1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,159 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: Ancient gods are more than just superstitions. They reflect how 7 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,560 Speaker 1: people of the past felt about the lands they lived in. 8 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: The terror of a thunderstorm, the shock of an earthquake, 9 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,599 Speaker 1: the beauty of a sunset. These things are just as 10 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: impressive to us now as they were to ancient peoples. 11 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: When you're as small as a human being, the sheer 12 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: power of nature cannot help but feel divine. Take the 13 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: land of Hawaii. This chain of islands would not exist 14 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 1: if not for volcanic activity, and by the time people 15 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:11,760 Speaker 1: settled there, it's unsurprising that the volcano would become a 16 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: fixation of their mythology. Literally and figuratively. Volcanoes towered over 17 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: their lives, and no one knew when an eruption might 18 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: consume a village. Nobody in the Hawaiian pantheon is as 19 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: beloved and feared in equal measures. As Pele, the goddess 20 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: of volcanoes, she lives in the heat of Mount Kilauea, 21 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:35,400 Speaker 1: a volcano that remains active to this day. According to 22 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: Hawaiian orld tradition, Peley came from Tahiti in search of 23 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: a home. Her journey mirrors that of many Polynesian peoples 24 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,680 Speaker 1: traveling across the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Peley 25 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: was pursued by her older sister, the Goddess of the Sea. 26 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: She settled on the furthest Hawaiian island, Ni, how but 27 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: her sister extinguished her flame, so she continued east from 28 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,480 Speaker 1: island to island until she created a volcano soap powerful 29 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: that the sea could not put it out. Pay's nature 30 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: is a volatile one. Like many deities, she is both 31 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: a creator and a destroyer. Volcanic soil is extremely fertile, 32 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: but eruptions lay waste to countless acres, causing sweeping wildfires, 33 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: destroying plants, animals, and people alike. Kilawe has most recent 34 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 1: eruptions paused in August of twenty twenty five, but it's 35 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: still very much an active volcano. Of all the gods 36 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: and goddesses of the ancient world. Peay is one of 37 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: the few whose power is still alive, still worth fearing. 38 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: It's an impressive example of how culture follows the patterns 39 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: of the natural world. But that doesn't mean that humans 40 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: have no power in redefining a goddess. There's a specific 41 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,519 Speaker 1: legend about Pele one you will hear if you ever 42 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,080 Speaker 1: visit Volcano's National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. 43 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: It comes in the form of a warning. If anyone 44 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: takes any lava rocks from the national park, you will 45 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: invoke Pea's curse and bad luck will follow you back 46 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:02,519 Speaker 1: to the mainland. Like many classic superstitions, it's not hard 47 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:05,640 Speaker 1: to find anecdotes that speak to its existence. The stories 48 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: go like this, a non Hawaiian tourist comes to the 49 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: mainland to escape from the drudgery and stress of their 50 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,480 Speaker 1: daily life. While visiting the Big Island, they take a 51 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:17,920 Speaker 1: bus tour up to Volcanoes National Park. Awed by the 52 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: majesty of the twin volcanoes Kilauea and Mount Alona, they 53 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,359 Speaker 1: want to take a souvenir of the experience. Maybe it's 54 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 1: just a single volcanic rock or a small bottle of 55 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: black sand, nothing that a park ranger will notice, of course, 56 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: but upon coming home, their life will be in shambles. 57 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: Maybe they will lose their job, or perhaps a long 58 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 1: term relationship will collapse, or their finances will crumble. Whatever 59 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: the outcome might be, all these stories end the same, 60 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:49,240 Speaker 1: with the unlucky individual mailing their souvenir back to Hawaii 61 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: with an apology attached. Park rangers continue to receive letters 62 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: from repentant tourists. They estimate that thousands of pounds of 63 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:02,080 Speaker 1: volcanic rocks and sand are returned every year. Regularly a 64 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: ranger will take a supply of debris and dump it 65 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 1: back in the park. It's become a crucial, if irritating 66 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: part of working at the volcano's National Park, and in 67 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: a way, it might actually be a problem they created 68 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: for themselves. You see. Hawaii Volcanos National Park was first 69 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: officially established in nineteen sixteen, one hundred and eleven years 70 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:27,480 Speaker 1: ago and eighteen years after the annexation of Hawaii. Sometime 71 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:29,760 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties, it's said that the locals who 72 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,839 Speaker 1: dealt with tourists grew frustrated with the disrespect that visitors 73 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: showed to the island, so the tour bus drivers began 74 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: spreading the story, saying that if you took a rock, 75 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: you would anger the goddess who lived in the crater. 76 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: Whether you believe in Pale's curse is up to you, 77 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: But a volcano doesn't care if you believe it or not. 78 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,040 Speaker 1: All it cares about is reshaping the world, one eruption 79 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: at a time, and that is the true power of Pele. 80 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: It's nineteen eighty nine and the US and the Soviet 81 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: Union are in the midst of the Cold War. As 82 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,039 Speaker 1: the war escalates and both sides start deploying more and 83 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: more nuclear submarines to keep tabs on one another, the 84 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 1: United States looks for any advantage it can get in 85 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: the deep seas. The nation uses a variety of listening 86 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:30,719 Speaker 1: devices throughout the Atlantic and Pacific to monitor for Russian submarines. 