Blair Braverman

He's sending their families reassuring letters.

Here is a quote from a letter he sends to Maher's brand-new wife, who, by the way, they got married because he was going on this trip.

Oh, boy.

Stephenson says, the polar regions are just as commonplace as Ohio.

Lightning may strike you next summer, but from that, Fred is safe.

Then there are all the multiplied dangers of civilization, railroad accidents, panics, fires, and falling down stairs.

If you can once divest yourself of these beliefs about the North that are untrue, you will see that the few dangers of the North are paralleled by the same sort of dangers down here.

Sarah, I'm going to share something with you that I am distraught about.

Yeah, please.

When I first moved to the Norwegian Arctic when I was 18, I was 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.

I was sleeping outside.

I was dog sledding.

My mom was worried, and I sent her a letter.

I sent her a letter and I tracked it down just for this.

And I'm going to read you a paragraph from the letter I wrote when I was 18.

Dear mom.

I don't think of this place as being dangerous at all.

Imagine if I'd grown up here and moved to an American city.

Then I would probably call home and talk about how there are car crashes that people die in, and you can't walk around alone at night without the risk of being mugged or kidnapped or killed.

I think that idea is a lot scarier than here, when all you have to do is watch the weather and keep an eye out for muskox.