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How Land Diving Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start
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Speaker 1: Stuff you should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
0:23
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W.
0:26
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant. And although we haven't been in the studio
0:29
Speaker 1: and Jerry's over there. Although we haven't been in the studio, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: can I have been together on the road, Yeah, doing
0:35
Speaker 1: stuff you should know the podcast, calling live exclamation, leaving
0:39
Speaker 1: our stank all over this great nation, hoping to bring
0:42
Speaker 1: our stank into other great nations. Yeah, we're looking at you,
0:46
Speaker 1: Great Britain. We have no idea whether you want us
0:48
Speaker 1: to come over or not. We're trying to feel you
0:51
Speaker 1: guys out. Let us know if you want us to
0:53
Speaker 1: come to a show there. Yeah, and that goes for
0:55
Speaker 1: other cities. Um, well, let's just recap. We went to
0:58
Speaker 1: We had a great fun time on the Warm Climbs tour.
1:01
Speaker 1: Big thanks to squarespace again for sponsoring the tour uh
1:04
Speaker 1: and allowing UH the free printing and giving out of
1:08
Speaker 1: posters which is always wonderful when people say how much
1:11
Speaker 1: did these costs? And I say zero money because Uncle
1:15
Speaker 1: squarespace pay. That's right. So we went to San Francisco.
1:19
Speaker 1: That was fantastic. Um, you want to tell your San
1:22
Speaker 1: Francisco story, it's so wonderful. The little kid. Yeah. So
1:26
Speaker 1: I was on Fillmore Street, which is my new favorite
1:28
Speaker 1: street in San Francisco, and there's this little girl crying
1:32
Speaker 1: and pointing at a man. And I couldn't figure out
1:35
Speaker 1: what the girl's problem was until I overheard her mom say, no, honey,
1:39
Speaker 1: he's not throwing that away. That's a recycling. Then he's
1:42
Speaker 1: putting that cup. And I swear to God that happen. Yeah,
1:46
Speaker 1: it could not be more San Francisco than that. Oh,
1:49
Speaker 1: I can top that. That same street later that day
1:53
Speaker 1: or the next day, I saw a woman crossing at
1:56
Speaker 1: about that point and she had her arm in a
1:58
Speaker 1: sling and the sling was berber wow. And the cast
2:02
Speaker 1: was probably made from like recycled bandages from you know,
2:06
Speaker 1: patients who didn't make it or once who did. They
2:09
Speaker 1: just took him anyway, right, Uh? Oh, very nice Monty
2:15
Speaker 1: Python reference. Uh. Then we went to San Diego performed
2:18
Speaker 1: in a church, yes ironic, Yeah, which was a little
2:22
Speaker 1: weird but cool and fun. It was the church from
2:25
Speaker 1: the Prince of Darkness. That's right, or at least it
2:28
Speaker 1: was after we left. I'm virtually convinced that's what it was.
2:32
Speaker 1: It might have been. I have to go back and
2:34
Speaker 1: watch it again, but I mean it was very reminiscent
2:36
Speaker 1: of it. Uh. Where Dallas after that? Yeah, we played
2:40
Speaker 1: in the theater where Lee Harvey Oswald hit out. That's right.
2:43
Speaker 1: And the Dallas crowd was great and raucous and they
2:46
Speaker 1: actually there's a point in this show where I do
2:49
Speaker 1: aye haw and they hold back. It was an involuntary
2:53
Speaker 1: spasm from the Dallas crowd. And they also at least
2:56
Speaker 1: two or three people shot guns into the air. And
2:58
Speaker 1: you saw Tim Gallant hat. Yes, did it hold ten
3:03
Speaker 1: gallons milk? At least maybe a baker's dozens of gallons. Uh.
3:09
Speaker 1: Then we went to Austin, Texas, which is a wonderful city.
3:12
Speaker 1: And by the way, we're gonna be back in Austin
3:14
Speaker 1: for South by Southwest, uh and performing and our very
3:19
Speaker 1: own we're getting like our own house, not of stuff
3:21
Speaker 1: you should know house, you know, like the speakeasy we're
3:24
Speaker 1: gonna be there. Yeah, the City of Atlanta speakeasy house
3:27
Speaker 1: I think like fifth in Congress or something like. Yeah.
3:29
Speaker 1: So look for us again Austin, Texas in March. Yeah.
3:33
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys have heard of it
3:34
Speaker 1: or not. It's gonna be a south By Southwest just
3:37
Speaker 1: look at him. Where do we go next? We went
3:39
Speaker 1: to New Orleans. It was wonderful and uh, I want
3:44
Speaker 1: to shout out uh ms Kristen Bell and Mr Dack Shepard,
3:48
Speaker 1: the lovely acting couple who we know listen to our
3:52
Speaker 1: show because they've been kind enough to tweet about us
3:55
Speaker 1: in support in the past. And I was at a
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Speaker 1: bakery in New Orleans and came out. She said, Kristen
4:01
Speaker 1: Bell's in there, and I felt like I had to
4:03
Speaker 1: go say something and thank her. And she was delighted
4:06
Speaker 1: to meet me and relieved seconds after I said who
4:10
Speaker 1: I was, that you weren't just some weirdo dude. I
4:13
Speaker 1: come lumbering like this woodland beast comes lumbering up to
4:16
Speaker 1: a bakery and she was like literally shielding her children
4:19
Speaker 1: from it. And yeah, oh, oh your chuck, thank god. Uh.
