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A Little Birdie Told Me · 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. 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 right there on display, just waiting
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  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Winter is the perfect time to curl up with a blanket,
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  Speaker 1: a cup of hot tea, and a cozy mystery novel.
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  Speaker 1: What's better than spending the chilly evening indoors attempting to
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  Speaker 1: answer the age old question who done it well? If
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  Speaker 1: you lived in New York City in the early seventies,
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  Speaker 1: there's one place you would have gone to pick up
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  Speaker 1: your newest cozy read. It was called Murder Ink. That's
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  Speaker 1: I NK as in the ink from a pen. And
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  Speaker 1: it was the first American bookstore solely devoted to selling
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  Speaker 1: mystery novels. The Hole in the Wall Bookshop was run
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  Speaker 1: out of a tiny storefront in Manhattan's Upper west Side.
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  Speaker 1: The decort was, in a word, eclectic. A plastic skeleton
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  Speaker 1: hung facing the front door, as if to welcome or
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  Speaker 1: threaten any would be customers. The floors were plaid linoleum,
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  Speaker 1: and the wallpaper was paisley flower arrangements hung from the ceiling.
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  Speaker 1: Tall wooden bookshelves lined the walls, each one overflowing with
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  Speaker 1: hundreds of paperback books. Here and there you might stumble
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  Speaker 1: upon the jar of pretzels or a cat curled up
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  Speaker 1: on the floor. When you were ready to check out,
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  Speaker 1: you would head towards the huge desk at the front
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  Speaker 1: of the room, and there sat the store's owner, thirty
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  Speaker 1: one year old Dylis win. With short, dark hair and
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  Speaker 1: eyes that seemed to be sizing up other people, Dylis
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  Speaker 1: cut an intimidating figure, but she was also one of
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  Speaker 1: the most beloved people in the mystery novel community. She
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  Speaker 1: was born in Dublin, Ireland, in nineteen thirty nine, but
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  Speaker 1: her mother brought her to the United States when she
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  Speaker 1: was still a baby. Grew up among her extended family
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  Speaker 1: in New Jersey, and, strangely enough, she never had a
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  Speaker 1: particular affinity for mystery stories. Sure, she read Nancy Drew,
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  Speaker 1: but that was basically a write of passage for any
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  Speaker 1: girl in the mid twentieth century. It wasn't until she
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  Speaker 1: graduated from college in nineteen sixty one that she became,
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  Speaker 1: as The New York Times put it, a serious reader
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  Speaker 1: of mysteries, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie. She
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  Speaker 1: often read two full novels each day, and that was
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  Speaker 1: all on top of her full time job as a copywriter.
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  Speaker 1: By nineteen seventy one, Dylis was making a good living,
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  Speaker 1: but she wasn't passionate about her work. She started daydreaming
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  Speaker 1: about turning her love of mystery novels into a job. Now,
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  Speaker 1: when Dylis wanted something, she didn't hesitate to get it.
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  Speaker 1: One Wednesday, she decided she would open a bookstore that
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  Speaker 1: only sold mystery novels, and she settled on the name
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  Speaker 1: Murder Inc. On Thursday, she walked around Manhattan until she
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  Speaker 1: found a suitable building for rent. On Friday, she signed
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  Speaker 1: the lease, and over the next six weeks she built
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  Speaker 1: up a stock of over fifteen hundred different titles, moved
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  Speaker 1: in her desk, and hung up her iconic skeleton, and
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  Speaker 1: just like that, it was time for the grand opening.
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  Speaker 1: On her first day of business, a reporter from The
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  Speaker 1: New York Times stumbled inside. He was so charmed by
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  Speaker 1: the odd little store that he wrote a positive review
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  Speaker 1: about it in the paper. The next thing, Dylis knew
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  Speaker 1: she had a near constant flood of customers, ranging from
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  Speaker 1: bookworms to forensic scientists and police detectives. Just one year
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  Speaker 1: after opening, she had doubled her stock, opened a mail
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  Speaker 1: order business, and even started catering to mystery novel collectors.
