Speaker 1: Guess what, mango? What's that will? So you know I
Speaker 1: love a good A t M story, right, Like we
Speaker 1: we've talked about a t M so many times in
Speaker 1: the past, Like there's the A t M in the
Speaker 1: Vatican City and it's the only one in the world
Speaker 1: that operates in Latin, which is pretty cool. But I
Speaker 1: have a new favorite A t M fact that I
Speaker 1: wanted to share. So there's actually an A t M
Speaker 1: located in Antarctica and it's operated by Wells Fargo, and
Speaker 1: it's in the Guinness Book and they call it the
Speaker 1: world's loneliest A t M because it's the only one. Actually,
Speaker 1: there is a second A t M on hand, and
Speaker 1: it's hidden in a closet or something, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: actually work. It's just there to cannibalize for the spare part.
Speaker 1: That's sad. But what's even weird is that Wells Fargo
Speaker 1: only services the machine once every two years, and that's
Speaker 1: when Wells sends a repairment out to give the A
Speaker 1: t M a little check up. That's crazy. So why
Speaker 1: don't they service it more frequently? Like don't they have
Speaker 1: to replenish the cash? Well, that's the beauty of banking
Speaker 1: and Antarctica. There's no need for this that, you know,
Speaker 1: the population there is so small that the money just
Speaker 1: keeps recirculating. But learning about that a t M did
Speaker 1: make me wonder, like, what are the other peculiarities of
Speaker 1: living in Antarctica? How do everyday things like plumbing and
Speaker 1: internet work down there? And that's what today shows all about.
Speaker 1: So let's dive in. Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 1: friend Man and sitting behind the soundproof glass vigorously shaking
Speaker 1: a snow globe in each hand as our producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: Where did he get those things? He's making it blizzard?
Speaker 1: So meno, I'm gonna ask you right off the bat,
Speaker 1: what what's your interest in visiting the South Pole? So?
Speaker 1: I mean, it looks beautiful, but there's so many beautiful
Speaker 1: places in the world, and you know, I hate the cold.
Speaker 1: Plus some of those early expeditions to Antarctica sounded so
Speaker 1: miserable it's kind of scared me off, I know, and
Speaker 1: I actually want to talk a little bit about those
Speaker 1: expeditions later. And clearly we both like warm weather because
Speaker 1: we live in warm places, but I kind of want
Speaker 1: to see the landscape in person at least once. So
Speaker 1: I started looking up tours this week and I found
Speaker 1: this group called White Desert Luxury Tours. Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of this company out because they basically, do you know,
Speaker 1: like glamping for an arcticle? How do you glamp in Antarctica? Well?
Speaker 1: I was reading this article in Wired, and basically White
Speaker 1: Desert is set up these luxury camping pods and this
Speaker 1: beautiful Mars like area of Antarctica. The pods have solar
Speaker 1: panels and propane heaters, and they're eco friendly too, but
Speaker 1: you know, to keep you safe. They're also designed to
Speaker 1: withstand a hundred and eighty mile per hour. Well that's
Speaker 1: how wendy it gets there. And you know the pods
Speaker 1: are beautifully outfitted, but the whole camp must have cost
Speaker 1: a fortune to build. Why is that? Well, remember, getting
Speaker 1: stuff to Antarctica isn't cheap. According to the article, it
Speaker 1: costs thirty eight dollars a pound to live furniture there,
Speaker 1: and the pods themselves weigh three tons of piece, which
Speaker 1: is insane. And and trips like that always sound like
Speaker 1: something rich people do just because they're looking for new
Speaker 1: ways to spend their money. It's like God's way of
Speaker 1: telling you have too much cat Wow. You know, the
Speaker 1: camp only services around a hundred clients a year, so
Speaker 1: it's definitely exclusive. But you'd be in some pretty classy company.
Speaker 1: So you know. Past travelers include Saudi princesses, Prince William
Speaker 1: and also buzz Aldern wait, buzz Aldern Glans apparently so.
Speaker 1: But you know, what you experience Antarctica is also insane.
Speaker 1: Once your golfstream jet lands on the icy runway, you'll
Speaker 1: get to explore neon blue ice tunnels and lakes, and
Speaker 1: go on guided hikes, penguins up close, visit all these
Speaker 1: science bases. They even take you to the South Pole.
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone who's gone says the beauty of this
Speaker 1: untouched land is just overwhelming. Plus you get unlimited champagne.
