November 18, 2025 • 10 mins
Two tales of big ambition becoming big trouble. Enjoy this tour through some of history's most curious stories.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
In the year fourteen eighty seven, in southern Japan, the
military governor of the Kaga Province returned home to a
surprising but inevitable welcome. His people. The peasants of Kaga
Province were an open rebellion. The governor, whose name was
Togashi Masachika, had spent much of the last ten years
suppressing these sorts of rebellions. The Ashikaga Shogunate was weakening,
(01:00):
and feudal Japan had been erupting in challenges to the
showgun's authority, both from rival lords and from bands of
peasants like the ones that Masachika faced in the Kaga Province.
These peasants formed themselves into grassroots militia known as Iki,
and were comprised of Buddhist warrior monks as well as
peasants who were dissatisfied with their rulers. Masachika hoped that
(01:23):
he'd be able to extinguish this rebellion once and for
all with the help of support from the Showgun, but
no such reinforcements arrived. The peasant rebellion lay siege to
the castle of Kaga in fourteen eighty eight. As his
castle burned around him and with no prospect of rescue,
Masachika committed sepuku. After that, he was replaced as governor
(01:43):
by his uncle Yasutaka, but the real power of the
world knew lay in the hands of the Iki. The
Kaga region became known as Kagaiki, or less formally, the
province ruled by peasants, and this would hold true for decades.
While in Greater Japan the Showguns ruggle to remain in power,
the Ashikaga Shogunate was weakening, and in Kaga the pretense
(02:05):
of needing a military governor soon outlived its usefulness. The
Kagaiki would become a primary ruling force in the region
by the early fifteen hundreds, doing away with the role
of governor altogether. It was the first time in Japanese
history that province was ruled by someone other than a
lord or a samurai. It's tempting to see this as
(02:25):
the moment of utopia peasant rule in a feudal system. However,
as the Kagaiki grew in power, so too did their
disagreements among themselves. Without a common enemy, they began to fracture.
Some of their members held differing loyalties among their neighboring provinces,
and who should be the true power in Kaga Province
was the big question. In fifteen thirty one, a civil
(02:48):
war broke out among the Iki, ending with a man
named ren June in power. They successfully fought back expansionist neighbors,
consolidated power even further, and seemed on their way to
securing their place in a new Japan. However, the Peasant's
kingdom would remain unstable for the rest of its existence.
It turned into a dynasty were the ruling class, rather
(03:09):
than being samurai, were Buddhist priests, and it was in
the fifteen seventies, almost a century after the first Iki rebellions,
that Kagaiki would begin to fall. Oda Nabuaga, a warlord
seeking to unify Japan, sent armies into Kaga Province to
secure it. After a first few waves were defeated by
the Iki, Nobunaga deployed a massive force led by his
(03:33):
best generals. The siege lasted for ten years. It ended
not with absolute conquest, but with a truce. Nobunaga agreed
not to execute the Iki leadership, who in return ceded
the province to him. Their main castle at Honganji was
torn down and replaced with Osaka Castle, which still stands
to this day. Many in the Kagaiki were not pleased
(03:56):
with how this ended, and would continue a form of
guerrilla warfare into the fifteen eighties against the greater Japanese forces.
It's difficult to understand the Peasant's kingdom by modern standards.
Though it was not a democracy or a socialist government.
The Iki were driven by a form of religious fanaticism
that overpowered any fear or reverence they had for the shogunates.
(04:18):
But in a time of instability known as the Warring
States period, any form of community felt more solid than
the constantly shifting alliances that characterized their leaders. The Kagaiki
survived in a sense by inverting the power structure that
governed their lives, and for almost one hundred years they
had a kingdom of their own. It may only have
(04:40):
been a brief cul de sac in the middle of
Japanese history, but it's a useful reminder that the power
of a king or a showgun is not a law
of the universe. It's an agreement like any other one,
that only holds weight if the people agree. Thomas Midgley
(05:11):
Junior is one of the most controversial men in history.
