80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
Luke Kelly, Joe Byrne, Mark Boyle
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Top 10 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Panama (S1.03)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
08/22/16 • -1 min
In this week’s episode of 80 Days, we are talking about Panama, a central American nation most famous its canal that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Located strategically on the tiny isthmus between Central and South America, control of this valuable trade route has been competed for by multiple powers throughout its fascinating history. The country is dominated by a central spine of mountains and hills that forms the continental divide. Today, Panama is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the east, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital, Panama City, is home to nearly half of the country’s 3.9 million people. If you’re unfamiliar with the geography, just imagine the two continents of Central and South America hanging onto one another by a thread – Panama is that thread.
Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach, in Hong Kong, the UK and Ireland, respectively. (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle)
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Some things you might want to read/listen more about:
- Archaeological findings at various sites are described in the National Geographic article “‘Golden Chief’ Tomb Treasure Yields Clues to Unnamed Civilisation” by James Owen
- The following video on YouTube shows the Ngobe Balseria traditions, including the sport which involves men throwing sticks at the legs of other men, while dressed in women’s clothing:
- Some of the early colonists of significance: Rodrigo de Bastidas, who founded the first European settlement on the American mainland; Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who crossed the isthmus.
- “The Cimarrons of Sixteenth Century Panama“, an article by Ruth Pike (The Americas, 2007, vol. 64, no. 2, DOI: 10.1353/tam.2007.0161) gives a lot of detail on rebellions by African and African-descended escaped slaves in Panama, inlcuding “el rey negro” Bayano
- We mentioned piracy a few times, as in important aspect of trade in the area in the early colonial period. Some well-known pirates who had an impact on Panama were Sir Francis Drake who sacked Nomre de Dios on the Carribean coast of Panama (1572) and the Welsh privateer Captain Henry Morgan who marched across the isthmus and sacked Panama City in 1713. The ruins of the old city are still there and the world remembers Captian Morgan today mostly for the brand of rum named after him!
- BBC History has an article on “The Darien Venture” by Dr Mike Ibeji, describing the disasterous exploits of the Company of Scotland expedition, planned by William Paterson, bankrupting much of the country in the process
- Richard Halliburton holds the Guinness World Record (from 1928) for lowest toll paid to pass through the Canal due to his low tonnage
- The winding history of the ...
Western Sahara (S3.10)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
04/01/19 • -1 min
In this episode of 80 Days: an exploration podcast, we’ll be talking about Western Sahara, a disputed territory in North-West Africa. Home to roughly 550,000 people and bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the east, Mauritania to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara is partially controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and partially Moroccan-occupied, and is often called ‘Africa’s last colony.’
Map of Western Sahara’s position on the west coast of Africa, between Morocco and Mauritania
First colonised by Spain in 1885, the territory’s sovereignty has been fiercely disputed for decades, particularly since 1975, when Spain officially relinquished its claim over the region. Today it is alternately known as Morocco’s Southern Provinces or the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, however, we’ll be referring to the region as Western Sahara throughout most of this episode. At roughly 260,000 square kilometers or 100,000 square miles, Western Sahara is about the size of the US state of Colorado or just slightly larger than the UK. The territory consists mostly of uninhabitable desert, and nearly 40% of its inhabitants live in Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara, while up to 100,000 people from the region are currently living in refugee camps in neighbouring Algeria.
This episode, the Finale of Season 3, is our first Patreon-nominated and voted-on episode. Thanks to Erik Tastepe, in particular, for suggesting this interesting location and to all of you who voted. Join us over on www.patreon.com/80dayspodcast to have a say in the direction of future seasons or get access to various awards.
Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Switzerland . (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella)
In this episode, we carried out an extensive interview with Nick Brooks (@WSaharaProject), a climate scientist, who has worked over many years in Western Sahara, co-directing a project with archaeologist Jo Clarke. This “Western Sahara Project” has led to a recently-published book on the topic (see here). Nick also has a very interesting blog about his time spent there, the politics of the situation and related topics called “Sand and Dust”. Beautiful photo galleries of all the archaeological discoveries from the research project in the desert have been shared on Flickr.
