August 18, 2025 • 36 mins
The name Tycho Brahe may not ring immediate bells for most people, but his story stands as perhaps the most fascinating fusion of scientific brilliance and outrageous eccentricity in history. This Danish nobleman-turned-astronomer lived a life so colorful and bizarre that it defies modern imagination.
What makes Brahe truly unforgettable wasn't just his scientific achievements—which were substantial—but his outrageous lifestyle. From a pet moose with a taste for beer and a psychic dwarf jester named Jepp, Tycho Brahe had a fascinating life and death.
Listen now to discover why Tycho Brahe deserves to be remembered as not just a scientific pioneer, but perhaps the most colorful character in the history of science. Leave us ratings if you enjoy the show and find us on social media for more historical deep dives into forgotten characters who shaped our world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Didn't the moose have a penchant for whiskey or
drinking?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, he used to get into Tycho Brahe's beer.
He really had a taste for beer,the moose was a drunk.
The moose was a drunk and dranka lot.
The moose is loose To the pointwhere, one day, one fateful day
, he drank too much beer, gotdrunk, fell down the stairs and
(00:25):
died, and that was how the moosemet its end.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Okay, that's a tragedy, but one.
Okay.
There's two things we need toat least start with here.
How big was this flight offucking stairs that the moose
falls on Because?
It's a massive staircase, one,two.
Can you imagine the fuckingnoise that made Moose falling
(00:51):
down the fucking stairs?
Dude, I've heard a cat at twoo'clock in the morning like fall
off the counter and it soundslike the goddamn house exploded.
A fucking moose falling downthe stairs, christ.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Before we begin today's episode, we would like
to share a quick disclaimer.
The views, opinions andstatements expressed by the
hosts and guests on this podcastare their own personal views
and are provided in their owncapacity.
All content is editorial,opinion-based and intended for
entertainment purposes only.
(01:40):
Listener discretion is advised.
Welcome back to the BlackCurtain Club.
I'm Angie and tonight we'rediving into the wild and weird
world of Tycho Brahe, who is abrilliant astronomer with a
flair for the dramatic, a metalnose and some really really
strange habits.
(02:01):
So joining tonight is a goodfriend of mine and I will say,
west Virginia trivia champion,scott Barber.
Scott, how are you?
Do you want to introduceyourself?
Say a few words.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Sure, yeah Again.
Scott Barber.
I'm also a native WestVirginian, like Angie, is.
She and I have known each othersince we'll say a long time.
Yeah.
Just some of the things thatI'm known for is I'm a bit of a
trivia geek.
I know a lot of.
I'm not a good trivia player,but I know a lot of people who
(02:33):
are really good trivia players.
So I get to hang around thosepeople and kind of ride their
coattails onto bigger and bettersuccesses and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Didn't you just say you were like the number one
trivia person in your state?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, I've been on like team trivia.
Yeah, I have just won my eighthteam trivia state title a
couple weekends ago.
But again, team is the keythere.
So I just basically just sitaround and nod and say, yeah, it
sounds like a good answerwhenever someone actually puts
the right answer out there andthen on we go.
(03:09):
And then I get to say at theend, oh yeah, I won a bunch of
stuff when actually not so muchFair Same.
But I like writing triviaquestions.
So I've written a few triviaquestions professionally.
I wrote for a couple of boardgames that have been published
(03:31):
and just, yeah, big trivia geekand like going down rabbit holes
on various topics, kind of likethe one we're going to be
talking about today.
Thank you both for having me on.
I really appreciate the inviteand super, super excited to be
here.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'm happy to have you here tonight too, because, I
mean, this has been like I don'teven know how many years, but I
remember you taking me downthis rabbit hole of Tycho Brahe
and I have never forgotten thisguy, ever since, like it was two
(04:09):
hours of absolute mayhem of aconversation about this guy.
So, and I know, kyle, you are afan of history as well and
you've done a little bit of arabbit hole on him.
So let's just take it and tellme the story of Tycho Scott.
I'll let you open it up, sure.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, no again.
This is one of those storiesthat we've talked about in the
past and it's just one of thosefigures in history that I don't
understand how he's not morepopular, given that there's so
much lore about him historically, and I don't know how someone
with such an interesting pasthasn't become a household name
(04:56):
even today, but nevertheless so.
Tycho Brahe also called TychoTycho Brahe or Bra, but I like
to call him Tycho Brahe,whatever, but just an
interesting guy, because he wasa Danish astronomer who was
(05:17):
influential to Galileo, was acontemporary to Johannes Kepler,
galileo was a contemporary toJohannes Kepler.
And I mean, these are namesthat we know, but we don't know
Tycho Brahe.
And again, puzzles me as to why, but it started out in 1546.
Picture it Denmark 1546.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So Denmark 1546.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So 1546, tycho Brahe is born to a pair of Danish
nobles, and around the age oftwo, his life even starts out
interesting because he's twoyears old and his uncle just
decides oh, I never had a maleheir and I really want one, so I
(06:08):
think I'm just going to gokidnap my nephew and raise him
as my son.
And he does Jesus.
Classic, classic, yeah, I mean,yeah, tale as old as time.
So Tycho Brahe's uncleliterally kidnaps him and raises
him his own, and the craziestpart about that story is that
his parents were like oh my God,our son.
His uncle just kidnapped himand took him away.
(06:30):
And then we're just kind oflike you know what?
It's probably for the best,that's okay, and he'll be, he'll
have a good list there, it'llbe all right.
They didn't really pursue him.
They just like, ah, he'll beokay there, he'll be treated
well there with the what do youexpect?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's 1500s, denmark, shit happens.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Crazy Danish uncle's just going to be like, yeah,
okay, that's, that's cool, butyeah it's.
Yeah, jorgen Brahe was theuncle's name.
Who yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Jorgen, oh my.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
God, yeah, jorgen Brahe.
I mean, these are straight outof central casting with these
names, right, jorgen Brahe,tycho Brahe, but yeah, so the
one kicker about Jorgen is isJorgen actually had a lot of
(07:25):
money, so extremely wealthyperson, and he ends up paying
for all of Tycho's schooling andwhatnot and his uncle father
whatever you want to call himJorgen.
So uncle dad says, hey, let'smaybe lean into the law or
something, and over time hereally want to study astronomy
(07:48):
Again, very new science.
This is before the telescopehad even been invented yet.
But he was interested inastronomy and that's kind of the
way he went.
So he was very good at naturalsciences, mathematics.
These are things that reallyinterested him.
Fucking nerd, yeah, exactlyRight, we don't like nerds.
