The month of February comes from the Roman month of Februarius, which itself comes from the Februa purification ceremony, which was held during the festival of Lupacalia. The Romans would run around wearing goat skins, wielding strips of goat hide, also known as a februa, hitting people with them, which was considered to be a sign of good fortune and fertility. However, they could have done it much easier. Instead of running around with strips of goat hide, they could have just used the purification power of the truth. And there's no better way to get to the truth than with questions and answers. So join me today in our own audio februa as I answer your questions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Let's jump right into things. Sean Vergawen asks, It might have been asked before, but is there any place you wouldn't want to visit again, either because you had a bad experience or you saw everything? Well, the first thing I'd say is that you can never really see everything. I don't think you can ever be done with a place. I've returned to places a second and third time and had completely different experiences every time.

Your experience in a place will depend on a host of factors, including the time of year, the weather, and who you just happen to meet. So the short answer is no, there is no place I wouldn't return to. That being said, there are some places that are not that high on my priority list for returning, and probably number one is Russia. Russia has very onerous visa requirements for Americans, and when I was last there, I got harassed at the border, and I don't think things have gotten any better since I was last there. Visa issues and the difficulty getting into a country are always a big factor in determining where I would visit. John Higham asks, Do you ever get used to the sound of your own voice? Whenever I hear a recording of myself, I cringe. Yeah, it's something you eventually get used to. The thing I found awkward when I first started this show wasn't hearing my own voice. It was recording myself talking when there was no one else around. I was used to recording podcasts where I was having a conversation with someone else, but not recording something when no one was there.

However, I realized if this show was going to happen, I'd better get over the awkwardness pretty quick, so that's what I did. If you find the sound of your own voice odd, it's because you aren't accustomed to hearing it that way. But if you do it a few times, you'll get used to it, and then you won't think about it at all. Barbara Nee Kennedy, I hope I got that right, asked, If the oldest wheel in the world was the Potter's wheel, what other ubiquitous invention started out having a different use? There are a great many inventions that were originally used for something else completely different. One of the most common things that will often change from its intended use is pharmaceutical products. Viagra was originally intended as a heart medication. However, the best example I could come up with of something that had a totally different original intent was bubble wrap. If you've ever experienced bubble wrap, it's hard to even conceive of what else it might be used for other than a packaging material. However, it was originally developed in 1957 by two inventors, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavanez, who created the product to be a form of textured wallpaper.

The use of the product as wallpaper was an absolute flop. However, they managed to pivot and establish the Sealed Air Company in 1960 to sell bubble wrap as a packing material where it found great success. Mark Shentob asks, Where do you see the podcast in five years from now? Still making daily episodes? This is a daily podcast, so it's the raison d'être. So I don't particularly see anything that would cause me to stop the show. And if that were to happen, it would probably have to be something totally unforeseen. I do assume that there will be changes in how the show is produced on the back-end. Hopefully, that won't affect the end product, but will make life easier for me in getting show out every day. Marguerite Anderson asks, In general, when you travel, do you prefer to keep on the move to see as much as possible, or do you like to go slowly and soak things in? For example, I would love to just rent some place and stay for a month, such as a house in the Scottish Hebrides or an apartment in Vienna. But it's hard to convince myself to spend that much money and then just see one place.

Well, Marguerite, it's a mix. If you move around constantly, you will eventually get burned out. You can keep up the pace for a few weeks, but eventually you'll have to slow down. Back when I was traveling full-time, I had to do this every so often. I spent a month in Melbourne, Saigon, Honolulu, and several other cities just because I got burned out from moving around so much. Spending an extended amount of time in one place is just a different way of traveling. It's the classic trade-off between breadth and depth. I would have no problem spending a month in either the Hebrides or Vienna. Ja Tang asks, What language do you find most fascinating? Would you want to learn it? Well, I've actually been studying Latin since the pandemic started, and I've been keeping up with it, although probably not as much as I should be. I know a smattering of several languages, but not enough that I could really claim to be fluent in anything. Many people think that Latin is easy because it's the basis for so many romance languages and because there are so many words in English that have Latin roots. From a strict grammar standpoint, that's true.

