Nick Kroll and Shackleton's Failed Expedition

Nick Kroll is not so great in a crisis, especially a family fishing trip. So naturally, Ed wanted to bring NIck back to the sea for the harrowing story of Ernie Shackleton's failed expedition to Antarctica, complete with dogloos, stowaway cats, and a chance to celebrate the explorers who push humanity forward. Subscribe to the SNAFU YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@SNAFUPod Buy the SNAFU book: www.snafu-book.com See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• 2:05Speaker 04

  If you had to eat a man or a dog first, where would you go?

• 2:09Speaker 05

  Dog? I mean, if you're gonna put me in that, like, Sophie's Choice situation.

• 2:14Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah, me, def- oh, yeah, me too.

• 2:18Speaker 05

  You're thinking real hard about that, but we're gonna let it go.

• 2:26Speaker 05

  All right. Today I am joined by the hilarious, inimitable Nick Kroll. Nick, welcome to Snafu. Thanks so much for coming on.

• 2:37Speaker 04

  Thanks for having me, Ed, and thanks for using the word inimitable.

• 2:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, in, in, it should be inimitable.

• 2:45Speaker 04

  Is that what it is?

• 2:46Speaker 05

  That's what it means. That's what it means, but it, but it, it's inimitable, which is a weird one.

• 2:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, and I'm so excited to be here on Snafu as well.

• 2:57Speaker 05

  We are so, I'm so glad to have you. Obviously, we, we have been friends a very long time. I was trying to trace back the origin of our friendship and I can't, I couldn't do it.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  Well, I, I have a memory that you don't have, which is we, in New York, when you, we were starting out, you would do these shows at clubs called like bringer shows. You'd have to bring five to 10 people to a comedy club so that you could like get a tape made of you at a comedy club to prove that you had. And I did my first bringer show ever at the Boston Comedy Club in New York City, ironically named, and you were the host of that show. At this point, Ed, you were already flying high. You had been in a Dale Earnhardt Super Bowl commercial. You were, you were big, you were, you were big time. You had been in

• 3:52Speaker 04

  a national, you had been in a network national TV commercial. You were a big deal.

• 3:57Speaker 05

  That was a Super Bowl commercial.

• 3:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. It was a big deal.

• 4:01Speaker 05

  Dale Earnhardt Jr. That was my first like big acting booking of my life.

• 4:06Speaker 04

  Yeah. Trust me. It was, it was a big deal for me too, Ed, just to be in the same room as someone who had been in the same room as Dale Earnhardt Jr. But I, you were incredibly nice to me that day, as you have been every day since then. And if it really, it still tickles me that like that we're friends and, and that I am doing you this massive favor of being on the podcast.

• 4:30Speaker 05

  I mean, this is, this is, you know, this is- Payback for your first staged tape, your first stand up taping or whatever the hell it was.

• 4:39Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 4:40Speaker 05

  Before I get into the tragedy, the story, the snafu that I'm going to tell you, do you have any major snafus from your life that you would like to share?

• 4:52Speaker 04

  So I was away with my whole family. We were in, I think Puerto Rico on a family vacation around, I think, you know, like Christmas vacation. And so my dad thought that a cool thing to do would be to organize a deep sea fishing trip. For my mom's birthday, because my dad knows nothing about what is my mom would enjoy. So they packed us, like the hotel packed us a bunch of like tuna sandwiches. Cause you know, Puerto Rico is famous for its tuna tuna fish sandwiches. My family ranged from about eight to 15, four of us, my parents and.

• 5:35Speaker 05

  And you're the youngest, right?

• 5:36Speaker 04

  I'm the youngest, yeah.

• 5:37Speaker 05

  So you're you're eight.

• 5:39Speaker 04

  I'm eight or nine years old and we get on the boat. We're going out to the deep sea. And the waves are horrible. Like we later found out that a tanker had capsized that day in the Atlantic. So the waves were massive. We were just getting pummeled. And we all were sitting there and the entire family puked our tuna fish sandwiches out all over, all over the place, except for my dad, who just sat in the captain's chair gripping like the chair, turning.

• 6:22Speaker 04

  I'd never seen, you know, when people say like, uh, he turned green, like I've never seen it really since before since, but my dad turned fully like, like a chartreuse and all of us just absolutely roused all over this boat. And it was like, happy birthday, mom.

