Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep. 29 | Animals and National Geographic's Almanac 2019 w/Cara Santa Maria

Episode Date: November 3, 2018

Cara is talking about the brand new National Geographic’s Almanac 2019. While they’ve published a kids almanac for years, this is the first for readers 12-112!  It has tons of facts, amazing photos, great graphics and cool maps that present the world as only NatGeo can. Cara Talks About: Fun facts -- like how polar jet stream works, how chameleons change colors, where the world's biggest city is, and how the science behind addiction works Top travel trends, new explorations, and recent discoveries How the 2019 Almanac is organized and which are her favorite features Her role on the November 12 episode of NatGeo Explorer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Chewing the Fat on Demand. Welcome to Saturday. This is Chewing the Fat, special Saturday edition with yours truly, Jeff Fisher. Thank you so much for coming along for the ride today. I decided to dig into the fat pile that we left off on yesterday. We've got, as I dug through the fat pile, I realized that there was all kinds of animal stories that we had not gotten to. And I thought, well, let's get to them. I mean, we've got a whole bunch of rhinos and tigers are about to die, according to this story, thanks to China.

The China regime has now, well, they're calling it, issued a death warrant. They clarified that only certified hospitals and doctors would be allowed to use the animal parts. What are those animal parts? Rhinos and tigers, oh my. You'd be able to horns and tiger bones used for medical reasons. used for medical research in China have been banned. They are no longer going to be banned.

25-year ban. Now, they said, like I said, there can only be certified hospitals and doctors to use them. What they're concerned about, though, is that how do you tell where the rhino or the tiger came from? So, good luck, God bless.

To the tigers and the rhinos in China. And there's only, I found it fascinating that there's only, there's not that many left. 3,900 left in the wild of tigers. That's, I mean, it sounds like it's not a lot, but do we want more than 3,900 tigers roaming around the earth? Yeah, I know, all your animal lovers, I got it.

Hawaii has crickets that have evolved to purr like cats. I don't even need to read the story for that. You just need to know the headline. Dead fin whale pulled the shore on Belgian beach. calls probe you think it's dead leave it alone ghostly Dumbo octopus makes hypnotizing appearance in new deep-sea footage never before seen the celio pod put its deep sea acrobatics on full display this week what you mean there's still things in the sea we don't know exist that can't be we know everything do we

Because we also have a story about octopuses that are supposed to not hang out in possees. They don't hang out together. Oh, wait, maybe they do. In Monterey Bay, the National Marine Sanctuary in California, have found a whole posse of octopuses hanging out, taking care of their eggs. Bunches, hundreds of them. And they're like, they usually don't do that. You think you don't know everything you know, is there? No.

It's octopi? No, it's octopussy. It's octopussy's. Pretty sure. I mean, I'm always a fan of pie. But on the other hand, I may be more of a fan of... Anyway. And what did I tell you?

When we talked about the islands disappearing in Hawaii, they talked about all the animals that are now dead. They're not dead. We have a story. Scientists find tiny baby octopus floating on Hawaii trash. Exactly what I said would happen. Oh, wait. The water's coming up over us.

Let's swim to some place where we can be safe. Duh. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Quebec man ordered a foot fet mill for dog in practice. Now, his dog went over next door of the chow. And he got the chow pregnant. Now, the chow owner is a little wound up.

No one's your nasty mutt making my chow pregnant. Too late. But the judge said, no, no, no, no. You can't be letting your dog loose impregnating any old dog he wants, you have to pay for it all. Well, that isn't that special. It really doesn't sound that bad. He gets $711.50 plus interest.

I don't know what the interest would be compounded on. And another $101 in court costs. Just for his dog over there, impregnating the neighbor's dog. Kind of sad. Now, this story is fascinating to me. me. This is an entire story on meat animals that go wild for your urine. In a surreal site, and I have not seen the video of this, and there's got to be video somewhere, and we'll find it, and maybe we'll play it on Pat Unleashed this week. A helicopter crossed the sky,

dangling strands of drugged, blindfolded mountain goats, as many as five at a time. In the end, more than 100 goats were airlifted from the park and shipwerexted. to new homes across the state all because they loved human urine too much. There's got to be video of that. We have to see the video of that. Mountain goats are not alone in their quest for what this story is calling liquid gold. A surprising number of creatures from reindeer to locusts have a known affinity for human urine. And for some species, this craving for our minerals has dramatically shaped their behavior.