(08:10):
What's wrong?
What's what's?
What's going on with these?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
nerds Every family has a weird one.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Hey, and if they don't, it's you.
I hate to break it to you.
Yeah, so whenever he went toschool around age 20, he gets
into an argument with one of hisclassmates, and over of all
things, math oh, an argumentover which one was right at math
(08:36):
.
So they decided to settle itthe way that most people settle
math debates with a duel Soundsabout right.
That's right settle mathdebates with a duel.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Sounds about right.
Yeah, right, because that'swhat she did.
It is mathematic, because yougot to count the steps and then
you got to do the angles and thetrajectory and triangles and
shit.
There's math in it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's all the geometry .
It's right there.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
But so they decide to have a sword duel to battle
this thing out because it gotthat serious.
And in the process of the duel,tycho Brahe ends up losing the
duel.
But not only losing the duelhis opponent literally cut his
nose off of his face.
Exactly Right.
(09:17):
No more nose, right.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Got your nose that joke was invented.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Got your nose, got your nose.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
So, for the rest of his life.
Again, he had means because ofUncle Father's money Uncle
Father's money but because ofthat he was able to craft
prosthetic noses out of silverand gold and brass and whatnot.
And so he'd just wear like ametal nose on his face as a
(10:00):
prosthetic.
And they said that wheneverhe'd like get angry at people
he'd take his nose off his face,clean the snot out of it and
throw it at people, just kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well, you know what Good for him.
At least he cleaned the snotout of it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Good for him.
You know what that's classChucking it.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I bet you know it might be a little far, but Is
that where the term snot nosebrat came out of?
Maybe?
Yeah, that's exactly right, yousnot nose tycho, so so yeah, so
imagine and imagine this islike.
Again, this isn't current times, this is in the 15 and 60s,
right?
Imagine how bad a prostheticnose has to fit like a
(10:42):
prosthetic nose wouldn't worktoday.
Think of how bad a prostheticnose would be in like 1566, oh
and metal and stuck to your faceoh yeah, that's just all of
it's terrible, right, it's justyeah, yeah all of it's bad.
There's none of this, none of us.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You can't sell this.
There's no good here, right.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Right, there's nothing good there, right.
But one thing he did have goingfor again, jorgen the uncle
father, that he had had a lot ofmoney.
And after his death, and afterhis actual father's death, tycho
Brahe inherited both of theirestates Right, both of their
(11:45):
estates Right.
And when I say that this guyhad money, I mean he had like
richy rich money.
He had like Bruce Wayne money.
He had.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It was estimated that his entire net worth after both
of these inheritances came inwas equal to 1% of all of the
money in all of Denmark.
So Jesus yeah, money.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, money, right.
I mean you lose your nose, butyou have 1% of the country's
economy in your back pocket.
I don't know if that's still agood trade, but the money does
help, right.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
If I had the equivalent to 1% of the US's
money.
Yeah, fuck the nose, you canhave my nose.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I'd at least consider it.
It's one of those where I'd belike maybe you know I'm at least
hearing you out.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
At the bare minimum I'm hearing you out.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
A hundred percent, right.
But one of the ways that Jorgenwas able to get some of his
money is because he was close tothe king of Denmark, frederick
II's life when he saved him fromdrowning but ends up dying in
the process because he catchespneumonia and dies.
(12:50):
So even though he lost UncleFather Jorgen and his real
father passed too, he still hastight ties to the royal family,
right, yeah?
So he ends up going intoastronomy and because of his
skill being able to navigate thestars and figure out things
(13:15):
that had never been understoodbefore, he sort of becomes a
real popular figure in Denmark.
Discovered a supernova this wasin 1572.
He discovers a supernova andwith his studies of the
supernova he's able to tearapart Aristotle's unchanging
(13:36):
cosmos theory.
So where Aristotle thought thatthe sky was a fixed sky, he was
able to say, okay, no, actuallythere's something going on here
.
We're spinning, yes, but theentire solar system is spinning,
all of space.
It's not a set sky as wepreviously thought, and his
studies with the supernova wasable to prove that.
(14:01):
So he's kind of like a rockstar when it comes to astronomy
in these times.
So a lot of different countrieswere offering to bring him into
their country to studyastronomy, teach astronomy, do
the work for them instead ofother areas.
But King of Denmark, again,close ties the Isle of Wien,
(14:23):
right, and there is where hebuilt a castle and an
observatory.
Urenburg is the name of thecastle that he built.
Builds that in around 1576.
(14:44):
And that is where he prettymuch started the idea of work
hard, play hard, right, becauseeven though he was doing a lot
of really heady stuff, he wasalso, you know, kind of a maniac
.
He would have these elaboratecrazy parties.
(15:07):
He was known for elaboratedrinking and one of the things
that was a little unusual abouthim is he had a pet moose that
he kept in the castle Right,like not a dog, not a badger, a
moose Right.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Moose are not small.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
No, they're not small .
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Moose are not small.
For those of you who don't know, mooses is big as shit.
It's huge.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And they're not sweet animals, they're fucking
asshole.
Yeah, yeah, they're not.
They're fucking assholes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But this thing would be at all of the parties that
Tycho Brahe would throw andeverybody's just like oh okay,
there's the moose.
I just knew he had a moose inthe castle Right.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Didn't the moose have a penchant for whiskey or
drinking or something?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yep, you're leading me right down to my next point.
Yeah, he used to get into TychoBrahe's beer.
He really he had a taste forbeer.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
The moose was a drunk the moose was a drunk and drank
a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
The moose is loose To the point where, one day one
fateful day he drank too muchbeer.
Beer got drunk, fell down thestairs and died, and that was
that was how the moose met hisend.
Okay, that's a tragedy, but one.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Okay.
There's two things we need toat least start with here.
How big was this flight offucking stairs that the moose
falls down, because, like myparents house is 13 stairs, and
like the flight of moose isfucking clearing that, it's like
what?
Just a little trip in that.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
But just this giant tumble.
Keep in mind, exactly so likethat's a massive staircase, one,
two.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Can you imagine the fucking noise that made?
Falling down the fucking stairs, dude?
I've heard a cat at two o'clockin the morning like fall off
the counter and it sounds likethe goddamn house exploded.
A fucking moose falling downthe stairs.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Christ, I want to know if he ate him.
That's the thing I was alwayscurious about.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I'd be shocked if he didn't Be like.
You know what I want to know ifhe ate him.
That's the thing I was alwayscurious about.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I'd be shocked if he didn't.
I'd be like you know what Ihate to see him go, but I hate
to put the good meat to waste.
