February 3, 2026 • 10 mins
Most curiosities happen at ground level, but today's tour takes us into the skies.
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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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Human beings have looked to the stars for as long
as well we've had stars to look at. The night
sky inspires wonder in all of us. In the ancient world,
it was a chart that could hold the images of
God's and show a person's future, And today it shows
us how small our world is in the vast universe.
And sometime between these two points in history, as far
(00:58):
back as ancient Greece, someone had that sneaking thought, what
if there's another being looking back at us from the stars.
In nineteen thirty nine, a well known politician wrote an
eleven page essay reflecting on this age old question. Inspired
by the recent radio adaptation of HG. Well's War of
the Worlds. He titled his essay are we alone in Space?
(01:21):
His country, and by extension, our planet, was in a
tenuous place in the late nineteen thirties. In September of
that year, the Second World War would officially begin in Europe,
plunging the world into a period of distrust and death
at an unprecedented scale. The following year, London itself would
face several years of devastating bombardment from German planes in
(01:43):
a period called the Blitz. Perhaps this politician wrote their
essay as a form of escapism, to let his mind
wander away from the impending stress and terror of the war,
reflecting instead on what sort of being might live beyond
the stars and what conditions might need to survive. He
posited that liquid water would be required for any sort
(02:04):
of life, as all living species here appear to require it,
although he did acknowledge that they have discovered creatures so
small that they cannot be seen by the human eye.
He also astutely noted that for a planet to be
suitable for life, like on Earth, it would need to
be a specific distance away from its star, close enough
for heat to encourage growth, far enough away that it
(02:26):
has a stable atmosphere and smooth conditions. He considered each
planet in turn, including the relatively recently discovered Pluto, and
addressed what science knew about each environment. Some he accepted
as more plausible locations than others. His unshakable conclusion about
the Moon, for instance, was that it was one of
the places that can never support life, because it's just
(02:49):
an arid desert. In his words, the essay concluded by
leaving the overall possibility open, and it reads as thus, I,
for one, am not so immensely in pressed by the
success we are making of our civilization here that I
am prepared to think we are the only spot in
this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that
(03:10):
we are the highest type of mental and physical development
which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space
and time. The writer sold his essay to the Sunday Dispatch,
which printed it in nineteen forty two under the title
are There Men on the Moon? Although the beginning of
the war somewhat obscured our record of this publication, the
(03:31):
essay itself, though published, would not appear in any collections
of the Dispatch's articles, and thus would be forgotten in
the noise of the nineteen forties. After the war, this
politician returned to the essay, revising it twice over the
following decades, he considered alternate titles such as are we
alone in the Universe? And does life exist elsewhere in
(03:52):
the Universe. It seems that he was contemplating reprinting the essay,
but it would never come to pass. After passed away
in the nineteen sixties, these additional drafts would sit in
the desks of literary agents for many years to come,
until in twenty seventeen someone unearthed the history of drafts
of this essay. Though the public was already aware of
(04:15):
the existence of the original one, the discovery of subsequent
drafts cast the politician's career in a new light as
someone who had an untapped scientific interest, regularly returning time
and time again to this same question that has puzzled philosophers, astrophysicists,
and casual observers since the dawn of humanity. What is
(04:38):
perhaps most astonishing about the essay itself, though, is the
author It was written during the start of World War
II by one of the principal men involved in the
fighting of that war. It was written by Winston Churchill.
(05:05):
It was nighttime in Los Angeles and the city was
settling into a sort of uneasy quiet. News of the
Day continued to play on radios around the city, describing
the war somewhere across the Pacific. By February nineteen forty two,
tension had gripped the United States, especially along the West Coast,
where rumors had been circulating for months about possible Japanese
(05:27):
attacks on California, Oregon, and Washington. Suddenly, the night exploded
into light. People awoke to a shock of searchlights and
thunderous gunfire as arcs of fires streaked across the sky.
Anti aircraft fire thundered for nearly three hours as the
battle in the sky raged, but when the dawn broke,
(05:48):
there was no evidence of bomb damage or destroyed planes,
leaving the city to wonder if the night's dramatic events
had truly occurred. The strange event came to be known
as the Battle of Los Angeles. Three months earlier, on
the morning of December seventh, nineteen forty one, the Japanese
Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack
(06:10):
destroyed much in the naval shipyard and killed over two thousand,
four hundred service members and civilians working in the area.
