The King's Rhinoceros
True Weird Stuff
Now! Media
4.9 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2025
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's True Weird Stuff - The King's Rhinoceros
In the 1500s, King Manuel of Portugal gifted Pope Leo a beautiful, white elephant as a gesture of obedience to the Vatican. Unfortunately, the majestic beast passed away after only two years. To make up for it, King Manuel tried to ship Pope Leo a rhinoceros named Ganda; however, the rhino met its demise in a shipwreck before it could make it to Rome. The only good thing to come from this debacle was the immortalization of Ganda by an artist who created a sculpture without ever having seen a rhinoceros.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, true weirdos. We just wanted to take a minute and thank you so much for your support. |
| 0:04.7 | True Weird Stuff has won the best history podcast in the Women in Podcasting Awards, |
| 0:10.0 | and we've also won a Signal Award in the paranormal category. |
| 0:14.3 | And that's only happened because of you, our fellow strange people. Thanks. |
| 0:19.3 | Stick around if you want after the episode for a little bonus content |
| 0:22.3 | and conversation. When the ship left harbor the morning of January 25th in the year 1516, |
| 0:34.0 | the crew was expecting an uneventful voyage from Lisbon to Chivideveccia, the port serving the city of Rome. |
| 0:41.8 | Mild leather, calm seas, an easy journey, but an important one. |
| 0:46.6 | The ship was carrying a gift from the king of Portugal to the Pope, a gift so rare and precious that nothing like it had been seen in Europe for centuries. |
| 0:59.6 | Sailors are superstitious, and there are certain kinds of cargo they'd rather not carry. |
| 1:05.5 | Bananas were considered evil, flowers were unlucky. |
| 1:09.6 | But this gift meant for the Pope? This was something else entirely. |
| 1:15.3 | Some of the men kept their distance from it, if only because they were unsure how to behave in the |
| 1:21.2 | presence of a living, breathing unicorn, a creature straight from |
| 1:27.9 | legend. |
| 1:29.9 | But it |
| 1:30.9 | wasn't a |
| 1:31.7 | unicorn |
| 1:32.3 | chained to |
| 1:33.0 | the deck |
| 1:33.3 | that day |
| 1:34.0 | as the ship |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Now! Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Now! Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.