Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Picture the scene with me.
Speaker 2: It's midwinter nineteen eighteen. The hospital ward is packed this season,
Speaker 2: row upon row of ailing patients, light trembling, unable to
Speaker 2: raise their heads, their faces fixed, eyes glazed, caught between
Speaker 2: sleep and waking in an unnatural half dream state. Each
Speaker 2: suffers from a disease that doctors have not yet understood,
Speaker 2: encephalitis lethargica, or simply an illness concurrent with the influenza
Speaker 2: just beginning to sweep the globe. But this disease, el
Speaker 2: affecting between one and five million people worldwide, manifests differently
Speaker 2: intense sleepwalking, ocular disturbances, and a motor skill impairment. Many
Speaker 2: permanently developed Parkinson's like symptoms, and they call it the
Speaker 2: sleeping sickness, and it kills between ten to thirty percent
Speaker 2: of people infected. The first documented.
Speaker 1: Cases came in nineteen sixteen, when Saint Petersburg, Paris, and
Speaker 1: Vienna simultaneously reported an illness characterized by severe fatigue, fever,
Speaker 1: and a disturbing ability to stay awake. It was thought
Speaker 1: that refugees and soldiers of the Great War helped to
Speaker 1: spread the disease across Europe. As cases rose, health officials
Speaker 1: issued advisories that newspapers amplified, prompting the creation of isolation
Speaker 1: wards to contain the influx of patients suffering, and citywide quarantines,
Speaker 1: and naturally, the doctors were baffled, thinking that it might
Speaker 1: be influenza or meningitis. Some even believe that it was
Speaker 1: a form of mass psychiatric catatonia. Yet the profound lethargy,
Speaker 1: involuntary eye rolling, muscle rigidity, and tremors didn't point to
Speaker 1: any known illness, and so they prescribed what they could
Speaker 1: rest bromides and watchful care in the hospital. Into this
Speaker 1: confusion stepped Constantine von Econimo, a neurologist from the University
Speaker 1: of Vienna. His background in sleep research made him particularly
Speaker 1: adept at figuring out the problem of the epidemic. Through autopsies,
Speaker 1: he was able to discover inflammation of the basal ganglia,
Speaker 1: a region of the brain that regulates movement and behavior,
Speaker 1: causing tremors and difficulties in movement. Over the course of time,
Speaker 1: these acute symptoms progressed into a Parkinson's like chronic illness.
Speaker 1: Van Econimo published a series of studies on the disease,
Speaker 1: finally putting a name to it, the one I gave
Speaker 1: you earlier, Encephalitis lethargica. The work was crucial to not
Speaker 1: just understanding EL but also for future research into neuro
Speaker 1: infectious diseases in general. In the mid nineteen twenties, the
Speaker 1: influx of new cases had abruptly declined, and by the
Speaker 1: end of nineteen twenty seven it had virtually disappeared from
Speaker 1: hospital wards all over, and of course, many explanations were
Speaker 1: put forward for this decline in cases. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: possible that the population had acquired herd immunity, so the
Speaker 1: disease was finding it harder and harder to find a host.
Speaker 1: Another theory is that, like the Spanish influenza, it had mutated,
Speaker 1: creating less virulent strains. Many recovered, although one percent of
Speaker 1: patients did not, instead entering a chronic phase of the
Speaker 1: illness that lasted for years. Decades later, a small handful
Speaker 1: of these chronic sufferers remained in a catatonic sort of
Speaker 1: fugue state, unable to speak or move. At Beth Abraham
Speaker 1: Hospital in New York, a young neurologist named Oliver Sachs
Speaker 1: observed patients that seemed to exhibit the same basal ganglia
Speaker 1: condition that von Acanamo had first discovered. With more research
Speaker 1: at his back, he thought that perhaps the symptoms were
Speaker 1: caused by a deficiency of dopamine, a neurotransmitter of the works
Speaker 1: as a sort of chemical messenger in the body, and
Speaker 1: so he gave his patients a drug called Leveedopa to
Speaker 1: boost their dopamine. The results were almost instantaneous and absolutely shocking.
