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Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history

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Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are

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Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The Earth is ever changing.

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Speaker 1: Since the beginning of time, our planet has undergone incredible transformation.

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Speaker 1: Pangaea broke apart one five million years ago, eventually forming

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Speaker 1: the continents we know today. Plants and animal life has

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Speaker 1: evolved or gone extinct, giving room for new life to

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Speaker 1: make its way. Much of this is natural, a progression

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Speaker 1: of the world as it matures and settles. Other phenomena

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Speaker 1: are a result of our greed and disregard for the

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Speaker 1: health of the planet, Melting ice caps, rising ocean levels,

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Speaker 1: and wildfires that raged for weeks while decimating acres of

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Speaker 1: land and homes. Perhaps the Earth needs to send a

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Speaker 1: sign once in a while that we are not as

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Speaker 1: welcome here as we thought. That might be what happened

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Speaker 1: in the southeastern United States in the early eight hundreds.

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Speaker 1: It started on December sixteenth of eighteen eleven, when a

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Speaker 1: small earthquake began in Arkansas, followed by an after shock

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Speaker 1: six hours later. The shock waves spread out of a

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Speaker 1: small town that was once part of the Louisiana Territory.

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Speaker 1: Today it's known as New Madred. At that time, New

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Speaker 1: Madred was an up and coming community of farmers and pioneers.

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Speaker 1: They would travel the Mississippi River each day, never paying

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Speaker 1: any mind the idea that the ground beneath their feet

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Speaker 1: might not be completely solid. The first quake wasn't particularly strong,

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Speaker 1: but did minor damage to the few buildings in the area.

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Speaker 1: Less than a month later, another quake hit, and it

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Speaker 1: hit hard. It changed the landscape. The ground opened up

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Speaker 1: and claimed the lives of countless livestock, including horses and cattle.

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Speaker 1: The mountains shook and produced devastating landslides. Stream banks caved in.

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Speaker 1: So much debris was kicked up it blocked out the sun.

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Speaker 1: The Mississippi River actually flowed backward. The January earthquake was

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Speaker 1: so strong clock stopped tens of miles away, and it

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Speaker 1: was reported that minor trembers were felt as far north

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Speaker 1: as Washington, d C. One man named George Heinrich Grist

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Speaker 1: was quoted as saying, if we do not get away

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Speaker 1: from here, the ground is going to eat us alive.

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Speaker 1: Another eyewitness, John Bradbury was in a boat traveling down

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Speaker 1: the Mississippi River when it happened. He wrote, the perpendicular banks,

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Speaker 1: both above and below us began to fall into the

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Speaker 1: river in such vast masses as nearly to sink our boat.

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Speaker 1: John had tallied twenty seven shocks total. By the time

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Speaker 1: that was all over, Things seemed to calm down after that,

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Speaker 1: while the residents of New Madrid start to rebuild. However,

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Speaker 1: everything would change a few weeks later on February seventh

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Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve, when the town became the epicenter of

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Speaker 1: another massive quake. Chimneys crumbled as houses were shaken from

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Speaker 1: their foundations. A new lake was formed in Tennessee when

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Speaker 1: the land shifted in such a way as to block

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Speaker 1: the flow of several streams. Shocks traveled as far north

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Speaker 1: as Canada and were strong enough to ring church bells

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Speaker 1: in Boston. New Madred was all but destroyed. The Richter

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Speaker 1: scale wouldn't be invented for another century or so, but

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Speaker 1: based on the accounts of those present, it's estimated that

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Speaker 1: the worst of the New Modred earthquakes would have measured

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Speaker 1: at an eight point zero compared that with California a

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Speaker 1: veritable hot spot of seismic activity. The strongest quake on

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Speaker 1: record there occurred in eighteen fifty seven in Fort Tajone.

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Speaker 1: It measured seven point nine on the Richter scale. Since then,

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Speaker 1: minor quakes have plagued Missouri, over four thousand of them,

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Speaker 1: in fact, of which have been as strong as the

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Speaker 1: ones that occurred in eighteen eleven and eighteen twelve. But

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Speaker 1: that isn't to say that it won't happen again in

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Speaker 1: the future. Scientists estimate that within fifty years there could

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Speaker 1: be a significant chance of another massive quake striking the region,

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Speaker 1: and if it does, it could quite possibly change the

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Speaker 1: shape of the country all over again. Any great architect

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Speaker 1: manages to leave their mark on the world. It could

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Speaker 1: be as simple as an office building or a unique

