What's the Most American Place in the World?

Guess what mango?

What's that? Will?

So I was looking up little American influences around the world, you know, like how in Japan a hot dog is called a Hota dog ou, but a corn dog is called an American dog oo.

I love that. What else you got?

Potlucks are called American parties in the Netherlands, and one of my favorites, brass knuckles, are referred to as an American fist from France. But the thing I wanted to tell you about was this little town in Brazil called Americana.

So basically, when the.

Confederacy lost the Civil War, about twenty thousand Confederates fled to Brazil, where they established two colonies. There was New Texas and Americana. But what's crazy is that it still has this touch of America there. You can spot rocking chairs on porches, families still speak English with a Southern drawl, and they still make sweet potato pots. This has all been passed down since the eighteen sixties.

That is crazy.

Yeah, But it got me wondering, if we ever decided to leave America, what's the most non American American place out there? Is it another country? Is it a US territory and what is it that makes America America? I mean, other than corn dogs, of course, let's dive in. Hey,

That's right. We're gonna look at some foreign places that, for one reason or another, have a very distinct American feel. And we're also going to explore a few offshore territories to see which parts of the States have rubbed off on them and to help make.

Sense of these somewhat mysterious locales. Will be talking with Doug Mack, author of the book The Not Quite States of America Now. Doug spend a year touring the US territories and came away with all kinds of amazing information about the parts of our own country that many of us tend to forget even exist.

I'm super excited to talk to him and for our quiest today, we've also got a couple of part time Geniuses calling in from Washington, d C. We're gonna hear their thoughts on living in a city that's got quite a chip on his shoulder thanks to its not quite status.

Yeah, DC residents are not shy about their frustration with the federal District's lack of statehood. I mean, for almost twenty years now, the motto on their license plates has been taxation without representation. Compare that to what most states put on their plates, and you'll get a sense of how heavily the whole not a state thing weighs on them.

I know. Most states use the space to brag about their accomplishments, like Ohio's plate Tatsa as the birthplace of aviation, and Utah uses the plate to boast that they have the greatest snow on earth.

How did Utah determine that it has the best snow in the world. That seems pretty subjective. I mean, who's to say theirs is the greatest?

I know, it's funny because states get away with ridiculous statements like that all the time, like Virginia's for lovers. Come on, now, it.

Was a very scientific study, and it's the same with Utah. Fact checkers have shown that it isn't the driest or the fluffiest or the most abundant snow, but they called their unique mixture of snow the best.

On earth, the unique mixture.

When you try to think of a country that's most like the United States, what comes to mind first?

Oh, it's got to be our neighbor to the north.

Right exactly, or at least in theory.

I mean, Canada is likely the place the average American would say they'd feel most at home. And that's partly because most Americans have a really positive view of Canada. So last September, a poll from NBC and The Wall Street Journal showed that seventy five percent of American surveyed viewed Canada favorably. Well, only three percent had a negative view of Canada. And by the way, those were the

That's pretty incredible. But I mean, I don't know who those three percent are, because I can't imagine anyone actively disliking Canada me either. Everyone knows they're pretty much like the nicest people on earth, plus their land of great comedy, like Lorne Michaels, Samantha bead kids in the.

Hall, that's right.

I was going to say kids in the hall mainly just kids in the hall, right, So what's not to like? But you know what's funny, Remember how much love Canada got the night of the twenty sixteen election. Sure, as the votes were tallied, there were all these reports about Canada's immigration site crashing due to a stampede of less than enthused Americans. But what's interesting is that it wasn't

Yeah, Well, the underlining thought is clearly that even if life in Canada isn't the same as life in the US, it's close enough.

Yeah, Hopping the border to Canada is apparently the plan B for lots of Americans, or at least they pretend it is. It's kind of a if things go south, I'll go north mentality. But the reality is it's a whole lot harder to immigrate to Canada than most people think. Even if you have a job in Canada, even if you're married to a Canadian, becoming a citizen can be

Really?

I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a great deal of crossover, but it's hardly a.

One to one.

Yeah, Canadian culture isn't too far from what we find stateside, and the food, for the most part, isn't that exotic, though they do have stuff like proutine flavored potato chips and camel meat apparently.