4:27
Speaker 1: And she couldn't have been nicer and she met Ruby
4:29
Speaker 1: and insisted I changed Ruby staper there in her booth
4:32
Speaker 1: because there was no changing room. And so thanks for
4:35
Speaker 1: your support, ms ms Bell, ms Bell. Yes, yeah, I
4:40
Speaker 1: can't call it Kristen h. I can call dackx Dax
4:43
Speaker 1: because he's just cool like that. Uh. And then we
4:46
Speaker 1: went to Atlanta. That was probably the most fun show
4:49
Speaker 1: I've ever done. That was a fun hometown show. Sold
4:52
Speaker 1: it out, family and friends. It was just a wonderful
4:56
Speaker 1: special night. And I stayed out until three in the morning,
4:59
Speaker 1: drink way too much. And I can attest to this
5:02
Speaker 1: because I saw Chuck the next day for the last
5:04
Speaker 1: show in Birmingham, and both of us took it easy
5:07
Speaker 1: that night because we both had to turn around and
5:09
Speaker 1: drive home after the show. Two am back to Atlanta,
5:13
Speaker 1: two exhausted little stuffers. I was impressed by the Birmingham crowd.
5:16
Speaker 1: They showed up and they were like, Um, whatever impressions
5:20
Speaker 1: you may have of us, they're wrong. Entertain us smartly. Yeah,
5:24
Speaker 1: and when we did, we we didn't know the roof
5:27
Speaker 1: off that sucker. It was sort of a test of
5:28
Speaker 1: a smaller Southeastern market and they came through. So yeah,
5:32
Speaker 1: it was a good crowd. In Birmingham too, and the
5:34
Speaker 1: venue was really neat to the work Play space is
5:37
Speaker 1: really neat and they were very nice. All podcasters out
5:40
Speaker 1: there who go on tour, check out Workplay in Birmingham.
5:42
Speaker 1: There were dogs running around after inside there, which is
5:45
Speaker 1: perfect for us. That's our tour. Yeah, thanks everybody, And
5:50
Speaker 1: if you're wondering what we did, you have to wait
5:52
Speaker 1: until we released the live show. That's right. Oh. One
5:54
Speaker 1: more quick announcement, um, if anyone in Atlanta wants to
5:57
Speaker 1: come see my mediocre old man band, Oh, we are
6:01
Speaker 1: playing February twenty six at the Starbar. Awesome. I'm super
6:04
Speaker 1: excited because it's just the age old great venue in
6:07
Speaker 1: Atlanta and they mistakenly let us on the bill. Uh
6:11
Speaker 1: so come on out if you want to see see
6:14
Speaker 1: you smelt some faces? Is that what you guys? Dos? Shredding?
6:19
Speaker 1: Shredding my friend nice? So that's it. You got any
6:22
Speaker 1: other announcements? No, great, I don't have an old man band,
6:25
Speaker 1: so no, well you can. Dreams can't come true. Starbar
6:30
Speaker 1: is one of mine, and you may places. Yeah yeah,
6:33
Speaker 1: are we invited? No you can't. Actually you're on a
6:36
Speaker 1: list like do not let in I think you should
6:39
Speaker 1: have been like Atlanta minus Josh. My old man band
6:42
Speaker 1: is going to be playing. Yeah, you can come if
6:44
Speaker 1: you want. Nice. Great, let's see what else, Chuck, land diving.
6:49
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we've put it off long enough. That's right,
6:52
Speaker 1: all right, the land diving. It sounds weird, and it
6:56
Speaker 1: is a little weird. It's um this ancient cut them
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Speaker 1: they We actually know the origin story too. We know
7:03
Speaker 1: where it started. You know, it never came across wind specifically.
7:07
Speaker 1: It seems to have happened some point back in the
7:10
Speaker 1: distant past. But I'm not entirely certain that the distant
7:13
Speaker 1: passes like two thousand years ago or three years ago,
7:18
Speaker 1: in which case it wouldn't be ancient. No, but it's
7:21
Speaker 1: still be. This still distant past is ancient? Is that quantified? Uh? No?
7:29
Speaker 1: I never even thought to see surely it's not. Why
7:34
Speaker 1: Why don't you just continue? I might even look it up, okay,
7:37
Speaker 1: which we rarely do. So Chuck's gonna look that up.
7:39
Speaker 1: I'll keep talking. There's an island called Vanuatu. It's in
7:43
Speaker 1: the South Pacific. Survivor did a season there, but even
7:48
Speaker 1: before Survivor it was famous, and it was famous for
7:50
Speaker 1: this land diving thing. Um and back in Uh, there's
7:55
Speaker 1: actually specific island in Vanuatu called Pentecost Island. Uh. Clearly
8:00
Speaker 1: the missionaries got their hands on that island and um,
8:04
Speaker 1: Pentecost Island is where this the the origin of land
8:08
Speaker 1: diving or something called. It's called nag hall or nag
8:12
Speaker 1: hall h o L. Yeah, not the easiest word to pronounce.
8:16
Speaker 1: You did funnog hall anyway, you say that a bunch
8:20
Speaker 1: of times. Man, I feel rusty. No, you're great, great,
8:25
Speaker 1: you're squeaky clean. So this land diving thing, it's not
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Speaker 1: like these guys like climb up a couple of feet
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Speaker 1: and jump onto the ground and do a summersault and
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Speaker 1: then do it. Stick it with the y their hands
8:37
Speaker 1: in the air, stick the landing. It's much more intricate
8:40
Speaker 1: than that. Primitive and dangerous, extremely dangerous. So it bears
8:45
Speaker 1: a striking resemblance to bungee jumping. And the reason why
8:49
Speaker 1: is because the guy who invented bungee jumping, Australian named A. J. Hackett,
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Speaker 1: went to Pentecost Island at some point in the eighties,
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Speaker 1: saw this stuff and said, oh, I could totally do
9:01
Speaker 1: something like that, but with an elastic band. Yeah, that's
9:06
Speaker 1: a big difference between bungee and land diving. Yeah, he
9:08
Speaker 1: didn't invent it, but he popularized it. Who invented bungee jumping?
9:12
Speaker 1: I didn't get a name, but I saw that the first, um,
9:16
Speaker 1: the first bungee jumping that anyone knows about, was in England.
