January 25, 2022 • 49 mins
You may not have heard of Peter Freuchen, but in his day he was one of the world's most well-known polar explorers. He also wrote prolifically about his adventures, including his numerous brushes with death. And that's just the beginning of his story -- he later went to Hollywood, fought against the Nazis in Europe, had some brushes with celebrity scandal and more. Tune in to learn more about the amazing (and occasionally gruesome) adventures of Peter Freuchen.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Uh. That's our one and
only super producer, Mr Max Williams. They called me Ben.
I have had my share of adventures, as have you, Noel.
But this guy, this guy might have a speed by
(00:47):
a little bit. I think he's got a lot of
people beat to the point where, at least in the
headline of our research document, he is referred to as
the most interesting man in the world, an honorific that
I wouldn't take lightly a stowing on somebody or having
a get a stowe upon me. I would consider that
to be quite a responsibility. The man, the interesting man,
(01:08):
most interesting man potentially in question today is Peter uh Fresian.
I think that's right. Yeah, we're gonna go with Fraisian.
What are you saying, Yeah, let's go with Freusan there. Uh.
He was born Lorenz Peter Alfred Freusian, So even his
name is super interesting. He's kind of starting on first
base with that one. But but this what I love
(01:28):
about this story, Knowll, is that oftentimes we find that
historical heroes are problematic in some way, you know what
I mean. There are problems with Mother Teresa, there are
problems with so many folks who were lauded, especially as
explorers during the age of European expansion. But our boy
Pete is surprisingly progressive. His legacy has aged incredibly well.
(01:54):
And spoiler, there is one part of this story that
all three of us are very excited for. And this
is kind of a reward for us. But maybe maybe
before we get to the part that really drew us,
because we're so uh, we're three very mature guys. Is uh,
maybe maybe we start with just who this giant of
(02:17):
a man was, and it was pretty much a giant
the ma tourists. That's that's what we are. I will
say that the part that you're alluding to, Ben, when
I first read it, I had to do a double
take and make sure that my brain was in fact
processing words correctly. I did end up finding out that
that it was in fact, and then I ate a
cookie to reward myself for being a cognizant human being.
(02:39):
I watched a video on this. I was watching it
while I was eating. I made some muscles and fries
for lunch today, guys. Uh, so that's a very hoity
toity lunch. I love it. It was, you know, it's
I didn't say they were good, you know, you just
it's it's had the cheap end. Muscles are pretty affordable
at your local grocery store. Have you ever heard someone
describe and off muscle as tasting quote Horsey, Yes, actually
(03:04):
I have. Where did you hear that? I think my
mom said it. But it makes sense because it sort
of tastes the way horse poop smells yep, yep, and
smell and taste are intertwined. So just remember whenever you
spell something, you're actually tasting it a little bit too. Uh.
It's gonna change your position on farts. But that's a
(03:26):
great way to set up set up where we're going.
So so, yes, this guy Pete is actually a tremendously
cool person. He's he's not born into privilege. He is
when we say he's a giant, he's a giant in
many ways at the end of his life, but in
the beginning, he's He's like six and a half feet tall,
(03:46):
He's got a mountain Man beer for most of his
adult life and housed within his beard clearly as his superpowers.
We'll get to that a little later too. Oh yes, yes,
Oh that's why I brought off the muscles, because I
was eating those while his watch in a video about
this pivotal moment we're gonna explore. And you guys know,
I have a strong stomach. I'm a walking garbage can
(04:07):
when it comes to food. But even I had to
stop for a second and it it was like, Okay, I'm
gonna I'm gonna take a quick walk. I'm just gonna
take a walk real quick. Not exactly, but definitely required
a moment of reflection. Oh A hundred percent. A hundred percent,
my friends. So another thing you might recognize, folks, is
(04:27):
that often throughout history, when you hear stories of people
who are explorers, people who are having all these adventures
and these remote corners of the world, they often come
from immense privilege, right they are the scion of royalty
or aristocracy. Not so with Pete. His dad was a businessman,
(04:49):
um and you know, they're like pretty squarely middle class.
But like most parents, he wants his kid to rise
to a better social station. So Pete's dad makes him
matriculate to the University of Copenhagen, where he starts studying medicine,
and he is board to tears. He is because he
you know, he's he's got his nose in the book.
(05:11):
But yet he's he's hearing the siren call of the
wild wafting in on the you know, the breeze. Um
if the window happened to be open at the time. Um.
But he cannot resist that call, can't he ben No, No,
it's almost like that. Uh, it's similar in some ways
the call of the wild that he's feeling to a
(05:32):
poem by John Masefield called Sea Fever, where he says
he's talking about the sea, and he says it's a
wild called and clear call that may not be denied.
So it's a wonderful little poem. I do recommend it
if you, if you're into that kind of innocuous poetry.
But yeah, he can't deny it. He says, all right,
(05:55):
I need some fast cars, dangerous fire and knives to
quote as up rock. So he drops out of the
University Copenhagen. He's twenty years old when he becomes an explorer.
He first lights out for Greenland. He's working as a
stoker on a steamship and I'm correct me if I'm
(06:16):
wrong here, But nol aren't those aren't those the people
who like stoked the coals or the fuel to power
the steamship. Yeah, it has to be right. I mean,
I think there's actually a there's a Korean American thriller
movie directed by I believe what Chan park Uh called
Stoker that has Nicole Kidman in it. I think it's
(06:39):
like his American English language debut. But I think that's
a family name in the in the movie. And then
I also know Stroker. There's a ween song called Stroker
Ace that is about a race car driver. I think
that might even be a movie. Um, but no, I'm
I'm not super familiar with the word Stoker. But if
you know we use our context clues, I think you're
probably pretty close to the mark there. Man, Yes, it's
(07:01):
someone attends the boiler at least, right, it's gotta be.
I got someone right here from the Royal Navy. Actually,
the Royal Navy used the rank structure ordinary Stoker, Stoker,
leading Stoker, Stoker, petty officer in chief Stoker. Their job
was to just stoke the coals and move them around. Well,
you gotta think about it. I mean, that's a crucial job.
(07:21):
You know, you can't really just half asked that one.
That sounds like maybe a ridiculous number of layers to
that position, but I think it makes sense. It's literally
the heart of the vessel. Yeah, and it's a dangerous
place to be, so without being too uh sitister about it,
you probably want to have a backup guy in case
something goes wrong with the other guys other people. Uh So,
(07:45):
at this point we know that he is already well
on the way to becoming a world class explorer. But
for him, it's just that the inside situation was intolerable
and funny enough, Why did he choose Greenland? It's because
he saw a student play when he was in school
about exploring the polar reaches. And as soon as he
(08:10):
saw this student play, which is funny because Max, you
and I were just talking about community theater before this
four year old on air um because of this play
he saw, he had this epiphany, this lightning strike moment,
and he thought, it is my life's calling to explore
the remote reaches of the Octic. And you know, that
(08:34):
may have just been an impulse decision, but he stuck
with it and for thirty more years he would explore
some of the most dangerous, coldest parts of the world.
What a cool thing, What a cool epiphany, right, I mean,
I think we all wonder when that aha moment is
or like, I know what I want to be. Doesn't
(08:55):
always happen like that for everybody. It certainly didn't happen
for me. I wanted to be a rock star, but
I have to suttle for podcaster and uh and the
hobbyist musicians. But it's pretty cool. And at an early
age you kind of realize something very specific and kind
of obscure and stuff that most people wouldn't really gravitate
towards as like your thing. Yeah, and uh, you know
(09:17):
it's it's not ever too late to do the things
you want to do, so you still still got a
path of rock star ahead of you if you wish. Man, Well,
you know what I I do have three distinct records
in the works right now. Uh, hopefully one of them
will one day see the light of the day and
then my rock star dreams will come true. That's me
with novels, man, I feel you. Oh, and sketch comedy.
(09:38):
I've got some sketch comedy stuff. I'm working on but um,
but we're doing all right as as podcasters. You know,
we actually we do make a living from it. Um.
And and this is, by the way, gonna give me
another opportunity to ask you guys to join me on
that Russian icebreaker, the fifty let pobity. Well, we'll see,
we'll see, we'll see the poboty. It's I mispronounced it,
(10:01):
but it's the Russian translations fifty years of victory. Oh,
but you pronounced that the way that uh, I believe
Bostonites say that you should pronounce peabody is pbody. I
appreciated that. No, but it's true. Man like this guy
knew what he wanted and he went out and got it. Like, uh,
(10:22):
every every step that he took from that point on
was a step towards that exploration. Yeah, and there he
goes with a very important friend of his, guy named
Nood Rasmussen. Noud Rasmussen was also a Greenland, Greenland, Danish
polar explorer anthropologist. He was the first European across the
(10:46):
Northwest Passage via dog sled. Uh. He is well known
amongst the first nations Inuit populations Greenland and Denmark. He
has a title that's stuck out to me that I
don't think it's a aached very well. But for a
long time he was known as, quote, the father of eschimology.
I just didn't know that was a a thing, but uh,
(11:08):
it's it's also sometimes called innuitology. So he'll be he'll
be important later. So these these guys nineteen o six,
it's uh, it's Pete's first time out in this expedition
of Greenland, and he and Nood sail from Dedmark and
they their whole goal is, we're gonna go as far
north as possible until the ice stops our ship, and
(11:29):
then we're gonna get on our dog sleds. And then
they got on their dog sleds and they just made
off for the wild. How beautiful is that they learned
Inuit languages, they went on hunting expeditions. I mean, this
is the kind of adventure that a lot of people
would have paid money for, you know, h yeah, these
were the Thul expeditions, right, So yeah, this inspires what
(11:53):
is known as the Thule expeditions. And they were learning
about a way of life, a very ancient way of
life that was completely alien in many ways. To life
in Europe. Uh. The people, the communities they encountered were
hunting walrus's, whales, seals, polar bears. This is like the
stuff you would see depicted in old school pulp novels
(12:17):
of adventure. Uh. But imagine if you are part of
the population here, part of the Inuit population the far North.
You see this guy wrapped up in you know, furs
and stuff, with this kind of ant, grateful, dead zz
top beard, and he's goliath level to you. He's six
(12:37):
seven or you know, we say six and a half
six seven, and you see him from a distance, right
in a very flat horizon. So in my head, like
they had already prepared to be visited by this guy
because they saw him coming like three days before he
actually made it on the horizon because he's so tall. Eventually,
(12:58):
he earned rep for taking down polar bears and got
some local respect because he killed a polar bear and
made it into made its tied into a coat. Uh.
And they're they're out here adventuring for several years before
they establish this trading post in Cape York, Greenland. That's
(13:19):
where the ful stuff comes in. They named it ful
But what is uh, there's some history behind the word ful, right,
it's pretty neat the ultimate ful or the ultimate ful
rather um, a medieval cartographer would use this term to
refer to places beyond the borders of the known world. Um,
you know, oftentimes it probably would be parts of those
(13:41):
old maps where they'd be like sea monsters and stuff,
you know, on the outskirts of the maps and all that.
There's a really cool article by Katie Serenam on all
That is Interesting dot com about Peter Freshen the real
most interesting man in the world. Highly recommend checking that
one up. But yeah, I mean he was captivated by
that kind of mythology I think, or at the very
(14:03):
least that kind of pushing those kind of bounds, you know,
going where no man has gone before or whatever, like
Star Trek. I was just I was watching Max's face
as you say that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think
that's on the mark. His life was not perfect, very
(14:25):
few lives are. He did end up getting married three times.
His first marriage occurs when he falls in love with
someone he meets in the Innuit community in nineteen eleven.
Peter ends up marrying a woman from an Innuit community.
Her name is Maku Paluke and had two children with her.
(14:45):
Both of them have epic names. The daughter's name is
people look jet Tuko Mingua, Casa Palika Hagar. Oh my goodness, Ben,
that was very well done. I congratulate you on that pronunciation.
If he got wrong, don't even let us know because
it was just too good enough. We we don't any
I can't wait to hear the other one. We don't
(15:06):
want to hear. Unfortunately, she did pass away during the
Spanish flu epidemic, of which was uh, pretty horrific for like,
you know, the country. Um, there was a Christian church
in the area that, because she was Inuit, wouldn't allow
her a burial, so fruition and proper you know, adventurer
(15:27):
don't take no for an answer kind of fashion, decided
to bury her himself. Oh yeah, this is a badass
story too, because okay, she passes away. Uh, he begs
the church to let him bury his wife. You know,
I think he's a very respectable human request And when
they when they give him the stone wall and the
(15:49):
hard pass, he doesn't just bury her himself. He waits
until after dark, in the dead at night, he breaks
into the churchyard and then by himself like digs the
grave and buries her and then leaves because I think,
and part of this is lost to history, but I
think his calculus was, what are they going to do?
(16:10):
Digg her up? You know what I mean? So he
that's one badass thing he did, and just one of many.
I do want to give Max and do it to
give the shout out there. Yes, he had two children
with with his first wife. We attempted the name of
the daughter. Also had a son, and the first names
(16:33):
of the sun were Maquassack. But the last one is
a doozy for us, and I don't know if we
should attempt it unless you wanna, you want to give
it a triano. Oh man, let me give it a whirl.
Oh my god. That's that's that's why I went to
the daughter. All right, here we go, all right, like,
are we go? Let's say we have a drum roll please, Max,
(16:54):
and then you can have a sad trombone. Not yet, yeah,
half the half. Yeah, I think I should go preemptive
on this one. All right, I'm gonna do it really slowly,
and we're doing this in a respectful way. Folks. It
is a beautiful name. I'm going to try my best.
Agama quassuk tororonguapaluk Okay, yeah, now three times fast. Now
(17:22):
I'm I'm getting so so After this, after this, uh,
disaster ends his first marriage, a very love filled marriage.
Pete returns to Denmark. He marries his second wife, a
Danish woman named Magdalene Vang Lawrence in in and Uh
(17:43):
he's moving up in the world because miss Lawrenson does
come from a place of privilege. Her father is the
director of Denmark's national bank. Her family owns the magazine
Uda of Hay that Freutsch will ultimately go on to
run himself. And her parents were not super hoydi toy de.
They absolutely adored Pete. They liked him so much that
(18:07):
they started that magazine for him. It is the longest
running magazine in the history of Denmark. It is still
around today as far as we know. And their marriage
lasted about twenty years. But we have to we have
to say, you know, relationships can be a rocky road
course of true love never to run smooth and so on.
(18:28):
They ultimately annull their marriage about twenty years later because
frankly man, Pete's just not at home. He's always going
on expeditions, gallivanting if you will. But I still have
to say it's not the kind of story that you
hear surrounding true unadult traded bastards, you know what I mean. Like,
(18:49):
I mean, they stuck it out for twenty years. He
was probably fine. He was just consumed by his work. Um,
and then it just you know, maybe it wasn't the
right thing for either of them for some reason. I
picture a tender conversation where it's like, if you really
love me, let me go, let me go, and he's like, yes,
my love, I will let you go. And I well,
(19:09):
we'll be over here with the polar Bears, will go
our separate ways and do our own things. And it's
just the dramatization in my mind. But I don't know,
take this whale bone necklace and think of me fondly. Um. Yeah,
just so he's he also does he violates a lot
of stereotypes that I think people have um pretty unfairly
(19:29):
about very physically large people and about outdoors the adventurous people. Uh.
He is not just He's not just a guy with
a lot of physical, daring do and acumen. He's also
a kick ass writer and people want to read what
he writes, and this will like this spoiler, this takes
him to Hollywood too. He talks, he writes over thirty
(19:52):
books about Inuit culture, about exploration, about literature. He writes
in the Realm of domestic politics in Denmark. And then
his most famous book today is probably one that was
published after his death. It was called the Book of
the Eskimos. And again we're using that term because it's
the actual title or the actual quote. If you are
(20:13):
describing people from this region of the world. There are
many many different communities that have been described this way
by Europeans. Probably best to stinct with Inuit or the
name of the of the actual group you're referencing. But anyway,
that's the name he called it, and we can tell
from his life he was not trying to be offensive.
(20:34):
He his his book as autobiographicals published after his death
nine and he um. By this point he he has
already lost a leg to frost bite in a very
weird way. Max hit the music man, back me up,
I need some cinematic here. Yes, this is the moment
(21:00):
we were waiting for. This is oh boy, Okay, No,
we talked about the fuel expeditions. Yeah, we did. But
you know what this brings to mind for me? What
was that movie? I'm really bad when it comes to
like numbers and movies or like that's the one. Yeah,
thanks Max, Max with the facts with you know what's
his name, James franco Um playing that you know, blunker
(21:23):
who has to saw his own arm off with a
pocket knife because he's like cram between two rock walls.
This is like the scatological version of that of it's definitely,
uh it's it's definitely a situation to find yourself in. Uh.
(21:43):
So it's ninety six and this is when Nood and Pete,
Rasmussen and Freud and are gonna try to test some
theories they've had. One of their first expeditions is to
discover whether or not there is a channel of water
dividing Greenland from a place called perry Land. They this
(22:07):
takes them inland like it's a six hundred mile very
unpleasant trek, and Frendshion honestly should have died at least
if everything he says in his autobiography is true. He
says that they got caught in a blizzard. He tried
(22:28):
to take cover under a dog sled, like every like
the when these blizzards come, they're not something where you
could just set up a tent. The stoke can come
so fast to be so intent that it covers whatever,
whatever shelter you've taken. So he's under his dog sled,
and then he finds himself entombed, buried alive literally in
(22:53):
snow and this snow. You know, when you hear snow,
you think like, oh, I could just it's like powder. Basically,
it's powder water. That's what snow is. That's a ridiculous
history fact for you. Like he could have dug himself
out if it was just snow, but because of the
freezing temperatures outside, because how warm his body was, his
breath like melted the snow and then it formed into ice. Fun. Yeah,
(23:18):
now that stuff gets packed in and it's like, you know,
it's not the fluffy stuff of snow angel dreams um.
It is like a deadly icy concrete that like, you know, entombed.
That's the right word, the very metal word. By the way,
here's a band called Entombed. But yeah, so he's burying
alive in hard packed snow. Uh and he he he
(23:40):
has a recollection, doesn't it. He's thinking fast, okay, and
he thinks he thinks back to some of his expeditions
where he was tracking animals in the snow and couldn't help.
But notice that there, I think he refers to them
as their leavings. If I'm not mistaken, um would would
(24:00):
freeze solid right there on the ground, a different kind
of perma frost. And he a little light bulblit up
over his dad. He's like, I could do that. Yeah,
there's this great explanation from William Roseman, who's an executive
director of the New York Explorers Club, which uh, which
(24:21):
will see Pete become associated with later. Yeah, yes, this
is so this is so weird because he's like just
the tone of the way this guy explains it. He's like, well,
you know, luckily he remembered that the Native people often
news frozen excrement in their sled dogs to make tools.
So yeah, like that's that's the kind of conversation you
(24:41):
haven it Explores club. But this, this is what he does.
He makes himself poop. He you can this is the
graphic description, by the way, makes the poop himself with
his body. Yeah, he's a he's a self made man,
saved myself physician or heal myself. Uh he box, Uh,
just to read part of this. Uh. He talks about
(25:03):
this since autobiography where it gets crucial because we talked
about what a what a word smith he was. It's
really nice to hear he did have a way of
spinning a yarn. We're gonna get right into yeah yeah
he um. He is struggling for a while. First he's
trying to clause clause way out with his bare hands.
