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Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Public Investing Advertiser
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Podcast Host
Huh. I wonder if this can beat the market. Everyone's talking about the NASDAQ 100, but let's get more specific. Software. Actually, too broad. How about software that's already profitable? Companies that beat the last five quarters. Oh, and I want founders who are marathon runners. That's discipline. Yeah, let's see what that looks like.
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Public Investing Advertiser
With generated assets on public, you can turn any idea into an investable index. Just enter a prompt and watch the AI screen thousands of stocks in seconds. You can then back test your index against the S&P 500, make adjustments, refine your criteria, and when you're ready, invest in what you've built. Go to public.com and build your own index with generated assets, plus earn a 1% uncapped match when you transfer your portfolio. Public Investing for those who take it seriously Ad paid for by Public Holdings
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Public Investing Legal Disclaimer
Brokerage Services by Public Investing member finra SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor. Sample prompts are for illustrative purposes only, not investment advice. All investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com Disclosures welcome to Erin
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Aaron Manke
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. The road to the central highland plateau of See An Quang in northern Laos is a rough one. It climbs and twists, revealing to the travelers sweeping vistas at every turn, terraced fields where cattle graze, and dramatic limestone cliffs. The road itself is frequently broken, with deep ruts and occasional washouts slow traffic to a crawl. There in the remote, misty heights, giants dominate the landscape, massive stone vessels that give the plateau its name, the Plain of Jars. These vessels are not modest, some rising up to 3 meters in height, with some weighing up to 30 tons. Their shapes vary nearly as much as their sizes, some cylinders, some with their large stone lids resembling mushrooms. Many are cracked and worn, their surfaces ground down over time by the wind and the weather. The jars are spread out over a massive territory. Some stand alone as watchful sentinels, while others are densely clustered together as strange stone forests. In the late 1920s, French geologist and archaeologist Madeleine Colani traveled to Laos to conduct the first comprehensive study of these jars. She spent months on site, mapping each jar with meticulous care, sketching configurations and conducting excavations. She also spent time listening to the storytelling of locals, taking into account their understanding of the place. While earlier scholars assumed the vessels were mere storage for grain or water, she came to believe that they held a deeper ritual purpose. The discovery of charred human remains in nearby caves suggested that the jars played a role in the funerary rituals rather than the mundane storage of these peoples. The caves, she suggested, were used to cremate bodies which would then be interred in the jars. She used these discoveries to publish a two volume study of the area, which laid the foundation for scholarship on the subject. Kalani continued to conduct field studies of the jars until her death in 1943. But it would be many decades before new researchers brought modern technology to the mystery. In 1994, for example, researchers used modern GPS enabled mapping of site one, documenting the exact location of each jar and the surrounding burial pits. This helped establish a more clear relationship between between the two. More recent advances, including the technique called optically stimulated luminescence, or osl, have further clarified the chronology of the vessels, showing them to be relics of the Iron Age, with some of the jars dating back 3,000 years. Carbon dating of the remains, however, have shown that their period of usage extended to around 700 years ago, suggesting an enduring ritual significance to the sites, leading well into the medieval era. All put together, it seems that while scholars may disagree on the finer details, the modern consensus now is that Kalani was correct. Now, the extensive travel required to witness the Plain of Jars makes it an unlikely tourist destination. But there's another reason that the sites are sparsely a single wrong step could be fatal. You see, when northern Laos was heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, tens of millions of unexploded cluster munitions were were left hidden in the soil. It's estimated that it will take nearly a century to remove all the unexploded bombs. Today, the Jarra Plains is a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its archaeological and cultural significance. Local authorities have created walking paths, signage and small visitor centers to educate travelers, while also protecting the ancient stones. Guided tours, as you'd imagine, are very limited, but a slow stream of international travelers do make their journey each year and drawn by both the mystery and the majesty of the landscape. Visiting the Plain of Jars is indeed a journey through time, where the ancient rituals of past civilizations is on full display. These stone vessels stand as silent witnesses to centuries of life, death and resilience, a reminder that history can be both unusual and very curious.
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Public Investing Advertiser
Support for the show comes from public. Lately, the line between investing and gambling has started to blur. But let's be real. You can't build actual wealth on a coin flip. That's why Public takes a different approach. It's the investing platform where you can build a serious long term portfolio. Stocks, options, bonds, crypto. They have it all. But unlike platforms that basically just give you a buy button, Public provides actual context. So when you see volatility in your portfolio, you aren't just staring at a chart, you're reading a helpful explanation about why the stock is up or down. You can even go deeper with the built in AI research assistant. It's all about giving you the information you need to invest with conviction. Be right more often. Go to public.com and earn an uncapped 1% match when you transfer your investments. Public Investing for those who take it seriously Ad paid for by Public Holdings
- [07:00]
Public Investing Legal Disclaimer
Brokerage Services by Public Investing member finra SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor all investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com disclosures this show is
- [07:11]
Aaron Manke
sponsored by American Public University. Success starts with your drive, and American Public University is here to fuel it. With affordable tuition and over 200 flexible online programs, APU helps you gain the skills and confidence to move forward. Whether you're changing careers, starting fresh, or pursuing a lifelong passion, APU's programs are designed for people who never stop. You bring the fire. Apu will fuel the journey. Learn more at apu.apus.edu. Doug was worried. Worried about something most of us probably would never even think about. He was worried about elk. More specifically, too many elk, because Yellowstone national park, home to nearly 400 species of animals and and spanning three mountain states, was in danger of ecological collapse. You see, Yellowstone was missing one very important creature that brought balance to the whole ecosystem, what is often called a keystone species, the North American gray wolf, which had been completely absent from the park for 50 years. But why? The story begins all the way back in 1874, when President Ulysses S. Grant designated Yellowstone as protected land and made it the very first national park. Grant was moved after seeing photographs taken by Ferdinand Hayden. One look at the roaming bison, swimming bears, wide canyons, alpine rivers, and enormous blue sky was enough to convince him this place was special. But just because the land was protected didn't mean the wildlife were. In fact, many visitors came to the park for the purpose of hunting bison, antelope, and even predator species. Gray wolves were especially sought after for their pelts and and because they frightened the tourists. Occasionally, the wolves even attacked local cattle herds on nearby farms. All this meant that by 1926, there were no wolves left in Yellowstone. And this was the problem that had Doug Smith so worried. To fully understand it, though, you have to think about this as dominoes all lined up in a neat row, ready to fall, with the first hitting the second and the third and so on. The absence of wolves in the park was a problem because without wolves, the elk population had grown out of control. The plants that they ate, especially aspen and cottonwood trees, were now in danger of being overgrazed. And since the elk had no predators to fear, they also spent longer and longer way out in the open, grazing beside the riverbank. And because there were too many elk, the plants along the river that cleaned the river died off and the river became cloudy. And because the river was cloudy, many fish didn't survive well in that cloudy water, which meant fewer food for bears, otters, and birds of prey. And with the vegetation gone from the riverbank, beavers also had nothing to build their dams with. And the creatures dependent on a wetland environment that was created by those dams had nowhere to go. You can see how one problem trickled down to all the other systems. The solution here might seem obvious. It certainly did to Doug Smith and the conservationists who were working with him. If wolves were reintroduced into the park this time with protections in place to keep them from being hunted, the rest might fall into place. As it turns out, that was easier said than done. One big issue. Well, that would be the nearby ranchers. Yellowstone is situated between three states. Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. And in all three states, there were farmers and ranchers who felt worried about the plan to reintroduce the wolves. And sure, the wolves would be in the park and not on the rancher's land. But what was to stop them from hunting down helpless livestock on nearby farms? It wasn't as if the wolves could read or understand a you are leaving Yellowstone sign. And even fences weren't enough to deter them. And this wasn't the first time that the park's conservation efforts had actually impacted these farmers ways of life. Bison ate up all the grass that the farmers wanted to graze their own cows on. And then, as more and more visitors came to Yellowstone, the National Park Service needed to expand. They paid the farmers well for their land, but many were sorry to leave their homes. Eventually, the conservationists and the ranchers settled on a compromise. Wolves that wandered out of the park and onto private land were fair game for farmers and ranchers to kill. As long as wolves stayed in the park, however, they would be safe and protected by the law. In January of 1995, wildlife officials captured 14 Canadian wolves in northern Alberta. These wolves, while not the same species as the original Yellowstone wolves, were similar enough that they would take the same role in the ecosystem. The conservationists even made sure to pull wolves from different packs so that they'd be able to breed and continue growing the population once they were inside Yellowstone. And for months, the wolves stayed in small acclimation pens within the park to get comfortable with their new environment. Doug Smith was among the researchers stationed to care for and observe the wolves to see if they'd be ready for release. In March of 1995, the gates were opened and the 14 Canadian Wolves stepped hesitantly into the snow to investigate their new homes. Less than A year later, 17 more joined Yellowstone's wolf population. As for the predictions of Doug Smith and other conservationists, they all came true. Within months of the wolves being reintroduced, Yellowstone went from an ecosystem teetering on the edge of collapse to a thriving, flourishing environment receiving more than 4 million visitors every year. Most of them probably have no idea that the lush forests, the clean rivers, and the huge range of species that they see are all thanks to one heroic creature, the big Bad wolf. 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 curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's 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. This show is sponsored by American Public University. Success starts with your drive, and American Public University is here to fuel it. With affordable tuition and over 200 flexible online programs, APU helps you gain the skills and confidence to move forward. Whether you're changing careers, starting fresh, or pursuing a lifelong passion. APU's programs are designed for people who never stop. You bring the fire. Apu will fuel the journey. Learn more at Apu Apus. Edu.
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Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.