1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:14,120
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:17,360
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm fair at DOUTI. In July,

4
00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:23,000
Speaker 1: a strange messenger showed up in Mozart's life. He asked

5
00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:26,000
Speaker 1: him to compose a requiem for however much money the

6
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,479
Speaker 1: composer wanted, as long as he did it quickly. And

7
00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:32,240
Speaker 1: some say this messenger was simply an envoy of Count

8
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,960
Speaker 1: Franz von Balsegg, who was looking for a way to

9
00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:38,520
Speaker 1: honor his dead wife, but others say he was sent

10
00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 1: by freemasons to slash Mozart's throat. Oh, that seems like

11
00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:46,560
Speaker 1: quite a leap. Well, welcome to the mystery of Mozart's death.

12
00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:51,640
Speaker 1: So Mozart takes the commission, this mysterious commission, whoever it's from,

13
00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,120
Speaker 1: but he doesn't finish the requiem right away because he

14
00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,680
Speaker 1: has other work to finish first, lo Clemenza de Tito

15
00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:02,440
Speaker 1: for Emperor Leopold's coronation. But he promises this anty messenger

16
00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:04,840
Speaker 1: that he'll get right to work on it as soon

17
00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,919
Speaker 1: as he returns to Vienna from Prague. And his work

18
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:10,319
Speaker 1: went well in Prague, but he was in ill health

19
00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:12,560
Speaker 1: for most of the time that he was there, but

20
00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 1: despite feeling sick, he was in a good mood. His

21
00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:18,679
Speaker 1: last known letter, which was to his wife in October,

22
00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:24,000
Speaker 1: sev said he'd taken his rival composer Antonio Salieri to

23
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,040
Speaker 1: see the Magic Flute, and that Salieri loved it and

24
00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:31,319
Speaker 1: even gave out a few brother So he gets back

25
00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 1: to Vienna, and he seems a little sicker though, and

26
00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,480
Speaker 1: and more depressed, and he continues with the Requiem, but

27
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:41,480
Speaker 1: he's not quite himself, and in November Mozart takes to

28
00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:48,160
Speaker 1: his bed. Fifteen days later, he's dead December five. He's

29
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,800
Speaker 1: only thirty five years old. And since we're sleuthing, let's

30
00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,120
Speaker 1: examine the evidence we have. This is the scene on

31
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,920
Speaker 1: the day of his death. He's still working on the

32
00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,920
Speaker 1: Requiem and he sees some friends. They all sing parts

33
00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:03,760
Speaker 1: of the requiam together. But at some point during that

34
00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,640
Speaker 1: day it became clear that things had taken a turn

35
00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: for the worse, and one of his doctors, doctor Close,

36
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 1: was summoned, but he was at a play and decided

37
00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,680
Speaker 1: he would rather stay until the end of the play.

38
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:17,960
Speaker 1: You need a new doctor, and how would you like that?

39
00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:20,600
Speaker 1: Is your legacy. You're the doctor who stayed till the

40
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,800
Speaker 1: end of the play while the help out Mozart. So

41
00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:26,440
Speaker 1: when Close finally does get on the scene, he does

42
00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,600
Speaker 1: what he can, but he can't save Mozart. And according

43
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,840
Speaker 1: to Sophie, who is the sister of Mozart's wife in

44
00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:37,240
Speaker 1: this essay written by Albert Borrowitz, it's really good. The

45
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:41,680
Speaker 1: last thing that Mozart does is imitate the kettle drums

46
00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:44,080
Speaker 1: in the requam, which is so appropriate that his his

47
00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:47,440
Speaker 1: last words aren't weren't words at all, and he fell

48
00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:50,679
Speaker 1: into unconsciousness two hours before his death. He was loose

49
00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,080
Speaker 1: it up till then, and he was buried in a

50
00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:57,679
Speaker 1: mass unmarked grave. Salieri followed his coffin to the cemetery,

51
00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,280
Speaker 1: but his wife and most of his friends did not,

52
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:02,880
Speaker 1: which we should make a point there too. A mass