Terrible idea. And then he's trying to use a frozen
(25:23):
bear skin, but it tears out his beard, like we're
talking beard, yeah, and his beard and part of his
face with it because it froze to the runner of
the sled that he was God, I know. So so
he says he's got weird optimism here. He's like, what
a way to die? I gave up once more and left.
(25:44):
The hours passed without another move, but I recovered my strength.
While I rested, my morale improved. I was alive, after all.
I had not eaten for hours, but my digestion felt
all right. I got a new idea. I had often
seen dogs dung in this led track, and it noticed
it would freeze solid as a rock. Would not the
cold have the same effect on human discharge? Repulsive was
(26:05):
the thought it was. I decided to try the experiment.
I moved my bowels and from the excrement, I managed
the fashion she's like instrument, which I left to freeze.
I was patient. I did not want to risk breaking
my new tool by using it too soon. At last,
I decided to try my chisel and it worked. He
(26:26):
shot himself on purpose to freedom. Yeah, I'm just envisioning that.
He's like he has like, you know, make the chisel
out of it. So not only does he like, you know,
shut himself, he has like play with it, like putty
like it. It's like it's like it's it's just like
playto you know this format. It's it's you know that
(26:48):
does he try a little like plaint because you know,
you gotta always eat a little bit of plaint? Oh
I know, now, macks back, that's too far. That's infringing
on this. This is Brian Man's character. No, let's just
picture this. First of all, he's there in the tightly
packed you know, I see you know, Tom right, and
he you know, but he's Still, you can't just make
(27:09):
yourself poop. I mean you gotta like go through a
little ritual and make a little face, you know, and
then there and then there it comes, and then he
has to acquire it. I picture him rolling it between
his hands like when you make a snake with Plato,
and then just kind of like pinching the ends and
then tapering it down and rolling your hands up to
the top at the end so it gets to a
nice point. I mean, I think that's a realistic, uh
(27:32):
interpretation of what he how he would have done this,
how did he like sharpen it? And then also you know, um,
not being doctors, we're gonna say he's pretty lucky that
he wasn't constipated. And then I think, God, he didn't
have diarrhea exactly. That's what I was thinking too. I
was like, you can't I don't know. Well, uh, I
hope and poop find a way, I guess. But that's
(27:55):
that really happened, or some version of it really happened,
because we know for a fact he did make it
out of that ic tun Uh. He paid for it.
His feet are frostbitten a f and Gang Green sets
it on one foot and I didn't know this, but
the standard, like the native remedy for frostbite and gang
(28:16):
green at this time was to make a poultice of
skin from freshly slaughtered lemmings. And yeah, this really that's
a deep cut, the panimal gingdom cut. The the uh
the nurse that he finds is putting is changing lemming
skins out on a regular basis on his foot that
(28:36):
has gang green. But every time she takes one skin
off and replaces it, it takes more muscle and flesh
from his toes. And eventually like, look, you know, you're
already delirious, you almost died, and he edny already self
like amputated some of his toes like uh, you know,
in advance, kind of knowing that, like the things weren't
(28:58):
looking good, Like I believe he did that himself, right,
that's the moment. Yeah, so here's what I heard. So
the he and the nurse at this moment where they
see the toes or they see the skeleton stumps because
the skin is gone. And then and the nurse says,
there's not a doctor here. I guess I could try.
(29:20):
I can just bite off the nubs for you if
you want at which point he even Pete says, that's
a little too adventurous for me. So without anesthetic, without
any kind of pain killer, without even like alcohol, he
takes a big pair of pincers and a hammer and
uh and takes him off one by one. No, no,
(29:46):
no not. The sounds probably be a little bit squishier
than that. That's how it sounded a cartoon. Um, but
this is not a cartoon. This was real life. How hardcore.
I think this might be the most hardcore story we've
ever done in terms of like, this is like what's
that does Stephen King? Short story where there's like the
doctor who's by himself, like on an island and he
(30:07):
slowly has to like cut pieces off his own body
and eat them to stay alive. Oh yeah, was that
Stephen King? Stephen King? I think it's in like one.
It's in one of those collections. I can't remember the story,
but yeah, that happens. Um. This isn't quite that intense,
but it's it's certainly making me think of that this
dude med business. He also was a teetotaller, so I
think he could have used alcohol to um the pain.
(30:28):
But you want to walk back his principle. I will
tell you ben at this as a twenty one days
into dry January, I feel much more likely that I
might become an Arctic explorer. No, it could happen, maybe
next month. But yeah, man, hardcore dude. This guy's name
should be written out like one of those metal band
logos where you can't understand what the word you know,
(30:51):
that's this dude. Man, he's yeah and he um that.
That was perhaps his most dramatic run in with death,
but according to the more than a baker's dozen of
memoirs he wrote, he was always about to die. He
got trapped for in an avalanche for several days. His
(31:12):
feet survived that one. A cook almost shot him because
you know, he's a six and a half foot tall
guy wearing the skin of a polar bear. Not maybe
the most clever thing when for meeting strangers, he fell
through a hole in the ice that he had to
have a sled dogs pull him out. He stabbed himself
with a harpoon accidentally. Okay, I was about to say,
(31:36):
why he just stand the whale? Yeah exactly. I mean
I would not put it past him. Man, This guy
was serious, dude, serious dude, and like we said before,
(31:56):
he found this thing called the Adventurer's Club. Adventure were
the sort of a rural juror kind of thing to say,
and he had produced and acted in in the pictures Hollywood.
He he got into the film industry because again he
was a pretty talented writer and they were thirsty for
these kinds of stories. So he he wrote scripts and
he consulted on the scripts for other things too, but
(32:18):
especially for movies related to the frozen tundra of the Arctic.
Is that is that the tundra? Am? I am I
getting my my surface materials mixed up? Yeah? No, I
think tundra makes sense. It's the coldest biome. It has
very little precipitation, so it's like the desert. So it's
I think the tundra is just below the Arctic ice caps. Well,
(32:42):
I think it works for my purposes here. And in
nineteen thirty three, UM one of the most well known
films that he was involved in came out called Eskimo
and actually that I'm going on to win the Academy
Award UM In the UK and Australia, it's known as
Mala the Magnificent. He actually played a small in it
as an evil sea captain h which you know fits
(33:05):
given the guy's stature and um, you know, fondness for
long coats and the beard of course. Yeah, and this
is this is interesting because it also makes it the
first Academy Award winning film to be in a language
of the native people here. So he was doing a
lot of he was doing a lot of progressive first,
(33:27):
you know what I mean. Yeah, Unfortunately, the movie kind
of bombed even though like one, you know, it was
it was an Awards darling and it was very not
progressively repackaged as Eskimo Wife Traders. A studio decision, it
has to be. Yeah, I'm sure he was not happy
about that. I don't think so. Uh. He did still
(33:48):
despite the commercial failure of that film, he did still
make a great impression in Hollywood, California. He befriended notable
celebrity he's and actors like Gene Harlow. Uh. There was
this party trick he would do where he would pick
up actors in like with both his hands, hold them
(34:11):
up and then twirl them around. And Gene Harlow in
particular love this. The Harlow situations were because he almost
got in trouble for this. Lewis Mayor, big time studio head,
called Peter to his office the next Monday and was like, Hey,
you can't do that. That's making one of our top
names look salacious, right, look as it looks like a
(34:33):
woman of ailable repute. And why because he because he
picked her up and spun her around. Well, here's the thing.
Apparently Meyer did have a reason to be kind of
mad because the photographs he had, photographs that the press
had taken of this uh toss and spin thing. And yeah,
and it appears to have, um, it appears to have
(34:55):
clearly indicated Harlow's interest or lack of interest in wearing
under Oh no, like a Paris Hilton Limo shot. I
I think I'm picking up the reference putting down. I
would agree, Yeah I heard, I heard about that. Okay, Um,
but yeah, at the time that would have absolutely Okay,
there you go, Ben. I understand now he wasn't so
(35:16):
much against the party trick as as what it revealed yikes. Okay,
but still his reputation in Hollywood was not like smirched
too badly. Um. He of course continued in his life,
being intensely interested in traveling, into the mid to late
nineteen thirties. He spent time in South Africa and also Siberia.
(35:37):
UM check out the Vintage News dot com right up
about freud Sen. Uh if you don't mind really great picture.
He just looks like a quintessential sea captain. He's like
the guy from I Know What You Did Last Summer,
except you know, nicer and and like savagery with a hook.
But yeah, Ian Harvey wrote a really cool piece for
the Vintage News with an awesome spread of photos of
(35:58):
the guy and some of his adventure So highly recommend
checking that one out. And this is amazing. I love
that he has founded this adventurers club. He also does
some more absolutely badass stuff like we have to Okay, first,
let's just recap one of the first and most influential
European explorers in the Arctic. Uh. He is tremendously progressive
(36:23):
in his attitudes, doesn't seem to suffer some of the
same racism. Right. He marries a local person. Uh. He
doesn't back down from the Christian Church and breaks He
does opposite of a heist at a Christian church. He
saves himself with his own poop. He conducts surgery on himself.
(36:44):
He becomes a Hollywood star. Uh, he starts an adventure club,
and then World War two happens. And World War two
this is where you really see his character shine. So
we know that he was against racial discrimination even when
it was incredibly normalized and accepted. And and uh, apparently
(37:05):
anytime somebody said something dirty about Jewish people, he would
approach them and definitely lead into his six and a
half foot tall frame and say, it's funny you're talking
about Jewish people. I myself from Jewish. Yes, check out
my hook. Yeah. He reserved the hook for anti Semites. Yeah.
(37:30):
And he also appeared to go counter to the prevailing
attitude of the time with dudes. Uh, and that he
was not a misogynist. I like, is he just a
better person than most people? I'm starting to think that.
