WEBVTT - Unstable

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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<v Speaker 1>iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.

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<v Speaker 2>Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history

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<v Speaker 2>is an open book, all of these amazing tales are

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<v Speaker 2>right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

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<v Speaker 2>Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. There's nothing quite like

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<v Speaker 2>a desert island hypothetical. What movies would you take with

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<v Speaker 2>you to a desert island? Or albums, or in particular

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<v Speaker 2>who There are a million variations of the same question

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<v Speaker 2>that all boil down to one thing. What's important in

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<v Speaker 2>your life? What can't you live without? What these questions

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<v Speaker 2>don't really consider, though, is that desert islands aren't a

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<v Speaker 2>place that you bring your reality too. There are places

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<v Speaker 2>that create their own reality. Today, let's turn our focus

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<v Speaker 2>to Sable Island in the North Atlantic. If you're Canadian,

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<v Speaker 2>you might have heard of it, but for those who haven't,

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<v Speaker 2>it's a narrow stretch of island about ninety five nautical

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<v Speaker 2>miles southeast of Nova Scotia. From a satellite POV, it

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<v Speaker 2>kind of looks like a thin snake or a single eyelash.

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<v Speaker 2>The name comes from the French word for sand, and

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<v Speaker 2>it's easy to see why. The parts of the island

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<v Speaker 2>that aren't beach are covered in dry grass with no

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<v Speaker 2>native trees. Throughout the age of sail, shipwrecks on the

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<v Speaker 2>island were frequent, thanks to thick fogs and the island's

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<v Speaker 2>deceptive sandbars. It's estimated that up to three hundred and

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<v Speaker 2>fifty ships wrecked themselves on the island. The most recent

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<v Speaker 2>confirmed wreck was in nineteen forty one, although it's possible

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<v Speaker 2>some ships struck the island as recently as the nineteen nineties. Again,

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<v Speaker 2>looking at the shape of the island from above, it's

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<v Speaker 2>not hard to imagine it's like a tripwire designed to

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<v Speaker 2>catch unwary or unlucky vessel. But those shipwrecked sailors didn't

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<v Speaker 2>stay there. Those that survive often wind up getting taken

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<v Speaker 2>to the mainland of North America. The ones who did

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<v Speaker 2>stay behind there, Beside the gray seals that inhabit the beaches,

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<v Speaker 2>were around five hundred wild horses. Now we don't know

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<v Speaker 2>exactly where they came from, but most likely these horses

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<v Speaker 2>were introduced to the island in the mid seventeen hundreds

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<v Speaker 2>without any natural predators. They became the most influential population

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<v Speaker 2>on the island. For over two hundred and fifty years,

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<v Speaker 2>they've maintained a small but relatively stable population pun intended.

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<v Speaker 2>Other domestic animals.

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<v Speaker 1>Have also been brought to Sable Island, but none survived

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<v Speaker 1>quite like these horses. Survival for an animal on a

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<v Speaker 1>desert island is not easy. Water sources are sparse, and

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<v Speaker 1>the horses on the east side of the island have

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<v Speaker 1>to dig in the sand to create little wells for themselves.

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<v Speaker 1>You would never mistake a Sable Island horse for a

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<v Speaker 1>mainland horse. Their coats are thicker, shaggy aar and have long,

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<v Speaker 1>unkempt manes. Complete isolation from their more domesticated relatives has

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<v Speaker 1>made them a scientific marvel of sorts. They've experienced what's

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<v Speaker 1>known as a genetic drift away from the horses we

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<v Speaker 1>see in Europe and North America. Basically, they've almost become

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<v Speaker 1>a small subspecies of their own. And what's even more

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<v Speaker 1>fascinating is that these horses are more well adapted to

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<v Speaker 1>the environment than any plants that humans have attempted to

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<v Speaker 1>introduce there. At one point in the nineteen seventies, a

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<v Speaker 1>single Scots Pine was planted on the island by the

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<v Speaker 1>park rangers who maintain this station there. They decorated it

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<v Speaker 1>for Christmas, and it even survived for a number of

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<v Speaker 1>years before finally dying and returning the island to its

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<v Speaker 1>original treeless state. The horses themselves pose an interesting question

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<v Speaker 1>for conservationists. They're clearly an invasive species, but they are

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<v Speaker 1>incredibly valuable to understanding how species adapt to hostile environments

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<v Speaker 1>and how a single population of animals can gradually reshape

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<v Speaker 1>the same environment. Removing them would perhaps be good for

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<v Speaker 1>the biodiversity of the island itself, But since the horses

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<v Speaker 1>have been on the island for so long that ship,

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<v Speaker 1>so to speak, has sailed. There's no buried treasure to

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<v Speaker 1>be found on Sable Island in spite of the prodigious

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<v Speaker 1>number of shipwrecks. But in a way, the march of

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<v Speaker 1>history has left its own strange fingerprint all the same.

