Questions and Answers: Volume 32
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The months of the year are named after Roman gods and some are named after their placement in the calendar. However, the first month to be named after an actual person was the month of July, which was named after Julius Caesar. What's surprising isn't that the name of the month has stuck around for over 2,000 years. It's that more rulers didn't try to name months after themselves. Well, many rulers might have done this if they had just taken the time to answer their subjects' questions.

Join me for Volume 32 of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Fiji Water. 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.

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Let's jump right in with the first question that comes from Gentilson on the Discord server. They ask, Do you ever do alternative history episodes? Here's a primer for you. How would the world be different in 1766 if the British Parliament had agreed with Benjamin Franklin and granted representation to the American colonies? I asked ChatGPT and the ramifications were enormous, including the likelihood that I wouldn't exist because my ancestors wouldn't have been able to immigrate to New York.

Well, a gentleson, I've thought about it, but I've decided not to because doing an alternate history show would basically just be me making stuff up because it isn't real and wouldn't require any actual research. I just figured that I'd stick to episodes on stuff that actually happened that would be more informative for people. And that isn't to say I'll never do it, but if I did, I would probably do it on a much smaller scale.

Also, with respect to the particular scenario you brought up, it wouldn't just be you who wouldn't be alive. Everyone on the planet would be different. The butterfly effect would assure that every act of conception would have been slightly different, resulting in totally different genetic people. Frank Soldano asks, I loved your most recent podcast. How about more that feature African nations?

Well, Frank, I absolutely will be doing more episodes on Africa. There are a lot of countries in Africa, and each one has a unique story. We have several episode ideas already lined up about former African empires as well as African countries. Just off the top of my head, some interesting ones would include Botswana, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Beyond that, there's the Mau Mau Uprising, Idi Amin, the Rwanda Genocide, and Timbuktu, and a host of other topics.

So the answer is yes, expect more African content. Matthew Coleman asks, Gary, in your estimation, what early influences in your life led to your entrepreneurship, traveling, and now podcasting? How is curiosity stoked within you, and how, in your estimation, can this curiosity be similarly stoked in the youth of today? Well, Matthew, I'm not really sure. There is no history of entrepreneurship in my family, nor any extensive traveling. I was the first person in my family to go to college.

My house growing up didn't even have any books. Yet I taught myself how to read before kindergarten by watching shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company. My first day of kindergarten, the teachers did not know what to do with me because I was the only kid who could read.

I have only ever applied for one real job in my life. After graduating from college, I applied for a job with Cargill, which is a pretty low-level position that involved going out to grain elevators. I didn't get hired, and after that, the idea of working for someone else never even crossed my mind. I believe entrepreneurship is a mindset more than anything else. I've met many people who are very smart who I think could have been quite successful. However, they were hesitant to go off on their own.

They could find every excuse for why they didn't want to do that, which is fine, but in the end I think it was just fear. One of the fundamental principles of economics is that there is a trade-off between risk and reward. I personally am far more open to risk-taking than most people. I've had businesses that weren't successful, and it isn't a pleasant experience to go through, but in the end I came through it okay. Some people are willing to risk failure, and other people want more security. Both are perfectly acceptable.

But opting for security means you limit your downside at the expense of your upside. As for encouraging curiosity in kids, I think that's actually quite easy. Everyone early on is curious. Kids ask tons of questions. Every seven-year-old goes through a phase where they're interested in dinosaurs, for example. The key is just to let them run with their interests wherever it takes them. Let them build a fort or take them to a museum.

It might be a very chaotic path as they jump from one interest to the next, but that's perfectly fine. In the course of that journey, they'll naturally come across topics in science, math, and history. More importantly, because they're interested and they care, they will retain a tremendous amount of what they learn. There's a news story I read several years ago about a kid in Iowa who was obsessed with vacuum cleaners. He developed a collection of over a hundred vacuum cleaners.

This might seem odd, but consider what this involves. Understanding how vacuum cleaners work involves understanding how electrical motors and pumps work. He would open them up and tear them apart and eventually develop the ability to fix old vacuum cleaners. And if you can fix a vacuum cleaner, then you can probably fix a whole host of small electrical appliances. No one taught him how to do any of that. He just figured it out himself.

So the biggest thing is not to inhibit curiosity, as that will eventually kill it. And that is the problem that most people have in the world today. The curiosity they had as a child is eventually snuffed out. Miri Milby asks, Spencer age 11 wants to know if you'll be doing episodes on more recent history, current events for your 2000th, 2025th episodes. When I get around to the present day and my series of what was happening in the world in various round number years,

I'm going to focus more on things like demographics and economics that people might not be aware of, rather than trying to catalog all the various news events that everyone is probably already aware of because they hear about it every day. So the closer I get to the present, the focus will shift a little bit because it's less necessary to cover things that people always hear about in the news.

Randy Ryan asks, Hi Gary, I'd like to know when and why you changed the number of downbeats of the intro music. I have counted a different number on earlier episodes than you have currently and I was just curious. Well Randy, I have never changed the intro music. I created the small clip that you hear at the start of every show when I launch the podcast and I have used the same clip ever since. Changing it would require work and I am all about avoiding work if necessary.

And just to make sure I hadn't forgotten something that I might have done, I went and listened to the music from the episode I recorded yesterday and the episode that I recorded five years ago for episode number one. And they sound exactly the same to me. Evan Byrne asks, Hey Gary, I hope you had a great summer solstice. Out of all the places you've traveled to or visited, what are some of the random local traditions or customs that you've taken part in, like getting screeched in Newfoundland or the toe shot in Alaska? Thanks for all the great episodes.