Yeah, I don't think that sounds very American.

Because we share the same continent, our economies and environmental concerns are intertwined. But yet there would definitely be some growing pains involved for American transplants. For example, According to Canadian Business, buying stuff online is much more of a challenge in Canada than it is in the US.

I like that you go straight to shopping as the litmus tests for whether a place feels truly American. But okay, what makes e commerce worse in Canada is that the spotty Wi.

Fi not exactly in fact, Canadians are more likely to have access to the Internet than residents of any other G twenty nation, and that includes the US. Canadian citizens have long since embraced the digital age, but Canadian businesses are a totally different story. Fewer than half of all Canadian companies have websites, much less the ability to sell their products online.

Well, that would.

Definitely be a rude awakening for many Americans, and I think the weather in Canada would be an even ruder one. I don't want to blow your mind here, Mango, but it gets pretty chilly in Canada.

Yeah, that's a good point. There are parts of the US that experience some freezing cold winters, but that's true of all of Canada. In fact, Canada vies with Russia for the title of coldest country in the world. Oh wow, The average daily annual temperature in the Great White North a bomby twenty two degrees fahrenheit.

Iike's just thinking about that makes me want to reach for the thermostat. So but I'm glad we're touching on climate. That's one of the major points of departure you're going to run into with any stand in for the States.

Yeah, our location in the sheer size of the continental US allows for a lot of diversity in terms of geography and climate. That's an aspect of life in America that's tough for a lot of regions to match, even if they do have same data delivery from Amazon. But I think the biggest obstacle in trying to find another country that feels American is the history itself.

What do you mean by that, Well, a.

Country's history and the sense that it's shared by the people who live there. That's a large part of what makes a place feel like home. Countries like Canada and Australia have similar histories of European colonization to that of the US. That's maybe part of the reason they feel more American. Does Still, all the specifics of those histories and the cultures they spurred are very different, and it's those kind of details that really seem to help us identify ourselves as Americans.

Yeah, that sounds right to me. I mean, imagine in America where the people didn't feel a swell of pride when they spotted the Statue of Liberty, or feel a twinge of childhood nostalgia when they heard notes from Yankee Doodle could you ever really say a place like that felt American? Well, plenty of people wouldn't be so lofty and describing what makes America America. I mean, it's not for nothing that we have the largest economy in the world. Americans like to spend money, and we have tons of

Whoa, they're really catching off.

In fact, US sales now only account for about thirty one percent of McDonald's total revenues, according to Investipedia. The rest comes from countries that are fast adapting to American taste. And it's not just burgers. The KFC chain has become ubiquitous in Asian markets.

Yeah, I get that. I mean KFC has been steadily expanding in both Japan and China for the past decade. China has even overtaken the US for a number of total KFCs, more than forty five hundred.

Oh wow, So as Kentucky Fried Chicken more Chinese than America.

Now, well, it's actually more Japanese.

Oh really, how's that for one thing?

KFC's mascot, Colonel Sanders, is hugely popular in Japan. He's emphasized in all the marketing, the employee uniforms, even in his trademark bulow tie. They even have a Colonel mascot costume with a big Emoji style head for the customers to take selfies with.

It's a little bit creepy. I mean, he was also the founder, right, a real person. It's sort of like if Disneyland had employees wearing big Walt Disney mask prowling the park instead of Mickey Mouse.

Thankfully, that's something even the international Disney parks have avoided doing. But it does get me thinking, could Disney theme parks be some of the most American places in the world.

Well, you might be onto something there. Last year, Branding magazine pulled nearly five thousand people between sixteen and sixty five. They asked him to evaluate the patriotism of two hundred and forty eight US brands.

Any idea who was at the top of the list.

I'm gonna go on a limb here and say, uh, Disney.

That's right.

In fact, ninety eight percent associated the Disney brand with US patriotism.

Yeah, a study, exposure to American brands in entertainment has gone a long way toward making other parts of the world feel a little more American, for better or for worse. In fact, that's even true of our own offshore territories, which are their own unique mixes of island native and modern American col Very true.

