December 9, 2025 • 10 mins
Love and passion can make us do curious things. The biggest lessions, though, are often found in the break-up.
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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):
In October of nineteen twelve, the survivors of the British
Antarctic Expedition set out to find their lost comrades, who
had been missing for months after a journey to the
South Pole. Winter was over and the terrain was crossable
once more. They didn't have to search for long. They
found the remains of their compatriots camp only eleven miles
from their own base camp. There were logs detailing how
(00:58):
they had become stuck in a blizzard and eventually all perished.
But there were also samples, samples taken from glaciers never
before visited by humans. No, these samples didn't contain alien
life forms, but they did contain the remnants of ancient
terrestrial life, and that life had a story to tell,
the story of a breakup not between two people, though,
(01:20):
but between two continents. Two hundred million years ago, in
the early Jurassic period, there was a super continent in
the southern Hemisphere the scientists referred to as Gondwana. If
you stood in the exact center of it, you would
be treated to quite a view too. Dense jungles dotted
the valleys and mountains. Smoking volcanoes simmered quietly on the horizon.
(01:42):
Massive dinosaurs of all kinds were abundant, making the land, sea,
and air their home. Today, though we call this central
part of Gondwana Antarctica. Even then it was a distinct area,
but it was land locked amongst its fellow future continents
like Australia, Africa, and South America. Of all of these, though,
it was perhaps closest to South America, its true geological soulmate.
(02:06):
But continents, just like people, change over time. Deep tectonic
forces beneath each future continent would soon drive them apart
as the plates in the Earth's crust began to shift.
Africa departed first in the Crustaceous period, traveling quickly east
to join strange distant continents. There. Tens of millions of
(02:26):
more years passed by, and soon Australia decided that it
would rather go things alone. In the Eocene period, it
left Antarctica behind, and there you had it. Antarctica and
South America were now alone, connected by a tiny land bridge,
almost as if they were holding hands across a large gap.
But even this small remaining connection was not meant to last.
(02:48):
All of these tectonic changes led to consistent volcanic activity
across the Earth. It filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide,
turning the world into a tropical paradise, but it also
melted what few ice caps there were. The sea rows
hundreds of feet above what it used to be. What
had once been a vibrant, well trafficked passage between Antarctica
(03:09):
and South America was soon enveloped by deep, dark ocean water.
Antarctica was now well and truly alone, and it was
almost as if it knew. Dark ocean currents began swirling
around the lonely island, dropping its temperature rapidly. As the
Eocene period continued on. At a few more million years
passed by, the co two levels in the atmosphere returned
(03:31):
to normal, Antarctica was abruptly frozen, killing most plant and
animal life on its surface and leaving it alone as
a frigid tombstone, marking the end of hundreds of millions
of years of history. Thirty million years went by, and
Antarctica stayed the same, while its former friends and soulmate
developed new climates and gave birth to new life, including
(03:54):
human beings. By the twentieth century of this modern era,
humanity began mounting dangerous exit expeditions to Antarctica to discover
its secrets. The British discoveries in nineteen twelve were only
the beginning. Over the past twenty years, internationally funded drilling
expeditions in Antarctica have revealed much of its history to us.
(04:14):
Cross sections of sediment have taught us all about the
many varied organisms that used to call Antarctica home. They've
also shown us how for millions of years, Antarctica and
South America shared a connection that allowed organisms from both
to cross pollinate. But these discoveries also carried with them
a dire warning. You see, the Eocene period was a
(04:36):
time of intense global warming. All of that CO two
that was released led to an atmospheric CO two content
of one thousand parts per million, which was enough to
melt the ice and flood huge swaths of the earth
and wipe out many life forms. It shows us that
CO two in the atmosphere does definitively have an impact
on the climate. In fact, the only period since the
(04:56):
Eocene where something even close to that dramatic of a
change in in the atmosphere CO two levels occurred is
the last two hundred and fifty years, or the Industrial Age.
Human beings have managed to raise the CO two in
the atmosphere from two hundred and eighty parts per million
to three hundred and ninety parts per million, and that's
not slowing down quickly enough. But of course, what are
(05:17):
human beings if not infinitely flexible creatures. We have the
power to change, the incentive to do so, and an
understanding of the past that tells us what will happen
if we don't. We might not be able to bring
those two ancient soulmates back together, but we can certainly
profess our devotion to our own significant other, our future.
(05:50):
David's family moved too much for his comfort. He enjoyed
the suburbs they grew up in the white picket fences
and comfortable homes, but his parents would never truly settle down.
His father worked for the United States Department of Agriculture,
so they would have to move wherever the government dictated.
As he grew up, David began to see the world
as an ever changing place. As his family relocated from
(06:12):
Missouri to Washington States, onto North Carolina and Idaho. He
got to see all of Middle America in the nineteen
forties and fifties through the wide eyed lens of childhood,
and even life in so many different suburbs provided brief
bursts of excitement. Once, during their time in Boise, Idaho,
David watched a friend settle up a bottle rockets on
(06:35):
his back porch. The friend stood before David, putting match
heads into the small rocket with hopes of giving it lift.
