All language subtitles for Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown S09E05 Antarctica (1080p x265 10bit Joy)

The C-130 Hercules
is past the point of no return,

the point at which
there's not enough fuel

to safely turn back, no matter

what the weather is on the ice.

It's loud back here,

the moan of four massive
props relentless.

I'm dressed like all of us

who've been approved
to make this journey

in the same regulation gear

as required by
the National Science Foundation

for all flights
and means of conveyance

on the ice:
thick goose down parka

known by one and all as Big Red,

heavy waterproof overalls,

inflatable buddy boots,

gloves, long underwear, cap.

I am talking layers.

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain
on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain
getting colder ♪

♪ La, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪

The runway is frozen
sea ice, 10 feet thick.

The airport shuttle,
Ivan the Terra Bus,

a "Road Warrior" -looking
behemoth

that takes us slowly
towards our destination.

We're driving Ivan.
40 feet long. 67,000 pounds.

23 years old.

Made out of some
good Canadian steel.

Sometimes the heat
actually works.

This year it does.

It is no short hop
to Antarctica,

and no easy thing to see it
the way it should be seen:

the last un-[...]-up
place on Earth.

Here we are. Try to get plenty
of rest and enjoy the Antarctic.

McMurdo Station, the largest
U.S. base on the continent.

The hub, supply
and support center

for everything we do
here in Antarctica.

The pursuit of pure science.

It ain't pretty.
It looks like a mining camp.

But look closely
and you notice things,

like the total absence
of litter.

Not a single cigarette butt.

It's one of the most
carefully-regulated

communities on the planet,

and it is a community...
A tightly-knit,

highly-organized,
very odd subculture

of just under
1,000 people in summer

and 150 in winter all working
towards the same thing

in this most remote, barren,

yet stunningly
beautiful continent.

Work is seasonal in McMurdo,
and it's the type of place

that demands a very special
kind of individual.

Everyone is interdependent

and comes to realize
that very quickly.

The scientists, known
in local parlance

as "beakers," depend absolutely

on a support community
of specialists

like the "carps," or carpenters,

heavy equipment operators,

the fuelies, riggers, pilots,

wasties, cooks.

Like I said, it takes
a special breed of hard-ass

to not just make it
down here, but like it.

You got to be tough.

Right now I love
being in McMurdo,

because it's like being
at a spa for scientists.

Doug MacAyeal is one of the
world's preeminent glaciologists

who's been coming to Antarctica
since the '70s.

The Coffee House,

one of three watering
holes on station.

It's not much to look at,

but offers a welcome
respite from the cold.

One thing about this continent
that's special

is the vertical hierarchy.

Everybody respects up
and down equally.

The janitor really
does have a sense

that their action
is right at the frontline.

That doesn't happen
as much elsewhere in the world

of science... tangibly
seeing a contribution.

What brought you here?
It's cold down here.

It's part of some
kind of personal honor.

People who come as a scientist
might think of their science

as driving them more than
thinking of coming to a place

that is definitely different

than anywhere else in the world.

Despite its seemingly
endless whiteness,

what you see is
a desert technically...

The highest and driest
on the planet.

A frozen desert holding 61%

of the entire world's
fresh water.

It looks like nothing lives.

You won't see a single plant,
a single leaf,

and certainly not a puppy.

Even the sun this time
of year never sets.

It moves in lazy circles
around the sky.

But shit is indeed moving.

Beneath your feet.
All around you.

Just very slowly.

An ice shelf is a kind of
glacier that flows off the land

but begins to float
in the ocean.

- It's freshwater.
- It's freshwater ice,

and the ice itself
varies from the snow,

like today,
and down at the bottom,

ice that might have fallen
as snow 35,000 years ago.

It's the part of the Antarctic
ice sheet we call the Buttress

because it fringes
the entire continent.

It might take 50,000 years
for the ice at South Pole

to get into the raw sea
and bust off as an iceberg.

- Yeah.
- But it would take only 20,000

years or even 10,000 years

if the ice shelf wasn't there.

This is the biggest pile
of free ice in the solar system.

McMurdo is at the tip
of Ross Island,

surrounded by miles
of frozen sea.

