December 4, 2025 • 10 mins
Today's trip through the Cabinet will take you on journeys both short and long. But the destinations are equally curious.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
If you've ever been to a Halloween party or a
pumpkin patch, you've probably seen someone dressed as a fortune
teller with dangly ear rings and wrapped in shawls. She
might have looked into a crystal ball and told you
your future. Of course, the fortune teller was probably an actor,
and you understood that her predictions weren't real. But the
character she's playing is inspired by a real woman who
(00:58):
traveled the globe conductor seances. She was an adventurer and occultist,
and the mother of an entire New Age movement. But
much like fortune tellers at the party, it was hard
to tell which parts of her story were real and
what was invented to entice her audience. She was a
clear fraud, but she also was a brilliant mind who
(01:19):
left her mark on history, which might be why we're
still captivated by the unconventional life of a very mysterious individual.
Helena was born in eighteen thirty one in Russia, but
they soon moved to Odessa in present day Ukraine, and
according to family members, this is where Helena first began
to see ghosts. She would spend hours in the unused
(01:41):
passageways under her house playing with the ghosts who lingered there.
She also developed a supernatural gift that she called Solomon's wisdom.
It's unclear at what it meant exactly, but the neighborhood
kids said that she could use the gift to lull
street pigeons to sleep. For the next decade, life moved
quickly for Helena. Her family moved around and then married
(02:02):
her off to an older man when she was just sixteen.
After running away and traveling the world, she dove deep
into the study of multiple world religions, and then in
eighteen fifty six, she snuck into Tibet. Shortly after her
arrival there, Helena was in a horse riding accident that
landed her in a coma. When she woke up, she
(02:23):
said that her spiritual powers had been fully realized and
she was ready to step into her role as a
spiritual leader. Soon after, she hosted her first seance. At
the time, seances were hugely popular in the US and
Western Europe, but unlike most mediums who claimed to contact
the dead, Helena or Madame Blavatsky, as she began to
(02:45):
call herself, contacted living people in alternate realms. She adopted
dangly earrings and flowing skirts, the stereotypical look that we
now associate with fortune tellers. She moved to New York
City and began performing seances to growing crowds, and soon
she earned herself an unlikely superfan, a lawyer and retired
(03:06):
Civil War veteran named Henry Steele Alcott. At the time,
traveling mediums were a dime a dozen, and Alcott was
working as a journalist trying to expose them all as Charlatan's.
But something about Helena fascinated him. She was interesting and eccentric,
and he believed that she was the real deal. He
soon moved in with her and began financially supporting her.
(03:29):
They hosted seances and philosophical discussions in their New York
City home. Eventually, Alcott formalized their gathering as the Theosophical society.
In eighteen seventy seven, Helena published a book called Isis Unveiled,
which introduced theosophy as and I quote, the synthesis of science, religion,
(03:50):
and philosophy. The book became enormously popular, launching Madame Bolvatsky
into widespread fame in the US. The notoriety gave Helena
and al Kott the confidence they needed to sell their
belongings and move to India. To boost Helena's profile as
a spiritual guru and medium, they built their headquarters outside
(04:10):
Bombay and for years hosted acclaimed seances. Notable guests would
travel from all over just to witness the talented Madame
Blovatski manifest spirits. Fame looked good on Helena, and she
especially enjoyed the profits that accompanied her spiritual work. But
then disaster struck. A series of letters surfaced written by
(04:31):
Helena to one of her employees. The letters detailed all
the intricate tricks and mechanisms they used during seances to
fake other worldly visitors. It soon became clear that the
entire staff was in on the ruse and that Madame
Blovatski was a fraud. She and Alcat fled India and
Helena returned to London in disgrace, but as was typical
(04:53):
with Helena, she didn't stay down for long. A few
years later, she created the Blovatski Lodge in London, an
association that shifted away from paranormal sciences and instead focused
on theosophy, the blend of science and religion, and her
philosophies resonated with a new crowd. She wrote more books,
many of which are still popular today. In fact, the
(05:16):
Theosophical Society and its London headquarters are still around. As
it turns out, Helena never needed smoking mirrors to make
a mark on history. Her curious mind was more than enough.