Towering above the two of them was David's friend's mother,
who was pregnant at the time. The rocket went off,
but it was too powerful. A small explosion propelled the
rocket past the friend and he fell screaming to the porch.
The rocket had struck his ankle and left the kid
(06:56):
bleeding in the grass, his foot nearly severed. In the
haze of smoke and blood, young David was entranced his
friend would recover from that injury thanks to a visit
to the emergency room. David, meanwhile, was left with an
obsession with playing with fire. He and his other friends
devised many different ways to create small explosions that would
(07:18):
entertain them on evenings and weekends. Eventually they advanced from
bottle rockets to pipe bombs, building devices of increasing power
and danger. They did not intend to hurt anyone or
destroy anything, but they explored this pastime with a sense
of awe and excitement, and naturally they would have to
test their inventions, right, But how do you do this
(07:39):
without another horrible injury or getting the cops called on you? Well,
Eventually they settled on a location, the South Lake Junior
High swimming Pool. The water there would be able to
muffle the blast but still give them the spectacle of
watching their explosive work its action. So one Saturday morning,
David and his friends snuck into the unused pool. They
(08:00):
threw the pipe bomb into the water, and they waited.
They expected only a geyser of water, but what happened
felt more like an undersea mine. The pool irerupted from
the force of the pipe bomb, and the very ground
beneath them shook from the impact. Houses from blocks around
were shaken by the bomb, and in spite of their
best efforts, the police were called. Nobody was injured this time, thankfully,
(08:23):
but David was arrested. All the same stories of the
event would reappear in newspapers across Idaho and even as
far as Salt Lake City. David would be let off
with a stern warning and encouraged to pursue less destructive hobbies.
At this point, you can imagine the life of the
kid taking two different directions. He might follow his destructive
tendencies to a life of crime or danger, or maybe engineering.
(08:47):
Or on the other hand, he might forsake pipe bombs altogether.
And fortunately it seemed like the latter path is what
David wound up taking. Perhaps because of the notoriety brought
to him by his experiment with pipe bombs, he turned
to his more artistic pursuits, reading and drawing comics in
his free time. The ultimate destiny of this kid was
not a prison cell, but Hollywood. He moved to Los
(09:10):
Angeles and wound up becoming one of the most acclaimed
avant garde artists of all time, known for legendary classics
like Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks. David was David Lynch.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
(09:33):
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
worldolore 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):
In October of nineteen twelve, the survivors of the British
Antarctic Expedition set out to find their lost comrades, who
had been missing for months after a journey to the
South Pole. Winter was over and the terrain was crossable
once more. They didn't have to search for long. They
found the remains of their compatriots camp only eleven miles
from their own base camp. There were logs detailing how
(00:58):
they had become stuck in a blizzard and eventually all perished.
But there were also samples, samples taken from glaciers never
before visited by humans. No, these samples didn't contain alien
life forms, but they did contain the remnants of ancient
terrestrial life, and that life had a story to tell,
the story of a breakup not between two people, though,
(01:20):
but between two continents. Two hundred million years ago, in
the early Jurassic period, there was a super continent in
the southern Hemisphere the scientists referred to as Gondwana. If
you stood in the exact center of it, you would
be treated to quite a view too. Dense jungles dotted
the valleys and mountains. Smoking volcanoes simmered quietly on the horizon.
(01:42):
Massive dinosaurs of all kinds were abundant, making the land, sea,
and air their home. Today, though we call this central
part of Gondwana Antarctica. Even then it was a distinct area,
but it was land locked amongst its fellow future continents
like Australia, Africa, and South America. Of all of these, though,
it was perhaps closest to South America, its true geological soulmate.
(02:06):
But continents, just like people, change over time. Deep tectonic
forces beneath each future continent would soon drive them apart
as the plates in the Earth's crust began to shift.
Africa departed first in the Crustaceous period, traveling quickly east
to join strange distant continents. There. Tens of millions of
(02:26):
more years passed by, and soon Australia decided that it
would rather go things alone. In the Eocene period, it
left Antarctica behind, and there you had it. Antarctica and
South America were now alone, connected by a tiny land bridge,
almost as if they were holding hands across a large gap.
But even this small remaining connection was not meant to last.
(02:48):
All of these tectonic changes led to consistent volcanic activity
across the Earth. It filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide,
turning the world into a tropical paradise, but it also
melted what few ice caps there were. The sea rows
hundreds of feet above what it used to be. What
had once been a vibrant, well trafficked passage between Antarctica
(03:09):
and South America was soon enveloped by deep, dark ocean water.