Here are a few things you may want to read/watch more about:
Nauru (S1.02)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
08/15/16 • -1 min
In this week’s episode of 80 Days, we are talking about Nauru, a small isolated island nation in the middle of the Pacific, only 60 km from the equator and about 3,000 km from Australia, the country it is largely a dependent of. It’s a rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags tale of an island paradise, once called Pleasant Island, its disastrous encounters with colonialism and brutal treatment in World War 2. The discovery of rich phosphate deposits led to it briefly being the wealthiest nation per capita for a time, but strip-mining and poor administration left the country where it is today – always in the news for the wrong reasons. Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach, in Hong Kong, the UK and Ireland, respectively. (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle)
Note: We had previously said that we would broadcast our episode on Panama this week, but once again Nauru was in the news, after the release of the “Nauru files” giving details of the scale of human rights abuses in the migrant detention centres the island hosts on behalf of the Australian government. We thought that this episode would give a good background on a country you might be reading a lot about in the next few weeks. This episode was recorded before the files were released, but we do discuss the issues that were highlighted in those reports.
Some things you might want to read/listen more about:
- Early Nauruan practice of aquaculture – i.e. catching the fries of milkfish/ibiya in the surf and raising them to adulthood in brackish pools inland. This article (Spennemann, 2002) also describes the early history of Nauru and its first encounter with European whaler John Fearn
- The 10-year long Nauruan Tribal War is summarised in an article on Military History Now – it resulted in the death of about 500 people, nearly a third of the island’s population
- Nauru: A Cautionary Tale, an essay by Vlad Sokhin in World Policy Journal discusses the squandering of the phosphate resources of the island and also features some great photos from the smallest republic in the world
- S. E. Morrison’s book History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, June 1942 – April 1944 (Univeristy of Illinois Press, 2001) describes the operations in and around Nauru and features the following comments on the then-occupied island:
But, the more Nauru was studied, the less anyone liked the idea of assaulting it. For Nauru is a solid island with no harbor or lagoon, shaped like a hat with a narrow brim of coastal plain where the enemy had built his airfield, and a crown where he had mounted coast defense artillery. The hilly interior was full of holes and caves where phosphate rock had been excavated – just the sort of terrain that the Japanese liked for defensive operations
- The Japanese occupation of Nauru and deportation of the native people to Truk Island is described on Wikipedia
- Radio show This American Life did an episode, including stories from Nauru a few years ago: “The Middle of Nowhere“, emphasising its role in money laundering and how it keeps appearing as a footnote in major world events
- Australian Radio National’s Earshot has discussed the country’s
Jersey (S5.08)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
05/04/22 • -1 min
In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast, we’ll be talking about the Bailiwick of Jersey , the largest of the Channel Islands lying just off the coast of Northern France. Jersey is a Crown Dependency so is not actually a part of the UK, just like the Isle of Man, which we covered in Season 1. Today, Jersey has a population of just under 100,000, and a total land area of around 120 km2 or 45 sq mi, making it a similar size to the US island of Nantucket, or slightly smaller than our old friend Liechtenstein.
While most residents speak English and identify as British, the proximity of Jersey and the other Channel islands to France has heavily influenced their culture and their history, and French is an official second language. Jersey also has its own local language, based on French, called Jèrriais. The island was documented by the Romans, known to them as Caesarea, and was part of the Duchy of Normany until the early 13th Century, when it was reorganized and became a territory in its own right. By the end of the 15th century, Jersey was granted its own governor. An individual, now called the Lieutenant Governor, is today the personal representative of the Queen on the island. Jersey was the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Nazis during WW2, and was one of the last places in Europe to be liberated.
Jersey has one of the highest numbers of cars per person in the world, and because of the historical popularity of Jersey wool, knitted sweaters came to be called jerseys, after the island, with the term first recorded in 1837. And yes, this island is the namesake of the US state of New Jersey. It’s been calculated that Jersey would fit 189 times into New Jersey – 95 times if the tide is out.
Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Dublin, Ireland, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Galway, Ireland. Our theme music and other stings come from Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella. Thanks to Luke Davis, a member of the Société Jersiaise, for speaking to us for this episode – you will hear clips from his interview throughout.