You know, he was active in resistance to the Nazi
(37:51):
occupation of Denmark. He was so good at this despite Oh,
by the by the way, the frost bite that took
his those also took that leg. So he's on a
peg leg at this point, and he's still on some
as we say and find out. So you mentioned, you know,
his attitude towards Jewish people right before the Second World War. Well,
(38:14):
he was so influential and so kind of became this
like almost figurehead of tolerance uh and and progressiveness that
Adolf Hitler himself did not care for the man, let's
just say. And during World War Two, um Fristion became
embroiled in kind of a political kerfuffle because of his
(38:34):
kind of you know, maybe involuntary role as this kind
of like activist um for the rights of Jewish people,
anti Nazism and all that. Hitler saw this guy and
his stature and he ordered that he be captured and
and murdered. Also, all those books that he wrote we
(38:55):
talked about. The Third Reich of course banned those. Uh
Fristion was a died in France during the you know,
when the Nazis were occupying it. But he escaped, That's
all we have. By the way he escaped the Nazis.
Did he use a weapon fashioned from his own excrement
this time too, We'll never know. He made a poop
gun and he's like I've got his I got more
(39:20):
bullets than you think. I was eating those prison beans
for a week, you know, like like that one in
the line of fire you know, grown ups guys. But
thankfully his digestion was just fine. It was just fun.
He was definitely regular. I mean, you you know you're
rough that out there on the wilderness, you're gonna be
eating plenty of fiber. So probably something to think about
(39:41):
if you ever go a spelunking or whatever. Shout out
to thirty seven Days of peril uh in Federal where
you will meet someone who is much less efficient in
the wild than our boy Pete. But okay, so I
love that image. We're not sure how he escaped, but
in n after he is gabs and he flees to Sweden.
(40:01):
From there he ends up going to the US with
his new wife, his third wife, a Danish Jewish fashion
illustrator named Dagmar Cone. Uh. There they get married in
the Big Apple and Cone has a job working for Vogue.
She was doing like illustrations that made it on the cover.
(40:23):
She was a big deal. And this is where some
of those pictures that you mentioned earlier Noel come into play,
because this guy still looks very much like a wild man,
an outdoorsman. He's like almost sixty now. He's joined the
New York Explorers Club and they still have to this
day a painting of him hanging on the wall. He also, oh, right,
(40:45):
the Last Flex, which is a good name for a film. Uh,
the Last Fix is this? In nineteen fifty six, he
wins a game show called the sixty four thousand Dollar Question. Yeah. Yeah,
that was a lot of money at that time. It's
still a lot of money today, but bigger jackpots than that.
(41:06):
To have that speed, they'd have to like up it
in the name too, And maybe I think it's more
than half a million. I think, uh yeah, I went
with inflation and all that. Yeah, And I only just
recently figured out how deal or no Deal works. I
was getting my oil change in a Jiffy loob and
it was on and I like just kind of looked perplexed,
and somebody like in the waiting room kind of had
pity on me and explained to me how deal or
(41:26):
no Deal worked. And then I was like, I couldn't
look away. You gotta know about the deal. It's all
about probability. That's what the guy told me. Was solicited.
I think, I said to my kids, and I've never
understood what this is all about. And this guy goes,
excuse me, Um, it's all about probability. I'm like, elaborate please.
I love it, Lanta. I love the way that people
(41:47):
you know, we're very lucky. This doesn't happen in a
lot of other places, a lot of other countries, or
even though there are a lot of other place places
in the US, but Atlanta. If you've never visited, our
fair metropolis is a place where it is assumed that
you will likely end up in a casual conversation when
you happen to be standing next to anyone for more
(42:08):
than about three minutes. You know, like and and strangers will.
This is the town where I get the most. This
is the US town where I get the most unsolicited compliments.
And they're not you know, creepy gross compliments or whatever that. Uh.
I remember I was walking into a local store here
and I went to just pick up stuff that was
(42:30):
going to cook, and uh, the cashier when I was
walking up, it's like there he is. Ah, it's the director.
And I was like, oh me, what do you mean
And he's like, well, you know, like you your sweater,
you look like you you're a director or something, and uh,
I was very flattering. So if you get a chance
to give strangers a non creepy compliment and sincere, that's cool,
(42:52):
and that guy was trying to help, right, No, he
was like, was he trying to help? You thought he's
trying to help. He's trying to help. He wasn't being
a jerk. As I followed up with some questions, questions,
and it really made the time pass a lot quicker
while I was waiting for my old change because I
understood what Howie Mandel was going on about with his shiny,
shiny bald head and his suitcases. I wish he would
(43:15):
do what was that movie where he played a monster
that comes out under little monsters? I wish he would
do Deal or No Deal in his little monster's costumes.
I wish he would do Deal or No Deal in
the voice that he does for Bobby's World the whole time,
just inexplicably sounding like a small little child. If he
(43:35):
does both of those at the same time, then I'm
gonna watch Deal or No Deal every day and next
week on David Lynch TV. Right right, So with this,
with these adventures that he has had, he has also
given a number of civic awards, one of which is
the Gold Medal of the International Benjamin Franklin Society for
(43:59):
his general Sir VI, his demandkind he has for his
last days are what we count as very peaceful for him,
probably some of the most peaceful days of his life
since his childhood. Uh. He eventually dies of a heart
attack when he's seventy one and nine seven. He's just
(44:19):
completed a book called Book of the Seven Seas, and
he's actually walking toward a playing in Alaska because he's
off on some other adventures. He's just like a Bilbo
Baggins type figure, you know. He finishes his book and
then gets spirited away to the elves where he can
die in peace and just kind of disappears, right, Yeah,
(44:40):
kind of what happens. Well, it's uh, it's also a
remarkably peaceful ending. I mean, heart attacks are terrible thing,
but it's remarkably peaceful ending when you consider all the
other ways it could go. Um right right now, I
think as of Deadline was reporting that the Berkowitz brothers,
through their company Not a Billionaire, are trying to make
(45:03):
a limited series based on Pete's life. Yeah, I saw
that bad. I don't know who the Berkowitz brothers are.
They're not related to like the serial killer Berkowitz. Are they?
I hope not, because I will not be watching their program. No, no, uh,
I'm kidding. I shouldn't cancel the Berkowitz brothers. It wasn't
their fault there other sibling was a nut. You know.
They should be allowed to make limited television series all
(45:25):
they want. Everybody should be allowed to make a limited
television series. Come on, that's what that's what the future is. Uh.
This this concludes our story for now. They we'll probably
talk about this whenever we get a chance to see
the limited series. But I wanted to. I know we
always thank people at the end of this, but I
wanted to give an especial thanks to all three of
(45:47):
us for staying relatively on the rails when we got
to the poop knife part. I thought we did a
pretty good job. So thanks to us. Well, I mean,
let's not forget it's a hairing situation. It's like, we know,
he survived. I mean, he was horribly mangled, but I
still he would have wanted it this way. He would
(46:08):
have wanted to give us joy. I think, you know
with and let's think about this way. He was wearing
gloves most likely while he was doing it, so it
wasn't like it was getting directly on his hands. That's
your takeaway thinking, well, I think like there's not a
lot of room under a dog sled. That no, the poop,
God everywhere, How did he get from his pants? I
(46:31):
thank god he wasn't traveling with Kate Winslets. You would
have made him like sit outside and freeze to death.
Oh god, there was enough room on that flots Um
that's the word for floating ship debris. I love that word.
What about jetsam, I think the same thing. Are they
just they're just like their parting parcel was flotsom and jetsam.
They usually come in pairs, flots them. It's kind of
(46:51):
like slag type versus stalagmite. I think, uh, flots some
floats and jets some sinks. Yes back that. I've literally
never understood the distinction between these two things until now,
So thank you, my friend. There's also a band called
Flotsam and Jetsam, an American metal band from Phoenix, Arizona,
(47:12):
founded in nineteen eighty one. Also to confirm Entombed is
a American metal band. American I pretty much knew that
they are. They are They perhaps Danish late. Let me
correct myself because I wanted to check. I don't want
to mislead anybody the when I'm looking at some official
(47:33):
like Merchant Marine website stuff like that, they're saying that
the real definition of flotsam and jetsam goes into the
intention behind it. Flotsam was not deliberately thrown overboard, that
it was a shipbreaker at accident, but jets Jenson Jennison Jennison,
thank you, Betty, Oh my god? That okay? All right,
(47:54):
Well I think we got there. And by the way,
Entombed is definitely a death metal band from Sweden, so
not too far off from Denmark, right unless I'm really
bad at geography, which I am. No, you're the indro,
you're the right areas. You know, you're in the right region. Um,
is there tundra? There's always tundra somewhere, you know, got it?
(48:16):
So uh this so this has been a wild ride
for us. You went a little long on this one,
but we do hope you enjoyed it at least a
fraction as much as we did. Thanks to super producer
Max Williams. Thanks to Alex Williams uh Our who is
soon to be like our official traveling correspondent. I think
unofficial traveling correspondent. He composed this slapping track, He sure did,
(48:39):
thanks to Jonathan Strickland. The quiz to Christopher Hastio, Sives,
Jeff Coates here in Spirit, Gabe Louisier, You, Max Williams,
Ben Bowling, the whole Ridiculous family, which also includes Uh,
Eli and Diana from Ridiculous Romance. They're also going to
be hanging out with us very soon. Oh that's right, yes,
And we're gonna be hanging out on their show so
(49:02):
that we can, you know, learn learn their tricks and
their comedic timing. I also want to give a one
time shout out to a new nemesis that apparently had
for a while and was not aware. Uh, Sam McVey,
Sam and Annie's stuff. Mom never told you, so check
out their show, Uh and Noel, thank you so much.
