July 21, 2026 • 10 mins
Strange journeys make for curious tales, as today's tour shall demonstrate.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Nke'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):
In nineteen oh one, a British academic named Charlotte Molberly
and her assistant Elizabeth Shordan, stepped off a train at
the Palace of Versailles. The two women had just started
working together at a women's college in England, and this
trip was supposed to be an opportunity to get to
know each other. They walked around the palace for a
while and found it beautiful but uninspiring, so they decided
(00:57):
to go out through the garden and explore the a
pet Trianon, a mansion on the palace grounds, built in
the seventeen sixties. As they walked through the garden, though,
they missed a turn and got lost, and that's when
everything started to feel off. Unlike the palace, which was
bustling with tourists, this part of the garden was almost
completely deserted. There was no one around except for a
(01:20):
handful of people in old fashioned uniforms and tricorn hats.
Charlotte assumed that they were workers who were dressed in
period costumes for historical reenactment purposes, but something about them
didn't seem real. They looked like wax figures who'd been
brought to life. Up ahead, Elizabeth pointed to an old
farmhouse with a plow outside that looked like it was
(01:42):
one hundred years old or more. There was a gardener
outside of the farmhouse in the same old fashioned costume
as the other workers, so the woman stopped to ask
him for directions to the Petit Trianon. The gardener appointed
them in the right direction, and as they got further
down the path, Charlotte shivered. She felt like the world
was lit, literally losing dimension. The trees were flat and
(02:03):
there were no shadows, as if she were walking through
a painting. She told Elizabeth that she couldn't explain it,
but she felt a suffocating sense of dreariness and dread.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in alarm and said that she
too felt the same thing. Finally, they came to the
Petit triannon, Charlotte saw a young woman in a white
(02:23):
hat and an old fashioned summer dress sketching a picture
of the garden, and as she passed, she noticed that
the woman bore a striking resemblance to the late Queen
Marie Antoinette. As soon as the women stepped inside the mansion,
the oppressive atmosphere lifted. Everything looked normal again, as if
a spell had been broken. They looked around the mansion
(02:44):
for a bit, and then they headed back the same
way they came, but strangely, on their way back, the
workers in period clothing that they had countered on their
way in were nowhere to be seen. Charlotte and Elizabeth
went back to their hotel, both nursing a strange feeling
about what had happened that afternoon, but neither of them
dared to talk about it until months later when they
were finally back in England, and when they compared their recollections,
(03:07):
they couldn't deny that something odd had occurred that day
at Versailles. After their trip, Charlotte and Elizabeth went back
to Versailles several times and tried to trace the path
they had taken to the Petitria. None but it wasn't there.
Various landmarks they remember walking past were completely missing, and
the layout of the garden was entirely different. But after
(03:29):
looking at historical maps, they realized that the path they'd
taken that day aligned perfectly with how the gardens were
laid in the late eighteenth century in the days of
Marie Antoinette. Charlotte was never able to explain exactly what
happened that day, but she lived the rest of her
life convinced that somehow she and Elizabeth had briefly slipped
(03:49):
back in time to see Versailles, as it was more
than one hundred years before their own day, and she
believed that the woman she'd seen sketching in the garden
was none other than Marie Antoinette herself. Six men emerged
(04:16):
from the spinning gray capsule, green in the face and
clutching their stomachs. Captain Greybiel swore under his breath they
had only lasted a few hours in the Slow Rotation Room,
a twenty foot circular space mimicking the living quarters of
future astronauts. Across the large room, his colleagues shook their heads.
Greybiel could easily guess what the problem was insufficient data.
(04:40):
These men, although eager to help, were too ill for
scientists to learn anything about long term changes to the
human body in spaceflight. At high G forces, they passed out,
and at slow rotations, their body lost equilibrium and they
inevitably became sick. A memory tugged at the back of
Captain Grabiel's mind, something he had learned in medical school
(05:02):
or in the Navy's medical academy. There'd been a model
of the human ear for students to observe, large drawings
of semi circular canals that made up the vestibular system,
the part of the human body responsible for balance and
detecting motion. Graybial thought of the tests that his team
had already conducted, and he fought back to which volunteers
(05:22):
were most successful and what set them apart. And then
an idea came together in his mind. So he sent
a message to Galladet University in Washington, DC, requesting students
to assist with a test that could very well win
Americans the space race. Gabriel didn't share his hypothesis with
the other scientists, but he felt confident that he was
(05:42):
on the right track. A few days later, another group
of men sat in the slow Rotation room. An hour passed,
then two scientists outside the SRR were thrilled. So far
these new volunteers from Galadet were lasting longer than any
others had much much longer. The volunteers from Galadet spent
a few hours in the SRR the first time, then
(06:05):
two days. Eventually, the Galadet eleven, as they came to
be called, spent twelve days inside the SRR. Captain grey
Bial's team was exhausted, overworked, and eager to be done.
When the door to the SRR was opened, the Galadet
eleven were sitting calmly inside, playing a game of cards.