But before we get into the strange, not at all straightforward world of US territories, what do you say we check in with our DC residents for an all American quiz?

Let's do it.

So, who do we have on the line today? Mango?

We have Drake and Don who are both DC residents and in a strange coincidence, both of them have traveled to nearly all fifty states.

Oh wow, yeah, So let's start with you. Will, You've been to forty nine states, Is that right?

That's right?

So which one is missing on the list?

I have not been to North Dakota yet.

To North Dakota, it's going to say Hawaii or Alaska. So what do you have against North Dakota.

Well, if you think about everything that's cool to visit in the Dakota's whether it's Rushmore or Deadwood or Rapid City, that's all South Dakota.

Man, all of our North Dakota listeners are going to be so angry after hearing this. This could get out definitely.

Well yeah, yeah, alright, Well that's still pretty impressive. And don I think you've been to what is it forty.

Eight I've been to forty eight states?

Yes, all right?

And what's missing on your list?

So what's missing is Wyoming and Alaska. But so as somebody that has visited North Dakota, you haven't lived until you've had dinner in Bismark.

Some bulled words, I like that.

Yeah, all right.

Well, actually, Drake, you're also in the process of striking off another list, and that is visiting every Major League baseball park in America. Now, how many of you hit at this point?

As of a few days ago twenty six wow.

Okay, all right, twenty six out of how many are there?

Thirty?

Yeah?

Okay, okay, well done. All right, well let's get to it. We've got two DC residents here to play a game. And what's the game called Mango?

It's a little quiz called DC or not DC?

All right, So we'll read a statement about Washington DC, and if you think it's true, you'll say d C. If you think it's false, you'll say not DC. Not that confusing, all right, So you'll be working as a team. We thought DC residents need to stick together and all of their anger over not being a state, So we're gonna let you collaborate, you guys. Ready, I good, Ready,

I'm not sure the date, but that sounds right. What do you think done?

I don't know why it would have been nineteen sixty I'm gonna go not DC. Actually, I think I think we've been able to vote presidential longer.

I'm gonna deffer.

He's deferring, such a gentleman, but unfortunately.

It is d C. The twenty third Amendment gave them the right. Yeah, and they first exercised that right in the nineteen sixty four elections.

So don was actually thinking along the right lines of like why would it be nineteen sixty one when it wasn't exercised until sixty four. So I think we should give him half a point for like putting that reasoning together.

So let's let's do that.

So just like DC's have to state that's.

Right, all right, not even all right? Question number two.

Underneath d C, there's a semi secret metro line that runs congressmen and staffers between the office buildings. That is true, all right, absolutely, yeah, Yeah.

What's it called.

It's called a Capital Subway system, and it makes over two hundred runs a day.

Oh wow, okay, all right, so they have one and a half points so far. Let's see what happens next. Question number three. When Nixon accepted the gift of two pandas to DC's national Zoo, he returned the favor by sending them a pair of RCA speakers and a collection of Danny k records.

D C or not DC, it's just dumb enough that it might be true.

I don't know, you think that sounds like that sounds like a tacky, tacky American thing to do.

Who is it, Danny K?

Yeah? Is that not the jam you were listening to before you call it?

I just turned off the eight tracks.

I'm gonna go DC.

Yeah, it's actually not d C. Nixon actually sent them a gift that was way tack here a pair of Muskoks named Milton and Matilda, and according to the New York Times, they weren't exactly quality cattle. Milton in particular was complaining of post nasal drip, a cough, and his hair seemed to be falling out on arrival.

What a sweet gift. God, Okay, all right, I sense the stormback. They've got three questions left, all right? Question number four. While Washington, d C. Isn't a state, it does have a listed state flower, the American Beauty Rose DC or not DC.

You know what it sounds to me like, it's probably right?

Yeah, you're right, d Here we go, two questions left. The first show, Viz Pizza, opened in Washington, d C. In nineteen eighty. Vice President George Bush joins Spain's ambassador to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony DC or not DC?

Where does this stuff come from history books or not? There's no way that's true.

I think Don should probably agree with you.

