1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,160 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Today we have one of our most 2 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: unintentionally terrifying episodes of all time. It is on encephalitis lethargica, 3 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: and it originally came out We did not ever intend 4 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: for this to be a Halloween episode, but it originally 5 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: came out in October and we heard from a lot 6 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 1: of listeners that it scared them more than anything else 7 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:25,480 Speaker 1: we have ever done. So this story of a frightening 8 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,479 Speaker 1: and mysterious illness is also a good segue into a 9 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: new show on our network. It's The End of the 10 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:33,880 Speaker 1: World with Josh Clark, and Josh, one of the hosts 11 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: of the other podcast Stuff You Should Know, is hosting 12 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,879 Speaker 1: a ten part series that explores all of the various 13 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: ways that humanity could abruptly end. So stay tuned at 14 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: the end of today's episode for the trailer to the 15 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: End of the World with Josh Clark. Enjoy. Welcome to 16 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,160 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class from how Stuff Works 17 00:00:55,200 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 1: dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm probably so. I did not intend for 19 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:15,240 Speaker 1: today to be a Halloween episode. Is scary? Yeah, due 20 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: to some quirks in our publishing schedule. It happens to 21 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: be coming out right before Halloween. It is a listener 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: request from listener Ellen or perhaps Ellen, And in researching it, 23 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,399 Speaker 1: I realized it was the most frightening thing I had 24 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:34,400 Speaker 1: ever learned about. So, so buckle up. History has scared Tracy. 25 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: History has scared me. So. From nineteen sixteen to about 26 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: nine seven, this really bizarre epidemic spread around the world. 27 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: It came to be known as sleepy sickness, and it 28 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: is not to be confused with sleeping sickness, which is 29 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: a tropical disease found in sub Saharan Africa. This is 30 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: another name for a disease called encephalitis lethargica, and it 31 00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: caused this really weird variety of symptoms, from drastic behavior 32 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: changes to unusual eye movements. Especially in the beginning years 33 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,919 Speaker 1: of it. Uh, the really common element was this deep, 34 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,800 Speaker 1: prolonged sleep that went on and on from days two months, 35 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,959 Speaker 1: and people just couldn't wake up. Between twenty and of 36 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 1: the people who got this disease died, and of the 37 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,399 Speaker 1: ones who survived, only about a third really fully recovered. 38 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,680 Speaker 1: The rest developed what came to be known as post 39 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:34,880 Speaker 1: and syphilitic Parkinson ism, and some of these patients persisted 40 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: in a semi comatose state for decades. It's extra terrifying. 41 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,520 Speaker 1: The next part is even more terrifying. Yeah, as if 42 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 1: all of this were not enough to scare the pants 43 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: off of you. While in this extremely deep sleep that 44 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 1: was part of many of the cases, people appeared to 45 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: be unconscious, but in reality they were actually alert. They 46 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 1: were completely aware of what was going on, but they 47 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: were unable to overspeaks, so it was a sort of paralysis. Really. Yeah, 48 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: So people today may have heard about this whole disease 49 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: from the movie Awakenings starring Robin Williams, or maybe from 50 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: the first pages of Neil Gaiman's amazing comic book series Sandman, 51 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 1: which starts off when a ritual that was meant to 52 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: capture death instead captures dream and causes people to sleep endlessly. Otherwise, 53 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: it's pretty far in the background of medical history most 54 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,359 Speaker 1: of the time. It's not something that people remember all 55 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: that well today. But from its onset until about ten 56 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: years after it faded away, there were more than nine 57 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:42,760 Speaker 1: thousand papers and books published on it, so at the 58 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: time it was a big deal. Even though people don't 59 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: necessarily come up with it immediately when thinking about huge 60 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 1: epidemics today. Yeah, and I wonder why that is, um 61 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 1: talk about some of that. Yeah, Prolonged sleep as an 62 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: illness has been reported really really way back into history. 63 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: There are written records as early as Hippocrates of this 64 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: kind of incident happening. And then there are also, of course, 65 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,720 Speaker 1: in our cultural consciousness tales like sleeping beauty and these 66 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: stories like rip van Winkle uh, and some people along 67 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,680 Speaker 1: the line have theorized that these were actually rooted to 68 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: some degree in some kind of sleeping illness. In the 69 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: real world, there had also been an outbreak of a 70 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: similar condition in Italy in eighteen eighty nine and eighteen ninety, 71 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: which came to be known as Landona, and it was 72 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: thought at the time to be a complication of the flu. 73 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,119 Speaker 1: And around the world, other outbreaks of encephalitis had also 74 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: followed behind other epidemics, particularly the flu. This particular one 75 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: started just a couple of years before the nineteen eighteen 76 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,640 Speaker 1: Spanish flu epidemic, which killed between twenty and forty million people, 77 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:58,039 Speaker 1: and when it came to the encephalitis lethargica epidemic, the 78 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: first reports came at about the same time in two 79 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: different places, which were France in Austria. In nineteen six, 80 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: in France, a doctor named Genre nee Cruche started to 81 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:13,799 Speaker 1: see six soldiers with this weird assortment of seemingly unrelated 82 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: neurological symptoms, and the one common element was that the 83 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:22,280 Speaker 1: patients just slept, apparently peacefully and deeply, and that they 84 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,080 Speaker 1: could not be woken up, and he started to wonder 85 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: whether there was some kind of new chemical weapon at work. 86 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:31,480 Speaker 1: At about the same time, a British doctor named A. J. 87 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: Hall also reported similar symptoms, and other troops who were 88 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 1: stationed in France. In Vienna, it came to the attention 89 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: of Romanian Austrian psychiatrists Constantine von Economo after a sleepy, 90 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: disoriented civilian wandered into the Wagner Jarre clinic where he worked. 91 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:52,520 Speaker 1: The doctors there had mostly been treating soldiers who were 92 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: wounded in the war, so they really weren't prepared for 93 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 1: this apparently uninjured civilian with nothing physically wrong that they 94 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,839 Speaker 1: could really point to. And then more and more patients 95 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:08,359 Speaker 1: with similar symptoms arrived at the clinic and there you know, 96 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: they had the similar part of this uncontrollable sleepiness and sleep. 97 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: But the rest of their symptoms were so strange and 98 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,960 Speaker 1: diverse that the doctors were really at a loss to 99 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: figure out a cause or a treatment. These patients had fevers, malaise, 100 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: double vision, they became lethargic. Sometimes they had sore throats. 101 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:32,119 Speaker 1: Their eye muscles would start working and their eyes would 102 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,440 Speaker 1: dart around or roll back in their heads. Some of 103 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: them developed very strange eye and tongue movement movements, and 104 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: this variety of other neurological and psychiatric symptoms. A few 105 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: of them even had uncontrollable hiccups, and one died of that. 106 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 1: How does that work? Well, if you can't stop hiccuping, 107 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: you can't really eat or sleep, and then it can 108 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: cause all kinds of other interesting Yeah. Once again, throughout 109 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: all of this, the common element was this strange deep 110 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: sleep from which they could not be woken. Vanni Conomos 111 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:13,920 Speaker 1: saw this common element and said, we're dealing with a 112 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: sleeping sickness. Yeah. He was really the one that just 113 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: laid that out there, and he's a character on his own. 114 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: He was also a pilot who had been serving in 115 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: the war, but he came back home to Vienna after 116 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: his brother was killed and he really wanted to be flying, 117 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: but reluctantly transferred to doing medical work instead to try 118 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: to keep himself more out of danger and spare his 119 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: family from further grief. On top of all that, he 120 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,720 Speaker 1: was also a baron, having been born to a family 121 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: of Greek aristocrats and then married the daughter of an 122 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:48,560 Speaker 1: Austrian prince. As the patient started to die from sleep, 123 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: Vonni Konomos started an intense research effort to find a 124 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:56,560 Speaker 1: cause and a cure. He studied autopsies of patients who 125 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: had died of the disease, and he found common areas 126 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,800 Speaker 1: of damage to their brains, specifically in the hypothalamus, and 127 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: he suspected that the differences and how much people slept 128 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:10,080 Speaker 1: was related to just how their hypothalamus was damaged. He 129 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: also found that brain tissue could transmit the disease to monkeys, 130 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 1: so he concluded that they were looking at something that 131 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: was contagious. He publicly announced his conclusion that they were 132 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 1: dealing with a new disease, probably a virus, before the 133 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: Psychiatric Society in Vienna, on April seventeenth of nineteen seventeen. 