July 31, 2026
Do You Know Where Nigeria Is? Neither Does Your Government.
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RSS Feed It was an embarrassing display on the world stage, making the United States government look either dumb or indifferent… or both. A State Department visual display at the International AIDS Conference highlighting U.S. funding for HIV in several African countries, placed every single country listed in the wrong geographical location. Not a single country was in the right place on its map of Africa. You might be surprised to hear just how few of us can place major countries on a world map, hell, only 50% of Americans could find the state of New York.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Friday, July thirty first, and can you find Nigeria on a map? Don't worry, neither can your government. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ on what is you can't make this stuff up? How perfect is this story and that we have now on an international stage, Tropes done something that goes right in line with what people think about Americans. Y'all don't know nothing about geography.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, we confirmed just that whole stereotype of dumb Americans. All we know is what we know and where we're from and our state. We don't care about the rest of the world. Well, yeah, that was pretty much proven on an international stage.
00:00:51
Speaker 1: Okay, this is obviously my favorite story today. If you folks, we talked about around morning run. But here is the bottom line. International AIDS conference happens every year. They move into different locations. This year is happening in Urrio, in Brazil. Robes US State Department official is given a presentation to all those people gathered. Obviously, we know a disproportional amount of the devastation and the impact that HIV and AIDS has on the world happens in Africa. We understand. So he's making a presentation. Robes puts up a map in which he shows en lists several countries, shows where those countries are, and showed the proposed contribution in financial dollars that the US is going to make. Everything sounds fine, great, honky dory. What is the problem with his presentation?
00:01:41
Speaker 2: Yes, so this big map, this huge visual display of where we are going to put our funding to help the people of Africa. We actually designated seven countries that we're proposing to help fund sounds good to battle HIV and AIDS. The problem is the so those seven countries that were shown, along with the amount of funding were in the wrong places or along the wrong borders. And we're not just talking some of them or one of them. Every single country, seven countries, every single one of them was miss labeled.
00:02:17
Speaker 1: Oh for seven, we didn't get one right. At an international conference in which leaders from African countries were gathered, the United States made a presentation and had countries mislabeled or in the wrong place or with the wrong outline. Even Robes, this is embarrassing, and it sends an embarrassing message about how much we care. We didn't even care enough to get your countries right on our map.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: It's true. Either we look dumb or indifferent or both, and that's the problem. I actually think we look both. I mean, we really did confirm both of those things. I mean, just put this into perspective. Imagine if you put up a big map. European leaders are there, you're talking about whatever funding, and you've got Germany listed as the boot of Italy. You've got Italy where France should be, You've got Ireland where Spain should be. I mean, that would be outrageous. People would be up in arms. It would be impossible. But that's exactly what happened. But just the continent was Africa, not Europe.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Roads. You're one of two. You're you're ignorant or you're an asshole. We are ignorant assholes.
00:03:39
Speaker 2: I was going to be two for two.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: I don't know how this happened. The State Department tried to explain how this happened. But there were seven countries. Now, let's be honest. You put this in front of most people, I don't think you could. Most people would be able to pick out seven countries on the continent of Africa.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: I don't think I agree with you. I don't think most people could do, but I'm not even sure I could do it. I can do a few.
00:04:02
Speaker 1: But yes, we are not ripping anybody for not knowing that. The problem here roads is that if you give me no, I don't even need two minutes. Give me forty seconds and I can confirm before I make a presentation if I got the countries right.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: Also, if I'm going to render a map, I'm going to double check, because the truth is, honestly, the African continents specifically names change, countries, border shift. I mean that is absolutely country where that does happen more often than maybe on other continents. So that would make you even all the more aware of needing to double check what year was this map made versus where we are now. And yes, you would hope that you would check, confirm, and maybe even double confirm that you had the map correct before you make a huge display and stand there in front of the leaders of said countries.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: Bless his or her little heart, the person that puts this together, and we do not want to look. A mistake was made. Obviously a mistake here was made a huge mistake. And before we even give you the answer to how the mistake was made. You're probably already thinking of how it was made. We'll explain in just a second. The countries themselves, Nigeria, Robes. It was shown on this map by the State Department at this presentation. It was shown as a landlocked country in the Sahara, in the Sahara, you know up there.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: With the desert.
