From Cautionary Tales: The Mummy's Curse

03/10/23 • 43 min

Disturbing the remains of the Egyptian Pharaohs is known to incur a deadly curse, so why did a team of archeologists still risk inciting the wrath of King Tutankhamun by entering his burial chamber? And how many of them met a premature end for their impudence?

This episode comes to us from our friends at Pushkin Industries. It's a podcast we love called Cautionary Tales by Tim Harford. We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable life lessons, but these cautionary tales are for the education of the grown-ups — and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial Times, BBC, author of Messy and The Undercover Economist) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, daring heists and hilarious fiascos. They’ll delight you and scare you, but also make you wiser.

You can find Cautionary Tales on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading and listening related to this episode:

Roger Luckhurst’s book, The Mummy’s Curse , is the perfect guide to every angle of the tale. Nigel Blundell’s The World’s Greatest Mistakes gives a vivid tabloid-style version, and Snopes described and then fact-checked the tale of the Unlucky Mummy. Skeptoid covers and debunks various explanations for the curse.

The Mesmeromania incident is covered in detail by Christopher Turner for Cabinet Magazine. Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler set it in wider context in their fascinating book Useful Delusions.

Charle’s Duhigg’s story about Target and the pregnant teenager is in the New York Times Magazine.

Academic studies on placebos, nocebos, and the BMJ article about the mummy’s curse:

Howick, J. Unethical informed consent caused by overlooking poorly measured nocebo effects. Journal of Medical Ethics. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:07126ead-92c8-4b82-87b2-7e677aaf98b5

Colloca L, Miller FG. The nocebo effect and its relevance for clinical practice. Psychosom Med. 2011;73(7):598-603. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3182294a50

Nelson MR. The mummy’s curse: historical cohort study. BMJ. 2002 Dec 21;325(7378):1482-4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.325.7378.1482. PMID: 12493675; PMCID: PMC139048.

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You can find Cautionary Tales on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading and listening related to this episode:

The Mesmeromania incident is covered in detail by Christopher Turner for Cabinet Magazine. Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler set it in wider context in their fascinating book Useful Delusions.

Charle’s Duhigg’s story about Target and the pregnant teenager is in the New York Times Magazine.

Academic studies on placebos, nocebos, and the BMJ article about the mummy’s curse:

Howick, J. Unethical informed consent caused by overlooking poorly measured nocebo effects. Journal of Medical Ethics. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:07126ead-92c8-4b82-87b2-7e677aaf98b5

Colloca L, Miller FG. The nocebo effect and its relevance for clinical practice. Psychosom Med. 2011;73(7):598-603. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3182294a50

Nelson MR. The mummy’s curse: historical cohort study. BMJ. 2002 Dec 21;325(7378):1482-4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.325.7378.1482. PMID: 12493675; PMCID: PMC139048.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

An ARG Developer and Player Meet for the First Time - Niles Sankey & Matthew Bliss

Perry and Mason have lost time, but discover a mysterious tape...

The gang discovers a mysterious canister in the trunk of Perry’s (new) car. It's a reel of tape, which turns out to be an interview that they did not conduct.

Tune in as Matthew Bliss (prominent ARG solver of Asemblance) and Niles Sankey (game developer of Asemblance) meet each other for the first time!

Niles dives deeper into his approach in creating the mysterious puzzles behind his game Asemblance, the experience of watching a community come together to solve it, and shares a lot of insight into the world of creating video games.

Guests:

Niles Sankey, creator of the Asemblance videogame series, and owner of Nilo Studios.
Matthew Bliss, host of The Dead Drop podcast - a twice-weekly 10 minute video game news podcast.

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Next Episode

See for Yourself (Urban Legends, Ghost Tours, & Legend Tripping)

See for Yourself

Perry picks up Mason from his house at 4:00am (yes... four in the freaking morning) for a road trip out to the gravesite of Elijah Bond - inventor of the Ouija Board. On the way, they encounter quite a few remarkable folks with stories to tell...

Content Warnings:

Because of dynamically inserted ads, timestamps would be inaccurate. Here's how to avoid potentially triggering content:

Suffocation: in the Hoosac Tunnel story, when you hear us talk about the "Central Shaft", skip ahead ~4 minutes.
Racially motivated violence: When you hear the phrase "Mini Lights", skip ahead ~3 minutes.

In this episode:

An opening retelling of the classic "Hook Hand Man" urban legend.
A short retelling of the history of the Hoosac Tunnel, and how Mason paid it a visit.
What it means to get to the origin of local legends, and exploration of how they change over time and the purposes they serve.
A discussion with a professional ghost tour guide.
Discussion around the importance of studying urban legends, and a retelling of the Bunny Man legend.

Guests:

Mark Muncy, author of the bestselling book Eerie Florida and other compilations of local legends.
Paul Prater, multifaceted entertainer and ghost tour guide.
Betty Aquino, a graduate student in the folklore program at George Mason University.

Featuring voice acting from:

GennaRose Nethercott told our opening story of the Hook Hand Man. GennaRose is a an author, poet, folklorist, and an associate producer and researcher for the highly acclaimed Lore podcast.
Eric Gray was the voice of AM radio host Bart Chime. Eric creates the podcast "Dumb People with Terrible Ideas" which is a hilarious, pun-filled teardown of hubris - all delivered in his iconic voice. Mason's personal favorite episode is this one about FM radio.
Ruben Basalto was the "Moon Man Dad Caller" at the beginning of the AM radio show. Ruben is a voice actor who you can hire for your next project!

🗣 Join our Discord community

💁‍♀️ Support us on Patreon

🕸 Sign-up for our newsletter, check our our merch, and learn more about the show at digitalfolklore.fm.

📚 Check our book list for some great folklore-related books

Find us on the socials:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices