How do I start my own country?

Whether through revolution, colonization or other means, every country has its start somewhere. But how does the process work? Join Josh and Chuck as they explain how countries get created -- and why some countries aren't always recognized by others.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I haven't said that in a long time,

(00:20):
and I said it just like PF. Tompkins for some reason.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's kind of how he would say it.
But you're not wearing a vest in bowtie. No, and
my mustask is non existent too, port by hat. I've
got nothing except for that one inflection. Okay, that's the
only similarity. So Josh is in a great mood because
it's Friday and we're actually not like we aren't usually

(00:44):
pleased to be here, but we haven't done this in
two weeks because we've been doing other stuff and we
stacked up, you know, recordings, and it's like it's a
genuine pleasure to be back in here doing this. Is
I can feel like I could do this with my
eyes closed. Try it Star podcast. I can't see my notes.
It was still pretty good, Chuck, you got a joke
in there anyway. Um. Yeah, I'm happy to be here

(01:06):
because I know I can do this right. You know,
there's not a camera in front of its inferior. You
feel good. I feel good to Chuck. So I'm going
to uh use that good feeling to give you an introduction. Okay,
let's say, chuckers that you did not have a very
good time in high school, but I did. But I'll

(01:28):
imagine that you're suspending disbelief here. Um, you were one
of the less popular kids, perhaps because of that one
time you wore that cape to school. It didn't go
nearly as well as you had expected it would. I
thought I would be uh lauded as a superhero among
my beers, but they made fun of me. Okay, Um,

(01:50):
and that pretty much set the timber for the rest
of your high school experience. And it really stuck with you.
You know, it really got in your craw that that
you were so mistreated in high school. And you had
a couple of friends, Kevin and Jim, and um, they
had similar experiences. And you guys are now in your
thirties or forties, You've got a little money, and you

(02:11):
still are driven by bitter anger. You want vengeance, right right,
You're not exactly the type to um kill somebody, and um,
your idea of revenge is pretty grand. So what you
decide to do is to start your own country. Hey,
that's a good way to get back at the jerks
in high school. Exactly. This is the legal way to

(02:34):
do it, right, Okay, all you do start your own country, um,
and you invite these guys to come visit and then
throw them in prison the moment they get there. Okay,
maybe even put them on a terrorist watch list before
they get there, and not alert your authorities of what's
going on, and then just sit back and wait for

(02:54):
the good times to roll. Right, Okay, all right, done.
There's a couple of problems here. Okay. One, you have
no idea how to start your own country? Well do
you in real life? Because I've read your article. But yeah,
well that's what I was gonna say. We're here to
tell you that's right. So everyone who here's this podcast
will know how to start their own country pretty much.

(03:16):
And it's easier than you think in theory. Sure, well,
let's let's talk about it, Chuck. All right, Okay, Well,
one way Josh, that you can do so, and history
has shown that it's it's works. Is uh a larger nation,
let's say Great Britain. They used to be into colonizing
places all over the world, the lovely places that they

(03:37):
like to relax on the beach, and um, they did
so well. Rhodesia is not exactly on the beach, but
I was speaking of like the Virgin Islands. But they
did that a larger nation, uh, colonized a smaller one
and change the name to Rhodesian, said this is a
new country. Yes, you are now Rhodesian's yep. And if
you don't like it, we've got guns here. And that

(03:59):
is one way to do it. And then there's the
opposite way to do it. You could be a Rhodesian
and be like, you know what, we have guns now too,
or Zimbabwe and now this place is called Zimbabwe. Yeah,
Zulu Zulu Zulu yeah. Um. And then there's uh, let's
see the kind of succession that where you go buy
an island and basically say, okay, this island is now

(04:22):
its own thing. Yeah. I think didn't Marlon Brando own
his own island? Yeah? I don't think he tried to
make it his own country, although he may have. There
are a significant number of islands for sale in the world. Really, yeah,
they're they're pretty small though, Huh. I guess they range.
I mean they're small enough or they're big enough. Right.
The problem is the getting electricity. That's the that's the

(04:44):
big problem. I think. Although if I was going to
buy an island, I would try and keep it off grid,
you know, or or you know, do the solar thing
or sure, yeah I can't, man, I'd deck my island out. Well,
I'd want mine decked out, though you can still deck
it out with solar panels and like the the Swiss
family Robinson or something, that's that's just how I roll.