If anything, they looked surprised that the time had passed
(06:27):
so quickly. The Galadet eleven went onto ace every test
from the Aerospace Medical Association. The zero gravity simulator, nicknamed
the vomit Comet Rapid Elevator, rides up the Empire's state
building with electrodes attached to their eyelids and a machine
literally called the human Disorientation Device. All the while, Greybriel's
(06:48):
team was getting more data than ever before, which meant
that they were understanding the human body better. Calculations were
adjusted to account for ease of movement, and the galadet
eleven gave clear precise feedback on what they felt, the
difficulty of performing some of movements, and the psychological effects
of extended time in zero gravity. Finally, the most difficult
(07:09):
test of all arrived. In nineteen sixty four, Ten of
the galad At eleven boarded a tugboat setting out over
the Atlantic. Black clouds hung in the stormy sky, but
grey Bill's team had expected this, They had counted on it.
In fact, they would go on to sail two hundred
miles of rough seas and dangerous storms in a final
study of what happened to the human body under extreme conditions.
(07:32):
Grey Biel's researchers reported forty foot waves, buffeting winds, and
surges three times the force of gravity. For the experiment,
the galadet eleven were supposed to provide blood and urine samples,
answer questioneers, and tests of dexterity under physical strain. As
it happened, the researchers and the boat crew were so
seasick they had to cancel all the tests. The galad
(07:55):
At eleven, on the other hand, had a fantastic time.
They read books, played games and commented on the exciting
wild ride. So what was it that set these specific
men apart? What superpower allowed them to withstand conditions that
no one else could? The Galadet eleven or deaf. In
the nineteen fifties, galad At University was one of few
(08:17):
schools who catered to deaf or heart of hearing students.
Most of these eleven men had survived spinal meningitis, a
condition that damaged their vestibular systems. This meant that they
could no longer hear, and it also meant that they
were exactly what NASA needed to study the effects of
deep space travel on the human body. The Galadets eleven
were more than just test subjects. They took active roles
(08:40):
in the scientific process. They taught the researchers asl which
could be used to communicate even in a vacuum like
space where sound doesn't travel. One member of the Galadets eleven, though,
a man named Robert Greenman, actually worked with Captain Gray
Biel years before the project officially started. He was integral
to the success of NASA research, but like the rest
(09:01):
of the galad At eleven, his contributions went unrecognized until
twenty seventeen when galad At University opened and exhibit highlighting
the critical contributions of Greenmund and his peers, and rightly so,
because it's to them that we owe the success of
every manned spaceflight in American history, all the way from
the Apollo missions to today's Artemis two. I hope you
(09:28):
enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This
show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with
iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team,
and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show
and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot
com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the
(09:48):
official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
all the same story, but without the interruption for a
small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at
patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Nke'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):
In nineteen oh one, a British academic named Charlotte Molberly
and her assistant Elizabeth Shordan, stepped off a train at
the Palace of Versailles. The two women had just started
working together at a women's college in England, and this
trip was supposed to be an opportunity to get to
know each other. They walked around the palace for a
while and found it beautiful but uninspiring, so they decided
(00:57):
to go out through the garden and explore the a
pet Trianon, a mansion on the palace grounds, built in
the seventeen sixties. As they walked through the garden, though,
they missed a turn and got lost, and that's when
everything started to feel off. Unlike the palace, which was
bustling with tourists, this part of the garden was almost
completely deserted. There was no one around except for a
(01:20):
handful of people in old fashioned uniforms and tricorn hats.
Charlotte assumed that they were workers who were dressed in
period costumes for historical reenactment purposes, but something about them
didn't seem real. They looked like wax figures who'd been
brought to life. Up ahead, Elizabeth pointed to an old
farmhouse with a plow outside that looked like it was
(01:42):
one hundred years old or more. There was a gardener
outside of the farmhouse in the same old fashioned costume
as the other workers, so the woman stopped to ask
him for directions to the Petit Trianon. The gardener appointed
them in the right direction, and as they got further
down the path, Charlotte shivered. She felt like the world
was lit, literally losing dimension. The trees were flat and
(02:03):
there were no shadows, as if she were walking through
a painting. She told Elizabeth that she couldn't explain it,
but she felt a suffocating sense of dreariness and dread.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in alarm and said that she
too felt the same thing. Finally, they came to the
Petit triannon, Charlotte saw a young woman in a white
(02:23):
hat and an old fashioned summer dress sketching a picture
of the garden, and as she passed, she noticed that
the woman bore a striking resemblance to the late Queen
Marie Antoinette. As soon as the women stepped inside the mansion,
the oppressive atmosphere lifted. Everything looked normal again, as if
a spell had been broken. They looked around the mansion
(02:44):
for a bit, and then they headed back the same
way they came, but strangely, on their way back, the
workers in period clothing that they had countered on their
way in were nowhere to be seen. Charlotte and Elizabeth
went back to their hotel, both nursing a strange feeling
about what had happened that afternoon, but neither of them
dared to talk about it until months later when they
were finally back in England, and when they compared their recollections,
(03:07):
they couldn't deny that something odd had occurred that day
at Versailles. After their trip, Charlotte and Elizabeth went back
to Versailles several times and tried to trace the path
they had taken to the Petitria. None but it wasn't there.
