Endurance: Surviving Antarctica | Obsession | 1

Against The Odds

Audible

History, Society & Culture, Atmos, Mike Corey, Cassie De Pecol, Dolby, Dolby Atmos

4.7 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In March 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton works to put together a crew of twenty-eight men to sail from England to Antarctica. It was a new continent untouched by humanity that only the most adventurous men dared to explore—men who yearned to be the first to see what no other person had.

Shackleton wants to be a part of the first group of men to cross the entirety of the frozen continent. He’s already reached the icy continent before, but now, he plans to conquer it.

Exactly 100 years later - three descendants of the crew will attempt a feat Shackleton could not achieve… reach the South Pole. The only problem is that they’re unprepared for the challenges that Shackleton's Antarctica will throw them.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to against the odds at free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:17.0	January 9th, 1909. Ernest Shackleton groans as he trudges through the hard-packed snow.
0:24.4	A bitter headwind cuts through his jacket, freezing his breath and numbing his hands.
0:30.4	The temperature is minus 19 degrees, holds by any standards, but with the wind chill, it's closer to minus 50.
0:38.4	Shackleton's feet and ears are covered with blisters and the black char of frostbite.
0:44.4	He's weakened by hunger and head-splitting altitude sickness.
0:49.4	He and his crew have tracked over 700 miles south across the vast expanse of Antarctic snow.
0:57.4	Their goal is to reach beyond the known world and be the first humans to ever reach the South Pole.
1:03.4	An expedition the public have been calling the Nimrod after the name of the ship.
1:09.4	Their journey has taken almost two and a half months, still before them an endless white plateau of snow and ice.
1:17.4	The pole is out there, somewhere.
1:21.4	Shackleton has been on this continent once before, six years ago.
1:27.4	It was his first Antarctic expedition, under the leadership of Captain Robert Scott.
1:33.4	Scott was brooding and temperamental. He ruled by bullying and absolute authority.
1:39.4	Shackleton was the opposite. He was optimistic, open and warm.
1:45.4	As conditions grew more difficult on that eight-month journey, the tension was thick.
1:51.4	When frostbite and low rations slowed them to a crawl, Scott yelled,
1:57.4	keep going you bloody fools!
2:00.4	But they turned back from the pole nearly 500 miles out.
2:05.4	By the time Shackleton got back to the ship, he was coughing up blood.
2:11.4	Now he has another shot. This time he is leading a four-man crew.
2:17.4	And he isn't going to make Scott's mistakes.
	...

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