WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.160 Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:09.240 will be reading National Geographic magazine dated July twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:12.800 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI 4 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:15.519 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:19.239 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:23.640 printed material. Please join me now for the article I 7 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:28.000 began last time, entitled Where ice Cream Is King by 8 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:33.000 Brian Kavin babaut Reischand, who's made a vocation out of 9 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:38.920 recording YouTube's marketing videos for Gangapour's tempo shops, says the 10 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:41.439 city has more than two hundred of them, double what 11 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:44.679 it had three years ago, servicing clients from as far 12 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:49.759 away as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Shah meanwhile estimates that 13 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:53.520 Gangapour has turned out four hundred thousand to five hundred 14 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:57.320 thousand ice cream tempos in the past ten years, of 15 00:00:57.399 --> 00:01:00.159 which he has made about eighty having opened his own 16 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.600 fabrication shop four years ago to capitalize on the boom 17 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:06.760 when he's not bending into summer. If there's a ceiling 18 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.599 on the sub continent's appetite for ice cream, Ashish Suwalka 19 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:15.239 doesn't see it. Another Gangapur native from a farming family, 20 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:19.280 he now lives in Ua Dapur, a city of about 21 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.000 half a million in southern Rajasthan. At twenty four, he 22 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:26.640 owns three ice cream tempos and employs a small crew 23 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:30.359 to staff them. The population is growing, Zuwalka says, and 24 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:35.840 everyone wants dessert. Next the last swordsmiths of Japan. There 25 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:41.200 were once thousands of artisans crafting traditional katana blades. Today 26 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:45.879 only a small number remain. By Ellen Himmelfarbe, in a 27 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:49.799 converted barn on a residential lane on Japan's Tango Peninsula, 28 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:53.239 some seventy five miles north of Kyoto, three men are 29 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:56.799 playing with fire while robust flames lick the edges of 30 00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:02.079 a twenty three hundred degree furnace. Kosuke Yamazoe uses a 31 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.359 fifteen pound hammer on a mass of white hot steel, 32 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:10.000 flattening it beat by beat in a hypnotic rhythm. Behind 33 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:12.759 the shower of embers raining down on the earthen floor. 34 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:17.479 Tomoyuki Miyagi grips the steel with a pair of iron 35 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:22.759 tongs and bangs a smaller mallet in a melodic counterpoint. Nearby, 36 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:26.520 a small stove next to a soot covered wall. Tomoki 37 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:31.319 Kloramoto is making tea. This is the headquarters of Nippan 38 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:35.599 gan Shosa, one of the few remaining katana foundries in 39 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:39.960 the world. For hundreds of years, experts swordsmith's forge blades 40 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:44.960 for Japan's warriors, including the famed Samurai. Early records show 41 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:48.560 craftsmen's names in the thousands, but a decline of the 42 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:51.759 art began in eighteen seventy six with the outlaw of 43 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:55.360 open kiri. After World War II, the occupying forces in 44 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:59.960 Japan then banned the production of katanas, resulting in additional 45 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:03.960 lost works and livelihoods. Today, it is believed there may 46 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:09.360 be some two hundred licensed makers left, not all active. Yamazoi, 47 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:14.039 Miyagji and Kuumoto are the only katana artisans in a 48 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.639 region that's home to one of the oldest blacksmithing workshops 49 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:21.199 in all Japan. There is a sadness that it's dying 50 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:24.680 out as a craft, Kurumoto tells me through an interpreter. 51 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:28.080 But together they are honoring and elevating the vanishing art. 52 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:31.080 The men, now in their thirties, met during a hard 53 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:36.319 sought ten year apprenticeship in Tokyo with Yoshi Kazu Yoshi 54 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:42.240 Hara and his father, Yoshindo Yoshihara, two of Japan's most 55 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:46.039 illustrious sortsmiths. The elder Yoshihara's work is in the New 56 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.120 York Metropolitan Museum of Arts collection. He himself was the 57 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.680 grandson of a celebrity sortsmith of the Showa period. In 58 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:58.039 the early nineteen hundreds. After a brief stint working on 59 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:03.159 their own, Kamazoi, Miyagi and Kromoto joined forces in twenty 60 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:08.560 nineteen and launched Nipon Gangshosha from an abandoned barn owned 61 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:13.080 by Kamzoi's grandparents. Sword making has long been an art 62 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:16.279 form in Japan, and experts can date a blade much 63 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:19.560 as a porcelain appraiser can date a oz or an 64 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:25.519 arborist a tree. Nipon Ganshosha's swords are entirely hand built, 65 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.959 average around fifteen thousand dollars and are sought after by collectors. 