August 22, 2025 • 34 mins
When's the best time to surf the Amazon? Can Brazilian termites help you make a better pizza? And did you pay too much for that venomous snake? (Spoiler alert: You probably did.) Today Will and Mango are uncovering some little-known facts about the big, beautiful country of Brazil!
This episode originally aired on March 1, 2019.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's that? Well?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right, So we're in New York City this week,
and one of the things I love seeing here is
how many people read on the subway. I mean, you
look around and it feels like every New Yorker feels
like it's the perfect time to get their reading in.
And actually sometimes I'm kind of jealous about this because
they have this automatic reading time each day. But you
look around the world and there are other places that
(00:25):
do this too, and Brazil is actually a big supporter
of this. In fact, the country has started something called
ticket books to promote literacy. Have you heard about this?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No? What's a ticket book?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So it's a free book that you can pick up
just at a subway station, and apparently there's this Brazilian
publisher that gave out ten thousand books. But the cool
part is that the books actually double as subway tickets,
so each book has ten rides and then a reader
can either refill the book for free or pass it
along to somebody else.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh that's pretty cool and did it get people reading? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I think some. In fact, this was an intentional effort
on the part there, because I believe Brazilians were only
reading maybe like two books a year on average at
the time, but the books handed out included everything from
The Great Gatsby to Hamlet to Naruda love Sonnets to
of course Garfield.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Garfield was a ticket book. Yeah, it's like a gayway
drug to like reading.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
But absolutely well, this is just the first of a
ton of stories that we have today about Brazil, from
you know, how a soap opera convinced the country to
have less kids, to how a bunch of termites can
help you make a better pizza. So let's dig in. Hey,
(01:58):
their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Mangesh Hot ticket there and on the other side of
the soundproof glass helping himself to what he claims is
a Brazilian delicacy. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now,
if I sound it a little bit skeptical, it's because
I'm basically watching a grown man drink liquid butter from
(02:19):
a bottle, and actually he's only trying to frame it
as some kind of cultural experience he's taking part in.
And I got to be honest, personally, I'm not really
buying it. What's your take on this, mega.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I think it's definitely gross that hard the take
is true, but you know, as weird as it sounds,
I think we should actually give him like some partial
credit on this one, because this is actually a thing
in Brazil. Apparently in the northeast part of the country,
bottle butter is popular and it's even a common souvenir
for people who go there on vacation. So the key
(02:51):
to remember is that residents actually use this butter as
a condiment, not as a beverage. So if you dine
in the region, you'd probably find like a bottle of
liquid butter on the table next to the salt and pepper,
and you can just splash a little on your meat
or rice or whatever, just for an extra kick of flavor.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I feel like that makes more sense than whatever Tristan
is doing right now. So what's so special about this
butter anyway? And maybe more importantly, why do they sell
this in bottles?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So it's actually pretty funny. When I first heard about this,
the first thing I thought about was ghee, which is
this clarified liquid butter that you have in India. People
started making gee because it was sort of this easy
way to preserve butter in the days before refrigeration and
in areas that are hot or unforgiving. If you clarify
the butter and you remove that milky solid that's in there,
(03:41):
and you just keep the liquid dairy fat that's left behind,
it doesn't spoil. And it turns out it's actually the
same story here. Northeast brazila is dry, it's arid, so
the cattle ranchers in the region stumbled into this same technique.
It actually ends up being super regional. You can't find
in other parts of Brazil, only in the northeast. And
(04:02):
it's also an acquired taste. Unlike Gee, it actually has
a few more notes to it. It's a little more cheesy.
It supposedly has a strong barnyard aroma as well, which
I guess is very acquired barnyard.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, I would say that, I'm not sure how you'd
ever acquire that taste, but interesting. It doesn't seem to
bother Tristan over there, though, And I'm grateful that he
brought this stuff to our attention because it is pretty interesting,
and because you know, love for bottled butter is definitely
an unusual part of Brazilian culture that I had actually
never heard about before, And that's exactly the kind of
(04:38):
thing that today's episode is all about. You know, it
feels far too often that when it comes to Brazil,
we either hear only the good or the bad. You know,
like we read about all the tourist friendly things in
the country, like the delicious food, the beautiful beaches, sambas, soccer, carnival,
but you know, it also feels like we read about
the depressing bits like poverty and government corrupt, rampant crime.
(05:02):
So today's focus, like, we really thought we'd move past
those familiar talking points and think about the stranger side
of Brazil, like all the unusual things about the country
that you probably never knew about. So let's get into this, Like,
what's something you were surprised to learn this week, Mango.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, I mean, there are a ton of things, but
one thing that really stuck out to me is the
fact that nearly two million Brazilian citizens are of Japanese descent.
There and while that's still only a fraction of Brazil's population,
which is roughly about like two hundred to two hundred
and ten million people, it's actually the largest group of
people with Japanese ancestry outside of Japan itself.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Huh. I actually hadn't heard that before. So why is
that exactly?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, I guess Brazil has always been this melting pot
of cultures from all over Europe and Africa, and this
goes back hundreds of years. And of course there's also
the native population that's there and the various Amazonian tribes.
The country really is home to a little bit of everyone.
But Asia's country didn't come until about the early twentieth century,
and that's when tens of thousands of Japanese people began
(06:05):
to look for opportunities abroad. The first batch came over
in nineteen oh eight, and then they settled in the
south and the southeast parts of the country, where they
started working on the coffee plantations. And then the nineteen thirties,
the local state government in Brazil's north began offering free
land to anyone who was willing to farm it, and
obviously that's an attractive deal to an outsider. So a
(06:27):
second wave of Japanese immigrants laid roots in that part
of the country, and now over a century later, the
country has the world's second largest population of people of
Japanese ancestry, or nikay as they're called.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
You know, it's cool because one of the reasons we
wanted to do this Brazil episode is because you know,
we both learned so many fascinating things from the show
we did on Japan a while back. So it's you know,
it's neat that you found this kind of unexpected connection
between the two countries.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It's funny. You know. We actually had this host in
the office fair Tundy Thurston, and we were talking about
aging pops, and I told them how Japan was adding
all that process to food for the elderly so that
they could chew and swallow food easier. I feel like
there were so many facts in that that were really interesting.
But what's sort of funny to me is that Japan
and Brazil feel pretty far apart, not only in terms
(07:15):
of like culture, but stuff like climate. Like Japanese immigrants,
you know, they wouldn't have been used to those like
ninety five degree days and the average high in Tokyo,
like it's only like seventy nine degrees. It's quite a
difference between the climates.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, that's that's a serious adjustment. Do you get a
sense for how Japanese transplants, you know, deal with this
kind of newness.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I guess this is a coping mechanism for all of us.
But it's comfort food. So Japan, of course has a
pretty famous culinary tradition, you know, from their dining habits
to meal time rituals, and so these early Nike communities
in Brazil would actually hang onto those traditions as a
way to feel connected to their heritage. But they didn't
live or cook in isolation either. Like overtime, Brazilian flats
(08:00):
began to seep into these traditional Japanese recipes, and ingredients
from the homeland that couldn't be found were often subs
to do with things like cassava or fish from nearby rivers.
