Speaker 1: Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2: What's that? Well?
Speaker 1: All right, So we're in New York City this week,
Speaker 1: and one of the things I love seeing here is
Speaker 1: how many people read on the subway. I mean, you
Speaker 1: look around and it feels like every New Yorker feels
Speaker 1: like it's the perfect time to get their reading in.
Speaker 1: And actually sometimes I'm kind of jealous about this because
Speaker 1: they have this automatic reading time each day. But you
Speaker 1: look around the world and there are other places that
Speaker 1: do this too, and Brazil is actually a big supporter
Speaker 1: of this. In fact, the country has started something called
Speaker 1: ticket books to promote literacy. Have you heard about this?
Speaker 2: No? What's a ticket book?
Speaker 1: So it's a free book that you can pick up
Speaker 1: just at a subway station, and apparently there's this Brazilian
Speaker 1: publisher that gave out ten thousand books. But the cool
Speaker 1: part is that the books actually double as subway tickets,
Speaker 1: so each book has ten rides and then a reader
Speaker 1: can either refill the book for free or pass it
Speaker 1: along to somebody else.
Speaker 2: Oh that's pretty cool and did it get people reading? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think some. In fact, this was an intentional effort
Speaker 1: on the part there, because I believe Brazilians were only
Speaker 1: reading maybe like two books a year on average at
Speaker 1: the time, but the books handed out included everything from
Speaker 1: The Great Gatsby to Hamlet to Naruda love Sonnets to
Speaker 1: of course Garfield.
Speaker 2: Garfield was a ticket book. Yeah, it's like a gayway
Speaker 2: drug to like reading.
Speaker 1: But absolutely well, this is just the first of a
Speaker 1: ton of stories that we have today about Brazil, from
Speaker 1: you know, how a soap opera convinced the country to
Speaker 1: have less kids, to how a bunch of termites can
Speaker 1: help you make a better pizza. So let's dig in. Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: Mangesh Hot ticket there and on the other side of
Speaker 1: the soundproof glass helping himself to what he claims is
Speaker 1: a Brazilian delicacy. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now,
Speaker 1: if I sound it a little bit skeptical, it's because
Speaker 1: I'm basically watching a grown man drink liquid butter from
Speaker 1: a bottle, and actually he's only trying to frame it
Speaker 1: as some kind of cultural experience he's taking part in.
Speaker 1: And I got to be honest, personally, I'm not really
Speaker 1: buying it. What's your take on this, mega.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's definitely gross that hard the take
Speaker 2: is true, but you know, as weird as it sounds,
Speaker 2: I think we should actually give him like some partial
Speaker 2: credit on this one, because this is actually a thing
Speaker 2: in Brazil. Apparently in the northeast part of the country,
Speaker 2: bottle butter is popular and it's even a common souvenir
Speaker 2: for people who go there on vacation. So the key
Speaker 2: to remember is that residents actually use this butter as
Speaker 2: a condiment, not as a beverage. So if you dine
Speaker 2: in the region, you'd probably find like a bottle of
Speaker 2: liquid butter on the table next to the salt and pepper,
Speaker 2: and you can just splash a little on your meat
Speaker 2: or rice or whatever, just for an extra kick of flavor.
Speaker 1: I feel like that makes more sense than whatever Tristan
Speaker 1: is doing right now. So what's so special about this
Speaker 1: butter anyway? And maybe more importantly, why do they sell
Speaker 1: this in bottles?
Speaker 2: So it's actually pretty funny. When I first heard about this,
Speaker 2: the first thing I thought about was ghee, which is
Speaker 2: this clarified liquid butter that you have in India. People
Speaker 2: started making gee because it was sort of this easy
Speaker 2: way to preserve butter in the days before refrigeration and
Speaker 2: in areas that are hot or unforgiving. If you clarify
Speaker 2: the butter and you remove that milky solid that's in there,
Speaker 2: and you just keep the liquid dairy fat that's left behind,
Speaker 2: it doesn't spoil. And it turns out it's actually the
Speaker 2: same story here. Northeast brazila is dry, it's arid, so
Speaker 2: the cattle ranchers in the region stumbled into this same technique.
Speaker 2: It actually ends up being super regional. You can't find
Speaker 2: in other parts of Brazil, only in the northeast. And
Speaker 2: it's also an acquired taste. Unlike Gee, it actually has
Speaker 2: a few more notes to it. It's a little more cheesy.
