July 23, 2026 • 12 mins
Two universal ideas, two curious tales, and one heavy tour through the Cabinet.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmild
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Nke'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 right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I think it's fair to say that Superman is an
American icon, so much so that his influence goes beyond fiction.
In fact, there was one curious moment in history where
Superman actually helped to defeat some real life villains. It
was nineteen forty six and Florida Borne Southern nurse Stetson
Kennedy had reached a dead end in his fight against
(00:56):
the klu Klux Klan. It would be an understatement to
say that he hated them with a passion. He grew
up in the South seeing the promise of the reconstruction
era destroyed by the KKK through their implementation of segregation.
He saw his black neighbors harassed, robbed, assaulted, and lynched
by this white supremacist gang. Stetson also had an uncle
(01:18):
who was actually in the clan, which made him deeply
ashamed his family tree included men who signed the constitution.
He saw having a relative in the clan as a
stain on his family's reputation, so Stetson did everything that
he could to stop them. He and his friend John
Brown infiltrated the clan's headquarters in Atlanta, posing as white supremacists.
(01:39):
They attended meetings and learned as much as they could.
They learned the silly greetings and the handshakes that they used.
They learned that wealthy business owners were paying them to
violently break up union rallies. They learned that they were
targeting anti clan journalists by jumping them in the streets
and whipping them. And they learned how leadership charged new
members twenty five dods for their robes. They even sold
(02:02):
them useless insurance policies. It became clear that the KKK
was no more than a racket where wealthy white men
took advantage of poor white men and directed their anger
at minorities. Stetson passed information onto local unions, warning them
whenever the Klan planned to attack. He shared information on
the clans violent activities with the Georgia Attorney General, hoping
(02:24):
that they would be prosecuted, and he also wrote to
the governor of Georgia pointing out that the KKK was
registered as a nonprofit to avoid taxation, when in fact
it was profiting in several ways. However, none of these
attacks seemed to stick. The problem was that many of
the people in power in the South secretly approved of
the KKK. Either they were white supremacists themselves, or they
(02:48):
were profiting off of the KKK's union busting activities. Stetson
sat in a park in Atlanta one day, dejected, trying
to think of how he could bring the clan to justice.
He saw children and it occurred to him that maybe
he would have to reach them if the adults wouldn't listen,
and he knew just the way to do it. Throughout
the previous few decades, radio had become the primary source
(03:11):
of entertainment and news for most Americans, and one of
the most popular shows was The Adventures of Superman, a
weekly fifteen minute program that adapted adventures from the comic books.
Stetson reached out to the Anti Defamation League, who worked
to fight against hate groups like the KKK. In turn,
they reached out to the producers of The Adventures of
(03:31):
Superman and began to collaborate on a storyline for the
series where Superman exposed and fought the KKK. The storyline
ended up being called the Clan of the Fiery Cross
to avoid the potential legal consequences of actually depicting the
KKK by name, but despite the name change, it was
very clear that the group was the KKK. They wore white,
(03:54):
pointy headed robes, they burned crosses, and they follow many
of the same practices that Stetson covered. In the storyline,
a young white boy named Chuck is playing baseball when
a young Asian American boy named Tommy accidentally hits him
with the ball. Chuck's uncle, Matts immediately accuses Tommy of
trying to purposely harm Chuck and takes Chuck to a
(04:15):
meeting of the Clan of the Fiery Cross, where he
pressures Chuck into misrepresenting the accident with Tommy. During the scene,
the clan is depicted as using a strange two finger salute,
something that stets In potentially shared with the producers. In
the storyline, the clan attacks Tommy and his family, which
prompts none other than the Daily Planet reporters Jimmy Olsen
(04:37):
and Clark kent to investigate Chuck's uncle. Matt is also
shown climbing up the ranks of the clan until he
meets the leader, who reveals that the white supremacist angle
of the clan is all a cynical ploy to get
its members to buy robes. In the end, once Clark
uncovers the truth, he changes into his Superman costume and
(04:57):
beats up and arrests the members of the Klan. The
storyline was a huge hit. The radio show received accolades
in the press and from groups such as the National
Conference of Christians and Jews. The Adventures of Superman got
the ball rolling on a sea change in the United States.
Soon enough, the KKK was seen as the strange, pathetic,
(05:18):
dishonest thugs they actually are. Politicians who were once privately
supporting them began to publicly denounce them. Within just a
few years, the klans membership had sharply declined. Stetson had
been successful in his mission to hurt the KKK. Curiously, though,
the reason he was successful was because he realized that
(05:38):
oftentimes fiction is more convincing than reality. On the outskirts
of Paris, six floors beneath the cobblestone city streets. Four
(06:00):
people moved swiftly and silently through a long, narrow corridor.
