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Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities,

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a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and

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Mild. Our

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world is full of the unexplainable,

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and if history is an open book, all

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of these amazing tales right

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there on display, just waiting

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for us to explore. Welcome

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to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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Everyone believes that their kids are

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special, but in August of eighteen

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forty six, a couple in Nova Scotia,

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Canada, had a truly extraordinary baby.

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Her name was Anna Heining Swan,

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and she was born weighing sixteen pounds.

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To put that in perspective, the average newborn

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weighs about seven pounds. Anna

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Swan was huge, and it seems

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like she would never stop growing. By

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the time when she was six years old, Anna was taller

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than her mom. At eleven, she towered

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over her dad too. She finally

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topped out at seventeen years old, by

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which point she stood at a whopping seven

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feet eleven inches tall and weighed

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over four hundred pounds. As

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you might imagine being nearly eight feet tall,

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post some logistical problems, especially

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in the eighteen hundreds, the world just wasn't

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built to accommodate a person of Anna's size.

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It was hard for her to get around, hard to

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make friends, and practically impossible

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to get a job. That is until

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she crossed paths with the famous circus master

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P. T. Barnum. When Barnum

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saw Anna, he saw dollar signs.

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She was exactly the kind of curiosity

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that people would pay money to see. And if

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that sounds a little dehumanizing, well

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it was, but it was also an opportunity

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that Anna couldn't pass up. At seventeen

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years old, she moved from Canada to New

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York, where she became a side show at Barnum

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and Bailey's Museum. Five years later,

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P. T. Barnum invited Anna on a nation

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War circus tour. Anna probably

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had an inkling that traveling in the United States would

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change her life, but she didn't realize

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just how much. While performing

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in Kentucky in eighteen sixty eight, twenty

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two year old Anna met a man. His

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name was Martin Van Buren Bates, a

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Southerner through and through. He'd been a Confederate

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captain in the Civil War, and he prided himself

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on his chivalry, and Anna was smitten.

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It didn't hurt that Martin was seven feet

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nine inches tall. The towering

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pair hit it off. Before long, they were both

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traveling with the circus, making a good living,

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and seeing the nation together. Less

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than a year after they met, they took a trip

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to London where they got married, officially

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earning them the Guinness World Record for the

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tallest married couple in history. Their

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nuptials made the news, of course, and

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the couple skyrocketed to international

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fame. Queen Victoria herself sent

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Anna and Martin a pair of watches made

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out of diamonds and gold. In

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eighteen seventy one, the newly minted

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Bates couple moved to the small town of Seville,

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Ohio, where Martin set to work

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building a house. Everything had to be

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scaled up from the average right. Their

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ceilings were fourteen feet tall and each

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doorway measured at least eight feet high.

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Their countertops had to be raised, their chairs

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had to be extra large and extra

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strong. It was a massive amount

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of work, but when it was all said and done,

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Anna, who had never really fit anywhere,

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finally had a place that fit her. But

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as beautiful as their love story was, the

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Baits faced more than their fair share of tragedy.

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Anna soon became pregnant and gave birth

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to a girl who weighed eighteen pounds.

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That's two more than Anna herself weighed

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as a newborn. Sadly, the baby died

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almost immediately. The

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following year, Anna gave birth to a second child,

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a boy they called Babe. Babe was

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twenty eight inches long and weighed twenty

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two pounds. In Martin's own words,

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he looked at birth like an ordinary

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child of six months. This

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made Babe baits the largest newborn

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in recorded history, but just like his he

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didn't live long. Babe died just eleven

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hours after he was born. Anna

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and Martin never had any more children after

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that. They continued to tour with the circus

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until eighteen eighty eight, when Anna passed

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away at forty one years old. She left

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behind a legacy of truly gargantuan

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proportions, with world records for both her

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marriage and her son that haven't been surpassed

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in one hundred and fifty years. Martin,

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of course, was devastated to lose the woman who

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had taken up such a big space in his heart

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and his life. He had a statue custom

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made to put atop Anna's grave, It

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showed his wife as he saw her, a fifteen

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foot tall Greek goddess.

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These days, life sized replicas

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of Anna and Martin are on display at the

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Seville, Ohio Historical Society. You

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can stand right next to the curious couple,

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although if you want to see their faces,

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you're gonna have to look up pretty far.

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In the course of human history, the line between

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science and magic has almost always been

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blurred. Take alchemy, for example,

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Aristotle wanted to turn lead into gold.