(05:07):
But the more the more customary way of starting your
own country is like we were saying, um, say Zimbabwe
or something like that is called the land based secession. Yeah,
not as easy, No, it really isn't. Because, um, whereas
if you were to buy a deserted tropical island that
no country, that a country technically own but wasn't doing

(05:27):
anything with, they probably wouldn't put up too much of
a fight. If you own property in a country and
say this is no longer part of this country, you're
going to get some sort of resistance, absolutely, right, Like
Russia Soviet Union obviously dissolved, and uh, they're still doing
battle with Georgians you know today they definitely they didn't

(05:50):
just forget and say it's no big deal. Right, Yeah,
relations among the former Soviet states with Russia are definitely strained.
Where yeah, Chester and rebels are, um, not the most
happy people around, and they will kill children. They've shown
two succeed Yeah, successions are bloody and horrible. Or were

(06:12):
they the school? Oh yeah, okay, what was that the
swap podcast? Yeah? I think so. Um, let's see what else. Oh, Yugoslavia. Yeah,
that's another really good example too. Um. There was a
guy named Joseph Tito, right, not Tito Jackson or Tito's

(06:32):
handmade vodka. Uh. Tito. Um, was this guy who was
a brutal, iron fisted dictator, but there was a he
had a reputation where people would say, Tito is a brutal,
iron fisted dictator. But you gotta hand it to him.
He's keeping Yugoslavia together. And this is amazing. This Yugoslavia

(06:53):
before Tito and then after Tito, we're a bunch of
ethnic people, um groups living together that it hated each
other for a thousand years, like the I think the
problem between the Albanians and the Serbs went back to
um a massacre or the murder of a martyr in
like twelve something century. So Tito comes along and it's like, no,

(07:18):
you all live together in my country. After Tito dies,
Yugoslavia falls apart, and all of a sudden you have Albania, Serbia,
all that stuff. But these were huge, enormous problems for
the world. The Balkans are a big match or a
big flash point, right, But ultimately what happened was a
bunch of ethnic Albanians said, you know what, we're no
longer part of Serbia. Have our own we have our

(07:39):
own nations. Now. Uh, that's one way to do it.
That's land based session. And like we said, it's usually
kind of bloody, right, But there are a few steps
that Albanians took that Serbs eventually took um and that
other people have taken. They are basically like a four
part means of becoming an independent nation. So so also

(08:03):
I should I have to give a huge shout out
to UM Joshua Keating who wrote a really cool article
UM on Foreign Policy Foreign Policy Magazine about this um
that formed the basis of this article. It's just way better.
This is way better. Yeah, fine, it's way better than
the editor at Foreign Policy Magazine. Well, so three things, Josh,

(08:28):
and there we're gonna talk about the four steps. But
three things that generally give you a leg up if
you want to form a new country is a population
of I guess like minded folks, not just a population,
a permanent population like this, these people's homeland or this
is where they live, this is where they farm, not
they're on vacation. Here. Let's get a country going exactly

(08:49):
government and land. Those that that will really give you
a leg up. If you've got those three things, it's
a good starter kit. And there's a fourth one that's
not necessarily those three are internationally recognized as yes, if
you can. If you have those three things, then you're
on your way to to forming a country with fourth currency.
The fourth. Now, the fourth is that that government has

(09:10):
to be able to communicate with the outside world. Um.
And then that that came out of a treaty in
three in Monto Video where the US said, Okay, we'll
leave Latin America alone. You guys are your own sovereign nations.
Now we'll just undermine you covertly rather than overtly. Um.
And uh, that's kind of disputed. I think the United

(09:32):
States recognizes it's still but other countries don't necessarily see
that as criteria for nationhood. Well, it's tricky and we'll
see here in a minute when we start talking about
the awesomely funny and wacky sealand I can't wait. Being recognized.
It's it's some people recognize certain things, and some people
say your sovereign nation and then or an independent Uh.