Well, Evan, I can share with you one particular local tradition that I've done. In fact, I've done it three times. It is the sour toe cocktail in Dawson City, Yukon. It is only served at the bar at the downtown hotel in Dawson City. This might be what you were referring to as a toe shot. A sour toe cocktail is any shot of liquor that contains, wait for it, a dried, severed human toe.

And I know this grosses a lot of people out, but I assure you it's actually quite hygienic. And I could probably do a full episode on the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. Without getting into too much detail, I will say that the motto of the club is, drink it fast or drink it slow, your lips must touch the toe.

Gray or a Beard from the Discord server asks, I was just listening to the David Sedaris Desert Island diss on the BBC, and he commented that he carries a notebook everywhere to gather material for his writing. I've been using an obsidian for note-taking, but somehow I also like writing on old envelopes with ideas, etc. Since you also need to keep coming up with ideas, what is your favorite way to record them? My list of episode ideas is kept in a Google Docs file.

I have access to it on my desktop, laptop, phones, and tablet, so I almost always have access to it everywhere I am. Because it's in the cloud, I can move from device to device and not have to worry about version control. Likewise, I also use the Apple Notes app for similar things. It's on all my devices and it syncs across everything. The ability to access the documents from anywhere is too valuable for me to ever want to use paper for something like this.

Trey Ped from the Discord server asks, Made it! Texas Completionist Club fresh member. I really enjoyed this podcast. Kayfabe is a favorite along with the long-awaited, for me at least, Texas episode. The Godfather episode was a surprising like for me. Do you have any other movie episodes in your list? Thanks man, love the show. I will probably do episodes on individual movies, but only if the production of the movie was something noteworthy.

In other words, they encountered particular problems or they had to create innovative solutions to solve technical issues. A few movies that come to mind that might be worth episodes, but I'm not guaranteeing it, would be Star Wars, Barry Lyndon, Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Boyhood. Eddie Waters asks, best regional alcoholic beverage? This is an easy one. My answer, hands down, is cider from the Basque region of Spain.

And for those of you attending my fifth anniversary event this month, I will be bringing several bottles and will be attempting to pour it in the traditional style. And if you're not attending and you want to know what that is, I suggest checking out some of the many YouTube videos that are available on the subject. And if you're interested in attending the event, there's a link available in the show notes.

Kyle Dunham asks, Many of us have probably seen videos circulating of protests in Spain and other places against excessive tourism. My wife and I just enjoyed a few days in the lovely city of Prague, but the crowds on the Charles Bridge and other places were difficult to navigate. What do you think has caused the seeming spike in tourist crowds? And do you have any recommendations for would-be tourists who would like to see popular places without somehow contributing to overcrowding and more angst on the part of residents? Thanks for all the work you do, Gary.

The problem of overtourism isn't a problem of too many tourists. It's a problem of too many people visiting the same place at the same time. For example, you visited Prague. Prague's a great city, and I'd never suggest that you not visit. However, the vast majority of visitors all visit in the summer. Moreover, they all tend to not visit anywhere else in the Czech Republic because most of them don't know of anywhere else other than Prague.

And the same thing plays out all over the world. People tend to go to major cities that have either cruise terminals or international airports. For example, Barcelona. It's great. However, the city of Girona, which is less than an hour away by train, is a place where I spent three months and loved it.

In the Czech Republic, Český Krumlov is a fantastic city, but not nearly as many people know about it. Likewise, Kuntahora, Olamouts and Telc are fantastic places to visit, but hardly anybody goes there. My suggestion is very simple. Either go at a time of year that is off-peak season, which, to be honest, is usually a much better experience anyhow, or find out-of-the-way places that don't get as many visitors, which is also usually a better experience.

And this holds true pretty much everywhere in the world, not just Europe. And on a related note, I have a photo I took in Prague of the Charles Bridge, and everyone always asks me how I was able to get a photo with no people on the bridge. And the answer is simple. I was jet-lagged, I couldn't sleep, so I just went to the bridge after sunrise, and nobody was there. The final question this month comes from FatYankee on the Discord server, who asks, Gary, after five years, I'm glad you had time to reflect on your impact on history education.

Have you ever thought about your impact beyond education? I've been listening for over four years back when I started driving Uber and my wife gifted me a Spotify subscription. In that time, I've changed jobs, lost 100 pounds, lost my dad and learned how to become a dad. You were there every day. 5,000 rides, 5,000 deliveries. Good days, bad days, last job, this job, next job, and the hard steps and the easy ones. Your show is a constant. As a traveler, I hope you take some time to reflect on all of life's little voyages that you've been on with us all.

Cheers to five years and a roar for five more. Well, thank you very much for the kind words, Fat Yankee. Or should I say, former Fat Yankee. Intellectually, I understand and appreciate what you're saying. I've received similar messages from listeners such as yourself, and I have to say it always takes me aback because I never really thought about making that kind of impact when I was launching this show. That being said, every day I have tens of thousands of people who listen, and over the last five years I've had hundreds of thousands of people who've listened to at least one episode.

Unless someone reaches out, it's impossible for me to know how people are listening or the impact that it has on them. Moreover, I don't think I really can think about it too much or else it might get overwhelming. My priority every day is to get the next episode out the door. And the moment I hit publish, I am immediately thinking about the next episode. And I think this is true of most people who create something. You have to focus on the creation.

Even if you do take time to occasionally acknowledge what is happening in the bigger scheme of things, you always need to come back to the work because without the work, there isn't anything.

That concludes this month's question and answer episode. And just a note for those attending the anniversary get-together later this month, I'll be doing a special live Q&A for those in attendance. And this will allow me to actually use visuals, including some of the tens of thousands of photos that I've taken on my travels, or maybe even bust out Google Earth to zoom in on certain places that might be of interest.

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.