WEBVTT - Misguided 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.320 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.840 Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.280 is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.720 right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:37.519 Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Picture the scene with me. 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:42.120 It's midwinter nineteen eighteen. The hospital ward is packed this season, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.159 row upon row of ailing patients, light trembling, unable to 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.680 raise their heads, their faces fixed, eyes glazed, caught between 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.120 sleep and waking in an unnatural half dream state. Each 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.280 suffers from a disease that doctors have not yet understood, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:03.360 encephalitis lethargica, or simply an illness concurrent with the influenza 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.000 just beginning to sweep the globe. But this disease, el 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.720 affecting between one and five million people worldwide, manifests differently 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:17.240 intense sleepwalking, ocular disturbances, and a motor skill impairment. Many 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.319 permanently developed Parkinson's like symptoms, and they call it the 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.760 sleeping sickness, and it kills between ten to thirty percent 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.120 of people infected. The first documented. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.280 Cases came in nineteen sixteen, when Saint Petersburg, Paris, and 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:36.160 Vienna simultaneously reported an illness characterized by severe fatigue, fever, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.720 and a disturbing ability to stay awake. It was thought 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.640 that refugees and soldiers of the Great War helped to 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.280 spread the disease across Europe. As cases rose, health officials 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.720 issued advisories that newspapers amplified, prompting the creation of isolation 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.559 wards to contain the influx of patients suffering, and citywide quarantines, 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.040 and naturally, the doctors were baffled, thinking that it might 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.520 be influenza or meningitis. Some even believe that it was 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:07.080 a form of mass psychiatric catatonia. Yet the profound lethargy, 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:11.400 involuntary eye rolling, muscle rigidity, and tremors didn't point to 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.600 any known illness, and so they prescribed what they could 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.520 rest bromides and watchful care in the hospital. Into this 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.880 confusion stepped Constantine von Econimo, a neurologist from the University 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.200 of Vienna. His background in sleep research made him particularly 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.200 adept at figuring out the problem of the epidemic. Through autopsies, 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.320 he was able to discover inflammation of the basal ganglia, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.679 a region of the brain that regulates movement and behavior, 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.880 causing tremors and difficulties in movement. Over the course of time, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.960 these acute symptoms progressed into a Parkinson's like chronic illness. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.080 Van Econimo published a series of studies on the disease, 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.440 finally putting a name to it, the one I gave 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.560 you earlier, Encephalitis lethargica. The work was crucial to not 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.920 just understanding EL but also for future research into neuro 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.880 infectious diseases in general. In the mid nineteen twenties, the 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.880 influx of new cases had abruptly declined, and by the 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.040 end of nineteen twenty seven it had virtually disappeared from 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.560 hospital wards all over, and of course, many explanations were 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.720 put forward for this decline in cases. Maybe it was 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.160 possible that the population had acquired herd immunity, so the 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.959 disease was finding it harder and harder to find a host. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.239 Another theory is that, like the Spanish influenza, it had mutated, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:30.320 creating less virulent strains. Many recovered, although one percent of 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.400 patients did not, instead entering a chronic phase of the 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.160 illness that lasted for years. Decades later, a small handful 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.200 of these chronic sufferers remained in a catatonic sort of 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.840 fugue state, unable to speak or move. At Beth Abraham 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.040 Hospital in New York, a young neurologist named Oliver Sachs 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.200 observed patients that seemed to exhibit the same basal ganglia 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.280 condition that von Acanamo had first discovered. With more research 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.560 at his back, he thought that perhaps the symptoms were 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.400 caused by a deficiency of dopamine, a neurotransmitter of the works 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.120 as a sort of chemical messenger in the body, and 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.160 so he gave his patients a drug called Leveedopa to 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:11.160 boost their dopamine. The results were almost instantaneous and absolutely shocking. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.320 Patients began waking up from the catatonia they had been 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.160 experiencing four years. They were able to move, walk, speak, 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.839 and express emotions. Although this was a temporary relief for 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:26.159 sufferers of el a revolutionized treatment and advanced the field's 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.359 understanding of dopamine's role in the brain. Years later, Sachs 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.839 would publish a book on the experiments called Awakenings, which 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.840 agreed with von Economo's studies, adding more modern information into 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:39.919 the mix, and the book was even made into a 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.120 famous film of the same name, starring Robin Williams as 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.200 Oliver Sachs and Robert de Niro as one of his patients. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.120 The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.080 scoring two statues for its writing and editing. The Sleeping 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.640 sickness has not returned in any real scale, although there 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.080 have been a number of scattered cases over the years 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.360 that very much was zembled it and advances in imaging 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.320 things like MRIs and pet scans now allow doctors to 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.440 actually see how EL works on the brain in real 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.520 time and try new medications to curb the possibility of 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.560 long term effects. Scientists are also using modern virus detecting 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.159 tools to hunt for any germs that may create a 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.960 similar effect in the infected. Honestly, science is utterly amazing. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.280 Encephalitis lethargica stands as a singular, strange episode in modern 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.400 medical history, a pandemic that disappeared almost as quickly as 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.560 it arrived. Of course, scientists today are still trying to 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.840 fully understand the disease that affected so many. Because illnesses 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.760 may come and go, but as long as we have 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.360 skilled and experienced scientists to protect us. All of us 0:05:46.000 --> 0:06:01.760 have hope. At the top of the page, the title 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.880 Letter of Condolence is written in shaky black ink. Beneath 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.400 it a short message explaining that your registration was approved. 