Welcome to Air and Mankies, Captain of Curiosity's, 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 Curiosity's.

We all know that what goes up must come down one way or another, and to steer further

into that cliche, the higher up, the farther the fall.

This has been the case with every financial bubble in history, housing, banking, railroads,

and even flowers.

It turns out you can find the value in anything and everything, including the tulip.

Spring is beautiful in the northeast, and not just because of the blooms on the trees

after months of a grey, depressing winter, but also because of the many parks that chose

to plant tulip bulbs to brighten up their flower beds.

It's a good choice.

You can get them in nearly every color, and they stand head and shoulders above most blooms,

plus they're cheap, which is always popular with local governments.

It's hard to imagine a time when tulips were so rare, so popular, and so expensive that

they lifted the markets of an entire country.

That's what happened to the Netherlands in the 17th century.

Now a lot of you have heard even here about tulip mania or tulip fever.

The wildest story from that period is that there was a sailor that thought that the bulb

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