Speaker 2: It supposedly has a strong barnyard aroma as well, which
Speaker 2: I guess is very acquired barnyard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that, I'm not sure how you'd
Speaker 1: ever acquire that taste, but interesting. It doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: bother Tristan over there, though, And I'm grateful that he
Speaker 1: brought this stuff to our attention because it is pretty interesting,
Speaker 1: and because you know, love for bottled butter is definitely
Speaker 1: an unusual part of Brazilian culture that I had actually
Speaker 1: never heard about before, And that's exactly the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that today's episode is all about. You know, it
Speaker 1: feels far too often that when it comes to Brazil,
Speaker 1: we either hear only the good or the bad. You know,
Speaker 1: like we read about all the tourist friendly things in
Speaker 1: the country, like the delicious food, the beautiful beaches, sambas, soccer, carnival,
Speaker 1: but you know, it also feels like we read about
Speaker 1: the depressing bits like poverty and government corrupt, rampant crime.
Speaker 1: So today's focus, like, we really thought we'd move past
Speaker 1: those familiar talking points and think about the stranger side
Speaker 1: of Brazil, like all the unusual things about the country
Speaker 1: that you probably never knew about. So let's get into this, Like,
Speaker 1: what's something you were surprised to learn this week, Mango.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, there are a ton of things, but
Speaker 2: one thing that really stuck out to me is the
Speaker 2: fact that nearly two million Brazilian citizens are of Japanese descent.
Speaker 2: There and while that's still only a fraction of Brazil's population,
Speaker 2: which is roughly about like two hundred to two hundred
Speaker 2: and ten million people, it's actually the largest group of
Speaker 2: people with Japanese ancestry outside of Japan itself.
Speaker 1: Huh. I actually hadn't heard that before. So why is
Speaker 1: that exactly?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess Brazil has always been this melting pot
Speaker 2: of cultures from all over Europe and Africa, and this
Speaker 2: goes back hundreds of years. And of course there's also
Speaker 2: the native population that's there and the various Amazonian tribes.
Speaker 2: The country really is home to a little bit of everyone.
Speaker 2: But Asia's country didn't come until about the early twentieth century,
Speaker 2: and that's when tens of thousands of Japanese people began
Speaker 2: to look for opportunities abroad. The first batch came over
Speaker 2: in nineteen oh eight, and then they settled in the
Speaker 2: south and the southeast parts of the country, where they
Speaker 2: started working on the coffee plantations. And then the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 2: the local state government in Brazil's north began offering free
Speaker 2: land to anyone who was willing to farm it, and
Speaker 2: obviously that's an attractive deal to an outsider. So a
Speaker 2: second wave of Japanese immigrants laid roots in that part
Speaker 2: of the country, and now over a century later, the
Speaker 2: country has the world's second largest population of people of
Speaker 2: Japanese ancestry, or nikay as they're called.
Speaker 1: You know, it's cool because one of the reasons we
Speaker 1: wanted to do this Brazil episode is because you know,
Speaker 1: we both learned so many fascinating things from the show
Speaker 1: we did on Japan a while back. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's neat that you found this kind of unexpected connection
Speaker 1: between the two countries.
Speaker 2: It's funny. You know. We actually had this host in
Speaker 2: the office fair Tundy Thurston, and we were talking about
Speaker 2: aging pops, and I told them how Japan was adding
Speaker 2: all that process to food for the elderly so that
Speaker 2: they could chew and swallow food easier. I feel like
Speaker 2: there were so many facts in that that were really interesting.
Speaker 2: But what's sort of funny to me is that Japan
Speaker 2: and Brazil feel pretty far apart, not only in terms
Speaker 2: of like culture, but stuff like climate. Like Japanese immigrants,
Speaker 2: you know, they wouldn't have been used to those like
Speaker 2: ninety five degree days and the average high in Tokyo,
Speaker 2: like it's only like seventy nine degrees. It's quite a
Speaker 2: difference between the climates.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a serious adjustment. Do you get a
Speaker 1: sense for how Japanese transplants, you know, deal with this
Speaker 1: kind of newness.
Speaker 2: I guess this is a coping mechanism for all of us.
Speaker 2: But it's comfort food. So Japan, of course has a
Speaker 2: pretty famous culinary tradition, you know, from their dining habits
Speaker 2: to meal time rituals, and so these early Nike communities
Speaker 2: in Brazil would actually hang onto those traditions as a
Speaker 2: way to feel connected to their heritage. But they didn't
Speaker 2: live or cook in isolation either. Like overtime, Brazilian flats
Speaker 2: began to seep into these traditional Japanese recipes, and ingredients
Speaker 2: from the homeland that couldn't be found were often subs
Speaker 2: to do with things like cassava or fish from nearby rivers.
Speaker 2: But what's interesting is that like a few generations later,
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of Japanese Brazilians wound up reverse migrating
Speaker 2: back to Japan, and since they'd lived their entire lives
Speaker 2: in Brazil, they naturally brought a taste for all of
Speaker 2: these Brazilian flavors and culture back with them. So in fact,
Speaker 2: there's this like thriving Brazilian restaurant scene in Japan now
Speaker 2: because so many people had migrated back there and they
Speaker 2: were nostalgic for the Brazilian food they'd grown up with.
