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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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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. It's the most popular flavor in the world. It can be found in ice cream, coffees, yogurt and fruit dishes. It's used in skincare, fragrances and household cleaners. I'm talking, of course, about vanilla. But it wasn't always so. As a matter of fact, for the first few hundreds of years that we knew about this famous flavor, it was considered an incredible luxury outside of its origin in in Mexico, unavailable to the common tongue. Until one adolescent boy changed all of that. The vanilla orchid, or Vanilla planifolia if you're into science, is a native of Mexico. It produces a delicate pod that, after curing, gives us the aromatic beans with that famous flavor. It was cultivated for centuries in Mexico, first by the Teutonic people and was later exploited by the Spanish during the brutal days of the Conquistadors. And it quickly became a hit with European royalty. The problem with that, at least so far as Europe was concerned, was that while the orchid could be grown in any environment, it would only produce the vanilla beans in its native habitat. And this all came down to one the Melipana bee, which could only be found in Mexico. Essentially, without the bee to pollinate the blossom, the flower would wilt without producing that prized sea podcast. And so for three long centuries after being brought to Europe, it remained incredibly rare. No matter where they tried to grow it, the flower would produce no fruit. That is, until 12 year old Edmund Albius. Albius was born into slavery in 1829 on the French island of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean. He was the child of an enslaved woman and a white father who would not claim him. He was an intelligent young man who was deeply interested in the natural world, and he worked in the plantation garden where vanilla vines had been planted and struggled to thrive. By the time he was 12, he had set his intelligence on the problem of the vanilla orchids. He would notice that they withered before producing the same sort of seed pods similar flowers would grow. Other flowers in the garden did not seem to have that same problem. And so Albius came up with a method both simple and revolutionary. Using a small sliver of bamboo and his thumb, he gently lifted the raw stellium, which is a small barrier between the flower's male and female organs, or antler and stigma, and pressed the two parts together, transferring the pollen between the two. He was effectively mimicking the pollinator's method, in particular that of a small Mexican bee who had kept the vanilla orchid fruiting in Mexico. And because of the pistil shape that his hand made while performing the delicate action, he named the technique la pistolet. That very season, the very first vanilla pods were harvested in bourbon. Albius had created an effective technique of pollinating the orchid that required no special tools beyond a sliver of wood and a steady hand. Anyone could produce vanilla now, and they did. Plantations all over the tropics began to use young Edmond's technique, and soon Madagascar was out producing Mexico in vanilla exports. With all of the new vanilla on the market, prices plummeted seemingly overnight. Vanilla went from being an exotic flavor only sampled by the rich, to a popular flavor among the masses. It could suddenly be found in desserts and perfumes all around the world. And because of that, one would think that young Edmund Albius would find worldwide acclaim. Well, in a just world, at least. But it was not a just world. And Albius station in life afforded him no recourse when the plantation owner, a guy named Charles Frappier, took credit for the method. Later on, French botanist Joseph d' can would also take credit. And Albius himself was considered a footnote in the story of his own ingenuity. He received no accolades, no royalties, nothing in the way of compensation for the revolutionary scientific achievements. His work made vanilla production a massive industry. But to the plantation owners and importers went all the spoils. When slavery was abolished in French colonies in 1848, the then 19 year old Albius continued to work as a gardener, living in obscurity until his death at the age of 51. He would only receive the recognition that he deserved decades later. Today, in Bourbon Now Reunion, Edmund Albius is spoken of with great reverence. There are streets and schools named after him and statues built in his honor. That vanilla is nearly universally beloved is a statement to his brilliant discovery. It also serves as a reminder of the many minds and talents that have been overlooked throughout the centuries due to the racism and exploitation that is the hallmark of colonialism. So the next time you sip a latte or take that first delicious spoonful of ice cream, remember the name Edmund Albius, the young genius that brought that taste to the world. This show is sponsored by American Public University. The future won't wait and neither should you. That's why American Public University offers Master's programs designed for momentum, affordable, high quality and flexible. So you keep moving forward. With career relevant programs in business, healthcare, education, IT and more. You can gain skills you can use right away and the confidence to power your next move. American Public University made for what's next? Learn more at apu Apus.