66 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:36.519 As with most katanyas, they they are made from tamahangane, 67 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:39.920 a type of steel that comes from iron sand mined 68 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:44.800 in the Shamane Prefecture north of Hiroshima. The five figure 69 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:48.519 price tag is a result of the laborious fabrication process, 70 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:51.120 which can take a year or more. It begins with 71 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:54.920 three days of round the clock smelting in the clay furnace. 72 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:59.439 The technique of heating and methodical hammering helps draw out 73 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:03.399 the slag, the waste product that results from smelting, and 74 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:06.800 purify the steel, which is fused and folded into hundreds 75 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:10.000 of fine layers. The hard steel is then worked into 76 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.879 shape and the razor edge of the blade is refined 77 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:15.399 much of a swords. A lure lies in the way 78 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:18.199 the surface of the blade catches and throws the light. 79 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:22.160 Instead of reflecting a clear beam of light, one solid beam, 80 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:26.279 it will be speckled or broken up, says Koromoto, twisting 81 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:29.680 a newly buffed blade in the sunlight as it pours 82 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.639 through a window. But while they work to keep an 83 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:35.959 h old art form alive, the partners are fighting in 84 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:40.199 uphill battle. Demand for high dollar a katanas is waning, 85 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:44.519 and the success of Nippon Genshosha depends on finding and 86 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.000 developing a new generation of collectors, not just appealing to 87 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:51.519 existing ones. To that end, the men have begun taking 88 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:55.279 liberties with the hamon the pattern etched along the blade 89 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:00.639 edge Traditionally, a smith designs a unique hman, often featuring 90 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:04.800 landscape patterns tied to the area where the sword is manufactured. 91 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:08.839 But says Kumoto, if someone from the United States once 92 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:11.680 a scene from their front window, they can send a 93 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:16.240 panoramic photo and we can reproduce it. They've also pioneered 94 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:19.879 a method of encasing blades in a sealed, transparent resin 95 00:06:19.959 --> 00:06:24.720 block rather than a traditional wooden sheath. The idea, says Kumoto, 96 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.360 was that this would allow people to appreciate Japanese swords 97 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:31.800 safely and thus focus more on their beauty. What is 98 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.759 the point of art if you can't see it in 99 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.560 a country reverential of long held traditions, The swordsmiths are 100 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:42.360 striking a delicate balance. It seems that ordinary people have 101 00:06:42.439 --> 00:06:47.000 fewer opportunities to come into contact with Japanese art, says Kuamoto, 102 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:50.160 But today, as an art piece, swords have a place 103 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:56.319 in modern culture. Next finding Tranquility in Transylvania in a 104 00:06:56.360 --> 00:07:00.079 corner of rural Romania a Byukalagwey of life is safeguardar 105 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.480 by a community preserving its ancient ways and offering a 106 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:08.959 template for a richer way of Living by Brett Martin. 107 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:12.920 On a chilly twilight evening, three men sit around a 108 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.600 wood table in the parsonage of a thirteenth century church 109 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:19.319 in Transylvania. Outside our ducks be hives, and a shaggy 110 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:21.879 white dog that we can hear barking at something in 111 00:07:21.959 --> 00:07:25.439 the growing dark. Warmed by a wood burning stove, the 112 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:29.399 men sip tea and nibbles savory pretzel shaped cookies and 113 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:34.720 talk about their home, Karashkobalva, Transylvania. Is there a better 114 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:39.920 known place name and lesser known place, perhaps Timbuctoo. Even 115 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:43.120 when all of Europe was wilder, Transylvania stood for its 116 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:46.680 wildest edge. This is why Bramstokers ofw fit to use 117 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.040 it as a setting for Dracula, despite never setting foot there. 