March 10, 2026 • 35 mins
Travel identification has taken many forms over the years, from stone tablets to an exhausting process that involved posting your itinerary on a church door. But how did we arrive at the standardized booklets many of us carry today? How do different countries use art and technology to distinguish their passports? And what’s the best (and worst) passport in the world, according to experts? Plus: Why you can blame a German spy for your embarrassing passport photo.
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So you know, I just got back from India, and
of course this got me thinking. Did you know that
passports date all the way back to sixteen hundred BCE.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
You know, you always come back from a trip with
some really wild facts, but this one, I gotta be
honest with you, This feels hard to believe because I'm
just not picturing our ancient ancestors carrying around these little
booklets and collected stamps from border crossings or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So what do you mean by this?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
If you think about it, A passport is just a
form of identification that people use when they travel far
from their home and going to archaeologists. One of the
earliest examples of that system is shown in this ancient
Egyptian tomb drawing. It depicts a magistrate handing out identity
tablets to foreign laborers all waiting in line.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I do really love the idea of this, like somebody
taking the time to preserve this this sort of moment.
It's like, I don't know, It's like if you painted
a portrait of people waiting in line at the DMV,
now right, it's.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Pretty amazing, But that's not the only example. Historians also
cite the story of the Hebrew prophet Nehemiah, and this
is around four hundred and fifty BCE. He obtained a
letter from his king to show governors abroad so that
they would allow him to pass through their land safely.
And ancient Rome also had their own version of this,
known as a diploma, and so did the Tong dynasty
(01:45):
in China.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
You know, I was skeptical of this at first, but
it actually sounds like passports do have a much longer
history than I thought. And it's incredible that some of
them have survived all these years, especially since it gives us,
you know, the little glimpse into the comings and goings
of people from ancient times.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
It really is fascinating, and there's plenty more where that
came from. So today on the show, we're telling a
different kind of travel story, the story of those little
booklets that unlock a world of destinations. How did they
go from stone tablets to high tech documents decorated with
invisible drawings. Why do some Olympic athletes swap one passport
for another before the Games, and which country has an
(02:21):
adorable cartoon seal animation on its passport pages. We've got
the answers to this and a whole lot more. So
let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and is always I'm here with my good
friend Mangesh hot ticketter and on the other side of
that booth dressed up like a shiny gold key. It
took me a minute to realize what that was. That's
our pal and producer Dylan Fagan. Now that could be
a reference to the fact that passports are like a
key that lets you into other places. But I mean,
(03:10):
we know Dylan like, he loves a deep cut. So
here's what I'm thinking, Mango, tell me if you think
I'm crazy. Here he's doing an homage to Francis Scott Key,
whose image appears right on the inside cover of the
US passport.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
How is that for detective work? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
If that's true, that's amazing. I had no idea that's
what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The illustration shows Key at the Battle of Baltimore looking
at the flag that would inspire him to write the
Star Spangled banner. There's even a quote from the song
that's written in Key's own cursive handwriting, which I've always
thought was a nice little touch there.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
That is so weird. You know, I've used my passport
like three times this year already and I had no idea,
but really nice work there, Dylan, so good. So will
you know. My dad passed away a few years ago
and one of the things I found, like amongst his
stuff was some of his early passports from being a
US citizen, and I think he was in his thirties
(04:06):
when this happened. But what's crazy about the passports is
that theirs section of the passport that are like important
information that are handwritten, which is just so odd to me, Right, Like,
here's this official document at a time when there are
printers and typewriters, but things like addresses and stuff like
that and what port you're coming into, like that's all
(04:26):
written by hand. And when I saw that, I actually
told Mari and Gabe and it got me thinking about
the evolution of these little things that we sort of
take for granted.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, it's super interesting, and actually I think we should
start somewhere in between those ancient scrolls blessed by Kings
and your dad's first passport. And I'm thinking about eleventh
century Britain because that's where people started to get documents
that are a little bit closer to the modern day
passport that we use today.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
These were known as safe conduct documents, and they were
issued by monarchs and given to negotiators during wartime so
that they could cross borders safely. Now as an extra precaution,
these documents were sometimes accompanied by human hostages, who were
released once the negotiator had made it back home.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
That's insane. They took human.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Hostages with them, Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And so monarchs also had the power to issue documents
that allowed individuals to travel freely, but they didn't really
like to give those out.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So do you want to guess why?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I mean, I assumed they didn't want their subjects to
leave the kingdom or like go work or fight for
someone else.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
No, that's exactly right. But royalty couldn't suppress travel forever.
So by the Middle Ages, safe conduct documents and other
passport like papers they became much more widespread. Passports weren't
just for people either. They were also issued to ships
to ensure that cargo could arrive at the destination, you know,
without any big issue.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You know, speaking of cargo getting its own passport. I
actually read this week in National Geographic Thought. In the
nineteen seventies, the mummy of Ramses the second was sent
to France to get treated for preservation, for some kind
of like anti funk treatment. And I guess because France
makes bodies that are alive travel with passports. Egypt actually
(06:07):
created a passport for this three thousand year old king
and for the occupation it read King deceased.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Which.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
On this past our official document. But apparently when the
body landed in Paris, it was created by this huge
regalia like saw this French honor guard, and it was
treated like any visiting dignitary, which I really love, but
I cut you off for good reason.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
That was a good fact there.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
But all right, So back to the sixteenth century, and
that's actually when we got the word passport. And there
are two possible origins for the term. I know, it's
always fun to try to figure out the origins of
these words. Now, the obvious one is that it was
meant to pass through maritime ports, but an alternative theory
is that it originated with the French word port, meaning door,
(06:52):
so in that case it could be a reference to
passing through a city's walls.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
But whatever the.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
True meaning, monarchs still weren't issuing passports just willy nilly.
Even other royals had trouble getting them. So in fifteen sixty,
when Mary, Queen of Scott's, wanted to travel from France
to Scotland, Elizabeth I refused to issue a safe conduct document,
but you know Mary went anyway. Just as a side note,
it is.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Interesting, like the sense that passports are almost a way
to control people in their movements, Like you know, for
kings to do this with their own citizens.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, that would never happen today, controlling our own citizens
or passports, right, And it wasn't even subtle in this case,
Like consider the British colonists in America. If a seventeenth
century colonist wanted to travel, they needed a passport from
the governor, plus additional approvals from a court and a
special council. So after being approved, the traveler then had
to post a departure announcement on the church door for
(07:44):
two consecutive Sundays and pay their outstanding debts before departing. Now,
this wasn't just for international travel, by the way. Until
the Revolutionary War, passports were required just to travel from
one colony to another.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I mean, imagine having to jump through all those hoops
just to travel from like Boston to New York. And
I mean my feeling was like, like, having read lots
of history, I thought you just hopped on a horse
and kind of giddy up from like place to place.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Basically, yeah, I feel like we heard so many stories
people just hop on a horse. But you know, throughout
the seventeenth century, other nations began adopting these orderly, if
you know, sometimes complex systems for issuing and verifying passports.
The documents were handwritten, issued by scribes and clerks, and
checked by authorities at border crossings. So in England, for example,
(08:30):
these clerks of the Passage, as they were known, were
posted at ports to check travelers documentation and they would
track their departure numbers. And early on one of the
jobs was to stop young men who were trying to
leave the Kingdom to receive a Catholic education abroad somewhere.