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  Speaker 1: To celebrate her success, she invited friends and customers to
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  Speaker 1: a party. In true Murder Ink fashion. The get together
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  Speaker 1: had a grizzly name, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. When
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  Speaker 1: guests arrived, they were promptly served a bloody Mary, and
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  Speaker 1: this party helped Dyllis realize something about herself. She actually
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  Speaker 1: liked hosting parties more than running her bookstore. In nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy five, she sold Murder Ink and pivoted to organizing
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  Speaker 1: mystery centric events. Every Sunday, she hosted mystery talks, where
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  Speaker 1: she interviewed writers, editors, and other guests in front of
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  Speaker 1: a live audience. She put together a two week mystery
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  Speaker 1: reader's tour of Great Britain, complete with a stop at
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  Speaker 1: the Tower of London and a walk through Jack the
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  Speaker 1: Ripper's neighborhood. And through all these events, Dylus met and
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  Speaker 1: became friends with a ton of novelists, and she got
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  Speaker 1: to thinking, what if instead of writing mysteries, she gave
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  Speaker 1: these authors a chance to solve one. In nineteen seventy seven,
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  Speaker 1: she teamed up with two other women to plan a
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  Speaker 1: murder mystery party for the Ages. It was held at
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  Speaker 1: the Mohunk Mountain House in New Platts, New York, in
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  Speaker 1: the dead of winter. Two hundred and fifty people were
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  Speaker 1: invited to bear witness to a murder, a staged one,
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  Speaker 1: that is, and then try to solve the case. Among
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  Speaker 1: the guests were authors Isaac Asimov and Stephen King. The
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  Speaker 1: party was such a success that it's been held annually
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  Speaker 1: ever since. Murder Inc shut down in two thousand and six,
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  Speaker 1: but Dylis wins legacy continues to delight and inspire those
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  Speaker 1: who love a good cozy winter time read. Soh, the
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  Speaker 1: beloved bookshop founder passed away in twenty sixteen. She donated
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  Speaker 1: her body to science, perhaps in the hopes that she
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  Speaker 1: might help future physicians learn to solve the mysteries of medicine.
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  Speaker 1: Animals really are incredible, aren't they. I think that most
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  Speaker 1: of us have dogs or cats in our lives who
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  Speaker 1: are cherished, silly and maybe even a little bit bizarre.
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  Speaker 1: I know in my family we have a running joke
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  Speaker 1: about what's going on between our dogs' ears, and I
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  Speaker 1: think most people think about that every once in a while,
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  Speaker 1: usually after a beloved family pet does something way too
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  Speaker 1: smart or chaotic. But sometimes they seem so human, especially
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  Speaker 1: when they're reminding us that it's time for dinner. But
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  Speaker 1: one species actually can speak to us if we give
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  Speaker 1: them time and attention. It turns out that Edgar Allen
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  Speaker 1: Poe wasn't too far off the mud with his smack
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  Speaker 1: talking feathered friend. Some species of birds, including cockatiles, crows,
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  Speaker 1: and yes, even ravens, are capable of speech. And of
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  Speaker 1: course let's not forget about parrots, although they tend to
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  Speaker 1: either be the b villain in Alatin or incessantly asking
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  Speaker 1: if Polly wants a cracker. But back in the early
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  Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, a funny little birdie was discovered in South
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  Speaker 1: America that changed history. There are about three hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty species of parrots spread across almost every continent, from
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  Speaker 1: Australia to Asia and Africa to the Americas, and they'll
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  Speaker 1: eat just about anything, even meat, which opens up a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of possibilities for a new winged Halloween beastia. Some
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  Speaker 1: are as big as a housecat, well almost, and parrots
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  Speaker 1: can almost live as long as thirty five to fifty years,
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  Speaker 1: depending on the species. But the oldest ever recorded was
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  Speaker 1: a cockatoo named Cookie, who died at the age of
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  Speaker 1: eighty two. And yes, some species of parrots can learn
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  Speaker 1: to talk, although if you want a chatty pet that
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  Speaker 1: will probably be with you for the rest of your
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  Speaker 1: natural life, you should know that it takes some practice
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  Speaker 1: and patience and treats, lots and lots of treats. Now,
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  Speaker 1: we humans have always been drawn to parrot's colorful plumage
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  Speaker 1: and even more colorful attitudes. Alexander von Humboldt was no different.