You know, it's not like I canrun down to the local Kroger and
pick up a couple of ribeyes.
I've got a big ass moose herethat I can just take probably
about 500 pounds of meat off of.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, it was already marinated in beer.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, it had a beer brine in it.
You know what Exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
He took them outside to the spit and tenderized.
They had tenderized.
They had, and thus this man wasa trendsetter too.
Beer-canned chicken he had.
Beer can mousse.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Exactly Delicious, but yeah so.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
I got choked on that one Beer can mousse, sorry, All
right, go ahead proceed.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
No, just I mean again , uh, taiko brahe, massive
partier and another eccentricity.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
We'll call it uh that he is this where you're gonna
talk about jeff?
Speaker 2 (18:40):
yeah, this is exactly where I'm gonna talk about,
jeff, okay yeah yeah, yeah t Jepis my favorite.
Tico Brahe had a companionnamed Jep that lived with him in
the castle, and Jep You'rebeing very liberal and nice by
saying companion.
Well, I'm explaining, I'mexplaining the companion.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Okay, so Jep's companion, or sorry, tico bryce
companion jip was a dwarf jesteryeah, jester, of course yeah,
of course, because the man whoowns a moose that he would get
drunk with fucking natty ice.
Why wouldn't he have a midgetjester?
Yeah, exactly a descendant ofbrad williams, I believe.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
So yeah, so he keeps this jester around for exactly A
descendant of Brad Williams, Ibelieve.
Yeah, so he keeps this jesteraround for the jokes and tricks
and stuff.
He made him sit under the tableduring meals.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So, just stand there.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Just to hang out, I think.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Just as a gag Just stand there.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, but the coolest thing about Jeb is Tico Brahe
honestly, like in his bones,thought that he was a psychic
and had precognitive abilities.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
He thought he was or Jeb was.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
He thought Jeb had psychic and precognitive
abilities.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
That's fucking awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, he thought he had a psychic jester dwarf named
Jep that just lived with him,right?
I mean, imagine like.
I just imagine, like RicardoMontalban and Tattoo, you know,
with the matching suits, theseguys.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
The moose.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
The moose, boss the moose.
The moose boss, the moose, themoose boss, the moose, the moose
boss, the moose.
He fall the floor, he gone.
The moose he fly, he fall themoose, he dead.
Imagine if he made, imagine ifhe made jeff try to carry the
moose out after he was like thisman, oh hey, hey, jeff, clean
(20:54):
up on all four, buddy.
How about we, how about we getthis moose out of here?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
this man has no nose.
It's gold.
He would clean it out and throwit at people.
He owned, arguably, one of thelargest land animals and the
smallest version of a human.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
It's great.
And the thing is, no one toldJep that he was just a companion
, because I'm pretty sure Jepfrom Jep's point of view he was
a captive prisoner.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
He was like I'm a slave to this guy.
He just kidnapped him.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
He goes like why are you taking me?
Listen, my uncle, father,brother did this.
You'll be okay.
Look at me, I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I have all the money, kid.
Do you not know that I couldbuy like a thousand of you guys?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Oh God yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So so, jep, yeah, the the again I'm.
I just have this mental imageof him trying to carry the moose
out, kind of like the uh uhdwarf in Bad Santa trying to
pick Billy Bob Thornton up afterhe's drunk, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, okay, so if memory serves me, he also was
quite a ladies' man.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Oh yeah, wasn't he?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
like fucking a queen or something.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
There was rumors that he had an affair with Frederick
II's wife.
That was one of the prevailingrumors over the years, and I
mean that may be the mostfascinating thing about TC Brahe
is that is you know, imaginehe's Tony Stark, but for the
(22:44):
1500s Right, but for the 1500sright, but at the same time do
you know how much game you haveto have to seduce a queen when
you've got a metal nose, like ifit was?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
gold, like if it was gold probably not any at all he
was just like hey, check thisout yeah but she's still a queen
, though like a literal queen,it's 1500 people slept with like
if they had it.
They literally pissed and shatin a pot in their room.
I think you're giving.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I think you're giving the royals, the queen of
Denmark, I mean that's, that'spretty high.
I mean, if she, if she's caughtin this, you know they're both
dead, but I mean that's someserious riz, though I mean she
couldn't get enough.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
She couldn't get enough of him.
What I want to know is like,did he keep it on?
Like during like did she knowwhat he looked like without it?
Like were the?
Lights off, like what was thewhole?
Were the lights up?
What you mean?
Speaker 3 (23:54):
the fucking candles out.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
It's 15, whatever the fuck yeah, he's got like a, uh,
he's imagine tycho Brahe justhas Jep holding a torch over him
beside the bed.
If that torch lit Jep, I needto see the Queen's City.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Hold the fucking light over here.
I said right here Don't burnher ass.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
What are you doing?
Get it back.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I think you're working on an old, fucking
Oldsmobile.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Hold the fucking light right here.
I said Ten goddamn times.
I just don't understand thewhole setup there.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, well, you know I'd have to say you'd have to
keep the nose on.
I mean, that's got to be a bitof a turn off staring into
somebody's skull basically.
Yeah, turn off staring intosomebody's skull basically like,
yeah, wow, miss jeff's overthere.
Like I've got to get in.
I've got to get on linkedin andfind a new job you think you
got a shitty job.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Also, just be like that's.
He's gotta be careful.
He's like motorboating hurry.
Do not, because if he just likereads the wrong way instead of
like just going, it's just gonnago.
Yeah, it's make one of thosefart noises like like a
raspberry, like right in themiddle there.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
He'll go take a breath and he'll just go yeah,
oh God, yeah, like I mean that,and on top of it again he's like
a super genius.
I mean he's probably risen withthe tism as well.
I mean to be.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Did you say he's risen with the tism?
How, how.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Risen with the tism, just eatup with it.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, how's it going?
Your Highness, you like trains.
What's a train?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I don't know but I wish I did.
I'd watch them all day.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
All right, go ahead Again.
He's got this observatory andcastle on his private island and
part of that is he uses thesethings called brass quadrants.
Now imagine it's like a big,almost like a protractor that
we'd use today, like a quarterof a circle shaped piece of
equipment, but it's extremelylarge.
It's like almost the size of aroom.
And with this piece of thenconsidered technology, he was
(26:19):
able to precisely measure whereplanets and stars were with the
precision of like modern daycalculations.
Some of his calculations wereridiculously precise, like even
to today's standards, would beconsidered extremely precise,
(26:41):
and figure that OK, again, a lotof the universe is moving, it's
not just our planet, and it'sleaning toward the heliocentric
model of Copernicus more thananything else.