(09:52):
It's it's very formal and informal whether or not you're
recognized or not. And I can't really tell when you're
a legitimate country anymore. Really, the only way there isn't
there's another recognized country recognizes you. Even even that doesn't
necessarily mean anything, because take Taiwan. Taiwan used to be

(10:13):
a recognized country part of the u N and then
in ninete Nixon through to the dogs as a in
alive branch to China and Taiwan hasn't been part of
the u N since then. Yes, Tetician to come back
into the UN not even come in the first time

(10:34):
to come back. They got booted out because Nixon was like, yeah,
the U S isn't backing you, and we got our
little anty chair there with our little placard. I see
it right there with the microphone exactly. There's a little earpiece.
Interpreter's like a cob But yeah, so Taiwan is a
sovereign nation as far as it's concerned, as far as
many other nations are concerned, but it's not officially recognized

(10:57):
by other countries. Well, you know a big important one. Yeah,
and you and protection. That's big because that means that
your former country, if you're all of a sudden recognized
by the UN, can't roll in there and take you
back by force, at least per the UN's rules. They can't.
They're not supposed to know, because once you do that,
that's war. And there's first I should say, once you've

(11:20):
completed step two, which is declare independence, right, you gotta
write your own declaration of independence. And then once you
write your own declaration of independent to the important people
that need to see that. I guess right, well, the
the country that you're succeeding from, they'd be first on
the list. And then and then if you can get recognized,
then you're a sovereign nation basically on the international stage.

(11:41):
And that's an act of war, an unprovoked active aggression
on par with um Pearl Harbor or nine eleven or whatever.
And I think that would you mentioned Kosovo and Montenegro
is being on the winning side of that, those laws
that kept them protected from Serbia. Yeah. So, um, that's

(12:02):
because the US recognized Kosovo on the day it on
the day it declared independence. George Bush was like, hey, yeah, yeah,
we're going to recognize you as a sovereign nation, and
they were like, what, we recognize you right? Um. And
the reason why Keating points out that back in the day,
during the Cold War, Um, it used to be that, uh,

(12:26):
all you had to do is say I'm anti Soviet
and the US would recognize you immediately. Or you could
be like you know, American capitalist pig dogs in the
USSR would be like, hey, you're on our team, you're
a country. But um, and they both start printing stamps. Right.
But with Kosovo in particular declaring independence, it was kind

(12:46):
of like a thumb in the eye to Russia because
you know, former Soviet Soviet state satellite um, and so
Bush recognizing it was kind of like a to the Russians,
what was that? You know? What it was? Yes, Josh,
and those rules that we're talking about. The U N
rules are a remnant of the Cold War to protect

(13:07):
new states that were not yet recognized by one side
of the block or the other. Right, they hadn't they
hadn't declared, there's the LC not new kids on the
block with a K? Did they spellers with a K? Yeah,
that wouldn't be two kids on the block. That would
have been a different bind. So, um, that was the

(13:28):
first three steps. I believe. Right, you have criteria declare independence,
you petition for um U N recognition. And I should
also say it's incredibly easy to petition for UN recognition.
It's almost cute how easy it is. It's almost adorable
that you can just write a letter and tell him Chuck, Well,
you just write a letter to the Secretary General and

(13:49):
say I would like to be a country. I don't
even that was a mix of like eight accents. So
don't call me out like, um, yes, that's exactly who
it's to, thank you very much. So, um, yeah, you
just write a letter and getting in I mean the
letter writing part is easy. That's that's the big part.
And as a matter of fact, as a p s A,

(14:10):
we're gonna give you the address send your letter to.
If you are going to um declare your independence, you
want to address your letter to Bond ky Moon, Secretary
General the United Nations, First Avenue at forty six Street,
New York, New York, one zero zero one seven. And
all you have to do is say, Mr Bond, Um,

(14:34):
we would like to be a nation. We have a
we have a sedentary population. We have a government. Our
government can even talk to people if you're into that
kind of thing. Yeah, and um, we have a we
have a geography, so let us send huh chuck. Also, Um,
to be accepted into the u N, you need recognition