And here you see the theme of state control once again. Meanwhile,
in the US, despite growth and population and infrastructure, passports
(08:53):
were inconsistent in size and format. So one famous founding
father stepped in to help streamline the whole process of
passport printing.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I mean, I think that's going to be my man, Benji, right.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Franklin, That's exactly right, It is your man. So, while
working in Paris, Franklin designed American passports based on the
French ones and printed them up actually in his house.
So by eighteen fifty six, the US had given the
Department of the State legal authority over its passport system,
and a passport for overseas travel now came in a
cost of one whopping dollar.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, you know, being from Delaware, I've gone to Benjamin
Franklin's house so many times. Anytime someone came to visit
the US, we were taking to ben Franklin's house.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
The constitutional.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I am glad you've brought us up to mid eighteen hundreds,
because that leads me to something that became popular around then,
which is photography. So those early passports you described didn't
include photographs of their holders, and they were actually pretty
light on details. In general. They sometimes featured physical descriptions,
or they might say something like British subjec or English gentleman.
(10:01):
But really that was about it.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Which honestly, when you think about that, it sounds like
a recipe for identity theft.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, and it was like in the early days of
World War One, this German spy named Carl Hans Lodi
used a fake name to get a real American passport
from the embassy in Berlin, and then he used this
passport to travel undetected to the UK where he snuck
around and collected all this military intelligence. He was, you know,
finally captured and sentence to death. But the scandal made
it clear that without unique identifiers, things like photographs, right,
(10:30):
passports were actually a security risk. So the US added
a photograph requirement. And this was in nineteen fourteen, just
weeks after Lodi was executed by the Brits, and many
other countries followed suit and they began requiring that their
passports have photos attached. This was literally attached, right, Like
passport layouts didn't have like this designated space for a photo,
so it would just be clipped or stable to the top.
(10:53):
Sometimes it would cover up important information like like the
holder's name or country of origin. And since all of
that was kind of clunky. Most nations created new passport
designs with room for a photo, and at first people
just submitted any old photo that they had, which sometimes
included like a backdrop provided by the photographer. Sometimes there'd
be a railing to lean on or a scenic fake waterfall.
(11:15):
It was kind of like the glamour shots of their day.
But some people even wore hats in their passport photos,
which it just looks amazing, but it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I really want to see these. I'm kind of love
the idea of this.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I know all of that was eventually banned. Actually, my
brother in law and their family for Christmas cards go
all out like every year, and they do insane family
photos where they look like they're like a nineteen seventies
sports catalog or like wearing all denim from like a
Western shoot or whatever. And then they also did one
(11:47):
where they were in black turtlenecks with serious poses. They
looked like magicians, but they had snakes.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Around their necks, like real snakes.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, they got like a ball python or two or something.
It's really close, but like, I kind of want to
see those picks on a passport. That's incredible anyway. So
World War One played a huge role in the evolution
of the modern passport and taking all that personality out
and adding photos and standardization and of course these international
(12:16):
rules and designs. But what's interesting is before the war,
in the late nineteenth century, passports had actually been falling
out of favor, like some countries had abolished the passports
system entirely, including France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden, and
a lot of South American countries took pride in the
fact that they offered the constitutional right to travel without
(12:37):
a passport. There was this idea that people could and
should be able to travel more freely. But with the
war came all these fresh concerns about spies and national security,
so passports came roaring back, and this time for good.
Now we have to take a quick break, but when
we come back, more about the modern passport, including the
incredibly nitpicky rules that we all have to follow and
(12:59):
some of them most creative passport designs in the world.
Stay tuned, Welcome back to Part Time Genius. If you're
enjoying this episode, share it with your travel buddy, especially
(13:22):
if they need something to listen to On a long layover.
You can also leave us a nice rating and interview
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but also it totally makes our day, So thanks in
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Speaker 3 (13:35):
All right, Meg, I'm still trying to get my head
around the idea that passports nearly went extinct. But you know,
as you said, the world win in the opposite direction,
and that brings us up to nineteen twenty. And of
course the League of Nations, Now you remember what that was, right.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, of course, it's kind of this like precursor to
the UN, and it was meant to promote i don't know,
like peace and international cooperation.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Well done, you clearly did well in your ap history class.
But one of the things the League of Nations did
was hold an international conference on passports. Actually it was
on passports, customs formalities and through tickets as they were called. Now,
this conference passed a resolution establishing an international passport and
it had the following rules. It had to measure exactly
(14:18):
fifteen point five centimeters by ten point five centimeters, had
to have thirty two pages be in both French and
the national language of wherever it was issued. And after
the UN was established, its International Civil Aviation Organization began
working to further standardize these travel documents, which it still
does to this day. Now, as a result of all
(14:38):
of this, modern passports maintain a pretty consistent layout from
country to country. I've always wondered about this, right, because
you see passports from all over the world. Is fun
to see, but they're all relatively the same, right, and
so it helps expedite travel and immigration, or at least
that's the idea of it.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I mean, it is cool to see how passports represent
this kind of special cooperation between nations of the world, right,
Like it's this one document that's accepted worldwide as proof
of who you are.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, it's worth noting that a passport isn't always enough
to enter a foreign country. These days, many nations also
require visitors to have a visa. And there's actually an
organization that ranks global passports for their ability to allow
holders into places without having a prior visa. It's called
Henley in Partners, and they create the Henley Passport Index
(15:26):
four different times a year.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
The index ranks one hundred and ninety nine different passports
by their power to provide access to two hundred and
twenty seven different countries and territories. According to the latest
Henley Passport Index, which was released just back in January,
the strongest passport in the world is actually Singapore's, which
provides visa free access to one hundred and ninety two
(15:48):
different destinations. Japan and South Korea are tied for second place.
Those passports offer visa free access to one hundred and
eighty eight places. Then in the tier below that you
have a five way tie between Luxembourg, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland,
and Sweden, each of which provides visa free access to
one hundred and eighty six destinations.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I feel like, as a kid, I had always heard
that the US was had a very powerful passport in
this way, But like I'm curious, like, how is the
US doing on this index today?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, it's not that far behind in terms of the
number of destinations. There's visa free access to one hundred
and seventy nine destinations currently sitting at number ten on
the list. Now, this would be right behind Canada, Iceland,
and Lithuania. Now keep in mind that you know, in
previous years US passports were ranked number one, but that
rank has steadily declined as the US started banning travelers
(16:39):
from other nations and receiving reciprocal bands in turn.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, that makes sense. And what about last place, Like,
who's pulling up the rear on this list?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You know that would be Afghanistan, whose passport holders have
visa free access to a mere twenty four destination, so
way down there on the list.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It is crazy how the luck of geography or where
you're born plays such a role in your billy to
move around the globe and experience the world. Like, like
my colleagues and I were just talking about this last week,
and we have an employee in Sri Lanka and the
passport really confines where all you can go. It's pretty stunning.
