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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful
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thoughts I I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
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There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful.
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Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio 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. One of the most famous locations in all of video games is Rapture, an underwater city built by a libertarian named Andrew Ryan from the video game Bioshock. The idea that anyone would go to such lengths just to be free of government regulation seems like the stuff of fiction. But there is one similar case from actual history that shows us some people will do anything to avoid paying taxes. Giorgio Rosa was an engineer living in northern Italy in the 1950s. By 1957 he had decided to build his own island in the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna. The law said that Italy's sovereignty ended about seven miles off the coast, and he wanted to be free of the uptight rules and regulations of post war society. Since he was an engineer, he actually had the ability to accomplish his goal. Working with his team of friends, he invented a system that would allow for easy construction of the island. They took long, strong pipes and secured them to the ocean floor. After that, they filled them with cement, providing a strong foundation for the island. But of course, the Italian government immediately began to get in their way, forcing them to stop until they placed signs warning boats of their construction. They continued to build after that, although they were briefly stopped once again when the harbor master tried to claim that a utility company actually owned the land they were working on. But Giorgio was able to prove that this wasn't the case. He persevered through all this, finishing the concrete foundation before installing a dock and stairs leading up to a metal platform. The structure was 400 square meters. This is maybe about the size of a basketball court, but Giorgio was able to fit a lot within this space. The island contained a dock, a bar and restaurant, living quarters, and a post office. It was completed in 1967 after nearly 10 years of planning and construction. Giorgio would invite partiers from the mainland to hang out with them on the island, which he named Rose island as a play on his last name, and because he saw it as a rose on the sea. He got more ambitious the following year, declaring that Rhode island was its own nation, exempt from Italian law. He started to issue his own stamps and even made plans to print his own currency. Naturally, tourists began to flock to Rhodes island, and he started to rake in a profit, profits that he believed he didn't owe any tax on. Needless to say, the Italian government didn't like this one bit. Now, it's hard to say exactly what their true concern was. They were missing out on some tax revenue. Yes, and maybe some political figures in the country were simply jealous that they hadn't thought of this before. But they claimed that the real issue was that the island was in the Adriatic between Italy, a member of NATO, and Croatia, which was a communist country. And so Italy saw Rose island as a security risk, even claiming that they thought that there might be a Russian submarine hidden below the island. So they accused Giorgio of using the island to smuggle drugs or conduct other illegal activity. Again, it's hard to know what the real issue was, but clearly they were incensed by the challenge to their authority. In June of 1968, just a few months after Giorgio declared independence, the Italian navy blockaded Rose Island. They demanded that all of its inhabitants leave. Giorgio and his friends and family had no choice but to comply. The navy then sent divers beneath the waves, planting explosives on the foundation that Giorgio had worked so hard to build. However, when they detonated these, they actually failed to destroy the island. This was a testament to how well it was constructed. Next, they bombed the platform from a distance, but incredibly, this still didn't bring the island down. However, it was no longer habitable and had, at the very least, been hollowed out. Shortly after, a large storm passed through the area and that finally sunk the island into the ocean floor. Giorgio tried to appeal his case to the European Union, but since he had never been recognized by any other nation, he had no real legal standing. It has always more or less, been the case throughout human history that you have to kind of force other nations to accept your sovereignty. And if you're just one guy with no military or significant resources, that's virtually impossible. And so Rhodes island faded from memory. But while Europe lost track of the curious tale of a brief island nation in the Adriatic Sea, history never forgets. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We talk about mental health a lot more openly these days, which is definitely a good thing. But asking for help can still feel hard, and BetterHelp's latest research confirms it. BetterHelp's 2026 State of Stigma report surveyed 2,000Americans and revealed that 85% of Americans believe getting support is wise, yet 74% say society discourages from doing so. Those numbers highlight the problem, don't they? There seems to be a gap between believing in mental health support and actually seeking it out, a gap that we should be working hard to close. And that's where BetterHelp comes in. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. And with over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform and having served over 6 million people globally. And it works too, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com curiosities that's betterhelp.com curiosities
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the official language of football is trash talk, late night group chats, memes and unbelievable highlight clips. That's why Boost Mobile brings you our new global connection plan, the first plan ever made for WhatsApp. Get unlimited data, talk and text, international roaming and calls to over 100 countries for just $40 a month. $40 price includes $5 a month autopay discount after 40 gigabytes of premium high speed data. Speeds will be lowered. Coverage not available everywhere. Visit Store or BoostMobile.com for details.
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Hollywood is filled with tragic legends and myths. Take, for example, the case of one of Hollywood's earliest stars, an actor named Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, who suffered a catastrophic fall from grace when a young actress, Virginia Rappe, died at a party that he hosted. There's also the story of Peg Entwistle, a British born stage actress who moved an ocean and a continent away to pursue a life on film, only to despair and jump from the Hollywood sign. One of the more modern of these stories concerns Tobe Hooper's 1982 paranormal classic Poltergeist and the franchise that it sprouted. Some people, it seems, think that this classic tale of a family hunted by the supernatural may have been victim to a supernatural curse of its own. Although many Hollywood legends seem to have murky origins, there is almost a universal agreement on this Curse's origin story. According to numerous accounts, the production team of the original 1982 film, in order to save money, decided to forgo making what was at the time very expensive plastic bones. So to get around the high cost of fake skeletons, they simply bought real ones, the kinds that are used in medical schools. And you can see them in the climax of the film floating in the pool. But while the reasoning was purely economic, it created a fertile soil for superstition. The idea that the filmmakers had desecrated the dead to save money became the supernatural seed of the curse. Although it wasn't until after a series of tragic deaths of some connected to the franchise that the idea of that curse took hold. You see, the Poltergeist trilogy saw the early passing of four cast members, statistically an anomaly and one that fueled the fire of superstition. The first of these tragedies would strike shortly after the film was released in theaters. Actor Dominique Dunne, who played the eldest daughter of the beleaguered Freeling family, was murdered by her ex boyfriend. The sudden, violent death cut short a rising talent and was plastered across the headlines for weeks following the release of the second film. Actor Julian Beck, who portrayed the terrifying villain Reverend Henry Cain, passed from stomach cancer in 1985, and Will Sampson, the actor who played the shaman Taylor, passed from kidney failure and post operative complications two years after that. But perhaps the most heartbreaking and widely known event occurred in 1988 when Heather O', Rourke, the child actress who played the iconic Carol Ann Freeling, died at the age of 12, the result of septic shock caused by an undiagnosed intestinal stenosis. O' Rourke had been filming Poltergeist 3 at the time, and her death occurred mere weeks before the film's release. Despite the emotional power of these tragedies, skeptics and historians have urged caution in attributing them to the supernatural. The curse is often viewed through the lens of confirmation bias. In any large ensemble cast spanning three films over six years, the probability of illness and accidents increases. And the trouble with something like a Curse is that it romanticizes tragedy and ignores the mundane realities of mortality and misfortune. It flattens lives down to their most macabre details. The same was true for Fatty Arbuckle, once one of comedy's great lights and mentor to the legendary Buster Keaton. He was largely known before the death of Virginia Rappe as a kind, friendly individual and was found innocent by a court of law. But the damage was done. He was purged from the industry, spending the rest of his life as a pariah and then a cautionary tale. Ultimately, though, these tragedies serve as fascinating case studies in how folklore evolves in the modern age. It transforms a series of unfortunate events into a cohesive mythos, a shadow cast by the movie industry. The curse persists because it adds a layer of meta reality to the fiction. The fear of the movie bleeding into life is perhaps the ultimate horror. While the deaths of Dunne, Beck, Samson and o' Rourke remain profound tragedies that deserve to be remembered with dignity rather than sensation sensationalism, the curse remains a powerful piece of cinematic mythology. It's a story born from a mix of cheap production decisions, the randomness of fate, and the enduring desire to believe that the stories we tell have the power to shape reality. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me, Erin Mankey, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grimm and Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over@grimandmild.com curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosities hardcover book available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon it's all the same stories but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over@patreon.com grimandmild and until next time, stay curious.
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The official language of football is trash talk, late night group chats, memes and unbelievable highlight clips. That's why Boost Mobile brings you our new Global Connection plan, the first plan ever made for WhatsApp. Get unlimited data, talk and text, international roaming and calls to over 100 countries for just $40 a month. $40 price includes $5 a month autopay discount after 40 gigabytes of premium high speed data, speeds will be lowered. Coverage not available everywhere. Visit Store or BoostMobile.com for details. This is an iHeart podcast.
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Guaranteed Human.