Questions and Answers: Volume 24
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Right now in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are getting shorter and things are getting colder. In the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is happening. But regardless whether you're in the North or the South, there's one thing for certain. In November, there shall be questions and there also shall be answers. Stay tuned for Questions and Answers Volume 24 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. ♪♪♪

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Learn more at shopify.com slash enterprise. This episode is sponsored by ButcherBox. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and that means Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family. A Thanksgiving dinner can be a massive ordeal and a nerve-wracking affair. You have to buy all the food and spend the better part of the day preparing everything before serving it. So why not take one thing off your plate by letting ButcherBox take care of the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal, the turkey.

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New ButcherBox members that sign up using my link will receive their choice between a whole turkey, turkey breast, or a spiral ham. Plus, $20 off when they visit ButcherBox.com slash daily and enter code daily at checkout. Once again, that's ButcherBox.com slash daily, code daily at checkout. Before I get into the questions, I have a few housekeeping items I should address. The first has to do with the episode on Frankenstein.

I said that Bela Lugosi played Frankenstein in the 1931 movie. In that movie, Boris Karloff played Frankenstein. I was researching both the Frankenstein and Vampire episodes, and I got the two mixed up. That being said, Bela Lugosi did appear as Frankenstein in the 1943 film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. Another correction is from the Terraforming Mars episode. I said that the atmospheric pressure on Venus is the equivalent to 900 meters or 300 feet below the surface of the ocean.

That should have been 3,000 feet, not 300 feet. Finally, from my episode on relocated sports teams, many, many, many people reached out to tell me about the relocation of Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes in 2003. I put out the call for everyone to let me know if there was an example from English football and you did not disappoint. And I feel bad because I actually remember this being in the news at the time and just couldn't recall it.

Nonetheless, it was a pretty small move in the big scheme of things, only 56 miles or 90 kilometers. A big move for English football, but it would have been a small one compared to North American sports. So, with those out of the way, on to the questions. The first question comes from Mary Milby who asks, What has been your favorite episode idea that you've researched, whether or not it's made it on the air? Can you name any that you've researched and decided not to make an episode on the topic once you've started the research?

Well, I don't have a favorite per se, but I do have a recent example. And I figure I should share this here because it's not going to make its way into a full-blown episode and this would be the best place to tell the story. It has to do with a man named Yong Kyung Jong. He was a Korean soldier who fought in the Second World War. He was conscripted into service into the Japanese Imperial Army. He was brought to fight in China, where he ended up being captured by the Soviets.

He was then conscripted into the Soviet Army and was forced to fight in the Eastern Front of World War II where he was captured by the Germans. The Germans then forced him to fight for them on their Western Front in France where he was captured by the Americans after D-Day. That's an incredible story and when I first heard it, my initial reaction was that that would make for a great episode.

However, the more research I did, the more I realized that the story was almost certainly fictitious. There is one source for the story and nothing else and most historians don't believe it. I couldn't in good faith do an episode on it. Another episode where I had to switch plans in the middle of my research was my episode on H.H. Holmes, America's first serial killer. My initial research consisted mostly of learning about the stories told about him during the day.

However, the more research I did, the more I realized that the stories of the time were exaggerated and sensationalized. He was a murderer, but not to the extent that the papers would have you believe. Another episode I abandoned was about the Gang of Four. This was the group led by Mao Zedong's wife, who ruled China after the death of Mao.

My problem here was just putting together a coherent story. I feel I'm in a much better position to do so now than when I first came up with the idea, and The Gang of Four will be a future episode. Kevin O'Keefe asks, I teach second grade. Knowing what you know now as an adult, if you had to go back to second grade, would you do anything differently? Would you focus on certain areas? What advice would you give yourself or others?

Well, Kevin, I don't think second grade is about any particular knowledge or advice. It's about learning basic skills. It's about mastering literacy, basic mathematics, facts, and how to conduct yourself. Any advice given to second grade me would have been quickly forgotten because I wasn't at a point where such advice mattered.

So, my advice to second graders would be no advice at all. Master reading, arithmetic, and basic knowledge such that when you're older, you'll then be able to use those skills. Kate Barich asks, How do you determine which episodes to use for encore episodes? Well, it's largely random. I can't say I put a lot of thought into it before making a selection.

I can say that I never select an episode that was published within the last year, and I also never republish an episode that was recorded in the first year that I did the podcast. I just don't think those early episodes are up to snuff enough to run them as encore episodes anymore. I also try to not do a similar type of episode to one which was recorded within the last week or so. So if I've recently done an episode on ancient history, I probably won't post an encore episode about ancient history.

Marguerite Anderson asks, "What are your thoughts on the recent pushback on tourism in places like Barcelona or the Canary Islands, where locals are marching through the streets to protest all the foreigners coming to these locations? I actually have a lot of sympathy because of the problems caused by overtourism, but I don't really see an effective solution. I think you might have some good ideas." Well, Marguerite, I have a great deal of sympathy for cities and towns that suffer from overtourism, because I've experienced it firsthand many times. That being said,

The problem with overtourism isn't too many tourists per se. It's too many tourists at the same place at the same time. Most people only know about a few places, so where they visit will be limited to what they know. Most people also only have a certain window where they can travel, usually in the northern hemisphere summer.

I've been to Barcelona, for example, many different times in different parts of the year. Visiting in December is a vastly different experience than visiting in July. Likewise, I've been to Ibiza and Mallorca in December and there were almost no tourists. Ultimately, the solution is to do what Venice does and charge tourists an entrance fee. It would limit tourism and bring money into the community.

