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Welcome to Aaron Menke'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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For a certain part of the population, nothing

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says childhood nostalgia like Saturday

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Morning cartoons. Most of us

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have fond memories of pouring a big bowl

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of cereal, sitting in front of the TV,

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and watching our favorite shows. For many

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kids of the early sixties, that Saturday

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morning ritual was centered around a flying

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squirrel and his moose. Best friend.

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Rocky and Bullwinkle was a cartoon created

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by Ward that chronicled the exploits

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of Rocky, a flying squirrel, and

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the moronic moose Bullwinkle. The

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show was characterized by zeny

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humor and wordplay, poking fun

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at American politics and anti

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communist sensibilities. However,

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creator Jay Ward never expected

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his little show to land him in the middle

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of a real life Cold War crisis. In

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an early episode of the show, Bullwinkle

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takes Rocky to visit his home, a

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tiny island right on the Canadian border

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called Musylvania, damp,

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cold, and with no permanent population.

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Neither the US nor Canada wants to

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Claimmusylvania as their own, leaving

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Bullwinkle as its governor. After

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the episode aired, fan mail came in from

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across the country begging to visit the

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real Musylvania, which gave creator

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Jay Ward a great idea. In

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nineteen sixty two, Jay asked his

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publicist Howard Brandy for help

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with the scheme to drum up publicity for

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the next season of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Phase

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one, they would lease a small island

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in a lake on the Canadian border. Phase

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two, they would travel around the country

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gathering signatures and support. Phase

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three, they would petition President John

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F. Kennedy to annex the island from

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Canada and Makemosylvania

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America's fifty first state. Howard

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immediately said yes. Once the island

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was leased, Jay and Howard loaded

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into a multicolored van and set

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out on the campaign trail. At

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each stop, Jay and Howard rolled

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into town while blasting circus music.

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They would give grand speeches about how the residents

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of Musylvania, who need I remind

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you did not exist, were sick

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of being passed over for other territories

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like Alaska and Hawaii. They laid

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out some of the finer tenants of the Musylvania

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Manifesto, like how Musylvania

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demanded aid from the United States to

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the tune of exactly eighteen billion dollars

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and four cents. Then they would

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encourage residents to sign a petition for statehood

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to be delivered to the White House. After

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stopping in over fifty cities, driving

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thousands of miles, and collecting more signatures

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than they could count, the big day had finally

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arrived. On October twenty seventh of

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nineteen sixty two, Jay Ward and

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Howard Brandy arrived at the White

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House. Jay was in rare form,

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blasting silly music and dressed

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in a Napoleon costume. When he

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was stopped at the gate by Secret Service, he

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declared that they were there to see President Kennedy

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to petition him for Musylvania statehood.

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When he was asked to leave, he replied

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that he would not, as of course, he

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had diplomatic immunity. To Jay's

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surprise, this caused the Secret Service

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agent to pull out his gun. You

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see, what Jay and Howard didn't know is that they

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had picked the worst possible day to show

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up unannounced at the White House. Just a

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few days earlier, on October fourteenth

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of nineteen sixty two, an American

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spy plane had spotted nuclear missile

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sites hidden in Cuba. This

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had kicked off the Cuban Missile Crisis,

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thirteen of the tensest days in American

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history. At that very moment, moment, America

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was as close as it had ever been to

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a full scale nuclear war with Russia.

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What's worse, that very morning, an American

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pilot was shot down and killed over Cuba.

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As Jay and Howard rolled up to

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the White House gates to demand statehood for

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Musylvania, President Kennedy was

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weighing whether to declare war. The

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Secret Service sent Jay and Howard packing,

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much to Jay's disappointment, as he

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later said he thought that President Kennedy

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had a sense of humor. It wasn't until

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after they left that they learned just how

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serious the situation was. The

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crisis was resolved peacefully the next

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day, when the US promised to remove missiles

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from Turkey and the Soviets promised to

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do the same in Cuba. For their part,

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Jay and Howard never did get Mussylvania

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declared the fifty first state, and

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in all honesty, maybe it's better they didn't.

