1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:22,079 Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales 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 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: What happens when a small group of people experience the 7 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 1: same thing in different parts of the world, but nobody 8 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,600 Speaker 1: believes them. They find each other because it doesn't matter 9 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: how much they protest or plead. Their spouses, children, and 10 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: even their doctors refuse to accept that something is wrong. 11 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: So this outspoken minority seeks others like them out. They 12 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 1: scour social media and online forums for individuals who have 13 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: been affected by similar phenomena. Individuals like forty six year 14 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: old Shanna Turner in North Carolina. She'd been at a 15 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,559 Speaker 1: girls soccer game when it happened to her. Steve Marshburne 16 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: was working at a bank when he was hit by 17 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: it in nineteen nine. It forced him to undergo almost 18 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: fifty back surgeries over the course of his life, and 19 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 1: it happened to Gary Reynolds three times. All three of 20 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: these people, and over twenty others were part of a 21 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: very exclusive group of lightning strike survivors. When the human 22 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:31,759 Speaker 1: body is hit by lightning, it's riddled with three hundred 23 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 1: million volts of electricity in an instant. We're not meant 24 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:37,960 Speaker 1: to endure that much power, and some victims die of 25 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:42,040 Speaker 1: cardiac arrest as a result, but many do survive, albeit 26 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:46,320 Speaker 1: with serious consequences. Their skin is burned, their bones are shattered, 27 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: or their brains are fried. Shanna Turner suffered memory loss 28 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: as a result of her brush with Zeus, while Steve 29 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,640 Speaker 1: Marshburn's back was broken when a bolt of lightning traveled 30 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: through the speaker of his banks drive through window and 31 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: struck him. And occasionally, lightning survivors are also graced with 32 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: scars on their bodies called Lichtenburg figures. They're often shaped 33 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:09,920 Speaker 1: like the branches of a tree growing along the back, arms, 34 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:13,800 Speaker 1: and chest. But as I mentioned before, not everyone walks 35 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: away from a power surge like that. It happened in 36 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: October of n in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 37 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:23,920 Speaker 1: area had been a battleground for some time, with a 38 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: civil war raging on between rebels and government forces, but 39 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: amidst all the fighting, there was a brief glimmer of 40 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: levity in the form of a soccer game. The home team, Benishati, 41 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: were up against the visiting Basanga team with a thaieh 42 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,640 Speaker 1: score of one to one. The game was going fine 43 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: when out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning hit the 44 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: ground in a flash. Such an incident would have frightened 45 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,680 Speaker 1: anyone close by. When everyone's eyes had adjusted and the 46 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:52,800 Speaker 1: smoke had cleared, the damage was evident. Thirty people who 47 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,400 Speaker 1: had been standing on the sidelines were hurt in the blast. 48 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: They were taken to local hospitals to have their burns treated. 49 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: The visiting team, though, was not affected at all. They 50 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: walked away without injury, but the members of the Beneshatti 51 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,079 Speaker 1: team weren't so lucky. All eleven players, ranging in ages 52 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: from twenty to thirty five years old, had died instantly. 53 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: Many believed that witchcraft was the cause of the strike. 54 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: It wasn't uncommon for African teams to use witch doctors 55 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: to curse their adversaries. And what's worse is that this 56 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 1: isn't the only time such an event has occurred. Days earlier, 57 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: as the Morocco Swallows took on the Jumo Cosmos, seven 58 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: players and the referee were hit by a bolt on 59 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: the field. Two of the Swallow players were seriously injured. Sadly, 60 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 1: Africa is no stranger to such acts of God. The 61 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: continent is one of the biggest hot spots for lightning 62 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,839 Speaker 1: strikes in the entire world, with South Africa alone seen 63 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: one deaths each year as a result, and the Democratic 64 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: Republic of the Congo, where the Benishatti players were killed, 65 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: can see as many as sixty flashes per square kilometer 66 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: each year, and those flashes tend to land in indust 67 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,000 Speaker 1: real areas which are chock full of people just going 68 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 1: about their daily lives. But not all hope is lost. 69 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: Many office buildings are built with protective measures in place 70 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: to mitigate the effects of a lightning strike, and being 71 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:16,360 Speaker 1: struck is not a death sentence in and of itself. 72 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: Only one in ten who are hit by lightning will die, 73 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: as proven by the folks like Shanna Turner and Gary Reynolds. 74 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,600 Speaker 1: And being struck is still incredibly rare, even in a 75 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: lightning prone place like Africa. But don't get your hopes 76 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: up too high. You still have a better chance of 77 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: being struck by lightning twice than you ever do of 78 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:39,239 Speaker 1: winning the lottery, and only one of those things leaves 79 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: you with a really cool scar. Ours is a culture 80 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:00,359 Speaker 1: of change. Language, in particular, shifts with every generation. A 81 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: word like bully used to mean great or excellent, whereas 82 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,840 Speaker 1: today it has come to signify someone who picks on others. Meanwhile, 83 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:12,279 Speaker 1: scientific exploration and biological study have shed new light on 84 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,040 Speaker 1: old perceptions over the years. For example, before we knew 85 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: what germs were, doctors thought that disease was caused by 86 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:22,479 Speaker 1: poisonous air coming from the ground, and up until the 87 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century, farmers and even scientists thought that putting 88 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: a pair of dirty underwear in a bucket of grains 89 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: would create mice. It was a concept known as spontaneous generation, 90 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:39,039 Speaker 1: which suggested that non living objects could create life. But 91 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: one person turned our preconceptions about the animal kingdom on 92 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,719 Speaker 1: their head back in nineteen forty and changed the course 93 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: of the English language in the process. It all started, 94 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: surprisingly with the Bible and one important figure. He was 95 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: the son of Noah's grandson Cush, which made him know 96 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,919 Speaker 1: his great grandson. He was also a great hunter and 97 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: a king who old over the land of Shinnar. Otherwise, 98 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: known as Mesopotamia. In the Book of Genesis, this king 99 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: was seen as having rebelled against God after ordering the 100 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,920 Speaker 1: construction of the Tower of Babel. Remember, according to the 101 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:16,279 Speaker 1: Babel story, everyone in the world spoke the same language, 102 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: and eventually they began building the tower, a massive structure 103 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: that was meant to reach the sky. But God saw 104 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:25,280 Speaker 1: this going on and changed all of their speech to 105 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: different languages. Unable to understand one another, the builders were 106 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,680 Speaker 1: scattered to different places all over the globe. It was 107 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 1: a story meant to explain, among many other things, why 108 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: different languages were spoken in different countries, But it was 109 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: also about the consequences of blind, unchecked pride, namely that 110 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 1: of the great king and hunter Nimrod, which brings us 111 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: to the modern age. You see, some kids these days 112 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:53,279 Speaker 1: leave out a healthy snack for the Easter Bunny the 113 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: night before he set to arrive, and when they wake 114 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: up they might find that a piece of carrot was 115 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: left behind, along with eggs and candy, proof that their 116 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 1: good deed had not gone unnoticed. Of course, carrots and 117 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:08,720 Speaker 1: rabbits go hand in hand like peanut, butter and jelly, 118 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: at least we think they do. But the fact is 119 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: that carrots hold very little nutritional value for rabbits. They 120 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,280 Speaker 1: don't normally eat them in the wild, So why do 121 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:19,720 Speaker 1: we think that they like them? And what does that 122 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 1: have to do with the biblical hunter. Well, the answer 123 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: might surprise you. It's all because of Bugs Bunny. When 124 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: Bugs Bunny debuted in nineteen forty in an animated short 125 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: called a Wild Hair, he popped up on screen chomping 126 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: on a carrot. It was a blatant send off of 127 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 1: Clark Gable's character in the nineteen thirty four film It 128 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,920 Speaker 1: Happened One Night. In one scene from that film, Gable 129 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:45,560 Speaker 1: could be seen munching on a carrot while talking to 130 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: his co star Claudette Colbert. Bugs mannerisms, including how he 131 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 1: ate the carrots, were a direct reference to gables performance 132 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:57,320 Speaker 1: in that specific film, and the audiences of nineteen forty 133 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:01,000 Speaker 1: knew it. But over time, those children, and then their 134 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:04,240 Speaker 1: children and even their children's children all grew up with 135 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:08,680 Speaker 1: Bugs Bunny cartoons, and that original Clark Gable connection faded away, 136 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,160 Speaker 1: leaving behind the image of a rabbit eating a carrot, 137 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 1: and so pet owners and Easter celebrants grew up believing 138 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: that rabbits eight carrots, a new cultural assumption that was 139 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 1: all bugs Bunny's fault. But one other thing happened during 140 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:26,920 Speaker 1: a wild hair that altered our culture and you could 141 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: see it or maybe hear it, and how we use 142 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 1: a certain word today. In that ninety animated short, Bugs 143 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: Bunny refers to his nemesis Elmer Fudd as a nim rod, 144 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: and to be honest, it did make a lot of sense. 145 00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: Fudd was, after all, dressed and outfitted as a hunter. 146 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: There was also a throwaway line, but the sarcasm turned 147 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: the legendary name into a simple insult, and over time, 148 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: calling someone a nimrod became a new way to suggest 149 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 1: that they were bumbling, error prone buffoon. I think it's 150 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:01,520 Speaker 1: fair to say that car tunes can teach us a lot, 151 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: like how to outsmart a coyote or how to evade 152 00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:07,320 Speaker 1: being eaten by a cat, But they can also affect 153 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: the way we see the world and alter the language 154 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:13,319 Speaker 1: we use in the process. Some folks say that cartoons 155 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,360 Speaker 1: will rot a person's brain. The truth, though it's a 156 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:24,680 Speaker 1: lot more curious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 157 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,880 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 158 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 159 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,520 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky 160 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 161 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 162 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:46,560 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 163 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:50,200 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 164 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:52,199 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.