logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2022
33m 20s

South Pole Race: David and Goliath on Ic...

Pushkin Industries
About this episode

1910: Two men are racing to be the first to reach the South Pole. Captain Robert Falcon Scott heads a well-financed, technologically-advanced expedition - aiming to reach the pole in the "proper" and heroic way... on foot. Roald Amundsen's effort is more modest, relying on cheap sled dogs to carry him to victory. 

Scott - for all his money, for all his fancy equipment, for all his backing from the mighty Royal Navy - is doomed to failure in the icy wastes of Antarctica. Why?

For a full list of sources go to timharford.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
Explosives or Sugar? The Deadly Art of Distraction in Putin’s Russia - with Helena Merriman
In 1999, a series of bombs explode in Russian apartments, killing hundreds and spreading panic. No one knows who is behind it. But when one device is spotted before it detonates, troubling questions emerge. Was it really a bomb? Why is the country's security service changing its ... Show More
42m 24s
Feb 27
Flight of the Fantasist: The Race Around the World - Part 2
Donald Crowhurst is a brilliant inventor with a failing business. When he hears about the Golden Globe Race offering publicity and cash to the fastest to sail around the world, it feels like the perfect solution. Betting his business and his home on success, Crowhurst sets off in ... Show More
41m 21s
Feb 20
The Philosopher and the Handyman: The Race Around the World - Part 1
Who will be the first to sail non-stop around the world? In 1968, The Sunday Times announces a trophy and a cash prize for the winner, and the Golden Globe Race is on. Leading the charge are Robin Knox-Johnston, an old-fashioned British patriot, and Bernard Moitessier, an enigmat ... Show More
39m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2021
Endurance: Surviving Antarctica | Patience | 2
<p>Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men witness their ship, the Endurance, take a devastating blow against the unforgiving ice off the coast of Antarctica. The men will have to build camp and spend the winter on an ice floe. They’re unsure of how or when they’ll ... Show More
44m 49s
Aug 2021
Endurance: Surviving Antarctica | Obsession | 1
<p>In March 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton works to put together a crew of twenty-eight men to sail from England to Antarctica. It was a new continent untouched by humanity that only the most adventurous men dared to explore—men who yearned to be the first to see what no other perso ... Show More
46m 58s
Feb 2023
Leadership Lessons from a Disastrous Arctic Expedition
<p>You've probably heard of Ernest Shackleton, and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The <i>Endurance</i>, the ship on which he and his crew sailed, famously became trapped in ice, sunk, and set the men and their indomitable leader off on an arduous journey to safety and rescue ... Show More
55m 2s
May 2024
Voyage to the North Pole | Arctic Dreams | 1
<p>In July 1879, 33 men set sail aboard U<em>SS Jeannette</em> on a two-year mission to become the first humans to reach the North Pole. Though many other expeditions have failed, Captain George De Long is confident that a warm northbound current will give them enough momentum to ... Show More
45m 18s
Jan 2024
111. Shackleton: The Hero of Antarctica
As the timber creaked under the pressure of the Antarctic ice, Shackleton knew his voyage aboard the Endurance was doomed. What the ice gets, the ice keeps. And so followed one of the most obscenely daring - to the point stupidity - and heroic rescue attempts. Shackleton was dete ... Show More
38m 56s
Jul 2023
Trapped in the icy waters of the Northwest Passage
For centuries, the Northwest Passage, the long-sought sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through northern Canada, was a holy grail of Arctic exploration. Even now, sailing through it isn’t guaranteed. Mark Synnott, a National Geographic Explorer, writer, and adv ... Show More
34m 16s
Jan 2024
110. Antarctica: The Continent that wouldn’t be Conquered
Antarctica, the great land of ice. It was first spotted in the early years of the 19th century but it wasn't until 1895 that humans, in the form of a Norwegian expedition, actually landed on one of the world's most inhospitable places. With that expedition the Heroic Age of Antar ... Show More
43m 28s
Mar 2022
Shackleton’s Ice Ship Found
March 5, 2022. After 107 years, explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, has been found two miles under the icy Antarctic waters. Shackleton had set out to be the first to walk across Antarctica, but ran into trouble almost immediately. The Endurance became stuck in the ... Show More
20m 50s
Sep 2021
Endurance: Surviving Antarctica | Hope | 5
<p>In a final attempt to get his men home, Ernest Shackleton and his crew have to get through the Drake Passage, the most dangerous stretch of ocean in the world.&nbsp;And that’s just the beginning.&nbsp;When they reach their goal of South Georgia island, they realize the only wa ... Show More
46m 23s
Mar 2022
SYMHC Classics: The Race to the South Pole
This 2010 episode from previous hosts Katie and Sarah covers Scott and Amundsen launching rival expeditions to the South Pole. knowing only one group could be the first to reach the pole. Each believed his strategy would prevail, but which explorer won?See omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More
21m 53s