Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Blowing Up

Transcript

Blowing Up · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. To earn a title like the Conqueror, one
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: must well conquer, and not just a little either, maybe
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: even when it's not appropriate. That's what William the First did,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: after all, enough to stave off his alternative title, William
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the Bastard, although there are many who would argue that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: he deserved that one much more. After a twenty year
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: reign of conquering and not being much loved by his people,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: William the Career was keeping himself entertained by partaking in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a little recreational rating against his French adversary, King Philip. However,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: if you put yourself in enough deadly situations, it's likely
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: that death will soon win the day, and eventually it did.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: While the exact nature of William's ultimate demise isn't agreed upon,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the general consensus is that he fell hard onto the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: wooden pommel of his saddle, which ruptured and internal organs
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: so severely that he couldn't be saved, which admittedly sounds
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: pretty painful. Immediately after, he was taken from the battlefield
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to a medical facility in ruin Que, the deathbed scene
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: where he has seen to his last will and testament
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: among many a quibbling relative and or attendant, eager for
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: his crown, his sword, his armor, his everything. William did
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: not leave anything up to chance in securing his legacy,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: though a mirror image of how protective he was of
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: his kingdom during his reign. But in life at least
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: he could see to it that his rules were followed,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: whereas in death, well not so much. In fact, in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the end, everything more or less came undone. As soon
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: as William passed away, his attendance collected his belongings, as in,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: they took all of his stuff for themselves and promptly
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: vacated the premises, leaving the corpse of the conquering king
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: naked on the floor. Not exactly what anyone would imagine
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: themselves looking like moments after death, let alone a king
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: who had earned himself such a fearsome nickname as the conqueror. Fortunately,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: after some time passed, a traveling night happened by the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: baffling situation and began the embalming process all by himself.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: By this point, though, the body had already begun to decompose,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: but the night pretended not to notice and proceeded anyway.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: After that came the seventy mile journey from Ruan to Khan.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: On the way, bacteria began to seep into Williams intestines
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and fill his body with the gas that all things considered,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: should never be allowed to reach the open air. Upon
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: reaching Khan, monks came to meet the corpse of the king,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: but before they could proceed with the rights and eulogies,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a fire broke out in town, and the body was
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: again left unattended for far longer than any cadaver should be.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: He was essentially a quickly inflating gas bag. As everyone
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: reconvened to forgive any wrongs William might have done against
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: them a funeral right at the time, a rather loud
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: man yelled out that the king had stolen land from
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: his own family. A debate ensued, all while the body
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of the king progressed uncomfortably closer to something that no
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: one wanted to look at. Eventually, though, a payment was
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: agreed upon to get the man to go away his
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: pockets bulging, but that wasn't the only thing that was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: expanding the King's body. Now hours passed the recommended burial
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: time had begun to bloat. The funeral attendants hastily tried
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to lower the king into the stone sarcophagus, but unfortunately
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: for them, he wouldn't fit no matter how hard they
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: pushed or wriggled or folded, and apparently they pushed a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: bit too much. Picture, if you will, a large water
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: balloon being forced into a small box, because that's essentially
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: what we had here. Suddenly, his swollen ball burst, causing
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and I quote, an intolerable stench that assailed nostrils of
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the bystanders and the whole crowd. The bits and pieces
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: were forced into the steaming grave. The funeral finished as
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: quickly as possible, and everyone moved on, having seen Williams
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: last and most probably disgusting conquest. Many of us dream
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of accomplishing something great within our lifetimes. They might be
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: to climb the tallest mountain, or star in a movie,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: or even something as simple as starting our own business,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: but few get to do anything close to those feats.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: They live their lives, retire and hope they left some
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: kind of lasting impression on a small piece of the world.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And then there's Pelee Hould. Hohold was alive during a
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: time when people were doing great, big things all the time.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Time he lived during the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: which gave women the right to vote. He was also
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: there when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But Hould wasn't going
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to sit back and let others have all the glory.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: He wanted to go out and make a name for
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: himself too, and to do that he would have to
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: travel the world. It started with a contest. Hold was
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: born and raised in Denmark and saw a story on
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the front page of his country's newspaper, Politic n The
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: paper wanted to pay tribute to the one birthday of
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: French author Jules Verne. Verne, who had written such popular
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: tales as twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Journey
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to the Center of the Earth, had inspired numerous authors
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: over the years, and this time he had inspired the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: paper to put on a competition. Borrowing from the plot
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of one of his other stories, Around the World in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: eighty Days. Politican picked one person out of hundreds to
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: undertake a difficult challenge circumnavigate the globe in forty six days,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: just over half the time in Verne's novel. It seems
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: they believe all of the advances of the modern world
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: should make such an endeavor a piece of cake. Of
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the many potential contestants it was hooled they picked. The
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: rules were quite simple too. He could use any method
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: to travel the world except by plane. He kicked off
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: his trip on March one of ninety eight by going
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to England, followed by a jump over to Scotland. From
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: there he went to Canada, Japan, Korea, China, the Soviet Union,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Poland and Germany. And he did all of it almost
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: entirely by himself. But there were of course reporters from
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Politican who followed him on his journey, documenting it for
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the paper. But he managed the trip mostly on his own,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: at least so he thought. Hold didn't realize that Politican
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: readers had been keeping track of him as well, and
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: his story had exploded beyond the margins of that paper.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: His exploits were being read about by thousands of people
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: in all the countries he was visiting. At the end
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: of his forty four day journey. When he finally came
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: back home to Denmark, there were twenty thousand people waiting
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to see him. He was a celebrity and his travels
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: were all anyone could talk about, mainly because he wasn't
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: just anyone. He was a fifteen year old boy scout.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: He'd been working in a car dealership before being chosen
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: for the contest, which had only been open to teenage
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: boys to begin with. Hold would later write about his
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: eventful trip in a memoir he called a boy Scout
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: around the world, and people were inspired by what he'd accomplished,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: perhaps none more than George Remy, also a boy Scott
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: in his youth. Remy was a Belgian illustrator who drew
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: cartoons and comic strips for his local papers. In ninety nine,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: he debuted a new character partly based on his brother Paul.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Paul's rounded face and puffed up quiff hairstyle made him
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the perfect reference for the look of Remy's latest creation,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a globe trotting reporter with a small dog for a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: best friend. Now Hold never had a dog with him,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: but outside of that, all of the similarities were uncanny.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Hold had a youthful look, red hair, and freckles, just
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: like Remy's character. He'd also documented his travels all over
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the world. Remy, under the pen name er J, combined
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: these two real people into one fictional entity, a Belgian
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: reporter who often found himself embroiled in some kind of
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: international mystery along with his dog, Snowy pell. Hold certainly
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: didn't realize it at the time, but his exploits had
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: led to the creation of the popular literary character Tintin,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: one who would endure for the next ninety years. Now
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that's one long and curious journey. I hope you've enjoyed
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: learn all about it over the world of Lore dot
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Come and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,