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It's no exaggeration to say that ancient Egypt was an incredible and mysterious place. Archaeology tells us that ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for over 3,000 years, which means it endured longer than everything that has happened since. The ancient Egyptians were highly literate and left behind many records, but the sands of time have worn those records down to where we only have brief, curious snapshots into Egyptian history. We know relatively little about some of its most significant rulers, the pharaohs, but the snapshots that we do have for one particular ruler paint him as the most curious pharaoh of all. Pepi II was only six years old when his older brother suddenly died. All he'd ever known was living at the palace and having his every need attended to. Now, in the year 2278 BC, he was crowned pharaoh and the whole kingdom had to do whatever he wanted. Since he was forced to stay at the palace by his mother, he demanded that his servants bring him interesting things from all over the kingdom. He loved playing with chunks of turquoise and copper, or looking at finely sculpted pottery and statuary. But his whole world changed one day when he received word from an expedition leader in the south. The explorer Harkuf had captured a pygmy hunter. These were the short, mysterious people far to the south, near where the Nile flowed out from the underworld. For a number of weeks, all Pepy could think about was what it would be like to have such a strange person in his court. So he wrote back to Harkuf with special instructions. The pygmy was to be treated with the utmost care. He was to be surrounded on Harkuf's boat on both sides, so that there was no risk of him falling into the Nile. And he should also be surrounded by guards at night to protect him in his sleep. When Harkuf finally arrived with a captive, Pepy was overjoyed. The short, dark man was unlike anyone he had ever met before. He would keep him as a dancer in his court for as long as he lived. As Pepy got older, his tendency to use people for his own comfort or amusement didn't get any better. He saw himself as a God, so that's all he needed to justify his every whimsical. And a good example of this comes from the time when he was finally out from his mother's thumb and ruling Egypt on his own. His long days of seeing his subjects in his throne room had started to wear on him. It was always hot, and the endless flies that flew in from the Nile constantly pestered him. They say that one day he noticed that the flies tended to congregate around the jar of honey at his food table. He looked from the jar of honey to his enslaved people standing by, and. And he got a terrible idea. Pepy had these enslaved people coated in honey from head to toe, turning them into gooey, glistening, golden monoliths by his side. And now, instead of pestering him, all of the flies pestered his enslaved people, swarming around them and getting stuck in the honey. We can only imagine what it was like for those people when they went to clean up after a long day of serving beside the pharaoh. One final curious snapshot of Pepi comes from his adult years. This story was actually written hundreds of years after his death, so it may be more legend than fact, but it's of historical interest to Egyptologists nonetheless. One of Pepy's court officials, a man named Chitti, noticed that Pepi mysteriously left his chambers every night for four hours. Once, the pharaoh was believed to be an incarnation of the sun God, Ra. Chiti wondered if perhaps he was traveling to the underworld each night, as the myths around Ra suggested. Driven by a healthy dose of curiosity, something we can all relate to, Chidi followed Pepi from the shadows, winding through the columns of the palace as the pharaoh journeyed out into the moonlight. He crossed a courtyard next to the palace and arrived at the home of one of his generals, Sarsenet. Pepi threw a brick at the window, and the general appeared, lowering a ladder for the pharaoh to climb up. He disappeared inside, and Chitti waited four hours until the pharaoh reemerged. Although the story never says what Pepy was doing at the general's house, it strongly implies that they may have been lovers. If so, this mysterious affair is yet another unusual chapter in Pepy's legacy. Given that this is all we know about the pharaoh, and that the sands of time have likely erased all other records of his life, we will probably never have the full picture. But that just makes us even more curious about this ruler, who lived longer ago than any of us can imagine. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team and produced by Jesse Fung. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over@grimandmild.com Q 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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