Stuff You Should Know - How Land Diving Works

Episode Date: February 4, 2016

On Pentacost Island the ritual that preceded bungee jumping is alive and well. Just why do these tribesmen risk life and limb? To ensure a hearty yam harvest. Great reason. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Start building your website today at squarespace.com. Enter our offer code STUFF at checkout to get 10% off. Squarespace, build it beautiful. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know

from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And although we haven't been in the studio, oh and Jerry's over there, although we haven't been in the studio, Chuck and I have been together on the road. Yeah.

Doing Stuff You Should Know, the podcast, calling live exclamation. Leave in our stank all over this great nation. Hoping to bring our stank into other great nations. Oh yeah, we're looking at you, Great Britain. We have no idea whether you want us to come over or not. We're trying to fill you guys out. Let us know if you want us to come do a show there.

Yeah, and that goes for other cities. Well, let's just recap. We went to, we had a great fun time on the Warmer Climes Tour. Yes. A big thanks to Squarespace again for sponsoring the tour. And allowing the free printing and giving out of posters. Yes.

Which is always wonderful when people say, how much do these cost? And I say zero money. Because Uncle Squarespace paid for it. That's right. So we went to San Francisco. That was fantastic. You want to tell your San Francisco story?

It's so wonderful. The little kid? Yeah, why not? So I was on Fillmore Street, which is my new favorite street in San Francisco. Yeah, that's great. And there's this little girl crying and pointing at a man. And I couldn't figure out what the girl's problem was

until I overheard her mom say, no honey, he's not throwing that away. That's a recycling bin he's putting that cup in. Swear to God that happened. Yeah, it could not be more San Francisco than that. Oh, I can top that. Oh yeah? That same street, later that day or the next day,

I saw a woman crossing at about that point and she had her arm in a sling. And the sling was Burberry. Wow. So. And the cast was probably made from recycled bandages from patients who didn't make it. Or ones who did, they just took them anyway.

Right. I'm not dead yet. Oh, very nice. Thank you. Monty Python reference. Then we went to San Diego. Right. Performed in a church.

Yes. The ironic. Yeah. Which was a little weird, but cool and fun. It was the church from the Prince of Darkness. That's right. Or at least it was after we left. I'm virtually convinced that's what it was.

Well, it might have been. I have to go back and watch it again. But I mean, it was very reminiscent of it. Where Dallas after that. Yeah, we played in the theater where Lee Harvey Oswald hit out. That's right. Dallas crowd was great and raucous.

And they actually, there's a point in this show where I do a yeehaw and they yeehawed back. It was an involuntary spasm from the Dallas crowd. And they also, at least two or three people shot guns into the air. And you saw a 10 gallon hat. Yes. In person.

In person. Did it hold 10 gallons? At least. At least. Maybe a baker's dozen of gallons. Then we went to Austin, Texas, which is a wonderful city. And by the way, we're going to be back in Austin for South by Southwest and performing at our very own.

We're getting like our own house. Not a stuff you should know house. No, like the speakeasy. We're going to be there. Yeah, the city of Atlanta speakeasy house. I think like fifth in Congress or something like that. Yeah. So look for us again, Austin, Texas in March.

Yeah. I don't know if you guys have heard of it or not. It's going to be at South by Southwest. Just look it up. Where do we go next? We went to New Orleans. Yes, that was a cool show. It was wonderful.

And I want to shout out Miss Kristen Bell and Mr. Dax Shepard, the lovely acting couple who we know listen to our show because they've been kind enough to tweet about us in support in the past. And I was at a bakery in New Orleans and Emily came out. She said, Kristen Bell's in there. Yeah. And I felt like I had to go say something and thank her.

Right. And she was delighted to meet me and relieved seconds after I said who I was. Say you weren't just some weirdo. Yeah, dude. I come lumbering like this woodland beast comes lumbering up to her in a bakery. And she was like literally shielding her children from me.

Right. Yeah. And she was amazed. Just almost out. Oh, oh, you're Chuck. Thank God. And she couldn't have been nicer. And she met Ruby and insisted I change Ruby's diaper there

in her booth because there was no changing room. Nice. And so thanks for your support, Miss Bell. Miss Bell, yes. Yeah, I can't call her Kristen. But I can call Dax Dax because he's just cool like that. And then we went to Atlanta. That was probably the most fun show I've ever done.

