WEBVTT - What are the Greatest Things We Didn't Know about Brazil? 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:04.760 Guess what Mango's Well. All right, So we're in New 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:06.800 York City this week, and one of the things I 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:10.320 love seeing here is how many people read on the subway. 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.040 I mean, you look around and it feels like every 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.560 New Yorker feels like it's the perfect time to get 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.160 their reading in. And actually sometimes I'm kind of jealous 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.840 about this because they have this automatic reading time each day. 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.079 But you look around the world and there are other 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.600 places that do this too, And Brazil is actually a 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.000 big supporter of this. In fact, the country has started 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.080 something called ticket books to promote literacy. Have you heard 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:35.720 about this? You know what's a ticket book? So it's 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:37.760 a free book that you can pick up just at 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.800 a subway station. And apparently there's this Brazilian publisher that 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.239 gave out ten thousand books. But the cool part is 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.360 that the books actually double as subway tickets, so each 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.040 book has ten rides and then a reader can either 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.800 refill the book for free or pass it along to 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.480 somebody else. Oh that's pretty cool and and did it 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.560 get people reading? Yeah? I think some. In fact, this 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.760 was in an intentional effort on the part there, because 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.120 I believe Brazilians were only reading maybe like two books 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.839 a year on average at the time, but the books 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.600 handed out included everything from The Great Gatsby to Hamlet, 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:18.080 to Naruta love Sonnets to of course Garfield. Garfield was 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.200 a ticket. Fuck. Yeah, it's like a gateway drug to 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.720 like reading. Absolutely wow. This is just the first of 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.440 a ton of stories that we have today about Brazil, 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.040 from you know, how a soap opera convinced the country 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.760 to have less kids, to how a bunch of termites 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.520 can help you make a better pizza. So let's dig in, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:02:00.600 y Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Parts on Genius. 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.960 I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.440 good friend Maues Ticketer and on the other side of 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.480 the soundproof glass helping himself to what he claims is 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:13.280 a Brazilian delicacy. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.200 if I sounded a little bit skeptical, it's because I'm 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.560 basically watching a grown man drink liquid butter from a bottle, 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.680 and actually he's only trying to frame it as some 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.720 kind of cultural experience he's taking part in. And I 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.840 gotta be honest, personally, I'm not really buying it. What's 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.519 your take on this, mega, Well, I think it's definitely 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.200 gross that that part of the take is true, But 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:37.480 you know, as weird as it sounds, I I think 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.960 we should actually give him like some partial credit on 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.040 this one, because this is actually a thing in Brazil. 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.200 Apparently in the northeast part of the country, bottled butter 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.840 is popular and it's even a common souvenir for people 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.040 who go there on vacation. So the key to remember 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.240 is that residents actually use this butter as a condiment, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.960 not as a beverage. So if you dine in the region, 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.120 you'd probably find like a bottle of liquid butter on 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.640 the table next to the salt and pepper, and you 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:04.480 can just splash a little on your meat or rice 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.160 or whatever, just for an extra kick of flavor. I 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.760 feel like that makes more sense than whatever Tristan is 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.400 doing right now. But so, so, what's so special about 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.840 this butter anyway? And maybe more importantly, why do they 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.639 sell this in bottles? So it's actually pretty funny. When 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.799 I first heard about this, the first thing I thought 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.520 about was ge which is this clarified liquid butter that 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.000 you have in India? People started making gee because it 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.560 was sort of this easy way to preserve butter in 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.640 the days before refrigeration and in areas that are hot 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.960 or unforgiving. If you clarify the butter and you remove 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.920 that milky solid that's in there, and and you just 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.360 keep the liquid dairy fat that's left behind, it doesn't spoil. 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.400 And it turns out it's actually the same story here. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.960 Northeast Brazil is dry, it's arid, so the cattle ranchers 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.880 in the region stumbled into this same technique. It's uh, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.960 it actually ends up being super regional. You can't find 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.440 in other parts of Brazil, only in the northeast. And 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:07.040 and it's also an acquired taste. Unlike it actually has 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.800 a few more notes to it. It's a little more cheesy. 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.119 It supposedly has a strong barnyard of roma as well, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.960 which I guess is very acquired barnyard or yeah, I 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.760 would say that that's true. How you'd ever acquire that taste? 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.680 But interesting, But it doesn't seem to bother Tristan over 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.359 there though. And I'm grateful that he brought this stuff 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.120 to our attention because it is pretty interesting, and because 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.600 you know, I love her bottle butter is definitely an 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.760 unusual part of Brazilian culture that I had actually never 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.400 heard about before, And that's exactly the kind of thing 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.080 that today's episode is all about. You know, it feels 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.080 far too often that when it comes to Brazil, we 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.760 either hear only the good or the bad. You know, 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.400 like we read about all the tourist friendly things in 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:54.480 the country, like the delicious food, beautiful beaches, Samba's soccer carnival, 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:56.840 but you know, it also feels like we read about 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:01.400 the depressing bits like poverty and government corrupt shian rampant crime. 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.880 So today's focus, like we really thought we'd moved past 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.719 those familiar talking points and think about the stranger side 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.400 of Brazil, like all the unusual things about the country 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.200 that you probably never knew about. So let's get into this, Like, 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:19.480 what what's something you were surprised to learn this week, Mango. Well, 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:21.360 I mean, there are a ton of things, but one 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:22.920 thing that really stuck out to me is the fact 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:27.560 that nearly two million Brazilian citizens are of Japanese descent. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.359 There and while that's still only a fraction of Brazil's population, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.440 which is roughly about like two million people, it's actually 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.839 the largest group of people with Japanese ancestry outside of 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.920 Japan itself. I actually hadn't heard that before. So why 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.360 is that exactly? Well, I guess Brazil has always been 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.360 this melting pot of cultures from all over Europe and Africa, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.680 and and this goes back hundreds of years. And of 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.680 course there's also the native population that that's there and 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.320 the various Amazonian tribes. The country really is home to 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.839 a little bit of everyone. But Asia's country. Aribution didn't 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.960 come until about the early twentieth century, and that's when 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.320 tens of thousands of Japanese people began to look for 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.920 opportunities abroad. Um the first batch came over in nine eight, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.840 and then they settled in the south and the southeast 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:15.520 parts of the country, where they started working on the 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.839 coffee plantations. And then the nineteen thirties, the local state 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.120 government in Brazil's north began offering freeland to anyone who 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.520 was willing to farm it, and obviously that's an attractive 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:29.080 deal to an outsider. So a second wave of Japanese 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.720 immigrants laid roots in that part of the country, and 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.120 now over a century later, the country has the world's 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.880 second largest population of people of Japanese ancestry, or nick 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.160 as they're called. You know, it's cool because one of 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.280 the reasons we wanted to do this Brazil episode is because, 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.560 you know, we both learned so many fascinating things from 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.120 the show we did on Japan a while back. So 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:50.960 it's you know, it's neat that you found this kind 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.880 of unexpected connection between the two countries. It's funny, you 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.360 know what. We actually had this host in the office, 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.600 very trendy Thurston and we were talking about aging relations 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.440 and I told them how Japan was adding all that 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.560 process to food for the elderly so that they could 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.160 chew and swallow food easier. I feel like there's so 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.400 many facts in that that we're really interesting. But what 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.240 sort of funny to me is that Japan and Brazil 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.560 feel pretty far apart, not only in terms of like culture, 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.360 but stuff like climate. Like Japanese immigrants, you know, they 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.680 wouldn't have been used to those like ninety five degree 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.320 days and the average high in Tokyo, like it's only 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.720 like seventy nine degrees. It's quite a difference between the climates. Yeah, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.160 that's that's a serious adjustment. I do get a sense 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.760 for how Japanese transplants, you know, deal with this kind 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.840 of newness. I guess there is a coping mechanism for 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.120 all of us, but it's comfort food. So Japan of 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.440 course has a pretty famous culinary tradition, you know, from 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.640 their dining habits to meal time rituals, and so these 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.240 early in Nicicay communities in Brazil would actually hang onto 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.080 those traditions is a way to feel connected to their heritage. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.680 But they didn't live or or cooking isolation either. Like 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.880 over time, Brazilian fivers began to seep into these traditional 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.720 Japanese recipes and ingredients from the homeland that couldn't be 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.920 found where offense ups too, with things like cassava or 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.320 fish from nearby rivers. But what's interesting is that like 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.720 a few generations later, a whole bunch of Japanese Brazilians 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.600 wind up reverse migrating back to Japan. And since they've 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.640 lived their entire lives in Brazil, they naturally brought a 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.160 taste for all of these Brazilian flavors and culture back 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.640 with them. So in fact, there's this like thriving Brazilian 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.120 restaurant scene in Japan now because so many people had 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.200 migrated back there and they were nostalgic for the Brazilian 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.840 food they've grown up with. And I just kind of 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.120 love that there's this like unofficial cultural exchange program between 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.679 the two countries. Yeah, that's really cool. You know. Actually 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:42.920 have a different food collaboration that I want to talk 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:44.840 about for just a minute. This is the one between 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.600 the fishermen of Lagoon and Brazil and the wild dolphins 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.040 who live off the coast there. So for the past 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.400 a hundred and twenty years, their friendly Laguna dolphins have 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:58.040 actually been lending their fishing talents to the coastal community there. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.560 I know that may sound a little bit weird. Yeah, 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.319 so how does this work exactly? It's pretty amazing actually. 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.959 So around two hundred fishermen take their nets and and 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.319 they wade out into the water and you know, they're 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:12.640 kind of waist deep at this point, and they form 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.200 a line. But because the water in the area is 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.439 so murky, they actually can't see where the fish are. 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.560 So instead the fishermen wait for a friendly dolphin to 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.720 give them somewhat of a signal, and so once they 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.400 see one, make a sudden dive or slap its tail 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.920 against the water. The humans actually cast their nets and 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.920 reap the rewards from there, and there's a ton to 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.040 reap too. I actually research shows that they can catch 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.640 more fish and larger fish when they do, you know, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.160 kind of cooperate with the dolphins compared to when they 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.800 work solo. In fact, some of the fishermen say that 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.920 on days when dolphins aren't around, it's not even worth 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.840 fishing at all. So this sounds like a pretty sweet 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.240 deal for the fisherman, But what is in it for 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.120 the dolphins. You know, It's funny because then the articles, 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.200 the dolphins are almost always talked about like these eat 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.080 dogs of the sea, like they corral the fish for 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.480 the fisherman, But it's clearly benefiting them too. And I 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.679 guess the theory is that panicked fish become really disoriented 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.920 when the fisherman cast their nets, and that chaos makes 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.760 it easier for the dolphins to gobble up the fish 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.200 as well. And it isn't like every dolphin participates in 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.280 this activity, like the helpful ones you know, kind of 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.480 work alone or in smaller groups with the humans, But 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.400 the rest of the dolphins steer clear all together. And 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.280 as you know, as far as we know, nobody ever 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.520 taught the dolphins to do this, So how exactly this 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.640 practice got started, it's still somewhat of the mystery. I 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.280 like that you're aware that some of the dolphins opt 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.679 out of this experience. I don't want any part of it, 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.040 which is pretty amazing. But you know, while we're on 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.880 the subject of bizarrely helpful animals, did you know that 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:53.320 Brazilian termites are actually great at making pizza ovens? That 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.120 is not something I do, but but I definitely need 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.840 to know more now. So I I don't know how 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.080 much you know about termites, but they really are these 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.679 incredible engineers and construction workers. They carve out these super long, 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.760 intricate tunnel systems for their colonies to nest in. But 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.080 you've probably also seen those giant termite mounds is that 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.199 they make? And uh, I don't know, have you actually 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.840 seen those? Oh? Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing to see 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.400 the pictures of these. Yeah, And and they look like 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.319 I guess like giant dirt cones, are almost like big 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.040 rocks smoke stacks. But the interesting thing is that, like, 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.640 because most of the termite tunnels are underground. If you 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.600 cut into the side of one of these mounds, you 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.839 probably won't find many termites in it at all. I mean, so, 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:39.800 so what's with the giant cones, Like it seems like 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.320 a huge amount of work for for not a lot. Yeah, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.720 I mean, it depends on which termite mounds we're talking about. 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.640 Like in the northeast Brazil, where it's extremely dry and arid, 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.880 the termite mounds really don't serve a purpose. They're they're 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.200 basically just like enormous junk piles, and it's essentially all 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.280 the excess bits of soil that the termites produced while 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.160 tunneling on the ground, and all of that just eventually 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:04.760 gets like collected into a mount. You know. While a 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.480 termite worker is hardly half an inch long, like like, 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.600 some of the mounds they build are actually like thirty 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.920 feet wide at the base and they could be as 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.720 tall as thirteen feet high. So not only are they big, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.360 but there are tons of them. Actually this is a 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.280 little off topic, but based on satellite images in the region, 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.280 researchers actually estimate their roughly two hundred million termite mounts, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.000 and they're spread across an area as large as four 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.400 thousand great Pyramids of Giza, which is kind of a 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:34.079 weird way to measure things. I don't know why. The 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.920 fact I read said like, I don't normally measure things 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.720 in Pyramids of Giza, but it's, uh, 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 --> 0:12:46.360 I'm guessing if it's that many and you can see 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.800 the mounds from space, that the bugs have been doing 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.840 this for a little while. Yeah, there was actually this 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.079 really neat study where researchers took soil samples from eleven 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.120 different mounds and then they analyze the sand grains from 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.560 the centers to see I guess when these mounds had 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.360 last been exposed to sunlight or at least the dirt inside. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.520 And the youngest mound they found was I guess it 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.760 was started seven years ago, and the oldest was almost 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.080 four thousand years old. That is incredible. But actually, I 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.360 think the question we all want to know now is 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.440 what does any of this have to do with pizza? 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.480 So this is a real thing, I promise, and it's 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.760 not just the shaggy dog story. If you head to 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.840 southern and central Brazil where it's wet and grassy, you 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.160 actually find a different kind of termite mound there, and 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.600 these ones do serve a purpose both for the termites 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.640 and and for pizza loving humans. So on the termite 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.160 side of things, that the hall amounts function as lungs 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.680 for the colonies that that live in the tunnels below them, 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.560 and it's all this like porous soiled, and it helps them, 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.280 I guess, keep their chambers ventilated, like the carbon dioxide 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.480 is sent out and fresh oxygen comes in. But for 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.960 humans that the good news is that once the colony 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.320 dies out or follows the trail of food to a 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:07.080 different location, all these deserted mounds make perfect outdoor ovens. 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.160 So in the past people used to cook all kinds 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.760 of meat in these makeshift ovens, but today they're actually 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.360 a really popular way to cook bread and pizza, especially 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.360 when you're on camping trips or some other outing. And 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:19.720 and all you have to do is like cut a 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.640 hole at the base of the mound, confirm it's empty, 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.600 which is a pretty important part, and and then light 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.160 it up and and um, it's ready to to make 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.160 food with. You know. I think I have a hard time, though, ever, 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.880 eating something that was baked in a termite oven to 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.880 be honest with you, and I mean, I know you 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.240 said the mounds are a bandon and everything, but I 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.680 might still struggle with that. But thankfully that I know, 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.480 Brazil has me covered because the country has actually been 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.800 obsessed with pizza ever since Italian immigrants brought it over 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.320 at the end of the nineteenth century. In fact, in 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.680 Brazil's largest city, sal Paalo, you know, they're so into 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.480 pizza there that's said to be home to eight thousand 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.240 pizza parlors, eight thousand, which is collectively that's enough to 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.960 produce a new a million pizzas each and every day. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.120 And if some foodies claimed Brazil makes the best pizza 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.200 in the world, which is hard for someone like me 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.560 to believe. Yeah, well, I mean there is a downside 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.360 to all that superior pizza because, according to a two 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:18.600 thousand sixteen paper and Atmospheric Environment, the restaurants used an 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.040 estimated three hundred thousand tons of wood each year to 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.520 keep their old school ovens nice and hot, and unfortunately, 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.880 all that smoke results in some pretty major air pollution, 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.560 and so the researchers say that even though most residents 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.120 have switched over to biofuel for their vehicles. You know, 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.560 the emissions from all those wood burning ovens might undo 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.640 all those positive effects. I do find it problematic, right, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.720 like choosing between clean air or the world's most delicious pizza. 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.840 It feels like such a Sophie's choice. But you know, 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.280 now that we've talked a little bit about Brazilian cuisine 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.520 and some animals that help put food on the table, 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.040 why don't we switch gears and talk about the opposite 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.840 kind of wildlife, the Brazilian animals that are more life 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.840 threatening than life affirming. Yeah, let's definitely do that. Before 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:21.480 we get to that, let's take a quick break. You're 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.200 listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.440 strangest things you never knew about Brazilian wildlife. Now you 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.000 may have heard this before, but Brazil is believed to 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.240 have the greatest biodiversity of any country in the world, 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.320 and it's largely thanks to it's also having the largest 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.160 tract of untouched rainforest on the planet. And while some 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.720 of the animals there are dangerous, and you know, some 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.080 are even deadly, there's one famous jungle resident that is 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.240 far less dangerous than we like to pretend, and that's 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:55.160 the poor misunderstood piranha. I love it, the humble man 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.960 eating paranta, but have you ever seen those teeth? I 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.280 I feel like those are some vicious fishes, you know. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.440 I feel like you just wanted to say vicious fishes, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.800 but I did. I mean the ferastia. Pranhas has been 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.400 greatly exaggerated for a long time now, like we think 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.320 of them as these rapid flesh eating monsters. I'll just 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.840 kind of tear you apart the second to hit the water. 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.359 But the truth is that most piranhas would never try 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.399 to eat a human or any other mammal unless it 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.360 was dead or or even dying. And for the most 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.640 part they eat insects or other fish, and some species 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:34.080 of piranha or even vegetarians actually, so I don't feel 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.879 like I've heard that they're vegetarian piranta out there, and 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.399 I feel like knowing that maybe like Anis or some 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.560 healthy brand should use them as their mascot. Yeah, it's 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.439 it's it's pretty weird, but there is a species in Para, 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.080 Brazil that only eats river weeds. Don't get me wrong, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.800 but pranhas 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 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.199 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 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.600 schools of about twenty fish, which is way fewer than 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.119 the numbers they, you know, need to take down a human. 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.160 So as morbid as it is, I am curious, like 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.520 how many fish it does take to take down a human, 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.760 like like Gave once told me that, I think it's 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.600 like a gallon and a half of water. It could 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.399 kill me. So that's like a number I have in 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:25.159 my head. And and I kind of want to know 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.399 how many piranha I need to avoid. Well, fear not, 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:33.720 because I did indeed hold the numbers. And according to curator, yeah, 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:35.920 I I didn't do this just myself, but there was 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.640 a curator at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and so 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.359 the the estimate that they came up is that to 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.920 strip the flesh from a one d and eighty pound 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:49.120 person in five minutes would require somewhere between three hundred 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.240 and five hundred hungry piranhas, which is way more than 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.920 you would ever come across, even in highly concentrated regions, 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.960 like you think the Amazon River as an example. So 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.719 it sounds like it's highly unlikely, but I guess still 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.359 technically possible, Like 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 pranhacts, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.560 stick him in your pooling, and then you've got this 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.000 instant death trap. I don't really think we should be 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.600 giving anybody ideas, but but that in theory, I suppose 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.080 would work. And in fact, it was a similar kind 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.280 of stunt that gave the fish such a bad name 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.000 and the first place, and all because you know, a 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.960 few Brazilians wanted to show off for Teddy Roosevelt himself. 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.600 And this happened back in nineteen thirteen. It was a 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.399 few years after he had left office. So the Forward 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:38.960 President decided to go on this expedition. He wanted to 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.520 go into the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Of course, 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.080 the locals knew that he was coming, and they also 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.679 knew his reputation as this thrill seeker, and so to 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.360 make sure he had an experience that he would never forget, 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.280 the Brazilians arranged a demonstration for him. And this was 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.879 on the banks of the Amazon River, and the guys 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.320 warned Roosevelt, you know, and his roof really about the 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:04.080 fact that they shouldn't wade into the water there, or 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.200 else they'd be immediately eaten by this small, ravenous fish. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.760 And of course, as the Brazilians expected, Roosevelt scoffed at 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.840 the idea that any fish could be, you know, that dangerous, 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.520 especially if they're that tiny. So the guides gave him proof. 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.000 They brought an old, sick cow and drove it into 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.000 the water. Then, to the horror of everyone watching, the 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.119 piranhas attacked the cow and stripped it to the bone 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:34.000 within just a few minutes. I feel like as a Hindu, 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:39.560 that's particularly disturbing, But it's it's obviously the stunt. Why 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:41.560 were there so many of them just waiting around in 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:45.080 one place, Well, because it was a total setup. Like 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.879 weeks before Roosevelt arrived, local fishermen had caught hundreds of 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.119 piranha and then they tossed them into this area of 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.560 the river that they had isolated with giant nuts. So 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:57.919 weeks go by, and then the guides that you know, 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.119 gave their warning at that part of the river and 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.520 they knew that there were hundreds of traps, starving fish, 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.920 just waiting to put on a show. But of course Roosevelt, 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.080 you know, and all these reporters they were with them, 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:11.919 they didn't know any of this, and they thought they 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.920 had witnessed the most shocking natural display of aggression in 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.159 the animal kingdom. And you can bet they wanted to 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:20.679