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.880 You're one of forty applicants chosen to participate in this race, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.680 hand selected out of thousands. The letter contains a set 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.280 of coordinates which will require you to trek deep into 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.760 the Appalachian wilderness, beyond the reach of any GPS signal, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.360 with no idea if you're going in the right direction, 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.960 and that's just to get to the starting line. It 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.200 may sound intense, but that's just what it's like for 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.880 the runners of the Barkley Marathons, the world's most mysterious 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.800 ultra marathon. Now, the word ultra marathon might sound redundant. 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.680 After all, running a marathon is an impressive feat all 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.839 on its own, but an ultra marathon, which refers to 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.200 any race longer than twenty six point two miles, is 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:52.600 more of an extreme sport. Barkley's Marathons were created by 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.640 a lifelong runner named Lazarus, whose real name is Gary Cantrell. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.159 It was created in partnership with a group of his 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.800 running buddies. But I have to tell you the origins 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:04.640 of the race are a lot darker than one might expect. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.880 The story begins with a failed prison escape. James Earl Ray, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.320 the man convicted of assassinating doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.280 was held in a Memphis prison after his arrest in 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.000 nineteen sixty eight. But James Earl Ray escaped prison almost 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.240 ten years later for a total of fifty four hours. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.640 Over the course of those fifty four hours, though, he 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:28.520 covered eight miles of wilderness before being recaptured. And this 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:30.840 is where the dark part of the story comes in. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.480 Because doctor King was a civil rights visionary and legend, 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.200 and rather than lament his killer's escape, Gary Kentrell and 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.560 his friends allegedly laughed about it. One man even said 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.960 that eight miles was a pathetic amount of distance to 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.400 run when you'd escaped prison, especially in fifty four hours. 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.560 And Gary Cantrell himself well, he argued that in that 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.440 time through the same wilderness he could run one hundred 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.400 and from there. Gary Cantrell charted a rough path one loop, 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.840 roughly twenty miles long, through uncharted at Balacha, covering dense brush, 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.040 rocky inclines, and even a mountain trek. Contestants would complete 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.240 the twenty ish mile loop five times for an approximate 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.120 total of one hundred miles. With a cutoff time of 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:17.720 sixty hours, runners would risk exposure wild animals, sleep deprivation, dehydration, 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:23.040 and most significantly, going off course. In twenty seventeen, for example, 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.160 runner Gary Robbins missed the sixty hour cutoff time by 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.080 less than a minute after getting lost on his final lap, 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.200 and in two thousand and six, one contestant became lost 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.320 only two miles into the race and spent thirty two 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.640 hours in the wilderness trying to find his way back. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.680 Since Barkley's marathons take place in protected forests and parks, 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.000 spectators are not allowed on the course and strongly discouraged 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.680 even at the start or finish line. In fact, the 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.000 twenty mile course has only two water stations, and most 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.920 contestants never find either of them. Each lap begins and 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.720 ends at a yellow trail gate, where Lazarus waits to 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.160 document each runner's time. Some runners nap for about twenty 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:03.880 minutes after each loop, the only rest they get during 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.240 the entire sixty hour race. The race also forbids the 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.840 use of GPS. Instead, runners must use their own hand 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.600 drawn maps made from Cantrell's description of the route, which 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:19.160 often includes sections named ratjaw or meat grinder. By now, 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.320 you might be starting to see why Cantrell calls the 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.160 registration tickets a letter of condolence. But how does anyone 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.840 know if a runner actually completes the course if no 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.120 one is around to watch. Well, every few miles, Cantrell 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.920 places books somewhere along the route. At the start of 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.920 each twenty mile loop, Cantrell assigns runners a new page 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.960 number they must collect from each book to prove they've 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.720 completed the planned course. And I know that in theory 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.280 that might not sound hard, but remember that these races 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.320 don't take place on a trail. The Barkley Marathons require 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.520 runners to complete the full course with almost no idea 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.040 if they're even on the right track. You might not 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.040 be surprised to hear that most years no one finishes 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.959 the race at all, and Cantrell says that's just fine 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.400 with him. He knows that the event attracts the most 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.520 elite athletes and thinks failure is an important part of 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.120 their growth. As runners and as people. Twenty twenty four, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.480 is race set the record with the grand total of 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.680 five finishers. Two of the finishers had completed the race 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.160 in past years, but the most notable of the group 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.640 was Jasmine Paris. Jasmine became the first woman to complete 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.600 the race, finishing ninety nine seconds before. 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:24.120 The cutoff time. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.360 For most of us, this whole race probably sounds like 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.640 a nightmare, But if you're someone who's got what it 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.839 takes to run of Barkley's Marathon, the story might sound 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.400 like the challenge you've been looking for. And if you 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.920 do decide to sign up for the race, may I 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:45.280 offer you my own condolences. I hope you enjoyed today's 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.720 guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.960 created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.480 researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.600 produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.199 the people who make it oh. If you're at Grimandmild 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.720 dot com slash Curiosities, you'll also find a link to 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.760 the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.000 and online as well as ebook and audiobook. And if 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.319 you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.440 It's all the same stories, but without the interruption for 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.400 a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.920 at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:27.520 stay curious.