Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Stoicism has become a popular topic today for entertainers, executives,
Speaker 1: and people who feel out of control of their lives.
Speaker 1: Stoicism can be an anchor to help them get through
Speaker 1: the day. It teaches them to focus on what they
Speaker 1: can directly control. But it's not a new concept. In fact,
Speaker 1: stoicism dates all the way back to ancient Greece. When
Speaker 1: we think of the ancient Stoic philosophers such as Marcus
Speaker 1: Aurelius or epic Us, we imagine serious thinkers, men and
Speaker 1: women who pondered the great questions of the universe and
Speaker 1: wrote long treatises on how to navigate life. What we
Speaker 1: don't imagine is their sense of humor, and that's because
Speaker 1: they didn't write about it. Plato wrote a paragraph about
Speaker 1: humor here and there, usually in the midst of discussing
Speaker 1: another topic entirely, but he shunned laughter. He considered it,
Speaker 1: in his words, a certain kind of evil. But not
Speaker 1: everyone felt that way. In fact, one philosopher loved to laugh,
Speaker 1: maybe a bit too much. His name was Chrysippus, born
Speaker 1: in two se b C in a part of the
Speaker 1: world that is now present day Turkey. But Chrysippus didn't
Speaker 1: start out as a philosopher. You see, when he was younger,
Speaker 1: his lean frame made him a formidable long distance runner.
Speaker 1: Over time, he endured some hardships in life, such as
Speaker 1: the loss of property that he inherited from his father,
Speaker 1: which was claimed by the king. With little to his name,
Speaker 1: Chrysippus moved to Athens to study under the tutelage of
Speaker 1: Stoic philosopher Cleanthes. He be came a true student of Stoicism,
Speaker 1: learning as much as he could and even teaching the
Speaker 1: philosophy to himself. He became an expert, and upon Cleanthe's death,
Speaker 1: it was Chrysippus who took his place at the head
Speaker 1: of the Stoic school in two thirty BC. On top
Speaker 1: of his ambitious educational regimen, he also wrote at least
Speaker 1: five hundred lines of work each day Throughout his lifetime,
Speaker 1: Chrysippus authored over seven hundred texts, never afraid to play
Speaker 1: devil's advocates or occasionally plagiarized the works of his contemporaries. Sadly,
Speaker 1: very little remains of his body of work. Only about
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy five fragments still exist, but his
Speaker 1: influence on stoicism can still be felt to this day.
Speaker 1: For example, he believed that living a happy life was
Speaker 1: the equivalent of living a virtuous life, and that vice
Speaker 1: led to unhappiness. And when it came to stoicism, the
Speaker 1: buck stopped with Chrysippus. But he wasn't just all about
Speaker 1: serious writings and debates. He also enjoyed having a good time.
Speaker 1: When he was seventy three years old, for example, Chrysippus
Speaker 1: attended the one forty three Olympiad, a four year period
Speaker 1: where athletes competed in various games of strength and skill.
Speaker 1: The Olympiad is where our modern Summer Olympics come from.
Speaker 1: At some point during this Olympiad, Chrysippus caught a donkey
Speaker 1: eating his figs. The site tickled him so much that
Speaker 1: he broke out into a laughing fit. He shouted, now
Speaker 1: give the donkey a pure wine to wash down the figs.
Speaker 1: The laughter continued until he collapsed, still laughing, after which
Speaker 1: he seized and began foaming at the mouth. By the
Speaker 1: time the incident was over, Chrysippus had died. It was
Speaker 1: believed that he had died from laughter, a strange concept,
Speaker 1: but not entirely unfounded. In the fifth century BC, another
Speaker 1: man met a similar fate. His name was Xusis, a
Speaker 1: painter from Greece who had been working on a painting
Speaker 1: of Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, except rather than depict her,
Speaker 1: as most did, a beautiful young woman, he chose to
Speaker 1: go a different route. Zusis painted Aphrodite as an old hag,
Speaker 1: an act that caused him to break out into spontaneous,
Speaker 1: uncontrollable laughter. Well. As with Chrysippus, Zeusis died mid laugh,
Speaker 1: and those who found him believe that he had been
Speaker 1: punished by the gods for what he had done. But
Speaker 1: did these men really die from laughing too hard? Well,
Speaker 1: it's possible. It's a real condition called laughter induced syncope,
Speaker 1: and it's caused by a rapid decrease in blood pressure.
Speaker 1: Usually the person merely passes out, but sometimes the patients
Speaker 1: actually dies. There was even a case of laughter induced
Speaker 1: syncope when a sixty two year old man died laughing
Speaker 1: during an episode of the TV show Seinfeld. It's certainly
Speaker 1: a scary thought that a well timed joke or a
Speaker 1: funny story could be a case of life and death.
Speaker 1: But I will say this, whoever coined the phrase laughter
Speaker 1: is the best medicine probably should have consulted a doctor first.