So he's figuring all of thisout and coming up with these
massive breakthroughs again, allwithout a nose.
(27:04):
Thank you, yes.
But, also also withouttelescopes which would come
around in the Galilean eras.
But so he ends up becoming acontemporary again with Johannes
Kepler, because he ends up sortof in a situation where he's
(27:27):
wearing out his welcome back inDenmark, so the Holy Roman
Emperor decides to send him toPrague, says you can be the
official imperial astronomer ofPrague.
And so he goes to Prague andthat's where he meets Johannes
Kepler and he and Kepler werekind of like frenemies in a way.
(27:50):
They did a lot of really goodresearch together and they did a
lot of good work.
But Kepler was very open tosharing his information with
Tycho Brahe.
Brahe did not do that withJohannes Kepler.
He hoarded almost all of hisresearch right.
So he keeps all of theinformation away and because of
(28:12):
that when he eventually diedthey say it advanced astronomy
even further, because they couldactually get to the information
that he left behind wherebefore he gatekept it.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Basically, right, what a fuckboy.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So at the end of his life.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
He was hoisted by his own petard.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, hoisted by his own petard.
Damn guy, you can't use thatword anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
It's not right Stop.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So toward the end of his life he actually dies of a
burst of bladder, and the reasonis the stupidest reason of all
right?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Well, it's like the stupidest way to die.
So, yeah, it better be a stupidreason.
Well, it's a little stupiderthan that.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So, 1601, he's at a royal banquet and he has to go
to the bathroom because he'sdrank like a fiend, like he
usually does, but because ofkeeping up appearances and, you
know, saving face and all thatjazz, he doesn't go.
What's left?
Speaker 1 (29:13):
of it yeah, saving face.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
That's why he's got to save it, yeah, so so he's, he
won't go to the bathroombecause he felt like getting up
and leaving even just enough togo to the bathroom would be
considered rude.
So because of that, he ends upgetting the bladder infection
and his bladder ruptures and hedies Again the stupidest way to
(29:38):
die out of pride.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
That's such a gangster life.
That's how you get it.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, that's how you go out.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Should have known, shoulda fucking known.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But in recent years they've exhumed Tycho Brahe and
it turns out that they found alot of mercury in his remains.
Oh yeah, so they think that hewas actually poisoned by either
(30:11):
the, the new king, who, afterFrederick II died, his son took
over and he was like, hey, Ithink this guy's stupid.
My mom, so I stupid.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
So I think I'm going to you know.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I think I'm going to kill him, but I'm going to keep
it secret.
So it was either him or somepeople even believe Johannes
Kepler poisoned him with mercuryjust to get him out of the way,
so he could get to his damnnotes, right.
So, either way, it is nowbelieved that he was killed from
(30:46):
mercury poison.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Huh, did they know mercury was poisonous back then?
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Still a lot of mystery shroudedin the way they died, as
opposed to what they originallythought, with just the bladder
bursting on its own.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
But remember, it's not how you die, it's how you
lived, how you'll be remembered.
Yeah, owning mooses and midgets.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Owning mooses or chuck themselves down the stairs
drunkenly, having psychicdwarves running around the place
.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So I did a deep dive not too long it's been a few
months ago because I wasthinking about this whole thing
and no one really knows whathappened to jeff.
I was curious, I was like well,and so I I think what?
What I read was that theybelieve that he fled his
(31:38):
captivity and pretty much servedthe rest of his life in like
traveling shows, or he just fellinto the confinement of, you
know, someone else but, no oneknows what happened to jeb man,
poor jeb, he might still berunning around in his days.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah, I told you, we now know him as peter dinklage,
yeah but yeah, hell of a story,great life.
I mean again, how do we notlike have entire series based
around this guy, this?
Pretty sure I know why he wasbatshit insane, yeah, but so
cool doing it, though I meanlike he was interesting, right,
(32:20):
like most interesting guy in the1500s most interesting, that's
who you should have had.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
for fucking Dos Equis , you should have had this guy.
I don't always drink beerbecause my moose drinks it all
on me.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Just pay him in Dos Equis.
He'd be like all right, you gotenough for a moose, Because I
got another one.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I got a moose load.
That's a weird unit ofmeasurement.
You have no idea.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's accurate.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
That's a weird intervention.
I need a moose load for myloaded moose is what I need it
for.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah, I said for this .
What's this?
Hey Rocky, watch me pull arabbit out of my hat.
Hey Rocky, watch me pull arabbit out of my hat.
It's a flask.
Oops, wrong hat.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
It's a flask oh.
Wrong hat.
Yes, it's a flask oh.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
God, I'm just an embolic doing fucking keg stands
now.
Oh, that trick never works.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, I think we're just about at time, so we're
going to wrap this up.
Thank you so much, scott, forcoming to our little corner of
the Internet and sharing thisstory of Tycho Brahe, the
weirdest man I've ever readabout.
Thank you so much for listeningto Black Curtain Club We've
really enjoyed having Scott here.
(33:44):
Curtain Club We've reallyenjoyed having Scott here.
Please make sure that, if youare enjoying this podcast, that
you leave us ratings and find uson social media.
Thanks again and we'll see younext week.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Going down another rabbit hole.
That's how I found out thatGeorge Washington actually died.
He was outside, caught a sorethroat, and the doctor's
literally like, okay, well, weneed to bleed him out and get
the bad blood out of him, and itkilled him.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Oh, the way you paused there it was was like.
This is how I found out georgewashington died.
Well, I wanted to say, like Iknow you have a big brain, but
if you're just now finding outgeorge washington was dead what
and made a memorial to him Ithink you need to give your
Mensa card back.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
No, when George Washington died it was because
he had a sore throat and it waslike OK, well, let's get all the
blood out of you.
And I was like, no, that's likethe exact opposite of what you
need to do.
And, sure enough, three dayslater he's dead.
Also fun fact about GeorgeWashington he was terrified of
(35:09):
being buried alive.
So he in his will said you'llleave me out for three days to
make sure I'm dead before you doanything to me yeah, he's
another one for history that weall just kind of sweep a lot of
his shit under the rug like thisguy, we just sweep all of them
under the rug, but we sweep alot of shit about like
washington has got to be theclosest thing we had to our own
dispute, and like Like that manwas off the fucking rails.
Yeah, he's wearing otherpeople's teeth in his mouth.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, just insane stuff about Washington.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Wasn't like the top jaw, like all the ones in his
top teeth were like horse teethalso.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Something like that Allegedly Giant teeth.
