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In a Blink · 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.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Ireland suffered under English rule longer than any other colony.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, the English occupied Ireland for over seven hundred years.
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  Speaker 1: It's a testament to Ireland's strength and the vibrancy of
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  Speaker 1: their culture that had endured despite this. The Irish fought
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  Speaker 1: for their independence throughout the centuries, but sometimes the fight
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  Speaker 1: took a curious turn. Such was the case in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six, when the battle for Ireland's independence spread to
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  Speaker 1: a whole different continent. Like a lot of pioneers, John
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  Speaker 1: O'Neill was very sure of himself and didn't like being
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  Speaker 1: told what to do. He fought on the side of
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  Speaker 1: the Union during the Civil War, but transferred battalions when
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  Speaker 1: he wasn't promoted, and then retired before the war was
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  Speaker 1: even over. He learned how to fight and how to
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  Speaker 1: run an army during his time in the service, but
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  Speaker 1: the cause was never really his. He was an Irish
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  Speaker 1: immigrant who had left home during the famine and was
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  Speaker 1: just trying to find his place in the world. But
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  Speaker 1: it seemed that everywhere he went there was always some
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  Speaker 1: king or president trying to get you to join his army.
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  Speaker 1: John had been happy to lend his services to the
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  Speaker 1: Union for a price, but he would never work for
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  Speaker 1: the English king, who he saw as responsible for the
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  Speaker 1: destruction of his homeland. After John left the army, he
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  Speaker 1: was working in Tennessee when he met some fellow Irish
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  Speaker 1: immigrants who had formed a militia called the Fenian Brotherhood.
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  Speaker 1: Their goal was to further the cause of Irish independence
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  Speaker 1: in America by attacking British controlled Canada to the north.
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  Speaker 1: They hoped to occupy the country and hold it ransom
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  Speaker 1: for Ireland's freedom. It was a far fetched idea, but
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  Speaker 1: they were angry men who knew how to fight, and
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  Speaker 1: they weren't exactly in a position to help while they
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  Speaker 1: were on the other side of the ocean. They felt
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  Speaker 1: that this was the only option that was left to them.
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  Speaker 1: John traveled with the militia to Buffalo, New York, where
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  Speaker 1: they prepared to cross the Niagara River into Canada. They
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  Speaker 1: numbered over one thousand men, but that was hardly enough
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  Speaker 1: to take a whole country. But again, John and his
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  Speaker 1: like were stubborn. This became even more evident when the
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  Speaker 1: man who was supposed to lead them into battle didn't
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  Speaker 1: show up. Rather than give up the fight, the Fenians
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  Speaker 1: selected John as their new leader. He had battle experience,
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  Speaker 1: after all, and a strong enough presence to inspire the men.
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  Speaker 1: Soon they were on their way across the river. The
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  Speaker 1: Canadians never knew what hit them, and the militia easily
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  Speaker 1: captured the Canadian town called forts Erie. The Fenians blockaded
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  Speaker 1: the town from the rest of the world and sent
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  Speaker 1: out a letter to the civilians claiming that they meant
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  Speaker 1: them no harm. They only wished to drive the British
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  Speaker 1: from the area. By this point, the British were mustering
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  Speaker 1: thousands of troops across Canada to defend their country, but
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  Speaker 1: the Fenians weren't detered. They left fort Erie behind and
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  Speaker 1: continued their conquest west to a village called Ridgeway. As
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  Speaker 1: they arrived, they heard the bugles of the approaching Canadian
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  Speaker 1: army and formed a defensive line. John sent out riflemen
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  Speaker 1: to attack the marching Canadians and draw them toward the
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  Speaker 1: Fenian army. Soon he was watching from the rear as
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  Speaker 1: hundreds of Canadian soldiers weaved their way toward his men
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  Speaker 1: through various trees and the small buildings of a farm
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  Speaker 1: caught between the two armies. And here's the thing. John's
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  Speaker 1: men were disciplined from their time in the Civil War.
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  Speaker 1: They kept formation and maintained regular gunfire against the enemy,
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  Speaker 1: picking off a few here and there, keeping them from
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  Speaker 1: advancing quickly. Wanting more intelligence, John ordered scouts on horseback
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  Speaker 1: to travel out and report back as to the size
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  Speaker 1: of the army. But the strategy had unintended consequences as well.
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  Speaker 1: When the inexperienced Canadian soldiers saw the few approaching horse scouts,
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  Speaker 1: they mistook them for a cavalry charge. They tried to
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  Speaker 1: change their formation, clumping into a tight square, but this
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  Speaker 1: only made them more vulnerable to gunfire. By the time
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  Speaker 1: their comrades realized the mistake and tried to get them
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  Speaker 1: back into a line, morale was dropping and some of
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  Speaker 1: the men started to flee. Soon the entire Canadian army
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  Speaker 1: was running up the road back the way they had come.
