In July 1879, 33 men set sail aboard USS Jeannette 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 escape getting stuck in the treacherous arctic pack ice. But not long after the journey beg ... Show More
Jun 2024
Voyage to the North Pole | Crushed | 3
<p>Trapped in polar pack ice, the crew of USS Jeannette settle in for a long, dark winter. As the temperature drops and the ice floes press against her sides, the ship risks suffering grave damage. Morale drops, as the sailors begin to wonder if they’ll ever return safely from th ... Show More
44m 29s
Jun 2024
Voyage to the North Pole | The Skeleton Pack | 4
<p>It’s June 1881, and USS Jeannette has been crushed between ice floes and sunk to the bottom of the Arctic Sea. The crew now find themselves stranded on the ice, a thousand miles from Siberia, the nearest inhabited land. If they’re ever going to reach it, they’ll have to endure ... Show More
46m 56s
Mar 2023
How They Found the Shipwreck Endurance
In 1915, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s historic expedition to Antarctica stalled when floating ice trapped, crushed, and finally sank his ship, Endurance. Shackleton’s men survived 21 months on the ice, alone and freezing, and became one of the most incredible adventur ... Show More
45m 50s
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
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
Sep 2020
After the Ice: The Younger Dryas, the Mesolithic, and the Birth of a New World
<p>For most of <em>Homo sapiens</em>' time out of Africa, we lived in a world defined by ice. But by around 20,000 years ago, the ice had begun to melt, the glaciers retreating back toward the poles and mountain ranges. This left behind a new world, a whole different series of en ... Show More
47m 41s
Jul 2020
Trapped in Ice: The Paleolithic World
<p>Twenty thousand years ago, the world was locked in ice. The glaciers advanced from the poles and mountain ranges, swallowing huge portions of the planet's surface and making the rest colder and drier, a more difficult place to live. Yet people nevertheless thrived, spreading o ... Show More
45m 52s
May 2018
The Space Race | Taking the Lead | 3
<p>In times of crisis, Americans had always put their confidence in their country’s superiority in power, technology and leadership. America had never failed them. And in 1961, hope and faith in their country burned brighter than ever as NASA prepared to launch the first man ... Show More
39m 12s