Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby
Moby is sitting in a wooden lounge chair next to a swimming pool. He is reading a magazine and eating a popsicle. Tim is wandering around the swimming pool. He is wearing a blindfold and his arms are extended in front of him.
TIM: Marco.
MOBY: Beep.
Tim faces Moby's direction, his arms still extended.
TIM: Marco.
MOBY: Beep.
Tim walks through the water toward a disinterested Moby.
TIM: Marco.
MOBY: Beep.
Moby slurps his popsicle, still reading his magazine. Tim walks into the side of the pool.
TIM: Ow. Wait a second.
Tim removes his blindfold and looks at Moby, annoyed.
MOBY: Beep.
Moby continues reading his magazine as he hands Tim a piece of paper. Tim reads from the typed letter.
TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, Can you tell me about Marco Polo? Thanks, Oscar. Hey, Oscar. Marco Polo was a 13th-century European merchant.
An image shows an adult Marco Polo. The image becomes part of an animated video game screen showing medieval Venice, Italy.
TIM: He was from Venice, but he spent more than 20 years traveling around Asia.
An animation shows the video game Marco Polo walking across a map of Asia.
TIM: His adventures helped introduce many Europeans to the Far East.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Back in the Middle Ages, Europe wasn't the global power it is today. Instead of a few dozen countries, it was broken up into hundreds of tiny kingdoms. They were centered around walled cities, more like towns by today's standards.
An animated map of Europe compares its present-day configuration of countries to its political division of kingdoms at the time of Marco Polo. Images of crowns and walled cities appear on the map as Tim speaks.
TIM: Outside of those walls, it was a dangerous no man's land.
Danger signs appear between the walled cities on the map.
TIM: So in many places, people didn't engage much with the wider world. But Marco Polo's hometown of Venice was different.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: It was a city on the western end of the Silk Road. That was a network of trade routes connecting Europe to China.
A video game map of Europe and Asia shows the route of the Silk Road stretching from Venice to Asia.
TIM: The Silk Road was 4,000 miles long, so few people made the full trip. Instead, they'd travel to nearby cities to buy or sell goods.
An animation shows video game figures moving back and forth between medieval cities.
TIM: Products would pass from city to city this way, like a relay race. Marco's father and uncle had made a nice little fortune doing that, but they couldn't help but wonder about the lands that produced the goods they traded in.
An animation shows a large wooden chest being opened. Inside is a stack of rolled-up maps.
TIM: So, Niccolo and Maffeo set out on an adventure.
An animation shows the two men removing a map from the chest and examining it.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: They left a few months before Marco was even born.
An image shows a road leading out of town towards distant mountains.
TIM: He grew up wondering if he'd ever have a chance to meet his father.
An animation shows a teenage Marco Polo seated at a wooden table. He is examining an unrolled map, wistfully.
TIM: That day finally came when he was 15.
The sound of horses can be heard outside. Marco stands and looks out the window. He smiles.
TIM: Niccolo and Maffeo told of how they'd befriended Kublai Khan, ruler of China. His vast kingdom, the Mongol Empire, covered half the continent of Asia. The Khan was also curious about other regions. He asked the Polos to bring back scholars to teach him about European culture.
An animation shows Kublai Khan. He is seated on his throne, examining an hourglass. He is surrounded by members of his court, and Niccolo and Maffeo are kneeling in front of him.
TIM: While they were home, they invited Marco to join the family business.
An animation shows Niccolo and Maffeo telling young Marco about their adventures. Marco looks excited and interested.
TIM: And thus began his 24-year odyssey into Asia.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Well, the reason we know all about Marco instead of his uncle and father is because he wrote a book. The Travels of Marco Polo captivated readers with its incredible tales, like battling bandits, braving sandstorms, and encountering mythic beasts.
An animation shows a hardcover copy of Marco Polo's book. It opens to show animations of the adventures Tim describes.
TIM: A lot of that fantastic feel comes from Polo's co-author. Rustichello was a little-known author hoping to score a bestseller.
An animation shows Rustichello seated at a table, writing by candlelight.
TIM: He saw potential in Polo's travels, but wanted to inject them with action and drama. He was thinking more summer blockbuster than documentary film.
