Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
Speaker 1: much for tuning in. That is Mr Max Williams. They
Speaker 1: called me ben bolland no, I can't believe we've done
Speaker 1: it again. We accidentally made an awesome two parter or
Speaker 1: you know we we did it. We did it, and
Speaker 1: we're not gonna apologize for it either. So just here
Speaker 1: here's your part to enjoy it or don't see if
Speaker 1: we care, No, we actually really do care. Please enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Here's part two of the story of the weird European
Speaker 1: guy that trained the meadicterranean to make a super continent.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about how how how does
Speaker 1: one manage this right? So it's it's put into place,
Speaker 1: everything goes off without a hitch, everything's built, you know,
Speaker 1: with the cooperation of all parties. Who's in charge? If
Speaker 1: if Europe kind of led the project and it's one
Speaker 1: of one of their guys that's sort of at the helm,
Speaker 1: how does this thing get staffed? And then what kind
Speaker 1: of governing body has to be created to keep it humming? Right?
Speaker 1: Because this would require a giant hydroelectric power plant that
Speaker 1: would be situated in the Gibraltar Dam that would supply
Speaker 1: power uh for Europe and Africa. The idea was that
Speaker 1: it would be run by an independent body who would
Speaker 1: have the power to switch off the energy supply to
Speaker 1: any individual country uh that created a threat to peace.
Speaker 1: How about that? I mean, this really is some Star
Speaker 1: Trek type, Max, It wasn't there a period and Star
Speaker 1: Treker a season or or one of the iterations where
Speaker 1: like they don't even have currency because they're also interconnected
Speaker 1: and like that's sort of the Federation's job is to
Speaker 1: keep the rogue you know, states or whatever, from like
Speaker 1: screwing up this intergalactic piece that is a common misnumber.
Speaker 1: So the Federation does not have currency. No one works
Speaker 1: for money, but like something like the Frengy Alliance, they
Speaker 1: use gold Press latinum as their currency. I just tricked
Speaker 1: you and just showing everybody what a nerd you are, bro,
Speaker 1: and I'm proud of how this currency. Watch a great
Speaker 1: episode of d S nine last night. Yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: think other people might not know Max. Well, they need
Speaker 1: to do their research. Then, okay, what do you think
Speaker 1: about the best character of all time? But Max, though, seriously,
Speaker 1: like I mean, do you see connections here between the
Speaker 1: kind of idyllic utopian world of Star Trek and what
Speaker 1: this guy is trying to achieve. I mean, the more
Speaker 1: I'm reading into this, the less fascist it seems like.
Speaker 1: It actually seems pretty even handed and if every and
Speaker 1: played along could have some positive outcomes. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it definitely does have that kind of utopian thing, but
Speaker 1: it's really in that guy's it's like the utopian four
Speaker 1: a very select amount of people, and it's really it's
Speaker 1: closer to Star Trek as in it's very much in
Speaker 1: sci fi with this work. I mean, like just the
Speaker 1: impact of like what you would do to this to like,
Speaker 1: you know, the environment is terrible, and do you want
Speaker 1: to put one more fun Star Trek little note in
Speaker 1: here because people forget this, but Star Trek being very
Speaker 1: much a nineteen six to show the origin stories of
Speaker 1: the Federation comes from World War Three, which is the
Speaker 1: nuclear war that kills off almost all mankind. So it
Speaker 1: comes kind of from that same fear base we're all
Speaker 1: going to like mutually assured like annihilation that like this
Speaker 1: plan kind of has well because that's what this guy's
Speaker 1: kind of thinking. It's like if we go to war again,
Speaker 1: We're probably all just gonna die. Yeah, the old idea
Speaker 1: of like World War two spot with nuclear weapons, world
Speaker 1: War three will be fought with sticks and stones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a real fear. And he wanted to
Speaker 1: He wanted to get into the hearts and minds of people,
Speaker 1: so he was trying. He's like one of those really
Speaker 1: thirsty investigative journalists or pundits or ted talkers I call them.