Speaker 2: And I just kind of love that there's this like
Speaker 2: unofficial cultural exchange program between the two countries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I actually have a different food collaboration that I want
Speaker 1: to talk about for just the minute, and this is
Speaker 1: the one between the fishermen of Laguna and Brazil and
Speaker 1: the wild dolphins who live off the coast there. So
Speaker 1: for the past one hundred and twenty years, the friendly
Speaker 1: Laguna dolphins have actually been lending their fishing talents to
Speaker 1: the coastal community there. I know that may sound a
Speaker 1: little bit weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so how does this work? Exactly?
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing actually. So around two hundred fishermen take
Speaker 1: their nets and then they wade out into the water
Speaker 1: and you know, they're kind of waist deep at this point,
Speaker 1: and they form a line. But because the water in
Speaker 1: the area is so murky, they actually can't see where
Speaker 1: the fish are. So instead the fishermen wait for a
Speaker 1: friendly dolphin to give them somewhat of a signal, and
Speaker 1: so once they see one, make a sudden dive or
Speaker 1: slap its tail against the water. The humans actually cast
Speaker 1: their nets and reap the rewards from there, and there's
Speaker 1: a ton to reap too, like actually, research shows that
Speaker 1: they can catch more fish and larger fish when they do,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of cooperate with the dolphins compared to
Speaker 1: when they work solo. In fact, some of the fishermen
Speaker 1: say that on days when dolphins aren't around, it's not
Speaker 1: even worth fishing at all.
Speaker 2: So this sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the fishermen,
Speaker 2: But what is in it for the dolphins?
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny because then the articles, the dolphins
Speaker 1: are almost always talked about like these deep dogs of
Speaker 1: the sea, like they corral the fish for the fishermen,
Speaker 1: but it's clearly benefiting them too. And I guess the
Speaker 1: theory is that panicfish become really disoriented when the fishermen
Speaker 1: cast their nets, and that chaos makes it easier for
Speaker 1: the dolphins to gobble up the fish as well. And
Speaker 1: it isn't like every dolphin participates in this activity, like
Speaker 1: the helpful ones you know, kind of work alone or
Speaker 1: in smaller groups with the humans, But the rest of
Speaker 1: the dolphins steer clear all together. And as you know,
Speaker 1: as far as we know, nobody ever taught the dolphins
Speaker 1: to do this, so how exactly this practice got started
Speaker 1: it's still somewhat of a mystery.
Speaker 2: I like that you're aware that some of the dolphins
Speaker 2: oft out of this experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want any part of it, which is
Speaker 1: pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: But you know, while we're on the subject of bizarrely
Speaker 2: helpful animals, do you know that Brazilian termites are actually
Speaker 2: great at making pizza ovens?
Speaker 1: That is not something I do, but I definitely need
Speaker 1: to know more now.
Speaker 2: So I don't know how much you know about termites,
Speaker 2: but they really are these incredible engineers and construction workers.
Speaker 2: They carve out these super long, intricate tunnel systems for
Speaker 2: their colonies to nest in. But you've probably also seen
Speaker 2: those giant termite mounds is that they make, And I
Speaker 2: don't know have you actually seen those?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing to see the pictures
Speaker 1: of these.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they look like, I guess, like giant dirt
Speaker 2: cones or almost like big rocks smoke stacks. But the
Speaker 2: interesting thing is that, like, because most of the turmite
Speaker 2: tunnels are underground, if you cut into the side of
Speaker 2: one of these mounds, you probably won't find many termites
Speaker 2: in it at all.
Speaker 1: I mean, so what's with the giant cones, Like it
Speaker 1: seems like a huge amount of work for not a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it depends on which termite mounds we're
Speaker 2: talking about. Like in the northeast of Brazil, where it's
Speaker 2: extremely dry and arid, the termite mounds really don't serve
Speaker 2: a purpose. They're basically just like enormous junk piles, and
Speaker 2: it's essentially all the excess bits of soil that the
Speaker 2: termites produce while tunneling on ground, and all of that
Speaker 2: just eventually gets like collected into a mound. You know.
Speaker 2: While a termite worker is hardly half an inch long,
Speaker 2: like like, some of the mounds they build are actually
Speaker 2: like thirty feet wide at the base and they could
Speaker 2: be as tall as thirteen feet high. So not only
Speaker 2: are they big, but there are tons of them. Actually
Speaker 2: this is a little off topic, but based on satellite
Speaker 2: images in the region, researchers actually estimate there are roughly
Speaker 2: two hundred million termite mounts and they're spread across an
Speaker 2: area as large as four thousand Great Pyramids of Giza, which, wow,
Speaker 2: is kind of a weird way to measure things. I
Speaker 2: don't know why. The fact I read said like, I
Speaker 2: don't normally measure things in Pyramids of Giza, but it's
Speaker 2: it's pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty standard now. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing if it's that many and you can see
Speaker 1: the mounds from space, that the bugs have been doing
Speaker 1: this for a little while.
