Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to The Past and the Curious.

My name is Mick Sullivan, this is my show, I make it for you, so I'm glad you're listening.

You just made it in time, it's great.

This episode is, there's some two stories that might not seem like they're connected.

There's one figure that connects them together, it's not a unified theme.

But I love it when people cross paths, you know?

So the first story has to do with bananas, like, you know how there's a joke that people

fall on bananas, like they slip on them?

A lot of people don't realize that that was a real thing.

So we're going to talk about that, and one of the central figures in the struggle against

banana slippage was Teddy Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt.

And there's another man, who's the second story, his name is Matthew Henson, and he was

most likely the very first person to stand on the North Pole, stand on top of the globe.

And he was part of an expedition, a team of people who got support from, none other

than Theodore Roosevelt.

And in fact, that same Theodore Roosevelt would make an impact on Matthew Henson's life

after his time as an adventurer came to an end.

So let's get started.

Bananas are everywhere.

It's bananas, really, B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

But when you think about it, today's bounty of bananas makes sense.

They're affordable.

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