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Bombshell · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
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  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
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  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. There are countries in the world that don't
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  Speaker 1: have the biggest armies or the largest populations, but they
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  Speaker 1: make up for those deficiencies in other ways. Oftentimes, the
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  Speaker 1: smallest nations are the ones with the most patriotic citizens.
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  Speaker 1: After all, they are few and unique. But perhaps none
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  Speaker 1: are fewer or more unique than the residents of one
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  Speaker 1: particular place, the Republic of Milosia. It was first established
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  Speaker 1: on May sixth of nineteen seventy seven as the Grand
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  Speaker 1: Republic of wold Stein under the rule of King James
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  Speaker 1: the First and its prime minister, a young man named
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Boo. Woldstein was a fairly sleepy nation, and its
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  Speaker 1: king wasn't too interested in power or money. After some time, though,
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  Speaker 1: the king ceased being part of Woldstein's progress, and Prime
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  Speaker 1: Minister Bao took over its development. In nineteen eighty, he
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  Speaker 1: renamed it the Kingdom of Edelstein, before re christening it
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  Speaker 1: yet again years later as the Kingdom of Zaria. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: Zaria changed names almost as many times as it changed locations.
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  Speaker 1: It established the presence in Europe around this time, then
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  Speaker 1: moved again in nineteen. Finally, in the mid to late
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  Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, the kingdom found a permanent home when Prime
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  Speaker 1: Minister Bao purchased the necessary land and planted his flag.
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  Speaker 1: He then renounced to the kingdom and installed a provisional
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  Speaker 1: communist government in its place. This was abandoned months later, however,
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  Speaker 1: once Zaria joined a NATO like organization called the United
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  Speaker 1: Provinces of Utopia beginning in nineteen the United Provinces disbanded,
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  Speaker 1: leaving Boo's country without an official government. It also meant
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  Speaker 1: that he was no longer in charge of a real nation,
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  Speaker 1: so on February twenty one, he declared the People's Democratic
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  Speaker 1: Republic of Milosia as officially open for business. That gave
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  Speaker 1: way to its final name eight months later, the Republic
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  Speaker 1: of Milosia. It was no longer the People's Democratic Republic.
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  Speaker 1: Boo was now the president and his micro nation was
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  Speaker 1: about to take some big strides. It hosted an international
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  Speaker 1: Olympic Games for other micro nations in two thousand. It
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  Speaker 1: also supported a new holiday called Norton Day, named for
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  Speaker 1: Joshua Abraham Norton, who briefly named himself the Emperor of
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  Speaker 1: the United States in eighteen fifty nine. In two thousand three,
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  Speaker 1: Milosia branched out and started a colony called Farfala, which
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  Speaker 1: it eventually surrendered two years later. Then in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and six, it found itself embroiled in a war with
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  Speaker 1: the nearby micro nation of Mustakistan. The battle lasted for weeks,
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  Speaker 1: with Mustakistan launching missiles into Milosia's territory. However, Bow's scrappy
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  Speaker 1: little country prevailed, mostly because the enemy's missiles were nothing
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  Speaker 1: more than model rockets. Mustakistan eventually went dormant several years later,
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  Speaker 1: having never recovered from their loss. But that wasn't the
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  Speaker 1: only war that Milosia had been involved in. Apparently, back
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three, when Milosia was still called the
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  Speaker 1: Grand Republic of wold Stein, it had received a declaration
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  Speaker 1: of war from East Germany. Obviously, Germany was made whole
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  Speaker 1: again in nineteen nineties, so a notice of war with
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  Speaker 1: a non existent country wouldn't make sense, right, Well, technically,
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  Speaker 1: East Germany still existed thanks to a little place off
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  Speaker 1: Cuba's coast called ernst Thalman Island. It had been gifted
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  Speaker 1: by the Cuban government to East Germany during the nineteen seventies,
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  Speaker 1: so this small parcel of land was all that remained
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  Speaker 1: of the original schism. And because ernst Thalman Island was
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  Speaker 1: still part of East Germany at least symbolically, that meant
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  Speaker 1: the unification wasn't complete, and the war between the two
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  Speaker 1: countries raged on. In fact, it continues to this day.