53
00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:07,040
Speaker 1: unmarked grave sounds it sounds slightly disturbing, but it's pretty

54
00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:10,920
Speaker 1: common for someone of Mozart's class during this time, the

55
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,080
Speaker 1: following to the not following him to the grave, though

56
00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:18,200
Speaker 1: that's weird. It's very strange. His wife was supposedly prostrate

57
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,560
Speaker 1: with grief, which you know, you can completely understand. Other

58
00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,600
Speaker 1: stories say that there was some sort of wintry storm

59
00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:27,040
Speaker 1: that turned everyone back, but there's no evidence of that

60
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,160
Speaker 1: if you look back to the weather of long long ago.

61
00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,800
Speaker 1: So that's one of those things that still bothers our historians.

62
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,880
Speaker 1: But less than a week after his death, a paper

63
00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,920
Speaker 1: printed the possibility that Mozart was poisoned, and most people

64
00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 1: thought Salieri did it. So is poisoning a reasonable possibility?

65
00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,680
Speaker 1: Will consider what we know, So let's start with Mozart symptoms.

66
00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:54,000
Speaker 1: So the best source we have about Mozart staff comes

67
00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:57,880
Speaker 1: from Constanza's sister, Sophie, who we mentioned earlier because she

68
00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,440
Speaker 1: actually wrote things down relatively soon after his death, as

69
00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:05,800
Speaker 1: opposed to decades later or something. So Sophie said that

70
00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,880
Speaker 1: he had a swollen body, the quote taste of death

71
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,480
Speaker 1: in his mouth, and a fever. We also know that

72
00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:14,720
Speaker 1: he was vomiting and he had diarrhea, and that he

73
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,200
Speaker 1: was covered in a rash. But there's no autopsy, so

74
00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:20,880
Speaker 1: there's no official report of all of this, and the

75
00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,599
Speaker 1: doctors don't even fill out death certificates. Church registers have

76
00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:26,920
Speaker 1: a little bit of information. We find his cause of death.

77
00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:31,479
Speaker 1: They're listed as severe miliary fever, but that's not a

78
00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:34,000
Speaker 1: cause of death. Now it's just a name for a

79
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,520
Speaker 1: collection of symptoms. Yeah, it's it's what killed him. It's

80
00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,400
Speaker 1: the symptoms that killed him. So first we'll look at

81
00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:48,760
Speaker 1: what else could explain these symptoms. Not poisoning, rheumatic fever, grip, tuberculosis, dropsy, meningitis,

82
00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:54,240
Speaker 1: heart failure, graves disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke, parasites, or

83
00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:59,520
Speaker 1: my favorites, overwork and irregular living. Did his mozart come on? So?

84
00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:03,280
Speaker 1: Dr William J. Dawson wrote in the journal Medical Problems

85
00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:07,400
Speaker 1: of Performing Artists, which the real journal, They get that specific.

86
00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:11,760
Speaker 1: He wrote that other researchers have suggested a total of

87
00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,080
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighteen possible causes of death. So that

88
00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,600
Speaker 1: was our short list. I didn't want to read all one,

89
00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:19,960
Speaker 1: or rather I did, but I didn't think you would

90
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:23,200
Speaker 1: want to hear it. But kidney disease is currently considered

91
00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:26,760
Speaker 1: the most likely culprit. So at the end, his kidneys

92
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,440
Speaker 1: failed and that's why his body was so swollen. Urania

93
00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:33,560
Speaker 1: explains many of his symptoms, even the rash, which might

94
00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,760
Speaker 1: sound strange that you know your kidneys failing wouldn't cause

95
00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:38,520
Speaker 1: a rash, but your kidneys do a lot more than

96
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,320
Speaker 1: you think, so take care of your organs everyone. But

97
00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,960
Speaker 1: part of the reason why it's considered so likely that

98
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,560
Speaker 1: he did die of kidney failure is that kidney failure

99
00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,599
Speaker 1: could be caused by strepto cockle infections earlier in life.

