Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

In 1811, Britain’s aging king could no longer rule, and his extravagant son stepped in as Prince Regent.  The years that followed saw the defeat of Napoleon, rapid industrial growth, political unrest, and a cultural style still associated with elegance and excess.  At the center of it all was the future George IV, a man remembered as much for his buildings, clothes, debts, and scandals a...

One of the most popular foods around the world is the hamburger. If most people think of American foods, it is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Hamburgers are pretty simple in terms of what they are composed of and how they are prepared, but they have developed an enormous amount of diversity.  But where did this popular food originally come from, and how did it manage to spread a...

He ruled one of the largest empires in ancient history, conquered through war, and then became remembered for renouncing conquest itself.  Ashoka the Great began as a Mauryan emperor whose armies crushed the kingdom of Kalinga, but the horror of that victory changed the course of his reign, his empire, and the spread of Buddhism across Asia.  His words, carved into stone, still speak mor...

For centuries, power in Europe was measured not by money or elections, but by land, loyalty, and the ability to command armed men. Out of the ruins of the Roman Empire and the chaos of invasion came a system that created castles, knights, peasants, kings, and the medieval world itself. It was a system that was unequal, deeply local, and surprisingly durable. Learn more about the rise and fall of f...

For thousands of years, civilizations that rose along the Mediterranean or along the European shores of the Atlantic mostly stuck to the shore.  They also never sailed out into the open Atlantic, and they didn’t sail very far down the African coast because the prevailing winds made it difficult or impossible to return home.  That was until an obscure 15th-century Portuguese mariner figured out a s...

It is the deepest lake in the world, the oldest lake in the world, and it holds more freshwater than all five of the Great Lakes combined.  Hidden in Siberia, Lake Baikal is a place where geology, evolution, history, and myth all come together.  It has its own seal species, its own unique ecosystem, and a story that stretches back millions of years.  Learn more about Lake Baikal, one of the greate...

Florence Nightingale was far more than a compassionate nurse.  She was a reformer, statistician, administrator, and relentless critic of systems that allowed people to die unnecessarily.  Her work in the Crimean War made her a legend, but what she did afterward changed hospitals, armies, and the entire profession of nursing.  She was one of the most important characters in the creation of the mode...

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.  Shop...

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 bir...

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 Castro...

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, pr...

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...