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  Speaker 1: Malo Jia resides within a desert climate of eleven point
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  Speaker 1: three acres of land. It's capital, Boaston, was named for
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  Speaker 1: its founder and president, Kevin Bow. The country boasts the
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  Speaker 1: population of thirty eight, although four of those residents are
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  Speaker 1: dogs and another four are chickens. The two main languages
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  Speaker 1: spoken there are English, Esperanto and Spanish. There is only
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  Speaker 1: one residence in the entire country. It's called Government House,
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  Speaker 1: and it's where the first family lives. The bank, post office,
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  Speaker 1: and telephone company can be found in Red Square, the
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  Speaker 1: town center, but good luck getting anyone to help you.
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  Speaker 1: The only people working there are mannekins. There's also one
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  Speaker 1: cemetery to the south. You won't find any former Milosians there,
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  Speaker 1: though it's strictly a pet cemetery. As for recreation, the
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  Speaker 1: country has a national sport. It's called Milosian broom ball
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  Speaker 1: and is a variation of an actual sport called broom ball,
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  Speaker 1: which is popular in Canada. However, Milosia's version doesn't use
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  Speaker 1: a special stick to hit the ball. They play with
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  Speaker 1: a real broom and every two years the country holds
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  Speaker 1: an event known as the Misfit Regatta, in which participants
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  Speaker 1: don cardboard boxes and race each other across a small
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  Speaker 1: portion of desert. Some have called it a dry land
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  Speaker 1: boat race. Milosia's revenue comes from several different avenues. It
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  Speaker 1: sells coins, salt stamps, and even war bonds to fund
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  Speaker 1: it's never ending fake battle with East Germany, but the
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  Speaker 1: primary source of income for Milosia is tourism dollars, which
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  Speaker 1: is why it was such a good idea for President
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  Speaker 1: Bao to establish his country in a place that would
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  Speaker 1: be easy for people to reach. He built it in Nevada,
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  Speaker 1: about an hour's drive south of Reno, and I guess
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  Speaker 1: that makes sense that the biggest little country in the
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  Speaker 1: world would sit so close to the biggest little city
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  Speaker 1: in the world. Everybody has that one person who knows
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  Speaker 1: them better than anyone else. It might be a parent
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  Speaker 1: or a childhood friend. In Theodore's case, it was his brother, David.
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  Speaker 1: The two siblings were born in Chicago, Illinois, Theodore in
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  Speaker 1: ninety two and the younger David in ninety Their parents,
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  Speaker 1: Wanda and Theodore Senior, were working class Polish Americans, with
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  Speaker 1: their father employed as a sausage maker who worked hard
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  Speaker 1: to take care of his family. The younger Theodore spent
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  Speaker 1: his formative years in Chicago, where he was well liked
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  Speaker 1: by his friends and teachers. Three years after his brother's birth, however,
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  Speaker 1: the family moved to nearby Evergreen Park, a suburb located
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  Speaker 1: about seventeen miles south of Chicago. It may have been
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  Speaker 1: only a half hour drive from his old home, but
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  Speaker 1: Theodore found his new town and junior High school to
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  Speaker 1: be a whole other world. Still, he tried to make
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  Speaker 1: the best of it. He was tested by his new
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  Speaker 1: school and found to have an i Q of one
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  Speaker 1: dred and sixty seven, high enough for him to skip
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  Speaker 1: the sixth grade, but that meant leaving the classmates of
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  Speaker 1: his own age behind. The older seventh graders bullied and
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  Speaker 1: picked on him. He had few friends and spent much
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  Speaker 1: of his time alone. He did better in high school,
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  Speaker 1: where he fell in with a more academically minded group
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  Speaker 1: of friends. He joined several clubs, played trombone in the
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  Speaker 1: marching band, and proved himself to be something of a
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  Speaker 1: math genius. Once again, he skipped a grade and graduated
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  Speaker 1: high school at the age of fifteen. Think about it.
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  Speaker 1: He could go to college, but he couldn't legally drive
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  Speaker 1: a car yet, and not just any college. Theodora went
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  Speaker 1: to Harvard on a scholarship to pursue a bachelor's degree
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  Speaker 1: in mathematics. Meanwhile, his brother David was growing up back
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  Speaker 1: at home in Evergreen Park. David was also very bright,
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  Speaker 1: but not to the same degree as Theodore. Unfortunately, Theodore
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  Speaker 1: changed quite a bit while he was away at college,
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  Speaker 1: or maybe college changed him. During one of his breaks
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  Speaker 1: at school, he came home to visit his family. David
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  Speaker 1: looked up to his older brother and tried to talk
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  Speaker 1: to him about some of his philosophies and beliefs, but
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  Speaker 1: something is ead Or had shifted. He was becoming a
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  Speaker 1: different person, someone angrier and more isolated. He eventually graduated
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  Speaker 1: from Harvard in nineteen sixty two and pursued both a
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  Speaker 1: master's and a doctoral degree in math from the University
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  Speaker 1: of Michigan. It looked like he had outgrown his awkward
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  Speaker 1: youth to become a respectable young academic. With his whole
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  Speaker 1: life ahead of him, Theodore eventually moved and took a
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  Speaker 1: job as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't cut out for education, though. His students didn't
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  Speaker 1: like his stiff teaching style, and Theodore himself felt out
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  Speaker 1: of place in front of a class full of students,
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  Speaker 1: so he resigned a year and a half later. His brother, David,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, went to Columbia University in New
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  Speaker 1: York City graduated in nineteen seventy. He spent his early
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  Speaker 1: college years writing for the school newspaper, but he didn't
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  Speaker 1: wind up pursuing a career in journalism after graduation. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he worked at his father's factory as a supervisor for
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  Speaker 1: several years before following in his brother's footsteps and becoming
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  Speaker 1: a teacher. David seemed better suited to the profession than
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  Speaker 1: Theodore had been, who had moved out to Montana after
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  Speaker 1: leaving his teaching job and spending a few years back
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  Speaker 1: home with his folks. But the pair still wrote to
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  Speaker 1: each other regularly, at least until David decided to do
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  Speaker 1: the unthinkable He fell in love. It was nineteen nine
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  Speaker 1: and David had met a young woman named Linda, whom
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to marry. When he wrote to Theodore about
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  Speaker 1: his engagement, his brother was incensed. How could David abandon
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  Speaker 1: him like that. Theodore didn't know Linda at all. They
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  Speaker 1: hadn't even met, and yet he hated her and insisted
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  Speaker 1: that David canceled the wedding. But when David didn't stop
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  Speaker 1: his nuptials, the forty eight year old theatre broke all contact,
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  Speaker 1: which was fined by him. He had to focus on
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  Speaker 1: his side project anyway. From the late nineteen seventies and
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  Speaker 1: throughout the nineteen eighties, newspaper headlines began to crop up.
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  Speaker 1: A few times a year. Someone would receive a package
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  Speaker 1: at a university, or a parcel would be stowed away
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  Speaker 1: on an airplane, which would inevitably explode, causing several injuries.
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  Speaker 1: In One of these packages, result did in a man's death,
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  Speaker 1: followed by several that caused deafness and lost fingers and limbs.
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  Speaker 1: Two more people were killed by exploding packages. Was also
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  Speaker 1: the year the person behind the mail bombs published an anonymous,
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  Speaker 1: thirty five thousand word essay explaining why he had sent them.
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  Speaker 1: It was published by The Washington Post on September nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: with coordination from the FBI. They hope that by putting
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  Speaker 1: it out there, a reader might notice something within the
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  Speaker 1: text to help recognize its author. David Shure did. There
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  Speaker 1: was one phrase within the manifesto that stood out among
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  Speaker 1: all the others. It read, you can't eat your cake
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  Speaker 1: and have it too. He remembered how Theodore had always
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  Speaker 1: hated the real idiom you can't have your cake and
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  Speaker 1: eat it too. This alternate version was something their mother
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  Speaker 1: had also said a number of times, and it had
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  Speaker 1: stuck out because of Theodore's insistence that it was more
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  Speaker 1: logically correct that way. Linda and David continued to read
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  Speaker 1: the manifesto and picked up on a number of others
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  Speaker 1: milarities between its wording and the letters that had arrived
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  Speaker 1: from David's brother over the years, so they reached out
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  Speaker 1: to a lawyer who provided the FBI with several of
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  Speaker 1: Theodore's letters. It didn't take long for the Bureau to
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  Speaker 1: match them to the Bomber's other writings. On April three,
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  Speaker 1: FBI agents successfully arrested Theodore Ted Kazinski at his remote
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  Speaker 1: cabin in Lincoln, Montana. Although ever since the world has
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  Speaker 1: known him as the Uni Bomber, no one knew Ted
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  Speaker 1: Kazinski quite like his brother, but it was a relationship
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  Speaker 1: that would ultimately become his downfall. Ted had foolishly tried
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  Speaker 1: to remain anonymous while telling the whole world all about himself.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, he tried to have his cake and
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  Speaker 1: eat it too. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com um. The show was created by me Aaron
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  Speaker 1: Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another
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  Speaker 1: award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore. Dot com and until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious, yeah,