Speaker 1: So I just pulled this up on my computer. Hot
Speaker 1: showers first draped on all the dining chairs. It looks
Speaker 1: so fancy. I'm I'm definitely in all right. Well, the
Speaker 1: only catches it cost eighty tho dollars a person. But
Speaker 1: you know, I've always said I just don't like the
Speaker 1: cold that much, and I have to be true to myself,
Speaker 1: so I'm out again. I didn't take long. So speaking
Speaker 1: of hot showers, it it reminds me of this event
Speaker 1: that takes place in Antarctica. It's called the Race around
Speaker 1: the World. Basically, it's this fun two mile race that
Speaker 1: takes place on Christmas Day at the South Pole and
Speaker 1: it's for the scientists there. It's called around the World
Speaker 1: because you're actually racing through every single time zone. I
Speaker 1: didn't think about that, so you would touch every single
Speaker 1: time Wow, that's amazing. It's pretty awesome. Then, and while
Speaker 1: some people run the course, you can actually do it
Speaker 1: on skis or snowmobile. But the reason I'm mentioning it
Speaker 1: is that the prize for the winning runner is a
Speaker 1: five minute hot shower. So according to Business Insider, residents
Speaker 1: at the South Pole station are limited to to two
Speaker 1: minute showers a week, so a bonus five minute shower
Speaker 1: is like a huge treat. I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's funny how you just expect things like
Speaker 1: hot showers are everywhere by now. But you know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that's so cool about Antarctica is how
Speaker 1: environmentally friendly the camps are. The Treaty of Antarticle, which
Speaker 1: was signed by twelve countries back in nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 1: It was this, It was this agreement that the land
Speaker 1: there would be used for science and peaceful purposes. And
Speaker 1: part of the agreement is that you can't dirty the
Speaker 1: landscape or leave any contaminants there. In fact, if you
Speaker 1: want to organize your own expedition to Antarctica, the process
Speaker 1: involves three things. So first it is showing that you
Speaker 1: will be completely self sufficient. Second is that you have
Speaker 1: a good reason for being there, and third is that
Speaker 1: you have little or no environmental impact on the land.
Speaker 1: And there's special attention paid to this, and if you
Speaker 1: can't lay out your plan for creating zero waste, they'll
Speaker 1: deny you permission to go there. That's pretty interesting. So
Speaker 1: I was actually reading about the recycling and Antarctica and
Speaker 1: it's like at Portlandia levels. I saw the spreadsheet on
Speaker 1: Boing Boing from America's McMurdo base, and they have this
Speaker 1: matrix for where to recycle old or disposed of wood
Speaker 1: and it's pretty intense, like pens and pencils have a
Speaker 1: specific bin, and drained radiators have their own bin, and
Speaker 1: mops and brooms haven't been everything is clearly charred out
Speaker 1: where it goes and how it gets separated. But they
Speaker 1: also poked fun at themselves. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: So one prankster put all these jokes signs up of
Speaker 1: what can and can't go into the bins, and they
Speaker 1: seem to have stuck around, like there's a recycling bin.
Speaker 1: That's where glitter. And in the rules for what's recyclable
Speaker 1: glitter it lists red glitter, blue glitter, ground, unicorn, horn, wizards, hats,
Speaker 1: and wands. But in the no section it lists no
Speaker 1: child beauty pageant, sashes or Mariah Carey movies. And that's
Speaker 1: fair enough. We sort of dove right into hot showers
Speaker 1: and glitter recycling somehow. But before we talk about things
Speaker 1: like how plumbing works, why don't we talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about who lives in Antarctica? Definitely, but why don't
Speaker 1: we do some local slang first? God, do you immediately
Speaker 1: put us off track again? I do, like an art explains, So,
Speaker 1: what are some of your favorites? One of my favorite
Speaker 1: terms is city mice and also country mice, like city
Speaker 1: my state put on the McMurdo station, while country mice
Speaker 1: wandered to other camps and travel around. That's pretty cute.
Speaker 1: So you got any others, Yeah, gombles or tiny snowballs
Speaker 1: that's stuck to dogs for so the d goobles when
Speaker 1: you rub that loose snow off before you come inside.
Speaker 1: And also Hollywood showers. Those are when you take a
Speaker 1: fantasy shower that's more than the a lot of two minutes.
Speaker 1: Oh god, all right, why do you keep bring up
Speaker 1: showers here? You know, when I started abroad and upon
Speaker 1: to bed in college, it was freezing and you didn't
Speaker 1: get to take hot showers that often. So I took
Speaker 1: like ten or eleven bucket showers during the trip, and
Speaker 1: they were mostly with lukewarm water. It's strange being there,
Speaker 1: Like I realized there's so many things I could live without.
Speaker 1: I don't really need TV or a lot of clothes
Speaker 1: or a lot of amenities, but hot showers. Well, when
Speaker 1: I came back to the college, I I just stand
Speaker 1: in the shower and praise American plumbing. I can understand that.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, here's a bit of jargon I found
Speaker 1: on mental flaws. It's ice shock, and that this is
Speaker 1: the idea that no matter how crazy everything seems. In
Speaker 1: an article, while you're there. It's this acknowledgement that the
Speaker 1: rest of the world is even crazier. Alright, let's get
Speaker 1: back to who lives there. Obviously, Antarctica doesn't have an
Speaker 1: indigenous population. Do you know the site cool and arctica
Speaker 1: dot com. I can't say I'm familiar with it, says
Speaker 1: educational say that's run by a former an Arctic marine
Speaker 1: biologist and now he's a school teacher and puts out
Speaker 1: great information. But on a site he writes there around
Speaker 1: sixty six scientific basis, of which thirty seven are occupied
Speaker 1: year round. Around four thousand people living at Arctica during
Speaker 1: the summer months, and that reduces to about a thousand
Speaker 1: who over winner there. It's also rare that someone will
Speaker 1: stay there for two winners in a row. They might
Speaker 1: do one winner wrapped in two summers, but two winners
Speaker 1: in a row tends to be bad for people's mental states. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so the McMurdo station actually has about like a
Speaker 1: thousand or so people during peak season though, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. And what's funny is that I didn't quite
Speaker 1: put together how large an Arctica is and how far
Speaker 1: some of the bases are from one another. It's Apparently
Speaker 1: the fifth are just continent, and because five percent of
Speaker 1: it is covered in ice, the size of the continent
Speaker 1: actually changes like according to Live Science, the quote size
Speaker 1: varies through the seasons. Expanding sea ice along the coast
Speaker 1: nearly doubles the continent size during the winter. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: It nearly doubles it that it is crazy, you know.
