A Humorous Look at the Jumbled History of Antarctica

Comedians Jay Foreman (previously) and Mark Cooper-Jones of Map Men take a humorous look at the history of Antartica, who actually discovered it, the questionable ownership of the land and the ongoing environmental concerns, all while acknowledging that it’s all just really a jumbled mess.

Antarctica is the continent you know least about. When it does have the decency to appear on maps it tends to be shown as a crinkly white stripe across the bottom. …So, little thought is given to what shape it really, or how big it really is. …It’s covered in a 4km thick sheet of ice littered with perfectly preserved corpses of generations of dead penguins. Sounds like an awful place. It is. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to own it.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.