Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 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.

I think it's fair to say that just about everyone loves a good adventure story.

The risks, the thrills, and the satisfying conclusions are always the perfect recipe for a good time, and few adventure formats are as powerful as a good old fashioned treasure hunt movie.

Maybe you're a fan of the National Treasure films and they're deep dive into the mysteries of the early days of the United States.

Perhaps you grew up on Goonies and their amazing journey through an underground passageway full of traps and clues and devilishly difficult puzzles.

The list could go on and on, and most of us would probably nod and smile as we remember each amazing film.

But it's hard to beat the icon, isn't it So?

Unless you're driving or using a dangerous tool right now, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a certain world and cast of characters with me.

It's a story set in a once glorious land that has become lost to time, taking far too many secrets and treasures with it.

It's exotic and beautiful and full of danger.

At the center of the story is our adventurer, a man who has left his day job behind for a while in order to find an item of particular importance.

There's the now obligatory female companion and love interest.

Naturally, there's also a bad guy, because what adventure movie would be complete without one, right, And then, of course there's the treasure, an object of immense beauty, crafted of gold by ancient artisans.

It has monetary value, for sure, but that's not what our adventurer sees in it.

No, it has priceless cultural value, and that's the true prize.

This object doesn't belong in the hands of some rich evildoer.

No, it belongs in a museum or some other place where it can be appreciated for what it truly is.

In one memorable scene in this movie, our handsome, rugged adventurer is inside an ancient structure, a temple or a tomb of some kind and has just taken possession of his prize when his assistant betrays him and takes it away.

You know what I'm talking about, right, Because betrayal is another one of those key ingredients to a great adventure movie, and our hero has to work hard to get that treasure back.

And of course, who could forget the scene where our hero is inside that chamber all by himself and has to use a beam of light to pinpoint the exact location of the treasure.

It's tense and brilliant in its simplicity.

I love it, and at the end of the day, we just love the hero, right, his chiseled good looks, that stubble on his chin, his tan pants, leather jacket and trademark Fedora hat.

Sure he's got a revolver tucked into his belt, but that's not getting used all the time.

No, he prefers to punch his way through trouble and use his ingenuity instead.

Of course, adventure films have moved on since then, all those years ago.

Today they're so full of massive CGI components and big explosions.

They usually involve billionaire bad guys or riddles wrapped in art history symbolism.

But there's no beating a classic, is there That old adventure story starring our beloved hero called The Secret of the Incas?

Wait?

Was that not what you were expecting.

It's a real movie starring a real hunk of a Hollywood a lister, Charlton Heston pulled on that leather jacket and Fedora for the Secret of the Inca's way back in nineteen fifty four.

And all those scenes that I described for you are straight from that movie.

Of course, his character is called Harry, not Henry, he doesn't carry a whip, there are no Nazis, and it's set in Machu Pichu instead of Egypt.

But it's Indiana Jones through and through nonetheless, Why Because when Raiders of the Lost Dark was in pre production, many of the crew watched Secret of the Incas multiple times for inspiration.

Legendary Hollywood costume designer Deborah Nadulman Landis, who created Indiana Jones' trademark outfit, drew inspiration from that film, and even more elements found themselves into the writing and the filming decisions.

Don't call it a ripoff, though, think of it more as an homage, a callback to an adventure film from three decades earlier that inspired a bunch of people so deeply that they had to make their own and frankly, I'm glad they did.

I don't think my childhood or Hollywood itself would have been filled with such joy and fun without Indiana Jones, the fictional embodiment of curiosity.

William Pennybrooks was a small town boy with a big vision.

Born in the town of much Wenlock, a small town in Shropshire, England, his father was a well regarded local physician.

As William grew up, he was inspired to follow the same path, and so when he came of age, he left home to study medicine in London, before leaving the country with his brother John to further their studies at the University of Padua.

He was in Paris in eighteen thirty when he learned that his father had died, and so returned home for good the next year.

Taking over his father's medical practice, Brooks provided affordable care to the rural poor, often treating patients free of charge.

He was also a fierce advocate for common sense modern medical standards like clean drinking water, better conditions for factory workers, and vaccinations.

His bedside manner and willingness to travel long distances earned him deep respect among farmers, laborers, and the emerging industrial workforce.

A fierce advocate for the well being of the poor, Brooks believed that physical fitness and structured learning should be available to all.

In eighteen forty one, he founded the Agricultural Reading Society, Convinced that having access to free learning would help lift people out of poverty.

He wrote to numerous wealthy individuals for funding, and his pursuit was rewarded richly in donations of books and enough money to keep the society running.

It provided the community with a lending library and offered classes in arts, botany, and music training, among many others.

To further his passion for physical fitness for all, he founded a sporting competition inspired by the ancients Olympic Games.

The first Wenlock Olympics were held in eighteen fifty and featured numerous sports like running, jumping, throwing, wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, and rifle shooting.

The games also included pageantry, with a parade of competitors and organizers, complete with bands and flag bears, which would march through town to the event.

Spaces.

They were open to people of all ages and social classes, a radical concept for Victorian England, whose caste system rigidly separated the haves and the have nots.

Over the coming years, the Wenlock Games expanded and grew in popularity, with competitors coming from all over England to compete, and as it grew, Brooks started corresponding with other fitness reformers across Europe, inviting athletes from all over to attend.

Although numbers remained modest, the idea of an international competition was seated, and it was through these letters that Brooks first came upon Baron Pierre deck Kuberton, who arrived to experience the Games in eighteen ninety.

The Baron was deeply impressed by the event, as well as by Brooks himself.

In subsequent years, the Frenchman would write of him, mister Brooks has shown that the Olympic ideal can live again in the modern world.

Following the Games, the men met to feverishly discuss the role of sporting in nation building and the need for a universal periodic competition to inspire the mass to take up physical fitness.

In the following years, they would correspond regularly.

In eighteen ninety four, De Kubertan formed the International Olympic Committee for the purpose of planning and executing the very first Modern Olympic Games, which were to be held in eighteen ninety six and were largely patterned after Wenlock's Games.

Athletes would come from all over the world to compete.

Tragically, though Brooks would not live to see his dream made real.

He passed away in December of eighteen ninety five, peacefully in his home, mere months before the very first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, where the ancient Games had been held in the past.

Brooks was buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity in Much Wenlock, where he had spent his life dedicated to the betterment of all.

A Wenlock Olympian Society that he founded still operates today organizing the Wenlock Olympic Games.

Decuberton made sure to give Brooks his due posthumously, telling the world that the Olympic Games would not be alive today if an hadn't been for doctor William Penny Brooks.

He was further memorialized in nineteen ninety six for the one hundredth anniversary of the modern Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

Although Brooks died just months before the inaugural Games, his belief that physical fitness and free learning should belong to everyone lived on in every stadium and at each podium.

The Wenlock Games continue to this day, and the International Olympic Flame still burns and enduring testament to the power of a small town dream that help shaped our history.

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 Curiosities podcast dot com.

The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 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 at Theworldoflore dot com.

And until next time, stay curious.