But let's switch gears to passport design. So, as we've mentioned,
(17:19):
the size and layout may be standardized, but many countries
actually use the passport as an opportunity to showcase their
national pride. And this is one thing I always love,
kind of like peeking over when I'm in line at
airports or going through customs to see what other people's
passports look like and what colors other countries use and
stuff like that. But there is plenty you cannot see
(17:41):
as a nosy neighbor.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
And what do you mean by that. Well, some of these.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Graphic design elements are actually invisible to the naked eye,
and that is to prevent forgery, so the features only
appear when viewed under a UV light. For example, the
Australian passport has a page that shows the outback during
the day, but when you hit it with UV light,
it transforms into this nighttime scene with stars in the
sky and a red kangaroo in the bottom corner. It's
(18:06):
really pretty beautiful.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I mean, I appreciate the need for security, but it's
too bad that the rest of us don't get to
enjoy that kangaroo.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I want to see the kangaroo.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, I mean, this is Australia we're talking about, So
there are several other kangaroos on the passport and they're
visible in any light. So speaking of the night sky,
the Bahrain Passport actually has won multiple design awards for
its beautiful depictions of the nation's history and monuments and symbols,
and under UV light, all these constellations appear on different pages.
(18:36):
The designers collaborated with the Kingdom of Bahrain's top astronomers
to get the details just right, which is pretty amazing,
and the visa pages of the Canadian passport are pretty
great too. They represent the four seasons as a way
to honor the nation's natural beauty. You'll see bears, narwalls, owls,
and plenty of other wildlife on display. But the one
(18:57):
thing you won't find is the Stanley Cup had pride
of place on their previous passports, but wasn't carried over
into the current one.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
You know, I'm surprise Canadians let that go. I mean,
but to be fair, it's tough to compete with an arwall.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And there's lots of nature hiding
in other countries' passports too. Latvia's passport features a grand
total of twenty native birds, including the crane, which is
known from long migrations, so it's kind of the perfect
representative for international travel. Another country with pride in its
local animals is Finland, which currently has a little cartoon
(19:32):
seal at the bottom of its passport pages and if
you flip them, it looks like he's flopping around, which
is super now way Yeah, and actually their previous passport
had a flip book element of a cartoon moose that
appeared to walk when you flip the pages, which is
just so great. But my favorite passport of all has
to be Belgium's, which highlights the Smurfs and Tintin.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
That is hilarious.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's so funny that the Smurfs basically live on a
passport for him. And also when we were talking about that,
the the flip books, Like I haven't thought about those
in so long.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I remember, like flip books would have made.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
As a kid, just to watch the stick you're dunk
the basketball or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's so fun.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. The Belgian passport is also decorated
with a bunch of other lesser known comic characters, at
least in the US, so like Lucky Luke, Blake and
Mortimer and Bob and Bob Att. Belgium's foreign minister actually
addressed this in twenty twenty two. He said, quote, we
have chosen a design that represents our country, it's arts
(20:30):
and culture, with a touch of talent, expertise, humor and humility.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I feel like Gay would love to become a dual
citizen just to get his hands on one of those passports.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
But speaking of dual citizenship, it struck me this week
how that used to be extremely rare. Like In fact,
until the end of the twentieth century, the idea of
dual citizenship was pretty frowned upon, and as we discussed
at the top of the show, historically kings didn't like
their subjects leaving their borders, let alone holding other allegiances.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I know, I actually remember learning when I was a
kid that at eighteen, I could choose whether to be
an Indian citizen or not because my mom was an
Indian citizen and my dad was an American citizen. But
you know, my mom became an American citizen along the way.
But it's so weird that you could have dual citizenship
in like other parts of the world, but not between
the US and India.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Yeah, you know, I guess many leaders of the past
believe that people owed their total allegiance to the nation
that they were born and by extension, to that nation's ruler.
So how could a citizen who was totally loyal to
their king also be a member of another nation? Even
if someone moved their country of origin typically wouldn't recognize
that change in national affiliation. But as time went on,
(21:40):
and as travel and immigration became more accessible. It became
clear that countries couldn't stop people from leaving, but the
idea of dual nationality was still looked down on, and so,
you know, many people viewing it as disloyalty, like we
talked about, And so countries expatriated citizens for committing certain
acts in the nation they moved to, like you know,
like voting or joining the army or holding public office.
(22:03):
And actually, in some cases, when a young immigrant became
an adult, they were forced to choose, like did they
want to be a citizen of where they were born
or where they currently lived?
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, I mean, luckily I was born in New Jersey
and we lived in the stay outside. Didn't really have
to consider that.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Exactly, you know. But eventually the tides started turning. So
a modern focus on human rights led to more widespread
belief that you could hold multiple nationalities and a more
stable globalized world. Show the existence of multiple citizenship didn't
lead to major conflicts. So now many nations don't revoke
citizenship when somebody naturalizes elsewhere, and they don't require people
(22:39):
to choose one country or the other. And because of that,
it's much more common for people to hold passports from
multiple nations. In fact, according to a recent poll, six
percent of Americans are actually dual citizens. That's roughly twenty
one million people.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's pretty incredible. Well, we have to take one more break,
but when we come back, we're going to talk about
one of the most interesting perks of carrying multiple passports
and it has to do with the Olympic Games. So
don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Welcome back to part time genius. Okay, we've been waiting
for this mango. What do passports have to do with
the Olympics aside from letting athletes, you know, travel to
the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So one of the perks of being a dual citizen
is you can choose which country you compete for, which
might just come down to which country you feel most
connected to, but it also means you can be a
little strategic, like if your odds of making the national
team and country B are better than in Country A,
maybe you decide to compete under the Country B flag. Now,
(23:48):
the exact rules vary by sport, but Rule forty one
of the Olympic Charter requires each athlete to be a
national of the country they represent at the Games, and
it states that if a competitor is a national of
two or more countries. They may represent any of them,
but if they've already competed for one internationally, they can't
switch until three years have passed, although that part of
(24:09):
the rule can be waived on a case by case basis.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
I mean that seems kind of fair. The first time
I've thought about it. It seems pretty fair, right.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, But it can get controversial when an athlete acquires
a passport for a nation they don't have a strong
connection to. So One example is Killian Albrecht, who is
an alpine ski racer who originally competed for his native
Austria before switching to Bulgaria in two thousand and six.
He said Austria's ski team froze him out, so he pivoted, and,
in his words quote, I skied for myself, not for
(24:38):
my country. I just wanted to continue my job as
a ski racer and that wasn't possible, So that's why
I looked for an option and ended up skiing for Bulgaria.
When asked by a New York Times reporter how often
he'd visited Bulgaria before his trip to get his new passport,
Aldrech laughed and declined to answer. He has since said
that his decision did lead to some people calling him
a trader, but he also claimed he heard from fellow
(25:00):
athletes who also wanted to make a similar switch.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
You know, I'm sure it's tempting, and especially for athletes
who feel like competing for another country is really their
only shot, even if they don't have a strong connection
to it right right.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
And there are examples here in the US too. So
in twenty sixteen, California native Kylie Dixon competed in gymnastics
at the Rio Olympics for Belarus, and basically the Belarus
Gymnastics Federation invited her to join their team, so she
acquired a Belarusian passport despite having no ties to Belarus
and despite never having set foot in the country. And
(25:33):
there could be controversy even when an athlete does have
deep ties to another country, like you probably heard about
the incredible freestyle skier Aileen Gu who won three medals
at the Milan Courtina Games just recently. Gu was born
and raised in California to a Chinese mom and an
American dad, but she spent her summers back in China
with her family and in twenty nineteen, she announced that
(25:55):
she would compete for China in the twenty twenty two
Winter Games, even though China doesn't recognize dual citizenship. So
shortly after Goo's announcement, the Chinese government made a new
rule and it let foreigners who have achieved international recognition
in sports and other fields gained permanent residency and thus
be eligible for the national team. And that change actually
(26:16):
allowed Good to play by the rules, and she set
her goal in addition to bagging medals, is to help
build friendship between nations and to inspire Chinese kids to
try skiing. This obviously has to stopped people from criticizing
her for changing her allegiance, but in the end, she's
actually the one with the gold medals, which she would
have won regardless of which passport she carried.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, all right, Well, I feel like we should talk
a little bit about how much passport technology has improved
over the years, not just in design, but I'm sure
athletes who do a lot of travel to international competitions
appreciate how it's helped improve security and streamline the border process.