134 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 1: Uh Consequently, sometimes the disease has been referred to as 135 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:36,319 Speaker 1: von Economo's disease. His announcement was not at all well received. 136 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: At the time. The prevailing view was that mental illnesses 137 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:44,080 Speaker 1: were all products of things like trauma and buried memories. 138 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,520 Speaker 1: Freud was really at the forefront of psychology at this point, 139 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: so a lot of people just scoffed at the idea 140 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 1: that there could be a virus or other disease process 141 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,400 Speaker 1: causing the kinds of behavior changes and psychological problems that 142 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,080 Speaker 1: some of the patients were exhibiting. The ongoing debate and 143 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,760 Speaker 1: this mystery of the whole thing kept much progress from 144 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,440 Speaker 1: being made in terms of treatment and prevention. But then, uh, 145 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: the illness mostly disappeared from continental Europe. It really just 146 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: fell off suddenly, and Spanish flew on the rise, took 147 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:16,480 Speaker 1: its place, and it became a much more pressing priority. 148 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:20,560 Speaker 1: Not long after that, though, the disease appeared in London 149 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: and it followed much the same pattern as it had 150 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:26,080 Speaker 1: on the continent. There were, you know, all these patients 151 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 1: who were suddenly having the strange collective collection of symptoms 152 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:33,959 Speaker 1: and sleeping constantly. The government in Britain quickly made it 153 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: a reportable disease. The Ministry of Health had to be 154 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: notified of all new cases and its appearance and spread 155 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: UH in London was much like it had been in 156 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: France and Austria. Strange symptoms and unending sleep uh you know, 157 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:52,200 Speaker 1: baffling the doctors. But in England the symptoms became even 158 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: more alarming, with patients who could never sleep, or who 159 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: couldn't stop laughing, or had other strange physical or emotional 160 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:03,640 Speaker 1: present sians It also seemed like fewer and fewer people 161 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: were truly recovering. In Austria and France, there had been 162 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:13,000 Speaker 1: people that had gotten better, but as it's spread around England, 163 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,200 Speaker 1: a lot of people were becoming comatose or developing. As 164 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,520 Speaker 1: we mentioned at the beginning, what later it came to 165 00:10:18,559 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: be known as post and syphilitic parkinson is um or PEP. 166 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: Sometimes the onset of parkinson Is m happened years after 167 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: people recovered, after they had apparently been healthy all that time. 168 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:34,560 Speaker 1: During the epidemic, the average age for the onset of 169 00:10:34,559 --> 00:10:39,360 Speaker 1: Parkinson's dropped to thirty six years old. Today, while there 170 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,679 Speaker 1: are people who have early onset, the average age for 171 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,560 Speaker 1: people to start exhibiting Parkinson's is sixty. So this was 172 00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: really a significant and strange happening. Uh. Following the epidemic, 173 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:55,960 Speaker 1: two thirds of Parkinson's patients had previously had encephalitis, so 174 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,200 Speaker 1: it clearly was causing it. Right, this, this disease is 175 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 1: was causing a drastic shift in who developed Parkinson's and when. 176 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: And we're going to pause before we start talking about 177 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:10,680 Speaker 1: how then the rest of the world gets to be terrified. 178 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:25,000 Speaker 1: So to return to the story of encephalitis lethargica from England, 179 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:29,160 Speaker 1: the disease spread all over the globe, and the same 180 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: story just played out over and over and over. People 181 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: would start showing up with these strange symptoms that prevent 182 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: that presented themselves in such different ways that it would 183 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 1: take a while for doctors to realize what was happening. 