Fifth Anniversary Episode
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Five years ago today, I published the very first episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Since then, I've published over 1,800 episodes, written close to 3 million words, and have had my podcast episodes downloaded almost 50 million times. In the process of doing all that, I have learned a lot about this show and this audience, and where it all fits in in the bigger scheme of things. So, learn more about Everything Everywhere Daily on the 5th anniversary of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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You've probably heard of Fiji water and have seen it in stores. Well, Fiji water really is from the islands of Fiji. Drop by drop, Fiji water is filtered through volcanic rock, 1,600 miles away from the nearest continent and all its pollution, protected and preserved naturally from external elements. In this process, it collects a unique profile of electrolytes and minerals, resulting in more than double the electrolytes as the other top two premium bottled water brands, giving Fiji water its smooth taste.

Fiji water's electrolytes are 100% natural, and this water even has a perfectly balanced pH of 7.7. I've recently been trying to reduce my consumption of diet soda, and I've found Fiji water to be a great alternative. Visit your local retailer to pick up some Fiji water today for your next backyard party, beach day, hike, or even your home office. Fiji water is Earth's finest water. Five years ago, things weren't going so well for me.

I had spent the previous 13 years traveling around the world, and the pandemic had put a halt to everything. Even before the pandemic, I wasn't comfortable with the direction that travel media was going. Social media influencers had started to dominate the business, who really did nothing but take highly staged photos of themselves in various places around the world with no context as to where the photo was taken or why it was important.

On the other end of the spectrum, you had bloggers who were just churning out keyword research SEO-driven content to appease the Google gods. If you wanted to avoid the algorithms, either social media or search, there was really only one corner of the internet that was left. Podcasting. I had already done quite a bit of podcasting. I had been the co-host of This Week in Travel since 2009, but that too had been killed by the pandemic. Back in 2018, I had an idea for a new podcast.

The original idea was to produce longer episodes, approximately two hours each, on a wide variety of topics and release new shows every two weeks. I commissioned artwork, purchased the rights to a theme song, but I never launched that show. In June of 2020, I revisited the idea of a podcast. This time, instead of a two-hour bi-weekly podcast, I thought about changing the format to a daily show.

Daily podcasts are hard. I know several people who have tried to do it, and all of them eventually had to abandon it due to the time commitment. But given the circumstances surrounding the pandemic, I had plenty of time, and I knew that if I started it, I would see it through because I'm stubborn that way. I also realized that I didn't want to do a travel podcast. Even though travel is what most people knew me for at the time, travel is something that most people only care about if they're about to go on a trip.

Also, quite frankly, I really didn't like talking about travel per se. I was more interested in the stories of people, places, and things I learned about while traveling. So I decided to take the material that I had created in 2018 and adapt it into a new daily podcast. Having almost 20 years of experience in content creation, I was able to take the lessons of what I had learned as well as things I had learned not to do by observing other people.

The guiding rules I created for the podcast were as follows. First, the episodes had to be reasonably short. I didn't think I could ask for more than 60 to 90 minutes per week of time from the audience. Second, the show would be clean. No swear words and nothing that would be uncomfortable to listen to in front of your kids. The show wasn't for kids per se, but it would be safe for kids to listen to. There are certain events in history which are certainly uncomfortable, but I wouldn't go beyond what was necessary.

Third, every day would be something different. I have a wide range of interests. I figure if I found the topics interesting, then other people would too. And that was the full extent of my audience research for the show. If today's show didn't interest you, then tomorrow's show might. And fourth, I wasn't going to talk about current events. There are more than enough podcasts and outlets where you can get the news and opinions on what's happening around the world today. I don't think we need another one.

Tackling everything else in the universe and throughout history I thought was a big enough task. With that, I sat down and wrote a list of 100 show ideas in a Google Doc. And I'm still using that very same document today, removing show ideas when they get done and adding new ideas when they come to me. As of today, there are currently over 950 potential show ideas on the list. And there are still some sitting there from the original list of 100.

I sat down to create the first episode, which was on the Byzantine Empire. The first thing I had to get over was recording while by myself in a room. I've had plenty of practice public speaking, so that didn't bother me, but recording by myself with no one else in the room was very odd. Needless to say, I've gotten over it. My original plan was to record all of the episodes extemporaneously. I'd use an outline and then just wing it.

After five minutes of trying to do that with episode number one, I realized that it wasn't going to work. It was too messy, and the time it would take to do multiple takes to get something good would require more time than just writing a script. So, I opened up another Google Doc and wrote a script. And I've written a script for every single episode since. From those few core principles, I began working on episodes every single day.

There was a week in September of 2020 where I didn't publish anything because I was moving. But beyond that, I've been able to publish something, even if it's a rerun, every day. After a while, I began to realize that there were benefits to the format I had selected that I didn't even realize when I launched the show. For starters, each episode of a short format podcast requires a smaller time commitment than longer shows. And this meant that people could more easily binge multiple episodes.

