#39 - Parts Now Known - Congo
On the season 1 finale of the Parts Now Known Podcast, Ben and Ray follow Anthony Bourdain up the Congo River into The Heart of Darkness. The first half of the episode is all about the history and politics of the Congo, including crossing over from Rwanda to Goma, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, all the militia's and conflict, Queen Elizabeth's old luggage plane, the explorer Stanley, the Belgians enslaving the Congolese, the Wakinia tribe fishing the river, the current state of things and the everyday way of life for the Congolese in Kisangani, and the city's train station that used to run all the way to South Africa. The second half of the episode covers Bourdain's trip up river to the old research station that was abandoned over 50 years after independence and the subsequent redistribution of workers to Rwanda. The guys talk about the boat, the group giving the king a goat and the king giving Bourdain a bracelet, the cooking dinner scene, debate how much money they'd need to swim in the river to tie off the boat for the night, alligators and crocodiles in New York, and wonder about the real purpose of the research station before ranking the episode, running through the categories, and locating Daniel McCabe's documentary "This Is Congo". For all things Spoon Mob, visit spoonmob.com and make sure to follow us on Instagram (@spoonmob), Twitter (@spoonmob1), and Facebook (@spoonmob).
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