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Short Stuff: Arctic Fox · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck. We're just a couple of Foxes, Silver Foxes
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: with our pal Jerry silver is fox of all. My
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: hair's got a little great to it now. Yeah, your
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: beard super gray. Now it's been gray for a while,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: but now I'm now that the gray is creeping into
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  Speaker 1: the old upstairs. I've been plucking mine, no, sure what,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you don't care, do you? Mine sometimes comes in a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: little wiry, and I'm like, I don't really like that
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: look on my super straight hair, so I do pull
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: them out when they come in like that. Sure Head
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Pubes kind of a little bit more looked like a
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: roadie for Tesla. Oh you mean Jimmy Head Pube Barrington, Yeah,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the guitar tech. That's right. He was a great one,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: but his hair was messed up. I'll hit him with
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: some smoke. That's right, man, That guy old inside joke
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: from our Detroit show. Some of you know what, some
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of you don't. But we're here to talk about the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Arctic fox, one of the cuter little critters on planet Earth. Right,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: So the Arctic fox is adorable, um, and it's uh
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  Speaker 1: of of in the same families dogs, which makes it
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  Speaker 1: automatically lovable. But the fact that they can survive in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: some of the most inhospitable environments on the planet, it
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: makes them admirable. So there a adorable bowl. Okay, yeah,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I got it. Nice Portmanteau, thank you. Yeah. So the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Arctic fox Just go ahead, if you're in a place
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: where you're not driving and look up a little picture
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  Speaker 1: of these little fellas or you're not crossing the street
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: right now. That's right. But they are I keep saying
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: little because they are small. Uh like foxes are small.
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  Speaker 1: The Arctic foxes even smaller. They can be as small
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: as a little chihuahua and by the way, big thanks
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to our old pals. At how stuff works with this one.
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  Speaker 1: Or they can get huge, like the size of a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: jack russell right there. They can get up to eight pounds.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: That's right. So um when I said though, that they
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: can survive in some really inhospitable environments like the areas
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: where they live, the circumpolar areas Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Northern Europe, Russia. UM, basically in the in the Arctic,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: um they like they have to put up with temperatures
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: that drop into like negative fifty degrees celsius, which is
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: negative fifty eight degrees fahrenheit, which reminded me chuck of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what episode it was, but remember Seemo
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Hia the White Death. Yeah, And we talked about how
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: he he was, um he was, you know, basically sniping
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  Speaker 1: Russian soldiers when it was like negative forty degrees fair
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: fahrenheight and fifty people rode in and said, negative forty
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: is the same in fahrenheight and celsius. I will never
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: forget that, And I just wanted to say it again
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: that I still remember after all these years. So remember that.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Uh So, what's astounding about the Arctic fox is that
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  Speaker 1: it can survive in those kind of temperatures, and they
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  Speaker 1: can do so for a lot of reasons. There are
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  Speaker 1: a lot of really pretty spectacular evolutionary adaptations that allow
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: this to happen, and one of those is just that
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: little size. The fact that they're small, they're compact. They
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: have little legs, a little short muzzles, and they have
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: little small ears, so they don't have a lot of
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: surface area to begin with exposed exposed to that cold, right, right.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So that's that's one big thing. They also have the
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  Speaker 1: warmest coat of any Arctic animal. It has multiple layers
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and probably any animal wouldn't you think I would guess? So, yeah,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I now that you mention it. Um, they like they
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: can trap a layer of air which is heated by
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: their body heat, which in turn keeps them warm. So
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: it like protects them from the outside cold or air.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing. And then um, the couded gras, the
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  Speaker 1: death blow about their pelt is the fluffy tail on
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  Speaker 1: the and that they actually used to cover their head
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  Speaker 1: and face with when they curl up to sleep. Adorable.
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  Speaker 1: That is awfully adorable. It's true. They also have hair.
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  Speaker 1: They're the only canad that has hair over their footpads.
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  Speaker 1: So not only does that just add even more insulation,
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  Speaker 1: but it helds some walk on the snow. And then
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  Speaker 1: they have countercurrent blood circulation. Uh, And this is what's
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: gonna happen. They're gonna reduce the blood flow to their
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  Speaker 1: feet to make sure those little paws don't get frost bitten.
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  Speaker 1: And then when it gets really really cold, their actual
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  Speaker 1: metabolism um shifts by about slower than it is during
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  Speaker 1: the summer to you know, to basically warm them up
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  Speaker 1: to keep them from having to eat as much when
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  Speaker 1: there's not as much food, So their body undergoes a
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  Speaker 1: metabolic change to survive those winters. Yeah, kind of like
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  Speaker 1: a walking quasi hibernation, and so that they use up
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  Speaker 1: less fat stores that they build up in the fall.