Some further reading material is provided below:
- Huge amounts of information about all things Jersey are available on Jerripidea, the Island Wiki
- The Societé Jersiaise have published A Brief History of Jersey by Peter Hunt
- On geology and early history see: Jersey Geology Trail, La Cotte de Saint Brelade (which has a short documentary the cave), photos of archaeological sites and a wiki article about iron age hoards.
- Cæsarea: or, An account of Jersey by E. Durell; Jersey’s Population: a history by Mark Boleat
- BBC Article on St Helier, some information on other saints associated with Jersey, and more information on the Fisherman’s Chapel
- Daniel Defoe’s writings on the island; BBC Article on Sir George Carteret;
Pitcairn Island (S4.02)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
08/12/19 • 0 min
Socotra (S6.08)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
12/06/24 • -1 min
In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast we’ll be talking about Socotra, an island in the Indian Ocean, lying between the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. It lies 380 kilometres (205 nautical miles) south of the Arabian Peninsula and 240 kilometres (130 nautical miles) east of Somalia. Geographically part of Africa, it has historically been an extremely isolated island due to the monsoon winds that make it difficult to reach for large parts of the year. This isolation has resulted in unique plant and animal life, with the island harbouring many species which went extinct elsewhere tens of thousands of years ago, and It has been described as “the most alien-looking place on Earth”
Over its history, the island has seen influence from Ethiopian Christians, Greeks, Arabs, Portuguese Explorers and the British East India Company, among others, and as a result has a unique blend of cultures and languages. The island is 3,796 km2 (1,466 sq mi) in size, making it similar in land area to the US state of Rhode Island, or slightly larger than Luxembourg. Around 50,000 people today call Socotra home, with the principal city, Hadibu, boasting around a fifth of the total population. The island became a part of Yemen in 1967, and has recently been impacted by ongoing conflict caused by the Yemeni Civil War, which began in 2014 and is ongoing as we record this. In 2008, Socotra was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique flora and fauna. The islanders rub noses when they are introduced, and primarily speak Soqotri, an ancient Semitic language, which has up to a hundred words to describe a goat.
Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Dublin, Ireland, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in Toronto, Canada, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Dublin, Ireland. Our theme music and other stings come from Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella.
Some further reading material is provided below:
- A chronology of Socotra from Socotra.info
- British Empire Maproom‘s early history of the island
- Discover Socotra’s history page
- Socotra: The Mysterious Island of the Assyrian Church of the East at assyrianchurch.org
- Socotra’s misty future from The New Scientist (July 1995)
- Socotra: rediscovering the ‘island abode of bliss’, from the Financial Times (June 2023)
- Can Socotra, Yemen’s ‘Dragon’s Blood Island,’ be saved? by National Geographic (November 2018)
- Island Africa : the evolution of Africa’s rare animals and plants – Jonathan Kingdon on archive.org
- The Soqotra island:Where phoenix is revived from The Yemen Times (May 2003)
- A Successful Adaptation to Failure: the Portuguese on the island of Socotra during the sixteenth century by Renata Cabral Bernabé
- Socotra: A mysterious Arabian island gives up one of its secrets by The National News
- The Third Voyage of the English East India Company (1607-1610) at Qatar National Library
- Botany of Socotra by Balfour, Isaac Bayley, 1853-1922 at archive.org
- Yemen. The Socotra Archipelago Threatene...
Houston, 1968 – Apollo 8
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
12/24/19 • -1 min
In this minisode, Mark takes us further than we’ve ever been before, in a story that’s out of this world! From Houston, Texas, in 1968, we tell the story of the USA’s space programme and how Christmas came to be the backdrop to the first voyage by humans around the moon. Often overshadowed by Apollo 11’s Moon Landing a few months later, Apollo 8 laid vital foundations, and took place during the festive season, watched by millions of families around the world.
The most significant source for Mark’s (@markboyle86) script was Jeffrey Kluger’s book “Apollo 8: the Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon“. You will hear the voices of Joe (@anbeirneach), and Luke (@thelukejkelly) as well.
In addition to our theme music by the talented Thomas O’Boyle, this episode featured a lot of music and sound effects, graciously made available for free by contributors at FreeSound.org, and Free Music Archive for use under a Creative Commons license, by attribution.
The pieces of music you heard under the text were “Swiftwind” and “Expectations” by Lee Rosevere, Kai Engel‘s “Interception“, “Holiday Gift” and “Brand New World” (the latter two from his Christmas album Sustains), and “The Healing” by Sergey Cheremisinov, all available under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licence. Tristan Longherin’s ambient sound “Spaceship Atmosphere 01” and hello_flowers’ “Hypnotic Heartbeat Atmosphere” were also used in this piece under Creative Commons Licenses. Thanks to those artists who make their work available for podcasters like us. The version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” that is heard in the minisode was uploaded by Mystery Mammal and is in the public domain.
If you want to hear more archive audio from the mission, highlights have been made available on the Internet Archive here.
The famous photo “Earthrise” taken by Anders duirng Apollo 8
Luxembourg (S4.04)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
10/14/19 • -1 min
In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast, we’ll be talking about Luxembourg, a small, landlocked European country at one of the central crossroads of Europe, bordered by Belgium, France and Germany. Officially known as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the country has around 600,000 inhabitants and spans a total area of around 2,500 square kilometres or 1,000 square miles, making it roughly the same size as Hong Kong and about two thirds the size of the smallest US state – Rhode Island. The world’s only remaining Grand Duchy, it has been referred to throughout history as the ‘Gibraltar of the North’ for its strong fortifications and although that fortress has been occupied many times throughout its long history, since the 10th century it has always been a separate, if not autonomous, political entity. Today, the capital city of Luxembourg is one of three capitals of the European Union and is much better known for its financial prowess rather than its military fortifications. Most citizens here are at least trilingual, speaking French, German and Luxembourgish, and although it has one of the EU’s smallest populations, Luxembourg also has the fastest-growing population in Europe.
This episode, just like all of our recent ones, is supported by our Patreon backers. If you want to help out the show, you can help out by joining us over on www.patreon.com/80dayspodcast to give us whatever you can in terms of financial support and avail of all the lovely awards and extras that entitles you to. If you’re unable to support us financially, you can always leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Joe visited Luxembourg for us to do some research. Here are some photos from around the city and its fortifications:
Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Ireland . (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella)
Some further reading:
- World Atlas’ Luxembourg History timeline
- Book: “Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands” (Britannica Educational Publishing)
- An article from Carlow Museum about St Willbrord of Echternach and his connection to Carlow, Ireland (With videos of the ‘hopping’ traditions)
- Siege engineer Vauban oversaw the siege of Luxembourg by the French and its re-fortification afterwards
- ‘La muette de Portici’ is the name of the opera that played an iconic role in the Belgian Revolution, which also threw much of Luxembourg into turmoil
- UNESCO entry on Luxembourg’s “old quarters and fortifications” and their history, enrolling them as a world heritage site – dismantled as the price for neutrality. All that remains are the underground Bock Casemates, an important tourist attraction
- Robert Schumann, one of the founding fathers of the...
Exclaves in Switzerland (Minisode)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
06/21/19 • -1 min
In this minisode, Joe explores, literally, the idea of an exclave after wandering into one a couple of years ago. Although we’ve covered a couple of enclaves in the past (including San Marino and The Gambia), this episode is the first time we’ve examined the opposite concept – a tiny piece of a country marooned inside another’s borders.
This is also something of a personal episode for Joe (@anbeirneach), as it marks an end to his time living in Switzerland. Luke (@thelukejkelly) and Mark (@markboyle86) also feature, and we discuss briefly our upcoming fourth season, which is due in a couple of weeks.
For the curious, you can find more on the German enclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein here on Atlas Obscura, or read this article on BigThink. The New York Times article quoted in the episode can be found here, and further reading on Campione d’Italia can be found here and here. Photo’s from Joe’s trips to the exclaves can be found here.