Speaker 2: Yeah. There was actually this really neat study where researchers
Speaker 2: took soil samples from eleven different mounds and then they
Speaker 2: analyzed the sand grains from the centers to see I
Speaker 2: guess when these mounds had last been exposed to sunlight
Speaker 2: or at least the dirt inside. And the youngest mound
Speaker 2: they found was I guess it was started seven hundred
Speaker 2: years ago, and the oldest was almost four thousand years old.
Speaker 1: That is incredible. But actually, I think the question we
Speaker 1: all want to know now is what does any of
Speaker 1: this have to do with pizza?
Speaker 2: So this is a real thing, I promise, and it's
Speaker 2: not just this shaggy dog story. If you head to
Speaker 2: southern and central Brazil, where it's wet and grassy, you
Speaker 2: actually find a different kind of termite mound there, and
Speaker 2: these ones do serve a purpose both for the termites
Speaker 2: and for pizza loving humans. So on the termite side
Speaker 2: of things, that the hollow mounds function as lungs for
Speaker 2: the colonies that live in the tunnels below them, and
Speaker 2: it's all this like porous soil and it helps them,
Speaker 2: I guess, keep their chambers ventilated, like the carbon dioxide
Speaker 2: is sent out and fresh oxygen comes in. But for humans,
Speaker 2: the good news is that once the colony dies out
Speaker 2: or follows the trail of food to a different location,
Speaker 2: all these deserted mounds make perfect outdoor ovens. So in
Speaker 2: the past people used to cook all kinds of meat
Speaker 2: in these makeshift ovens, but today they're actually a really
Speaker 2: popular way to cook bread and pizza, especially when you're
Speaker 2: on camping trips or some other outing. And all you
Speaker 2: have to do is like cut a hole at the
Speaker 2: base of the mound, confirm it's empty, which is a
Speaker 2: pretty important part, and then light it up and it's
Speaker 2: ready to make food with.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I'd have a hard time though, ever,
Speaker 1: eating something that was baked in a termite oven. To
Speaker 1: be honest with you, and I mean, I know you
Speaker 1: said the mounds are abandoned and everything, but I might
Speaker 1: still struggle with that. But thankfully, though, I know, Brazil
Speaker 1: has me covered because the country's actually been obsessed with
Speaker 1: pizza ever since Italian immigrants brought it over at the
Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth century. In fact, in Brazil's largest city,
Speaker 1: South Pallo, you know, they're so into pizza there that
Speaker 1: it's said to be home to eight thousand pizza parlors,
Speaker 1: eight thousand, which is collectively that's enough to produce a
Speaker 1: new a million pizzas each and every day. And you know,
Speaker 1: some foodies claim Brazil makes the best pizza in the.
Speaker 2: World, which is hard for someone like me to believe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean there is a downside to all
Speaker 1: that superior pizza because, according to a twenty sixteen paper
Speaker 1: and Atmospheric Environment, the restaurants use an estimated three hundred
Speaker 1: thousand tons of wood each year to keep their old
Speaker 1: school ovens nice and hot, and unfortunately, all that smoke
Speaker 1: results in some pretty major air pollution, and so the
Speaker 1: researchers say that even though most residents have switched over
Speaker 1: to biofuel for their vehicles, you know, the emissions from
Speaker 1: all those wood burning ovens might undo all those positive effects.
Speaker 2: I do find a problematic, right, like choosing between clean
Speaker 2: air or the world's most delicious pizza. It feels like
Speaker 2: such a Sophie's choice. But you know, now that we've
Speaker 2: talked a little bit about Brazilian cuisine and some animals
Speaker 2: that help put food on the table, why don't we
Speaker 2: switch gears and talk about the opposite kind of wildlife,
Speaker 2: the Brazilian animals that are more life threatening than life affirming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's definitely do that. But before we get to that,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time
Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about the strangest things you never
Speaker 1: knew about Brazilian wildlife. Now you may have heard this before,
Speaker 1: but Brazil is believed to have the greatest biodiversity of
Speaker 1: any country in the world, and it's largely thanks to
Speaker 1: it's also having the largest tract of untouched rainforest on
Speaker 1: the planet. And while some of the animals there are dangerous,
Speaker 1: and you know, some are even deadly, there's one famous
Speaker 1: jungle resident that is far less dangerous than we like
Speaker 1: to pretend, and that's the poor misunderstood Piranha.
Speaker 2: I love it. The humble man eating piranha. But have
Speaker 2: you ever seen those teeth? I feel like those are
Speaker 2: some fishes, you know.
