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Medium-Sized · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: If you've ever been to a Halloween party or a
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  Speaker 1: pumpkin patch, you've probably seen someone dressed as a fortune
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  Speaker 1: teller with dangly ear rings and wrapped in shawls. She
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  Speaker 1: might have looked into a crystal ball and told you
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  Speaker 1: your future. Of course, the fortune teller was probably an actor,
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  Speaker 1: and you understood that her predictions weren't real. But the
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  Speaker 1: character she's playing is inspired by a real woman who
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  Speaker 1: traveled the globe conductor seances. She was an adventurer and occultist,
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  Speaker 1: and the mother of an entire New Age movement. But
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  Speaker 1: much like fortune tellers at the party, it was hard
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  Speaker 1: to tell which parts of her story were real and
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  Speaker 1: what was invented to entice her audience. She was a
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  Speaker 1: clear fraud, but she also was a brilliant mind who
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  Speaker 1: left her mark on history, which might be why we're
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  Speaker 1: still captivated by the unconventional life of a very mysterious individual.
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  Speaker 1: Helena was born in eighteen thirty one in Russia, but
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  Speaker 1: they soon moved to Odessa in present day Ukraine, and
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  Speaker 1: according to family members, this is where Helena first began
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  Speaker 1: to see ghosts. She would spend hours in the unused
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  Speaker 1: passageways under her house playing with the ghosts who lingered there.
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  Speaker 1: She also developed a supernatural gift that she called Solomon's wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: It's unclear at what it meant exactly, but the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: kids said that she could use the gift to lull
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  Speaker 1: street pigeons to sleep. For the next decade, life moved
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  Speaker 1: quickly for Helena. Her family moved around and then married
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  Speaker 1: her off to an older man when she was just sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: After running away and traveling the world, she dove deep
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  Speaker 1: into the study of multiple world religions, and then in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six, she snuck into Tibet. Shortly after her
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  Speaker 1: arrival there, Helena was in a horse riding accident that
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  Speaker 1: landed her in a coma. When she woke up, she
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  Speaker 1: said that her spiritual powers had been fully realized and
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  Speaker 1: she was ready to step into her role as a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual leader. Soon after, she hosted her first seance. At
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  Speaker 1: the time, seances were hugely popular in the US and
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  Speaker 1: Western Europe, but unlike most mediums who claimed to contact
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  Speaker 1: the dead, Helena or Madame Blavatsky, as she began to
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  Speaker 1: call herself, contacted living people in alternate realms. She adopted
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  Speaker 1: dangly earrings and flowing skirts, the stereotypical look that we
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  Speaker 1: now associate with fortune tellers. She moved to New York
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  Speaker 1: City and began performing seances to growing crowds, and soon
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  Speaker 1: she earned herself an unlikely superfan, a lawyer and retired
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  Speaker 1: Civil War veteran named Henry Steele Alcott. At the time,
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  Speaker 1: traveling mediums were a dime a dozen, and Alcott was
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  Speaker 1: working as a journalist trying to expose them all as Charlatan's.
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  Speaker 1: But something about Helena fascinated him. She was interesting and eccentric,
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  Speaker 1: and he believed that she was the real deal. He
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  Speaker 1: soon moved in with her and began financially supporting her.
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  Speaker 1: They hosted seances and philosophical discussions in their New York
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  Speaker 1: City home. Eventually, Alcott formalized their gathering as the Theosophical society.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy seven, Helena published a book called Isis Unveiled,
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  Speaker 1: which introduced theosophy as and I quote, the synthesis of science, religion,
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  Speaker 1: and philosophy. The book became enormously popular, launching Madame Bolvatsky
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  Speaker 1: into widespread fame in the US. The notoriety gave Helena
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  Speaker 1: and al Kott the confidence they needed to sell their
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  Speaker 1: belongings and move to India. To boost Helena's profile as
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  Speaker 1: a spiritual guru and medium, they built their headquarters outside
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  Speaker 1: Bombay and for years hosted acclaimed seances. Notable guests would
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  Speaker 1: travel from all over just to witness the talented Madame
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  Speaker 1: Blovatski manifest spirits. Fame looked good on Helena, and she
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  Speaker 1: especially enjoyed the profits that accompanied her spiritual work. But
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  Speaker 1: then disaster struck. A series of letters surfaced written by
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  Speaker 1: Helena to one of her employees. The letters detailed all
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  Speaker 1: the intricate tricks and mechanisms they used during seances to
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  Speaker 1: fake other worldly visitors. It soon became clear that the
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  Speaker 1: entire staff was in on the ruse and that Madame
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  Speaker 1: Blovatski was a fraud. She and Alcat fled India and
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  Speaker 1: Helena returned to London in disgrace, but as was typical
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  Speaker 1: with Helena, she didn't stay down for long. A few
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  Speaker 1: years later, she created the Blovatski Lodge in London, an
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  Speaker 1: association that shifted away from paranormal sciences and instead focused
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  Speaker 1: on theosophy, the blend of science and religion, and her
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  Speaker 1: philosophies resonated with a new crowd. She wrote more books,
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  Speaker 1: many of which are still popular today. In fact, the
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  Speaker 1: Theosophical Society and its London headquarters are still around. As
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  Speaker 1: it turns out, Helena never needed smoking mirrors to make
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  Speaker 1: a mark on history. Her curious mind was more than enough.