118 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:54.519 It's a place where Saxons, huns, Turks, Tartars, and a 119 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.839 dozen less famous tribes are still talked about as if 120 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:00.680 they may have passed through just last week. A place 121 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:04.199 where the forests are still filled with bears. Now that Europe, 122 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.079 for all its charms, can sometimes seem like a continent 123 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.759 of mobile phone executives, it feels even more thrilling and 124 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:14.800 unlikely to find oneself in a pocket as remote and 125 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:17.759 in many ways untouched as this village in the valley 126 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:21.360 of the Hamarod River, like about eighty five percent of 127 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:24.920 the people who live in this region of rural central Romania. 128 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:29.759 The men in the parsonage table speak in Hungarian. They 129 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:34.320 are Zichhilles, ethnic Hungarians who have lived here for at 130 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:37.279 least a thousand years. At the head of the table, 131 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:40.320 with a short gray beard and bright, mischievous eyes, is 132 00:08:40.360 --> 00:08:44.279 a seventy year old Orbon Saba, the man whose vision 133 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:47.519 is helping preserve this distant place even as the modern 134 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:52.080 world presses at its borders. Orban and Hungarian family names 135 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:55.360 come before given names, does so as the leader of 136 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:00.960 the Kurbitusac, the village's governing body. It's the centuries old 137 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:04.879 form of communal landownership and management that has helped make 138 00:09:04.919 --> 00:09:11.000 this place so singular. The Kuzbir tokos shagh It helps 139 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:14.720 if you take a running start, manages the water, woods 140 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:18.799 and pastures, splitting their use, resources and income among three 141 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:22.960 hundred forty seven shareholders. Though time warn the system of 142 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:28.159 governance is remarkably sturdy, Orbon points out, and capable of 143 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:31.039 meeting the needs of the people here. When winter comes, 144 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:34.720 he says, everybody has enough wood that it exists at 145 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:38.679 all is a testament to Orban's vision. For the decades 146 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:44.559 that Romania was under communist rule, the Kosburiserhagh was lost. Indeed, 147 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:49.720 the infamous dictator Nikolai Chochescu aimed to wipe out places 148 00:09:49.799 --> 00:09:55.200 like Kokashafalva and their way of life. He failed. Communism fell, 149 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:59.000 and the village regained communal control of some twenty seven 150 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:02.039 hundred acres of land in two thousand. Key to the 151 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:07.240 Korbusu Trazog restoration were written records of the intricate system 152 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:10.840 through which land rights had been passed down for generations. 153 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:14.559 Orban opens a leather valise and carefully lifts out a 154 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:18.080 thick folder of papers. Each page contains two columns of 155 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:21.799 neatly written names with numbers next to them. A nineteen 156 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:27.159 thirty six record of the shareholders of Karatschefalvas Horzobas Salkog. 157 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:30.360 It was pages like these, hidden away in houses and 158 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:34.440 buried in archives that aided the long legal fight of 159 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:39.440 Orbon and other Kubritish Sokog leaders to reclaim their villages 160 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:44.639 after Churchescu's overthrow in nineteen eighty nine. Orbon remembers sifting 161 00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:47.879 through a mountain of documents in a government office and 162 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:50.720 coming upon the list. It was like thunder, he says, 163 00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:55.120 Not even in our deepest dreams have could we have 164 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:58.799 hoped to restore what we had. Joining Orban at the 165 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:03.399 table is Ampali Geza seventy five. He is a lay 166 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:06.639 leader of the Unitarian Church. The younger man sitting next 167 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:11.200 to him, Benedict Mihali, is its minister. Or Bond finds 168 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.720 a page from a second list of names, this one 169 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:16.799 from nineteen forty six, and points to line one hundred 170 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:21.399 sixty five inscribed there is the name of Zempali's grandfather. 