Speaker 1: I feel like you just wanted to say vicious fishes,
Speaker 1: but I did. I mean, the Farascia puranas has been
Speaker 1: greatly exaggerated for a long time now, like we think
Speaker 1: of them as these rapid flesh eating monsters. I'll just
Speaker 1: kind of tear you apart the second two hit the water.
Speaker 1: But you know, the truth is that most piranhas would
Speaker 1: never try to eat a human or any other mammal
Speaker 1: unless it was dead or even dying. And for the
Speaker 1: most part they eat insects or other fish, and some
Speaker 1: species are purana or even vegetarians actually.
Speaker 2: So I don't feel like I've heard that they're vegetarian
Speaker 2: purana out there. I feel like knowing that maybe like
Speaker 2: Annie's or some healthy brand should use them as their mascot.
Speaker 1: It's pretty weird, but there is a species in Para,
Speaker 1: Brazil that only eats river weeds. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: The pranas can still pose a threat to humans, and
Speaker 1: some swimmers in South America have lost fingers and toes
Speaker 1: in recent years, but I couldn't find any record of
Speaker 1: anyone ever being killed by piranhas, And it's really not
Speaker 1: that surprising when you consider that piranhas usually travel in
Speaker 1: schools of about twenty fish, which is way fewer than
Speaker 1: the numbers they need to take down a human.
Speaker 2: So as morbid as it is, I'm curious, like how
Speaker 2: many fish it does to take down a human, Like
Speaker 2: Gabe once told me that, I think it's like a
Speaker 2: gallon and a half of water could kill me. So
Speaker 2: that's like a number I have in my head, and
Speaker 2: I kind of want to know how many piranha I
Speaker 2: need to avoid.
Speaker 1: Well, fear not, because I did indeed pull the numbers
Speaker 1: and a quarter curator. Yeah, oh I didn't do this
Speaker 1: just myself, but there's a curator at the National Aquarium
Speaker 1: in Baltimore. And so the estimate that they came up
Speaker 1: is that to strip the flesh from a one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty pound person in five minutes would require somewhere
Speaker 1: between three hundred and five hundred hungry piranhas, which is
Speaker 1: way more than you would ever come across, even in
Speaker 1: highly concentrated regions like you think the Amazon River as
Speaker 1: an example.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like it's highly unlikely, but I guess
Speaker 2: still technically possible, Like if you were like a Bond villain,
Speaker 2: you could head to Brazil, scoop up a few hundred piranhas,
Speaker 2: stick them in your pool, and then you've got this
Speaker 2: instant death trap.
Speaker 1: I don't really think we should be giving anybody ideas,
Speaker 1: but that, in theory, I suppose would work. And in fact,
Speaker 1: it was a similar kind of stunt that gave the
Speaker 1: fish such a bad name in the first place, and
Speaker 1: all because you know, a few Brazilians wanted to show
Speaker 1: off for Teddy Roosevelt himself. And this happened back in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen. It was a few years after he'd left office.
Speaker 1: So the forward President decided to go on this expedition.
Speaker 1: He wanted to go into the heart of the Brazilian rainforest.
Speaker 1: Of course, the locals knew that he was coming, and
Speaker 1: they also knew his reputation as this thrill seeker, and
Speaker 1: so to make sure he had an experience that he
Speaker 1: would never forget, the Brazilians arranged a demonstration for him.
Speaker 1: And this was on the banks of the Amazon River.
Speaker 1: And the guys warned Roosevelt, you know, and his really
Speaker 1: about the fact that they shouldn't wade into the water
Speaker 1: there or else they'd be immediately eaten by this small,
Speaker 1: ravenous fish. And of course, as the Brazilians expected, Roosevelt
Speaker 1: scoffed at the idea that any fish could be, you know,
Speaker 1: that dangerous, especially if they're that tiny. So the guides
Speaker 1: gave him proof. They brought an old, sick cow and
Speaker 1: drove it into the water. Then, to the horror of
Speaker 1: everyone watching, the piranhas attacked the cow and stripped it
Speaker 1: to the bone within just a few minutes.
Speaker 2: Oh, I feel like as a Hindu, that's particularly disturbing.
Speaker 2: But it's obviously the stunt. Why were there so many
Speaker 2: of them just waiting around in one place, Well, because
Speaker 2: it was a total setup. Like weeks before Roosevelt arrived,
Speaker 2: local fishermen had caught hundreds of piranha and then they
Speaker 2: tossed them into this area of the river that they
Speaker 2: had isolated.
Speaker 1: With giant nuts. So weeks go by, and then the
Speaker 1: guides that you know, gave their warning at that part
Speaker 1: of the river, and they knew that there were hundreds
Speaker 1: of traps, starving fish just waiting to put on a show.
