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Eyes Wide Open · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Charles Lindbergh is a controversial name in American history. He
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  Speaker 1: was an aviator first, but in many ways he was
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  Speaker 1: also one of the first American mass media celebrities, and
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  Speaker 1: like so many celebrities, his downfall was as sharp as
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  Speaker 1: his rise to fame. But before he was a household name,
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  Speaker 1: he had to make his famous NonStop transatlantic flight. While
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  Speaker 1: the average person might worry about mechanical failure or getting
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  Speaker 1: lost at sea, for Charles, the only real issue was
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  Speaker 1: staying awake for such a monumental undertaking. Charles approached his
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  Speaker 1: transatlantic flights as if it were an everyday chore. In
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  Speaker 1: the weeks leading up to his flight, he studied navigation
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  Speaker 1: at his local library. He learned how to track the sun,
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  Speaker 1: the moon, and the stars, and how to calculate his
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  Speaker 1: rate of travel and rate of fuel loss. He needed
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  Speaker 1: to be able to do these things in his head
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  Speaker 1: because he couldn't bring much equipment on board. The plane
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  Speaker 1: was small and made of wood and fabric. Like many
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  Speaker 1: planes of the time, it couldn't handle a lot of weights,
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  Speaker 1: and he would have to dedicate most of that to
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  Speaker 1: the four hundred and fifty one gallons of gasoline that
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  Speaker 1: he would need to make it all the way from
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  Speaker 1: New York to Paris. That was the challenge issued by
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  Speaker 1: an American businessman who wanted to see a pilot from
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  Speaker 1: an Allied nation make a NonStop flight across the Atlantic.
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  Speaker 1: He offered up twenty five thousand dollars as a prize,
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  Speaker 1: which Charles aimed to win. In addition to the gasoline,
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  Speaker 1: Charles packed a bottle of water and a bag of sandwiches,
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  Speaker 1: and that was about it. You would think that he
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  Speaker 1: was just taking a bus cross country, not crossing the
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  Speaker 1: entire Atlantic on his own in a rickety plane. But
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  Speaker 1: that's not to say that Charles wasn't nervous. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't sleep at all the night before his flight,
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  Speaker 1: and this was a problem because the trip was already
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  Speaker 1: meant to take thirty hours. He'd have to remain alert
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  Speaker 1: the entire time, So now he was running on fumes
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  Speaker 1: at the start and facing another night without sleep, But
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  Speaker 1: of course, this time he'd be hundreds of miles above
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  Speaker 1: the ocean. He took off from New York the morning
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  Speaker 1: of May twentieth, of nineteen twenty seven. The first few
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  Speaker 1: hours were exhilarating and passed without issue. There's always that
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  Speaker 1: first rush of adrenaline whenever you set out on a trip,
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  Speaker 1: much less a historic flight. But by hour number four,
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  Speaker 1: Charles's eyelids started to droop. He snapped awake. He had
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  Speaker 1: to keep himself alert, and so he decided to drop
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  Speaker 1: the plane into the ocean, now maybe not completely beneath
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  Speaker 1: the waves, but just ten feet above the water to
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  Speaker 1: keep himself frosty. The plane required more of his attention
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  Speaker 1: at this height, and the sea spray was nice. He
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  Speaker 1: also believed that planes traveled faster just above the water,
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  Speaker 1: Although this was likely just a superstition. It was enough
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  Speaker 1: to keep him awake for a few more hours, but
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  Speaker 1: then nights started to fall. Imagine trying to keep yourself
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  Speaker 1: awake in the pitch dark with a cool breeze blowing
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  Speaker 1: across your face. He didn't even have the light from
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  Speaker 1: the moon or the stars. As a fog crept across
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  Speaker 1: the sky and engulfed his plane, there was nowhere to
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  Speaker 1: land and nowhere to pull over. He had to keep
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  Speaker 1: going at one hundred miles an hour into pitch black,
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  Speaker 1: and then the sleet started. Icy chunks flicked across his
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  Speaker 1: face and threatened to weigh down the plane. He had
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  Speaker 1: to lower his altitude once again, while also keeping track
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  Speaker 1: of his overall altitude in his head to ensure that
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  Speaker 1: he didn't crash into the ocean. He considered closing the windows,
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  Speaker 1: but then he thought better of it. The ice on
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  Speaker 1: his face might have been painful, but this was the
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  Speaker 1: first time in hours that he didn't feel like closing
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  Speaker 1: his eyes. Finally, mercifully, he saw the sun on the
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  Speaker 1: horizon through the fog until the fog was no more,
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  Speaker 1: and once it dissipated, a welcome site appeared Ireland. He
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  Speaker 1: was close to his destination. Just five hours later, he
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  Speaker 1: finally arrived in Paris, exactly on time. He hadn't slept
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  Speaker 1: for fifty five hours. He was greeted with overwhelming support
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  Speaker 1: from the French people, but all he really wanted from
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  Speaker 1: the French ambassador was a pair of pajamas. In the
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  Speaker 1: years that followed, Charles received endless medals from the US
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  Speaker 1: and other allied nations, but the nineteen thirties were a
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  Speaker 1: traumatic time for him, and his infant son was infamously
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  Speaker 1: kidnapped and murdered. While touring Germany, he saw firsthand the
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  Speaker 1: might of the Nazi air force, and was so frightened
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  Speaker 1: that he became an ardent proponent of isolationism, wanting to
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  Speaker 1: keep America out of the war and blaming the British,
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  Speaker 1: American Jews and Franklin Roosevelt for wanting to involve the US. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: this lost him the support of the American people, and
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  Speaker 1: it took him flying missions in the Pacific to regain
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  Speaker 1: some of their respect. He was a complicated man who
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  Speaker 1: quickly found himself out of his depth on the public stage.