Speaker 1: If he wants time on radio programs. He wants to
Speaker 1: give talks. He even has an atlant Tropa symphony commissioned.
Speaker 1: There's Atlan Tropa poetry. He was hoping that if he
Speaker 1: gets enough popular support, and he gets enough of the
Speaker 1: Hoi poloy talking about this, then the politicians will follow suit.
Speaker 1: But this did seem really yeah, well, utopian in the
Speaker 1: not good sense of the word, like utopian itself means
Speaker 1: something that is optimistic but likely unachievable, and this in
Speaker 1: this sense. One thing that one thing that really stood
Speaker 1: out to me weren't doing research about this is that
Speaker 1: it fundamentally alters the social hierarchy and the the order
Speaker 1: of power. So now you can be you can be
Speaker 1: descended from millennia long line of rulers, but the real
Speaker 1: power is going to be whomever it is at the
Speaker 1: top that can turn the grid on or off. So
Speaker 1: it's like imagine like the president of the US has
Speaker 1: to ultimately pay obesience to what we hear we have
Speaker 1: something called Georgia power, but to have to pay obesience
Speaker 1: to like Federated Pan American power, and they don't get
Speaker 1: to make the calls anymore. So that's that if anything,
Speaker 1: seemed like the the most difficult part of the equation,
Speaker 1: like they were like, sure you could build a giant
Speaker 1: damn but getting people to agree with each other, oh, no,
Speaker 1: man know, And there's there was a lot of like
Speaker 1: require that was absolutely like a deal breaker for this
Speaker 1: whole project is the idea that they could get people
Speaker 1: out of the very least like strong arm them into
Speaker 1: agreeing because it would require an investment from um, you know,
Speaker 1: the participating nations that would have been so hefty, right
Speaker 1: that it would have left them without enough funds or
Speaker 1: you know, human capital to actually participate in an a
Speaker 1: war and in the first place, right, So there was
Speaker 1: all of these very like high minded ideological kind of
Speaker 1: things built into this this whole project. And when you're
Speaker 1: talking about like the sort of fine line between a
Speaker 1: utopia and a dystopia, or like what is a utopia
Speaker 1: for some is a dystopia for others at the bottom,
Speaker 1: it reminds me of what I think is one of
Speaker 1: the greatest reboots, sequels, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: of all time, Max mad Max Fury Road, where you
Speaker 1: have this warlord immorton Joe, who essentially controls the water
Speaker 1: supply and is able to kind of keep all of
Speaker 1: these you know, poorer people just at is back and
Speaker 1: call and kind of like, you know, worshiping at his
Speaker 1: feet literally like a god because he gives them a
Speaker 1: drop of water every now and then, and like the
Speaker 1: suptances are so bad. Exactly, yeah, exactly. Um. And this,
Speaker 1: you know, is the kind of thing that on paper
Speaker 1: maybe seems, oh it's such a great idea. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I've been like praising parts of it in theory, but
Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing where like humans are inherently
Speaker 1: corrupt and corruptible. Uh. And I think if there was
Speaker 1: a person with their hand on the button or the switch, uh,
Speaker 1: and they had what would seem like some eugenics kind
Speaker 1: of ideas like it would appear Sorgel has or that's
Speaker 1: sort of the way he's thinking of African people, for example,
Speaker 1: could be a very dangerous equation. The residents of Portugal
Speaker 1: will cease all political protests and dissent if they want
Speaker 1: to survive the window. Exactly like that kind of Portugal
Speaker 1: is a terrible example. Norway would be a better example.
Speaker 1: Portugal's got pretty nice weather, but exactly, Yeah, I have
Speaker 1: a friend who just moved to Portugal and I can't
Speaker 1: wait to go visit. But yeah, yeah, we should go.
Speaker 1: We should go and do a live show. Right to us?