Speaker 1: In speaking of the geography, I was stunned by the geography,
Speaker 1: and I didn't realize that the land is basically all desert.
Speaker 1: You know, the inner regions of Antarctic could get less
Speaker 1: than two inches of precipitation each year, and this is
Speaker 1: less than the Sahara desert. And it's also cold there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you knew this about Anartica. I didn't.
Speaker 1: The Russian Vostok station there recorded the lowest temperature in
Speaker 1: the world at negative a hundred and twenty nine point
Speaker 1: three degrees fahrenheit. I mean, I guess it's that extra
Speaker 1: point three that really gets to you. Yeah, it's cold,
Speaker 1: but it's a dry cold. I know we're supposed to
Speaker 1: be talking people and not penguins here, but one of
Speaker 1: the things I thought was funny was that the male
Speaker 1: emperor penguins are the only warm blooded animal to stay
Speaker 1: on the continent during the freezing winters. Apparently, when the
Speaker 1: female lays an egg, it's a very were pregnant situation,
Speaker 1: like the daddy bird sits on the family egg keeping
Speaker 1: it warm while the MoMA penguin goes out to sea
Speaker 1: for nine weeks and and then the mom's return just
Speaker 1: before the eggs hatch, which is because you know, male
Speaker 1: penguins are so woke. Glad you're able to work that. Alright, Well,
Speaker 1: I actually have a funny penguin story to talk about,
Speaker 1: and I also want to discuss the crazy ways Chile
Speaker 1: and Argentina have, you know, tried to each claim part
Speaker 1: of Antarctica as their own territory. But before we get
Speaker 1: to that, let's take a quick break, all right, mangoes, So,
Speaker 1: how many times have we had a super talented poet
Speaker 1: on the show? Has that happened before? I don't think
Speaker 1: it's happened yet. I don't think it has either. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know Tristan dabbles a little in poetry, but I mean,
Speaker 1: between us, they're they're not the best poems. But he's trying,
Speaker 1: he's trying hard. But We're super excited to have Jen
Speaker 1: dilling Martin on the show today. And and as we
Speaker 1: discussed Jen as an accomplished poet, she's an associate publisher
Speaker 1: at Riverhead, which is one of our favorite book publishers
Speaker 1: in the world. But that's not the reason we've got
Speaker 1: her on today. We actually begged her to come on
Speaker 1: because in two thousand and thirteen, Jen became the Antarctic
Speaker 1: Artist in Residence and she used the six week stint
Speaker 1: there to inspire her poetry. So Jen, welcome to Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius. Thank you so much. So, Jen, I know
Speaker 1: you're in pretty esteemed company as an artist in residence.
Speaker 1: I believe Werner Herzog was also an artist there too,
Speaker 1: But can you tell us a little bit about how
Speaker 1: you got that gig and what's included? Totally, it's this
Speaker 1: incredible grant run through the National Science Foundation that they
Speaker 1: give to about two people a year from any discipline
Speaker 1: at all to go make art inspired by the work
Speaker 1: that you then get to witness being done in Antarctica. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is a really elaborate application process that I think
Speaker 1: weed's out the people who have to go through all
Speaker 1: kinds of bureaucratic paperwork to just even apply for it,
Speaker 1: But once accepted, you get to I mean, you get
Speaker 1: to lead the coolest life imaginable. You get to go
Speaker 1: to any of the base camps that interests you. You
Speaker 1: can ask the scientists any questions you want of them.
Speaker 1: You get to travel all around the continent. I got
Speaker 1: a helicopter pilot Ryan to take me um two different
Speaker 1: base camps and basically it's just like the most incredible
Speaker 1: experience that I will ever have in my life. So
Speaker 1: whatever it is you want to go and study as
Speaker 1: an artist, you ask for and they make it all
Speaker 1: come together for you. Wow, That's that's pretty incredible. I
Speaker 1: will say one of the things that surprised me was
Speaker 1: was all the training that you talked about in your
Speaker 1: first few weeks there. You know how to fix the snowmobile,
Speaker 1: how to pitch a tent and a blizzard. I'm just curious,
Speaker 1: like were you were you expecting that and can you
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that experience? Absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where it doesn't really dawn
Speaker 1: on you, or at least I didn't dawn on me
Speaker 1: fully until really down there, just how isolated, vulnerable you
Speaker 1: are and in actually grave peril should anything go dramatically
Speaker 1: wrong on your visit. And there can be winds so
Speaker 1: high even in the summer season on the continent that
Speaker 1: they cannot get planes to and from Antarctica for a
Speaker 1: week or two at the time, so we're there to
Speaker 1: be a very bad accident, you could be stuck with
Speaker 1: you know, the medical facilities of you know, just like
Speaker 1: a small clinic to take care of you. So um,
Speaker 1: they're they're very rigorous even before you go down with
Speaker 1: getting all kinds of doctor and dental records, and then
Speaker 1: upon arrival there's just an enormous battery of trainings and
Speaker 1: tests and um presentations to make sure you're behaving as
Speaker 1: safely as possible and equipped for uh, you know, as
Speaker 1: they call it, white out conditions which can arise sort
