Tropical Islands - Hot Stuff Theme

Andi 0:01

There are naturally no snakes and no spiders.

Tanner 0:05

Oh yes. It's paradise. Oh, it sounds really made up though. You know, as a fact,

Andi 0:13

It might not work if you have safe search on, make sure there are no children in the room.

Tanner 0:18

oh

Andi 0:18

boy. They're

Tanner 0:20

Vulgar That's so cool. if it's true.

Andi 0:26

Hello and welcome to this episode of the, I should have known podcast, the trivia podcast that can't be trusted each week. Our Quizmaster presents you with four big facts on a topic, but one of those facts is a lie and we are kicking off hot month for August, because I don't know about you, but where I am, it's very hot. I'm your Quizmaster, Andy. And I will be presenting you with four big facts about tropical islands. But one of my facts is a lie. So join Tanner, our other host in trying to figure out which one it is.

Tanner 0:57

All right. hot stuff.

Andi 0:58

They are hot. So we're gonna get right into the low hanging fruit what are the names of Earth's two tropics

Tanner 1:05

Tropic mm-hmm so there's the Tropic of Capricorn mm-hmm and the Tropic of cancer.

Andi 1:10

Right. And which is which,

Tanner 1:11

Oh boy, I think is cancer in the north and Capricorn in the

Andi 1:15

Exactly. And bonus point. What are their latitude?

Tanner 1:20

So their latitudes. Have to do with the tilt of the earth. I'm pretty sure. I think they're the same degrees. So 23 and a half.

Andi 1:28

yes, you're exactly right. They're the same distance from the equator. So they are 23 degrees, 26 minutes and 10.9 seconds north and south. And just as you said, cancer is in the north and Capricorn is in the south mm-hmm do you know what they mean?

Tanner 1:43

It has something to do with the sun and the seasons

Andi 1:47

Yeah. the tropics are any place where the sun is directly overhead at least one day per year.

Tanner 1:55

Oh,

Andi 1:55

So on the summer solstice, in the Northern hemisphere, the sun is directly above the Tropic of cancer. That's the furthest north. It goes. And once it hits that on the solstice, it starts heading back south.

Tanner 2:08

Oh, wow.

Andi 2:09

Until it reaches the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern hemisphere's summer solstice, and then it comes back north.

Tanner 2:16

Okay. Got it. Let's talk about these islands.

Andi 2:18

Yeah. So I'm gonna be talking about four islands or island nations or island groups. and one of my facts is a lie. So be careful it's a bit of a, puzzler, but I hope you learn something interesting, even if you don't figure out the lie, but we'll see.

Tanner 2:34

All right. Let's dive into the first fact.

Andi 2:36

So fact, number one, be careful asking for directions in Bali because Kaja usually translated as north can sometimes actually be south.

Tanner 2:48

What, why would your directions be anywhere near the same word?

Andi 2:52

Yeah. So Bali is in Indonesia, the province of Bali consists of four islands. The biggest one being called Bali. Okay The main language dialect in Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, also known as just Indonesian.

Tanner 3:06

Right.

Andi 3:06

And Bies is a related language, but is different. So this is the language I speak in Bali. Right. And Bali is a volcanic island it's formed from volcanic activities. And the main mountain there is. Aung. And this is kind of a sacred mountain. Okay. So their most important direction, it's Kaji mm-hmm means literally uphill.

Tanner 3:29

Oh,

Andi 3:29

So mountain word. And because like I said, Mount AUM is so important. Usually it means the direction of Mount AUM. Often it's translated as north in English because I think in Western culture, north is kind of the most important of the directions, at least nowadays mm-hmm

Tanner 3:46

Yeah. I've totally heard about this language in linguistics.