• 6:43Speaker 05

  This is, this is perfect. Uh, and the best part is like a tuna fish sandwich. A tuna fish sandwich smells horrendous.

• 6:56Speaker 04

  To begin with.

• 6:56Speaker 05

  Fresh, like a fresh sandwich right out of the deli is like a, oh, it's kind of a gross thing already. And then to eat it and then to regurgitate it.

• 7:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:08Speaker 05

  Is a, is just an unthinkable stench. It's not ideal.

• 7:13Speaker 04

  No.

• 7:14Speaker 05

  Well, that's very tragic and I'm, I'm very, very sorry. But this is a perfect lead in to our snafu for today. I'm going to tell you the story of Ernest Shackleton's fateful expedition to Antarctica. Do you know much about this to begin with?

• 7:32Speaker 04

  I have heard of this, but I have no recall of it.

• 7:36Speaker 05

  It is a fascinating and wild story. Are you ready to jump in, Nick Kroll?

• 7:42Speaker 04

  I'm, I'm strapped into the captain's chair. The waves are big. I finished my tuna sandwich and I'm ready to go.

• 7:51Speaker 05

  All right, let's do it. Let's do it. I hope, I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich.

• 8:05Speaker 05

  Let's start out by getting to know our protagonist, Ernest Shackleton. First off, can we talk about the name? Because it is such an inherently badass name. I mean, he sounds like a, like a seventies action movie star that should be played by Charles Bronson or like the president's fixer. Get me Shackleton.

• 8:25Speaker 04

  I agree. I mean, and the, but then the, but then the first name being Ernest also speaks to like a, a sense of character inside of that.

• 8:34Speaker 05

  There you go. I always thought Nick Kroll was kind of a badass name.

• 8:39Speaker 04

  Get me Nick Kroll.

• 8:41Speaker 05

  Get me Kroll.

• 8:42Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 8:44Speaker 05

  Ed Helms is like the guy peeling turnips on the porch.

• 8:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, yeah, but like, I'd say one of the top turnip tossers in the, in the county.

• 9:02Speaker 05

  Well, thank you. Well, as, as we will soon learn, Ernest Shackleton very much lived up to that badass name. Born in 1874 in Ireland, Shackleton moved to London at age 10, but the whole sitting in a classroom thing, not so much for young Ernest. By the age 16, he bailed on formal education and just like set out to sea because I guess that's what you did in the 1890s when you had a short attention span and there was no Adderall, hadn't been invented yet. Now Shackleton had a pretty striking appearance. I think we have a picture of him. Can we take a look here? Less, I'm seeing less like

• 9:43Speaker 05

  polar adventurer and more junior high music teacher.

• 9:48Speaker 04

  Uh huh. Ed, can I ask how many of the people that you have traced in this show look like they could be relatives of yours?

• 9:57Speaker 05

  That's fair. He does look like my dad a little bit. He actually looks a lot like my grandfather. Um, I might be related to Ernest Shackleton. I gotta, I gotta dig into this.

• 10:11Speaker 04

  I would not put it past you.

• 10:13Speaker 05

  All right. And, but to answer your question, it's, it's a prerequisite. We only talk about people who look vaguely like me or my relatives. So, uh, let's set the stage a little bit, get a little historical context. Now you might think that in the early 1900s, a harebrained scheme like crossing Antarctica would be a crazy outlier, like Elon Musk trying to go to Mars or me trying to take my kids on any 10 minute hike. But actually you'd be wrong because around this time, no less than 10 different countries sent out 17 major expeditions. In fact, Antarctica was so infested with explorers, this period

• 10:54Speaker 05

  became known as the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. I, uh, I'm, I'm sad we missed that age, Nick.

• 11:02Speaker 04

  I will say, I've been to Ushuaia, which is in the southernmost tip of Argentina.

• 11:08Speaker 05

  Oh, very close. All right.

• 11:10Speaker 04

  Which was like less than 500 miles from Antarctica. I could see Antarctica.

• 11:15Speaker 05

  You could see it.

• 11:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:18Speaker 05

  Wow. Oh, that's cool.

• 11:20Speaker 04

  And it was not hard at all. So whatever is about to happen to Shackleton, like.

