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Speaker 1: Guess what, mango?

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Speaker 2: What's that? Well?

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Speaker 1: All right, So we're in New York City this week,

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Speaker 1: and one of the things I love seeing here is

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Speaker 1: how many people read on the subway. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: look around and it feels like every New Yorker feels

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Speaker 1: like it's the perfect time to get their reading in.

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Speaker 1: And actually sometimes I'm kind of jealous about this because

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Speaker 1: they have this automatic reading time each day. But you

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Speaker 1: look around the world and there are other places that

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Speaker 1: do this too, and Brazil is actually a big supporter

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Speaker 1: of this. In fact, the country has started something called

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Speaker 1: ticket books to promote literacy. Have you heard about this?

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Speaker 2: No? What's a ticket book?

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Speaker 1: So it's a free book that you can pick up

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Speaker 1: just at a subway station, and apparently there's this Brazilian

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Speaker 1: publisher that gave out ten thousand books. But the cool

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Speaker 1: part is that the books actually double as subway tickets,

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Speaker 1: so each book has ten rides and then a reader

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Speaker 1: can either refill the book for free or pass it

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Speaker 1: along to somebody else.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's pretty cool and did it get people reading? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I think some. In fact, this was an intentional effort

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Speaker 1: on the part there, because I believe Brazilians were only

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Speaker 1: reading maybe like two books a year on average at

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Speaker 1: the time, but the books handed out included everything from

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Speaker 1: The Great Gatsby to Hamlet to Naruda love Sonnets to

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Speaker 1: of course Garfield.

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Speaker 2: Garfield was a ticket book. Yeah, it's like a gayway

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Speaker 2: drug to like reading.

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Speaker 1: But absolutely well, this is just the first of a

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Speaker 1: ton of stories that we have today about Brazil, from

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Speaker 1: you know, how a soap opera convinced the country to

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Speaker 1: have less kids, to how a bunch of termites can

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Speaker 1: help you make a better pizza. So let's dig in. Hey,

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Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius. I'm Will

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Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend

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Speaker 1: Mangesh Hot ticket there and on the other side of

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Speaker 1: the soundproof glass helping himself to what he claims is

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Speaker 1: a Brazilian delicacy. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now,

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Speaker 1: if I sound it a little bit skeptical, it's because

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Speaker 1: I'm basically watching a grown man drink liquid butter from

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Speaker 1: a bottle, and actually he's only trying to frame it

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Speaker 1: as some kind of cultural experience he's taking part in.

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Speaker 1: And I got to be honest, personally, I'm not really

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Speaker 1: buying it. What's your take on this, mega.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's definitely gross that hard the take

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Speaker 2: is true, but you know, as weird as it sounds,

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Speaker 2: I think we should actually give him like some partial

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Speaker 2: credit on this one, because this is actually a thing

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Speaker 2: in Brazil. Apparently in the northeast part of the country,

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Speaker 2: bottle butter is popular and it's even a common souvenir

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Speaker 2: for people who go there on vacation. So the key

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Speaker 2: to remember is that residents actually use this butter as

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Speaker 2: a condiment, not as a beverage. So if you dine

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Speaker 2: in the region, you'd probably find like a bottle of

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Speaker 2: liquid butter on the table next to the salt and pepper,

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Speaker 2: and you can just splash a little on your meat

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Speaker 2: or rice or whatever, just for an extra kick of flavor.

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Speaker 1: I feel like that makes more sense than whatever Tristan

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Speaker 1: is doing right now. So what's so special about this

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Speaker 1: butter anyway? And maybe more importantly, why do they sell

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Speaker 1: this in bottles?

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Speaker 2: So it's actually pretty funny. When I first heard about this,

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Speaker 2: the first thing I thought about was ghee, which is

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Speaker 2: this clarified liquid butter that you have in India. People

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Speaker 2: started making gee because it was sort of this easy

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Speaker 2: way to preserve butter in the days before refrigeration and

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Speaker 2: in areas that are hot or unforgiving. If you clarify

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Speaker 2: the butter and you remove that milky solid that's in there,

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Speaker 2: and you just keep the liquid dairy fat that's left behind,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't spoil. And it turns out it's actually the

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Speaker 2: same story here. Northeast brazila is dry, it's arid, so

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Speaker 2: the cattle ranchers in the region stumbled into this same technique.

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Speaker 2: It actually ends up being super regional. You can't find

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Speaker 2: in other parts of Brazil, only in the northeast. And

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Speaker 2: it's also an acquired taste. Unlike Gee, it actually has

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Speaker 2: a few more notes to it. It's a little more cheesy.