Andi 3:49

Yeah. There are a couple languages that do This These are called geocentric directions. Right. So they're different from north, south east, west, which are based on the sun. Right. So they're based on features of the earth on the ground they have. Uphill and downhill and then nowadays not so much, but very traditionally it was clockwise or counterclockwise around the shore of the island. That was how they orient themselves. Yeah Around the island. Yeah So most people visit the Southeast part of the

Tanner 4:18

park

Andi 4:18

Which is very close to this mountain. Mm-hmm Kaja usually means north. Because they're in the south. Yeah. So mountain words would be north. Right. But technically, anywhere you go on Bali, Kaja means mountain ward. So if you're on the north part of the island yeah. It actually means south to you. oh, wow. Yeah, that can be kind of confusing for visitors and it can be confusing for people to talk about even. But geocentric directions are very common. Probably the one most familiar to English speakers is downtown and uptown. Like on the island of Manhattan. Mm-hmm in New York, that's literal. Yeah

Tanner 4:54

That's so cool. if it's true. I mean, it could be aligned so many different ways, right? It could be a different direction. It could be a different language. It could be a different island. But I think it's very interesting that you start off with Bali. This has gotta be the most popular tropical island destination.

Andi 5:11

Yeah. pre pandemic. It had 6 million visitors per year.

Tanner 5:15

Okay Awesome. Yeah. I wanna hear about more

Andi 5:18

islands. I got more

Tanner 5:19

Cool.

Andi 5:20

All right. So fact number two in the cook island, no building can be built higher than a coconut tree. coconut

Tanner 5:28

tree, what

Andi 5:30

Yeah.

Tanner 5:31

as if this is a set height, like coconut trees can be different Heights. Right.

Andi 5:35

It's the tallest coconut

Tanner 5:37

Oh, okay. So where are the cook islands they're named for an Explorer who definitely went to Australia.

Andi 5:43

Yes. So captain James Cook. Yep. People erroneously say that he discovered

Tanner 5:48

No he did not.

Andi 5:49

he did not. But he went there. Yes. And he went to New Zealand and he went to the cook islands several times and he was an English Explorer. I that's the most generous name for

Tanner 5:59

him. He sailed around a lot and choreographed.

Andi 6:02

Yes he mapped a lot of Oceania, this part of the world for Europeans, right? but there were already people living there That's Right But yeah, so they're named after him and technically they're not a sovereign state. Oh. They are a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand. So they're like basically as close to being a sovereign nation, as you can be without actually being one

Tanner 6:30

okay.

Andi 6:31

Yeah, so the cook islands are made up of 15 islands,

Tanner 6:34

15

Andi 6:35

and there are about 17,000 people living on them. they have total area of 91 square miles or 236 square kilometers.

Tanner 6:44

this is very sparsely populated unless they're all on like one island.

Andi 6:48

Yeah. Not all of the islands are inhabited.

Tanner 6:51

Oh, okay.

Andi 6:51

Yeah, the cook islands, the largest ethnicity there. They're called cook island Maori. Okay. So they're related to the Maori people from New Zealand mm-hmm but it's kind of a more specific one.

Tanner 7:01

mm-hmm,

Andi 7:02

and that's also their language and their ethnicity.

Tanner 7:05

Oh, cool.

Andi 7:05

And there's a government mandate that says no building shall be built taller than a coconut tree

Tanner 7:11

so why would you ever make a law that says you can't build a building taller than a coconut tree?

Andi 7:17

Yeah. So the cook islands actually I don't know if locals feel this way. This is just from research, but it seems like a really good example of the indigenous people and the inhabitants of an island really having control over what happens on their islands So there are no multinational brands in the cook islands. They don't want them. Hmm. They have their own government. And so they're governed by the people who live there. Mm-hmm

Tanner 7:41

that's pretty interesting.

Andi 7:42

Yeah. So it's a really cool place. And they have their brewery. nice. Yeah Okay if you need an added sweetener to visit as if the beautiful beaches and like a brewery There are naturally no snakes and no spiders.

Tanner 7:57

Oh yes. It's paradise.

Andi 8:00

right. This sounds pretty good.

Tanner 8:02

Yeah. That's a really cool place. It sounds like very unique.

Andi 8:05

Yeah.

Tanner 8:06

Wow. I wanna go check

Andi 8:07

it out. I Of all the places we looked up, I was like this is probably the one I'm most interested in. It's pretty

Tanner 8:12

cool. we'll have to do a, I should have known on the road and let you know what the locals say.