184 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: It really didn't help that the epidemic had started just 185 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,079 Speaker 1: at the end of World War One and just before 186 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:51,320 Speaker 1: the start of the nineteen eighteen Spanish flu epidemic, and 187 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:55,400 Speaker 1: so resources were just scarce and there were definitely bigger 188 00:11:55,480 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: priorities going on. And this crazy, although terrifying disease, and 189 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:03,320 Speaker 1: as it spread, it started to prompt a variety of 190 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:07,080 Speaker 1: different sleep disorders. So while some patients would sleep for 191 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:09,319 Speaker 1: months at a time, others couldn't sleep at all, and 192 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: they would actually die of exhaustion. The disease came to 193 00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:16,160 Speaker 1: be known in some places as epidemic encephalitis rather than 194 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:21,040 Speaker 1: encephalitis lethargica, since not everyone could really be called lethargic anymore. 195 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:24,400 Speaker 1: As its spread, it also started to affect more and 196 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:28,600 Speaker 1: more children and young people. Children who contracted the disease 197 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:32,280 Speaker 1: developed impulse control issues that led to them having violent 198 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,400 Speaker 1: behavior in their adolescence. Some of them injured themselves or 199 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: other people. One even removed her own eyes and several 200 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:46,199 Speaker 1: of her own teeth okay after unclenched. After that um, 201 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,360 Speaker 1: this behavior often would continue for the rest of these 202 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: patients lives after they progress out of childhood, unless post 203 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: and cephalitic parkinson is M made them physically unable to continue. 204 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: For children with the disease, outbursts were so severe that 205 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:04,960 Speaker 1: many had to be institutionalized. Hospitals and asylums that were 206 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: accustomed to providing care for adults suddenly had to develop 207 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 1: new practices to care for children because there were so 208 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:15,880 Speaker 1: many suddenly having to move into institutions. Researchers theorized that 209 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:19,840 Speaker 1: the reason this encephalitis was causing behavior changes like this 210 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:23,240 Speaker 1: and young people was because their brains hadn't yet developed 211 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:27,319 Speaker 1: the capacity for self control that adults typically had by 212 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:31,439 Speaker 1: the time they were infected, and this tendency towards violent 213 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:35,240 Speaker 1: behavior and other erratic behavior even led to encephalitis lethargica 214 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: being blamed for gangster behavior and lawlessness during the nineteen twenties. 215 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 1: Once this disease spread to the United States, neurologist Frederick Tilney, 216 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 1: who was known as Fred and had also been Helen 217 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:51,120 Speaker 1: Keller's neurologist, became the country's foremost authority on sleepy sickness. 218 00:13:51,679 --> 00:13:55,080 Speaker 1: One of his most famous encephalitis patients was Jesse Morgan, 219 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:58,079 Speaker 1: who was the wife of Jack p Morgan, who himself 220 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:01,520 Speaker 1: was the son of banker and full anthropist John Pierpoint Morgan. 221 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 1: She got the disease in After Jesse's death, Jack donated 222 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,360 Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars to the Neurological Institute to fund 223 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:15,040 Speaker 1: research into this disease. The Neurological Institute was behind most 224 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:19,200 Speaker 1: of the research into encephalitis lethargica that came from that point. 225 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: Later on, William Matheson, who was the wealthy founder of 226 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:27,200 Speaker 1: a chemical company and an encephalitis patient started the Matheson 227 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:30,920 Speaker 1: Commission to fund research at the Neurological Institute, with Dr 228 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 1: Josephine B. Neil, who was an encephalitis expert, helming the 229 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: project and the commission's aim was to study the disease 230 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:42,680 Speaker 1: and eventually find a vaccine. Since nobody knew exactly what 231 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:46,560 Speaker 1: was causing the disease, they worked on three theories simultaneously. 232 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:50,440 Speaker 1: One was that it was being caused by an unknown virus, 233 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:53,760 Speaker 1: the next was that it was being caused by bacteria, 234 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: possibly strapped UH, and the third was that it was 235 00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: being caused by herpes. This was a long shot to 236 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: begin with because no causative agent had been found for 237 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: this disease. They were basically operating in the dark based 238 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 1: on best guesses. On top of that, there was a 239 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: ton of infighting among the researchers. A lot of them 240 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:21,280 Speaker 1: were extremely prominent neurologists and scientists. Each of them really 241 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: wanted to be the one to crack this case and 242 