Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Seeing Red

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Seeing Red · 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. It's been said that
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  Speaker 1: beneath yellow Stone National Park in Wyoming, there exists a
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  Speaker 1: supervolcano so big that if it were to erupt, it
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  Speaker 1: would spew enough ashen rock into the atmosphere to destroy
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  Speaker 1: the world, or at least most of it. We have
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  Speaker 1: nothing to worry about, though, as such an event wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: occur for another few thousand years. But volcanoes do erupt,
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  Speaker 1: and when they do, they have devastating effects on the
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  Speaker 1: people and areas surrounding them. They dramatically change the landscape
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  Speaker 1: and at least in one case, how the population of
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  Speaker 1: the planet looks at the world. To understand how, we
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  Speaker 1: need to go back in time to the Indonesian island
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  Speaker 1: of Krakatoa had been active for some time. Earthquakes from
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  Speaker 1: the region had rippled out as far as Australia, and
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  Speaker 1: there was evidence that something big was brewing below. For weeks,
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  Speaker 1: thence forming around the island blasted steam and ash into
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  Speaker 1: the atmosphere, turning the sky dark and casting a black
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  Speaker 1: fog over everything. Then the eruptions got worse, each one
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  Speaker 1: firing more and more debris into the air and sending
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  Speaker 1: out shock waves that could be felt for miles. The
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  Speaker 1: final explosion was so loud it could be heard over
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  Speaker 1: three thousand miles away. One sixty five villages were destroyed,
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  Speaker 1: more than thirty six thousand people died, and two thirds
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  Speaker 1: of the island was annihilated. So yeah, it was bad.
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  Speaker 1: But a strange side effect of the eruption happened shortly
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  Speaker 1: after The skies had been transformed darker, sure, with all
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  Speaker 1: that floating in the air, but sunsets in particular were affected.
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  Speaker 1: As the sun began to dip below the horizon, the
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  Speaker 1: sky lit up in dazzling shades of orange and yellow
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  Speaker 1: and white. Such wondrous sunsets could be seen as far
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  Speaker 1: as England and Norway. Photography at the time couldn't produce
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  Speaker 1: pictures with any color, let alone reflect the skies and
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  Speaker 1: all their glory. However, another medium could. Artists were so
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  Speaker 1: captivated by the colors overhead they took the painting the
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  Speaker 1: sunsets more vibrant than any photo could ever exhibit. William
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  Speaker 1: Ashcroft painted and sketched dozens of scenes of the blazing
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  Speaker 1: skies over the Thames and Chelsea. His works are so
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  Speaker 1: lifelike the clouds appeared to be on fire, swallowing the
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  Speaker 1: vulnerable blue expanse behind them. Since we don't have color
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  Speaker 1: photographs of the skies at the time, ascroft sketches are
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  Speaker 1: as close as we can get to experiencing even a
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  Speaker 1: fraction of what he saw. The poet Gerard Manly Hopkins
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  Speaker 1: attempted to paint the sun sets with his words, describing
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  Speaker 1: them as looking more like inflamed flesh than the lucid
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  Speaker 1: reds of ordinary sunsets. He also wrote, it bathes the
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  Speaker 1: whole sky. It is mistaken for the reflection of a
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  Speaker 1: great fire. But he wasn't the only artist influenced by
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  Speaker 1: Krakatoa's afterglow. Another painter, this one from Norway, looked up
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  Speaker 1: and didn't see fire. He saw blood. To him, someone
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  Speaker 1: had sliced open the sky like a vein and coated
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  Speaker 1: everything in red. It instilled in him a feeling of
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  Speaker 1: angst of despair, as though the world had ended and
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  Speaker 1: only he had survived. He channeled these feelings onto the canvas,
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  Speaker 1: producing four different versions of a painting that has come
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  Speaker 1: to symbolize the entire Expressionist movement. Knowing all of this,
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  Speaker 1: it becomes clear that the painting subject is most likely
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  Speaker 1: the artist himself. In it, he stands on a wooden
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  Speaker 1: platform set against a blue sea. Overhead, the sky swirls
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  Speaker 1: with red, orange, and white. The man's head is deformed,
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  Speaker 1: and his hands frame each side of his face, which
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  Speaker 1: is trapped in a chilling look of horror a scream.
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  Speaker 1: The Scream painted by and of Edvard Munk. Since the
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  Speaker 1: country's founding, the United States flag design has followed a
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  Speaker 1: fairly standard formula each time a new state has been added.
