June 5, 2026 • 40 mins
Antarctica has lots of penguins, but only one ATM. Will and Mango bundle up for this look at everyday life on the iciest continent, from the plumbing challenges to the reason why the South Pole moves every year. Featuring all-star Antarctica Artist-in-Residence Jynne Dilling Martin.
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This episode originally aired on October 27, 2017.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango? What's that?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Will?
Speaker 3 (00:02):
So you know I love a good ATM story, right,
Like we've talked about ATM so many times in the past,
Like there's the ATM in the Vatican City and it's
the only one in the world that operates in Latin,
which is pretty cool. But I have a new favorite
ATM fact that I wanted to share with Yeah, what's up.
So there's actually an ATM located in Antarctica and it's
operated by Wells Fargo, and it's in the Guinness Book
(00:23):
and they call it the World's Loneliest ATM?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Why is it so lonely because it's the only one.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Actually, there is a second ATM on hand, and it's
hidden in a closet or something, and it doesn't actually work.
It's just there to cannibalize for the spare parts.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That is that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
But what's even weird is that Wells Fargo only services
the machine once every two years, and that's when Wells
sends a repairman out to give the ATM a little checkup.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's crazy. So why don't they service it more frequently?
Like don't they have to replenish the cash?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, that's the beauty of banking in Antarctica.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
There's no need for this, you know, the population there
is so small that the money just keeps recirculating. But
learning about that atm did make me wonder, like, what
are the other peculiarities of living in Antarctica? How do
everyday things like plumbing and internet work down there? And
that's what today's show is all about. So let's dive in.
(01:30):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Mangash hot ticketter
and sitting behind the soundproof glass vigorously shaking a snow
globe in each hand as our producer Trystan McNeil.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Where did he get those things?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
He's making a blizzard?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So, Mango, I'm going to ask you right off the bat,
what's your interest in visiting the South Pole?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So, I mean, it looks beautiful, but there's so many
beautiful places in the world, and you know, I hate
the cold too. Well, some of those early expeditions to
Antarctica sounded so miserable. Well it's kind of scared me off.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I know, and I actually want to talk a little
bit about those expeditions later. And clearly we both like
warm weather because we live in warm places, but I
kind of want to see the landscape in person at
least once. So I started looking up tours this week
and I found this group called White Desert Luxury Tours.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Have you ever heard of this company?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh, because they basically do you know, like glamping for Antarctic?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
How do you glamp an Antarctica?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, I was reading this article and wired and basically
White Desert has set up these luxury camping pods and
this beautiful Mars like area of Antarctica. The pods have
solar panels and propane heaters, and they're eco friendly too,
but you know, to keep you safe. They're also designed
to withstand one hundred and eighty mile per hour. Well
(02:46):
that's how wendy it gets there. And you know the
pods are beautifully outfitted, but the whole camp must have
cost a fortune to build.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well, remember, getting stuffed Antarctica isn't cheap. According to the article,
it costs thirty eight dollars a pound to fly furniture there,
and the pods themselves weigh three tons apiece, which is insane.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And trips like that always sound like something rich people do.
Just because they're looking for new ways to spend their money.
It's like God's way of telling you you.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Have too much cat Well, you know, the camp only
services around one hundred clients a year, so it's definitely exclusive.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
But you'd be in some pretty classy company. So you know.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Past travelers include Saudi princesses, Prince William and also buzz Aldron.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Wait, buzz Aldron Glimpse.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Apparently so, but you know what you experience Antarctica is
also insane. Once your Gulfstream jet lands on the icy runway,
you'll get to explore neon blue ice tunnels and lakes,
and go unguided hikes, see penguins up close, visit all
these science bases. They even take you to the South Pole.
I mean, everyone who's gone says the beauty of this
(03:52):
untouched land is just overwhelming. Plus you get unlimited champagne.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I just pulled this up on my computer. Hot showers,
furs draped on all the dining chairs. It looks so fancy.
I'm definitely in all right.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, the only catches it cost eighty thousand dollars a person.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
But you know, I've always said I just don't like
the cold. That much, and I have to be true
to myself, so I'm out again.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
That didn't take long.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So speaking of hot showers, it reminds me of this
event that takes place in Antarctica. It's called the Race
around the World. Basically, it's this fun two mile race
that takes place on Christmas Day at the South Pole
and it's for the scientists there. It's called around the
world because you're actually racing through every single time zone.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Oh I didn't think about that, so you would touch
every single time zone it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's pretty awesome, man. And while some people run the course,
you can actually do it on skis or snowmobile. But
the reason I'm mentioning it is that the prize for
the winning runner is a five minute hot shower. So
according to Business Insider, residents at the South Pole station
are limited to two two minute showers a week, so
a bonus five minute shower is like a.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Huge treet I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I mean, it's funny how you just expect things like
hot showers are everywhere by now. But you know, one
of the things that's so cool about Antarctica is how
environmentally friendly the camps are the Treaty of Antarctica, which
was signed by twelve countries back in nineteen fifty nine.
It was this agreement that the land there would be
used for science and peaceful purposes. And part of the
(05:19):
agreement is that you can't dirty the landscape or leave
any contaminants there. In fact, if you want to organize
your own expedition to Antarctica, the process involves three things.
So first is showing that you will be completely self sufficient.
Second is that you have a good reason for being there,
and third is that you have little or no environmental
impact on the land and there's special attention paid to this,
(05:42):
and if you can't lay out your plan for creating
zero waste, they'll deny you permission to go there.
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So I was actually reading about the recycling and Antarctica
and it's like at Portlandia levels. I saw this spreadsheet
(08:41):
on Boing Boing from America's McMurdo base, and they have
this matrix for where to recycle their dispose of what,
and it's pretty intense, like pens and pencils have a
specific bin, and drained radiators have their own bin, and
mops and brooms have a bin. Everything is clearly charred
out where it goes and how it gets separated. But
they also poke fun at themselves.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So one prankster put all these joke signs up of
what can and can't go into the bins, and they
seem to have stuck around, Like there's a recycling bin
that's for glitter. And in the rules for what's recyclable
glitter it lists red glitter, blue glitter, ground, unicorn, horn, wizards, hats,
and wands. But in the no section it lists no
child beauty pageant, sashes or Mariah Carey movies.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And that's fair enough.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
But we sort of dove right into hot showers and
glitter recycling somehow. But yeah, before we talk about things
like how plumbing works, why don't we talk a little
bit about who lives in Antarctica?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Definitely, but why don't we do some local slang first?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
God, do you immediately put us off track again. I
do like Antarctic slang. So what are some of your favorites.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
One of my favorite terms is city mice and also
country mice. Like city miz stay put on the McMurdo station,
while country mice wander to other camps and travel around.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's pretty cute. So you got any others?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, Gomboles are tiny snowballs that's stuck to dogs fur so.
The de gambo is when you rub that loose snow
off before you come inside. And also Hollywood showers. Those
are when you take a fantasy shower that's more than
the allotted two minutes.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Oh god, why do you keep bring up showers here?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
You know?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
When I started abroad in upon Tibedan college, it was
freezing and you didn't get to take hot showers that often.
So I took like ten or eleven bucket showers during
the trip, and they were mostly with lukewarm water. It's
strange being there, like I realized there's so many things
I could live without. I don't really need TV or
a lot of clothes or a lot of amenities, but
hot showers. Yeah. Well, when I came back to the college,
(10:36):
I just stand in the shower and praise American plumbing.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I can understand that.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Well, here's a bit of jargon I found on mental flaws.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Its ice shock, and this is the idea that no
matter how crazy everything seems in Antarctica while you're there,
it's this acknowledgement that the rest of the world is
even crazier.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
All right, But let's get back to who lives there.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Obviously, Antarctica doesn't have an indigenous population.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Do you know the site cool antarctica dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I can't say I'm familiar with that.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's this educational site that's run by a former Antarctic
marine biologist and now he's a school teacher and puts
out great information. But on a site he writes they're
around sixty six scientific bases, of which thirty seven are
occupied year round. Around four thousand people live in Antarctica
during the summer months, and that reducess to about a
thousand who over winter there. It's also rare that someone
(11:24):
will stay there for two winters in a row. They
might do one winter wrapped in two summers, but two
winters in a row tends to be bad for people's
mental states, and.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So the McMurdo station actually has about like a thousand
or so people during peak season though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That's right. And what's funny is that I didn't quite
put together how large Antarctica is and how far some
of the bases are from one another. It's apparently the
fifth largest continent, and because ninety nine point five percent
of it is covered in ice, the size of the
continent actually changes. Like according to Live Science, the quote
size varies through the seasons, expanding sea ice along the coast.
