Dining at the (Other) Top of the World: Hunger, Fruitcake, and the Race to Reach the South Pole

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In contrast to the abundance of the Arctic, in Antarctica, "once you leave the coast, you're basically heading to the moon." Jason Anthony, who spent several summers on the seventh continent, told us that in this desert of ice and stone (where the largest terrestrial animal is a tiny wingless midge), food isn't just important—it's everything. This episode is packed full of stories of survival at Earth's southernmost points, from Heroic Era expedition chefs whipping up croissants on the ice, to desperate Dorito auctions when supplies run low today. Plus, listen in now for the scoop on how food fueled the race to the South Pole—and determined the ultimate winner and loser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At the beginning of this century, two last glittering prices remain to be won, the North and the South Poles.
0:09.0	Then suddenly and unexpectedly in 1999, an American on a dog sledge got to the North Pole first.
0:17.0	Those damn Americans in their dog sleds.
0:21.0	This of course is British National Treasure Sir David Attenborough.
0:25.0	Take it away, Big Dave.
0:26.0	Only one goal now remained, the South Pole.
0:29.0	In 1992, Captain Scott had got to within 430 miles of it. Six years later an Irishman,
0:37.6	Shackleton turned back only 100 miles short of it. So by 1910 when Captain Scott had raised the backing to try again
0:47.7	the entire nation was in a high state of excited expectation. Apparently he had no rival. He was bound to win. What nobody
0:56.9	in Britain knew was that there was in fact a most serious competitor about to show his hand.
1:02.2	A Norwegian called Roald Amundsen.
1:05.0	Dun-Dun-Duh. And what was fueling this race to the pole, their food?
1:10.0	Wait, do we have to stop listening to Attenborough Story Time? I was really relaxing into that.
1:15.5	Sorry, Nicky. Alas, Sir David, while he tells the story of the race to the Pole,
1:19.9	he doesn't tell our story, which is what those explorers were eating and how that decided their
1:25.0	fates.
1:26.0	We, of course, are Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and
1:29.3	history.
1:30.3	I'm Cynthia Graber.
1:30.7	And I'm Nicola Twilly, and this this episode we're still dining at the top of the world.
1:36.2	Or the bottom, depending on which way you're looking at it.
1:39.1	But the food scene in the Antarctic is quite different from the Arctic.
	...

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