There are a lot of different
types of ice down here.

Glaciology started about
50 years ago.

Our entire science
is driven by the fact

that we're still trying
to figure out

what Antarctica is doing
in terms of sea level...

How the ice sheet
is expanding or contracting,

how it's flowing,

whether it melts in some places,

how it busts off icebergs
that float away on the ocean.

And we're trying to come up
with some kind of a solid,

reliable statement

about what cities like
San Francisco and New York

and Shanghai have to plan for.

Antarctica for all too
obvious reasons remained free

of any sustained human contact

until the mid-20th century
when the U.S. Navy

launched Operation Deep Freeze,

an enormous logistical
enterprise that established

the first permanent base
here at McMurdo in 1955.

Deep down
in the ice caves were cut,

and here the supplies
were packed away

in a natural fridge.

Frozen meat perfectly preserved,
but where's that axe?

Let's have a bit
of 15-year-old ham.

Since the National
Science Foundation

took over from the Navy,
things have gotten a lot less

Wild West around here.

It feels like dorm life
at college.

Bathrooms are communal.

Everybody rotates
housekeeping duties.

And everybody shuffles off
at designated hours

to the galley,

where the cooks do the very best

they can, given
the infrequent delivery

of what are called with longing
tones around here

"freshies,"

or anything not frozen,
canned, or prepared.

Little connectivity I have

with the outside world
I owe entirely to you.

You've been
helping me enormously.

Joanie works IT and has been
coming here for nine seasons.

But it's coming, right?
I mean, sooner or later,

they're gonna put
a satellite up there

and everyone
down here is gonna...

Maybe. I mean, we could be
a long way away

from have cell service down here

and everybody having internet
like that at home.

It's really the last place
on Earth for cell service.

Christy is a heavy
equipment operator

coming for 19 seasons.

I actually started off
in two seasons in the galley,

and then I ended up getting
trained on the equipment.

So, you learned an entirely
new profession

so that you could stay here?

- Yeah.
- And Jules,

another heavy equipment operator

who can most likely
kick your ass, eat your lunch,

then kick your ass again,

has been coming
for an astonishing 38 seasons.

So, what were you doing before?

See, my mom worked
for the company

and she wanted me to come.

- Mm-hmm.
- 'Cause I didn't want to come.

She was trying to get rid
of you or what?

Yeah. She wanted to come.

When you first started coming,
how many women were here?

What was the ratio?

My first two years
were at South Pole.

There were probably
90 civilians.

I was the only female
at South Pole,

and there were probably
12 total at McMurdo

and probably 1,100 men.

Was the Navy still
running the place back then?

Yes, and I had a lot of respect

because the United States Navy

was the one that integrated
this place,

and originally down here
it was kind of this thing like,

"Shall we let women be here?"

Right.

And then we had an admiral
come down and he's like,

"Dude, where's all the women?"

And, "Oh, we don't have
facilities for them."

And he said, "Well, you goddamn
better get facilities for them."

When I first came down here,
the company was all about,

"Hey, this is special."

There's not very many civilians,

"you know, it's wild and free
and it's a great place to be."

Just looking out the window,
having seen what you see

on a regular basis

and experienced
what you experience,

is that an alienating
experience?

I really appreciate
how simple life is

and how little you need
to get by.

Like, you just pack a couple
duffel bags and you come down.

But then I find when I go home,

sometimes I get
caught up in the,

"I want. I need.
I want. I need."

And that's the part
that kind of bums me out.

And that's one of the things
I like about it

is that there's no rat race.

There's no errands. It's a
pretty egalitarian society here.

NSF sitting down at tables
with us, and the janitors

and the fuelies are as important

as the people
who run the station.

Nothing gets done without power,

and there's no power
without fuel.

There's no fuel without roads,

There's no roads without
heavy equipment.

So, it just kind of goes
from there

and you kind of appreciate
what everybody else's role is.

This is a place where things
are more powerful

that don't involve money.

You make lifelong friendships.

The beauty of this place
is astounding.

- There's no doubt.
- It's such a unique experience.

There is something
magical about being here.

A shared experience.

You know, a lot of people
get really hooked

on this place in its principal,

I guess,

as to what it is.

