October 11, 2018 • 10 mins
Today we present two stories of individuals who show us just how powerful the human spirit can be.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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. The French have graced
(00:28):
our streets and shores with architectural wonders for hundreds of years,
from soaring Gothic spires to ornate palaces to Gustav Eiffel's
towering feet of engineering in the middle of Paris. France's
architectural movements have influenced the world over, which brings me
to a man you might not have heard of, which
is odd because for twenty five years he's been solely
(00:51):
responsible for developing one of the largest cities in Europe.
Gil Traheen had a unique childhood. From a very early age,
it was clear his brain was wired in a way
that escaped the adults around him. For example, he had
perfect pitch and taught himself to play the bass. His
innate sense of numbers and mathematics allowed him to perform
(01:12):
calculations off the top of his head that most people
needed calculators for, and he could draw too, not stick
figures or superheroes, but enormous buildings, taking them from simple
doodles to three D structures with incredible accuracy. Like Thomas
Jefferson before him, Traheen was self educated in the principles
(01:33):
of architecture, and his knack for learning took him to
great heights. Literally, the city of Orville became the bustling
metropolis it is now because of him. Boasting a population
of twelve million, Orville traces its roots back to the
twelfth century BC, when the city passed through the hands
of the Romans to the Austro Guards, all the way
(01:53):
up to its eventual ruling by the Kingdom of France
in the seventeen hundreds. Things settled down for a long
time time until the French Revolution, when the population exploded
to two point eight million. Town planners needed a way
to accommodate so many people in such a small area,
so they built urban housing developments that still stand today.
(02:14):
And while World War One missed Orville entirely, World War
Two brought with it numerous bombings, reducing much of the
city to rubble and cutting the population down by two
hundred thousand. But Orville and its citizens refused to quit,
and after the war, as more people felt compelled to
move out of the country and into cities. Its population
(02:34):
skyrocketed again. It continued to grow over the next forty years,
and with it came taller buildings, more shops, movie theaters,
and public parks, the kind of advancements seen in cities
like Chicago and New York over the same period of time.
Enter Traheen, master architect who single handedly created Orville's most
(02:55):
iconic structures at the age of fifteen. An enormous glass cover,
a skyscraper that seems to point toward heaven with its
pyramid like top, A beautiful covered bridge spanning the river
that runs down the middle of the city. A port
boasting modern speedboats and historic sloops, all of it constructed
by one man with a vision. Surprisingly, not much is
(03:19):
known about Trahean. You'd think the man responsible for expanding
a city from three million to twelve million would have
a few books written about him, maybe an article or
two in Architectural Digest. But by all accounts, Traheen is
nothing more than a blip on the radar and anomaly
which brings me back to Orville. If you look at
(03:40):
a map and use a magnifying glass, you might find Orville,
Ube Commune in the northeastern corner of France. It's population
of one forty seven is a far cry from the
cramped masses of Trehean's version of Orville. You wouldn't find
glistening skyscrapers or sprawling parks either. In fact, you won't
(04:01):
find much of anything. You see. The erville that has
become the third most populated city in Europe doesn't actually exist, well,
not physically. The only way to find Orville is among
three hundred individual sketches by trading a French autistic savant
who first imagined the city back in it's history. Its founders,
(04:24):
and its design are all fiction, though you never know
it by looking at the incredibly detailed sketches. He began
his city twenty five years ago, and he's still building today.
Obsession has that effect, a compulsion to complete something when
we know it will never truly be finished. Cities are organic,
(04:44):
always changing, and those of us who live within them
change too. Humans, by nature, inhabit the places we call
home sometimes, though places can inhabit us, even if it's
just all in our head. On average, there are fewer
(05:16):
than one airplane crashes each year. Your chance of dying
in one is one in eleven million. In fact, since
your odds of dying in a car accident are higher
at one in five thousand, you're better off in the
air than on the ground. Still, no matter how low
the chances are, we hear the stories small aircraft and
(05:36):
jumbo jets go down and people die without ever reaching
their destinations. It's a sad truth about air travel, and
nobody knows this better than the pilots and flight attendants
who work on these planes every day. One such attendant
was Vesna Vulich, born in Belgrade in nineteen fifty. Vezna
loved to travel. It was her love for the Beatles
(05:59):
that took her to London when she happened to see
a friend of hers wearing a flight attendants uniform and thought,
that's what I want to do, traveling to distant lands,
seeing new places and meeting new people. It was the
life she'd dreamed of. To satisfy her wander lust, Vesna
returned to Serbia in the early nineteen seventies and joined
(06:20):
j A T Airways, where she was hired as a
flight attendant. It was a dangerous time for Yugoslavi and
travel as Croatian nationalists had been carrying out terrorist attacks
across the country. None of that bothered Vesna though. She
had her crisp new uniform and a ticket to adventure,
and things were fine for the first year as she
(06:40):
settled into her new life. But this would not be
the fairy tale she'd imagined. On the morning of January
seventy two, Vesna was called into work flight three sixty seven,
which would be landing in Copenhagen the next day, to
pick her and the rest of the crew up before
flying to her hometown of Belgrade. She'd made trips like
this four, but this one seemed different. There was something
(07:03):
in the air no pun intended. The rest of the
crew could feel it too, dread, hopelessness, despair. Vesna had
planned to do a little sight seeing before taking off,
but decided to join the other crew members in a
shopping trip instead. All of them seemed sad, like they
knew what was about to happen. The captain had gone
(07:24):
as far as to lock himself in his hotel room
the previous day, not coming out until a few hours
before the flight. Even the passengers felt it as they
deplaned at Copenhagen Airport. One man in particular, was so
frustrated he refused to get back on the plane, leaving
his baggage behind. When flight three sixty seven took off
(07:45):
a few hours later, there were twenty eight passengers and
crew on board, including Vesna. She handed out drinks and
snacks and attended to passengers needs as the airplane climbed
higher and higher. About an hour into the trip, it's
the plane had reached its maximum altitude. It happened the vague,
ominous threat that had been hanging over their heads had
(08:07):
finally found them. An explosion, which began in the baggage compartment,
ripped through the plane, tearing it in half like a napkin.