Andi 8:16

Yeah. There's a daily flight from Auckland.

Tanner 8:18

Perfect.

Andi 8:19

So

Tanner 8:20

Oh, it sounds really made up though. You know, as a fact, the coconut tree I would a hundred percent believe that that was a lie because it sounds like something that you would read on Facebook and, oh, I wanna share this. Like, it sounds so cool. little exotic.

Andi 8:34

As far as I could tell. It's true.

Tanner 8:36

Okay. We'll see. We're only halfway through, we got two more to go.

Andi 8:40

Yeah. All right. Fact number three, the Ossian people who first settled the say shells are more closely related to people from Taiwan than from east Africa.

Tanner 8:50

Taiwan. See, this fact should be surprising to people because the say shells is off the coast of Africa.

Andi 8:57

It's off the east coast of Africa and the Indian

Tanner 8:59

Yes Right. But they're Ossian people.

Andi 9:01

Yes, the Australian people are super interesting. This kind of refers to a language family in the similar vein as in European mm-hmm So the Indoeuropean people include many, many ethnic groups and countries So this is kind of a blanket or umbrella term. Yeah. So the Australian people probably originated in Taiwan. And they are still the indigenous people of Taiwan. And then from there they spread all over. So much of the islands of Southeast Asia. And the Pacific island. Actually poly and Indonesian are also, Australian all Polynesian languages are Australian. So Maui and cook island Maui, also Australian languages. So these people, they made it even to Easter island. And there's some evidence even to the mainland of south

Tanner 9:48

S wow All the way across the Pacific

Andi 9:50

And they also went to the Western part of the Indian ocean to Madagascar and the seashells and these island groups.

Tanner 9:59

Wow. they just exploded and they'd went everywhere. Yeah. That's so far to sail

Andi 10:04

Yeah. They're excellent. Sea FARs. And they still today are famous for

Tanner 10:08

for this, yeah. Wow. That is wild, but the sea shells

Andi 10:12

So the major ethnic group in the SA shells is the SA shell wa Creole

Tanner 10:17

sounds French.

Andi 10:18

Yes. So the French claimed the islands in 1756

Tanner 10:24

mm-hmm If you look at the spelling of the country, it looks French too. So this makes total sense.

Andi 10:28

Yeah. It's very French. So SA wa Creole is both the dominant ethnic group and the official language. so the French and the British it was colonized by both. They brought and enslaved Africans mostly from the Eastern part of Africa Mm-hmm And similar to other regions, like in the Caribbean, later after slavery was abolished, they brought in people from India and China to work as indentured servants Mm-hmm Until 1976 when they became independent.

Tanner 10:56

So we have one of the darkest parts of human history to thank for the official language of

Andi 11:00

this country Yeah. say shell walk Creole is a French Creole mm-hmm So if you know what a Creole is, it's a language that is formed from another language, but not naturally as passed on by parent to child, but generally by a, in this case, enslaved group, mm-hmm from their enslavers. So they had to learn French and it's not related to their native language. They didn't speak it growing up. So they learned it a little different and then it forms a new kind of language. So there are many Creoles other French Creoles are famously in Louisiana, in the United States and Haitian Creedle is also a major Creole

Tanner 11:38

exactly but this other language, the Ossian language that they speak on the say shells is not this,

Andi 11:45

No, as far as I could find, there are no speakers of this

Tanner 11:48

oh, no, it's a dead language. Cause all the native speakers are gone.

Andi 11:54

Yeah. could find Okay.

Tanner 11:56

So we're talking historical record here.

Andi 11:59

Yes.

Tanner 12:00

But the idea is the people who were indigenous to the island yeah. Were more closely related. To those people from Taiwan.

Andi 12:09

Yeah. In the Pacific,

Tanner 12:11

Wow.

Andi 12:11

Yeah

Tanner 12:12

And how did they know that? From the language

Andi 12:14

and from like archeological Digs they used very specific kind of boat. They used Wayfinder boats. if you saw Moana, this is a version of

Tanner 12:23

that. Yeah. It's like a tree hollowed out

Andi 12:25

Yes yes Yeah. So the say shells are kind of an up and coming travel And it's famous for its biodiversity. It is home to the world's largest nut, the Coco der I highly recommend you look up a photo of a Coco DME Okay, though. It might not work if you have safe search on, make sure there are no children in the room.