But the structure of Latin is very, very different from any of the romance languages. Latin is highly inflected, which means that the ending of words determines how they are used in a sentence. The order of words in Latin is largely irrelevant, and there are no articles like the or a. On top of the structure of the language, there's the whole ancient aspect of the language and how it opens up the doors to understanding the past. So I guess the answer to that would be Latin. Seth Luviere asks, How do you construct your shows? I can't imagine you simply copy and paste from one source like Wikipedia. How many sources do you usually try to get information from? Do you have some sources that are a go-to? The answer is there's no single source for anything because every topic on this show is completely different. I have no problem with Wikipedia per se may, but there are issues when you use it. For starters, I often find data that doesn't jive with other sources. When that happens, I often have to dig around to find the correct year of something or at least check the original source that Wikipedia cites.

To be To be honest, often there isn't a source or the link to the source is broken. There are some articles that are simply too long and too in-depth, and there are other articles that have almost nothing written on them. My goal is to tell an approximately 10-minute story, which requires trying to figure out the essence of what to say. And that'll often mean explaining the background of something, which Wikipedia doesn't do, or I have to leave out details that aren't necessary. Cutting and pasting anything wouldn't really work because writing for the eye doesn't usually translate well into writing for the ear. One of the things I have to figure out for each episode is how I'm going to structure the episode and tell the story. Once I can figure out how the general arc of the episode is going to go, then it's often just a matter of writing the script, which does take quite a bit of time, but isn't necessarily as difficult. Henry Susske asks, Do you ever try to engage both locals and tourists to be more interested in culture and history in the areas you travel to? When traveling, it's been a common occurrence for me to talk to locals who haven't visited cool attractions in their own backyard.

Yes and no. I often meet people, but I don't necessarily go out of my way to do so all the time. It happens organically or it doesn't happen. You are right that most people don't visit tourist attractions where they live. One of the ironic things about people who say they want to travel like a local is that people who live in a place aren't traveling, and they aren't thinking of doing travel things like going to local tourist attractions. Otterpa over on the Discord server, asks, What was your first experience traveling to another country, and how did it happen? Well, my first trip outside of the United States was a trip to Canada my family made in 1979 on a road trip to Niagara Falls. I can still remember it, but mostly how everything was the same, but just a little bit different. The first time I traveled out of North America was in 1999. I had sold my company to a much larger international firm, and they sent me on a trip around the world. My first stop was in Japan, and I remember staying up all night watching Japanese TV because I was jet lagged, and quite frankly, I found it all really fascinating.

The Archvillager asked on Discord, What do you think the world would have looked like if the byzantines won at the Battle of Yarmuk? Honestly, I don't think the world would be that much different if the byzantines had won. The byzantine Empire was in a very long, slow decline, and Islam was on the rise in 636. If for whatever reason the byzantines had won that particular battle, it probably wouldn't have changed the overall trend of what was happening. Instead of the Battle of Yarmuk, it would probably have been some other battle that we would remember. Individual battles like Yarmuk often punctuate much larger trends. The battles are usually not the trend itself. There are exceptions like the Battle of Gorgamella, but those are not the norm. And the last question comes from a fat Yankee also over on the Discord server. How does the increasing popularity of the podcast affect you? Is it more stressful? Does it give you more drive knowing more and more people love your work? Well, the funny thing is, what I do on my end of the microphone is almost completely disconnected from the number of people who listen on the other end.

The production of the show today isn't radically that different from what I was doing three years ago. In fact, that's one of the great things about podcasting, is that it can scale almost indefinitely. That being said, I'm certainly be aware of the size and growth of the audience, and it does factor into the attention I try to give each episode. That does it for this month. If you would like to have your question answered next month, just join the Facebook group or the Discord server, the links to which are in the show notes. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel.

The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise, Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified of future episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to Everything are in the show notes.