171 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.240 When I look around the table, all three men are 172 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:31.559 blinking back tears. Karsavalva Kushino in Romanian is tucked within 173 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:35.919 rolling Tuscany like hills and swaths of deep forests, part 174 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.679 of a string of villages, each marked by the needle 175 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:42.919 like spire of a Unitarian church. His houses are topped 176 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:46.919 with roofs of rust colored tile. Many feature so called 177 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:53.960 Sekelli gates, elaborately carved wooden entrances that depicts Zekelli iconography 178 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:57.519 and ruins, and are capped with structures reminiscent of a 179 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:01.320 Japanese pagoda. From the courtyards within you can hear bleats 180 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:04.600 of sheep and squawking of chickens. Most families do at 181 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:08.840 least some subsistence farming. Electrical poles are topped by the 182 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:13.720 doughnut shaped hats of storknests. One afternoon, I step aside 183 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:16.879 as a raucous herd of cows is paraded down the 184 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.159 middle of the street, spurred on by young men with 185 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:22.639 sticks and shouts. It should also be noted that the 186 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:26.159 village has faster internet and generally better roads than I 187 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:31.879 do at home in New Orleans. Orban Saba commands obvious 188 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:34.759 respect throughout the village, but is also considered something of 189 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:39.559 an eccentric. The heads of other corbetous Saugjas can often 190 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:42.960 be identified by their expensive cars and big shot attitudes, 191 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:47.559 orbon drives, a beat up hatchback and dreams up projects. 192 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:51.159 There is the traditional open air bath that he renovated 193 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:54.360 in twenty nineteen as a gathering place, complete with a 194 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:58.639 medicinal herb garden and fire pit for making tea. Across 195 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:00.720 the village, in the shadow of the forest is the 196 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:05.840 sweet chestnut orchard, where he organizes an angul annual chestnut festival. 197 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:11.919 And there's the Corbetushar Community Center, where on a Saturday afternoon, 198 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:15.279 while I am there, the village gathers in traditional dress 199 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:19.200 to enact a children's wedding in which a local girl 200 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:22.600 and boy play bride and groom before a great feast. 201 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:26.080 Orbon's car is in a constant state of reminding him 202 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.120 to buckle his seat belt as he careenes down dirt 203 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.919 roads from one place to the next. All of the projects, 204 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:35.519 he says, are attempts to maintain the traditions of this 205 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:40.240 place while also cautiously opening it to the possibilities of 206 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:45.480 eco tourism. Orban often explains this careful balancing act through 207 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:49.759 an emblem depicting the Zachelli sun and moon standing independent 208 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:54.519 within the European Union's Circle of Stars. Above all, the 209 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:59.159 Kurtzbetursag acts as a steward of the village's most important resource, 210 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:02.480 the forest, which is both a source of crucial fuel 211 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.240 as a few nervous nights feeding a guest house woodstove 212 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:11.039 drives home, and fragile biodiversity. On a rainy day, I 213 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:13.639 am taken into the woods by a hunter and ingenious 214 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:18.679 tinker named Oksi Machas. He's invited me to tag along 215 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.519 on his daily visit to check the three motion activated 216 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:25.799 cameras he uses to monitor wildlife. We bounce up a 217 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:30.399 down deeply rutted trails in an all terrain vehicle he 218 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:33.279 has fashioned from an old land rover, and then hike 219 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:37.039 in silence, trailed by a stout fox that Okshee has 220 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:41.360 grown to know and has named Vuki. Aside from songbirds, 221 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:44.399 Vuki is the only living thing we encounter. But back 222 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:47.679 at Okshee's home, while my boots dry over the woodstove, 223 00:14:47.879 --> 00:14:50.960 we review the photos he has retrieved. They show deer, 224 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:55.200 wild boars, all manner of small mammals, and many many bears. 225 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.200 A shiver thinking of them all having been hidden around 226 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:02.480 us as we moved through their woodland home. What especial 227 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:04.919 here is that the community owns the land, says Za 228 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:10.480 Kelly kinga RecA, a Unitarian minister several villages away. Nobody 229 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:13.679 can get too wealthy that they make other people suffer. 