In Antarctica,
the sun sets once a year

and rises once a year.

Some twilight in late March,

then five months of darkness
and extreme cold

and weather conditions
lasting until September.

Six months of daylight...

The Antarctic summer season
where we are now.

Constant sunlight
reflecting off the ice,

and it can and does
fry the brain.

♪

All right.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Romano,

and this is the Hot Cup
of Joe Radio Show.

We're gonna spin
some tunes here.

I have a special guest
in here today.

Here to visit us
at McMurdo Station,

Antarctica, Mr. Tony Bourdain.

♪

♪

There are no roads
and few suitable runways

beyond McMurdo.

For short hops, the main mode
of transportation is helicopter.

Ryan Skorecki gets a lot
of flying time

shuttling scientists to and from
remote field camps.

So, that's Mount Lister.

That's probably 60
or 70 miles away,

and that's over
14,000 feet high.

- Looks close.
- Yeah.

Look at that massive
snow bridge right there, huh?

There's some good
building-sized blocks.

- How deep are those crevices?
- They could swallow buildings.

It's very impressive.

So, that's what you don't want
to hit with your snowmobile?

Right.

People climb around
in those things?

They don't usually.

They'll have drills to practice
extricating somebody.

There is a steep learning
curve to flying down here.

Skillfully handling gale
force winds,

reduced control
at high altitudes,

and the unpredictability
of extreme turbulence

around mountains
and active volcanoes.

Slowly but surely climbing.
And it's -20° outside.

- Erebus.
- And that's Mount Terror.

This is Mount Erebus,

the southernmost
active volcano on Earth.

Antarctica was a great mystery
for most of human history.

Only a theory.

A great white space
at the bottom of the world.

We're just passing 8,500.
So, we'll go another 4,000.

You're gonna see the main crater
in just a second.

The conditions endured by
the first British

Antarctica explorers
like Scott and Shackleton,

and Norwegian Amundsen,

and the lengths of time
they endured them are,

well, horrifying to imagine.

They made their journeys
in wooden ships,

man-hauling equipment
across glaciers,

ice floes, mountains,

and frozen seas surviving
on penguin meat

when rations ran out.

You might start
to smell some sulfur.

Yeah. I smell that sulfur.

What's our altitude now?

13,200.

Cool.

About 22 miles from McMurdo

is Cape Royds,
where a penguin colony

of about 2,000
breeding pairs live.

Marine ecologist
Dr. David Ainley

has been studying
this colony for 20 years.

So, you're tagging
the young ones?

Right.

Do you follow them
through their entire life?

I mean, essentially?

Yeah. This year we've got
a bunch of individuals

that are 20 years old.

Why penguins? What brought you
to penguins initially?

Well, this kind of penguin

just does everything
with no secrets.

- Right.
- If you, you know,

ask the right question
and you're creative enough,

then they're gonna
give you the answer

without a lot of guessing.

What really interests me
is the relationship

of these penguins to the ocean.

Mm.

And how they fit
into the food web.

During the '90s,
small colonies like Cape Royds

were increasing much faster
than the large colonies

where the competition
for food was so intense.

In the last ten years,

colonies started
increasing again.

We think it's because of fishery
for Antarctic toothfish.

The toothfish and the penguins
eat the same prey,

so now there's more
fish available for adults

to capture
and then feed to their chicks.

Oh, so there's less competition,

therefore more
of the same prey available?

Yeah.

I haven't seen a lot of them
going in the water,

but they're looking
for some indicator

that there's fish down there?

They're afraid to cross
this ice crack

because leopard seals
might be in them.

They're very hesitant.

So then finally
they make the plunge.

I mean, they're very agile.
They don't look it.

At first blush
they appear clumsy,

but watching them,
they got a lot of moves.

Yeah. They're very, very agile.

Increasingly, people want
to see penguins.

They're much-loved by,
you know, children everywhere.

A lot of people would like to
come to Antarctica as tourists

and look at penguins up close

in their natural environment

without impacting them
in a negative way.

Is that a good thing?

The thing about Antarctica

is that most scientists
just kind of like,

you know, keep their nose
to the grindstone.

And so the only advocacy
for Antarctica

has to come from the public.

