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 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,159 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Nightingale, lark, falcon, crow, snipe, loon, seagull, heron, turtle, dove, magpie. 6 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 1: What do these birds all have in common? Well, here's 7 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: a hint in the form of a quote. The cuckoo, 8 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: then on every tree mocks married men, for thus sings 9 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: he cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo. That's right. All these birds appear 10 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: in the works of William Shakespeare, which is perhaps a 11 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: fancy way of saying that they were all common knowledge 12 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:09,960 Speaker 1: in Elizabethan England. Throughout the Bard's works, birds are a 13 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: flexible metaphor, their symbols for pining love, for men and women, 14 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: behaving like fools, for the devastation wrought by war. More 15 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 1: than sixty species of birds come up this way. Romeo 16 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 1: and Juliet famously argue over the call of a nightingale 17 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: or a Lark, an argument that stands for the fear 18 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: that dawn has come and Romeo must flee for his life. 19 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: Over the years, Shakespeare's work has been viewed through various 20 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,320 Speaker 1: cultural lenses and experience growing pains when it traveled from 21 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:43,040 Speaker 1: England to America. As the new cultural identity of the 22 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:47,600 Speaker 1: United States emerged, British actors looked down on Americans trying 23 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: to perform the Bard's greatest works. Different acting styles emerged, 24 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: and arguments within the theatrical world began that continue to 25 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: this present day. But did you know that Shakespeare's influence 26 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: on the New World was a little more than cultural. 27 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: There was even an environmental impact as well. In eighteen 28 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: ninety fifty one, years after the Macbeth inspired Astor Place 29 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 1: riots that we've already covered on this show, a man 30 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: named Eugene Shefflin stepped out into New York's Central Park. 31 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: As the story goes, he was a huge fan of 32 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,000 Speaker 1: William Shakespeare and also an amateur ornithologist. This man just 33 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: loved birds, and when he traveled to Central Park that day, 34 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: he brought with him sixty European starlings that he had 35 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: imported with some help. You see, he was an influential 36 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: member of the American Acclimization Society, a group that sought 37 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: to introduce European flora and fauna to America. They had 38 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,800 Speaker 1: previously introduced European sparrows and blackbirds to Central Park and 39 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,919 Speaker 1: were eager to see how successful starlings would be. Shefflin 40 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,680 Speaker 1: first released sixty starlings and then came back with forty more. 41 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,000 Speaker 1: They eagerly found home amongst the hollows in the trees, 42 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: muscling out the other birds. Unlike a ten to introduce 43 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: the nightingale, bullfinches, and skylarks, this one was a success, 44 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,240 Speaker 1: for better or for worse. Over the following decades, the 45 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,680 Speaker 1: United States realized that as a group, starlings were something 46 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:17,240 Speaker 1: of a menace. They proliferated madly across the country, eventually 47 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: reaching a population of two hundred million in the US alone, 48 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: and when commercial aviation took off, starlings were their biggest problem. 49 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 1: The most deadly bird strike of all time occurred in 50 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty when starlings brought down an airplane as it 51 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: took off from Boston. Despite their size, their bodies are 52 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: extremely dense, making them a hazard for aircraft of all types. 53 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:43,280 Speaker 1: And damage they do to farmers crops numbers in the 54 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: billions of dollars, stealing grain and produce. Experts have pointed 55 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: out that declining numbers of woodpeckers and bluebirds could be 56 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: attributed to how many starlings live in the continental us. 57 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: Whether this is true or not, the result is a startling. 58 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: One European starling, one of the few bird species that 59 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: are unprotected by law. Hunters and trappers can kill as 60 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: many as they like without consequence, as could farmers who 61 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: want to protect their crops from these creatures. Of course, 62 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: they are so small that they evade most natural predators, 63 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: and the same is true for human hunters. They're just 64 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,479 Speaker 1: too little and too many to fully control. And all 65 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:24,479 Speaker 1: of this because of Shakespeare and a single line in 66 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: Henry the fourth Part one, Act one, Scene three. In 67 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: the scene, one of the characters reflects on the king's 68 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: attitude toward one of his enemies, and I quote he 69 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: said he would not ransom Mortimer, forbade my tongue to 70 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:40,280 Speaker 1: speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he 71 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: lies asleep, and in his ear, I'll hollow Mortimer. Nay, 72 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,600 Speaker 1: I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing 73 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 1: but Mortimer, and give it to him to keep his 74 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: anger still in motion. And it makes you wonder if 75 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: Shakespeare had not chosen this particular metaphor for the rant, 76 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:01,440 Speaker 1: the entire landscape of North America might be different. It 77 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,839 Speaker 1: feels like, in discussing the trajectory of the European starlings, 78 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,600 Speaker 1: we've discovered a new version of the butterfly effect. Maybe 79 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:11,960 Speaker 1: we should call it the Starling effect. Now that's something 80 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 1: that would be worth writing a play about. In nineteen 81 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: fifty five, Soviet newspapers were awash with stories on the 82 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: future of space exploration. Humankind was not destined to remain 83 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:39,719 Speaker 1: on Earth. They insisted, our future lay in the stars, 84 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: and the charge into that great unknown would be led 85 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: not by the West but by the Russians. And cementing 86 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 1: these bold proclamations was a somewhat mundane development. Moscow had 87 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,359 Speaker 1: just approved the formation of a new commission to study 88 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:57,679 Speaker 1: interplanetary space. In other words, nothing had been built yet. 89 00:05:57,880 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: The science still had to be done, but the so 90 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:02,600 Speaker 1: Soviet Union was ready to spend the rubles to make 91 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,279 Speaker 1: it happen. The news was picked up by the American media. 