(49:24):
This is like I love when we do these sorts
of stories together because we're both such fans of the
cinematic and the adventurous, and I think these these stories
really shine for us. Boy do they ever shine on you,
Crazy Diamond. We'll see you next time. For more podcasts
(49:48):
from My Heart Radio, visit the i heart radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Uh. That's our one and
only super producer, Mr Max Williams. They called me Ben.
I have had my share of adventures, as have you, Noel.
But this guy, this guy might have a speed by
(00:47):
a little bit. I think he's got a lot of
people beat to the point where, at least in the
headline of our research document, he is referred to as
the most interesting man in the world, an honorific that
I wouldn't take lightly a stowing on somebody or having
a get a stowe upon me. I would consider that
to be quite a responsibility. The man, the interesting man,
(01:08):
most interesting man potentially in question today is Peter uh Fresian.
I think that's right. Yeah, we're gonna go with Fraisian.
What are you saying, Yeah, let's go with Freusan there. Uh.
He was born Lorenz Peter Alfred Freusian, So even his
name is super interesting. He's kind of starting on first
base with that one. But but this what I love
(01:28):
about this story, Knowll, is that oftentimes we find that
historical heroes are problematic in some way, you know what
I mean. There are problems with Mother Teresa, there are
problems with so many folks who were lauded, especially as
explorers during the age of European expansion. But our boy
Pete is surprisingly progressive. His legacy has aged incredibly well.
(01:54):
And spoiler, there is one part of this story that
all three of us are very excited for. And this
is kind of a reward for us. But maybe maybe
before we get to the part that really drew us,
because we're so uh, we're three very mature guys. Is uh,
maybe maybe we start with just who this giant of
(02:17):
a man was, and it was pretty much a giant
the ma tourists. That's that's what we are. I will
say that the part that you're alluding to, Ben, when
I first read it, I had to do a double
take and make sure that my brain was in fact
processing words correctly. I did end up finding out that
that it was in fact, and then I ate a
cookie to reward myself for being a cognizant human being.
(02:39):
I watched a video on this. I was watching it
while I was eating. I made some muscles and fries
for lunch today, guys. Uh, so that's a very hoity
toity lunch. I love it. It was, you know, it's
I didn't say they were good, you know, you just
it's it's had the cheap end. Muscles are pretty affordable
at your local grocery store. Have you ever heard someone
describe and off muscle as tasting quote Horsey, Yes, actually
(03:04):
I have. Where did you hear that? I think my
mom said it. But it makes sense because it sort
of tastes the way horse poop smells yep, yep, and
smell and taste are intertwined. So just remember whenever you
spell something, you're actually tasting it a little bit too. Uh.
It's gonna change your position on farts. But that's a
(03:26):
great way to set up set up where we're going.
So so, yes, this guy Pete is actually a tremendously
cool person. He's he's not born into privilege. He is
when we say he's a giant, he's a giant in
many ways at the end of his life, but in
the beginning, he's He's like six and a half feet tall,
(03:46):
He's got a mountain Man beer for most of his
adult life and housed within his beard clearly as his superpowers.
We'll get to that a little later too. Oh yes, yes,
Oh that's why I brought off the muscles, because I
was eating those while his watch in a video about
this pivotal moment we're gonna explore. And you guys know,
I have a strong stomach. I'm a walking garbage can
(04:07):
when it comes to food. But even I had to
stop for a second and it it was like, Okay, I'm
gonna I'm gonna take a quick walk. I'm just gonna
take a walk real quick. Not exactly, but definitely required
a moment of reflection. Oh A hundred percent. A hundred percent,
my friends. So another thing you might recognize, folks, is
(04:27):
that often throughout history, when you hear stories of people
who are explorers, people who are having all these adventures
and these remote corners of the world, they often come
from immense privilege, right they are the scion of royalty
or aristocracy. Not so with Pete. His dad was a businessman,
(04:49):
um and you know, they're like pretty squarely middle class.
But like most parents, he wants his kid to rise
to a better social station. So Pete's dad makes him
matriculate to the University of Copenhagen, where he starts studying medicine,
and he is board to tears. He is because he
you know, he's he's got his nose in the book.
(05:11):
But yet he's he's hearing the siren call of the
wild wafting in on the you know, the breeze. Um
if the window happened to be open at the time. Um.
But he cannot resist that call, can't he ben No, No,
it's almost like that. Uh, it's similar in some ways
the call of the wild that he's feeling to a
(05:32):
poem by John Masefield called Sea Fever, where he says
he's talking about the sea, and he says it's a
wild called and clear call that may not be denied.
So it's a wonderful little poem. I do recommend it
if you, if you're into that kind of innocuous poetry.
But yeah, he can't deny it. He says, all right,
(05:55):
I need some fast cars, dangerous fire and knives to
quote as up rock. So he drops out of the
University Copenhagen. He's twenty years old when he becomes an explorer.
He first lights out for Greenland. He's working as a
stoker on a steamship and I'm correct me if I'm
(06:16):
wrong here, But nol aren't those aren't those the people
who like stoked the coals or the fuel to power
the steamship. Yeah, it has to be right. I mean,
I think there's actually a there's a Korean American thriller
movie directed by I believe what Chan park Uh called
Stoker that has Nicole Kidman in it. I think it's
(06:39):
like his American English language debut. But I think that's
a family name in the in the movie. And then
I also know Stroker. There's a ween song called Stroker
Ace that is about a race car driver. I think
that might even be a movie. Um, but no, I'm
I'm not super familiar with the word Stoker. But if
you know we use our context clues, I think you're
probably pretty close to the mark there. Man, Yes, it's
(07:01):
someone attends the boiler at least, right, it's gotta be.
I got someone right here from the Royal Navy. Actually,
the Royal Navy used the rank structure ordinary Stoker, Stoker,
leading Stoker, Stoker, petty officer in chief Stoker. Their job
was to just stoke the coals and move them around. Well,
you gotta think about it. I mean, that's a crucial job.
(07:21):
You know, you can't really just half asked that one.
That sounds like maybe a ridiculous number of layers to
that position, but I think it makes sense. It's literally
the heart of the vessel. Yeah, and it's a dangerous
place to be, so without being too uh sitister about it,
you probably want to have a backup guy in case
something goes wrong with the other guys other people. Uh So,
(07:45):
at this point we know that he is already well
on the way to becoming a world class explorer. But
for him, it's just that the inside situation was intolerable
and funny enough, Why did he choose Greenland? It's because
he saw a student play when he was in school
about exploring the polar reaches. And as soon as he
(08:10):
saw this student play, which is funny because Max, you
and I were just talking about community theater before this
four year old on air um because of this play
he saw, he had this epiphany, this lightning strike moment,
and he thought, it is my life's calling to explore
the remote reaches of the Octic. And you know, that
(08:34):
may have just been an impulse decision, but he stuck
with it and for thirty more years he would explore
some of the most dangerous, coldest parts of the world.
What a cool thing, What a cool epiphany, right, I mean,
I think we all wonder when that aha moment is
or like, I know what I want to be. Doesn't
(08:55):
always happen like that for everybody. It certainly didn't happen
for me. I wanted to be a rock star, but
I have to suttle for podcaster and uh and the
hobbyist musicians. But it's pretty cool. And at an early
age you kind of realize something very specific and kind
of obscure and stuff that most people wouldn't really gravitate
towards as like your thing. Yeah, and uh, you know
(09:17):
it's it's not ever too late to do the things
you want to do, so you still still got a
path of rock star ahead of you if you wish. Man, Well,
you know what I I do have three distinct records
in the works right now. Uh, hopefully one of them
will one day see the light of the day and
then my rock star dreams will come true. That's me
with novels, man, I feel you. Oh, and sketch comedy.
(09:38):
I've got some sketch comedy stuff. I'm working on but um,
but we're doing all right as as podcasters. You know,
we actually we do make a living from it. Um.
And and this is, by the way, gonna give me
another opportunity to ask you guys to join me on
that Russian icebreaker, the fifty let pobity. Well, we'll see,
we'll see, we'll see the poboty. It's I mispronounced it,
(10:01):
but it's the Russian translations fifty years of victory. Oh,
but you pronounced that the way that uh, I believe
Bostonites say that you should pronounce peabody is pbody. I
appreciated that. No, but it's true. Man like this guy
knew what he wanted and he went out and got it. Like, uh,
(10:22):
every every step that he took from that point on
was a step towards that exploration. Yeah, and there he
goes with a very important friend of his, guy named
Nood Rasmussen. Noud Rasmussen was also a Greenland, Greenland, Danish
polar explorer anthropologist. He was the first European across the
(10:46):
Northwest Passage via dog sled. Uh. He is well known
amongst the first nations Inuit populations Greenland and Denmark. He
has a title that's stuck out to me that I
don't think it's a aached very well. But for a
long time he was known as, quote, the father of eschimology.
I just didn't know that was a a thing, but uh,
(11:08):
it's it's also sometimes called innuitology. So he'll be he'll
be important later. So these these guys nineteen o six,
it's uh, it's Pete's first time out in this expedition
of Greenland, and he and Nood sail from Dedmark and
they their whole goal is, we're gonna go as far
north as possible until the ice stops our ship, and
(11:29):
then we're gonna get on our dog sleds. And then
they got on their dog sleds and they just made
off for the wild. How beautiful is that they learned
Inuit languages, they went on hunting expeditions. I mean, this
is the kind of adventure that a lot of people
would have paid money for, you know, h yeah, these
were the Thul expeditions, right, So yeah, this inspires what
(11:53):
is known as the Thule expeditions. And they were learning
about a way of life, a very ancient way of
life that was completely alien in many ways. To life
in Europe. Uh. The people, the communities they encountered were
hunting walrus's, whales, seals, polar bears. This is like the
stuff you would see depicted in old school pulp novels
(12:17):
of adventure. Uh. But imagine if you are part of
the population here, part of the Inuit population the far North.