(14:56):
by a two thirds vote, and a two thirds majority
is that you're a quote peace loving state that can
carry out the duties of the u N Charter. That
means you are in yes, but that can be easily
vetoed by member nations. And um, like you point on
the article, I guess it's it's you want to make

(15:16):
friends with the big players in the u N and
get them on your side. That that would definitely help. Yeah, Um,
there's a you know, neutral countries are always like sure,
well neutral, whatever you want to do. Um, they don't
care much weight though, no not not nearly as much
as you know the the you could basically call them

(15:36):
bully countries, countries that have the economic and military might
to push everybody else around make decisions for the rest
of the world. Um So, if you can get recognized
and get in bed with one of those guys, you're
gonna your nation is going to start to thrive. Another

(15:57):
um way to get your nation to thrive is to
tracked foreign investors. Yeah, he pointed out natural resources. If
you happen to have an island like the one let's
say the Wappony Wooves had Booboo. If you remember, I
don't remember that Boobaroo was this uh mineral. I believe
that the will Ponies had. I remember he was. He

(16:18):
wanted their island. That was the whole point. He wanted
it for Boobooroo because it helped out with whatever his
business was. Lloyd Bridges, of course we're talking about the
late great boyd Bridge. I liked his little stint on Seinfeld.
Towards the end of his life, he just came out
because he had He was the father of the Old Trainer, right,

(16:39):
he know, he was the old Trainer and then his
son would like drive the car while he was turned
around like shouting at a out of a bullhorn at Jerry.
But wasn't. Wasn't. His father's son was an old man,
and he was like the older man. Anyway, we were
talking about Joe versus the Bolcano obviously, which we've mentioned
before and in that movie. Um, he wanted the mineral

(17:02):
rights to this imaginary element or mineral and um, that's
a good way to get soverenity is to attract I
guess a wealthy entrepreneur and say, hey, I've got some
awesome sand on this island. Right. Um, you've got that,
you can Um, you can also create currency and back
it with said mineral or natural resource, Like this is

(17:24):
an eight gas bucks if you have natural gas. Let's
just Nevada thing. There's a guy, um who what's the
name of the place, The Republic of uh Molasia. Okay,
there's a guy in Nevada who owns like a a
parcel of arid land that no one else wants in Nevada,

(17:45):
and he has declared it in a republic. It will
never ever get recognized internationally because it's in the United States, right,
And that that's a perfect example, Chuck of what what
Internet national recognition is? Like, imagine if China recognized the
Republic of Milasia as an independent nation within Nevada. Can

(18:08):
you imagine when a thumb in the eye of the
United States, it would go nowhere. There would be nothing
whe are the Chinese aren't gonna arm this guy? Right,
So like that's what is going on. I mean, think
about this, like American Indian tribes, Native American tribes have
petitioned for independence and they can't get it. This guy
in Milasie is never gonna get it. Then they were

(18:30):
here long before that guy. Now imagine if this were
serious and there there, you know, there were really huge
like mineral rights at stake. These people were accepting arms,
they were warring with somebody that could pull you into
a war. Then it starts to get like a little
more nerve racking. But the things the exact same. People

(18:50):
recognize nations just to take off other nations, to embroil
other nations and war problems, or to show to scoff at.
It's basically like another popular kid into a locker. That's
like recognizing a new nation that's that's often a company
to it and then shutting a locker. Yeah, what is

(19:10):
the guy Nevada back his currency? Does he have currency
or just he backed it with chocolate chip cookie? Go,
And you pointed out that that's not very valid, But
I point out I countered that, sir, and say that
I would love for things to be backed with chocolate
chip cookie though. Well, yeah, I mean I guess I
would too, But after a while I'd be like, I

(19:31):
don't want any more money. Yeah, that's true. You eat
enough cookie done, You're gonna get sick to your stomach.
I would strongly recommend reading that Chicago Tribune UM story
on that guy, because it is extremely interesting. It's called
One Nation Under Me by Colleen Mustoni. Came out in
two thousand and eight on the Republic of Malassia. Awesome.
He is not the only wacky guy running around UM