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Speaker 2: It supposedly has a strong barnyard aroma as well, which

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Speaker 2: I guess is very acquired barnyard.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that, I'm not sure how you'd

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Speaker 1: ever acquire that taste, but interesting. It doesn't seem to

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Speaker 1: bother Tristan over there, though, And I'm grateful that he

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Speaker 1: brought this stuff to our attention because it is pretty interesting,

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Speaker 1: and because you know, love for bottled butter is definitely

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Speaker 1: an unusual part of Brazilian culture that I had actually

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Speaker 1: never heard about before, And that's exactly the kind of

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Speaker 1: thing that today's episode is all about. You know, it

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Speaker 1: feels far too often that when it comes to Brazil,

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Speaker 1: we either hear only the good or the bad. You know,

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Speaker 1: like we read about all the tourist friendly things in

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Speaker 1: the country, like the delicious food, the beautiful beaches, sambas, soccer, carnival,

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Speaker 1: but you know, it also feels like we read about

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Speaker 1: the depressing bits like poverty and government corrupt, rampant crime.

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Speaker 1: So today's focus, like, we really thought we'd move past

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Speaker 1: those familiar talking points and think about the stranger side

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Speaker 1: of Brazil, like all the unusual things about the country

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Speaker 1: that you probably never knew about. So let's get into this, Like,

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Speaker 1: what's something you were surprised to learn this week, Mango.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, there are a ton of things, but

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Speaker 2: one thing that really stuck out to me is the

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Speaker 2: fact that nearly two million Brazilian citizens are of Japanese descent.

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Speaker 2: There and while that's still only a fraction of Brazil's population,

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Speaker 2: which is roughly about like two hundred to two hundred

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Speaker 2: and ten million people, it's actually the largest group of

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Speaker 2: people with Japanese ancestry outside of Japan itself.

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Speaker 1: Huh. I actually hadn't heard that before. So why is

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Speaker 1: that exactly?

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Speaker 2: Well, I guess Brazil has always been this melting pot

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Speaker 2: of cultures from all over Europe and Africa, and this

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Speaker 2: goes back hundreds of years. And of course there's also

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Speaker 2: the native population that's there and the various Amazonian tribes.

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Speaker 2: The country really is home to a little bit of everyone.

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Speaker 2: But Asia's country didn't come until about the early twentieth century,

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Speaker 2: and that's when tens of thousands of Japanese people began

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Speaker 2: to look for opportunities abroad. The first batch came over

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Speaker 2: in nineteen oh eight, and then they settled in the

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Speaker 2: south and the southeast parts of the country, where they

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Speaker 2: started working on the coffee plantations. And then the nineteen thirties,

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Speaker 2: the local state government in Brazil's north began offering free

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Speaker 2: land to anyone who was willing to farm it, and

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Speaker 2: obviously that's an attractive deal to an outsider. So a

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Speaker 2: second wave of Japanese immigrants laid roots in that part

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Speaker 2: of the country, and now over a century later, the

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Speaker 2: country has the world's second largest population of people of

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Speaker 2: Japanese ancestry, or nikay as they're called.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's cool because one of the reasons we

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Speaker 1: wanted to do this Brazil episode is because you know,

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Speaker 1: we both learned so many fascinating things from the show

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Speaker 1: we did on Japan a while back. So it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's neat that you found this kind of unexpected connection

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Speaker 1: between the two countries.

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Speaker 2: It's funny. You know. We actually had this host in

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Speaker 2: the office fair Tundy Thurston, and we were talking about

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Speaker 2: aging pops, and I told them how Japan was adding

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Speaker 2: all that process to food for the elderly so that

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Speaker 2: they could chew and swallow food easier. I feel like

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Speaker 2: there were so many facts in that that were really interesting.

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Speaker 2: But what's sort of funny to me is that Japan

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Speaker 2: and Brazil feel pretty far apart, not only in terms

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Speaker 2: of like culture, but stuff like climate. Like Japanese immigrants,

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Speaker 2: you know, they wouldn't have been used to those like

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Speaker 2: ninety five degree days and the average high in Tokyo,

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Speaker 2: like it's only like seventy nine degrees. It's quite a

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Speaker 2: difference between the climates.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a serious adjustment. Do you get a

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Speaker 1: sense for how Japanese transplants, you know, deal with this

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Speaker 1: kind of newness.

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Speaker 2: I guess this is a coping mechanism for all of us.

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Speaker 2: But it's comfort food. So Japan, of course has a

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Speaker 2: pretty famous culinary tradition, you know, from their dining habits

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Speaker 2: to meal time rituals, and so these early Nike communities

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Speaker 2: in Brazil would actually hang onto those traditions as a

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Speaker 2: way to feel connected to their heritage. But they didn't

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Speaker 2: live or cook in isolation either. Like overtime, Brazilian flats

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Speaker 2: began to seep into these traditional Japanese recipes, and ingredients

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Speaker 2: from the homeland that couldn't be found were often subs

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Speaker 2: to do with things like cassava or fish from nearby rivers.

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Speaker 2: But what's interesting is that like a few generations later,

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Speaker 2: a whole bunch of Japanese Brazilians wound up reverse migrating

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Speaker 2: back to Japan, and since they'd lived their entire lives

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Speaker 2: in Brazil, they naturally brought a taste for all of

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Speaker 2: these Brazilian flavors and culture back with them. So in fact,

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Speaker 2: there's this like thriving Brazilian restaurant scene in Japan now

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Speaker 2: because so many people had migrated back there and they

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Speaker 2: were nostalgic for the Brazilian food they'd grown up with.