• 11:25Speaker 05

  No big deal.

• 11:27Speaker 04

  Get a grip, bro.

• 11:29Speaker 05

  Yeah. All right. Well, let's get into it. Ernie was, uh, was on a lot of these, uh, early expeditions and even set some impressive records marching further south than anyone had before him. He was even knighted for some of his early, uh, exploration down there. But then Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen would become the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. So Shackleton then set his sights on the next prize, which was to be the first person to cross the entire continent from sea to sea. Now, I don't know about you, Nick, but I'm, uh, I'm concerned

• 12:10Speaker 05

  about Shackleton's odds here. It's like the early 1900s. This is not an easy trek.

• 12:16Speaker 04

  Ed, I have enough problems getting across town. Okay?

• 12:20Speaker 05

  Can we talk about the bumper to bumper, or shall I say bow to stern traffic? All around Antarctica, it is a doozy down there.

• 12:31Speaker 04

  It's a doozy of a continent to cross. I will tell you that.

• 12:39Speaker 05

  On December 5th, 1914, Shackleton sets sail for Antarctica from South Georgia, which is a tiny British territory, deep in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. His ship is the HMS Endurance, which is another badass name, if I may say. The plan was to establish a land base on the Weddell Sea coast and then just start sledding across the Antarctic. Now, let's keep in mind, it is 1914. You can't just run to REI and like, pick up some Capeline base layers and a Gore-Tex shell. No, you are headed to Antarctica and all of your clothes are basically made out of like leather, wool and wood.

• 13:24Speaker 05

  So I, it's, it ain't comfy, I guess is what I'm trying to say. What would you pack on this trip? Nick Kroll, what would you bring?

• 13:31Speaker 04

  I would bring my hypoallergenic, uh, pillow. I would bring uh my Penguin Duolingo.

• 13:40Speaker 05

  Did you say Penguin Duolingo?

• 13:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, if you gotta talk to penguins, Antarctica.

• 13:45Speaker 05

  Oh, the language, so you can learn Penguin language.

• 13:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, so I can learn Penguin language.

• 13:52Speaker 05

  I thought you actually had a Penguin named Duolingo.

• 13:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, I wish.

• 13:57Speaker 05

  So the crew of this expedition consists of 27 men, actually it's 28 because there was a stowaway. There are 69 sled dogs and a single tomcat that they named Mrs. Chippy. So yes, that is a male cat with a female name because Shackleton was evidently very progressive.

• 14:22Speaker 05

  Any, anyone like jumped to mind like who you would want to bring on this trip, who would be in your crew?

• 14:28Speaker 04

  You're gonna have to have some people who know how to take care of dogs.

• 14:33Speaker 04

  You want some people who can read a, you know, a compass. Although I don't know what happens to your compass when you go to a pole. I wonder if it goes haywire when you go to a pole.

• 14:44Speaker 05

  It's probably not super helpful down there. That's a good point. And then it's all like celestial navigation down there, I think.

• 14:53Speaker 04

  Oh, that's cool.

• 14:55Speaker 05

  All right, so they're off and running uh on this expedition. Two days in, they encountered a huge barrier of ice surrounding Antarctica, which is usually there, I gather. But this one was particularly bad. They were expecting to be able to sail all the way to land. But they, they didn't get there. And by the following month, on January 18th, the HMS Endurance got completely stuck in the ice. As one of the crew members, Thomas Ordley's put it, they were frozen like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  Delicious.

• 15:33Speaker 05

  Right, it's a kind of a weirdly yummy metaphor for a life threatening situation. Yeah, I would have gone with something a little darker, maybe.

• 15:44Speaker 05

  Maybe an almond stuck in dark chocolate. Shackleton, yeah, there you go. Shackleton, his men, all the dogs, and of course, Mrs. Chippy had no choice but to simply hunker down and wait out a very long winter.

• 16:00Speaker 05

  Winter in Antarctica, probably not real mellow. And just to make things a little more dire, on May 1st, the sun fully vanished for four whole months. Now, Nick, I know you're a flat-earther, but this is actually a crazy phenomenon due to the Earth's tilt, wherein the north and south poles at certain times of the year have either total sunlight or total blackout for months on end. So in the wintertime, total blackout.

