Alaska Is Where You Go to Disappear Feat. Giulio Gallarotti | Drop A Pin Ep. 103

Drop A Pin

In this episode of Drop A Pin, host Giulio Gallarotti joins the show to discuss his recent travels through Alaska and Rwanda. The conversati

Key takeaways

• Kazakhstan is identified as the largest landlocked country by a significant margin, followed by Mongolia.
• The hosts discuss how the new UN map projection aims to correct the distortions of the Mercator projection, specifically regarding the perceived size of Africa and Greenland.

Main topics

• Largest landlocked countries
• Mercator vs. UN map projections

Notable quotes

All Italian soldiers were prisoners of war.

Conclusion

The episode provides a unique blend of geographical trivia and profoun

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Trust no one and accuse everyone in Who's the Bad Guy, the official Barstool Sports social deduction game from the brilliant mind of Nick Teraney. In what's quickly becoming the most popular new party game around, players are secretly assigned unique roles with the good guys trying to expose the bad guys and the bad guys doing everything they can to stay hidden. Each game unfolds under alternating day and night phases with roles like the cool chick, the shy guy, the gambler, el presidente, the mentalist, the planner, the funny guy, and more. Every round is unpredictable, chaotic, and ridiculously fun. Who's the Bad Guy is great for parties, pregames, family gatherings, or groups who just love deception-based games. Game night will never be the same. Shop now on Walmart.com. Speaker 4 (0:42) Today on Drop a Pin, we have our good friend Giulio. He's back in the building, and today we're going to get started with some top fives. Let's do it. Speaker 2 (0:49) My dad always jokes, like, so both of my grandfathers were prisoners of war. They're both Italian. And I was like, isn't that like a crazy coincidence? My dad goes, Julio, all Italian soldiers were prisoners of war. Because they immediately said, they're like, no, I'm not going to fight. Speaker 4 (1:07) All right, Donnie, before we get into the top five, you had an announcement you wanted to make. Oh, yes. Speaker 3 (1:12) My cousin who was on the pod back in July, Jennifer, she passed away from cancer this past weekend. And just really appreciate all the pinheads who left kind comments after we dropped the podcast with her. I mean, I think it's one of the best podcasts we've done. She's lived, she lived a very fascinating life and she'll be missed dearly by many. She mainly focused on her time in Yemen over there. So go back and listen to that podcast. She was an incredible woman. And it's very sad news. But as I said earlier, we were more than 20 years apart in age and we never lived in the same state. So really that podcast and then the conversation we had afterwards, that was the most we had connected in decades. So I'm really grateful we were able to have her on the podcast. Thank you to all the pinheads for all the support and kind words you had for her. Yeah, Speaker 4 (2:08) she was a great lady, and I'm glad that her family has that podcast to go back and listen to later. Speaker 3 (2:15) Yeah. Speaker 4 (2:16) It'll be nice. When I used to do the military podcast, I had a guy that came on my show, and he was in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was in the Battle of Okinawa. Just an absolute legend named Stanley Rubin. And he came on the show when I first interviewed him. He was 96 years old. And he stuck around for another five years, didn't pass away until he was 101. But when he passed away, his great-great-grandson reached out who had hooked me up with the interview and was like, I just want you to know whenever my great-great-grandfather passed away, we pulled up that podcast and watched it together as a family because a lot of us hadn't even heard the story. Speaker 1 (2:55) Wow. And Speaker 4 (2:56) so it is cool to have those living libraries that take place. Speaker 1 (3:00) Yeah, for Speaker 4 (3:00) sure. Speaker 3 (3:00) We had my grandma when she was 101 in an episode of Rediscovering America. My dad says he goes back and watches that all the time. Yeah, I think that's one Speaker 4 (3:09) of the cool things for me about having all the ZBT is that eventually my kids will be able to go back and hear my war stories from my mouth directly where I'm not telling them, but I'm telling it. truthfully and honestly, where it's not for their ears. Yeah. But Speaker 3 (3:25) I mean, I've got some vids out there that Speaker 4 (3:27) when I Speaker 3 (3:27) think about my kids watching them. Brother, I've got some blogs out there that don't fit in that category. Yeah, that's a little concerning. Here's daddy Speaker 4 (3:35) doing meth. Speaker 3 (3:38) That thankfully was not in a vlog. But I also think Jennifer's husband would probably be willing to come on the podcast at some point. And he was the British ambassador. Yemen, Uzbekistan, and Bolivia. And I'm sure he'd be happy to come on at some point. Speaker 4 (3:55) Yeah, we'll be talking about Bolivia with Julio in a little bit because he's going there later on this year and Donnie and I might just go with him. But before we do that, I have a top five. But today it's actually going to be a top 10 and both of you get to chime in. What are the top 10 largest landlocked countries in the world by land area? Okay, let's go back and forth. If you want to go first. Speaker 2 (4:18) Ethiopia? Speaker 4 (4:19) Ethiopia is number six on the list. Give me Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is number one by a large margin, by almost two. Okay, wow. Yeah, so they have 2.7 million square kilometers. The next largest country has 1.5 million. And if you Speaker 3 (4:38) live in Kazakhstan and you do just want to get out on the water, you can still go to the Caspian Sea, is it? Yeah, and there's been a lot of Speaker 4 (4:44) talk lately. Caspian Sea should be classified as an ocean. Speaker 1 (4:48) What? Speaker 4 (4:49) Because it's so much larger than all the other lakes. It's saltwater, and it doesn't rely on any other bodies of water. Speaker 3 (4:58) Wait, the Caspian Sea is saltwater? Speaker 4 (5:00) Yeah. Oh. Speaker 3 (5:01) Okay. Speaker 4 (5:02) Yeah. Mongolia. Mongolia is number two at 1.5 million. Okay, what about Uzbekistan? Uzbekistan is not in the top 10, even though it's one of the only two landlocked, double landlocked countries. Wow. All right. Ukraine? Nope. So you got to move outside. I'll give you a couple hints along the way. I got one. Bolivia. Bolivia is number seven. Okay. Speaker 2 (5:31) Very nice. Speaker 4 (5:32) Just over 1 million square kilometers. Speaker 2 (5:39) molly Speaker 4 (5:40) molly is number five good job 1.2 million square kilometers give Speaker 3 (5:45) me a chad Speaker 4 (5:46) chad is number three you guys are crushing it 1.28 million square kilometers there how Speaker 2 (5:52) many do we need do we need so Speaker 4 (5:54) you have number four to go number eight nine and ten Speaker 2 (6:01) Who went last? Me or you? Botswana? Speaker 4 (6:05) Nope. Botswana's not on the list. You got Mercator'd. Are there some more in Africa, though? Yes. Yeah, I mean, it's like... There's two more in Africa. Speaker 3 (6:17) Is Mauritania landlocked? Speaker 4 (6:20) No. Wait, no. Yes, Mauritania is landlocked, but it's not... Are Speaker 3 (6:27) you sure about that? Well, I get that. Mauritius, Mauritania, I get all those mixed up. Oh, Speaker 4 (6:32) no, Mauritania's not. Oh, Mauritius is what I was Speaker 3 (6:35) thinking. Islands were definitely Speaker 4 (6:37) not landlocked. Speaker 3 (6:38) What about Iran? Nope, Iran is not on the list. Oh, Iran's not landlocked. Yeah. The fucking, the Strait of Hormuz, come on. Clean it up. Do we got some more stands in the mix? Speaker 4 (6:52) There is one stand in the mix, and there's still two. in africa afghanistan is right they have 650 000 square kilometers i Speaker 3 (7:04) did see a travel vlogger go to these beautiful lakes in afghanistan recently i don't know if you went there yeah they're like bright blue really Speaker 2 (7:12) really cool man really beautiful ripping Speaker 3 (7:14) around on jet skis uh-huh yeah i think so i mean yeah i think it's the first afghanistan it's their first national park or something like that is around those lakes it's one of the Speaker 2 (7:23) oh yeah i didn't realize it was uh the first one There's three more to go. Speaker 4 (7:27) South Sudan, yes. South Sudan is number 10 on the list. So there's two more that you have to do in Africa. Speaker 3 (7:35) And so you've been... The Congo Speaker 2 (7:42) has coastal. Yeah, it's got that crazy Speaker 4 (7:45) small Speaker 1 (7:45) Orlando. Speaker 4 (7:46) It's only like, I think it's like 80 miles or something like that. It's not long. I mean, Speaker 3 (7:52) it's just got really Speaker 4 (7:54) hard. Oh, Zambia. Zambia is correct. That's number eight. They have 750,000 square kilometers. And then Zimbabwe as well. Zimbabwe doesn't make the list. Speaker 2 (8:06) Central African Republic? Speaker 4 (8:07) Nope. You're getting close, though. Speaker 2 (8:10) Yeah. Oh, Cameroon. Speaker 4 (8:12) Nope. Cameroon Speaker 2 (8:14) has some Speaker 4 (8:14) coastline. Speaker 3 (8:15) So there's the DRC, but then there's also another Congo. Also has coastline. Does the other Congo have some coastline? Speaker 4 (8:23) No, but it's not the Republic of the Congo. Speaker 3 (8:27) Oh, no, that's coastline. What's north of Zambia? Speaker 4 (8:34) This country, you could... Also makes up the name of another country. Speaker 4 (8:42) Oh, is it Niger? Yep, Niger is number four. So your top 10 is Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Chad, Niger, Mali, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Zambia, Afghanistan, and South Sudan wraps it up. Speaker 1 (8:55) I can't believe Niger is that big of a country. Yeah. Speaker 4 (8:58) Africa, Speaker 2 (8:59) I know they say it's like underrepresented on the map as far as like size-wise. Oh, yeah. You see that new UN map? Does it like make Africa bigger? Speaker 4 (9:08) Yeah, so they just redid the Mercator projection map. It was approved by almost every country in the United Nations except for the one that we're sitting in. Yeah. Because it makes the United States look smaller. But this is the new map. Yeah, Speaker 3 (9:23) because you can fit all of the U.S. and Europe into Africa. Crazy. Yeah. And I remember I was looking at flights from Egypt to Nigeria, and I was like, oh, they're both in Africa. That shouldn't be too bad. And it was like, I Speaker 2 (9:34) feel like it Speaker 3 (9:35) was like an eight-hour flight or something. Speaker 2 (9:37) Dude, same thing for me. I was looking at, I have Qatar miles. I'm like, I'm going to use them to go on a trip maybe with my wife. And I was like, oh, we have to go through Qatar as the hub. I was like, maybe we'll go to Morocco. It's like an eight-hour flight from Doha to Morocco. Speaker 4 (9:51) It's legitimately crazy. It's Speaker 1 (9:53) crazy, Speaker 4 (9:53) dude. And that new map, it does do a good job because. like Greenland now doesn't look like it's the same size of Africa. Speaker 3 (9:59) Right. Mainly Speaker 4 (10:00) because it's not. Totally. And then Russia on the Mercator projection, it still looks big. I still think that one is done. Russia still looks too big for what it is because from the way that that looks on the map, it looks like Russia is actually larger across than Africa. That's just not true. Right, right. Interesting. But it still looks bigger there. Man, Speaker 2 (10:20) that's Speaker 1 (10:20) wild. Speaker 3 (10:21) You got to use a globe. Yeah, Speaker 4 (10:22) you got to use the globe. The only way to do it. But even the globe is not correct because it's smashed in. Speaker 3 (10:30) Yes, we are. The world isn't a perfect sphere. That's why there was some fact that that mountain in Ecuador, it's the closest mountain to space, even though it's not the tallest mountain in the world. Speaker 4 (10:42) Yep. The Mount Everest gets shit on twice. One, it's by that fact that the... You're closest to space from Ecuador. And then from base to tip, the mountain in Hawaii is bigger than Everest as well. The Speaker 2 (10:58) relief. Speaker 4 (10:59) Yeah. Speaker 3 (11:00) Speaking of mountains, I recently climbed Mount Washington with Biz, the tallest peak in the Northeast. And we had a beautiful day for it. The visibility was insane. And as we kind of hit the final stretch of the peak, I... I ate a bunch of shrooms and they really hit me like right when I got up there. And the crazy thing about Mount Washington is that you hike all day to get to the top, but there's a road that goes to the top. There's also a train that goes to the top. So it's like a circus. There's like a bunch of people up there that did not hike up. And so like I had just said like, okay, like these are hitting me. I don't even know if I want to be in public. And this was right at the peak. And then like right after I said that, a 90-year-old Army veteran came up to me. He's like, can I have... some help getting down off these rocks. I thought you were going to say, can I have some shrooms? No, no. And so I was super nervous. Cause like, he was very frail and I was like one wrong step. Cause like, I was like not very sturdy on my feet at the moment, but I kinda, I locked in biz help too. And we, we got him off the summit. It only took like a couple of minutes. It was just like the last 10 feet. So yeah. So that happened and I was like, all right. We got all the content we needed up here. We should start heading down. Right before we left, a guy was like, hey, you should go down and film the cat over there. This guy took his motorcycle all the way up to the top, and he's got this beautiful big Maine Speaker 4 (12:22) Coon on the back of his motorcycle. A huge Maine Coon guy. Speaker 3 (12:25) Yeah. So what is a Maine Coon? It's just like a large breed of cat. A Maine Coon Speaker 4 (12:28) is the biggest domestic cat. Speaker 3 (12:30) Okay. So I was like, yeah, that would be awesome to feature in Speaker 4 (12:33) the Speaker 