92 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: Sources setting off alarm bells in Washington, DC. In July, 93 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: the Eisenhower administration announced plans to launch a satellite into 94 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: orbit by nineteen fifty eight, and thus the spark had 95 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,479 Speaker 1: been lit, thrusters primed and ready, all systems go. The 96 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: space race had begun. But here's the thing. Though Soviet 97 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:29,480 Speaker 1: articles that stirred the US into action, they were a lie, 98 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:33,960 Speaker 1: or at least a massive exaggeration. The man behind them 99 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: was a scientist named Sergei Korlev, who had spent the 100 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:41,200 Speaker 1: last decade building missiles for the Soviet Union. Korlev was 101 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: convinced that his rockets had greater purposes than just blowing 102 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 1: people up, and had recently lobbied the Soviet government to 103 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,479 Speaker 1: create a satellite program. The response had been lukewarm at best. 104 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,679 Speaker 1: Moscow wasn't interested in throwing away money on science without 105 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,760 Speaker 1: a clear military purpose. But Korlev wasn't to give up. 106 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:04,599 Speaker 1: He rewrote the proposal for a less expensive program and 107 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: then got to work drumming up enthusiasm. He put out 108 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: speculative articles that first got Russians and then Americans hyped 109 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: about the possibilities of space travel, and then, when Washington 110 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:18,680 Speaker 1: took the bait, Korlov knew his gambit had paid off. 111 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: Soviet leadership reversed course, embracing the program that he had 112 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: asked for, and suddenly he had everything he needed, permission, funding, 113 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 1: and the authority to move forward. And move forward he did. 114 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: Korlev personally oversaw the design and construction of the world's 115 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The polished metal sphere equipped 116 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: with four and ten I was small, simple, and built 117 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: in record time. On October fourth of nineteen fifty seven, 118 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: it was launched into orbit with an R seven intercontinental 119 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,160 Speaker 1: ballistic missile, the first rocket of its kind engineered by 120 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: Korlev himself. The launch of Sputnik ignited a frenzy in 121 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: the West, spurrying the US government to accelerate its own 122 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: space program. Meanwhile, Korlev's bosses in Moscow were over the moon. 123 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 1: No pun intended with his splashy success and gave him 124 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:12,000 Speaker 1: the green light for even more ambitious projects. Korlev didn't 125 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: let the momentum go to waste either. Just a month 126 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: after Sputnik one, he launched Sputnik two, carrying the first 127 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:22,240 Speaker 1: living passenger into orbit, a dog named Laika. Then in 128 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, he achieved the unthinkable. He put the 129 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:29,640 Speaker 1: first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space aboard the vostok Ie. 130 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: Every major Soviet space milestone of the era bore his fingerprints. 131 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: Yet despite all he had done for the Soviet Union, 132 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: Moscow kept the identity of Sputnik's creator a secret until 133 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:44,559 Speaker 1: after his death, almost like they were ashamed of their 134 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:49,040 Speaker 1: greatest rocket scientists. And maybe they were. You see, at 135 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: the time Korlev started his space program, he was technically 136 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:56,679 Speaker 1: a political prisoner. In nineteen thirty eight, during Stalin's purges, 137 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,959 Speaker 1: he was arrested on falsified charges of anti Soviet activities 138 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: and sent to the Gulag, where he nearly died of 139 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,800 Speaker 1: malnutrition and abuse. Only the desperate need for missile engineers 140 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: during World War II saved his life. He was quietly 141 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 1: pulled from the camps and forced to work under strict 142 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:18,559 Speaker 1: supervision designing weapons for a regime that had nearly killed him. 143 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 1: Even after his later rehabilitation, Korlev remained under constant surveillance, 144 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 1: unable to travel abroad or even be publicly named as 145 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,160 Speaker 1: the leader of the Soviet space program. But there was 146 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,400 Speaker 1: an even more damning reason Moscow might have wanted to 147 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:37,160 Speaker 1: keep his identity under wraps one that undermines the Soviet 148 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: Union's early claim to superiority in the space race, because 149 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: the man who created Sputnik didn't even call the Soviet 150 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:50,200 Speaker 1: Union home. That's right, Sergei Korlov wasn't Russian. He was 151 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:57,800 Speaker 1: born in Ukraine. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 152 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 153 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:05,559 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 154 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 155 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 156 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,000 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 157 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 158 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:24,079 Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, 159 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:27,000 Speaker 1: stay curious.