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Speaker 2: And I just kind of love that there's this like

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Speaker 2: unofficial cultural exchange program between the two countries.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really cool.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: I actually have a different food collaboration that I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about for just the minute, and this is

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Speaker 1: the one between the fishermen of Laguna and Brazil and

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Speaker 1: the wild dolphins who live off the coast there. So

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Speaker 1: for the past one hundred and twenty years, the friendly

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Speaker 1: Laguna dolphins have actually been lending their fishing talents to

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Speaker 1: the coastal community there. I know that may sound a

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Speaker 1: little bit weird.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so how does this work? Exactly?

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Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing actually. So around two hundred fishermen take

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Speaker 1: their nets and then they wade out into the water

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Speaker 1: and you know, they're kind of waist deep at this point,

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Speaker 1: and they form a line. But because the water in

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Speaker 1: the area is so murky, they actually can't see where

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Speaker 1: the fish are. So instead the fishermen wait for a

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Speaker 1: friendly dolphin to give them somewhat of a signal, and

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Speaker 1: so once they see one, make a sudden dive or

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Speaker 1: slap its tail against the water. The humans actually cast

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Speaker 1: their nets and reap the rewards from there, and there's

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Speaker 1: a ton to reap too, like actually, research shows that

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Speaker 1: they can catch more fish and larger fish when they do,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of cooperate with the dolphins compared to

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Speaker 1: when they work solo. In fact, some of the fishermen

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Speaker 1: say that on days when dolphins aren't around, it's not

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Speaker 1: even worth fishing at all.

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Speaker 2: So this sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the fishermen,

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Speaker 2: But what is in it for the dolphins?

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Speaker 1: You know, It's funny because then the articles, the dolphins

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Speaker 1: are almost always talked about like these deep dogs of

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Speaker 1: the sea, like they corral the fish for the fishermen,

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Speaker 1: but it's clearly benefiting them too. And I guess the

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Speaker 1: theory is that panicfish become really disoriented when the fishermen

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Speaker 1: cast their nets, and that chaos makes it easier for

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Speaker 1: the dolphins to gobble up the fish as well. And

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Speaker 1: it isn't like every dolphin participates in this activity, like

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Speaker 1: the helpful ones you know, kind of work alone or

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Speaker 1: in smaller groups with the humans, But the rest of

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Speaker 1: the dolphins steer clear all together. And as you know,

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Speaker 1: as far as we know, nobody ever taught the dolphins

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Speaker 1: to do this, so how exactly this practice got started

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Speaker 1: it's still somewhat of a mystery.

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Speaker 2: I like that you're aware that some of the dolphins

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Speaker 2: oft out of this experience.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want any part of it, which is

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Speaker 1: pretty amazing.

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Speaker 2: But you know, while we're on the subject of bizarrely

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Speaker 2: helpful animals, do you know that Brazilian termites are actually

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Speaker 2: great at making pizza ovens?

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Speaker 1: That is not something I do, but I definitely need

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Speaker 1: to know more now.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know how much you know about termites,

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Speaker 2: but they really are these incredible engineers and construction workers.

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Speaker 2: They carve out these super long, intricate tunnel systems for

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Speaker 2: their colonies to nest in. But you've probably also seen

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Speaker 2: those giant termite mounds is that they make, And I

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Speaker 2: don't know have you actually seen those?

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Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing to see the pictures

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Speaker 1: of these.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and they look like, I guess, like giant dirt

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Speaker 2: cones or almost like big rocks smoke stacks. But the

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Speaker 2: interesting thing is that, like, because most of the turmite

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Speaker 2: tunnels are underground, if you cut into the side of

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Speaker 2: one of these mounds, you probably won't find many termites

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Speaker 2: in it at all.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so what's with the giant cones, Like it

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Speaker 1: seems like a huge amount of work for not a lot.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it depends on which termite mounds we're

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Speaker 2: talking about. Like in the northeast of Brazil, where it's

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Speaker 2: extremely dry and arid, the termite mounds really don't serve

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Speaker 2: a purpose. They're basically just like enormous junk piles, and

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Speaker 2: it's essentially all the excess bits of soil that the

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Speaker 2: termites produce while tunneling on ground, and all of that

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Speaker 2: just eventually gets like collected into a mound. You know.