Tanner 12:48

oh

Andi 12:48

boy. They're

Tanner 12:50

Vulgar

Andi 12:51

yeah,

Tanner 12:52

But I'm trying to think of how this fact could be fake. It's just the Australian people's part

Andi 12:56

being more closely related to people from Taiwan than east Africa,

Tanner 13:00

That would be pretty hard to believe just based on distance, but also how would you make that up?

Andi 13:05

Yeah. I

Tanner 13:07

have to see maybe one more fact about a tropical island.

Andi 13:10

Yeah. Fact, number four, the Tobago main Ridge forest reserve is older than the United States of America.

Tanner 13:19

the what?

Andi 13:20

Yeah. So we're talking about one of the islands of the two island nation, Trinidad and Tobago.

Tanner 13:26

Oh yeah.

Andi 13:27

Yeah. So we're in the Caribbean. Yeah.

Tanner 13:28

we. Charted the globe we've gone all the way around the world

Andi 13:31

Yeah. We really have, Trinidad and Tobago. It's named after the two islands, Trinidad and Tobago. Mm-hmm these islands are geographically quite interesting. So they are continental. Which means they are not made of a volcano or an underwater mountain range. They are made up of the same ground as the continent of south America. Mm-hmm which it, they are also very close to.

Tanner 13:55

Okay. So these are two static basically islands off of south America.

Andi 14:00

Yeah. They're basically two mountains that were a part of south America until the sea level rose and cut them

Tanner 14:07

wow.

Andi 14:07

Yeah. So in this way, they are covered in the same continental rain forest as the continent of south America and that part So near they're very close to Venezuela. So this rainforest, is actually, a continuation, but because they are separated, there is quite a lot of, divergence. So there are many species that are unique to these

Tanner 14:29

right Cuz it was a continuous. Area, and then it got split off mm-hmm And so now, if something changes on the island, it doesn't necessarily change in the mainland or vice versa.

Andi 14:38

Yeah. So being so close to the mainland generally Trinidad is considered to be the first inhabited island in the Caribbean.

Tanner 14:46

Wow.

Andi 14:47

So many different groups of people and you can break them down, but the main groups are the CBEs Tao and GBI have been living there for over 7,000 years. Yeah. They've continuously been living there. And they do still live there. Okay. Christopher Columbus landed there in 1498.

Tanner 15:08

Okay.

Andi 15:09

And so it was originally claimed for Spain Uhhuh and then it went to France and then for brief period, it was returned to the indigenous people. wow. Which is awesome. Yeah. Except then our friends, the British

Tanner 15:22

in.

Andi 15:23

No, and they wanted to establish sugar plantations. And so they brought and enslaved many Africans from west Africa And again, same as with the say shells, once slaves, outlawed, they brought in many Indian people and many Chinese people. And so it's a very culturally diverse place. Mm-hmm yeah. So when it was under a British

Tanner 15:44

right When the Brits came in and did what they do best

Andi 15:46

well, this one British guy was not a totally bad guy. Yeah. So he pushed the British parliament to protect this rainforest in Tobago. Okay. On the main Ridge. So there's a Ridge that is the peaks of several mountains that makes up the island of Tobago. And he. Finally, after 11 years convinced them to make an ordinance, protecting this rainforest, making it the oldest legally protected rainforest for the purpose of conservation and not for something like the King's hunting grounds, but for conservation, this ordinance was made April 13th, 1776.

Tanner 16:23

Oh, wow.

Andi 16:25

So it is technically older than the United States of America, which is generally said to have been founded the signing of the declaration independence on July 4th, 1776, same year. a couple months earlier, but I mean, it's still makes it the oldest.

Tanner 16:41

Right. It's still protected

Andi 16:42

and it is still protected. It's very popular with ecotourism has won many international awards. It's a very like widely respected conservation area. Yeah

Tanner 16:52

Yeah, that sounds so awesome. I wanna go there.