(12:00):
It nearly doubles the continent's size during the winter. Isn't
that crazy?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
It nearly doubles it that it is crazy, you know.
In speaking of the geography, I was stunned by the geography,
and I didn't realize that the land is basically all desert.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
The inner regions of Antarctica get less than two inches
of precipitation each year, and this is less than the
Sahara Desert, and it's all so cold there.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I don't know if you knew this about Anerica.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, the Russian Vostok station there recorded the lowest temperature
in the world at negative one hundred and twenty nine
point three degrees fahrenheit. I mean, I guess it's that
extra point three that really gets to you.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, it's cold, but it's a dry cold, right. So
I know we're supposed to be talking people and not
penguins here, but one of the things I thought was
funny was that the male emperor penguins are the only
warm blooded animal to stay on the continent during the
freezing winters. Apparently, when the female lays an egg, it's
a very were pregnant situation, like the daddy bird sits
on the family egg keeping it warm while them what
(13:00):
penguin goes out to see for nine weeks, and then
the mom's return just before the eggs hatch, which is
because you know, male penguins are so woke.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Glad you're able to work that.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
All right, Well, I actually have a funny penguin story
to talk about it, and I also want to discuss
the crazy ways Chile and Argentina have, you know, tried
to each claim part of Antarctica as their own territory.
But before we get to that, let's take a quick break,
all right, Mango, So, how many times have we had
(13:31):
a super talented poet on the show.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Has that happened before. I don't think it's happened yet.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't think it has either.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I mean, I know Tristan dabbles a little in poetry,
but I mean between us, they're not the best poems.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
But he's trying. He's trying hard.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But we're super excited to have Jen dilling Martin on
the show today. And as we discussed Jen as an
accomplished poet, she's an associate publisher at Riverhead, which is
one of our favorite book publishers in the world. But
that's not the reason we've got her on today. We
actually begged her to come on because in two thousandy thirteen,
Jen became the Antarctic Artist in Residence and she used
(14:05):
a six week stint there to inspire her poetry. So Jen,
welcome a part time genius.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
So, Jane, I know you're in pretty esteem company as
an artist in residence. I believe Werner Herzog was also
an artist there too, But can you tell us a
little bit about how you got that gig and what's
included totally it's.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
This incredible grant run through the National Science Foundation that
they give to about two people a year from any
discipline at all to go make art inspired by the
work that you then get to witness being done in Antarctica.
It is a really elaborate application process that I think
weeds out ninety percent of the people interested in going back.
(14:43):
You have to go through all kinds of bureaucratic paperwork
to just even apply for it. But once accepted, you
get to I mean, you get to lead the coolest
life imaginable. You get to go to any of the
base camp set interests you. You can ask the scientists
any questions you want of them. You get to travel
all around the continent. I got a helicopter pilot Ryan
(15:04):
to take me to different base camps, and basically it's
just like the most incredible experience that I will ever
have in my life. So whatever it is you want
to go and study as an artist, do you ask
for and they make it all come together for you.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Wow, that's pretty incredible. I will say.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
One of the things that surprised me was all the
training that you talked about in your first few weeks there.
You know how to fix a snowmobile, how to pitch
a tin, and a blizzard. I'm just curious, like, were
you were you expecting that and can you talk a
little bit about that experience?
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Absolutely, you know, it's one of those things where it
doesn't really dawn on you, or at least it didn'tdawn
on me fully till really down there, just how isolated
and vulnerable you are and in actually grave peril should
anything go dramatically wrong on your visit. And there can
be wins so high even in the summer season on
(15:57):
the continent that they cannot get planes to and from
Antarctica for a week or two at the time, so
we're there to be a very bad accident, you could
be stuck with you know, the medical facilities of you know,
just like a small clinic to take care of you,
So they're they're very rigorous even before you go down
with getting all kinds of doctor and dental records, and
then upon arrival, there's just an enormous battery of trainings
(16:20):
and tests and presentations to make sure you're behaving as
safely as possible and equipped for uh, you know, as
they call it, white out conditions which can arise sort
of in less than an hour's time out of nowhere.
So it is, yeah, it is, it is pretty raw
in a way that's hard to fully appreciate when we
live in a you know, live in a first world
(16:43):
nation where help is just a simple mind, one one
call away.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And yeah, I mean I another thing. I was fascinated
by wash Well. I spent a little time on your
Tumblr page, which is so great. And uh, I was
fascinated by the specific gear you had to pick up
in New Zealand, and especially the bunny boots. Can you
tell us a little bit about why you had to
take special care of them on airplanes?
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, as we were preparing to leave New Zealand, there
was all kinds of kind of offhand information that they
were just throwing out there. And most everyone had been
down to Antarctica many times, but it was my first
time and already I was trying to digest so much
new information, and very casually the guy handing out these huge, white,
(17:25):
eight pounds inflatable white bunny boots said, oh, yeah, don't
forget to open the valves so your boots don't explode
on the plane. It seemed like something that maybe they
should have emphasized even more directly and not just muttered
as they passed them across the table to me. But
the boots are pressurized and it's actually the I guess
the air air cushions inside that keep them warm. But
(17:49):
because you take a you know, only semi pressurized military
jet to Antarctica, the boots are in danger of exploding
from the pressure change on the plane if you don't
open these little mini air valves on them.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
That's so crazy, and the idea that these things called
bunny boots are so dangerous is amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
To the case of the exploding bunny boots.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
You know, it was really fun looking at so many
of your photos from the trip, and one of the
things that struck me was just how intense the sun looks.
And I was curious to hear, you know, what was
it like to be in constant daylight? And was it
tough to figure out, you know, tricks that going to
sleep each night?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Totally? Yeah, you know, everyone talks and imagines, you know,
if you live in Scandinavia or in Arctica, like, how
horrible must be when it's dark all the time. But
the truth is is actually equally horrible to have it
be light all the time, and not just sort of light,
I mean like high noon light all the time. And
someone might say I was actually living in a tent,
(18:49):
which meant there was just no way for it to
not be so glaringly bright, and that light is bouncing
off all the ice in the snow, and you you
do start to get fatigued and just longing for one
night of real darkness and sleep. And the times that
I was in kind of a little hut or dorm situation,
(19:09):
I got so desperate that I actually took the wool
blanket and took kind of like thumbtacks and tacked it
over the window to try to block all the different
cracks of light that kept coming in. It was so
kind of enervating by several weeks deep into it.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Oh wow, that's insane.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Yeah. But the other thing that happens is it's very
easy to lose track of all time because the sun
isn't moving, and so particularly at night, it was you know,
you'd be hanging out with people talking and drinking and
you would feel like, oh, it's probably like seven or
eight pm, and it's actually two in the morning, and
they've totally lost track of all passage of time. It
(19:47):
does really mess with your mind.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I saw in your tumbler that you visited an
Antarctica Laddin Club, and I was curious, what are some
of the other fun recreational activities we might not have
heard about?
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Oh, totally there. It's kind of like Oberlin, but with
like weird er, really cool adults. I mean, every night
we're probably fifteen or twenty different clubs or activities that
you could do that were all just being voluntarily taught
by the awesome people of Antarctica who wanted to share
their talents and entertain each other. So everything from every
(20:20):
kind of sport you can imagine to you know, knitting club,
guitar club, chess club. People would give just lectures and
presentations on things that they were themselves studying, and even
people not showing up for clubs were always up to
something really weird that there was this very introverted woman
who I always saw like running around with pieces of
(20:41):
PBC pipe and they were all laid out on this
desk and I finally stopped in to ask what was
going on, and she goes, oh, oh, you know, I'm
ascending a PVC harp. Like a PVC harp. She's like, oh, yes,
I'm sure you haven't heard of that, and say you
can make a harp out of PVC. No, I wasn't familiar,
(21:04):
but I love that you are committed to doing this
down in your free time on Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Oh that's pretty great. Do you think you'll have the
chance to get back anytime soon?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
You know, this is the saddest thing of at least
the way that I went, is I don't know that
I will ever get to go back again, and pretty
much any other place any of us will go in
our lives, you know, if you love it, you're like, oh,
I can't wait to go back with my sister or
my friend or my partner. But this is an experience
that I don't know that I will ever get to
go have again. So leaving was incredibly sad. I will say,
(21:37):
there's just an incredible global society of what are called
ice people, and it basically means that you lived on
Antarctica at some point, and there's just this deep understanding
and familiarity when you meet another ice person in the
real world. And I've stayed even now, several years later,
in very very close contact with a number of really
(21:58):
dear friends I made well down there, and I think
there's something in that connection that we all have shared
this weird world.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
What would you want to experience again?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Oh wow, I just the vastness and the untouchedness. Like
I am a big traveler and I've been to incredible
places like the Sahara, the Himalayas, but even they just
have no The sense of scale in Antarctica is something
so staggering and beyond anything that I had ever witnessed
in my life. And again, besides outer space, I don't
(22:28):
think there's anything you could see that would make you
feel just so totally dwarfed as a human in a
way that I find totally freeing and exciting and so beautiful.
To see so much of the world that the in
fact probably be only last part of the world that
we haven't managed to pave over or destroy in some way.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Well, you'll be happy to know that in one week
we've spoken with an astronaut and now someone who's been
to Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I didn't even realize. I didn't even think.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
About that, but in one in one week, so we
spoke to astronaut Chris Hadfield from from Canada on an
episode about Canada. But you know, for all of our
listeners out there, I hope you'll check out Jen's book,
We Mammals and Hospitable Times.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's a terrific book. And Jen, thanks so much for.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Joining us on Part Time Genius.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, and we're talking Antarctica.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
So will you said you had a funny penguin story to.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Tell I do and that this is from Maggie Kurth
Baker and it's a piece on Boing Boing. But you know,
in the early nineteen hundreds, as Robert Scott was making
his way to the South Pole, he was accompanied by
this surgeon named George Levick, and most of the team's
observations were printed up in the team's official journals, all
except this one section of Levic's notes explicitly describing penguin sex.
(23:53):
And apparently Levick witnessed penguin on penguin ax so depraved
that while he felt he had to document he wrote
them all in Greek rather than English. I don't know
why that makes it better, but it's only recently that
they've been discovered and added to the journals. But on
the topic of sex, maybe now it's a good time
to talk about tinder. No not, I was actually gonna
(24:15):
say how Chili and Argentina have tried to use pregnancies
to their territorial advantage. But now I'm curious what you
have to say about tender So this is.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Kind of a ridiculous story. But Nolan found this bit
about an American scientist who decided to log onto tinder
and Antarctica and at first no one showed up on
his radar, but when he widened the radius, he found
a match of forty five minute helicopter ride away. Unfortunately,
the scientist he was chasing was in the field and
couldn't meet up, and they only met very briefly on
(24:44):
the day she was leaving Antarctica. As he told the
cut quote, I have yet to become the first tender
hookup in Antarctic history. But she's actually coming back and
we may overlap. There's still hope. He's just a romantic,
I guess. I guess.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
So, I mean that's got to be pretty good press
for though, wouldn't you think, and you know that you
can find love or lust, whatever it is on any continent.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, but the scientists wanted to stay anonymous because you're
not supposed to be taking up airways with social apps.
I guess like the Internet's this prize commodity down in
Antarctica and netflixing or using apps isn't really possible because
it takes too much bandwidth. But let's talk Chile and Argentina.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
That's a bummer. You can't use Netflix there. I didn't
know that, all right, So so back to this topic.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
So we've already said Antarctica doesn't really have towns, but
Chile and Argentina have each set up the closest thing
to that. So Chile has via Las Astreas and Argentina
has Esperanza. Both areas have between fifty and eighty people.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Living there during the winters.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
They both have schools, gyms, medical facilities. But as The
New York Times points out, both of these so called
towns were clear attempts to lay claim to Antarctica, you know,
should the Antarctic Treaty be renegotiated, and the fact that
the two countries are regional rivals only made the situation worse.
Like when Pinochet made a visit to Antarctica in the
nineteen seventies, Argentina felt like they were losing the upper hand,
(26:04):
so soon after his visit they quietly sent a pregnant
woman in her third trimester so she could give birth
to the first quote native Antarctica. And according to Alice Obscura,
the joke was that, you know, after they heard this,
Chile started sending down couples to conceive the first baby
in the region, since you know, some people think that
birth starts a conception there, but it's Argentina who's taken
(26:26):
it the farthest. In Argentina, it's illegal to show a
map of the country that doesn't include the section of
Antarctica that they consider theirs.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
How bizarre is this?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
That's so crazy. So I just want to switch gears
and talk entertainment. But before we do that, should we
talk about why we're both so terrified to the continent,
and that's you know some of those early explorer stories.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, well, the early explorer stories are definitely terrifying. And
not only were they wearing things like wool clothing which
really just absorbed the snow and kept them damp, but
they couldn't stop being cold, like this guy, absolutely Cherry Garrard,
who sailed with Captain Scott to the South Pole. He
said this about his teeth quote, the nerves of which
(27:06):
had been killed, split to pieces from.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
The chattering Oh.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
His account of the Antarctic trip was titled the worst
journey in the World.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, he definitely wasn't glancing.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, and you don't have to go that far back
to see how dangerous it can be. Like in twenty fourteen,
the British Halley six Research Station lost its power and
that is terrifying. There the closest help was like eighteen
hundred miles away in the Falkland Islands.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
There was no sun, the.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Temperature was negative sixty seven degrees fahrenheit, and the winds
were crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
The only thing that worked was a single satellite phone.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
But the staff somehow managed to patch the problem in
nineteen hours and get limited electricity back. Of course, they
kind of dismissed it as being not that big of
a deal, and the station's electrician tweeted got Internet, lots
of Yorkshire tea and a big kettle.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Really, what more do you need?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Well?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I love that he was so calm. He was chatting
with Noland, our researcher about this, and he was saying
the worst story he read was about this Australian explorer
Douglas Mawson. This is back in nineteen twelve and I'm
going to tell the story here. So Mawson's this superstar
geologist and he turns down Robert Scott's expedition to lead
his own. But his story is so tragic. His timing
(28:20):
was horrible, right, like, the blizzards were constant, and wins
off the coast were anywhere between fifty and two hundred
miles per hour. He split up his group into different assignments,
and he led a three man party to map the
far eastern shore. This was the most difficult load of journeys.
He was trying to map glaciers hundreds of miles away,
and so everything terrible happens. They make it about three
(28:42):
hundred miles out pretty smoothly, and then some weird superstitious
things happen, like this Petrol, which is this bird you
never see this far inland, comes out of nowhere and
just crashes into the sled and one of the huskies
eats her. Young h one of his colleagues gets snowblindness.
Then one hundred and fifty foot crevice open up and
swallows that colleague. Yeah, as well as like their supplies
(29:04):
and a dog. The elements are just against them. Then
there's more snowblindness, their dogs die, they run out of food,
so they have to eat their dogs. Mawson's other colleague
falls sick and he carries them along, even though he
has a fever and dysentery. And despite all his best
efforts and trying to carry him, the pale passes away.
So Mawson's basically alone at this point, and he's weak
(29:26):
in damage too, but he somehow makes it to this
cash of supplies at this location called Aladdin's Cave, and
when he's there, another blizzard comes through and he's trapped
for five more days. But when he finally makes it
back to camp to meet up with the other teams,
it's just in time to see that the expedition's ship
has left for Australia. The crew had actually waited for him,
but now he's watching the ship sail away and he
(29:48):
has to stay in Antarctica for another winter before he
returns home.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
And then the commercial ends and it says, come to Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I mean, that is.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Miserable, and you're right, the elements just feel so raw
and vicious. But I think we should lighten this up
a little bit with some events to put on your calendar.
If you're headed to Antarctica. So all right, here's a
few of them if you like music. There's ice Stock,
which is Antarctica's woodstock. There's barbecue and bands and people
in costumes there. There's also Freezing Man, which is Antarctica's
(30:17):
burning Man.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Midwinter Day is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
It's his celebration held halfway through the miserable winter, when
everyone huddles and watches the shining.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Apparently, I don't know why they do this.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Then there's the Ross Cup, where once a year the
Americans play scientists from New Zealand and rugby and of
course the kei Wes always slaughter the Americans and you know,
personally because they actually know how to play rugby. But
also they do that intimidating hakka dance that we've seen before.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
This is, you know, all before they hit the field.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's pretty great.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And there's one other tradition I actually love, and it's
the moving of the South Pole.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
How's that work?