Communities along the West Coast had been placed on heightened
alert for months, with blackout drills, air raid sirens, and
constant military patrols shaping daily life. It goes without saying
that Pearl Harbor had sent shockwaves throughout the entire country,
(06:33):
and it left West Coast residents particularly anxious. In fact,
just days before this harrowing night of anti aircraft fire,
a Japanese submarine had targeted a California oil field, heightening
fears of further assaults. In addition to this, the Navy
sent a warning out on February twenty fourth that a
Japanese strike on the continental US was likely. The city
(06:55):
began to prepare, testing air raid sirens and issuing instructions
to be haired for blackouts, and the military was ready
at the mere hint of an attack, they would hit
back hard. When radar showed an unidentified object approaching the coast,
the military sprung into action. Anti aircraft guns relentlessly hammered
at the unseen enemy for over three hours. Hundreds of
(07:18):
rounds of artillery were shot into the skies over la
As searched the heavens frantically, and it's fair to say
that there was a lot of confusion. Commanders struggled to
coordinate the barrage, with conflicting reports from radar operators and
observers that were fuelling the chaos and contributing to the
night long spectacle. Residents could only shelter in place and
(07:39):
listen as the explosions shook the city. Families clung to
one another in their basements and living rooms, while street
lights flickered and dogs barked wildly, turning the city into
a horror scape of fear and confusion. Finally, though the
all clear sounded and the bomb blast was replaced by silence.
In the comings, officials scrambled for answers, and there were
(08:02):
many possible theories for what had transpired. Some suggested that
the radar might have picked up a weather balloon, although
no evidence ever confirmed this. The Navy also pointed to
lingering anxiety after the recent oil field Attech, which may
have fueled paranoid decisions. A misreading of radar signals likely
triggered the prolonged one sided barrage. Newspapers ran editorials criticizing
(08:28):
the military and describing the whole affair as a Hollywood spectacle,
and lawmakers out in Washington, d C. Pushed for formal
inquiries on the barrage, and more than that, photographs of
the sky over Los Angeles that were taken during this
time of the barrage have fueled conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts.
(08:48):
The phrase Battle of Los Angeles kind of became shorthand
for dramatic but ultimately hollow confrontation. The military thoroughly reviewed
the incidents and took action to make sure that it
would never happen again. More intensive protocols were created around
the authorization of anti aircraft fire, and the training for
radar operators became more thorough. It's been nearly eighty years
(09:12):
since the night sky lit up over Los Angeles, and
still it holds sway in the public imagination. Its inspired
books like James Elroy's This Storm, and even a Steven
Spielberg film loosely based on the event. In nineteen eighty three,
the Office of Air Force History review the incidents and
concluded that weather balloon's were the most likely explanation. The
(09:34):
resulting confusion, combined with fear and inexperience with emerging radar technology,
caused a massive overreaction. Today, historians view the Battle of
Los Angeles as a classic case of mass hysteria, a
perfect illustration of a moment when panic, uncertainty, and split
second decisions led to utter chaos. It serves as a
(09:57):
striking reminder of how quickly vigilance can tip into fear
and how easily a tense situation can spiral out of control.
And more than that, it reminds us how perception can
shape historical events just as much as reality itself. I
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(10:21):
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
you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
(10:42):
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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Human beings have looked to the stars for as long
as well we've had stars to look at. The night
sky inspires wonder in all of us. In the ancient world,
it was a chart that could hold the images of
God's and show a person's future, And today it shows
us how small our world is in the vast universe.
And sometime between these two points in history, as far
(00:58):
back as ancient Greece, someone had that sneaking thought, what
if there's another being looking back at us from the stars.
In nineteen thirty nine, a well known politician wrote an
eleven page essay reflecting on this age old question. Inspired
by the recent radio adaptation of HG. Well's War of
the Worlds. He titled his essay are we alone in Space?
(01:21):
His country, and by extension, our planet, was in a
tenuous place in the late nineteen thirties. In September of
that year, the Second World War would officially begin in Europe,
plunging the world into a period of distrust and death
at an unprecedented scale. The following year, London itself would
face several years of devastating bombardment from German planes in
(01:43):
a period called the Blitz. Perhaps this politician wrote their
essay as a form of escapism, to let his mind
wander away from the impending stress and terror of the war,
reflecting instead on what sort of being might live beyond
the stars and what conditions might need to survive. He
posited that liquid water would be required for any sort
(02:04):
of life, as all living species here appear to require it,
although he did acknowledge that they have discovered creatures so
small that they cannot be seen by the human eye.
He also astutely noted that for a planet to be
suitable for life, like on Earth, it would need to
be a specific distance away from its star, close enough
for heat to encourage growth, far enough away that it
(02:26):
has a stable atmosphere and smooth conditions. He considered each
planet in turn, including the relatively recently discovered Pluto, and
addressed what science knew about each environment. Some he accepted
as more plausible locations than others. His unshakable conclusion about
the Moon, for instance, was that it was one of
the places that can never support life, because it's just
(02:49):
an arid desert. In his words, the essay concluded by
leaving the overall possibility open, and it reads as thus, I,
for one, am not so immensely in pressed by the
success we are making of our civilization here that I
am prepared to think we are the only spot in
this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that
(03:10):
we are the highest type of mental and physical development
which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space
and time. The writer sold his essay to the Sunday Dispatch,
which printed it in nineteen forty two under the title
are There Men on the Moon? Although the beginning of
the war somewhat obscured our record of this publication, the
(03:31):
essay itself, though published, would not appear in any collections
of the Dispatch's articles, and thus would be forgotten in
the noise of the nineteen forties. After the war, this
politician returned to the essay, revising it twice over the
following decades, he considered alternate titles such as are we
alone in the Universe? And does life exist elsewhere in
(03:52):
the Universe. It seems that he was contemplating reprinting the essay,
but it would never come to pass. After passed away
in the nineteen sixties, these additional drafts would sit in
the desks of literary agents for many years to come,
until in twenty seventeen someone unearthed the history of drafts
of this essay. Though the public was already aware of
(04:15):
the existence of the original one, the discovery of subsequent
drafts cast the politician's career in a new light as
someone who had an untapped scientific interest, regularly returning time
and time again to this same question that has puzzled philosophers, astrophysicists,
and casual observers since the dawn of humanity. What is
(04:38):
perhaps most astonishing about the essay itself, though, is the
author It was written during the start of World War
II by one of the principal men involved in the
fighting of that war. It was written by Winston Churchill.