9:21
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Are you sure it wasn't this cat because
9:24
Speaker 1: he traveled the world bungee jumping. Yeah. Ninety nine. The
9:28
Speaker 1: UK based Dangerous Sports Club leapt off the suspension bridge
9:32
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, though I think Clifton suspension Bridge near Bristol. No,
9:37
Speaker 1: that's San Francisco. Everybody goes the famous Clifton suspension Bridge
9:44
Speaker 1: in Marin County. This is uh, that's the Golden gate Bridge,
9:47
Speaker 1: I believe. Oh yeah, uh. And I think they say
9:51
Speaker 1: Marinus um. Yeah. I don't think they didn't give a name,
9:57
Speaker 1: but it said uh. And this is from a Time
9:58
Speaker 1: magazine article. Because what's going on is um or. At
10:02
Speaker 1: least a few years ago, people and the tribes people
10:06
Speaker 1: were trying to get some money out of A. J.
10:09
Speaker 1: Hackett and his partner. They're basically like, wait a minute,
10:12
Speaker 1: you copied our age old and I looked up ancient
10:15
Speaker 1: by the way, UH said, it's uh belonging to the
10:20
Speaker 1: very descent past and no longer in existence. Oh well,
10:24
Speaker 1: then ancient wouldn't work in this case because there's still
10:27
Speaker 1: land diving in Vanuatu. But it can also just mean
10:31
Speaker 1: like really old, like that ancient jacket you're wearing. I'm
10:34
Speaker 1: not wearing the ancient underwear you're wearing. This is very
10:38
Speaker 1: new from last quarter your underwear. Yeah, okay, good, do
10:44
Speaker 1: you buy your underwear quarterly? Do the texas by the underwear?
10:51
Speaker 1: I gotta do that still. Um So, anyway, he didn't
10:55
Speaker 1: invent it, but uh, and I might as well go
10:57
Speaker 1: ahead and finish that little story about them trying to
10:59
Speaker 1: get money. Apparently it's probably not going to happen. I
11:03
Speaker 1: couldn't see any recent It's always one of the most
11:05
Speaker 1: frustrating things when you see something from a few years
11:08
Speaker 1: ago and can't find a follow up. But from what
11:11
Speaker 1: I gathered, they're gonna have a really hard time getting
11:14
Speaker 1: money out of them because there's no legal protection afforded
11:17
Speaker 1: to traditional rituals in or outside of Vanuatu. Is what
11:22
Speaker 1: experts say, Like, basically, you can't you can't say this
11:27
Speaker 1: tribal ritual like we own it, right, so Westerners just
11:32
Speaker 1: feel free to copy it and explore it. Our western
11:36
Speaker 1: intellectual property laws don't apply to your tribal customs. All right,
11:41
Speaker 1: Since we were long winded at first, why don't we
11:43
Speaker 1: take a break, and then we'll get into exactly what
11:46
Speaker 1: goes on with these dives. All right? Josh, you said
12:07
Speaker 1: it wasn't a few feet off the ground. It's more
12:09
Speaker 1: like just under a hundred feet where these towers are built.
12:13
Speaker 1: The towers are are not, you know, um made of
12:17
Speaker 1: rebar and uh what do they call the scaffolding. It's
12:21
Speaker 1: made of stuff there in in the in the jungle.
12:24
Speaker 1: It's made of vines, and it's made of wood, and
12:27
Speaker 1: they build a new one each year during uh well,
12:31
Speaker 1: I call it yam season, before the yam harvest, because
12:35
Speaker 1: yam time, I call it the blood lighting. But it
12:40
Speaker 1: is cut open the earth and remove her yams from
12:43
Speaker 1: her breast. What in the world are you talking about
12:46
Speaker 1: yam time? I don't get it. We're talking about the
12:48
Speaker 1: same thing, talking differently, all right. Is what you said
12:53
Speaker 1: a real thing? No, it's very maccab I know where
13:00
Speaker 1: I yam time. Yam time, So it's during m season
13:04
Speaker 1: or just before yam harvest. And that's one of the reasons, uh,
13:07
Speaker 1: they take part in this ritual is to ensure a
13:09
Speaker 1: bountiful yam harvest. I get the feeling it's yams are
13:13
Speaker 1: a pretty big deal for them. If you're doing this
13:15
Speaker 1: to ensure a bountiful yam harvest. Yes, yes, yams are
13:19
Speaker 1: very important. And it's also um a good time to
13:22
Speaker 1: do it because that is when the vines are most
13:27
Speaker 1: full of sap and less likely to be brittle and break,
13:31
Speaker 1: which is not what you want. And these are the
13:33
Speaker 1: linear vines, right, yes, so the the linear vines. It's
13:37
Speaker 1: extremely important what kind of linea vines that you select
13:41
Speaker 1: because at any point in the linear vine that you select,
13:45
Speaker 1: if it's dry, it can snap. And it's it's tied
13:48
Speaker 1: to somebody's ankle and they're jumping off at about forty
13:51
Speaker 1: five up to thirty meters or almost a hundred feet. Yeah,
13:56
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that vine is not going
13:58
Speaker 1: to snap. Yeah. So, if we haven't explicitly said it,
14:01
Speaker 1: they jump as if they're bungee jumping. But there is
14:05
Speaker 1: I mean there's some elasticity because I watched it, but
14:09
Speaker 1: it's not like bungee cords. They're not rubber bands. Um.
14:13
Speaker 1: It's generally the ideas you want to fold your arms
14:17
Speaker 1: over your chest, make the leap, and then come as
14:22
Speaker 1: close to the ground as you can without uh having
14:26
Speaker 1: a hard impact. But you ideally do want to touch
14:29
Speaker 1: the ground with your shoulders right so barely. You also,
14:32
Speaker 1: as you're coming up towards the ground, you want to
14:35
Speaker 1: tuck your head into your chest so that what's hitting
14:40
Speaker 1: the ground is that like the tops of your shoulders basically.