It's very valuable
to have these tours

because then people have
an ownership of,

you know, they've been there
and they see it.

Mm-hmm.
What keeps you coming back?

I mean, other than the work.

I wanted to come to Antarctica
because I'd heard it was

a very severe place
and, you know,

nature was the king, daunting.

Having that chance to be humbled

by something greater
than you is, I think,

an important part of being here.

Not all of Antarctica
is covered with ice.

60 miles out of town
are the dry valleys...

The 1% of the continent
devoid of snowfall.

Scott called it
the Valley of Death,

and it feels like Mars.

In fact,
they used to test out equipment

for Martian exploration here.

Desolate but beautiful.

The Canada Glacier,
a wall of ice,

right there where it seems
to have stopped short,

pulled back scraping up
a beach on a frozen lake.

Here is one of the NSF's oldest

and more legendary
field camps... Lake Hoare.

Everything comes
in by helicopter.

The base here supports a small
team of scientists and staff

working on a variety
of long-term projects.

It is, however, most legendary
for this woman.

- Hi. I'm Rae.
- Rae Spain, the camp's manager

who's been coming to
Lake Hoare for 19 seasons.

Said to be the best cook
on the continent.

This in an environment
where so-called freshies...

The rare fresh vegetable...

Is spoken of in hushed tones

of near-fetishistic
appreciation.

Staying over at Lake Hoare
is a rare privilege

enjoyed by few,
like Dr. Michael Gooseff,

a hydroecologist, and Dr.
Byron Adams, a biologist.

So, what are you
looking at here?

Everything that lives
here lives in the soil,

and we study the soil organisms.

Mostly the animals
that live here

but also the microbes
that those animals feed off of.

- Right.
- This is just a marker

to tell us to stay
on this trail.

Okay.

These soils are so sensitive
that if we walk off the trail

or whatever, we can
completely jack up

the soil organisms
that live below there.

- Oh, like that guy?
- Yeah, like that dude.

He's totally... oh,
he's gonna get wiped out.

When scientists came
and first started studying,

they thought that these
soils were sterile.

But we dispelled that myth.

When the glaciers melt
and the streams flow,

that's where you find life.

So, why does this area look
like this? Where's the ice?

How come the ground
is so soft and spongy?

The Polar Plateau where most
of the ice accumulates starts

to spread out towards
the edges of the continent,

but the Transantarctic
Mountains form a barrier

so the ice sheet
hits the mountains

and it can't get through.

The other thing is that there
are these really gnarly winds

that come off of them,
drop down on the plateau,

and then rush toward the edges

of the continent gushing
through these valleys.

So, it's a fluky
microclimate here?

We call it the Banana Belt
of Antarctica.

It's warm. We're coastal.

Life at Lake Hoare,
considering the limitations

and the difficulties,
is freaking luxurious

by continental standards.

Out here, by the way,
as everywhere on the continent,

every bit of waste
is separated and collected.

One pees in a bottle
and pours it in the barrel

where it is eventually collected
and shipped back to America.

Life here most definitely
has its advantages.

Rae and her staff seem always to
be making something delicious.

Homemade bread, scones,

muffins appear
throughout the day.

Tonight, it's barbecue
pork tenderloin.

Oh, that looks good.
Pork tenderloin? Damn.

Grilled mahi sticks and shrimp
marinated in chili sauce.

Homemade sourdough bread.

A roasted beet salad.

Oh, my gosh.
Look at the salad.

It's so purple and it
has avocado in it.

What cannot be fresh
is nonetheless delicious.

Edamame salad with
cranberries and carrots.

Roasted vegetables.

One might find oneself
enjoying a cocktail or two.

This is an amazing spread.

I know. Mmm.

What are you guys doing here?
What are you looking for?

I'm collecting water samples
in the streams

and also collecting samples
of the algae.

We're looking at the sign
of bacteria mass

which make this rainbow
shag rug in the streams,

which is super-cool.

Uh-huh. Well, you know, the
beginning of the 20th century

when scientists and explorers
were national heroes,

there was a hunger
for knowledge and discovery.

Not a good climate for facts,
though, we live in today.