But what's interesting is that like a few generations later,
a whole bunch of Japanese Brazilians wound up reverse migrating
back to Japan, and since they'd lived their entire lives
in Brazil, they naturally brought a taste for all of
(08:21):
these Brazilian flavors and culture back with them. So in fact,
there's this like thriving Brazilian restaurant scene in Japan now
because so many people had migrated back there and they
were nostalgic for the Brazilian food they'd grown up with.
And I just kind of love that there's this like
unofficial cultural exchange program between the two countries.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
I actually have a different food collaboration that I want
to talk about for just the minute, and this is
the one between the fishermen of Laguna and Brazil and
the wild dolphins who live off the coast there. So
for the past one hundred and twenty years, the friendly
Laguna dolphins have actually been lending their fishing talents to
the coastal community there. I know that may sound a
little bit weird.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, so how does this work? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's pretty amazing actually. So around two hundred fishermen take
their nets and then they wade out into the water
and you know, they're kind of waist deep at this point,
and they form a line. But because the water in
the area is so murky, they actually can't see where
the fish are. So instead the fishermen wait for a
friendly dolphin to give them somewhat of a signal, and
(09:23):
so once they see one, make a sudden dive or
slap its tail against the water. The humans actually cast
their nets and reap the rewards from there, and there's
a ton to reap too, like actually, research shows that
they can catch more fish and larger fish when they do,
you know, kind of cooperate with the dolphins compared to
when they work solo. In fact, some of the fishermen
(09:44):
say that on days when dolphins aren't around, it's not
even worth fishing at all.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
So this sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the fishermen,
But what is in it for the dolphins?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You know, It's funny because then the articles, the dolphins
are almost always talked about like these deep dogs of
the sea, like they corral the fish for the fishermen,
but it's clearly benefiting them too. And I guess the
theory is that panicfish become really disoriented when the fishermen
cast their nets, and that chaos makes it easier for
the dolphins to gobble up the fish as well. And
(10:17):
it isn't like every dolphin participates in this activity, like
the helpful ones you know, kind of work alone or
in smaller groups with the humans, But the rest of
the dolphins steer clear all together. And as you know,
as far as we know, nobody ever taught the dolphins
to do this, so how exactly this practice got started
it's still somewhat of a mystery.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I like that you're aware that some of the dolphins
oft out of this experience.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I don't want any part of it, which is
pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
But you know, while we're on the subject of bizarrely
helpful animals, do you know that Brazilian termites are actually
great at making pizza ovens?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That is not something I do, but I definitely need
to know more now.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
So I don't know how much you know about termites,
but they really are these incredible engineers and construction workers.
They carve out these super long, intricate tunnel systems for
their colonies to nest in. But you've probably also seen
those giant termite mounds is that they make, And I
don't know have you actually seen those?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Oh? Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing to see the pictures
of these.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, and they look like, I guess, like giant dirt
cones or almost like big rocks smoke stacks. But the
interesting thing is that, like, because most of the turmite
tunnels are underground, if you cut into the side of
one of these mounds, you probably won't find many termites
in it at all.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I mean, so what's with the giant cones, Like it
seems like a huge amount of work for not a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean, it depends on which termite mounds we're
talking about. Like in the northeast of Brazil, where it's
extremely dry and arid, the termite mounds really don't serve
a purpose. They're basically just like enormous junk piles, and
it's essentially all the excess bits of soil that the
termites produce while tunneling on ground, and all of that
just eventually gets like collected into a mound. You know.
(12:04):
While a termite worker is hardly half an inch long,
like like, some of the mounds they build are actually
like thirty feet wide at the base and they could
be as tall as thirteen feet high. So not only
are they big, but there are tons of them. Actually
this is a little off topic, but based on satellite
images in the region, researchers actually estimate there are roughly
two hundred million termite mounts and they're spread across an
(12:26):
area as large as four thousand Great Pyramids of Giza, which, wow,
is kind of a weird way to measure things. I
don't know why. The fact I read said like, I
don't normally measure things in Pyramids of Giza, but it's
it's pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I thought that was pretty standard now. But I mean,
I'm guessing if it's that many and you can see
the mounds from space, that the bugs have been doing
this for a little while.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah. There was actually this really neat study where researchers
took soil samples from eleven different mounds and then they
analyzed the sand grains from the centers to see I
guess when these mounds had last been exposed to sunlight
or at least the dirt inside. And the youngest mound
they found was I guess it was started seven hundred
years ago, and the oldest was almost four thousand years old.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That is incredible. But actually, I think the question we
all want to know now is what does any of
this have to do with pizza?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So this is a real thing, I promise, and it's
not just this shaggy dog story. If you head to
southern and central Brazil, where it's wet and grassy, you
actually find a different kind of termite mound there, and
these ones do serve a purpose both for the termites
and for pizza loving humans. So on the termite side
of things, that the hollow mounds function as lungs for
(13:44):
the colonies that live in the tunnels below them, and
it's all this like porous soil and it helps them,
I guess, keep their chambers ventilated, like the carbon dioxide
is sent out and fresh oxygen comes in. But for humans,
the good news is that once the colony dies out
or follows the trail of food to a different location,
all these deserted mounds make perfect outdoor ovens. So in
(14:07):
the past people used to cook all kinds of meat
in these makeshift ovens, but today they're actually a really
popular way to cook bread and pizza, especially when you're
on camping trips or some other outing. And all you
have to do is like cut a hole at the
base of the mound, confirm it's empty, which is a
pretty important part, and then light it up and it's
ready to make food with.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yeah. I think I'd have a hard time though, ever,
eating something that was baked in a termite oven. To
be honest with you, and I mean, I know you
said the mounds are abandoned and everything, but I might
still struggle with that. But thankfully, though, I know, Brazil
has me covered because the country's actually been obsessed with
pizza ever since Italian immigrants brought it over at the
end of the nineteenth century. In fact, in Brazil's largest city,
(14:50):
South Pallo, you know, they're so into pizza there that
it's said to be home to eight thousand pizza parlors,
eight thousand, which is collectively that's enough to produce a
new a million pizzas each and every day. And you know,
some foodies claim Brazil makes the best pizza in the.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
World, which is hard for someone like me to believe.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, well, I mean there is a downside to all
that superior pizza because, according to a twenty sixteen paper
and Atmospheric Environment, the restaurants use an estimated three hundred
thousand tons of wood each year to keep their old
school ovens nice and hot, and unfortunately, all that smoke
results in some pretty major air pollution, and so the
researchers say that even though most residents have switched over
(15:32):
to biofuel for their vehicles, you know, the emissions from
all those wood burning ovens might undo all those positive effects.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I do find a problematic, right, like choosing between clean
air or the world's most delicious pizza. It feels like
such a Sophie's choice. But you know, now that we've
talked a little bit about Brazilian cuisine and some animals
that help put food on the table, why don't we
switch gears and talk about the opposite kind of wildlife,
the Brazilian animals that are more life threatening than life affirming.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, let's definitely do that. But before we get to that,
let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time
Genius and we're talking about the strangest things you never
(16:24):
knew about Brazilian wildlife. Now you may have heard this before,
but Brazil is believed to have the greatest biodiversity of
any country in the world, and it's largely thanks to
it's also having the largest tract of untouched rainforest on
the planet. And while some of the animals there are dangerous,
and you know, some are even deadly, there's one famous
(16:45):
jungle resident that is far less dangerous than we like
to pretend, and that's the poor misunderstood Piranha.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I love it. The humble man eating piranha. But have
you ever seen those teeth? I feel like those are
some fishes, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I feel like you just wanted to say vicious fishes,
but I did. I mean, the Farascia puranas has been
greatly exaggerated for a long time now, like we think
of them as these rapid flesh eating monsters. I'll just
kind of tear you apart the second two hit the water.