If you ask some he was a great mind and
a shining example of American ingenuity. If you ask others, though,
he was a monster with a body count to rival
Hitler or Stalin. But he wasn't a dictator or even
a member of the military. No, he was an inventor,
and he may have had more of an impact on
(05:32):
the world than any other single individual in history. One
day in early nineteen twenty one, Thomas's boss, a guy
named Charles Kettering, came bursting into his lab at General Motors.
He told Thomas that he wanted him to focus on
one thing, and one thing only, inventing a type of
gasoline that didn't knock engines. Engine knocking was a major
(05:54):
problem for early automobiles. The simple gasoline of that time
caused tiny explosions in the engine, which quickly wore it
down and reduced the speed potential of the car. Thomas
always liked to perform well for his superiors, so he
immediately set about solving this problem. He added chemical after
chemical to the gasoline, trying different compounds that might stabilize
(06:18):
the gas. After months of trying, he finally landed on
a solution lead because adding it to the gasoline seemed
to cure the engine knocking problem, but of course it
introduced another issue. Lead is toxic. People had known this
since the days of the Roman Empire, when lead was
used in everything from cookware to cosmetics. Some people believe
(06:39):
it actually drove many Romans mad and contributed to the
empire's downfall. But Thomas figured it would be fine to
use in this case. I mean, no one would be
drinking the gasoline. It would all get safely exhausted out
the back of the car and up into the atmosphere.
What could go wrong? Right? By nineteen twenty three, General
Motors was fully behind Charles and Thomas's use of leaded gasoline.
(07:03):
They opened a plant for producing the gas in New Jersey,
with Thomas supervising. As Thomas sat in his office above
the factory floor. Going over some paperwork, he was startled
by the sudden sound of screams emanating from the work area.
He got up from his seat, left his office and
stood on the catwalk overlooking the plant, and there on
the floor was a group of workers surrounding a man
(07:26):
who was screaming and running around the factory wildly. He
looked like he was fighting monsters that weren't there. He
swatted at the air before curling up into a ball.
Thomas called for the man's sister to come pick him
up and take him home. But just a few days later,
Thomas received distressing news from her the man had died
in the hospital from lead poisoning. The fumes from the
(07:47):
gas were toxic. After all, Thomas had a big press
conference coming up where he was supposed to show off
the wonders of leaded gasoline. The timing could not have
been worse. What's more, over the next week, more and
more of the factory workers began hallucinating and passing out.
Four more people died and thirty five of the forty
nine employees at the plant were hospitalized, and the press
(08:11):
got word of this, and soon Thomas's press conference became
less of an opportunity to show off the product, and
more of a last ditch effort to show that it
was safe. He went ahead with it, and in front
of a room full of angry reporters, he did the
only thing he could think of. He took out a
small bowl of gasoline and used it to wash his hands,
and then he inhaled the vapors, saying that he could
(08:33):
do this every day to no ill effect. It was
completely unscientific, but the press seemed to buy it. Soon
leaded gasoline was being used by millions. No one noticed
when Thomas took a sabbatical to Florida for some fresh air.
The truth was he was now suffering from lead poisoning
like all his other workers. But he did recover, and
(08:55):
over the next several decades, scientists estimate that lead gasoline
killed tens of millions of people, primarily children. Those that
didn't kill had permanent, lifelong brain damage that has been
linked to the rise in violent crime in the late
twentieth century. And it wasn't even Thomas's only deadly invention.
He was also responsible for free on the refrigeration chemical
(09:17):
that damaged the ozone layer. Both it and leaded gasoline
were eventually banned. Curiously, Thomas was eventually hoisted quite literally
by his own hubris. He contacted polio in his fifties,
and by the age of fifty five he was confined
to bed. He designed a complicated system of pulleys that
were meant to allow him to lift himself out of bed,
(09:38):
but one day, when he went to use the contraption,
the ropes twisted, wrapping themselves around his neck. He accidentally
hanged himself, which some saw as cosmic justice. Unfortunately, this
is just one situation where curiosity didn't simply kill the cat,
but a whole lot of other people as well. I
(10:00):
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 Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
(10:23):
you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
In the year fourteen eighty seven, in southern Japan, the
military governor of the Kaga Province returned home to a
surprising but inevitable welcome. His people. The peasants of Kaga
Province were an open rebellion. The governor, whose name was
Togashi Masachika, had spent much of the last ten years
suppressing these sorts of rebellions. The Ashikaga Shogunate was weakening,
(01:00):
and feudal Japan had been erupting in challenges to the
showgun's authority, both from rival lords and from bands of
peasants like the ones that Masachika faced in the Kaga Province.