Speaker 1: The modern conveniences that we'd enjoyed today had to start somewhere. Automobiles, smartphones,
Speaker 1: and televisions started as clunky, complicated contraptions, but have evolved
Speaker 1: over generations in the core parts of our daily lives. However,
Speaker 1: one technology hasn't changed much over the years because two
Speaker 1: brothers in eighteenth century France got it right the first
Speaker 1: time and didn't chicken out when it mattered most. Joseph
Speaker 1: Michelle and Jacques Eetagnier Montgolfier were born in the seventeen forties,
Speaker 1: five years apart. They were two of sixteen children, all
Speaker 1: part of a family that had made its fortune manufacturing
Speaker 1: paper since the mid fifteen hundreds. Joseph, the older of
Speaker 1: the two brothers, had grand ideas for how his life
Speaker 1: should go. He was an inventor at heart, but lacked
Speaker 1: a business oriented mind. He wasn't good with money either. Jacques,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, was the opposite. He was the
Speaker 1: rational brother who had planned on becoming an architect, that
Speaker 1: is until their oldest sibling, Raymond, passed away, forcing Jacques
Speaker 1: to take over the paper company instead, and Jacques brought
Speaker 1: the company into the modern age with cutting edge advancements
Speaker 1: adapted from the Dutch, who were making serious strides in
Speaker 1: the science of paper production. Joseph, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: had his head in the clouds. Literally. When he was
Speaker 1: thirty five, the aspiring inventor made his own parachute, which
Speaker 1: he tested himself by jumping off the roof of his house. However,
Speaker 1: it was clean laundry that gave him a glimpse at
Speaker 1: what was aeronautically possible. He had been sitting in front
Speaker 1: of a fire a fresh load of laundry strung over
Speaker 1: the flames to dry, when he noticed how the warm
Speaker 1: air filled the fabrics. Catching the hot air, they filled
Speaker 1: and lifted like sails on a ship. Joseph believed that
Speaker 1: the smoke was what caused them to rise specifically a
Speaker 1: gas inside the smoke. He dubbed it the Montoulfaire gas.
Speaker 1: The side of the cloth reminded Joseph of the stories
Speaker 1: of Gibraltar, whose fortified city was all but impenetrable. Enemies
Speaker 1: approaching could not breach a single gate nor scale its walls.
Speaker 1: He imagined soldiers floating over head instead, attacking from above,
Speaker 1: hoisted by the powerful force of the Mount Goulfire gas.
Speaker 1: So Joseph set out to test his theory in seventeen
Speaker 1: two by building a three foot tall wooden box, topping
Speaker 1: it with a taffeta cover. He dropped a few pieces
Speaker 1: of crushed up paper and set them ablaze, and watched
Speaker 1: as the box floated upward on the heat. That was
Speaker 1: all he needed to see. He wrote a letter to
Speaker 1: his brother Jacques, urging him to purchase taffeta and rope
Speaker 1: in bulk. Together, the brothers produced a similar box, but
Speaker 1: three times as large as the first. They launched it
Speaker 1: into the air by igniting a pile of hay and
Speaker 1: wool that was inside the box. It drifted for some
Speaker 1: time before crash, landing a mile away by June of
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty three. Just a year later, the Mount Gulfaire
Speaker 1: Brothers had created something special. It wasn't a box anymore,
Speaker 1: but a balloon, a massive one made of sackcloth and
Speaker 1: coated with paper on the inside. Despite its rudimentary construction,
Speaker 1: the Mount Goulfire brothers version looked very similar to the
Speaker 1: hot air balloons we fly today, with a globe like
Speaker 1: shape on the top that narrowed down to a funnel
Speaker 1: towards the bottom. In front of a group of distinguished
Speaker 1: guests from all over France, the brothers demonstrated the balloon's
Speaker 1: capabilities in a maiden flight that covered a range of
Speaker 1: roughly one point two miles and reached a maximum altitude
Speaker 1: of just over six thousand feet, and it was a
Speaker 1: roaring success. Jacques started touring the country to showcase the
Speaker 1: balloon to other cities and officials, establishing the brothers as
Speaker 1: the Orville and Wilbur rights of their generation. But unmanned
Speaker 1: flights were only part of the equation. What people really
Speaker 1: wanted to see was a person piloting that balloon. After all,
Speaker 1: the true success of the invention was in whether it
Speaker 1: could transport people from one place to another, and so
Speaker 1: in September of that year, a new balloon was unveiled.
Speaker 1: This was made of tafata and covered in a chemical
Speaker 1: compound called alum, which helped it withstand the fire, and
Speaker 1: attached to the bottom was a large basket. King Louis
Speaker 1: the sixteen, unsure of whether a living creature would survive
Speaker 1: such a flight, suggested putting a few criminals inside it
Speaker 1: to test it. The brothers, though, took a different route.
Speaker 1: They instead loaded the balloon with a rooster, a duck,
Speaker 1: and a sheep. Why well, to understand it, you have
Speaker 1: to think like an eighteenth century European. The duck could
Speaker 1: already fly, so it was chosen as a control subject,
Speaker 1: while the rooster, which almost never flew, would be observed
Speaker 1: in relation to the duck, and the sheep was selected
Speaker 1: due to the belief that its physiology was similar to
Speaker 1: that of a human. On September nineteen seventy three, at
Speaker 1: the Palace of Versailles, Jacques and Joseph sent the tiny
Speaker 1: Noah's Ark soaring into the blue. An audience of thousands
Speaker 1: came to witness the event. As dead, King Louis and
Speaker 1: the Queen Marie Antoinette. They watched the balloon take off
Speaker 1: at reach an altitude of fifteen hundred feet. They drifted
Speaker 1: for almost two miles before landing somewhere in the woods
Speaker 1: eight minutes after launch. The animals were fine, although probably
Speaker 1: traumatized by the incidents, but they paid the way for
Speaker 1: hum in trials, which began a few months later. From there,
Speaker 1: the sky literally was the limit. The Montgolfier brothers changed
Speaker 1: the world of aviation, that much is clear, and they
Speaker 1: did it by betting the farm on a sheep, a duck,
Speaker 1: and a rooster. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of 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 television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.