Hickson Drakones

Here be dragons

Early cartographers used to draw monsters in places not yet traveled

as a way of emphasizing the danger of the unknown

If you pull out an old map,

you'll see the empty spaces filled with monsters. Sometimes these monsters turned out

not to be imaginary. They are now known to science. Believe it or not, you can find old maps

with intimidating descriptions of walruses on them. To warn of the dangers of Norway. Today these fears seem

hilarious. Walruses and Norway are now quite low on the list of terrifying things. As species and spaces

become known to science, the monster disappears in both cases.

But the message underlying this, though it can become funny in retrospect, is wise when traveling through the world and through life.

When you go into uncharted territory, proceed as if there are dragons.

Today, we're going to dive down into one of the globe's last uncharted territories.

The deep. Over a mile beneath the ocean's surface.

Here be dragonfish.

Idiocanthus Atlantis.

I'm Mackin.

This is species.

Welcome to the show.

I'm increasingly realizing that the Venn diagram of people who read my writing

and the people who listen to my podcast is far from a perfect circle. I've accidentally created two

separate fan bases and I think this is primarily because one group just doesn't know about the other

...