87 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: There are listening posts and ships that tow their own 88 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: listening devices, and hydrophones deep at the bottom of the ocean. 89 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:42,039 Speaker 1: Through a combination of these technologies, US forces detect a 90 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:46,280 Speaker 1: strange signal off the Pacific coast. It's at fifty two hertz, 91 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: the low end of human hearing. It almost sounds like whining, 92 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: a low, continuous cry for help, like a giant puppy crying. 93 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like any submarine they have ever heard before. 94 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:00,599 Speaker 1: A few years later, with the fall of the Soviet Union, 95 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,920 Speaker 1: the sound is finally declassified and taken to the Woods 96 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: Whole Oceanographic Institutes in Massachusetts. Marine scientist Bill Watkins studies 97 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: the sound and comes to one conclusion. It's a whale. 98 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,720 Speaker 1: At the time, this didn't make sense to scientists because 99 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: whales communicated frequencies even lower than fifty two hertz, which 100 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:23,839 Speaker 1: meant that this whale, whatever it was, was talking to 101 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: itself in a unique language. This was even sadder when 102 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: considering that its call was only detected during whale mating 103 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:35,040 Speaker 1: season from December to March. So it was a whale 104 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 1: speaking its own language, trying to find a mate and 105 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:41,920 Speaker 1: getting no response, and scientists continue to detect it year 106 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: after year. They were never able to actually lay eyes 107 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:48,719 Speaker 1: on it. And this isn't surprising, as its potential territory 108 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: is massive, covering hundreds of miles of ocean and significant depths. 109 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,320 Speaker 1: Military submarines can go about fifteen hundred meters down, while 110 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: some whales have been recorded at three thousand meters, but 111 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:03,919 Speaker 1: all that to say, the ocean is big, and actually 112 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: finding this whale would be like finding a needle in 113 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: a haystack. But its legend has only grown over the 114 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,560 Speaker 1: years as news stories about the whale permeated the media, 115 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: it came to be known as fifty two Blue and 116 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: inspired several popular songs, with people relating to its loneliness 117 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: and its persistence in looking for a mate. And while 118 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: a few of those songs have been mildly popular, the 119 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,440 Speaker 1: most recent is the twenty fifteen BTS song Whali in 120 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:33,720 Speaker 1: fifty two. In it, the Korean boy band sings about 121 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: how being mega celebrities isolates them like the whale, leaving 122 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: them all alone in the dark where they can't truly 123 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: connect with anyone. Ultimately, though, I think I feel more 124 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: sorry for the whale. But recent scientific development suggests that 125 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,360 Speaker 1: we might all be projecting way too much onto fifty 126 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: two Blue. Researchers have pointed out that just because other 127 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,760 Speaker 1: whales don't speak the same language doesn't mean they aren't 128 00:07:56,880 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 1: hearing it. They hear everything in their territory, and it's 129 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: possible that the other whales are able to communicate back 130 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: to Blue in other ways. It's even possible he has 131 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: a mate who just doesn't answer back at fifty two hurts. 132 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: And yes, scientists do know that Blue is a he 133 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: based on his vocal register, and further analysis of his 134 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: call has revealed something else important his potential species. It 135 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: seems likely that Blue is actually what's called a thin 136 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 1: blue hybrid, or a mix between a blue whale and 137 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: a fin whale. Blue whales are the longest whales, and 138 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 1: fin whales are the fastest and second longest, so fifty 139 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: two Blue might be quite large and quite dynamic in 140 00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: the water. This also might explain his unique call. These 141 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 1: hybrids are becoming better documented, and it's possible that Blue 142 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: was just ahead of his time. In fact, there was 143 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 1: a shocking development in twenty ten that gave all fifty 144 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:52,679 Speaker 1: two Blue fans hope. Scientists detected the fifty two hurt 145 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: signal at two very different places in the Pacific Ocean 146 00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,520 Speaker 1: at roughly the same time. This means that there is 147 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: potentially more than one fifty two Hurtz whale. We just 148 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:05,320 Speaker 1: haven't heard them at the same time as often as 149 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:08,080 Speaker 1: we have thought, But sadly there haven't been any double 150 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:12,080 Speaker 1: recordings ever since Overall, it doesn't hurt to be curious 151 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,880 Speaker 1: about this unique creature and where it comes from, but 152 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: ascribing human emotions and conditions to it isn't a great idea. 153 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 1: We have no clue what a whale's internal life is like, 154 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,520 Speaker 1: or what fifty two blues actual family situation is deep 155 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:30,200 Speaker 1: beneath the ocean. Curious fans of the whale might claim 156 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 1: to be worried about his loneliness, but often in their 157 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,480 Speaker 1: search for him, they reveal that they are a little 158 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: bit lonely as well. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 159 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,480 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 160 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 161 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:54,240 Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me 162 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:58,080 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make 163 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:01,680 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Life, which is a podcast, 164 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 165 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, 166 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:10,720 Speaker 1: stay curious.