1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,800 Speaker 1: For a certain part of the population, nothing says childhood 7 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: nostalgia like Saturday Morning cartoons. Most of us have fond 8 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: memories of pouring a big bowl of cereal, sitting in 9 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 1: front of the TV, and watching our favorite shows. For 10 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: many kids of the early sixties, that Saturday morning ritual 11 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: was centered around a flying squirrel and his moose. Best friend. 12 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: Rocky and Bullwinkle was a cartoon created by Ward that 13 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,480 Speaker 1: chronicled the exploits of Rocky, a flying squirrel, and the 14 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:09,039 Speaker 1: moronic moose Bullwinkle. The show was characterized by zeny humor 15 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: and wordplay, poking fun at American politics and anti communist sensibilities. However, 16 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:19,039 Speaker 1: creator Jay Ward never expected his little show to land 17 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,039 Speaker 1: him in the middle of a real life Cold War crisis. 18 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:25,759 Speaker 1: In an early episode of the show, Bullwinkle takes Rocky 19 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: to visit his home, a tiny island right on the 20 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:33,960 Speaker 1: Canadian border called Musylvania, damp, cold, and with no permanent population. 21 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:38,280 Speaker 1: Neither the US nor Canada wants to Claimmusylvania as their own, 22 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:42,760 Speaker 1: leaving Bullwinkle as its governor. After the episode aired, fan 23 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: mail came in from across the country begging to visit 24 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: the real Musylvania, which gave creator Jay Ward a great idea. 25 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty two, Jay asked his publicist Howard Brandy 26 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: for help with the scheme to drum up publicity for 27 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:00,120 Speaker 1: the next season of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Phase one, they 28 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: would lease a small island in a lake on the 29 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: Canadian border. Phase two, they would travel around the country 30 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:10,360 Speaker 1: gathering signatures and support. Phase three, they would petition President 31 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: John F. Kennedy to annex the island from Canada and 32 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:19,679 Speaker 1: Makemosylvania America's fifty first state. Howard immediately said yes. Once 33 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: the island was leased, Jay and Howard loaded into a 34 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: multicolored van and set out on the campaign trail. At 35 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 1: each stop, Jay and Howard rolled into town while blasting 36 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: circus music. They would give grand speeches about how the 37 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: residents of Musylvania, who need I remind you did not exist, 38 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: were sick of being passed over for other territories like 39 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: Alaska and Hawaii. They laid out some of the finer 40 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: tenants of the Musylvania Manifesto, like how Musylvania demanded aid 41 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: from the United States to the tune of exactly eighteen 42 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:55,799 Speaker 1: billion dollars and four cents. Then they would encourage residents 43 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: to sign a petition for statehood to be delivered to 44 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 1: the White House. After stopping in over fifty cities, driving 45 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: thousands of miles, and collecting more signatures than they could count, 46 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,360 Speaker 1: the big day had finally arrived. On October twenty seventh 47 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:13,240 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty two, Jay Ward and Howard Brandy arrived 48 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: at the White House. Jay was in rare form, blasting 49 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,240 Speaker 1: silly music and dressed in a Napoleon costume. When he 50 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,920 Speaker 1: was stopped at the gate by Secret Service, he declared 51 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: that they were there to see President Kennedy to petition 52 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: him for Musylvania statehood. When he was asked to leave, 53 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 1: he replied that he would not, as of course, he 54 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: had diplomatic immunity. To Jay's surprise, this caused the Secret 55 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: Service agent to pull out his gun. You see, what 56 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: Jay and Howard didn't know is that they had picked 57 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: the worst possible day to show up unannounced at the 58 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: White House. Just a few days earlier, on October fourteenth 59 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty two, an American spy plane had spotted 60 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: nuclear missile sites hidden in Cuba. This had kicked off 61 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: the Cuban Missile Crisis, thirteen of the tensest days in 62 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: American history. At that very moment, moment, America was as 63 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: close as it had ever been to a full scale 64 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: nuclear war with Russia. What's worse, that very morning, an 65 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: American pilot was shot down and killed over Cuba. As 66 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: Jay and Howard rolled up to the White House gates 67 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:18,039 Speaker 1: to demand statehood for Musylvania, President Kennedy was weighing whether 68 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:21,840 Speaker 1: to declare war. The Secret Service sent Jay and Howard packing, 69 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 1: much to Jay's disappointment, as he later said he thought 70 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,960 Speaker 1: that President Kennedy had a sense of humor. It wasn't 71 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: until after they left that they learned just how serious 72 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: the situation was. The crisis was resolved peacefully the next day, 73 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,359 Speaker 1: when the US promised to remove missiles from Turkey and 74 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: the Soviets promised to do the same in Cuba. For 75 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: their part, Jay and Howard never did get Mussylvania declared 76 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: the fifty first state, and in all honesty, maybe it's 77 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: better they didn't. The country had just survived the Cuban 78 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: missile crisis. With j Ward's sense of humor, it wouldn't 79 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: be long before he declared a musil crisis of his own. 80 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: If you've spent any time with jigsaw puzzles, you know 81 