WEBVTT - What's Everyday life like on Antarctica? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.600 Guess what, mango? What's that will? So you know I 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:04.920 love a good A t M story, right, Like we 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.240 we've talked about a t M so many times in 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:08.719 the past, Like there's the A t M in the 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:11.280 Vatican City and it's the only one in the world 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.360 that operates in Latin, which is pretty cool. But I 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.360 have a new favorite A t M fact that I 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.079 wanted to share. So there's actually an A t M 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.639 located in Antarctica and it's operated by Wells Fargo, and 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:24.880 it's in the Guinness Book and they call it the 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:30.160 world's loneliest A t M because it's the only one. Actually, 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.159 there is a second A t M on hand, and 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.360 it's hidden in a closet or something, and it doesn't 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.680 actually work. It's just there to cannibalize for the spare part. 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.560 That's sad. But what's even weird is that Wells Fargo 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.080 only services the machine once every two years, and that's 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.199 when Wells sends a repairment out to give the A 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.760 t M a little check up. That's crazy. So why 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:50.800 don't they service it more frequently? Like don't they have 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.400 to replenish the cash? Well, that's the beauty of banking 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.560 and Antarctica. There's no need for this that, you know, 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.240 the population there is so small that the money just 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.520 keeps recirculating. But learning about that a t M did 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.280 make me wonder, like, what are the other peculiarities of 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.000 living in Antarctica? How do everyday things like plumbing and 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.040 internet work down there? And that's what today shows all about. 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:31.360 So let's dive in. Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.440 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.600 friend Man and sitting behind the soundproof glass vigorously shaking 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.040 a snow globe in each hand as our producer Tristan McNeil. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.399 Where did he get those things? He's making it blizzard? 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.720 So meno, I'm gonna ask you right off the bat, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.800 what what's your interest in visiting the South Pole? So? 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:53.160 I mean, it looks beautiful, but there's so many beautiful 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.800 places in the world, and you know, I hate the cold. 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.320 Plus some of those early expeditions to Antarctica sounded so 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.240 miserable it's kind of scared me off, I know, and 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.080 I actually want to talk a little bit about those 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.480 expeditions later. And clearly we both like warm weather because 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.040 we live in warm places, but I kind of want 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.840 to see the landscape in person at least once. So 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.680 I started looking up tours this week and I found 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.720 this group called White Desert Luxury Tours. Have you ever 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.880 heard of this company out because they basically, do you know, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:26.079 like glamping for an arcticle? How do you glamp in Antarctica? Well? 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.000 I was reading this article in Wired, and basically White 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.639 Desert is set up these luxury camping pods and this 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.040 beautiful Mars like area of Antarctica. The pods have solar 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.799 panels and propane heaters, and they're eco friendly too, but 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.320 you know, to keep you safe. They're also designed to 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:46.400 withstand a hundred and eighty mile per hour. Well that's 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:48.600 how wendy it gets there. And you know the pods 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.000 are beautifully outfitted, but the whole camp must have cost 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.040 a fortune to build. Why is that? Well, remember, getting 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.840 stuff to Antarctica isn't cheap. According to the article, it 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.200 costs thirty eight dollars a pound to live furniture there, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.640 and the pods themselves weigh three tons of piece, which 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.600 is insane. And and trips like that always sound like 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.680 something rich people do just because they're looking for new 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.160 ways to spend their money. It's like God's way of 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.840 telling you have too much cat Wow. You know, the 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.800 camp only services around a hundred clients a year, so 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:22.040 it's definitely exclusive. But you'd be in some pretty classy company. 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.359 So you know. Past travelers include Saudi princesses, Prince William 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:31.360 and also buzz Aldern wait, buzz Aldern Glans apparently so. 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.040 But you know, what you experience Antarctica is also insane. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.440 Once your golfstream jet lands on the icy runway, you'll 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.160 get to explore neon blue ice tunnels and lakes, and 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.240 go on guided hikes, penguins up close, visit all these 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.240 science bases. They even take you to the South Pole. 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.080 I mean, everyone who's gone says the beauty of this 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.680 untouched land is just overwhelming. Plus you get unlimited champagne. 