Let's see correct, all right? To finish up strong for the big prize, here we go Question number six. Spiked dog collars were invented in Washington, d C. By famed dog breeder Gareth Winchester to make his Bassett hounds look more intimidating. DC or not DC.

I'm going I'm going correct.

Who is Gareth Winchester?

We don't know who Gareth Winter? Say that name up?

Well, okay, so how have these guys done?

Our contestants got a stunning four point five out of five. So not only will they get the note to their mom or boss from us singing their praises, but we're also sending them a vintage Republican Congressional cookbook filled with delicious American recipes fans of any political party can enjoy.

So congratulations Don and Drake. Thanks for joining us on Part Time Genius.

Thank you guys.

You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the most American places in the world. So Mango, we've been focusing on places that somehow feel American despite being outside of the United States.

But before the break, you've touched on the topic of US territories.

Yeah, the territories are like these incredible scattered American gens that are sadly overlooked by most of US. Puerto Rico is the most famous by far of the five inhabited US territories, the other four being the US Virgin Islands, which is also in the Caribbean, plus American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. They're also about a dozen uninhabited islands that also technically count as American soil.

All right, so there are five of them. That is not something I could have told you before. And I feel like we need a way to commit them to memory. And you know how much I like namonic device is mango. Can we just take a minute to come up with a good way to remember all five.

That's a great idea, Okay, So we go by population size from largest to smallest. That gives US Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands pg U A N.

I was kind of hoping it would make a word by myself. All right, well let's think about this then. How about let's see pg u a peguan.

That's not a word, all right. Pancakes grow under.

A nice tree, and nice tree is one word, by the way, so don't call me out on that.

Pancakes grow under a nice tree. That's how you remember.

Oh that's good. Or maybe pickles get ugly after man. I was gonna say knifing, but that's supposed the k or gnawing, which starts to the G stupid silent letter. How about pickles get ugly after negotiations? Negotiations, Yeah, negotiations will wear anyone down. I was going to suggest neglect there, yeah, if, But negotiation is just funny to picture and easier to remember.

All right, good point.

Okay, I think we both nailed it, But we know our listeners are smarter than we are.

So let's make this a contest. Come up with a.

Better mnemonic for how to remember the five US territories, and we'll award our favorite three with part Time Genius t shirts. Just send your entries along with your mailing address to part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com, or you can find us on Facebook or Twitter.

I can't wait to hear from them. Okay, back to the territories.

Okay, we should note that we're following Doug Max's lead on this by kind of broadly grouping them all together as territories. But the logistics are a little more nuanced than that.

Right. A territory can either be organized or unorganized, and also incorporated or unincorporated. And then there are Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, which are officially commonwealth rather than territories. It's all maybe a little too nuanced for us to get into here.

Yeah, I know.

There are all these distinctions that are used to describe the extent to which the Constitution and federal laws applies, well as whether a place is fully considered.

Part of the US. It's actually kind of a big mess.

You can really tell that the territories were acquired without any solid long term plan for them. I mean, all but nineteen of the current fifty states started out as US territories, but that path to statehood has never seemed like a serious option for places like Guam in the Virgin Islands.

Right.

Which isn't to say that the US claimed than without any rhyme or reason though.

Yeah, why do we start grabbing up offshore of territories anyway? I know America was young, scrappy, and hungry to borrow a phrase from Hamilton, but we were looking for ways to assert ourselves as a full blown empire in the eyes of the rest of the world. But that seems, I don't know, sort of impractical.

Well, we definitely did want that seat at the big boy table, and expanding the country's boundaries certainly got us closer to that goal. But there was actually a more practical reason too, And you're gonna like this one, but back in the early eighteen hundreds, our farming game wasn't so strong yet.

Here in the States.

We were producing tons and tons of tobacco and cotton, but at the expense of the soil, which was fast losing all of its nutrients.

Yeah, I guess George Washington Carver was still quite a few years off, so crop rotation wouldn't have be in vogue at the time.

That's right.

Well, we were exhausting the soil, and since industrialization was still a ways off, it was becoming a very big problem for our fledgling economy. So what's a young growing nation to do but start mining bird poop from the barren islands off its shores.