- No.
- We may interpret our facts

differently but we don't get
to make up our own facts, right?

There are plenty of people
out there who believe

"The Flintstones"

is pretty much an accurate
portrayal of history.

Don't laugh, Mike, that...

Shut up. I know.

They're funding our science
in large part.

You want that connection between
the public and the scientist,

and that's something we don't
do a great job of back home.

I get this criticism
all the time, though,

that you scientists need
to do a better job

of presenting your research.

I get that. But I'm a professor
at a university.

I present knowledge
and information.

It's in the classes.

They learn
all this awesome stuff.

They're thoughtful.
They enter the world.

They make the world better.

But they don't do it
in a five-minute soundbite.

But we live in a terrible new
reality where you better have

a five-minute soundbite,
or they're coming for you.

Right, right.
We got to learn how to teach

evolutionary biology
140 characters at a time.

Yeah. Pretty much.

See, you guys just
need better press.

Yeah, yeah.

You went gathering data

that will potentially save
the world from flesh-eating,

anal-seeking algae.

♪

You need a giant nematode
to rampage through West Virginia

or some shit like that.

Then everybody will be extremely
interested in what you're doing.

In a battle between a nematode
and the algae, who's gonna win?

The algae.

- The nematodes eat algae.
- For now.

I'm betting on algae.

In this time you've all chosen
to come out here.

You've all been born
in the wrong century.

Why do you put up
with these people?

'Cause everybody here
is such incredible people.

I can't help it. I can't find
any place else like this.

34 years later, I'm still
in love with the place.

By the way, this is
an amazing meal.

Lucky for us,
some freshies showed up today,

because it gets really
challenging.

It's her superpower.

'Cause I've got, like,
four drawers of spices.

Mm-hmm.

I think that can make
a difference.

- Makes it different.
- That meal was delicious.

Thank you. This is sort of
the last place on Earth

where pure science
seems to be celebrated

at every level of society,

where people are making
great personal sacrifices

in pursuit of knowledge.

That sounds quaint
where I come from.

But it's an entire
continent of seekers...

- Yeah.
- In a world that is

increasingly hostile

to basically everything
you're all about.

It's quite wonderful.

Wouldn't that be great,
though, huh?

If everyone played as nice
as we do with other nations?

Working together to do science,
collaborating?

- Yeah.
- Dream on, buddy.

The meal is followed by
a precarious trip

across the frozen lake
to the beach.

Because what's Antarctica about
if it ain't about a beach party?

♪

Gear 22.
Mack Center. Go ahead.

Gear 22, at 8-2-niner.

Gear 22, Roger. Thank you.

Another C-130.

The big, gorgeous workhorse
of the Antarctic

gets you to the ass-end
of the planet,

where it's north
every direction you go.

Bottom of the world.

So, I like to say this is
the biggest airplane

you can do little
airplane things with...

Sea, ski planes,
or float planes...

And we're trying to do
those same types of missions

with a C-130, which is unusual.

Everything they built
the station actually came on one

of these C-130s.

They had to build it
using trusses

and pieces that could fit
in the confines of a LC-130.

It's a fun job. And to support
the scientists is fantastic.

In just a few hours, we cross
the Ross Ice Shelf,

fly up the Beardmore Glacier

into the heart of Antarctica...
The Polar Plateau.

How many miles from McMurdo
to the Pole?

Around?

735 miles.

And Scott had to walk that?
What was going through his mind?

He loved to suffer.

The first explorers who got here

or came close raced

across the continent
striving to be the first.

Amundsen made it
before anyone in 1911,

beating Scott by only 34 days.

Amundsen wisely used huskies to
pull his sleds across the ice.

Scott didn't, and his team
never made it back alive.

The South Pole.
What you might not know

or be prepared for is,
the South Pole is high.

Like, 9,000 feet
above sea level.

And it's cold.
Real cold.

But you knew that.

You feel the altitude.

Today, the base at South Pole

has the feel of a space
station... a warm,

comfortable bubble in the middle
of, well, the great void.

It can be incredibly
harsh out there with winds

reaching as high as 50 knots

and temperatures regularly
dropping below -50° Fahrenheit.

About 200 scientists

and staff work here
during the summer season.

