Yeah. On the morning of April seven, hundreds of miles from civilization, renowned explorer Robert Edwin Perry crunches over the snow and ice to a spot that only he can identify. As he stares through a sextant to get his bearings, the wind whips ice crystals into his face and freezes his breath in his walrus like mustache. Finally, he's satisfied. After years of trying, he has reached the North Pole. He writes in his journal, The Pole at last, I cannot bring myself to realize it. It all seems so
simple and commonplace. Turns out it would not be so simple. Perry's claimed to be the first man of the North Pole, along with his longtime assistant Matthew Henson, and four indigenous guides, would be challenged for decades afterwards, illustrating the passion and ambition that the North Pole has planted in the minds of explorers for centuries. The quest to reach the North Pole represents the human desire to make sense of mysteries,
to solve riddles of geography and the soul. In the sixteenth century, explorers, driven by dreams of ridges and gold set sail hoping to find a northwest passage to Asia through the frozen Arctic. When explorers didn't quite find what they were looking for, it just wetted their appetites for more expeditions, better technology, and deeper understanding of humanity. As the blank spaces on the map began to be filled in,
explorers sought new challenges. The search for the passage to Asia became a race among nations to be the first at the top of the world. Explorers based down death at every turn, from starvation, exposure, disease, and their own fatal choices. If they lived, explorers earned fame and the admiration of their countrymen, but if they died, their names
became immortal. I'm Catlong, host of The Quest for the North Pole, a new podcast from Mental Floss and I Heart Radio that tells the story of Arctic exploration and examines what pushed explorers to go ever further into the unknown. In each episode, we'll look at the important expeditions and what they found, as well as the tragedies and triumphs of figures like Sir John Franklin, frit Jeff Nonsen, Robert Peary,
and Matthew Henson. We'll also delve into the racial and nationalist dynamics of exploration and recognize many critical roles of indigenous people, without whom few European adventurers would have survived. And we'll learn how the climate crisis is changing the Arctic and polar exploration. Today, we speak with historians and adventurers to bring you insight into the social context and psychology behind the race to the Pole. The Quest for
the North Pole premieres on January. Listen and subscribe on the I heart rate, you app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, M