• 16:29Speaker 04

  I am in a total blackout right now, absolutely.

• 16:33Speaker 05

  I've known you a long time, like a good 60% of your day is blackout.

• 16:37Speaker 04

  God, and I'm just following the celestial signs to get through the day. No, it just sounds like a nightmare to be in the dark, going across a continent nobody has ever been to, and trying to guide yourself, hoping that you're going in the right direction.

• 16:54Speaker 05

  But also, you're not even on land yet, like you're in the, you're still in the ocean, just stuck on ice. Like, that, that doesn't feel safe to even in the bed, right?

• 17:04Speaker 04

  No.

• 17:05Speaker 05

  Like, are you, Nick Kroll, are you good in a crisis? Like, if this, if you're in this situation, are you just like freaking out, breaking out in hives, like panicking, screaming at everybody? Are you like pitching in, like staying optimistic?

• 17:20Speaker 04

  I don't know if I'm good in a crisis, but I do not freak out. My blood pressure drops, I get very calm. I don't know if I'm effective or helpful, but I am definitely, I don't like panic.

• 17:37Speaker 05

  I've seen you in a crisis. I've, I've actually, I remember, we were, we were set to do some shows at the Telluride Comedy Festival, and we went to dinner ahead of time, and, and you were acting a little strange, and...

• 18:00Speaker 05

  You got a little quiet at dinner and um and that's when you told us that that your edibles were kicking in. You'd had some of that sweet Colorado edible and uh and I started to panic. I was like, we gotta do these shows. We're we're improv-ing together. We're you know, the a lot of us are counting on each other. You were so chill and you wrote it so beautifully. You were having fun. You were you got you got real giggly, but it was like it was definitely a lot more than you were expecting.

• 18:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was just one of the last times I probably did edibles because every time I'd ever done edibles, it's a massive snafu. It's just like you cannot.

• 18:47Speaker 05

  It can't go well.

• 18:49Speaker 06

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• 20:42Speaker 05

  So now by September, the pressure of the ice all around the HMS Endurance is getting even more intense because there are just these huge ice flows that are being pushed by the wind and the currents and they're starting to crush the ship. And by October, as the ice constricted the ship more and more, it began to list over dramatically to one side and was even taking on water. So Shackleton orders everyone to abandon ship. They set up camp on the ice and here's a fun detail. They even made little dog igloos for the dogs, which they called dog glues.

• 21:19Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 21:20Speaker 05

  If you live in a winter climate, think about making a dog glue because it's unbelievably adorable.

• 21:26Speaker 04

  Well, there is a dog glue housing shortage right now.

• 21:30Speaker 05

  Of course.

• 21:32Speaker 04

  That I feel like we should address.

• 21:35Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 21:36Speaker 04

  And I just want to talk, I want to be able to talk about that, have this be a space where we can talk about that kind of stuff.

• 21:42Speaker 05

  Let's do it. Now, here's another cool weird detail is you might be wondering why, how do we have a picture of the actual dog glue? Well, there was a photographer on this expedition and he, his name was Frank Hurley and it was his job to document everything, but they're just pictures of all this stuff we're talking about and I would encourage our listeners to check them out because it's very cool. Okay, so they have shelter, but what are these guys eating? The crew is hunting seals and penguins to feed themselves and the dogs. What do you think? Are you more of a seal or penguin guy?

• 22:19Speaker 04

  I, I love frankly both. I find seals to be like just about the cutest.

• 22:30Speaker 05

  It's hard to eat cute things. I think penguins are unbelievably cute.

• 22:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think penguins are funny to me. I don't know if they're, yeah. I don't know how good the meat is on a penguin. You know what I mean?

• 22:43Speaker 05

  Um, it's not a delicacy.

• 22:46Speaker 04

  Um, yeah.

• 22:47Speaker 05

  If all of this is not bad enough, things are about to get way worse for Ernie Shakie and all his buddies. The endurance wedged wedged in the ice hasn't sunk yet, but it's not looking good. And they know that they need to lose as much weight as possible. So they begin unloading and discarding whatever they can sacrifice, books, bibles, personal belongings. Sadly, this also meant putting down some of the smaller dogs that they knew wouldn't survive, which must have been really tough in those circumstances. And yes, even Mrs. Chippy was put down. R I P Mrs. Chippy.