The precise constant chill of this floor crept into their bones,
making each movement a little stiff. Finally, though the four
arrived at their destination, a gleaming triple padlocked vault, one
of the four stepped forward the first of the three keyholders,
(06:21):
all present for this momentous occasion. With each key, another
of the three silver pistons retracted from the lock, until
the door swung open to reveal the priceless treasure inside.
Not a painting, not a diamond, not a stack of
money or gold. It was a kilogram. Technically, it was
called LaGrand kilogram or lagran k, a small cylindrical weight
(06:46):
made of ninety percent platinum and ten percent iridium, and
even inside this vault it was also protected by three
glass clutches shaped like nested bells. But lagran k wasn't
an ordinary kilogram. It was the kilogram standardized, inarguable and exact,
the object around which all other international units of mass
(07:07):
are fixed. It might be hard to see why such
a thing would be necessary, but the idea actually came
as a solution to injustice. You see, during the French Revolution,
units of measurement were locally decided on and very imprecise,
as traveling and trading became more common, though this created
real problems. A pound of flour in Leone might be
(07:29):
equivalent to two pounds of flour in Sant Dotienne. People
understandably were resenting pain more for less, particularly at a
time when economic injustice was enough to fan the flames
of all out war. So in seventeen ninety one, the
French National Assembly came up with a solution to all
of this chaos. Three agreed upon units, the meter, the leader,
(07:52):
and the kilogram. For this last measurement, they would keep
a definitive weight for posterity. Water, clean or dirty, weighed
the same everywhere and was accessible to everyone. So the
National Assembly agreed that they would store one leader of
water inside a vault. That one leader of water would
equal one kilogram. But storing exactly one leader of water
(08:15):
for all time proved to be challenging. Water evaporates when
it's too hot, and it freezes when it's too cold,
It leaks, it spills, it's messy. So in eighteen eighty
the plan changed. One leader of water would still be
a kilogram, but instead of storing the water, they would
store this platinum iridium sphere of equal weight inside. Problem
(08:38):
solved right, well, not so fast. You see, when lagron
K was forged in eighteen eighty nine, France sent out
national prototypes to several other countries. These were official copies
that were meant to garner international cooperation through a single
standardized weight, and every few decades these copies were compared
to the original. The grand K stayed in an artificial
(09:00):
environment six floors down in the International Bureau of Weights
and Measurements in Paris. Everything from humidity and temperature to
air pressure and dust particles were controlled for in the vault.
Exactly one century after lagron K was forged, in nineteen
eighty nine, four individuals made their way down through all
those levels of security to measure lagron K, and they
(09:23):
discovered something shocking. Lagron K was shrinking lighter than the
other copies by a whopping fifty micrograms, about the same
weight as a fly's wing. Q International panic lagron K
is by definition the kilogram, which would mean that everything
we thought was one kilogram would actually be slightly heavier
(09:43):
than a kilogram, all because the kilogram was shrinking, as
you'd imagine, scientists scrambled for an explanation. After all, lagron
k was meticulously kept and maintained. Any change, even one
as small as a fly's wing, was seen as unacceptable. So,
for example, had the highly vetted cleaning process damaged the
(10:03):
sample somehow. Alternatively, some physicists theorized the issue with something
called outgassing, where solid objects release microscopic amounts of water, vapor,
or cleaning solvents when exposed to a low pressure environment. Eventually,
the best explanation they could come up with was that
all physical objects absorb molecules from the air, and they
(10:25):
lose atoms when touched. And yes, atoms are small, but
multiply that over the course of a century, and that
could explain the difference of fifty micrograms. After widespread attempts
to find a solution, which included a perfectly round silicone sphere,
physicists had enough. Why should global science depend on a
physical object that could be damaged or lost. Remember, the
(10:47):
origins of lagron k came from a need for a
weight that everyone had access to, and so On November
sixteenth of twenty eighteen, representatives from sixty nations voted to
retire lagron K. Today, mass is defined by the plank
constant using a kibble balance, which measures weight via electromagnetic force, which,
(11:07):
of course everyone knows right. Legrand k is still in
its vault in Paris Preserve for future research on changes
in mass. While its loss as the definitive kilogram weighs
heavily on some of the scientific community, there is comfort
in knowing that this new definition actually holds water. I
(11:30):
hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
This show was created by me Aaron Mankey 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
(11:50):
to the 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, can sitter
joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and
(12:11):
until next time, stay curious,
Welcome to Aaron Nke'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 right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I think it's fair to say that Superman is an
American icon, so much so that his influence goes beyond fiction.