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: the satisfaction that comes from the last piece falling into place, 82 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: and you may also have experienced that uniquely horrible frustration 83 00:05:22,279 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: that comes when it doesn't, When you reach into the 84 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,680 Speaker 1: box and find that the final piece is missing. This 85 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,279 Speaker 1: discovery is usually followed by a frantic search. You check 86 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: the floor, under the couch, inside the cushions, the pockets 87 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:38,359 Speaker 1: of your hoodie. You wonder if your dog ate it, 88 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: or if some psychopath walked off with the final piece 89 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,279 Speaker 1: just to torment you. But in the end, the reason 90 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:47,719 Speaker 1: it's gone doesn't matter. The puzzle is incomplete, and from 91 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: now on you will be too. Okay, maybe that's a 92 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: bit dramatic, but it's hard to deny that there's something 93 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,760 Speaker 1: about the human mind that gravitates toward puzzles and hates 94 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:00,320 Speaker 1: leaving them unfinished. Well in nineteen twelve, that in distinct 95 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: drove the German scientist Alfred Wigner to look at a 96 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,840 Speaker 1: model globe and see something no one else had. He 97 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: realized that the continent's edges fit together, suggesting that they 98 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 1: had once been part of a single land mass. Geologists 99 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: now refer to this sea shaped super continent as Pangaea. 100 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: In our planet's early history, it comprised virtually all of 101 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:23,920 Speaker 1: the land on Earth, but around two hundred million years ago, 102 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 1: shifting tectonic plates caused the land mass to split apart 103 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: into the continents that we have today. It's taken a 104 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: lot of work, but geologists now have a pretty accurate 105 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 1: picture of how it all fit together. This knowledge has 106 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:41,520 Speaker 1: ramifications for countless other fields, explaining things about the Earth's climate, 107 00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: biodiversity of plant and animal life, and where ore deposits exist. 108 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 1: So it would seem that scientists have completed the puzzle, 109 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: so to speak, But for decades there was one glaring problem, 110 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:55,839 Speaker 1: a missing piece. It seemed that there was a continent 111 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 1: roughly the width of the United States that was nowhere 112 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,320 Speaker 1: to be found. You know, it existed due to a 113 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: massive underwater basin off the northwestern shore of Australia. This 114 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: basin is called the Argo Abyssle Plane, and it led 115 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: geologists to dub the missing continent our Goland. They believe 116 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:15,560 Speaker 1: that around one hundred and fifty five million years ago, 117 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:18,560 Speaker 1: our Goland broke off from the super continent and drifted 118 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: toward modern Southeast Asia. At that point, it seems to 119 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: have vanished. And that's a massive problem because if continents 120 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,920 Speaker 1: can simply disappear, it undermines everything we know about Pangaea 121 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:34,640 Speaker 1: and plate tectonics. That's why around twenty sixteen, a team 122 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,040 Speaker 1: of Dutch researchers embarked on an expedition to find the 123 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: lost continent. They initially wondered if the continent had sunk 124 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: beneath the ocean. If that were true, they expected to 125 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: find it beneath the islands of Southeast Asia, but it 126 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: wasn't there. Next, they considered whether another continent could have 127 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: slid on top of our Goland, burying it beneath the 128 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: Earth's crust. That's what happened to Greater Adria, an ancient 129 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: continent that now lies underneath the Europe, but based on 130 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:03,800 Speaker 1: the available evidence, it didn't seem to be the case 131 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: for our Goland. The team didn't give up, though. For 132 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: seven years they tested rock samples from around the world, 133 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 1: and in twenty twenty three they announced a groundbreaking discovery. 134 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: Our Goland didn't sink beneath the waves or into the 135 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:21,440 Speaker 1: Earth's mantle. Instead, it broke up into countless smaller fragments 136 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: that eventually got folded in with other land masses. The 137 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: team found pieces of the lost continent scattered throughout the 138 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: jungles of Indonesia and Mayanmar, which means that the final 139 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: puzzle piece has been found. We can all rest a 140 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 1: bit easier knowing that the bedrock theories of modern geology 141 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: are still in place. Scientists can still reasonably construct what 142 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:45,080 Speaker 1: the Earth looked like in the distant past, and ironically 143 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:47,840 Speaker 1: that knowledge can help them predict what it will look 144 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:51,720 Speaker 1: like in the future. Because the continents are still shifting. 145 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 1: Instead of drifting apart, they're pulling closer together. Eventually they 146 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: will reform into a new supercontinent, and like Pangaea, that 147 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 1: future land masks will eventually break up all over again, 148 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 1: although what happens after that is a puzzle for another day. 149 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 150 00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:19,440 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 151 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 152 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,679 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership 153 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 154 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:35,120 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, 155 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the 156 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:43,959 Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.