You see this guy wrapped up in you know, furs
and stuff, with this kind of ant, grateful, dead zz
top beard, and he's goliath level to you. He's six
(12:37):
seven or you know, we say six and a half
six seven, and you see him from a distance, right
in a very flat horizon. So in my head, like
they had already prepared to be visited by this guy
because they saw him coming like three days before he
actually made it on the horizon because he's so tall. Eventually,
(12:58):
he earned rep for taking down polar bears and got
some local respect because he killed a polar bear and
made it into made its tied into a coat. Uh.
And they're they're out here adventuring for several years before
they establish this trading post in Cape York, Greenland. That's
(13:19):
where the ful stuff comes in. They named it ful
But what is uh, there's some history behind the word ful, right,
it's pretty neat the ultimate ful or the ultimate ful
rather um, a medieval cartographer would use this term to
refer to places beyond the borders of the known world. Um,
you know, oftentimes it probably would be parts of those
(13:41):
old maps where they'd be like sea monsters and stuff,
you know, on the outskirts of the maps and all that.
There's a really cool article by Katie Serenam on all
That is Interesting dot com about Peter Freshen the real
most interesting man in the world. Highly recommend checking that
one up. But yeah, I mean he was captivated by
that kind of mythology I think, or at the very
(14:03):
least that kind of pushing those kind of bounds, you know,
going where no man has gone before or whatever, like
Star Trek. I was just I was watching Max's face
as you say that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think
that's on the mark. His life was not perfect, very
(14:25):
few lives are. He did end up getting married three times.
His first marriage occurs when he falls in love with
someone he meets in the Innuit community in nineteen eleven.
Peter ends up marrying a woman from an Innuit community.
Her name is Maku Paluke and had two children with her.
(14:45):
Both of them have epic names. The daughter's name is
people look jet Tuko Mingua, Casa Palika Hagar. Oh my goodness, Ben,
that was very well done. I congratulate you on that pronunciation.
If he got wrong, don't even let us know because
it was just too good enough. We we don't any
I can't wait to hear the other one. We don't
(15:06):
want to hear. Unfortunately, she did pass away during the
Spanish flu epidemic, of which was uh, pretty horrific for like,
you know, the country. Um, there was a Christian church
in the area that, because she was Inuit, wouldn't allow
her a burial, so fruition and proper you know, adventurer
(15:27):
don't take no for an answer kind of fashion, decided
to bury her himself. Oh yeah, this is a badass
story too, because okay, she passes away. Uh, he begs
the church to let him bury his wife. You know,
I think he's a very respectable human request And when
they when they give him the stone wall and the
(15:49):
hard pass, he doesn't just bury her himself. He waits
until after dark, in the dead at night, he breaks
into the churchyard and then by himself like digs the
grave and buries her and then leaves because I think,
and part of this is lost to history, but I
think his calculus was, what are they going to do?
(16:10):
Digg her up? You know what I mean? So he
that's one badass thing he did, and just one of many.
I do want to give Max and do it to
give the shout out there. Yes, he had two children
with with his first wife. We attempted the name of
the daughter. Also had a son, and the first names
(16:33):
of the sun were Maquassack. But the last one is
a doozy for us, and I don't know if we
should attempt it unless you wanna, you want to give
it a triano. Oh man, let me give it a whirl.
Oh my god. That's that's that's why I went to
the daughter. All right, here we go, all right, like,
are we go? Let's say we have a drum roll please, Max,
(16:54):
and then you can have a sad trombone. Not yet, yeah,
half the half. Yeah, I think I should go preemptive
on this one. All right, I'm gonna do it really slowly,
and we're doing this in a respectful way. Folks. It
is a beautiful name. I'm going to try my best.
Agama quassuk tororonguapaluk Okay, yeah, now three times fast. Now
(17:22):
I'm I'm getting so so After this, after this, uh,
disaster ends his first marriage, a very love filled marriage.
Pete returns to Denmark. He marries his second wife, a
Danish woman named Magdalene Vang Lawrence in in and Uh
(17:43):
he's moving up in the world because miss Lawrenson does
come from a place of privilege. Her father is the
director of Denmark's national bank. Her family owns the magazine
Uda of Hay that Freutsch will ultimately go on to
run himself. And her parents were not super hoydi toy de.
They absolutely adored Pete. They liked him so much that
(18:07):
they started that magazine for him. It is the longest
running magazine in the history of Denmark. It is still
around today as far as we know. And their marriage
lasted about twenty years. But we have to we have
to say, you know, relationships can be a rocky road
course of true love never to run smooth and so on.
(18:28):
They ultimately annull their marriage about twenty years later because
frankly man, Pete's just not at home. He's always going
on expeditions, gallivanting if you will. But I still have
to say it's not the kind of story that you
hear surrounding true unadult traded bastards, you know what I mean. Like,
(18:49):
I mean, they stuck it out for twenty years. He
was probably fine. He was just consumed by his work. Um,
and then it just you know, maybe it wasn't the
right thing for either of them for some reason. I
picture a tender conversation where it's like, if you really
love me, let me go, let me go, and he's like, yes,
my love, I will let you go. And I well,
(19:09):
we'll be over here with the polar Bears, will go
our separate ways and do our own things. And it's
just the dramatization in my mind. But I don't know,
take this whale bone necklace and think of me fondly. Um. Yeah,
just so he's he also does he violates a lot
of stereotypes that I think people have um pretty unfairly
(19:29):
about very physically large people and about outdoors the adventurous people. Uh.
He is not just He's not just a guy with
a lot of physical, daring do and acumen. He's also
a kick ass writer and people want to read what
he writes, and this will like this spoiler, this takes
him to Hollywood too. He talks, he writes over thirty
(19:52):
books about Inuit culture, about exploration, about literature. He writes
in the Realm of domestic politics in Denmark. And then
his most famous book today is probably one that was
published after his death. It was called the Book of
the Eskimos. And again we're using that term because it's
the actual title or the actual quote. If you are
(20:13):
describing people from this region of the world. There are
many many different communities that have been described this way
by Europeans. Probably best to stinct with Inuit or the
name of the of the actual group you're referencing. But anyway,
that's the name he called it, and we can tell
from his life he was not trying to be offensive.
(20:34):
He his his book as autobiographicals published after his death
nine and he um. By this point he he has
already lost a leg to frost bite in a very
weird way. Max hit the music man, back me up,
I need some cinematic here. Yes, this is the moment
(21:00):
we were waiting for. This is oh boy, Okay, No,
we talked about the fuel expeditions. Yeah, we did. But
you know what this brings to mind for me? What
was that movie? I'm really bad when it comes to
like numbers and movies or like that's the one. Yeah,
thanks Max, Max with the facts with you know what's
his name, James franco Um playing that you know, blunker
(21:23):
who has to saw his own arm off with a
pocket knife because he's like cram between two rock walls.
This is like the scatological version of that of it's definitely,
uh it's it's definitely a situation to find yourself in. Uh.
(21:43):
So it's ninety six and this is when Nood and Pete,
Rasmussen and Freud and are gonna try to test some
theories they've had. One of their first expeditions is to
discover whether or not there is a channel of water
dividing Greenland from a place called perry Land. They this
(22:07):
takes them inland like it's a six hundred mile very
unpleasant trek, and Frendshion honestly should have died at least
if everything he says in his autobiography is true. He
says that they got caught in a blizzard. He tried
(22:28):
to take cover under a dog sled, like every like
the when these blizzards come, they're not something where you
could just set up a tent. The stoke can come
so fast to be so intent that it covers whatever,
whatever shelter you've taken. So he's under his dog sled,
and then he finds himself entombed, buried alive literally in
(22:53):
snow and this snow. You know, when you hear snow,
you think like, oh, I could just it's like powder. Basically,
it's powder water. That's what snow is. That's a ridiculous
history fact for you. Like he could have dug himself
out if it was just snow, but because of the
freezing temperatures outside, because how warm his body was, his
breath like melted the snow and then it formed into ice. Fun. Yeah,
(23:18):
now that stuff gets packed in and it's like, you know,
it's not the fluffy stuff of snow angel dreams um.
It is like a deadly icy concrete that like, you know, entombed.
That's the right word, the very metal word. By the way,
here's a band called Entombed. But yeah, so he's burying
alive in hard packed snow. Uh and he he he
(23:40):
has a recollection, doesn't it. He's thinking fast, okay, and
he thinks he thinks back to some of his expeditions
where he was tracking animals in the snow and couldn't help.
But notice that there, I think he refers to them
as their leavings. If I'm not mistaken, um would would
(24:00):
freeze solid right there on the ground, a different kind
of perma frost. And he a little light bulblit up
over his dad. He's like, I could do that. Yeah,
there's this great explanation from William Roseman, who's an executive
director of the New York Explorers Club, which uh, which
(24:21):
will see Pete become associated with later. Yeah, yes, this
is so this is so weird because he's like just
the tone of the way this guy explains it. He's like, well,
you know, luckily he remembered that the Native people often
news frozen excrement in their sled dogs to make tools.
So yeah, like that's that's the kind of conversation you
(24:41):
haven it Explores club. But this, this is what he does.
He makes himself poop. He you can this is the
graphic description, by the way, makes the poop himself with
his body. Yeah, he's a he's a self made man,
saved myself physician or heal myself. Uh he box, Uh,
just to read part of this. Uh. He talks about
(25:03):
this since autobiography where it gets crucial because we talked
about what a what a word smith he was. It's
really nice to hear he did have a way of
spinning a yarn. We're gonna get right into yeah yeah
he um. He is struggling for a while. First he's
trying to clause clause way out with his bare hands.
Terrible idea. And then he's trying to use a frozen
(25:23):
bear skin, but it tears out his beard, like we're
talking beard, yeah, and his beard and part of his
face with it because it froze to the runner of
the sled that he was God, I know. So so
he says he's got weird optimism here. He's like, what
a way to die? I gave up once more and left.