But you know, the truth is that most piranhas would
never try to eat a human or any other mammal
(17:22):
unless it was dead or even dying. And for the
most part they eat insects or other fish, and some
species are purana or even vegetarians actually.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So I don't feel like I've heard that they're vegetarian
purana out there. I feel like knowing that maybe like
Annie's or some healthy brand should use them as their mascot.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
It's pretty weird, but there is a species in Para,
Brazil that only eats river weeds. Don't get me wrong.
The pranas can still pose a threat to humans, and
some swimmers in South America have lost fingers and toes
in recent years, but I couldn't find any record of
anyone ever being killed by piranhas, And it's really not
that surprising when you consider that piranhas usually travel in
(18:04):
schools of about twenty fish, which is way fewer than
the numbers they need to take down a human.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So as morbid as it is, I'm curious, like how
many fish it does to take down a human, Like
Gabe once told me that, I think it's like a
gallon and a half of water could kill me. So
that's like a number I have in my head, and
I kind of want to know how many piranha I
need to avoid.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Well, fear not, because I did indeed pull the numbers
and a quarter curator. Yeah, oh I didn't do this
just myself, but there's a curator at the National Aquarium
in Baltimore. And so the estimate that they came up
is that to strip the flesh from a one hundred
and eighty pound person in five minutes would require somewhere
(18:47):
between three hundred and five hundred hungry piranhas, which is
way more than you would ever come across, even in
highly concentrated regions like you think the Amazon River as
an example.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
So it sounds like it's highly unlikely, but I guess
still technically possible, Like if you were like a Bond villain,
you could head to Brazil, scoop up a few hundred piranhas,
stick them in your pool, and then you've got this
instant death trap.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I don't really think we should be giving anybody ideas,
but that, in theory, I suppose would work. And in fact,
it was a similar kind of stunt that gave the
fish such a bad name in the first place, and
all because you know, a few Brazilians wanted to show
off for Teddy Roosevelt himself. And this happened back in
nineteen thirteen. It was a few years after he'd left office.
(19:35):
So the forward President decided to go on this expedition.
He wanted to go into the heart of the Brazilian rainforest.
Of course, the locals knew that he was coming, and
they also knew his reputation as this thrill seeker, and
so to make sure he had an experience that he
would never forget, the Brazilians arranged a demonstration for him.
And this was on the banks of the Amazon River.
(19:57):
And the guys warned Roosevelt, you know, and his really
about the fact that they shouldn't wade into the water
there or else they'd be immediately eaten by this small,
ravenous fish. And of course, as the Brazilians expected, Roosevelt
scoffed at the idea that any fish could be, you know,
that dangerous, especially if they're that tiny. So the guides
(20:17):
gave him proof. They brought an old, sick cow and
drove it into the water. Then, to the horror of
everyone watching, the piranhas attacked the cow and stripped it
to the bone within just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Oh, I feel like as a Hindu, that's particularly disturbing.
But it's obviously the stunt. Why were there so many
of them just waiting around in one place, Well, because
it was a total setup. Like weeks before Roosevelt arrived,
local fishermen had caught hundreds of piranha and then they
tossed them into this area of the river that they
(20:52):
had isolated.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
With giant nuts. So weeks go by, and then the
guides that you know, gave their warning at that part
of the river, and they knew that there were hundreds
of traps, starving fish just waiting to put on a show.
But of course Roosevelt, you know, and all these reporters
that were with him. They didn't know any of this,
and they thought they had witnessed the most shocking natural
display of aggression in the animal kingdom. And now you
(21:17):
can bet they wanted to tell the same story when
they returned to the US. In fact, Roosevelt released the
book the next year called Through the Brazilian Wilderness, and
in this book he describes piranhas as quote the most
ferocious fish in the world. You know in Hollywood actually
kind of took it from there, and for the last century,
the piranha's status says, this fresh water killer has gone
(21:39):
mostly undisputed until now. I guess, well, yeah, and I'm
trying to do my part contributing to it.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, here's something that sounds like it should be a myth,
but and I even kind of like, hope it's a myth,
But it's actually true. Sometimes it rains spiders in Brazil
and so on. A in certain parts of Brazil, the
sky will actually open up and hundreds or even thousands
of spiders will rain down on the residents below. And
before you tell me I'm making this up, you should
(22:09):
actually look it up online because there are a bunch
of different videos. For full disclosure, it's not like the
spiders are tumbling out of the rain clouds. It's more
that the wind is carrying them on their webs. But
for onlookers, the effect is sort of like a storm
of spiders.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
So how does this work that there could be thousands
of spiders in one of these showers? I mean, not
only does that sound like obviously a ton of spiders,
but how does that work? Because I thought spiders lived
on their own, not in these giant colonies.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
You're right, So most spiders do keep to themselves. In fact,
out of the forty thousand or so known species of
spiders out there, only twenty three of them are social.
And so one of these species lives in San Paolo
and the surrounding towns, and there it's pretty common to
see spiders just sailing through the sky en mass. And
the problem for humans at least is that these colonies
(23:00):
build these huge sheets of webs in these tree tops, right,
and in order to trap enough insects to keep everyone
fed in this social group. They're just massive. So the
webs can stretch from the ground to as high as
sixty five feet, and they seriously contain thousands of spiders,
each of which is I guess roughly the size of
(23:20):
a pencil eraser, so not that big, but a lot
of them. So when a strong enough wind comes along,
the webs are knocked loose, and then a mob of
these deeply confused spiders are just sent hurtling through the air,
and uh, you know, it's not a great day for
anyone when it's raining spiders. But speaking of not so
great days, Brazil has actually had a stretch of those
(23:43):
recently in terms of politics and culture. So even though
we're trying to keep things light today, I do think
we should spend just a few minutes to kind of
spotlight what's been going on there.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, I feel like we probably should. But before we
get to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Okay. Well, so if you keep tabs on international news,
there's a good chance you've heard the recent concerns about
Brazil's newly elected president Bolsonaro. Many of his views tend
to be extreme, to put it mildly, and the measures
he's enacted since taking office don't really bode well for
the country's cultural institutions. For example, one of his first
actions as president was to dissolve three of Brazil's ministries
(24:34):
the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Social Development and to
merge them into a single department. And while we don't
actually know how that will affect government funding for cultural institutions,
artistic communities in Brazil are really bracing for the worst.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, that's you know, it's especially upsetting when you think
about how much they've already suffered. You know, I'm sure
you remember this, but it was just last fall there
was that fire that destroyed Brazil's National Museum, and this
was a collection there that contained more than twenty million artifacts.
You know, they amassed this over the course of the
institution's two hundred year history, so it was just devastating
(25:11):
and tragically as much as ninety percent of the collection
is thought to have been lost in this fire.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Ninety percent. It's really awful to think about, like everything
that was lost that night. Like I a should remember
reading about that museum and how they lost this massive
collection of art from different indigenous peoples that were spread
across Brazil, so it was like costumes and personal belongings,
but also audio recordings of languages that I believe had
(25:38):
died out. So you know, it's super tragic and all
of that has gone now along with many of the
other relics of South American culture.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, it's true, you're actually looking on the bright side
of this. I was happy to see that multiple campaigns
have since launched these efforts to digitally recreate the museum collection.