So nowadays we have e passports or biometric passports. These
contain electronic chips with the same personal information as a
(26:59):
regular passport, plus data like fingerprints and iris patterns. Malaysia
was actually the first country to adopt E passports. This
was back in nineteen ninety eight. The US started using
them in two thousand and six. But E passports were
controversial when they were first introduced, especially after report surface
that they were easy to clone. You know, there are
so many added security and anti skimming measures now that
(27:21):
cloning really isn't that much of an issue anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I actually had no idea E passports had been around
for that long. Yeah, and I'm assuming that means there's
even newer tech on the horizon.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, there are a few areas that security and tech
companies are exploring. One is a digital passport. Now, these
probably wouldn't replace physical passports, but they could be sent
ahead to the border control of a country that you're
about to visit that allows for smoother travel and transition there.
Or they could make it possible to receive digital travel
documents quickly in case of emergency situations or like during
(27:54):
peak passport demand seasons.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, I mean I could see how that would be valuable,
but I still kind of love the old fashion paper passports.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just so much fun to
hold them, flip through them, remember where you've been. And
I think this will be around for a while still,
but there are innovations happening at the same time. Just
actually talk of using more recycled materials and reducing the
number of visa pages in order to make them more sustainable.
That's especially plausible now that passport stamps are becoming less
and less common thanks to e passports. Now, as of
(28:23):
October twenty twenty five, twenty nine different European countries have
begun the process of phasing out stamps. Some countries, including Australia,
Argentina and Singapore have already eliminated them, and many airports
here in the US have discontinued them as well, which.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I find so sad. I mean, one of the things
I used to love was to like admire all the
places you'd visited in a passport, like they're saying, But
you know, I guess it makes sense, all.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Right, mango, Well, there is one thing that won't make
you sad, and that's a good old fashioned fact off.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Turn that fround around.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Let's do it, all right.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So, if you've ever wondered what it's like to check
passports for a living.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I have a video game for you.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
It's called Papers Please, and it was designed by Lucas
Pope in twenty thirteen. I sort of love this. You
play as a border agent in the year nineteen eighty
two in the fictional Soviet inspired country of Ourstotiska, and
you know, at first your job seems pretty straightforward. This
traveler comes through your line, you check the passport, the
(29:28):
visa work permits. Then you decide whether to allow them
across the border with a green, big accepted stamp. But
as time goes on, things get a little more complicated.
Do you reject someone who has the wrong documentation even
though it will mean separating them from loved ones? You
start flagging more people for detention in order to claim
a cash bonus like it gives the player a lot
(29:49):
to chew on, because it's impossible to do the morally
right thing without facing some sort of consequences. The game's
been praised for its powerful depiction of how bureaucracy and
fascism can actually work hand in hand.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
And zero parallels today. This is nowhere near as thought
provoking as that, But I also had no idea about this. Apparently,
celebrity passports sometimes pop up for sale. Do you know this?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I did not know this.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
No. The most expensive one to ever sell it auction
was Lou Garrigg's passport, which went for two hundred and
sixty three thousand times.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I wonder how that stacks off against a Luga baseball card.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I'm sure it's Yes, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
But second place is Marilyn Monroe's, which sold for one
hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. Also, speaking of celebrity passports,
the Pope, who I guess counts as celebrity, has a
passport to match his prestige. Despite having no border control
of Vatican City, does issue passports, and they number them,
and Big Papa always gets passport number one.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
All right.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
We talked about World War One earlier, and here's a
bonus fact about that. After the fighting and there were
millions of displaced people who needed to be resettled. So
the job of figuring this out fell to a Norwegian
scientist and explorer by the name of Friedoff Nonsen. He
was the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Nonsen
began by negotiating the release of four hundred and thirty
(31:16):
thousand prisoners of war in Russia. That's just so many people,
and there were people of over twenty different nationalities. Then
he moved on to the issue of Russian refugees. There
were about one point five million individuals who fled after
the Bolsheviks seized power in nineteen seventeen. They poured into Turkey, Poland, Germany, Romania,
you know, all the Baltic states and not realize what
(31:38):
they needed most was documentation. So plenty of countries were
willing to accept these workers temporarily, but they weren't prepared
to provide citizenship to this many people. The League of
Nations issued special documents that allowed refugees to enter new
countries and began working, and these became known as Nansen
passports now in the nineteen twenties, the documents also helped
(31:59):
resettle Armenia Greeks, Syrians and Turks during the ethnic purges there.
They weren't a perfect solution. It was difficult for people
to parlay them into permanent citizenship, and countries often only
accept them if the holder had a job offer in hand,
so they saved many lives in difficult times, and as
a result nonsensely received the nineteen twenty two Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Well, here's my last fact, which is what happens to
your passport when your country stops existing? And that is
the situation millions of people in the former USSR found
themselves in when the Soviet Union dissolved in nineteen ninety one.
And actually, if you're as fascinated by those events as
I am, you should check out a show that I
helped make a little while back. It was called The
Last Soviet, which tells the story of a Soviet cosmonaut,
(32:44):
Sergei Krikolov, who was literally in space when his country disappeared. Anyway,
it takes time for passports to be designed and printed,
so for a decade after the former Soviet republics became independent,
citizens still had to use their old uss OUR passports. Now,
gradually people were able to replace them with new country passports,
(33:04):
but to this day, old Soviet passports are still accepted
as valid identity documents in Russia. Isn't that amazing? Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Wow, that is incredible.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
I did not know that, all right, Well, Mango, because
this whole episode was your idea and to make up
for losing those stamps in your passport. I know that
made you sad. I'm going to cheer you up. I
feel like you deserve today's trophy congratulations.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I will take it. And if anyone listening has a
passport related story to share, we want to hear about it.
Give us a call at three oh two, four oh five,
five nine two five, or you can send us an
email at high Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's Higeniuses
at gmail dot com. You can also find us on
Instagram and blue sky at part Time Genius. Today's episode
(33:49):
was written by the wonderful Meredith Danko. Thank you so much, Meredith.
May your flights always be on time, and may your
luggage never get lost. It's a familiar blessing around here.