Some of the few freshies
I've got left.

Oh, really?
Chef Bryan Denham

is responsible for keeping them
all fed and happy.

He's been coming here
for about five seasons,

wintering over
for three of those.

Again, one makes a lot
with a little.

What do you think
a likely common thread

is between all of the people

who choose to come
to this place?

Everybody's got a spirit
of adventure here.

It's really cool
because you think,

"Oh, I've done some
pretty cool things,"

and then you talk
to someone else and you say,

"Oh, I've done nothing."

Dr. Stuart Jefferies

is an astronomer
and solar specialist.

First year, it's
for the adventure.

The second year,
it's for the money.

The third year is 'cause
you don't fit anywhere else.

You can't punch it
anywhere else.

That's right.

Siri Grossman runs
equipment and supply.

I really love it here.

I feel like I live
on a space station.

I keep coming back.

It's damn good.
Like after a hard day

of dragging blocks of ice,
this is exactly what you need.

Mm-hmm.
People that work outside,

I mean, they'll burn 5,000,
6,000 calories a day.

Generally speaking, people can
work between one and four hours

at a time before they need to...

- Come in and get warmed up.
- Yeah.

- Yeah.
- We eat pretty good down here

considering where we are.

We got a five-week menu cycle.

- Right.
- Every Friday for four weeks

is New York strips.

On the fifth week, we do
filet mignon and crab legs.

We don't really do fancy food.
We just basic food well.

You're doing filet mignon
with crab legs.

Eh, that's every five weeks.

Right. How do you deal with
vegetarians with no freshies?

We got lots of frozen
and canned stuff.

It's like justice.

Yeah.

Who determines the playlist?

It's usually whoever's shift
is going on at the time.

I think there was a complaint
one day about the music.

Then they picked this
really awful song the next day

and they played it over
and over and over.

It was "Afternoon Delight."
We just put it on loop.

We started listening
to German talk radio, too.

- German talk radio?
- Yeah.

So, what do you do here?

We look at the inside of
the sun through seismic probing.

No one's looking
for frozen Nazi cyborgs?

I think they get those
in the top few layers.

They're around here somewhere.
I'm sure of it.

Beneath the station
is a subterranean world.

♪

2,000 feet of tunnels
30 feet down.

Carved into the walls,

impromptu shrines
depicting personal messages,

remembrances left behind
by long-gone workers.

A frozen, constantly moving

and shifting network
of passageways...

The walls come in, the ceiling
comes down, the floor comes up.

Requiring constant maintenance.

What's supporting this roof?

Compaction of the snow.

Scott Smith runs the crews

keeping these tunnels
clear and pipes flowing.

We're in the process now
of picking the chainsaw

depth off the walls

and the ceiling to make it
into a more useable entry.

A lot of work.

Pretty amazing
feat of engineering here.

The lowest recorded temperature

at the South Pole is -117°.

We're roughly -59° right now.

59°.

- That's Fahrenheit.
- Wow. It only feels like -20°.

It's ish.

I can tell you it scorches

the lungs and creeps
through your heavy outerwear.

200 feet below the ground
we've melted a giant,

enormous lake down there,
about 2 million gallons.

This takes about 20
inches of snow

to make an inch of water.

Pump that fresh water
supply up to the station.

It gets treated
at the power plant.

- Yeah.
- The rest comes back down.

Recirculated as hot,
which then melts more ice.

- Right.
- There's a giant hole

in the ground that contains
our sewage for future removable.

Water on top,
sewer on the bottom.

What do they do down here?

Some pretty trippy shit,
as it turns out.

This is the Bicep
in the Dark Sector Lab

and the South Pole Telescope,

ten meters across, mapping
thousands of degrees of sky.

Today, they're installing

the most advanced camera
of its kind.

It's the third generation
South Pole Telescope camera.

16,000 pixels.

It weighs about 2,500 pounds.

In a couple days, we're gonna
pull it up into the telescope

and try and see if we can
hit the sky with it.

Very cool. It's like
a Bond villain stuff, you know.

Yeah, I know. That's right.

Astrophysicists like Dan Marrone

will be looking through
those telescopes at,

get this, Sagittarius A...