Speaker 1: Tell us where we should do a live show. When
Speaker 1: we ask ourselves whether this plan is really feasible, is
Speaker 1: where we run into something interesting, because nothing in history
Speaker 1: occurs in a vacuum. As we so often say, this
Speaker 1: guy wasn't the only guy trying to change the world
Speaker 1: through the power of damns. From n three to nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two, engineers in the Netherlands actually built a damn
Speaker 1: between a place called the zuidr siurd she apologies and
Speaker 1: the North Sea. And this the Netherlands is awesome at
Speaker 1: reclaiming land. So he saw circles, saw people successfully reclaiming
Speaker 1: land from the ocean, and hele that despite the massive size,
Speaker 1: the massive scale of this project, it would be feasible.
Speaker 1: He probably thought it was gonna be easier than it was,
Speaker 1: just because you know, in the brainstorming process, anything is possible.
Speaker 1: But he also he would always point out the Netherlands example,
Speaker 1: and he's like, look, these folks are using dams and
Speaker 1: engineering and the power of technology to create homes, you know,
Speaker 1: and they created the province of Flevolence, which is now
Speaker 1: home to four hundred thousand people. So on some scale
Speaker 1: this works, there is validity to it. The question is
Speaker 1: can you do it with you know, the Mediterranean Sea?
Speaker 1: Can you? Indeed, uh, Sorcill certainly believed you could. In fact,
Speaker 1: he thought it was gonna be a snap. Um. He
Speaker 1: very much was high on his own supply of engineering
Speaker 1: prow ass because he had modeled it after you know,
Speaker 1: some of the projects we just talked about that we're
Speaker 1: already underway on a much much much smaller scale. Damning
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, on the other hand, was going to be
Speaker 1: a much more tricky concern, I think, because the waters
Speaker 1: come in from these two major arteries, the Atlantic coming
Speaker 1: in from the Straight at Gibraltar in the west and
Speaker 1: the Black Sea coming in from the Dardanells on the east.
Speaker 1: Like we said, so he thought that just by like
Speaker 1: cutting off the flow of these two straits, the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: would easily reduce its sea level. So he decided to
Speaker 1: give it a go. He was completely convinced that this
Speaker 1: would work in the same way that you know, smaller
Speaker 1: damning operations had worked. So we have to think though,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we today when we think of
Speaker 1: like really really impressive feats of engineering and concerning dams,
Speaker 1: we think of things like China's three gorgeous dams or
Speaker 1: the Hoover Dam for example. Um, these are just absolutely
Speaker 1: megalithic structures that are you know, sites to behold under themselves.
Speaker 1: He didn't have any contemporary analogs to what he was doing.
Speaker 1: This would have been a very first of its kind.
Speaker 1: One thing, however, that Sorcal did not consider, was the
Speaker 1: impact on the environment. Like Max was talking about, the
Speaker 1: increased salinity of the water that would have remained in
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean Sea could have in fact killed off a
Speaker 1: ton of the plant and animal life and the patterns
Speaker 1: of rain because such a massive body of water lowering
Speaker 1: it that much could have actually affected precipitation patterns and
Speaker 1: it could have potentially left um, you know, folks in
Speaker 1: the wake of the giant damn at Gibraltar, UM very
Speaker 1: very exposed to things like tsunamis or earthquakes or you know,
Speaker 1: terrorist attacks, something we would have thought of today. UM
Speaker 1: highly recommend a great article on big think dot com
Speaker 1: that kind of goes through some of the what ifs
Speaker 1: of this whole scenario by the very talented Frank Jacobs.
Speaker 1: So we talked about the public, how did how did
Speaker 1: the like in Germany field? They loved it. They were
Speaker 1: all about this. He was a media darling. He even
Speaker 1: founded the atlant Tropa Institute to promote this utopian idea.
Speaker 1: But you're saying, Ben, I just googled. I just googled.
Speaker 1: The Mediterranean still a thing. There's no Atlan Tropa. You're right.