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The country had just survived the Cuban

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missile crisis. With j Ward's sense of

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humor, it wouldn't be long before he declared

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a musil crisis of his own.

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If you've spent any time with jigsaw puzzles,

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you know the satisfaction that comes from the last

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piece falling into place, and you

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may also have experienced that uniquely horrible

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frustration that comes when it doesn't,

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When you reach into the box and find

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that the final piece is missing. This

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discovery is usually followed by a frantic

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search. You check the floor, under

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the couch, inside the cushions, the pockets

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of your hoodie. You wonder if your dog

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ate it, or if some psychopath walked off

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with the final piece just to torment

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you. But in the end, the reason it's

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gone doesn't matter. The puzzle is incomplete,

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and from now on you will be too.

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Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it's hard

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to deny that there's something about the human mind

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that gravitates toward puzzles and hates

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leaving them unfinished. Well in nineteen

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twelve, that in distinct drove the German scientist

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Alfred Wigner to look at a model

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globe and see something no one else

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had. He realized that the continent's

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edges fit together, suggesting that they

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had once been part of a single land mass.

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Geologists now refer to this sea shaped

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super continent as Pangaea. In

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our planet's early history, it comprised

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virtually all of the land on Earth, but

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around two hundred million years ago, shifting

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tectonic plates caused the land mass

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to split apart into the continents that

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we have today. It's taken a

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lot of work, but geologists now have a

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pretty accurate picture of how it all fit

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together. This knowledge has ramifications

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for countless other fields, explaining

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things about the Earth's climate, biodiversity

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of plant and animal life, and where

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ore deposits exist. So it

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would seem that scientists have completed the puzzle,

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so to speak, But for decades there

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was one glaring problem, a missing

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piece. It seemed that there was a continent

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roughly the width of the United States that was

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nowhere to be found. You know, it

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existed due to a massive underwater

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basin off the northwestern shore of

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Australia. This basin is called the

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Argo Abyssle Plane, and it led geologists

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to dub the missing continent our Goland.

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They believe that around one hundred and fifty five

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million years ago, our Goland broke

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off from the super continent and drifted toward

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modern Southeast Asia. At that point,

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it seems to have vanished. And that's

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a massive problem because if continents

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can simply disappear, it undermines

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everything we know about Pangaea and

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plate tectonics. That's why

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around twenty sixteen, a team of

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Dutch researchers embarked on an expedition

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to find the lost continent. They

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initially wondered if the continent had sunk

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beneath the ocean. If that were true, they expected

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to find it beneath the islands of Southeast

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Asia, but it wasn't there. Next,

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they considered whether another continent could

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have slid on top of our Goland, burying

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it beneath the Earth's crust. That's what happened

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to Greater Adria, an ancient continent

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that now lies underneath the Europe, but

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based on the available evidence, it didn't seem

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to be the case for our Goland. The team

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didn't give up, though. For seven years they

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tested rock samples from around the world,

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and in twenty twenty three they announced

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a groundbreaking discovery. Our

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Goland didn't sink beneath the waves

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or into the Earth's mantle. Instead,

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it broke up into countless smaller fragments

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that eventually got folded in with other land

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masses. The team found pieces of the

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lost continent scattered throughout the jungles

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of Indonesia and Mayanmar, which

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means that the final puzzle piece has

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been found. We can all rest a bit easier

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knowing that the bedrock theories of modern geology

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are still in place. Scientists

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can still reasonably construct what

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the Earth looked like in the distant past,

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and ironically that knowledge can help

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them predict what it will look like in

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the future. Because the continents

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are still shifting. Instead of drifting

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apart, they're pulling closer together. Eventually

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they will reform into a new supercontinent,

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and like Pangaea, that future land

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masks will eventually break up all over

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again, although what happens

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after that is a puzzle for

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another day.

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I 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.

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The show was created by me Aaron

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Mankey in partnership with how Stuff

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Works. I make another award winning

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show called Lore, which is a podcast,

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book series, and television show, and

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you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore

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dot com. And until next

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time, stay curious.