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