14:43
Speaker 1: And and a really really important point that just kind
14:47
Speaker 1: of gets glossed over in this article is that they
14:49
Speaker 1: till the ground below the platform. It's also a little slopey,
14:54
Speaker 1: which helps, I think, right, so that it's cushion. Because
14:57
Speaker 1: when you watch this stuff, people hit the ground own
15:00
Speaker 1: really hard. A lot, yeah, a lot. And as a
15:05
Speaker 1: matter of fact, one guy died in ninety four and
15:09
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth happened to be there. He didn't die in
15:12
Speaker 1: front of her. He died later of his injuries. But um,
15:15
Speaker 1: one of the jumpers while Queen Elizabeth was sitting there watching, UM,
15:19
Speaker 1: he did die. And it turns out that a lot
15:22
Speaker 1: of people hit the ground, but this guy was the
15:25
Speaker 1: only person in recent memory that anybody alive could remember,
15:29
Speaker 1: um actually died. And I think it's mainly because they
15:32
Speaker 1: till that ground so much. Yeah, there was one fatality
15:35
Speaker 1: in two thousand six. But um, I mean, considering what
15:39
Speaker 1: they're doing, that's a pretty good track record here in
15:42
Speaker 1: modern times, that's not too bad. So where all this
15:45
Speaker 1: come from? Chuck? Well, uh, years ago that Well, here's
15:50
Speaker 1: the legend. And of course this smacks of legend um
15:54
Speaker 1: in every way, but you never know, might have been
15:56
Speaker 1: had some truth to it early on. So many legends too,
16:00
Speaker 1: including that Tom Cruise movie legend which one was, Oh
16:05
Speaker 1: that was the fantasy movie. Yes, and I think I
16:09
Speaker 1: saw it, but not my favorite. No, I never saw it. Okay,
16:14
Speaker 1: don't bother. I always used to confuse it with Labyrinth. Yeah,
16:18
Speaker 1: that was better. It was featuring David Bowie, the late
16:21
Speaker 1: great David Bowie. Al Right, here's the legend, um. There
16:26
Speaker 1: was a woman named tom Alee t A. M. A. L.
16:30
Speaker 1: I E. Not Tomali. It's the way do you go,
16:34
Speaker 1: Tomi Lee. She was a woman in the village. Tomallee
16:37
Speaker 1: was the man. I thought Tomallee was a woman. No,
16:41
Speaker 1: Tomallee was her husband. I believe. All right, so it's
16:44
Speaker 1: the husband. Yeah, maybe she was amily Emiline Tomiie who
16:48
Speaker 1: had been the cutest couple who knew they were going
16:49
Speaker 1: to get married on Pentecost Island. So she apparently Tomilee
16:54
Speaker 1: was abusive. Well, she she had had an affair and
16:57
Speaker 1: he found out about it and it was in the
16:59
Speaker 1: process of a abusing her. And see I also read
17:02
Speaker 1: this is why it's a legend because there are many versions.
17:04
Speaker 1: But I read he was forcing himself on her sexually
17:07
Speaker 1: and she was like the sat happen anymore, Tommie. Either way,
17:12
Speaker 1: it's abuse. He's abusing her. Uh, And so she flees,
17:15
Speaker 1: climbs up to a tall tree. He climbs up after her, uh,
17:20
Speaker 1: intent on you know, continuing his his abusive behaviors. She
17:25
Speaker 1: I guess has enough time to tie these vines around
17:28
Speaker 1: her ankles and jumps fast and he says, I'm jumping
17:32
Speaker 1: after you too, Okay again legend Either out of he
17:35
Speaker 1: thinks that she just jumped to her death and he's sad,
17:37
Speaker 1: so he's committing suicide. I don't buy that one. He's
17:40
Speaker 1: lunging at her and missus I could buy that one more.
17:43
Speaker 1: Or he's like I'm I'm jumping after you because I'm
17:46
Speaker 1: Tomilee and I'm dumb. Maybe so one of those, but
17:49
Speaker 1: at any rate, as legend goes, beat you up on
17:52
Speaker 1: the way down. As legend goes, she actually survived the
17:56
Speaker 1: jump thanks to the vines on her ankles. He did not. Um,
18:00
Speaker 1: so did she craft this ahead of time? I say,
18:02
Speaker 1: there's a lot easier ways to kill your husband than this.
18:05
Speaker 1: Weird Yeah, you know, like maybe he'll follow me up
18:08
Speaker 1: the tree then jump after me. Well, if you're a
18:11
Speaker 1: thrill seeker, though, this is what you're gonna come up with.
18:13
Speaker 1: She might have been. Uh. And then this is where
18:15
Speaker 1: it also goes off into different directions. Um. Some people
18:19
Speaker 1: say that she continued that jump every year. Uh. And
18:23
Speaker 1: then men eventually said no, we're doing the jumping. And
18:26
Speaker 1: then some say no men immediately started jumping and said
18:30
Speaker 1: women can't jump, right, And the ladder of those two legends,
18:34
Speaker 1: um is that men, we're like, well, we need to
18:38
Speaker 1: start practicing in case somebody else this ever happens to me,
18:42
Speaker 1: because clearly this is going to be a trend that starts.
18:45
Speaker 1: And you women, you're not allowed to practice, only us,
18:49
Speaker 1: That's right. And so the husbands would get up on
18:51
Speaker 1: the platform and they would basically make a speech about
18:57
Speaker 1: their wife's behavior and then make the jump. And the
19:00
Speaker 1: coffee she makes is terrible, So I'm gonna jump. Watch this,
19:05
Speaker 1: you know. The wife is just down there, like I
19:07
Speaker 1: hate the stupid tradition. No, I don't think so they
19:11
Speaker 1: embrace it now. Well, I mean when the husband's sitting there,
19:14
Speaker 1: gripe wife, anybody about I'm sure some pitdling stuff. It's
19:21
Speaker 1: just just jump. You don't have to add that part.