That was a fun show. Hometown show, sold it out, family and friends. It was just a wonderful special night. And I stayed out till 3 in the morning drinking way too much. And I can attest to this because I saw Chuck the next day for the last show in Birmingham. That's right. And both of us took it easy that night

because we both had to turn around and drive home after the show. Yep, 2 AM. Back to Atlanta. Two exhausted little stuffers. I was impressed by the Birmingham crowd. They showed up and they were like, whatever impressions you may have of us, they're wrong.

Yeah. Entertain us smartly. Yeah, and we did. We didn't know. Tour the roof off that sucker. It was sort of a test of a smaller southeastern market. It was cool. And they came through.

Yeah, it was a good crowd in Birmingham too. And the venue was really neat too. The work play space is really neat. And they were very nice folks. All podcasters out there who go on tour check out Work Play in Birmingham. There were dogs running around after inside there, which is perfect for us.

That's our tour. Yeah, thanks, everybody. And if you're wondering what we did, you have to wait until we release the live show. That's right. Oh, one more quick announcement. If anyone in Atlanta wants to come see my mediocre old man band, we are playing February 26th at the Star Bar.

Awesome. Which I'm super excited, because it's just the age-old great venue in Atlanta. Oh, sure. And they mistakenly let us on the bill. Nice. So come on out if you want to see us melt some faces. Is that what you guys do?

Oh, we melt faces. Shredding? Shredding, my friend. Nice. So that's it. You got any other announcements? No. Great.

I don't have an old man band, so no. Well, you can. Dreams can come true. Star Bar is one of mine in Umi's places. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Are we invited? No, you can't.

Actually, you're on a list. Like, do not let in. I think you should have been like Atlanta minus Josh. My old man band is going to be playing. Yeah, you can come if you want. Nice. Great. Let's see.

What else, Chuck? Land diving. Oh, yeah. We put it off long enough. That's right. All right. So land diving. It sounds weird.

And it is a little weird. It's this ancient custom that we actually know the origin story, too. We know where it started. It never came across when specifically. It seems to have happened some point back in the distant past. OK. But I'm not entirely certain if the distant past is like 2,000

years ago or 300 years ago. In which case, it wouldn't be ancient. No, but it's still distant past. Is ancient? Is that quantified? No. And never even thought to see? Surely it's not.

Well, why don't you just continue? I might even look it up, which we rarely do. So Chuck's going to look that up. I'll keep talking. There's an island called Vanuatu. It's in the South Pacific. Survivor did a season there. Sure.

But even before Survivor, it was famous. And it was famous for this land diving thing. And back in, there's actually a specific island in Vanuatu called Pentecost Island. Clearly, the missionaries got their hands on that island. And Pentecost Island is where the origin of land diving, or something called, it's called Nag Hall, or Nag Hall. N-A-G-H-O-L?

Yeah. Not the easiest word to pronounce. You did fine. Nag Hall. Nag Hall. Anyway, you say that a bunch of times. Man, I feel rusty. No, you're great.

Great. You're squeaky clean. So this land diving thing, it's not like these guys climb up a couple of feet and jump onto the ground and do a somersault and then stick it with the Y, their hands in the air. Yeah, stick the landing. It's much more intricate than that.

And primitive. And dangerous. Yes. Extremely dangerous. So it bears a striking resemblance to bungee jumping. And the reason why is because the guy who invented bungee jumping, an Australian named AJ Hackett, went to Pentecost Island at some point in the 80s, saw this stuff, and said,

oh, I could totally do something like that, but with an elastic band. Yeah. That's the big difference between bungee and land diving. Yeah, he didn't invent it, but he popularized it. Who invented bungee jumping? I didn't get a name, but I saw that the first bungee jumping that anyone knows about was in England.

Oh, yeah. Are you sure it wasn't this cat? Because he traveled the world bungee jumping. Yeah, 1979, the UK-based Dangerous Sports Club, left off a suspension bridge. In San Francisco, though, I think. Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol. No, that's San Francisco.

Everybody knows the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, gateway to Marin County. That's the Golden Gate Bridge, I believe. Oh. Oh, yeah. And I think they say Marin. I told you I was rusty. Yeah, I don't think they didn't give a name,

but it said, and this is from a Time Magazine article, because what's going on is, or at least a few years ago, people in the tribe's people were trying to get some money out of AJ Hackett and his partner. They were basically like, wait a minute, you copied our age-old, and I looked up ancient, by the way. What is it? It said it's more than 60 years.

Belonging to the very distant past and no longer in existence. Well, then ancient wouldn't work in this case, because they're still land-diving in Vanuatu. But it can also just mean, like, really old, like that ancient jacket you're wearing. I'm not wearing a jacket, this is a sweater. The ancient underwear you're wearing. This is very new.

It's from last quarter. Your underwear? Yeah. OK, good. Do you buy your underwear quarterly? Do the taxes by the underwear? I got to do that, still. So anyway, he didn't invent it.

But I might as well go ahead and finish that little story about them trying to get money. Apparently, it's probably not going to happen. I couldn't see any recent. It's always one of the most frustrating things when you see something from a few years ago and can't find a follow-up. But from what I gathered, they're

going to have a really hard time getting money out of them, because there is no legal protection afforded to traditional rituals in or outside of Vanuatu, is what experts say. Like, basically, you can't say this tribal ritual like we own it. Right. So Westerners just feel free to copy it and exploit it

for money. Right, exactly. Our Western intellectual property laws don't apply to your tribal customs. All right, since we were long-winded at first, why don't we take a break? And then we'll get into exactly what goes on with these dives.

Yeah, we haven't said it. [?]. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point,

but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64?

Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing.

Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it, and popping it back in, as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass.

The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Ah, OK, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place,

because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS, because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael.

Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy, teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life, step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general, can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now.

If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody, about my new podcast, and make sure to listen, so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, Josh. You said it wasn't a few feet off the ground. It's more like just under 100 feet,

where these towers are built. The towers are not, you know, made of rebar, and what do they call it, scaffolding. It's made of stuff there in the jungle. Right. It's made of vines, and it's made of wood, and they build a new one each year during, well, I call it yam season, before the yam harvest.

Yam time. I call it the bloodletting. But it is cut open the earth, and remove her yams from her breast. What in the world are you talking about? Yam time. I don't get it. We're talking about the same thing.

We're just talking differently. All right. Is what you said a real thing? No. It is very macabre. I know. OK. Where was I?

Yam time. Yam time. So it's during yam season, or just before yam harvest, and that's one of the reasons they take part in this ritual is to ensure a bountiful yam harvest. I get the feeling yams are a pretty big deal for them. If you're doing this to ensure a bountiful yam harvest, yes.

Yes, yams are very important. And it's also a good time to do it, because that is when the vines are most full of sap, and less likely to be brittle and break, which is not what you want. And these are the linear vines, right? Yes. So the linear vines, it's extremely

important what kind of linear vines that you select, because at any point in the linear vine that you select, if it's dry, it can snap. Yeah. And since it's tied to somebody's ankle and they're jumping off at about 45 miles an hour, up to 30 meters or almost 100 feet in the air, yeah, you want to make sure that vine's not going to snap.

Yeah. So if we haven't explicitly said it, they jump as if they are bungee jumping, but there is, I mean, there's some elasticity, because I watched it, but it's not like bungee cords. Right. They're not rubber bands. It's generally the ideas you want

to fold your arms over your chest, make the leap, and then come as close to the ground as you can without having a hard impact. But you ideally do want to touch the ground with your shoulders. Right. It's like barely. You also, as you're coming up toward the ground, you want to tuck your head into your chest

so that what's hitting the ground is that the tops of your shoulders, basically. Yeah. And a really, really important point that just kind of gets glossed over in this article is that they till the ground below the platform. It's also a little slopey, which helps, I think. Right.

So that it's cushioned, because when you watch this stuff, people hit the ground really hard, a lot. Yeah. A lot, yeah. And as a matter of fact, one guy died in 1974, and Queen Elizabeth happened to be there. He didn't die in front of her. He died later of his injuries.

But one of the jumpers, while Queen Elizabeth was sitting there watching, he did die. And it turns out that a lot of people hit the ground, but this guy was the only person in recent memory that anybody alive could remember actually died. And I think it's mainly because they till that ground so much. Yeah, there was one fatality in 2006. Oh, really?

But I mean, considering what they're doing, that's a pretty good track record here in modern times. That's right. Not too bad. So where all this come from, Chuck? Well, years ago, well, here's the legend. And of course, this smacks of legend in every way. You never know, might have had some truth to it early on.

Sure, so many legends, too. Including that Tom Cruise movie, Legend. Which one? Oh, that was the fantasy movie. Yes. Yeah, I think I saw it, but not my favorite. No, I never saw it. Oh, OK.