00:05:33
Speaker 1: Yes, it's shown as a land locked country in the Sahara.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: Actually though it's sub Saharan, much farther west, and it's along the coast.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: Yes, it has a water border. It does have, all right, Ivory Coast. The map that the State Department used it was shown also as landlocked and in the southeastern part of Africa.
00:05:59
Speaker 2: I will tell you this is one I would have known. It's actually along the western coast of Africa. I said coast, so western Africa and on the coast. I mean that is what I actually can visually see. I guess because there was so much maybe because we were maybe this. Whoever was responsible for this is of a certain age, because there were so many headlines about the Ivory Coast. And I've been to Nigeria, so I had that.
00:06:24
Speaker 1: And have you watched the World Cup. I mean there's a.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: Lot of reasons that is so true.
00:06:28
Speaker 1: This is the equivalent of labeling Oregon as being Alabama.
00:06:35
Speaker 2: Right, it's not even close.
00:06:36
Speaker 1: They're that far off on the map. It's hilarious. Mozambique, it was shown on this map by the State Department as landlocked in the eastern part of the country in the Horn of Africa. That's in the north eastern part.
00:06:49
Speaker 2: You said northeastern, correct, it was, yes, because Mozambique is actually in the southeastern part of Africa and again on the coast.
00:06:59
Speaker 1: Hey, they were both eastern.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: So hey, that's just in opposite directions. That might be the equivalent of Washington State and I guess California.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: The other one Cameroon. Cameroon was shown west of Nigeria on this map. It was shown as being west of Nigeria and not bordering Nigeria but to the west of it. That was the State Department.
00:07:23
Speaker 2: Map, all right, But the actual location of Cameroon is that it borders eastern Nigeria and once again is on the coast.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: Now, the two they kind of got close to Malawi and Uganda. They were in the general right area, but the borders were all messed up. So it wasn't correct. Rose.
00:07:41
Speaker 2: You know what the border of your country looks like. You know what the border of your state looks like.
00:07:45
Speaker 1: Yes, I can reckon I have Yes, Arkansas is tattooed on me. You might not be able to recognize well you know of course now, but some people might not be able to Yes.
00:07:54
Speaker 2: But if it's your state. My point is those country leaders, they know country borders look like like you like people. Yes, you have tattoos of it. We have T shirts are made of state borders. It's a thing. It's a it's a part of your your national or your perhaps state pride.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: Home.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: People have those T shirts and then it has the borders. So as people might discount that like, oh, big deal, they got the borders wrong, it does. It is a big deal that that's like part of the identity of your country. Your borders are just a part of how it's a recognition. It's so when something's off or completely misdrawn and in the wrong location, that's jarring.
00:08:32
Speaker 1: And offensive, and it's offensive. It's offensive. God bless her. Aaron Andrews. I never drope to this day. I don't know how many years it was. She was at an Arkansas football game, and she called them the Arizona Razorbacks, and almost never forgave her because that was I'm so that the pride in that that, Wow, we have this national stage and you're not going to get the name of mine. Look, it was a little flub, It was nothing, no big deal. She knew she was standing in Arkansas.
00:09:00
Speaker 2: And conflated that I'm saying it to me as your point.
00:09:04
Speaker 1: I took it so personally and was offended in that moment. Robes that had to be ten who that's.
00:09:11
Speaker 2: Funny and you still remember and still.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: So to your point to be sitting there and you're not even getting no boort. That's not my country. Yes, that pissed some people off.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: Well, and if that didn't piss them off enough, the explanation sure had to have.
00:09:23
Speaker 1: This makes okay. I say, it makes sense that it did happen. It doesn't make sense that you would do this. But I think a lot of people might have been thinking, Broes, this was a lazy effort by.
00:09:34
Speaker 2: Someone correct and the State Department's official response or apology, I guess kind of. We'd take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused. For attendees, including our African partners. And then their explanation was.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: They say an aid was in a hurry and made a change to the presentation last minute, and that is all they said. However, Reuters and other news organizations that were their robes, I don't not familiar with it, but they say there's a particular mark that is left on this presentation that lets you know this was done by open ai. Open aied a presentation on the international stage, and this is what happens.