An animation shows an adult Marco Polo telling his stories as Rustichello writes them down.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: The collection of tales was initially titled The Book of Marvels. It read like a catalog of all the astounding things Marco encountered. In Tibet, he came across immense cats covered in colorful stripes.
An animation shows Marco Polo describing a tiger to Rustichello. A surreal-looking tiger walks past them both as Polo speaks.
TIM: In southern China, there were monstrous water lizards with huge jaws.
A long sea serpent swims around the two men.
TIM: He even saw a strange beast that looked like a unicorn crossed with a pig.
A colorful creature that looks as Tim describes walks past the two men.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: No, they weren't made up at all. He had just never seen tigers before. Or crocodiles. Or rhinos. And neither had his readers.
An animation shows the colorful striped cat described by Polo turning into an ordinary tiger. Other animations show the sea serpent turning into a crocodile and the unicorn/pig creature turning into a rhinoceros.
TIM: They loved the exotic details, especially when it came to the Khan's lavish life.
An animation shows an open copy of Marco Polo's book, with its pages quickly flipping.
TIM: Twelve thousand knights guarded his marble and gold palace. And each day he was presented with treasure from every corner of his kingdom.
An animation of the knights and the palace appears atop the pages of the open book.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Polo's eye for intriguing detail also impressed Kublai Khan. The kingdom was so vast that the Khan couldn't go visit all of it, so he sent Polo on exploratory missions to the farthest reaches of the empire.
An animation shows Polo visiting various exotic parts of the Mongol Empire.
TIM: After returning, Marco would tell the king vivid stories of what he'd seen.
An animation shows Polo excitedly telling stories to a fascinated Khan.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: I don't think a European king would have been so welcoming toward a Chinese traveler, but the Khan was surprisingly tolerant of different cultures. He allowed his subjects to practice their own religion and follow their own traditions.
A map shows Asia's Mongol Empire. Symbols representing different religions appear in various parts of the map.
TIM: The Mongol civilization was ahead of its time in other ways, too.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: They used heated rocks to keep their homes warm and take hot baths. Citizens could buy and sell goods with paper money.
An animation shows Kublai Khan seated in a hot bathtub, counting currency.
TIM: Europeans were centuries away from developing similar practices.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Actually, many of Polo's readers were skeptical of such details. Their cities were supposed to be the centers of sophistication and progress. It was shocking to see how much they had to learn from Asian cultures.
An animation shows a medieval person sitting in a sparse home and reading a book. A snorting pig walks through the room.
TIM: Today, modern scholars have their own reasons for doubt.
An animation shows a researcher in a library, comparing Polo's book with written histories of the time. The researcher looks skeptical.
TIM: Why isn't Polo mentioned at all in Mongol historical records? How could he leave out staples of Chinese life, like tea and chopsticks?
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Most historians think the book is a mixture of fact and fiction. Polo definitely exaggerated more than a few of the stories, and probably borrowed other travelers' tales and blended them with his own.
An animation shows Polo picturing a small fish on a hook, and then describing a much larger hooked fish to Rustichello.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Well, the Khan died during Polo's return to Venice. The Mongol Empire split up into warring factions. That spelled the end of the Silk Road and safe routes east.
An animated map of Asia represents Polo's return home and the breakup of the Mongol Empire and the Silk Road.
TIM: Marco Polo never traveled to China again.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Actually, the loss of the Silk Road had the opposite effect. Europeans sought other ways to get spices and textiles from the East.
An animated map of the world shows European traders sailing throughout the world's oceans.
TIM: This period is known as the Age of Exploration. Many of its explorers, including Christopher Columbus, were inspired by Marco Polo. So, however much of The Travels is made up, its impact is huge.
An animation shows Columbus, along with two other explorers, examining a globe.
TIM: To his dying day, Polo maintained that it was all true. When questioned about it, he replied, "I did not tell half of what I saw."
An animation shows an elderly Polo on his deathbed. A priest is visiting him, and the two are talking.
MOBY: Beep.
Moby holds Tim's blindfold out to him.
TIM: There is no way I'm going to put that back on.