and how this concept from professional wrestling can be used to navigate the modern world o...

If you look at the list of officer ranks in the United States armed forces, there are 10 ranks listed which are held today They go from Second Lieutenant all the way up to the rank of General, which is the four-star variant of the rank. There is a rank above general, a five-star general, which hasn’t been awarded in 70 years. Most people are familiar with these generals as having served in WWII. H...

In the aftermath of the horrors of WWI, many people in Europe wanted to find a better future going forward. A future of peace and prosperity, where energy, food, and jobs would be available for everyone. One man from Germany named Herman Sörgel had a VERY ambitious idea. An idea that would literally change the map of the planet Earth, and was the biggest proposed engineering project ever put forwa...

This episode is the story of a man, who if you don’t know his name, you probably should: Joe Medicine Crow. Joe Medicine Crow was a scholar, an author, a historian, a spokesperson, and a warrior. In fact, he was the last person to have earned the title of War Chief in the Crow Nation, and he earned that title in a way you probably wouldn’t imagine. Hear his fascinating and inspirational story on t...