00:10:20
Speaker 2: And that means if they opened ai did, they didn't double check it, they didn't cross reference it. They just took exactly what open ai, chat, GPT whatever just spit out to them. And how often you know, we hear our kids using this all the time, and it makes me so nervous because as we prepare for our podcasts every single day, including Morning Run, you get a little AI a lot of times in your Google searches. I cannot tell you how many times it has been completely wrong, and I've actually been astounded. I should take screen grabs every time it pops up something that is actually patently false, and I know it is, but I think, my god, any young journalist, any young college student just takes that as the word of God and goes with it, and that is seemingly what happened. But that is so sloppy, that is so lazy. That is actually dangerous and could have like the implication and the impact that this has, Like we don't even know, but the level of offense has to be pretty high, and like that could have done and may have done real damage.
00:11:28
Speaker 1: And it goes in line, unfortunately with what people think. It goes in line with what our policy even Robes. We have and talked about this plenty over the years. And Trump administration, Yes, pull funding, take back funding, So you're saying through your financial contributions that you don't care as much about the continent and what's happening there. Something like this just kind of the final nail. Yep, this is no surprise, but the level of offense, you don't even care to get this right, the level of offense and an honest and innocent mistake was aid. It just shouldn't a lesson. Maybe is learned, but how must they be feeling Robes that it's highly offensive? It is highly offensive, but Robes, it goes along with Americans suck at geography, where did that come from, Well, it actually came from a whole bunch of years, of a whole bunch of surveys and a whole bunch of studies about how well Americans do in geography. We don't do well. You will be shocked to know how many people can't even tell you where the state of New York is.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: Stay here, welcome back to Amy and TJ. Yes, we have been talking about what the State Department did on the world stage there in Rio dejian Era put up a huge display of the African continent, talking to African leaders about proposed funding to battle AIDS and HIV, and we put seven the seven countries we were highlighting and talking about each and every one of them in the wrong place, some of them with the wrong borders, some of them in the completely opposite part of the continent that they actually exist in. And unfortunately it's just part of the course, apparently for Americans this is what we do.
00:13:20
Speaker 1: Do we even get offended anymore when people say, man, y'all are terrible is geography? We just own it? Own it?
00:13:25
Speaker 2: How can we not, because it's the truth.
00:13:27
Speaker 1: Okay, So there have been over the years plenty they call it I'm forgetting the geographic literacy, what they call.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: Geographic illiteracy in this in this situation.
00:13:38
Speaker 1: That those words were thrown around as well. But National Geographic has done a number of these studies over the year. They're kind of all over the place, but consistent. I so I'm giving you some of the latest numbers from studies that come from twenty twelve and twenty twenty three. So I'm bouncing around a little bit there, but it's still consistent. Let me tell you what some of the stuff we found growths. Folks were given a test to pick out Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and a Raq on a map. Now, they weren't just given the map of the world and say find it, no, no, no. It was handed to in front of them the region the Middle East. So the number of people, the percentage who could get these right. Only thirty one percent could find Israel was shown a map of the Middle.
00:14:21
Speaker 2: East, the center of the world.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: Some whould argue every day on the news Israel for the past how many decades couldn't find it? Only forty five percent could find Iran, Only forty nine percent could find Iraq, but sixty one percent could find Saudi Arabias.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: It's big there. It is like the state of Texas there.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: It is now Afghanistan. Ninety percent of eighteen to twenty four year olds could not find Afghanists.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: That's shocking to me.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: On a map, Now, Sudan and Rwanda, I wanted to throw this in there, Sudan and Rwanda, where are they? Apparently most people don't know Rodes. Fifty four percent in the survey did not know Sudan was in at Africa.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: They didn't know what continent Sudan was in. Twenty percent thought it was in Asia, ten percent thought it was in Europe, and forty percent of people didn't know Rwanda was in Africa. That is mind blowing to me. And again maybe it's because we're of a certain age, but it was so much in the headlines. How do you not know that Rwanda is in the continent of Africa.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: That don Cheatle was in that Oscar winning movie. If nothing else, you should know that. Now, Rose, this is where it's going to start to get bizarre. Where is Mississippi and where's Louisiana? Surely Americans could pick those two out, could they not? Robes About half could find Mississippi. Fifty two percent could find Mississippi, sixty seven percent could find Louisiana. And this was the New York state one.
