Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / A Grand Tour

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A Grand Tour · 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: The sauna is packed, cramped, full of dozens of researchers,
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  Speaker 1: pressed against one another. For four months, they've only had
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  Speaker 1: each other as company. The Aminsen Scott Research Station is
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  Speaker 1: already cramped, but this takes closeness to a whole new level.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone in the cedar box is dripping with sweat, struggling
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  Speaker 1: to breathe the hot, humid air. But just as their
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  Speaker 1: heart rates skyrocket and skin flushes deep red, the station's
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  Speaker 1: heavy doors creek open, and a biding chill works its
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  Speaker 1: way in every survival instinct in their bodies screams in protest.
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  Speaker 1: And that's only the beginning, because what I'm describing right
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  Speaker 1: now is one of the most extreme athletic challenges on Earth,
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  Speaker 1: and only a handful of people have even tried to
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  Speaker 1: complete it. At any given moments, About four point eight
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  Speaker 1: billion people live in Asia, another one point five billion
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  Speaker 1: live in Africa, and a billion in the Americas, seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million in Europe and fifty million in Oceania.
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  Speaker 1: But in Antarctica, the seventh continent, that number is zero. Well,
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  Speaker 1: technically the number is closer to one thousand. While Antarctica
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  Speaker 1: has no permanent residence per se, it hosts thirty nine
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  Speaker 1: research stations, where scientists spend up to two years studying
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the world. These residencies are some of
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  Speaker 1: the most competitive positions on Earth. The fewer than one
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  Speaker 1: thousand slots spread across a continent larger than Europe and
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  Speaker 1: twice the size of Australia. But while the chance to
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  Speaker 1: live at the South Pole is rare, the chance to
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  Speaker 1: thrive is even more rare. It's tough to unwind from
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  Speaker 1: a stressful day at work when you can ever actually
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  Speaker 1: leave the office. There are no movie theaters, no restaurants,
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  Speaker 1: and certainly no front yard games of catch. Researchers spend
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  Speaker 1: their lives in a loop, working at a desk, then
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  Speaker 1: retreating to a cramped dormitory to relax before doing it
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  Speaker 1: all over again, and that is in the summer. Only
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  Speaker 1: The most committed scientists, known as winter Overs, stay for
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  Speaker 1: the off season at the Amts and Scott Research Station,
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  Speaker 1: the southernmost point on the globe. Winter brings six months
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  Speaker 1: of total darkness called the Polar Night, and during this
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  Speaker 1: time the station is effectively cut off from the world.
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  Speaker 1: Frequent blizzards and lack of light mean it's too dangerous
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  Speaker 1: for planes to land. So what do three dozen super
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  Speaker 1: committed scientists do for fun? In a frozen, empty landscape
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  Speaker 1: devoid of most human interaction. They challenge each other to dares,
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  Speaker 1: most famously the three hundred Club. To qualify, a resident
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  Speaker 1: must survive a staggering three hundred degrees swing in temperature,
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  Speaker 1: all in a single afternoon first ten minutes in the
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  Speaker 1: station's sauna cranked up to two hundred degrees fahrenheit. Cramped
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  Speaker 1: sweaty humid, it becomes an oven, and participants risk fainting, dehydration,
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  Speaker 1: and heat stroke to stay inside the full ten minutes.