Speaker 1: of in less than an hour's time out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: So um, it is, it is. It is pretty raw
Speaker 1: in a way that's hard to fully appreciate when we
Speaker 1: live in a you know, within a first world nation
Speaker 1: where help is just a simple mind one one call
Speaker 1: a way. And yeah, I mean another thing I was
Speaker 1: fascinated by was well I spent a little time on
Speaker 1: your tumbler page which is so great. And uh, I
Speaker 1: was fascinated by the specific gear you had to pick
Speaker 1: up in New Zealand, and especially the bunny boots. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about why you had
Speaker 1: to take special care of them on airplanes? Yeah, as
Speaker 1: we were preparing to leave New Zealand, there was all
Speaker 1: kinds of kind of off hand information that they were
Speaker 1: just throwing out there. And most everyone had been down
Speaker 1: in Antarctica many times, but it was my first time,
Speaker 1: and already I was trying to digest so much new information,
Speaker 1: and very casually the guy handing out these huge, white,
Speaker 1: eight pounds inflatable white bunny boots said, oh, yeah, don't
Speaker 1: forget to open the valves so your boots don't explode
Speaker 1: on the plane. It seemed like something that maybe they
Speaker 1: should have emphasized even more directly and not just muttered
Speaker 1: as they passed them across the table to me. But
Speaker 1: the boots are pressurized in this actually the I guess
Speaker 1: the air air cushions inside that keep them warm. But
Speaker 1: because you take a you know, only semi pressurized military
Speaker 1: jet to Antarctica, the boots are in danger of exploding
Speaker 1: from the pressure change on the plane. If you don't
Speaker 1: open these little mini air valves on them. That's so crazy.
Speaker 1: And the idea that these things called bunny boots are
Speaker 1: so dangerous is amazing. The case of the exploding bunny boots.
Speaker 1: You know, it was really fun looking at so many
Speaker 1: of your photos from the trip, and one of the
Speaker 1: things that struck me was just how intense the sun looks.
Speaker 1: And I was curious to hear, you know, what was
Speaker 1: it like to be in constant daylight? And was it
Speaker 1: tough to figure out, you know, tricks that are going
Speaker 1: to sleep each night? Totally? Yeah. You know, everyone talks
Speaker 1: and imagines, you know, if you live in Scandinavia or Antarctica,
Speaker 1: like how horrible must be when it's dark all the time.
Speaker 1: But the truth is is actually equally horrible to have
Speaker 1: it be light all the time, and not just sort
Speaker 1: of light, I mean like high noon light all the time.
Speaker 1: And um, some of might say I was actually living
Speaker 1: in a tent, which meant there's there was just no
Speaker 1: way for it to not be so glaringly bright, and
Speaker 1: that light is bouncing off all the ice in the snow,
Speaker 1: and you do, you you do start to get fatigued
Speaker 1: and just longing for one night of real darkness and
Speaker 1: sleep um, and the times that I was in kind
Speaker 1: of a little hut or dorm situation. I got so
Speaker 1: desperate that I actually took the wool blanket and took
Speaker 1: kind of like some tacks and tacked it over the
Speaker 1: window to try to block all the different cracks of
Speaker 1: light that kept coming in. It was so kind of
Speaker 1: enervating by several weeks deep into it, It's insane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But the other thing that happens is it's very easy
Speaker 1: to lose track of all time because the sun isn't
Speaker 1: moving and so um, particularly at night it was you know,
Speaker 1: you'd be hanging out with people talking and drinking and
Speaker 1: you would feel like, oh, it's probably like seven or
Speaker 1: a p m. And it's actually two in the morning,
Speaker 1: and you've totally lost track of all all paths of
Speaker 1: of time. It does really mess with with your mind.
Speaker 1: So I saw in your tumbler that you visited an
Speaker 1: Antarctica Latin club, and I was curious, what are some
Speaker 1: of the other fun recreational activities we might not have
Speaker 1: heard about. Oh, totally there. It's kind of like Oberlin,
Speaker 1: but with like weirder, really cool adults. I mean, every night,
Speaker 1: we're probably fifteen or twenty different clubs or activities that
Speaker 1: you could do that we're all just being voluntarily taught
Speaker 1: by the awesome people of Antarctica who wanted to share
Speaker 1: their talents and entertain each other. So everything from every
Speaker 1: kind of sport you can imagine too, you know, knitting club,
Speaker 1: guitar club, chess club. People would give just lectures and
Speaker 1: presentations on things that they were themselves studying. Uh, and
Speaker 1: even people not showing up for clubs were always up
Speaker 1: to something really weird. There was this very introverted woman
Speaker 1: who I always saw like running around with pieces of
Speaker 1: PVC pipe and they were all laid out on this
Speaker 1: desk and I finally stopped in to ask what was
Speaker 1: going on, and she goes, oh, oh, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm as sending a PVC harp, Like a PVC harp.
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, yes, I'm sure you haven't heard that
Speaker 1: to say you can make a harp out of pvc. No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't familiar. But I love that you
Speaker 1: are committed to doing this down in your free time
Speaker 1: on Intarctica. So that's pretty great. Now, do you do
Speaker 1: you think you'll have the chance to get back anytime soon.