And this was using decades of visitor photos. So if
you've ever made it there on vacation, you can actually
submit your shots online at the museum's website. And actually
there's a good chunk of the collection that made it
(26:08):
through the fire, un skate, and this includes the oldest
human fossil found in Brazil.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Well, that is good news. I'm curious, though, I sort
of lost track of that news story. Did they ever
figure out what started the fire? And please don't say,
Billy Joel.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
You beat me too. Well, investigators never reported an exact
cause for the blaze, but official speculate it may have
been just like a short circuit or something, and apparently
that had been known for a while, like things like
exposed wiring and that the museum didn't have fire doors
or a sprinkler system. And that might be the saddest
part of this because according to Smithsonian, the National Museum's
(26:46):
full annual budget, it was one hundred and twenty eight
thousand dollars, but hasn't received that amount since twenty fourteen.
In fact, last year at the museum received only thirteen
thousand dollars, and in late twenty seventeen, the museum's finances
were in such poor shape the curators turned to crowdfunding,
you know, to repair and exhibit that had really been
(27:08):
infested with termites at the time.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I mean that that is frustrating, and I just can't
believe those numbers, Like the fact that they were only
getting what was it, thirteen thousand dollars and that it
didn't have a sprinkler system like that feels unimaginable for
a national museum.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, I mean, the federal government had actually been divesting
from the museum for years, so this isn't a new thing.
But I also read an interesting article in City Lab
that suggested something else. Apparently part of the problem is
that modern Brazil doesn't feel very rooted to its pass
So I pulled this quote from the article. Here's what
it says. We live in a country that has a
(27:47):
weak connection to its history. In advance of the twenty
sixteen Summer Olympics, Rio Desan Eiro and the Brazilian government
spent billions on these costly development projects, opening new landmarks
like the Museum of Aqua Rio, which is the largest
aquarium in South America. Meanwhile, the city has allowed several
other museums and historic structures to just decay. In particular,
(28:11):
we have little concern for educational and cultural resources provided
for those living in poverty. So the thing is, you know,
we talked about Brazil as this melting pot of cultures,
but it's interesting to think about how a place becomes
a melting pot in the first place. And in Brazil's case,
it was a pretty violent process, and it sounds like
(28:31):
that left the national identity pretty fractured in some very
real ways.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well, I feel like we've gone a little bit negative here,
but I feel like we can turn that tone around
with some Amazon surfing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Amazon surf very talking about online shopping or like riding
on a surfboard down the Amazon.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
So definitely the latter surfing the Amazon River. And this
sounds insane, but a couple times a year, a massive
twelve foot highwave flows in from the ocean, and for
a brief period afterwards, twelve foot highwaves form in the Amazon,
some of which go on for hours and travel unbroken
for miles on end, and there's this great local legend
(29:12):
about them. Apparently they are caused by three mischievous kids
that travel up and down the Amazon playing pranks on
each other. But what's crazy is that the locals call
it Porto Rocco or the Great Roar, because supposedly you
can hear it coming for up to an hour before
the waves arrive.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Oh wow, so this has to be an incredibly strong wave,
I would imagine, definitely.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And the wave is so powerful that it pulls trees
and structures from the shoreline and pulls the debris along
with it, which also makes for primo surfing conditions I'm guessing.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
But no, I like, do people really serve this thing?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah? So people do surf this thing, This tidal wave
thing happens regularly enough that there's even this organized event
to celebrate its arrival. It's called the National por Roca
Surfing Championship, and each year surfers from all over the
world take part in it to see who can ride
the monster wave the longest. And the current record holder
managed to ride along this wave for over half an
(30:12):
hour and he traveled just under seven and a half
miles total. Isn't that ridiculous? Wow?
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That is that is impressive.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Anyway, I feel like it's a fascinating fact, but we
should ride it straight into the fact.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Off, what do you say, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So here's a strange thing I actually dig. Apparently Brazil
has one of the largest cashew trees in the world,
and it's actually a tourist attraction and big enough that
they charge admission to it. This mutant tree stretches over
two acres or roughly five football fields, and it's about
the size of seventy normal cashew trees. Apparently the tree
(30:57):
has two weird mutations. Not only do the branches grow
sideways instead of growing upwards, but when a branch gets
super heavy and it touches the ground from all the
fruit on it, it ends up setting down roots and
spawning another part of a tree.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
All right, Well, here's one thing you can't do in Brazil,
at least not legally, and that's use a tanning bit.
So the country banned them for cosmetic purposes back in
two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
You know, we started with the book theme and I
thought i'd bring it back Brazilian prisons are so overcrowded
that they've instituted a system where they'll take four days
off your sentence if you read a book and write
a report on it. You do max out at twelve
book reports every year, so each year you can take
about a month and a half off your sentence. But
what I found most interesting was that some of the
(31:45):
titles that are popular are not things I would have expected.
So in this article I was reading, it listed Gone
with the Wind as one of the most popular books
and Lame Miz as well.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Wow, all right, Well, Brazilian soap operas are credited with
getting people to have fewer kids, believe it or not.
In two generations, apparently the country went from having seven
kids per family to just two. And from the way
The Atlantic describes it, you know, shows don't make a
whole lot of sense. They've got these needlessly complicated storylines
filled with sex and scandal, but the families also have
(32:18):
tons of possessions and very few kids, And the result
is that people have been more obsessed with capitalism and
money and have actually grown to see big families and
constant childbirth as being less desirable.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Well here's another fact. I didn't realize. Did you know
that Brazilians believe that a fellow statesman of Theirs, Alberto
Santos Dumont, beat the Ripe Brothers to flying his plane,
and I guess he flew sixty meters in his airplane
in front of a French crowd in nineteen oh six.
I believe. But when it was pointed out that the
Right Brothers had beat him by a few years, Brazil
(32:53):
actually stuck by their men. They insisted that the rip
brother's flight wasn't powered and it was only possible dude
to really strong winds. And the BBC reports that that's
actually how it's written in their history books. They don't
really give the Right brothers credit.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
You know, a long time ago, we did this episode
where we talked about Snake Island. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah? I remember. It was terrifying that this was that
island that had no people and thousands of deadly snakes
on it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Right, that is exactly right. And you know the snakes
were lance head vipers. And you're not legally allowed to
go to the island without a doctor with you. And
there are reasons scientists go, I mean, the venom might
be used at some point in creating anti cancer drugs.
But here's the most strange part about all this is
that people do sneak onto the island and they bag
(33:42):
the snakes to sell on the black market. So not
only do scientists abroad want the snakes, but animal collectors
want them to and they end up fetching anywhere between
ten thousand and thirty thousand dollars for these things.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Thirty thousand dollars, and those snakes are so terrifying, like
just how venomous they are. But it does feel good
to know that if someone tries to sell me one
for forty thousand dollars, I know they're ripping me off.
So that's right. I think you can take home this
week's trophy and all your snake facts.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I feel like save you a few bucks on that one. Well,
I know there are other facts about Brazil. We had
a lot of fun with the episode this week, but
we always love hearing from you. If there are facts
or stories that you'd love to share, you can reach
us part time Genius at iHeartMedia dot com or hit
us up on Facebook or Twitter. But from Gabe, Tristan
Mango and me, thanks so much for listening,
Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's that? Well?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right, So we're in New York City this week,
and one of the things I love seeing here is
how many people read on the subway. I mean, you
look around and it feels like every New Yorker feels
like it's the perfect time to get their reading in.
And actually sometimes I'm kind of jealous about this because
they have this automatic reading time each day. But you
look around the world and there are other places that
(00:25):
do this too, and Brazil is actually a big supporter
of this. In fact, the country has started something called
ticket books to promote literacy. Have you heard about this?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No? What's a ticket book?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So it's a free book that you can pick up
just at a subway station, and apparently there's this Brazilian
publisher that gave out ten thousand books. But the cool
part is that the books actually double as subway tickets,
so each book has ten rides and then a reader
can either refill the book for free or pass it
along to somebody else.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh that's pretty cool and did it get people reading? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I think some. In fact, this was an intentional effort
on the part there, because I believe Brazilians were only
reading maybe like two books a year on average at
the time, but the books handed out included everything from
The Great Gatsby to Hamlet to Naruda love Sonnets to
of course Garfield.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Garfield was a ticket book. Yeah, it's like a gayway
drug to like reading.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
But absolutely well, this is just the first of a
ton of stories that we have today about Brazil, from
you know, how a soap opera convinced the country to
have less kids, to how a bunch of termites can
help you make a better pizza. So let's dig in. Hey,
(01:58):
their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Mangesh Hot ticket there and on the other side of
the soundproof glass helping himself to what he claims is
a Brazilian delicacy. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now,
if I sound it a little bit skeptical, it's because
I'm basically watching a grown man drink liquid butter from
(02:19):
a bottle, and actually he's only trying to frame it
as some kind of cultural experience he's taking part in.
And I got to be honest, personally, I'm not really
buying it. What's your take on this, mega.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I think it's definitely gross that hard the take
is true, but you know, as weird as it sounds,
I think we should actually give him like some partial
credit on this one, because this is actually a thing
in Brazil. Apparently in the northeast part of the country,
bottle butter is popular and it's even a common souvenir
for people who go there on vacation. So the key
(02:51):
to remember is that residents actually use this butter as
a condiment, not as a beverage. So if you dine
in the region, you'd probably find like a bottle of
liquid butter on the table next to the salt and pepper,
and you can just splash a little on your meat
or rice or whatever, just for an extra kick of flavor.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I feel like that makes more sense than whatever Tristan
is doing right now. So what's so special about this
butter anyway? And maybe more importantly, why do they sell
this in bottles?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So it's actually pretty funny. When I first heard about this,
the first thing I thought about was ghee, which is
this clarified liquid butter that you have in India. People
started making gee because it was sort of this easy
way to preserve butter in the days before refrigeration and
in areas that are hot or unforgiving. If you clarify
the butter and you remove that milky solid that's in there,
(03:41):
and you just keep the liquid dairy fat that's left behind,
it doesn't spoil. And it turns out it's actually the
same story here. Northeast brazila is dry, it's arid, so
the cattle ranchers in the region stumbled into this same technique.
It actually ends up being super regional. You can't find
in other parts of Brazil, only in the northeast. And
(04:02):
it's also an acquired taste. Unlike Gee, it actually has
a few more notes to it. It's a little more cheesy.
It supposedly has a strong barnyard aroma as well, which
I guess is very acquired barnyard.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, I would say that, I'm not sure how you'd
ever acquire that taste, but interesting. It doesn't seem to
bother Tristan over there, though, And I'm grateful that he
brought this stuff to our attention because it is pretty interesting,
and because you know, love for bottled butter is definitely
an unusual part of Brazilian culture that I had actually
never heard about before, And that's exactly the kind of
(04:38):
thing that today's episode is all about. You know, it
feels far too often that when it comes to Brazil,
we either hear only the good or the bad. You know,
like we read about all the tourist friendly things in
the country, like the delicious food, the beautiful beaches, sambas, soccer, carnival,
but you know, it also feels like we read about
the depressing bits like poverty and government corrupt, rampant crime.
(05:02):
So today's focus, like, we really thought we'd move past
those familiar talking points and think about the stranger side
of Brazil, like all the unusual things about the country
that you probably never knew about. So let's get into this, Like,
what's something you were surprised to learn this week, Mango.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, I mean, there are a ton of things, but
one thing that really stuck out to me is the
fact that nearly two million Brazilian citizens are of Japanese descent.
There and while that's still only a fraction of Brazil's population,
which is roughly about like two hundred to two hundred
and ten million people, it's actually the largest group of
people with Japanese ancestry outside of Japan itself.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Huh. I actually hadn't heard that before. So why is
that exactly?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, I guess Brazil has always been this melting pot
of cultures from all over Europe and Africa, and this
goes back hundreds of years. And of course there's also
the native population that's there and the various Amazonian tribes.
The country really is home to a little bit of everyone.
But Asia's country didn't come until about the early twentieth century,
and that's when tens of thousands of Japanese people began
(06:05):
to look for opportunities abroad. The first batch came over
in nineteen oh eight, and then they settled in the
south and the southeast parts of the country, where they
started working on the coffee plantations. And then the nineteen thirties,
the local state government in Brazil's north began offering free
land to anyone who was willing to farm it, and
obviously that's an attractive deal to an outsider. So a
(06:27):
second wave of Japanese immigrants laid roots in that part
of the country, and now over a century later, the
country has the world's second largest population of people of
Japanese ancestry, or nikay as they're called.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
You know, it's cool because one of the reasons we
wanted to do this Brazil episode is because you know,
we both learned so many fascinating things from the show
we did on Japan a while back. So it's you know,
it's neat that you found this kind of unexpected connection
between the two countries.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It's funny. You know. We actually had this host in
the office fair Tundy Thurston, and we were talking about
aging pops, and I told them how Japan was adding
all that process to food for the elderly so that
they could chew and swallow food easier. I feel like
there were so many facts in that that were really interesting.
But what's sort of funny to me is that Japan
and Brazil feel pretty far apart, not only in terms
(07:15):
of like culture, but stuff like climate. Like Japanese immigrants,
you know, they wouldn't have been used to those like
ninety five degree days and the average high in Tokyo,
like it's only like seventy nine degrees. It's quite a
difference between the climates.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, that's that's a serious adjustment. Do you get a
sense for how Japanese transplants, you know, deal with this
kind of newness.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I guess this is a coping mechanism for all of us.
But it's comfort food. So Japan, of course has a
pretty famous culinary tradition, you know, from their dining habits
to meal time rituals, and so these early Nike communities
in Brazil would actually hang onto those traditions as a
way to feel connected to their heritage. But they didn't
live or cook in isolation either. Like overtime, Brazilian flats
(08:00):
began to seep into these traditional Japanese recipes, and ingredients
from the homeland that couldn't be found were often subs
to do with things like cassava or fish from nearby rivers.
But what's interesting is that like a few generations later,
a whole bunch of Japanese Brazilians wound up reverse migrating
back to Japan, and since they'd lived their entire lives
in Brazil, they naturally brought a taste for all of
(08:21):
these Brazilian flavors and culture back with them. So in fact,
there's this like thriving Brazilian restaurant scene in Japan now
because so many people had migrated back there and they
were nostalgic for the Brazilian food they'd grown up with.
And I just kind of love that there's this like
unofficial cultural exchange program between the two countries.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
I actually have a different food collaboration that I want
to talk about for just the minute, and this is
the one between the fishermen of Laguna and Brazil and
the wild dolphins who live off the coast there. So
for the past one hundred and twenty years, the friendly
Laguna dolphins have actually been lending their fishing talents to
the coastal community there. I know that may sound a
little bit weird.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, so how does this work? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's pretty amazing actually. So around two hundred fishermen take
their nets and then they wade out into the water
and you know, they're kind of waist deep at this point,
and they form a line. But because the water in
the area is so murky, they actually can't see where
the fish are. So instead the fishermen wait for a
friendly dolphin to give them somewhat of a signal, and
(09:23):
so once they see one, make a sudden dive or
slap its tail against the water. The humans actually cast
their nets and reap the rewards from there, and there's
a ton to reap too, like actually, research shows that
they can catch more fish and larger fish when they do,
you know, kind of cooperate with the dolphins compared to
when they work solo. In fact, some of the fishermen
(09:44):
say that on days when dolphins aren't around, it's not
even worth fishing at all.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
So this sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the fishermen,
But what is in it for the dolphins?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You know, It's funny because then the articles, the dolphins
are almost always talked about like these deep dogs of
the sea, like they corral the fish for the fishermen,
but it's clearly benefiting them too. And I guess the
theory is that panicfish become really disoriented when the fishermen
cast their nets, and that chaos makes it easier for
the dolphins to gobble up the fish as well. And
(10:17):
it isn't like every dolphin participates in this activity, like
the helpful ones you know, kind of work alone or
in smaller groups with the humans, But the rest of
the dolphins steer clear all together. And as you know,
as far as we know, nobody ever taught the dolphins
to do this, so how exactly this practice got started
it's still somewhat of a mystery.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I like that you're aware that some of the dolphins
oft out of this experience.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I don't want any part of it, which is
pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
But you know, while we're on the subject of bizarrely
helpful animals, do you know that Brazilian termites are actually
great at making pizza ovens?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That is not something I do, but I definitely need
to know more now.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
So I don't know how much you know about termites,
but they really are these incredible engineers and construction workers.
They carve out these super long, intricate tunnel systems for
their colonies to nest in. But you've probably also seen
those giant termite mounds is that they make, And I
don't know have you actually seen those?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Oh? Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing to see the pictures
of these.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, and they look like, I guess, like giant dirt
cones or almost like big rocks smoke stacks. But the
interesting thing is that, like, because most of the turmite
tunnels are underground, if you cut into the side of
one of these mounds, you probably won't find many termites
in it at all.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I mean, so what's with the giant cones, Like it
seems like a huge amount of work for not a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean, it depends on which termite mounds we're
talking about. Like in the northeast of Brazil, where it's
extremely dry and arid, the termite mounds really don't serve
a purpose. They're basically just like enormous junk piles, and
it's essentially all the excess bits of soil that the
termites produce while tunneling on ground, and all of that
just eventually gets like collected into a mound. You know.
(12:04):
While a termite worker is hardly half an inch long,
like like, some of the mounds they build are actually
like thirty feet wide at the base and they could
be as tall as thirteen feet high. So not only
are they big, but there are tons of them. Actually
this is a little off topic, but based on satellite
images in the region, researchers actually estimate there are roughly
two hundred million termite mounts and they're spread across an
(12:26):
area as large as four thousand Great Pyramids of Giza, which, wow,
is kind of a weird way to measure things. I
don't know why. The fact I read said like, I
don't normally measure things in Pyramids of Giza, but it's
it's pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I thought that was pretty standard now. But I mean,
I'm guessing if it's that many and you can see
the mounds from space, that the bugs have been doing
this for a little while.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah. There was actually this really neat study where researchers
took soil samples from eleven different mounds and then they
analyzed the sand grains from the centers to see I
guess when these mounds had last been exposed to sunlight
or at least the dirt inside. And the youngest mound
they found was I guess it was started seven hundred
years ago, and the oldest was almost four thousand years old.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That is incredible. But actually, I think the question we
all want to know now is what does any of
this have to do with pizza?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So this is a real thing, I promise, and it's
not just this shaggy dog story. If you head to
southern and central Brazil, where it's wet and grassy, you
actually find a different kind of termite mound there, and
these ones do serve a purpose both for the termites
and for pizza loving humans. So on the termite side
of things, that the hollow mounds function as lungs for
(13:44):
the colonies that live in the tunnels below them, and
it's all this like porous soil and it helps them,
I guess, keep their chambers ventilated, like the carbon dioxide
is sent out and fresh oxygen comes in. But for humans,
the good news is that once the colony dies out
or follows the trail of food to a different location,
all these deserted mounds make perfect outdoor ovens. So in
(14:07):
the past people used to cook all kinds of meat
in these makeshift ovens, but today they're actually a really
popular way to cook bread and pizza, especially when you're
on camping trips or some other outing. And all you
have to do is like cut a hole at the
base of the mound, confirm it's empty, which is a
pretty important part, and then light it up and it's
ready to make food with.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yeah. I think I'd have a hard time though, ever,
eating something that was baked in a termite oven. To
be honest with you, and I mean, I know you
said the mounds are abandoned and everything, but I might
still struggle with that. But thankfully, though, I know, Brazil
has me covered because the country's actually been obsessed with
pizza ever since Italian immigrants brought it over at the
end of the nineteenth century. In fact, in Brazil's largest city,
(14:50):
South Pallo, you know, they're so into pizza there that
it's said to be home to eight thousand pizza parlors,
eight thousand, which is collectively that's enough to produce a
new a million pizzas each and every day. And you know,
some foodies claim Brazil makes the best pizza in the.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
World, which is hard for someone like me to believe.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, well, I mean there is a downside to all
that superior pizza because, according to a twenty sixteen paper
and Atmospheric Environment, the restaurants use an estimated three hundred
thousand tons of wood each year to keep their old
school ovens nice and hot, and unfortunately, all that smoke
results in some pretty major air pollution, and so the
researchers say that even though most residents have switched over
(15:32):
to biofuel for their vehicles, you know, the emissions from
all those wood burning ovens might undo all those positive effects.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I do find a problematic, right, like choosing between clean
air or the world's most delicious pizza. It feels like
such a Sophie's choice. But you know, now that we've
talked a little bit about Brazilian cuisine and some animals
that help put food on the table, why don't we
switch gears and talk about the opposite kind of wildlife,
the Brazilian animals that are more life threatening than life affirming.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, let's definitely do that. But before we get to that,
let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time
Genius and we're talking about the strangest things you never
(16:24):
knew about Brazilian wildlife. Now you may have heard this before,
but Brazil is believed to have the greatest biodiversity of
any country in the world, and it's largely thanks to
it's also having the largest tract of untouched rainforest on
the planet. And while some of the animals there are dangerous,
and you know, some are even deadly, there's one famous
(16:45):
jungle resident that is far less dangerous than we like
to pretend, and that's the poor misunderstood Piranha.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I love it. The humble man eating piranha. But have
you ever seen those teeth? I feel like those are
some fishes, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I feel like you just wanted to say vicious fishes,
but I did. I mean, the Farascia puranas has been
greatly exaggerated for a long time now, like we think
of them as these rapid flesh eating monsters. I'll just
kind of tear you apart the second two hit the water.
But you know, the truth is that most piranhas would
never try to eat a human or any other mammal
(17:22):
unless it was dead or even dying. And for the
most part they eat insects or other fish, and some
species are purana or even vegetarians actually.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So I don't feel like I've heard that they're vegetarian
purana out there. I feel like knowing that maybe like
Annie's or some healthy brand should use them as their mascot.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
It's pretty weird, but there is a species in Para,
Brazil that only eats river weeds. Don't get me wrong.
The pranas can still pose a threat to humans, and
some swimmers in South America have lost fingers and toes
in recent years, but I couldn't find any record of
anyone ever being killed by piranhas, And it's really not
that surprising when you consider that piranhas usually travel in
(18:04):
schools of about twenty fish, which is way fewer than
the numbers they need to take down a human.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So as morbid as it is, I'm curious, like how
many fish it does to take down a human, Like
Gabe once told me that, I think it's like a
gallon and a half of water could kill me. So
that's like a number I have in my head, and
I kind of want to know how many piranha I
need to avoid.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Well, fear not, because I did indeed pull the numbers
and a quarter curator. Yeah, oh I didn't do this
just myself, but there's a curator at the National Aquarium
in Baltimore. And so the estimate that they came up
is that to strip the flesh from a one hundred
and eighty pound person in five minutes would require somewhere
(18:47):
between three hundred and five hundred hungry piranhas, which is
way more than you would ever come across, even in
highly concentrated regions like you think the Amazon River as
an example.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
So it sounds like it's highly unlikely, but I guess
still technically possible, Like if you were like a Bond villain,
you could head to Brazil, scoop up a few hundred piranhas,
stick them in your pool, and then you've got this
instant death trap.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I don't really think we should be giving anybody ideas,
but that, in theory, I suppose would work. And in fact,
it was a similar kind of stunt that gave the
fish such a bad name in the first place, and
all because you know, a few Brazilians wanted to show
off for Teddy Roosevelt himself. And this happened back in
nineteen thirteen. It was a few years after he'd left office.
(19:35):
So the forward President decided to go on this expedition.
He wanted to go into the heart of the Brazilian rainforest.
Of course, the locals knew that he was coming, and
they also knew his reputation as this thrill seeker, and
so to make sure he had an experience that he
would never forget, the Brazilians arranged a demonstration for him.
And this was on the banks of the Amazon River.
(19:57):
And the guys warned Roosevelt, you know, and his really
about the fact that they shouldn't wade into the water
there or else they'd be immediately eaten by this small,
ravenous fish. And of course, as the Brazilians expected, Roosevelt
scoffed at the idea that any fish could be, you know,
that dangerous, especially if they're that tiny. So the guides
(20:17):
gave him proof. They brought an old, sick cow and
drove it into the water. Then, to the horror of
everyone watching, the piranhas attacked the cow and stripped it
to the bone within just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Oh, I feel like as a Hindu, that's particularly disturbing.
But it's obviously the stunt. Why were there so many
of them just waiting around in one place, Well, because
it was a total setup. Like weeks before Roosevelt arrived,
local fishermen had caught hundreds of piranha and then they
tossed them into this area of the river that they
(20:52):
had isolated.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
With giant nuts. So weeks go by, and then the
guides that you know, gave their warning at that part
of the river, and they knew that there were hundreds
of traps, starving fish just waiting to put on a show.
But of course Roosevelt, you know, and all these reporters
that were with him. They didn't know any of this,
and they thought they had witnessed the most shocking natural
display of aggression in the animal kingdom. And now you
(21:17):
can bet they wanted to tell the same story when
they returned to the US. In fact, Roosevelt released the
book the next year called Through the Brazilian Wilderness, and
in this book he describes piranhas as quote the most
ferocious fish in the world. You know in Hollywood actually
kind of took it from there, and for the last century,
the piranha's status says, this fresh water killer has gone
(21:39):
mostly undisputed until now. I guess, well, yeah, and I'm
trying to do my part contributing to it.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, here's something that sounds like it should be a myth,
but and I even kind of like, hope it's a myth,
But it's actually true. Sometimes it rains spiders in Brazil
and so on. A in certain parts of Brazil, the
sky will actually open up and hundreds or even thousands
of spiders will rain down on the residents below. And
before you tell me I'm making this up, you should
(22:09):
actually look it up online because there are a bunch
of different videos. For full disclosure, it's not like the
spiders are tumbling out of the rain clouds. It's more
that the wind is carrying them on their webs. But
for onlookers, the effect is sort of like a storm
of spiders.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
So how does this work that there could be thousands
of spiders in one of these showers? I mean, not
only does that sound like obviously a ton of spiders,
but how does that work? Because I thought spiders lived
on their own, not in these giant colonies.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
You're right, So most spiders do keep to themselves. In fact,
out of the forty thousand or so known species of
spiders out there, only twenty three of them are social.
And so one of these species lives in San Paolo
and the surrounding towns, and there it's pretty common to
see spiders just sailing through the sky en mass. And
the problem for humans at least is that these colonies
(23:00):
build these huge sheets of webs in these tree tops, right,
and in order to trap enough insects to keep everyone
fed in this social group. They're just massive. So the
webs can stretch from the ground to as high as
sixty five feet, and they seriously contain thousands of spiders,
each of which is I guess roughly the size of
(23:20):
a pencil eraser, so not that big, but a lot
of them. So when a strong enough wind comes along,
the webs are knocked loose, and then a mob of
these deeply confused spiders are just sent hurtling through the air,
and uh, you know, it's not a great day for
anyone when it's raining spiders. But speaking of not so
great days, Brazil has actually had a stretch of those
(23:43):
recently in terms of politics and culture. So even though
we're trying to keep things light today, I do think
we should spend just a few minutes to kind of
spotlight what's been going on there.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, I feel like we probably should. But before we
get to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Okay. Well, so if you keep tabs on international news,
there's a good chance you've heard the recent concerns about
Brazil's newly elected president Bolsonaro. Many of his views tend
to be extreme, to put it mildly, and the measures
he's enacted since taking office don't really bode well for
the country's cultural institutions. For example, one of his first
actions as president was to dissolve three of Brazil's ministries
(24:34):
the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Social Development and to
merge them into a single department. And while we don't
actually know how that will affect government funding for cultural institutions,
artistic communities in Brazil are really bracing for the worst.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, that's you know, it's especially upsetting when you think
about how much they've already suffered. You know, I'm sure
you remember this, but it was just last fall there
was that fire that destroyed Brazil's National Museum, and this
was a collection there that contained more than twenty million artifacts.
You know, they amassed this over the course of the
institution's two hundred year history, so it was just devastating
(25:11):
and tragically as much as ninety percent of the collection
is thought to have been lost in this fire.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Ninety percent. It's really awful to think about, like everything
that was lost that night. Like I a should remember
reading about that museum and how they lost this massive
collection of art from different indigenous peoples that were spread
across Brazil, so it was like costumes and personal belongings,
but also audio recordings of languages that I believe had
(25:38):
died out. So you know, it's super tragic and all
of that has gone now along with many of the
other relics of South American culture.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, it's true, you're actually looking on the bright side
of this. I was happy to see that multiple campaigns
have since launched these efforts to digitally recreate the museum collection.
