December 30, 2025 • 9 mins
Two enlightening stories that have curious problems at their core. Enjoy today's tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities!
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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):
Our personalities are deeply ingrained within us. We all have
certain traits and quirks that we can't change no matter
how hard we try. But what exactly is it that
makes you you? Modern science has some ideas, and it's
all thanks to a nineteenth century railroad worker named Phineas.
On September thirteenth of eighteen forty eight, Phineas was working
(00:58):
at a construction yard outside cab Dish, Vermont. He was
regarded as his company's best foreman. He had a steady
mind and a good business sense, and everyone on the
crew respected him. The job that day was supposed to
be simple too. They were clearing rocks to make way
for the new Rutland and Burlington Railroad. So once the
crew had drilled a hole into the rocky ground, Phineas
(01:20):
filled it with explosives and then he picked up a
long iron tamping rod and used it to pack sand
into the hole. But while he was doing so, the
iron rod gave off a spark, and suddenly the explosives detonated,
blasting the rod out of Phineas's hand and threw his
left cheekbone. The rod tore through his brain, out the
(01:41):
top of his skull, and landed on the ground eighty
feet behind him. Phineas was knocked onto his back with
a massive hole through his head, but as the smoke cleared,
Phineas sat up. Not only was he alive, but he
was still conscious. He stood up calmly, walked over to
an ox cart and asked his co workers to give
him a ride to town to see a doctor. Phineas
(02:03):
was taken to a young physician named doctor John Harlowe,
who was stunned that his patient was even able to speak.
He told the doctor exactly what had happened to him,
and he could even recall the names of the people
who had been there with him. But Phineas told doctor
Harlowe not to bother bringing any of his coworkers in
to visit him. He was sure that he'd be back
to work in a day. Or two, and amazingly, Phineas
(02:26):
did make a full recovery, but he never went back
to work at the railroad company. The accident had changed
his personality so dramatically his old employers refused to hire
him back. Once he was a responsible, motivated young foreman
with a bright career ahead of him, he was now
a rude, moody, and impatient man. He swore constantly, had
(02:47):
no impulse control and didn't seem to care about anyone
but himself. In the words of his friends, he was
no longer who he used to be. Unable to hold
down a steady job, Phineas ended up joining Arnham's circus
as a curiosity. After that, he worked as a stable
hand and a coach driver for a while, but about
a decade after his accident, he developed epilepsy and his
(03:10):
health went downhill quickly. He moved back in with his
mother in San Francisco, and in eighteen sixty he died
after a series of seizures. But that was just the
beginning of his story. Seven years later, Phineas's body was
exhumed and doctor Harlowe, the man who had treated him
after his accident, wrote the first detailed medical report on
(03:31):
his case. He observed that the damage to Phineas's frontal
lobe had caused major personality changes, but only a minor
impact on his intellect. At a time when scientists knew
next to nothing about the human brain, this was a
major turning point in research. Phineas's injury helped early neurologists
learn about the brain structure and the frontal lobe's role
(03:53):
in behavior. His skull was donated to the Harvard School
of Medicine, where it is still on exhibit today. In
the last century and a half, it's been studied again
and again by new generations of scientists trying to understand
exactly what happened to the man and how to help
patients with similar brain injuries. The human brain is still
(04:13):
a source of mystery, but thanks to Phineas Gage, we're
all a little closer to understanding why we are who
we are. Have you ever found yourself wondering why it
(04:36):
is so hard to see when driving at night? I
know I have. The darkness isn't the problem. It's the
lights from the other cars. They're so bright that having
someone behind you or in front of you can be
utterly blinding. For a technology that's only supposed to help
protect us, it really seems like it's becoming an annoyance
for many drivers. So how did we get here? While
(04:58):
the path of the car headlamped through history is a
straightforward one, but its history gives us some sense of
where it might be going as well, nothing changed the
landscape of our cities quite like the automobile. What started
as a self propelled carriage soon became a faster and
more efficient mode of transportation than anything pulled by a horse.
(05:19):
But you can imagine that the early designers of cars
were faced with a number of problems right from the start.
For instance, what happens when you drive at night? You see,
when a horse is pulling your carriage, you have a
certain amount of protection from dangerous roads. Under normal circumstances,
a horse won't lead you straight off a cliff into
the darkness. Even if the light from your lantern doesn't
(05:40):
go very far. The animal's instinct of self preservation winds
up protecting the vehicle itself. Meanwhile, an automobile has no
such protection. So early on engineers work to design a
way for cars to see in the darkness. The first
headlights would be invented in the eighteen eighties. They were
essentially gas lamps mounted to the hood of the car.
(06:01):
The cast ambient lights in front of the vehicle, and
it was far from the powerful beams we have today,
but at least they were resistant to wind and rain.
