Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Shell Shocked

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Shell Shocked · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. There's a reason so
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  Speaker 1: many people have searched the world for the Holy Grail,
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  Speaker 1: a cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper.
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  Speaker 1: To sit from the cup is to gain internal life,
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  Speaker 1: they say. Other legends of immortality have been passed down
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  Speaker 1: through the ages as well. The ancient Greeks wrote about
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  Speaker 1: a special water in Africa belonging to a people known
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  Speaker 1: as the Macrobians. The water was said to allow these
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  Speaker 1: Macrobians to live well beyond one hundred years of age.
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  Speaker 1: We know that story better today thanks to conquistador Ponce
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  Speaker 1: da Leon, who famously went in search of it during
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  Speaker 1: the fifteen hundreds. Because of his expedition, the concept of
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  Speaker 1: a fountain of youth has spread throughout the world as
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  Speaker 1: something of a common legend. However, poncet Leon looked for
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  Speaker 1: the Fountain of Youth on an island off the coast
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  Speaker 1: of Florida when he should have been searching the Kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of Tonga. The Polynesian sovereign state, eleven miles off the
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  Speaker 1: coast of New Zealand, was once home to a great King, Towey.
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  Speaker 1: Malila came to power in seventeen seventy seven. It was
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  Speaker 1: at that time when he met James Cook, a British
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  Speaker 1: captain of the Royal Navy, who was the first European
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  Speaker 1: explorer to have ever set foot on the shores of
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  Speaker 1: such exotic places as Hawaii and Eastern Australia. Captain Cook
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  Speaker 1: came bearing a gift to which he presented to the
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  Speaker 1: people of Tonga before leaving to see the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the world, and this gift remained on the island to
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  Speaker 1: be cared for by the royal family. It eventually became
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  Speaker 1: clear that this gift was special as Toei Malila, despite
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  Speaker 1: his growing age, continued to live through numerous historical milestones
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  Speaker 1: where other lead ers would abdicate the throne to their
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  Speaker 1: children to eat. Malila kept on ruling. The French Revolution,
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  Speaker 1: the American Civil War, as well as the inventions of
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  Speaker 1: the telegraph, the lightbulb, and the telephone, all occurred while
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  Speaker 1: he was sitting on the Tongan throne. During Malila's reign
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  Speaker 1: as king New York became a bustling metropolis, and two
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  Speaker 1: presidents were assassinated. The horse drawn carriage gave way to
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  Speaker 1: the steam engine, which eventually led to Henry Ford's model
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  Speaker 1: t and to Eat Malila was there to see it all.
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  Speaker 1: When word of the seemingly immortal king made its way
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  Speaker 1: to other countries, their leaders made plans to meet with him.
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  Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth the Second took a tour of the island
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty three with the express purpose of speaking
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  Speaker 1: with the king. There are even photographs of the two
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  Speaker 1: monarchs walking the royal grounds together. Ten years later, after
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  Speaker 1: having met with the queen and witnessing historical events like
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  Speaker 1: the seeking of the Titanic and the entirety of World
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  Speaker 1: War two, To Eat Malila passed away from natural causes.
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  Speaker 1: He was one hundred eighty eight years old. The thing
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  Speaker 1: about the king, though, was that he hadn't discovered the
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  Speaker 1: Fountain of Youth, nor had the gift that Captain Cook
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  Speaker 1: delivered to him given him immortality. Towey Malila, you see,
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  Speaker 1: was Captain Cook's gift a turtle, a radiated turtle, to
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  Speaker 1: be exact, originally from Madagascar. Captain Cook had found him
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  Speaker 1: during one of his expeditions and took him aboard his ship,
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  Speaker 1: only to present him to the Tongan royal family when
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  Speaker 1: he arrived. Towey Malila wasn't a real king. No turtle
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  Speaker 1: can be, of course, but he was a symbol and
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  Speaker 1: a cultural icon for both the family and the island
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  Speaker 1: as a whole. He holds the Guinness World Record for
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  Speaker 1: longest living tortoise, and his body has been preserved for
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  Speaker 1: display in the Tongan National Center on Tonga's main island
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  Speaker 1: of Tongatapu. However, Touey Malila isn't the only known turtle
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  Speaker 1: to have lived over one hundred fifty years. In the
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  Speaker 1: mid seventeen hundreds, a young aldebra giant tortoise was given
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  Speaker 1: to Robert Clive in a fish with the East India Company,
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  Speaker 1: named Adwaita. The animal lived on his estate for some
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  Speaker 1: time before it was transferred to the Ali poor A
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  Speaker 1: Zoo in India in eight where it lived until it's
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  Speaker 1: death in two thousand six. If zoologist had known its
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  Speaker 1: official birthday, they could have accurately determined his age. For now,
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  Speaker 1: Ti Malila still holds the record, but it is estimated
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  Speaker 1: that Adwaita lived to be even older, passing away at
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  Speaker 1: the ripe old age of two hundred fifty years. It
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  Speaker 1: seems the old fable about the tortoise and the hair
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  Speaker 1: still has a lot to teach us when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to living longer. Slow and steady wins the race. Good
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  Speaker 1: Luck tends to be elusive. Lost lottery tickets, poorly bet
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  Speaker 1: horse race, and a bad hand at poker can ruin
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  Speaker 1: a good time. Some say, once it's found, luck doesn't
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  Speaker 1: stick around for long, so make the most of it
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  Speaker 1: while you have it. Joseph Samuel stumbled upon a bit
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  Speaker 1: of good luck early in his life. Not much is
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  Speaker 1: known about him, though he served seven years in an
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  Speaker 1: English prison for robbery when he was only fourteen years old.