Andi 16:54

It's just pretty cool. Mm-hmm

Tanner 16:56

a good thing. They made that ordinance to what, 250 years ago. if that's true,

Andi 17:02

yeah. So that was a lot of facts about islands. I'm sorry

Tanner 17:05

I

Andi 17:06

I love it. I nerded out a little bit It was it was really fun. And you know, it makes me think like, well, maybe I should give some tropical islands, a try. I have to load up on sunscreen and I dunno, portable fan or something. Maybe

Tanner 17:19

Okay. Well before I guess which one you made up, could you please repeat for me the four facts about tropical islands?

Andi 17:28

All right. Fact, number one, be careful asking for directions in Bali, because Kaja usually translated as north. Can sometimes actually be south fact number two in the cook islands, no building can be built higher than a coconut tree fact. Number three, the Australian people who first settled the say shells are more closely related to people from Taiwan. Then east Africa, and fact number four, the Tobago main Ridge forest reserve is older than the United States of America.

Tanner 18:18

Wow. This is not easy.

Andi 18:20

I know this one is a bit hard.

Tanner 18:22

Yeah. Okay. So fact number one, Kaja the language one. I really like this geocentric directions In their language, I really like that idea. And so I hope that that's true. I could definitely see it being a different language. But I want that one to be true. The second one was about the coconut tree. And that one sounds very funny and I'm afraid that it might be a little exoticizing. So I'm gonna think that that one is probably the lie, I think the coconut tree is fake. I think that's taking advantage of what preconceptions people have of other cultures.

Andi 18:59

Okay. Okay. I think that's A good line of thinking to be critical of your own preconceptions and the way you think people though, as far as I can tell the Koch Islanders really genuinely made this a rule

Tanner 19:12

this stick to it. No

Andi 19:13

No way I don't know if it's just kind of fun or if it's kind of the idea. So in many European cities or in Washington, DC in the us, it is a rule that no building can be built taller than the Washington monument and so maybe their version of that is a coconut I think the point is ultimately like they don't want major huge buildings and ruining their skylines and things like this. So

Tanner 19:35

That's cool that they wrote the law for the purpose of like protecting against skyscrapers, but they connected it to nature with the coconut tree. That's

Andi 19:43

Yeah. Yeah I thought you had caught me in my lie

Tanner 19:45

no way.

Andi 19:46

And so the lie is number three about say shells,

Tanner 19:49

number three, really? The Australian

Andi 19:51

people, the Australian people did make it all the way to and settled in the Western part of the Indian ocean in Madagascar but they say shell. Had no indigenous people. so when you were like, oh, did they still live there? I'm like, no. no, they don't because they never lived

Tanner 20:11

there. They missed it.

Andi 20:12

As far as we know, at least there's no record of them settling there. Yeah. They probably saw it and probably did the same as the Portuguese and French and Spanish ships did where they stopped there to rest. Oh. And it was very popular with pirates. Oh. Because of this. So this is very interesting to talk about indigenous people and what that means. Basically it means that it's a group of humans who went and settled in a place before European colonization. So around 1480s, So humans did a very good job of covering almost the whole globe. Yes. But there were islands that they didn't make it to, until the Europeans built their huge ships to navigate much further distances from their home.

Tanner 20:59

That's so interesting.

Andi 21:00

But yeah, the Australian people thing, everything I talked about, that's true for Madagascar.

Tanner 21:05

Oh wow. Which is even further from Taiwan,

Andi 21:09

but much larger. Yeah, And so but people in Madagascar are also descendants of the Bon two people, which are group of ethnic groups from the Southern and Eastern part of Africa. Mm-hmm

Tanner 21:20

wow. That is cool.

Andi 21:21

Yeah, that was pretty hot.

Tanner 21:23

I should have known.

Andi 21:24

Thanks for listening to this episode of the, I should have known podcast. We'll be continuing our hot theme for the rest of, if you liked it, please leave us a review wherever you listened to podcasts. And as always, thanks for listening. On a tropical island.