This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A Production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

The sauna is packed, cramped full of dozens of researchers pressed against one another.

For four months, they've only had each other as company.

The Amundsen-Scott Research Station is already cramped, but this takes closeness to a whole new level.

Everyone in the cedar box is dripping with sweat, struggling to breathe the hot, humid air.

But just as their heart rate skyrocket and skin flushes deep red, the station's heavy doors creak open, and a biting chill works its way in.

Every survival instinct in their bodies screams in protest, and that's only the beginning, because what I'm describing

right now is one of the most extreme athletic challenges on Earth, and only a handful of people

have even tried to complete it. At any given moment, about 4.8 billion people live in Asia, another

1.5 billion live in Africa, and a billion in the Americas, 750 million in Europe and 50 million

in Oceania. But in Antarctica, the 7th continent, that number is zero. Well, technically,

the number is closer to 1,000.

While Antarctica has no permanent residence per se, it hosts 39 research stations where scientists

spend up to two years studying the bottom of the world. These residences are some of the most

competitive positions on Earth, the fewer than a thousand slots spread across a continent larger

than Europe and twice the size of Australia. But while the chance to live at the South Pole is

rare, the chance to thrive is even more rare. It's tough to unwind from a stressful day at work

...