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Reluctant Rebel · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Have you ever heard the stories about mothers who perform
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  Speaker 1: impossible feats to save their children, things like lifting cars
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  Speaker 1: or boulders. Some people believe that in these instances, the
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  Speaker 1: mind takes over everything in the body. Others believe that
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  Speaker 1: certain physical aspects like the car's angle, made the feat possible. Well,
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  Speaker 1: today's story revolves around a woman who accomplished incredible feats. However,
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  Speaker 1: in her scenario didn't attribute it to extreme motivation or
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  Speaker 1: sheer luck. They perceived it as something much harder to define.
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  Speaker 1: Sometime around eighteen forty nine, American colonizers arrived in a
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  Speaker 1: large area called Apache Rhea. This region now makes up
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  Speaker 1: parts of Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were there
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  Speaker 1: to take the land from the native inhabitants. About seven
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  Speaker 1: Apache tribes lived in that region. They were known for
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  Speaker 1: their nomadic lifestyle and their strong battle skills. By the
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  Speaker 1: time the colonizers arrived, the Apache people had been fighting
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  Speaker 1: Mexican soldiers for years. One day, the colonizers quietly crept
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  Speaker 1: in on an Apache settlement near New Mexico. They planned
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  Speaker 1: to surprise attack the people, raid the settlement, and then
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  Speaker 1: kill everyone living there, but they underestimated the tribe. When
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  Speaker 1: the attackers descended upon the settlement, the Apache people came
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  Speaker 1: out in full force. The attackers were stunned. Not only
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  Speaker 1: did the tribe seem to know that they were coming,
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  Speaker 1: but for every Apache man there was a woman behind him,
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  Speaker 1: ready to strike should he go down. The colonizers were
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  Speaker 1: completely unprepared. They were beaten in a landslide, and those
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  Speaker 1: who survived were scared away. The Apache tribe was left
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  Speaker 1: mostly unscathed, especially because the women who didn't fight protected
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  Speaker 1: the children. However, there was one child, a girl of
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  Speaker 1: about twelve years old named Lozen, who didn't receive protection
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  Speaker 1: because she was on the battlefield. After the attack, many
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  Speaker 1: of the warriors, including the great grandson of Geronimo, praised
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  Speaker 1: Lozen's skill in battle. From the day she was born,
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  Speaker 1: Lozen was ready to fight the tribe she was born
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  Speaker 1: into had a matriarchal culture, so the fact that she
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  Speaker 1: was a girl never really stood in her way. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: one of the tribe's deities, known as the White Painted Woman,
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  Speaker 1: was believed to be a great healer and an example
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  Speaker 1: of heroism and womanhood. When girls came of age, the
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  Speaker 1: tribe carried out a four day ceremony during which the
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  Speaker 1: girl's emulated White Painted Woman. The ceremony involved tests of
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  Speaker 1: the girl's endurance. Afterward, the girls were considered women and
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  Speaker 1: took on more responsibility for their families. Legend has it
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  Speaker 1: that loezen ceremony was especially powerful as she went through
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  Speaker 1: the rituals. White Painted Woman visited with her and gifted
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  Speaker 1: her with unparalleled skills in battle. These abilities equip Lozen
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  Speaker 1: for the endless fighting that she would endure throughout her lifetime.
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  Speaker 1: After New Mexico became a US territory, the gold Rush
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  Speaker 1: sent floods of miners through her tribe's region, so the
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  Speaker 1: Apache people constantly fought to keep their land. Thanks to
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  Speaker 1: her gift, Lozen was instrumental in these battles. She often
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  Speaker 1: carried out a secret operation. She snuck behind enemy lines
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  Speaker 1: rounded up their horses and stole them. The enemy never
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  Speaker 1: saw her coming. This was how she got her name,
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  Speaker 1: which means dexterous horse thief. But Lozen was capable of
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  Speaker 1: so much more. Her brother, Chief Victorio described her as
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  Speaker 1: strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy.
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  Speaker 1: He also said that Lozen was a shield to her
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  Speaker 1: People's brother wasn't the only one who admired her so much,
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  Speaker 1: though she was also a close friend and ally to Geronimo.
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  Speaker 1: Lozen's people were always at the center of her heart.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout all the battles and raids that she fought in.
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  Speaker 1: There were multiple times when she helped women and children
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  Speaker 1: cross rivers safely and hide from the enemy. She even
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  Speaker 1: once helped a woman deliver a baby amid their escape journey.
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  Speaker 1: She always seemed to know which routes to take to
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  Speaker 1: avoid being caught. Many wonder how Lozen always evaded enemy detection.
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  Speaker 1: Her ability to do so infuriated her opponents and mesmerized
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  Speaker 1: her tribe. But Lozen's tribe knew something that their enemies
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  Speaker 1: did not. It all went back to that fateful day
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  Speaker 1: in Losen's life when she went through her coming of
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  Speaker 1: age ceremony, when the White Painted Woman visited Lozen and
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  Speaker 1: gifted her with skills in battle. They weren't just any skills,
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  Speaker 1: they were supernatural powers, and this is why it was
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  Speaker 1: said that Lozen could predict which direction enemies came from.
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  Speaker 1: When preparing for battle, she would walk slowly in a
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  Speaker 1: circle with both hands raised in the air. Eventually, the
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  Speaker 1: veins in her arms would turn dark blue. When that happened,
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  Speaker 1: Losn knew the direction she was facing was where the
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  Speaker 1: enemy would come from. Regardless of whether you believe people
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  Speaker 1: can actually have these kinds of powers, there's no denying
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  Speaker 1: that Lozen had a cunning ability to predict attackers' movements. Today,
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  Speaker 1: apache girls undergo the same coming of age ceremony. We
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  Speaker 1: don't know if anyone has reportedly been visited by the
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  Speaker 1: White Painted Lady again, but this tradition, alongside Lowsn's legacy,
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  Speaker 1: serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience and strength
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  Speaker 1: of womanhood. We tend to mythologize the concept of the
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  Speaker 1: dream job that if you set out to be a dancer,
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  Speaker 1: or a firefighter, or even a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
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  Speaker 1: balloon designer for a living, there's a set path to
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  Speaker 1: achieve that goal. In reality, most people's journeys have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of zigs and zags before they figure out what
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  Speaker 1: they want to do. Sometimes it's not so much a
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  Speaker 1: dream or an achievement that sets you on the right path,
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  Speaker 1: but a huge blunder, like how in the two hundreds BCE,
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  Speaker 1: the course of Chinese history was changed forever when a
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  Speaker 1: county sheriff named Lubang made a royal mistake. Bong didn't
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  Speaker 1: start out wanting to change the world. He mostly just
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  Speaker 1: wanted to hang out with his friends and shirk his duties.
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  Speaker 1: He was born in two fifty six BCE, the son
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  Speaker 1: of peasant farmers on the east coast of China. Most
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  Speaker 1: kids in his position would have ended up working the
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  Speaker 1: rice paddies like his parents, or else making a living
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  Speaker 1: as a fisherman. Only by gaining an education could someone
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  Speaker 1: from the rice fields rise above their station. Except Bang
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  Speaker 1: wasn't particularly interested in learning or hard work. He ran
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  Speaker 1: into trouble with the law very often, and was characterized
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  Speaker 1: in his youth as a delinquent and a rascal. Still,
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  Speaker 1: what Bong lacked in wealth, education or ambition, he more
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  Speaker 1: than made up for in charm. You see He was
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  Speaker 1: a charismatic young man who made connections very easily. Although
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  Speaker 1: he had very little money and reportedly lived off what
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  Speaker 1: his working brother could give him, he was generous with
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  Speaker 1: his coin, and this led to him befriending several mid
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  Speaker 1: level bureaucrats working for the imperial government, and with his
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  Speaker 1: new friend's help, Bong was able to secure a well
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  Speaker 1: paid job as a local sheriff. Now, this cushy government
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  Speaker 1: job might have been the end of his history of
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  Speaker 1: falling upwards if it wasn't for an incident in the
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  Speaker 1: early two hundreds BCE, when Bong was in his forties.
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  Speaker 1: At that time, the Chin dynasty ruled China for decades.
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  Speaker 1: The Chins had been building an immense mausoleum to house
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  Speaker 1: their first Chin Emperor, who had just died in two
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  Speaker 1: ten BCE. The planned mausoleum was the size of a city,
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  Speaker 1: several miles across and housing not only his tomb, but
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  Speaker 1: also palaces, fake rivers made of flowing mercury, and thousands
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  Speaker 1: of terracotta warriors to protect the emperor in the afterlife.
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  Speaker 1: In the year two oh nine BCE, Sheriff Bang was
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  Speaker 1: ordered to escort a group of prisoners to work on
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  Speaker 1: that mausoleum. The Qin dynasty was known for harsh laws,
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  Speaker 1: which punished many small offenses with hard labor, imprisonment, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes even death. This upset the people under Chin rule,
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  Speaker 1: as they might find themselves laboring for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: their lives over such a small offense. During transit, several
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  Speaker 1: of the prisoners escaped Bang. Under Chin law, the official
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  Speaker 1: who let the prisoners escape, was supposed to be executed.
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  Speaker 1: Seeing no way out of his punishment, he decided to
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  Speaker 1: double down and free all of the prisoners. He quickly
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  Speaker 1: found himself the unlikely leader of a group of anti
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  Speaker 1: Chin rebels. Many of the freed prisoners followed him to
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  Speaker 1: a nearby mountain, where they occupied an abandoned fort. Now
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  Speaker 1: an outlaw, Bang decided that he may as well go
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  Speaker 1: all in. All across the empire, different groups had sprung
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  Speaker 1: up to fight against the emperor from his stronghold in
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  Speaker 1: the mountains. He joined this network of resistance and became
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  Speaker 1: a leading force in the fight against the Qin dynasty.
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  Speaker 1: He played up his humble beginnings to attract sympathy from
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  Speaker 1: disgruntled peasants, and with their support, began conquering Chin territory
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  Speaker 1: state by state by two two BCE. Just seven years later,
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  Speaker 1: the Qin dynasty had officially come to an end, and
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  Speaker 1: Liu Bang, the Lazy Peasant's son and failed sheriff, was
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  Speaker 1: the new Han Emperor of China. He only ruled for
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  Speaker 1: seven years, but his impact lasted much longer. The Han
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  Speaker 1: dynasty reigned for four hundred years, during which it expanded
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  Speaker 1: the Chinese Empire further than it had ever stretched before.
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  Speaker 1: His focus on trade and expansion led to the legendary
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  Speaker 1: Silk Road, which connected East Asia to the Middle East,
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  Speaker 1: North Africa, and the Roman Empire starting in the one
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  Speaker 1: hundreds BCE. Today, many scholars of Chinese history consider it
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  Speaker 1: Lu Bang as influential to a in China as Julius
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  Speaker 1: Caesar was to Rome. While they had very different origins,
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  Speaker 1: they reached the same heights. As William Shakespeare said, some
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  Speaker 1: are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness
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  Speaker 1: thrust upon them. And like Lou Bang, you never know
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  Speaker 1: what might kickstart your next career change. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldolore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.