And this was using decades of visitor photos. So if
you've ever made it there on vacation, you can actually
submit your shots online at the museum's website. And actually
there's a good chunk of the collection that made it
(26:08):
through the fire, un skate, and this includes the oldest
human fossil found in Brazil.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Well, that is good news. I'm curious, though, I sort
of lost track of that news story. Did they ever
figure out what started the fire? And please don't say,
Billy Joel.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
You beat me too. Well, investigators never reported an exact
cause for the blaze, but official speculate it may have
been just like a short circuit or something, and apparently
that had been known for a while, like things like
exposed wiring and that the museum didn't have fire doors
or a sprinkler system. And that might be the saddest
part of this because according to Smithsonian, the National Museum's
(26:46):
full annual budget, it was one hundred and twenty eight
thousand dollars, but hasn't received that amount since twenty fourteen.
In fact, last year at the museum received only thirteen
thousand dollars, and in late twenty seventeen, the museum's finances
were in such poor shape the curators turned to crowdfunding,
you know, to repair and exhibit that had really been
(27:08):
infested with termites at the time.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I mean that that is frustrating, and I just can't
believe those numbers, Like the fact that they were only
getting what was it, thirteen thousand dollars and that it
didn't have a sprinkler system like that feels unimaginable for
a national museum.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, I mean, the federal government had actually been divesting
from the museum for years, so this isn't a new thing.
But I also read an interesting article in City Lab
that suggested something else. Apparently part of the problem is
that modern Brazil doesn't feel very rooted to its pass
So I pulled this quote from the article. Here's what
it says. We live in a country that has a
(27:47):
weak connection to its history. In advance of the twenty
sixteen Summer Olympics, Rio Desan Eiro and the Brazilian government
spent billions on these costly development projects, opening new landmarks
like the Museum of Aqua Rio, which is the largest
aquarium in South America. Meanwhile, the city has allowed several
other museums and historic structures to just decay. In particular,
(28:11):
we have little concern for educational and cultural resources provided
for those living in poverty. So the thing is, you know,
we talked about Brazil as this melting pot of cultures,
but it's interesting to think about how a place becomes
a melting pot in the first place. And in Brazil's case,
it was a pretty violent process, and it sounds like
(28:31):
that left the national identity pretty fractured in some very
real ways.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well, I feel like we've gone a little bit negative here,
but I feel like we can turn that tone around
with some Amazon surfing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Amazon surf very talking about online shopping or like riding
on a surfboard down the Amazon.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
So definitely the latter surfing the Amazon River. And this
sounds insane, but a couple times a year, a massive
twelve foot highwave flows in from the ocean, and for
a brief period afterwards, twelve foot highwaves form in the Amazon,
some of which go on for hours and travel unbroken
for miles on end, and there's this great local legend
(29:12):
about them. Apparently they are caused by three mischievous kids
that travel up and down the Amazon playing pranks on
each other. But what's crazy is that the locals call
it Porto Rocco or the Great Roar, because supposedly you
can hear it coming for up to an hour before
the waves arrive.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Oh wow, so this has to be an incredibly strong wave,
I would imagine, definitely.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And the wave is so powerful that it pulls trees
and structures from the shoreline and pulls the debris along
with it, which also makes for primo surfing conditions I'm guessing.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
But no, I like, do people really serve this thing?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah? So people do surf this thing, This tidal wave
thing happens regularly enough that there's even this organized event
to celebrate its arrival. It's called the National por Roca
Surfing Championship, and each year surfers from all over the
world take part in it to see who can ride
the monster wave the longest. And the current record holder
managed to ride along this wave for over half an
(30:12):
hour and he traveled just under seven and a half
miles total. Isn't that ridiculous? Wow?
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That is that is impressive.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Anyway, I feel like it's a fascinating fact, but we
should ride it straight into the fact.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Off, what do you say, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So here's a strange thing I actually dig. Apparently Brazil
has one of the largest cashew trees in the world,
and it's actually a tourist attraction and big enough that
they charge admission to it. This mutant tree stretches over
two acres or roughly five football fields, and it's about
the size of seventy normal cashew trees. Apparently the tree
(30:57):
has two weird mutations. Not only do the branches grow
sideways instead of growing upwards, but when a branch gets
super heavy and it touches the ground from all the
fruit on it, it ends up setting down roots and
spawning another part of a tree.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
All right, Well, here's one thing you can't do in Brazil,
at least not legally, and that's use a tanning bit.
So the country banned them for cosmetic purposes back in
two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
You know, we started with the book theme and I
thought i'd bring it back Brazilian prisons are so overcrowded
that they've instituted a system where they'll take four days
off your sentence if you read a book and write
a report on it. You do max out at twelve
book reports every year, so each year you can take
about a month and a half off your sentence. But
what I found most interesting was that some of the
(31:45):
titles that are popular are not things I would have expected.
So in this article I was reading, it listed Gone
with the Wind as one of the most popular books
and Lame Miz as well.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Wow, all right, Well, Brazilian soap operas are credited with
getting people to have fewer kids, believe it or not.
In two generations, apparently the country went from having seven
kids per family to just two. And from the way
The Atlantic describes it, you know, shows don't make a
whole lot of sense. They've got these needlessly complicated storylines
filled with sex and scandal, but the families also have
(32:18):
tons of possessions and very few kids, And the result
is that people have been more obsessed with capitalism and
money and have actually grown to see big families and
constant childbirth as being less desirable.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Well here's another fact. I didn't realize. Did you know
that Brazilians believe that a fellow statesman of Theirs, Alberto
Santos Dumont, beat the Ripe Brothers to flying his plane,
and I guess he flew sixty meters in his airplane
in front of a French crowd in nineteen oh six.
I believe. But when it was pointed out that the
Right Brothers had beat him by a few years, Brazil
(32:53):
actually stuck by their men. They insisted that the rip
brother's flight wasn't powered and it was only possible dude
to really strong winds. And the BBC reports that that's
actually how it's written in their history books. They don't
really give the Right brothers credit.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
You know, a long time ago, we did this episode
where we talked about Snake Island. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah? I remember. It was terrifying that this was that
island that had no people and thousands of deadly snakes
on it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Right, that is exactly right. And you know the snakes
were lance head vipers. And you're not legally allowed to
go to the island without a doctor with you. And
there are reasons scientists go, I mean, the venom might
be used at some point in creating anti cancer drugs.
But here's the most strange part about all this is
that people do sneak onto the island and they bag
(33:42):
the snakes to sell on the black market. So not
only do scientists abroad want the snakes, but animal collectors
want them to and they end up fetching anywhere between
ten thousand and thirty thousand dollars for these things.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Thirty thousand dollars, and those snakes are so terrifying, like
just how venomous they are. But it does feel good
to know that if someone tries to sell me one
for forty thousand dollars, I know they're ripping me off.
So that's right. I think you can take home this
week's trophy and all your snake facts.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I feel like save you a few bucks on that one. Well,
I know there are other facts about Brazil. We had
a lot of fun with the episode this week, but
we always love hearing from you. If there are facts
or stories that you'd love to share, you can reach
us part time Genius at iHeartMedia dot com or hit
us up on Facebook or Twitter. But from Gabe, Tristan
Mango and me, thanks so much for listening,
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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