19:24
Speaker 1: But what has remained true today is that women are
19:27
Speaker 1: not permitted to jump. Um. It's only men. And aside
19:32
Speaker 1: for him one uh white dude in the nineties seventies,
19:36
Speaker 1: no outsider has ever been allowed to jump. No cat
19:40
Speaker 1: cat Mueller. Cal was the cal I thought was Cat
19:43
Speaker 1: cal Mueller. Yeah. Ended up like living with the pentecost
19:47
Speaker 1: islanders um for at least seven months, if not longer.
19:51
Speaker 1: I think over the course of a couple of years.
19:52
Speaker 1: But the last stint was seven straight months. And he
19:55
Speaker 1: they speak a version of Pidgeon English um, and he
20:00
Speaker 1: like learned to speak it as well, and he gave
20:02
Speaker 1: a really like heartfelt speech from the platform when they
20:05
Speaker 1: finally led him, and it was apparently, by all accounts,
20:08
Speaker 1: are very touching, well not all accounts, by cal Mueller's account,
20:12
Speaker 1: very touching experience. Well, and you know, because he said
20:16
Speaker 1: in his article land Diving with the pentecost Islanders that
20:19
Speaker 1: was a very touching experience. I'm sure he did. Okay,
20:23
Speaker 1: I did read uh the article. Actually that's pretty good.
20:26
Speaker 1: He wasna Geo magazine. So he was the first two
20:30
Speaker 1: or only outsider to jump. It's it's actually so it's
20:33
Speaker 1: because it's so dangerous. It's it's forbidden. But they they
20:37
Speaker 1: they've enshrined it in a taboo. It's like a cultural
20:41
Speaker 1: taboo for a non van oat tour to jump, to
20:45
Speaker 1: do the knock. Yeah, and I'm sure there have been
20:47
Speaker 1: plenty of bungee bros really trying to get in there,
20:51
Speaker 1: but they by all accounts have been rebuffed every time.
20:54
Speaker 1: They have some three eleven they can play while a jump.
20:59
Speaker 1: But any way, cal Mueller wasn't the he was the
21:02
Speaker 1: only one to jump. He wasn't the first outsider to
21:04
Speaker 1: see this. There were a lot of early witnesses, obviously
21:07
Speaker 1: the Pentecostals who first came to the island as missionaries.
21:11
Speaker 1: It didn't occur to me. That's why the island was
21:12
Speaker 1: called that. Sure, like a dummy. I just gloss right
21:15
Speaker 1: over that. Um, you're not a dummy, man. I hate
21:19
Speaker 1: it when obvious things don't occur to me, though. It's
21:21
Speaker 1: it's just perspective, like it could have been called Christian
21:24
Speaker 1: Now island. What a weird name? Christian now, what's what
21:30
Speaker 1: the exclamation? But earlier than that, earlier than cal Mueller,
21:34
Speaker 1: there was some Uh there was an adventurer couple named
21:38
Speaker 1: um Irving and Electra Johnson, and they just traveled the
21:42
Speaker 1: world at a time when traveling the world was very difficult. Uh, well,
21:46
Speaker 1: the fifties, and they were correspondents for National Geographic for
21:50
Speaker 1: a while, and in nineteen fifty three they finally got
21:52
Speaker 1: to see it. They had a friend on Pentecost Island,
21:57
Speaker 1: probably a missionary, who was saying, like, you gotta see this, man,
21:59
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Yeah, I'll see if I can arrange it.
22:01
Speaker 1: And they became some of the first outsiders to ever
22:04
Speaker 1: write about it. Well, and missionaries actually um talk to
22:07
Speaker 1: them and well it says they banned the practice in
22:11
Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century. But after World War Two, apparently
22:15
Speaker 1: there was a big revival in Vanuatu's independence and like
22:19
Speaker 1: reclaiming their traditions and so that's when it started coming
22:23
Speaker 1: back into favor. And um also because they realized, and
22:28
Speaker 1: we'll get to this, that the gams had shrunk in size.
22:31
Speaker 1: Maybe also because they could make some dough from from
22:35
Speaker 1: people who wanted to travel and watch this. Yeah. Because um,
22:40
Speaker 1: we mentioned Queen Elizabeth has seen this. She wasn't the
22:43
Speaker 1: it didn't go uh the Johnson's cal Mueller Queen Elizabeth.
22:48
Speaker 1: It became like a pretty big tourist attraction and still
22:50
Speaker 1: is today. Um. And as a matter of fact, the
22:53
Speaker 1: original nogal took place once one day out of the year,
22:58
Speaker 1: and as tourists started to um and tourist dollars started
23:01
Speaker 1: to come with them, the pentecost Islanders said, we'll do
23:05
Speaker 1: this more than once a year. How about that? Yeah,
23:07
Speaker 1: I think the the one is their official special ceremony.
23:12
Speaker 1: But then I think between what April and June they
23:14
Speaker 1: do it weekly. Yeah, like a matinee on Saturday's even Yeah,
23:20
Speaker 1: for the kiddies, the rest of them get a little blue.
23:24
Speaker 1: So let's take a break and then we'll describe the
23:26
Speaker 1: actual not all ceremony huh. All right, so chuck, yes, uh,
23:49
Speaker 1: not all begins with a. I think they kind of
23:52
Speaker 1: select a trusted elder of the tribe and say, this
23:56
Speaker 1: is your year. You're the Grand Marshal of Nargnog. Hall Uh.
24:01
Speaker 1: Here's your hat with the feather in the front. Do
24:04
Speaker 1: some good stuff. Here's your orange soda. And the elder said,
24:07
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for this my whole life. I'm gonna
24:10
Speaker 1: do the best. Not all ever, it's going to be
24:13
Speaker 1: an under the sea theme. No, okay, well, everything but
24:17
Speaker 1: the last part, right, okay. So the elder is in
24:20
Speaker 1: charge of overseeing the construction of the platform, which is terrifying.