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Speaker 2: While a termite worker is hardly half an inch long,

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Speaker 2: like like, some of the mounds they build are actually

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Speaker 2: like thirty feet wide at the base and they could

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Speaker 2: be as tall as thirteen feet high. So not only

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Speaker 2: are they big, but there are tons of them. Actually

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Speaker 2: this is a little off topic, but based on satellite

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Speaker 2: images in the region, researchers actually estimate there are roughly

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Speaker 2: two hundred million termite mounts and they're spread across an

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Speaker 2: area as large as four thousand Great Pyramids of Giza, which, wow,

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Speaker 2: is kind of a weird way to measure things. I

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Speaker 2: don't know why. The fact I read said like, I

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Speaker 2: don't normally measure things in Pyramids of Giza, but it's

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Speaker 2: it's pretty fascinating.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty standard now. But I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing if it's that many and you can see

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Speaker 1: the mounds from space, that the bugs have been doing

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Speaker 1: this for a little while.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. There was actually this really neat study where researchers

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Speaker 2: took soil samples from eleven different mounds and then they

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Speaker 2: analyzed the sand grains from the centers to see I

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Speaker 2: guess when these mounds had last been exposed to sunlight

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Speaker 2: or at least the dirt inside. And the youngest mound

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Speaker 2: they found was I guess it was started seven hundred

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Speaker 2: years ago, and the oldest was almost four thousand years old.

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Speaker 1: That is incredible. But actually, I think the question we

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Speaker 1: all want to know now is what does any of

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Speaker 1: this have to do with pizza?

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Speaker 2: So this is a real thing, I promise, and it's

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Speaker 2: not just this shaggy dog story. If you head to

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Speaker 2: southern and central Brazil, where it's wet and grassy, you

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Speaker 2: actually find a different kind of termite mound there, and

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Speaker 2: these ones do serve a purpose both for the termites

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Speaker 2: and for pizza loving humans. So on the termite side

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Speaker 2: of things, that the hollow mounds function as lungs for

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Speaker 2: the colonies that live in the tunnels below them, and

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Speaker 2: it's all this like porous soil and it helps them,

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Speaker 2: I guess, keep their chambers ventilated, like the carbon dioxide

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Speaker 2: is sent out and fresh oxygen comes in. But for humans,

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Speaker 2: the good news is that once the colony dies out

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Speaker 2: or follows the trail of food to a different location,

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Speaker 2: all these deserted mounds make perfect outdoor ovens. So in

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Speaker 2: the past people used to cook all kinds of meat

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Speaker 2: in these makeshift ovens, but today they're actually a really

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Speaker 2: popular way to cook bread and pizza, especially when you're

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Speaker 2: on camping trips or some other outing. And all you

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Speaker 2: have to do is like cut a hole at the

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Speaker 2: base of the mound, confirm it's empty, which is a

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Speaker 2: pretty important part, and then light it up and it's

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Speaker 2: ready to make food with.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I'd have a hard time though, ever,

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Speaker 1: eating something that was baked in a termite oven. To

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Speaker 1: be honest with you, and I mean, I know you

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Speaker 1: said the mounds are abandoned and everything, but I might

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Speaker 1: still struggle with that. But thankfully, though, I know, Brazil

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Speaker 1: has me covered because the country's actually been obsessed with

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Speaker 1: pizza ever since Italian immigrants brought it over at the

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Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth century. In fact, in Brazil's largest city,

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Speaker 1: South Pallo, you know, they're so into pizza there that

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Speaker 1: it's said to be home to eight thousand pizza parlors,

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Speaker 1: eight thousand, which is collectively that's enough to produce a

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Speaker 1: new a million pizzas each and every day. And you know,

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Speaker 1: some foodies claim Brazil makes the best pizza in the.

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Speaker 2: World, which is hard for someone like me to believe.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean there is a downside to all

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Speaker 1: that superior pizza because, according to a twenty sixteen paper

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Speaker 1: and Atmospheric Environment, the restaurants use an estimated three hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand tons of wood each year to keep their old

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Speaker 1: school ovens nice and hot, and unfortunately, all that smoke

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Speaker 1: results in some pretty major air pollution, and so the

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Speaker 1: researchers say that even though most residents have switched over

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Speaker 1: to biofuel for their vehicles, you know, the emissions from

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Speaker 1: all those wood burning ovens might undo all those positive effects.

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Speaker 2: I do find a problematic, right, like choosing between clean

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Speaker 2: air or the world's most delicious pizza. It feels like

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Speaker 2: such a Sophie's choice. But you know, now that we've

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Speaker 2: talked a little bit about Brazilian cuisine and some animals

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Speaker 2: that help put food on the table, why don't we

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Speaker 2: switch gears and talk about the opposite kind of wildlife,

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Speaker 2: the Brazilian animals that are more life threatening than life affirming.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, let's definitely do that. But before we get to that,

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Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time

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Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about the strangest things you never

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Speaker 1: knew about Brazilian wildlife. Now you may have heard this before,

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Speaker 1: but Brazil is believed to have the greatest biodiversity of

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Speaker 1: any country in the world, and it's largely thanks to

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Speaker 1: it's also having the largest tract of untouched rainforest on

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Speaker 1: the planet. And while some of the animals there are dangerous,

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Speaker 1: and you know, some are even deadly, there's one famous

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Speaker 1: jungle resident that is far less dangerous than we like

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Speaker 1: to pretend, and that's the poor misunderstood Piranha.

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Speaker 2: I love it. The humble man eating piranha. But have

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Speaker 2: you ever seen those teeth? I feel like those are

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Speaker 2: some fishes, you know.

