How a 500 Year Old Map Still Distorts Our World (#322)

Lynn Thoman (0:01)

Few things seem more objective than a map, but the world map many of us grew up with makes Greenland look almost as large as Africa. Even though Africa is about 14 times larger, it can make Russia look larger than Africa, even though Africa is actually much bigger. So why does the world's most familiar map get something so fundamental, so wrong? If we've misunderstood something as basic as the shape of our world, what else might we be seeing incorrectly?

Hi, everyone. I'm Lynn Thoman and this is 3 Takeaways. On 3 Takeaways, I talk with some of the world's best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, newsmakers, and scientists. Each episode ends with three key takeaways to help us understand the world and maybe even ourselves a little better.

Today, I'm delighted to be with Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, better known as Map Men. They're comedians, writers, and creators of one of YouTube's most beloved educational channels. Through their videos, they've helped millions of people see Maps and the world in completely new ways. Their new book, This Way Up, explores how Maps shape the way we see the world and what happens when they get it wrong. Jay, Mark, it's wonderful to have you both. Welcome to 3 Takeaways.

Mark Cooper-Jones (1:36)

Thank you very much.

Jay Foreman (1:37)

It's wonderful to be here. Thank you so much.

Lynn Thoman (1:40)

My pleasure.

The familiar rectangular world map many of us grew up with makes Greenland look almost as large as Africa, even though Africa is about 14 times larger. Why did such a distorted map become the world's standard picture?

Mark Cooper-Jones (1:59)

Well, it was interesting in the introduction there that you said that maps which appear so objective, and that for us really is probably at the heart of so many of the videos we make and so many of the stories we tell because that's absolutely right. They appear to be so objective. They look like they are just innocently showing you the world as it is. But of course, as anybody who's studied some geography or has spent a lot of time or anytime thinking about maps or read a few books, will know maps are horrendous liars. We live in an age now where I think a lot of people have become very used to the idea of dissecting bias in different parts of life. Maybe that might be in the media or in a source that you're reading. But for some reason, we're always playing catch up with the idea that maps contain many of these same types of bias, that there is a map maker who has an agenda and you cannot avoid that. Even the most banal map maker, even the map maker who really wants to present the world exactly as it is, they simply cannot do that. There's a famous much quoted line by an American geographer called Mark Monmogne, not only is it easy to lie with maps, it is essential.

And that is because the three defining features of maps, which are that it has a scale that is different to the real world, that uses symbols to represent things on the world, and to your point, that it has a projection, a way of creating the sphere on a flat surface. Those three things are lies.

Jay Foreman (3:30)

And that's the big one. The fact that the world is actually round, but needs necessarily to be represented on a flat map so that you can put it on a poster, or on a classroom wall, or on an in-flight map, that's the biggest lie that it tells. It has to squish it flat. And that's exactly why some kind of distortion is necessary.

Mark Cooper-Jones (3:47)

So, Mercator, to your question about Mercator, he's one of many people to try to do that thing. I think sometimes the analogy that's used is like, if you try to peel an orange perfectly, got a sort of spherical covering of the orange, if you like. And then if you try to flatten it on a table, you can't create a rectangular flat. You'll end up ripping it, you're pulling it this way and that way.

And so there are different mathematical solutions trying to represent the world on a flat map, even though it's actually a sphere. And Mercatus was just one of those versions and his became very popular. And the reason Mercatus became so popular was because it was essentially very useful for navigation. What was a straight line on his map also equated to a straight line navigationly in a boat, if you were sailing somewhere. So it made it just much easier to get from A to B if you were a sailor. So it really cottoned on. I think it probably helped that it made parts of the world where the map was being printed and reproduced look bigger than other parts. So it distorts area at the end of the day. And so Europe was generally quite happy with how it ended up on the map. It looked maybe a bit chunkier than it could have been.