All animals need sodium and chlorine, the chemical components of the table of salt, which are essential elements that regulate fluids and enable the transfer of energy to survive. Carnivores, omnivores, like humans, can often meet this need by eating other animals. And when we have too much, our bodies secrete these elements as waste products. When moths and butterflies gather to drink dirt through their straw-like probicesis-Z-Z-Z. Pro-B-O-S-C-I-S-E-S, whatever you want to call them on top of the moths and butterflies. It's known as mud puddling. Some of the most attractive mud puddles are those created by animals relieving themselves. amazing. In southern Siberia, this is absolutely the circle of life. I love this. In southern Siberia,

they've long used urine to build what they're calling relationships with reindeer. They rely on the reindeer to live. I mean, they kill the reindeer to eat for the winter, right? I mean, you're living in southern Siberia. It's not like you're going to the beach in the winter. So the men would urinate near the house often in a hollow stump or even in a special urinal constructed for reindeer like a tree trunk with a trough carved in it. And then in the winter it would freeze. And the deer would come up and lick the ice, lick the urine if it was frozen. And obviously when it's not frozen, they come up and drink it. Hello

That's genius Rangiers come up Lick a little uran ice That one's looking big We're going to kill that one for the winter That's a circle of life right there In Olympic National Park Where the urine-loving goats

Were and are They compete with native species In addition to threatening the visitors the officials have opted for complete eviction or elimination. So if you're one of the goats that didn't get flown out, a bye, have a nice day. They're going to relocate as many as 600 or more so goats, but the rest of them, they're going to remove by lethal means.

Because they were busy chasing. People were out to hike. the hike in the park and the goats are followed them. The people are thinking that the goats are chasing them. They're just waiting for them to pee. Oh, so good. In 2008, a study on yellow spined bamboo locust. And man, who doesn't want to do a study on yellow spine bamboo locusts?

That's a major pest. And known urine fan. The insect strongly preferred human urine. They don't want any of that nasty goat urine. I want the humans, okay? And they like the human urine incubated for three to six days. They don't want it fresh. Amazing.

Dr. Bodry, who has gone out for studies and taken care of these studies, takes students out on these studies, and he encourages them to go to the bathroom in the forest, both one and two. And he would see who harvested the nutrients, what animals came, what butterflies wanted it, what mammals over the others. And that's a fun study. That sounds like a fun study.

We're going to just go to the bathroom and you're not really going to the bathroom. You're relieving yourself in the woods and then you get to sit around and wait until the animals come and see which ones want it. Wow. In Georgia's Piedmont region, the doctor used cow urine from. a nearby farm. He obtained a cougar urine from P-Mart, America's first discount urine store online. Come on now, tell me America isn't great.

I don't even know if the store is actually in America, but you can get it online. America's first discount urine store, P-Mart. So he did this study, he gets all this urine, throws it out there. And 97 out of 117 butterflies chose to quench their thirst with cougar urine. Wow. They want any human urine. We want any cow urine.

We want cougar urine. That's tremendous. One of the things that they talk about in this story, though, that I did not know, is urine therapy. Were you ever aware of urine therapy? medicinal use of urine? No, thank you. I think I'd rather be sick. I think I'd rather be sick.

They talk about this doctor, this neuropath, John Armstrong, who popularized urine therapy in the 20th century, cited the Bible, which advises readers to drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. I don't think that's what the Bible meant. I'm pretty sure. Now, look, I'm not a Bible scholar. I have read most of the Bible. I don't know that I can say that I've read all of it,

page for page, but, I mean, I was indoctrinated. I mean, studied the Bible as a child. And I don't remember any preacher telling me drink your own pee. God wanted you to drink your own pee. No, I'm pretty sure. Pretty sure he did. I don't want to speak for God, but I'm going to. That's not what he meant.

They are a little concerned, though, about the goats in the mountains because what they're supposed to do is go around and lick natural stuff, natural lick sites, you know, where other animals and beings are out in the wild surviving. And now, with all the people showing up and giving them free lick sites, they're losing their whole inner sense of being, which is why we have to get rid of them now. Right? I mean, we're shipping them out. I want to see the footage of them being helicoptered out. And then if you're not helicoptered out, if you're left on the ground thinking, yeah, more for me.

Nope. We're killing you off. You should have been on the helicopter. So I had an opportunity a little bit ago to talk to Kara Santa Maria about the new National Geographic's Almanac, 2019. All these stories about animals and out in the wild got me thinking about the National Geographic's Almanac because it goes obviously around the world. And the book is tremendous. I took it home and my kids are, I see them. sitting there when I tell them a computer is off.

They grab the almanac and I'm in love with it. That has happened since I've talked to Kara. But I wanted to share my interview with Kara Santa Maria about the new National Geographic's Almanac and she also does a science podcast which we discussed a little bit on this interview. And we may have to have her back and talk a little bit more about her science podcast, especially since now I'm learning about animals and urine therapy. I didn't realize you were there. That's all right.