24:24
Speaker 1: These platforms are terrifying. Yeah, I mean just when you
24:28
Speaker 1: look at these, climbing up to the top of that
24:30
Speaker 1: to me is too much, let alone jumping off right.
24:33
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're really good at it though, and they
24:35
Speaker 1: very sturdy. Right. So, over the course of a few
24:38
Speaker 1: weeks they construct these platforms again up to like thirty
24:41
Speaker 1: meters in height, which is about a hundred feet UM,
24:43
Speaker 1: and they'll have platforms of varying levels for people of
24:46
Speaker 1: varying levels of courage UM. And the platforms are basically
24:51
Speaker 1: like they select a strong, tall tree and that serves
24:55
Speaker 1: as like the spine of the platform, and then they
24:57
Speaker 1: use wood and vines to kind of create the platforms
25:00
Speaker 1: are varying height along the tree, right, that's right. And
25:03
Speaker 1: so that's kind of phase one, the construction phase. And
25:06
Speaker 1: then finally the day of knock Hall comes and the
25:09
Speaker 1: night before they jump, all the people who are going
25:12
Speaker 1: to jump sleep out at the foot of the platform. Sex. Yeah,
25:16
Speaker 1: that's a big superstation. Have sex of the night before.
25:19
Speaker 1: They say that it'll throw off your jump. Sure. Uh.
25:21
Speaker 1: And actually the guy who jumped and died in front
25:24
Speaker 1: of Queen Elizabeth, Uh, he had a lucky charm on him.
25:28
Speaker 1: I thought you're about to say he had sex with
25:30
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth, Right, that's you. And so that's another table.
25:35
Speaker 1: No sex with Queen Elizabeth. Um, he had a lucky
25:38
Speaker 1: charm on him. So now lucky charms are considered bad luck. Um,
25:42
Speaker 1: so there's some there's some superstitions considering the whole thing
25:45
Speaker 1: or surrounding the whole thing. Um. But the the night
25:48
Speaker 1: before they will sleep out in front of the platform,
25:52
Speaker 1: and then when they wake up, they just immediately start
25:54
Speaker 1: drumming and like cooking and like it's a huge party,
25:57
Speaker 1: like the moment they wake up. And that same elder
26:01
Speaker 1: that that supervises the construction is also the man who
26:05
Speaker 1: picks out all the vines for all the jumpers. And
26:08
Speaker 1: it says right here in the article there's there's no
26:10
Speaker 1: maths involved. Um he Basically it said works from experience
26:16
Speaker 1: and trial and error in selecting the appropriate length of vine. Um.
26:21
Speaker 1: So hopefully you apprentice as an elder. Sure you know, yeah,
26:26
Speaker 1: and it's not just like I've never done this before,
26:29
Speaker 1: but let's see what happens. Yeah, but like I said,
26:31
Speaker 1: only in the ninety four and two thousand six deaths
26:34
Speaker 1: in modern times, so they're doing it right. They are
26:37
Speaker 1: doing it right. I'm sure there are injuries though, broken
26:40
Speaker 1: shoulders and and broken arms and spleen bursts is a
26:44
Speaker 1: big problem. Oh the old, the old spleen versus, especially
26:47
Speaker 1: if the vine is too short and you slam into
26:49
Speaker 1: the platform. Yeah, like that's what you would think, is, no,
26:52
Speaker 1: just make it super short. But because it's not a bungee,
26:55
Speaker 1: you jump out and you swing right back into that thing.
26:58
Speaker 1: So you like, there is a tremendous amount of skill
27:01
Speaker 1: and look in selecting the vine length because I mean
27:04
Speaker 1: you have to take into account, well, what platform are
27:07
Speaker 1: you jumping from? How long are you? Or tall is
27:10
Speaker 1: another way to put it. Um. And again the the
27:13
Speaker 1: you want to have a vine that's very supple, has
27:15
Speaker 1: a lot of sap and no dry spot in it,
27:17
Speaker 1: because a vine is only as strong as its weakest
27:20
Speaker 1: dry spot. That's the old thing. Uh So the first
27:24
Speaker 1: jumper gets up there, and every jumper to follow um
27:28
Speaker 1: still traditionally will say a few words um at the top.
27:32
Speaker 1: That could be his last words, you never know. Um.
27:36
Speaker 1: And it ranges from let me get a few things
27:40
Speaker 1: off my chest here, um, clear up a couple of like,
27:44
Speaker 1: you know, issues I've had with people, maybe any outstanding
27:47
Speaker 1: beefs once stolely yam. Maybe it's really kind of up
27:51
Speaker 1: to them from some people mind really like some people
27:55
Speaker 1: really ham it up up there because the crowd is
27:58
Speaker 1: just en wrapped by you. Is your moment, it's a
28:01
Speaker 1: big moment like that. You can have them eating out
28:03
Speaker 1: of your hands. Some people do. Some people sing a song,
28:06
Speaker 1: they're like the whitey really loves this part, so let
28:10
Speaker 1: me put on a good show. Or they tell jokes
28:12
Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah. Um, And when I say Whitey.
28:17
Speaker 1: I mean, like, you know, people like Whitey Ford, people
28:20
Speaker 1: that pay four dollars after spending thousands to travel here
28:24
Speaker 1: to witness this ancient custom. Well I'm not ancient custom. Yeah.