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  Speaker 1: The Fenians rejoiced, picking off a few more Canadians as
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  Speaker 1: they fled down the road, but John had seen the
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  Speaker 1: size of the army and he knew that he couldn't
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  Speaker 1: keep this up. They retreated back to Fort Erie, and
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  Speaker 1: after a skirmish near the river, successfully retreated back into
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  Speaker 1: the US. John would lead several more raids on Canada
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  Speaker 1: over the next few months before the Americans finally made
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  Speaker 1: him stop in order to preserve peace with England. It
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  Speaker 1: was a major victory for the Irish, who had shown
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  Speaker 1: the world what they were capable of, but curiously, in
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  Speaker 1: the long run, it marked a greater turning point for
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  Speaker 1: the Canadian who took the attacks as a wake up
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  Speaker 1: call that their defenses needed updating. It was one of
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  Speaker 1: the many factors that actually led to the Canadian Confederation
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  Speaker 1: the following year, which saw several Canadian provinces that were
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  Speaker 1: still technically separate British colonies unite into the large, strong
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  Speaker 1: country that we know today. Life can change in the
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  Speaker 1: blink of an eye. It's a cliche because it's true,
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  Speaker 1: As a Frenchman named Jean Dominique Bobie learned all too
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  Speaker 1: well in the mid nineteen nineties, Jean was at the
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  Speaker 1: top of his game. He was the editor in chief
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  Speaker 1: of a major fashion magazine and a charismatic figure in
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  Speaker 1: Parisian high society. He attended glamorous parties, drove fast cars,
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  Speaker 1: and moved through the world with charm, wit and style.
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  Speaker 1: He was forty three years old and seemingly invincible. And
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  Speaker 1: then on December eighth of nineteen ninety five, everything changed.
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  Speaker 1: That day, Jean was driving his son to the theater
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  Speaker 1: when something inside him snapped. His vision blurred, and he
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  Speaker 1: broke out in a cold sweat. The world seemed to
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  Speaker 1: slow to a crawl, like time itself was freezing. John
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  Speaker 1: didn't know it yet, but he was experiencing a massive
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  Speaker 1: stroke while behind the wheel with his child in the
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  Speaker 1: passenger seat. Somehow, though, he managed to stay calm and
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  Speaker 1: pull the car over. He was rushed to the hospital,
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  Speaker 1: but by the time he arrived things had gone from
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  Speaker 1: bad to worse. He couldn't speak or move, and then
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  Speaker 1: he slipped into a coma. When he woke up twenty
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  Speaker 1: days later, the nightmare had only just begun. Jean was alive,
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  Speaker 1: but completely paralyzed. He couldn't move, eat, or even swallow.
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  Speaker 1: On his own. Most terrifying of all, he couldn't speak,
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  Speaker 1: which meant that he had no way to show that
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  Speaker 1: he was still mentally present. His doctors thought that he
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  Speaker 1: was in a vegetative state, until a friend noticed that
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  Speaker 1: jean His left eyelid was twitching. They called out to
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  Speaker 1: Jean and told him to blink if he understood, and
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  Speaker 1: Jean blinked in response. That showed everyone that he was
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  Speaker 1: actually still there, completely conscious fully aware, but trapped in
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  Speaker 1: his own body. He was diagnosed with locked in syndrome,
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  Speaker 1: a rare neurological disorder where the entire body is paralyzed
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  Speaker 1: except for some small eye movement. But Jean wasn't done
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  Speaker 1: fighting Using only his left eye, he developed a communication
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  Speaker 1: system with his speech therapist. As they recited each letter
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  Speaker 1: of the alphabet, Jean would blink at the right moment
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  Speaker 1: to select the letter that he wanted, and letter by letter,
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  Speaker 1: word by word, he painstakingly spelled out messages to nurses, doctors,
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  Speaker 1: and family. It was slow and it was exhausting, but
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  Speaker 1: it worked. Using this new system, Jean was able to
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  Speaker 1: describe what it felt like to be trapped inside his
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  Speaker 1: own body, and more than that, it gave him a
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  Speaker 1: piece of his life back. He could talk with friends,
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  Speaker 1: connect with his caregivers, and share moments with his family.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of just watching life happen around him, he was
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  Speaker 1: part of it again. His daughter would perch on the
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  Speaker 1: armrest of his wheelchair, pretending that they were racing in
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  Speaker 1: one of the fast cars that he used to love.
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  Speaker 1: In those moments, Jean found joy, even if only for
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  Speaker 1: a few seconds at a time. And then, just a
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  Speaker 1: little over a year later, Jean came down with pneumonia.
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  Speaker 1: His weakened body struggled to fight the infection, and he
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  Speaker 1: died on March ninth of nineteen ninety seven at the
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  Speaker 1: age of forty four. But that wasn't the end of
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  Speaker 1: his story. Just two days later, a book was published
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  Speaker 1: telling the story of Jean's struggle. It was called The
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  Speaker 1: Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and thanks to how much
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  Speaker 1: Jean had been able to communicate, it offered a rare
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  Speaker 1: glimpse into the experience of being trapped inside your own body.
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  Speaker 1: The book became an international bestseller, and a decade later
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  Speaker 1: it was adapted into a critically acclaimed film that earned
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  Speaker 1: four Oscar nominations. Doctors, therapists and researchers still cited as
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  Speaker 1: a landmark work in understanding patients with severe paralysis. But
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  Speaker 1: here's the most impressive part. The Diving Bell and the
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  Speaker 1: Butterfly is a memoir, meaning that Jean Dominique Boubie wrote
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  Speaker 1: it himself, using nothing but his left eyelid. He dictated
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  Speaker 1: the entire one hundred and thirty page manuscript by blinking
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  Speaker 1: one letter at a time to an interpreter. The process
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  Speaker 1: took two hundred thousand blinks over the course of ten months.
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  Speaker 1: Jean and his interpreter worked together for a few hours
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  Speaker 1: each day, and he spent the rest of his time
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  Speaker 1: composing passages in his head, editing and memorizing every word
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  Speaker 1: so that he could get it all out in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: It was a feat of mental endurance, patience and willpower
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  Speaker 1: and let him tell his story. So yes, it's true
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  Speaker 1: that life can fall apart in the blink of an eye,
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  Speaker 1: but as Jean proved, life can also be rebuilt one
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  Speaker 1: blink at a time. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosity. Please subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Manke in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.