January 1, 2019 • 9 mins
As you pass through the Cabinet today, keep your eyes on that spot where the sky meets the ocean. Amazing things can come from both.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. War requires a lot
(00:29):
from a soldier, intuition, dedication, and resourcefulness. From medic to mcgever.
A soldier's role can change from one moment to the next,
and oftentimes the only tools they have to work with
are the objects on their person at the time. You
might not think you could patch up a wound with
only a rifle, a knife, and some leaves you found
on the ground, but when you're under enemy fire, you
(00:51):
find a way. And the United States military had to
find a way when they ran a foul of the
Chinese army during the Korean War. The chan Jin Mountain Reservoir,
known by American forces as the Chosen Reservoir, became a
hotbed of action during the Chinese Second Defensive of nineteen fifty.
The war appeared to be over as U N forces
(01:13):
advanced into North Korea in order to unite the two sides.
A reunification wasn't going to happen if the People's Republic
of China had anything to say about it. One hundred
twenty thousand Chinese soldiers infiltrated North Korea in an effort
to stop the U n's advancement. They reached the reservoir first,
while a special group of United States soldiers known as
(01:35):
the ex Corps approached from the coast. I know they
sound like characters out of a Marvel comic book, but
trust me, they were real superheroes. Fifteen thousand men from
the Marines and the U. S Army were ready to
end the war once and for all and bring stability
to the region. You might be wondering why only fifteen
thousand if the Chinese had deployed eight times that amount
(01:58):
into the area, And that's because the United States forces
had no idea the Chinese army was waiting for them.
They snuck in and fortified their position, waiting for the
Americans to arrive. The X Corps held their own for
over two weeks against the Chinese military, but the harsh,
terragn and brutal fighting had left them all but defeated.
(02:19):
Stuck in freezing temperatures and outgunned. The X Corp the
best of the best. We're running out out of AMMO,
out of food, and out of time. They were surrounded.
The enemy was closing in on thousands of US soldiers,
many of whom had nothing to defend themselves with except
broken guns and equally broken spirits. Worst of all, the
(02:42):
mortar shelves they used to beat back the Chinese forces
had run dry, so they called in for an air drop.
Tutsi rolls they called them. It sounds silly, but code
names like that were necessary to prevent the other side
from knowing what was coming in case someone happened to
be listening in. Unfortunately, who ever took the air drop
order didn't understand the code name. The X Corps got
(03:04):
their supplies, boxes and boxes of what they thought were
mortar shells, ready to launch. What they received, however, was
far less explosive. Their pleas for tutsie rolls had gotten
them exactly what they'd asked for, tutsie rolls, little chocolate
candies wrapped up in wax paper. This might have signaled
(03:25):
the end for the U S forces, now without an
escape plan and their chances of survival dwindling. After all,
you can't win a war with chocolate as your only
supply unless you're the x core. The men were quickly
revitalized by the sugar rush bestowed upon them from overhead,
and they quickly realized that their little candies, although hardened
(03:45):
by the reservoirs freezing winds, became soft and pliable when
warmed up in their mouths. They chewed them into a
putty like substance, which they then spread over the holes
in their weapons, letting the wind freeze them in place.
With their bellies full and their guns back in action,
the ex Corps were once again a formidable threat. They
(04:05):
managed to fight back just enough to get out of
enemy territory and make their way to the nearest coast
where they could regroup. It sounds almost too strange to
be true, the idea that a simple chocolate candy saved
the lives of so many American soldiers in Korea. But
as it turns out, Tootsie rolls made as good a
patching material as they did a candy. Now that I
(04:28):
think about it, it's a good thing they didn't call
in for an air drop of life. Savers Louis was
born in Plymouth, England, to parents who dedicated their lives
(04:50):
to helping others. His father was a surgeon in the
Royal Navy, and his mother worked as a nurse in
Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. Lewis learned from a
young age that the best use of anyone's gifts was
to use them in service of others. The family moved
to South Africa when Louis was ten, and that was
where he found his true love the water. Louis hadn't
(05:14):
had a real swimming lesson until late in high school,
but it didn't take long for him to outpace the
other students. A month after his first lesson, he swam
four point three miles to Robin Island off the coast
of Cape Town. That's the same island where Nelson Mandela
was imprisoned for many years, and that gave Lewis an
idea about what he would attempt next. Well after he
(05:37):
finished his education at least, Louis took a break from
his dairy nautical trials and went to college, studying law
at the University of Cape Town, before eventually returning to
England to practice maritime law. It seemed no matter where
he went, he always managed to stay close to the water.
Six years later, though, it was time to dive back in,
so to speak, but he did not ease into things slowly.
(06:00):
He swam across the English Channel in fourteen and a
half hours and then moved on to colder, harsher challenges
around the world. And maybe you've noticed, but Louis just
couldn't sit still. He needed to push himself with each
swim farther, faster, longer. Louis set a number of records
along the way, becoming the first swimmer to swim around
(06:22):
the Cape Peninsula, the southernmost point of Africa, and the
Cape of Good Hope, the northernmost point in Europe. He
even swam the length of the sun Ya Fjord, the
longest of Norway's fiords. At one seven miles. It took
him twenty one days to do it. Possibly his greatest
feat came in achieving the Holy Grail of swimming by
(06:42):
completing a long distance swim in all five of the
world's oceans, four of which were accomplished over the course
of only two years. Louis was an unstoppable force, and
his achievements gained him a bit of notoriety, notoriety that
he used to bring awareness to environmental issues all over
the world, namely climate change. In fact, many of his
(07:05):
record swims since then we're done in an effort to
bring awareness to the effects of climate change on our ocean,
seas and glaciers, including one such feat in a glacial
lake on Mount Everest. To swim in such a frigid environment,
most people would have needed a special wetsuit or equipment
to regulate their body temperature, but there was something different
about Louis, something almost superhuman. A professor from the University
(07:30):
of Cape Town measured Louis's body temperature and found something astonishing.
Louis could actually increase his core body temperature by two
degrees just before a swim in cold waters, a phenomenon
he called anticipatory thermogenesis. No one else on earth has
been able to do it. All of this, compounded with
(07:52):
his long distance swims in all seven seas, has cemented
Louis Pew as an icon of environmental change. His act
of is m has sparked actual legislation in the UK
as well. That all happened in two thousand six when
Louis decided to swim the length of the Thames River. Yeah,
all two fifteen miles of it. All to raise awareness
(08:13):
of the growing drought across England as a result of
global warming. Louis dove into the water and took off
a human torpedo on a mission. But he had just
one stop to make first. He jumped out of the
river and took a quick detour to ten Downing Street,
the home of the Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair.
The two had a brief chat before Louis took his
(08:35):
leave back to the frigid Thames to complete his journey.
It might have been this herculean trial that convinced the
Prime Minister, after all, two fifteen miles is a long
way to swim to prove a point. Or it might
have been something he said to convince him to take action.
But one thing is certain. Not long after Louis's visit
to ten Downing Street, Tony Blair introduced to Parliament what
(08:58):
is now known as the Climate Change Act of two
thousand eight. Louis Pew is still swimming for environmental causes today,
one body of water at a time. His efforts are
working too. Little by little. The awareness he's raising is
helping clean up our oceans and rivers, so future generations
might enjoy them. Sometimes if you want to make a change,
(09:21):
you just have to dive right in. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
(09:43):
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. War requires a lot
(00:29):
from a soldier, intuition, dedication, and resourcefulness. From medic to mcgever.
A soldier's role can change from one moment to the next,
and oftentimes the only tools they have to work with
are the objects on their person at the time. You
might not think you could patch up a wound with
only a rifle, a knife, and some leaves you found
on the ground, but when you're under enemy fire, you
(00:51):
find a way. And the United States military had to
find a way when they ran a foul of the
Chinese army during the Korean War. The chan Jin Mountain Reservoir,
known by American forces as the Chosen Reservoir, became a
hotbed of action during the Chinese Second Defensive of nineteen fifty.
The war appeared to be over as U N forces
(01:13):
advanced into North Korea in order to unite the two sides.
A reunification wasn't going to happen if the People's Republic
of China had anything to say about it. One hundred
twenty thousand Chinese soldiers infiltrated North Korea in an effort
to stop the U n's advancement. They reached the reservoir first,
while a special group of United States soldiers known as
(01:35):
the ex Corps approached from the coast. I know they
sound like characters out of a Marvel comic book, but
trust me, they were real superheroes. Fifteen thousand men from
the Marines and the U. S Army were ready to
end the war once and for all and bring stability
to the region. You might be wondering why only fifteen
thousand if the Chinese had deployed eight times that amount
(01:58):
into the area, And that's because the United States forces
had no idea the Chinese army was waiting for them.
They snuck in and fortified their position, waiting for the
Americans to arrive. The X Corps held their own for
over two weeks against the Chinese military, but the harsh,
terragn and brutal fighting had left them all but defeated.
(02:19):
Stuck in freezing temperatures and outgunned. The X Corp the
best of the best. We're running out out of AMMO,
out of food, and out of time. They were surrounded.
The enemy was closing in on thousands of US soldiers,
many of whom had nothing to defend themselves with except
broken guns and equally broken spirits. Worst of all, the
(02:42):
mortar shelves they used to beat back the Chinese forces
had run dry, so they called in for an air drop.