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Speaker 1: I feel like you just wanted to say vicious fishes,

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Speaker 1: but I did. I mean, the Farascia puranas has been

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Speaker 1: greatly exaggerated for a long time now, like we think

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Speaker 1: of them as these rapid flesh eating monsters. I'll just

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Speaker 1: kind of tear you apart the second two hit the water.

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Speaker 1: But you know, the truth is that most piranhas would

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Speaker 1: never try to eat a human or any other mammal

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Speaker 1: unless it was dead or even dying. And for the

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Speaker 1: most part they eat insects or other fish, and some

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Speaker 1: species are purana or even vegetarians actually.

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Speaker 2: So I don't feel like I've heard that they're vegetarian

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Speaker 2: purana out there. I feel like knowing that maybe like

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Speaker 2: Annie's or some healthy brand should use them as their mascot.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty weird, but there is a species in Para,

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Speaker 1: Brazil that only eats river weeds. Don't get me wrong.

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Speaker 1: The pranas can still pose a threat to humans, and

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Speaker 1: some swimmers in South America have lost fingers and toes

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Speaker 1: in recent years, but I couldn't find any record of

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Speaker 1: anyone ever being killed by piranhas, And it's really not

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Speaker 1: that surprising when you consider that piranhas usually travel in

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Speaker 1: schools of about twenty fish, which is way fewer than

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Speaker 1: the numbers they need to take down a human.

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Speaker 2: So as morbid as it is, I'm curious, like how

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Speaker 2: many fish it does to take down a human, Like

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Speaker 2: Gabe once told me that, I think it's like a

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Speaker 2: gallon and a half of water could kill me. So

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Speaker 2: that's like a number I have in my head, and

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Speaker 2: I kind of want to know how many piranha I

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Speaker 2: need to avoid.

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Speaker 1: Well, fear not, because I did indeed pull the numbers

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Speaker 1: and a quarter curator. Yeah, oh I didn't do this

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Speaker 1: just myself, but there's a curator at the National Aquarium

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Speaker 1: in Baltimore. And so the estimate that they came up

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Speaker 1: is that to strip the flesh from a one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty pound person in five minutes would require somewhere

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Speaker 1: between three hundred and five hundred hungry piranhas, which is

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Speaker 1: way more than you would ever come across, even in

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Speaker 1: highly concentrated regions like you think the Amazon River as

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Speaker 1: an example.

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Speaker 2: So it sounds like it's highly unlikely, but I guess

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Speaker 2: still technically possible, Like if you were like a Bond villain,

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Speaker 2: you could head to Brazil, scoop up a few hundred piranhas,

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Speaker 2: stick them in your pool, and then you've got this

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Speaker 2: instant death trap.

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Speaker 1: I don't really think we should be giving anybody ideas,

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Speaker 1: but that, in theory, I suppose would work. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: it was a similar kind of stunt that gave the

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Speaker 1: fish such a bad name in the first place, and

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Speaker 1: all because you know, a few Brazilians wanted to show

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Speaker 1: off for Teddy Roosevelt himself. And this happened back in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen. It was a few years after he'd left office.

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Speaker 1: So the forward President decided to go on this expedition.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to go into the heart of the Brazilian rainforest.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the locals knew that he was coming, and

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Speaker 1: they also knew his reputation as this thrill seeker, and

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Speaker 1: so to make sure he had an experience that he

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Speaker 1: would never forget, the Brazilians arranged a demonstration for him.

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Speaker 1: And this was on the banks of the Amazon River.

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Speaker 1: And the guys warned Roosevelt, you know, and his really

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Speaker 1: about the fact that they shouldn't wade into the water

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Speaker 1: there or else they'd be immediately eaten by this small,

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Speaker 1: ravenous fish. And of course, as the Brazilians expected, Roosevelt

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Speaker 1: scoffed at the idea that any fish could be, you know,

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Speaker 1: that dangerous, especially if they're that tiny. So the guides

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Speaker 1: gave him proof. They brought an old, sick cow and

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Speaker 1: drove it into the water. Then, to the horror of

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Speaker 1: everyone watching, the piranhas attacked the cow and stripped it

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Speaker 1: to the bone within just a few minutes.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I feel like as a Hindu, that's particularly disturbing.

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Speaker 2: But it's obviously the stunt. Why were there so many

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Speaker 2: of them just waiting around in one place, Well, because

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Speaker 2: it was a total setup. Like weeks before Roosevelt arrived,

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Speaker 2: local fishermen had caught hundreds of piranha and then they

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Speaker 2: tossed them into this area of the river that they

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Speaker 2: had isolated.

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Speaker 1: With giant nuts. So weeks go by, and then the

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Speaker 1: guides that you know, gave their warning at that part

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Speaker 1: of the river, and they knew that there were hundreds

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Speaker 1: of traps, starving fish just waiting to put on a show.