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  Speaker 1: Totally pretty cool. And one thing I didn't realize about
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  Speaker 1: the Arctic fox, in addition to just about everything we've
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  Speaker 1: just said, um that they come in two colors. There's
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  Speaker 1: a blue variety of an Arctic fox, which is awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Did you see those? I think it's like that white
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  Speaker 1: that's so white it looks blue. Well, it's sort of
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  Speaker 1: a gray to um. It certainly doesn't look blue blue.
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  Speaker 1: So if you get excited to go see a blue
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  Speaker 1: animal or a blue mammal, don't get your hopes up
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  Speaker 1: too much. But it's you know, I have a problem.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not color blind or anything. But Emily always sees
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  Speaker 1: colors more uh and more deeply, I guess than I do.
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  Speaker 1: So she might see one and call it blue, but
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  Speaker 1: I didn't think. I mean, I see one in the
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  Speaker 1: Google image results, and it's pretty blue. I see the
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  Speaker 1: gray you're talking about as well, but it's you know,
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  Speaker 1: people do all sorts of cookie things with uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: post production with photographs now, so who knows what they
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  Speaker 1: did with that? See me that blue fox? Will you sure?
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: In a box? Sure, I'm gonna go get them, And
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you could go get them. Some people do keep them
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  Speaker 1: as pets from time to time, but those are people
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  Speaker 1: who live up in Arctic areas. You wouldn't want to
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  Speaker 1: get one and bring them down to Georgia because they
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: would be extremely uncomfortable and that would be cruel. But also, chuck,
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  Speaker 1: they apparently make really terrible pets as well, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I think they're known as super super stinky. I think
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  Speaker 1: they have a urine that's it's sort of like skunk like,
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  Speaker 1: so they're smelly. They're very very hard to train, although
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  Speaker 1: they say you can train them, but they it's just
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  Speaker 1: it's probably not a great idea if you're for a pet.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're living up in the Arctic, you
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  Speaker 1: don't have a lot of choices, Go ahead and get
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  Speaker 1: an Arctic fox and see what you can do. But
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  Speaker 1: don't don't live in Miami Beach and think you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: be cool and have some exotic pet, because it's illegal.
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  Speaker 1: A and just unethical. B Right, there you go. It
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  Speaker 1: covers both boxes. Should we take a break, I think
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: we should. We'll come back with more about the Arctic fox.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: So what do these little boogers eat? Um? So apparently
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: so since they're canaids, they should be carnivores um, even
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: hyper carnivores I've seen, but they're they're technically omnivores because
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  Speaker 1: food supplies can get so scarce that Arctic foxes have
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: been known to eat basically whatever will sustain them, including
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: seaweed and berries, but typically they prefer meat. Sure, they
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: will load up, increasing their weight by up to as
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  Speaker 1: that hard, hard winter sets in store up that body fat.
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  Speaker 1: And if you see a polar bear in the Arctic hunting,
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  Speaker 1: you will probably find at least one or more Arctic
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  Speaker 1: foxes trailing u not too far behind, because they will
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  Speaker 1: follow those polar bears around and get whatever little scraps
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  Speaker 1: that polar bear can't get to. That's right. One of
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  Speaker 1: the great things about Arctic foxes is they can hunt
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  Speaker 1: year round because of their little ears. Their ears are
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  Speaker 1: super wide. They're short, but they're wide, and they can
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  Speaker 1: actually hear stuff like some of their prey moving under
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  Speaker 1: the snow and so uh if you've ever seen a
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  Speaker 1: video of an Arctic fox pounce, it's adorable. But they
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  Speaker 1: will go, it's so great, and then straight down to
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  Speaker 1: like kind of break through the snow and land on
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  Speaker 1: top of their prey and catch their prey. And um,
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  Speaker 1: I will one up you. The Arctic fox pouncing is adorable.