(05:42):
You can learn a lot about a city based on
their public transportation. In a dense urban metropolis, how do
you get from one place to another? Some cities require
you to have a car, so you aren't limited to
bus routes and metro stops, and some cities like Boston, Massachusetts,
are probably safer to a explore via train. The Massachusetts
(06:03):
Bay Transit Authority or MBTA, maintains one of the oldest
public transportation systems in America, and sure it's not without
its problems. Residents of Boston will regularly complain about how
it shuts down during intense weather and seems constantly to
be in repair, but it is an icon of that city,
as true to the spirit of Boston as the Red
(06:24):
Sox or Irish American pubs. So say what you will
about the Tea, but it is the people's train, for
better or worse. But this wasn't always the case. Back
in the nineteen forties, the ticketing system for the subway
in Boston seemed designed to confuse people. There was at
one point a nine page pamphlet breaking down the various
(06:45):
ticket prices to travel across the city, and when the
local government wanted to increase fares, the implemented exit fees,
meaning that you paid to take the train and then
once you reached where you were going, you had to
pay again to disembark. Nobody liked that system, especially the
overworked ticket booth employees who had to enforce the exit fees.
(07:05):
Remember these were the days before automated turnstiles, which brings
us to a man nay Walter A. O'Brien. In nineteen
forty nine, O'Brien launched a campaign to become Mayor of Boston,
running as the candidate for the Progressive Party, and among
his proposed policies was an overhaul of the MTA ticketing system.
(07:25):
Unfortunately for O'Brien's campaign, the Progressive Party did not have
enough money to pay for radio ads, so his campaign
staff came up with an alternative strategy. During the lead
up to the election, the O'Brien campaign drove a truck
around the streets of Boston with a loud speaker on
the back. From this speaker, they broadcast seven folk songs
(07:46):
commissioned from local musicians. Each of these songs emphasized a
point of O'Brien's policy platform. The song about his plans
for a public transit was a ballad written by Jacqueline
Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawd. It tells the story of
a man named Charlie who goes to take the train
to work, only to be told he's one nickel short
(08:06):
when he has to get off at his stop. As
the chorus goes, but did he ever return? No, he
never returned, and his fate is still unlearned. He may
ride forever near the streets of Boston. He's the man
who never returned. O'Brien was fined ten dollars from the
City of Boston for the stunt for disturbing the peace. Ultimately,
(08:28):
he came in last place in the election. Then his
political career never really recovered, and then during the Red
Scare of the nineteen fifties, anyone with a remotely left
wing political affiliation was accused of being communists, forcing O'Brien
and the rest of the Progressive Party to fully fade away. O'Brien,
who had never been a member of the Communist Party,
(08:48):
retired to Maine, where he found unassuming work as a librarian.
And sure, as far as political careers go, it's something
of an anti climax, but Walter A. O'Brien's legacy doesn't
end thanks to the ballot he commissioned to help his campaign.
Charlie on the MTA was a catchy tune, and over
the years, a number of folk artists recorded cover versions
(09:10):
completely unrelated to the now defunct O'Brien campaigns. In the
nineteen fifties, the Kingston Trios version of Charlie on the
MTA became a breakout hit. To minimize pushback from their audience,
though they wound up changing one of the lyrics from
vote for Walter A. O'Brien to vote for George O'Brien,
you know, just in case they got accused of supporting
(09:32):
a communist politician. The song was so iconic that it
became deeply ingrained in Boston culture. Now, seventy six years
after Walter A. O'Brien tried to become Mayor of Boston,
the MBTA has a standardized fare system much like the
one that he promoted with the folk song. And today,
if you're ever in Boston and you need to take
(09:53):
the tea, you'll be prompted to buy a metro card
for the journey, and since two thousand and four, that
metro card has been known as the CharlieCard. 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
(10:18):
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
you can learn all about it over at Theworldolore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious,
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
If you've ever been to a Halloween party or a
pumpkin patch, you've probably seen someone dressed as a fortune
teller with dangly ear rings and wrapped in shawls. She
might have looked into a crystal ball and told you
your future. Of course, the fortune teller was probably an actor,
and you understood that her predictions weren't real. But the
character she's playing is inspired by a real woman who
(00:58):
traveled the globe conductor seances. She was an adventurer and occultist,
and the mother of an entire New Age movement. But
much like fortune tellers at the party, it was hard
to tell which parts of her story were real and
what was invented to entice her audience. She was a
clear fraud, but she also was a brilliant mind who
(01:19):
left her mark on history, which might be why we're
still captivated by the unconventional life of a very mysterious individual.