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Speaker 1: But of course Roosevelt, you know, and all these reporters

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Speaker 1: that were with him. They didn't know any of this,

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Speaker 1: and they thought they had witnessed the most shocking natural

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Speaker 1: display of aggression in the animal kingdom. And now you

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Speaker 1: can bet they wanted to tell the same story when

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Speaker 1: they returned to the US. In fact, Roosevelt released the

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Speaker 1: book the next year called Through the Brazilian Wilderness, and

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Speaker 1: in this book he describes piranhas as quote the most

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Speaker 1: ferocious fish in the world. You know in Hollywood actually

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Speaker 1: kind of took it from there, and for the last century,

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Speaker 1: the piranha's status says, this fresh water killer has gone

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Speaker 1: mostly undisputed until now. I guess, well, yeah, and I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to do my part contributing to it.

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Speaker 2: Well, here's something that sounds like it should be a myth,

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Speaker 2: but and I even kind of like, hope it's a myth,

431
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Speaker 2: But it's actually true. Sometimes it rains spiders in Brazil

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Speaker 2: and so on. A in certain parts of Brazil, the

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Speaker 2: sky will actually open up and hundreds or even thousands

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Speaker 2: of spiders will rain down on the residents below. And

435
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 2: before you tell me I'm making this up, you should

436
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 2: actually look it up online because there are a bunch

437
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:14,399
Speaker 2: of different videos. For full disclosure, it's not like the

438
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,160
Speaker 2: spiders are tumbling out of the rain clouds. It's more

439
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,439
Speaker 2: that the wind is carrying them on their webs. But

440
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 2: for onlookers, the effect is sort of like a storm

441
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:23,680
Speaker 2: of spiders.

442
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 1: So how does this work that there could be thousands

443
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:29,240
Speaker 1: of spiders in one of these showers? I mean, not

444
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,440
Speaker 1: only does that sound like obviously a ton of spiders,

445
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,000
Speaker 1: but how does that work? Because I thought spiders lived

446
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:37,320
Speaker 1: on their own, not in these giant colonies.

447
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:41,920
Speaker 2: You're right, So most spiders do keep to themselves. In fact,

448
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,200
Speaker 2: out of the forty thousand or so known species of

449
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,640
Speaker 2: spiders out there, only twenty three of them are social.

450
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,119
Speaker 2: And so one of these species lives in San Paolo

451
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 2: and the surrounding towns, and there it's pretty common to

452
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,719
Speaker 2: see spiders just sailing through the sky en mass. And

453
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 2: the problem for humans at least is that these colonies

454
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,360
Speaker 2: build these huge sheets of webs in these tree tops, right,

455
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 2: and in order to trap enough insects to keep everyone

456
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 2: fed in this social group. They're just massive. So the

457
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,120
Speaker 2: webs can stretch from the ground to as high as

458
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 2: sixty five feet, and they seriously contain thousands of spiders,

459
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 2: each of which is I guess roughly the size of

460
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 2: a pencil eraser, so not that big, but a lot

461
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,000
Speaker 2: of them. So when a strong enough wind comes along,

462
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,800
Speaker 2: the webs are knocked loose, and then a mob of

463
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 2: these deeply confused spiders are just sent hurtling through the air,

464
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, it's not a great day for

465
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 2: anyone when it's raining spiders. But speaking of not so

466
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 2: great days, Brazil has actually had a stretch of those

467
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 2: recently in terms of politics and culture. So even though

468
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:48,800
Speaker 2: we're trying to keep things light today, I do think

469
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 2: we should spend just a few minutes to kind of

470
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:52,280
Speaker 2: spotlight what's been going on there.

471
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like we probably should. But before we

472
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 1: get to that, let's take one more quick break.

473
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, so if you keep tabs on international news,

474
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 2: there's a good chance you've heard the recent concerns about

475
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 2: Brazil's newly elected president Bolsonaro. Many of his views tend

476
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 2: to be extreme, to put it mildly, and the measures

477
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 2: he's enacted since taking office don't really bode well for

478
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 2: the country's cultural institutions. For example, one of his first

479
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:34,880
Speaker 2: actions as president was to dissolve three of Brazil's ministries

480
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 2: the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Social Development and to

481
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 2: merge them into a single department. And while we don't

482
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 2: actually know how that will affect government funding for cultural institutions,

483
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,719
Speaker 2: artistic communities in Brazil are really bracing for the worst.

484
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:52,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's you know, it's especially upsetting when you think

485
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:55,240
Speaker 1: about how much they've already suffered. You know, I'm sure

486
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: you remember this, but it was just last fall there

487
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: was that fire that destroyed Brazil's National Museum, and this

488
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,240
Speaker 1: was a collection there that contained more than twenty million artifacts.

489
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 1: You know, they amassed this over the course of the

490
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:11,440
Speaker 1: institution's two hundred year history, so it was just devastating

491
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,640
Speaker 1: and tragically as much as ninety percent of the collection

492
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: is thought to have been lost in this fire.

493
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 2: Ninety percent. It's really awful to think about, like everything

494
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 2: that was lost that night. Like I a should remember

495
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 2: reading about that museum and how they lost this massive

496
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 2: collection of art from different indigenous peoples that were spread

497
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,679
Speaker 2: across Brazil, so it was like costumes and personal belongings,

498
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,960
Speaker 2: but also audio recordings of languages that I believe had

499
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 2: died out. So you know, it's super tragic and all

500
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,159
Speaker 2: of that has gone now along with many of the

501
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 2: other relics of South American culture.