Wait, that's why we have this territory, well many of them.

Yeah, these remote islands had been flyover spots for seabirds for thousands of years. All those years of daily deposits allowed for some pretty hefty build ups of utria rich fertilizer. I'm not kidding, And that's what American farmers needed. So Congress passed the Guano Islands Act in eighteen fifty six, and we started calling DIBs on all the unclaimed islands we could find.

You're right, that is practical.

And kind of gross.

Yeah, but it also doesn't explain why we've continued to hold onto these territories.

I mean, we aren't.

Exactly hard up for fertilizer anymore, and my friends in the guano mining industry telling me the work has dropped off significantly over the past two hundred years or so. I get that nations aren't chomping at the bit to give up land. There's only so much of it in the world, after all, But to be more to it, I.

Think it has a lot to do with what the US got in addition to copious mounds of bird poop. When a nation claims territory, it doesn't just get the land itself. It gains possession of surrounding waters for miles and miles in all directions. That means cart blanc access to fishing and undersea minerals and shipping lanes.

Well, not to mention the opportunity for tourism. That's big business for the territories today, one of the reasons they feel so American in some ways, even though their official status is a little shaky.

Yeah, that was one of the things that jumped out to me while reading Doug Max's book. A few of the US territories are total tourist magnets, but it isn't always the people you'd expect to be visiting. Like take the Virgin Islands, for example. Unlike the Guano Rich Islands, the US bought these from Denmark in the early nineteenth century. Today, Danes flocked to the US Virgin Islands to get a

Well, we have established that Americans love shopping, but it's a little sad to hear Americans mostly think of the territories as beachfront.

Mall right, And in some cases they're not so much shopping destinations for Americans as they are for international tourists who want to feel American.

You're thinking of Guam, I'm guessing exactly.

Aside for the local population, Guam is almost entirely made up both navy and air force personnel and an endless stream of tourists from Russia, China, Japan, even Korea, And for the sake of survival, the people from Guam have

It was for the steakhouse which are in Japanese.

That's fair.

That reminds me of how perhaps Blue Ribbon was rebranded in China for luxury markets and sold for like eighty dollars a bottle because not only was it American, but it won a Blue Ribbon.

And yet ziem a gold can't get any international love despite having that gold in the title.

I'm not sure that's what the gold stood for. But of all the territories, Guam really stands out for catering to a particular breed of tourists, those who want to experience all the cliche excess of US culture without actually visiting the States. And I mean it sounds like those visitors get exactly what they're after. Just listen to Doug's

It just makes me feel patriotic.

Yeah, that really does sound like America, or maybe just Vegas. But the territories do have places that are purposefully set up to feel like mainland America. But what about the people who lived there? I know that, with some exceptions, they are American citizens, but do they seem like Americans right?

Well, we know they got the shopping thing down pat but maybe we should also take a look at the aspects of history and culture that we talked about earlier. I think those will really be deciding factors for what territories can be considered places that truly feel American.

But before we get into that, let's break for a quiz.

So, our guest today is the author of this terrific book we're discussing the not Quite States of America. After realizing just how little he knew about the United States territories, he set off on a globe hopping quest covering more than thirty thousand miles to see them all, and he's here for us to ask him questions about every single one of those miles.

Doug Mack, Welcome to Part time Genius.

Hi, thanks for having me.

So, Doug, tell us.

How this book idea came about and how long it took to make it happen. I mean, thirty thousand miles is no short track to see all of these places.

No, it's certainly not.

So.

I have a degree, a bachelor's degree in American studies, but in four years of study, we never even once

And so was was your travel to any one of these places more surprising than others?

Yeah?

So all of the territories have a really interesting combination of what we would think of as sort of like familiar American culture and then and then their own region, right. So like the US Virgin Islands. One of the very first things that I saw as we're driving in from the airport was there's a big baseball stadium with a big poster saying there's going to be some major league stars appearing in a couple of weeks. You know, you kind of expect that as in part of the USA.

Now you write a little bit about, you know, their thinking and the various territories on the possibility of statehood, but in general, were you surprised at the feelings from place to place on the idea of achieving statehood?

