Speaker 1: Guess what mango?
Speaker 2: What's that? Will?
Speaker 3: So I was looking up little American influences around the world,
Speaker 3: you know, like how in Japan a hot dog is
Speaker 3: called a Hota dog ou, but a corn dog is
Speaker 3: called an American dog oo.
Speaker 2: I love that. What else you got?
Speaker 3: Potlucks are called American parties in the Netherlands, and one
Speaker 3: of my favorites, brass knuckles, are referred to as an
Speaker 3: American fist from France. But the thing I wanted to
Speaker 3: tell you about was this little town in Brazil called Americana.
Speaker 1: So basically, when the.
Speaker 3: Confederacy lost the Civil War, about twenty thousand Confederates fled
Speaker 3: to Brazil, where they established two colonies. There was New
Speaker 3: Texas and Americana. But what's crazy is that it still
Speaker 3: has this touch of America there. You can spot rocking
Speaker 3: chairs on porches, families still speak English with a Southern drawl,
Speaker 3: and they still make sweet potato pots. This has all
Speaker 3: been passed down since the eighteen sixties.
Speaker 2: That is crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But it got me wondering, if we ever decided
Speaker 3: to leave America, what's the most non American American place
Speaker 3: out there? Is it another country? Is it a US
Speaker 3: territory and what is it that makes America America? I mean,
Speaker 3: other than corn dogs, of course, let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker 3: their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 3: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 3: Mangesh how Ticketter, and today we're talking about the most
Speaker 3: American places in the world, at least ones that just
Speaker 3: so happen to be located outside the US.
Speaker 2: That's right. We're gonna look at some foreign places that,
Speaker 2: for one reason or another, have a very distinct American feel.
Speaker 2: And we're also going to explore a few offshore territories
Speaker 2: to see which parts of the States have rubbed off
Speaker 2: on them and to help make.
Speaker 3: Sense of these somewhat mysterious locales. Will be talking with
Speaker 3: Doug Mack, author of the book The Not Quite States
Speaker 3: of America Now. Doug spend a year touring the US
Speaker 3: territories and came away with all kinds of amazing information
Speaker 3: about the parts of our own country that many of
Speaker 3: us tend to forget even exist.
Speaker 2: I'm super excited to talk to him and for our
Speaker 2: quiest today, we've also got a couple of part time
Speaker 2: Geniuses calling in from Washington, d C. We're gonna hear
Speaker 2: their thoughts on living in a city that's got quite
Speaker 2: a chip on his shoulder thanks to its not quite status.
Speaker 3: Yeah, DC residents are not shy about their frustration with
Speaker 3: the federal District's lack of statehood. I mean, for almost
Speaker 3: twenty years now, the motto on their license plates has
Speaker 3: been taxation without representation. Compare that to what most states
Speaker 3: put on their plates, and you'll get a sense of
Speaker 3: how heavily the whole not a state thing weighs on them.
Speaker 2: I know. Most states use the space to brag about
Speaker 2: their accomplishments, like Ohio's plate Tatsa as the birthplace of aviation,
Speaker 2: and Utah uses the plate to boast that they have
Speaker 2: the greatest snow on earth.
Speaker 3: How did Utah determine that it has the best snow
Speaker 3: in the world. That seems pretty subjective. I mean, who's
Speaker 3: to say theirs is the greatest?
Speaker 2: I know, it's funny because states get away with ridiculous
Speaker 2: statements like that all the time, like Virginia's for lovers.
Speaker 2: Come on, now, it.
Speaker 3: Was a very scientific study, and it's the same with Utah.
Speaker 3: Fact checkers have shown that it isn't the driest or
Speaker 3: the fluffiest or the most abundant snow, but they called
Speaker 3: their unique mixture of snow the best.
Speaker 2: On earth, the unique mixture.
Speaker 3: When you try to think of a country that's most
Speaker 3: like the United States, what comes to mind first?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's got to be our neighbor to the north.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, or at least in theory.
Speaker 3: I mean, Canada is likely the place the average American
Speaker 3: would say they'd feel most at home. And that's partly
Speaker 3: because most Americans have a really positive view of Canada.
Speaker 3: So last September, a poll from NBC and The Wall
Speaker 3: Street Journal showed that seventy five percent of American surveyed
Speaker 3: viewed Canada favorably. Well, only three percent had a negative
Speaker 3: view of Canada. And by the way, those were the
Speaker 3: highest ratings in the poll. People liked Canada more than
Speaker 3: any other person or entity they were asked about.
Speaker 2: That's pretty incredible. But I mean, I don't know who
Speaker 2: those three percent are, because I can't imagine anyone actively
Speaker 2: disliking Canada me either. Everyone knows they're pretty much like
Speaker 2: the nicest people on earth, plus their land of great comedy,
Speaker 2: like Lorne Michaels, Samantha bead kids in the.
Speaker 1: Hall, that's right.
Speaker 3: I was going to say kids in the hall mainly
Speaker 3: just kids in the hall, right, So what's not to like?
Speaker 3: But you know what's funny, Remember how much love Canada
Speaker 3: got the night of the twenty sixteen election. Sure, as
Speaker 3: the votes were tallied, there were all these reports about
Speaker 3: Canada's immigration site crashing due to a stampede of less
Speaker 3: than enthused Americans. But what's interesting is that it wasn't
Speaker 3: just a twenty sixteen phenomenon. Every election year, thousands of
Speaker 3: Americans on both sides of the out threatened to jump
Speaker 3: ship to Canada should the quote wrong Canada win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the underlining thought is clearly that even if
Speaker 2: life in Canada isn't the same as life in the US,
Speaker 2: it's close enough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Hopping the border to Canada is apparently the plan
Speaker 3: B for lots of Americans, or at least they pretend
Speaker 3: it is. It's kind of a if things go south,
Speaker 3: I'll go north mentality. But the reality is it's a
Speaker 3: whole lot harder to immigrate to Canada than most people think.