28:27
Speaker 1: I don't think clearing that up's gonna help. I think
28:29
Speaker 1: you're still going to get a ton of emails for
28:31
Speaker 1: that one. You know, if someone white writes in and
28:34
Speaker 1: takes a task with me saying whitey, then come on
28:37
Speaker 1: bring it, That's what I say. Uh So when they
28:41
Speaker 1: make the jump, um, the crowd is silent initially right
28:46
Speaker 1: before the leap, and then much rejoicing right afterwards, and
28:49
Speaker 1: it's all you know, it's over in a second, especially
28:51
Speaker 1: if the person is okay. There's a lot of rejoicing
28:54
Speaker 1: right after. But I guess everybody rushes over and like
28:56
Speaker 1: unties the vines and they're like, get okay, suck it out.
29:00
Speaker 1: Is a salt tablet uh So we did mention the tourism,
29:05
Speaker 1: and I think I just dropped the three fifty references,
29:12
Speaker 1: and that's just for the actual let me pay to
29:15
Speaker 1: witness this cost a lot more to to get there.
29:18
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and you know, if you can find a
29:20
Speaker 1: three fifty dollar package to get you from your house
29:22
Speaker 1: in the United States to Vanawat to you take that
29:25
Speaker 1: package now because you have to fly in by seaplane.
29:28
Speaker 1: They do they have an airport, right that I know of.
29:32
Speaker 1: I wonder where you would fly into to get to
29:34
Speaker 1: vanawa to surely there's an international airport in Vanawatt. It's
29:38
Speaker 1: South Pacific, right, Yeah, yeah, who knows. I'm sure they
29:43
Speaker 1: did the Survivor show there, so I'm sure there's just
29:46
Speaker 1: they constructed an airport. But then they're also like nothing
29:49
Speaker 1: but sour grapes because they tore it down right after.
29:51
Speaker 1: They're like, well, we don't need this anymore. Did you
29:53
Speaker 1: ever watch that show? I saw like the first season.
29:56
Speaker 1: I think I did too. I think it's still going miraculous?
30:00
Speaker 1: Is it really? Maybe? Maybe not? But I know it
30:03
Speaker 1: went on far longer then I believed it did. I
30:06
Speaker 1: would guess what maybe in the seventeen seventeen seasons, twenty
30:13
Speaker 1: season something like that. Crazy. So, uh, we also should
30:16
Speaker 1: mention the garb women on the island or in their
30:20
Speaker 1: traditional grass skirts and uh, not much of anything else.
30:25
Speaker 1: And the men where this is during nogal typically they
30:30
Speaker 1: dress like in western clothing. Yeah, it's during nogal. It's
30:34
Speaker 1: like yet another nod to like this, this is our tradition,
30:37
Speaker 1: this is our customs. So they were like the you know,
30:41
Speaker 1: ninety nineties Bulls NBA champion T shirt always picture stuff
30:46
Speaker 1: like that there. Uh yeah, there is I think a
30:49
Speaker 1: Planet Money series or something like that about how our
30:53
Speaker 1: clothes end up elsewhere in the world. Uh. So yeah,
30:57
Speaker 1: every Saturday, the women are like seeing next week bra
31:01
Speaker 1: and top and everything. Uh. And the men, um say,
31:05
Speaker 1: ceo clothing. Uh, and let me just get out my
31:07
Speaker 1: peanut sheath which I keep in the pocket of my levies.
31:11
Speaker 1: And that's all they're wearing. Um, they do wear. Um,
31:14
Speaker 1: some of them wear like boars tusks around their neck
31:17
Speaker 1: and things like that. And they're anointed with oil, coconut oil,
31:20
Speaker 1: and but um, aside from that, they're they're not wearing
31:24
Speaker 1: mini clothes. It's pretty neat, man, the whole thing it is.
31:27
Speaker 1: And um, I think we didn't mention it's a twofold purpose.
31:33
Speaker 1: These days. Not only are they ensuring the yam harvest,
31:37
Speaker 1: but young boys after they are circumcised at seven or
31:40
Speaker 1: eight years old can participate as a way of like
31:44
Speaker 1: showing their transcendence into manhood, right, and they'll typically jump
31:47
Speaker 1: from a lower platform and work their way up the
31:50
Speaker 1: kid pool, but their mom's watch and apparently they hold
31:53
Speaker 1: like some sort of like item from their childhood, like
31:56
Speaker 1: their binkie or something like that. Then after their sun
31:59
Speaker 1: lands they they throw it away because he's not like,
32:02
Speaker 1: he's not a boy anymore, he's a man. A neat ritual.
32:04
Speaker 1: It is very neat, except for the eight year old
32:07
Speaker 1: getting circumcised part. Yeah. And also it said that sometimes
32:10
Speaker 1: these boys are just trying to impress a girl, you know,
32:13
Speaker 1: like look at me jumping from the fifteen foot platform,
32:16
Speaker 1: which is adorable. It is pretty cute. Um. And one
32:20
Speaker 1: other thing I want to say, Chuck, I thought was
32:22
Speaker 1: pretty neat. There have been plenty of documentary companies that
32:25
Speaker 1: have been allowed on the island to film, and you know,
32:29
Speaker 1: it's become like a big thing. Um. But the government
32:34
Speaker 1: of Vanuatu said, you know what, this is getting to commercialized.
32:38
Speaker 1: So you guys can keep coming and see it tourists,
32:41
Speaker 1: but um, we're not going to let on the way
32:43
Speaker 1: out right. Well, we're not gonna let you guys film
32:46
Speaker 1: this anymore because we don't want to. We don't want
32:48
Speaker 1: to overexploit it. Yeah, I think it was that two
32:50
Speaker 1: thousand six, the moratorium on filming. I thought that was
32:54
Speaker 1: very neat. Yeah, I think it's just I mean, you
32:57
Speaker 1: get caught up in this modern world as uh Americans,
33:00
Speaker 1: and it's just amazing to think that there are still
33:03
Speaker 1: places in the world where it's you know, unspoiled to
33:09
Speaker 1: a certain degree. Yeah, although they do this in Iowa too.