Yeah, well I was.

I was surprised by sort of the level of complexity on that because there's no current dried answer, right, so, and it varies from place to place. You know, Puerto Rico certainly has has the biggest debate that a lot of people who were very strongly in favor of becoming independent nation they want nothing to do with the USA. Plenty of other people want to become a state, and you know, certainly they have the population and then everything

Yeah, Now, which of these territories would you say, if you had to pick one to say is the most American?

What would you say?

Possibly Guam They have the world's largest kmart is on Gwam.

Yeah.

I took a tour the island with with a military Veterans motorcycle club and they have amazing barbecue that's that's very much their own, their own thing, with a particular marinade that's that's kind of unique to to the Mariana Islands.

All right, Well, Menga, what game are we playing with Doug today?

Because Doug wrote the Not Quite States of America, we're saddling him with a game called the not Quite Brilliant Quiz.

All right, So we've scoured newspapers and media headlines for the phrase not quite something, and we want you to fill in the blank. But to help you out, we'll give you a rhyming clue as well. This is one of more and more complicated games. So no pressure, right, yeah, no pressure at all. But are you Are you ready to play?

Doug?

I think so?

Okay, here we go. All right, so question number one.

I'll give you the clue first, The answer rhymes with an abbreviation for corporation. The answer rhymes with an abbreviation for corporation.

All right.

In an Atlanta Journal Constitution story headlined speeding man had alien doll passenger, the driver clocked in at eighty four miles per hour or not quite blank speed.

Warp.

Yes, morph rhymes yes one for one.

Okay.

Clue for number two.

This answer rhymes with the title of a Monty Python Broadway musical.

Okay, the question is.

The New Yorker titled a movie about a Jackie O wanna be not quite blank?

Oh came, that's rights right, camelot right, yeah, and it rhymes with spam a lot.

Well done? Two for two, all right, question number three, there's two left. Here we go.

The clue is This answer rhymes with how you describe a monkey named George In a city am car review, the paper called a new automobile fast but not quite blank.

Curios.

Yay, curious.

I'll thank my toddler daughter and her book collection.

That one.

All right, Last one here, This answer rhymes with spam gurgler, which isn't a.

Word that makes sense. Okay.

The question is a New Jersey radio station referred to a man who tried to rob a Burger King as not quite blank.

It's probably not Ronald McDonald. That would be the hamburgler.

Yes, well done, all right, So how do Doug you mango?

So Doug win incredible four for four, which wins our hard earned admiration, which is also known as our number one best not quite prized.

All right, congratulations Doug, and thanks so much for being on part time genius. I hope all of you will check out not quite states dot com to find out about Doug's book tour on August first, he'll be in New York. August second, he'll be in Boston. But you can see on the website for his other stops. Safe travels, Doug, and thanks a lot for writing a great book.

Yeah, thanks for having me appreciate it.

So we were talking about all the things that make the not quite states of America feel like the real thing. So what's the scoop on the local Well, I think one of the main similarities to people's stateside is that people in the territories have this really strong sense of sharing the load.

There are these really tightly knit communities of families and friends that look out for one another despite having to constantly compete for resources. In some cases, this is especially true of American Samoa, which is one of the less developed, not as touristy territories.

Yeah, American Samoa is an interesting case and is the only inhabited territory that's neither incorporated nor organized. It's actually the least American territory in a legal sense. But on the other hand, the locals have a culture that closely mirrors part of the mainland lifestyle.

What do you think about Well, for one thing.

American Samoans love football, and they're really good at it too. American football, of course, so Christian missionaries introduced the locals to rugby a long time ago. So when American television brought the NFL to the region, many players made the switch from a European pastime to a more American one. In fact, there were twenty eight NFL players of American Samoan descent at the start of the twenty fifteen twenty sixteen season. They've really taken to it.

That's awesome. I've also heard their avid web surfers because the internet speeds are crazy fast. They're like faster than they are here on the mainland. Oh and another really telling fact about American Samoa is its military enlistment rate.

It is pretty high, isn't it the highest?

I mean, American Samoa has the greatest enlistment rate and casualty rate of any US territory or state.