502
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, you're actually looking on the bright side

503
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,840
Speaker 1: of this. I was happy to see that multiple campaigns

504
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:56,160
Speaker 1: have since launched these efforts to digitally recreate the museum collection.

505
00:25:56,359 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 1: And this was using decades of visitor photos. So if

506
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: you've ever made it there on vacation, you can actually

507
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,119
Speaker 1: submit your shots online at the museum's website. And actually

508
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 1: there's a good chunk of the collection that made it

509
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 1: through the fire, un skate, and this includes the oldest

510
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:13,360
Speaker 1: human fossil found in Brazil.

511
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 2: Well, that is good news. I'm curious, though, I sort

512
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 2: of lost track of that news story. Did they ever

513
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 2: figure out what started the fire? And please don't say,

514
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:22,679
Speaker 2: Billy Joel.

515
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 1: You beat me too. Well, investigators never reported an exact

516
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,199
Speaker 1: cause for the blaze, but official speculate it may have

517
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: been just like a short circuit or something, and apparently

518
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: that had been known for a while, like things like

519
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:39,040
Speaker 1: exposed wiring and that the museum didn't have fire doors

520
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: or a sprinkler system. And that might be the saddest

521
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 1: part of this because according to Smithsonian, the National Museum's

522
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: full annual budget, it was one hundred and twenty eight

523
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but hasn't received that amount since twenty fourteen.

524
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 1: In fact, last year at the museum received only thirteen

525
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and in late twenty seventeen, the museum's finances

526
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: were in such poor shape the curators turned to crowdfunding,

527
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: you know, to repair and exhibit that had really been

528
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: infested with termites at the time.

529
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,919
Speaker 2: I mean that that is frustrating, and I just can't

530
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 2: believe those numbers, Like the fact that they were only

531
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 2: getting what was it, thirteen thousand dollars and that it

532
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 2: didn't have a sprinkler system like that feels unimaginable for

533
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 2: a national museum.

534
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the federal government had actually been divesting

535
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: from the museum for years, so this isn't a new thing.

536
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: But I also read an interesting article in City Lab

537
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: that suggested something else. Apparently part of the problem is

538
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: that modern Brazil doesn't feel very rooted to its pass

539
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: So I pulled this quote from the article. Here's what

540
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 1: it says. We live in a country that has a

541
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 1: weak connection to its history. In advance of the twenty

542
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 1: sixteen Summer Olympics, Rio Desan Eiro and the Brazilian government

543
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 1: spent billions on these costly development projects, opening new landmarks

544
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,679
Speaker 1: like the Museum of Aqua Rio, which is the largest

545
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 1: aquarium in South America. Meanwhile, the city has allowed several

546
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: other museums and historic structures to just decay. In particular,

547
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: we have little concern for educational and cultural resources provided

548
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: for those living in poverty. So the thing is, you know,

549
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 1: we talked about Brazil as this melting pot of cultures,

550
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 1: but it's interesting to think about how a place becomes

551
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,360
Speaker 1: a melting pot in the first place. And in Brazil's case,

552
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 1: it was a pretty violent process, and it sounds like

553
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:34,880
Speaker 1: that left the national identity pretty fractured in some very

554
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: real ways.

555
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 2: Well, I feel like we've gone a little bit negative here,

556
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 2: but I feel like we can turn that tone around

557
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 2: with some Amazon surfing.

558
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: Amazon surf very talking about online shopping or like riding

559
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: on a surfboard down the Amazon.

560
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:54,239
Speaker 2: So definitely the latter surfing the Amazon River. And this

561
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 2: sounds insane, but a couple times a year, a massive

562
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 2: twelve foot highwave flows in from the ocean, and for

563
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 2: a brief period afterwards, twelve foot highwaves form in the Amazon,

564
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 2: some of which go on for hours and travel unbroken

565
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 2: for miles on end, and there's this great local legend

566
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 2: about them. Apparently they are caused by three mischievous kids

567
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 2: that travel up and down the Amazon playing pranks on

568
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 2: each other. But what's crazy is that the locals call

569
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 2: it Porto Rocco or the Great Roar, because supposedly you

570
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 2: can hear it coming for up to an hour before

571
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 2: the waves arrive.

572
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: Oh wow, so this has to be an incredibly strong wave,

573
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: I would imagine, definitely.

574
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 2: And the wave is so powerful that it pulls trees

575
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,120
Speaker 2: and structures from the shoreline and pulls the debris along

576
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 2: with it, which also makes for primo surfing conditions I'm guessing.

577
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 1: But no, I like, do people really serve this thing?