Speaker 1: At Lan Tropa never took off because he did not
Speaker 1: get the support of one big demographic in Germany at
Speaker 1: the time, which unfortunately was the Nazi Party. They wanted
Speaker 1: to expand, for sure, that was one of their things,
Speaker 1: but they wanted to expand more eastward than south, and
Speaker 1: once they seized power in Germany. Sorgel did try to
Speaker 1: pitch the idea to him, but they said, now, we're
Speaker 1: not really interested in building dams. We want to conquer
Speaker 1: the Leban tromp uh the old fashioned way. We want
Speaker 1: to invade places. We want to take over these neighboring countries.
Speaker 1: And then, oddly enough I didn't know this, but for
Speaker 1: a time after World War Two, for like a very
Speaker 1: brief time, the European Allied powers were like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: Sorgel pitch it to us, how how do we drain
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean? And you know we're styling here a bit, folks,
Speaker 1: But imagine like part way through his pitch, people start,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at each other's sidelong and they're like, wow, I,
Speaker 1: um no, this is crazy. We can't we can't do this. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we've got to rebuild regular Europe before we make
Speaker 1: at land tropa. And that's you know, there's a valid
Speaker 1: criticism of the plan. But then something else happens. Nuclear
Speaker 1: power comes into the fray. This is pre Chernobyl. So
Speaker 1: a lot of people when they're thinking of peaceful nuclear power,
Speaker 1: they're thinking of it as a superior solution to hydro electricity.
Speaker 1: Sorgel doesn't give up. He defends these ideas all the
Speaker 1: way to his deathbed, well not really his deathbed, all
Speaker 1: the way to the street, all the way to his
Speaker 1: last bicycle ride when he is hit fatally by a
Speaker 1: car in nineteen fifty two while on the way to
Speaker 1: hold a speech on you guessed it, the Atlanta Tropa Project,
Speaker 1: and of just a few years after his death in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty the institute, the atlant Tropa Institute officially was closed,
Speaker 1: gone but not forgotten. I think the legacy is there, right, No, right, Max,
Speaker 1: there's a We've got an epilogue here, there's an epilogue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. Um definitely lives on in UH. You know
Speaker 1: some other creative minds and imaginations. For example, Philip K. Dick,
Speaker 1: the the author of The Man in the High Castle,
Speaker 1: creates a world where the Nazis or the access Powers
Speaker 1: rather one World War two UH, and the US gets
Speaker 1: cut up into three different regions, with the Nazi kind
Speaker 1: of puppet government in the east and then an area
Speaker 1: under Japanese occupation in the west, and a neutral buffer
Speaker 1: zone between the two. And of course that's the television
Speaker 1: show version, which is loosely based on the book by
Speaker 1: Philip K. Dick published in nineteen sixty two, and in
Speaker 1: Philip K. Dick's novel, the Acxis Powers actually drained the
Speaker 1: Mediterranean in order to create new tracts of farmland, which
Speaker 1: is another big part all the land that it would
Speaker 1: free up if you lower the water level of the Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: And of course this book is widely considered to be
Speaker 1: a commentary on fascism. Uh and um, I think we
Speaker 1: see how the idea of a utopia, when the intention
Speaker 1: is to kind of like other certain parts of the world,
Speaker 1: you know, canon in and of itself, be a form
Speaker 1: of fascism. Yeah, it's weird because science fiction authors in
Speaker 1: general for a long time love bringing this concept up.
Speaker 1: It's one of those just fantastic what if alternative history stories.
Speaker 1: Soviet sci fi writer Grigory Grebnev also speculated on another
Speaker 1: future where it wasn't the Axis Powers that built the
Speaker 1: Damn but the Socialist revolution. And in his story, there's
Speaker 1: a small band of Nazi terrorists who are hiding out
Speaker 1: in the North Pole and they they want to launch
Speaker 1: an attack on this damn system because it's a glorious
Speaker 1: achievement of the revolution. To learn more about that, check
Speaker 1: out an article by our friends at Atlas Obscura. I
Speaker 1: love it, you guys, if you're listening, you always kill
Speaker 1: it with the titles the Bunker's real life plan to
Speaker 1: drain the Mediterranean, emerge Africa in Europe by tune lambricks.