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  Speaker 1: When their time is up, though, they race out of
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  Speaker 1: the sauna and into the negative one hundred degree Antarctic night.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard to appreciate how cold that really is. It's
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  Speaker 1: the temperature at which carbon dioxide becomes dry ice. It's
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  Speaker 1: impossible for human beings to survive more than a few
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  Speaker 1: minutes outside, and it's cold enough that every breath feels
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  Speaker 1: like needles in your lungs. About one hundred feet from
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  Speaker 1: the doors of the Aminsen Scott South Pole Station is
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  Speaker 1: an actual pole, a small barber pole surrounded by the
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  Speaker 1: flags of countries who were first to sign the Antarctic Treaty. Participants,
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  Speaker 1: still sweating from their sauna experience, sprint out of the
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  Speaker 1: station and into the unbearably cold darkness towards the ceremonial pole,
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  Speaker 1: and they aren't wearing their usual thermal research gear. Participants
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  Speaker 1: are allowed to wear a pair of standard issue boots
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  Speaker 1: and a neck gaiter to prevent their windpipes from freezing,
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  Speaker 1: but that's it other than that. They are completely naked
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  Speaker 1: in the dark Antarctic winter cold. At minus one hundred degrees,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't take long for sweat to freeze against their skin,
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  Speaker 1: and while the aurora might be shining green and purple overhead,
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  Speaker 1: no one stops to take in the view. Every breath
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  Speaker 1: feels like needles in their lungs, and the participants can't
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  Speaker 1: afford to stop for even a second. The run back
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  Speaker 1: from the pole is a blur. Adrenaline is the only
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  Speaker 1: thing keeping anyone going frozen. Skin becomes numb, and a
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  Speaker 1: fog descends over the brain as the body begins to
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  Speaker 1: shut down. A couple of seconds mean the difference between
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  Speaker 1: discomfort and long term damage. The moment they're back inside
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  Speaker 1: the station, doors close and the celebration begin. The sauna
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  Speaker 1: a welcome sight after all that cold, I imagine is
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  Speaker 1: full of scientists thrilled to celebrate the accomplishment, and of
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  Speaker 1: course enough beer to warm even the coldest of hearts.
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  Speaker 1: I would have to imagine that that feeling of euphoria
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  Speaker 1: is unreal. The relief of survival, the much needed change
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  Speaker 1: of pace from endless work in monotony, and the pride
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  Speaker 1: of accomplishing a challenge, all of it must be exhilarating.
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  Speaker 1: After all, there are roughly eight billion people on this planet,
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  Speaker 1: but these folks are the rare handful who can say
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  Speaker 1: they've stood at the bottom of the world stark, naked
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  Speaker 1: and minus one hundred degrees. Tafari was born in Ethiopia
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety two. Depending on who you ask, his
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  Speaker 1: birth was just like any other or it heralded Major
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  Speaker 1: change for the country, or even that it meant a
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  Speaker 1: new savior had been born to mankind. It's a fact
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  Speaker 1: that he was no ordinary man. He was, after all
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  Speaker 1: a prince, and before he ever became a king, he
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  Speaker 1: went on a journey that made him famous all over
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  Speaker 1: the world. By nineteen twenty four, Tafari was crown prince
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  Speaker 1: regent to his cousin, the Empress. There was a constant
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  Speaker 1: tug of war for power between the two of them,
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  Speaker 1: and he wanted to show the world that he was
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  Speaker 1: the true leader of Ethiopia. Ethiopia was the only African
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  Speaker 1: nation that managed to avoid colonization by a European power
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  Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds. Tafari's father actually helped prevent the
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  Speaker 1: Italians from conquering the country in eighteen ninety six, and
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  Speaker 1: Tafari wanted to push that success further by negotiating some
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  Speaker 1: kind of trade route with France that would allow Ethiopia
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  Speaker 1: access to the sea through the French colony of Djibouti.
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  Speaker 1: He traveled with a large entourage, including a pack of
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  Speaker 1: lions that he planned to give to the leaders of Europe.
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  Speaker 1: It was not too dissimilar to a situation than that
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  Speaker 1: Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America, at least in that
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  Speaker 1: Tfari was an African prince out of his element in
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  Speaker 1: the Western world. He arrived in Paris after about a
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  Speaker 1: month of travel, gifting one of the lions and trying
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  Speaker 1: to show France that he was firm when it came
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  Speaker 1: to protecting Ethiopia's independence, but also hopeful that the two
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  Speaker 1: nations could be allies. But the French only seemed interested
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  Speaker 1: in exploiting the situation. They would only offer to lease
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  Speaker 1: Ethiopia some land at an exorbitant price. Tafari went next
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  Speaker 1: to Italy, his country's old nemesis. He met with none
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  Speaker 1: other than Benito Mussolini, who offered to build a railroad
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  Speaker 1: from the Italian coastal colony of Eritrea into northern Ethiopia.
