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 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Are we truly alone 7 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 2: in this universe? This question can mean many different things 8 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 2: based on the tone in which it's asked. If asked 9 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 2: in a tone of hope and wonder, it makes us 10 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 2: reflect on the majesty of the universe, infinite space and 11 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,199 Speaker 2: possibility among the stars and all that. But it can 12 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 2: also be asked in a tone of apprehension or fear. 13 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 2: Loneliness is comforting in a sense, because that would mean 14 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 2: that no intelligence is beyond our own. Are a scrutinizing 15 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 2: the planet from dark void of space? Anxiety about extraterrestrial 16 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 2: invasions is well over a century old. First we looked 17 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 2: to the heavens and saw gods. Then, as the industrial 18 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 2: age took over post Enlightenment, we looked to the heavens 19 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 2: and saw another version of ourselves. 20 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: And in the HG. Wells book the War of the Worlds. 21 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 1: Britain at its colonial peak is itself colonized by a 22 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 1: force whose technology far strips their own. Even then, the 23 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,399 Speaker 1: fear of extraterrestrials was just a fantasy. It wasn't until 24 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: the mid twentieth century that these fears seemed to becoming true. First, 25 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: the Roswell incident in nineteen forty seven triggered a wave 26 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: of speculation about spacecraft from another world. Then, over the 27 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,840 Speaker 1: ensuing decades, many individuals throughout the world started sharing their 28 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 1: own strange stories. The earliest UFO encounters were spiritual, optimistic, 29 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: but starting in the nineteen sixties, something changed in the 30 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: character of these stories. They started to become more sinister. 31 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty one, the husband and wife couple Betty 32 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: and Barney Hill, told the story of their own encounter 33 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: with aliens, But their story had a gap in it, 34 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 1: a lapse in memory seemingly explained by alien technology. For 35 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,239 Speaker 1: a brief time, the aliens had taken both of them 36 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 1: aboard their ship and studied them like animals. More and 37 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:23,679 Speaker 1: more stories of this kind proliferated over the decades. Abductions 38 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: became terrifying, scientific, and more the concept of probes, implants, 39 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,800 Speaker 1: bodily invasion all became fodder for the study of aliens, 40 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: stoking the imagination of a public that had been absorbing 41 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:41,240 Speaker 1: alien invasion movies since the nineteen fifties. In nineteen eighty five, 42 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,079 Speaker 1: a woman named Kathy Davis claimed that, in the midst 43 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 1: of several abduction experiences, she had been impregnated with a 44 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 1: hybrid child, half alien, half human. Over the years, experts 45 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: and entertainers have argued about the veracity of the alien 46 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 1: abduction reports, but no one has argued that the fear 47 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,800 Speaker 1: these stories per is very real. The creatures of nightmares 48 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: don't need to exist in physical space to provoke the imagination, 49 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:12,520 Speaker 1: so it's perhaps unsurprising that enterprising business people sought to 50 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,519 Speaker 1: make a profit off this fear. In the mid nineteen nineties, 51 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: a Florida based insurance brokerage began providing insurance policies for 52 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:22,639 Speaker 1: people who were concerned about the risk of alien abduction. 53 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: A largely sarcastic enterprise, this insurance provider issued ten million 54 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: dollar policies that would pay out at a rate of 55 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,239 Speaker 1: a dollar per year. A few years later, the London 56 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:38,080 Speaker 1: based brokerage Goodfellow Rebecca Ingram's and Parson started issuing policies 57 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: of their own. These policies insured customers against not only abduction, 58 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: but impregnation as well. This claim could be purchased regardless 59 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 1: of your sex, as the possibilities of alien technology remain unknown, 60 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: and this British company wound up selling thousands of these policies, 61 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: but only came close to paying out twice, once for 62 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:00,040 Speaker 1: an Enfield man who in nineteen ninety six claimed a 63 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 1: one point six million dollar policy, showing as evidence a 64 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: claw left behind by his abductors. The second time, however, 65 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:10,800 Speaker 1: gave them pause. You see, sometime in the nineteen nineties, 66 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 1: the cult known as Heaven's Gate purchased one million dollar 67 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: policies for each of its approximately thirty members, and this 68 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: very nearly backfired in Goodfellow's face when the entire cult 69 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: died in ritual suicide in nineteen ninety seven. Warry that 70 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,039 Speaker 1: someone would come to try to collect over thirty million dollars, 71 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 1: the brokerage paused any new policies for a time. Since then, 72 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: they have resumed their policies and have never paid out 73 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: a single one. We turn to insurance to protect ourselves 74 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,840 Speaker 1: from unseen accidents and tragedy. The most unpredictable of these 75 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: are also known as acts of God. Even though most 76 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 1: insurance policies cover acts of God, it seems that aliens 77 00:04:49,480 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: require a higher burden of proof. I think we can 78 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: all agree that we live in a chaotic universe, and 79 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,479 Speaker 1: sometimes it can feel like we are powerless in the 80 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: face of tragedy. But as history loves to remind us, 81 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,160 Speaker 1: there is no problem so great that a human being 82 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: can't make worse. For proof, look no further than Justinian 83 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: the First, a late Roman emperor who reigned during the 84 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: sixth century. Now the title Roman Emperor deserves massive air 85 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: quotes here because Justinian came to power over one hundred 86 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: years after the city of Rome was sacked by Germanic tribes. 87 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: By the time Justinian was crowned in five twenty seven, 88 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: the Empire was in the late stage of its long, 89 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: slow collapse. While the western territories had virtually all fallen 90 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:50,720 Speaker 1: to different armies, the weakened eastern half had reformed around Constantinople. Now, 91 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:52,840 Speaker 1: like a lot of people of his day, Justinian was 92 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:56,360 Speaker 1: obsessed with the past. He talked constantly about returning the 93 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,239 Speaker 1: empire to its former glory, something a lot of people 94 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: thought was possible. To accomplish his lofty goals, he levied 95 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: heavy taxes, which he used to raise armies and revitalize 96 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 1: long dead trade networks. Feeding his armies required massive amounts 97 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: of grain, which he purchased, largely from Africa. Justinian's early 98 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: military campaigns were surprisingly successful, and he was actually making 99 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 1: some headway on rebuilding the empire when disaster struck. It 100 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:26,160 Speaker 1: came in the form of an inconspicuous but deadly stowaway 101 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: Ursinia pestis, also known as the bubonic plague. The microbe 102 00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: was carried by rats or some people think the fleas 103 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:37,280 Speaker 1: or other animals, which traveled within the grain supplies that 104 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: Justinian imported in five pin forty one. They caused an 105 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: outbreak in the Egyptian port of Pelusium. If Justinian had 106 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: acted quickly, he might have stopped the disease in its tracks, 107 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 1: but he ignored the warnings, and within a year the 108 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 1: plague was in Constantinople. Now I should note that this 109 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,719 Speaker 1: wasn't the first bubonic outbreak in history, and it certainly 110 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: wouldn't be the last. Scientists believe the back materia has 111 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: been killing humans since around three thousand BCE. Meanwhile, the 112 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: most famous outbreak of bubonic plague is known as the 113 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:10,880 Speaker 1: Black Death, which didn't hit Europe until the fourteenth century. 114 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,960 Speaker 1: All that said, Justinian's outbreak in the sixth century was 115 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: special because of how far and how quickly it spread. 116 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:22,240 Speaker 1: His armies and their supply trains carried the disease across 117 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 1: three continents, resulting in the first plague pandemic. The effects 118 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: were disastrous, especially for Constantinople. At one point, the capitol 119 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: was losing five thousand people a day. Justinian had his 120 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:37,080 Speaker 1: soldiers dig massive pits to hold all the bodies, while 121 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: other corpses were dumped onto ships and just pushed out 122 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: to sea. Justinian himself fell ill sometime in five point 123 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: forty two. We don't know how badly he suffered, but 124 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: for most people, the bubonic plague wasn't pretty. Early symptoms 125 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,640 Speaker 1: included fever, swelling around the growing armpits and neck, and 126 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 1: dark boils and pustules. This rapidly progressed to delirium before 127 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: most victims fell into a coma and then died. Not Justinian, though, 128 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,040 Speaker 1: with treatments, he managed to survive and While you might 129 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: think that the brush with death would cause him to 130 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: refocus on eradicating the disease, that's not what happened. After recovering, 131 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:19,080 Speaker 1: Justinian was more determined than ever to reclaim Rome's former glory. 132 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 1: He continued to raise taxes despite the fact that the 133 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: economy was cratering and most people couldn't even afford to eat, 134 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 1: and instead of using the money for the public, he 135 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:30,800 Speaker 1: poured the funds into his military campaigns, which, of course 136 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 1: furthered the spread of the pandemic. The epidemic took almost 137 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:37,679 Speaker 1: a decade to fade away, and outbreaks continued for the 138 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: next few hundred years. While estimates vary, somewhere between twenty 139 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 1: five and fifty million people were killed, roughly a quarter 140 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: of the empire's population. As you might expect, that level 141 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: of loss caused Justinian's trade networks to collapse, foiling his 142 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,840 Speaker 1: military exploits. He had dreamed of returning the Roman Empire 143 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: to its former glory, but wound up hastening its demid 144 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: guy But at least historians give credit where credits due 145 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: to this day, the pandemic of five point forty one 146 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: is remembered as Justinian's plague. I hope you've enjoyed today's 147 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:17,520 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 148 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 149 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 150 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I 151 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 152 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 153 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until 154 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,760 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.