Author: Gary Arndt

In 1778, in the middle of the Revolutionary War, while camped outside New York City, General George Washington and Major Benjamin Tallmadge hatched a plan. They created a network of spies that would provide information about British military effort, which could be used by the colonists in fighting the war. It turned out to be pivotal in the war for independence. Learn more about the Culper Ring, and America’s first spy network, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Back in July of 2020, a man in the middle of a pandemic decided to launch a new podcast. It would be a daily podcast that would cover, well, everything. It was an ambitious project that everyone told him was crazy to do, but it pushed ahead and did it anyhow. Today, 16 months later, that podcast is celebrating its 500th episode. Learn more about Everything Everywhere Daily on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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If you’ve been around long enough, you might have noticed that things are more expensive than they used to be. If you’ve really been around long enough you know that things are a lot more expensive than they used to be. This is of course known as inflation. It is an economic condition that has been around throughout history, almost everywhere on Earth. In a few cases, it has gotten so bad that it strained the limits of imagination.

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After World War II, the American forces in Germany implemented a program of de-Nazification in the parts of the country which they administered. The goal was to remove anyone who was a member of the Nazi party from any position of authority. However, some of those Nazis were considered valuable, and the Americans wanted them all to themselves. So they implement a secret program to bring them to the United States. Learn more about Operation Paperclip on this episode of Everything Everywhere.

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Believe it or not, one of the most valuable elements on the Periodic Table was also the first one that was discovered by humans. Since then it has held a prominent spot in almost every culture on Earth. We use it to signify first place, we use it as a metaphor for important rules, and for thousands of years, it was the basis of money. It was even the obsession of James Bond’s greatest villain.

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In the year 52 BC, the Roman General Julius Caesar fought the last major battle in the conquest of Gaul. The implications of the battle have reverberated throughout history and can still be felt in the world today. But the real story isn’t the implications of the battle, but how it was won. It was one of the most audacious gambles in military history, and it worked. Learn more about the Battle of Alesia on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In 1911, a Dutch physicist named Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was experimenting with ultra low-temperature metals. He was measuring the electrical resistance of mercury to find out what would happen What he found was shocking and totally upended everything we know about physics and electricity. Learn more about superconductivity, how it works, and its applications, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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History is full of battles and conflicts. Most of them are forgotten over time as they don’t really impact history. Whether one king or another wins a battle usually doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things. However, there are moments that truly change world history. When civilizations clash and the outcome can affect the world for centuries. Such a moment occurred on May 29, 1453.

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On November 11th, 1918, the first world war came to an end. Or to be more precise, the fighting stopped. For the next eight months, a final peace treaty was hammered out, and hanging over the negotiations was the very real threat that fighting could break out again. In the end, the treaty ended the world’s greatest war and might have been the starting point for an even worse one. Learn more about the Treaty of Versailles on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Have you ever met someone who couldn’t pronounce the name nearby town, or they just spoke different enough that you could tell that they were from somewhere else? If so, you have probably learned about shibboleths without even knowing it. These differences in speech have been used to identify people for centuries. Learn more about shibboleths, what they are and how they have been used throughout history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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