3 (12:33) video. So we walked down. And he's already talking to some other people about his cat. And then I asked politely, I was like, yeah, do you mind if we feature your cat in our hiking show that we do? And he goes, oh, yeah, man, I don't care. Look at that monster. I don't plan to be alive much longer. And we kind of laughed it off. I thought he was making a joke. And then the conversation just turned so dark. He was like, I really just have no more reason to live. And he started just kind of pouring his heart out. to me, who's tripping balls on shrooms, being like, I like, Speaker 2 (13:06) he's like, Speaker 3 (13:07) life is not worth living. And Biz was not around. I think Biz would have been able to cheer him up real fast, but it was just me tripping Speaker 1 (13:14) balls Speaker 3 (13:14) on shrooms. So what'd you say to him? I was like, there's always reasons to live. Like, look around at this beautiful... Ah, Speaker 4 (13:20) I Speaker 3 (13:20) disagree. Speaker 4 (13:21) I was like, Speaker 3 (13:21) it's Speaker 4 (13:22) this Speaker 3 (13:22) beautiful day on Mount Washington, because Mount Washington has the worst weather on the planet, I think. So it was a very rare, crystal clear day. And I was like, look around at this world. It's so beautiful. And then he started going on. He's like, he had some medical issues. He was like, I can't feel half of my body. Um, and he kept on going on about his, like, he was like, people only care about my cat. They don't really care about me. Um, his cat does have an Instagram page, um, which, which people can follow. Um, so then, uh, So he does like... Drop Speaker 4 (13:56) the Speaker 3 (13:56) handle. Yeah, we can drop the handle. I didn't really know what to do. And like, I eventually... And he was, he was like, I've got help. I've got people that are like worried about me, but I just don't see the point anymore. And then at one point I just offered to give him a hug. And I was like, do you mind if I give you a hug? And he was like, yeah, like, sure. So I gave him a hug. Did you guys weep together? What did you weep together? We did not weep together. Um, it was just a very intense moment. Um, and we did grab some shots of his cat of, and I tagged his cat afterwards. Um, and no, he, I think he wanted me to, cause then he reached out later and he was like, thank you so much for your support. I don't think he even knew if that I was the guy that who he was talking to the top of my mouth, but I think he was just happy. I tagged his cat and got his cat. some clout i don't Speaker 1 (14:52) know Speaker 3 (14:52) but um because i wasn't sure like i could give out the cat's handle and i'm sure a bunch of pinheads would like reach out and say nice things but like i don't know if that would help or or not you might also just have an asshole who's like oh i'm gonna reach out and make his day even worse but Who's going to do that? I don't know. There's some not the fans Speaker 4 (15:12) of this podcast. Speaker 3 (15:13) If you're watching this Speaker 4 (15:14) show, please don't harass a 90-year-old man who doesn't want to live. No, Speaker 3 (15:18) no, no. Speaker 4 (15:18) This was a different guy, Speaker 3 (15:19) dude. Speaker 2 (15:20) A different guy. This was not the 90-year-old man. The Speaker 3 (15:23) 90-year-old Army vet was in great spirits. He was doing awesome. He had just made it to the top of the biggest mountain in the Northeast at Speaker 4 (15:29) 90 Speaker 3 (15:30) years old. Oh, so the Speaker 4 (15:30) 90-year-old guy is not the fellow that wanted to die. No. Because that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. If you're Speaker 3 (15:36) 90 years old, yeah, you might just be like, I've had enough. That's how I am. I'm like, at Speaker 4 (15:41) 90 years old, get me out of here. Speaker 3 (15:42) No, this guy was like a heavy dude, probably in his 40s. And yeah, didn't seem to be in the best health. But yeah, no, I don't think any fans of this pod would reach out. I'm just saying if I tweeted out publicly on Twitter being like, reach out to this guy and cheer him up, there'd probably be like one troll who'd be like. Yeah, you Speaker 4 (16:01) have to be careful on Twitter. Yeah. Speaker 3 (16:03) A guy who'd be Speaker 2 (16:04) like, do it. That's more YouTube-y. I mean, yeah. Speaker 3 (16:06) If people want to follow the cat, though, on Instagram, I'm sure he would appreciate it. What is it? What's the cat's name? It's Leo Rainbow Dust. Oh, what a name. Speaker 4 (16:14) What a name. Pull him up. Let's Speaker 3 (16:16) see Speaker 4 (16:16) him. Leo Rainbow Dust. Leo Rainbow Dust. Long time stoolie. Speaker 3 (16:19) Professional European Maine Coon cat, Harley Davidson rider. And the cat just rides everywhere on the back of his Harley. Let's see him. Oh, that's not it. No. Speaker 4 (16:28) No. Speaker 3 (16:29) Rainbow. Oh, it's Leo Rainbow Dust. Speaker 3 (16:33) leo yeah there you go leo rainbow dust cat oh Speaker 4 (16:38) yeah i Speaker 2 (16:39) mean that's a good page right there Speaker 3 (16:41) uh or do you have to sign Speaker 4 (16:42) yeah Speaker 3 (16:42) we Speaker 4 (16:42) just have to see the pictures yeah Speaker 3 (16:44) yeah Speaker 4 (16:44) he's Speaker 3 (16:45) cruising around leo loves his life yeah and i also i brought that up i was like if you're gone who's gonna take care of the cat and he was like i got some friends who would take care of him um but i didn't expect to be like trying to talk some guy off a wedge in that moment Yeah, but, yeah, sometimes the only thing you can do is offer to give someone a hug. Speaker 2 (17:07) That's very nice, dude. Speaker 3 (17:08) Julio, how are you? Yes. Speaker 2 (17:10) Hopefully you're Speaker 3 (17:11) not Speaker 2 (17:11) on a ledge. I've been reading the yacht comments. I'm feeling really down about myself, dude. Maybe I Speaker 3 (17:16) can Speaker 1 (17:16) get a hug. Speaker 2 (17:17) Yeah. We'd be happy Speaker 3 (17:19) to give you a hug. Speaker 2 (17:19) No, it's good to be here, man. So did you capture that stuff? Speaker 3 (17:24) We got so I walked up with Tyler who was filming, and Speaker 1 (17:28) then Speaker 3 (17:28) the moment it turned dark, he put. his camera down. Um, so I don't think we would like include him in the video, but we, I think we will include some shots of his cat. Speaker 2 (17:36) Nice. Nice. Speaker 3 (17:37) Yeah. Speaker 2 (17:38) Um, yeah, those kind of situations are always interesting. It's nice to like have a pod when you do all this kind of stuff. Cause inevitably like there's really fun, interesting stuff that like doesn't make it in. Speaker 3 (17:48) Yeah. So like Speaker 2 (17:49) it's, uh, it's a nice compliment. Companion Speaker 3 (17:52) piece. Speaker 2 (17:53) Exactly. If people want it, you know what I mean? So that's fun that you guys have this outlet. Um, but I'm good, man. Yeah. I've been doing all this. Kind of the same stuff. The last time I was here, I had been on that big trip in India and then in South Sudan. I know we talked probably about most of that already. I'm working on my indie video, my first indie video that I'm going to drop right now. Speaker 3 (18:10) Okay. And Speaker 2 (18:11) I mean, the last like big trip that I was on that we have not talked about, I went to Alaska. Speaker 3 (18:17) Yes. I'm Speaker 2 (18:18) getting deep into like trying to go to all the national park sites. Yeah. That's kind of been a thing I've been working on. I'm getting close. I mean, not really, but I'm like more than halfway. Speaker 3 (18:26) Yeah. So during your trip to Alaska, what spots did you hit? Cause it's a huge state. I know. Speaker 2 (18:31) So only, only one, technically some of the national parks in Alaska count as two, both of national park and a national preserve. If you're, you know, keeping score, which I am. So I've, I've sort of been to all of the parks in Alaska now that you can drive to from Anchorage. Speaker 3 (18:47) I Speaker 2 (18:47) was up there for a show, shout out to a comedy up North Bradley butcher. They do like a summer series and it's always really fun to like, work stand-up into the videos too oh it's like a seinfeld-y kind of thing i'm just Speaker 3 (18:59) thinking we did Speaker 2 (19:00) it for my first alaska yeah exactly my first alaska video is called winter in alaska uh which by the way please sub to my channel not julio is the channel on youtube um and you know it was fun to like work in the stand-up but i did the stand-up before i did the adventure and this time i was able to do the adventure and then do the stand-up so it's like fun to like have stuff to talk about instead of making projections about what's going to happen So anyway, I've been to Kenai Fjords. I've been to Denali. I've been to Rangel St. Elias. And Rangel St. Elias, you can technically drive to. It's kind of a tough drive. So now I'm in territory where you need to be flying. So I went to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. You have to fly there. And it was sort of like this funny Russian doll situation of aviation because I'm like. flying on smaller and smaller and smaller planes. Speaker 3 (19:50) Oh, yeah. I was trying Speaker 2 (19:51) to go to the Dick Prenicky cabin, which I don't know if you guys have heard of that. Speaker 4 (19:55) There's Speaker 2 (19:56) this dude who documented living in the middle of the... Oh, yeah, that documentary is Speaker 4 (20:00) so Speaker 2 (20:00) good. Speaker 4