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  Speaker 1: You can learn a lot about a city based on
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  Speaker 1: their public transportation. In a dense urban metropolis, how do
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  Speaker 1: you get from one place to another? Some cities require
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  Speaker 1: you to have a car, so you aren't limited to
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  Speaker 1: bus routes and metro stops, and some cities like Boston, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: are probably safer to a explore via train. The Massachusetts
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  Speaker 1: Bay Transit Authority or MBTA, maintains one of the oldest
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  Speaker 1: public transportation systems in America, and sure it's not without
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  Speaker 1: its problems. Residents of Boston will regularly complain about how
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  Speaker 1: it shuts down during intense weather and seems constantly to
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  Speaker 1: be in repair, but it is an icon of that city,
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  Speaker 1: as true to the spirit of Boston as the Red
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  Speaker 1: Sox or Irish American pubs. So say what you will
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  Speaker 1: about the Tea, but it is the people's train, for
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  Speaker 1: better or worse. But this wasn't always the case. Back
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties, the ticketing system for the subway
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  Speaker 1: in Boston seemed designed to confuse people. There was at
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  Speaker 1: one point a nine page pamphlet breaking down the various
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  Speaker 1: ticket prices to travel across the city, and when the
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  Speaker 1: local government wanted to increase fares, the implemented exit fees,
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  Speaker 1: meaning that you paid to take the train and then
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  Speaker 1: once you reached where you were going, you had to
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  Speaker 1: pay again to disembark. Nobody liked that system, especially the
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  Speaker 1: overworked ticket booth employees who had to enforce the exit fees.
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  Speaker 1: Remember these were the days before automated turnstiles, which brings
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  Speaker 1: us to a man nay Walter A. O'Brien. In nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forty nine, O'Brien launched a campaign to become Mayor of Boston,
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  Speaker 1: running as the candidate for the Progressive Party, and among
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  Speaker 1: his proposed policies was an overhaul of the MTA ticketing system.
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  Speaker 1: Unfortunately for O'Brien's campaign, the Progressive Party did not have
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  Speaker 1: enough money to pay for radio ads, so his campaign
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  Speaker 1: staff came up with an alternative strategy. During the lead
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  Speaker 1: up to the election, the O'Brien campaign drove a truck
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  Speaker 1: around the streets of Boston with a loud speaker on
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  Speaker 1: the back. From this speaker, they broadcast seven folk songs
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  Speaker 1: commissioned from local musicians. Each of these songs emphasized a
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  Speaker 1: point of O'Brien's policy platform. The song about his plans
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  Speaker 1: for a public transit was a ballad written by Jacqueline
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  Speaker 1: Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawd. It tells the story of
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  Speaker 1: a man named Charlie who goes to take the train
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  Speaker 1: to work, only to be told he's one nickel short
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  Speaker 1: when he has to get off at his stop. As
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  Speaker 1: the chorus goes, but did he ever return? No, he
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  Speaker 1: never returned, and his fate is still unlearned. He may
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  Speaker 1: ride forever near the streets of Boston. He's the man
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  Speaker 1: who never returned. O'Brien was fined ten dollars from the
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  Speaker 1: City of Boston for the stunt for disturbing the peace. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: he came in last place in the election. Then his
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  Speaker 1: political career never really recovered, and then during the Red
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  Speaker 1: Scare of the nineteen fifties, anyone with a remotely left
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  Speaker 1: wing political affiliation was accused of being communists, forcing O'Brien
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  Speaker 1: and the rest of the Progressive Party to fully fade away. O'Brien,
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  Speaker 1: who had never been a member of the Communist Party,
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  Speaker 1: retired to Maine, where he found unassuming work as a librarian.
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  Speaker 1: And sure, as far as political careers go, it's something
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  Speaker 1: of an anti climax, but Walter A. O'Brien's legacy doesn't
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  Speaker 1: end thanks to the ballot he commissioned to help his campaign.
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  Speaker 1: Charlie on the MTA was a catchy tune, and over
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  Speaker 1: the years, a number of folk artists recorded cover versions
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  Speaker 1: completely unrelated to the now defunct O'Brien campaigns. In the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, the Kingston Trios version of Charlie on the
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  Speaker 1: MTA became a breakout hit. To minimize pushback from their audience,
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  Speaker 1: though they wound up changing one of the lyrics from
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  Speaker 1: vote for Walter A. O'Brien to vote for George O'Brien,
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  Speaker 1: you know, just in case they got accused of supporting
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  Speaker 1: a communist politician. The song was so iconic that it
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  Speaker 1: became deeply ingrained in Boston culture. Now, seventy six years
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  Speaker 1: after Walter A. O'Brien tried to become Mayor of Boston,
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  Speaker 1: the MBTA has a standardized fare system much like the
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  Speaker 1: one that he promoted with the folk song. And today,
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  Speaker 1: if you're ever in Boston and you need to take
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  Speaker 1: the tea, you'll be prompted to buy a metro card
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  Speaker 1: for the journey, and since two thousand and four, that
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  Speaker 1: metro card has been known as the CharlieCard. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at Theworldolore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious,