Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Season of the Witch

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Season of the Witch · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Speak the name Transylvania
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  Speaker 1: and you might fill a chill. It evokes a certain image,
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  Speaker 1: one of a man clad in black with sharp fangs,
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  Speaker 1: dripping with blood. It's people have often been portrayed as
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  Speaker 1: hapless peasants, fearful of the creature living in the scary
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  Speaker 1: castle at the top of the hill. In fact, Transylvania
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  Speaker 1: is almost nothing like the way Bram Stoker portrayed it
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  Speaker 1: in his novel. Even Draculus Castle, which many have claimed
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  Speaker 1: is based on Transylvania's real brand castle, is in no
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  Speaker 1: way associated with the historical roots of the famous character.
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  Speaker 1: Almost everything we know about the region is thanks to
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  Speaker 1: one famous book and it's countless film adaptations, and it's wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The historic area located in central Romania is actually lush
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  Speaker 1: and green, not dark and rocky. It's populated by people
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  Speaker 1: from all different backgrounds who live and work in any
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  Speaker 1: one of the region's vibrant cities. There's a rich history
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  Speaker 1: within Transylvania, which can be seen in things like it's
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  Speaker 1: well preserved Gothic architecture, and for potential tourists looking to
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  Speaker 1: explore the hometown of one of the greatest characters in
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  Speaker 1: all of literature. There's a lot more to see than
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  Speaker 1: just castles. There are glorious churches, the a Pusini Mountains,
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  Speaker 1: and countless little hamlets and villages to give you a
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  Speaker 1: taste of the local culture. There's also an amusement park.
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  Speaker 1: It's not as well known as it should be, considering
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  Speaker 1: the engineering must have taken to build it. The park
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  Speaker 1: features numerous attractions like a ferris wheel and a playground.
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  Speaker 1: There's also a bowling alley, a mini golf course, and
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  Speaker 1: a lake for visitors to paddle around in. You might
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  Speaker 1: be wondering why this place required such advanced engineering to build,
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  Speaker 1: since none of its attractions are any different from those
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  Speaker 1: you might find at an amusement park in America. It's
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  Speaker 1: ferris wheel isn't really that tall, the playground is mostly
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  Speaker 1: comprised jungle gym equipment. What makes the park so special
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  Speaker 1: is its location and how you get to it. In
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  Speaker 1: order to visit the site, known as Selina Turda. You
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  Speaker 1: have to board an elevator that will take you down
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  Speaker 1: almost four hundred feet below the earth. That's right. The
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  Speaker 1: whole park was constructed underground inside an old, abandoned salt mine.
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  Speaker 1: The mine had been in use right up until nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty two, before it was turned into a bomb shelter
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  Speaker 1: during the Second World War. After that, it was used
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  Speaker 1: to store copious amounts of cheese. Then in nineteen two,
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars were spent converting the space into a
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  Speaker 1: full fledged tourist trap, complete with the museum, a dcat
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  Speaker 1: amphitheater and a spa. And that spa both some of
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  Speaker 1: the purest air in the world thanks to the salt,
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  Speaker 1: which acts as a natural defense against allergens. Temperatures in
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  Speaker 1: there remain at a steady fifty four degrees fahrenheit and
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  Speaker 1: the humidity never breaks. It seems the weather is always
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  Speaker 1: perfect when there's no weather to worry about. And Selena
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  Speaker 1: Turda isn't just home to an amusement park. It's also
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  Speaker 1: a big destination for folks looking to practice holotherapy in
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  Speaker 1: the former salt mine, Breathing the salty air helps treat
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  Speaker 1: their asthma and other respiratory conditions and has been in
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  Speaker 1: practice for hundreds of years. It's a pretty unique idea,
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  Speaker 1: taking a place that used to be nothing but a
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  Speaker 1: big hole in the ground and turning it into a
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  Speaker 1: tourist destination. So if you ever have the chance to
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  Speaker 1: visit the beautiful Transylvanian countryside, be sure to budget some
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  Speaker 1: time for a little fun underneath all that scene, beauty,
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  Speaker 1: and breathe easy, knowing that you're in the happiest place
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  Speaker 1: under the earth. Opportunity often knocks when we least expect it.
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  Speaker 1: We're just going about our daily lives and suddenly something
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  Speaker 1: hits us that changes everything in a dramatic way. Percy
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  Speaker 1: LeBaron Spencer was a physicist working on radar tubes when
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  Speaker 1: a new opportunity found him. He had been building magnetrons,
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  Speaker 1: or large vacuum tubes that generated microwaves, when he noticed
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  Speaker 1: the candy bar in his pocket had melted. It occurred
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  Speaker 1: to him that the microwaves had caused the bar to
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  Speaker 1: heat up rapidly. A few years later, he filed the
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  Speaker 1: patent for the first microwave oven. Another famous and influential
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  Speaker 1: accident happened in when Dr Alexander Fleming left out Staffhylococcus
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  Speaker 1: cultures for a few weeks that didn't grow or spread,
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  Speaker 1: resulting in his discovery of penicillin. But some opportunities don't
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  Speaker 1: revolutionize entire industries or the world at large. Sometimes the
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  Speaker 1: moment is just right for someone to change their own
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  Speaker 1: lot in life, and that's enough. But at what cost.