• 23:22Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 23:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, this is hard. I mean, they're in survival mode here. It's pretty, it's pretty brutal. Then it happened on November 21st, Shackleton and his crew watched as the endurance sank. And apparently Shackleton yelled out, she's going, boys. I don't, I don't know if, if that was like a, sort of like a funny thing to say at the time, or, or like it was through tears. But all I know is if my one mode of transportation out of certain death is just sinking before my eyes, I'm probably a little upset. I, I might, I might have a little panic attack.

• 24:02Speaker 04

  It would be a bad vibe, I think. It's, it's fair to say.

• 24:04Speaker 05

  Pretty bad vibe. Now, obviously their game plan has now shifted dramatically. It's gone from let's make a heroic crossing of this continent to basically, let's just try to get the hell out of here alive. And yeah, so basically they just started walking across this never ending ice flow towards land. I mean, what else are you gonna do? But they're not just walking. They're also hauling the lifeboats that they salvaged from the endurance. And they're using them as sleds to carry their supplies. So. Needless to say, this is very slow going. They only managed to walk seven miles in seven days. Um, so Shackleton gives the order. He's like, this is hopeless. We gotta just hunker down and wait for conditions to get better.

• 24:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:49Speaker 05

  So they did. They set up camp again. Unfortunately, the ice drifted in their favor. And finally, on April 7th, Elephant Island came into view on the horizon. Now, it ain't Maui, but I'm pretty sure it was a lovely sight to see, right? It's land. Like, they're just psyched to see some land at this point. But now their ice floe that they're riding on is starting to kind of break apart and it's no longer safe. Also, just terrifying. Like, they're on, they're in the Antarctic Ocean, for God's sake. Um, so on April 11th, 1916, they're forced to pack up the boats and launch for Elephant Island. Now, these are tiny little

• 25:34Speaker 05

  lifeboats. They're like 22 feet long, and they're basically like big canoes, and they're in very high seas with waves crashing around them. And that water is a little bit chilly, right? Probably.

• 25:47Speaker 04

  One would think.

• 25:48Speaker 05

  Like, it's, it's ice water. It's, it's literally like you're holding a glass of ice water.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  I love it at a restaurant. I don't necessarily want to go swimming in it, Ed.

• 25:57Speaker 05

  Oh, cold plunging is, is a delight when it is a choice.

• 26:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:01Speaker 05

  But these guys are just getting.

• 26:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:03Speaker 05

  These guys are getting just slammed by huge waves and freezing water. And also, at this point, a lot of them are suffering from seasickness and dysentery. So imagine your sickness that you had on your family vacation, but add to that dysentery, and now you know that it ain't just seawater sloshing around in those boats at this point.

• 26:25Speaker 04

  Oh, my God.

• 26:26Speaker 05

  I like to think I'd be one of the guys yanking on the oars, getting us to Elephant Island.

• 26:31Speaker 04

  I think you would be.

• 26:32Speaker 05

  I don't know. I might be balled up on the floor in fetal position, but.

• 26:36Speaker 04

  I don't see you that way, Ed. I think you're a, you're, you're, you're a team player.

• 26:41Speaker 05

  I appreciate that.

• 26:43Speaker 04

  I mean, when I was, when I was like losing my mind on edibles, all you did was poke me and make fun of me. So, um.

• 26:52Speaker 05

  We supported you.

• 26:53Speaker 04

  You did. You genuinely did.

• 26:55Speaker 05

  Okay. After six days and 30 miles of open ocean, they finally make landfall. Yes, they've been gone now for a year and a half and they're finally on solid ground, but.

• 27:10Speaker 01

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• 27:55Speaker 01

  rides through your daily routines, and helps you turn every day into memories that last a lifetime. The best part? The miles you've earned along the way can be used for what's next. Your next spontaneous weekend escape, upgrade to premium seats, dream vacations, and so much more. SkyMiles takes you further. It unlocks access to exclusive, one-of-a-kind experiences that make membership feel rewarding way before takeoff and long after landing. Because SkyMiles is about more than travel. It's a membership that helps you journey towards more. When your membership is as unique as you are, there's no telling where your next journey will take you.

• 28:33Speaker 07

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• 29:03Speaker 05

  Don't party yet because I have a little bit of bad news, which is that

• 29:07Speaker 04

  No.