Various landmarks they remember walking past were completely missing, and
the layout of the garden was entirely different. But after
(03:29):
looking at historical maps, they realized that the path they'd
taken that day aligned perfectly with how the gardens were
laid in the late eighteenth century in the days of
Marie Antoinette. Charlotte was never able to explain exactly what
happened that day, but she lived the rest of her
life convinced that somehow she and Elizabeth had briefly slipped
(03:49):
back in time to see Versailles, as it was more
than one hundred years before their own day, and she
believed that the woman she'd seen sketching in the garden
was none other than Marie Antoinette herself. Six men emerged
(04:16):
from the spinning gray capsule, green in the face and
clutching their stomachs. Captain Greybiel swore under his breath they
had only lasted a few hours in the Slow Rotation Room,
a twenty foot circular space mimicking the living quarters of
future astronauts. Across the large room, his colleagues shook their heads.
Greybiel could easily guess what the problem was insufficient data.
(04:40):
These men, although eager to help, were too ill for
scientists to learn anything about long term changes to the
human body in spaceflight. At high G forces, they passed out,
and at slow rotations, their body lost equilibrium and they
inevitably became sick. A memory tugged at the back of
Captain Grabiel's mind, something he had learned in medical school
(05:02):
or in the Navy's medical academy. There'd been a model
of the human ear for students to observe, large drawings
of semi circular canals that made up the vestibular system,
the part of the human body responsible for balance and
detecting motion. Graybial thought of the tests that his team
had already conducted, and he fought back to which volunteers
(05:22):
were most successful and what set them apart. And then
an idea came together in his mind. So he sent
a message to Galladet University in Washington, DC, requesting students
to assist with a test that could very well win
Americans the space race. Gabriel didn't share his hypothesis with
the other scientists, but he felt confident that he was
(05:42):
on the right track. A few days later, another group
of men sat in the slow Rotation room. An hour passed,
then two scientists outside the SRR were thrilled. So far
these new volunteers from Galadet were lasting longer than any
others had much much longer. The volunteers from Galadet spent
a few hours in the SRR the first time, then
(06:05):
two days. Eventually, the Galadet eleven, as they came to
be called, spent twelve days inside the SRR. Captain grey
Bial's team was exhausted, overworked, and eager to be done.
When the door to the SRR was opened, the Galadet
eleven were sitting calmly inside, playing a game of cards.
If anything, they looked surprised that the time had passed
(06:27):
so quickly. The Galadet eleven went onto ace every test
from the Aerospace Medical Association. The zero gravity simulator, nicknamed
the vomit Comet Rapid Elevator, rides up the Empire's state
building with electrodes attached to their eyelids and a machine
literally called the human Disorientation Device. All the while, Greybriel's
(06:48):
team was getting more data than ever before, which meant
that they were understanding the human body better. Calculations were
adjusted to account for ease of movement, and the galadet
eleven gave clear precise feedback on what they felt, the
difficulty of performing some of movements, and the psychological effects
of extended time in zero gravity. Finally, the most difficult
(07:09):
test of all arrived. In nineteen sixty four, Ten of
the galad At eleven boarded a tugboat setting out over
the Atlantic. Black clouds hung in the stormy sky, but
grey Bill's team had expected this, They had counted on it.
In fact, they would go on to sail two hundred
miles of rough seas and dangerous storms in a final
study of what happened to the human body under extreme conditions.
(07:32):
Grey Biel's researchers reported forty foot waves, buffeting winds, and
surges three times the force of gravity. For the experiment,
the galadet eleven were supposed to provide blood and urine samples,
answer questioneers, and tests of dexterity under physical strain. As
it happened, the researchers and the boat crew were so
seasick they had to cancel all the tests. The galad
(07:55):
At eleven, on the other hand, had a fantastic time.
They read books, played games and commented on the exciting
wild ride. So what was it that set these specific
men apart? What superpower allowed them to withstand conditions that
no one else could? The Galadet eleven or deaf. In
the nineteen fifties, galad At University was one of few
(08:17):
schools who catered to deaf or heart of hearing students.
Most of these eleven men had survived spinal meningitis, a
condition that damaged their vestibular systems. This meant that they
could no longer hear, and it also meant that they
were exactly what NASA needed to study the effects of
deep space travel on the human body. The Galadets eleven
were more than just test subjects. They took active roles
(08:40):
in the scientific process. They taught the researchers asl which
could be used to communicate even in a vacuum like
space where sound doesn't travel. One member of the Galadets eleven, though,
a man named Robert Greenman, actually worked with Captain Gray
Biel years before the project officially started. He was integral
to the success of NASA research, but like the rest
(09:01):
of the galad At eleven, his contributions went unrecognized until
twenty seventeen when galad At University opened and exhibit highlighting
the critical contributions of Greenmund and his peers, and rightly so,
because it's to them that we owe the success of
every manned spaceflight in American history, all the way from
the Apollo missions to today's Artemis two. I hope you
(09:28):
enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This
show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with
iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team,
and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show
and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot
com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the
(09:48):
official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
all the same story, but without the interruption for a
small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at
patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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