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  Speaker 1: After his sentence was over, he went to Sydney, Australia,
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  Speaker 1: where he didn't quite abandon his old life of petty crime.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, things got worse there. Samuel fell in with
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  Speaker 1: a bad crowd. He and another man named Isaac Simmons
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  Speaker 1: took to robbing houses. On one night in August of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen oh three, Samuel and Simmons entered the home of
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  Speaker 1: a Mrs Mary Breeze. They stole twenty four guineas and
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  Speaker 1: other small coins, as well as a desk. Mrs Breeze
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  Speaker 1: filed the report that night and Constable Joseph Luker decided
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  Speaker 1: to take a look around her property. He must have
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  Speaker 1: found what he was looking for, because the next day,
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  Speaker 1: Lucre's body was discovered right behind Mrs breeze Is home,
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  Speaker 1: making him the first on duty police officer killed in
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  Speaker 1: Australian history. An investigation into the murder was launched immediately,
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  Speaker 1: and it didn't take long for authorities to find Simmons
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  Speaker 1: and Samuel at the center of it all. Samuel, however,
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  Speaker 1: confessed to everything and was sentenced too far more than
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  Speaker 1: a handful of years in prison. He was hanged for
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  Speaker 1: his crimes. Simmons wasn't out of the woods, though. The
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  Speaker 1: police knew that he'd been involved, and so he was
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  Speaker 1: ordered to attend his friend's execution. One month later, Joseph, Samuel,
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  Speaker 1: and another man were escorted to the gallows. They were
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  Speaker 1: given their last rights, but the rabbi attending to Samuel
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  Speaker 1: asked for a final confession before he was hanged. Joseph
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  Speaker 1: recanted his confession, claiming that his accomplice, Isaac Simmons, had
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  Speaker 1: actually told him that he had done it. While the
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  Speaker 1: two were briefly incarcerated. Simmons was in the audience as
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  Speaker 1: he had been instructed, and when the people nearby found out,
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  Speaker 1: they began a turn on him. The man standing beside
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  Speaker 1: Samuel was given a pardon at the eleventh hour. Once
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  Speaker 1: the drama had died down, only Joseph Samuel was to
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  Speaker 1: hang that day. He bowed his head and prayed as
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  Speaker 1: the hangman slipped the noose around his neck. The cart
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  Speaker 1: attached to the rope was told to start moving, holding
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  Speaker 1: Samuel in the air to slowly strangle him to death.
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  Speaker 1: He struggled for several seconds before falling unconscious and falling
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  Speaker 1: onto his face as well. The rope holding him up
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  Speaker 1: had snapped. The executioner and the constables got him on
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  Speaker 1: his feet and prepared him for another try. Once again,
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  Speaker 1: they tightened the noose around his neck and the cart
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  Speaker 1: pulled away. This time, the rope stretched and unraveled, and
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  Speaker 1: he found himself with his two feet on the ground again.
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  Speaker 1: This time, the crowd cheered. While the police figured the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing was to be an unfortunate coincidence, many in
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  Speaker 1: the audience assumed that it was something else, something heavenly. Clearly,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Samuel was not meant to hang that day. The
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  Speaker 1: police tried one more time to execute him, and as
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  Speaker 1: the cart moved again, the rope gave out, just like
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  Speaker 1: the first time. Samuel, his throat sore and his by
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  Speaker 1: he weakened, had survived three separate hangings in one day.
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  Speaker 1: The crowd could not be contained. They demanded that he
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  Speaker 1: be pardoned, which the governor did right away, citing divine
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  Speaker 1: intervention on behalf of the accused. Sadly, Samuel couldn't beat
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  Speaker 1: the system a fourth time. His crimes got him shipped
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  Speaker 1: out to Newcastle, where he was to work in the mines.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen oh six, he and a group of seven
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  Speaker 1: other men tried to escape by boat. A storm moving
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  Speaker 1: in caught up with them and their vessel was destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: All eight men were presumed lost at sea. It appears
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  Speaker 1: that Mr Samuel had finally reached the end of his rope.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey, in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works, I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television
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  Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at
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  Speaker 1: the world of Lore dot com. And until next time,
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  Speaker 1: stay curious, Yeah,