Speaker 1: And then, of course you know we mentioned who mentioned
Speaker 1: the star Trek the motion picture analog here with Admiral Kirk.
Speaker 1: I think by that point standing on a huge dam
Speaker 1: near gibral r and the damn blocks the Atlantic Ocean
Speaker 1: from the Mediterranean. So Roddenberry was definitely aware of this.
Speaker 1: We see it in multiple other works of sci fi.
Speaker 1: But these days, in real terms, you're probably only gonna
Speaker 1: see ideas about the atlant Tropa project in museums. You
Speaker 1: might see it in German high schools actually, where it's
Speaker 1: used as a question on a physics exam. The question
Speaker 1: is something like it requires you to calculate the lowering
Speaker 1: of the water level in the Mediterranean. And the real
Speaker 1: screwy part of this that question, when you're taking this
Speaker 1: exam is the question mentions the project as if it
Speaker 1: is actually going to happen, and that you, the kid
Speaker 1: taking the test, can help the Atlantropa project by solving
Speaker 1: the math problem. It's really weird, but it's such a
Speaker 1: fascinating story, even if it's not feasible. I do at
Speaker 1: the very heart of it, you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be more optimistic these days, guys. I do like the
Speaker 1: idea that science can unify people in a way that
Speaker 1: politics could not, and maybe save us as a species
Speaker 1: from these corners we seem to continually paint ourselves in. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love it. I love all the choices you've made here,
Speaker 1: max Um. This is a story though that I think
Speaker 1: there's an interesting job of combining kind of like ideology
Speaker 1: and science and um politics kind of all into one
Speaker 1: crazy scheme that was maybe a little bit beyond the
Speaker 1: powers of all of those things to actually accomplish, right
Speaker 1: because the science that I mean, you know, could you
Speaker 1: do this? You know? I mean, why have we not
Speaker 1: done this yet? If it was such a great idea.
Speaker 1: I think we've talked about some of the the drawbacks
Speaker 1: for sure, in terms of like how it could affect
Speaker 1: the salinity of the water and the floria and fun
Speaker 1: on all that. But you know, it's interesting. I always wonder, like,
Speaker 1: why do we not use more hydro electric power. And
Speaker 1: I think it's probably largely because of reasons like what
Speaker 1: we're talking about here, because I think to dates or
Speaker 1: at least at this point in history, only around sev
Speaker 1: of the world's power comes from hydro electricity. And you know,
Speaker 1: there are hard geographical limits to you know, just the
Speaker 1: where you can build a dam, right, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of like geothermal energy in that respect. But there's something
Speaker 1: else they didn't think about, which is the Mediterranean ce
Speaker 1: could disappear in the future. To paraphrase Dennis Reynolds, the
Speaker 1: continental drift. You didn't think about the drift, you bitch. Sorry,
Speaker 1: gott to account for the drift. You've got to account
Speaker 1: for the drift. Continental drift is a real thing. This
Speaker 1: is a living, active planet. So we don't know kind
Speaker 1: of long tail consequences might occur when we have fundamentally
Speaker 1: altered the shape of the continents this way, because those
Speaker 1: tectonic plates are still doing their thing. And and I
Speaker 1: think Sorgal didn't really deeply consider what what the results
Speaker 1: of this vast plan would be. Everybody, I think is
Speaker 1: familiar with the idea of continental drift and tectonic plates.
Speaker 1: That's the reason why the continents today are located in
Speaker 1: the places they're located. As you're hearing today's show, the
Speaker 1: African continent and the European continent are already very slowly
Speaker 1: creeping toward each other across the Mediterranean, and eventually they're
Speaker 1: going to collide. Eventually they are going to do Sorgel's
Speaker 1: work for him, creating a men get continent called your Africa.