Here is a summary of some data and statistics:
Name: Büsingen am Hochrhein Campione d’Italia Population: 1,350 pop 2,190 Currency: €, official (CHF, de facto; DM, formerly) CHF, official (€, accepted) Area: 7.62 square kilometres 1.6 square kilometres Border 17.141 km Country: Germany Italy Meaning: Settlement of the People of Boso Campilonum – a Roman fort Separation from country: Cut off by 500m Cut off by 1 kmIn addition to our theme music by the talented Thomas O’Boyle, this episode featured a lot of music and sound effects, graciously made available for free by contributors at FreeSound.org, Free Music Archive and Incompatech, for use under a Creative Commons license, by attribution.
The pieces of music you heard under the text were “Swiftwind” and “How I Used to See the Stars” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0. The Overture of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” was performed by the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra (musical director Barbara Schubert), used under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.
Alphorn music and yodelling clips (from the Eidgenössisches Jodlerfest in Brig), as well as the Uileann pipes from the Uileann Pipers Club Schaffhausen Festival were recorded on location by Joe.
The side-by-side Swiss and German phone boxes in Buesingen
A beautifully Germanic house in Buesingen
The shorefront at Campione d’Italia, complete with Italian flag
Italian police car passing in front of the now-shuttered casino in Campione d’Italia
Easter Island or “Rapa Nui” (S2.02)
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast
04/16/17 • -1 min
Welcome to our second episode in season 2 of 80 Days: an exploration podcast. Today we will be exploring the fascinating history and culture of Easter Island.
Named by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, on Easter Sunday in 1722, the island is best known for the 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were built by the early Rapa Nui people. The island is one of the most isolated in the world, lying more than 1,289 miles from its nearest inhabited neighbour, and almost 2,200 miles from the closest continental point, in Chile. The tiny volcanic island consists of just 163.6 km2 or 63.2 sq mi, making it roughly twice the size of Manhattan. The native population, the Rapa Nui, have endured famines, disease, population collapse, civil war, slave raids and colonial power struggles, and the island was most recently annexed by Chile in 1888. Today, Easter Island is home to around 6,000 people, the majority of whom are descended from the original Rapa Nui settlers.
The flag of Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island)
Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne@anbeirneach in Switzerland. (Theme music byThomas O’Boyle) Our guest contributor this week is Dr Mara Mulrooney (Bishop Museum, Honolulu).
Table of Contents:[01:20] Intro – a seriously isolated island
[05:17] Dr Mara Mulrooney – on polynesian explorers
[14:42] The mystery – where did all the people go?
[18:08] Moai – giant stone heads
[27:50] The other explanations for the mystery
[36:53] “Discovery” – Roggeveen, Dutch idiot
[42:32] Was there a Civil War...?
[46:30] Birdman Cult
[53:38] Catholics, slavery, smallpox and Joseph Byrne
[1:07:44] Dutrou Bornier – A bad man
[1:13:55] Salmond and his sheep and Chile takes over
[1:21:11] Mana and the Routledge archaeological expedition
[1:29:23] Thor Heyerdahl expedition
[1:32:15] Pinochet’s law is like Pinochet’s love
[1:37:07] Modern day
If an almost 2 hour podcast doesn’t sufficiently wet your knowledge whistle as it were, feel free to get into some of the bits and pieces from around the internet that we used for background research.
But before that please feast your eyes on the ill-advised result of Mark’s Moai instagram photoshoot.
And now you can check out some of the main reference links for the podcast!
- Polynesian navigators and their mad skills (YouTube)
- Jacob Rogeveen the “discoverer” of Easter Island, except of course for the thousands of people that lived there.
- Robert Krulwich of Radiolab on where all the people went from Easter Island
- Jared Diamond Article on Easter Island in an early article
- Jared Diamonds book “Collapse” which is a bit blamey...
- Blogpost on Dutrou-Bornier (from Osterinsel.de)
- A little bit of Easter Island... right in the centre of London (British Museum)
- Some traditional music (from FestPac2016 in Guam)
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FAQ
How many episodes does 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast have?
80 Days: An Exploration Podcast currently has 75 episodes available.
What topics does 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Places & Travel, Society & Culture, History and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast?
The episode title 'Tierra Del Fuego (S4.09)' is the most popular.
How often are episodes of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast released?
Episodes of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast are typically released every 32 days, 22 hours.
When was the first episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast?
The first episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast was released on Jul 28, 2016.
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