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  Speaker 1: Of all his accomplishments, though it's more than curious that
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  Speaker 1: he remains most famous for simply keeping his eyes open.
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  Speaker 1: There are few places on Earth as serene, quiet, and
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  Speaker 1: downright lovely as New Zealand. The island nation is routinely
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  Speaker 1: voted among the most peaceful countries on the planet, but
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties, its rolling Green Hills were disturbed
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  Speaker 1: by a series of shocking explosions. They weren't caused by
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  Speaker 1: bombs or gunfire. Like the rest of the globe, New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand was enjoying a brief pause between world wars, so
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  Speaker 1: for a moment at least, there was no worry about fighting. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: the explosions were caused by something so perplexing it left
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  Speaker 1: many kiwis scratching their head and in a few cases
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  Speaker 1: they're singed bottoms. The first part person affected was a
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  Speaker 1: dairy farmer named Richard Buckley. One day in April of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three, Buckley was clearing out a large infestation
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  Speaker 1: of ragwart, a type of yellow flowering weed that's poisonous
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  Speaker 1: to cows. The countryside was covered in this stuff, which
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  Speaker 1: was a serious problem for Buckley because it cut down
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  Speaker 1: on the area where his cattle could graze. After spending
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  Speaker 1: hours killing the weeds, he decided to take a break
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  Speaker 1: and headed inside to his farmhouse. He was just sitting
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  Speaker 1: down to relax by the fire when his pants spontaneously exploded. Now,
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  Speaker 1: fortunately for Buckley, he wasn't wearing them at the time,
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  Speaker 1: having just hung the pants up to dry, but he
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  Speaker 1: was standing close enough that the loud blast threw him backward.
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  Speaker 1: Somehow he had enough presence of mind to scramble back
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  Speaker 1: to his feet, grab the burning trousers, race to the door,
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  Speaker 1: and hurl them out into the yard. It wasn't a
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  Speaker 1: moment too soon. The pants continued to flash and smolder,
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  Speaker 1: erupting in a series of small explosions until there was
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  Speaker 1: almost nothing left of them. Now, as you might imagine,
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  Speaker 1: Buckley was astonished and also relieved who escaped without injury.
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  Speaker 1: But as he soon learned, this close call was just
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  Speaker 1: the beginning. A few days later, a cowboy was riding
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  Speaker 1: his horse through a neighboring farm when his blue jeans
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  Speaker 1: burst into flames. Then another pair of pants detonated while
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  Speaker 1: drying on a clothes line in the sun. In each case,
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  Speaker 1: the fires burned with a strange, almost supernatural intensity, and
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  Speaker 1: they were incredibly difficult to put out. Smothering the flames
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  Speaker 1: with dirt or blankets did nothing. In most instances, the
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  Speaker 1: farmers were forced to just stand back and watch while
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  Speaker 1: their pants burned up. The incidents spread like wildfire. No
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  Speaker 1: pun intended, I swear, and within a few short months,
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand was in the midst of a full on
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  Speaker 1: exploding trouser epidemic. Most of the victims escaped with little
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  Speaker 1: more than burnt buttocks, but some were badly injured, and
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  Speaker 1: there were at least two recorded deaths. And eventually the
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  Speaker 1: affected farmers started to compare notes and realized what they
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  Speaker 1: all had in common. Before their pants had exploded, they
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  Speaker 1: had all been treating ragwort with the same weed killer,
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  Speaker 1: a chemical herbie being pushed by the government known as
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  Speaker 1: sodium chlorate. And here's the thing. While the compound is
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  Speaker 1: effective at killing ragwart, it's also extremely volatile when it's dry.
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  Speaker 1: The farmers always diluted the chemicals with water before spraying
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  Speaker 1: the mixture on their plants, but some droplets inevitably blew
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  Speaker 1: back on their legs, where they blended with the denim fibers.
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  Speaker 1: When the pants dried, the water in the chemical mixture evaporated,
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  Speaker 1: leaving behind tiny, highly flammable crystals. At that point, the
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  Speaker 1: pants were primed for detonation, and it didn't take much
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  Speaker 1: to set them off. Standing close to an open flame,
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  Speaker 1: the friction of rubbing against a horse's saddle, or even
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  Speaker 1: the heat of a sunny day could be enough to
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  Speaker 1: trigger spontaneous combustion. Once the farmers realized their weed killer
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  Speaker 1: was causing the fires, they stopped using it. They still
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  Speaker 1: had a serious weed infestation on their hands, but that
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  Speaker 1: problem eventually sorted itself out when the industry shifted from
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  Speaker 1: dairy to sheep farming. Unlike cows, sheep can digest ragwort
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  Speaker 1: and will eat it happily, making them a natural weedkiller,
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  Speaker 1: and as an added bonus, they don't spontaneously explode, at
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  Speaker 1: least not usually. But if I've learned anything, history has
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  Speaker 1: a way of making exceptions out of every rule. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.