Speaker 3: Even if you have a job in Canada, even if
Speaker 3: you're married to a Canadian, becoming a citizen can be
Speaker 3: time consuming and requires a crazy amount of paperwork. But
Speaker 3: even setting aside the difficulty of becoming a citizen, there's
Speaker 3: still the question of whether living in Canada would really
Speaker 3: feel comparable to life here in the States. Is Canada
Speaker 3: all that American?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 3: I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a great deal
Speaker 3: of crossover, but it's hardly a.
Speaker 1: One to one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Canadian culture isn't too far from what we find stateside,
Speaker 2: and the food, for the most part, isn't that exotic,
Speaker 2: though they do have stuff like proutine flavored potato chips
Speaker 2: and camel meat apparently.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think that sounds very American.
Speaker 2: Because we share the same continent, our economies and environmental
Speaker 2: concerns are intertwined. But yet there would definitely be some
Speaker 2: growing pains involved for American transplants. For example, According to
Speaker 2: Canadian Business, buying stuff online is much more of a
Speaker 2: challenge in Canada than it is in the US.
Speaker 3: I like that you go straight to shopping as the
Speaker 3: litmus tests for whether a place feels truly American. But okay,
Speaker 3: what makes e commerce worse in Canada is that the
Speaker 3: spotty Wi.
Speaker 2: Fi not exactly in fact, Canadians are more likely to
Speaker 2: have access to the Internet than residents of any other
Speaker 2: G twenty nation, and that includes the US. Canadian citizens
Speaker 2: have long since embraced the digital age, but Canadian businesses
Speaker 2: are a totally different story. Fewer than half of all
Speaker 2: Canadian companies have websites, much less the ability to sell
Speaker 2: their products online.
Speaker 1: Well, that would.
Speaker 3: Definitely be a rude awakening for many Americans, and I
Speaker 3: think the weather in Canada would be an even ruder one.
Speaker 3: I don't want to blow your mind here, Mango, but
Speaker 3: it gets pretty chilly in Canada.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point. There are parts of the
Speaker 2: US that experience some freezing cold winters, but that's true
Speaker 2: of all of Canada. In fact, Canada vies with Russia
Speaker 2: for the title of coldest country in the world. Oh wow,
Speaker 2: The average daily annual temperature in the Great White North
Speaker 2: a bomby twenty two degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 3: Iike's just thinking about that makes me want to reach
Speaker 3: for the thermostat. So but I'm glad we're touching on climate.
Speaker 3: That's one of the major points of departure you're going
Speaker 3: to run into with any stand in for the States.
Speaker 2: Yeah, our location in the sheer size of the continental
Speaker 2: US allows for a lot of diversity in terms of
Speaker 2: geography and climate. That's an aspect of life in America
Speaker 2: that's tough for a lot of regions to match, even
Speaker 2: if they do have same data delivery from Amazon. But
Speaker 2: I think the biggest obstacle in trying to find another
Speaker 2: country that feels American is the history itself.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that, Well, a.
Speaker 2: Country's history and the sense that it's shared by the
Speaker 2: people who live there. That's a large part of what
Speaker 2: makes a place feel like home. Countries like Canada and
Speaker 2: Australia have similar histories of European colonization to that of
Speaker 2: the US. That's maybe part of the reason they feel
Speaker 2: more American. Does Still, all the specifics of those histories
Speaker 2: and the cultures they spurred are very different, and it's
Speaker 2: those kind of details that really seem to help us
Speaker 2: identify ourselves as Americans.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds right to me. I mean, imagine in
Speaker 3: America where the people didn't feel a swell of pride
Speaker 3: when they spotted the Statue of Liberty, or feel a
Speaker 3: twinge of childhood nostalgia when they heard notes from Yankee
Speaker 3: Doodle could you ever really say a place like that
Speaker 3: felt American? Well, plenty of people wouldn't be so lofty
Speaker 3: and describing what makes America America. I mean, it's not
Speaker 3: for nothing that we have the largest economy in the world.
Speaker 3: Americans like to spend money, and we have tons of
Speaker 3: options for where to spend it. See, it all comes
Speaker 3: back to shopping. It really isn'tes capable. I mean, look
Speaker 3: at fast food, for better or worse. It's become synonymous
Speaker 3: with American culture. So any stand in country worth its
Speaker 3: salt would have its fair share of golden arches. Now,
Speaker 3: it's no surprise that the US leads and the total
Speaker 3: number of McDonald's restaurants at about fourteen thousand, but there
Speaker 3: are a few countries that are gaining ground. China, for instance,
Speaker 3: has around two thousand McDonald's, in Japan nearly three thousand.
Speaker 2: Whoa, they're really catching off.
Speaker 3: In fact, US sales now only account for about thirty
Speaker 3: one percent of McDonald's total revenues, according to Investipedia. The
Speaker 3: rest comes from countries that are fast adapting to American taste.
Speaker 3: And it's not just burgers. The KFC chain has become
Speaker 3: ubiquitous in Asian markets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get that. I mean KFC has been steadily
Speaker 2: expanding in both Japan and China for the past decade.
Speaker 2: China has even overtaken the US for a number of
Speaker 2: total KFCs, more than forty five hundred.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, So as Kentucky Fried Chicken more Chinese than America.
Speaker 2: Now, well, it's actually more Japanese.
Speaker 1: Oh really, how's that for one thing?
Speaker 2: KFC's mascot, Colonel Sanders, is hugely popular in Japan. He's
Speaker 2: emphasized in all the marketing, the employee uniforms, even in
Speaker 2: his trademark bulow tie. They even have a Colonel mascot
Speaker 2: costume with a big Emoji style head for the customers
Speaker 2: to take selfies with.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit creepy. I mean, he was also
Speaker 3: the founder, right, a real person. It's sort of like
Speaker 3: if Disneyland had employees wearing big Walt Disney mask prowling
Speaker 3: the park instead of Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2: Thankfully, that's something even the international Disney parks have avoided doing.