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Well, it's because the ice shifts and so the marker
for the South Pole moves about twenty five or.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Thirty feet every year. So there's this big.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Ceremony that everyone from the South Pole station attenmes and
the south pole is recalibrated and then a new pole
is placed in that location.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Those are also fun. So I also looked into some
of the more standard things you could do, like people
play cards and board games. Argentina also just set up
this new movie theater. This might be part of their
ploy to seem like it's a real town, because they
also bring directors and actors there to talk about the films,
and they premiere new movies which are all subtitled for visitors.
But all the bases also have some version of the
(31:28):
three hundred club, which is where you sit in asana
that's three hundred degrees hotter than the temp outside. Then
you run through the snow naked or do a polar plunge,
and then rush back in. I guess it's supposed to
be exhilarating.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I just I've never understood the whole like polar bear
plunge thing that happens in so many places, and it
just sounds even worse here. But so I was reading
on slate there's an antarctic saying that if it's twenty
below and the wind ain't blowing, it ain't bad. It
sounds bad though, Yeah, I can't say that I would
agree with that statement.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But the strangest mundane thing I found that's actually no longer.
There was a two lane bowling alley at McMurdo Station.
Can you imagine bringing all that wood down in materials
to build a bowling alley. Yeah, it's crazy, It's yeah,
it's kind of insane. But I found the photos on
Laughing Squid. The alley was built in nineteen sixty one
and lasted for almost fifty years. It's funny. It used
this Brunswick manual pin set system where an employee had
(32:19):
to pick up the fallen pins by hand and also
send your bowling ball back to you down this ramp,
and when they finally tore it down in two thousand
and nine, it was the only manual pinset system of
that type left in the world.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Oh man, that's kind of a kind of a shame.
So why did they end up tearing it down.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, eventually the wood on the lanes wore down and
replacing the bowling alley was just too expensive, So they've
turned it into a curling club.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
And I would guess that ice is a little bit
easier to maintain. And you know what I found really
interesting was just how much responsibility bartenders have an Antarctic
I mean, it's actually kind of an important job.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Why is that, Well, obviously people want to drink.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I mean there's little else to do, so having a
good barkeep is comforting. But you know, though people aren't
driving drunk, they're real dangers to drinking in Antarctica. I
was reading this account of a scientist who worked as
the volunteer bartender at Club ninety South and this is
a bar at the South Pole Station, and this is
how he's quoted in the Guardian. It says I made
(33:15):
it a point of honor to be the last person
to leave the club each night. I learned to spot
the signs that someone was likely to wander drunkenly into
the Antarctic night. And I heard too many stories of
people returning to base with hypothermia and frostbite. My theory
was it's easier to recover from too much drinking than to.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Grow back a missing limb.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I was happy only when everyone was safely tucked up
and accounted for, even if it meant leaving them passed
out on the bar's couch.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I mean, with that blinding snow, it's supposedly really easy
for people to get lost. I read this account from
the National History Museum where the scientists talked about how
he and a colleague walked just two hundred yards to
get snow samples, and they thought they were walking parallel
to this seismic tunnel, and then they crossed it and
almost fell in.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
They weren't even slashed. They were like totally sober. So
I'm really glad the bartender has taken upon themselves to
watch over their patrons.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
But by the way, the strangest thing I read about
drinking an Antarctica was that people often go outside to be sick,
but the stuff freezes as soon as it touches the ice,
so people are expected to clean up after themselves with
pick axes to chip that frozen grossness away and then
throw it out.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
So cross all right.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Well, on the flip side of that, one thing I
didn't expect to find an Antarctica was so many beautiful churches.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Definitely, so.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I saw this gallery of seven churches in Antarctica at
Messy Messi Chick, and they were all gorgeous. My favorite
was this beautiful Russian Orthodox church that's a wooden structure,
like you wouldn't think that would last through those winds,
but it somehow survived. It's like the other miracle on
ice exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
I mean, they're all sorts of these churches. There's there's
a Catholic church that was built in an ice cave,
this Bulgarian church that's basically under the snow, you know,
except for the church bell. And it's kind of a
sweet thing that they ring it with some frequency, you know,
especially when you consider it was built for a four
member Bulgarian team. There's some inner faith churches, you know.
The priest is happy to conduct both Buddhists and behih
(35:11):
services as well.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Well.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I think we've covered where to get sozzled and where
to get saved. But I know we want to talk
about why plumbers are the real heroes of Antarctica, or
at least I do. So let's take a quick break
and then discuss.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Welcome back to Part time Genius.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Now, before the break, Mango, you were making some pretty
big statements about plumbers in Antarctica.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I was reading about Brendan Hopkins, who's this Australian plumber
at the Casey Station, and he was talking about how
he's tricked out the pipes so they don't freeze in
this crazy climate. I mean, that's an important thing. And
so for most of the pipes, water is constantly running
through them, but that isn't the case with the sewer lines,
so it's really complicated when you hit the flush. Like
to keep the sewer pipes from freezing, his team runs
(36:03):
these electric cables around the pipes just to heat the pipes.
And because no ways can be left in Antarctica, he's
built this crazy wastewater treatment plant that filters the waste
multiple times with microbes, and there's even this additive that
he uses to help package and reduce the waste so
it can be shipped off the continent. He has this
pager setup just to wash the sewer systems at all times,
(36:24):
because fixing it is an enormous task. But the one
perk that the electricians and plumbers get is taking turns
brewing beer. While there's supposedly sworn enemies in their natural habitat,
according to Brendan, they get along swimmingly in Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's pretty fun, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
I actually think being a chef down there is pretty
darn heroic.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
As well.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
In fact, it's an honor to be chosen to cook
at the Concordia base there, you know, since you actually
have to win a lottery to work at the French
and Italian base. But before you can even put your
name in, you have to demonstrate a mastery of numerous
international cuisines and.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
You have to be a war course.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
You're making all three meals a day by yourself for
the crew there. But the cook seems to love the
high pressure environment and the food is top notch. Lonely
Planet calls it the best cuisine in Antarctica, with the
seven core Sunday lunches being the absolute highlight.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Well, speaking of absolute highlights, you know what time it is?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Time for the PGG fact off, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Do you know that Antarctica is one of the best
places in the world to find meteorites? Apparently that snow
white landscape is perfect for finding space junk. I mean,
everywhere else in the world, it's so much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
That's interesting, Well, I've got one here.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
So Metallica once played a concert in Antarctica, and they
did this just to be the first band to play
on all seven continent.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
It's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Huh yeah, and Metallica's so cool. Do you know what
small icebergs are called.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
They're called growlers. They're usually the size of a grand
piano or a truck. And if you want to upgrade
to a medium sized iceberg, those are called burgie bits.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Burgie bits. Nice well.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
According to Australia's government site, doctors who winter in Antarctica
must have their appendix removed before traveling there. That's because
they don't want anyone having appendicitis while they're.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Oh, that's crazy. So this summer in Edinburgh Geographic Survey,
I found ninety one volcanoes hiding two kilometers under the
ice in Antarctica. It's apparently the largest volcanic region on Earth.
All right.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
We When scientists discovered a new species of yetti crab
living in the thermal vents under Antarctica, they were so
impressed with its hairy chest that they named it for
David Hasselhoff. It's affectionately known as the Hoff crab.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Oh, the hoff crab. I've actually seen that critter, and
I think it's way better looking than its name. Sick,
but I do love that fact, So why don't you
take home today's trophy.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I can do that, all right. Well, that's it for
today's show.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
If you have any Antarctica facts you're dying that tell
us don't forget. You can always drop us a line
on our twenty four to seven fact hotline one eight
four four pt Genius, or email us at part Time
Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
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Speaker 2 (39:31):
Jerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
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Speaker 2 (39:39):
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Speaker 3 (39:42):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
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Speaker 1 (39:47):
Review for us.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Do we forget? Jason Jason who
Guess what, Mango? What's that?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Will?