If you don't want to pay the fee, then you need to go somewhere else. And there are a lot of amazing places in the world. The problem is, most of them are just not top of mind for most people. Steven Zopfi asks, When did you get your amateur radio license? Why did you decide to get this and are you active? What is the process to get licensed? I got my ham radio license a few months before I started traveling. I have a UHF VHF radio, but I currently live in an apartment so I can't really set up a rig and an antenna.

I was never very active because I began traveling soon after I got my license. I still have my radio, but it's in storage. I let my license expire earlier this year just because I found the renewal process really difficult online. But I might do it again at some point in the future. Getting a ham radio license has gotten pretty easy compared to how it used to be. You used to have to know Morse code and you no longer have to anymore.

From what I understand, and I am 100% positive that there are people in the audience more qualified than me to talk about this, everything is easier now, including the test to become certified to talk on high frequency bands. Daniel Rosenberg asks, I never did debate in school. Now that I'm older and hearing how debate has helped you in creating the show, I'm interested in learning more about it. Do you have any recommended resources slash tips for learning debate research skills as an adult that's no longer in school?

For those of you new to the podcast, I've spoken often about my experience in academic debate in both high school and college. It was far and away the most rewarding thing I did, and everyone I know who competed seriously has the same opinion. And that includes a great many people I know who went on to get PhDs and JDs. One of the ways that debate has helped me in doing this podcast is in research. Debate is mostly about research. Most debates are won or lost before the debate round actually starts.

If you didn't do debate, the thing I would suggest is to read everything and listen to everything very critically. Even if someone says something that you agree with, they might not actually make an argument that supports their conclusion, and you should identify that. Someone you disagree with may make a good point that doesn't lead to the conclusion that they claim. I'm to the point where I can read something and say, this part makes sense and this part doesn't.

you need to have a very honed BS detector, especially for things that you might be induced to believe in. As the great physicist Richard Feynman said, The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. This isn't easy to do and it requires a great deal of skepticism. The other thing that you always have to do is hold out the possibility that you might be wrong.

Treat your beliefs as a hypothesis which are open to proof or disproof. Donna Morris asks, In a number of recent episodes, you've mentioned that it is for a future episode. How long is that list now? What are your upcoming episode lists you're most looking forward to doing? As of the recording of this episode, the number of episodes on my to-do list is 938.

Not all of those will end up becoming episodes. They might be merged into other topics, might never be recorded at all, or they might morph into something completely different. In the course of doing research, I will often come across something else which I think would make for a good episode, and I just put it on the list. However, I do not go through the list in order, and it's sort of just whatever strikes me as a good idea at the time.

Dean Kasubitz asks, are you considered a member of the Completionist Club if you've listened to every new episode but have not listened to all the Encore episodes? Well, Dean, I will leave this up to your interpretation as membership in the Completionist Club is ultimately on the honor system. Glenn Folau asks, this question may have been asked before, but are you one of the 2% of Americans who've been to every state in the U.S.?

Secondly, I've just heard that the Cleveland Browns have decided to move to an undercover all-purpose stadium and leaving their traditional home. I have read that this is a trend among some franchises. Any chance the Packers would ever move to an all-purpose rough stadium? First question, yes, I have been to every state. In fact, I've been to every state twice. If I were to drive around New England again, I would probably have visited every state three times.

Dome stadiums are sort of becoming the norm in the NFL. They remove the elements and they're more comfortable for fans. That being said, the Packers will never move to a dome stadium in my lifetime. One of the big reasons for a dome stadium is that it can serve as a venue for concerts and other big events. There are no big concerts that come to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The town is so small that there's nothing but football.

The Packers have invested a lot of money into Lambeau Field, and as more and more teams build indoor stadiums, the advantage of playing outdoors, especially in a cold climate, only becomes greater. Abdo Rahman Whale asks, Hey Gary, I recently went on a trip to Central Europe after not traveling for 12 years, and now I'm planning on seeing the world, but I have a tight budget. So given you've been all over the world, what are your tips for traveling on a budget?

Well, if you travel extensively, you want your money to go as far as possible, obviously. The single biggest thing which determines how much money you spend is where you travel to. If you visit Zurich or Oslo, even the cheapest option is going to be extremely expensive. The cheapest dorm room bed in a hostel in those cities will get you a very nice hotel room in Southeast Asia.

So my recommendation is to visit cheap places, and then no matter what you do, you'll end up saving money. Berkeley Rathborn asks, Hi Gary, I have a really silly question, but a question nonetheless. Throughout your podcast, you've made comments about candy corn and pineapple on pizza. Would you rather eat a handful of Brock's candy corn or a personal size pizza covered in pineapple? Well, Berkeley, that is an easy question to answer. I'd take the pineapple covered pizza any day over candy corn.

I have no problem with pineapple per se, I just don't like to mix it with pizza. Candy corn, however, are the devil's seeds. My final question is from Amy Elizabeth, who asks, In your travels, have you ever found yourself in a potentially embarrassing situation culturally? If so, how did you gracefully extricate yourself? I think this sort of thing is largely overblown. Maybe in the 19th century this could have been a problem, but not in the 21st century.

The closest thing I can think of took place in Thailand when I was told how to say hello. A woman told me to say Sawadikap. The problem was, the way the Thai language works, what you say isn't just dependent upon who you're talking to, but also who you are. Sawadikap is how a woman would say hello. And I went around saying Sawadikap.

Thai people understood that I was a foreigner, so they really didn't say anything. But eventually someone told me that I was saying it wrong. I was saying it like a woman. Men should say, Sawadi Kop. Again, not really that embarrassing, but that's the closest thing I can think of. That does it for this month. If you want to ask a question for next month's episode, make sure to join the Facebook group and or the Discord server, links to both of which can be found in the show notes.

The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiefer. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters.

If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.