Speaker 1: You know. This is the saddest thing of at least
Speaker 1: the way that I went is I don't know that
Speaker 1: I will ever get to go back again, and pretty
Speaker 1: much any other place any of us will go in
Speaker 1: our lives. You know, if you love it, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to go back with my sister or
Speaker 1: my friend or my partner. But this is an experience
Speaker 1: that I don't know that I will ever get to
Speaker 1: go have again. So leaving was incredibly sad. Um I
Speaker 1: will say, there's just an incredible global society of what
Speaker 1: are called ice people, and it basically means that you
Speaker 1: live on Antarctica at some point, and there's just this
Speaker 1: deep understanding and familiarity when you meet another ice person
Speaker 1: in the real world. And I've stayed even now, several
Speaker 1: years later, in very very close contact with a number
Speaker 1: of really dear friends I made while down there, and
Speaker 1: I think there's something in that that connection that we
Speaker 1: all have shared this weird world. What would you want
Speaker 1: to experience again? Oh wow, I just the vastness and
Speaker 1: the untouched nous, Like I've I am a big traveler
Speaker 1: and I've been to incredible places like the Sahara, the Himalayas,
Speaker 1: but even they just have no The sense of scale
Speaker 1: in Antarctica is something so staggering and beyond anything that
Speaker 1: I had ever witnessed in my life. And again, besides
Speaker 1: outer space, I don't think there's anything you could see
Speaker 1: that would make you feel just so totally dwarfed as
Speaker 1: a human um in a way that I find totally
Speaker 1: freeing and exciting and so beautiful to see so much
Speaker 1: of the world that the in fact probably be the
Speaker 1: only last part of the world that we haven't managed
Speaker 1: to pave over or destroy in some way. You'll be
Speaker 1: happy to know that in one week we've spoken with
Speaker 1: an astronaut and now someone who's been to Antarctica. I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize I don't even think about that, but
Speaker 1: in in one in one week, so we we spoke
Speaker 1: to uh astronaut Chris Hadfield from from Canada on an
Speaker 1: episode about Canada. But you know, for all of our
Speaker 1: listeners out there, I hope you'll check out Jen's book,
Speaker 1: We Mammals and Hospitable Times. It's a It's a terrific book,
Speaker 1: and Jen, thanks so much for joining us on part
Speaker 1: time genius. Welcome back to part time Genius, and we're
Speaker 1: talking Antarctica. So will you said you had a funny
Speaker 1: penguin story to all I do, and that this is
Speaker 1: from Maggie kirk Baker and it's a piece on boying boying.
Speaker 1: But you know, in the early nineteen hundreds, as Robert
Speaker 1: Scott was making his way to the South Pole, he
Speaker 1: was accompanied by this surgeon named George Levic, and most
Speaker 1: of the team's observations were printed up in the team's
Speaker 1: official journals, all except this one section of levis notes
Speaker 1: explicitly describing penguin sex. And apparently Levic witnessed penguin on
Speaker 1: peguin acts so depraved that while he felt he had
Speaker 1: to document them, he wrote them all in Greek rather
Speaker 1: than English. I don't know why that makes it better,
Speaker 1: but it's only recently that they've been discovered and added
Speaker 1: to the journals. But on the topic of sex, maybe
Speaker 1: now it's a good time to talk about No not
Speaker 1: I was actually gonna say how Chilly and Argentina have
Speaker 1: tried to use pregnancies to their territorial advantage. But now
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you have to say about tender so
Speaker 1: this is kind of a ridiculous story, but Nolan found
Speaker 1: this bit about an American scientist who decided to log
Speaker 1: on too Tinder and an Arctica, and at first no
Speaker 1: one showed up on his radar, but when he widened
Speaker 1: the radius, he found a match of forty five minute
Speaker 1: helicopter right away. Unfortunately, the scientist he was chasing was
Speaker 1: in the field and couldn't meet up, and they only
Speaker 1: met very briefly on the day she was leaving at Arctica.
Speaker 1: As he told the cut quote, I've yet to become
Speaker 1: the first tender hook up in Antarctic history. But she's
Speaker 1: actually coming back and we may overlap. There's still hope.
Speaker 1: He's just a romantic I guess. I guess. So. I
Speaker 1: mean that's got to be pretty good press for Tender though,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you think, And you know that you can find
Speaker 1: love or or lost whatever it is on any continent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But but the scientists wanted to stay anonymous because you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to be taking up airways with social apps.
Speaker 1: I guess, like the Internet's this prize commodity down Antarctica
Speaker 1: and netflixing or using apps isn't really possible because it
Speaker 1: takes too much bandwidth. But let's talk Chilian Argentina. That's
Speaker 1: a bummer. You can't use Netflix there. I didn't know that,
Speaker 1: all right, So so so back to this topic. So
Speaker 1: we've already set Antarctica doesn't really have towns, but Chile
Speaker 1: and Argentina have each set up the closest thing to that.
Speaker 1: So Chile has VLAs Astraeas and Argentina has Esperanza. Both
Speaker 1: areas have between fifty and eighty people living there during
Speaker 1: the winters. They both have schools, gyms, medical facilities. But
Speaker 1: as The New York Times points, both of these so
Speaker 1: called towns were clear attempts to lay claim to Antarctica,
Speaker 1: you know, should the Antarctic Treaty be renegotiated, and the
Speaker 1: fact that the two countries are regional rivals only made
Speaker 1: the situation worse. Like when Pinochet made a visit to
Speaker 1: Antarctic in the nineteen seventies, Argentina felt like they were
Speaker 1: losing the upper hand, so soon after his visit they
Speaker 1: quietly sent a pregnant woman and her third trimester so
Speaker 1: she could give birth to the first quote native Antarctica.