Will be back next week with another new episode, but
in the meantime, from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself,
thank you so much for listening. Part Time Genius is
(34:22):
a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by
my good pal Will Pearson, who I've known for almost
three decades now.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That is insane to me.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I'm the utter COO host Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer
is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm
going to fix that in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier,
who I've also known for like a decade at this point,
maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is
always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready
(34:53):
to hit record and then mix the show after he
does a great job. I also want to shout out
the executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and
Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media support from
Calypso Rallis. If you like our videos, that is all
Calypso's handiwork for more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Visit
(35:14):
the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
App, Apple Podcasts, or.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's
it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank you
so much for listening.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So you know, I just got back from India, and
of course this got me thinking. Did you know that
passports date all the way back to sixteen hundred BCE.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
You know, you always come back from a trip with
some really wild facts, but this one, I gotta be
honest with you, This feels hard to believe because I'm
just not picturing our ancient ancestors carrying around these little
booklets and collected stamps from border crossings or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So what do you mean by this?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
If you think about it, A passport is just a
form of identification that people use when they travel far
from their home and going to archaeologists. One of the
earliest examples of that system is shown in this ancient
Egyptian tomb drawing. It depicts a magistrate handing out identity
tablets to foreign laborers all waiting in line.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I do really love the idea of this, like somebody
taking the time to preserve this this sort of moment.
It's like, I don't know, It's like if you painted
a portrait of people waiting in line at the DMV,
now right, it's.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Pretty amazing, But that's not the only example. Historians also
cite the story of the Hebrew prophet Nehemiah, and this
is around four hundred and fifty BCE. He obtained a
letter from his king to show governors abroad so that
they would allow him to pass through their land safely.
And ancient Rome also had their own version of this,
known as a diploma, and so did the Tong dynasty
(01:45):
in China.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
You know, I was skeptical of this at first, but
it actually sounds like passports do have a much longer
history than I thought. And it's incredible that some of
them have survived all these years, especially since it gives us,
you know, the little glimpse into the comings and goings
of people from ancient times.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
It really is fascinating, and there's plenty more where that
came from. So today on the show, we're telling a
different kind of travel story, the story of those little
booklets that unlock a world of destinations. How did they
go from stone tablets to high tech documents decorated with
invisible drawings. Why do some Olympic athletes swap one passport
for another before the Games, and which country has an
(02:21):
adorable cartoon seal animation on its passport pages. We've got
the answers to this and a whole lot more. So
let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and is always I'm here with my good
friend Mangesh hot ticketter and on the other side of
that booth dressed up like a shiny gold key. It
took me a minute to realize what that was. That's
our pal and producer Dylan Fagan. Now that could be
a reference to the fact that passports are like a
key that lets you into other places. But I mean,
(03:10):
we know Dylan like, he loves a deep cut. So
here's what I'm thinking, Mango, tell me if you think
I'm crazy. Here he's doing an homage to Francis Scott Key,
whose image appears right on the inside cover of the
US passport.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
How is that for detective work? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
If that's true, that's amazing. I had no idea that's
what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The illustration shows Key at the Battle of Baltimore looking
at the flag that would inspire him to write the
Star Spangled banner. There's even a quote from the song
that's written in Key's own cursive handwriting, which I've always
thought was a nice little touch there.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
That is so weird. You know, I've used my passport
like three times this year already and I had no idea,
but really nice work there, Dylan, so good. So will
you know. My dad passed away a few years ago
and one of the things I found, like amongst his
stuff was some of his early passports from being a
US citizen, and I think he was in his thirties
(04:06):
when this happened. But what's crazy about the passports is
that theirs section of the passport that are like important
information that are handwritten, which is just so odd to me, Right, Like,
here's this official document at a time when there are
printers and typewriters, but things like addresses and stuff like
that and what port you're coming into, like that's all
(04:26):
written by hand. And when I saw that, I actually
told Mari and Gabe and it got me thinking about
the evolution of these little things that we sort of
take for granted.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, it's super interesting, and actually I think we should
start somewhere in between those ancient scrolls blessed by Kings
and your dad's first passport. And I'm thinking about eleventh
century Britain because that's where people started to get documents
that are a little bit closer to the modern day
passport that we use today.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
These were known as safe conduct documents, and they were
issued by monarchs and given to negotiators during wartime so
that they could cross borders safely. Now as an extra precaution,
these documents were sometimes accompanied by human hostages, who were
released once the negotiator had made it back home.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
That's insane. They took human.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Hostages with them, Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And so monarchs also had the power to issue documents
that allowed individuals to travel freely, but they didn't really
like to give those out.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So do you want to guess why?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I mean, I assumed they didn't want their subjects to
leave the kingdom or like go work or fight for
someone else.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
No, that's exactly right. But royalty couldn't suppress travel forever.
So by the Middle Ages, safe conduct documents and other
passport like papers they became much more widespread. Passports weren't
just for people either. They were also issued to ships
to ensure that cargo could arrive at the destination, you know,
without any big issue.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You know, speaking of cargo getting its own passport. I
actually read this week in National Geographic Thought. In the
nineteen seventies, the mummy of Ramses the second was sent
to France to get treated for preservation, for some kind
of like anti funk treatment. And I guess because France
makes bodies that are alive travel with passports. Egypt actually
(06:07):
created a passport for this three thousand year old king
and for the occupation it read King deceased.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Which.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
On this past our official document. But apparently when the
body landed in Paris, it was created by this huge
regalia like saw this French honor guard, and it was
treated like any visiting dignitary, which I really love, but
I cut you off for good reason.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
That was a good fact there.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
But all right, So back to the sixteenth century, and
that's actually when we got the word passport. And there
are two possible origins for the term. I know, it's
always fun to try to figure out the origins of
these words. Now, the obvious one is that it was
meant to pass through maritime ports, but an alternative theory
is that it originated with the French word port, meaning door,
(06:52):
so in that case it could be a reference to
passing through a city's walls.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
But whatever the.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
True meaning, monarchs still weren't issuing passports just willy nilly.
Even other royals had trouble getting them. So in fifteen sixty,
when Mary, Queen of Scott's, wanted to travel from France
to Scotland, Elizabeth I refused to issue a safe conduct document,
but you know Mary went anyway. Just as a side note,
it is.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Interesting, like the sense that passports are almost a way
to control people in their movements, Like you know, for
kings to do this with their own citizens.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, that would never happen today, controlling our own citizens
or passports, right, And it wasn't even subtle in this case,
Like consider the British colonists in America. If a seventeenth
century colonist wanted to travel, they needed a passport from
the governor, plus additional approvals from a court and a
special council. So after being approved, the traveler then had
to post a departure announcement on the church door for
(07:44):
two consecutive Sundays and pay their outstanding debts before departing. Now,
this wasn't just for international travel, by the way. Until
the Revolutionary War, passports were required just to travel from
one colony to another.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I mean, imagine having to jump through all those hoops
just to travel from like Boston to New York. And
I mean my feeling was like, like, having read lots
of history, I thought you just hopped on a horse
and kind of giddy up from like place to place.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Basically, yeah, I feel like we heard so many stories
people just hop on a horse. But you know, throughout
the seventeenth century, other nations began adopting these orderly, if
you know, sometimes complex systems for issuing and verifying passports.
The documents were handwritten, issued by scribes and clerks, and
checked by authorities at border crossings. So in England, for example,
(08:30):
these clerks of the Passage, as they were known, were
posted at ports to check travelers documentation and they would
track their departure numbers. And early on one of the
jobs was to stop young men who were trying to
leave the Kingdom to receive a Catholic education abroad somewhere.