00:15:50
Speaker 2: Only fifty percent of Americans could could tell you where New York is on a map.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: With all again, we talked about borders before the break, the New York border like that is so specific to me that but maybe it's because I've lived here for two decades.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: And frankly robes New York is a weirdly shaped state. It's connecting to.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Some differentiable because of it. Yeah, that's my point.
00:16:19
Speaker 1: Well, I'm saying it's kind of a mess up there. Why am I making excuses for people who can't find you? Sorry, go back to the UK and Egypt. These seem to be that was a pretty prominent right.
00:16:29
Speaker 2: I feel like you should know. Yes, yes, I feel very confident that most people should be able to find the United Kingdom and.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: Egypt couldn't find it. SEV could not find Egypt on the map. Apparently it's close to Nigeria.
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Did they know it was in Africa?
00:16:49
Speaker 1: That's a good question, you know what.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: Probably not, Probably not because thought it was Middle East or something.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: It always throws people off. Now I leave left this one for the end, and this is the doozy for you folks. This was the quiz folks were given. Can you identify these seven US states? These are pretty big ones. California, Texas, Louisiana, Nevada, Mississippi, New York, and Ohio. You've already heard not too many people could find New York. But out of those seven states, how many could people get correct?
00:17:20
Speaker 2: On average?
00:17:21
Speaker 1: On average? When people said, hey, find these seven states, what's the average that people got right?
00:17:28
Speaker 2: This is so sad. I didn't know this was three point four that's all they could find. Less than half.
00:17:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, when asked to find these seven and these.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: Are the obvious ones they're not asking about. Like, I always feel like it gets a little tricky in the Midwest. I'm sorry.
00:17:43
Speaker 1: Yes, like sometimes with Indiana, Illinois, some Ohio you're throwing some what else? Some Dakotas might throw you off. Oklahoma and Kansas. Maybe because the shapes are a little similar. You start going out to Utah and what Colorado they all look like the same corners.
00:17:59
Speaker 2: Yes, very confused, Yes, but these are California.
00:18:03
Speaker 1: Everybody should get that one right.
00:18:05
Speaker 2: Texas everybody should get that Louisiana.
00:18:08
Speaker 1: But after you go through California and Texas and you say people only got three point four, right.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: They didn't one that is so obvious. That's such a specific shape. Mississippi, New York, Ohio. Ohio was the least recognized. And I maybe I could give you that a little bit. It's so uniquely, but it is I know, that's what I This is sad and this is a you know what this speaks to our education system period. I will always say that I you know, you remember some teachers. I remember doctor King. He was our world history teacher senior year in high school. Our final exam was only this a world map and we had to place every single country in the world. And I studied for months because everyone knew that was your final your senior year. And look, obviously the world has changed in the Eastern European and African areas. But I'd always thought that was so cool and it prepared me. Honestly, that was so useful to me for the rest of my life going forward. Every single class should have a final with that exam, even maybe just make it the United States or maybe the Americas or something. But this is so sad that we not only are known for not thinking about others or considering other countries, we don't even give a damn where they are or anything about their countries. That is just appalling.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: In some of these service people's still robes at least responded by saying, it is important to know about borders. It is important to know world geography. I don't have the exact number, but there are very few states that require geography to be taught in school upon graduation. It's just not required. You get it in social studies a little bit, but it's just not a focus robes. And there's a danger in not understanding the world. I see, how do you How are you going to vote for a politician who's telling you about foreign policy when you don't even know where the damn country is that he's talking about. Like, you need to be engaged and involved and give a damn about what's going on in the world, and that starts with knowing where the world is outside of your borders. Yeah, this is and you should just want to rodes. I don't like that feeling looking at a map of going where is that or what is that?
00:20:24
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's curiosity and we need more of it and we need to inspire it more in our youth. We should all know that Sue Dan isn't a member of the European Union. Just to me. That one really threw me. Wow.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: And who knew? But half of y'all listening don't know where New York State is.
00:20:44
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's half of y'all listening, is it any younger people? We'd love more younger listeners, so we shouldn't offend.