578
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 2: Yeah? So people do surf this thing, This tidal wave

579
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 2: thing happens regularly enough that there's even this organized event

580
00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 2: to celebrate its arrival. It's called the National por Roca

581
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 2: Surfing Championship, and each year surfers from all over the

582
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 2: world take part in it to see who can ride

583
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 2: the monster wave the longest. And the current record holder

584
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 2: managed to ride along this wave for over half an

585
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,719
Speaker 2: hour and he traveled just under seven and a half

586
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 2: miles total. Isn't that ridiculous? Wow?

587
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 1: That is that is impressive.

588
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 2: Anyway, I feel like it's a fascinating fact, but we

589
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 2: should ride it straight into the fact.

590
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:26,360
Speaker 1: Off, what do you say, let's do it.

591
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 2: So here's a strange thing I actually dig. Apparently Brazil

592
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 2: has one of the largest cashew trees in the world,

593
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 2: and it's actually a tourist attraction and big enough that

594
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,480
Speaker 2: they charge admission to it. This mutant tree stretches over

595
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 2: two acres or roughly five football fields, and it's about

596
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 2: the size of seventy normal cashew trees. Apparently the tree

597
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:00,200
Speaker 2: has two weird mutations. Not only do the branches grow

598
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 2: sideways instead of growing upwards, but when a branch gets

599
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 2: super heavy and it touches the ground from all the

600
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 2: fruit on it, it ends up setting down roots and

601
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 2: spawning another part of a tree.

602
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here's one thing you can't do in Brazil,

603
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: at least not legally, and that's use a tanning bit.

604
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: So the country banned them for cosmetic purposes back in

605
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine.

606
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 2: You know, we started with the book theme and I

607
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 2: thought i'd bring it back Brazilian prisons are so overcrowded

608
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 2: that they've instituted a system where they'll take four days

609
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 2: off your sentence if you read a book and write

610
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 2: a report on it. You do max out at twelve

611
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 2: book reports every year, so each year you can take

612
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 2: about a month and a half off your sentence. But

613
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 2: what I found most interesting was that some of the

614
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 2: titles that are popular are not things I would have expected.

615
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 2: So in this article I was reading, it listed Gone

616
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 2: with the Wind as one of the most popular books

617
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 2: and Lame Miz as well.

618
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, Well, Brazilian soap operas are credited with

619
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: getting people to have fewer kids, believe it or not.

620
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: In two generations, apparently the country went from having seven

621
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: kids per family to just two. And from the way

622
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 1: The Atlantic describes it, you know, shows don't make a

623
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense. They've got these needlessly complicated storylines

624
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 1: filled with sex and scandal, but the families also have

625
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: tons of possessions and very few kids, And the result

626
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,160
Speaker 1: is that people have been more obsessed with capitalism and

627
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: money and have actually grown to see big families and

628
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,920
Speaker 1: constant childbirth as being less desirable.

629
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 2: Well here's another fact. I didn't realize. Did you know

630
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 2: that Brazilians believe that a fellow statesman of Theirs, Alberto

631
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 2: Santos Dumont, beat the Ripe Brothers to flying his plane,

632
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 2: and I guess he flew sixty meters in his airplane

633
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 2: in front of a French crowd in nineteen oh six.

634
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 2: I believe. But when it was pointed out that the

635
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 2: Right Brothers had beat him by a few years, Brazil

636
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 2: actually stuck by their men. They insisted that the rip

637
00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 2: brother's flight wasn't powered and it was only possible dude

638
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 2: to really strong winds. And the BBC reports that that's

639
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 2: actually how it's written in their history books. They don't

640
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 2: really give the Right brothers credit.

641
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: You know, a long time ago, we did this episode

642
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: where we talked about Snake Island. Do you remember this?

643
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 2: Yeah? I remember. It was terrifying that this was that

644
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:20,479
Speaker 2: island that had no people and thousands of deadly snakes

645
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 2: on it.

646
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: Right, that is exactly right. And you know the snakes

647
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: were lance head vipers. And you're not legally allowed to

648
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 1: go to the island without a doctor with you. And

649
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: there are reasons scientists go, I mean, the venom might

650
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 1: be used at some point in creating anti cancer drugs.

651
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: But here's the most strange part about all this is

652
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 1: that people do sneak onto the island and they bag

653
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: the snakes to sell on the black market. So not

654
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 1: only do scientists abroad want the snakes, but animal collectors

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00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,400
Speaker 1: want them to and they end up fetching anywhere between

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00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: ten thousand and thirty thousand dollars for these things.

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00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 2: Thirty thousand dollars, and those snakes are so terrifying, like

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00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 2: just how venomous they are. But it does feel good

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00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 2: to know that if someone tries to sell me one

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00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 2: for forty thousand dollars, I know they're ripping me off.

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00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 2: So that's right. I think you can take home this

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00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 2: week's trophy and all your snake facts.

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00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: I feel like save you a few bucks on that one. Well,

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00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: I know there are other facts about Brazil. We had

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00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 1: a lot of fun with the episode this week, but

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00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: we always love hearing from you. If there are facts

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00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: or stories that you'd love to share, you can reach

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00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 1: us part time Genius at iHeartMedia dot com or hit

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00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter. But from Gabe, Tristan

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00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: Mango and me, thanks so much for listening,