(19:55):
with UH saying like I'm an independent nation. Um, he's
actually not. I mean he's kind of serious, but not really.
I get the impression he's half performance artists. There's a
guy who founded his own nation in the sixties UM
off the coast of Great Britain, and um it's still

(20:17):
around today. Seland it's an amazing story. It is. I
think they're making it, or they talked about making a
movie and this has been requested. In fact, I didn't
hear about this at all until someone had requested it
um a while ago, about six months ago. So whoever
that was, thank you, so chuck. Apparently a World War two,
the British um made a bunch of military outposts that

(20:38):
were basically like um oil derricks or oil platforms that
weren't pumping oil. They're just stationary out in the North
Sea off the British coast to basically shoot down German
airplanes in case of attack. Yeah, just big almost like
stationary aircraft carriers, right, And they tore most of them
down after the war, except they left one up. And

(21:00):
apparently no one has any idea why this one particular
one has left up. But it was about seven miles
seven nautical miles, which is like one point one something
land miles. I don't even know why they have those
what nautical miles? Yeah, he's different in the water, buddy.
But we hear about it um off of the coast
of England, right, which puts it outside of the three

(21:24):
mile range of territorial waters. Remember who owns the ocean? Right? Okay,
So this thing is in international waters, even though the
British built it. Roughs Tower was the name of this
particular one. And like you said, it stayed there or
the rest of them were abandoned and then torn down,
and this one was just it was abandoned and left up. Yeah,
abandon left up. So a guy a pirate radio broadcaster,

(21:45):
which at the time England was lousy with pirate radio
broadcasters that weren't allowed to broadcast certain things, uh in England,
so they'd go outside to international waters. And what Christians
later did, it's right. And there was a movie philipsy
Moore Hoffman was just then about pirate radio. Okay, I
believe called pirate radio. Yeah, it sounds familiar. But anyway,
this guy, English Major Patty Roy Bates was a pirate

(22:08):
radio broadcaster who took up residents September nineteen sixty seven
about six thousand square feet this platform is and said,
you know what, I'm the Prince of Sea Land. And
his wife just shook her head and he said, but oh,
you're the Princess of Sea Land, so don't shake your yeah,

(22:30):
and then she was down with it. And this is
the Principality of Sea Land, and we are our own
nation and we are not a part of England, so
be it. Yeah, and that was pretty much how it started.
So this guy, I guess the story would probably end there.
But this guy was bound and determined. He was dead

(22:50):
serious to get call him a crack pot or whatever,
but this guy made this place right. One of the
great crack pots though. So, uh, I guess what was that?
That was the nineteen sixty seven. The next year, the
British Navy sailed into this guy's waters. They were aware
of them. Yeah, they went to fix a buoy. Is
that what happened? Yeah, there was uh some sort of

(23:11):
buoy out there that needed maintenance, so they entered his
waters air quotes and he son son Michael Actually I think, um,
this was wrong. I think his son Michaels, who fired
warning shots in the air and got in trouble. Well,
you you get the attention of the navy when you
start firing shots, like for their attention, you know. Um,

(23:32):
And yeah, that was kind of a that was a
big deal back on back on the on the island
of England. Um, a lot of people were calling for
this guy to be court martial there, thrown in jail
or something right. So a case was brought against him
in the House of Commons or in the Common Court

(23:52):
right lawsuit basically, and the court ruled, we can't do anything.
This is not within our jurisdiction. It's not within English jurisdiction.
They went sweet and through that ruling it was recognized
and documented that this guy had a de facto sovereign nation.