00:20:53
Speaker 1: Oh well, folks, pick up a map today, all right, We always appreciate you. This again, we don't want to be too hard. The person that made this mistake, we don't know who they are, but it just it sends a terrible message and it sends one that's on brand for us. But it gives us a chance, Roses to maybe take a minute, have a conversation and realize, yes, we need to do better at this. And with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. Some TJ that's Robes. Talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Friday, July thirty first, and can you find Nigeria on a map? Don't worry, neither can your government. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ on what is you can't make this stuff up? How perfect is this story and that we have now on an international stage, Tropes done something that goes right in line with what people think about Americans. Y'all don't know nothing about geography.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, we confirmed just that whole stereotype of dumb Americans. All we know is what we know and where we're from and our state. We don't care about the rest of the world. Well, yeah, that was pretty much proven on an international stage.
00:00:51
Speaker 1: Okay, this is obviously my favorite story today. If you folks, we talked about around morning run. But here is the bottom line. International AIDS conference happens every year. They move into different locations. This year is happening in Urrio, in Brazil. Robes US State Department official is given a presentation to all those people gathered. Obviously, we know a disproportional amount of the devastation and the impact that HIV and AIDS has on the world happens in Africa. We understand. So he's making a presentation. Robes puts up a map in which he shows en lists several countries, shows where those countries are, and showed the proposed contribution in financial dollars that the US is going to make. Everything sounds fine, great, honky dory. What is the problem with his presentation?
00:01:41
Speaker 2: Yes, so this big map, this huge visual display of where we are going to put our funding to help the people of Africa. We actually designated seven countries that we're proposing to help fund sounds good to battle HIV and AIDS. The problem is the so those seven countries that were shown, along with the amount of funding were in the wrong places or along the wrong borders. And we're not just talking some of them or one of them. Every single country, seven countries, every single one of them was miss labeled.
00:02:17
Speaker 1: Oh for seven, we didn't get one right. At an international conference in which leaders from African countries were gathered, the United States made a presentation and had countries mislabeled or in the wrong place or with the wrong outline. Even Robes, this is embarrassing, and it sends an embarrassing message about how much we care. We didn't even care enough to get your countries right on our map.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: It's true. Either we look dumb or indifferent or both, and that's the problem. I actually think we look both. I mean, we really did confirm both of those things. I mean, just put this into perspective. Imagine if you put up a big map. European leaders are there, you're talking about whatever funding, and you've got Germany listed as the boot of Italy. You've got Italy where France should be, You've got Ireland where Spain should be. I mean, that would be outrageous. People would be up in arms. It would be impossible. But that's exactly what happened. But just the continent was Africa, not Europe.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Roads. You're one of two. You're you're ignorant or you're an asshole. We are ignorant assholes.
00:03:39
Speaker 2: I was going to be two for two.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: I don't know how this happened. The State Department tried to explain how this happened. But there were seven countries. Now, let's be honest. You put this in front of most people, I don't think you could. Most people would be able to pick out seven countries on the continent of Africa.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: I don't think I agree with you. I don't think most people could do, but I'm not even sure I could do it. I can do a few.
00:04:02
Speaker 1: But yes, we are not ripping anybody for not knowing that. The problem here roads is that if you give me no, I don't even need two minutes. Give me forty seconds and I can confirm before I make a presentation if I got the countries right.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: Also, if I'm going to render a map, I'm going to double check, because the truth is, honestly, the African continents specifically names change, countries, border shift. I mean that is absolutely country where that does happen more often than maybe on other continents. So that would make you even all the more aware of needing to double check what year was this map made versus where we are now. And yes, you would hope that you would check, confirm, and maybe even double confirm that you had the map correct before you make a huge display and stand there in front of the leaders of said countries.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: Bless his or her little heart, the person that puts this together, and we do not want to look. A mistake was made. Obviously a mistake here was made a huge mistake. And before we even give you the answer to how the mistake was made. You're probably already thinking of how it was made. We'll explain in just a second. The countries themselves, Nigeria, Robes. It was shown on this map by the State Department at this presentation. It was shown as a landlocked country in the Sahara, in the Sahara, you know up there.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: With the desert.
00:05:33
Speaker 1: Yes, it's shown as a land locked country in the Sahara.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: Actually though it's sub Saharan, much farther west, and it's along the coast.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: Yes, it has a water border. It does have, all right, Ivory Coast. The map that the State Department used it was shown also as landlocked and in the southeastern part of Africa.