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  Speaker 1: Humboldt was a geographer and a naturalist by trade, and
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  Speaker 1: he absorbed the Enlightenment idea of learning anything and everything,
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  Speaker 1: making it his life's work. Swinging between charismatic and annoying,
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  Speaker 1: Humboldt turned out an impressive amount of work. Before his death.
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  Speaker 1: He traveled to four continents, wrote over thirty six books
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  Speaker 1: and twenty five thousand letters, allegedly only slept four hours
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  Speaker 1: a night, and lived basically on coffee he called it
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  Speaker 1: concentrated sunbeams. I like to call it nap in a cup.
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  Speaker 1: My kind of guy, right, So it's not surprising that
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  Speaker 1: tall tales about his exploits appeared over time. He seems
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  Speaker 1: like a bizarre mix of a mad scientists and an
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  Speaker 1: adventurer with all the stories that he told. But one
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  Speaker 1: of those anecdotes might not have been as fictional as
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  Speaker 1: we thought. In June of seventeen ninety nine, Humbold set
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  Speaker 1: out from Spain on a journey that would take him
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  Speaker 1: the length and breadth of North and South America. Lasting
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  Speaker 1: about five years, he would bounce through different countries and
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  Speaker 1: colonies before making his way back to Europe. He hoped
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  Speaker 1: with new discoveries to publish, and he got what he wanted,
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  Speaker 1: recording vast amounts of raw ecological and zoological data about
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  Speaker 1: every place he visited. He also made sure to note
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  Speaker 1: the cultures he encountered, the conversations he had, and the
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  Speaker 1: people he met, and to be fair, speaking Spanish was
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  Speaker 1: a huge help, giving him the ability to talk to
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  Speaker 1: most indigenous tribes he came across. Because few places had
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  Speaker 1: escaped Spain's grasping, greedy fingers in the century since Columbus's
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  Speaker 1: conquest and everything that followed. That unifying language also helped
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  Speaker 1: humboldt gain insight into the peoples he met, no matter
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  Speaker 1: where they lived. According to one story, Humbold made a fascinating,
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary discovery in the depths of the Venezuelan jungle around
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  Speaker 1: eighteen hundred. He was exploring the Orinoco River and staying
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  Speaker 1: with the local Carab tribe. These people kept several parrots
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  Speaker 1: in cages throughout the village, and many of them could
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  Speaker 1: and would speak to anyone who talked to them. Delighted
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  Speaker 1: by what he saw, Humbold observed each parrot in turn,
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  Speaker 1: and then began to realize that one bird sounded different
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  Speaker 1: from the others. After asking his hosts about the creature,
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  Speaker 1: he learned that it hadn't originally been theirs. The parrots
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  Speaker 1: had come from a neighboring tribe, one of the Carib
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  Speaker 1: people's enemies. Some years before. The tribe had been driven
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  Speaker 1: away from their lands, and the last members died decades
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  Speaker 1: before Humbold's arrival, meaning that all aspects of their culture
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  Speaker 1: died out with them, well, all but one. You see.
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  Speaker 1: Humbold realized that this parrot must have learned to speak
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  Speaker 1: its original owner's language, and was therefore the last living
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  Speaker 1: creature to do so. Leaping into action, he managed to
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  Speaker 1: phonetically record about forty words from the near dead language
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  Speaker 1: and saved it from total extinction. Now, the truth of
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  Speaker 1: the story might always be a little iffy, and this
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  Speaker 1: project was relatively minor compared to his other work, but
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  Speaker 1: it has been a gift and an inspiration for linguists
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  Speaker 1: and even artists to this day. In fact, in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety seven, an artist taught that language to a pair
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  Speaker 1: of modern parrots, and knowing how long they live, it'll
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  Speaker 1: probably be with us for many more years to come.
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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 show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.