100
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:55,920
Speaker 1: And Mozart had his fair share of childhood illnesses. According

101
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,280
Speaker 1: to his father's writing, he had scarlet fever, which can

102
00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:03,680
Speaker 1: lead to kidney disease. Rheumatic fever also leads to kidney disease,

103
00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:08,680
Speaker 1: possibly abdominal typhus, which almost killed his sister. Yeah, and

104
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,480
Speaker 1: smallpox and toothache. So and and I would like to add,

105
00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,800
Speaker 1: in case you didn't know, untreated dental conditions can lead

106
00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,320
Speaker 1: to bacteria getting into your bloodstream and killing you. So

107
00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:21,640
Speaker 1: take care of your teeth. Katie's p s A for

108
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:26,039
Speaker 1: the Discovery health. So. Leopold Mozart's father also liked to

109
00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:31,640
Speaker 1: treat his own kids childhood conditions with mysterious things like

110
00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,160
Speaker 1: black powder. That's what he called it, black powder. So

111
00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,520
Speaker 1: I mean, the point is Leopold might not be the

112
00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:41,760
Speaker 1: best source for medical information, but unfortunately he's the only

113
00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:46,279
Speaker 1: source we have for Mozart's childhood illnesses. But some say

114
00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:50,000
Speaker 1: that renal failure just doesn't fit because if his kidneys

115
00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:53,600
Speaker 1: were failing, why wasn't he tired or thirsty near the end?

116
00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,560
Speaker 1: Why was he conscious until two hours before his death?

117
00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,320
Speaker 1: And we're relying on his dad's testimony to die nos

118
00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:04,200
Speaker 1: earlier illnesses. He's not a doctor, and his sister had

119
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,760
Speaker 1: most of the same ailments, but she turned out fine.

120
00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:13,920
Speaker 1: So this brings us to fallacious conclusion that Mozart was poisoned.

121
00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:17,040
Speaker 1: And we get that idea from Constanza, his wife, and

122
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,560
Speaker 1: according to the Borrowitz article that we mentioned earlier, this

123
00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,080
Speaker 1: is what she tells one biographer. Mozart began to speak

124
00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 1: of death and declared that he was writing the requiem

125
00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,120
Speaker 1: for himself. Tears came to the eyes of this sensitive man.

126
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,480
Speaker 1: I feel definitely, he continued, that I will not last

127
00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:36,720
Speaker 1: much longer. I am sure I have been poisoned. I

128
00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:40,160
Speaker 1: cannot rid myself of this idea. Mozart really did think

129
00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:42,800
Speaker 1: he was being poisoned, and he thought it might be arsenic.

130
00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:46,000
Speaker 1: Others have suggested mercury, but that was a little bit

131
00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 1: hard to get. It was used only to treat syphilis,

132
00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:51,520
Speaker 1: so a poisoner would have to be a little tricky

133
00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:53,880
Speaker 1: to get his or her hands on it. And that's

134
00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,960
Speaker 1: when a myth arose that Mozart was trying to treat

135
00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:01,000
Speaker 1: his own syphilis with mercury, just from someone misreading, misunderstanding

136
00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,000
Speaker 1: the sources. You know, And poison wasn't an uncommon weapon

137
00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,520
Speaker 1: of murder at the time, so this isn't too far fetched.

138
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:12,280
Speaker 1: But if he was poisoned, who did it? So it

139
00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:16,080
Speaker 1: is of course rumored that on his own deathbed, Mozart's

140
00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:20,600
Speaker 1: competitor Salieri, confessed to murdering him before trying to kill himself.

141
00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,160
Speaker 1: And I have Amadeus coming on my netlick a few soon,

142
00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,480
Speaker 1: so I'm lucky to find out more about this little

143
00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:30,640
Speaker 1: theory in a few days. I guess this doesn't happen, though,

144
00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:32,920
Speaker 1: according to the men who were there with them, But

145
00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:37,160
Speaker 1: people believe it, partly because they've believed it all along.

146
00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:40,839
Speaker 1: Salieri was one of the leading composers of his day.