Speaker 1: And when these two continents meet, most geologists will tell
Speaker 1: you that the Mediterranean is gonna close up and it's
Speaker 1: gonna become mountainous because the land is hitting itself. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm this is ridiculous. We're in an audio podcast. I
Speaker 1: don't know why. I'm like illustrating this to you guys
Speaker 1: with my hands, but that's like my hands are making
Speaker 1: a mountain. Ah. Nothing like a good visual aid and
Speaker 1: a podcast, especially when you get meta with it to
Speaker 1: describe it verbally. But let's hear a little bit from
Speaker 1: another architect, another very well regarded architect named Eric Mendelssohn,
Speaker 1: who gives a kind of modern account of why this
Speaker 1: was surprise, surprise, potentially a good idea. And before we
Speaker 1: get that, also just want to note that there were
Speaker 1: quite a few folks to believe this was a good idea,
Speaker 1: including the makers of a nineteen fifty film entitled at
Speaker 1: the New Continent, Land of the Future. I love those
Speaker 1: epcut vibes, oh totally. And there are other architects who
Speaker 1: were fanboys, like again Eric Mendelssohn and a guy named
Speaker 1: Peter Barons Uh. Mendelssohn was a German Jewish architect who
Speaker 1: had to flee Germany in nineteen thirty three. Uh in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, a couple of months before he immigrated,
Speaker 1: Mendelsson actually supported the Atlantropa plan in a manifesto type
Speaker 1: fiery speech that he gave in Zurich. He believed that
Speaker 1: atlant Tropa was a chance for the future and it
Speaker 1: offered some hope to kind of dig the country out
Speaker 1: of this slump, the social crisis that Europe was in
Speaker 1: the midst of. That kind of was already there. The
Speaker 1: groundwork had been laid, but World War One had absolutely
Speaker 1: blown up completely. Everything from the politics of the time
Speaker 1: to the economics, to the architecture, all of these things
Speaker 1: he believed were tied together and that this was going
Speaker 1: to create a what he referred to as world restructuring
Speaker 1: movement that was driven by something that he also revered
Speaker 1: highly and thought was the only chance of saving the
Speaker 1: soul I guess even of Europe, which was technology. Um
Speaker 1: and Mendelssohn had this to say. The upcoming world will
Speaker 1: allow the nations their characteristics, but unites them into a
Speaker 1: comprehensive community. Because the problems of the new world affect
Speaker 1: all people as one, we cannot retreat. The speed of
Speaker 1: traffic is crowded, the nations close together, forces them into
Speaker 1: larger units. In order to avoid getting crushed, we must
Speaker 1: achieve a state of methodical exchange of food and capabilities
Speaker 1: of production and ingenuity. From this great supernational tasks are
Speaker 1: needed that create a new space, new territory, new workspace.
Speaker 1: The Canal de do Ma comes to mind, connecting Marseilles
Speaker 1: and Bordeaux, the Mediterranean and the English Channel. The pan
Speaker 1: Ropa project, which wants to recover Europe's actual fruit country.
Speaker 1: This one's a doozy ben. Why don't we split it up? Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's let's take part to your way. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: this is This is a long one, but we think
Speaker 1: it's important. It's beautifully written, Mendelssohn continues, these are productive
Speaker 1: technical global tasks that wants to finally logically value a
Speaker 1: century of technological inventions. Such tasks finally bring man's reign
Speaker 1: over technology so that technology serves him rather than enslaves him,
Speaker 1: because technology and machines are only tools in the hands
Speaker 1: of man, simply a new element of his knowing about
Speaker 1: the world, as once water, fire, air, and syder. Because
Speaker 1: if we recognize the elements, then we will overcome chaos.
Speaker 1: If we build from the elements, then a new world
Speaker 1: will emerge. We'll skip ahead a little bit, get to
Speaker 1: the banger at the very end, he says, Therefore, we
Speaker 1: believe in a new world in a life of reason
Speaker 1: and order and politics, economics, public life. The belief in
Speaker 1: the accuracy of this interpretation is the deep significance of need,
Speaker 1: the creative significance of this crisis. And we found that
Speaker 1: via the excellent work Nol you mentioned earlier at the
Speaker 1: top Cabinet Magazine indeed wonderful source one that I don't
Speaker 1: think we've spent much time with before this episode. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check out some more stuff from Cabinet Magazine
Speaker 1: dot org very soon. And the thing is you know,
Speaker 1: this wasn't the only massively you know, a big swing,
Speaker 1: large scale plan to add land to Europe by draining
Speaker 1: a major body of water, was it, Ben, No, you're right, no.