In fact, there was one curious moment in history where
Superman actually helped to defeat some real life villains. It
was nineteen forty six and Florida Borne Southern nurse Stetson
Kennedy had reached a dead end in his fight against
(00:56):
the klu Klux Klan. It would be an understatement to
say that he hated them with a passion. He grew
up in the South seeing the promise of the reconstruction
era destroyed by the KKK through their implementation of segregation.
He saw his black neighbors harassed, robbed, assaulted, and lynched
by this white supremacist gang. Stetson also had an uncle
(01:18):
who was actually in the clan, which made him deeply
ashamed his family tree included men who signed the constitution.
He saw having a relative in the clan as a
stain on his family's reputation, so Stetson did everything that
he could to stop them. He and his friend John
Brown infiltrated the clan's headquarters in Atlanta, posing as white supremacists.
(01:39):
They attended meetings and learned as much as they could.
They learned the silly greetings and the handshakes that they used.
They learned that wealthy business owners were paying them to
violently break up union rallies. They learned that they were
targeting anti clan journalists by jumping them in the streets
and whipping them. And they learned how leadership charged new
members twenty five dods for their robes. They even sold
(02:02):
them useless insurance policies. It became clear that the KKK
was no more than a racket where wealthy white men
took advantage of poor white men and directed their anger
at minorities. Stetson passed information onto local unions, warning them
whenever the Klan planned to attack. He shared information on
the clans violent activities with the Georgia Attorney General, hoping
(02:24):
that they would be prosecuted, and he also wrote to
the governor of Georgia pointing out that the KKK was
registered as a nonprofit to avoid taxation, when in fact
it was profiting in several ways. However, none of these
attacks seemed to stick. The problem was that many of
the people in power in the South secretly approved of
the KKK. Either they were white supremacists themselves, or they
(02:48):
were profiting off of the KKK's union busting activities. Stetson
sat in a park in Atlanta one day, dejected, trying
to think of how he could bring the clan to justice.
He saw children and it occurred to him that maybe
he would have to reach them if the adults wouldn't listen,
and he knew just the way to do it. Throughout
the previous few decades, radio had become the primary source
(03:11):
of entertainment and news for most Americans, and one of
the most popular shows was The Adventures of Superman, a
weekly fifteen minute program that adapted adventures from the comic books.
Stetson reached out to the Anti Defamation League, who worked
to fight against hate groups like the KKK. In turn,
they reached out to the producers of The Adventures of
(03:31):
Superman and began to collaborate on a storyline for the
series where Superman exposed and fought the KKK. The storyline
ended up being called the Clan of the Fiery Cross
to avoid the potential legal consequences of actually depicting the
KKK by name, but despite the name change, it was
very clear that the group was the KKK. They wore white,
(03:54):
pointy headed robes, they burned crosses, and they follow many
of the same practices that Stetson covered. In the storyline,
a young white boy named Chuck is playing baseball when
a young Asian American boy named Tommy accidentally hits him
with the ball. Chuck's uncle, Matts immediately accuses Tommy of
trying to purposely harm Chuck and takes Chuck to a
(04:15):
meeting of the Clan of the Fiery Cross, where he
pressures Chuck into misrepresenting the accident with Tommy. During the scene,
the clan is depicted as using a strange two finger salute,
something that stets In potentially shared with the producers. In
the storyline, the clan attacks Tommy and his family, which
prompts none other than the Daily Planet reporters Jimmy Olsen
(04:37):
and Clark kent to investigate Chuck's uncle. Matt is also
shown climbing up the ranks of the clan until he
meets the leader, who reveals that the white supremacist angle
of the clan is all a cynical ploy to get
its members to buy robes. In the end, once Clark
uncovers the truth, he changes into his Superman costume and
(04:57):
beats up and arrests the members of the Klan. The
storyline was a huge hit. The radio show received accolades
in the press and from groups such as the National
Conference of Christians and Jews. The Adventures of Superman got
the ball rolling on a sea change in the United States.
Soon enough, the KKK was seen as the strange, pathetic,
(05:18):
dishonest thugs they actually are. Politicians who were once privately
supporting them began to publicly denounce them. Within just a
few years, the klans membership had sharply declined. Stetson had
been successful in his mission to hurt the KKK. Curiously, though,
the reason he was successful was because he realized that
(05:38):
oftentimes fiction is more convincing than reality. On the outskirts
of Paris, six floors beneath the cobblestone city streets. Four
(06:00):
people moved swiftly and silently through a long, narrow corridor.
The precise constant chill of this floor crept into their bones,
making each movement a little stiff. Finally, though the four
arrived at their destination, a gleaming triple padlocked vault, one
of the four stepped forward the first of the three keyholders,
(06:21):
all present for this momentous occasion. With each key, another
of the three silver pistons retracted from the lock, until
the door swung open to reveal the priceless treasure inside.
Not a painting, not a diamond, not a stack of
money or gold. It was a kilogram. Technically, it was
called LaGrand kilogram or lagran k, a small cylindrical weight
(06:46):
made of ninety percent platinum and ten percent iridium, and
even inside this vault it was also protected by three
glass clutches shaped like nested bells. But lagran k wasn't
an ordinary kilogram. It was the kilogram standardized, inarguable and exact,
the object around which all other international units of mass
(07:07):
are fixed. It might be hard to see why such
a thing would be necessary, but the idea actually came
as a solution to injustice. You see, during the French Revolution,
units of measurement were locally decided on and very imprecise,
as traveling and trading became more common, though this created
real problems. A pound of flour in Leone might be
(07:29):
equivalent to two pounds of flour in Sant Dotienne. People
understandably were resenting pain more for less, particularly at a
time when economic injustice was enough to fan the flames
of all out war. So in seventeen ninety one, the
French National Assembly came up with a solution to all
of this chaos. Three agreed upon units, the meter, the leader,
(07:52):
and the kilogram. For this last measurement, they would keep
a definitive weight for posterity. Water, clean or dirty, weighed
the same everywhere and was accessible to everyone. So the
National Assembly agreed that they would store one leader of
water inside a vault. That one leader of water would
equal one kilogram. But storing exactly one leader of water
(08:15):
for all time proved to be challenging. Water evaporates when
it's too hot, and it freezes when it's too cold,
It leaks, it spills, it's messy. So in eighteen eighty
the plan changed. One leader of water would still be
a kilogram, but instead of storing the water, they would
store this platinum iridium sphere of equal weight inside. Problem
(08:38):
solved right, well, not so fast. You see, when lagron
K was forged in eighteen eighty nine, France sent out
national prototypes to several other countries. These were official copies
that were meant to garner international cooperation through a single
standardized weight, and every few decades these copies were compared
to the original. The grand K stayed in an artificial
(09:00):
environment six floors down in the International Bureau of Weights
and Measurements in Paris. Everything from humidity and temperature to
air pressure and dust particles were controlled for in the vault.
Exactly one century after lagron K was forged, in nineteen
eighty nine, four individuals made their way down through all
those levels of security to measure lagron K, and they
(09:23):
discovered something shocking. Lagron K was shrinking lighter than the
other copies by a whopping fifty micrograms, about the same
weight as a fly's wing. Q International panic lagron K
is by definition the kilogram, which would mean that everything
we thought was one kilogram would actually be slightly heavier
(09:43):
than a kilogram, all because the kilogram was shrinking, as
you'd imagine, scientists scrambled for an explanation. After all, lagron
k was meticulously kept and maintained. Any change, even one
as small as a fly's wing, was seen as unacceptable. So,
for example, had the highly vetted cleaning process damaged the
(10:03):
sample somehow. Alternatively, some physicists theorized the issue with something
called outgassing, where solid objects release microscopic amounts of water, vapor,
or cleaning solvents when exposed to a low pressure environment. Eventually,
the best explanation they could come up with was that
all physical objects absorb molecules from the air, and they
(10:25):
lose atoms when touched. And yes, atoms are small, but
multiply that over the course of a century, and that
could explain the difference of fifty micrograms. After widespread attempts
to find a solution, which included a perfectly round silicone sphere,
physicists had enough. Why should global science depend on a
physical object that could be damaged or lost. Remember, the
(10:47):
origins of lagron k came from a need for a
weight that everyone had access to, and so On November
sixteenth of twenty eighteen, representatives from sixty nations voted to
retire lagron K. Today, mass is defined by the plank
constant using a kibble balance, which measures weight via electromagnetic force, which,
(11:07):
of course everyone knows right. Legrand k is still in
its vault in Paris Preserve for future research on changes
in mass. While its loss as the definitive kilogram weighs
heavily on some of the scientific community, there is comfort
in knowing that this new definition actually holds water. I
(11:30):
hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
This show was created by me Aaron Mankey 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
(11:50):
to the 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, can sitter
joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and
(12:11):
until next time, stay curious,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.