Speaker 2: But it does get me thinking, could Disney theme parks
Speaker 2: be some of the most American places in the world.
Speaker 3: Well, you might be onto something there. Last year, Branding
Speaker 3: magazine pulled nearly five thousand people between sixteen and sixty five.
Speaker 3: They asked him to evaluate the patriotism of two hundred
Speaker 3: and forty eight US brands.
Speaker 1: Any idea who was at the top of the list.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go on a limb here and say, uh, Disney.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 3: In fact, ninety eight percent associated the Disney brand with
Speaker 3: US patriotism.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a study, exposure to American brands in entertainment has
Speaker 2: gone a long way toward making other parts of the
Speaker 2: world feel a little more American, for better or for worse.
Speaker 2: In fact, that's even true of our own offshore territories,
Speaker 2: which are their own unique mixes of island native and
Speaker 2: modern American col Very true.
Speaker 3: But before we get into the strange, not at all
Speaker 3: straightforward world of US territories, what do you say we
Speaker 3: check in with our DC residents for an all American quiz?
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: So, who do we have on the line today? Mango?
Speaker 2: We have Drake and Don who are both DC residents
Speaker 2: and in a strange coincidence, both of them have traveled
Speaker 2: to nearly all fifty states.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, So let's start with you. Will, You've
Speaker 1: been to forty nine states, Is that right?
Speaker 4: That's right?
Speaker 1: So which one is missing on the list?
Speaker 4: I have not been to North Dakota yet.
Speaker 1: To North Dakota, it's going to say Hawaii or Alaska.
Speaker 1: So what do you have against North Dakota.
Speaker 4: Well, if you think about everything that's cool to visit
Speaker 4: in the Dakota's whether it's Rushmore or Deadwood or Rapid City,
Speaker 4: that's all South Dakota.
Speaker 1: Man, all of our North Dakota listeners are going to
Speaker 1: be so angry after hearing this. This could get out definitely.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, yeah, alright, Well that's still pretty impressive. And
Speaker 3: don I think you've been to what is it forty.
Speaker 5: Eight I've been to forty eight states?
Speaker 4: Yes, all right?
Speaker 1: And what's missing on your list?
Speaker 5: So what's missing is Wyoming and Alaska. But so as
Speaker 5: somebody that has visited North Dakota, you haven't lived until
Speaker 5: you've had dinner in Bismark.
Speaker 2: Some bulled words, I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 3: Well, actually, Drake, you're also in the process of striking
Speaker 3: off another list, and that is visiting every Major League
Speaker 3: baseball park in America. Now, how many of you hit
Speaker 3: at this point?
Speaker 4: As of a few days ago twenty six wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, twenty six out of how many are there?
Speaker 4: Thirty?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, well done. All right, well let's get to it.
Speaker 3: We've got two DC residents here to play a game.
Speaker 3: And what's the game called Mango?
Speaker 2: It's a little quiz called DC or not DC?
Speaker 3: All right, So we'll read a statement about Washington DC,
Speaker 3: and if you think it's true, you'll say d C.
Speaker 3: If you think it's false, you'll say not DC. Not
Speaker 3: that confusing, all right, So you'll be working as a team.
Speaker 3: We thought DC residents need to stick together and all
Speaker 3: of their anger over not being a state, So we're
Speaker 3: gonna let you collaborate, you guys. Ready, I good, Ready,
Speaker 3: all right, let's do it. Question number one, It wasn't
Speaker 3: until nineteen sixty one that DC residents got the right
Speaker 3: to vote in presidential elections DC or not DC.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure the date, but that sounds right. What
Speaker 4: do you think done?
Speaker 5: I don't know why it would have been nineteen sixty
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go not DC. Actually, I think I think
Speaker 5: we've been able to vote presidential longer.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna deffer.
Speaker 1: He's deferring, such a gentleman, but unfortunately.
Speaker 2: It is d C. The twenty third Amendment gave them
Speaker 2: the right. Yeah, and they first exercised that right in
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixty four elections.
Speaker 3: So don was actually thinking along the right lines of
Speaker 3: like why would it be nineteen sixty one when it
Speaker 3: wasn't exercised until sixty four. So I think we should
Speaker 3: give him half a point for like putting that reasoning together.
Speaker 1: So let's let's do that.
Speaker 2: So just like DC's have to state that's.
Speaker 1: Right, all right, not even all right? Question number two.
Speaker 3: Underneath d C, there's a semi secret metro line that
Speaker 3: runs congressmen and staffers between the office buildings. That is true,
Speaker 3: all right, absolutely, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's it called.
Speaker 2: It's called a Capital Subway system, and it makes over
Speaker 2: two hundred runs a day.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, okay, all right, so they have one and
Speaker 3: a half points so far. Let's see what happens next.
Speaker 3: Question number three. When Nixon accepted the gift of two
Speaker 3: pandas to DC's national Zoo, he returned the favor by
Speaker 3: sending them a pair of RCA speakers and a collection
Speaker 3: of Danny k records.
Speaker 4: D C or not DC, it's just dumb enough that
Speaker 4: it might be true.
Speaker 5: I don't know, you think that sounds like that sounds
Speaker 5: like a tacky, tacky American thing to do.
Speaker 6: Who is it, Danny K?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Is that not the jam you were listening to
Speaker 1: before you call it?
Speaker 5: I just turned off the eight tracks.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go DC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually not d C. Nixon actually sent them
Speaker 2: a gift that was way tack here a pair of
Speaker 2: Muskoks named Milton and Matilda, and according to the New
Speaker 2: York Times, they weren't exactly quality cattle. Milton in particular
Speaker 2: was complaining of post nasal drip, a cough, and his
Speaker 2: hair seemed to be falling out on arrival.