230 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:17.320 The irony, of course, is that such principles resemble nothing 231 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:20.480 so much as those of communism. With a small sea 232 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:23.440 we hate that word, but it's true. Ze Kelly admits, 233 00:15:23.799 --> 00:15:26.399 we already had that system for a thousand years. We 234 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.480 didn't need them to come tell us. I met sze 235 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:32.440 Kelly's home for the annual ritual of slaughtering a pig 236 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:34.840 to be eaten over the course of the rest of 237 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.840 the year. By the time I arrived, the animal's still 238 00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:42.000 steaming body has been splayed across a table outside. A 239 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:46.919 round faced butcher deftly works at disassembling it. Prime cuts 240 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:50.120 go into the brine, later to be smoked, while organs 241 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:53.679 another oval head to a temporary sausage factory set up 242 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:58.000 in the dining room. Excess sausages will be distributed among neighbors, 243 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:01.799 who in turn will share their own surplus when the 244 00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:08.279 time comes. Skelly's husband, Zoltsava, a computer coder, distributes mourning 245 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:12.840 shots of Pelinka, a homemade brandy they've prepared from plums. 246 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:16.679 My generation is the last one that understands the meaning 247 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.879 of butchering. The pegy laments, what is the meaning? I 248 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:23.080 ask that you eat what you grow. He says that 249 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.000 you know where it comes from, that you are connected 250 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:29.200 on this Kelly's walls in many homes in the region 251 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:32.480 hangs a map showing Transylvania as part of the Greater 252 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:36.720 Austria Hungarian Empire. It's a good reminder that, as this 253 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:39.639 place knows all too well, there is no hiding from 254 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:43.480 the tides of history. Winters are getting warmer. The past 255 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:48.440 two summers have been brought drought. A new Romanian nationalism 256 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:52.399 is on the rise, potentially threatening the country's ethnic minorities. 257 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:56.720 In the villages of the Homarud Valley you see children 258 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:00.759 and older people, but few in between. Many adults have 259 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:03.960 left in search of jobs, or pH ds, or just 260 00:17:04.039 --> 00:17:09.240 an easier life than farming. Zickell's Zoltz Kazaba has been 261 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:13.000 forced to bring in Napoleese workers to help staff one 262 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.680 of the small groceries he owns. In the face of 263 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:21.319 all that, what Orbon Ksaba and the Corbitzer Cossac do 264 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.000 is a model of tending one's own garden, an attempt 265 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:28.359 to protect and sustain family, community and the gifts of 266 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:31.400 this small corner of the planet that they know better 267 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:35.880 than anybody else. At the parsonage table, Orbon packs up 268 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:38.880 his stack of documents and places them carefully back in 269 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:41.759 their valise. He pats it lovingly and puts it under 270 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:43.640 his arm. It would be nice to know who is 271 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:47.720 going to hold this next, he says. Next, how a 272 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:51.319 super tiny crustacean makes life work in the Southern Ocean. 273 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:56.279 Marine ecologist Kim Bernard is charting the huge impact of 274 00:17:56.599 --> 00:18:02.839 an Antarctic krill by Tristram Corton one night last December, 275 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:07.200 National Geographic explorer Kim Bernard was stirring her earl gray 276 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:09.920 tea in the galley of a research ship off the 277 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:13.279 coast of Antarctica, preparing for a long night of observing 278 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:17.200 a remotely operated vehicle as it surveyed the sea floor. 279 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.440 When the Marina cologist looked up to a monitor showing 280 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.000 a live video feed sent by the ro V from 281 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:26.519 a depth of more than three thousand feet in the 282 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:30.880 Southern Ocean's murky waters, something caught her attention. I see 283 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:33.400 this tiny little thing come in on the right hand 284 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:36.599 side of the screen and dart out, she said to 285 00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:41.119 the other scientists abroad. Probably aboard it probably looked like 286 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:45.720 organic debris lofting down. But Bernard, forty six, has been 287 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:48.759 studying krill for fifteen years and knows how the shrimp 288 00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:52.599 like crustaceans twirl in the water column and bolt backward. 