Speaker 3 (00:02):
So you know I love a good ATM story, right,
Like we've talked about ATM so many times in the past,
Like there's the ATM in the Vatican City and it's
the only one in the world that operates in Latin,
which is pretty cool. But I have a new favorite
ATM fact that I wanted to share with Yeah, what's up.
So there's actually an ATM located in Antarctica and it's
operated by Wells Fargo, and it's in the Guinness Book
(00:23):
and they call it the World's Loneliest ATM?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Why is it so lonely because it's the only one.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Actually, there is a second ATM on hand, and it's
hidden in a closet or something, and it doesn't actually work.
It's just there to cannibalize for the spare parts.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That is that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
But what's even weird is that Wells Fargo only services
the machine once every two years, and that's when Wells
sends a repairman out to give the ATM a little checkup.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's crazy. So why don't they service it more frequently?
Like don't they have to replenish the cash?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, that's the beauty of banking in Antarctica.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
There's no need for this, you know, the population there
is so small that the money just keeps recirculating. But
learning about that atm did make me wonder, like, what
are the other peculiarities of living in Antarctica? How do
everyday things like plumbing and internet work down there? And
that's what today's show is all about. So let's dive in.
(01:30):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Mangash hot ticketter
and sitting behind the soundproof glass vigorously shaking a snow
globe in each hand as our producer Trystan McNeil.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Where did he get those things?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
He's making a blizzard?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So, Mango, I'm going to ask you right off the bat,
what's your interest in visiting the South Pole?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So, I mean, it looks beautiful, but there's so many
beautiful places in the world, and you know, I hate
the cold too. Well, some of those early expeditions to
Antarctica sounded so miserable. Well it's kind of scared me off.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I know, and I actually want to talk a little
bit about those expeditions later. And clearly we both like
warm weather because we live in warm places, but I
kind of want to see the landscape in person at
least once. So I started looking up tours this week
and I found this group called White Desert Luxury Tours.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Have you ever heard of this company?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh, because they basically do you know, like glamping for Antarctic?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
How do you glamp an Antarctica?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, I was reading this article and wired and basically
White Desert has set up these luxury camping pods and
this beautiful Mars like area of Antarctica. The pods have
solar panels and propane heaters, and they're eco friendly too,
but you know, to keep you safe. They're also designed
to withstand one hundred and eighty mile per hour. Well
(02:46):
that's how wendy it gets there. And you know the
pods are beautifully outfitted, but the whole camp must have
cost a fortune to build.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well, remember, getting stuffed Antarctica isn't cheap. According to the article,
it costs thirty eight dollars a pound to fly furniture there,
and the pods themselves weigh three tons apiece, which is insane.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And trips like that always sound like something rich people do.
Just because they're looking for new ways to spend their money.
It's like God's way of telling you you.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Have too much cat Well, you know, the camp only
services around one hundred clients a year, so it's definitely exclusive.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
But you'd be in some pretty classy company. So you know.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Past travelers include Saudi princesses, Prince William and also buzz Aldron.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Wait, buzz Aldron Glimpse.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Apparently so, but you know what you experience Antarctica is
also insane. Once your Gulfstream jet lands on the icy runway,
you'll get to explore neon blue ice tunnels and lakes,
and go unguided hikes, see penguins up close, visit all
these science bases. They even take you to the South Pole.
I mean, everyone who's gone says the beauty of this
(03:52):
untouched land is just overwhelming. Plus you get unlimited champagne.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I just pulled this up on my computer. Hot showers,
furs draped on all the dining chairs. It looks so fancy.
I'm definitely in all right.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, the only catches it cost eighty thousand dollars a person.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
But you know, I've always said I just don't like
the cold. That much, and I have to be true
to myself, so I'm out again.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
That didn't take long.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So speaking of hot showers, it reminds me of this
event that takes place in Antarctica. It's called the Race
around the World. Basically, it's this fun two mile race
that takes place on Christmas Day at the South Pole
and it's for the scientists there. It's called around the
world because you're actually racing through every single time zone.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Oh I didn't think about that, so you would touch
every single time zone it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's pretty awesome, man. And while some people run the course,
you can actually do it on skis or snowmobile. But
the reason I'm mentioning it is that the prize for
the winning runner is a five minute hot shower. So
according to Business Insider, residents at the South Pole station
are limited to two two minute showers a week, so
a bonus five minute shower is like a.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Huge treet I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I mean, it's funny how you just expect things like
hot showers are everywhere by now. But you know, one
of the things that's so cool about Antarctica is how
environmentally friendly the camps are the Treaty of Antarctica, which
was signed by twelve countries back in nineteen fifty nine.
It was this agreement that the land there would be
used for science and peaceful purposes. And part of the
(05:19):
agreement is that you can't dirty the landscape or leave
any contaminants there. In fact, if you want to organize
your own expedition to Antarctica, the process involves three things.
So first is showing that you will be completely self sufficient.
Second is that you have a good reason for being there,
and third is that you have little or no environmental
impact on the land and there's special attention paid to this,
(05:42):
and if you can't lay out your plan for creating
zero waste, they'll deny you permission to go there.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Wait, so can I tell you how excited I am
to have Nord VPN sponsoring our little show part time genius.
You know when I get excited, I make lists, and
I'm going to tell you why NORD is so great
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(06:12):
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which is especially good for people like me who use
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(06:32):
to get my mom a subscription right after this ad
read two. It is great for sports fans. If you
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(06:53):
isn't it. I also love watching soccer and tennis. But
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It was the total worst, except because NordVPN lets you
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Speaker 1 (07:12):
It is magic.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And three, one NordVPN subscription can be used on up
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(07:35):
stretch this deal. I mean, I'm joking, but also I
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So I was actually reading about the recycling and Antarctica
and it's like at Portlandia levels. I saw this spreadsheet
(08:41):
on Boing Boing from America's McMurdo base, and they have
this matrix for where to recycle their dispose of what,
and it's pretty intense, like pens and pencils have a
specific bin, and drained radiators have their own bin, and
mops and brooms have a bin. Everything is clearly charred
out where it goes and how it gets separated. But
they also poke fun at themselves.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So one prankster put all these joke signs up of
what can and can't go into the bins, and they
seem to have stuck around, Like there's a recycling bin
that's for glitter. And in the rules for what's recyclable
glitter it lists red glitter, blue glitter, ground, unicorn, horn, wizards, hats,
and wands. But in the no section it lists no
child beauty pageant, sashes or Mariah Carey movies.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And that's fair enough.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
But we sort of dove right into hot showers and
glitter recycling somehow. But yeah, before we talk about things
like how plumbing works, why don't we talk a little
bit about who lives in Antarctica?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Definitely, but why don't we do some local slang first?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
God, do you immediately put us off track again. I
do like Antarctic slang. So what are some of your favorites.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
One of my favorite terms is city mice and also
country mice. Like city miz stay put on the McMurdo station,
while country mice wander to other camps and travel around.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's pretty cute. So you got any others?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, Gomboles are tiny snowballs that's stuck to dogs fur so.
The de gambo is when you rub that loose snow
off before you come inside. And also Hollywood showers. Those
are when you take a fantasy shower that's more than
the allotted two minutes.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Oh god, why do you keep bring up showers here?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
You know?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
When I started abroad in upon Tibedan college, it was
freezing and you didn't get to take hot showers that often.
So I took like ten or eleven bucket showers during
the trip, and they were mostly with lukewarm water. It's
strange being there, like I realized there's so many things
I could live without. I don't really need TV or
a lot of clothes or a lot of amenities, but
hot showers. Yeah. Well, when I came back to the college,
(10:36):
I just stand in the shower and praise American plumbing.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I can understand that.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Well, here's a bit of jargon I found on mental flaws.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Its ice shock, and this is the idea that no
matter how crazy everything seems in Antarctica while you're there,
it's this acknowledgement that the rest of the world is
even crazier.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
All right, But let's get back to who lives there.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Obviously, Antarctica doesn't have an indigenous population.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Do you know the site cool antarctica dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I can't say I'm familiar with that.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's this educational site that's run by a former Antarctic
marine biologist and now he's a school teacher and puts
out great information. But on a site he writes they're
around sixty six scientific bases, of which thirty seven are
occupied year round. Around four thousand people live in Antarctica
during the summer months, and that reducess to about a
thousand who over winter there. It's also rare that someone
(11:24):
will stay there for two winters in a row. They
might do one winter wrapped in two summers, but two
winters in a row tends to be bad for people's
mental states, and.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So the McMurdo station actually has about like a thousand
or so people during peak season though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That's right. And what's funny is that I didn't quite
put together how large Antarctica is and how far some
of the bases are from one another. It's apparently the
fifth largest continent, and because ninety nine point five percent
of it is covered in ice, the size of the
continent actually changes. Like according to Live Science, the quote
size varies through the seasons, expanding sea ice along the coast.