How you doing? Nothing to do to me? Wait, you've heard that before? Come on. No, never. Okay. I knew I had to be the first one with that. Hello.

Do you want Kara or? Carra. What do you want from here? Kara. Kara, Santa Maria. Thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it. How are you today? You all right?

I'm great. Happy to be here. So where are you at right now? Are you in the city? I'm actually in Los Angeles. Oh, not that city. Oh. A different city.

Oh. So do you live in New York? I noticed I sounded like you were in New York at one of the podcast that we were listening to the other day. Oh, yeah. No, I actually live in L.A., but I was just on a book tour for a different book and was in the U.K. and spent quite a bit of time in New York right beforehand. So you live on the West Coast.

I do. Sorry. It's earlier here, too. I started this radio tour this morning at 5 a.m. Oh, you're good to go then. No problem. Oh, yeah. So, you know, let's go.

We're still recording, so it's all good. I appreciate you coming on. And what, you know, we're talking about the new National Geographic Almanac, the 2019 edition. And it looks like another beautiful National Geographic Almanac that we've all come to know and appreciate. And I love the fact that we have, you know, really, National Geographic has kind of changed the lexicon of what people do. I was thinking that yesterday I was sitting on the back porch with my wife and we were watching the, it's been raining here. here in Texas for about a year. And it finally stopped.

And the little flowers are up and the bees are flying all over with all the flowers around and I'm watching the bees. And we're taking some pictures and we popped a couple of videos just for the stupid Instagram post. And at the time that we're out doing that, my wife, we're Nat Geoing. And so, I mean, the world is now used to, you know, just nat geowing. You've changed the lexicon. And so it really is kind of the standard bear, isn't it?

Absolutely. And so this latest book I noticed, I didn't realize that National Geographic was so ageist. But it says here in my notes that you guys, this is from readers ages 12 to 112. What about those of us that are older than 112? I know. I think they were trying to pick a cutoff that would make sure it contained everyone within. But you know, the reason that we list 12 to 112 is because historically National Geographic put out a kids almanac every single year. This is the very first year for the adult almanac, and I'm so excited to be a part of it. So once we get through with the National Geographic Talk, because I want to talk to you about that, can we talk about your other projects as well? Absolutely.

I love to you. I know you're doing the National Geographic Tour. It's all good. I got it. So what are the most of you? What did you help with? Did you actually do all the work and put this all together? And this is your magazine?

It should be your name on it. Kara Santa Maria instead of National Geographic. This is all you? Can you imagine writing this entire book by yourself? No, a team of people worked on this. No, I could not. Yeah, to ensure that all of the information is up to date is fact-checked. It was, you know, really modern. And of course, you know, that graphic eye as well because it's just beautifully laid out. So my job in this is I wrote the forward to the book and I did these incredible quiz master pages. So at the beginning of each major section in the book, I kind of take you on a guide, and I ask you a lot of trivia questions and give you some hints as to where you can find the answers throughout the book to kind of gamify it and make it a little bit more interactive. Did you have to do with the key facts as well? Oh, yeah, yeah. The continental facts?

I was looking, I happened to be, as I was plowing through it and I was looking at Africa, I was wondering, because I noticed from our podcast, we have some people who have downloaded us from Djibouti. And I thought, I didn't actually know where that was a month and a half ago. And now I see, and I do now, obviously, because I saw that on our podcast list. And it has the lowest elevation of a lake of minus 509 feet. So all the people that are downloading this podcast in Djibouti, hello. How you doing? Thank you for coming along for the ride. Yeah, hello.

I appreciate it. a funny thing about kind of the American perspective. I think Africa is definitely a continent less traveled and understanding, you know, where all of the different countries are and what their kind of

demographic, what their, you know, their geography is like. It's definitely probably where most of us here in America are the weakest. And so it's great to be able to learn a little bit more about Africa because it does capture the imagination with its flora and faun

and incredible people. So when I want to get this National Geographic 2019 hominag, I would say that it's probably available at any bookstore, but I don't know that there's actually a bookstore anymore left in America or around the world. They do? They do? Wait, where? Where?

You can absolutely visit your local bookstore and they'll have it on hand, but also the big online booksellers, the Amazon, the Barnes & Noble, so you'll be able to find it there, as well as National Geographic. dot com. It's everywhere books are sold. I actually I love these things. I go through them and it's fascinating because no matter what you always learn

something you didn't know. No matter what it is like just the stupid thing about Djibouti and the lowest elevation of 5009 feet of Lake of Sal. I didn't know that. Yeah I mean you could literally flip to any page and learn something new in this book. That's one of the things I love about it.