• 29:08Speaker 05

  Yes. Elephant Island uninhabited, right? So you can't just check into a Hampton Inn and hit the Applebee's for a hot rack of ribs. This is, this, this ordeal is far from over.

• 29:20Speaker 04

  Ugh.

• 29:21Speaker 05

  So they're on solid ground, which is, which is great. And, and it's been a harrowing, like, like they're basically heroes already, but there's so much more ahead. So Shackleton and his crew still need some serious help getting out of there. So after a few days recuperating and gorging on more of that delicious penguin jerky.

• 29:41Speaker 04

  Yummy.

• 29:42Speaker 05

  Yummy. Shackleton and four other men once again boarded one of those tiny little lifeboats. Um, and it's just that this is, they basically are like sending off just a tiny crew to go get help. While the rest wait on Elephant Island. Um, they board a tiny lifeboat named the James Caird and set sail for South Georgia Island. No big deal. It's only 800 miles away.

• 30:12Speaker 04

  My God.

• 30:13Speaker 05

  But alas, after 16 brutal days, again, hot, like incredibly high seas, like, like crazy stormy winds, um, they make it. They make it to South Georgia.

• 30:29Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 30:30Speaker 05

  But Nick.

• 30:32Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 30:33Speaker 05

  Guess what?

• 30:34Speaker 04

  Oh, and what?

• 30:35Speaker 05

  They're on the wrong side of the island.

• 30:38Speaker 04

  Oh my God.

• 30:39Speaker 05

  They, now.

• 30:40Speaker 04

  What do you mean?

• 30:41Speaker 05

  Well, because I think because the, the currents and the wind, the storms were so intense, they couldn't land actually at this little whaling station that they were aiming for. And they actually landed on the exact wrong side of the island. So now they're exhausted, starving, frozen, basically solid, and they have to climb over a mountain to get to this little whaling outpost. And guess what? They did it. They just did it. These guys are unstoppable. This is Ernest Shackleton and a few of his, uh, his top crew. They get all the way over the mountain and they descend into this little, uh, whaling outpost.

• 31:23Speaker 05

  And the Norwegian, I think he's a Norwegian guy that kind of runs this place and he's just like, this is impossible. Like, humans can't just show up on South Georgia Island with, like, inexplicably. And-

• 31:38Speaker 04

  You don't know Ernie. You don't know Ernie.

• 31:43Speaker 05

  Have you met Ernie? Obviously, this guy is super hospitable, gives them a warm welcome. They rest up, they recuperate, but now, of course, they have to go back and rescue everyone still on Elephant Island. But it takes a long time to get the resources together to do that. So, it's another 126 days before they finally returned to Elephant Island on August 30th, 1916, and rescued the remainder of the crew and sailed back to civilization.

• 32:22Speaker 05

  They arrived in chilly 638 days after their initial voyage started, and, Nick, brace yourself, every single member of the crew survived.

• 32:37Speaker 04

  That's crazy.

• 32:39Speaker 05

  There was obviously a very tragic loss of life with the dogs and Mrs. Chippy, but the crew, the human crew, all survived.

• 32:51Speaker 04

  Did they eat the dogs?

• 32:52Speaker 05

  I think that some of the dogs were consumed. But at that point, you're like, "Hey, Billy, if you die, we're eating you." You know?

• 33:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:05Speaker 04

  If you had to eat a man or a dog first, where would you go?

• 33:09Speaker 05

  Dog. I mean, if you're gonna put me in that, like, Sophie's Choice situation-

• 33:13Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah, me, definitely. Oh, yeah, me too. Yeah.

• 33:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, okay, all right. Yeah, you're thinking real hard about that, but we're gonna let it go. You're a recreational cannibal.

• 33:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm a fine, young cannibal. I'm a fine, middle-aged cannibal.

• 33:39Speaker 05

  So this is a, um, this is a crazy story and it's an interesting one in the snafu category because it obviously, uh, it's a failed mission and it becomes this terrible, terrible, awful tragedy, all of which make it a complete snafu. And yet it then kind of takes this positive turn in the end. So what's your call on this? Would you say it's an epic fail or an epic win?