(24:13):
That's right, a court of another nation, another sovereign nation,
ruled that it had no jurisdiction over this place called
seland this platform out in the ocean. So uh, seven
years later they proclaimed the constitution. They have since then
have developed a flag. They have a coat of arms

(24:36):
that's nice and it's on the flag. Um. They have
a national anthem. They have stamps. They have currency, uh,
sea Land dollars, which are equivalent to one American dollar. Um.
I guess whatever the American dollar happens to be. That's
Sea Land changes along with us. And they had passports
made and they gave them out to people that didn't
sell them. There's about two hundred of them in existence,

(24:58):
real ones today. Yes, there's five hundred times more forged
ones in exists right because people started to use Sealand
as a as like a boy to open bank account.
They just forged these documents, and since no one had
ever seen him, people would say what is this and

(25:18):
then they go do some research and they'd say, oh, well, okay,
this is a real thing, okay, and they would give
them the loan. August there'd be a lot of okay.
August of seventy eight. Let's flash forward a bit um
they quote unquote win a war. Uh. This guy named
Alexander Ackenbach who um called himself the Prime Minister of Sealand.

(25:41):
Apparently when Roy was I'm sorry, the Prince of Sealand
and the and the Princess were on the British mainland,
he sent in um some mercenaries to take the keep
wanting to call an island to take Seland why I
didn't find out why, I'm not sure. To be honest,

(26:02):
I guess he was. I mean, he said he was
a prime minister, so maybe he was trying to you know,
he had had enough of Prince Roy's iron fisted rule
or something, and he wanted to take it for himself.
He was tired of him strutting around, so they they
sent these helicopters and speedboats in that was a battle.
They kidnapped the son Michael, Yeah, this is serious, took

(26:23):
Seland by force. And then Roy hears of this obviously,
he gets on it and wages a battle against uh,
these mercenaries and wins and retake sealand holds these people captive,
releases the Dutch there were Dutch in Germans, and charges
Achenbach with treason because he was prime Minister of sealand

(26:47):
holds him and this is this is the best part
of the whole thing. Eventually Germany sent a diplomat to
sea Land to negotiate his release, and that is used
today still as de facto evidence because an official diplomat
from a country came to our country to to negotiate
with us. So that is the facto proof that we

(27:09):
are a sovereign nation. Well, it's proof two out of
two at least. Yeah. Although I mean, like all the
stuff they were doing internally, like issuing passports and forming
currency in a flag and other national treasures that um
that um that that definitely uh suggests that their sovereign
nation as well. Yeah, they proved they said, hey, this
guy recognized this, this German diplomat came here. But plus,

(27:32):
I mean not just sovereign, but that's like a war.
They won the war, like you said, and technically, um,
and also that's a lot like um the mouse that roared. Yeah,
I thought of that same thing, man. Yeah, well, I
mean it's like almost exactly the same was that nineteen
fifty nine? I think the book or the movie, the
movie with Peter Seller's David Niven. I'm sure those two

(27:53):
are inseparable. What was the deal? They America declared a
kind of a phony war on all nation, right, that
was like going under declared war in America that they
could surrender, not just get pressed, but so they could
get international aid for having lost a war with America.
Apparently the humanitarian aid pours in. But they won, right right,

(28:14):
right right? I remember I read that, did you? Yeah,
good for you, Chuck. So uh flash forward a bit
more and um to nineteen seven. Uh, Britain extended territorial
waters to twelve nautical miles. The day before Britain does this,
Prince Roy does the same thing. So they have over
overlapping waters. And even though they've never negotiated anything, apparently

(28:38):
there's an understanding that it's split down the middle. When
this happens between countries, you do not mess with Prince Roy.
And understand. The other cool thing is because international law
doesn't allow you to claim new land when you extend
your sea rights. It was grandfathered in and just to
this day is still sitting there. Well it's speaking of

(28:59):
to this day after forty years. Um, Prince Roy is like,
I'm done. I did it. He's gotta be old. He
is old. He I think he tried to give it
to his son. So I was like, so Prince Roy
is trying to sell it, Michael in London, He's like it. Um.
It started. It experienced a revival with um some investment

(29:20):
from Haveing Co Limited, which basically says, hey, we have
Internet servers on this island and they're in a sovereign nation,
which means they can't be shut down except you know,
by attack. And that attracted a lot of people who
like Pirate Bay, like rogue Bit, torrent Um sites mirror