(25:44):
The hours passed without another move, but I recovered my strength.
While I rested, my morale improved. I was alive, after all.
I had not eaten for hours, but my digestion felt
all right. I got a new idea. I had often
seen dogs dung in this led track, and it noticed
it would freeze solid as a rock. Would not the
cold have the same effect on human discharge? Repulsive was
(26:05):
the thought it was. I decided to try the experiment.
I moved my bowels and from the excrement, I managed
the fashion she's like instrument, which I left to freeze.
I was patient. I did not want to risk breaking
my new tool by using it too soon. At last,
I decided to try my chisel and it worked. He
(26:26):
shot himself on purpose to freedom. Yeah, I'm just envisioning that.
He's like he has like, you know, make the chisel
out of it. So not only does he like, you know,
shut himself, he has like play with it, like putty
like it. It's like it's like it's it's just like
playto you know this format. It's it's you know that
(26:48):
does he try a little like plaint because you know,
you gotta always eat a little bit of plaint? Oh
I know, now, macks back, that's too far. That's infringing
on this. This is Brian Man's character. No, let's just
picture this. First of all, he's there in the tightly
packed you know, I see you know, Tom right, and
he you know, but he's Still, you can't just make
(27:09):
yourself poop. I mean you gotta like go through a
little ritual and make a little face, you know, and
then there and then there it comes, and then he
has to acquire it. I picture him rolling it between
his hands like when you make a snake with Plato,
and then just kind of like pinching the ends and
then tapering it down and rolling your hands up to
the top at the end so it gets to a
nice point. I mean, I think that's a realistic, uh
(27:32):
interpretation of what he how he would have done this,
how did he like sharpen it? And then also you know, um,
not being doctors, we're gonna say he's pretty lucky that
he wasn't constipated. And then I think, God, he didn't
have diarrhea exactly. That's what I was thinking too. I
was like, you can't I don't know. Well, uh, I
hope and poop find a way, I guess. But that's
(27:55):
that really happened, or some version of it really happened,
because we know for a fact he did make it
out of that ic tun Uh. He paid for it.
His feet are frostbitten a f and Gang Green sets
it on one foot and I didn't know this, but
the standard, like the native remedy for frostbite and gang
(28:16):
green at this time was to make a poultice of
skin from freshly slaughtered lemmings. And yeah, this really that's
a deep cut, the panimal gingdom cut. The the uh
the nurse that he finds is putting is changing lemming
skins out on a regular basis on his foot that
(28:36):
has gang green. But every time she takes one skin
off and replaces it, it takes more muscle and flesh
from his toes. And eventually like, look, you know, you're
already delirious, you almost died, and he edny already self
like amputated some of his toes like uh, you know,
in advance, kind of knowing that, like the things weren't
(28:58):
looking good, Like I believe he did that himself, right,
that's the moment. Yeah, so here's what I heard. So
the he and the nurse at this moment where they
see the toes or they see the skeleton stumps because
the skin is gone. And then and the nurse says,
there's not a doctor here. I guess I could try.
(29:20):
I can just bite off the nubs for you if
you want at which point he even Pete says, that's
a little too adventurous for me. So without anesthetic, without
any kind of pain killer, without even like alcohol, he
takes a big pair of pincers and a hammer and
uh and takes him off one by one. No, no,
(29:46):
no not. The sounds probably be a little bit squishier
than that. That's how it sounded a cartoon. Um, but
this is not a cartoon. This was real life. How hardcore.
I think this might be the most hardcore story we've
ever done in terms of like, this is like what's
that does Stephen King? Short story where there's like the
doctor who's by himself, like on an island and he
(30:07):
slowly has to like cut pieces off his own body
and eat them to stay alive. Oh yeah, was that
Stephen King? Stephen King? I think it's in like one.
It's in one of those collections. I can't remember the story,
but yeah, that happens. Um. This isn't quite that intense,
but it's it's certainly making me think of that this
dude med business. He also was a teetotaller, so I
think he could have used alcohol to um the pain.
(30:28):
But you want to walk back his principle. I will
tell you ben at this as a twenty one days
into dry January, I feel much more likely that I
might become an Arctic explorer. No, it could happen, maybe
next month. But yeah, man, hardcore dude. This guy's name
should be written out like one of those metal band
logos where you can't understand what the word you know,
(30:51):
that's this dude. Man, he's yeah and he um that.
That was perhaps his most dramatic run in with death,
but according to the more than a baker's dozen of
memoirs he wrote, he was always about to die. He
got trapped for in an avalanche for several days. His
(31:12):
feet survived that one. A cook almost shot him because
you know, he's a six and a half foot tall
guy wearing the skin of a polar bear. Not maybe
the most clever thing when for meeting strangers, he fell
through a hole in the ice that he had to
have a sled dogs pull him out. He stabbed himself
with a harpoon accidentally. Okay, I was about to say,
(31:36):
why he just stand the whale? Yeah exactly. I mean
I would not put it past him. Man, This guy
was serious, dude, serious dude, and like we said before,
(31:56):
he found this thing called the Adventurer's Club. Adventure were
the sort of a rural juror kind of thing to say,
and he had produced and acted in in the pictures Hollywood.
He he got into the film industry because again he
was a pretty talented writer and they were thirsty for
these kinds of stories. So he he wrote scripts and
he consulted on the scripts for other things too, but
(32:18):
especially for movies related to the frozen tundra of the Arctic.
Is that is that the tundra? Am? I am I
getting my my surface materials mixed up? Yeah? No, I
think tundra makes sense. It's the coldest biome. It has
very little precipitation, so it's like the desert. So it's
I think the tundra is just below the Arctic ice caps. Well,
(32:42):
I think it works for my purposes here. And in
nineteen thirty three, UM one of the most well known
films that he was involved in came out called Eskimo
and actually that I'm going on to win the Academy
Award UM In the UK and Australia, it's known as
Mala the Magnificent. He actually played a small in it
as an evil sea captain h which you know fits
(33:05):
given the guy's stature and um, you know, fondness for
long coats and the beard of course. Yeah, and this
is this is interesting because it also makes it the
first Academy Award winning film to be in a language
of the native people here. So he was doing a
lot of he was doing a lot of progressive first,
(33:27):
you know what I mean. Yeah, Unfortunately, the movie kind
of bombed even though like one, you know, it was
it was an Awards darling and it was very not
progressively repackaged as Eskimo Wife Traders. A studio decision, it
has to be. Yeah, I'm sure he was not happy
about that. I don't think so. Uh. He did still
(33:48):
despite the commercial failure of that film, he did still
make a great impression in Hollywood, California. He befriended notable
celebrity he's and actors like Gene Harlow. Uh. There was
this party trick he would do where he would pick
up actors in like with both his hands, hold them
(34:11):
up and then twirl them around. And Gene Harlow in
particular love this. The Harlow situations were because he almost
got in trouble for this. Lewis Mayor, big time studio head,
called Peter to his office the next Monday and was like, Hey,
you can't do that. That's making one of our top
names look salacious, right, look as it looks like a
(34:33):
woman of ailable repute. And why because he because he
picked her up and spun her around. Well, here's the thing.
Apparently Meyer did have a reason to be kind of
mad because the photographs he had, photographs that the press
had taken of this uh toss and spin thing. And yeah,
and it appears to have, um, it appears to have
(34:55):
clearly indicated Harlow's interest or lack of interest in wearing
under Oh no, like a Paris Hilton Limo shot. I
I think I'm picking up the reference putting down. I
would agree, Yeah I heard, I heard about that. Okay, Um,
but yeah, at the time that would have absolutely Okay,
there you go, Ben. I understand now he wasn't so
(35:16):
much against the party trick as as what it revealed yikes. Okay,
but still his reputation in Hollywood was not like smirched
too badly. Um. He of course continued in his life,
being intensely interested in traveling, into the mid to late
nineteen thirties. He spent time in South Africa and also Siberia.
(35:37):
UM check out the Vintage News dot com right up
about freud Sen. Uh if you don't mind really great picture.
He just looks like a quintessential sea captain. He's like
the guy from I Know What You Did Last Summer,
except you know, nicer and and like savagery with a hook.
But yeah, Ian Harvey wrote a really cool piece for
the Vintage News with an awesome spread of photos of
(35:58):
the guy and some of his adventure So highly recommend
checking that one out. And this is amazing. I love
that he has founded this adventurers club. He also does
some more absolutely badass stuff like we have to Okay, first,
let's just recap one of the first and most influential
European explorers in the Arctic. Uh. He is tremendously progressive
(36:23):
in his attitudes, doesn't seem to suffer some of the
same racism. Right. He marries a local person. Uh. He
doesn't back down from the Christian Church and breaks He
does opposite of a heist at a Christian church. He
saves himself with his own poop. He conducts surgery on himself.
(36:44):
He becomes a Hollywood star. Uh, he starts an adventure club,
and then World War two happens. And World War two
this is where you really see his character shine. So
we know that he was against racial discrimination even when
it was incredibly normalized and accepted. And and uh, apparently
(37:05):
anytime somebody said something dirty about Jewish people, he would
approach them and definitely lead into his six and a
half foot tall frame and say, it's funny you're talking
about Jewish people. I myself from Jewish. Yes, check out
my hook. Yeah. He reserved the hook for anti Semites. Yeah.
(37:30):
And he also appeared to go counter to the prevailing
attitude of the time with dudes. Uh, and that he
was not a misogynist. I like, is he just a
better person than most people? I'm starting to think that.