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.400 So I just pulled this up on my computer. Hot 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.720 showers first draped on all the dining chairs. It looks 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.560 so fancy. I'm I'm definitely in all right. Well, the 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.280 only catches it cost eighty tho dollars a person. But 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.440 you know, I've always said I just don't like the 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.360 cold that much, and I have to be true to myself, 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.400 so I'm out again. I didn't take long. So speaking 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:19.479 of hot showers, it it reminds me of this event 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.960 that takes place in Antarctica. It's called the Race around 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.800 the World. Basically, it's this fun two mile race that 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.440 takes place on Christmas Day at the South Pole and 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.320 it's for the scientists there. It's called around the World 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.479 because you're actually racing through every single time zone. I 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.240 didn't think about that, so you would touch every single 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.280 time Wow, that's amazing. It's pretty awesome. Then, and while 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.200 some people run the course, you can actually do it 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.480 on skis or snowmobile. But the reason I'm mentioning it 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.760 is that the prize for the winning runner is a 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:51.159 five minute hot shower. So according to Business Insider, residents 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.520 at the South Pole station are limited to to two 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.440 minute showers a week, so a bonus five minute shower 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.080 is like a huge treat. I guess that makes sense. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.160 I mean, it's funny how you just expect things like 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.040 hot showers are everywhere by now. But you know, one 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.160 of the things that's so cool about Antarctica is how 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.800 environmentally friendly the camps are. The Treaty of Antarticle, which 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.920 was signed by twelve countries back in nineteen fifty nine. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.320 It was this, It was this agreement that the land 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.880 there would be used for science and peaceful purposes. And 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:20.880 part of the agreement is that you can't dirty the 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.640 landscape or leave any contaminants there. In fact, if you 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.560 want to organize your own expedition to Antarctica, the process 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.400 involves three things. So first it is showing that you 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.560 will be completely self sufficient. Second is that you have 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.479 a good reason for being there, and third is that 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.719 you have little or no environmental impact on the land. 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.880 And there's special attention paid to this, and if you 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.000 can't lay out your plan for creating zero waste, they'll 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.800 deny you permission to go there. That's pretty interesting. So 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.479 I was actually reading about the recycling and Antarctica and 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.200 it's like at Portlandia levels. I saw the spreadsheet on 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.039 Boing Boing from America's McMurdo base, and they have this 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.320 matrix for where to recycle old or disposed of wood 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.359 and it's pretty intense, like pens and pencils have a 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.040 specific bin, and drained radiators have their own bin, and 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.760 mops and brooms haven't been everything is clearly charred out 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.040 where it goes and how it gets separated. But they 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.320 also poked fun at themselves. What do you mean by that? 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.520 So one prankster put all these jokes signs up of 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:21.880 what can and can't go into the bins, and they 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.840 seem to have stuck around, like there's a recycling bin. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.080 That's where glitter. And in the rules for what's recyclable 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:33.359 glitter it lists red glitter, blue glitter, ground, unicorn, horn, wizards, hats, 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.320 and wands. But in the no section it lists no 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:41.120 child beauty pageant, sashes or Mariah Carey movies. And that's 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.640 fair enough. We sort of dove right into hot showers 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.080 and glitter recycling somehow. But before we talk about things 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.200 like how plumbing works, why don't we talk a little 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.240 bit about who lives in Antarctica? Definitely, but why don't 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.719 we do some local slang first? God, do you immediately 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.640 put us off track again? I do, like an art explains, So, 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:00.760 what are some of your favorites? One of my favorite 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.880 terms is city mice and also country mice, like city 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.560 my state put on the McMurdo station, while country mice 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.200 wandered to other camps and travel around. That's pretty cute. 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.720 So you got any others, Yeah, gombles or tiny snowballs 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.080 that's stuck to dogs for so the d goobles when 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.360 you rub that loose snow off before you come inside. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.400 And also Hollywood showers. Those are when you take a 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.840 fantasy shower that's more than the a lot of two minutes. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:26.680 Oh god, all right, why do you keep bring up 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.600 showers here? You know, when I started abroad and upon 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.640 to bed in college, it was freezing and you didn't 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.120 get to take hot showers that often. So I took 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.560 like ten or eleven bucket showers during the trip, and 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.920 they were mostly with lukewarm water. It's strange being there, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.000 Like I realized there's so many things I could live without. 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.480 I don't really need TV or a lot of clothes 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.760 or a lot of amenities, but hot showers. Well, when 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:50.480 I came back to the college, I I just stand 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.560 in the shower and praise American plumbing. I can understand that. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:56.560 All right. Well, here's a bit of jargon I found 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.080 on mental flaws. It's ice shock, and that this is 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.720 the idea that no matter how crazy everything seems. In 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.440 an article, while you're there. It's this acknowledgement that the 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.040 rest of the world is even crazier. Alright, let's get 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.080 back to who lives there. Obviously, Antarctica doesn't have an 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.400 indigenous population. Do you know the site cool and arctica 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.680 dot com. I can't say I'm familiar with it, says 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.520 educational say that's run by a former an Arctic marine 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.280 biologist and now he's a school teacher and puts out 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.320 great information. But on a site he writes there around 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.920 sixty six scientific basis, of which thirty seven are occupied 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.400 year round. Around four thousand people living at Arctica during 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.319 the summer months, and that reduces to about a thousand 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.280 who over winner there. It's also rare that someone will 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.480 stay there for two winners in a row. They might 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.760 do one winner wrapped in two summers, but two winners 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.360 in a row tends to be bad for people's mental states. Uh. 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.080 And so the McMurdo station actually has about like a 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.040 thousand or so people during peak season though, right, yeah, 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.200 that's right. And what's funny is that I didn't quite 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.719 put together how large an Arctica is and how far 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.240 some of the bases are from one another. It's Apparently 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.160 the fifth are just continent, and because five percent of 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.560 it is covered in ice, the size of the continent 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.959 actually changes like according to Live Science, the quote size 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.559 varies through the seasons. Expanding sea ice along the coast 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.720 nearly doubles the continent size during the winter. Isn't that crazy? 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.000 It nearly doubles it that it is crazy, you know. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.960 In speaking of the geography, I was stunned by the geography, 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.600 and I didn't realize that the land is basically all desert. 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.959 You know, the inner regions of Antarctic could get less 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.280 than two inches of precipitation each year, and this is 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.079 less than the Sahara desert. And it's also cold there. 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.320 I don't know if you knew this about Anartica. I didn't. 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.320 The Russian Vostok station there recorded the lowest temperature in 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.480 the world at negative a hundred and twenty nine point 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.040 three degrees fahrenheit. I mean, I guess it's that extra 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.240 point three that really gets to you. Yeah, it's cold, 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.400 but it's a dry cold. I know we're supposed to 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.000 be talking people and not penguins here, but one of 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.280 the things I thought was funny was that the male 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.480 emperor penguins are the only warm blooded animal to stay 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.400 on the continent during the freezing winters. Apparently, when the 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.600 female lays an egg, it's a very were pregnant situation, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.520 like the daddy bird sits on the family egg keeping 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.640 it warm while the MoMA penguin goes out to sea 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.760 for nine weeks and and then the mom's return just 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.600 before the eggs hatch, which is because you know, male 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.719 penguins are so woke. Glad you're able to work that. Alright, Well, 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.960 I actually have a funny penguin story to talk about, 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.000 and I also want to discuss the crazy ways Chile 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.240 and Argentina have, you know, tried to each claim part 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.240 of Antarctica as their own territory. But before we get 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:43.200 to that, let's take a quick break, all right, mangoes, So, 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.040 how many times have we had a super talented poet 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.720 on the show? Has that happened before? I don't think 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.920 it's happened yet. I don't think it has either. I mean, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.760 I know Tristan dabbles a little in poetry, but I mean, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.360 between us, they're they're not the best poems. But he's trying, 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.400 he's trying hard. But We're super excited to have Jen 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:02.880 dilling Martin on the show today. And and as we 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:06.040 discussed Jen as an accomplished poet, she's an associate publisher 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.600 at Riverhead, which is one of our favorite book publishers 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.800 in the world. But that's not the reason we've got 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:12.560 her on today. We actually begged her to come on 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.160 because in two thousand and thirteen, Jen became the Antarctic 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.520 Artist in Residence and she used the six week stint 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.559 there to inspire her poetry. So Jen, welcome to Part 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.080 Time Genius. Thank you so much. So, Jen, I know 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.480 you're in pretty esteemed company as an artist in residence. 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.200 I believe Werner Herzog was also an artist there too, 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.480 But can you tell us a little bit about how 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.600 you got that gig and what's included? Totally, it's this 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.719 incredible grant run through the National Science Foundation that they 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.800 give to about two people a year from any discipline 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.600 at all to go make art inspired by the work 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.280 that you then get to witness being done in Antarctica. Uh. 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.439 It is a really elaborate application process that I think 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.800 weed's out the people who have to go through all 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.600 kinds of bureaucratic paperwork to just even apply for it, 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.640 But once accepted, you get to I mean, you get 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.200 to lead the coolest life imaginable. You get to go 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.120 to any of the base camps that interests you. You 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.320 can ask the scientists any questions you want of them. 