Speaker 1: We we mentioned the work in the Netherlands, but there
Speaker 1: was another one taking place in the North Sea from
Speaker 1: We're pulling this from Modern Mechanics magazine, September of nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty and they actually name checked the Netherlands in this
Speaker 1: quote as well, don't they. Yes. Indeed, the magazine comments
Speaker 1: if the extensive schemes for the drainage of the North
Speaker 1: Sea are carried out according to the plan illustrated above,
Speaker 1: which was conceived by a group of eminent English scientists,
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand square miles will be added to the
Speaker 1: overcrowded continent of Europe. The reclaimed land will be walled
Speaker 1: in with enormous dikes similar to the Netherlands dikes to
Speaker 1: protect it from the sea, and the various rivers flowing
Speaker 1: into the North Sea will have their courses diverted to
Speaker 1: different outlets by means of canals. Who doesn't love a
Speaker 1: good canal, Walk along a canal, you know, canal poetry.
Speaker 1: If anybody you can live in now boats. If anyone's
Speaker 1: in the toast of London with Matt Barry, you know
Speaker 1: about canal poetry and you know what else has been poetry?
Speaker 1: Ben Uh this two part episode on the one weird
Speaker 1: European man's wild scheme to drain the Mediterranean and create
Speaker 1: a new somewhat weirdly utopian, racist supercontinent. But big look
Speaker 1: upon my works you mighty vibes. Yes, this is a
Speaker 1: wild right, this is one of those that really rabbit
Speaker 1: hold us. And I don't think we knew how how
Speaker 1: deep this story would go into the strange thing is,
Speaker 1: just how widely accepted it was, as as a feasible
Speaker 1: plan for so long, just like ridiculous history. Thanks as
Speaker 1: always for tuning in everybody. Uh No, thank you so
Speaker 1: much as always my main man there. Thank you of
Speaker 1: course the super producer Max Williams, and thank you the
Speaker 1: one and only Casey Pegram. I've heard a lot of
Speaker 1: check at or there's some noise on the internet asking
Speaker 1: what happened to our good buddy. He is well, he
Speaker 1: is healthy, and you may hear from him sooner than later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard some tremors on that one too. Sorry, I've
Speaker 1: been watching a lot of succession lately, so I only
Speaker 1: speak in corporate douchebag LINGO. Now, huge things to super
Speaker 1: producer Max Williams and his brother Alex Williams, who composed
Speaker 1: this theme that you're hearing in your very ears right now.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickling the quister long mayhey, rain Um, and I
Speaker 1: think we'll probably have him back before the year is
Speaker 1: out to who knows, we will do some kind of
Speaker 1: like year end thing. Podcast people do those, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: And and we're we're both people and podcast people. I'd
Speaker 1: love to get the whole gang together, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. We're still going to have our friends from
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Romance come aboard. We're gonna go check on their show.
Speaker 1: We might might even be able to sweet talk Gabe
Speaker 1: Lousier U in there as well. Shout out to you,
Speaker 1: Gabe if you're tuning in, check out this day in
Speaker 1: history class. What but a ride if I you know,
Speaker 1: I keep thinking, though the Metal Interranean isn't the worst
Speaker 1: place to build a super continent. I guess it would
Speaker 1: be easier than building one in the middle of the Pacific.
Speaker 1: But but now I'm just gonna think about that. How
Speaker 1: do we tear it for I don't know bad. That's
Speaker 1: some sci fi stuff right there too. Folks. Let us know.
Speaker 1: You can write to us at Ridiculous at iHeart media
Speaker 1: dot com. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.