Tutsi rolls they called them. It sounds silly, but code
names like that were necessary to prevent the other side
from knowing what was coming in case someone happened to
be listening in. Unfortunately, who ever took the air drop
order didn't understand the code name. The X Corps got
(03:04):
their supplies, boxes and boxes of what they thought were
mortar shells, ready to launch. What they received, however, was
far less explosive. Their pleas for tutsie rolls had gotten
them exactly what they'd asked for, tutsie rolls, little chocolate
candies wrapped up in wax paper. This might have signaled
(03:25):
the end for the U S forces, now without an
escape plan and their chances of survival dwindling. After all,
you can't win a war with chocolate as your only
supply unless you're the x core. The men were quickly
revitalized by the sugar rush bestowed upon them from overhead,
and they quickly realized that their little candies, although hardened
(03:45):
by the reservoirs freezing winds, became soft and pliable when
warmed up in their mouths. They chewed them into a
putty like substance, which they then spread over the holes
in their weapons, letting the wind freeze them in place.
With their bellies full and their guns back in action,
the ex Corps were once again a formidable threat. They
(04:05):
managed to fight back just enough to get out of
enemy territory and make their way to the nearest coast
where they could regroup. It sounds almost too strange to
be true, the idea that a simple chocolate candy saved
the lives of so many American soldiers in Korea. But
as it turns out, Tootsie rolls made as good a
patching material as they did a candy. Now that I
(04:28):
think about it, it's a good thing they didn't call
in for an air drop of life. Savers Louis was
born in Plymouth, England, to parents who dedicated their lives
(04:50):
to helping others. His father was a surgeon in the
Royal Navy, and his mother worked as a nurse in
Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. Lewis learned from a
young age that the best use of anyone's gifts was
to use them in service of others. The family moved
to South Africa when Louis was ten, and that was
where he found his true love the water. Louis hadn't
(05:14):
had a real swimming lesson until late in high school,
but it didn't take long for him to outpace the
other students. A month after his first lesson, he swam
four point three miles to Robin Island off the coast
of Cape Town. That's the same island where Nelson Mandela
was imprisoned for many years, and that gave Lewis an
idea about what he would attempt next. Well after he
(05:37):
finished his education at least, Louis took a break from
his dairy nautical trials and went to college, studying law
at the University of Cape Town, before eventually returning to
England to practice maritime law. It seemed no matter where
he went, he always managed to stay close to the water.
Six years later, though, it was time to dive back in,
so to speak, but he did not ease into things slowly.
(06:00):
He swam across the English Channel in fourteen and a
half hours and then moved on to colder, harsher challenges
around the world. And maybe you've noticed, but Louis just
couldn't sit still. He needed to push himself with each
swim farther, faster, longer. Louis set a number of records
along the way, becoming the first swimmer to swim around
(06:22):
the Cape Peninsula, the southernmost point of Africa, and the
Cape of Good Hope, the northernmost point in Europe. He
even swam the length of the sun Ya Fjord, the
longest of Norway's fiords. At one seven miles. It took
him twenty one days to do it. Possibly his greatest
feat came in achieving the Holy Grail of swimming by
(06:42):
completing a long distance swim in all five of the
world's oceans, four of which were accomplished over the course
of only two years. Louis was an unstoppable force, and
his achievements gained him a bit of notoriety, notoriety that
he used to bring awareness to environmental issues all over
the world, namely climate change. In fact, many of his
(07:05):
record swims since then we're done in an effort to
bring awareness to the effects of climate change on our ocean,
seas and glaciers, including one such feat in a glacial
lake on Mount Everest. To swim in such a frigid environment,
most people would have needed a special wetsuit or equipment
to regulate their body temperature, but there was something different
about Louis, something almost superhuman. A professor from the University
(07:30):
of Cape Town measured Louis's body temperature and found something astonishing.
Louis could actually increase his core body temperature by two
degrees just before a swim in cold waters, a phenomenon
he called anticipatory thermogenesis. No one else on earth has
been able to do it. All of this, compounded with
(07:52):
his long distance swims in all seven seas, has cemented
Louis Pew as an icon of environmental change. His act
of is m has sparked actual legislation in the UK
as well. That all happened in two thousand six when
Louis decided to swim the length of the Thames River. Yeah,
all two fifteen miles of it. All to raise awareness
(08:13):
of the growing drought across England as a result of
global warming. Louis dove into the water and took off
a human torpedo on a mission. But he had just
one stop to make first. He jumped out of the
river and took a quick detour to ten Downing Street,
the home of the Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair.
The two had a brief chat before Louis took his
(08:35):
leave back to the frigid Thames to complete his journey.
It might have been this herculean trial that convinced the
Prime Minister, after all, two fifteen miles is a long
way to swim to prove a point. Or it might
have been something he said to convince him to take action.
But one thing is certain. Not long after Louis's visit
to ten Downing Street, Tony Blair introduced to Parliament what
(08:58):
is now known as the Climate Change Act of two
thousand eight. Louis Pew is still swimming for environmental causes today,
one body of water at a time. His efforts are
working too. Little by little. The awareness he's raising is
helping clean up our oceans and rivers, so future generations
might enjoy them. Sometimes if you want to make a change,
(09:21):
you just have to dive right in. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
(09:43):
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.