Yeah, he definitely had just afucked up grill.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
But at least he had a nose.
But he did have a nose.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, he had a nose.
He had a prominent schnoz there.
You can see it on all thedollar bills.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
And the quotas.
Don't forget the quarters.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Oh God.
Okay, Let me do a little outro,and then I'll stop this
recording.
Didn't the moose have a penchant for whiskey or
drinking?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, he used to get into Tycho Brahe's beer.
He really had a taste for beer,the moose was a drunk.
The moose was a drunk and dranka lot.
The moose is loose To the pointwhere, one day, one fateful day
, he drank too much beer, gotdrunk, fell down the stairs and
(00:25):
died, and that was how the moosemet its end.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Okay, that's a tragedy, but one.
Okay.
There's two things we need toat least start with here.
How big was this flight offucking stairs that the moose
falls on Because?
It's a massive staircase, one,two.
Can you imagine the fuckingnoise that made Moose falling
(00:51):
down the fucking stairs?
Dude, I've heard a cat at twoo'clock in the morning like fall
off the counter and it soundslike the goddamn house exploded.
A fucking moose falling downthe stairs, christ.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Before we begin today's episode, we would like
to share a quick disclaimer.
The views, opinions andstatements expressed by the
hosts and guests on this podcastare their own personal views
and are provided in their owncapacity.
All content is editorial,opinion-based and intended for
entertainment purposes only.
(01:40):
Listener discretion is advised.
Welcome back to the BlackCurtain Club.
I'm Angie and tonight we'rediving into the wild and weird
world of Tycho Brahe, who is abrilliant astronomer with a
flair for the dramatic, a metalnose and some really really
strange habits.
(02:01):
So joining tonight is a goodfriend of mine and I will say,
west Virginia trivia champion,scott Barber.
Scott, how are you?
Do you want to introduceyourself?
Say a few words.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Sure, yeah Again.
Scott Barber.
I'm also a native WestVirginian, like Angie, is.
She and I have known each othersince we'll say a long time.
Yeah.
Just some of the things thatI'm known for is I'm a bit of a
trivia geek.
I know a lot of.
I'm not a good trivia player,but I know a lot of people who
(02:33):
are really good trivia players.
So I get to hang around thosepeople and kind of ride their
coattails onto bigger and bettersuccesses and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Didn't you just say you were like the number one
trivia person in your state?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, I've been on like team trivia.
Yeah, I have just won my eighthteam trivia state title a
couple weekends ago.
But again, team is the keythere.
So I just basically just sitaround and nod and say, yeah, it
sounds like a good answerwhenever someone actually puts
the right answer out there andthen on we go.
(03:09):
And then I get to say at theend, oh yeah, I won a bunch of
stuff when actually not so muchFair Same.
But I like writing triviaquestions.
So I've written a few triviaquestions professionally.
I wrote for a couple of boardgames that have been published
(03:31):
and just, yeah, big trivia geekand like going down rabbit holes
on various topics, kind of likethe one we're going to be
talking about today.
Thank you both for having me on.
I really appreciate the inviteand super, super excited to be
here.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'm happy to have you here tonight too, because, I
mean, this has been like I don'teven know how many years, but I
remember you taking me downthis rabbit hole of Tycho Brahe
and I have never forgotten thisguy, ever since, like it was two
(04:09):
hours of absolute mayhem of aconversation about this guy.
So, and I know, kyle, you are afan of history as well and
you've done a little bit of arabbit hole on him.
So let's just take it and tellme the story of Tycho Scott.
I'll let you open it up, sure.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, no again.
This is one of those storiesthat we've talked about in the
past and it's just one of thosefigures in history that I don't
understand how he's not morepopular, given that there's so
much lore about him historically, and I don't know how someone
with such an interesting pasthasn't become a household name
(04:56):
even today, but nevertheless so.
Tycho Brahe also called TychoTycho Brahe or Bra, but I like
to call him Tycho Brahe,whatever, but just an
interesting guy, because he wasa Danish astronomer who was
(05:17):
influential to Galileo, was acontemporary to Johannes Kepler,
galileo was a contemporary toJohannes Kepler.
And I mean, these are namesthat we know, but we don't know
Tycho Brahe.
And again, puzzles me as to why, but it started out in 1546.
Picture it Denmark 1546.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So Denmark 1546.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So 1546, tycho Brahe is born to a pair of Danish
nobles, and around the age oftwo, his life even starts out
interesting because he's twoyears old and his uncle just
decides oh, I never had a maleheir and I really want one, so I
(06:08):
think I'm just going to gokidnap my nephew and raise him
as my son.
And he does Jesus.
Classic, classic, yeah, I mean,yeah, tale as old as time.
So Tycho Brahe's uncleliterally kidnaps him and raises
him his own, and the craziestpart about that story is that
his parents were like oh my God,our son.
His uncle just kidnapped himand took him away.
(06:30):
And then we're just kind oflike you know what?
It's probably for the best,that's okay, and he'll be, he'll
have a good list there, it'llbe all right.
They didn't really pursue him.
They just like, ah, he'll beokay there, he'll be treated
well there with the what do youexpect?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's 1500s, denmark, shit happens.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Crazy Danish uncle's just going to be like, yeah,
okay, that's, that's cool, butyeah it's.
Yeah, jorgen Brahe was theuncle's name.
Who yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Jorgen, oh my.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
God, yeah, jorgen Brahe.
I mean, these are straight outof central casting with these
names, right, jorgen Brahe,tycho Brahe, but yeah, so the
one kicker about Jorgen is isJorgen actually had a lot of
(07:25):
money, so extremely wealthyperson, and he ends up paying
for all of Tycho's schooling andwhatnot and his uncle father
whatever you want to call himJorgen.
So uncle dad says, hey, let'smaybe lean into the law or
something, and over time hereally want to study astronomy
(07:48):
Again, very new science.
This is before the telescopehad even been invented yet.
But he was interested inastronomy and that's kind of the
way he went.
So he was very good at naturalsciences, mathematics.
These are things that reallyinterested him.
Fucking nerd, yeah, exactlyRight, we don't like nerds.
(08:10):
What's wrong?
What's what's?
What's going on with these?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
nerds Every family has a weird one.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Hey, and if they don't, it's you.
I hate to break it to you.
Yeah, so whenever he went toschool around age 20, he gets
into an argument with one of hisclassmates, and over of all
things, math oh, an argumentover which one was right at math
(08:36):
.
So they decided to settle itthe way that most people settle
math debates with a duel Soundsabout right.
That's right settle mathdebates with a duel.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Sounds about right.
Yeah, right, because that'swhat she did.
It is mathematic, because yougot to count the steps and then
you got to do the angles and thetrajectory and triangles and
shit.
There's math in it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's all the geometry .
It's right there.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
But so they decide to have a sword duel to battle
this thing out because it gotthat serious.
And in the process of the duel,tycho Brahe ends up losing the
duel.
But not only losing the duelhis opponent literally cut his
nose off of his face.
Exactly Right.
(09:17):
No more nose, right.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Got your nose that joke was invented.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Got your nose, got your nose.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
So, for the rest of his life.
Again, he had means because ofUncle Father's money Uncle
Father's money but because ofthat he was able to craft
prosthetic noses out of silverand gold and brass and whatnot.
And so he'd just wear like ametal nose on his face as a
(10:00):
prosthetic.
And they said that wheneverhe'd like get angry at people
he'd take his nose off his face,clean the snot out of it and
throw it at people, just kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well, you know what Good for him.
At least he cleaned the snotout of it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Good for him.
You know what that's classChucking it.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I bet you know it might be a little far, but Is
that where the term snot nosebrat came out of?
Maybe?
Yeah, that's exactly right, yousnot nose tycho, so so yeah, so
imagine and imagine this islike.
Again, this isn't current times, this is in the 15 and 60s,
right?
Imagine how bad a prostheticnose has to fit like a
(10:42):
prosthetic nose wouldn't worktoday.
Think of how bad a prostheticnose would be in like 1566, oh
and metal and stuck to your faceoh yeah, that's just all of
it's terrible, right, it's justyeah, yeah all of it's bad.
There's none of this, none of us.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You can't sell this.
There's no good here, right.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Right, there's nothing good there, right.
But one thing he did have goingfor again, jorgen the uncle
father, that he had had a lot ofmoney.
And after his death, and afterhis actual father's death, tycho
Brahe inherited both of theirestates Right, both of their
(11:45):
estates Right.
And when I say that this guyhad money, I mean he had like
richy rich money.
He had like Bruce Wayne money.
He had.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
It was estimated that his entire net worth after both
of these inheritances came inwas equal to 1% of all of the
money in all of Denmark.
So Jesus yeah, money.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, money, right.
I mean you lose your nose, butyou have 1% of the country's
economy in your back pocket.
I don't know if that's still agood trade, but the money does
help, right.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
If I had the equivalent to 1% of the US's
money.
Yeah, fuck the nose, you canhave my nose.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I'd at least consider it.
It's one of those where I'd belike maybe you know I'm at least
hearing you out.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
At the bare minimum I'm hearing you out.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
A hundred percent, right.
But one of the ways that Jorgenwas able to get some of his
money is because he was close tothe king of Denmark, frederick
II's life when he saved him fromdrowning but ends up dying in
the process because he catchespneumonia and dies.
(12:50):
So even though he lost UncleFather Jorgen and his real
father passed too, he still hastight ties to the royal family,
right, yeah?
So he ends up going intoastronomy and because of his
skill being able to navigate thestars and figure out things
(13:15):
that had never been understoodbefore, he sort of becomes a
real popular figure in Denmark.
Discovered a supernova this wasin 1572.
He discovers a supernova andwith his studies of the
supernova he's able to tearapart Aristotle's unchanging
(13:36):
cosmos theory.
So where Aristotle thought thatthe sky was a fixed sky, he was
able to say, okay, no, actuallythere's something going on here
.
We're spinning, yes, but theentire solar system is spinning,
all of space.
It's not a set sky as wepreviously thought, and his
studies with the supernova wasable to prove that.
(14:01):
So he's kind of like a rockstar when it comes to astronomy
in these times.
So a lot of different countrieswere offering to bring him into
their country to studyastronomy, teach astronomy, do
the work for them instead ofother areas.
But King of Denmark, again,close ties the Isle of Wien,
(14:23):
right, and there is where hebuilt a castle and an
observatory.
Urenburg is the name of thecastle that he built.
Builds that in around 1576.
(14:44):
And that is where he prettymuch started the idea of work
hard, play hard, right, becauseeven though he was doing a lot
of really heady stuff, he wasalso, you know, kind of a maniac
.
He would have these elaboratecrazy parties.
(15:07):
He was known for elaboratedrinking and one of the things
that was a little unusual abouthim is he had a pet moose that
he kept in the castle Right,like not a dog, not a badger, a
moose Right.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Moose are not small.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
No, they're not small .
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Moose are not small.
For those of you who don't know, mooses is big as shit.
It's huge.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And they're not sweet animals, they're fucking
asshole.
Yeah, yeah, they're not.
They're fucking assholes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But this thing would be at all of the parties that
Tycho Brahe would throw andeverybody's just like oh okay,
there's the moose.
I just knew he had a moose inthe castle Right.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Didn't the moose have a penchant for whiskey or
drinking or something?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yep, you're leading me right down to my next point.
Yeah, he used to get into TychoBrahe's beer.
He really he had a taste forbeer.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
The moose was a drunk the moose was a drunk and drank
a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
The moose is loose To the point where, one day one
fateful day he drank too muchbeer.
Beer got drunk, fell down thestairs and died, and that was
that was how the moose met hisend.
Okay, that's a tragedy, but one.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Okay.
There's two things we need toat least start with here.
How big was this flight offucking stairs that the moose
falls down, because, like myparents house is 13 stairs, and
like the flight of moose isfucking clearing that, it's like
what?
Just a little trip in that.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
But just this giant tumble.
Keep in mind, exactly so likethat's a massive staircase, one,
two.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Can you imagine the fucking noise that made?
Falling down the fucking stairs, dude?
I've heard a cat at two o'clockin the morning like fall off
the counter and it sounds likethe goddamn house exploded.
A fucking moose falling downthe stairs.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Christ, I want to know if he ate him.
That's the thing I was alwayscurious about.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I'd be shocked if he didn't Be like.
You know what I want to know ifhe ate him.
That's the thing I was alwayscurious about.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I'd be shocked if he didn't.
I'd be like you know what Ihate to see him go, but I hate
to put the good meat to waste.
You know, it's not like I canrun down to the local Kroger and
pick up a couple of ribeyes.
I've got a big ass moose herethat I can just take probably
about 500 pounds of meat off of.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, it was already marinated in beer.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, it had a beer brine in it.
You know what Exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
He took them outside to the spit and tenderized.
They had tenderized.
They had, and thus this man wasa trendsetter too.