(05:05):
It was nighttime in Los Angeles and the city was
settling into a sort of uneasy quiet. News of the
Day continued to play on radios around the city, describing
the war somewhere across the Pacific. By February nineteen forty two,
tension had gripped the United States, especially along the West Coast,
where rumors had been circulating for months about possible Japanese
(05:27):
attacks on California, Oregon, and Washington. Suddenly, the night exploded
into light. People awoke to a shock of searchlights and
thunderous gunfire as arcs of fires streaked across the sky.
Anti aircraft fire thundered for nearly three hours as the
battle in the sky raged, but when the dawn broke,
(05:48):
there was no evidence of bomb damage or destroyed planes,
leaving the city to wonder if the night's dramatic events
had truly occurred. The strange event came to be known
as the Battle of Los Angeles. Three months earlier, on
the morning of December seventh, nineteen forty one, the Japanese
Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack
(06:10):
destroyed much in the naval shipyard and killed over two thousand,
four hundred service members and civilians working in the area.
Communities along the West Coast had been placed on heightened
alert for months, with blackout drills, air raid sirens, and
constant military patrols shaping daily life. It goes without saying
that Pearl Harbor had sent shockwaves throughout the entire country,
(06:33):
and it left West Coast residents particularly anxious. In fact,
just days before this harrowing night of anti aircraft fire,
a Japanese submarine had targeted a California oil field, heightening
fears of further assaults. In addition to this, the Navy
sent a warning out on February twenty fourth that a
Japanese strike on the continental US was likely. The city
(06:55):
began to prepare, testing air raid sirens and issuing instructions
to be haired for blackouts, and the military was ready
at the mere hint of an attack, they would hit
back hard. When radar showed an unidentified object approaching the coast,
the military sprung into action. Anti aircraft guns relentlessly hammered
at the unseen enemy for over three hours. Hundreds of
(07:18):
rounds of artillery were shot into the skies over la
As searched the heavens frantically, and it's fair to say
that there was a lot of confusion. Commanders struggled to
coordinate the barrage, with conflicting reports from radar operators and
observers that were fuelling the chaos and contributing to the
night long spectacle. Residents could only shelter in place and
(07:39):
listen as the explosions shook the city. Families clung to
one another in their basements and living rooms, while street
lights flickered and dogs barked wildly, turning the city into
a horror scape of fear and confusion. Finally, though the
all clear sounded and the bomb blast was replaced by silence.
In the comings, officials scrambled for answers, and there were
(08:02):
many possible theories for what had transpired. Some suggested that
the radar might have picked up a weather balloon, although
no evidence ever confirmed this. The Navy also pointed to
lingering anxiety after the recent oil field Attech, which may
have fueled paranoid decisions. A misreading of radar signals likely
triggered the prolonged one sided barrage. Newspapers ran editorials criticizing
(08:28):
the military and describing the whole affair as a Hollywood spectacle,
and lawmakers out in Washington, d C. Pushed for formal
inquiries on the barrage, and more than that, photographs of
the sky over Los Angeles that were taken during this
time of the barrage have fueled conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts.
(08:48):
The phrase Battle of Los Angeles kind of became shorthand
for dramatic but ultimately hollow confrontation. The military thoroughly reviewed
the incidents and took action to make sure that it
would never happen again. More intensive protocols were created around
the authorization of anti aircraft fire, and the training for
radar operators became more thorough. It's been nearly eighty years
(09:12):
since the night sky lit up over Los Angeles, and
still it holds sway in the public imagination. Its inspired
books like James Elroy's This Storm, and even a Steven
Spielberg film loosely based on the event. In nineteen eighty three,
the Office of Air Force History review the incidents and
concluded that weather balloon's were the most likely explanation. The
(09:34):
resulting confusion, combined with fear and inexperience with emerging radar technology,
caused a massive overreaction. Today, historians view the Battle of
Los Angeles as a classic case of mass hysteria, a
perfect illustration of a moment when panic, uncertainty, and split
second decisions led to utter chaos. It serves as a
(09:57):
striking reminder of how quickly vigilance can tip into fear
and how easily a tense situation can spiral out of control.
And more than that, it reminds us how perception can
shape historical events just as much as reality itself. I
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(10:21):
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
you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
(10:42):
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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