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: figure out what's going on. Um that they were not 243 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: working together very well. They were each trying to get 244 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 1: the glory for themselves. And then there was another huge 245 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: setback when Matheson himself died in nineteen thirty. That was 246 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,440 Speaker 1: in the middle of the Great Depression, and he had 247 00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:44,040 Speaker 1: been providing the funding, so after his death there wasn't 248 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:48,119 Speaker 1: really other funding to be had, so the Matheson Commission 249 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: ceased operations in ninety two and so no workable vaccine 250 00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 1: had been developed, and one of the things that doctors 251 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 1: tried to treat post encephalitist patients of was lobotomies, which 252 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:05,760 Speaker 1: also did not work. There was a lot of ending 253 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:09,440 Speaker 1: that did not work. There were a few outlying successes 254 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:11,640 Speaker 1: during this time that would kind of give people false 255 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:14,440 Speaker 1: hope that maybe they were on the right track, but 256 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:18,840 Speaker 1: nothing led to an actual treatment or cure. Most of 257 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: the medical care that the patients were receiving was really 258 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:24,840 Speaker 1: about just caring for their bodies and keeping them alive. 259 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,720 Speaker 1: The thirty or so percent who developed parkinson Is um 260 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: generally wound up in long term care for the rest 261 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,560 Speaker 1: of their lives, and many of them were completely unable 262 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: to move or take care of themselves. In the nineteen sixties, 263 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:40,520 Speaker 1: after the drug leve Adopa, or el dopa as it 264 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: was called, was introduced for treating Parkinson's, New York doctor 265 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,880 Speaker 1: Oliver Sacks, who are some of our listeners may have 266 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:51,920 Speaker 1: heard of, administered it to some encephalitis lethargica patients who 267 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:55,120 Speaker 1: were in long term care. Some patients actually showed a 268 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 1: limited recovery from their post and sephalitis lethargica parkinson symptoms. 269 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 1: This is the story that's actually told in the movie Awakenings, 270 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:04,679 Speaker 1: which is why people may have heard of Olliver sex. 271 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:09,360 Speaker 1: But they all apparently developed a tolerance until the dosage 272 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:12,199 Speaker 1: was really just too much for the human body to handle, 273 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,480 Speaker 1: and then they would return to their semi comatose state 274 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: in the end. This epidemic went on from nineteen sixteen 275 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 1: to nineteen twenty seven, reaching its peak in nineteen twenty four, 276 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:25,920 Speaker 1: after which the number of cases started to drop off. 277 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,200 Speaker 1: The total numbers of people affected are really unclear. There 278 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 1: are sources who say that a million people were killed, 279 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 1: while others say that only half a million were affected 280 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:40,960 Speaker 1: in one way or another. Regardless, though the mortality rate 281 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: was pretty serious in England, almost half of the cases 282 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:48,399 Speaker 1: in nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty died. Although it was 283 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: roughly concurrent with the Spanish flu pandemic, and flu came 284 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 1: up frequently when looking at possible causes. Many doctors at 285 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,920 Speaker 1: the time didn't really think the disease was actually flu related. 286 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 1: Only a small percentage of the patients had also had 287 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:06,639 Speaker 1: Spanish flu. In nineteen eighty two, however, doctors from the 288 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:10,240 Speaker 1: Centers for Disease Control published this list of connections between 289 00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:13,400 Speaker 1: the two diseases. So for a little while. In more 290 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:18,119 Speaker 1: recent years, flu became a prime suspect for causing encephalitis lethargica. 291 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:21,880 Speaker 1: Uh there is, you know, especially since there have been 292 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:26,919 Speaker 1: other incidents of encephalitis that have followed outbreaks of the flu. Today, 293 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,520 Speaker 1: the idea that the flu was the culprit has pretty 294 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,760 Speaker 1: much been ruled out. Thanks to modern testing methods. They 295 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,119 Speaker 1: haven't turned up any sign of the flu virus in 296 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:39,800 Speaker 1: tissue samples from patients who died from encephalitis. Although it's 297 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:44,040 Speaker 1: never reached that same epidemic state again, isolated cases of 298 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,280 Speaker 1: encephalitis lethargica have continued to crop up even in recent years. 