(12:00):
It nearly doubles the continent's size during the winter. Isn't
that crazy?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
It nearly doubles it that it is crazy, you know.
In speaking of the geography, I was stunned by the geography,
and I didn't realize that the land is basically all desert.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
The inner regions of Antarctica get less than two inches
of precipitation each year, and this is less than the
Sahara Desert, and it's all so cold there.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I don't know if you knew this about Anerica.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, the Russian Vostok station there recorded the lowest temperature
in the world at negative one hundred and twenty nine
point three degrees fahrenheit. I mean, I guess it's that
extra point three that really gets to you.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, it's cold, but it's a dry cold, right. So
I know we're supposed to be talking people and not
penguins here, but one of the things I thought was
funny was that the male emperor penguins are the only
warm blooded animal to stay on the continent during the
freezing winters. Apparently, when the female lays an egg, it's
a very were pregnant situation, like the daddy bird sits
on the family egg keeping it warm while them what
(13:00):
penguin goes out to see for nine weeks, and then
the mom's return just before the eggs hatch, which is
because you know, male penguins are so woke.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Glad you're able to work that.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
All right, Well, I actually have a funny penguin story
to talk about it, and I also want to discuss
the crazy ways Chile and Argentina have, you know, tried
to each claim part of Antarctica as their own territory.
But before we get to that, let's take a quick break,
all right, Mango, So, how many times have we had
(13:31):
a super talented poet on the show.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Has that happened before. I don't think it's happened yet.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't think it has either.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I mean, I know Tristan dabbles a little in poetry,
but I mean between us, they're not the best poems.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
But he's trying. He's trying hard.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But we're super excited to have Jen dilling Martin on
the show today. And as we discussed Jen as an
accomplished poet, she's an associate publisher at Riverhead, which is
one of our favorite book publishers in the world. But
that's not the reason we've got her on today. We
actually begged her to come on because in two thousandy thirteen,
Jen became the Antarctic Artist in Residence and she used
(14:05):
a six week stint there to inspire her poetry. So Jen,
welcome a part time genius.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
So, Jane, I know you're in pretty esteem company as
an artist in residence. I believe Werner Herzog was also
an artist there too, But can you tell us a
little bit about how you got that gig and what's
included totally it's.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
This incredible grant run through the National Science Foundation that
they give to about two people a year from any
discipline at all to go make art inspired by the
work that you then get to witness being done in Antarctica.
It is a really elaborate application process that I think
weeds out ninety percent of the people interested in going back.
(14:43):
You have to go through all kinds of bureaucratic paperwork
to just even apply for it. But once accepted, you
get to I mean, you get to lead the coolest
life imaginable. You get to go to any of the
base camp set interests you. You can ask the scientists
any questions you want of them. You get to travel
all around the continent. I got a helicopter pilot Ryan
(15:04):
to take me to different base camps, and basically it's
just like the most incredible experience that I will ever
have in my life. So whatever it is you want
to go and study as an artist, do you ask
for and they make it all come together for you.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Wow, that's pretty incredible. I will say.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
One of the things that surprised me was all the
training that you talked about in your first few weeks there.
You know how to fix a snowmobile, how to pitch
a tin, and a blizzard. I'm just curious, like, were
you were you expecting that and can you talk a
little bit about that experience?
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Absolutely, you know, it's one of those things where it
doesn't really dawn on you, or at least it didn'tdawn
on me fully till really down there, just how isolated
and vulnerable you are and in actually grave peril should
anything go dramatically wrong on your visit. And there can
be wins so high even in the summer season on
(15:57):
the continent that they cannot get planes to and from
Antarctica for a week or two at the time, so
we're there to be a very bad accident, you could
be stuck with you know, the medical facilities of you know,
just like a small clinic to take care of you,
So they're they're very rigorous even before you go down
with getting all kinds of doctor and dental records, and
then upon arrival, there's just an enormous battery of trainings
(16:20):
and tests and presentations to make sure you're behaving as
safely as possible and equipped for uh, you know, as
they call it, white out conditions which can arise sort
of in less than an hour's time out of nowhere.
So it is, yeah, it is, it is pretty raw
in a way that's hard to fully appreciate when we
live in a you know, live in a first world
(16:43):
nation where help is just a simple mind, one one
call away.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And yeah, I mean I another thing. I was fascinated
by wash Well. I spent a little time on your
Tumblr page, which is so great. And uh, I was
fascinated by the specific gear you had to pick up
in New Zealand, and especially the bunny boots. Can you
tell us a little bit about why you had to
take special care of them on airplanes?
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, as we were preparing to leave New Zealand, there
was all kinds of kind of offhand information that they
were just throwing out there. And most everyone had been
down to Antarctica many times, but it was my first
time and already I was trying to digest so much
new information, and very casually the guy handing out these huge, white,
(17:25):
eight pounds inflatable white bunny boots said, oh, yeah, don't
forget to open the valves so your boots don't explode
on the plane. It seemed like something that maybe they
should have emphasized even more directly and not just muttered
as they passed them across the table to me. But
the boots are pressurized and it's actually the I guess
the air air cushions inside that keep them warm. But
(17:49):
because you take a you know, only semi pressurized military
jet to Antarctica, the boots are in danger of exploding
from the pressure change on the plane if you don't
open these little mini air valves on them.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
That's so crazy, and the idea that these things called
bunny boots are so dangerous is amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
To the case of the exploding bunny boots.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
You know, it was really fun looking at so many
of your photos from the trip, and one of the
things that struck me was just how intense the sun looks.
And I was curious to hear, you know, what was
it like to be in constant daylight? And was it
tough to figure out, you know, tricks that going to
sleep each night?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Totally? Yeah, you know, everyone talks and imagines, you know,
if you live in Scandinavia or in Arctica, like, how
horrible must be when it's dark all the time. But
the truth is is actually equally horrible to have it
be light all the time, and not just sort of light,
I mean like high noon light all the time. And
someone might say I was actually living in a tent,
(18:49):
which meant there was just no way for it to
not be so glaringly bright, and that light is bouncing
off all the ice in the snow, and you you
do start to get fatigued and just longing for one
night of real darkness and sleep. And the times that
I was in kind of a little hut or dorm situation,
(19:09):
I got so desperate that I actually took the wool
blanket and took kind of like thumbtacks and tacked it
over the window to try to block all the different
cracks of light that kept coming in. It was so
kind of enervating by several weeks deep into it.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Oh wow, that's insane.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Yeah. But the other thing that happens is it's very
easy to lose track of all time because the sun
isn't moving, and so particularly at night, it was you know,
you'd be hanging out with people talking and drinking and
you would feel like, oh, it's probably like seven or
eight pm, and it's actually two in the morning, and
they've totally lost track of all passage of time. It
(19:47):
does really mess with your mind.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I saw in your tumbler that you visited an
Antarctica Laddin Club, and I was curious, what are some
of the other fun recreational activities we might not have
heard about?
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Oh, totally there. It's kind of like Oberlin, but with
like weird er, really cool adults. I mean, every night
we're probably fifteen or twenty different clubs or activities that
you could do that were all just being voluntarily taught
by the awesome people of Antarctica who wanted to share
their talents and entertain each other. So everything from every
(20:20):
kind of sport you can imagine to you know, knitting club,
guitar club, chess club. People would give just lectures and
presentations on things that they were themselves studying, and even
people not showing up for clubs were always up to
something really weird that there was this very introverted woman
who I always saw like running around with pieces of
(20:41):
PBC pipe and they were all laid out on this
desk and I finally stopped in to ask what was
going on, and she goes, oh, oh, you know, I'm
ascending a PVC harp. Like a PVC harp. She's like, oh, yes,
I'm sure you haven't heard of that, and say you
can make a harp out of PVC. No, I wasn't familiar,
(21:04):
but I love that you are committed to doing this
down in your free time on Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Oh that's pretty great. Do you think you'll have the
chance to get back anytime soon?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
You know, this is the saddest thing of at least
the way that I went, is I don't know that
I will ever get to go back again, and pretty
much any other place any of us will go in
our lives, you know, if you love it, you're like, oh,
I can't wait to go back with my sister or
my friend or my partner. But this is an experience
that I don't know that I will ever get to
go have again. So leaving was incredibly sad. I will say,
(21:37):
there's just an incredible global society of what are called
ice people, and it basically means that you lived on
Antarctica at some point, and there's just this deep understanding
and familiarity when you meet another ice person in the
real world. And I've stayed even now, several years later,
in very very close contact with a number of really
(21:58):
dear friends I made well down there, and I think
there's something in that connection that we all have shared
this weird world.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
What would you want to experience again?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Oh wow, I just the vastness and the untouchedness. Like
I am a big traveler and I've been to incredible
places like the Sahara, the Himalayas, but even they just
have no The sense of scale in Antarctica is something
so staggering and beyond anything that I had ever witnessed
in my life. And again, besides outer space, I don't
(22:28):
think there's anything you could see that would make you
feel just so totally dwarfed as a human in a
way that I find totally freeing and exciting and so beautiful.
To see so much of the world that the in
fact probably be only last part of the world that
we haven't managed to pave over or destroy in some way.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Well, you'll be happy to know that in one week
we've spoken with an astronaut and now someone who's been
to Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I didn't even realize. I didn't even think.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
About that, but in one in one week, so we
spoke to astronaut Chris Hadfield from from Canada on an
episode about Canada. But you know, for all of our
listeners out there, I hope you'll check out Jen's book,
We Mammals and Hospitable Times.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's a terrific book. And Jen, thanks so much for.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Joining us on Part Time Genius.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, and we're talking Antarctica.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
So will you said you had a funny penguin story to.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Tell I do and that this is from Maggie Kurth
Baker and it's a piece on Boing Boing. But you know,
in the early nineteen hundreds, as Robert Scott was making
his way to the South Pole, he was accompanied by
this surgeon named George Levick, and most of the team's
observations were printed up in the team's official journals, all
except this one section of Levic's notes explicitly describing penguin sex.
(23:53):
And apparently Levick witnessed penguin on penguin ax so depraved
that while he felt he had to document he wrote
them all in Greek rather than English. I don't know
why that makes it better, but it's only recently that
they've been discovered and added to the journals. But on
the topic of sex, maybe now it's a good time
to talk about tinder. No not, I was actually gonna
(24:15):
say how Chili and Argentina have tried to use pregnancies
to their territorial advantage. But now I'm curious what you
have to say about tender So this is.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Kind of a ridiculous story. But Nolan found this bit
about an American scientist who decided to log onto tinder
and Antarctica and at first no one showed up on
his radar, but when he widened the radius, he found
a match of forty five minute helicopter ride away. Unfortunately,
the scientist he was chasing was in the field and
couldn't meet up, and they only met very briefly on
(24:44):
the day she was leaving Antarctica. As he told the
cut quote, I have yet to become the first tender
hookup in Antarctic history. But she's actually coming back and
we may overlap. There's still hope. He's just a romantic,
I guess. I guess.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
So, I mean that's got to be pretty good press
for though, wouldn't you think, and you know that you
can find love or lust, whatever it is on any continent.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, but the scientists wanted to stay anonymous because you're
not supposed to be taking up airways with social apps.
I guess like the Internet's this prize commodity down in
Antarctica and netflixing or using apps isn't really possible because
it takes too much bandwidth. But let's talk Chile and Argentina.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
That's a bummer. You can't use Netflix there. I didn't
know that, all right, So so back to this topic.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
So we've already said Antarctica doesn't really have towns, but
Chile and Argentina have each set up the closest thing
to that. So Chile has via Las Astreas and Argentina
has Esperanza. Both areas have between fifty and eighty people.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Living there during the winters.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
They both have schools, gyms, medical facilities. But as The
New York Times points out, both of these so called
towns were clear attempts to lay claim to Antarctica, you know,
should the Antarctic Treaty be renegotiated, and the fact that
the two countries are regional rivals only made the situation worse.
Like when Pinochet made a visit to Antarctica in the
nineteen seventies, Argentina felt like they were losing the upper hand,
(26:04):
so soon after his visit they quietly sent a pregnant
woman in her third trimester so she could give birth
to the first quote native Antarctica. And according to Alice Obscura,
the joke was that, you know, after they heard this,
Chile started sending down couples to conceive the first baby
in the region, since you know, some people think that
birth starts a conception there, but it's Argentina who's taken
(26:26):
it the farthest. In Argentina, it's illegal to show a
map of the country that doesn't include the section of
Antarctica that they consider theirs.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
How bizarre is this?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
That's so crazy. So I just want to switch gears
and talk entertainment. But before we do that, should we
talk about why we're both so terrified to the continent,
and that's you know some of those early explorer stories.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, well, the early explorer stories are definitely terrifying. And
not only were they wearing things like wool clothing which
really just absorbed the snow and kept them damp, but
they couldn't stop being cold, like this guy, absolutely Cherry Garrard,
who sailed with Captain Scott to the South Pole. He
said this about his teeth quote, the nerves of which
(27:06):
had been killed, split to pieces from.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
The chattering Oh.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
His account of the Antarctic trip was titled the worst
journey in the World.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, he definitely wasn't glancing.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, and you don't have to go that far back
to see how dangerous it can be. Like in twenty fourteen,
the British Halley six Research Station lost its power and
that is terrifying. There the closest help was like eighteen
hundred miles away in the Falkland Islands.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
There was no sun, the.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Temperature was negative sixty seven degrees fahrenheit, and the winds
were crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
The only thing that worked was a single satellite phone.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
But the staff somehow managed to patch the problem in
nineteen hours and get limited electricity back. Of course, they
kind of dismissed it as being not that big of
a deal, and the station's electrician tweeted got Internet, lots
of Yorkshire tea and a big kettle.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Really, what more do you need?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Well?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I love that he was so calm. He was chatting
with Noland, our researcher about this, and he was saying
the worst story he read was about this Australian explorer
Douglas Mawson. This is back in nineteen twelve and I'm
going to tell the story here. So Mawson's this superstar
geologist and he turns down Robert Scott's expedition to lead
his own. But his story is so tragic. His timing
(28:20):
was horrible, right, like, the blizzards were constant, and wins
off the coast were anywhere between fifty and two hundred
miles per hour. He split up his group into different assignments,
and he led a three man party to map the
far eastern shore. This was the most difficult load of journeys.
He was trying to map glaciers hundreds of miles away,
and so everything terrible happens. They make it about three
(28:42):
hundred miles out pretty smoothly, and then some weird superstitious
things happen, like this Petrol, which is this bird you
never see this far inland, comes out of nowhere and
just crashes into the sled and one of the huskies
eats her. Young h one of his colleagues gets snowblindness.
Then one hundred and fifty foot crevice open up and
swallows that colleague. Yeah, as well as like their supplies
(29:04):
and a dog. The elements are just against them. Then
there's more snowblindness, their dogs die, they run out of food,
so they have to eat their dogs. Mawson's other colleague
falls sick and he carries them along, even though he
has a fever and dysentery. And despite all his best
efforts and trying to carry him, the pale passes away.
So Mawson's basically alone at this point, and he's weak
(29:26):
in damage too, but he somehow makes it to this
cash of supplies at this location called Aladdin's Cave, and
when he's there, another blizzard comes through and he's trapped
for five more days. But when he finally makes it
back to camp to meet up with the other teams,
it's just in time to see that the expedition's ship
has left for Australia. The crew had actually waited for him,
but now he's watching the ship sail away and he
(29:48):
has to stay in Antarctica for another winter before he
returns home.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
And then the commercial ends and it says, come to Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I mean, that is.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Miserable, and you're right, the elements just feel so raw
and vicious. But I think we should lighten this up
a little bit with some events to put on your calendar.
