Collections — Mountains, lakes, poles & seas
Natural Wonders
Everest to the Aral Sea, both poles, and a lake or twelve. The planet's headline geography, annotated with whatever strange thing happened there that the panel couldn't let go of.
30 places in this collection
- 1Mount Everestnatural landmark · Nepal
In his 40s he skied down Mount Everest with a parachute on his back so he could slow himself down.
Open this place → - 2Lake Districtnatural landmark · United Kingdom
The first question was how many lakes are there in the Lake District?
Open this place → - 3North PoleSJ
It might be the last time ever that people ever walk to the North Pole, because the ice is melting.
Open this place → - 4Lake Michigannatural landmark · United States
In 1912 it had this very famous accident and it sank — it was carrying 5,500 trees from Michigan to Chicago across Lake Michigan, and it was captained by this guy called Sherman, who was so famous as a…
Open this place → - 5South PoleAntarctica
The first ever harvest at the South Pole was grown in a giant greenhouse that uses special liquid nutrients instead of soil and LEDs rather than sunlight.
Open this place → - 6Loch Ness MonsterUnited Kingdom
There was a theory that maybe, just maybe, a very big eel might be the Loch Ness Monster, like a six metre long eel.
Open this place → - 7Black Seanatural landmark · Ukraine
There was some taken to the Black Sea by accident in some bilge water.
Open this place → - 8Lake Genevanatural landmark · France
When the poets Shelley and Byron went on a writers' retreat to Lake Geneva in 1816, the hotel opposite them hired out telescopes to their guests so that they could spy on them.
Open this place → - 9Great Lakesnatural landmark · United States
At the bottom you've got the Great Lakes, sort of celebrity lakes.
Open this place → - 10Chicago Rivernatural landmark · United States
The Chicago River is a friend of the podcast.
Open this place → - 11Aral Seanatural landmark · Uzbekistan
There's an island in the Aral Sea which in Russia is known as Vosrezhdenia, which means rebirth.
Open this place → - 12AntarcticSaint Helena
The Antarctic was known as the womanless continent for a long time because there weren't any women there, basically.
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- 14ArcticSJ
A can of tinned veal that was left in the Arctic by William Parry, the Explorer, in 1825 was rediscovered by another explorer in 1829 and used as a doorstop for many, many years, and finally opened in 1958.
Open this place → - 15Mont BlancFrance
In 1852, there was a show on in London called the Ascent of Mont Blanc by a guy called Albert Smith, which was just a guy who'd climbed up Mont Blanc.
Open this place → - 16Isle of WightUnited Kingdom
There was someone recently on the Isle of Wight who brought back a lovely old fossil from the beach and caused the entire resort to be evacuated because it was an old hand grenade.
Open this place → - 17PacificKiribati
There's one, beneath Africa and there's one under the Pacific and that's obviously a very technical name for them and they're not very well known about they're not very well researched because they are where…
Open this place → - 18Dead Seanatural landmark · Israel / Jordan
They made their money because they were near the Dead Sea.
Open this place → - 19Mount Rushmorenatural landmark · United States
90% of it was done with dynamite, Mount Rushmore.
Open this place → - 20Mount Etnanatural landmark · Italy
Mount Etna is given a lot of credit for the reason that the pistachios are so good, because basically the trees are growing out of the kind of volcanic slabs that have been laid down over the passage of time.
Open this place → - 21Caspian Seanatural landmark · Azerbaijan
There was a massive meeting in 2018 called the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, where all the countries met, and they were there for weeks and they concluded it's neither a lake nor a sea.
Open this place → - 22Loch NessUnited Kingdom
There was a theory that maybe, just maybe, a very big eel might be the Loch Ness Monster, like a six metre long eel.
Open this place → - 23Easter IslandChile
He visited on Easter Day in 1722, which is why he gave it the name Easter Island.
Open this place → - 24Grand CanyonUnited States
The reason the Federal Aviation Administration in America was set up was because of the Grand Canyon — there were two commercial flights that used to detour to go over the Grand Canyon so people could have a quick look.
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- 26CaribbeanJamaica
According to the leading piracy historian Marcus Redeker, more people have worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise than there were ever actual pirates of the Caribbean.
Open this place → - 27Lake Superiornatural landmark · United States
Lake Superior is the largest lake on earth, but only if you don't count the Caspian Sea, which is about five times bigger.
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- 29Rocky Mountainsnatural landmark · United States
There was a guy in America called Billy Barr who lived in the Rocky Mountains.
Open this place → - 30Mississippi Rivernatural landmark · United States
German and Italian prisoners of war were carted to a Prisoner of War Camp in Mississippi and told to build the Mississippi River again.
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