Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Nightmare Fuel

Transcript

Nightmare Fuel · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Being first isn't all it's
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: cracked up to be. Often the honor of breaking the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: mold comes at a great cost, either to the person
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: who has done it or to those who didn't make
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: it all the way there. For British Prime Minister Spencer Percival,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: he wasn't just the first. He was the only member
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of a very exclusive club, one he probably had no
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: interest in joining in the first place. He was born
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: in Mayfair, Middlesex, in seventeen sixty two, to a very
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: wealthy family. His father and Earl, was closely involved in
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: British politics. His mother was a baroness whose family had
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: also been elected to numerous high positions within Parliament. It
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: only seemed natural that their son, Spencer would join the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: family business and with their influence to help him along
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the way. Of course, except he was born during his
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: father's second marriage and had an older stepbrother, his parents
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: didn't really support him. He could barely live on his
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: yearly stipend, and he knew that he couldn't rely on
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: inheriting anything when they died. Anything that his father owned
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: would default to his first son, so Perceval focused on
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: his schooling. He studied hard, choosing a future in the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: legal profession. Once he'd graduated and passed the bar. After
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the death of his mother, Perceval fell in love with
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a young woman whose father didn't approve of her suitor's
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: lack of money or property, especially compared to his brother
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: at Lord Arden, a rich member of parliament. Perceval waited
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: until she was twenty one, and against her father's wishes,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the two eloped. They started their life together, living humbly
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: above a carpet shop while he worked his way up
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in his career. Coming from such a wealthy and influential
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: family had its benefits, even if Perceval couldn't take advantage
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: of all of them, but they came through in the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: networking department. Thanks to his connections. He went from the
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: lowly position of Deputy Recorder in Northampton all the way
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: up to the Board of Admiralty in sevente Then two
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: years later, opportunity came knocking, and Perceval answered His uncle
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: who had also been an earl, had passed away, and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: his cousin had left his seat in Parliament to take
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the man's place. In order to keep the seat in
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the family, Perceval took over his cousin's duties. For thirteen years,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: he established himself as a formidable politician and a fierce debater,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: earning him the title of Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: head of the British Treasury. Through hard work and determination,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: he had achieved a status previously bestowed upon his other
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: family members at birth. Perceval had earned his place, and
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: his success eventually led him all the way to the top.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: In eighteen o nine, he became Prime Minister of England
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: while also retaining his position as Chancellor. For three years,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: he worked to keep the government running smoothly, but no
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: matter what he did, someone somewhere would be upset that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: not enough was being done. Meanwhile, a man named John
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Williams was living in a small parish on the coast
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of England and was having a nightmare. It was May
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: eleven and he'd woken up in the middle of the night,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: his wife still sleeping soundly beside him. He jarred her
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: awake and told her what he dreamt. That he'd been
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: standing in the lobby of the House of Commons when
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a man walked up to the Chancellor and shot him.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: He tried going back to sleep, but soon was visited
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: by the same dream. By the time the sun rose
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the next morning, he had been startled out of sleep
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: by that terrifying dream three separate times. As it so
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: happened earlier that evening, Perceval was on his way to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: an inquiry at the House of Commons. He'd entered the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: lobby at five pm. A man who had been sitting
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: by the fireplace stood up and pulled a pistol from
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: his coat. No one saw him coming, and no one
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: could stop him in time. He took aim and fired,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: shooting the Prime Minister in the chest and killing him.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Word about the assassination wouldn't reach Williams until the next day,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: when he would tell his friends about his strange dream.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: They had heard the news and informed him that the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister also the Chancellor, had indeed been killed the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: night of William's dream. Six weeks later, Williams paid a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: visit to the House of Commons lobby where Perceval had
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: been shot. He'd never been there before in his life,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: but he recognized it immediately. As he stood there, he
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: identified both where the shooter had fired from and where
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Perceval had been standing at the time. He knew exactly
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: what the late Prime Minister had been wearing and the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: manner in which he'd fallen after being shot, everything down
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to the smallest detail, details that only the police and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the people who had been there at the time would
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: have known. Like I said, Spencer, Percival had joined a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: very exclusive club. He became the first and only British
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister to have ever been assassinated, a nightmare both
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: he and John Williams had experience together. The only difference
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was that Williams had seen it all happen from almost
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: three hundred miles away. Perfect pitch is quite the gift
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: for the musically inclined. Not everyone can identify a note
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: by name simply from hearing the tone, but those who
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: can are very special. Somewhere between one and five people
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: per ten thousand can do it. Because of this, perfect
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: pitch and its sibling relative pitch, have been used to
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: study how our brains developed. But one man goes beyond
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: perfect pitch. He can do something arguably more difficult, yet
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: also not particularly useful these days. Still, his talent is
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: something to behold, especially in an age when we can't
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: really hold our music anymore. His name is Arthur Lynchen,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a doctor from Philadelphia who can recognize a song simply
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: by looking at it. But he doesn't read the notes
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: on a page the way a musician would. That would
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: be too easy. No. From behind a pair of thick glasses,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: he can pick up a vinyl record and, without looking
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: at the label or artwork, can identify the songs embedded
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: within its grooves. He started doing it to impress his
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: friends at parties when he was younger. They would hand
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: him an album and he would hold it in front
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of his face, turning it over in his hands to
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: get a look at its grooves from all angles. He'd
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: note their depth and length along the vinyl, recognizing where
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the music got louder and softer, and in some cases
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: he could even tell who was conducting. And that's the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: catch with Arthur's talent. Because of his deep knowledge of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: European classical music, he can only discern songs from composers
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: such as Bach and Beethoven. Give him a copy of
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Pepper and it's like handing him a blank piece
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: of paper. It doesn't look like much of anything. Once
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: he was asked to identify a modern rock record, he
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: took one look at it and called it disorganized gibberish.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: It had been, in fact, an album by Alice Cooper
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: are There. Also has trouble with chamber music and classical
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: music from before Beethoven's time, as its structure doesn't change
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: much throughout the record. This makes picking out individual songs
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: or instruments almost impossible. He also has better luck with
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: newer pressings, finding it easier to make out the grooves
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: than with older records, which don't show much variation. Still,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: even with those caveats, Arthur seems to be one of
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a kind. He had a brief moment of fame in
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties after The New York Times wrote an
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: article about him, followed by pieces in Time Magazine and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Times. He was invited on popular television
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: programs of the day, such as That's Incredible and Paul
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Daniels Magic Show. But Arthur would eventually find himself defending
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: his abilities before the most discerning audience of his life,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: James Randy Randy is a noted magician and debunker of
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: paranormal and pseudo scientific oddities. He spent a good part
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: of his career challenging extraordinary people to prove the validity
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: of their talents, going after his supposed fortune tellers and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: mind readers, and eventually he crossed paths with Arthur. He
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: gave the physician a record with an obscured label and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: asked him to identify it. Arthur held it up and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: examined the grooves, declaring it to be a recording of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: a particular Stravinsky piece. But that wasn't all he did.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: He also identified which version it was and what German
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: orchestra had recorded it, and James Andy was confounded. Not
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: an easy thing to do, believe me. There isn't much
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of a demand anymore for someone who can read vinyl records,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: not that there ever was before, so it's probably smart
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that Arthur kept his day job as a doctor all
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: these years. Still, that hasn't stopped the occasional fan from
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: shoving an album in his face and asking him to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: identify it. The most common challenge he gets Beethoven's Fifth.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: In fact, it's so popular that he once guessed it
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: without even looking at the record. Now that's what i'd
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: call curious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and tell division show, and you can learn all about
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: it over at the World of Lore dot com. And
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious. H