I also found that people tended to listen to shorter episodes first before longer episodes in their podcast queue. If you have a 15-minute podcast and a two-hour podcast to listen to, you'll probably listen to the 15-minute one first to remove it from your list because you probably won't be able to listen to the entire two-hour show in one single sitting anyhow. People could easily listen to an entire episode on their way to work, while dropping their kids off at school, or while eating breakfast.

As the show kept growing, I began to receive emails and reviews from people all over the world. I was so focused on producing the show every day that I never really took the time to think about the impact that the show was having.

But I began getting messages from parents who told me that I was their child's favorite teacher, from truck drivers who used their time behind the wheel to learn, from researchers at MIT and other elite universities who listened to the show on a regular basis, and from teachers and professors who were using podcast episodes as teaching resources for their classes.

I'd listeners reach out from the Netherlands, Kenya, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, Canada, the UK, and many other countries. So what did this seemingly random collection of people from all over the world and from different walks of life have in common? Just one thing, curiosity. If you're listening to me right now, you are a member of a small group of humans who is actually curious about the world around you.

You're curious about how and why things work, and about our past and how the world we live in came to be. Curiosity, as it turns out, is a very rare trait. It isn't dependent on age, race, nationality, education, or even intelligence. I know many people who are, on paper, smart, but show absolutely no curiosity about the world around them. They are technically educated, but they are not learned.

Likewise, I know people who have never attended university who are extremely curious and well-read. They are learned, but not educated. I began to think more about the process of learning and what the essential requirements for learning are. Not education, but learning. The acquisition of knowledge. I've come to believe that if you strip everything away, down to the studs of the building, there are just two things that are required to learn. Literacy and curiosity.

Yes, schools, teachers, and textbooks all have a role to play, but if you can read and you are motivated, it is possible in theory to learn without them, especially in a modern world with all the information at your fingertips. As a society, the modern world does a decent job of literacy. And yes, I know it isn't perfect and there's a lot of room for improvement, but by historical standards and for the sake of argument, it's pretty good today. Where we fail miserably, however, is instilling curiosity.

You probably all know someone who is in school who simply didn't want to be there. They didn't care about learning anything. They did the minimum to advance to the next grade and if they graduated, they retained almost nothing. That might have been some of you in school. And at one point or another, we have all probably been that person. I'm sure you've seen the videos online of people being interviewed on the street who can't answer even the most basic questions.

They can't point out their own country on a map. They can't name the country that the Panama Canal is in or the Great Wall of China. And they can't even tell time on a clock that has hands. But they can name every member of the Kardashian family. The real shame isn't that they can't answer such basic questions. Okay, that actually is a shame. But the real shame is that at no point in their lives did they ever actually care to know. They lacked curiosity.

We live in a world where we all have instant access to almost all information that humanity has ever produced. If you are curious, you can answer most questions you might have in a matter of seconds. However, the massive global digital library with all the world's knowledge only works if you care to ask the question. Five years ago, I set out to start a podcast.

Five years later, I think I have a better perspective of what it is I'm actually doing and my role in the knowledge ecosystem. I have no delusions of grandeur. This podcast is just one tiny piece of the puzzle. I cast a wide net to provide listeners of this show with a broad knowledge base about a wide variety of subjects. It can provide you with a bit of knowledge about a great many things. Things that maybe you learned in school but forgot or maybe never covered at all in school.

Every so often, an episode might grab your interest enough that you might want to learn more about it. And from there, there's a universe of books, YouTube videos, online articles, and other podcasts that can be used to get a more in-depth understanding of almost any subject. I have yet to find a subject that there isn't at least one YouTube video on. I'm sure you can find something if you try hard enough, but I haven't found one yet.

As for this podcast, it isn't going anywhere. I have every intention of being around to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the show. I'm often asked if I'll run out of show ideas. As of right now, I have enough ideas for almost three years worth of shows, and if I sat down and really, really tried, I could probably double that within a week. I've been working on improving my workflow to better manage my time, which will enable me to focus on other projects.

If you are a member of the Facebook group, you will have seen that I finally, after years of talking about it, hired some help with the writing and research of episodes. This winter, I'm hoping to take the show on the road and possibly spend a few months recording it in Australia or New Zealand. Finally, I want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen every day, especially those of you in the Completionist Club, a club that gets harder and harder to join with every episode that comes out.

And my hat is off to you because I don't think I could listen to myself talk for that long. And once again to everyone, thank you. Stay curious, learn something new every day. And remember, if you keep listening, I'll keep making them. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Oakton and Cameron Kiefer. I want to thank everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible.

I'd also like to thank all the members of the Everything Everywhere community who are active on the Facebook group and the Discord server. If you'd like to join in the discussion, there are links to both in the show notes. And as always, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show.