Speaker 1: But of course Roosevelt, you know, and all these reporters
Speaker 1: that were with him. They didn't know any of this,
Speaker 1: and they thought they had witnessed the most shocking natural
Speaker 1: display of aggression in the animal kingdom. And now you
Speaker 1: can bet they wanted to tell the same story when
Speaker 1: they returned to the US. In fact, Roosevelt released the
Speaker 1: book the next year called Through the Brazilian Wilderness, and
Speaker 1: in this book he describes piranhas as quote the most
Speaker 1: ferocious fish in the world. You know in Hollywood actually
Speaker 1: kind of took it from there, and for the last century,
Speaker 1: the piranha's status says, this fresh water killer has gone
Speaker 1: mostly undisputed until now. I guess, well, yeah, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do my part contributing to it.
Speaker 2: Well, here's something that sounds like it should be a myth,
Speaker 2: but and I even kind of like, hope it's a myth,
Speaker 2: But it's actually true. Sometimes it rains spiders in Brazil
Speaker 2: and so on. A in certain parts of Brazil, the
Speaker 2: sky will actually open up and hundreds or even thousands
Speaker 2: of spiders will rain down on the residents below. And
Speaker 2: before you tell me I'm making this up, you should
Speaker 2: actually look it up online because there are a bunch
Speaker 2: of different videos. For full disclosure, it's not like the
Speaker 2: spiders are tumbling out of the rain clouds. It's more
Speaker 2: that the wind is carrying them on their webs. But
Speaker 2: for onlookers, the effect is sort of like a storm
Speaker 2: of spiders.
Speaker 1: So how does this work that there could be thousands
Speaker 1: of spiders in one of these showers? I mean, not
Speaker 1: only does that sound like obviously a ton of spiders,
Speaker 1: but how does that work? Because I thought spiders lived
Speaker 1: on their own, not in these giant colonies.
Speaker 2: You're right, So most spiders do keep to themselves. In fact,
Speaker 2: out of the forty thousand or so known species of
Speaker 2: spiders out there, only twenty three of them are social.
Speaker 2: And so one of these species lives in San Paolo
Speaker 2: and the surrounding towns, and there it's pretty common to
Speaker 2: see spiders just sailing through the sky en mass. And
Speaker 2: the problem for humans at least is that these colonies
Speaker 2: build these huge sheets of webs in these tree tops, right,
Speaker 2: and in order to trap enough insects to keep everyone
Speaker 2: fed in this social group. They're just massive. So the
Speaker 2: webs can stretch from the ground to as high as
Speaker 2: sixty five feet, and they seriously contain thousands of spiders,
Speaker 2: each of which is I guess roughly the size of
Speaker 2: a pencil eraser, so not that big, but a lot
Speaker 2: of them. So when a strong enough wind comes along,
Speaker 2: the webs are knocked loose, and then a mob of
Speaker 2: these deeply confused spiders are just sent hurtling through the air,
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, it's not a great day for
Speaker 2: anyone when it's raining spiders. But speaking of not so
Speaker 2: great days, Brazil has actually had a stretch of those
Speaker 2: recently in terms of politics and culture. So even though
Speaker 2: we're trying to keep things light today, I do think
Speaker 2: we should spend just a few minutes to kind of
Speaker 2: spotlight what's been going on there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like we probably should. But before we
Speaker 1: get to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, so if you keep tabs on international news,
Speaker 2: there's a good chance you've heard the recent concerns about
Speaker 2: Brazil's newly elected president Bolsonaro. Many of his views tend
Speaker 2: to be extreme, to put it mildly, and the measures
Speaker 2: he's enacted since taking office don't really bode well for
Speaker 2: the country's cultural institutions. For example, one of his first
Speaker 2: actions as president was to dissolve three of Brazil's ministries
Speaker 2: the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Social Development and to
Speaker 2: merge them into a single department. And while we don't
Speaker 2: actually know how that will affect government funding for cultural institutions,
Speaker 2: artistic communities in Brazil are really bracing for the worst.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's you know, it's especially upsetting when you think
Speaker 1: about how much they've already suffered. You know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you remember this, but it was just last fall there
Speaker 1: was that fire that destroyed Brazil's National Museum, and this
Speaker 1: was a collection there that contained more than twenty million artifacts.
Speaker 1: You know, they amassed this over the course of the
Speaker 1: institution's two hundred year history, so it was just devastating
Speaker 1: and tragically as much as ninety percent of the collection
Speaker 1: is thought to have been lost in this fire.
Speaker 2: Ninety percent. It's really awful to think about, like everything
Speaker 2: that was lost that night. Like I a should remember
Speaker 2: reading about that museum and how they lost this massive
Speaker 2: collection of art from different indigenous peoples that were spread
Speaker 2: across Brazil, so it was like costumes and personal belongings,
Speaker 2: but also audio recordings of languages that I believe had
Speaker 2: died out. So you know, it's super tragic and all
Speaker 2: of that has gone now along with many of the
Speaker 2: other relics of South American culture.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, you're actually looking on the bright side
Speaker 1: of this. I was happy to see that multiple campaigns
Speaker 1: have since launched these efforts to digitally recreate the museum collection.