These peasants formed themselves into grassroots militia known as Iki,
and were comprised of Buddhist warrior monks as well as
peasants who were dissatisfied with their rulers. Masachika hoped that
(01:23):
he'd be able to extinguish this rebellion once and for
all with the help of support from the Showgun, but
no such reinforcements arrived. The peasant rebellion lay siege to
the castle of Kaga in fourteen eighty eight. As his
castle burned around him and with no prospect of rescue,
Masachika committed sepuku. After that, he was replaced as governor
(01:43):
by his uncle Yasutaka, but the real power of the
world knew lay in the hands of the Iki. The
Kaga region became known as Kagaiki, or less formally, the
province ruled by peasants, and this would hold true for decades.
While in Greater Japan the Showguns ruggle to remain in power,
the Ashikaga Shogunate was weakening, and in Kaga the pretense
(02:05):
of needing a military governor soon outlived its usefulness. The
Kagaiki would become a primary ruling force in the region
by the early fifteen hundreds, doing away with the role
of governor altogether. It was the first time in Japanese
history that province was ruled by someone other than a
lord or a samurai. It's tempting to see this as
(02:25):
the moment of utopia peasant rule in a feudal system. However,
as the Kagaiki grew in power, so too did their
disagreements among themselves. Without a common enemy, they began to fracture.
Some of their members held differing loyalties among their neighboring provinces,
and who should be the true power in Kaga Province
was the big question. In fifteen thirty one, a civil
(02:48):
war broke out among the Iki, ending with a man
named ren June in power. They successfully fought back expansionist neighbors,
consolidated power even further, and seemed on their way to
securing their place in a new Japan. However, the Peasant's
kingdom would remain unstable for the rest of its existence.
It turned into a dynasty were the ruling class, rather
(03:09):
than being samurai, were Buddhist priests, and it was in
the fifteen seventies, almost a century after the first Iki rebellions,
that Kagaiki would begin to fall. Oda Nabuaga, a warlord
seeking to unify Japan, sent armies into Kaga Province to
secure it. After a first few waves were defeated by
the Iki, Nobunaga deployed a massive force led by his
(03:33):
best generals. The siege lasted for ten years. It ended
not with absolute conquest, but with a truce. Nobunaga agreed
not to execute the Iki leadership, who in return ceded
the province to him. Their main castle at Honganji was
torn down and replaced with Osaka Castle, which still stands
to this day. Many in the Kagaiki were not pleased
(03:56):
with how this ended, and would continue a form of
guerrilla warfare into the fifteen eighties against the greater Japanese forces.
It's difficult to understand the Peasant's kingdom by modern standards.
Though it was not a democracy or a socialist government.
The Iki were driven by a form of religious fanaticism
that overpowered any fear or reverence they had for the shogunates.
(04:18):
But in a time of instability known as the Warring
States period, any form of community felt more solid than
the constantly shifting alliances that characterized their leaders. The Kagaiki
survived in a sense by inverting the power structure that
governed their lives, and for almost one hundred years they
had a kingdom of their own. It may only have
(04:40):
been a brief cul de sac in the middle of
Japanese history, but it's a useful reminder that the power
of a king or a showgun is not a law
of the universe. It's an agreement like any other one,
that only holds weight if the people agree. Thomas Midgley
(05:11):
Junior is one of the most controversial men in history.