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  Speaker 1: But again this wasn't acceptable. It would give Italy dangerous
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  Speaker 1: access to his country, and so he had to continue
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  Speaker 1: his tour. Tafari next went to England, where he was
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  Speaker 1: received even more poorly. The King didn't even greet him,
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  Speaker 1: despite the fact that he had brought a lion for him.
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  Speaker 1: The monarch did accept the gift, however, and in exchange
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  Speaker 1: returned an Ethiopian imperial crismet that the British had stolen
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  Speaker 1: decades earlier. But when Tafari met with a Prime minister,
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  Speaker 1: he found him uninterested in helping Ethiopia gain access to
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  Speaker 1: the sea, and so Tafari returned to France determined to
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  Speaker 1: try one more time in securing their help, but he
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  Speaker 1: found the country even more intractable than ever. The various
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  Speaker 1: political and business interests of the nation were all at
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  Speaker 1: cross purposes with Tafari. They all feared what a more successful,
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  Speaker 1: powerful Ethiopia might mean for their various colonies and businesses
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  Speaker 1: in Africa. Tafari visited many smaller nations on the rest
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  Speaker 1: of his tour, impressing various European leaders with his lions
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  Speaker 1: and his sense of diplomacy. He was fluent in French
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  Speaker 1: and very passionate about modernizing his country, so in a sense,
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  Speaker 1: the tour was successful, even though it didn't achieve his
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  Speaker 1: primary goal. Tafari proved that he was Ethiopia's one true leader.
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  Speaker 1: He returned home, and by nineteen twenty eight his cousin
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  Speaker 1: the Empress was finally forced to crown him ruler of Ethiopia,
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  Speaker 1: and that was actually the beginning of the most curious
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  Speaker 1: part of Tafari's story. All the way across the globe
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  Speaker 1: in the English colony of Jamaica, the impoverished black people
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  Speaker 1: of that nation heard that a black king was crowned
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  Speaker 1: in Africa and that he was respected by the white
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  Speaker 1: rulers of Europe. They came to believe that he was
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  Speaker 1: the second coming of Christ and would deliver them from
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  Speaker 1: their colonial oppressors, and so they called him the Ethiopian
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  Speaker 1: word for Prince Ros, and because his name was Tafari
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  Speaker 1: Ros Tafari, they became Rostafarians. It's a religion that still
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  Speaker 1: exists to this day and was followed most famously by
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  Speaker 1: the musician Bob Marley. It's an especially curious bit of history,
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  Speaker 1: giving that Tafari himself was an orthodox Christian and never
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  Speaker 1: believed that he was any kind of spiritual savior, and
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  Speaker 1: his rule had many ups and downs, including the Italians
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  Speaker 1: invading in the years leading up to World War II,
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  Speaker 1: which drove him into exile. After his return, he remained
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  Speaker 1: adept at the play helmacy but bad at economic developments,
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  Speaker 1: and his people suffered multiple famines. Tafari Markanen was murdered
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five in a communist coup. But the
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  Speaker 1: bravery he showed when he was just prince echoes on
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  Speaker 1: to this very day, and it inspires formerly colonized nations
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  Speaker 1: all around the world. I hope you enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched
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  Speaker 1: and written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced
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  Speaker 1: by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the
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  Speaker 1: people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
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  Speaker 1: Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
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  Speaker 1: as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
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  Speaker 1: ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the
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  Speaker 1: same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
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  Speaker 1: Learn more and sign up over at paige Treon dot com,
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  Speaker 1: slash Grim and Mild, and until next time, stay curious.
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  Speaker 1: Mm hmm.