147
00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:43,360
Speaker 1: He was a favorite of Joseph the second, and we

148
00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:46,880
Speaker 1: all know what royal favor means, influence and lots of

149
00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,679
Speaker 1: perks that you can use against your professional enemies. A

150
00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:54,720
Speaker 1: contemporary called him quote a clever shrewd man possessed of

151
00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:59,760
Speaker 1: what Bacon called crooked wisdom unquote, and Mozart was definitely

152
00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: his rival, so Saliari tries to sabotage him when he can,

153
00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:08,360
Speaker 1: and took away patrons and theaters and possibly even disrupted

154
00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:12,360
Speaker 1: a performance of Figaro. But that was professionally, and we

155
00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:16,040
Speaker 1: should make that distinction because personally it seems like they

156
00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,600
Speaker 1: were pretty okay with each other, right remember the letter

157
00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:22,760
Speaker 1: about him yelling Bravo after accompanying Mozart to that performance

158
00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,199
Speaker 1: of the Magic Flute. And you know, they lent each

159
00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,520
Speaker 1: other scores from their libraries, and they did have to

160
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,800
Speaker 1: interact in social situations, and it's not like they were

161
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:35,040
Speaker 1: standing on opposite sides of the room sharks and jets.

162
00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:38,960
Speaker 1: You know, they were saying hello. And he also followed

163
00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:41,800
Speaker 1: the coffin, as we mentioned, and later taught one of

164
00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 1: Mozart's sons. And if Constanza had thought that he was

165
00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,400
Speaker 1: the killer, surely she would not have let that happen. Regardless,

166
00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:52,000
Speaker 1: though at a performance of the Nine Symphony in eight

167
00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:56,600
Speaker 1: four leaflets are handed out accusing Saliari of the crime,

168
00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,960
Speaker 1: and because the rumor has really only picked up steam

169
00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:04,480
Speaker 1: since then, very cruel intentions. But we get a rebuttal

170
00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:08,240
Speaker 1: almost immediately. A friend publishes a letter from a doctor

171
00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,679
Speaker 1: who was a friend of Mozart's doctor telephone medical history

172
00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:14,960
Speaker 1: Taliso polluted there but saying that plenty of people were

173
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,560
Speaker 1: sick with rheumatic fever and vienna at the time. And

174
00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,000
Speaker 1: then the men with him in his last days said

175
00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:23,440
Speaker 1: that the confession story was just made up. Saliari never

176
00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:28,200
Speaker 1: confessed murdering Mozart, but the damage had already been done.

177
00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,280
Speaker 1: And of course that's how we think of him today,

178
00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:34,480
Speaker 1: not as this great composer and the teacher of Beethoven,

179
00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:37,480
Speaker 1: Schubert en Liszt, but as the man who might have

180
00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:41,199
Speaker 1: poisoned Mozart. And since we based so much of this

181
00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,240
Speaker 1: on Mozart's own beliefs about his health, about you know,

182
00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:48,480
Speaker 1: thinking he was being poisoned, could there be another explanation,

183
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,000
Speaker 1: you know, perhaps he was just tired and overworked and

184
00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,880
Speaker 1: got a little paranoid and working for five years old. Well,

185
00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:57,560
Speaker 1: he's a genius, so he gets excuses for that sort

186
00:10:57,559 --> 00:11:01,160
Speaker 1: of thing. German music historian Herman Appert referred to his

187
00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:06,320
Speaker 1: quote morbidly over stimulated emotional state end quote and you know,

188
00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,880
Speaker 1: if your Mozart, you can you can be a little overstimulated.

189
00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:13,200
Speaker 1: But still we've we've got to remember that his wife

190
00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:17,160
Speaker 1: does always insist that Mozart was poisoned. So does his

191
00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,560
Speaker 1: son to Carl, So the family is on the poisoning side.

