WEBVTT - What Are the Greatest Things We Didn't Know About Brazil? 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:03.040 Guess what, mango? 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:03.920 What's that? Well? 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:05.760 All right, So we're in New York City this week, 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:07.960 and one of the things I love seeing here is 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:10.720 how many people read on the subway. I mean, you 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.960 look around and it feels like every New Yorker feels 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.200 like it's the perfect time to get their reading in. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.880 And actually sometimes I'm kind of jealous about this because 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.479 they have this automatic reading time each day. But you 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:24.840 look around the world and there are other places that 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.320 do this too, and Brazil is actually a big supporter 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.639 of this. In fact, the country has started something called 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.440 ticket books to promote literacy. Have you heard about this? 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:35.280 No? What's a ticket book? 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.440 So it's a free book that you can pick up 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.839 just at a subway station, and apparently there's this Brazilian 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.880 publisher that gave out ten thousand books. But the cool 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.960 part is that the books actually double as subway tickets, 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.680 so each book has ten rides and then a reader 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.400 can either refill the book for free or pass it 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:54.520 along to somebody else. 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.520 Oh that's pretty cool and did it get people reading? Yeah? 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.920 I think some. In fact, this was an intentional effort 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.520 on the part there, because I believe Brazilians were only 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.240 reading maybe like two books a year on average at 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.520 the time, but the books handed out included everything from 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:14.000 The Great Gatsby to Hamlet to Naruda love Sonnets to 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:15.479 of course Garfield. 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.840 Garfield was a ticket book. Yeah, it's like a gayway 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:22.880 drug to like reading. 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.920 But absolutely well, this is just the first of a 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.000 ton of stories that we have today about Brazil, from 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.160 you know, how a soap opera convinced the country to 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.000 have less kids, to how a bunch of termites can 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:58.400 help you make a better pizza. So let's dig in. Hey, 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.000 their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius. I'm Will 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.360 Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.400 Mangesh Hot ticket there and on the other side of 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.520 the soundproof glass helping himself to what he claims is 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.320 a Brazilian delicacy. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.080 if I sound it a little bit skeptical, it's because 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.799 I'm basically watching a grown man drink liquid butter from 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.440 a bottle, and actually he's only trying to frame it 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.120 as some kind of cultural experience he's taking part in. 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.960 And I got to be honest, personally, I'm not really 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.520 buying it. What's your take on this, mega. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.320 Well, I think it's definitely gross that hard the take 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.040 is true, but you know, as weird as it sounds, 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.480 I think we should actually give him like some partial 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.480 credit on this one, because this is actually a thing 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.120 in Brazil. Apparently in the northeast part of the country, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.400 bottle butter is popular and it's even a common souvenir 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.400 for people who go there on vacation. So the key 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.560 to remember is that residents actually use this butter as 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.480 a condiment, not as a beverage. So if you dine 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.320 in the region, you'd probably find like a bottle of 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.840 liquid butter on the table next to the salt and pepper, 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.120 and you can just splash a little on your meat 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.600 or rice or whatever, just for an extra kick of flavor. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.600 I feel like that makes more sense than whatever Tristan 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.520 is doing right now. So what's so special about this 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.200 butter anyway? And maybe more importantly, why do they sell 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:18.280 this in bottles? 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.800 So it's actually pretty funny. When I first heard about this, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.320 the first thing I thought about was ghee, which is 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.960 this clarified liquid butter that you have in India. People 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.240 started making gee because it was sort of this easy 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.720 way to preserve butter in the days before refrigeration and 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.880 in areas that are hot or unforgiving. If you clarify 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.119 the butter and you remove that milky solid that's in there, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.040 and you just keep the liquid dairy fat that's left behind, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.480 it doesn't spoil. And it turns out it's actually the 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.400 same story here. Northeast brazila is dry, it's arid, so 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.880 the cattle ranchers in the region stumbled into this same technique. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.920 It actually ends up being super regional. You can't find 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.280 in other parts of Brazil, only in the northeast. And 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.040 it's also an acquired taste. Unlike Gee, it actually has 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:09.840 a few more notes to it. It's a little more cheesy. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.440 It supposedly has a strong barnyard aroma as well, which 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.400 I guess is very acquired barnyard. 