You know, he was active in resistance to the Nazi
(37:51):
occupation of Denmark. He was so good at this despite Oh,
by the by the way, the frost bite that took
his those also took that leg. So he's on a
peg leg at this point, and he's still on some
as we say and find out. So you mentioned, you know,
his attitude towards Jewish people right before the Second World War. Well,
(38:14):
he was so influential and so kind of became this
like almost figurehead of tolerance uh and and progressiveness that
Adolf Hitler himself did not care for the man, let's
just say. And during World War Two, um Fristion became
embroiled in kind of a political kerfuffle because of his
(38:34):
kind of you know, maybe involuntary role as this kind
of like activist um for the rights of Jewish people,
anti Nazism and all that. Hitler saw this guy and
his stature and he ordered that he be captured and
and murdered. Also, all those books that he wrote we
(38:55):
talked about. The Third Reich of course banned those. Uh
Fristion was a died in France during the you know,
when the Nazis were occupying it. But he escaped, That's
all we have. By the way he escaped the Nazis.
Did he use a weapon fashioned from his own excrement
this time too, We'll never know. He made a poop
gun and he's like I've got his I got more
(39:20):
bullets than you think. I was eating those prison beans
for a week, you know, like like that one in
the line of fire you know, grown ups guys. But
thankfully his digestion was just fine. It was just fun.
He was definitely regular. I mean, you you know you're
rough that out there on the wilderness, you're gonna be
eating plenty of fiber. So probably something to think about
(39:41):
if you ever go a spelunking or whatever. Shout out
to thirty seven Days of peril uh in Federal where
you will meet someone who is much less efficient in
the wild than our boy Pete. But okay, so I
love that image. We're not sure how he escaped, but
in n after he is gabs and he flees to Sweden.
(40:01):
From there he ends up going to the US with
his new wife, his third wife, a Danish Jewish fashion
illustrator named Dagmar Cone. Uh. There they get married in
the Big Apple and Cone has a job working for Vogue.
She was doing like illustrations that made it on the cover.
(40:23):
She was a big deal. And this is where some
of those pictures that you mentioned earlier Noel come into play,
because this guy still looks very much like a wild man,
an outdoorsman. He's like almost sixty now. He's joined the
New York Explorers Club and they still have to this
day a painting of him hanging on the wall. He also, oh, right,
(40:45):
the Last Flex, which is a good name for a film. Uh,
the Last Fix is this? In nineteen fifty six, he
wins a game show called the sixty four thousand Dollar Question. Yeah. Yeah,
that was a lot of money at that time. It's
still a lot of money today, but bigger jackpots than that.
(41:06):
To have that speed, they'd have to like up it
in the name too, And maybe I think it's more
than half a million. I think, uh yeah, I went
with inflation and all that. Yeah, And I only just
recently figured out how deal or no Deal works. I
was getting my oil change in a Jiffy loob and
it was on and I like just kind of looked perplexed,
and somebody like in the waiting room kind of had
pity on me and explained to me how deal or
(41:26):
no Deal worked. And then I was like, I couldn't
look away. You gotta know about the deal. It's all
about probability. That's what the guy told me. Was solicited.
I think, I said to my kids, and I've never
understood what this is all about. And this guy goes,
excuse me, Um, it's all about probability. I'm like, elaborate please.
I love it, Lanta. I love the way that people
(41:47):
you know, we're very lucky. This doesn't happen in a
lot of other places, a lot of other countries, or
even though there are a lot of other place places
in the US, but Atlanta. If you've never visited, our
fair metropolis is a place where it is assumed that
you will likely end up in a casual conversation when
you happen to be standing next to anyone for more
(42:08):
than about three minutes. You know, like and and strangers will.
This is the town where I get the most. This
is the US town where I get the most unsolicited compliments.
And they're not you know, creepy gross compliments or whatever that. Uh.
I remember I was walking into a local store here
and I went to just pick up stuff that was
(42:30):
going to cook, and uh, the cashier when I was
walking up, it's like there he is. Ah, it's the director.
And I was like, oh me, what do you mean
And he's like, well, you know, like you your sweater,
you look like you you're a director or something, and uh,
I was very flattering. So if you get a chance
to give strangers a non creepy compliment and sincere, that's cool,
(42:52):
and that guy was trying to help, right, No, he
was like, was he trying to help? You thought he's
trying to help. He's trying to help. He wasn't being
a jerk. As I followed up with some questions, questions,
and it really made the time pass a lot quicker
while I was waiting for my old change because I
understood what Howie Mandel was going on about with his shiny,
shiny bald head and his suitcases. I wish he would
(43:15):
do what was that movie where he played a monster
that comes out under little monsters? I wish he would
do Deal or No Deal in his little monster's costumes.
I wish he would do Deal or No Deal in
the voice that he does for Bobby's World the whole time,
just inexplicably sounding like a small little child. If he
(43:35):
does both of those at the same time, then I'm
gonna watch Deal or No Deal every day and next
week on David Lynch TV. Right right, So with this,
with these adventures that he has had, he has also
given a number of civic awards, one of which is
the Gold Medal of the International Benjamin Franklin Society for
(43:59):
his general Sir VI, his demandkind he has for his
last days are what we count as very peaceful for him,
probably some of the most peaceful days of his life
since his childhood. Uh. He eventually dies of a heart
attack when he's seventy one and nine seven. He's just
(44:19):
completed a book called Book of the Seven Seas, and
he's actually walking toward a playing in Alaska because he's
off on some other adventures. He's just like a Bilbo
Baggins type figure, you know. He finishes his book and
then gets spirited away to the elves where he can
die in peace and just kind of disappears, right, Yeah,
(44:40):
kind of what happens. Well, it's uh, it's also a
remarkably peaceful ending. I mean, heart attacks are terrible thing,
but it's remarkably peaceful ending when you consider all the
other ways it could go. Um right right now, I
think as of Deadline was reporting that the Berkowitz brothers,
through their company Not a Billionaire, are trying to make
(45:03):
a limited series based on Pete's life. Yeah, I saw
that bad. I don't know who the Berkowitz brothers are.
They're not related to like the serial killer Berkowitz. Are they?
I hope not, because I will not be watching their program. No, no, uh,
I'm kidding. I shouldn't cancel the Berkowitz brothers. It wasn't
their fault there other sibling was a nut. You know.
They should be allowed to make limited television series all
(45:25):
they want. Everybody should be allowed to make a limited
television series. Come on, that's what that's what the future is. Uh.
This this concludes our story for now. They we'll probably
talk about this whenever we get a chance to see
the limited series. But I wanted to. I know we
always thank people at the end of this, but I
wanted to give an especial thanks to all three of
(45:47):
us for staying relatively on the rails when we got
to the poop knife part. I thought we did a
pretty good job. So thanks to us. Well, I mean,
let's not forget it's a hairing situation. It's like, we know,
he survived. I mean, he was horribly mangled, but I
still he would have wanted it this way. He would
(46:08):
have wanted to give us joy. I think, you know
with and let's think about this way. He was wearing
gloves most likely while he was doing it, so it
wasn't like it was getting directly on his hands. That's
your takeaway thinking, well, I think like there's not a
lot of room under a dog sled. That no, the poop,
God everywhere, How did he get from his pants? I
(46:31):
thank god he wasn't traveling with Kate Winslets. You would
have made him like sit outside and freeze to death.
Oh god, there was enough room on that flots Um
that's the word for floating ship debris. I love that word.
What about jetsam, I think the same thing. Are they
just they're just like their parting parcel was flotsom and jetsam.
They usually come in pairs, flots them. It's kind of
(46:51):
like slag type versus stalagmite. I think, uh, flots some
floats and jets some sinks. Yes back that. I've literally
never understood the distinction between these two things until now,
So thank you, my friend. There's also a band called
Flotsam and Jetsam, an American metal band from Phoenix, Arizona,
(47:12):
founded in nineteen eighty one. Also to confirm Entombed is
a American metal band. American I pretty much knew that
they are. They are They perhaps Danish late. Let me
correct myself because I wanted to check. I don't want
to mislead anybody the when I'm looking at some official
(47:33):
like Merchant Marine website stuff like that, they're saying that
the real definition of flotsam and jetsam goes into the
intention behind it. Flotsam was not deliberately thrown overboard, that
it was a shipbreaker at accident, but jets Jenson Jennison Jennison,
thank you, Betty, Oh my god? That okay? All right,
(47:54):
Well I think we got there. And by the way,
Entombed is definitely a death metal band from Sweden, so
not too far off from Denmark, right unless I'm really
bad at geography, which I am. No, you're the indro,
you're the right areas. You know, you're in the right region. Um,
is there tundra? There's always tundra somewhere, you know, got it?
(48:16):
So uh this so this has been a wild ride
for us. You went a little long on this one,
but we do hope you enjoyed it at least a
fraction as much as we did. Thanks to super producer
Max Williams. Thanks to Alex Williams uh Our who is
soon to be like our official traveling correspondent. I think
unofficial traveling correspondent. He composed this slapping track, He sure did,
(48:39):
thanks to Jonathan Strickland. The quiz to Christopher Hastio, Sives,
Jeff Coates here in Spirit, Gabe Louisier, You, Max Williams,
Ben Bowling, the whole Ridiculous family, which also includes Uh,
Eli and Diana from Ridiculous Romance. They're also going to
be hanging out with us very soon. Oh that's right, yes,
And we're gonna be hanging out on their show so
(49:02):
that we can, you know, learn learn their tricks and
their comedic timing. I also want to give a one
time shout out to a new nemesis that apparently had
for a while and was not aware. Uh, Sam McVey,
Sam and Annie's stuff. Mom never told you, so check
out their show, Uh and Noel, thank you so much.
(49:24):
This is like I love when we do these sorts
of stories together because we're both such fans of the
cinematic and the adventurous, and I think these these stories
really shine for us. Boy do they ever shine on you,
Crazy Diamond. We'll see you next time. For more podcasts
(49:48):
from My Heart Radio, visit the i heart radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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