There was a time in world history when the coolest thing you could be when you grew up was not an influencer or a music artist or a professional athlete.

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the ultimate dream job was an Arctic explorer.

These were men who volunteered for suffering. They signed up knowing they might lose fingers or toes to frostbite, that their ships could be crushed like batch sticks by shifting ice, that starvation was not a possibility, but an expectation. They survived months of darkness, attacks from polar bears, and the slow horror of eating their own sled dogs just to stay alive.

And when they finally emerged years later, gaunt and scarred, they were treated like legends.

Newspapers flashed their faces across front pages, crowds gathered to hear their stories.

They were celebrated as proof of human endurance, courage, and national pride.

These expeditions were framed as triumphs over the unknown, even when they left bodies behind.

But what those headlines rarely captured was the cost. Not just the physical damage, but the mental

toll, the isolation, the hallucinations, the slow

unraveling that happened far from cheering crowds and patriotic speeches. And while some Arctic

expeditions ended in sudden disasters, others ended in something more drawn out and unsettling.

Survival that went on for years, long after the world stopped paying attention.

Welcome to National Park After Dark.

Welcome. Hello, everyone.

Welcome back to National Park After Dark.

My name is Danielle.

I'm Cassie.

And we're going to somewhere that I love when we talk about in episodes,

the Great North. The Great North. the North Pole, if you will,

the Arctic. I'm so excited. The last time we've done an episode up here, I think, was my,

I don't know, I think of my Hot Balloon episode all the time, actually. I loved that episode.

I love that you bring that up because I won't give it away now, but it comes up in this episode. Oh, crossover. Yeah, so put a little pin in that. It was episode 288 and you named it,

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