(29:41):
their stuff on these servers. It's a lot like the
internet's version of um offshore bank accounts of the Caymans. UM.
So the Pirate Bay was looking at selling buying it.
I think it's seven but fell through. As far as
I know, you could conceivably buy Sea Land today. Well,
Pirate Bay was gonna buy it, but they found out
that was hardwood floors under the carpet, so they said, yeah, yeah, thanks,

(30:04):
or they were rotted right. Yeah, so that's Sea Land
A yeah, and it's still going strong. And I mean
they claim de facto recognition still to this day. Oh yeah,
well it's the sovereign country. Yeah, dude. If if Britain's like,
we can't mess with you, and they win a war
with Germany and he didn't pay into the health system,
Britain said, all right, you don't have to pay into

(30:24):
the health system, but don't call us when you get sick.
So that's a that's a what's considered a micro nation.
Although I realized there are also other micro nations that
exist only on the web. We need to do one
on those, I think, have we not? Alright, it's on
the list. All right, you should go do a little
more research on this. On how stuff works dot com.

(30:45):
You should probably check out how Do I Start My
Own Country for starters. There's some good links in that
article too. Um we mentioned who owns the oceans? You
need to know that, and then how currency Works is
probably a good one to brush up on as well. Right, Yeah,
go read the mouse at roared or watch it. Yeah,
do that too. You can find all that by using
the dapper search bar at how stuff works dot com. Right,

(31:08):
I said dapper, so that triggers listener to mail today,
That's right? Uh, Josh, this is another update from Sarah
the Amazing fan. Hey Sara, we get these uh usually
around her birthday and it gets maudlin. As everybody knows,
we have been keeping up with Sarah since she was eleven,
the amazing eleven year old fan. And Sarah's about to

(31:30):
turn fourteen, growing up right, not right before our eyes,
but right before our ears, and she just writes the
best emails. So this is from Sarah. Dear Chuck, Josh, Jerry, Frank,
the Chair, Handy Dandy microphones, and last but not least,
the Last Chance garage hat. Wow, she wrote into my hat. Wow,
what a year. I don't know if y'all have been

(31:51):
keeping track. I seriously doubt it, but I can dream, right,
But I will be turning fourteen and fifteen days on
the twenty four and I'm not sure when this is
coming out. But should be sometime around here. Not only
is my birthday in two weeks, but my eighth grade
graduation falls in the day before, meaning that my class
trip to six Flags by the Way, is on my birthday.
It smiley face. Because of the two and a half

(32:14):
hour to three hour drive, I'll probably be listening to
some epic podcast on the way. Now to the real
topic of this email, I'm gonna share my hardcore parker experience.
After I read the blog that Chucker's posted on parkour
in the computer lab at school, I went on a
parkour rampage. Well, not really a rampage, but I just
decided to randomly walk up to things, jump next to them,

(32:37):
and say Parkour. When I did a Parker jump next
to one of my friends, she goes, do you watch
The Office? Apparently there was an episode where some of
the characters went on a park or rampage similar to mine.
I decided to look it up and found that it
was really hilarious. You may want to start a Parker
club right there at how Stuff Works dot com. After

(32:58):
we watch The Way, too fat old for that. Yeah,
we've learned that this week. Uh so that's she says,
ha ha, ha, well, loving rockets, Sarah the amazing thirteen
almost fourteen year old fan. That is awesome. And she
made a Daniel Ashe reference there at the end with
loving rockets. I don't even know she meant that, but

(33:19):
I think it's an adorable way to sign an email
for Well, it's Sarah. She's adorable all over. Absolutely, Sarah,
Happy happy birthday. We're so glad you've been growing up
with us. We appreciate you. You stay safe parkouring out there,
Please do have fun at six Plagues. Be careful on
the roller coasters, you know they make me nervous. And um,
well we'll stay Happy birthday againding next year. Okay, absolutely

(33:41):
all right. If you have a flag, if you have
a name of a country, if you have any ideas
for starting your own country, we want to hear about them.
You can post them on our Facebook page. That is
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after you w W, after slash, after slash, after a colon,

(34:04):
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do that in reverse order in the U R L
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You can also reach us on Twitter at s y
s K podcast, and you can send us regular old
fashioned email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.

(34:28):
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