Loading summary
Transcript2 lines
- [00:00]
A
Holiday magic is in the air and DSW's got all the shoes to make your season extra merry. Believe you've got parties to attend and list to check twice. So DSW is taking care of the details like gifts to make their eyes all aglow. Styles that bring joy to your world. Brands everyone wants like Ugg, Nike, Birkenstock and more, and deals to make your budget bright. Find the perfect shoes for you and yours at a DSW store near you or dsw.com.
- [00:34]
B
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio 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. Nothing brings people together quite like a sports game. Football, soccer, tennis. Each one of those has the ability to thrill and liven up a day. For a brief few hours. We experience community with total strangers as we scream and yell encouragement at the players on the field. It's a tradition that goes back as far as any in human history. But going to a game isn't only about team spirit, it's also about conflict. Nothing is quite like a good rivalry between teams. Just ask any New Englander how they feel about the New York Yankees and you'll see what I mean. It's like having a nemesis in your hometown. These rivalries are engaging, empowering and occasionally even deadly. To understand what I mean, let's take a look at the oldest college football rivalry in United states history, between USC, Berkeley and Stanford College. First played in 1892, this rivalry has become known as the Big Game. These two colleges have played each other 126 times, and they're showing no sign of stopping. With each new generation of students, there's a new wave of enthusiasm for continuing the competition. This rivalry is so popular that many forget its ties to one of the greatest tragedies in sports history. It was Thanksgiving Day, 1900, in San Francisco. There had only been nine big games so far, but each was larger than the last. Football fans flocked to the Mission District, a field known as the 16th and Folsom grounds. It stood near the industrial site. The far end of the field was dominated by the shape of a new factory, and this was a bottle manufacturing facility that just opened by the San Francisco and Pacific Glassworks. By 10:30 that morning, the event managers were already struggling with the crowd size. The city of San Francisco had employed 60 police officers for crowd control. This was, to put it mildly, not enough. The number of attendees was soon in the tens of thousands. Tickets for the game were sold for a dollar. Now, that might seem cheap today, but with inflation, that comes out to around 30 or 40 bucks. Now most of the attendees were still willing to pay. University of California fans were eager to see Cal defeat Stanford again. And Stanford fans wanted to see Stanford regain her honor after the previous year's devastating 300 shutouts. Even those who couldn't afford the ticket price were still eager to see the game. It's estimated that several thousands tried to watch from the streets on top of the 19,000 in the stadium. But watching from the street was not a great view, so many sought a better vantage point. And on 15th street, the natural choice, with a full view of the field was the Glassworks Factory. At least 400 spectators climbed on top of the building in spite of the protests of the factory's security. The building manager had been tasked with keeping people off the roof, but the watchmen he had hired were woefully unprepared for the task. Inside, only one furnace was active, manned by a skeleton crew. The factory workers tried to phone the police, but were redirected to the event managers instead. Fans settled in, ready for the game. To the untrained eye, it must have looked like a sturdy roof with corrugated iron on top of a brand new factory. But early on, people started to notice that things didn't feel quite right. The roof felt like it was straining already and the game hadn't even begun. Light heartedly teasing among the men and boys seemed to mask a deeper worry that something was about to go horribly wrong. Kickoff was at 2:30pm 20 minutes later, fans within the stadium would hear a loud crash coming from 15th Street. It drew a few concerned glances, but the game did not stop and soon all eyes returned to the players on the field. Meanwhile, the roof of the Glassworks factory had completely collapsed. In an instant, a hole opened up in the roof of the factory, swallowing around 200 people. About a hundred of them plummeted four stories onto a solid brick floor. Another 60 to 100 people fell directly on top of the furnace housing molten glass. The surface temperature would have been around 500 degrees Fahrenheit as people rained down into the factory. Fuel pipes broke, spraying hot oil onto the bodies that were already burning or broken. In the chaos, the factory workers hurried to save lives. They switched off the oil valves and tried desperately to retrieve the burning victims with tongs and pokers. Some of the luckier ones had managed to cling onto support beams or remaining sections of the roof to save themselves. The less lucky found themselves pinned to the furnace by support rods, burning to death before they could be saved. All told, there were 23 deaths in what became known as the Thanksgiving Day disaster. Of those, 16 were teens and younger boys who couldn't afford the $1 ticket fee. The youngest was nine years old. The final victim survived in critical condition for over three years before succumbing to his injuries. As for the number of injuries, it's impossible to say. Newspaper reports from the following day list at least 80 injured, but the real number is likely much higher. And the more time passed, the more obscure the stories became. In fact, for a long time it seemed like this event was doomed to be forgotten. There's no monument for it, and the Big Game continued the following year as if nothing ever happened. Stanford and Cal have played each other over 100 times since the tragedy, and they will continue to do so in the future. So as their next rematch comes around, it's a good time for us to remember. We all have things that bring us joy, and being a fan of a college football team can be just as meaningful as anything else. But it's also too easy to let our enthusiasm get away from us. So check your footing every once in a while. It's best to make sure that you're standing on solid ground. This episode is sponsored by Capital One. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank Guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Ah, really? Thanks Capital One Bank Guy what's in your wallet? Terms apply see capitalone.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC A legacy is a curious thing. When we leave this world, we might live on in the faces of our children or the memories of our friends. What we leave behind could be as complicated as a family business or as simple as a family recipe. Legacies can also be complicated. In 1951, one woman left behind a legacy that has touched nearly every person on earth. But it was taken right under the nose of the people who loved her best. Henrietta was a striking woman, born in 1920 to a family of working class tobacco farmers in Virginia. By 1951, young Henrietta was living in Baltimore. She was a mother to five lively kids and was known for hosting huge dinners and never being seen without her trademark red Nail polish. But in 1951, the normally energetic Henrietta was starting to feel ill. She complained to relatives of feeling like she had a knot in her abdomen. When she finally went to Johns Hopkins medical center, the only nearby hospital that would even treat black patients, her worst fears were confirmed. She had cervical cancer. Henrietta immediately began radium treatments, but it was too late. The tumors spread and metastasized, and on October 31st of 1951, Henrietta died at the age of just 31. For most people, that's where the whole story would end. But Henrietta was not most people. Johns Hopkins was a research hospital, and in the same complex where Henrietta was being treated, Another researcher named George Guy was trying to solve a problem. He was the head of the tissue culture lab at Johns Hopkins. He wanted to use human cells to test new medications and therapies. But no matter what he did, he couldn't get human cells to survive outside their bodies. So George guy wasn't expecting much When a new sample of cells from a cancer patient named Henrietta was sent to his lab. But all of that changed the following day when he put the sample under a microscope. Guy was expecting to see a collection of deteriorating cells. But to his surprise, there were new cells in the culture. Within 24 hours, Henrietta's cell sample had doubled, and it would continue to do so for the next 70 years. Henrietta became the source of the first immortal human cell line ever discovered. Her cells thrived and replicated in lab conditions for over seven decades. Scientists don't totally know why exactly it did this. They just know that thanks to Henrietta, researchers have made great technology. Henrietta cells, nicknamed hela cells, have been used to test drugs, hormones, and even pioneer the polio vaccine. HeLa cells were sent into space to observe the effects of zero gravity on humans. They were one of the cornerstones of pioneering in vitro fertilization and in mapping the human genome. And were instrumental in developing the COVID 19 vaccines. And perhaps most importantly, and definitely most bittersweet, HeLa cells were used for advanced cancer treatments. The type of breakthroughs which might have saved Henrietta's life back in 1951. Talk about a legacy. But Henrietta lacks never lived to see her impact. Back in 1951, she never consented to seeing her cells used for medical research. As they became a mainstay of new research, Scientists gained accolades and even sold patents based on her cells. They also published sensitive medical and genetic information about the Lacks family. All of this was while the Lacks themselves were kept in the dark. Henrietta's family didn't even find out about what was going on until 1975. And naturally, learning about Henrietta's legacy has caused mixed emotions for her family. The members are happy their mother and grandmother has had such a positive impact on the world, but they're angry the family wasn't informed. And it's complicated to think about the financial aspect. For decades, Henrietta cells have generated millions, benefiting pharmaceutical and biotech companies, but her family has never seen a cent. Today, the National Institute of Health has partnered with the Lacks family to try to right this wrong. Anyone who wants to use HeLa cells today in their research must first be approved by a committee made up of the Lacks family and the National Institute of Health. Multiple biomedical companies have announced donations to the Henrietta Lacks foundation, where their money will support families whose genetic material has been used without their consent. Henrietta Lacks impacted a lot of people in her short life, and not just because of her remarkable cells, but also because of the lives that she touched while she was living. And yes, Henrietta's cells may indeed live on forever, but with any luck, her memory will as well. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting curiositiespodcast.com this show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show and you can learn all about it over@theworldoflore.com and until next time, stay curious.