If you ask some he was a great mind and
a shining example of American ingenuity. If you ask others, though,
he was a monster with a body count to rival
Hitler or Stalin. But he wasn't a dictator or even
a member of the military. No, he was an inventor,
and he may have had more of an impact on
(05:32):
the world than any other single individual in history. One
day in early nineteen twenty one, Thomas's boss, a guy
named Charles Kettering, came bursting into his lab at General Motors.
He told Thomas that he wanted him to focus on
one thing, and one thing only, inventing a type of
gasoline that didn't knock engines. Engine knocking was a major
(05:54):
problem for early automobiles. The simple gasoline of that time
caused tiny explosions in the engine, which quickly wore it
down and reduced the speed potential of the car. Thomas
always liked to perform well for his superiors, so he
immediately set about solving this problem. He added chemical after
chemical to the gasoline, trying different compounds that might stabilize
(06:18):
the gas. After months of trying, he finally landed on
a solution lead because adding it to the gasoline seemed
to cure the engine knocking problem, but of course it
introduced another issue. Lead is toxic. People had known this
since the days of the Roman Empire, when lead was
used in everything from cookware to cosmetics. Some people believe
(06:39):
it actually drove many Romans mad and contributed to the
empire's downfall. But Thomas figured it would be fine to
use in this case. I mean, no one would be
drinking the gasoline. It would all get safely exhausted out
the back of the car and up into the atmosphere.
What could go wrong? Right? By nineteen twenty three, General
Motors was fully behind Charles and Thomas's use of leaded gasoline.
(07:03):
They opened a plant for producing the gas in New Jersey,
with Thomas supervising. As Thomas sat in his office above
the factory floor. Going over some paperwork, he was startled
by the sudden sound of screams emanating from the work area.
He got up from his seat, left his office and
stood on the catwalk overlooking the plant, and there on
the floor was a group of workers surrounding a man
(07:26):
who was screaming and running around the factory wildly. He
looked like he was fighting monsters that weren't there. He
swatted at the air before curling up into a ball.
Thomas called for the man's sister to come pick him
up and take him home. But just a few days later,
Thomas received distressing news from her the man had died
in the hospital from lead poisoning. The fumes from the
(07:47):
gas were toxic. After all, Thomas had a big press
conference coming up where he was supposed to show off
the wonders of leaded gasoline. The timing could not have
been worse. What's more, over the next week, more and
more of the factory workers began hallucinating and passing out.
Four more people died and thirty five of the forty
nine employees at the plant were hospitalized, and the press
(08:11):
got word of this, and soon Thomas's press conference became
less of an opportunity to show off the product, and
more of a last ditch effort to show that it
was safe. He went ahead with it, and in front
of a room full of angry reporters, he did the
only thing he could think of. He took out a
small bowl of gasoline and used it to wash his hands,
and then he inhaled the vapors, saying that he could
(08:33):
do this every day to no ill effect. It was
completely unscientific, but the press seemed to buy it. Soon
leaded gasoline was being used by millions. No one noticed
when Thomas took a sabbatical to Florida for some fresh air.
The truth was he was now suffering from lead poisoning
like all his other workers. But he did recover, and
(08:55):
over the next several decades, scientists estimate that lead gasoline
killed tens of millions of people, primarily children. Those that
didn't kill had permanent, lifelong brain damage that has been
linked to the rise in violent crime in the late
twentieth century. And it wasn't even Thomas's only deadly invention.
He was also responsible for free on the refrigeration chemical
(09:17):
that damaged the ozone layer. Both it and leaded gasoline
were eventually banned. Curiously, Thomas was eventually hoisted quite literally
by his own hubris. He contacted polio in his fifties,
and by the age of fifty five he was confined
to bed. He designed a complicated system of pulleys that
were meant to allow him to lift himself out of bed,
(09:38):
but one day, when he went to use the contraption,
the ropes twisted, wrapping themselves around his neck. He accidentally
hanged himself, which some saw as cosmic justice. Unfortunately, this
is just one situation where curiosity didn't simply kill the cat,
but a whole lot of other people as well. I
(10:00):
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 Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
(10:23):
you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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