Don't bother. I always used to confuse it with labyrinths. Yeah, that was better. Was it? Yeah, featuring David Bowie, the late great David Bowie. All right, here's the legend. There was a woman named Tamali, T-A-M-A-L-I-E, not Tamali. It's a way to go.

Tamali, she was a woman in the village. No, Tamali was the man. I thought Tamali was a woman. No, Tamali was her husband, I believe. All right, so it's the husband. Yeah. Maybe she was Amali. Amali and Tamali.

Who had been the cutest couple? Everyone knew they were going to get married. On Pentecost Island. So she apparently, Tamali, was abusive. Well, she had had an affair, and he found out about it. And it was in the process of abusing her. See, I also read, this is why it's legend, because there are many versions.

I read he was forcing himself on her sexually. Oh, really? And she was like, this ain't happening anymore, Tamali. Either way, it's abuse. He's abusing her, yes. And so she flees, climbs up to a tall tree. He climbs up after her, intent on continuing his abusive behaviors.

She, I guess, has enough time to tie these vines around her ankles and jumps. She's fast. And he says, I'm jumping after you, too. OK, again, legend. Either out of he thinks that she just jumped to her death and he's sad, so he's committing suicide. I don't buy that one.

He's lunging at her and misses. I could buy that one more. Or he's like, I'm jumping after you, because I'm Tamali and I'm dumb. Well, maybe so. One of those. But at any rate, as legend goes, she. I'm going to beat you up on the way down.

As legend goes, she actually survived the jump thanks to the vines on her ankles. He did not. So did she craft this ahead of time? I say there's a lot easier ways to kill your husband than this weird, like maybe he'll follow me up the tree and jump after me. Well, if you're a thrill seeker, though,

this is what you're going to come up with. She might have been. And then this is where it also goes off in the different directions. Some people say that she continued that jump every year. And then men eventually said, no, we're doing the jumping. And then some say, no, men immediately started jumping and said, women can't jump.

Right. And the ladder of those two legends is that men were like, well, we need to start practicing in case somebody else. This ever happens to me. Because clearly, this is going to be a trend that starts. And you women, you're not allowed to practice, only us. That's right.

And so the husbands would get up on the platform and they would basically make a speech about their wife's behavior and then make the jump. And the coffee she makes is terrible. So I'm going to jump. Watch this. And you know the wife is just down there like, I hate this stupid tradition.

No, I don't think so. They embrace it now. Well, I mean, when the husband's sitting there griping about his wife, they'll jump already. I'm sure some piddling stuff. Yeah. Yeah, just jump. You don't have to add that part.

But what has remained true today is that women are not permitted to jump. It's only men. And aside from one white dude in the 1970s, no outsider has ever been allowed to jump. No, Cat Muller. Cal. Was it Cal, I thought it was Cal Muller.

Ended up living with the Pentecost Islanders for at least seven months, if not longer. I think over the course of a couple of years, but the last thing was seven straight months. And they speak a version of Pigeon English. And he learned to speak it as well. And he gave a really heartfelt speech from the platform when they finally let him.

And it was apparently, by all accounts, a very touching, well, not all accounts, but Cal Muller's account, a very touching experience. Well, and you know, because he said in his article, Land Diving with the Pentecost Islanders, it was a very touching experience. Oh, did it really? I'm sure he did.

I did read the article, actually. It's pretty good. He was in Nat Geo magazine. So he was the first to, or only, outsider to jump. It's actually, because it's so dangerous, it's forbidden. But they've enshrined it in a taboo. It's like a cultural taboo for a non-Vanua tour to jump, to do the knock-off.

Yeah, and I'm sure there have been plenty of bungee bros really trying to get in there. But they, by all accounts, have been rebuffed at every time. They're like, does everybody have some 311 they can play while I jump? But anyway, Cal Muller wasn't the only one to jump. He wasn't the first outsider to see this. There were a lot of early witnesses.

Obviously, the Pentecostals who first came to the island as missionaries. It didn't occur to me that's why the island was called that. Like a dummy. I just glossed right over that. You're not a dummy, man. Yeah, I hate it when obvious things don't occur to me, though. But it's just perspective.

Like it could have been called Christian Now Island. What a weird name. Christian Now. What's with the exclamation mark? But earlier than that, earlier than Cal Muller, there was an adventurer couple named Irving and Electra Johnson. And they just traveled the world at a time when traveling the world was very difficult, well, the 50s.