289 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:56.799 When startled. That familiar movement sent her running down two 290 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:00.000 flights of stairs to the ship's control room. When she arrived, 291 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.160 she saw the action on the sea floor being broadcast 292 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:05.920 on a large bank of monitors, and she spouted a 293 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:10.480 handful of individual krills spread out on a hydro thermal vent, 294 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:14.680 a fissure in the ocean crust where hot magma and 295 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:17.920 sea water meat and create a mineral rich environment that 296 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:22.200 attracts a host of organisms. For Bernard, a professor of 297 00:19:22.200 --> 00:19:27.319 biological oceanography at Oregon State University, finding krill here represented 298 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:30.799 a momentous discovery. I kind of lost my mind, she recalled. 299 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:33.279 It was the first time the animal had been observed 300 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:38.359 on a vent Antarctic Krill are a keystone species that 301 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.519 allows everything else in the Southern Ocean to flourish. If 302 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:44.880 Bernard could learn more about their habitat on the sea floor, 303 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:49.000 her research could inform our understanding of virtually every predator 304 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:52.839 on this hard to reach continent, from emperor penguins to 305 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:57.240 blue whales. Any new behavior from such a foundational animal 306 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:00.759 has the potential to effect the entire food above it. 307 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:04.640 That night, in the control room aboard the research vessel 308 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.680 from Schmidt Ocean Institute. Bernard soon realized all the krill 309 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:12.880 were females carrying eggs. The species usually release eggs higher 310 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:15.759 in the water column. What makes it worth the risk 311 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:19.039 to travel so far at this stage in reproduction? Were 312 00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:22.359 they feeding on the bacteria covering the vent? She asked 313 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:26.000 the operator to use the rob's special suction arm and 314 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:29.640 gather a few of the crustaceans. This was also a first. 315 00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:33.880 Bernard isn't aware of any researchers who have collected specimens 316 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:37.480 at that depth. She has since sent stomach and tissue 317 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:41.960 samples out for analysis. Bernard's work on the expedition, which 318 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:46.559 was supported by the National Geographic Society and Role's Perpetual 319 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:50.839 Planet Expeditions, is part of an ambitious project that sending 320 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:54.680 nearly two dozen scientists to all five oceans. Their efforts 321 00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:57.039 will be the subject of a series of stories in 322 00:20:57.160 --> 00:21:00.880 National Geographic as they searched for new insights, like say, 323 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:05.799 the presence of krill in under explored places in Antarctica. 324 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:08.559 The species is more than just a vital part of 325 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:12.039 the food chain. Krill are also a carbon sink, eating 326 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:17.039 phytoplankton that have absorbed CO two and then excreting pellets 327 00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:19.799 to the seafloor, where it can take thousands of years 328 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:25.519 for the absorbed carbon to resurface. However, there are new 329 00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:29.799 pressures on the species from both humans and climate change. 330 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.759 Krill are increasingly harvested as aquaculture feed, and the animal's 331 00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:38.680 oil is highly sought after as a dietary supplement. Meanwhile, 332 00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:42.880 as sea ice continues to melt, larval krill are losing 333 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:46.839 an important habitat where they can hide from predators, find food, 334 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:51.240 and develop into adults. Bernard hopes her ongoing research and 335 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:55.200 future insights from this discovery will protect this tiny animal 336 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:58.640 that so much life relies on. There's a thriving mass 337 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:01.119 of life down there, she said, and all up it 338 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:06.559 depends on krill. Next, seeing a glacier through a prehistoric lens, 339 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:11.200 a photographer uses Arctic ice and a unique technique to 340 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:15.559 offer a fresh perspective on a world transformed by climate change. 341 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:20.920 Glacial ice is formed from snow accumulating and compacting over millennia. 