352-A Victorian Hippopotamus

Futility Closet by Greg Ross

Jul 26, 202131:44Society & Culture

In 1850, England received a distinguished guest: A baby hippopotamus arrived at the London Zoo. Obaysch was an instant celebrity, attracting throngs of visitors while confounding his inexperienced keepers. In this week's...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Futility Closet.

365-Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Nov 29, 2021 - 32:00

For this final episode of the Futility Closet podcast we have eight new lateral thinking puzzles — play a...

364-Sidney Cotton's Aerial Reconnaissance

Nov 22, 2021 - 34:12

One of the most remarkable pilots of World War II never fired a shot or dropped a bomb. With his pioneeri...

363-The Lambeth Poisoner

Nov 15, 2021 - 33:34

In 1891, a mysterious figure appeared on the streets of London, dispensing pills to poor young women who...

362-The Leatherman

Oct 25, 2021 - 33:14

In 1856, a mysterious man appeared on the roads of Connecticut and New York, dressed in leather, speaking...

361-A Fight Over Nutmeg

Oct 18, 2021 - 29:30

In 1616, British officer Nathaniel Courthope was sent to a tiny island in the East Indies to contest a Du...

360-Haggard's Dream

Oct 11, 2021 - 30:38

In 1904, adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard awoke from a dream with the conviction that his daughter's d...

359-Stranded in Shangri-La

Oct 4, 2021 - 30:03

In 1945, a U.S. Army transport plane crashed in New Guinea, leaving three survivors marooned in the islan...

358-The Radium Girls

Sep 13, 2021 - 30:34

In 1917, a New Jersey company began hiring young women to paint luminous marks on the faces of watches an...