299 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: Most recently in a twenty three year old named Becky 300 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: Powell was diagnosed with the disease and it took her 301 00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:01,880 Speaker 1: two years to recover. Several similar ass followed. In two 302 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: thousand three, a team of doctors published a paper in 303 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,520 Speaker 1: the journal Brain that put forth a pretty good case 304 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:11,200 Speaker 1: that the cause of encephalitis lethargica is actually a massive 305 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:15,960 Speaker 1: autoimmune reaction to an unidentified pathogen. A strain of strep 306 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:19,160 Speaker 1: comes up in the discussion, but it's ultimately dismissed as unlikely. 307 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,720 Speaker 1: And their research was done on twenty different patients who 308 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:27,240 Speaker 1: developed the disease between two thousand two, and those patients 309 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:30,119 Speaker 1: had a much lower mortality rate than during the epidemic. 310 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,359 Speaker 1: Only one died, but five of them did have to 311 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: be placed on a ventilator. Had those five patients lived 312 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:38,760 Speaker 1: in the ninety twenties, they probably would not have made it, 313 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:41,880 Speaker 1: but almost none of them had fully recovered a year 314 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:44,919 Speaker 1: or so later when the paper was published. They continued 315 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:48,760 Speaker 1: to have neurological and psychiatric symptoms. Yeah. If if there 316 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 1: had been if today's ventilation technology had existed in the 317 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, the mortality rate would have been sign Yeah, 318 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: because people would get into this just deep uninterrupted sleep 319 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 1: and their respiratory functions would fail, and there wasn't really 320 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: anything that people could do about it. But now that 321 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:12,399 Speaker 1: we have ventilators, uh, that there are actual there's a 322 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:14,640 Speaker 1: treatment for that part of it that didn't exist back then. 323 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:19,760 Speaker 1: In a paper in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases reported 324 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: that a team of researchers had found virus like particles 325 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:28,200 Speaker 1: in the brains of both epidemic encephalitis patients and modern patients, 326 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:33,240 Speaker 1: so people who had died either recently or during the epidemic. 327 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,960 Speaker 1: This supports the idea that the cause of encephalitis lethargica 328 00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:43,280 Speaker 1: is an interarovirus, but exactly what interarovirus we still do 329 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:55,800 Speaker 1: you not know. So encephalitis lethargica has a some you know, 330 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:58,720 Speaker 1: a legacy today, even though a lot of people have 331 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,119 Speaker 1: not really heard of it as tragic and frightening as 332 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,600 Speaker 1: the disease was and is really. In the end, it 333 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:10,280 Speaker 1: helped doctors understand more about the brain. Von economos conclusion 334 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,879 Speaker 1: about the hypothalamus and its role in the patient's sleep, 335 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:18,360 Speaker 1: for example, was hugely unpopular at the time, but many 336 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,399 Speaker 1: years later it was proved to be true after we 337 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,439 Speaker 1: developed sorts of imaging technologies that we can use to 338 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,840 Speaker 1: look directly at the brain as it's working today. Neurologist 339 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:31,879 Speaker 1: Bernard Sacks also wrote that the epidemic of encephalitis quote 340 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 1: revolutionized the practice of neurology, So it really changed the 341 00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: way that, uh, these things were examined from the get go. Yeah, 342 00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:44,439 Speaker 1: it helped solidifying neurology as an actual field. In the 343 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:48,120 Speaker 1: early days, there was sort of this hodgepodge of neurology 344 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,280 Speaker 1: ideas and psychology ideas and all these things that were 345 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:54,879 Speaker 1: kind of together in one big pot. And in part 346 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:58,399 Speaker 1: because of encephalitis being spread the way that it was, 347 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:04,439 Speaker 1: a group of doctors branched off to study just neurology 348 00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:06,879 Speaker 1: and it celf lightest lethargica was also one of the 349 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: conditions that made it clear that disease processes can lead 350 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:14,480 Speaker 1: to mental illnesses. Uh, it's solidified the idea that mental 351 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,200 Speaker 1: illnesses were not solely in the realm of emotions or 352 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: traumatic experiences. It's not always buried memories. Sometimes there can 353 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:26,159 Speaker 1: actually be a physical happening that causes mental illness. There 354 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,119 Speaker 1: are a couple of books that are out about this epidemic. 355 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,760 Speaker 1: The one that I read researching this podcast was called Asleep, 356 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:37,600 Speaker 1: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains one of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries 357 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:43,359 Speaker 1: by Molly Caldwell Crosby and her grandmother survived sleepy sickness. 358 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,080 Speaker 1: It starts with sort of a case study of her grandmother. 359 00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:51,119 Speaker 1: That's terrifying because it's about her grandmother being asleep for 360 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,479 Speaker 1: so long but also being aware of what was happening 361 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: around her, which to me is just terrifying. The one 362 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,800 Speaker 1: caveat about this book is that it was written before 363 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,200 Speaker 1: the very most recent research about what might have caused 364 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:07,040 Speaker 1: this particular epidemic, which is going to be the case 365 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 1: with just about every book now since the latest research 366 00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:11,720 Speaker 1: is just from very new Yeah. Last year, as we 367 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:16,600 Speaker 1: were recording, I have read several papers that you know, 368 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:20,639 Speaker 1: and when the bird flu epidemic was was everybody was 369 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,160 Speaker 1: very frightened about bird flu. There were several articles that 370 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 1: that came up where doctors were like, actually, what you 371 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:31,120 Speaker 1: really should be afraid of is a resurgence of this 372 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:38,720 Speaker 1: still unidentified encephalitis that sometimes that sometimes follows outbreaks of 373 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 1: other diseases. I yeah, it's basically my worst nightmare. I mean, 374 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:46,679 Speaker 1: I have not a good relationship with sleep anyway. If 375 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:48,560 Speaker 1: I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't. So the 376 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:52,239 Speaker 1: idea of not having any control over the situation and 377 00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: just being asleep but not really because you're conscious of 378 00:23:55,520 --> 00:24:00,399 Speaker 1: things happening. Is my worst nightmare. Yeah, not play on 379 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:05,000 Speaker 1: sleep jokes, but well, it's terrifying and the there are 380 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,639 Speaker 1: many things about this whole the epidemic and the illness 381 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,639 Speaker 1: itself that are are frightening to me, and one of 382 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:14,160 Speaker 1: them is that people would seem to recover and they 383 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 1: would be fine for a long time, and then the 384 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:22,239 Speaker 1: developed fine developed parkinson symptoms um and once it had 385 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:24,640 Speaker 1: been established that that was a pattern, I can imagine 386 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,280 Speaker 1: like the people who had gotten better really being like 387 00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: I'm never going to be which I know that's the 388 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,400 Speaker 1: case with a lot of diseases that people have now, 389 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 1: Like there are many cancer patients who never feel like 390 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,000 Speaker 1: they are in the clear because you can be in remission. 391 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:45,200 Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a scary thing to live with that 392 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:54,640 Speaker 1: kind of over you. Thank you so much for joining 393 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,919 Speaker 1: us on this Saturday. If you have heard an email 394 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,320 Speaker 1: address or a Facebook you are l or something similar 395 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:02,920 Speaker 1: over the course of today's episode, since it is from 396 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,520 Speaker 1: the archive that might be out of date now, you 397 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,720 Speaker 1: can email us at History Podcast at how Stuff Works 398 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 1: dot com, and you can find us all over social 399 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: media at missed in history, and you can subscribe to 400 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 1: our show on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, the I Heart 401 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:24,639 Speaker 1: Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. For 402 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,239 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how 403 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:39,760 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. I'm Stuff you Should Know as 404 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:43,919 Speaker 1: Josh Clark, I'm launching a ten part podcast series about 405 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:48,120 Speaker 1: all the ways humanity might accidentally wipe ourselves right out 406 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:51,800 Speaker 1: of existence. It covers everything from whether we're alone in 407 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 1: the universe to the evolution of life on Earth, from 408 00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:58,920 Speaker 1: artificial intelligence to what goes on inside a particle collider. 409 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,760 Speaker 1: It is in a mensely interesting deep dive into the 410 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,920 Speaker 1: world of existential risks, and I hope that you enjoy 411 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,439 Speaker 1: listening to it as much as I have making it. 412 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 1: I want to share a preview of the series with you. 413 00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,639 Speaker 1: This clip comes from episode four and it features economist 414 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: Robin Hansen, creator of the Great Filter hypothesis, which is 415 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: something we may have to contend with in the near future. 