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:18.440 Yeah, I would say that, I'm not sure how you'd 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.760 ever acquire that taste, but interesting. It doesn't seem to 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.599 bother Tristan over there, though, And I'm grateful that he 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.160 brought this stuff to our attention because it is pretty interesting, 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.480 and because you know, love for bottled butter is definitely 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.320 an unusual part of Brazilian culture that I had actually 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.279 never heard about before, And that's exactly the kind of 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.760 thing that today's episode is all about. You know, it 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:42.960 feels far too often that when it comes to Brazil, 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.760 we either hear only the good or the bad. You know, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.440 like we read about all the tourist friendly things in 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:54.520 the country, like the delicious food, the beautiful beaches, sambas, soccer, carnival, 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:56.839 but you know, it also feels like we read about 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:01.440 the depressing bits like poverty and government corrupt, rampant crime. 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.920 So today's focus, like, we really thought we'd move past 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.720 those familiar talking points and think about the stranger side 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.400 of Brazil, like all the unusual things about the country 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.200 that you probably never knew about. So let's get into this, Like, 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.000 what's something you were surprised to learn this week, Mango. 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.000 Well, I mean, there are a ton of things, but 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:22.720 one thing that really stuck out to me is the 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:27.520 fact that nearly two million Brazilian citizens are of Japanese descent. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.320 There and while that's still only a fraction of Brazil's population, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.760 which is roughly about like two hundred to two hundred 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.479 and ten million people, it's actually the largest group of 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.680 people with Japanese ancestry outside of Japan itself. 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.120 Huh. I actually hadn't heard that before. So why is 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:42.719 that exactly? 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.039 Well, I guess Brazil has always been this melting pot 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.960 of cultures from all over Europe and Africa, and this 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.320 goes back hundreds of years. And of course there's also 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.719 the native population that's there and the various Amazonian tribes. 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.360 The country really is home to a little bit of everyone. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:03.200 But Asia's country didn't come until about the early twentieth century, 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.920 and that's when tens of thousands of Japanese people began 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.800 to look for opportunities abroad. The first batch came over 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.400 in nineteen oh eight, and then they settled in the 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:14.839 south and the southeast parts of the country, where they 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.080 started working on the coffee plantations. And then the nineteen thirties, 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.080 the local state government in Brazil's north began offering free 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.520 land to anyone who was willing to farm it, and 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.479 obviously that's an attractive deal to an outsider. So a 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.480 second wave of Japanese immigrants laid roots in that part 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.160 of the country, and now over a century later, the 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.839 country has the world's second largest population of people of 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.799 Japanese ancestry, or nikay as they're called. 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:41.880 You know, it's cool because one of the reasons we 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.640 wanted to do this Brazil episode is because you know, 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:46.920 we both learned so many fascinating things from the show 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.680 we did on Japan a while back. So it's you know, 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.239 it's neat that you found this kind of unexpected connection 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:53.680 between the two countries. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.840 It's funny. You know. We actually had this host in 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.560 the office fair Tundy Thurston, and we were talking about 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.159 aging pops, and I told them how Japan was adding 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.200 all that process to food for the elderly so that 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.760 they could chew and swallow food easier. I feel like 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.880 there were so many facts in that that were really interesting. 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:12.760 But what's sort of funny to me is that Japan 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.880 and Brazil feel pretty far apart, not only in terms 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:20.000 of like culture, but stuff like climate. Like Japanese immigrants, 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:21.520 you know, they wouldn't have been used to those like 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.960 ninety five degree days and the average high in Tokyo, 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.280 like it's only like seventy nine degrees. It's quite a 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:29.760 difference between the climates. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.960 Yeah, that's that's a serious adjustment. Do you get a 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.520 sense for how Japanese transplants, you know, deal with this 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:36.560 kind of newness. 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.400 I guess this is a coping mechanism for all of us. 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.280 But it's comfort food. So Japan, of course has a 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.560 pretty famous culinary tradition, you know, from their dining habits 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.840 to meal time rituals, and so these early Nike communities 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.080 in Brazil would actually hang onto those traditions as a 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.320 way to feel connected to their heritage. But they didn't 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.280 live or cook in isolation either. Like overtime, Brazilian flats 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.600 began to seep into these traditional Japanese recipes, and ingredients 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.200 from the homeland that couldn't be found were often subs 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.320 to do with things like cassava or fish from nearby rivers. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.280 But what's interesting is that like a few generations later, 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.120 a whole bunch of Japanese Brazilians wound up reverse migrating 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.440 back to Japan, and since they'd lived their entire lives 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.240 in Brazil, they naturally brought a taste for all of 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.840 these Brazilian flavors and culture back with them. So in fact, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.080 there's this like thriving Brazilian restaurant scene in Japan now 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.680 because so many people had migrated back there and they 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.360 were nostalgic for the Brazilian food they'd grown up with. 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.720 And I just kind of love that there's this like 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.880 unofficial cultural exchange program between the two countries. 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:40.200 Yeah, that's really cool. 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:40.360 You know. 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.679 I actually have a different food collaboration that I want 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.240 to talk about for just the minute, and this is 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.520 the one between the fishermen of Laguna and Brazil and 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.560 the wild dolphins who live off the coast there. So 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.880 for the past one hundred and twenty years, the friendly 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.600 Laguna dolphins have actually been lending their fishing talents to 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.880 the coastal community there. I know that may sound a 0:08:58.920 --> 0:08:59.640 little bit weird. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.160 Yeah, so how does this work? Exactly? 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.840 It's pretty amazing actually. So around two hundred fishermen take 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.439 their nets and then they wade out into the water 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.960 and you know, they're kind of waist deep at this point, 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.680 and they form a line. But because the water in 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.840 the area is so murky, they actually can't see where 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.560 the fish are. So instead the fishermen wait for a 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.720 friendly dolphin to give them somewhat of a signal, and 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.640 so once they see one, make a sudden dive or 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.240 slap its tail against the water. The humans actually cast 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.280 their nets and reap the rewards from there, and there's 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.199 a ton to reap too, like actually, research shows that 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.360 they can catch more fish and larger fish when they do, 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.800 you know, kind of cooperate with the dolphins compared to 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.520 when they work solo. In fact, some of the fishermen 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.440 say that on days when dolphins aren't around, it's not 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:48.640 even worth fishing at all. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.840 So this sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the fishermen, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.280 But what is in it for the dolphins? 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.880 You know, It's funny because then the articles, the dolphins 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.720 are almost always talked about like these deep dogs of 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.760 the sea, like they corral the fish for the fishermen, 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.920 but it's clearly benefiting them too. And I guess the 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.480 theory is that panicfish become really disoriented when the fishermen 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.680 cast their nets, and that chaos makes it easier for 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.880 the dolphins to gobble up the fish as well. And 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.440 it isn't like every dolphin participates in this activity, like 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.360 the helpful ones you know, kind of work alone or 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.080 in smaller groups with the humans, But the rest of 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.840 the dolphins steer clear all together. And as you know, 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.359 as far as we know, nobody ever taught the dolphins 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.600 to do this, so how exactly this practice got started 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:36.120 it's still somewhat of a mystery. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.080 I like that you're aware that some of the dolphins 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:40.439 oft out of this experience. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.080 Yeah, I don't want any part of it, which is 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:43.880 pretty amazing. 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.280 But you know, while we're on the subject of bizarrely 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.440 helpful animals, do you know that Brazilian termites are actually 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:52.440 great at making pizza ovens? 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.160 That is not something I do, but I definitely need 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:56.839 to know more now. 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.000 So I don't know how much you know about termites, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.640 but they really are these incredible engineers and construction workers. 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.760 They carve out these super long, intricate tunnel systems for 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.040 their colonies to nest in. But you've probably also seen 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.319 those giant termite mounds is that they make, And I 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:16.640 don't know have you actually seen those? 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.320 Oh? Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing to see the pictures 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:19.640 of these. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.440 Yeah, and they look like, I guess, like giant dirt 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.520 cones or almost like big rocks smoke stacks. But the 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.600 interesting thing is that, like, because most of the turmite 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.720 tunnels are underground, if you cut into the side of 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.280 one of these mounds, you probably won't find many termites 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:36.839 in it at all. 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.480 I mean, so what's with the giant cones, Like it 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.200 seems like a huge amount of work for not a lot. 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.320 Yeah, I mean, it depends on which termite mounds we're 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:47.720 talking about. Like in the northeast of Brazil, where it's 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.880 extremely dry and arid, the termite mounds really don't serve 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.160 a purpose. They're basically just like enormous junk piles, and 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.320 it's essentially all the excess bits of soil that the 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.520 termites produce while tunneling on ground, and all of that 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.360 just eventually gets like collected into a mound. You know. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.120 While a termite worker is hardly half an inch long, 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:08.960 like like, some of the mounds they build are actually 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.679 like thirty feet wide at the base and they could 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.040 be as tall as thirteen feet high. So not only 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.120 are they big, but there are tons of them. Actually 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.200 this is a little off topic, but based on satellite 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.199 images in the region, researchers actually estimate there are roughly 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.560 two hundred million termite mounts and they're spread across an 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:31.720 area as large as four thousand Great Pyramids of Giza, which, wow, 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:33.480 is kind of a weird way to measure things. I 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.719 don't know why. The fact I read said like, I 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.120 don't normally measure things in Pyramids of Giza, but it's 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:41.720 it's pretty fascinating. 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.120 I thought that was pretty standard now. But I mean, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.400 I'm guessing if it's that many and you can see 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.800 the mounds from space, that the bugs have been doing 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:50.920 this for a little while. 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.520 Yeah. There was actually this really neat study where researchers 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.560 took soil samples from eleven different mounds and then they 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.760 analyzed the sand grains from the centers to see I 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.240 guess when these mounds had last been exposed to sunlight 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.240 or at least the dirt inside. And the youngest mound 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.839 they found was I guess it was started seven hundred 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.959 years ago, and the oldest was almost four thousand years old. 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.040 That is incredible. But actually, I think the question we 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.800 all want to know now is what does any of 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.800 this have to do with pizza? 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.520 So this is a real thing, I promise, and it's 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.840 not just this shaggy dog story. If you head to 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.840 southern and central Brazil, where it's wet and grassy, you 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.120 actually find a different kind of termite mound there, and 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.640 these ones do serve a purpose both for the termites 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.839 and for pizza loving humans. So on the termite side 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.440 of things, that the hollow mounds function as lungs for 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.320 the colonies that live in the tunnels below them, and 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.600 it's all this like porous soil and it helps them, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.280 I guess, keep their chambers ventilated, like the carbon dioxide 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.200 is sent out and fresh oxygen comes in. But for humans, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.640 the good news is that once the colony dies out 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.079 or follows the trail of food to a different location, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.760 all these deserted mounds make perfect outdoor ovens. So in 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.560 the past people used to cook all kinds of meat 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.080 in these makeshift ovens, but today they're actually a really 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.760 popular way to cook bread and pizza, especially when you're 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.760 on camping trips or some other outing. And all you 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:20.320 have to do is like cut a hole at the 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.360 base of the mound, confirm it's empty, which is a 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.320 pretty important part, and then light it up and it's 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:28.560 ready to make food with. 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.160 Yeah. I think I'd have a hard time though, ever, 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.920 eating something that was baked in a termite oven. To 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:35.920 be honest with you, and I mean, I know you 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.480 said the mounds are abandoned and everything, but I might 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.160 still struggle with that. But thankfully, though, I know, Brazil 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.080 has me covered because the country's actually been obsessed with 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.000 pizza ever since Italian immigrants brought it over at the 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.760 end of the nineteenth century. In fact, in Brazil's largest city, 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.440 South Pallo, you know, they're so into pizza there that 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.440 it's said to be home to eight thousand pizza parlors, 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.760 eight thousand, which is collectively that's enough to produce a 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.680 new a million pizzas each and every day. And you know, 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.400 some foodies claim Brazil makes the best pizza in the. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.720 World, which is hard for someone like me to believe. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.040 Yeah, well, I mean there is a downside to all 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.680 that superior pizza because, according to a twenty sixteen paper 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.960 and Atmospheric Environment, the restaurants use an estimated three hundred 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.600 thousand tons of wood each year to keep their old 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:26.240 school ovens nice and hot, and unfortunately, all that smoke 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.720 results in some pretty major air pollution, and so the 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.240 researchers say that even though most residents have switched over 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.080 to biofuel for their vehicles, you know, the emissions from 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.880 all those wood burning ovens might undo all those positive effects. 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.120 I do find a problematic, right, like choosing between clean 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.480 air or the world's most delicious pizza. It feels like 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.440 such a Sophie's choice. But you know, now that we've 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.320 talked a little bit about Brazilian cuisine and some animals 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:54.960 that help put food on the table, why don't we 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.120 switch gears and talk about the opposite kind of wildlife, 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:03.080 the Brazilian animals that are more life threatening than life affirming. 