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Nicholas Flamel, who was a real person,

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by the way, sought the Philosopher's

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Stone. These were learned men who

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indulged what we might consider to be silly

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fantasies. But ancient alchemy

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wasn't a total wash. In fact, the idea

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that one element can be transmuted into

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another is central to our understanding

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of modern chemistry. You see, things

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are usually only ever considered magical until

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we understand how they work. That's why history

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is full of scientists turned spiritualists

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who explore both the physical and the metaphysical

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world. Among them are Marie Currie

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and her husband Pierre. In nineteen

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oh three of the Curies were awarded the Nobel Prize

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in physics for their work researching radioactivity.

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They were a scientific power couple. Marie

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was the first woman to earn a doctorate degree

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in France and Pierre was a professor

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of a prestigious university. But despite

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their achievements, they were quick to admit how

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much they did not know. In a joint

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statement from nineteen oh two, they said, and

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I quote, we know little about

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the medium that surrounds us, since

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our knowledge is limited to phenomena

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which can affect our senses directly

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or indirectly. In other words,

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Marie and Pierre left open the possibility

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that there were forces in the world beyond human

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perception, and for much of history,

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radioactivity was one of those forces.

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It was invisible, it was powerful,

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It was in a word, magical.

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But Marie and Pierre had harnessed that

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radioactive magic and begun to understand

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it. They wanted to learn even more about

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the world's unseen dimensions, which

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is why in nineteen oh five they attended

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a seance with a renowned Italian medium

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named Eusapia Palladino. Palladino's

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reputation preceded her. She was known

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as one of the best psychics in Europe,

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and she held seances with a number of scientists,

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including the French physicist and astronomer

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Camille Flammarion. Palladino

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claimed that she could summon spirits, make

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objects move without touching them,

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and directly communicate with the dead.

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Now, not everyone believed in Palladino's

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power. She'd actually been caught using

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her hands, feet, and even hidden

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strings to move supposedly haunted

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objects in the past. But nevertheless,

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when the self proclaimed psychic came to Paris,

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the curies were curious and

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true to form, they approached the seance scientifically.

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It wasn't the shadowy candlelight affair

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that you might expect. Instead, the lights were

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bright. That way, if Palladino tried to

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play any tricks, it would be easy to see.

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People held down her hands and feet, so

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she wouldn't be able to pull any secret strings.

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And even with these precautions, things

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inside the seance room got spooky.

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In a letter written to a friend, Pierre

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said that he saw and I quote, tables

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raised from all four legs, movement

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of object from a distance, hands

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that pinch or caress you, and luminous

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apparitions. The curies were

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so impressed by Palladino's abilities that

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they kept attending her seances. Despite

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their initial skepticism, they couldn't find any

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proof that the medium was faking it then,

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so Marie and Pierre became some

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of her biggest supporters. The following year,

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in nineteen oh six, Pierre wrote, these

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phenomena really exist, and it

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is no longer possible for me to doubt it.

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There is here, in my opinion, a whole

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domain of entirely new facts and physical

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states in space of which we have no

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conception. Thanks to Eusapia

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Palladino, the Nobel Prize winning

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physicists became entirely convinced

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that magic in some form was

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real. Just a few months after

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that, though, Pierre suffered a sudden and heartbreaking

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death. He was walking down a busy street

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in Paris when he slipped and fell, and

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a horse drawn carriage rolled over him,

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killing him instantly. In the wake of

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this horrible loss, Marie's grief seemed

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to amplify her spiritual beliefs.

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Shortly after Pierre's death, she wrote in her journal,

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then I quote, I put my head

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against the coffin and I spoke to you.

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I told you that I loved you, and that I had always

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loved you with all my heart. It seemed to me

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that from this cold contact of my forehead

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with the casket, something came to me, something

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like a calm and an intuition that

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I would yet find the courage to live. Maybe,

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Marie continued, this feeling of calm

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was energy coming from her late husband.

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She could feel his love emanating even

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from beyond the grave. It was the most

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beautiful kind of radiation, almost

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like magic. I

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hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of

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the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

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for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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more about the show by visiting Curiosities

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podcast dot com. The

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show was created by me Aaron Mankey

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in partnership with how Stuff Works. I

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make another award winning show so called

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Lore, which is a podcast, book

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series, and television show, and

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you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore

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dot com. And until next

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time, stay curious.