And they were correspondents for National Geographic for a while. And in 1953, they finally got to see it. They had a friend on Pentecost Island, probably a missionary, who was saying like, you got to see this, man. It's crazy. I'll see if I can arrange it.

And they became some of the first outsiders to ever write about it. Well, and missionaries actually talked them in, well, it says they banned the practice in the late 19th century. But after World War II, apparently there was a big revival in Vanuatu's independence and reclaiming their traditions. And so that's when it started coming back into favor.

That's great. And also because they realized, and we'll get to this, The yams had shrunken size? Maybe. Also because they could make some dough from people who wanted to travel and watch this. Right. Yeah, because we mentioned Queen Elizabeth has seen this.

She wasn't the, it didn't go the Johnson's Calmohler Queen Elizabeth. It became like a pretty big tourist attraction and still is today. And as a matter of fact, the original Nagal took place once, one day out of the year. And as tourists started to come and tourist dollars started to come with them, the Pentecost Islanders said,

we'll do this more than once a year. How about that? Yeah, I think the one is their official special ceremony. But then I think between what, April and June, they do it weekly. Like a matinee on Saturdays even. For the kitties. The rest of them get a little blue.

So let's take a break and then we'll describe the actual Nagal ceremony, huh? It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal?

No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy,

blowing on it and popping it back in, as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to, hey dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough,

or you're at the end of the road. OK, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place, because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, god.

Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS, because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander

each week to guide you through life, step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, so Chuck. Yes. Nagal begins with a, I think they kind of select a trusted elder of the tribe and say, this is your year. Abe Vagoda. You're the grand marshal of Nagal.

Yeah. Here's your hat with the feather in the front. Do some good stuff. Here's your orange soda. And the elder said, I've been waiting for this my whole life. I'm going to do the best Nagal ever. It's going to be an under the sea theme. No.

OK, well, everything but the last part. Right. OK, so the elder is in charge of overseeing the construction of the platform, which is terrifying. These platforms are terrifying. Yeah, I mean, just when you look at these climbing up to the top of that, to me, is too much. Right.

Let alone jumping off, right? I'm sure they're really good at it though. And they seem very sturdy. Right. So over the course of a few weeks, they construct these platforms. Again, up to like 30 meters in height, which is about 100 feet. And they'll have platforms of varying levels

for people of varying levels of courage. Yeah, like the high dives. Sure. And the platforms are basically like they select a strong tall tree. And that serves as like the spine of the platform. And then they use wood and vines to kind of create these platforms of varying height along the tree, right? That's right.

And so that's kind of phase one, the construction phase. And then finally, the day of Nagal comes. And the night before they jump, all the people who are going to jump sleep out at the foot of the platform. Yeah, they avoid sex. Yeah, that's a big superstition. You can't have sex the night before. They say that it'll throw off your jump.

Sure. And actually, the guy who jumped and died in front of Queen Elizabeth, he had a lucky charm on him. I thought you were about to say he had sex with Queen Elizabeth. Right. Oh, man. And so that's another taboo, no sex with Queen Elizabeth. He had a lucky charm on him.

So now lucky charms are considered bad luck. That's right. So there's some superstitions considering the whole thing or surrounding the whole thing. But the night before, they will sleep out in front of the platform. And then when they wake up, they just immediately start drumming and cooking.

And it's like it's a huge party, like the moment they wake up. Yeah, and that same elder that supervises the construction is also the man who picks out all the vines for all the jumpers. And it says right here in the article, there's no maths involved. He basically, it said, works from experience and trial and error in selecting the appropriate length of vine. So hopefully, you apprentice as an elder.

Sure. Yeah. And it's not just like, I've never done this before, but let's see what happens. Yeah, but like I said, only in the 1974 and 2006 deaths in modern times. So they're doing it right. They are doing it right.

I'm sure there are injuries, though. Yes, tons. Broken shoulders and broken arms. And spleen bursts is a big problem. Oh, the old spleen burst. Especially if the vine's too short and you slam into the platform. Yeah, like that's what you think is no,

just make it super short. But because it's not a bungee, you jump out and you swing right back into that thing. Right, so you, like there is a tremendous amount of skill and luck in selecting the vine length. Because I mean, you have to take into account, well, what platform are you jumping from? How long are you?