416 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,880 Speaker 1: When we settled down, our cities, developed agriculture can support 417 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,679 Speaker 1: more people than hunting and gathering, and the more people 418 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 1: there are, the more brilliant ideas there are. Two so 419 00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:39,080 Speaker 1: our civilization began to advance by leaps and bounds in 420 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,600 Speaker 1: the last nine or ten thousand years. Ideas spread more 421 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 1: quickly among those people who lived together in those new cities, 422 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,480 Speaker 1: so innovations were able to develop over the span of 423 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: a handful of years rather than millennia. Almost everything we 424 00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,720 Speaker 1: have in the world today can be traced back to 425 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,959 Speaker 1: our collective decision to settle down and raise crops. It was, 426 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 1: to say the least, a sweeping change for us humans. 427 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,320 Speaker 1: With our next great leap spreading out into space, we 428 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,080 Speaker 1: are effectively doing the opposite of when we settled down 429 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:14,160 Speaker 1: into cities. Rather than contracting, we will be expanding. From 430 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 1: that huge coming together, we will spread out. Over time, 431 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 1: humans will begin to colonize other planets, and generations of 432 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:25,080 Speaker 1: little human babies will be borne on planets other than Earth. 433 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,639 Speaker 1: They will be shaped by forces and experiences that no 434 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,880 Speaker 1: earthbound human will have ever encountered, and they will learn 435 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,360 Speaker 1: to adapt to their home planet just like we did. 436 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,760 Speaker 1: We are quite capable of becoming all the things that 437 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,320 Speaker 1: it's possible to become. Life that starts from us and 438 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,480 Speaker 1: radiates out cannot only spread to different places that can 439 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:50,200 Speaker 1: create different styles and techniques and cultures and approaches. All 440 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,360 Speaker 1: of the life that you see on Earth started out 441 00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:55,080 Speaker 1: from a much smaller amount of variation, but with time 442 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,440 Speaker 1: it could explore lots of different niches and ways of living. 443 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: And that's probably what would happen to us too. If 444 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,000 Speaker 1: we're the only life around it, we can survive, we 445 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,120 Speaker 1: will radiate. We will become diverse and different and fill 446 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,200 Speaker 1: thousand million billion different niches of different ways of being. 447 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,680 Speaker 1: Over time, perhaps their physical connection to humans on Earth 448 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,439 Speaker 1: will become distant enough that new species of humans will form, 449 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,280 Speaker 1: and the universe will be home to more than one 450 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:26,080 Speaker 1: species of human again, just as it was fifty years ago. 451 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,600 Speaker 1: We will become the aliens we seek, and later on 452 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:33,520 Speaker 1: they might be surprised to learn that they came from 453 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:37,120 Speaker 1: something that was simple and not as very It's odd 454 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:40,560 Speaker 1: to think of, but humans are in an evolutionary bottleneck 455 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:44,240 Speaker 1: of our own. Right now. There's only one species of us, 456 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,400 Speaker 1: and with the exception of maybe half a dozen astronauts 457 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,680 Speaker 1: on the International Space Station at any given time, we 458 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:55,480 Speaker 1: are all stranded on this island Earth. Those astronauts aboard 459 00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: the I s S showed just the faintous beginnings of 460 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: our future. If we become a space faring species, all 461 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: of humanities eggs will no longer be in just the 462 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 1: one basket of Earth. Should some catastrophe befall those of 463 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: us here on Earth, there will be other humans living 464 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,840 Speaker 1: elsewhere to carry on. We will begin to trickle from 465 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:19,640 Speaker 1: our bottleneck and spread throughout the universe, and when we do, 466 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 1: we will have made it through the great Filter. Colonizing 467 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,040 Speaker 1: beyond Earth is something we should begin working on as 468 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,280 Speaker 1: soon as we can, because Earth is vulnerable to a 469 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 1: wide variety of catastrophes that are pretty hostile to life, 470 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:38,920 Speaker 1: things like exploding stars, the death of our son, even 471 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:45,400 Speaker 1: Earth's own systems going haywire. Please join me for the 472 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: End of the World with Josh Clark. Listen and subscribe 473 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,680 Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts or on the I Heart Radio app, 474 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,400 Speaker 1: or listen wherever you get your podcasts.