192
00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,800
Speaker 1: Oh but Sarah, there's there's a totally different thing that

193
00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:28,079
Speaker 1: we haven't covered yet. And best of all, maybe he

194
00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:32,640
Speaker 1: was murdered by Freemasons, which is something that persists to

195
00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:36,959
Speaker 1: this day. So Mozart became a Mason in seventeen eighty four,

196
00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:41,240
Speaker 1: and even then, or especially then, the Freemasons were regarded

197
00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:44,920
Speaker 1: with suspicion by both rulers and the people. But he

198
00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,959
Speaker 1: wrote many pieces for the Masons. And it's believed that

199
00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,640
Speaker 1: the Magic Flute is the most famous, the one that's

200
00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:53,200
Speaker 1: most loaded with meaning. So if you are writing the

201
00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:57,040
Speaker 1: Magic Flute for someone, why would they kill you as

202
00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:01,280
Speaker 1: a sacrifice, Sarah, as a sacrifice. Or they were punishing

203
00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,840
Speaker 1: him for telling Mason's secrets in the Magic Flute, or

204
00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:07,440
Speaker 1: they were punishing him for not telling enough about the

205
00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:13,640
Speaker 1: Masons magic my favorite. They depends and some of the

206
00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:18,400
Speaker 1: proponents of the Freemason idea were also anti Semites, so

207
00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,000
Speaker 1: they said, perhaps it was a Jew. As we have

208
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,240
Speaker 1: seen in history, the Jewish people were often implicated in

209
00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:28,280
Speaker 1: schemes in which they had no part. So will we

210
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:32,200
Speaker 1: ever know why the start died? If, if he was murdered,

211
00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:35,559
Speaker 1: who killed him, what exactly happened? We can't exoom Sarah.

212
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,160
Speaker 1: We can't because he's buried in that mass grave, so

213
00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:41,360
Speaker 1: we can't dig him up. But stories like this appear

214
00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:44,240
Speaker 1: a lot in the news, These these stories about how

215
00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,720
Speaker 1: did someone die? What really happened? I've seen too. I

216
00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:50,080
Speaker 1: saw one about ed Garland poem, one about Jane Austen

217
00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,280
Speaker 1: the other day. What that final illness was? When we

218
00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:57,240
Speaker 1: did our our medici episode not that long, the feuding journals,

219
00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:01,040
Speaker 1: medical journals. But of course, why does it matter to us?

220
00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,480
Speaker 1: And I've got a quote from an article by Daniel J.

221
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,160
Speaker 1: Waken in The New York Times. The very idea that

222
00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:10,240
Speaker 1: remarkable individuals who gave life so much beauty could be

223
00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:14,199
Speaker 1: brought down by ordinary physical ailments, particularly diseases that are

224
00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:19,000
Speaker 1: now easily treatable, is inherently fascinating. That perception makes people

225
00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:22,040
Speaker 1: of genius seem closer to us. And I think he

226
00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,680
Speaker 1: has something there definitely, and of course people always like

227
00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:28,360
Speaker 1: a good conspiracy story and for more of that, you

228
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:31,560
Speaker 1: should check out one of our video podcast stuff They

229
00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:33,280
Speaker 1: Don't Want You To Know. I was watching one on

230
00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:36,320
Speaker 1: Pope John Paul the First and his Mysterious Stuff the

231
00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,600
Speaker 1: other day. We should also thank one of our music

232
00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:42,520
Speaker 1: podcasters from a podcast from the past, Stuff from the

233
00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:46,640
Speaker 1: b Side, John Fuller, for suggesting this topic, which it's

234
00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,760
Speaker 1: good to have. Folks looking out for cool musical history

235
00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:53,120
Speaker 1: topics for you well, and we like accepting your topic

236
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:56,240
Speaker 1: ideas and email history podcast at how stuff works dot

237
00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:59,079
Speaker 1: com that a quicker way to get to us is

238
00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:02,720
Speaker 1: probably through Twitter feed at missed in History or our

239
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,560
Speaker 1: Facebook fan page because we can respond to you in

240
00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:08,360
Speaker 1: real time. And if you'd like to learn a bit

241
00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:11,840
Speaker 1: more about geniuses like Mozart, you should check out our

242
00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:14,800
Speaker 1: article how Geniuses Work, which you can search for on

243
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:22,200
Speaker 1: our homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com

244
00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:24,680
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics because

245
00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:32,480
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com