Speaker 1: And according to Alice Obscura, the joke was that you know,
Speaker 1: after they heard this, Chile started sending down couples to
Speaker 1: conceive the first baby in the region, since you know,
Speaker 1: some people think that birth starts a conception there, but
Speaker 1: it's Argentina who's taken it the farthest. In Argentina, it's
Speaker 1: illegal to show a map of the country that doesn't
Speaker 1: include the section of Antarctica that they consider. There's biz
Speaker 1: so I a should want to switch gears and talk entertainment.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, should we talk about why
Speaker 1: we're both so terrified to the continent, And that's you
Speaker 1: know some of those early explorer stories, well, the early
Speaker 1: explorer stories are definitely terrifying. And not only were they
Speaker 1: wearing things like well clothing which really just absorbed the
Speaker 1: snow and kept them damn but but they couldn't stop
Speaker 1: being cold, like this guy absolutely Cherry Garrard, who sailed
Speaker 1: with Captain Scott to the South Pole. He said this
Speaker 1: about his teeth quote, the nerves of which had been
Speaker 1: killed split to pieces from the chattering. His account in
Speaker 1: the Antarctic trip was titled the worst journey in the World. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he definitely wasn't glancing and you don't have to go
Speaker 1: that far back to see how dangerous it can be.
Speaker 1: Like in two thousand and fourteen, the British Halley six
Speaker 1: Research Station lost its power and that is terrifying. There
Speaker 1: the closest help was like eighteen hundred miles away in
Speaker 1: the Falkland Islands. There was no sun, the temperature was
Speaker 1: negative sixties seven degrees fahrenheit, and the winds were crazy.
Speaker 1: The only thing that worked was a single satellite phone.
Speaker 1: But the staff somehow managed to patch the problem in
Speaker 1: nineteen hours and get limited elect fristity back. Of course,
Speaker 1: they kind of dismissed it as being a you know,
Speaker 1: not that big of a deal, and the station's electrician tweeted,
Speaker 1: got Internet, lots of Yorkshire tea and a big cattle. Really,
Speaker 1: what more do you need? Well? I love that he
Speaker 1: was so calm. I was chatting with Noland, our researcher,
Speaker 1: about this, and he was saying, the worst story he
Speaker 1: read was about this Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. This is
Speaker 1: back in and I'm gonna tell the story here. So
Speaker 1: Mawson's this superstar geologist and he turns down Robert Scott's
Speaker 1: expedition to lead his own. But his story is so tragic.
Speaker 1: His timing was horrible, right, like, the blizzards were constant,
Speaker 1: and winds off the coast where anywhere between fifty and
Speaker 1: two hundred miles per hour. He split up his group
Speaker 1: into different assignments, and he led a three man party
Speaker 1: to map the far eastern shore. This was the most
Speaker 1: difficult journeys. He was trying to map glaciers hundreds of
Speaker 1: miles away, and so everything terrible happens. They're making about
Speaker 1: three hundred miles out pretty smoothly, and then some weird
Speaker 1: superstitious things up in like this petrol, which is this
Speaker 1: bird you never see this far inland, comes out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and just crashes into their sled and one of
Speaker 1: the huskies eats her young one of his colleagues gets snowblindness.
Speaker 1: Then a hundred fifty ft crevice opens up and swallows
Speaker 1: that colleague. Yeah, as well as like their supplies and
Speaker 1: a dog, elements are just against them. Then there's more snowblindness,
Speaker 1: their dogs die, They run out of food, so they
Speaker 1: have to eat their dogs. Masson's other colleague falls sick
Speaker 1: and he carries them along, even though he has a
Speaker 1: fever and dysentery. And despite all his best efforts and
Speaker 1: trying to carry him, the pal passes away. So Masson's
Speaker 1: basically alone at this point, and he's weak and damaged too,
Speaker 1: but he somehow makes it to this cash of supplies
Speaker 1: at this location called Aladdin's Cave, and when he's there,
Speaker 1: another blizzard comes through and he's trapped for five more days.
Speaker 1: But when he finally makes it back to camp to
Speaker 1: meet up with the other teams, it's just in time
Speaker 1: to see that the expedition ship has left for Australia.
Speaker 1: The crew had actually waited for him, but now he's
Speaker 1: from the ship's sail away and he has to stay
Speaker 1: in Antarctica for another winner before he returns home. And
Speaker 1: then the commercial ends and it says, come to Antarctica.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is miserable, And you're right, the elements
Speaker 1: just feel so raw and vicious. But I think we
Speaker 1: should lighten this up a little bit with some events
Speaker 1: to put on your calendar if you're headed to Antarctica.
Speaker 1: So al right, here's a few of them. If you
Speaker 1: like music, there's ice Stock, which is Antarctica's woodstock. There's
Speaker 1: barbecue in bands and people in costumes. There there's also
Speaker 1: Freezing Man, which is Antarctica's burning Man midwinter Day, is
Speaker 1: a big deal. It's his celebration held halfway through The
Speaker 1: Miserable Winner, when everyone huddles and watches the shining. Apparently
Speaker 1: I don't know why they do this. Then there's the
Speaker 1: Ross Cup, where once a year the Americans play scientists
Speaker 1: from New Zealand and rugby and of course the Kiwi's
Speaker 1: always slaughter the Americans and you know, personally because they
Speaker 1: actually know how to play rugby. But also they do
Speaker 1: that intimidating hawka dance that we've seen before. This is,
Speaker 1: you know, all before they hit the field. That's pretty great.
