Speaker 1: Yeah. On the morning of April seven, hundreds of miles
Speaker 1: from civilization, renowned explorer Robert Edwin Perry crunches over the
Speaker 1: snow and ice to a spot that only he can identify.
Speaker 1: As he stares through a sextant to get his bearings,
Speaker 1: the wind whips ice crystals into his face and freezes
Speaker 1: his breath in his walrus like mustache. Finally, he's satisfied.
Speaker 1: After years of trying, he has reached the North Pole.
Speaker 1: He writes in his journal, The Pole at last, I
Speaker 1: cannot bring myself to realize it. It all seems so
Speaker 1: simple and commonplace. Turns out it would not be so simple.
Speaker 1: Perry's claimed to be the first man of the North Pole,
Speaker 1: along with his longtime assistant Matthew Henson, and four indigenous guides,
Speaker 1: would be challenged for decades afterwards, illustrating the passion and
Speaker 1: ambition that the North Pole has planted in the minds
Speaker 1: of explorers for centuries. The quest to reach the North
Speaker 1: Pole represents the human desire to make sense of mysteries,
Speaker 1: to solve riddles of geography and the soul. In the
Speaker 1: sixteenth century, explorers, driven by dreams of ridges and gold
Speaker 1: set sail hoping to find a northwest passage to Asia
Speaker 1: through the frozen Arctic. When explorers didn't quite find what
Speaker 1: they were looking for, it just wetted their appetites for
Speaker 1: more expeditions, better technology, and deeper understanding of humanity. As
Speaker 1: the blank spaces on the map began to be filled in,
Speaker 1: explorers sought new challenges. The search for the passage to
Speaker 1: Asia became a race among nations to be the first
Speaker 1: at the top of the world. Explorers based down death
Speaker 1: at every turn, from starvation, exposure, disease, and their own
Speaker 1: fatal choices. If they lived, explorers earned fame and the
Speaker 1: admiration of their countrymen, but if they died, their names
Speaker 1: became immortal. I'm Catlong, host of The Quest for the
Speaker 1: North Pole, a new podcast from Mental Floss and I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio that tells the story of Arctic exploration and
Speaker 1: examines what pushed explorers to go ever further into the unknown.
Speaker 1: In each episode, we'll look at the important expeditions and
Speaker 1: what they found, as well as the tragedies and triumphs
Speaker 1: of figures like Sir John Franklin, frit Jeff Nonsen, Robert Peary,
Speaker 1: and Matthew Henson. We'll also delve into the racial and
Speaker 1: nationalist dynamics of exploration and recognize many critical roles of
Speaker 1: indigenous people, without whom few European adventurers would have survived.
Speaker 1: And we'll learn how the climate crisis is changing the
Speaker 1: Arctic and polar exploration. Today, we speak with historians and
Speaker 1: adventurers to bring you insight into the social context and
Speaker 1: psychology behind the race to the Pole. The Quest for
Speaker 1: the North Pole premieres on January. Listen and subscribe on
Speaker 1: the I heart rate, you app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, M