The North Pole has attracted explorers for centuries. They faced an unbelievably harsh and dangerous climate, lost fingers and toes to frostbite, or even cut off their own body parts to survive. Many adventurers risked everything to claim it—but why? In our first episode, we’ll meet the generations of explorers who searched for passages to Asia, like Martin Frobisher, William Barents, and Henry Hudson. And we’ll examine how, by the mid-19th century, those quests had turned into an all-out race to the North Pole led by Robert Peary and Matthew Henson.
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01/15/21 • 32 min
Mental Floss Presents: The Quest for the North Pole - Why Go to the North Pole?
Transcript
The Quest for the North Pole is a production of I Heart Radio and Mental Floss. The late winter sun shines weekly on the six man party, who are bundled in furs against the endless white sea ice. Nothing breaks the horizon in any direction, and they are hundreds of miles from their supply ship. For weeks, they've struggled against extreme cold and exhaustion to reach this place. Veteran explorer Robert E. Peery sets up a sexton and a pan of mercur
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