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  Speaker 1: Momo does that to lizards, and really it makes an
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  Speaker 1: Arctic fox look like garbage. It's so cute, man, you
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  Speaker 1: see the videos. In the snow, this Arctic fox will
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  Speaker 1: literally leap up in the air and then half of
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  Speaker 1: it will disappear beneath the snow, and all you will
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  Speaker 1: see sticking up is a butt and rear legs and
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  Speaker 1: that big old fluffy tail and then they'll you know,
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  Speaker 1: there might be a mouse, you know, two feet down
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  Speaker 1: into that snow that they smelled from many many feet away. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: So I highly recommend. I doubt if Josh is going
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  Speaker 1: to post pictures or videos of Momo of doing this
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  Speaker 1: on YouTube, but you can find plenty of Arctic foxes
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  Speaker 1: doing it. I'll try to find I'll try to get
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  Speaker 1: a video of it actually if you can. Yeah, it's
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  Speaker 1: not adorable for the mice, but it is to everybody else. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but you know it's part of the food chain. It
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  Speaker 1: is true. So um, if you are a male Arctic fox,
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  Speaker 1: they call you a dog, sure, sometimes with the a
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  Speaker 1: W instead of an ode, depending on how good a
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  Speaker 1: friends you are with the person calling you that. If
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  Speaker 1: you're a female, what do you call chuck? Your vixen?
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  Speaker 1: That's awesome, which I love. And just like other foxes,
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  Speaker 1: I think other foxes are kits little babies if I'm
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: not mistaken, and you know, they've made about once a year,
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  Speaker 1: they have about twenty they're born dark usually at first
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  Speaker 1: about twenty little dark kits, and they are adorable. They
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: give birth in the blazing summer months of like a
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  Speaker 1: sort of spring to summer April through June, and usually
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  Speaker 1: wean about forty five days and sometimes their siblings will
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  Speaker 1: help raise them, which is also pretty cute. Yeah. And
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  Speaker 1: then by the time they hit nine to ten months
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  Speaker 1: of age, actually within six months, they're off on their own.
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  Speaker 1: And then in nine to ten months they're sexually mature, um,
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  Speaker 1: and they have a really compressed initial you know, adolescents
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  Speaker 1: and um initial maturation period because they don't live that long. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: I think in like, if you have an Arctic fox
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  Speaker 1: as a pet, they've been known to live ten to
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  Speaker 1: twelve years, kind of similar to a dog, although small
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  Speaker 1: dogs often live longer than that by several years. But
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  Speaker 1: I guess the longest anyone's ever documented an Arctic fox
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  Speaker 1: living is sixteen years. Yeah, and in the grand scheme
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  Speaker 1: of thing, I think in the wild, you're probably looking
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: at more like eight years. Yeah. I mean it's a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: lot harder life in the wild, I would guess than
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: hanging out in some some dudes leaned to in northern Canada.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: You know, every since we're talking about the Arctic, every
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: time I think about the Arctic, now I think about
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the show of The Terror. Have you seen that show
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: The Terror? Don't think it was an AMC show. It's
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: available on Hulu. There were two seasons. It's an anthology series,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: so each season is its own, entirely different story. The
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: second season I recommend like the first half of the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: first season, from start to finish, the first second to
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the last second. It is worth every bit of your
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: your U interest. Oh wait a minute, this is the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: one you recommended to the grabster on email, right, Yes,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: it's so good Man just check it out. It's such
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It's one of the best made television shows I've ever seen.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine how much it costs to make. And
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you can tell. And all of the actors are like
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: just the like every one of them is like the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: best actor working today. Um. But you know, and you've
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: seen them, you recognize them here there, but you don't
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: really know their names like that kind of stuff. It's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: just a really great, great show. Uh. Well, The Atlantic
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: says The Terror is more than a chilling monster show. Yeah. Well,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the reason they call it the Terror is one of
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the one of the ships, the Terror of the Faded
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Lost polar Um Expedition. That's that's what it's about, is that.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And it just kind of it's all um, speculative fiction basically. Uh.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And since we're on TV corner here for the last minute, Uh,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: we just finished the first season of Leftovers last night.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Season one wrapped up, and so we're speeding right into
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: season two. Loving the show. It started to drag a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: little bit, but then the last two episodes of season
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: one got really interesting. Uh. And I wanted to also
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: further explain I think I might have turned some people
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: off with Station A Levin saying, it is a post
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: pandemic flu pandemic world. Uh, it is. It is one
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of the best shows I've ever seen. And it's not
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: it's not terrifying. It's like there are no infected or
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: no zombies or anything out there waiting to kill you.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Like all the infected died, So it's it's really just
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: about repopulating and the story of these people who survived.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And it's very uplifting, good good stuff I see. So
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: it's soft core. Yeah, it's soft core. It's a Cinemax show.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: That's the boy. How did we get here? God bless
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the Arctic fox is what we're saying, Thanks Arctic Foxes.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: We love you guys. Uh. And of course everybody that
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: means that short stuff is apt. Stuff you should know
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
• 13:48
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