Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of IHeart 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.

Many high achievers excel at more than one thing. Great actors who are also karate masters

or pro athletes with degrees and chemistry. For example, legendary queen guitarist Brian May

is also an astrophysicist. It makes sense that someone with the drive to succeed at that level

would be driven to achieve

even more. But sometimes a driven person doesn't find success, but multiple failures. And in one

curious case from the Civil War era in America, a man made a historic entire career out of being

bad at everything he set out to do.

Daniel began his career as a lawyer before getting elected to the House of Representatives in

1856. Pretty good for a guy in his 30s, right? But he was also a notorious womanizer. He brought

sex workers into the congressional chambers and even introduced one to Queen Victoria.

So, he wasn't much of a congressman.

But most infamously, he married the 15-year-old daughter of one of his friends after getting

her pregnant.

Her name was Teresa.

And as you'd expect, he didn't remain faithful to Teresa, but she felt no loyalty to him

either. With Daniel

often away on business or having affairs, Teresa was regularly escorted to social functions by her friend,

Philip Barton Key. He was a prominent socialite, being the son of Francis Scott Key, the writer

...