Vestna and the other people on board fell over thirty
three thousand feet into a small check village below. Authorities
determined the explosion had been caused by a briefcase bomb,
(08:28):
allegedly left behind by that frustrated man who refused to
board the plane back in Copenhagen. At least, that's who
Vesna pointed out when they questioned her. You see, a
villager heard screaming from inside the wreckage, not too far
from his home, peering inside, he saw a woman in
a flight attendants uniform covered in blood. It was Vesna,
(08:52):
and despite her six mile fall to earth, she had lived.
Vesna Voolich spent months in the hospital recovering from her wounds,
which included a fractured skull and temporary paralysis, but she
didn't let her injury stop her. When she finally healed,
she got back on with her life, including her job
(09:12):
at J A. T Airlines, albeit in the less exciting
role of negotiating freight contracts from the safety of the ground.
Many people don't bounce back after a serious injury. Athletes
leave the field, writers never get back on the horse,
Shark attack victims don't get back in the water. But
(09:33):
once in a while, a person like Vesna Vulich manages
to fall out of the sky and land on her feet.
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.
(09:56):
The show was created by me Aaron Manky 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
World of lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
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. The French have graced
(00:28):
our streets and shores with architectural wonders for hundreds of years,
from soaring Gothic spires to ornate palaces to Gustav Eiffel's
towering feet of engineering in the middle of Paris. France's
architectural movements have influenced the world over, which brings me
to a man you might not have heard of, which
is odd because for twenty five years he's been solely
(00:51):
responsible for developing one of the largest cities in Europe.
Gil Traheen had a unique childhood. From a very early age,
it was clear his brain was wired in a way
that escaped the adults around him. For example, he had
perfect pitch and taught himself to play the bass. His
innate sense of numbers and mathematics allowed him to perform
(01:12):
calculations off the top of his head that most people
needed calculators for, and he could draw too, not stick
figures or superheroes, but enormous buildings, taking them from simple
doodles to three D structures with incredible accuracy. Like Thomas
Jefferson before him, Traheen was self educated in the principles
(01:33):
of architecture, and his knack for learning took him to
great heights. Literally, the city of Orville became the bustling
metropolis it is now because of him. Boasting a population
of twelve million, Orville traces its roots back to the
twelfth century BC, when the city passed through the hands
of the Romans to the Austro Guards, all the way
(01:53):
up to its eventual ruling by the Kingdom of France
in the seventeen hundreds. Things settled down for a long
time time until the French Revolution, when the population exploded
to two point eight million. Town planners needed a way
to accommodate so many people in such a small area,
so they built urban housing developments that still stand today.
(02:14):
And while World War One missed Orville entirely, World War
Two brought with it numerous bombings, reducing much of the
city to rubble and cutting the population down by two
hundred thousand. But Orville and its citizens refused to quit,
and after the war, as more people felt compelled to
move out of the country and into cities. Its population
(02:34):
skyrocketed again. It continued to grow over the next forty years,
and with it came taller buildings, more shops, movie theaters,
and public parks, the kind of advancements seen in cities
like Chicago and New York over the same period of time.