Speaker 3: What a sweet gift. God, Okay, all right, I sense
Speaker 3: the stormback. They've got three questions left, all right? Question
Speaker 3: number four. While Washington, d C. Isn't a state, it
Speaker 3: does have a listed state flower, the American Beauty Rose
Speaker 3: DC or not DC.
Speaker 4: You know what it sounds to me like, it's probably right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, d Here we go, two questions left.
Speaker 3: The first show, Viz Pizza, opened in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty. Vice President George Bush joins Spain's ambassador
Speaker 3: to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony DC or
Speaker 3: not DC?
Speaker 4: Where does this stuff come from history books or not?
Speaker 4: There's no way that's true.
Speaker 1: I think Don should probably agree with you.
Speaker 3: Let's see correct, all right? To finish up strong for
Speaker 3: the big prize, here we go Question number six. Spiked
Speaker 3: dog collars were invented in Washington, d C. By famed
Speaker 3: dog breeder Gareth Winchester to make his Bassett hounds look
Speaker 3: more intimidating. DC or not DC.
Speaker 4: I'm going I'm going correct.
Speaker 1: Who is Gareth Winchester?
Speaker 2: We don't know who Gareth Winter? Say that name up?
Speaker 1: Well, okay, so how have these guys done?
Speaker 2: Our contestants got a stunning four point five out of five.
Speaker 2: So not only will they get the note to their
Speaker 2: mom or boss from us singing their praises, but we're
Speaker 2: also sending them a vintage Republican Congressional cookbook filled with
Speaker 2: delicious American recipes fans of any political party can enjoy.
Speaker 3: So congratulations Don and Drake. Thanks for joining us on
Speaker 3: Part Time Genius.
Speaker 6: Thank you guys.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
Speaker 3: the most American places in the world. So Mango, we've
Speaker 3: been focusing on places that somehow feel American despite being
Speaker 3: outside of the United States.
Speaker 1: But before the break, you've touched on the topic of
Speaker 1: US territories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the territories are like these incredible scattered American gens
Speaker 2: that are sadly overlooked by most of US. Puerto Rico
Speaker 2: is the most famous by far of the five inhabited
Speaker 2: US territories, the other four being the US Virgin Islands,
Speaker 2: which is also in the Caribbean, plus American Samoa, Guam
Speaker 2: and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. They're also
Speaker 2: about a dozen uninhabited islands that also technically count as
Speaker 2: American soil.
Speaker 3: All right, so there are five of them. That is
Speaker 3: not something I could have told you before. And I
Speaker 3: feel like we need a way to commit them to memory.
Speaker 3: And you know how much I like namonic device is mango.
Speaker 3: Can we just take a minute to come up with
Speaker 3: a good way to remember all five.
Speaker 2: That's a great idea, Okay, So we go by population
Speaker 2: size from largest to smallest. That gives US Puerto Rico, Guam,
Speaker 2: US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands pg
Speaker 2: U A N.
Speaker 3: I was kind of hoping it would make a word
Speaker 3: by myself. All right, well let's think about this then.
Speaker 3: How about let's see pg u a peguan.
Speaker 1: That's not a word, all right. Pancakes grow under.
Speaker 3: A nice tree, and nice tree is one word, by
Speaker 3: the way, so don't call me out on that.
Speaker 1: Pancakes grow under a nice tree. That's how you remember.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good. Or maybe pickles get ugly after man.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say knifing, but that's supposed the k
Speaker 2: or gnawing, which starts to the G stupid silent letter.
Speaker 2: How about pickles get ugly after negotiations? Negotiations, Yeah, negotiations
Speaker 2: will wear anyone down. I was going to suggest neglect there, yeah, if,
Speaker 2: But negotiation is just funny to picture and easier to remember.
Speaker 1: All right, good point.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think we both nailed it, But we know
Speaker 3: our listeners are smarter than we are.
Speaker 1: So let's make this a contest. Come up with a.
Speaker 3: Better mnemonic for how to remember the five US territories,
Speaker 3: and we'll award our favorite three with part Time Genius
Speaker 3: t shirts. Just send your entries along with your mailing
Speaker 3: address to part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com, or
Speaker 3: you can find us on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to hear from them. Okay, back to
Speaker 2: the territories.
Speaker 3: Okay, we should note that we're following Doug Max's lead
Speaker 3: on this by kind of broadly grouping them all together
Speaker 3: as territories. But the logistics are a little more nuanced
Speaker 3: than that.
Speaker 2: Right. A territory can either be organized or unorganized, and
Speaker 2: also incorporated or unincorporated. And then there are Puerto Rico
Speaker 2: and the Northern Mariana Islands, which are officially commonwealth rather
Speaker 2: than territories. It's all maybe a little too nuanced for
Speaker 2: us to get into here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: There are all these distinctions that are used to describe
Speaker 3: the extent to which the Constitution and federal laws applies,
Speaker 3: well as whether a place is fully considered.
Speaker 1: Part of the US. It's actually kind of a big mess.
Speaker 2: You can really tell that the territories were acquired without
Speaker 2: any solid long term plan for them. I mean, all
Speaker 2: but nineteen of the current fifty states started out as
Speaker 2: US territories, but that path to statehood has never seemed
Speaker 2: like a serious option for places like Guam in the
Speaker 2: Virgin Islands.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Which isn't to say that the US claimed than without
Speaker 3: any rhyme or reason though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why do we start grabbing up offshore of territories anyway?
Speaker 2: I know America was young, scrappy, and hungry to borrow
Speaker 2: a phrase from Hamilton, but we were looking for ways
Speaker 2: to assert ourselves as a full blown empire in the
Speaker 2: eyes of the rest of the world. But that seems,
Speaker 2: I don't know, sort of impractical.