• 34:09Speaker 04

  Well, I think it speaks to the larger, um, point of view you have on life, which is, uh, old, old Ernie Shackleton, one of the last remaining, uh, great two-point scorers because they had not, and they had not put the three-point line in. Um, but old Ernie Shackleton obviously was a motivated fella and, and was setting incredibly high standards and goals for himself. I'm going to cross all of Antarctica. He failed to do that and that must be, that must have been quite disappointing. However, to basically go two

• 34:49Speaker 04

  years with a crew of 27, 28 men to have every one of them survive is a triumph of organization and leadership and adaptability. And he could, he was tough on himself. But I hope that Ernest was able to sort of see what a, what a feat that, that is to have, have brought everybody back.

• 35:15Speaker 05

  It is largely considered a very heroic occurrence in, in, in, among historians. And, um, and it's funny because, you know, the, the British explorer tradition is so like ego-driven. It's sort of like, it's one of those things where you, it's like, well, you put yourself in that situation.

• 35:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:40Speaker 05

  This whole thing was optional.

• 35:42Speaker 04

  Right. Yeah.

• 35:44Speaker 05

  But, uh, but that said, like, we do need people who push that envelope and like, push humanity forward with these incredible daring explorations. And he, he's one of those people. Um, it went, it went terribly wrong, but. By Jove?

• 36:03Speaker 04

  Which I, you have to imagine that was said so much.

• 36:06Speaker 05

  And by the way, it would be another 50 years before anyone crossed Antarctica. So he was way ahead of his time. Like it wasn't, uh, it wasn't actually accomplished for a long, long time after that. There's more to the story. On March 5th, 2022, this is only a few years ago. The HMS Endurance was discovered 107 years later. Many said the ship would be impossible to find because the wet old sea is permanently covered in so much thick ice, but using lunar occultation notes, it's, it's basically um, tracking the moon's movements and the ship's astronomer or whatever, or navigator

• 36:49Speaker 05

  had kept really meticulous notes about the celestial bodies moving and, um, and they had these incredible notes. They were able to kind of like go back in time and based on his notes, pinpoint the location where the, uh, the endurance had been stuck in the ice. And so that's where they searched and lo and behold, they found it. Now some called it the most pristine shipwreck they'd ever seen. Apparently, uh, like in warm, warmer waters, there are these enzymes and different, uh, things that, that consume or, or kind

• 37:29Speaker 05

  of denigrate the wood over time, but none of that is, is in the wet old sea. It's just too cold. So the shipwreck is in perfect condition. It's like, I think it's like two miles deep and they could even read HMS Endurance on the back. And then this is fascinating. They found bottles of whiskey, uh, buried in the ice near Shackleton's wreck. And miraculously, these remained liquid despite the minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit weather. How much would you pay for a bottle of, uh,

• 38:04Speaker 04

  Endurance scotch?

• 38:07Speaker 04

  Oh, I'd, I'd, I'd pay, I'd pay a lot. Like, could I Venmo him?

• 38:13Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 38:15Speaker 04

  I'd pay upwards of, you know, like 60 bucks.

• 38:21Speaker 05

  I would pay a shitload for that scotch. I'm not even, it's probably not consumable, but, but also I must say, if there's, if, if there's scotch left behind this adventure, like, I'm starting to question their priorities.

• 38:35Speaker 04

  Right. Like, what were they doing leaving all that, that scotch behind?

• 38:39Speaker 05

  Yeah, come on.

• 38:40Speaker 04

  This is well before.

• 38:40Speaker 05

  And you know Shackleton had good scotch. Like, he was, he was, he was Sir Ernest Shackleton, like, and he's, like, he had the good stuff.

• 38:50Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, this is well before Bush's No Scotch Left Behind. But you have to imagine how they made it. I guess they were probably like, if we're gonna make it for a year or two, like, in the middle of, literally in the middle of nowhere, alcohol's not gonna help. Like, this is only gonna create discord amongst us, so maybe better to leave it behind.

• 39:12Speaker 05

  All right. As for Ernest Shackleton, he passed away at the very not ripe young age of 47 in 1922 from a heart attack during another Antarctic expedition. So he was not traumatized by this. He went back. He was like, give me more Antarctica. Researchers now say that he may have had a hole in his heart, uh, based on a lot of the symptoms that he was, uh, just making notes of in his, in his journal, uh, which is a congenital heart defect, um, that's not uncommon. Some say that the hole in his heart was just the grief over losing Mrs. Chippy. Who, who can say?

