Category: DailyShorts

One of the unique things about track and field is that you don’t just compete against your immediate competitors, but you are also competing against the clock or the tape measure.  That means you can compare achievements with people in the past, and that means world records. You would expect world records to fall over time, but there are a small number of records that haven’t been broken in decades and no one has even come close to breaking them.

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William Shakespeare is widely considered one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the history of the English language. However, over the last two centuries many people have begun to wonder if William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon, England was indeed the person who wrote the works which have been attributed to him. If you look at the evidence or the lack thereof, they aren’t necessarily crazy for thinking it.

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I’ve done several episodes pertaining to Ancient Rome. The reason is that so many of the foundational things in our world, from our alphabet to our calendar, to the names of our months, all can be traced back to Rome. During these episodes, I’ve often talked about the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. However, many people might not realize what the difference is between the two. When did the republic become an empire, and why? Learn more about the Roman Republic and Empire.

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Soccer, aka football, is the most popular sport in the world. Of all the professional leagues in the world, there is one that has achieved a level of success and competition above all others. Spain’s Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, otherwise known as La Liga. Learn more about La Liga, and the history of football in Spain, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Far above the Arctic Circle on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen, built into the side of a mountain which is permanently frozen, is humanity’s greatest insurance policy. There lie genetic backup copies for much of the world’s agricultural crops. These seeds are stored for a day which hopefully will never come. Learn more about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Even if you aren’t a fan of classical music, you are probably at least familiar with what an orchestra is. But have you ever wondered why orchestras use the instruments they do? Or why they have them in that combination, or why it is even called an orchestra at all? And what exactly is a symphony or a philharmonic? Learn all about orchestras on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

A note on notes: We’d much rather you just went into each episode of The Memory Palace cold. And just let the story take you where it well. So, we don’t suggest looking into the show notes first.

This episode was originally released in 2015. Sometimes you’re working on an episode (and when I say “you’re” I mean, “I’m,”) working on an episode and you realize it’s just all wrong. That there’s a good episode in there but you need to take a few days and go at it again. Because you (and, again, “you”=”I”) think it, and you (this time I mean you, the listener) deserve better. And you put out a re-run. It’s a good one, though.