The first electric headlamps came in eighteen ninety eight, courtesy
of the Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, Connecticut. These were
actually a step back in effectiveness from the gas lamps,
though not because electricity was a bad choice, but because
(06:24):
the batteries were exhausted very quickly. There would be steady
attempts to improve the electric headlights in nineteen oh eight
and nineteen twelve until a new standard finally took over.
By nineteen forty, all US cars were required to have
sealed beam headlamps. Gone were the round bulbs protruding from
the front of a car. From then on, every headlight
(06:46):
would be in set into the front of the car
in a square housing. In the nineteen sixties and seventies,
the electric lights were bolstered with halogen gas to strengthen
the beam and make it last longer, and in the
nineteen nineties manufact replaced halogen lamps with xenon gas to
brighten the beams even further. Now, you may have noticed
(07:06):
a pattern throughout history. Automobile manufacturers design a lamp, it
has a shortcoming. We introduce a new design, it becomes
brighter and more reliable. Now, while this sounds like a
pattern that can only lead to improvements, you already know
where I'm going with this. A halogen ball produces about
one thousand llumens of light. In the early two thousands,
(07:26):
cars started introducing LED headlights, which were about four times stronger,
and after market headlamps can go as high as ten
thousand lumens. Now, aftermarket headlamps are generally discouraged, but it's
difficult to fully police what someone does with their own
vehicle at home, and once it's on the road, the
problem has already manifested itself. Most cars today need to
(07:49):
pass safety checks before they hit the road. Then brighter
headlights can only be a good thing because these standards
are designed with the driver's visibility in mind, not the
other drivers on the road, and that is a problem
that might require more complex solutions than car companies are
willing to think about. Europe has addressed this problem by
pursuing adaptive brightness, or beams that adjust their intensity based
(08:13):
on the proximity of other cars. But as inspiring as
this sort of development is, it will take a long
time to see a mass scale. Cars are long term purchases.
After all, the vehicles on the road today are not
all brand new off the production line from yesterday. There's
a lot to be said about our impulses toward light.
Technology and progress make the world feel safer, less cloaked
(08:37):
in shadow and mystery. But if we aren't conscious of
how our progress affects the world around us, we run
the risk of causing more harm than safety. As any
moth can tell you, a light in the dark may
be a beautiful thing, but it isn't always that's safe.
(08:57):
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.
This 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,
(09:20):
and 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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Our personalities are deeply ingrained within us. We all have
certain traits and quirks that we can't change no matter
how hard we try. But what exactly is it that
makes you you? Modern science has some ideas, and it's
all thanks to a nineteenth century railroad worker named Phineas.
On September thirteenth of eighteen forty eight, Phineas was working
(00:58):
at a construction yard outside cab Dish, Vermont. He was
regarded as his company's best foreman. He had a steady
mind and a good business sense, and everyone on the
crew respected him. The job that day was supposed to
be simple too. They were clearing rocks to make way
for the new Rutland and Burlington Railroad. So once the
crew had drilled a hole into the rocky ground, Phineas
(01:20):
filled it with explosives and then he picked up a
long iron tamping rod and used it to pack sand
into the hole. But while he was doing so, the
iron rod gave off a spark, and suddenly the explosives detonated,
blasting the rod out of Phineas's hand and threw his
left cheekbone. The rod tore through his brain, out the
(01:41):
top of his skull, and landed on the ground eighty
feet behind him. Phineas was knocked onto his back with
a massive hole through his head, but as the smoke cleared,
Phineas sat up. Not only was he alive, but he
was still conscious. He stood up calmly, walked over to
an ox cart and asked his co workers to give
him a ride to town to see a doctor. Phineas
(02:03):
was taken to a young physician named doctor John Harlowe,
who was stunned that his patient was even able to speak.