Wow, that is incredible.

Yeah.

And the craziest part is that the American Samoans are only considered American nationals, not full citizens. So they are fighting and all too often dying for a country that doesn't even recognize them as its citizens. Which is kind of heartbreaking.

Yeah, that is heartbreaking, especially when you consider how strong the sense of patriotism is there, like apart from a shared love of football and fast food. By the way, there are two McDonald's on the island. The people that really take pride in being American. But what's the difference between being a national and a citizen.

It's confusing. So I'm going to quote Columbia law professor Christina Duffy Ponza here. Congress originally refused to give the inhabitants of the new territories citizenship, but the court decided

That's a great point. So mainland Americans have a tendency to overlook their connection to the territories, but the people who live there could never be accused of ignoring American identity. I mean, with few exceptions, there isn't even a major push for independence or autonomy within the territories.

It's crazy.

Most seem perfectly content, proud even to maintain their connection to the US, even if it hasn't treated them completely fairly in the past.

That's right. Puerto Rico definitely stands the best chance of achieving statehood and seems the most eager to do so, but even that's uncertain and not likely to happen anytime soon. There are few factors on its side, though, specifically the population and the sheer size of its land mass. It's much bigger than the other territories, and it's actually larger

Wow.

Yeah, and the size alone helps lend an American feel to Puerto Rico. Like we mentioned earlier, the mainland US is big, which gives it a lot of diversity in terms of climate and geography. Puerto Rico is the only territory that's big enough to have entire sections that look and feel completely differently from one another, complete with their own local vibes and cultural quirk.

That definitely helps Puerto Rico feel more American. And while I hate to steer us back to shopping, I really want to mention that Puerto Rico is home to just about every American brand you can think of, including Macaroni, Grill, Costco, Sam's Club, cheesecake factory. They even have the first Macy's department store outside the Connello US. Wow.

So another taste of the American experience for tourists, right.

Well, that's the thing. Doug Max suggests that unlike Guam or some of the other more crossly commercial parts of the territories. Puerto Rico feels extra American because those are the locals tastes, not the tourists.

Oh that is interesting.

I know.

It tells us that the reason Puerto Rico is home to the highest concentration of walmarts in the world is not because it's trying to appeal to outsiders with American tastes. It's because they're trying to peel to Americans, or in other words, to themselves. I like that.

Still the most American places in the world, so those are in America?

Is that the cheating, Well, it's something we could all probably stand to remember more often until we can easily rattle off the territories and their capitals like we do for states. I'm gonna have to give us a pass. But one case where cheating is never tolerated, the part time genius backed off. What do you say, will all right?

Bring it on? So.

Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant during World War two, was stationed in Guam when the war ended. The only problem he didn't know the war ended and hidden the Jungles for nearly twenty eight years. He survived on a diet of frogs, rats, and other small animals. So what happened when he was finally found by a couple of unters in nineteen seventy two. He was allowed to return to Japan and live out the rest of his life as a celebrity.

So what are some of the most American places in the States? Going by name alone, there are quite a few cities worthy of the title, including three named Independents, two named Freedom, and a whopping nine named Liberty, not to mention the ones that crib directly from the country's names, such as American Fork, Utah, American Falls City, Idaho, and American Canyon, California.

Do you know? In twenty thirteen, Samoa Era started a very un American policy where they started charging people airfare based on their weight.

Oh wow, well.

Their weight and their luggages. Wait. And when people were furious about it, they just countered, well, you'll pay less for your kids.

So, according to Thrillist, in the mcguau neighborhood of Tokyo, aspiring Japanese cowpokes and stetson and wranglers, Line danced to the sound of Brad Paisley at the Little Texas Honky tonk Bar.

You know what a sucker I am for wranglers and Honky tonk Bar, I know you are, so I hate to say it, but I've got to give it to you for this episode.

Well, I'm thrilled to have won this week, but I don't have to be the only one. Listeners, Remember to send your submissions for our Territories Mnemonic contest. There are big prizes on the line. And that's it for today's episode of Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.

Christan McNeil does the editing thing.

Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing.

Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.

Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including.

Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eves.

Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.

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