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Speaker 1: design for a house, but there's always an artifact left

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Speaker 1: behind that represents their lasting legacy. Frank Garry's wavy metallic

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Speaker 1: design for the Googgenheim Museum in Spain has been hailed

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Speaker 1: by some as the greatest building of our time. The

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Speaker 1: Shard in London seems to run from the earth and

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Speaker 1: pierced the sky with its clean lines and sharpened point

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Speaker 1: at the top, and Falling Water. The iconic home designed

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Speaker 1: by Frank Lloyd Wrights, is among the Smithsonian's top places

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Speaker 1: to visit before you die. Although their styles may vary,

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Speaker 1: these architects have influenced countless others in shaping the future

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Speaker 1: of where we live and work. And then there's Brian.

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Speaker 1: Brian is an architect too. Born in Iowa in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy four, He's the mind behind hundreds of buildings. It's

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Speaker 1: a passion he inherited from his grandfather, who also worked

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Speaker 1: in the field of architecture. In fact, when Brian was

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Speaker 1: only seventeen, he was awarded a Guinness World Record for

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Speaker 1: the tallest house in the world. From there, he went

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Speaker 1: on to earn a degree in architecture from Iowa State

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Speaker 1: University and a master is in Design Studies from Harvard.

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Speaker 1: After graduation, Brian struck out on his own. Unfortunately, there

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Speaker 1: was no agency prepared to handle his unique esthetic. He's

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Speaker 1: constructed buildings for corporates, museums, and even Walt Disney World.

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Speaker 1: He's toured the globe, designing structures that defy logic in

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Speaker 1: both their design and their construction. Brian isn't a fan

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Speaker 1: of concrete and steel. He doesn't use nails, nor does

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Speaker 1: he hire a crew to bring his designs to life.

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Speaker 1: Brian does all the work himself. There isn't really a

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Speaker 1: need for a whole crew anyway. That tallest house in

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Speaker 1: the world he won a record for it was only

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Speaker 1: fourteen and a half feet tall. His tallest structures don't

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Speaker 1: grow any higher than twenty six ft or so. That's

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Speaker 1: because they're all built out of playing cards. Brian Berg

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Speaker 1: has traveled all over the world for more than two decades,

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Speaker 1: constructing towers, skyscrapers, and replicas of famous buildings out of

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Speaker 1: normal everyday playing cards. One of his first creations was

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Speaker 1: a tower in his college atrium that was made out

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Speaker 1: of over fifteen hundred decks and measured twenty five feet tall.

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Speaker 1: The tower took almost three weeks to build, which he

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Speaker 1: did in shifts ranging from four to twelve hours. He

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Speaker 1: went on to reach new heights when he built a

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Speaker 1: tower in a German casino lobby in By the time

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Speaker 1: it was finished, it was twenty five point to nine

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Speaker 1: feet tall and took more than seventeen hundred decks to build.

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Speaker 1: Brian will go anywhere and everywhere to show off his skills,

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Speaker 1: including national television to break his own Guinness World Record.

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Speaker 1: He always builds his card structures in public and almost

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Speaker 1: never uses adhesive. He doesn't believe in trying to deceive

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Speaker 1: the public. His creations never feature hidden support beans, and

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Speaker 1: they all end up the same way when the building

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Speaker 1: is done, with a dramatic deconstruction into nothing but a

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Speaker 1: pile of playing cards. It's fun for him to do

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Speaker 1: all that work and then watch it come tumbling down.

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Speaker 1: His audiences seem to like it too. In two thousand ten,

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Speaker 1: Brian traveled to China where he erected a card based

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Speaker 1: replica of the Venetian Hotel. It took over two hundred

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Speaker 1: eighteen thousand cards and forty hours to build before he

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Speaker 1: used a powerful fan to blow the foundation out from

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Speaker 1: under it. After some strategically placed gusts of wind, the

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Speaker 1: whole thing eventually fluttered to the ground, card by card,

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Speaker 1: as though it had never existed at all. Brian is

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Speaker 1: still traveling today, designing new card structures and upgrading his

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Speaker 1: construction techniques that utilize newer, stronger methods and require fewer

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Speaker 1: decks to complete. He may never build a house anyone

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Speaker 1: can actually live in, but his work teaches us a

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Speaker 1: lesson that will outlast any building made of wood or metal.

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Speaker 1: Nothing is truly permanent, and everything we do could fall

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Speaker 1: to pieces at any time, just like a house of cards.

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Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

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Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

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Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show

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Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,

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Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the

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Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,