Antarctica was now well and truly alone, and it was
almost as if it knew. Dark ocean currents began swirling
around the lonely island, dropping its temperature rapidly. As the
Eocene period continued on. At a few more million years
passed by, the co two levels in the atmosphere returned
(03:31):
to normal, Antarctica was abruptly frozen, killing most plant and
animal life on its surface and leaving it alone as
a frigid tombstone, marking the end of hundreds of millions
of years of history. Thirty million years went by, and
Antarctica stayed the same, while its former friends and soulmate
developed new climates and gave birth to new life, including
(03:54):
human beings. By the twentieth century of this modern era,
humanity began mounting dangerous exit expeditions to Antarctica to discover
its secrets. The British discoveries in nineteen twelve were only
the beginning. Over the past twenty years, internationally funded drilling
expeditions in Antarctica have revealed much of its history to us.
(04:14):
Cross sections of sediment have taught us all about the
many varied organisms that used to call Antarctica home. They've
also shown us how for millions of years, Antarctica and
South America shared a connection that allowed organisms from both
to cross pollinate. But these discoveries also carried with them
a dire warning. You see, the Eocene period was a
(04:36):
time of intense global warming. All of that CO two
that was released led to an atmospheric CO two content
of one thousand parts per million, which was enough to
melt the ice and flood huge swaths of the earth
and wipe out many life forms. It shows us that
CO two in the atmosphere does definitively have an impact
on the climate. In fact, the only period since the
(04:56):
Eocene where something even close to that dramatic of a
change in in the atmosphere CO two levels occurred is
the last two hundred and fifty years, or the Industrial Age.
Human beings have managed to raise the CO two in
the atmosphere from two hundred and eighty parts per million
to three hundred and ninety parts per million, and that's
not slowing down quickly enough. But of course, what are
(05:17):
human beings if not infinitely flexible creatures. We have the
power to change, the incentive to do so, and an
understanding of the past that tells us what will happen
if we don't. We might not be able to bring
those two ancient soulmates back together, but we can certainly
profess our devotion to our own significant other, our future.
(05:50):
David's family moved too much for his comfort. He enjoyed
the suburbs they grew up in the white picket fences
and comfortable homes, but his parents would never truly settle down.
His father worked for the United States Department of Agriculture,
so they would have to move wherever the government dictated.
As he grew up, David began to see the world
as an ever changing place. As his family relocated from
(06:12):
Missouri to Washington States, onto North Carolina and Idaho. He
got to see all of Middle America in the nineteen
forties and fifties through the wide eyed lens of childhood,
and even life in so many different suburbs provided brief
bursts of excitement. Once, during their time in Boise, Idaho,
David watched a friend settle up a bottle rockets on
(06:35):
his back porch. The friend stood before David, putting match
heads into the small rocket with hopes of giving it lift.
Towering above the two of them was David's friend's mother,
who was pregnant at the time. The rocket went off,
but it was too powerful. A small explosion propelled the
rocket past the friend and he fell screaming to the porch.
The rocket had struck his ankle and left the kid
(06:56):
bleeding in the grass, his foot nearly severed. In the
haze of smoke and blood, young David was entranced his
friend would recover from that injury thanks to a visit
to the emergency room. David, meanwhile, was left with an
obsession with playing with fire. He and his other friends
devised many different ways to create small explosions that would
(07:18):
entertain them on evenings and weekends. Eventually they advanced from
bottle rockets to pipe bombs, building devices of increasing power
and danger. They did not intend to hurt anyone or
destroy anything, but they explored this pastime with a sense
of awe and excitement, and naturally they would have to
test their inventions, right, But how do you do this
(07:39):
without another horrible injury or getting the cops called on you? Well,
Eventually they settled on a location, the South Lake Junior
High swimming Pool. The water there would be able to
muffle the blast but still give them the spectacle of
watching their explosive work its action. So one Saturday morning,
David and his friends snuck into the unused pool. They
(08:00):
threw the pipe bomb into the water, and they waited.
They expected only a geyser of water, but what happened
felt more like an undersea mine. The pool irerupted from
the force of the pipe bomb, and the very ground
beneath them shook from the impact. Houses from blocks around
were shaken by the bomb, and in spite of their
best efforts, the police were called. Nobody was injured this time, thankfully,
(08:23):
but David was arrested. All the same stories of the
event would reappear in newspapers across Idaho and even as
far as Salt Lake City. David would be let off
with a stern warning and encouraged to pursue less destructive hobbies.
At this point, you can imagine the life of the
kid taking two different directions. He might follow his destructive
tendencies to a life of crime or danger, or maybe engineering.
(08:47):
Or on the other hand, he might forsake pipe bombs altogether.
And fortunately it seemed like the latter path is what
David wound up taking. Perhaps because of the notoriety brought
to him by his experiment with pipe bombs, he turned
to his more artistic pursuits, reading and drawing comics in
his free time. The ultimate destiny of this kid was
not a prison cell, but Hollywood. He moved to Los
(09:10):
Angeles and wound up becoming one of the most acclaimed
avant garde artists of all time, known for legendary classics
like Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks. David was David Lynch.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
(09:33):
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
worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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