Or tall is another way to put it? Yeah. And again, you wanna have a vine that's very supple, has a lot of sap and no dry spot in it. Because a vine's only as strong as its weakest dry spot. That's the old saying. So the first jumper gets up there and every jumper to follow still traditionally

will say a few words at the top that could be his last words, you never know. And it ranges from, let me get a few things off my chest here and clear up a couple of issues I've had with people maybe, any outstanding beefs. I've once stole a yam. Maybe, it's really kind of up to them. Or mimeing, some people mime.

Really? It's like some people really ham it up up there. Cause the crowd is just, it wrapped by you, it is your moment. Yeah, it's their big moment. And you can have them eating out of your hand. Some people do, some people sing a song. Really?

Yeah. They're like, oh, the whitey really loves this part. Right. So let me put on a good show. Or they tell jokes or something like that? Yeah. And when I say whitey, I mean, like, you know, people like-

Whitey Ford. People that pay $400 after spending thousands to travel here to witness this ancient custom. Well, not ancient custom. Yeah, I don't think clearing that up's gonna help. I think you're still gonna get a ton of emails for that one. You know, if someone white writes in and takes a task with me saying whitey,

then come on, bring it. That's what I say. So when they make the jump, the crowd is silent initially, right before the leap. And then much rejoicing right afterward. And it's all, you know, it's over in a second. Especially if the person is okay. Sure.

There's a lot of rejoicing right after, but I guess everybody rushes over and like, untyes the lines and are like- Get up. Okay, all right. Suck it up. Here's a salt tablet. So we did mention the tourism.

And I think I just dropped the $350 reference. Right. That's the low end, I'm sure. And that's just for the actual, let me pay to witness this. Right. Costs a lot more to get there. Oh yeah.

And you know. If you can find a $350 package to get you from your house and the United States to Vanuatu, you take that package. No, because you have to fly in by seaplane. They don't have an airport. Right. That I know of. I wonder where you would fly into to get to Vanuatu.

Surely there's an international airport in Vanuatu somewhere. South Pacific, right? Yeah. Yeah, who knows? I'm sure they did the Survivor show there, so I'm sure there's- They constructed an airport, but then they're also like nothing but sour grapes

because they tore it down right after. They're like, well, we don't need this anymore. Did you ever watch that show? I saw like the first season. I think I did too. I think it's still going miraculously. Is it really? Maybe, maybe not.

But I know it went on far longer. Oh, yeah. Than I believed it did. I would guess what? Maybe in the 17, 17 seasons, 20 seasons, something like that? Crazy. So we also should mention the garb. Women on the island are in their traditional grass skirts

and not much of anything else. Right. And the men where- Although this is during Nagaal. Typically they dress like in Western clothing. Oh, really? Yeah, it's during Nagaal. It's like a yet another nod to like this.

This is our tradition. This is our custom. So there were like the, you know, 1990s bulls NBA champion T-shirt. Right. Always picture stuff like that. Yeah. There is I think a Planet Money series

or something like that about how our clothes end up. Yeah. Elsewhere and other parts of the world. Yeah. So every Saturday, the women are like, see you next week, bra. Right. And top and everything.

Sure. And the men say, see you clothing and let me just get out my penis sheath. Which I keep in the pocket of my Levi's. And that's all they're wearing. They do wear, some of them wear like boar tusks around their neck and things like that. And they're anointed with oil, coconut oil and,

but aside from that, they're not wearing many clothes. It's pretty neat, man. The whole thing. It is. And I think we didn't mention, it's a twofold purpose these days. Not only are they ensuring the yam harvest, but young boys after they are circumcised

that seven or eight years old can participate as a way of like showing their transcendence into manhood. Right. And they'll typically jump from a lower platform and work their way up. The kiddie pool. But their moms watch and apparently they hold like some sort of like item from their childhood.

Like they're binky or something like that. Yeah. Then after their son lands, they throw it away because he's not like, he's not a boy anymore. He's a man. Kind of a neat ritual. It is very neat.

Except for the eight year old getting circumcised part. Yeah. And also it said that sometimes these boys are just trying to impress a girl, you know? Yeah. Like look at me jumping from the 15 foot platform. Right. Which is adorable.