What's your favorite part? I noticed that we Going through, we have a plethora of extremes and classic travel and earth and sea and the solar system. What's your favorite part of this book? Oh, gosh, it's so hard to pick a favorite, but I don't know. I'd have to say the science of us. You know, my background is neuroscience and psychology. I worked as a scientist for several years before becoming a science communicator, and I'm actually back in school now working on my PhD.

And so, of course, understanding human origins, understanding modern humankind, how we relate to each other and how there's just so much more that unites us than divides us. I think that I have to say that's my favorite section. Well, I appreciate you coming on and talking down to us. It means a lot. Because I know that that's actually some of your other projects with your Talk Nerdy podcast, which was fascinating. So I happened to pop up a Talk Nerdy one, which I think was the latest edition,

talking about sand. I know. So yes, my very last episode, I interviewed Vince Biser, who is an investigative journalist, and he wrote a new book all about sand. And I know what you're thinking. How could you talk for an hour about sand? No, no, I was thinking about, I was actually putting together questions for him. It really is.

It's just fascinating. Our entire civilization is literally built upon sand, because, of course, sand makes up all of the glass, all of the silicon chips in our computers, and all of the concrete that we used to build everything around us. And, you know, I lived in Florida for, you know, a lot of years. And it's literally his, one of his points, I think, was that we may be losing more sand than we should be, at least the usage of it. Yep, we're mining it at unprecedented levels, and it's actually causing a lot of erosion. And it's causing there to be a black market for.

sand and there's actually some violence and some real kind of crazy stuff happening around the black market sand trade. So do they sneak it in? I mean, do they carry it in briefcases into the country? I assume they need more than what you can fit in a briefcase, but I'm sure that there's a lot of creativity involved. I mean, now I don't feel so bad. I remember traveling to Israel and bringing home a couple of a little small containers of mud from the, from the lake. And I thought,

no, I just won't tell anybody I was bringing home. And now the whole world goes. Oh yeah, wait. Never mind. That didn't happen. It was just alleged. I was just thinking about it. I love the black market world on the sand. If, so, I know that you did the interview with him, but what is

he, did he elaborate any on how that is happening? Because now I'm fascinated. You're just going to tell me go listen to the stupid podcast and shut up. I got it. No, no, it is. We talk about it a lot in the show. And also, I mean, he wrote an entire book about it, which is why I had him on the show. So we never ran out of things to talk about. And that's, I mean, that's what I love about talk nerdy. Each week I interview a different scientist or science writer. And gosh, never run out of topics. There's always something else to learn. Yeah, for sure. And I noticed that, you know, you is, I noticed that you had, you had,

worked with Bill Nye? Absolutely. I was a correspondent on Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix. So much fun. No, I loved it. I loved Bill. Ah, okay. I actually don't mind him on his,

when the YouTube has them videotape answering Twitter questions. Oh, those are hilarious. Yeah, those are really good. It's worth watching that. So the National Geographic Almanac, 2019. You love the science, but, you know, my favorite is just actually the photographs throughout all the years has been, you know, tremendous.

And I'm biased since my wife is a photographer, and I just, the pictures just jump out at me all the time. This is like, I love them. And so, what do you get for a book like this? Two, three bucks? Who, me personally, or you? National Geographic. No, not me.

I'm not getting any money for this thing. No, I'm just teasing you about the price for this. Two, three bucks, something like that. Yeah, I mean, it is actually a ridiculously good deal. I think that the list price of this is 1999. Oh, that's not bad, actually. You basically, yeah, you have the world in your hand. Yeah, no kidding.

I would have actually, I'm holding my hand now, and I'm thinking, oh, this has got to be worth at least 30, 40 bucks. So $20 is not bad at all. Yeah, no, it's a great price. So now you can buy two. Quit pushing me. Quit pushing me. Kara Santa Maria with National Geographic.

What's on the forecast for you next? What are you doing next for National Geographic? So for National Geographic, you can actually tune into Jeopardy on November 1st, where I'm going to be reading some clues. That has a great tie-in here to the book. And also, I am a correspondent on National Geographic. Geographic Channel's flagship show Explorer, which starts on November 12th. Very good.

Here, thank you very much. And we will look forward to you reading, what is the National Geographic and doing the questions on Jeopardy? I love it. Actually, you'd be reading the answers, right? Yeah, Jeopardy. So much. Yeah, yeah, you'll figure the answers. They'd have to guess the answers.

Kara, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time. Be safe. Thanks so much.