Speaker 3: Well, we definitely did want that seat at the big
Speaker 3: boy table, and expanding the country's boundaries certainly got us
Speaker 3: closer to that goal. But there was actually a more
Speaker 3: practical reason too, And you're gonna like this one, but
Speaker 3: back in the early eighteen hundreds, our farming game wasn't
Speaker 3: so strong yet.
Speaker 1: Here in the States.
Speaker 3: We were producing tons and tons of tobacco and cotton,
Speaker 3: but at the expense of the soil, which was fast
Speaker 3: losing all of its nutrients.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess George Washington Carver was still quite a
Speaker 2: few years off, so crop rotation wouldn't have be in
Speaker 2: vogue at the time.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 3: Well, we were exhausting the soil, and since industrialization was
Speaker 3: still a ways off, it was becoming a very big
Speaker 3: problem for our fledgling economy. So what's a young growing
Speaker 3: nation to do but start mining bird poop from the
Speaker 3: barren islands off its shores.
Speaker 2: Wait, that's why we have this territory, well many of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, these remote islands had been flyover spots for seabirds
Speaker 3: for thousands of years. All those years of daily deposits
Speaker 3: allowed for some pretty hefty build ups of utria rich fertilizer.
Speaker 3: I'm not kidding, And that's what American farmers needed. So
Speaker 3: Congress passed the Guano Islands Act in eighteen fifty six,
Speaker 3: and we started calling DIBs on all the unclaimed islands
Speaker 3: we could find.
Speaker 2: You're right, that is practical.
Speaker 1: And kind of gross.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it also doesn't explain why we've continued to
Speaker 3: hold onto these territories.
Speaker 1: I mean, we aren't.
Speaker 3: Exactly hard up for fertilizer anymore, and my friends in
Speaker 3: the guano mining industry telling me the work has dropped
Speaker 3: off significantly over the past two hundred years or so.
Speaker 3: I get that nations aren't chomping at the bit to
Speaker 3: give up land. There's only so much of it in
Speaker 3: the world, after all, But to be more to it, I.
Speaker 2: Think it has a lot to do with what the
Speaker 2: US got in addition to copious mounds of bird poop.
Speaker 2: When a nation claims territory, it doesn't just get the
Speaker 2: land itself. It gains possession of surrounding waters for miles
Speaker 2: and miles in all directions. That means cart blanc access
Speaker 2: to fishing and undersea minerals and shipping lanes.
Speaker 3: Well, not to mention the opportunity for tourism. That's big
Speaker 3: business for the territories today, one of the reasons they
Speaker 3: feel so American in some ways, even though their official
Speaker 3: status is a little shaky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was one of the things that jumped out
Speaker 2: to me while reading Doug Max's book. A few of
Speaker 2: the US territories are total tourist magnets, but it isn't
Speaker 2: always the people you'd expect to be visiting. Like take
Speaker 2: the Virgin Islands, for example. Unlike the Guano Rich Islands,
Speaker 2: the US bought these from Denmark in the early nineteenth century. Today,
Speaker 2: Danes flocked to the US Virgin Islands to get a
Speaker 2: taste of their country's colonial history. In fact, there's a
Speaker 2: weird dichotomy on the islands in that Danish tourists largely
Speaker 2: visit for the historical attractions like museums and tours of
Speaker 2: old forts, while American tourists visit mainly for the beach
Speaker 2: and the duty free shopping.
Speaker 3: Well, we have established that Americans love shopping, but it's
Speaker 3: a little sad to hear Americans mostly think of the
Speaker 3: territories as beachfront.
Speaker 2: Mall right, And in some cases they're not so much
Speaker 2: shopping destinations for Americans as they are for international tourists
Speaker 2: who want to feel American.
Speaker 1: You're thinking of Guam, I'm guessing exactly.
Speaker 2: Aside for the local population, Guam is almost entirely made
Speaker 2: up both navy and air force personnel and an endless
Speaker 2: stream of tourists from Russia, China, Japan, even Korea, And
Speaker 2: for the sake of survival, the people from Guam have
Speaker 2: really had to cater to this foreign crowd. There's this
Speaker 2: great part in Doug Max's book where he describes visiting
Speaker 2: Guam and running across an outback steakhouse, and it's just
Speaker 2: this really surreal moment where he's outside the States looking
Speaker 2: at this Australian themed US chain restaurant with a big
Speaker 2: glowing sign that reads America's favorite steakhouse in Japanese.
Speaker 1: It was for the steakhouse which are in Japanese.
Speaker 2: That's fair.
Speaker 3: That reminds me of how perhaps Blue Ribbon was rebranded
Speaker 3: in China for luxury markets and sold for like eighty
Speaker 3: dollars a bottle because not only was it American, but
Speaker 3: it won a Blue Ribbon.
Speaker 2: And yet ziem a gold can't get any international love
Speaker 2: despite having that gold in the title.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's what the gold stood for. But
Speaker 3: of all the territories, Guam really stands out for catering
Speaker 3: to a particular breed of tourists, those who want to
Speaker 3: experience all the cliche excess of US culture without actually
Speaker 3: visiting the States. And I mean it sounds like those
Speaker 3: visitors get exactly what they're after. Just listen to Doug's
Speaker 3: description of one of Guam's shopping districts. If you're so inclined,
Speaker 3: in the course of a single afternoon, you can rent
Speaker 3: a canary yellow Chevy Mustang or a Harley Davidson, dress
Speaker 3: up like a cowboy and fire machine gun at wild
Speaker 3: West Frontier Village, eat a berger at the Root sixty
Speaker 3: six Pub and Club, by a bulk sized bag of
Speaker 3: your favorite beef jerkey from the dedicated section at the
Speaker 3: souvenir shop and pose with the Statue of Liberty with
Speaker 3: a baseball field in the background, before ending the day
Speaker 3: with a Las Vegas style magic show replete with white
Speaker 3: tigers and dancing showgirls with feathery head dresses.