Speaker 1: And this was using decades of visitor photos. So if
Speaker 1: you've ever made it there on vacation, you can actually
Speaker 1: submit your shots online at the museum's website. And actually
Speaker 1: there's a good chunk of the collection that made it
Speaker 1: through the fire, un skate, and this includes the oldest
Speaker 1: human fossil found in Brazil.
Speaker 2: Well, that is good news. I'm curious, though, I sort
Speaker 2: of lost track of that news story. Did they ever
Speaker 2: figure out what started the fire? And please don't say,
Speaker 2: Billy Joel.
Speaker 1: You beat me too. Well, investigators never reported an exact
Speaker 1: cause for the blaze, but official speculate it may have
Speaker 1: been just like a short circuit or something, and apparently
Speaker 1: that had been known for a while, like things like
Speaker 1: exposed wiring and that the museum didn't have fire doors
Speaker 1: or a sprinkler system. And that might be the saddest
Speaker 1: part of this because according to Smithsonian, the National Museum's
Speaker 1: full annual budget, it was one hundred and twenty eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but hasn't received that amount since twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: In fact, last year at the museum received only thirteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and in late twenty seventeen, the museum's finances
Speaker 1: were in such poor shape the curators turned to crowdfunding,
Speaker 1: you know, to repair and exhibit that had really been
Speaker 1: infested with termites at the time.
Speaker 2: I mean that that is frustrating, and I just can't
Speaker 2: believe those numbers, Like the fact that they were only
Speaker 2: getting what was it, thirteen thousand dollars and that it
Speaker 2: didn't have a sprinkler system like that feels unimaginable for
Speaker 2: a national museum.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the federal government had actually been divesting
Speaker 1: from the museum for years, so this isn't a new thing.
Speaker 1: But I also read an interesting article in City Lab
Speaker 1: that suggested something else. Apparently part of the problem is
Speaker 1: that modern Brazil doesn't feel very rooted to its pass
Speaker 1: So I pulled this quote from the article. Here's what
Speaker 1: it says. We live in a country that has a
Speaker 1: weak connection to its history. In advance of the twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen Summer Olympics, Rio Desan Eiro and the Brazilian government
Speaker 1: spent billions on these costly development projects, opening new landmarks
Speaker 1: like the Museum of Aqua Rio, which is the largest
Speaker 1: aquarium in South America. Meanwhile, the city has allowed several
Speaker 1: other museums and historic structures to just decay. In particular,
Speaker 1: we have little concern for educational and cultural resources provided
Speaker 1: for those living in poverty. So the thing is, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about Brazil as this melting pot of cultures,
Speaker 1: but it's interesting to think about how a place becomes
Speaker 1: a melting pot in the first place. And in Brazil's case,
Speaker 1: it was a pretty violent process, and it sounds like
Speaker 1: that left the national identity pretty fractured in some very
Speaker 1: real ways.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel like we've gone a little bit negative here,
Speaker 2: but I feel like we can turn that tone around
Speaker 2: with some Amazon surfing.
Speaker 1: Amazon surf very talking about online shopping or like riding
Speaker 1: on a surfboard down the Amazon.
Speaker 2: So definitely the latter surfing the Amazon River. And this
Speaker 2: sounds insane, but a couple times a year, a massive
Speaker 2: twelve foot highwave flows in from the ocean, and for
Speaker 2: a brief period afterwards, twelve foot highwaves form in the Amazon,
Speaker 2: some of which go on for hours and travel unbroken
Speaker 2: for miles on end, and there's this great local legend
Speaker 2: about them. Apparently they are caused by three mischievous kids
Speaker 2: that travel up and down the Amazon playing pranks on
Speaker 2: each other. But what's crazy is that the locals call
Speaker 2: it Porto Rocco or the Great Roar, because supposedly you
Speaker 2: can hear it coming for up to an hour before
Speaker 2: the waves arrive.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, so this has to be an incredibly strong wave,
Speaker 1: I would imagine, definitely.
Speaker 2: And the wave is so powerful that it pulls trees
Speaker 2: and structures from the shoreline and pulls the debris along
Speaker 2: with it, which also makes for primo surfing conditions I'm guessing.
Speaker 1: But no, I like, do people really serve this thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So people do surf this thing, This tidal wave
Speaker 2: thing happens regularly enough that there's even this organized event
Speaker 2: to celebrate its arrival. It's called the National por Roca
Speaker 2: Surfing Championship, and each year surfers from all over the
Speaker 2: world take part in it to see who can ride
Speaker 2: the monster wave the longest. And the current record holder
Speaker 2: managed to ride along this wave for over half an
Speaker 2: hour and he traveled just under seven and a half
Speaker 2: miles total. Isn't that ridiculous? Wow?