Speaker 1: Patients began waking up from the catatonia they had been
Speaker 1: experiencing four years. They were able to move, walk, speak,
Speaker 1: and express emotions. Although this was a temporary relief for
Speaker 1: sufferers of el a revolutionized treatment and advanced the field's
Speaker 1: understanding of dopamine's role in the brain. Years later, Sachs
Speaker 1: would publish a book on the experiments called Awakenings, which
Speaker 1: agreed with von Economo's studies, adding more modern information into
Speaker 1: the mix, and the book was even made into a
Speaker 1: famous film of the same name, starring Robin Williams as
Speaker 1: Oliver Sachs and Robert de Niro as one of his patients.
Speaker 1: The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars,
Speaker 1: scoring two statues for its writing and editing. The Sleeping
Speaker 1: sickness has not returned in any real scale, although there
Speaker 1: have been a number of scattered cases over the years
Speaker 1: that very much was zembled it and advances in imaging
Speaker 1: things like MRIs and pet scans now allow doctors to
Speaker 1: actually see how EL works on the brain in real
Speaker 1: time and try new medications to curb the possibility of
Speaker 1: long term effects. Scientists are also using modern virus detecting
Speaker 1: tools to hunt for any germs that may create a
Speaker 1: similar effect in the infected. Honestly, science is utterly amazing.
Speaker 1: Encephalitis lethargica stands as a singular, strange episode in modern
Speaker 1: medical history, a pandemic that disappeared almost as quickly as
Speaker 1: it arrived. Of course, scientists today are still trying to
Speaker 1: fully understand the disease that affected so many. Because illnesses
Speaker 1: may come and go, but as long as we have
Speaker 1: skilled and experienced scientists to protect us. All of us
Speaker 1: have hope. At the top of the page, the title
Speaker 1: Letter of Condolence is written in shaky black ink. Beneath
Speaker 1: it a short message explaining that your registration was approved.
Speaker 1: You're one of forty applicants chosen to participate in this race,
Speaker 1: hand selected out of thousands. The letter contains a set
Speaker 1: of coordinates which will require you to trek deep into
Speaker 1: the Appalachian wilderness, beyond the reach of any GPS signal,
Speaker 1: with no idea if you're going in the right direction,
Speaker 1: and that's just to get to the starting line. It
Speaker 1: may sound intense, but that's just what it's like for
Speaker 1: the runners of the Barkley Marathons, the world's most mysterious
Speaker 1: ultra marathon. Now, the word ultra marathon might sound redundant.
Speaker 1: After all, running a marathon is an impressive feat all
Speaker 1: on its own, but an ultra marathon, which refers to
Speaker 1: any race longer than twenty six point two miles, is
Speaker 1: more of an extreme sport. Barkley's Marathons were created by
Speaker 1: a lifelong runner named Lazarus, whose real name is Gary Cantrell.
Speaker 1: It was created in partnership with a group of his
Speaker 1: running buddies. But I have to tell you the origins
Speaker 1: of the race are a lot darker than one might expect.
Speaker 1: The story begins with a failed prison escape. James Earl Ray,
Speaker 1: the man convicted of assassinating doctor Martin Luther King, Junior,
Speaker 1: was held in a Memphis prison after his arrest in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight. But James Earl Ray escaped prison almost
Speaker 1: ten years later for a total of fifty four hours.
Speaker 1: Over the course of those fifty four hours, though, he
Speaker 1: covered eight miles of wilderness before being recaptured. And this
Speaker 1: is where the dark part of the story comes in.
Speaker 1: Because doctor King was a civil rights visionary and legend,
Speaker 1: and rather than lament his killer's escape, Gary Kentrell and
Speaker 1: his friends allegedly laughed about it. One man even said
Speaker 1: that eight miles was a pathetic amount of distance to
Speaker 1: run when you'd escaped prison, especially in fifty four hours.