Speaker 1: It just makes me feel patriotic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that really does sound like America, or maybe just Vegas.
Speaker 2: But the territories do have places that are purposefully set
Speaker 2: up to feel like mainland America. But what about the
Speaker 2: people who lived there? I know that, with some exceptions,
Speaker 2: they are American citizens, but do they seem like Americans right?
Speaker 3: Well, we know they got the shopping thing down pat
Speaker 3: but maybe we should also take a look at the
Speaker 3: aspects of history and culture that we talked about earlier.
Speaker 3: I think those will really be deciding factors for what
Speaker 3: territories can be considered places that truly feel American.
Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's break for a quiz.
Speaker 3: So, our guest today is the author of this terrific
Speaker 3: book we're discussing the not Quite States of America. After
Speaker 3: realizing just how little he knew about the United States territories,
Speaker 3: he set off on a globe hopping quest covering more
Speaker 3: than thirty thousand miles to see them all, and he's
Speaker 3: here for us to ask him questions about every single
Speaker 3: one of those miles.
Speaker 1: Doug Mack, Welcome to Part time Genius.
Speaker 7: Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So, Doug, tell us.
Speaker 3: How this book idea came about and how long it
Speaker 3: took to make it happen. I mean, thirty thousand miles
Speaker 3: is no short track to see all of these places.
Speaker 7: No, it's certainly not.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 7: I have a degree, a bachelor's degree in American studies,
Speaker 7: but in four years of study, we never even once
Speaker 7: talked about the US territories. And then we talked about
Speaker 7: history and politics and literature and all this stuff about
Speaker 7: the states, so specifically right, And then just a few
Speaker 7: years ago, I was with my wife on a Saturday
Speaker 7: morning and she collects all the state quarters and she
Speaker 7: was putting a new quarter in her portfolio and she
Speaker 7: kind of said, late, look, you know there are these
Speaker 7: the quarter for the territories, and went, right, we have territories,
Speaker 7: which is kind of the response I get to every
Speaker 7: from everyone when I say wrote book with territories. It's oh, right, territories,
Speaker 7: that's the thing. And so that sort of sparked this idea, thought,
Speaker 7: you know this, this is supposed to be my area
Speaker 7: of espertise, right, but of American studies all this history,
Speaker 7: and did a little googling, thought, you know this is
Speaker 7: these are really interesting places. I should go see them myself.
Speaker 7: And no one had really written this book before, which
Speaker 7: is another thing that you were about as a writers.
Speaker 7: Has anyone already written this? And it turns out the
Speaker 7: answer is no?
Speaker 2: And so was was your travel to any one of
Speaker 2: these places more surprising than others?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 7: So all of the territories have a really interesting combination
Speaker 7: of what we would think of as sort of like
Speaker 7: familiar American culture and then and then their own region, right.
Speaker 7: So like the US Virgin Islands. One of the very
Speaker 7: first things that I saw as we're driving in from
Speaker 7: the airport was there's a big baseball stadium with a
Speaker 7: big poster saying there's going to be some major league
Speaker 7: stars appearing in a couple of weeks. You know, you
Speaker 7: kind of expect that as in part of the USA.
Speaker 7: But then a couple of blocks away was a big
Speaker 7: cricket ground. And the US Origin Islands are part of
Speaker 7: the West Indies cricket team, which is one of the
Speaker 7: most successful cricket teams in the world, and so you
Speaker 7: don't think of any part of the USA as being,
Speaker 7: you know, a cricket hotbed, much less being both a
Speaker 7: popular spot for baseball and for cricket. And so there
Speaker 7: are a lot of things like that across the territories,
Speaker 7: where you know, there is something familiar and then something
Speaker 7: completely Differently.
Speaker 3: Now you write a little bit about, you know, their
Speaker 3: thinking and the various territories on the possibility of statehood,
Speaker 3: but in general, were you surprised at the feelings from
Speaker 3: place to place on the idea of achieving statehood?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I was.
Speaker 7: I was surprised by sort of the level of complexity
Speaker 7: on that because there's no current dried answer, right, so,
Speaker 7: and it varies from place to place. You know, Puerto
Speaker 7: Rico certainly has has the biggest debate that a lot
Speaker 7: of people who were very strongly in favor of becoming
Speaker 7: independent nation they want nothing to do with the USA.
Speaker 7: Plenty of other people want to become a state, and
Speaker 7: you know, certainly they have the population and then everything
Speaker 7: that you know, they would fit right in. I think
Speaker 7: they would be about twenty ninth or so population wise.
Speaker 7: So yeah, it's it's it's really complicated, and it's all
Speaker 7: it's always changing as well. So for example, Guam right
Speaker 7: now has an independence moving movement that's starting to get
Speaker 7: to pick up some seam. But again, even there you
Speaker 7: still have some people who want to keep things the same.
Speaker 7: You have some people who want state hits. So there's
Speaker 7: there's not really an easy answer there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now, which of these territories would you say, if
Speaker 3: you had to pick one to say is the most American?
Speaker 1: What would you say?
Speaker 7: Possibly Guam They have the world's largest kmart is on Gwam.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I took a tour the island with with a military
Speaker 7: Veterans motorcycle club and they have amazing barbecue that's that's
Speaker 7: very much their own, their own thing, with a particular
Speaker 7: marinade that's that's kind of unique to to the Mariana Islands.
Speaker 7: And Guam and gum Manum just really felt familiar in
Speaker 7: American to me, but also like it had some of
Speaker 7: these cultural differences that I don't get certainly where I
Speaker 7: live in Minneapolis, but that too felt very American, right
Speaker 7: that there are all these different people and traditions contributing
Speaker 7: to this broader story of the USA.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, Menga, what game are we playing with
Speaker 1: Doug today?
Speaker 2: Because Doug wrote the Not Quite States of America, we're
Speaker 2: saddling him with a game called the not Quite Brilliant Quiz.