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.280 You get to travel all around the continent. I got 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:20.360 a helicopter pilot Ryan to take me um two different 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.760 base camps and basically it's just like the most incredible 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.880 experience that I will ever have in my life. So 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.360 whatever it is you want to go and study as 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:30.800 an artist, you ask for and they make it all 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.440 come together for you. Wow, That's that's pretty incredible. I 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.640 will say one of the things that surprised me was 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:38.800 was all the training that you talked about in your 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.480 first few weeks there. You know how to fix the snowmobile, 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.800 how to pitch a tent and a blizzard. I'm just curious, 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.640 like were you were you expecting that and can you 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.120 talk a little bit about that experience? Absolutely, you know, 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:53.640 it's one of those things where it doesn't really dawn 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.520 on you, or at least I didn't dawn on me 0:12:55.600 --> 0:13:01.360 fully until really down there, just how isolated, vulnerable you 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:06.000 are and in actually grave peril should anything go dramatically 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.320 wrong on your visit. And there can be winds so 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.400 high even in the summer season on the continent that 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.800 they cannot get planes to and from Antarctica for a 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.360 week or two at the time, so we're there to 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.920 be a very bad accident, you could be stuck with 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.480 you know, the medical facilities of you know, just like 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.520 a small clinic to take care of you. So um, 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.160 they're they're very rigorous even before you go down with 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.280 getting all kinds of doctor and dental records, and then 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.360 upon arrival there's just an enormous battery of trainings and 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:38.360 tests and um presentations to make sure you're behaving as 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.680 safely as possible and equipped for uh, you know, as 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.280 they call it, white out conditions which can arise sort 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.079 of in less than an hour's time out of nowhere. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.440 So um, it is, it is. It is pretty raw 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:53.800 in a way that's hard to fully appreciate when we 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.840 live in a you know, within a first world nation 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.839 where help is just a simple mind one one call 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:03.800 a way. And yeah, I mean another thing I was 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.599 fascinated by was well I spent a little time on 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.960 your tumbler page which is so great. And uh, I 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.439 was fascinated by the specific gear you had to pick 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.319 up in New Zealand, and especially the bunny boots. Can 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:16.920 you tell us a little bit about why you had 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:20.920 to take special care of them on airplanes? Yeah, as 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.480 we were preparing to leave New Zealand, there was all 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.120 kinds of kind of off hand information that they were 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.840 just throwing out there. And most everyone had been down 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:30.800 in Antarctica many times, but it was my first time, 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:35.280 and already I was trying to digest so much new information, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:39.160 and very casually the guy handing out these huge, white, 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.040 eight pounds inflatable white bunny boots said, oh, yeah, don't 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.480 forget to open the valves so your boots don't explode 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.440 on the plane. It seemed like something that maybe they 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.760 should have emphasized even more directly and not just muttered 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.080 as they passed them across the table to me. But 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.840 the boots are pressurized in this actually the I guess 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.760 the air air cushions inside that keep them warm. But 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.480 because you take a you know, only semi pressurized military 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.240 jet to Antarctica, the boots are in danger of exploding 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:12.320 from the pressure change on the plane. If you don't 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:16.479 open these little mini air valves on them. That's so crazy. 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.600 And the idea that these things called bunny boots are 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:23.320 so dangerous is amazing. The case of the exploding bunny boots. 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.360 You know, it was really fun looking at so many 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.280 of your photos from the trip, and one of the 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.040 things that struck me was just how intense the sun looks. 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.000 And I was curious to hear, you know, what was 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.080 it like to be in constant daylight? And was it 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:39.960 tough to figure out, you know, tricks that are going 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.560 to sleep each night? Totally? Yeah. You know, everyone talks 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.400 and imagines, you know, if you live in Scandinavia or Antarctica, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.280 like how horrible must be when it's dark all the time. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.880 But the truth is is actually equally horrible to have 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.760 it be light all the time, and not just sort 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.320 of light, I mean like high noon light all the time. 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.880 And um, some of might say I was actually living 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.680 in a tent, which meant there's there was just no 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.680 way for it to not be so glaringly bright, and 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.080 that light is bouncing off all the ice in the snow, 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.680 and you do, you you do start to get fatigued 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.120 and just longing for one night of real darkness and 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.120 sleep um, and the times that I was in kind 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.880 of a little hut or dorm situation. I got so 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.560 desperate that I actually took the wool blanket and took 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.760 kind of like some tacks and tacked it over the 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:31.760 window to try to block all the different cracks of 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.640 light that kept coming in. It was so kind of 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:40.840 enervating by several weeks deep into it, It's insane. Yeah. 