He told the doctor exactly what had happened to him,
and he could even recall the names of the people
who had been there with him. But Phineas told doctor
Harlowe not to bother bringing any of his coworkers in
to visit him. He was sure that he'd be back
to work in a day. Or two, and amazingly, Phineas
(02:26):
did make a full recovery, but he never went back
to work at the railroad company. The accident had changed
his personality so dramatically his old employers refused to hire
him back. Once he was a responsible, motivated young foreman
with a bright career ahead of him, he was now
a rude, moody, and impatient man. He swore constantly, had
(02:47):
no impulse control and didn't seem to care about anyone
but himself. In the words of his friends, he was
no longer who he used to be. Unable to hold
down a steady job, Phineas ended up joining Arnham's circus
as a curiosity. After that, he worked as a stable
hand and a coach driver for a while, but about
a decade after his accident, he developed epilepsy and his
(03:10):
health went downhill quickly. He moved back in with his
mother in San Francisco, and in eighteen sixty he died
after a series of seizures. But that was just the
beginning of his story. Seven years later, Phineas's body was
exhumed and doctor Harlowe, the man who had treated him
after his accident, wrote the first detailed medical report on
(03:31):
his case. He observed that the damage to Phineas's frontal
lobe had caused major personality changes, but only a minor
impact on his intellect. At a time when scientists knew
next to nothing about the human brain, this was a
major turning point in research. Phineas's injury helped early neurologists
learn about the brain structure and the frontal lobe's role
(03:53):
in behavior. His skull was donated to the Harvard School
of Medicine, where it is still on exhibit today. In
the last century and a half, it's been studied again
and again by new generations of scientists trying to understand
exactly what happened to the man and how to help
patients with similar brain injuries. The human brain is still
(04:13):
a source of mystery, but thanks to Phineas Gage, we're
all a little closer to understanding why we are who
we are. Have you ever found yourself wondering why it
(04:36):
is so hard to see when driving at night? I
know I have. The darkness isn't the problem. It's the
lights from the other cars. They're so bright that having
someone behind you or in front of you can be
utterly blinding. For a technology that's only supposed to help
protect us, it really seems like it's becoming an annoyance
for many drivers. So how did we get here? While
(04:58):
the path of the car headlamped through history is a
straightforward one, but its history gives us some sense of
where it might be going as well, nothing changed the
landscape of our cities quite like the automobile. What started
as a self propelled carriage soon became a faster and
more efficient mode of transportation than anything pulled by a horse.
(05:19):
But you can imagine that the early designers of cars
were faced with a number of problems right from the start.
For instance, what happens when you drive at night? You see,
when a horse is pulling your carriage, you have a
certain amount of protection from dangerous roads. Under normal circumstances,
a horse won't lead you straight off a cliff into
the darkness. Even if the light from your lantern doesn't
(05:40):
go very far. The animal's instinct of self preservation winds
up protecting the vehicle itself. Meanwhile, an automobile has no
such protection. So early on engineers work to design a
way for cars to see in the darkness. The first
headlights would be invented in the eighteen eighties. They were
essentially gas lamps mounted to the hood of the car.
(06:01):
The cast ambient lights in front of the vehicle, and
it was far from the powerful beams we have today,
but at least they were resistant to wind and rain.
The first electric headlamps came in eighteen ninety eight, courtesy
of the Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, Connecticut. These were
actually a step back in effectiveness from the gas lamps,
though not because electricity was a bad choice, but because
(06:24):
the batteries were exhausted very quickly. There would be steady
attempts to improve the electric headlights in nineteen oh eight
and nineteen twelve until a new standard finally took over.
By nineteen forty, all US cars were required to have
sealed beam headlamps. Gone were the round bulbs protruding from
the front of a car. From then on, every headlight
(06:46):
would be in set into the front of the car
in a square housing. In the nineteen sixties and seventies,
the electric lights were bolstered with halogen gas to strengthen
the beam and make it last longer, and in the
nineteen nineties manufact replaced halogen lamps with xenon gas to
brighten the beams even further. Now, you may have noticed
(07:06):
a pattern throughout history. Automobile manufacturers design a lamp, it
has a shortcoming. We introduce a new design, it becomes
brighter and more reliable. Now, while this sounds like a
pattern that can only lead to improvements, you already know
where I'm going with this. A halogen ball produces about
one thousand llumens of light. In the early two thousands,
(07:26):
cars started introducing LED headlights, which were about four times stronger,
and after market headlamps can go as high as ten
thousand lumens. Now, aftermarket headlamps are generally discouraged, but it's
difficult to fully police what someone does with their own
vehicle at home, and once it's on the road, the
problem has already manifested itself. Most cars today need to
(07:49):
pass safety checks before they hit the road. Then brighter
headlights can only be a good thing because these standards
are designed with the driver's visibility in mind, not the
other drivers on the road, and that is a problem
that might require more complex solutions than car companies are
willing to think about. Europe has addressed this problem by
pursuing adaptive brightness, or beams that adjust their intensity based
(08:13):
on the proximity of other cars. But as inspiring as
this sort of development is, it will take a long
time to see a mass scale. Cars are long term purchases.
After all, the vehicles on the road today are not
all brand new off the production line from yesterday. There's
a lot to be said about our impulses toward light.
Technology and progress make the world feel safer, less cloaked
(08:37):
in shadow and mystery. But if we aren't conscious of
how our progress affects the world around us, we run
the risk of causing more harm than safety. As any
moth can tell you, a light in the dark may
be a beautiful thing, but it isn't always that's safe.
(08:57):
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.
This 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,
(09:20):
and you can learn all about it over at the
Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious,