Welcome to AirNManky's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio 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 Curiosity's.

We tend not to think of where the things in our daily lives come from.

When it comes to certain items, they've been a part of our lives for so long it feels

like forever.

Paper, for example, is so ubiquitous all over the world, some may be surprised to learn

that it got its start in China almost 2,000 years ago.

And the glasses we use to see clearly each day first arrived in Italy during the 13th

century.

But such inventions aren't the only things that have spread across the globe.

Food has also escaped beyond its original borders, allowing different cultures to sample

flavors from thousands of miles away.

William Hughes was on a quest, but not for food.

He was on the hunt for plants.

He had traveled thousands of miles by ship from his home in England to the Americas during

the 1630s.

Hughes was a botanist, writing about the plants of the new world.

He was also a pirate.

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