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  Speaker 1: During the late sixteen hundreds, Salem was battling a crisis
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  Speaker 1: of faith, political turmoil, and war on their borders, all
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  Speaker 1: of which culminated in the now infamous Salem which Trials
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  Speaker 1: of sixte two. However, accusations of witchcraft were not uncommon
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere in the world. Scotland was a hotbed of activity
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  Speaker 1: from the mid fifteen hundreds all the way through the
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  Speaker 1: early eighteenth century, and that's where John Dixon found his calling.
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  Speaker 1: John had been quite young when the witch pricker arrived
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  Speaker 1: in town. The people came to watch the mysterious man
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  Speaker 1: performed the test that would prove whether someone was in
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  Speaker 1: fact a witch. He had the accused strip naked before
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  Speaker 1: the crowd and then examined them from up to bottom
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  Speaker 1: until he found a mole or freckle on their skin
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  Speaker 1: somewhere to insert the needle, not a common sewing needle, though,
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  Speaker 1: but a long hand carved pin. The witch pricker would
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  Speaker 1: insert that pin into the spot known as the devil's mark,
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  Speaker 1: and if it caused pain or bleeding, then the accused
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  Speaker 1: was proven not to be a witch. If it caused
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  Speaker 1: no pain and no blood was drawn, the victim would
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  Speaker 1: be proven a witch and then executed. Oh and the
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  Speaker 1: witch pricker was paid for every positive identification, making it
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  Speaker 1: a responsibility that was easy to abuse, and convictions came
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  Speaker 1: easily too. Accused women often confess to make the humiliation
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  Speaker 1: and abuse stop, while prickers devised retractable needles that would
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  Speaker 1: slide back into the handle when pressed against the body,
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  Speaker 1: giving the impression it was penetrating the skin, sort of
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  Speaker 1: like a movie prop knife. Let's just say the job
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  Speaker 1: was a lucrative one, and John Dixon saw a chance
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  Speaker 1: to make a good living doing the same thing. He
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  Speaker 1: first traveled to Elgin and worked for six shillings a day.
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  Speaker 1: This was where he met the famous Isabel Gouty, an
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  Speaker 1: alleged witch who had been charged with murdering her landlord's
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  Speaker 1: small children. It's not clear whether Dixon directly had anything
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  Speaker 1: to do with Isabel's confessions, which implicated twelve members of
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  Speaker 1: her coven, but Dixon was successful enough to move on
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  Speaker 1: to bigger communities, heading north Detain just a year later.
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  Speaker 1: In Taine lived a man named John Hay, who had
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  Speaker 1: also been accused of being a witch. But he was
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  Speaker 1: different from other victims, and not just because of his gender.
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  Speaker 1: Hay worked as a court messenger and knew enough about
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  Speaker 1: the law to use it to his advantage. Rather than
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  Speaker 1: be subjected to Dixon's tests, Hay petitioned for the witch
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  Speaker 1: prickers arrest, alleging that he was operating outside the legal guidelines.
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  Speaker 1: The courts agreed, and Dixon fled south before they could
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  Speaker 1: take him into custody. John's career wasn't over, though. He
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  Speaker 1: took a job on behalf of a landowner who wanted
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  Speaker 1: a particular clan removed from one of his properties. The
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  Speaker 1: Mcleans had lived there without incident for over two centuries,
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  Speaker 1: but the landowner, Chisholm, had big plans for this land.
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  Speaker 1: Given the people's propensity for calling out witchcraft with no
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  Speaker 1: other reason than mild unease, Chisholm saw a way to
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  Speaker 1: get rid of his pesky tenants once and for all,
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  Speaker 1: he hired John, who had changed his name to Mr
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  Speaker 1: Patterson to avoid capture, to conduct an interrogation. The witch
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  Speaker 1: pricker did as he was told. He stripped all of
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  Speaker 1: the McLean's, fourteen women and one man right down to
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  Speaker 1: nothing and began stabbing at them with his special needle.
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  Speaker 1: The clan was tortured, the soles of their feet were burned,
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  Speaker 1: and they were dangled by their thumbs until they confessed, which,
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  Speaker 1: of course they did anyone would. But there was a
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  Speaker 1: problem with the landowner's plan. Someone had gone to the
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  Speaker 1: McLean chief with word of Patterson's activities. The chief called
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  Speaker 1: the landowner's bluff and as a result, an investigation was
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  Speaker 1: conducted and the McLean's were released. John was arrested and
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  Speaker 1: sent to Edinburgh to answer for his crimes, and it
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  Speaker 1: was there that two big secrets were revealed. First, John
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  Speaker 1: hadn't been using a needle to figure out who was
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  Speaker 1: a witch. Instead, he claimed that he would look into
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  Speaker 1: their eyes to determine their guilt. And second, John Dixon
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  Speaker 1: wasn't even his real name. He had been born Christian
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  Speaker 1: Cadal and he was a woman. You see, there hadn't
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  Speaker 1: been many opportunities for women outside the home at the time,
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  Speaker 1: and Katel had seen witch prickery as a way to
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  Speaker 1: earn her independence. Sadly, she is believed to be responsible
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  Speaker 1: for the deaths of at least six innocent people over
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  Speaker 1: the course of her career, although the real number is
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  Speaker 1: likely higher. It's not a happy story, I know, but
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  Speaker 1: it's one that we should never forget because it teaches
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  Speaker 1: us a valuable lesson. People aren't always who they claimed
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  Speaker 1: to be, the law is not always just, and money
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  Speaker 1: can ruin a lot of things. But if we stick
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  Speaker 1: with it, everything just might work out in the end.
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  Speaker 1: That's the hope at least, isn't it. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.