33:17
Speaker 1: Do you like that? That was great? Uh? If you
33:20
Speaker 1: want to know more about um land diving, you can
33:24
Speaker 1: type the word those words. It's two words into the
33:28
Speaker 1: search bar how stiffords dot com. Since I said search bar,
33:31
Speaker 1: time for listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this
33:36
Speaker 1: uh Timber episode one of my favorites of recent memory. Somehow,
33:41
Speaker 1: are you out of your mind? I thought it was great.
33:44
Speaker 1: You didn't like it? No, No, it's just so much
33:47
Speaker 1: you say that after every episode. No, this one in particular,
33:50
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, what do you think it was?
33:53
Speaker 1: The trickle of blood came out of my ear. It
33:55
Speaker 1: was so much glory. Well, we heard from the timber
33:58
Speaker 1: industry they loved it. Oh yeah, the paper industry or
34:01
Speaker 1: the timber industry. Timber guys lumberjacks. I'm guessing the paper
34:05
Speaker 1: industry didn't like that one. Maybe not. Hey, guys, I'm
34:08
Speaker 1: a doctoral student in environmental economics and Oregon, and I'm
34:12
Speaker 1: close to the topic of forest both personally and academically.
34:15
Speaker 1: Perhaps it's just a topic for another podcast. But one
34:17
Speaker 1: oversight and the timber discussion, was that of non timber
34:21
Speaker 1: forest products in t FPS like mushrooms, berries, and roots, like,
34:28
Speaker 1: they're not a product. I wouldn't have thought of any
34:30
Speaker 1: of those things as timber product. Yeah, that's no, it's
34:36
Speaker 1: non timber. Oh, non timber forest products. Yes, well yeah,
34:39
Speaker 1: woodchuck stands. These are a major source of income and subsistence, Uh.
34:45
Speaker 1: Subsistence excuse me, uh in many lower income countries and communities,
34:50
Speaker 1: a valuable driver tourism, and are often culturally important as well. Also,
34:54
Speaker 1: wild mushroom and berry harvest here and a civic Northwest
34:57
Speaker 1: can have high yields, and in some instance is may
35:00
Speaker 1: have a higher economic value than that of the harvested
35:03
Speaker 1: timber on any given plot. Sure uh, find some truffles. Uh.
35:09
Speaker 1: These NTFP stocks, however, usually depend on the tree the
35:14
Speaker 1: tree stand remaining in place, or at least not being
35:16
Speaker 1: completely depleted. Some species even depend on forest fires or
35:20
Speaker 1: rotting trees. Researchers just haven't spent a lot of time
35:23
Speaker 1: on the economics surrounding this topic yet, I guess because
35:26
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're all just like timber, timber, timber,
35:29
Speaker 1: that's all the forest is exactly. This guy's got some
35:31
Speaker 1: he's got he can see the forest from the trees exactly,
35:35
Speaker 1: or the vice versa. Also, just to chime in on
35:38
Speaker 1: developed versus non industrialized semantics, I prefer to use the
35:42
Speaker 1: term low or lower income country. I feel like a
35:45
Speaker 1: lot of the terms like underdeveloped and developing in particular,
35:48
Speaker 1: involve a lot of value judgments about the people and
35:51
Speaker 1: discussions on the topic of development. UH of development. People
35:55
Speaker 1: also regularly get confused about what is meant by developer
35:59
Speaker 1: developing is develop to measure of capital accumulation, median income,
36:02
Speaker 1: poverty levels, happiness. Yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of
36:06
Speaker 1: people UH develop development economics who would disagree with me
36:11
Speaker 1: in my terminology, but that's what I like to use.
36:14
Speaker 1: The dude raises a really good point. It's virtually impossible, though,
36:17
Speaker 1: to compare the economies of two different countries and not
36:20
Speaker 1: be like, oh, this one's better, that one's better, and
36:24
Speaker 1: it's almost all through this western lens. They got more money,
36:28
Speaker 1: they have more access to handy technology, and there's a
36:31
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that's not taken into account where no,
36:35
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily true. I like this guy's outlook. Well,
36:38
Speaker 1: I mean, at least it's good that we've gone from
36:40
Speaker 1: you know, savages to third world to developing two. I mean,
36:46
Speaker 1: he knows what the next phrase will be, but well,
36:48
Speaker 1: you know, third world was originally used to describe a
36:50
Speaker 1: country that wasn't aligned with the US or the USSR.
36:54
Speaker 1: It was like a non non It was a neutral
36:57
Speaker 1: country during the Cold War. It didn't have an economic association.
37:01
Speaker 1: Horror military sissies. Right, So pretty interesting, great email, Michael,
37:06
Speaker 1: So we're real, Michael, thank you. I think I'm gonna
37:08
Speaker 1: teach Momo to root out truffles. You got a billion
37:12
Speaker 1: dollar dog on your hand, then i'd be wonderful billion
37:15
Speaker 1: and he trouffles her look wonderful to eat. I'm gonna
37:19
Speaker 1: teach her to root out both kinds of truffles, lint
37:22
Speaker 1: and the mushrooms. What are lint? Trump the chocolate? That
37:27
Speaker 1: would be wonderful? Be careful though she should eat chocolate. No, well,
37:31
Speaker 1: that's part of the thing. Like, if you teach a
37:33
Speaker 1: pig to root out truffles, one of the first things
37:35
Speaker 1: you have to teach him is not to eat the
37:36
Speaker 1: truffles themselves. I'm sure. Or did like you need to
37:39
Speaker 1: like put a pig in a head headlock really quick. Okay,
37:43
Speaker 1: so oh yeah. If you want to get in touch
37:46
Speaker 1: with us, like Michael did, you can tweak to us
37:48
Speaker 1: at s y s K podcast. You can join us
37:50
Speaker 1: on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You
37:53
Speaker 1: can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how
37:55
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com and has always joined us at
37:57
Speaker 1: our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
38:05
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
38:07
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com. H