Helena was born in eighteen thirty one in Russia, but
they soon moved to Odessa in present day Ukraine, and
according to family members, this is where Helena first began
to see ghosts. She would spend hours in the unused
(01:41):
passageways under her house playing with the ghosts who lingered there.
She also developed a supernatural gift that she called Solomon's wisdom.
It's unclear at what it meant exactly, but the neighborhood
kids said that she could use the gift to lull
street pigeons to sleep. For the next decade, life moved
quickly for Helena. Her family moved around and then married
(02:02):
her off to an older man when she was just sixteen.
After running away and traveling the world, she dove deep
into the study of multiple world religions, and then in
eighteen fifty six, she snuck into Tibet. Shortly after her
arrival there, Helena was in a horse riding accident that
landed her in a coma. When she woke up, she
(02:23):
said that her spiritual powers had been fully realized and
she was ready to step into her role as a
spiritual leader. Soon after, she hosted her first seance. At
the time, seances were hugely popular in the US and
Western Europe, but unlike most mediums who claimed to contact
the dead, Helena or Madame Blavatsky, as she began to
(02:45):
call herself, contacted living people in alternate realms. She adopted
dangly earrings and flowing skirts, the stereotypical look that we
now associate with fortune tellers. She moved to New York
City and began performing seances to growing crowds, and soon
she earned herself an unlikely superfan, a lawyer and retired
(03:06):
Civil War veteran named Henry Steele Alcott. At the time,
traveling mediums were a dime a dozen, and Alcott was
working as a journalist trying to expose them all as Charlatan's.
But something about Helena fascinated him. She was interesting and eccentric,
and he believed that she was the real deal. He
soon moved in with her and began financially supporting her.
(03:29):
They hosted seances and philosophical discussions in their New York
City home. Eventually, Alcott formalized their gathering as the Theosophical society.
In eighteen seventy seven, Helena published a book called Isis Unveiled,
which introduced theosophy as and I quote, the synthesis of science, religion,
(03:50):
and philosophy. The book became enormously popular, launching Madame Bolvatsky
into widespread fame in the US. The notoriety gave Helena
and al Kott the confidence they needed to sell their
belongings and move to India. To boost Helena's profile as
a spiritual guru and medium, they built their headquarters outside
(04:10):
Bombay and for years hosted acclaimed seances. Notable guests would
travel from all over just to witness the talented Madame
Blovatski manifest spirits. Fame looked good on Helena, and she
especially enjoyed the profits that accompanied her spiritual work. But
then disaster struck. A series of letters surfaced written by
(04:31):
Helena to one of her employees. The letters detailed all
the intricate tricks and mechanisms they used during seances to
fake other worldly visitors. It soon became clear that the
entire staff was in on the ruse and that Madame
Blovatski was a fraud. She and Alcat fled India and
Helena returned to London in disgrace, but as was typical
(04:53):
with Helena, she didn't stay down for long. A few
years later, she created the Blovatski Lodge in London, an
association that shifted away from paranormal sciences and instead focused
on theosophy, the blend of science and religion, and her
philosophies resonated with a new crowd. She wrote more books,
many of which are still popular today. In fact, the
(05:16):
Theosophical Society and its London headquarters are still around. As
it turns out, Helena never needed smoking mirrors to make
a mark on history. Her curious mind was more than enough.
(05:42):
You can learn a lot about a city based on
their public transportation. In a dense urban metropolis, how do
you get from one place to another? Some cities require
you to have a car, so you aren't limited to
bus routes and metro stops, and some cities like Boston, Massachusetts,
are probably safer to a explore via train. The Massachusetts
(06:03):
Bay Transit Authority or MBTA, maintains one of the oldest
public transportation systems in America, and sure it's not without
its problems. Residents of Boston will regularly complain about how
it shuts down during intense weather and seems constantly to
be in repair, but it is an icon of that city,
as true to the spirit of Boston as the Red
(06:24):
Sox or Irish American pubs. So say what you will
about the Tea, but it is the people's train, for
better or worse. But this wasn't always the case. Back
in the nineteen forties, the ticketing system for the subway
in Boston seemed designed to confuse people. There was at
one point a nine page pamphlet breaking down the various
(06:45):
ticket prices to travel across the city, and when the
local government wanted to increase fares, the implemented exit fees,
meaning that you paid to take the train and then
once you reached where you were going, you had to
pay again to disembark. Nobody liked that system, especially the
overworked ticket booth employees who had to enforce the exit fees.
(07:05):
Remember these were the days before automated turnstiles, which brings
us to a man nay Walter A. O'Brien. In nineteen
forty nine, O'Brien launched a campaign to become Mayor of Boston,
running as the candidate for the Progressive Party, and among
his proposed policies was an overhaul of the MTA ticketing system.
(07:25):
Unfortunately for O'Brien's campaign, the Progressive Party did not have
enough money to pay for radio ads, so his campaign
staff came up with an alternative strategy. During the lead
up to the election, the O'Brien campaign drove a truck
around the streets of Boston with a loud speaker on
the back. From this speaker, they broadcast seven folk songs
(07:46):
commissioned from local musicians. Each of these songs emphasized a
point of O'Brien's policy platform. The song about his plans
for a public transit was a ballad written by Jacqueline
Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawd. It tells the story of
a man named Charlie who goes to take the train
to work, only to be told he's one nickel short
(08:06):
when he has to get off at his stop. As
the chorus goes, but did he ever return? No, he
never returned, and his fate is still unlearned. He may
ride forever near the streets of Boston. He's the man
who never returned. O'Brien was fined ten dollars from the
City of Boston for the stunt for disturbing the peace. Ultimately,
(08:28):
he came in last place in the election. Then his
political career never really recovered, and then during the Red
Scare of the nineteen fifties, anyone with a remotely left
wing political affiliation was accused of being communists, forcing O'Brien
and the rest of the Progressive Party to fully fade away. O'Brien,
who had never been a member of the Communist Party,
(08:48):
retired to Maine, where he found unassuming work as a librarian.
And sure, as far as political careers go, it's something
of an anti climax, but Walter A. O'Brien's legacy doesn't
end thanks to the ballot he commissioned to help his campaign.
Charlie on the MTA was a catchy tune, and over
the years, a number of folk artists recorded cover versions
(09:10):
completely unrelated to the now defunct O'Brien campaigns. In the
nineteen fifties, the Kingston Trios version of Charlie on the
MTA became a breakout hit. To minimize pushback from their audience,
though they wound up changing one of the lyrics from
vote for Walter A. O'Brien to vote for George O'Brien,
you know, just in case they got accused of supporting
(09:32):
a communist politician. The song was so iconic that it
became deeply ingrained in Boston culture. Now, seventy six years
after Walter A. O'Brien tried to become Mayor of Boston,
the MBTA has a standardized fare system much like the
one that he promoted with the folk song. And today,
if you're ever in Boston and you need to take
(09:53):
the tea, you'll be prompted to buy a metro card
for the journey, and since two thousand and four, that
metro card has been known as the CharlieCard. 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
(10:18):
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
you can learn all about it over at Theworldolore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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