Beer-canned chicken he had.
Beer can mousse.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Exactly Delicious, but yeah so.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
I got choked on that one Beer can mousse, sorry, All
right, go ahead proceed.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
No, just I mean again , uh, taiko brahe, massive
partier and another eccentricity.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
We'll call it uh that he is this where you're gonna
talk about jeff?
Speaker 2 (18:40):
yeah, this is exactly where I'm gonna talk about,
jeff, okay yeah yeah, yeah t Jepis my favorite.
Tico Brahe had a companionnamed Jep that lived with him in
the castle, and Jep You'rebeing very liberal and nice by
saying companion.
Well, I'm explaining, I'mexplaining the companion.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Okay, so Jep's companion, or sorry, tico bryce
companion jip was a dwarf jesteryeah, jester, of course yeah,
of course, because the man whoowns a moose that he would get
drunk with fucking natty ice.
Why wouldn't he have a midgetjester?
Yeah, exactly a descendant ofbrad williams, I believe.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
So yeah, so he keeps this jester around for exactly A
descendant of Brad Williams, Ibelieve.
Yeah, so he keeps this jesteraround for the jokes and tricks
and stuff.
He made him sit under the tableduring meals.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So, just stand there.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Just to hang out, I think.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Just as a gag Just stand there.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, but the coolest thing about Jeb is Tico Brahe
honestly, like in his bones,thought that he was a psychic
and had precognitive abilities.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
He thought he was or Jeb was.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
He thought Jeb had psychic and precognitive
abilities.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
That's fucking awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, he thought he had a psychic jester dwarf named
Jep that just lived with him,right?
I mean, imagine like.
I just imagine, like RicardoMontalban and Tattoo, you know,
with the matching suits, theseguys.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
The moose.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
The moose, boss the moose.
The moose boss, the moose, themoose boss, the moose, the moose
boss, the moose.
He fall the floor, he gone.
The moose he fly, he fall themoose, he dead.
Imagine if he made, imagine ifhe made jeff try to carry the
moose out after he was like thisman, oh hey, hey, jeff, clean
(20:54):
up on all four, buddy.
How about we, how about we getthis moose out of here?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
this man has no nose.
It's gold.
He would clean it out and throwit at people.
He owned, arguably, one of thelargest land animals and the
smallest version of a human.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
It's great.
And the thing is, no one toldJep that he was just a companion
, because I'm pretty sure Jepfrom Jep's point of view he was
a captive prisoner.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
He was like I'm a slave to this guy.
He just kidnapped him.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
He goes like why are you taking me?
Listen, my uncle, father,brother did this.
You'll be okay.
Look at me, I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I have all the money, kid.
Do you not know that I couldbuy like a thousand of you guys?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Oh God yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So so, jep, yeah, the the again I'm.
I just have this mental imageof him trying to carry the moose
out, kind of like the uh uhdwarf in Bad Santa trying to
pick Billy Bob Thornton up afterhe's drunk, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, okay, so if memory serves me, he also was
quite a ladies' man.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Oh yeah, wasn't he?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
like fucking a queen or something.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
There was rumors that he had an affair with Frederick
II's wife.
That was one of the prevailingrumors over the years, and I
mean that may be the mostfascinating thing about TC Brahe
is that is you know, imaginehe's Tony Stark, but for the
(22:44):
1500s Right, but for the 1500sright, but at the same time do
you know how much game you haveto have to seduce a queen when
you've got a metal nose, like ifit was?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
gold, like if it was gold probably not any at all he
was just like hey, check thisout yeah but she's still a queen
, though like a literal queen,it's 1500 people slept with like
if they had it.
They literally pissed and shatin a pot in their room.
I think you're giving.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I think you're giving the royals, the queen of
Denmark, I mean that's, that'spretty high.
I mean, if she, if she's caughtin this, you know they're both
dead, but I mean that's someserious riz, though I mean she
couldn't get enough.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
She couldn't get enough of him.
What I want to know is like,did he keep it on?
Like during like did she knowwhat he looked like without it?
Like were the?
Lights off, like what was thewhole?
Were the lights up?
What you mean?
Speaker 3 (23:54):
the fucking candles out.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
It's 15, whatever the fuck yeah, he's got like a, uh,
he's imagine tycho Brahe justhas Jep holding a torch over him
beside the bed.
If that torch lit Jep, I needto see the Queen's City.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Hold the fucking light over here.
I said right here Don't burnher ass.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
What are you doing?
Get it back.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I think you're working on an old, fucking
Oldsmobile.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Hold the fucking light right here.
I said Ten goddamn times.
I just don't understand thewhole setup there.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, well, you know I'd have to say you'd have to
keep the nose on.
I mean, that's got to be a bitof a turn off staring into
somebody's skull basically.
Yeah, turn off staring intosomebody's skull basically like,
yeah, wow, miss jeff's overthere.
Like I've got to get in.
I've got to get on linkedin andfind a new job you think you
got a shitty job.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Also, just be like that's.
He's gotta be careful.
He's like motorboating hurry.
Do not, because if he just likereads the wrong way instead of
like just going, it's just gonnago.
Yeah, it's make one of thosefart noises like like a
raspberry, like right in themiddle there.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
He'll go take a breath and he'll just go yeah,
oh God, yeah, like I mean that,and on top of it again he's like
a super genius.
I mean he's probably risen withthe tism as well.
I mean to be.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Did you say he's risen with the tism?
How, how.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Risen with the tism, just eatup with it.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, how's it going?
Your Highness, you like trains.
What's a train?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I don't know but I wish I did.
I'd watch them all day.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
All right, go ahead Again.
He's got this observatory andcastle on his private island and
part of that is he uses thesethings called brass quadrants.
Now imagine it's like a big,almost like a protractor that
we'd use today, like a quarterof a circle shaped piece of
equipment, but it's extremelylarge.
It's like almost the size of aroom.
And with this piece of thenconsidered technology, he was
(26:19):
able to precisely measure whereplanets and stars were with the
precision of like modern daycalculations.
Some of his calculations wereridiculously precise, like even
to today's standards, would beconsidered extremely precise,
(26:41):
and figure that OK, again, a lotof the universe is moving, it's
not just our planet, and it'sleaning toward the heliocentric
model of Copernicus more thananything else.
So he's figuring all of thisout and coming up with these
massive breakthroughs again, allwithout a nose.
(27:04):
Thank you, yes.
But, also also withouttelescopes which would come
around in the Galilean eras.
