Best Of: The Map Men On Missing Islands And The Meaning Of Mistakes

1A

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4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Last year, Americans spent more than 300 billion minutes on navigation apps, like Waze or Google Maps.

The GPS systems in our pockets have come a long way from the first known map, carved into a mammoth tusk 30,000 years ago.

But even with satellites tracking us and the ever-changing Earth from the skies – digital maps aren’t fact. Errors can show up and are sometimes as old as maps themselves. The phantom island of Sandy Island appeared on Google Maps until 2012, when Australian scientists sailed to its supposed location and found only open ocean.

Mistakes on maps were sometimes intentional, sometimes not – but every single one tells a bigger story.

How and why did it get there? What does it reveal about the creator of the map and the world around them?

We sit down with Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, better known as the Map Men on YouTube, to talk through these questions and more.

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, whose bequest
0:05.5	serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio and seeks to help NPR produce programming
0:12.2	that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression.
0:31.6	Last year, Americans spent more than 300 billion minutes on navigation apps, such as Ways or Google Maps. The GPS systems in our pockets have come a long way from the first known
0:36.7	map carved into a mammoth tusk
0:38.8	30,000 or so years ago. But even with satellites tracking us and the ever-changing Earth from the
0:44.5	skies, digital maps aren't fact. Errors show up. A continuation of a phenomenon as old as maps
0:51.2	themselves. That's the focus of a new book by comedians and YouTube's Matman, J. Foreman and Mark Cooper Jones.
0:58.0	Their series has more than a million subscribers and explores the weird and wonderful corners of cartography.
1:04.0	Many years ago, being an explorer was the best job in the world.
1:07.0	The perks were obvious.
1:09.0	Months at sea, far from loved ones with a good chance you might starve to death. But these days, there's no such thing as an explorer. And what do you want to be when you grow up? An explorer! Well, you can't because of Google Earth. Satellite technology was the death of discovery, as new aerial images could be used to perfectly map every inch of terry... Hang on, what was that? What was that? What was what? Go back a bit. But it's just ocean. There, that black smudge.
1:30.6	Huh. used to perfectly map every inch of territ. Hang on, what was that? What was what? Go back a bit.
1:28.3	But it's just ocean.
1:29.3	There, that black smudge.
1:30.3	Huh.
1:31.3	Something in the sea has been censored.
1:32.3	Oh, my mistake.
1:33.3	This is the pre-2012 Google map.
1:35.3	In the up-to-date one, it's just empty ocean.
1:37.3	Wait, that's an even bigger mystery.
1:39.3	The Phantom Island of Sandy Island appeared on Google Maps until 2012 when Australian scientists sailed to its
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