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.440 Yeah, let's definitely do that. But before we get to that, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:22.200 let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.480 Genius and we're talking about the strangest things you never 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.600 knew about Brazilian wildlife. Now you may have heard this before, 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.720 but Brazil is believed to have the greatest biodiversity of 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.760 any country in the world, and it's largely thanks to 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.600 it's also having the largest tract of untouched rainforest on 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.000 the planet. And while some of the animals there are dangerous, 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.040 and you know, some are even deadly, there's one famous 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.720 jungle resident that is far less dangerous than we like 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:53.160 to pretend, and that's the poor misunderstood Piranha. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.560 I love it. The humble man eating piranha. But have 0:16:57.640 --> 0:16:59.720 you ever seen those teeth? I feel like those are 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:01.280 some fishes, you know. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.640 I feel like you just wanted to say vicious fishes, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.720 but I did. I mean, the Farascia puranas has been 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.400 greatly exaggerated for a long time now, like we think 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.359 of them as these rapid flesh eating monsters. I'll just 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.840 kind of tear you apart the second two hit the water. 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.639 But you know, the truth is that most piranhas would 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.879 never try to eat a human or any other mammal 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.199 unless it was dead or even dying. And for the 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.160 most part they eat insects or other fish, and some 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.159 species are purana or even vegetarians actually. 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.800 So I don't feel like I've heard that they're vegetarian 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.679 purana out there. I feel like knowing that maybe like 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.480 Annie's or some healthy brand should use them as their mascot. 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.520 It's pretty weird, but there is a species in Para, 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.120 Brazil that only eats river weeds. Don't get me wrong. 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.840 The pranas can still pose a threat to humans, and 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.120 some swimmers in South America have lost fingers and toes 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.200 in recent years, but I couldn't find any record of 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.840 anyone ever being killed by piranhas, And it's really not 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.520 that surprising when you consider that piranhas usually travel in 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.639 schools of about twenty fish, which is way fewer than 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.119 the numbers they need to take down a human. 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.040 So as morbid as it is, I'm curious, like how 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.720 many fish it does to take down a human, Like 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.040 Gabe once told me that, I think it's like a 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.240 gallon and a half of water could kill me. So 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.159 that's like a number I have in my head, and 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.199 I kind of want to know how many piranha I 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:26.919 need to avoid. 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.880 Well, fear not, because I did indeed pull the numbers 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.879 and a quarter curator. Yeah, oh I didn't do this 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.800 just myself, but there's a curator at the National Aquarium 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.639 in Baltimore. And so the estimate that they came up 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.280 is that to strip the flesh from a one hundred 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.879 and eighty pound person in five minutes would require somewhere 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.919 between three hundred and five hundred hungry piranhas, which is 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.040 way more than you would ever come across, even in 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:59.120 highly concentrated regions like you think the Amazon River as 0:18:59.119 --> 0:18:59.720 an example. 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.320 So it sounds like it's highly unlikely, but I guess 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.439 still technically possible, Like if you were like a Bond villain, 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.680 you could head to Brazil, scoop up a few hundred piranhas, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.560 stick them in your pool, and then you've got this 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:13.920 instant death trap. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.280 I don't really think we should be giving anybody ideas, 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:21.120 but that, in theory, I suppose would work. And in fact, 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:22.960 it was a similar kind of stunt that gave the 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.520 fish such a bad name in the first place, and 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.680 all because you know, a few Brazilians wanted to show 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.199 off for Teddy Roosevelt himself. And this happened back in 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.520 nineteen thirteen. It was a few years after he'd left office. 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.399 So the forward President decided to go on this expedition. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.600 He wanted to go into the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.399 Of course, the locals knew that he was coming, and 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.439 they also knew his reputation as this thrill seeker, and 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.280 so to make sure he had an experience that he 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.480 would never forget, the Brazilians arranged a demonstration for him. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.880 And this was on the banks of the Amazon River. 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.639 And the guys warned Roosevelt, you know, and his really 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.320 about the fact that they shouldn't wade into the water 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.600 there or else they'd be immediately eaten by this small, 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:11.240 ravenous fish. And of course, as the Brazilians expected, Roosevelt 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.840 scoffed at the idea that any fish could be, you know, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.480 that dangerous, especially if they're that tiny. So the guides 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.040