Enter Traheen, master architect who single handedly created Orville's most
(02:55):
iconic structures at the age of fifteen. An enormous glass cover,
a skyscraper that seems to point toward heaven with its
pyramid like top, A beautiful covered bridge spanning the river
that runs down the middle of the city. A port
boasting modern speedboats and historic sloops, all of it constructed
by one man with a vision. Surprisingly, not much is
(03:19):
known about Trahean. You'd think the man responsible for expanding
a city from three million to twelve million would have
a few books written about him, maybe an article or
two in Architectural Digest. But by all accounts, Traheen is
nothing more than a blip on the radar and anomaly
which brings me back to Orville. If you look at
(03:40):
a map and use a magnifying glass, you might find Orville,
Ube Commune in the northeastern corner of France. It's population
of one forty seven is a far cry from the
cramped masses of Trehean's version of Orville. You wouldn't find
glistening skyscrapers or sprawling parks either. In fact, you won't
(04:01):
find much of anything. You see. The erville that has
become the third most populated city in Europe doesn't actually exist, well,
not physically. The only way to find Orville is among
three hundred individual sketches by trading a French autistic savant
who first imagined the city back in it's history. Its founders,
(04:24):
and its design are all fiction, though you never know
it by looking at the incredibly detailed sketches. He began
his city twenty five years ago, and he's still building today.
Obsession has that effect, a compulsion to complete something when
we know it will never truly be finished. Cities are organic,
(04:44):
always changing, and those of us who live within them
change too. Humans, by nature, inhabit the places we call
home sometimes, though places can inhabit us, even if it's
just all in our head. On average, there are fewer
(05:16):
than one airplane crashes each year. Your chance of dying
in one is one in eleven million. In fact, since
your odds of dying in a car accident are higher
at one in five thousand, you're better off in the
air than on the ground. Still, no matter how low
the chances are, we hear the stories small aircraft and
(05:36):
jumbo jets go down and people die without ever reaching
their destinations. It's a sad truth about air travel, and
nobody knows this better than the pilots and flight attendants
who work on these planes every day. One such attendant
was Vesna Vulich, born in Belgrade in nineteen fifty. Vezna
loved to travel. It was her love for the Beatles
(05:59):
that took her to London when she happened to see
a friend of hers wearing a flight attendants uniform and thought,
that's what I want to do, traveling to distant lands,
seeing new places and meeting new people. It was the
life she'd dreamed of. To satisfy her wander lust, Vesna
returned to Serbia in the early nineteen seventies and joined
(06:20):
j A T Airways, where she was hired as a
flight attendant. It was a dangerous time for Yugoslavi and
travel as Croatian nationalists had been carrying out terrorist attacks
across the country. None of that bothered Vesna though. She
had her crisp new uniform and a ticket to adventure,
and things were fine for the first year as she
(06:40):
settled into her new life. But this would not be
the fairy tale she'd imagined. On the morning of January
seventy two, Vesna was called into work flight three sixty seven,
which would be landing in Copenhagen the next day, to
pick her and the rest of the crew up before
flying to her hometown of Belgrade. She'd made trips like
this four, but this one seemed different. There was something
(07:03):
in the air no pun intended. The rest of the
crew could feel it too, dread, hopelessness, despair. Vesna had
planned to do a little sight seeing before taking off,
but decided to join the other crew members in a
shopping trip instead. All of them seemed sad, like they
knew what was about to happen. The captain had gone
(07:24):
as far as to lock himself in his hotel room
the previous day, not coming out until a few hours
before the flight. Even the passengers felt it as they
deplaned at Copenhagen Airport. One man in particular, was so
frustrated he refused to get back on the plane, leaving
his baggage behind. When flight three sixty seven took off
(07:45):
a few hours later, there were twenty eight passengers and
crew on board, including Vesna. She handed out drinks and
snacks and attended to passengers needs as the airplane climbed
higher and higher. About an hour into the trip, it's
the plane had reached its maximum altitude. It happened the vague,
ominous threat that had been hanging over their heads had
(08:07):
finally found them. An explosion, which began in the baggage compartment,
ripped through the plane, tearing it in half like a napkin.
Vestna and the other people on board fell over thirty
three thousand feet into a small check village below. Authorities
determined the explosion had been caused by a briefcase bomb,
(08:28):
allegedly left behind by that frustrated man who refused to
board the plane back in Copenhagen. At least, that's who
Vesna pointed out when they questioned her. You see, a
villager heard screaming from inside the wreckage, not too far
from his home, peering inside, he saw a woman in
a flight attendants uniform covered in blood. It was Vesna,
(08:52):
and despite her six mile fall to earth, she had lived.
Vesna Voolich spent months in the hospital recovering from her wounds,
which included a fractured skull and temporary paralysis, but she
didn't let her injury stop her. When she finally healed,
she got back on with her life, including her job
(09:12):
at J A. T Airlines, albeit in the less exciting
role of negotiating freight contracts from the safety of the ground.
Many people don't bounce back after a serious injury. Athletes
leave the field, writers never get back on the horse,
Shark attack victims don't get back in the water. But
(09:33):
once in a while, a person like Vesna Vulich manages
to fall out of the sky and land on her feet.
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.
(09:56):
The show was created by me Aaron Manky 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
World of lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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