Today, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is considered the father of microbiology, but at a more basic level, his hobby demonstrated a universal truth: there is so much left to explore, and if we dig deep enough, we might uncover something truly groundbreaking. And, sometimes, that discovery might lead to something else: fear.
Episode 189 of the Lore podcast grows positively abominable in its approach, as host Aaron Mahnke tracks the legendary woolly monster of mountainous locale in various world cultures from the Far East to the Canadian northwest. Besides uncovering the origin of the phrase “abominable snowman,” Mahnke discusses the “Yeti-mania” that ran rampant in the mid-20th Century. Yet in taking the public fascination with (reported sightings of) such creature as a subject, the episode could have devoted more than just passing mention of the figure’s prevalence in pop culture. Offering only eighteen minutes of content (the final third of the under-thirty-minute runtime constitutes a preview of Mahnke’s new podcast Grim & Mild Presents: Sideshow), the episode lives up to its title, alas, and ends up feeling somewhat fragmentary.