And here you see the theme of state control once again. Meanwhile,
in the US, despite growth and population and infrastructure, passports
(08:53):
were inconsistent in size and format. So one famous founding
father stepped in to help streamline the whole process of
passport printing.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I mean, I think that's going to be my man, Benji, right.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Franklin, That's exactly right, It is your man. So, while
working in Paris, Franklin designed American passports based on the
French ones and printed them up actually in his house.
So by eighteen fifty six, the US had given the
Department of the State legal authority over its passport system,
and a passport for overseas travel now came in a
cost of one whopping dollar.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, you know, being from Delaware, I've gone to Benjamin
Franklin's house so many times. Anytime someone came to visit
the US, we were taking to ben Franklin's house.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
The constitutional.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I am glad you've brought us up to mid eighteen hundreds,
because that leads me to something that became popular around then,
which is photography. So those early passports you described didn't
include photographs of their holders, and they were actually pretty
light on details. In general. They sometimes featured physical descriptions,
or they might say something like British subjec or English gentleman.
(10:01):
But really that was about it.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Which honestly, when you think about that, it sounds like
a recipe for identity theft.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, and it was like in the early days of
World War One, this German spy named Carl Hans Lodi
used a fake name to get a real American passport
from the embassy in Berlin, and then he used this
passport to travel undetected to the UK where he snuck
around and collected all this military intelligence. He was, you know,
finally captured and sentence to death. But the scandal made
it clear that without unique identifiers, things like photographs, right,
(10:30):
passports were actually a security risk. So the US added
a photograph requirement. And this was in nineteen fourteen, just
weeks after Lodi was executed by the Brits, and many
other countries followed suit and they began requiring that their
passports have photos attached. This was literally attached, right, Like
passport layouts didn't have like this designated space for a photo,
so it would just be clipped or stable to the top.
(10:53):
Sometimes it would cover up important information like like the
holder's name or country of origin. And since all of
that was kind of clunky. Most nations created new passport
designs with room for a photo, and at first people
just submitted any old photo that they had, which sometimes
included like a backdrop provided by the photographer. Sometimes there'd
be a railing to lean on or a scenic fake waterfall.
(11:15):
It was kind of like the glamour shots of their day.
But some people even wore hats in their passport photos,
which it just looks amazing, but it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I really want to see these. I'm kind of love
the idea of this.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I know all of that was eventually banned. Actually, my
brother in law and their family for Christmas cards go
all out like every year, and they do insane family
photos where they look like they're like a nineteen seventies
sports catalog or like wearing all denim from like a
Western shoot or whatever. And then they also did one
(11:47):
where they were in black turtlenecks with serious poses. They
looked like magicians, but they had snakes.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Around their necks, like real snakes.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, they got like a ball python or two or something.
It's really close, but like, I kind of want to
see those picks on a passport. That's incredible anyway. So
World War One played a huge role in the evolution
of the modern passport and taking all that personality out
and adding photos and standardization and of course these international
(12:16):
rules and designs. But what's interesting is before the war,
in the late nineteenth century, passports had actually been falling
out of favor, like some countries had abolished the passports
system entirely, including France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden, and
a lot of South American countries took pride in the
fact that they offered the constitutional right to travel without
(12:37):
a passport. There was this idea that people could and
should be able to travel more freely. But with the
war came all these fresh concerns about spies and national security,
so passports came roaring back, and this time for good.
Now we have to take a quick break, but when
we come back, more about the modern passport, including the
incredibly nitpicky rules that we all have to follow and
(12:59):
some of them most creative passport designs in the world.
Stay tuned, Welcome back to Part Time Genius. If you're
enjoying this episode, share it with your travel buddy, especially
(13:22):
if they need something to listen to On a long layover.
You can also leave us a nice rating and interview
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but also it totally makes our day, So thanks in
advance for doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
All right, Meg, I'm still trying to get my head
around the idea that passports nearly went extinct. But you know,
as you said, the world win in the opposite direction,
and that brings us up to nineteen twenty. And of
course the League of Nations, Now you remember what that was, right.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, of course, it's kind of this like precursor to
the UN, and it was meant to promote i don't know,
like peace and international cooperation.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Well done, you clearly did well in your ap history class.
But one of the things the League of Nations did
was hold an international conference on passports. Actually it was
on passports, customs formalities and through tickets as they were called. Now,
this conference passed a resolution establishing an international passport and
it had the following rules. It had to measure exactly
(14:18):
fifteen point five centimeters by ten point five centimeters, had
to have thirty two pages be in both French and
the national language of wherever it was issued. And after
the UN was established, its International Civil Aviation Organization began
working to further standardize these travel documents, which it still
does to this day. Now, as a result of all
(14:38):
of this, modern passports maintain a pretty consistent layout from
country to country. I've always wondered about this, right, because
you see passports from all over the world. Is fun
to see, but they're all relatively the same, right, and
so it helps expedite travel and immigration, or at least
that's the idea of it.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I mean, it is cool to see how passports represent
this kind of special cooperation between nations of the world, right,
Like it's this one document that's accepted worldwide as proof
of who you are.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, it's worth noting that a passport isn't always enough
to enter a foreign country. These days, many nations also
require visitors to have a visa. And there's actually an
organization that ranks global passports for their ability to allow
holders into places without having a prior visa. It's called
Henley in Partners, and they create the Henley Passport Index
(15:26):
four different times a year.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
The index ranks one hundred and ninety nine different passports
by their power to provide access to two hundred and
twenty seven different countries and territories. According to the latest
Henley Passport Index, which was released just back in January,
the strongest passport in the world is actually Singapore's, which
provides visa free access to one hundred and ninety two
(15:48):
different destinations. Japan and South Korea are tied for second place.
Those passports offer visa free access to one hundred and
eighty eight places. Then in the tier below that you
have a five way tie between Luxembourg, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland,
and Sweden, each of which provides visa free access to
one hundred and eighty six destinations.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I feel like, as a kid, I had always heard
that the US was had a very powerful passport in
this way, But like I'm curious, like, how is the
US doing on this index today?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, it's not that far behind in terms of the
number of destinations. There's visa free access to one hundred
and seventy nine destinations currently sitting at number ten on
the list. Now, this would be right behind Canada, Iceland,
and Lithuania. Now keep in mind that you know, in
previous years US passports were ranked number one, but that
rank has steadily declined as the US started banning travelers
(16:39):
from other nations and receiving reciprocal bands in turn.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, that makes sense. And what about last place, Like,
who's pulling up the rear on this list?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You know that would be Afghanistan, whose passport holders have
visa free access to a mere twenty four destination, so
way down there on the list.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It is crazy how the luck of geography or where
you're born plays such a role in your billy to
move around the globe and experience the world. Like, like
my colleagues and I were just talking about this last week,
and we have an employee in Sri Lanka and the
passport really confines where all you can go. It's pretty stunning.
But let's switch gears to passport design. So, as we've mentioned,
(17:19):
the size and layout may be standardized, but many countries
actually use the passport as an opportunity to showcase their
national pride. And this is one thing I always love,
kind of like peeking over when I'm in line at
airports or going through customs to see what other people's
passports look like and what colors other countries use and
stuff like that. But there is plenty you cannot see
(17:41):
as a nosy neighbor.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
And what do you mean by that. Well, some of these.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Graphic design elements are actually invisible to the naked eye,
and that is to prevent forgery, so the features only
appear when viewed under a UV light. For example, the
Australian passport has a page that shows the outback during
the day, but when you hit it with UV light,
it transforms into this nighttime scene with stars in the
sky and a red kangaroo in the bottom corner. It's
(18:06):
really pretty beautiful.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I mean, I appreciate the need for security, but it's
too bad that the rest of us don't get to
enjoy that kangaroo.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I want to see the kangaroo.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, I mean, this is Australia we're talking about, So
there are several other kangaroos on the passport and they're
visible in any light. So speaking of the night sky,
the Bahrain Passport actually has won multiple design awards for
its beautiful depictions of the nation's history and monuments and symbols,
and under UV light, all these constellations appear on different pages.
(18:36):
The designers collaborated with the Kingdom of Bahrain's top astronomers
to get the details just right, which is pretty amazing,
and the visa pages of the Canadian passport are pretty
great too. They represent the four seasons as a way
to honor the nation's natural beauty. You'll see bears, narwalls, owls,
and plenty of other wildlife on display. But the one
(18:57):
thing you won't find is the Stanley Cup had pride
of place on their previous passports, but wasn't carried over
into the current one.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
You know, I'm surprise Canadians let that go. I mean,
but to be fair, it's tough to compete with an arwall.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And there's lots of nature hiding
in other countries' passports too. Latvia's passport features a grand
total of twenty native birds, including the crane, which is
known from long migrations, so it's kind of the perfect
representative for international travel. Another country with pride in its
local animals is Finland, which currently has a little cartoon
(19:32):
seal at the bottom of its passport pages and if
you flip them, it looks like he's flopping around, which
is super now way Yeah, and actually their previous passport
had a flip book element of a cartoon moose that
appeared to walk when you flip the pages, which is
just so great. But my favorite passport of all has
to be Belgium's, which highlights the Smurfs and Tintin.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
That is hilarious.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's so funny that the Smurfs basically live on a
passport for him. And also when we were talking about that,
the the flip books, Like I haven't thought about those
in so long.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I remember, like flip books would have made.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
As a kid, just to watch the stick you're dunk
the basketball or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's so fun.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. The Belgian passport is also decorated
with a bunch of other lesser known comic characters, at
least in the US, so like Lucky Luke, Blake and
Mortimer and Bob and Bob Att. Belgium's foreign minister actually
addressed this in twenty twenty two. He said, quote, we
have chosen a design that represents our country, it's arts
(20:30):
and culture, with a touch of talent, expertise, humor and humility.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I feel like Gay would love to become a dual
citizen just to get his hands on one of those passports.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
But speaking of dual citizenship, it struck me this week
how that used to be extremely rare. Like In fact,
until the end of the twentieth century, the idea of
dual citizenship was pretty frowned upon, and as we discussed
at the top of the show, historically kings didn't like
their subjects leaving their borders, let alone holding other allegiances.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I know, I actually remember learning when I was a
kid that at eighteen, I could choose whether to be
an Indian citizen or not because my mom was an
Indian citizen and my dad was an American citizen. But
you know, my mom became an American citizen along the way.
But it's so weird that you could have dual citizenship
in like other parts of the world, but not between
the US and India.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Yeah, you know, I guess many leaders of the past
believe that people owed their total allegiance to the nation
that they were born and by extension, to that nation's ruler.
So how could a citizen who was totally loyal to
their king also be a member of another nation? Even
if someone moved their country of origin typically wouldn't recognize
that change in national affiliation. But as time went on,
(21:40):
and as travel and immigration became more accessible. It became
clear that countries couldn't stop people from leaving, but the
idea of dual nationality was still looked down on, and so,
you know, many people viewing it as disloyalty, like we
talked about, And so countries expatriated citizens for committing certain
acts in the nation they moved to, like you know,
like voting or joining the army or holding public office.
(22:03):
And actually, in some cases, when a young immigrant became
an adult, they were forced to choose, like did they
want to be a citizen of where they were born
or where they currently lived?
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, I mean, luckily I was born in New Jersey
and we lived in the stay outside. Didn't really have
to consider that.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Exactly, you know. But eventually the tides started turning. So
a modern focus on human rights led to more widespread
belief that you could hold multiple nationalities and a more
stable globalized world. Show the existence of multiple citizenship didn't
lead to major conflicts. So now many nations don't revoke
citizenship when somebody naturalizes elsewhere, and they don't require people
(22:39):
to choose one country or the other. And because of that,
it's much more common for people to hold passports from
multiple nations. In fact, according to a recent poll, six
percent of Americans are actually dual citizens. That's roughly twenty
one million people.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's pretty incredible. Well, we have to take one more break,
but when we come back, we're going to talk about
one of the most interesting perks of carrying multiple passports
and it has to do with the Olympic Games. So
don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Welcome back to part time genius. Okay, we've been waiting
for this mango. What do passports have to do with
the Olympics aside from letting athletes, you know, travel to
the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So one of the perks of being a dual citizen
is you can choose which country you compete for, which
might just come down to which country you feel most
connected to, but it also means you can be a
little strategic, like if your odds of making the national
team and country B are better than in Country A,
maybe you decide to compete under the Country B flag. Now,
(23:48):
the exact rules vary by sport, but Rule forty one
of the Olympic Charter requires each athlete to be a
national of the country they represent at the Games, and
it states that if a competitor is a national of
two or more countries. They may represent any of them,
but if they've already competed for one internationally, they can't
switch until three years have passed, although that part of
(24:09):
the rule can be waived on a case by case basis.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
I mean that seems kind of fair. The first time
I've thought about it. It seems pretty fair, right.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, But it can get controversial when an athlete acquires
a passport for a nation they don't have a strong
connection to. So One example is Killian Albrecht, who is
an alpine ski racer who originally competed for his native
Austria before switching to Bulgaria in two thousand and six.
He said Austria's ski team froze him out, so he pivoted, and,
in his words quote, I skied for myself, not for
(24:38):
my country. I just wanted to continue my job as
a ski racer and that wasn't possible, So that's why
I looked for an option and ended up skiing for Bulgaria.
When asked by a New York Times reporter how often
he'd visited Bulgaria before his trip to get his new passport,
Aldrech laughed and declined to answer. He has since said
that his decision did lead to some people calling him
a trader, but he also claimed he heard from fellow
(25:00):
athletes who also wanted to make a similar switch.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
You know, I'm sure it's tempting, and especially for athletes
who feel like competing for another country is really their
only shot, even if they don't have a strong connection
to it right right.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
And there are examples here in the US too. So
in twenty sixteen, California native Kylie Dixon competed in gymnastics
at the Rio Olympics for Belarus, and basically the Belarus
Gymnastics Federation invited her to join their team, so she
acquired a Belarusian passport despite having no ties to Belarus
and despite never having set foot in the country. And
(25:33):
there could be controversy even when an athlete does have
deep ties to another country, like you probably heard about
the incredible freestyle skier Aileen Gu who won three medals
at the Milan Courtina Games just recently. Gu was born
and raised in California to a Chinese mom and an
American dad, but she spent her summers back in China
with her family and in twenty nineteen, she announced that
(25:55):
she would compete for China in the twenty twenty two
Winter Games, even though China doesn't recognize dual citizenship. So
shortly after Goo's announcement, the Chinese government made a new
rule and it let foreigners who have achieved international recognition
in sports and other fields gained permanent residency and thus
be eligible for the national team. And that change actually
(26:16):
allowed Good to play by the rules, and she set
her goal in addition to bagging medals, is to help
build friendship between nations and to inspire Chinese kids to
try skiing. This obviously has to stopped people from criticizing
her for changing her allegiance, but in the end, she's
actually the one with the gold medals, which she would
have won regardless of which passport she carried.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, all right, Well, I feel like we should talk
a little bit about how much passport technology has improved
over the years, not just in design, but I'm sure
athletes who do a lot of travel to international competitions
appreciate how it's helped improve security and streamline the border process.