If you're headed to Antarctica. So all right, here's a
few of them if you like music. There's ice Stock,
which is Antarctica's woodstock. There's barbecue and bands and people
in costumes there. There's also Freezing Man, which is Antarctica's
(30:17):
burning Man.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Midwinter Day is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
It's his celebration held halfway through the miserable winter, when
everyone huddles and watches the shining.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Apparently, I don't know why they do this.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Then there's the Ross Cup, where once a year the
Americans play scientists from New Zealand and rugby and of
course the kei Wes always slaughter the Americans and you know,
personally because they actually know how to play rugby. But
also they do that intimidating hakka dance that we've seen before.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
This is, you know, all before they hit the field.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's pretty great.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And there's one other tradition I actually love, and it's
the moving of the South Pole.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
How's that work?
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Well, it's because the ice shifts and so the marker
for the South Pole moves about twenty five or.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Thirty feet every year. So there's this big.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Ceremony that everyone from the South Pole station attenmes and
the south pole is recalibrated and then a new pole
is placed in that location.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Those are also fun. So I also looked into some
of the more standard things you could do, like people
play cards and board games. Argentina also just set up
this new movie theater. This might be part of their
ploy to seem like it's a real town, because they
also bring directors and actors there to talk about the films,
and they premiere new movies which are all subtitled for visitors.
But all the bases also have some version of the
(31:28):
three hundred club, which is where you sit in asana
that's three hundred degrees hotter than the temp outside. Then
you run through the snow naked or do a polar plunge,
and then rush back in. I guess it's supposed to
be exhilarating.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I just I've never understood the whole like polar bear
plunge thing that happens in so many places, and it
just sounds even worse here. But so I was reading
on slate there's an antarctic saying that if it's twenty
below and the wind ain't blowing, it ain't bad. It
sounds bad though, Yeah, I can't say that I would
agree with that statement.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But the strangest mundane thing I found that's actually no longer.
There was a two lane bowling alley at McMurdo Station.
Can you imagine bringing all that wood down in materials
to build a bowling alley. Yeah, it's crazy, It's yeah,
it's kind of insane. But I found the photos on
Laughing Squid. The alley was built in nineteen sixty one
and lasted for almost fifty years. It's funny. It used
this Brunswick manual pin set system where an employee had
(32:19):
to pick up the fallen pins by hand and also
send your bowling ball back to you down this ramp,
and when they finally tore it down in two thousand
and nine, it was the only manual pinset system of
that type left in the world.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Oh man, that's kind of a kind of a shame.
So why did they end up tearing it down.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, eventually the wood on the lanes wore down and
replacing the bowling alley was just too expensive, So they've
turned it into a curling club.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
And I would guess that ice is a little bit
easier to maintain. And you know what I found really
interesting was just how much responsibility bartenders have an Antarctic
I mean, it's actually kind of an important job.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Why is that, Well, obviously people want to drink.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I mean there's little else to do, so having a
good barkeep is comforting. But you know, though people aren't
driving drunk, they're real dangers to drinking in Antarctica. I
was reading this account of a scientist who worked as
the volunteer bartender at Club ninety South and this is
a bar at the South Pole Station, and this is
how he's quoted in the Guardian. It says I made
(33:15):
it a point of honor to be the last person
to leave the club each night. I learned to spot
the signs that someone was likely to wander drunkenly into
the Antarctic night. And I heard too many stories of
people returning to base with hypothermia and frostbite. My theory
was it's easier to recover from too much drinking than to.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Grow back a missing limb.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I was happy only when everyone was safely tucked up
and accounted for, even if it meant leaving them passed
out on the bar's couch.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I mean, with that blinding snow, it's supposedly really easy
for people to get lost. I read this account from
the National History Museum where the scientists talked about how
he and a colleague walked just two hundred yards to
get snow samples, and they thought they were walking parallel
to this seismic tunnel, and then they crossed it and
almost fell in.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
They weren't even slashed. They were like totally sober. So
I'm really glad the bartender has taken upon themselves to
watch over their patrons.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
But by the way, the strangest thing I read about
drinking an Antarctica was that people often go outside to be sick,
but the stuff freezes as soon as it touches the ice,
so people are expected to clean up after themselves with
pick axes to chip that frozen grossness away and then
throw it out.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
So cross all right.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Well, on the flip side of that, one thing I
didn't expect to find an Antarctica was so many beautiful churches.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Definitely, so.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I saw this gallery of seven churches in Antarctica at
Messy Messi Chick, and they were all gorgeous. My favorite
was this beautiful Russian Orthodox church that's a wooden structure,
like you wouldn't think that would last through those winds,
but it somehow survived. It's like the other miracle on
ice exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
I mean, they're all sorts of these churches. There's there's
a Catholic church that was built in an ice cave,
this Bulgarian church that's basically under the snow, you know,
except for the church bell. And it's kind of a
sweet thing that they ring it with some frequency, you know,
especially when you consider it was built for a four
member Bulgarian team. There's some inner faith churches, you know.
The priest is happy to conduct both Buddhists and behih
(35:11):
services as well.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Well.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I think we've covered where to get sozzled and where
to get saved. But I know we want to talk
about why plumbers are the real heroes of Antarctica, or
at least I do. So let's take a quick break
and then discuss.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Welcome back to Part time Genius.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Now, before the break, Mango, you were making some pretty
big statements about plumbers in Antarctica.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I was reading about Brendan Hopkins, who's this Australian plumber
at the Casey Station, and he was talking about how
he's tricked out the pipes so they don't freeze in
this crazy climate. I mean, that's an important thing. And
so for most of the pipes, water is constantly running
through them, but that isn't the case with the sewer lines,
so it's really complicated when you hit the flush. Like
to keep the sewer pipes from freezing, his team runs
(36:03):
these electric cables around the pipes just to heat the pipes.
And because no ways can be left in Antarctica, he's
built this crazy wastewater treatment plant that filters the waste
multiple times with microbes, and there's even this additive that
he uses to help package and reduce the waste so
it can be shipped off the continent. He has this
pager setup just to wash the sewer systems at all times,
(36:24):
because fixing it is an enormous task. But the one
perk that the electricians and plumbers get is taking turns
brewing beer. While there's supposedly sworn enemies in their natural habitat,
according to Brendan, they get along swimmingly in Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's pretty fun, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
I actually think being a chef down there is pretty
darn heroic.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
As well.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
In fact, it's an honor to be chosen to cook
at the Concordia base there, you know, since you actually
have to win a lottery to work at the French
and Italian base. But before you can even put your
name in, you have to demonstrate a mastery of numerous
international cuisines and.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
You have to be a war course.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
You're making all three meals a day by yourself for
the crew there. But the cook seems to love the
high pressure environment and the food is top notch. Lonely
Planet calls it the best cuisine in Antarctica, with the
seven core Sunday lunches being the absolute highlight.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Well, speaking of absolute highlights, you know what time it is?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Time for the PGG fact off, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Do you know that Antarctica is one of the best
places in the world to find meteorites? Apparently that snow
white landscape is perfect for finding space junk. I mean,
everywhere else in the world, it's so much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
That's interesting, Well, I've got one here.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
So Metallica once played a concert in Antarctica, and they
did this just to be the first band to play
on all seven continent.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
It's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Huh yeah, and Metallica's so cool. Do you know what
small icebergs are called.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
They're called growlers. They're usually the size of a grand
piano or a truck. And if you want to upgrade
to a medium sized iceberg, those are called burgie bits.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Burgie bits. Nice well.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
According to Australia's government site, doctors who winter in Antarctica
must have their appendix removed before traveling there. That's because
they don't want anyone having appendicitis while they're.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Oh, that's crazy. So this summer in Edinburgh Geographic Survey,
I found ninety one volcanoes hiding two kilometers under the
ice in Antarctica. It's apparently the largest volcanic region on Earth.
All right.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
We When scientists discovered a new species of yetti crab
living in the thermal vents under Antarctica, they were so
impressed with its hairy chest that they named it for
David Hasselhoff. It's affectionately known as the Hoff crab.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Oh, the hoff crab. I've actually seen that critter, and
I think it's way better looking than its name. Sick,
but I do love that fact, So why don't you
take home today's trophy.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I can do that, all right. Well, that's it for
today's show.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
If you have any Antarctica facts you're dying that tell
us don't forget. You can always drop us a line
on our twenty four to seven fact hotline one eight
four four pt Genius, or email us at part Time
Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Jerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
And Eve Jeff Gook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
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Speaker 1 (39:47):
Review for us.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
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