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  Speaker 1: The thirteen original colonies are represented by the seven red
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  Speaker 1: and six white stripes, while the current states themselves are
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  Speaker 1: represented by white stars against the field of blue in
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  Speaker 1: the upper left corner. Something's changed from flag to flag.
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  Speaker 1: For example, when Oregon became a state in eighteen fifty,
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  Speaker 1: several different versions of the flag existed at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: one where the thirty three separate stars were arranged in
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  Speaker 1: the shape of one big star, while another flag chose
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  Speaker 1: a diamond shape for them instead, but the blue background
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  Speaker 1: and the thirteen stripes remained the same no matter what.
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  Speaker 1: But despite calls for change to the status quo, it
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  Speaker 1: seems people still love and admire the flags simple yet
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  Speaker 1: iconic design. However, things were a bit different almost sixty
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  Speaker 1: years ago. After Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty nine and nineteen sixty, respectively, it had
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  Speaker 1: been decided that such a drastic change to the country
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  Speaker 1: required an equally drastic change to its flag. To that end,
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  Speaker 1: a government employee named Stanley Pratt solicited ideas for new
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  Speaker 1: flag designs from a group of Ohio residents. Within a week,
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  Speaker 1: he had flags of all shapes and sizes on his
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  Speaker 1: desk and had one of the toughest jobs of his
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  Speaker 1: career ahead of him, judging every single submission. He wrote
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  Speaker 1: back to each entrance explaining his decision. Almost everyone took
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  Speaker 1: it well except for one. Robert Heft, felt he had
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  Speaker 1: put a lot of work into his flag. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: just draw it on a piece of paper. He spent
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  Speaker 1: twelve and a half hours sewing a full size version
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  Speaker 1: for Mr. Pratt. He kept the thirteen stripes of red
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  Speaker 1: and white, as well as the blue rectangle in the
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  Speaker 1: top left corner. The stars he arranged in a kind
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  Speaker 1: of grid pattern, the lines of five and six stars
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  Speaker 1: alternating until they numbered fifty. Mr Pratt's comments weren't entirely wrong.
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  Speaker 1: He felt He's flag lacked originality, which it did, but
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  Speaker 1: he felt that he had something special, something fit for
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  Speaker 1: a country. So he did what any self respecting flag
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  Speaker 1: designer would do. He wrote his congress person. Ohio Congressman
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  Speaker 1: Walter Moehler hoisted Robert's flag all the way up to
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  Speaker 1: the United States Congress for a vote. It didn't take
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  Speaker 1: much for him to convince his fellow congressman of the
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  Speaker 1: flag's importance. They voted in favor of its design, and
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  Speaker 1: it was formally accepted as the new symbol of the
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  Speaker 1: United States on ly four. Yeah, Independence Day. Poetic right. However,
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  Speaker 1: the story doesn't end there. In fact, it wasn't even
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  Speaker 1: the whole story. You see, I haven't been completely honest
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  Speaker 1: with you about the flags provenance. You might be asking
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  Speaker 1: why a government official went to Ohio to source a
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  Speaker 1: new design rather than open up the opportunity nationwide. And
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  Speaker 1: it's true that Robert half designed the flag, but he
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  Speaker 1: didn't do it as part of a contest, and Stanley
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  Speaker 1: Pratt technically did work for the government, but not for
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  Speaker 1: any federal agency. The flag had been part of a
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  Speaker 1: class project. Pratt had been a high school teacher and
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  Speaker 1: Robert Heft his student. Robert ended up getting a B
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  Speaker 1: minus on his project. Disappointed and as grade, he asked
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  Speaker 1: his teacher if there was anything he could do. After all,
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  Speaker 1: he'd spent an entire day stitching it together, it had
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  Speaker 1: to be worth more than a B minus. So Mr
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  Speaker 1: Pratt gave him a seemingly impossible task. He told him
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  Speaker 1: if he could get the United States Congress to accept
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  Speaker 1: his design as the official national flag, then he changed
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  Speaker 1: his grade to an A. Robert passed away in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand nine, but his design lives on flying over the
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  Speaker 1: White House and every government building across the country. Has
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  Speaker 1: family still possesses the original flag he made by hand,
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  Speaker 1: although museums and wealthy collectors have tried to purchase it.
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  Speaker 1: To them, it isn't just a piece of history, it's
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  Speaker 1: a family heirloom. And as for Mr. Pratt's promise, he
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  Speaker 1: made good on it. Robert got his A. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.