So nowadays we have e passports or biometric passports. These
contain electronic chips with the same personal information as a
(26:59):
regular passport, plus data like fingerprints and iris patterns. Malaysia
was actually the first country to adopt E passports. This
was back in nineteen ninety eight. The US started using
them in two thousand and six. But E passports were
controversial when they were first introduced, especially after report surface
that they were easy to clone. You know, there are
so many added security and anti skimming measures now that
(27:21):
cloning really isn't that much of an issue anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I actually had no idea E passports had been around
for that long. Yeah, and I'm assuming that means there's
even newer tech on the horizon.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, there are a few areas that security and tech
companies are exploring. One is a digital passport. Now, these
probably wouldn't replace physical passports, but they could be sent
ahead to the border control of a country that you're
about to visit that allows for smoother travel and transition there.
Or they could make it possible to receive digital travel
documents quickly in case of emergency situations or like during
(27:54):
peak passport demand seasons.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, I mean I could see how that would be valuable,
but I still kind of love the old fashion paper passports.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just so much fun to
hold them, flip through them, remember where you've been. And
I think this will be around for a while still,
but there are innovations happening at the same time. Just
actually talk of using more recycled materials and reducing the
number of visa pages in order to make them more sustainable.
That's especially plausible now that passport stamps are becoming less
and less common thanks to e passports. Now, as of
(28:23):
October twenty twenty five, twenty nine different European countries have
begun the process of phasing out stamps. Some countries, including Australia,
Argentina and Singapore have already eliminated them, and many airports
here in the US have discontinued them as well, which.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I find so sad. I mean, one of the things
I used to love was to like admire all the
places you'd visited in a passport, like they're saying, But
you know, I guess it makes sense, all.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Right, mango, Well, there is one thing that won't make
you sad, and that's a good old fashioned fact off.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Turn that fround around.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Let's do it, all right.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So, if you've ever wondered what it's like to check
passports for a living.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I have a video game for you.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
It's called Papers Please, and it was designed by Lucas
Pope in twenty thirteen. I sort of love this. You
play as a border agent in the year nineteen eighty
two in the fictional Soviet inspired country of Ourstotiska, and
you know, at first your job seems pretty straightforward. This
traveler comes through your line, you check the passport, the
(29:28):
visa work permits. Then you decide whether to allow them
across the border with a green, big accepted stamp. But
as time goes on, things get a little more complicated.
Do you reject someone who has the wrong documentation even
though it will mean separating them from loved ones? You
start flagging more people for detention in order to claim
a cash bonus like it gives the player a lot
(29:49):
to chew on, because it's impossible to do the morally
right thing without facing some sort of consequences. The game's
been praised for its powerful depiction of how bureaucracy and
fascism can actually work hand in hand.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
And zero parallels today. This is nowhere near as thought
provoking as that, But I also had no idea about this. Apparently,
celebrity passports sometimes pop up for sale. Do you know this?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I did not know this.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
No. The most expensive one to ever sell it auction
was Lou Garrigg's passport, which went for two hundred and
sixty three thousand times.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I wonder how that stacks off against a Luga baseball card.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I'm sure it's Yes, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
But second place is Marilyn Monroe's, which sold for one
hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. Also, speaking of celebrity passports,
the Pope, who I guess counts as celebrity, has a
passport to match his prestige. Despite having no border control
of Vatican City, does issue passports, and they number them,
and Big Papa always gets passport number one.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
All right.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
We talked about World War One earlier, and here's a
bonus fact about that. After the fighting and there were
millions of displaced people who needed to be resettled. So
the job of figuring this out fell to a Norwegian
scientist and explorer by the name of Friedoff Nonsen. He
was the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Nonsen
began by negotiating the release of four hundred and thirty
(31:16):
thousand prisoners of war in Russia. That's just so many people,
and there were people of over twenty different nationalities. Then
he moved on to the issue of Russian refugees. There
were about one point five million individuals who fled after
the Bolsheviks seized power in nineteen seventeen. They poured into Turkey, Poland, Germany, Romania,
you know, all the Baltic states and not realize what
(31:38):
they needed most was documentation. So plenty of countries were
willing to accept these workers temporarily, but they weren't prepared
to provide citizenship to this many people. The League of
Nations issued special documents that allowed refugees to enter new
countries and began working, and these became known as Nansen
passports now in the nineteen twenties, the documents also helped
(31:59):
resettle Armenia Greeks, Syrians and Turks during the ethnic purges there.
They weren't a perfect solution. It was difficult for people
to parlay them into permanent citizenship, and countries often only
accept them if the holder had a job offer in hand,
so they saved many lives in difficult times, and as
a result nonsensely received the nineteen twenty two Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Well, here's my last fact, which is what happens to
your passport when your country stops existing? And that is
the situation millions of people in the former USSR found
themselves in when the Soviet Union dissolved in nineteen ninety one.
And actually, if you're as fascinated by those events as
I am, you should check out a show that I
helped make a little while back. It was called The
Last Soviet, which tells the story of a Soviet cosmonaut,
(32:44):
Sergei Krikolov, who was literally in space when his country disappeared. Anyway,
it takes time for passports to be designed and printed,
so for a decade after the former Soviet republics became independent,
citizens still had to use their old uss OUR passports. Now,
gradually people were able to replace them with new country passports,
(33:04):
but to this day, old Soviet passports are still accepted
as valid identity documents in Russia. Isn't that amazing? Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Wow, that is incredible.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
I did not know that, all right, Well, Mango, because
this whole episode was your idea and to make up
for losing those stamps in your passport. I know that
made you sad. I'm going to cheer you up. I
feel like you deserve today's trophy congratulations.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I will take it. And if anyone listening has a
passport related story to share, we want to hear about it.
Give us a call at three oh two, four oh five,
five nine two five, or you can send us an
email at high Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's Higeniuses
at gmail dot com. You can also find us on
Instagram and blue sky at part Time Genius. Today's episode
(33:49):
was written by the wonderful Meredith Danko. Thank you so much, Meredith.
May your flights always be on time, and may your
luggage never get lost. It's a familiar blessing around here.
Will be back next week with another new episode, but
in the meantime, from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself,
thank you so much for listening. Part Time Genius is
(34:22):
a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by
my good pal Will Pearson, who I've known for almost
three decades now.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That is insane to me.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I'm the utter COO host Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer
is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm
going to fix that in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier,
who I've also known for like a decade at this point,
maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is
always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready
(34:53):
to hit record and then mix the show after he
does a great job. I also want to shout out
the executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and
Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media support from
Calypso Rallis. If you like our videos, that is all
Calypso's handiwork for more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Visit
(35:14):
the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
App, Apple Podcasts, or.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's
it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank you
so much for listening.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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