The freakin' black hole
at the center of the Milky Way.

We think we know what
black holes look like,

but no one's ever actually
looked at one,

and if you can build a telescope
the size of the entire Earth,

you can actually see
with enough resolution

to watch things swirling around

and disappearing
into the black hole.

We're basically taking
every similar telescope

in the world
to synthesize one telescope

that's 11,000 kilometers across.

Basically the size
of the entire Earth.

- Really?
- So that we can take a picture

of the black hole
at the center of our galaxy.

Wow. South Pole
particularly useful because?

There's no other site like this.

The atmosphere is
extremely stable.

It's extremely clear.
There's no water in it.

Water absorbs the microwaves
we're looking at.

So, you can just map the sky day

and night for six months a year

without stopping, and it
gives the best maps

we can make, short
of going into space.

I grew up in the Kennedy era

where the Space Program
was everything.

The first men on the moon,
the space race,

the whole nation couldn't wait
'til we can get to Mars.

Nobody gives a
[...] now.

I mean, have you seen
that change?

Because, I felt it change.

Yeah. It's true that there
is an increased skepticism

of objective reality these days,

but this science stands

on thousands of years
of human accrued understanding.

Who's interested? Like,
who's most likely to benefit?

There's no immediate answer
to that question.

But you're asking
basic questions

about the fundamental nature
of matter, time, space.

Surely it was people asking
those kinds of questions

that led directly
to technologies

that we take for granted now.

That's right.
I mean, there's no question.

We have to solve hard problems
to do these things,

and when we solve them
they have other applications.

I've always thought
of this basic research...

Trying to understand
the universe...

As one of the most hopeful
things that humans do.

We just want to know.

What's at the other end of that?

Wouldn't you kind of like
to know?

At a time when science
is held in open contempt,

when painfully-acquired data

is actually being deleted
from computers

if it conflicts with
preconceived policies,

these guys are looking
at some deep stuff.

Where do we come from?

How does it all work?

How far can we go?

What are we as sentient
humans capable of?

And what...

What's on the other side?

♪

Chilly.

My face hurts.

It really is
the ass-end of the world.

As the Antarctic summer season
comes to an end,

the U.S. Coast Guard
icebreaker "Polar Star" cuts

through 70 miles of frozen sea
to make a channel

for the resupply
ship "Ocean Giant."

She delivers vital food
and equipment to McMurdo

before the winter closes in.

Just over 500 containers
coming down

and there'll be 500 going back.

Well, just like a giant human.
Food comes in, shit goes out.

Yep. Yeah.
The human waste does go out.

Yeah. Everything, right?

The retro,
the waste, old equipment.

Dale Rivers, fleet ops foreman,

makes sure the supplies
are moving on and off safely.

The whole town mobilizes,
working alongside

hundreds of Navy fleet ops
to unload and reload.

Oh, yeah. That'll do.
Thank you.

- You're welcome.
- Awesome.

Russell Freeman is
the executive chef at McMurdo.

- It's our year supply of food.
- Year supply?

- Yep.
- How old is this?

Ideally you would want it
from last year.

We do a lot with a little.

Yeah.
Soon after this vessel leaves,

the population starts
just going downhill.

- Right.
- Yeah.

We're going to warm places.
Green grass.

All the things you
don't see down here.

- Children, puppies, and salads.
- Exactly. Yeah.

And then we just scatter to the
winds and regroup in August.

- Yeah.
- Will ya?

At the end of the Antarctic
summer season

there is, however,
a vibrant party culture.

And where people work hard,
they deserve to party hard.

Responsibly, of course.

You got it. You got it.

But they do go hardy.

And whether it's the fuelies
or the wasties or the riggers

who throw the best parties...
And there is much competition

in this department...
One can, it turns out,

have a very good time
at the end of the world.

Let's get another album
queued up here.

I'm liking this song.

All right,
this is the world's worst

and most technically-inept
DJ signing off.

Thanks for listening.

Antarctica... never gets old.

There is a curiosity
in everyone who comes here.

It's a continent of travelers...

Of seekers united
in the continuation

of exploration, learning,

the search for greater
understanding...

The pursuit of pure knowledge.

♪