• 39:53Speaker 04

  I think that's true.

• 39:54Speaker 05

  Um, also, uh, okay, and I, I love this. After a doctor asked him to take it easy, his reported last words were, "You always want me to give up something. What do you want me to give up now?" Hmm. I guess you can take the Shackleton out of the voyage, but you can't take the Voyager out of Shackleton.

• 40:17Speaker 04

  Indeed.

• 40:19Speaker 05

  Nick, that's our story. That is the story of Ernest Shackleton. That is today's snafu. What have we learned? Anything, any big takeaways?

• 40:26Speaker 04

  Yeah. Uh, let's see. You can preserve your body in a cold plunge for a hundred years. Don't go to Antarctica.

• 40:37Speaker 04

  Just don't go like let it be just let it be.

• 40:40Speaker 05

  Mm hmm. Or if you do, make sure you go with Ernest Shackleton.

• 40:46Speaker 04

  Go with Ernie. Dogs are delicious if you need something to eat.

• 40:53Speaker 05

  If you're starving and about to die.

• 40:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 40:56Speaker 05

  All right.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  What about you? Any, any takeaways for you?

• 40:59Speaker 05

  I love these, this kind of survival story because it's just so inspiring and it, and not, not in a way that's like, oh, well, what are my problems compared to that guy's problems? It's more like if he could do that.

• 41:14Speaker 04

  Right.

• 41:14Speaker 05

  It makes me hopeful for like our, for human potential, like all the things that we, we can do and deal with. And that unfortunately, like Tik Tok and, and Instagram is like slowly sapping out of us. Like we're, the more we, the more we indulge in modern society, it feels like, uh, we're just sort of losing this metal that people like Shackleton and all of his men had.

• 41:41Speaker 04

  I'm inspired. I'm inspired to go live more earnestly.

• 41:45Speaker 05

  Nick, you inspire me on a daily basis.

• 41:48Speaker 04

  Thank you, sir.

• 41:50Speaker 05

  You inspire me. Are you, are you up to anything? Is there anything we can talk about and, and tell the, the, the world and fans and listeners about?

• 41:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm doing a, a journey to Antarctica.

• 42:03Speaker 05

  I saw that Go, the GoFundMe page, your goal was $1,500. It doesn't seem adequate.

• 42:09Speaker 04

  I know. Um, I have, uh, depending on when this comes out, uh, the final season of Big Mouth, my animated show on Netflix comes out.

• 42:17Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 42:18Speaker 04

  In, uh, late spring. Um, there's a movie that I made with Andrew Rannells called I Don't Understand You. That'll also be out, um, late spring, early summer.

• 42:32Speaker 05

  Can't wait for that.

• 42:33Speaker 04

  And a show that I produced and directed some of called Adults on FX. That'll be out this spring. So.

• 42:41Speaker 05

  Fantastic.

• 42:43Speaker 04

  Whenever this stuff comes out, um, if you're not stuck on a boat in Antarctica, luckily that's not a problem because everything is melting. Um, can go check out one of those things.

• 42:55Speaker 05

  Right on. Nick, I.

• 42:59Speaker 05

  Adore you, and I am so grateful to have you on. Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Kroll.

• 43:06Speaker 04

  Thanks, Ed. I love you, buddy.

• 43:07Speaker 05

  Cheers.

• 43:08Speaker 04

  It's a pleasure. Cheers.

• 43:10Speaker 05

  Snafu is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Snafu Media, a partnership between Film Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Post-production and creative support from Gilded Audio. Our executive producers are me, Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim, Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino, Tori Smith, and Carl Nellis. Our consulting producer is Jess Hackel. Additional story editing from Carl Nellis. Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering from Nick Dooley. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo and branding by The Collected Works.

• 43:51Speaker 05

  Legal review from Dan Welsh, Megan Halson, and Caroline Johnson. Special thanks to Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn, Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman, Nikki Etor, Nathan Otowski, and Alex Corral. While I have you, don't forget to pick up a copy of my book, Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screw-Ups. It's available now from any book retailer. Just go to snafu-book.com. Thanks for listening, and see you next week.

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