342 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:25.160 As the pressure increases, crystalline layers are smoothed into one 343 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:29.119 of the clearest substances found in nature. That alchemy and 344 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:32.559 the knowledge that climate change is causing glaciers to rapidly 345 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:37.359 disappear inspired forty four year old artist Tristan Duke to 346 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:40.599 create a photo lens out of glacial ice. I just 347 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:43.559 felt this real sense of urgency, Duke says he wanted 348 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:46.079 to capture a glacier through its own eyes. He puts 349 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:49.720 it like a self portrait. In the spring of twenty 350 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:55.440 twenty two, Duke called dozens of pounds of gear to Spalbarred, Norway, 351 00:22:55.880 --> 00:22:59.319 including a giant tent camera that he designed himself, and 352 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:02.880 molds for shaping the ice into lenses. The tent functioned 353 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:06.279 like a camera of skura. Duke would place a palm 354 00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:08.839 sized piece of ice in a hole in the canvas, 355 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.400 projecting an image of the landscape inside the tent that 356 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:14.839 would then be captured on a forty two by one 357 00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:18.960 hundred inch negative. Some of the photographs were clearer than 358 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:22.720 he expected, but as the lenses melted, the accumulation of 359 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:25.720 water produced its own effect. People have told me that 360 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:28.720 it looks like the world blurred through tears, he says. 361 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:34.279 To contain contact, to contrast this arctic sublime against a 362 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:37.200 world on fire, he traveled through the American West to 363 00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:42.279 document wildfires and energy infrastructure with lenses created from locally 364 00:23:42.359 --> 00:23:45.880 sourced ice. He wants to invert the romantic gaze. We 365 00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:49.000 see a sort of fragile nature bearing witness to the 366 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:54.240 unbridled and cataclysmic power of the human world. This article 367 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:59.759 by Megan Brown next The City of seven hundred Languages. 368 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:02.680 It's been four hundred years since New York City was 369 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:06.400 founded as the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. Back then, 370 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:10.559 some thirty European and native languages were spoken there. To day, 371 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:14.359 that number surpasses seven hundred. That's more than ten percent 372 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:18.079 of the world's nearly seven thousand languages, making New York 373 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:23.119 the most linguistically diverse city to ever exist. Can it 374 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:27.200 stay that way? A four hundred years of immigration loaded 375 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:31.759 New York with languages before Europeans arrived, and estimated fifteen 376 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:37.400 thousand Lennapis speakers may have lived in Lenapehuking, a region 377 00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:40.799 that includes present day New York City. In sixteen twenty four, 378 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:44.359 the Dutch West India Company founded the city of New 379 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:47.920 Amsterdam on the site. By the mid sixteen seventies, it 380 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.880 was under British control and would be until the American Revolution. 381 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:55.599 Built on waves of immigration, it is now home to 382 00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:00.880 the largest foreign born population of any major metropolitan in 383 00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:04.880 the world. Those eras of immigration are envisioned here as 384 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:08.680 the rings of a growing tree. Each dot represents one 385 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:12.279 hundred immigrants each ring a decade. The result is a 386 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:16.079 snapshot of New York City's diverse ethnic populations over time, 387 00:25:16.519 --> 00:25:19.759 from just a few hundred European settlers to three point 388 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:24.039 two million immigrants today, most from Latin America and Asia. 389 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:29.279 What New York City loses when languages vanish? By Ross Perlin. 390 00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:33.920 Seca is an endangered language originally spoken in five villages 391 00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:37.240 of northern Nepal, but its future may depend on a 392 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:41.039 handful of vertical villages apartment buildings in the middle of Brooklyn, 393 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:45.400 New York. How did a little documented, oral only language 394 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:48.079 used by no more than seven hundred people in the 395 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:53.519 High Himalaya come to the concrete jungle? Rasmena Gourung in 396 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:57.559 her twenties, one of Seka's youngest speakers, learned the language 397 00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:00.400 from her grandmother in the village, but soon to the 398 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:04.680 country's capital, Katmandu, and eventually New York, where she estimates 399 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:08.799 at least a quarter of her pupil have ended up here. 400 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:11.960 They joined speakers of dozens of other endangered languages from 401 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:15.880