Speaker 1: That is that is impressive.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I feel like it's a fascinating fact, but we
Speaker 2: should ride it straight into the fact.
Speaker 1: Off, what do you say, let's do it.
Speaker 2: So here's a strange thing I actually dig. Apparently Brazil
Speaker 2: has one of the largest cashew trees in the world,
Speaker 2: and it's actually a tourist attraction and big enough that
Speaker 2: they charge admission to it. This mutant tree stretches over
Speaker 2: two acres or roughly five football fields, and it's about
Speaker 2: the size of seventy normal cashew trees. Apparently the tree
Speaker 2: has two weird mutations. Not only do the branches grow
Speaker 2: sideways instead of growing upwards, but when a branch gets
Speaker 2: super heavy and it touches the ground from all the
Speaker 2: fruit on it, it ends up setting down roots and
Speaker 2: spawning another part of a tree.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here's one thing you can't do in Brazil,
Speaker 1: at least not legally, and that's use a tanning bit.
Speaker 1: So the country banned them for cosmetic purposes back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2: You know, we started with the book theme and I
Speaker 2: thought i'd bring it back Brazilian prisons are so overcrowded
Speaker 2: that they've instituted a system where they'll take four days
Speaker 2: off your sentence if you read a book and write
Speaker 2: a report on it. You do max out at twelve
Speaker 2: book reports every year, so each year you can take
Speaker 2: about a month and a half off your sentence. But
Speaker 2: what I found most interesting was that some of the
Speaker 2: titles that are popular are not things I would have expected.
Speaker 2: So in this article I was reading, it listed Gone
Speaker 2: with the Wind as one of the most popular books
Speaker 2: and Lame Miz as well.
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, Well, Brazilian soap operas are credited with
Speaker 1: getting people to have fewer kids, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: In two generations, apparently the country went from having seven
Speaker 1: kids per family to just two. And from the way
Speaker 1: The Atlantic describes it, you know, shows don't make a
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense. They've got these needlessly complicated storylines
Speaker 1: filled with sex and scandal, but the families also have
Speaker 1: tons of possessions and very few kids, And the result
Speaker 1: is that people have been more obsessed with capitalism and
Speaker 1: money and have actually grown to see big families and
Speaker 1: constant childbirth as being less desirable.
Speaker 2: Well here's another fact. I didn't realize. Did you know
Speaker 2: that Brazilians believe that a fellow statesman of Theirs, Alberto
Speaker 2: Santos Dumont, beat the Ripe Brothers to flying his plane,
Speaker 2: and I guess he flew sixty meters in his airplane
Speaker 2: in front of a French crowd in nineteen oh six.
Speaker 2: I believe. But when it was pointed out that the
Speaker 2: Right Brothers had beat him by a few years, Brazil
Speaker 2: actually stuck by their men. They insisted that the rip
Speaker 2: brother's flight wasn't powered and it was only possible dude
Speaker 2: to really strong winds. And the BBC reports that that's
Speaker 2: actually how it's written in their history books. They don't
Speaker 2: really give the Right brothers credit.
Speaker 1: You know, a long time ago, we did this episode
Speaker 1: where we talked about Snake Island. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I remember. It was terrifying that this was that
Speaker 2: island that had no people and thousands of deadly snakes
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: Right, that is exactly right. And you know the snakes
Speaker 1: were lance head vipers. And you're not legally allowed to
Speaker 1: go to the island without a doctor with you. And
Speaker 1: there are reasons scientists go, I mean, the venom might
Speaker 1: be used at some point in creating anti cancer drugs.
Speaker 1: But here's the most strange part about all this is
Speaker 1: that people do sneak onto the island and they bag
Speaker 1: the snakes to sell on the black market. So not
Speaker 1: only do scientists abroad want the snakes, but animal collectors
Speaker 1: want them to and they end up fetching anywhere between
Speaker 1: ten thousand and thirty thousand dollars for these things.
Speaker 2: Thirty thousand dollars, and those snakes are so terrifying, like
Speaker 2: just how venomous they are. But it does feel good
Speaker 2: to know that if someone tries to sell me one
Speaker 2: for forty thousand dollars, I know they're ripping me off.
Speaker 2: So that's right. I think you can take home this
Speaker 2: week's trophy and all your snake facts.
Speaker 1: I feel like save you a few bucks on that one. Well,
Speaker 1: I know there are other facts about Brazil. We had
Speaker 1: a lot of fun with the episode this week, but
Speaker 1: we always love hearing from you. If there are facts
Speaker 1: or stories that you'd love to share, you can reach
Speaker 1: us part time Genius at iHeartMedia dot com or hit
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter. But from Gabe, Tristan
Speaker 1: Mango and me, thanks so much for listening,