This is the illusionist in which I Helen Zoltzman say to language, and he'll look

parked, and language says, oh yeah, I'm gasping for a cup of tea, and I say, wait a moment,

I'll just pop the tecton on. What do you want in it? Coming up in today's show, we'll

be getting toasty, not as in warm, or stoned. To warm up, here's some word history. Arctic.

Arctos was the ancient Greek word for bear, but the region is not named after the polar bears

that live on it. It got its name because of the great bear and little bear, the constellations

that are always in the night skies of the northern hemisphere. The brightest star in little

bear is Polaris, the north star, and for the last thousand years or so. The pole star,

as it appears to be stationary above the north pole. So, that which was northerly was in ancient

Greek. Arcticos near the bear. Thus the region up at the top of the world near the bear got

its appellation Arctic. Antarctica is simply a contraction of anti-Arctic as it's at the opposite

side of the globe to the Arctic. And of course, it's bear-free. Quick note, before we begin, if you

visit the allusionist.org slash transcripts, you'll find episode transcripts which are helpful

when the audio is a little unclear as it is in places today. I think you'll understand

why, given the location of some of the guests. On with the show.

Where are you speaking to me from right now?

The geographic South Pole. If it weren't dark outside, Amy Loets could look out the window

and see the actual South Pole marker. I'm here at the South Pole working for the University

of Chicago on the South Pole telescope as a winter telescope operator.

I'm Christine Marin and I'm usually a post-doctoral scholar. I'm on one year leave to operate the

South Pole telescope down here at the South Pole in Antarctica with Amy Loets.

And when did you last see daylight? April? Yeah. I think at least three to four months

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