Podcast Episode Summary: "Dire Dairy" — Cabinet of Curiosities (September 16, 2025)

Podcast: Cabinet of Curiosities
Host: Aaron Mahnke
Episode: Dire Dairy
Release Date: September 16, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode of Cabinet of Curiosities, host Aaron Mahnke brings listeners two fascinating tales: the miraculous survival story of Juliane Koepka, the sole survivor of a mysterious plane crash in the Amazon, and the surreal saga of the “Great Wisconsin Butterfire,” a disastrous (and dairy-filled) fire that consumed a warehouse and flooded the streets with melted butter and cheese. Both stories are united by the theme of survival against daunting, even bizarre, odds.

First Tale: Juliane Koepka and the Peruvian Plane Crash

The Unimaginable Fall and Survival

[01:10–06:46]

• Setting: Christmas Eve, 1971, Peru.
• Subject: Juliane Koepka, 17, daughter of renowned German zoologists, boards LANSA Flight 508 with her mother, hoping to return to a remote research station after her school graduation.
• Event: The unreliable airline’s plane flies into a thunderstorm. Lightning hits the wing, causing a mid-air explosion.
• Miraculous Descent:
  • Juliane falls 10,000 feet, still strapped to her seat, and somehow survives—unconscious, injured, but alive in the Amazon jungle.
  • “Somehow, though miraculously, she survived the fall. Perhaps it was the updraft from the storm or the surface area of the seats, slowing her descent. Maybe it was even the dense jungle canopy that broke her fall before she hit the ground.” (Aaron Mahnke, 02:17)

Survival in the Jungle

• Injuries and Resources: Broken collarbone, head wound, lost glasses, no food except candy, barefoot except for a single shoe. Dressed only in a thin dress.
• Jungle Skills: Remembers her father’s life-saving advice: “Follow water. People always live near water.”
• Endurance:
  • Trekking for 10 days, facing rain, predatory animals, biting insects—botflies infest her wounds.
  • She kept moving forward, motivated by survival knowledge.
• Rescue:
  • Stumbles upon a boat and huts on January 3, 1972.
  • Local workers rescue her, paddle her to a settlement, and arrange a medical evacuation.

Aftermath and Legacy

• Survivor’s Guilt: 92 passengers; possibly 14 survived the crash only to perish in the jungle—Juliane the lone survivor.
• Life Beyond Survival:
  • Guides authorities to the crash site.
  • Returns to her studies, later specializing in zoology and bats.
• A Twist of Fate:
  • German filmmaker Werner Herzog contacts Juliane decades later to make the documentary Wings of Hope.
  • Herzog was nearly on that very flight for a location scout but had rescheduled—a brush with fate.
  • “She felt making the documentary was therapeutic, a way to put to rest some of the trauma that had haunted her for years.” (Aaron Mahnke, 05:47)
• Closing Reflection:
  • Koepka didn’t just survive—she thrived, embracing her ordeal as a formative, healing part of her story.

Second Tale: The Great Wisconsin Butterfire

The Economic Context

[07:22–11:44]

• Eggflation and Dairy Woes:
  • Host reflects humorously on the notion that “we can gauge the state of the economy based on the price of eggs.” (Aaron Mahnke, 07:23)
• Government Cheese Era (1974–1991):
  • For 15 years, the U.S. federal government buys surplus dairy to stabilize prices.
  • Vast warehouses fill up with “butter and cheese … thoroughly ignorable as far as problems go.” (Aaron Mahnke, 07:50)

Disaster Strikes in Madison, Wisconsin

• Warehouse of Dairy:
  • A facility, 500,000 square feet large, stores up to 15 million pounds of products (mostly butter and cheese).
• Fire’s Origin:
  • On May 3, 1991, a forklift’s battery ignites a fire—inside this temperature-controlled, highly flammable environment.

The Butter Fire

• Unstoppable Flames:
  • Burning butter “doesn’t burn like coal or wood. It burns more like grease.” (Aaron Mahnke, 08:45)
  • Water only spreads the molten dairy, creating rivers of dangerous, flaming grease.
• Catastrophic Spread:
  • Warehouse walls collapse. “Unleashing a wave of butter, cream, and melted cheese onto the streets of Madison.” (Aaron Mahnke, 09:13)
  • Grease floods—up to 5 feet deep—hamper firefighting efforts.
  • Looming danger: fire nears tanks of toxic anhydrous ammonia.
  • Residents in a half-mile radius evacuated; tank rupture averted.

Environmental and Economic Fallout

• Ongoing Crisis:
  • Dairy runoff threatens water supplies and ecosystems.
  • Emergency levees and makeshift dams erected.
  • Ponds dug to contain runoff; 13 million gallons diverted during cleanup.
  • “Had to bring in pumps to help divert 13 million gallons of melted butter mixed with water and other runoff from the fire.” (Aaron Mahnke, 10:38)
• Final Response and Damage:
  • Ultimately, sand is dumped on the fire to smother it.
  • Fire declared out May 11—eight full days later.
  • Cleanup of city streets takes an additional week.
• Toll:
  • Most expensive fire in Wisconsin history: $7.5 million in property damage, $70 million in food products lost, $1 million in cleanup.
  • “Which was ironic, since it all started because the US Government wanted to avoid a financial crisis.” (Aaron Mahnke, 11:35)
• Closing Quip:
  • Aaron ends with characteristic dark humor, “It’s a delicious cautionary tale. When you keep way too much butter near flammable materials, your city might become toast.” (Aaron Mahnke, 11:41)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Juliane Koepka’s Survival:

  • “She had no food except for a bag of candy from the plane. But she knew that if she wanted to make it out of this, she had to find help.” (Aaron Mahnke, 02:50)

• On the Butterfire:

  • “The firemen had to wade through a cholesterol-dense river that was almost five feet deep in places.” (Aaron Mahnke, 09:32)

• On the Peculiar Aftermath:

  • “They had to bring in pumps to help divert 13 million gallons of melted butter mixed with water and other runoff from the fire.” (Aaron Mahnke, 10:38)

• On the Irony of Disaster:

  • “It was the most costly fire in the state’s history … which was ironic since it all started because the US Government wanted to avoid a financial crisis.” (Aaron Mahnke, 11:35)

Episode Structure & Flow

• [00:38–01:10] — Intro by Aaron Mahnke and setup for the episode theme.
• [01:10–06:46] — Story of Juliane Koepka’s fall, survival and legacy.
• [07:22–11:44] — The Great Wisconsin Butterfire: context, disaster, and surreal aftermath.

Conclusion

This episode of Cabinet of Curiosities masterfully intertwines two unforgettable stories from opposite ends of the spectrum—personal resilience in the face of a miraculous survival and unintended (and absurd) consequences of economic policy gone awry. Both tales emphasize the unpredictable routes fate and human ingenuity can take in our strange world. As Mahnke reminds us with his signature sign-off:
“Until next time, stay curious.”