Speaker 1: And Gary Cantrell himself well, he argued that in that
Speaker 1: time through the same wilderness he could run one hundred
Speaker 1: and from there. Gary Cantrell charted a rough path one loop,
Speaker 1: roughly twenty miles long, through uncharted at Balacha, covering dense brush,
Speaker 1: rocky inclines, and even a mountain trek. Contestants would complete
Speaker 1: the twenty ish mile loop five times for an approximate
Speaker 1: total of one hundred miles. With a cutoff time of
Speaker 1: sixty hours, runners would risk exposure wild animals, sleep deprivation, dehydration,
Speaker 1: and most significantly, going off course. In twenty seventeen, for example,
Speaker 1: runner Gary Robbins missed the sixty hour cutoff time by
Speaker 1: less than a minute after getting lost on his final lap,
Speaker 1: and in two thousand and six, one contestant became lost
Speaker 1: only two miles into the race and spent thirty two
Speaker 1: hours in the wilderness trying to find his way back.
Speaker 1: Since Barkley's marathons take place in protected forests and parks,
Speaker 1: spectators are not allowed on the course and strongly discouraged
Speaker 1: even at the start or finish line. In fact, the
Speaker 1: twenty mile course has only two water stations, and most
Speaker 1: contestants never find either of them. Each lap begins and
Speaker 1: ends at a yellow trail gate, where Lazarus waits to
Speaker 1: document each runner's time. Some runners nap for about twenty
Speaker 1: minutes after each loop, the only rest they get during
Speaker 1: the entire sixty hour race. The race also forbids the
Speaker 1: use of GPS. Instead, runners must use their own hand
Speaker 1: drawn maps made from Cantrell's description of the route, which
Speaker 1: often includes sections named ratjaw or meat grinder. By now,
Speaker 1: you might be starting to see why Cantrell calls the
Speaker 1: registration tickets a letter of condolence. But how does anyone
Speaker 1: know if a runner actually completes the course if no
Speaker 1: one is around to watch. Well, every few miles, Cantrell
Speaker 1: places books somewhere along the route. At the start of
Speaker 1: each twenty mile loop, Cantrell assigns runners a new page
Speaker 1: number they must collect from each book to prove they've
Speaker 1: completed the planned course. And I know that in theory
Speaker 1: that might not sound hard, but remember that these races
Speaker 1: don't take place on a trail. The Barkley Marathons require
Speaker 1: runners to complete the full course with almost no idea
Speaker 1: if they're even on the right track. You might not
Speaker 1: be surprised to hear that most years no one finishes
Speaker 1: the race at all, and Cantrell says that's just fine
Speaker 1: with him. He knows that the event attracts the most
Speaker 1: elite athletes and thinks failure is an important part of
Speaker 1: their growth. As runners and as people. Twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: is race set the record with the grand total of
Speaker 1: five finishers. Two of the finishers had completed the race
Speaker 1: in past years, but the most notable of the group
Speaker 1: was Jasmine Paris. Jasmine became the first woman to complete
Speaker 1: the race, finishing ninety nine seconds before.
Speaker 2: The cutoff time.
Speaker 1: For most of us, this whole race probably sounds like
Speaker 1: a nightmare, But if you're someone who's got what it
Speaker 1: takes to run of Barkley's Marathon, the story might sound
Speaker 1: like the challenge you've been looking for. And if you
Speaker 1: do decide to sign up for the race, may I
Speaker 1: offer you my own condolences. I hope you enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was
Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 1: researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
Speaker 1: the people who make it oh. If you're at Grimandmild
Speaker 1: dot com slash Curiosities, you'll also find a link to
Speaker 1: the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores
Speaker 1: and online as well as ebook and audiobook. And if
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Speaker 1: stay curious.