00:05:59
Speaker 2: I will tell you this is one I would have known. It's actually along the western coast of Africa. I said coast, so western Africa and on the coast. I mean that is what I actually can visually see. I guess because there was so much maybe because we were maybe this. Whoever was responsible for this is of a certain age, because there were so many headlines about the Ivory Coast. And I've been to Nigeria, so I had that.
00:06:24
Speaker 1: And have you watched the World Cup. I mean there's a.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: Lot of reasons that is so true.
00:06:28
Speaker 1: This is the equivalent of labeling Oregon as being Alabama.
00:06:35
Speaker 2: Right, it's not even close.
00:06:36
Speaker 1: They're that far off on the map. It's hilarious. Mozambique, it was shown on this map by the State Department as landlocked in the eastern part of the country in the Horn of Africa. That's in the north eastern part.
00:06:49
Speaker 2: You said northeastern, correct, it was, yes, because Mozambique is actually in the southeastern part of Africa and again on the coast.
00:06:59
Speaker 1: Hey, they were both eastern.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: So hey, that's just in opposite directions. That might be the equivalent of Washington State and I guess California.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: The other one Cameroon. Cameroon was shown west of Nigeria on this map. It was shown as being west of Nigeria and not bordering Nigeria but to the west of it. That was the State Department.
00:07:23
Speaker 2: Map, all right, But the actual location of Cameroon is that it borders eastern Nigeria and once again is on the coast.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: Now, the two they kind of got close to Malawi and Uganda. They were in the general right area, but the borders were all messed up. So it wasn't correct. Rose.
00:07:41
Speaker 2: You know what the border of your country looks like. You know what the border of your state looks like.
00:07:45
Speaker 1: Yes, I can reckon I have Yes, Arkansas is tattooed on me. You might not be able to recognize well you know of course now, but some people might not be able to Yes.
00:07:54
Speaker 2: But if it's your state. My point is those country leaders, they know country borders look like like you like people. Yes, you have tattoos of it. We have T shirts are made of state borders. It's a thing. It's a it's a part of your your national or your perhaps state pride.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: Home.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: People have those T shirts and then it has the borders. So as people might discount that like, oh, big deal, they got the borders wrong, it does. It is a big deal that that's like part of the identity of your country. Your borders are just a part of how it's a recognition. It's so when something's off or completely misdrawn and in the wrong location, that's jarring.
00:08:32
Speaker 1: And offensive, and it's offensive. It's offensive. God bless her. Aaron Andrews. I never drope to this day. I don't know how many years it was. She was at an Arkansas football game, and she called them the Arizona Razorbacks, and almost never forgave her because that was I'm so that the pride in that that, Wow, we have this national stage and you're not going to get the name of mine. Look, it was a little flub, It was nothing, no big deal. She knew she was standing in Arkansas.
00:09:00
Speaker 2: And conflated that I'm saying it to me as your point.
00:09:04
Speaker 1: I took it so personally and was offended in that moment. Robes that had to be ten who that's.
00:09:11
Speaker 2: Funny and you still remember and still.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: So to your point to be sitting there and you're not even getting no boort. That's not my country. Yes, that pissed some people off.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: Well, and if that didn't piss them off enough, the explanation sure had to have.
00:09:23
Speaker 1: This makes okay. I say, it makes sense that it did happen. It doesn't make sense that you would do this. But I think a lot of people might have been thinking, Broes, this was a lazy effort by.
00:09:34
Speaker 2: Someone correct and the State Department's official response or apology, I guess kind of. We'd take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused. For attendees, including our African partners. And then their explanation was.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: They say an aid was in a hurry and made a change to the presentation last minute, and that is all they said. However, Reuters and other news organizations that were their robes, I don't not familiar with it, but they say there's a particular mark that is left on this presentation that lets you know this was done by open ai. Open aied a presentation on the international stage, and this is what happens.
00:10:20
Speaker 2: And that means if they opened ai did, they didn't double check it, they didn't cross reference it. They just took exactly what open ai, chat, GPT whatever just spit out to them. And how often you know, we hear our kids using this all the time, and it makes me so nervous because as we prepare for our podcasts every single day, including Morning Run, you get a little AI a lot of times in your Google searches. I cannot tell you how many times it has been completely wrong, and I've actually been astounded. I should take screen grabs every time it pops up something that is actually patently false, and I know it is, but I think, my god, any young journalist, any young college student just takes that as the word of God and goes with it, and that is seemingly what happened. But that is so sloppy, that is so lazy. That is actually dangerous and could have like the implication and the impact that this has, Like we don't even know, but the level of offense has to be pretty high, and like that could have done and may have done real damage.
00:11:28
Speaker 1: And it goes in line, unfortunately with what people think. It goes in line with what our policy even Robes. We have and talked about this plenty over the years. And Trump administration, Yes, pull funding, take back funding, So you're saying through your financial contributions that you don't care as much about the continent and what's happening there. Something like this just kind of the final nail. Yep, this is no surprise, but the level of offense, you don't even care to get this right, the level of offense and an honest and innocent mistake was aid. It just shouldn't a lesson. Maybe is learned, but how must they be feeling Robes that it's highly offensive? It is highly offensive, but Robes, it goes along with Americans suck at geography, where did that come from, Well, it actually came from a whole bunch of years, of a whole bunch of surveys and a whole bunch of studies about how well Americans do in geography. We don't do well. You will be shocked to know how many people can't even tell you where the state of New York is.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: Stay here, welcome back to Amy and TJ. Yes, we have been talking about what the State Department did on the world stage there in Rio dejian Era put up a huge display of the African continent, talking to African leaders about proposed funding to battle AIDS and HIV, and we put seven the seven countries we were highlighting and talking about each and every one of them in the wrong place, some of them with the wrong borders, some of them in the completely opposite part of the continent that they actually exist in. And unfortunately it's just part of the course, apparently for Americans this is what we do.
00:13:20
Speaker 1: Do we even get offended anymore when people say, man, y'all are terrible is geography? We just own it? Own it?
00:13:25
Speaker 2: How can we not, because it's the truth.
00:13:27
Speaker 1: Okay, So there have been over the years plenty they call it I'm forgetting the geographic literacy, what they call.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: Geographic illiteracy in this in this situation.
00:13:38
Speaker 1: That those words were thrown around as well. But National Geographic has done a number of these studies over the year. They're kind of all over the place, but consistent. I so I'm giving you some of the latest numbers from studies that come from twenty twelve and twenty twenty three. So I'm bouncing around a little bit there, but it's still consistent. Let me tell you what some of the stuff we found growths. Folks were given a test to pick out Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and a Raq on a map. Now, they weren't just given the map of the world and say find it, no, no, no. It was handed to in front of them the region the Middle East. So the number of people, the percentage who could get these right. Only thirty one percent could find Israel was shown a map of the Middle.
00:14:21
Speaker 2: East, the center of the world.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: Some whould argue every day on the news Israel for the past how many decades couldn't find it? Only forty five percent could find Iran, Only forty nine percent could find Iraq, but sixty one percent could find Saudi Arabias.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: It's big there. It is like the state of Texas there.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: It is now Afghanistan. Ninety percent of eighteen to twenty four year olds could not find Afghanists.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: That's shocking to me.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: On a map, Now, Sudan and Rwanda, I wanted to throw this in there, Sudan and Rwanda, where are they? Apparently most people don't know Rodes. Fifty four percent in the survey did not know Sudan was in at Africa.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: They didn't know what continent Sudan was in. Twenty percent thought it was in Asia, ten percent thought it was in Europe, and forty percent of people didn't know Rwanda was in Africa. That is mind blowing to me. And again maybe it's because we're of a certain age, but it was so much in the headlines. How do you not know that Rwanda is in the continent of Africa.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: That don Cheatle was in that Oscar winning movie. If nothing else, you should know that. Now, Rose, this is where it's going to start to get bizarre. Where is Mississippi and where's Louisiana? Surely Americans could pick those two out, could they not? Robes About half could find Mississippi. Fifty two percent could find Mississippi, sixty seven percent could find Louisiana. And this was the New York state one.
00:15:50
Speaker 2: Only fifty percent of Americans could could tell you where New York is on a map.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: With all again, we talked about borders before the break, the New York border like that is so specific to me that but maybe it's because I've lived here for two decades.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: And frankly robes New York is a weirdly shaped state. It's connecting to.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Some differentiable because of it. Yeah, that's my point.