Speaker 3: All right, So we've scoured newspapers and media headlines for
Speaker 3: the phrase not quite something, and we want you to
Speaker 3: fill in the blank. But to help you out, we'll
Speaker 3: give you a rhyming clue as well. This is one
Speaker 3: of more and more complicated games. So no pressure, right, yeah,
Speaker 3: no pressure at all. But are you Are you ready
Speaker 3: to play?
Speaker 2: Doug?
Speaker 4: I think so?
Speaker 1: Okay, here we go. All right, so question number one.
Speaker 3: I'll give you the clue first, The answer rhymes with
Speaker 3: an abbreviation for corporation. The answer rhymes with an abbreviation
Speaker 3: for corporation.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: In an Atlanta Journal Constitution story headlined speeding man had
Speaker 3: alien doll passenger, the driver clocked in at eighty four
Speaker 3: miles per hour or not quite blank speed.
Speaker 4: Warp.
Speaker 1: Yes, morph rhymes yes one for one.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Clue for number two.
Speaker 3: This answer rhymes with the title of a Monty Python
Speaker 3: Broadway musical.
Speaker 1: Okay, the question is.
Speaker 3: The New Yorker titled a movie about a Jackie O
Speaker 3: wanna be not quite blank?
Speaker 2: Oh came, that's rights right, camelot right, yeah, and it
Speaker 2: rhymes with spam a lot.
Speaker 1: Well done? Two for two, all right, question number three,
Speaker 1: there's two left. Here we go.
Speaker 3: The clue is This answer rhymes with how you describe
Speaker 3: a monkey named George In a city am car review,
Speaker 3: the paper called a new automobile fast but not quite blank.
Speaker 5: Curios.
Speaker 2: Yay, curious.
Speaker 7: I'll thank my toddler daughter and her book collection.
Speaker 4: That one.
Speaker 3: All right, Last one here, This answer rhymes with spam gurgler,
Speaker 3: which isn't a.
Speaker 1: Word that makes sense. Okay.
Speaker 3: The question is a New Jersey radio station referred to
Speaker 3: a man who tried to rob a Burger King as
Speaker 3: not quite blank.
Speaker 7: It's probably not Ronald McDonald. That would be the hamburgler.
Speaker 1: Yes, well done, all right, So how do Doug you mango?
Speaker 2: So Doug win incredible four for four, which wins our
Speaker 2: hard earned admiration, which is also known as our number
Speaker 2: one best not quite prized.
Speaker 3: All right, congratulations Doug, and thanks so much for being
Speaker 3: on part time genius. I hope all of you will
Speaker 3: check out not quite states dot com to find out
Speaker 3: about Doug's book tour on August first, he'll be in
Speaker 3: New York. August second, he'll be in Boston. But you
Speaker 3: can see on the website for his other stops. Safe travels, Doug,
Speaker 3: and thanks a lot for writing a great book.
Speaker 7: Yeah, thanks for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 3: So we were talking about all the things that make
Speaker 3: the not quite states of America feel like the real thing.
Speaker 3: So what's the scoop on the local Well, I think
Speaker 3: one of the main similarities to people's stateside is that
Speaker 3: people in the territories have this really strong sense of
Speaker 3: sharing the load.
Speaker 2: There are these really tightly knit communities of families and
Speaker 2: friends that look out for one another despite having to
Speaker 2: constantly compete for resources. In some cases, this is especially
Speaker 2: true of American Samoa, which is one of the less developed,
Speaker 2: not as touristy territories.
Speaker 3: Yeah, American Samoa is an interesting case and is the
Speaker 3: only inhabited territory that's neither incorporated nor organized. It's actually
Speaker 3: the least American territory in a legal sense. But on
Speaker 3: the other hand, the locals have a culture that closely
Speaker 3: mirrors part of the mainland lifestyle.
Speaker 2: What do you think about Well, for one thing.
Speaker 3: American Samoans love football, and they're really good at it too.
Speaker 3: American football, of course, so Christian missionaries introduced the locals
Speaker 3: to rugby a long time ago. So when American television
Speaker 3: brought the NFL to the region, many players made the
Speaker 3: switch from a European pastime to a more American one.
Speaker 3: In fact, there were twenty eight NFL players of American
Speaker 3: Samoan descent at the start of the twenty fifteen twenty
Speaker 3: sixteen season. They've really taken to it.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. I've also heard their avid web surfers because
Speaker 2: the internet speeds are crazy fast. They're like faster than
Speaker 2: they are here on the mainland. Oh and another really
Speaker 2: telling fact about American Samoa is its military enlistment rate.
Speaker 1: It is pretty high, isn't it the highest?
Speaker 2: I mean, American Samoa has the greatest enlistment rate and
Speaker 2: casualty rate of any US territory or state.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is incredible.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the craziest part is that the American Samoans are
Speaker 2: only considered American nationals, not full citizens. So they are
Speaker 2: fighting and all too often dying for a country that
Speaker 2: doesn't even recognize them as its citizens. Which is kind
Speaker 2: of heartbreaking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is heartbreaking, especially when you consider how strong
Speaker 3: the sense of patriotism is there, like apart from a
Speaker 3: shared love of football and fast food. By the way,
Speaker 3: there are two McDonald's on the island. The people that
Speaker 3: really take pride in being American. But what's the difference
Speaker 3: between being a national and a citizen.
