Episodes
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We've arrived out our final story in the frozen saga of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration - we've talked about our subject before, many times; he participated in more expeditions than anyone else, and led three himself! An open-ocean voyage of 800 miles, across the worst seas in the world, with almost no shelter and the lives of dozens of men depending on you. Imagine that pressure! No small surprise that the saying goes "Give me Scott for science, Amundsen for speed, but when all has gone to hell you'd better get down on your knees, and pray for Shackleton".
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Amundsen. Shackleton. Scott. A veritable triumvirate of famous Antarctic explorers. But for all those others in the Heroic Age who made great strides in the fields of science, and whose stories of adversity are rivalled only by legends of Greek heroes, one stands tall above them all. An Australian who was seemingly made of titanium, whose resolve was matched only by his tenacity and ingenuity, but a man who has somehow evaded the history books... why is that? And what did it cost him, as well as those around him?
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Missing episodes?
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It's come to this - a final race to decide, once and for all, the man who'll go down in the history books. The two contenders have their own impressive resumes, but very different ways of doing things. One prefers what he knows, the other is a bold experimenter willing to try new ideas. In the end though, there can be only one... or is that too simplistic? Is that just the mindset that led to disaster?
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What was almost a false-start has now begun a race, the prize being a place in the history books. Last week's look at the Belgica may have started off on a bad foot but today we look at three expeditions that would set the tone going forwards. Whilst the race to the Pole is the main event, we need to understand why it happened the way it did, and these stories will give some much needed context; we're looking at three stories of record breakers, and the trends that were set going forwards. Believe me, things will go south very quickly...
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The Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration by its very name promises a lot. Our popular conception of it seems to deliver, too - frozen heroes in big coats frozen stiff as they trudge through a blizzard, some stiff-lipped soldier making a heroic sacrifice to save his fellows, and flags planted in places that are generally hard to reach. All of that is true... but there's a whole other side to the story that never gets told, names you won't recognise from any history class. Today, we begin with one of the least prepared expeditions of all time from a place that generally doesn't produce Polar explorers...
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This episode of Demystified is something a little different: together with Penguin and Carnegie-winning author Ruta Sepetys, we're taking a look into the history of the Spanish Civil War, and life under the rule of General Franco. The latter half of the episode is an interview with Ruta about her book The Fountains of Silence, the period of Francoist rule, and writing historical fiction - enjoy!
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Whether you stan the worldwide phenomenon of K-Pop, or just really like Kimchi, one might be familiar with some of the cultural exports of the country of South Korea. What one might not necessarily think of, depending on your knowledge of East-Asian political scandals, is Cults. But rest assured, Korea has some major cult scandals that put places like the United States to Shame: for the final time on this season of Demystified let's do it once more, with Seoul...
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Things are easy when you're big in Japan - fans of the show will know I love my musical references, but this isn't just a trite opportunity here. When you're the leader of a cult that extorts and assassinates every opponent in your bid to start a world war and end the world, it's up to you how easy things end up being, it seems. It may seem like Deja Vu, you've just been in this place before, but now we're running in the 90's...
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Home, home on the range - where 'never is heard a discouraging word'. Today's episode may make you rethink that, as whilst the history books would tell you that so-called Range Wars are a thing of the past, the events of a small town in Oregon in the 1980's would make you think otherwise. Mass-poisoning, attempted murder, and immigration fraud abound; who's ready to achieve enlightenment?
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How does a man go from a well-respected, well read, likable and popular civil rights activist, to a drug-addled psychotic cult leader who murdered over 900 people in the jungles of South America? An interesting question with an interesting answer that's relevant to this day - drinking the Koolaid is still the fashion, it seems...
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When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide. For those who don't know what it is, a Helter Skelter is a theme-park ride, a massive tower where you go up, and then slide down, then climb back up again ad infinitum. It also has a far darker connotation, though the repeating nature of things has a way of creeping up on you; time is, as they say, a flat circle. Settle in for Season 3 of Demystified, where the theme of the season is: Cults.
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Gord Downie really did say it best, didn’t he? "No dress rehearsal - this is our life". Apt words from an inspiring man, but that’s been the proverbial rub for most humans throughout all of time - we don’t get a dress rehearsal, and opening night starts before we’re even aware that the curtain has come up. But what if we could peek at the script, see the plot twists of our stories coming? Many have claimed this ability, but have any of them proven it? Is there such a thing as... a Secret Path?
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You are what you eat - or so they say. And everyone has their own preferences... some might even give an odd look to those who actually *enjoy* Marmite or Vodka (heaven forfend both at once)! But how should we look upon those whose tastes are a little less... conventional? Those who literally can’t stop eating... When an Old Fashioned isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps you’ll enjoy Turpentine and Methanol?
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People love to share things - and most things are better shared! You go out for a meal and get the sharing platter, a round of drinks, and the bread - to share. You watch a film, read a book, or see a tv show you love and say to your friends “You’ve *got* to try it”! We share things because we want other people to see what we’re seeing. But what if the things we’re seeing aren’t really there... and our friends start seeing them too? Stare into the mirror too long, and you may end up seeing double.
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Fire - to destroy all you’ve done. Fire - to end all you’ve become. Morbid words in a rather jaunty tune, but it’s true; fire has that capacity. It’s been with us from the dawn of time, and has been so central to basically all of human existence since that time that how we came to possess it has been the subject of myths and legends from all over the world and across history. Some say that we stole it from the gods - others that some higher being gifted it to us. But what if the fire was inside us, all along...
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Things are changing at Demystified, and Ashleigh Stiles gives you a sense of what's to come.
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Way down deep in the jungle, there lies a city of such unimaginable splendour that to even conceive of it is to dream one’s wildest dreams. There also lies a wealth of danger, tropical diseases, wild animals, and an endless sea of rainforest. Would you brave the latter to find the former? Or, dream and speculate about what treasures might be hiding away? How about both?
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Imagine an event so devastating, so terrifying, so utterly world shaking that not only does it help to hasten the decline of your civilisation, but thousands of years later the association people may draw from it would be your depiction in popular culture as a people who live underwater. Perhaps it’s not all bad though; it’s better, down where it’s wetter...
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The great outdoors - there's nothing like it, is there? Everyone’s got a bit of that exploratory spirit in them, that drives you to the very edges of what you know and what you don’t. We’ve talked before about people that go off the edge of the map, but what happens in those strange incidents where people thought they were in control of their situation, but soon found themselves going downhill very quickly..?
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Tall, larger than a bear or man, rising up out of the woods. The shapeless mass that walks behind the snowdrift, howling in the deep. Out in the outback, or in the deep jungles, these man-beasts walk, sparking our imaginations and launching a thousand amateur photographers into the wilds to catch a glimpse of the last great thing undiscovered. The missing link.
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