Speaker 1: And there's one other tradition I actually love, and it's
Speaker 1: the moving of the South Pole. How does that work. Well,
Speaker 1: it's because the ice shifts and so the marker for
Speaker 1: the south pole moves about twenty five or thirty feet
Speaker 1: every year. So there's this big ceremony that everyone from
Speaker 1: the South Pole station attends and the south pole is
Speaker 1: recalibrated and then a new pole is placed in that location.
Speaker 1: Those are also fun. So I also looked into some
Speaker 1: of the more standard things you could do, like people
Speaker 1: play cards and board games, Argentina also just set up
Speaker 1: this new movie theater. This might be part of their
Speaker 1: ploy to seem like it's a real town, because they
Speaker 1: also bring directors and actors there to talk about the films,
Speaker 1: and they premiere new movies which are all subtitled for visitors.
Speaker 1: But all the bases also have some version of the
Speaker 1: three hundred club, which is where you sit in a
Speaker 1: sauna that's three hundred degrees hotter than the temp outside,
Speaker 1: then you run through the snow naked or do a
Speaker 1: polar plunge, and then rush back in. I guess it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be exhilarating. I just I've never understood the
Speaker 1: whole like polar bear plunge thing that happens in so
Speaker 1: many places, and it just sounds even worse here. So
Speaker 1: I was reading on slate there's an Antarctic saying that
Speaker 1: if it's twenty below and the wind ain't blowing, it
Speaker 1: ain't bad. It sounds bad though, Yeah, I can't say
Speaker 1: that I would agree with that statement. But the strangest
Speaker 1: mundane thing I found that's actually no longer There was
Speaker 1: a two lane bowling alley at McMurdo station. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine bringing all that wood down in materials to build
Speaker 1: a bowling alley. It's yeah, it's kind of insane, but
Speaker 1: I found the photos on Laughing Squid. The alley was
Speaker 1: built in ninety one and lasted for almost fifty years.
Speaker 1: It's funny. It used this Brunswick manual pin set system
Speaker 1: where an employee had to pick up the fallen pins
Speaker 1: by hand and also send your bowling bowl back to
Speaker 1: you down this ramp, and when they finally tore it
Speaker 1: down in two thousand nine, it was the only manual
Speaker 1: pin set system of that type left in the world.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's kind of a kind of a shame.
Speaker 1: So so why did they end up tearing it down. Well,
Speaker 1: eventually the wood on the lanes wore down, and replacing
Speaker 1: the bowling alley was just too expensive. So they've turned
Speaker 1: it into a curling club, and I would guess that
Speaker 1: ice is a little bit easier to maintain. And you
Speaker 1: know what I found really interesting was just how much
Speaker 1: responsibility bartenders have an antarctic I mean, it's actually kind
Speaker 1: of an important job. Why is that, Well, obviously, people
Speaker 1: want to drink, I mean there's little else to do,
Speaker 1: so having a good bar keep is comforting. But you know,
Speaker 1: even though people aren't driving drunk, they're real dangerous to
Speaker 1: drinking and Antarctica. I was reading this account of a
Speaker 1: scientist who worked as the volunteer bartender at Club nineties
Speaker 1: south and this is a bar at the South Pole station,
Speaker 1: And this is how he's quoted in the Guardian. It
Speaker 1: says I made it a point of honor to be
Speaker 1: the last person to leave the club each night. I
Speaker 1: learned to spot the signs that someone was likely to
Speaker 1: wander drunkenly into the Antarctic night. And I heard too
Speaker 1: many stories of people returning to base with hypothermia and frostbite.
Speaker 1: My theory was it's easier to recover from too much
Speaker 1: drinking than to grow back a missing limb. I was
Speaker 1: happy only when everyone was safely tucked up and accounted for,
Speaker 1: even if it meant leaving them passed out on the
Speaker 1: bar's couch. I mean, with that blinding snow, it's supposedly
Speaker 1: really easy for people to get lost. I I read
Speaker 1: this account from the National History Museum where the scientists
Speaker 1: talked about how he and a colleague walked just two
Speaker 1: yards to get snow samples, and they thought they were
Speaker 1: walking parallel to this seismic tunnel, and then they crossed
Speaker 1: it and almost fell in, and they weren't even slashed.
Speaker 1: They were like totally sober. So I'm really glad the
Speaker 1: bartender has taken upon themselves to watch over the patrons.
Speaker 1: But by the way, the strangest thing I read about
Speaker 1: drinking in an article was that people often go outside
Speaker 1: to be sick, but the stuff freezes as soon as
Speaker 1: it touches the ice, so people are expected to clean
Speaker 1: up after themselves with pick axes to chip that frozen
Speaker 1: grossness away and then throw it out all right. Well,
Speaker 1: on the flip side of that, one thing I didn't
Speaker 1: expect to find an Antarctica was so many beautiful churches, definitely.
Speaker 1: So I saw this gallery of seven churches in Antarctica
Speaker 1: at messy Nessy Chick, and they were all gorgeous. My
Speaker 1: favorite was this beautiful Russian Orthodox church that's a wooden structure,
Speaker 1: like you wouldn't think that would last through those winds,
Speaker 1: but it's somehow survived. It's like the other miracle on
Speaker 1: ice exactly. I mean, they are all sorts of these churches.