It is pretty cute. One other thing I want to say, Chuck, I thought was pretty neat. There have been plenty of documentary companies that have been allowed on the island to film. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, it's become like a big thing. But the government of Vanuatu said,

you know what, this is getting too commercialized. Sure. So you guys can keep coming and see it, tourists. But we're not gonna let you guys- And hit the gift shop on the way out. Right. Well, we're not gonna let you guys film this anymore because we don't want to over exploit it.

Yeah, I think it was at 2006. Yeah. The moratorium on filming. I thought that was very neat. Yeah, I think it's just, I mean, you get caught up in this modern world as dumb Americans. And it's just amazing to think

that there are still places in the world that where it's, you know, unspoiled. Sure. To a certain degree. Yeah. Although they do this in Iowa, too. Did you like that? That was great.

If you want to know more about land diving, you can type the word, those words, it's two words, into the search bar at howstoveworks.com. Since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this Timber episode. One of my favorites of recent memory somehow. Are you out of your mind?

I thought it was great, you didn't like it? No. No, it was just, oh gosh. You say that after every episode. No, this one in particular, I was like, oh. What'd you think it was? The trickle of blood came out of my ear. No.

It was so boring. Well, we heard from the timber industry, they loved it. Oh, really? Yeah. The paper industry or the timber industry? Timber guys. Okay. Lumberjacks.

I'm guessing the paper industry didn't like that one. Maybe not. Hey guys, I'm a doctoral student in environmental economics in Oregon, and I'm close to the topic of forest, both personally and academically. Perhaps this is just a topic for another podcast, but one oversight in the timber discussion

was that of non-timber forest products, NTFBs, like mushrooms, berries, and roots, like ginseng. Woodchuck. They're not a product. I wouldn't have thought of any of those things as a timber product, yeah, that's neat. No, it's non-timber. Oh, non-timber forest product.

Yes. Well, yeah, woodchuck stands. These are a major source of income and subsidence, subsistence, excuse me, in many lower income countries and communities, a valuable driver of tourism, and are often culturally important as well. Also, wild mushroom and berry harvest here in the Pacific Northwest can have high yields,

and in some instances may have a higher economic value than that of the harvested timber on any given plot. Sure, you could find some truffles. That's what we're going to do. Sure, these NTFB stocks, however, usually depend on the tree, the tree stand remaining in place, or at least not being completely depleted. Some species even depend on forest fires or rotting trees.

Researchers just haven't spent a lot of time on the economics surrounding this topic yet, I guess, because they're all just like, timber, timber, timber, that's all the forest is. Exactly. This guy's got some, he can see the forest from the trees. Exactly. Or the vice versa.

Also, just to chime in on developed versus non-industrialized semantics, I prefer to use the term low or lower income country. I feel like a lot of the terms like underdeveloped and developing in particular involve a lot of value judgments about the people and discussions on the topic of development. Of development, people also regularly get confused about what is meant by developer developing.

It's developed to measure of capital accumulation, median income, poverty levels. Happiness. Yeah. I'm sure there are plenty of people, development economics, who would disagree with me in my terminology. But that's what I like to use. But dude raises a really good point.

Yeah. It's virtually impossible, though, to compare the economies of two different countries and not be like, oh, this one's better, that one's better. And it's almost all through this Western lens of they got more money. They have more access to handy technology.

I know. And there's a lot of stuff that's not taken into account where, no, that's not necessarily true. I like this guy's outlook. Well, I mean, at least it's good that we've gone from savages to third world to developing to, I mean, knows what the next phrase will be. Well, you know, third world was originally

used to describe a country that wasn't aligned with the US or the USSR. Right. It was like a non-non- it was a neutral country during the Cold War. Yeah, it didn't have an economic association. Right. Or a military association.

Right. So pretty interesting. Great email, Michael. So we're real, Michael. Thank you. I think I'm going to teach Momo to root out truffles. You got a billion dollar dog on your hand then. Yeah.

That'd be wonderful. Billion. And truffles are wonderful to eat. Sure. I'm going to teach her to root out both kinds of truffles. Lint and the mushrooms. What are lint truffles? Oh, the chocolates.

Yeah. That would be wonderful. Be careful, though. She shouldn't eat chocolate. No, well, that's part of the thing. Like, if you teach a pig to root out truffles, one of the first things you have to teach him is not to eat the truffles themselves.

I'm sure. Or to, like, you need to, like, put a pig in a headlock really quick. OK, so, oh, yeah, if you want to get in touch with us like Michael did, you can tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuffyoushouldknow. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com. And as always, join us at our home on the web,

stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation?

If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.