Today's tour through the Cabinet features some cool stories with some hot takes.
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim 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. Despite existing for hundreds of thousands of years, we humans have only scratched the surface of what we know about our planet. There remain lands that have gone untouched, depths that we have not reached, and mountains that we have not climbed. The Earth is still keeping secrets after all this time. But the more we explore and investigate, one thing becomes clear. There are places that humans we're not it to go, like Swalbard, located in the Arctic Ocean between Norway and the North Pole. Small Bard is an archipelago that was first discovered by Dutch explorer William Barrens back in fifteen ninety six. Barrens had set out in search of the Northern Sea Route, a shipping path through the Arctic waters that wasn't officially conquered until eighteen seventy eight, but he had high hopes. During his journey, he spotted Spitzbergen, the largest of SMaL Bard's islands, which made up over half of the archipelago. Nine years later, an English ship made contact with another island in the cluster, called Bornoja. It became a hot spot for walrus hunting. After several more years, Spitzbergen turned into a major whaling hub for the Dutch, the English, the Danish and the French. But getting too small Bard is no easy feat. Its climate is severe since it resides north of the Arctic Circle. In the summer, the sun remains visible at midnight, while the islands experienced almost permanent midnight during the winter. Say steep percent of s Balbard has covered in glacial ice. The remaining land is comprised of thirty rock and only ten percent vegetation. It is a hostile part of the world that has been responsible for hundreds, even thousands of deaths. Even the guy who discovered the place, William Barrens, was no exception. He had been on a return trip home when his ship got trapped near the archipelago. Barrens, as well as many of his crew, did not survive the winter, but that didn't stop whalers and walrus hunters from traveling to the islands. There was good money to be made and they felt that the risk was worth it. Over the next few hundred years, however, it was clear that the opposite had been true. Whalers had come in search of fortune but never left. Many, it was later revealed, had succumbed to scurvy, the result of a vitamin C deficiency. Ironically enough, whale meat is known to be high in vitamin C today, but the whalers didn't think it was edible at the time. A good number of men also lost their lives due to the extreme cold, hunger, and the occasional polar bear encounter. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The waters in that area of Smalbard had become a base of operations for whalers from all over Europe, and those of them who were unlucky enough to die there were buried in graves along the shores of Lichnesset on the northern coast of Spitzbergen. Now, thanks to the frigid temperatures and relatively low humidity, their bodies were well preserved these last three to four hundred years. Their nails and hair had remained intact, and many of the deceased had not decomposed at all. They looked like they had died only yesterday. Unfortunately, their eternal slumber along the coastal cliff side has been disturbed. In recent years, beginning in scientists have been keeping an eye on Smalbard due to the effects of climate change. You see, rising temperatures have shrunk the perma frost that once covered so much of the island and preserved the whalers bodies. Coffins have been exposed, and how teams of researchers are traveling to Smalbard to exhume the bodies and what they found is mind boggling. Many of the deceased were buried wearing hats, socks, even wigs, which have been well preserved all this time. Several of the coffins were lined with fabric, and quite a few corpses were wrapped in blankets for extra protection from the elements. Those who had dug the graves had struggled to reach the appropriate depths for burial, although they certainly did try to keep polar bears and other predators away. They covered the graves with rocks and stones. These seventeenth century whalers have been teaching the rest of the world what times were really like back then. Unfortunately, preservation teams don't have much longer to learn. Though. Not only has climate change eroded the grave sites, it has also sped up the rate of decay for the corpses themselves. And that's the side of climate change that often gets ignored. Not only is it putting our future in jeopardy, but it's also erasing our past. Life is full of hardships. From the time we're born, we are faced with all kinds of adversity. We may not be popular in school, or we might not make much money, and we might eventually trade in those bullies from school for bad bosses at work. But as the old adage says, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Although whoever came up with that saying might want to change it, because, as the British learned, when life freezes your river, throw a party. The River Thames measures two d fifteen miles long and runs from Shrewsbury Mead in Gloucestershire to the North Sea on England's southeastern coast. Throughout its history, the Thames has been everything from a maritime trade route to a massive sewer full of human waste. Its waters have been responsible for cholera outbreaks during the eighteen hundreds, as well as a stench so foul that Parliament was unable to carry out official business at the House of Commons. Unsurprisingly, London was the source of much of the river's pollution due to its population and changing urban landscape, and a good number of the buildings that affected the water supply had been built around the city's major crossing, London Bridge. There were no zoning laws during the seventeenth and eighteen centuries, people erected homes and shop fronts in close proximity to the bridge, and after some time those structures began to falter as pieces of brick and wood broke off into the Thames. The debris would form small islands that would get trapped in its arches and dam up the water flow. And as anyone who's ever had a pipe burst in the winter can attest, when water stops moving in cold weather it freezes. Large sheets of ice formed during the coldest months of the year, until eventually the whole river had frozen solid. This affected the transportation of goods in and out of the city, reducing the amount of food and supplies available for the people who lived there. But something strange happened. Once the Thames froze over, people started to enjoy it. They would step onto the ice and marvel at the wonder of a massive body of water that had turned into yet another road for them to walk on. Eventually, enterprising beer slingers and store owners took to the ice to set up shop. Literally, they erected tents and pop up outlets along the swath of the river where they sold everything from fruit to fish, even shoes. Bowling contests were held, and barbers set up chairs to handle shaves and haircuts. Pretty soon, the frozen Thames looked like any other busy London street. The Great Winter of sixteen eighty three and sixteen eighty four saw printers haul their presses onto the ice so that they could print up souvenir tickets for fair goers. Kids sat around and giggled at puppet shows, while folks went for sleigh rides around the fair. They were also less than wholesome events for discerning adults too. Unfortunately, the fun and merriments couldn't last forever. In seventeen thirty nine, the Frost Fair was cut short when a massive sheet of ice broke away and took numerous tents and attendees with it, and as time passed, the winters grew increasing the warmer. Eighteen fourteen marked the last Frost Fair the Thames ever saw, although nobody knew that at the time, that year saw one of the largest turnouts in fair history, with thousands of Londoners flocking to the Thames for five days of frivolity. They had everything to dancing, food vendors, booksellers, and even an elephant tramping across the ice. In eighteen thirty one, the existing London Bridge and its small archways were torn down to make way for a bridge with much wider arches. The new design meant that the river could flow more freely underneath it, and the additional salt content coming in from the sea increased the river's freezing point. Nearly thirty years later, any chance of the Thames freezing over again were dashed when the city introduced the greatest threat the river had ever seen. Indoor plumbing. Sewage from home toilets and factories now flowed straight into the Thames, and during the summer months, when the sun cooked everything in its path. The stench coming off the river was almost as bad enough to peel the paint and wilt the trees. Eventually, Parliament put forth a plan to fix the Thames and in turn eliminate the smell, but it was also the last nail in the coffin for any more frost fares going forward. Today, climate change is thawing out parts of the world that had once been covered in ice. Storms are getting worse, Coastal areas are being consumed by the ocean, and bodies of water are drying up. But four years ago, when winters were cold enough to freeze the seas around England, Londoners wouldn't let the weather get them down. They simply walked out onto the Thames, poured themselves a steaming cup of cider, and partied like it was I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious, Yeah,