00:16:19
Speaker 1: Well, I'm saying it's kind of a mess up there. Why am I making excuses for people who can't find you? Sorry, go back to the UK and Egypt. These seem to be that was a pretty prominent right.
00:16:29
Speaker 2: I feel like you should know. Yes, yes, I feel very confident that most people should be able to find the United Kingdom and.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: Egypt couldn't find it. SEV could not find Egypt on the map. Apparently it's close to Nigeria.
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Did they know it was in Africa?
00:16:49
Speaker 1: That's a good question, you know what.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: Probably not, Probably not because thought it was Middle East or something.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: It always throws people off. Now I leave left this one for the end, and this is the doozy for you folks. This was the quiz folks were given. Can you identify these seven US states? These are pretty big ones. California, Texas, Louisiana, Nevada, Mississippi, New York, and Ohio. You've already heard not too many people could find New York. But out of those seven states, how many could people get correct?
00:17:20
Speaker 2: On average?
00:17:21
Speaker 1: On average? When people said, hey, find these seven states, what's the average that people got right?
00:17:28
Speaker 2: This is so sad. I didn't know this was three point four that's all they could find. Less than half.
00:17:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, when asked to find these seven and these.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: Are the obvious ones they're not asking about. Like, I always feel like it gets a little tricky in the Midwest. I'm sorry.
00:17:43
Speaker 1: Yes, like sometimes with Indiana, Illinois, some Ohio you're throwing some what else? Some Dakotas might throw you off. Oklahoma and Kansas. Maybe because the shapes are a little similar. You start going out to Utah and what Colorado they all look like the same corners.
00:17:59
Speaker 2: Yes, very confused, Yes, but these are California.
00:18:03
Speaker 1: Everybody should get that one right.
00:18:05
Speaker 2: Texas everybody should get that Louisiana.
00:18:08
Speaker 1: But after you go through California and Texas and you say people only got three point four, right.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: They didn't one that is so obvious. That's such a specific shape. Mississippi, New York, Ohio. Ohio was the least recognized. And I maybe I could give you that a little bit. It's so uniquely, but it is I know, that's what I This is sad and this is a you know what this speaks to our education system period. I will always say that I you know, you remember some teachers. I remember doctor King. He was our world history teacher senior year in high school. Our final exam was only this a world map and we had to place every single country in the world. And I studied for months because everyone knew that was your final your senior year. And look, obviously the world has changed in the Eastern European and African areas. But I'd always thought that was so cool and it prepared me. Honestly, that was so useful to me for the rest of my life going forward. Every single class should have a final with that exam, even maybe just make it the United States or maybe the Americas or something. But this is so sad that we not only are known for not thinking about others or considering other countries, we don't even give a damn where they are or anything about their countries. That is just appalling.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: In some of these service people's still robes at least responded by saying, it is important to know about borders. It is important to know world geography. I don't have the exact number, but there are very few states that require geography to be taught in school upon graduation. It's just not required. You get it in social studies a little bit, but it's just not a focus robes. And there's a danger in not understanding the world. I see, how do you How are you going to vote for a politician who's telling you about foreign policy when you don't even know where the damn country is that he's talking about. Like, you need to be engaged and involved and give a damn about what's going on in the world, and that starts with knowing where the world is outside of your borders. Yeah, this is and you should just want to rodes. I don't like that feeling looking at a map of going where is that or what is that?
00:20:24
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's curiosity and we need more of it and we need to inspire it more in our youth. We should all know that Sue Dan isn't a member of the European Union. Just to me. That one really threw me. Wow.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: And who knew? But half of y'all listening don't know where New York State is.
00:20:44
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's half of y'all listening, is it any younger people? We'd love more younger listeners, so we shouldn't offend.
00:20:53
Speaker 1: Oh well, folks, pick up a map today, all right, We always appreciate you. This again, we don't want to be too hard. The person that made this mistake, we don't know who they are, but it just it sends a terrible message and it sends one that's on brand for us. But it gives us a chance, Roses to maybe take a minute, have a conversation and realize, yes, we need to do better at this. And with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. Some TJ that's Robes. Talk soon.