Speaker 2: It's confusing. So I'm going to quote Columbia law professor
Speaker 2: Christina Duffy Ponza here. Congress originally refused to give the
Speaker 2: inhabitants of the new territories citizenship, but the court decided
Speaker 2: that they weren't quite foreigners either. Eventually, the State Department
Speaker 2: came up with the labeled nationals, and while simons chose
Speaker 2: to stay nationals at some point to protect their cultural identity,
Speaker 2: it also meant they can't get civil service jobs in
Speaker 2: the US, or vote here, or help their families immigrate,
Speaker 2: even if they've served in the military. But on the
Speaker 2: other hand, clearly there's a sense of shared history in
Speaker 2: the territories that makes them feel more connected, unlike somewhere
Speaker 2: like Canada or Australia, which have broad similarities to US
Speaker 2: and a bit of over the territories are active parts
Speaker 2: of American history. They were the sites of some key
Speaker 2: battles in many of our wars, including Sipan in the
Speaker 2: Northern Mariana Islands, which was the bloodiest twentieth century battleground
Speaker 2: anywhere in the US, and today they still serve as
Speaker 2: strategic outposts for the military, helping as monitor potential threats
Speaker 2: from overseas well.
Speaker 3: That's a great point. So mainland Americans have a tendency
Speaker 3: to overlook their connection to the territories, but the people
Speaker 3: who live there could never be accused of ignoring American identity.
Speaker 3: I mean, with few exceptions, there isn't even a major
Speaker 3: push for independence or autonomy within the territories.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 1: Most seem perfectly content, proud even to maintain their connection
Speaker 1: to the US, even if it hasn't treated them completely
Speaker 1: fairly in the past.
Speaker 2: That's right. Puerto Rico definitely stands the best chance of
Speaker 2: achieving statehood and seems the most eager to do so,
Speaker 2: but even that's uncertain and not likely to happen anytime soon.
Speaker 2: There are few factors on its side, though, specifically the
Speaker 2: population and the sheer size of its land mass. It's
Speaker 2: much bigger than the other territories, and it's actually larger
Speaker 2: than Delaware and Rhode Island as well. It's also home
Speaker 2: to over three point five million people, which is ten
Speaker 2: times the population of all the other territories put together.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the size alone helps lend an American feel
Speaker 3: to Puerto Rico. Like we mentioned earlier, the mainland US
Speaker 3: is big, which gives it a lot of diversity in
Speaker 3: terms of climate and geography. Puerto Rico is the only
Speaker 3: territory that's big enough to have entire sections that look
Speaker 3: and feel completely differently from one another, complete with their
Speaker 3: own local vibes and cultural quirk.
Speaker 2: That definitely helps Puerto Rico feel more American. And while
Speaker 2: I hate to steer us back to shopping, I really
Speaker 2: want to mention that Puerto Rico is home to just
Speaker 2: about every American brand you can think of, including Macaroni, Grill, Costco,
Speaker 2: Sam's Club, cheesecake factory. They even have the first Macy's
Speaker 2: department store outside the Connello US. Wow.
Speaker 3: So another taste of the American experience for tourists, right.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. Doug Max suggests that unlike Guam
Speaker 2: or some of the other more crossly commercial parts of
Speaker 2: the territories. Puerto Rico feels extra American because those are
Speaker 2: the locals tastes, not the tourists.
Speaker 1: Oh that is interesting.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: It tells us that the reason Puerto Rico is home
Speaker 2: to the highest concentration of walmarts in the world is
Speaker 2: not because it's trying to appeal to outsiders with American tastes.
Speaker 2: It's because they're trying to peel to Americans, or in
Speaker 2: other words, to themselves. I like that.
Speaker 3: Still the most American places in the world, so those
Speaker 3: are in America?
Speaker 2: Is that the cheating, Well, it's something we could all
Speaker 2: probably stand to remember more often until we can easily
Speaker 2: rattle off the territories and their capitals like we do
Speaker 2: for states. I'm gonna have to give us a pass.
Speaker 2: But one case where cheating is never tolerated, the part
Speaker 2: time genius backed off. What do you say, will all right?
Speaker 1: Bring it on? So.
Speaker 2: Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant during World War two, was
Speaker 2: stationed in Guam when the war ended. The only problem
Speaker 2: he didn't know the war ended and hidden the Jungles
Speaker 2: for nearly twenty eight years. He survived on a diet
Speaker 2: of frogs, rats, and other small animals. So what happened
Speaker 2: when he was finally found by a couple of unters
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy two. He was allowed to return to
Speaker 2: Japan and live out the rest of his life as
Speaker 2: a celebrity.
Speaker 3: So what are some of the most American places in
Speaker 3: the States? Going by name alone, there are quite a
Speaker 3: few cities worthy of the title, including three named Independents,
Speaker 3: two named Freedom, and a whopping nine named Liberty, not
Speaker 3: to mention the ones that crib directly from the country's names,
Speaker 3: such as American Fork, Utah, American Falls City, Idaho, and
Speaker 3: American Canyon, California.
Speaker 2: Do you know? In twenty thirteen, Samoa Era started a
Speaker 2: very un American policy where they started charging people airfare
Speaker 2: based on their weight.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, well.
Speaker 2: Their weight and their luggages. Wait. And when people were
Speaker 2: furious about it, they just countered, well, you'll pay less
Speaker 2: for your kids.
Speaker 3: So, according to Thrillist, in the mcguau neighborhood of Tokyo,
Speaker 3: aspiring Japanese cowpokes and stetson and wranglers, Line danced to
Speaker 3: the sound of Brad Paisley at the Little Texas Honky
Speaker 3: tonk Bar.
Speaker 2: You know what a sucker I am for wranglers and
Speaker 2: Honky tonk Bar, I know you are, so I hate
Speaker 2: to say it, but I've got to give it to
Speaker 2: you for this episode.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm thrilled to have won this week, but I
Speaker 3: don't have to be the only one. Listeners, Remember to
Speaker 3: send your submissions for our Territories Mnemonic contest. There are
Speaker 3: big prizes on the line. And that's it for today's
Speaker 3: episode of Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for listening,
Speaker 3: Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 3: of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several
Speaker 3: brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
Speaker 3: begin to understand.
Speaker 2: Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2: Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 3: Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Speaker 3: Research Army including.
Speaker 1: Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eves.
Speaker 2: Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 4: Six d