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<v Speaker 1>Who would have thought that feral horses could thrive on

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<v Speaker 1>a thin sandbar thirteen square miles in area. But that's

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<v Speaker 1>the thing about desert islands. They always bring out the

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<v Speaker 1>unexpected in all of us. When there's nothing but you,

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<v Speaker 1>the sand and the ocean. You either need to escape

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<v Speaker 1>or adapt. You've probably heard people say that laughter is contagious,

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<v Speaker 1>but that isn't always just a turn of phrase. On

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<v Speaker 1>a January morning in nineteen sixty to a teacher was

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<v Speaker 1>writing on the chalkboard at a girl's boarding school in

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<v Speaker 1>the African republic of Tanganika. She heard laughter behind her

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<v Speaker 1>and turned around to see three of her students giggling uncontrollably.

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<v Speaker 1>This wasn't unusual for a classroom full of teenage girls,

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<v Speaker 1>but when the teacher asked them to stop, they didn't. No,

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<v Speaker 1>they couldn't. Beneath their smiles, there was a spark of

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<v Speaker 1>fear in their eyes, as if their laughter truly was uncontrollable.

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<v Speaker 1>The teacher sent the girls to the principal's office and

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<v Speaker 1>got on with the lesson. But at the end of

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<v Speaker 1>the school day, when she passed by the nurse's office,

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<v Speaker 1>she saw those three students and two more girls, all

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<v Speaker 1>doubled over in their chairs, all still laughing, with tears

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<v Speaker 1>streaming down their faces. It was hard to tell whether

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<v Speaker 1>they were amused or agonized. Their laughter hadn't stopped the

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<v Speaker 1>following morning, In fact, it was spreading several more girls

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<v Speaker 1>in the same dormitory had to skip class that morning

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<v Speaker 1>because their laughter was so intense that they could barely

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<v Speaker 1>sit still. Each girl's laughing fit could last for anywhere

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<v Speaker 1>from a few hours to multiple days, and after they

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<v Speaker 1>had finally stopped giggling, some of them would start up

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<v Speaker 1>again just a few minutes later. Within a week, almost

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred students at the school were afflicted. There was

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<v Speaker 1>no end in sight, and the staff had no idea

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<v Speaker 1>what to do. The students had been examined by doctors

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<v Speaker 1>and nothing appeared to be physically wrong with them. It

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<v Speaker 1>had to be psychological, perhaps induced by stress. If this

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<v Speaker 1>was a subconscious ploy to get out of doing homework,

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<v Speaker 1>it was working. With more than half of the school's

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<v Speaker 1>students doubled over in laughter at any given moment, it

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<v Speaker 1>was impossible to conduct class, and when the madness still

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<v Speaker 1>hadn't died down by March, almost three months after it began,

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<v Speaker 1>the administration was left with only one option. They decided

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<v Speaker 1>to close the school and send everyone home until they

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<v Speaker 1>got their giggles under control, and that was a mistake.

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<v Speaker 1>The students went back to their home villages and they

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<v Speaker 1>spread the laughter up add throughout the entire region. Over

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<v Speaker 1>the next two months, around one thousand young people over

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred mile radius were afflicted by laughter. Fourteen schools

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<v Speaker 1>had to be shut down, and the school where it

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<v Speaker 1>all started was slapped with a lawsuit for sending everyone

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<v Speaker 1>home to transmit the contagion. The laughter came and went

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<v Speaker 1>in waves for the next year and a half until

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<v Speaker 1>it gradually died out in the summer of nineteen sixty three.

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<v Speaker 1>Order was restored and schools were reopened, but experts were

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<v Speaker 1>never able to explain exactly why this outburst happened. Some

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<v Speaker 1>researchers speculate that it was a case of mass hysteria.

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<v Speaker 1>Just a month before the laughter started, Tanganika had gained

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<v Speaker 1>independence from Britain, which began a period of massive social upheaval.

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<v Speaker 1>On a subconscious level, maybe the girl's laughter could have

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<v Speaker 1>been a way of releasing stress and coping with the

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<v Speaker 1>chaos and confusion. But at the end of the day

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<v Speaker 1>it backfired. After eighteen months of NonStop chuckling, everyone could

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<v Speaker 1>agree the joke just wasn't funny anymore. I hope you

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<v Speaker 1>enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This

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<v Speaker 1>show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild

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<v Speaker 1>team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the

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<v Speaker 1>show and the people who make it over at Grimandmild

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<v Speaker 1>dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to

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<v Speaker 1>the official cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores

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<v Speaker 1>and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And if

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<v Speaker 1>It's all the same stories, but without the interruption for.

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<v Speaker 2>A small monthly fee.

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<v Speaker 1>Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.