Speaker 1: There's there's a Catholic church that was built in an
Speaker 1: ice cave. This Bulgarian church that's basically under the snow,
Speaker 1: you know, except for the church bell, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of a sweet thing that they ring it with some frequency,
Speaker 1: you know, especially when you consider it was built for
Speaker 1: a four member Bulgarian team. There's some inner faith churches,
Speaker 1: you know. The priest is happy to conduct both Buddhist
Speaker 1: and be High services as well. Well. I think we've
Speaker 1: covered where to get sazzled and where to get saved.
Speaker 1: But I know we want to talk about why plumbers
Speaker 1: are the real heroes of Antarctica, or at least I do.
Speaker 1: So let's take a quick break and then discuss Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Part time Genius. Now, before the break, Mango,
Speaker 1: you were making some pretty big statements about plumbers and Antarctica.
Speaker 1: I was reading about Brendan Hopkins, who's this Australian plumber
Speaker 1: at the Casey Station, and he was talking about how
Speaker 1: he's tricked out the pipes so they don't freeze in
Speaker 1: this crazy climate. I mean, that's an important thing, and
Speaker 1: so for most of the pipes, water is constantly running
Speaker 1: through them, but that isn't the case with the sewer lines,
Speaker 1: so it's really complicated when you hit the flush like.
Speaker 1: To keep the sewer pipes from freezing, his team runs
Speaker 1: these electric cables around the pipes just to heat the pipes.
Speaker 1: And because no waste can be left in Antarctica, he's
Speaker 1: built this crazy wastewater treatment plant that filters the waste
Speaker 1: multiple times with microbes. And there's even this additive that
Speaker 1: he uses to help package and reduce the way so
Speaker 1: it can be shipped off the continent. He has this
Speaker 1: pager set up just to watch the sewer systems at
Speaker 1: all times, because fixing it is an enormous task. But
Speaker 1: the one perk that the electricians and plumbers get is
Speaker 1: taking turns brewing beer while they're supposedly sworn enemies in
Speaker 1: their natural habitat. According to Brendan, they get along swimmingly
Speaker 1: in Antarctica. It's pretty fun, you know. I actually think
Speaker 1: being a chef down there is pretty darn heroic as well.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's an honor to be chosen to look
Speaker 1: at the Concordia base there, you know, since you actually
Speaker 1: have to win a lottery to work at the French
Speaker 1: and Italian base. But before you can even put your
Speaker 1: name and you have to demonstrate a mastery of numerous
Speaker 1: international cuisines, and you have to be a work course.
Speaker 1: I mean you're making all three meals a day by
Speaker 1: yourself for the crew there. But the cook seems to
Speaker 1: love the high pressure environment and the food is top notch.
Speaker 1: Lonely Planet calls it the best cuisine in Antarctica, with
Speaker 1: the seven course Sunday lunches being the absolute highlight. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of absolute highlights, you know what time it is?
Speaker 1: Time for the PTG fact off, Let's do it. H
Speaker 1: Do you know that Antarctica is one of the best
Speaker 1: places in the world to find meteor rights? Apparently that
Speaker 1: snow white landscape is perfect for finding space junk. I
Speaker 1: mean everywhere else in the world it's so much more difficult.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. Well I've got one here. So Metallica once
Speaker 1: played a concert in Antarctica and they did this just
Speaker 1: to be the first band to play on all seven continents.
Speaker 1: Pretty impressive. Uh yeah, and Metallica is so cool. Do
Speaker 1: you know what small icebergs are called. I don't. They're
Speaker 1: called growlers. They're usually the size of a grand piano
Speaker 1: or a truck. And if you want to upgrade to
Speaker 1: a medium sized iceberg, those are called burgie bits, Burgie
Speaker 1: bits nice. Well. According to Australia's government site, doctors who
Speaker 1: winter in Antarctica must have their appendix removed before traveling there.
Speaker 1: That's because they don't want anyone having appendicitis while they're Oh,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. So this summer in Edinburgh geographic survey found
Speaker 1: ninety one volcanoes hiding two kilometers under the ice and Antarctica.
Speaker 1: It's apparently the largest volcanic region on Earth. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: when scientists discovered a new species of yeti crab living
Speaker 1: in the thermal vents under Antartica, they were so impressed
Speaker 1: with its hairy chest that they named it for David Hasselhoff.
Speaker 1: It's affectionately known as the Hoff crabf crab. I've actually
Speaker 1: seen that critter, and I think it's way better looking
Speaker 1: than its namesake. But I do love that fact. So
Speaker 1: why don't you take home today's trophy? I can do that,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, that's it for today's show. If you
Speaker 1: have any Antarctic facts you're dying to tell us, don't forget.
Speaker 1: You can always drop us a line on our seven
Speaker 1: Fact hot line one eight four four pt Genius or
Speaker 1: email us at part time Genius at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
Speaker 1: the important things we couldn't even again to understand. Tristan
Speaker 1: McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme
Speaker 1: song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland
Speaker 1: does the exact producer thing. Gayluesier is our lead researcher,
Speaker 1: with support from the research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Speaker 1: Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets the
Speaker 1: show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
Speaker 1: what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you
Speaker 1: really really like what you've heard, if you could leave
Speaker 1: a good review for us? Did we did? We forget Jason?
Speaker 1: Jason who