But so he ends up becoming acontemporary again with Johannes
Kepler, because he ends up sortof in a situation where he's
(27:27):
wearing out his welcome back inDenmark, so the Holy Roman
Emperor decides to send him toPrague, says you can be the
official imperial astronomer ofPrague.
And so he goes to Prague andthat's where he meets Johannes
Kepler and he and Kepler werekind of like frenemies in a way.
(27:50):
They did a lot of really goodresearch together and they did a
lot of good work.
But Kepler was very open tosharing his information with
Tycho Brahe.
Brahe did not do that withJohannes Kepler.
He hoarded almost all of hisresearch right.
So he keeps all of theinformation away and because of
(28:12):
that when he eventually diedthey say it advanced astronomy
even further, because they couldactually get to the information
that he left behind wherebefore he gatekept it.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Basically, right, what a fuckboy.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So at the end of his life.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
He was hoisted by his own petard.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, hoisted by his own petard.
Damn guy, you can't use thatword anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
It's not right Stop.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So toward the end of his life he actually dies of a
burst of bladder, and the reasonis the stupidest reason of all
right?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Well, it's like the stupidest way to die.
So, yeah, it better be a stupidreason.
Well, it's a little stupiderthan that.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So, 1601, he's at a royal banquet and he has to go
to the bathroom because he'sdrank like a fiend, like he
usually does, but because ofkeeping up appearances and, you
know, saving face and all thatjazz, he doesn't go.
What's left?
Speaker 1 (29:13):
of it yeah, saving face.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
That's why he's got to save it, yeah, so so he's, he
won't go to the bathroombecause he felt like getting up
and leaving even just enough togo to the bathroom would be
considered rude.
So because of that, he ends upgetting the bladder infection
and his bladder ruptures and hedies Again the stupidest way to
(29:38):
die out of pride.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
That's such a gangster life.
That's how you get it.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, that's how you go out.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Should have known, shoulda fucking known.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But in recent years they've exhumed Tycho Brahe and
it turns out that they found alot of mercury in his remains.
Oh yeah, so they think that hewas actually poisoned by either
(30:11):
the, the new king, who, afterFrederick II died, his son took
over and he was like, hey, Ithink this guy's stupid.
My mom, so I stupid.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
So I think I'm going to you know.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I think I'm going to kill him, but I'm going to keep
it secret.
So it was either him or somepeople even believe Johannes
Kepler poisoned him with mercuryjust to get him out of the way,
so he could get to his damnnotes, right.
So, either way, it is nowbelieved that he was killed from
(30:46):
mercury poison.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Huh, did they know mercury was poisonous back then?
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Still a lot of mystery shroudedin the way they died, as
opposed to what they originallythought, with just the bladder
bursting on its own.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
But remember, it's not how you die, it's how you
lived, how you'll be remembered.
Yeah, owning mooses and midgets.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Owning mooses or chuck themselves down the stairs
drunkenly, having psychicdwarves running around the place
.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So I did a deep dive not too long it's been a few
months ago because I wasthinking about this whole thing
and no one really knows whathappened to jeff.
I was curious, I was like well,and so I I think what?
What I read was that theybelieve that he fled his
(31:38):
captivity and pretty much servedthe rest of his life in like
traveling shows, or he just fellinto the confinement of, you
know, someone else but, no oneknows what happened to jeb man,
poor jeb, he might still berunning around in his days.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah, I told you, we now know him as peter dinklage,
yeah but yeah, hell of a story,great life.
I mean again, how do we notlike have entire series based
around this guy, this?
Pretty sure I know why he wasbatshit insane, yeah, but so
cool doing it, though I meanlike he was interesting, right,
(32:20):
like most interesting guy in the1500s most interesting, that's
who you should have had.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
for fucking Dos Equis , you should have had this guy.
I don't always drink beerbecause my moose drinks it all
on me.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Just pay him in Dos Equis.
He'd be like all right, you gotenough for a moose, Because I
got another one.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I got a moose load.
That's a weird unit ofmeasurement.
You have no idea.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's accurate.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
That's a weird intervention.
I need a moose load for myloaded moose is what I need it
for.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah, I said for this .
What's this?
Hey Rocky, watch me pull arabbit out of my hat.
Hey Rocky, watch me pull arabbit out of my hat.
It's a flask.
Oops, wrong hat.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
It's a flask oh.
Wrong hat.
Yes, it's a flask oh.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
God, I'm just an embolic doing fucking keg stands
now.
Oh, that trick never works.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, I think we're just about at time, so we're
going to wrap this up.
Thank you so much, scott, forcoming to our little corner of
the Internet and sharing thisstory of Tycho Brahe, the
weirdest man I've ever readabout.
Thank you so much for listeningto Black Curtain Club We've
really enjoyed having Scott here.
(33:44):
Curtain Club We've reallyenjoyed having Scott here.
Please make sure that, if youare enjoying this podcast, that
you leave us ratings and find uson social media.
Thanks again and we'll see younext week.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Going down another rabbit hole.
That's how I found out thatGeorge Washington actually died.
He was outside, caught a sorethroat, and the doctor's
literally like, okay, well, weneed to bleed him out and get
the bad blood out of him, and itkilled him.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Oh, the way you paused there it was was like.
This is how I found out georgewashington died.
Well, I wanted to say, like Iknow you have a big brain, but
if you're just now finding outgeorge washington was dead what
and made a memorial to him Ithink you need to give your
Mensa card back.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
No, when George Washington died it was because
he had a sore throat and it waslike OK, well, let's get all the
blood out of you.
And I was like, no, that's likethe exact opposite of what you
need to do.
And, sure enough, three dayslater he's dead.
Also fun fact about GeorgeWashington he was terrified of
(35:09):
being buried alive.
So he in his will said you'llleave me out for three days to
make sure I'm dead before you doanything to me yeah, he's
another one for history that weall just kind of sweep a lot of
his shit under the rug like thisguy, we just sweep all of them
under the rug, but we sweep alot of shit about like
washington has got to be theclosest thing we had to our own
dispute, and like Like that manwas off the fucking rails.
Yeah, he's wearing otherpeople's teeth in his mouth.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, just insane stuff about Washington.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Wasn't like the top jaw, like all the ones in his
top teeth were like horse teethalso.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Something like that Allegedly Giant teeth.
Yeah, he definitely had just afucked up grill.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
But at least he had a nose.
But he did have a nose.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, he had a nose.
He had a prominent schnoz there.
You can see it on all thedollar bills.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
And the quotas.
Don't forget the quarters.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Oh God.
Okay, Let me do a little outro,and then I'll stop this
recording.
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