Fifth Anniversary Show

Podcast Transcript

Five years ago today, I published the first episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Since then, I’ve published over 1,800 episodes, written close to 3,000,000 words, and had my podcast episodes downloaded almost 50,000,000 times.

In the process of doing all of that, I’ve learned a lot about this show and this audience and where it fits in the bigger scheme of things.

Learn more about Everything Everywhere Daily on the 5th anniversary of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Five years ago, things weren’t going so well for me. I had spent the previous thirteen 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 high-staged photos of themselves in various places around the world with no context as to where the photo was taken or why.

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 a 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 a new show every two weeks.

I commissioned artwork, purchased the rights to a theme song, but I never launched the show.

In June 2020, I revisited the idea of a podcast. This time, instead of a two-hour biweekly 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.

Given the circumstances surrounding the pandemic, I had plenty of time, and I knew that if I started it, I’d see it through. I’m stubborn that way.

I also realized I didn’t want to do a travel podcast. Even though travel is what most people knew me for, travel is something that most people only care about if they are about to go on a trip. I also, quite frankly, didn’t really like talking about travel per se. I was more interested in the stories of places, people, and things I learned about while traveling.

So, I decided to take the material I had created in 2018 and adapt it into a daily podcast.

Having almost 20 years of experience in content creation, I was able to take the lessons of what I had learned and the 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 don’t think I could ask for more than 60 to 90 minutes per week 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 safe for kids to listen to. There are certain events in history which are 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 figured if I found the topics interesting, then other people would too. 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.

Fourth, I wasn’t going to talk about current events. There are more than enough podcasts and outlets where you can get news and opinions on current events. I don’t think we need another one. Tackling everything else in the universe and throughout history was a big enough task.

With that, I sat down and wrote a list of 100 show ideas in a Google Doc. 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 in the room was very odd.

Needless to say, I got over it.

My original plan was to record all of the episodes extemporaneously. I’d use an outline and just wing it.

After five minutes, I realized that this 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 a document and wrote a script.

I have written a script for every episode since.

From those few core principles, I began working on episodes every single day. There was a week in September of 2020 when I didn’t publish anything because I was moving, but beyond that, I’ve been able to publish something every day.

After a while, I began to realize that there were benefits to the format I had selected that I hadn’t realized when I launched the show.

For starters, each episode of a short-format podcast required a smaller time commitment than a longer show. 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 2-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 2-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 the show was having.

But, I was 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. From teachers and professors who were using podcast episodes as teaching resources for their students.

I had listeners reach out from the Netherlands, Kenya, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, Canada, the UK, and many other countries.

What did this seemingly random collection of people from all over the world and different walks of life have in common?

One thing: curiosity.

If you are 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 are curious about how and why things work, about our past, and how the world we live in came to be.

Curiosity, 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 educated, but 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 believe that when 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 have a role to play, but if you can read and are motivated, it is possible in theory to learn without them.

As a society, the modern world does a decent job of literacy. Yes, I know it isn’t perfect, and there is a lot of room for improvement, but by historical standards, and for the sake of arguments, it’s pretty good today.

Where we fail miserably is in instilling curiosity.

You probably all know someone who was 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, 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. They can’t even tell time on a clock with hands.

…but they can name every member of the Kardashian family.

The real shame isn’t that they can’t answer such basic questions……ok, that is actually a shame.

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. 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 were never covered in school at all.

Every so often, an episode might grab your interest enough that you want to learn more about it.

There is 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 eventually run out of show ideas. As of right now, I have enough ideas for almost three years of shows, and if I sat down and 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’ve 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 every day.

My hat is off to you because I don’t think that I could listen to myself talk for that long.

Once again, to everyone, thank you!. Stay curious. Learn something new every day, and remember, if you keep listening, I’ll keep making them.