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:42.840 But the other thing that happens is it's very easy 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.440 to lose track of all time because the sun isn't 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.480 moving and so um, particularly at night it was you know, 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.040 you'd be hanging out with people talking and drinking and 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.240 you would feel like, oh, it's probably like seven or 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.000 a p m. And it's actually two in the morning, 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.880 and you've totally lost track of all all paths of 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.400 of time. It does really mess with with your mind. 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.080 So I saw in your tumbler that you visited an 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.720 Antarctica Latin club, and I was curious, what are some 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.919 of the other fun recreational activities we might not have 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:16.959 heard about. Oh, totally there. It's kind of like Oberlin, 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.600 but with like weirder, really cool adults. I mean, every night, 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:25.159 we're probably fifteen or twenty different clubs or activities that 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:27.800 you could do that we're all just being voluntarily taught 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.920 by the awesome people of Antarctica who wanted to share 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.920 their talents and entertain each other. So everything from every 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.919 kind of sport you can imagine too, you know, knitting club, 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:42.840 guitar club, chess club. People would give just lectures and 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.840 presentations on things that they were themselves studying. Uh, and 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.159 even people not showing up for clubs were always up 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.760 to something really weird. There was this very introverted woman 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.760 who I always saw like running around with pieces of 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.119 PVC pipe and they were all laid out on this 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.600 desk and I finally stopped in to ask what was 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.120 going on, and she goes, oh, oh, you know, I'm 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:09.760 I'm as sending a PVC harp, Like a PVC harp. 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.080 She's like, oh, yes, I'm sure you haven't heard that 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.119 to say you can make a harp out of pvc. No, 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.480 I wasn't. I wasn't familiar. But I love that you 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.920 are committed to doing this down in your free time 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.280 on Intarctica. So that's pretty great. Now, do you do 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.400 you think you'll have the chance to get back anytime soon. 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.240 You know. This is the saddest thing of at least 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.800 the way that I went is I don't know that 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.280 I will ever get to go back again, and pretty 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.399 much any other place any of us will go in 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.959 our lives. You know, if you love it, you're like, oh, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:41.960 I can't wait to go back with my sister or 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.240 my friend or my partner. But this is an experience 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:47.280 that I don't know that I will ever get to 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.600 go have again. So leaving was incredibly sad. Um I 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:56.720 will say, there's just an incredible global society of what 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.480 are called ice people, and it basically means that you 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.560 live on Antarctica at some point, and there's just this 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.800 deep understanding and familiarity when you meet another ice person 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.840 in the real world. And I've stayed even now, several 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.720 years later, in very very close contact with a number 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.520 of really dear friends I made while down there, and 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.320 I think there's something in that that connection that we 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.359 all have shared this weird world. What would you want 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:24.399 to experience again? Oh wow, I just the vastness and 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.240 the untouched nous, Like I've I am a big traveler 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.160 and I've been to incredible places like the Sahara, the Himalayas, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.040 but even they just have no The sense of scale 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.400 in Antarctica is something so staggering and beyond anything that 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.119 I had ever witnessed in my life. And again, besides 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.120 outer space, I don't think there's anything you could see 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.720 that would make you feel just so totally dwarfed as 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.040 a human um in a way that I find totally 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.200 freeing and exciting and so beautiful to see so much 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.359 of the world that the in fact probably be the 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.439 only last part of the world that we haven't managed 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.879 to pave over or destroy in some way. You'll be 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.640 happy to know that in one week we've spoken with 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.040 an astronaut and now someone who's been to Antarctica. I 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:08.119 didn't even realize I don't even think about that, but 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.200 in in one in one week, so we we spoke 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.800 to uh astronaut Chris Hadfield from from Canada on an 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.800 episode about Canada. But you know, for all of our 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:18.960 listeners out there, I hope you'll check out Jen's book, 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.160 We Mammals and Hospitable Times. It's a It's a terrific book, 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:24.080 and Jen, thanks so much for joining us on part 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:40.600 time genius. Welcome back to part time Genius, and we're 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.520 talking Antarctica. So will you said you had a funny 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:45.919 penguin story to all I do, and that this is 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:48.600