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The Write Stuff · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Baseball great Jackie Robinson, Tennis star Alphea Gibson,
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  Speaker 1: Track and feel legend Wilma Rudolph. These are just some
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  Speaker 1: of the men and women who set records and broke barriers.
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  Speaker 1: They are remembered today as trailblazers for black athletes everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: But one man isn't as well known as them, though
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  Speaker 1: he should be. What he was able to accomplish in
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  Speaker 1: less than a week was history making, and it happened
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  Speaker 1: at one of the most famous venues in the world.
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  Speaker 1: It was eighteen eighty in New York City. The skyscraper
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't make its debut for another several years. Over at
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  Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden, a crowd had gathered to see something
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  Speaker 1: incredible Before the garden had moved to its permanent home
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  Speaker 1: on thirty fourth Streets. It was a railroad station on
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  Speaker 1: the corner of East twenty six Streets and Madison Avenue.
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  Speaker 1: It was then converted into a venue for P. T.
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  Speaker 1: Barnum Circus, and by eighteen seventy nine it had become
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  Speaker 1: a major entertainment center of all kinds of events. The
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  Speaker 1: first Westminster Keunnel Club Dog Show was held there on
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  Speaker 1: August tenth of eighteen eighty. However, the garden hosted the
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  Speaker 1: most popular spectator sport in America. Eighteen men had come
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  Speaker 1: to test their endurance in a six day long race.
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  Speaker 1: Fred Hitchborne was one of them. A black man originally
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  Speaker 1: from Haiti, Hitchborn had arrived in the United States years
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  Speaker 1: earlier to build a new life for himself. He worked
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  Speaker 1: his way up slowly, getting a job at a local
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  Speaker 1: grocery store before running in races on the side. His
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  Speaker 1: performance impressed to sports promoter named Daniel O'Leary, who saw
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  Speaker 1: something special in Hitchborn and decided to sponsor him. However,
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  Speaker 1: the name Fred Hitchborne wasn't going to fly in the
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  Speaker 1: wide world of professional sports. In eighteen eighty, it changed
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  Speaker 1: his name to the catchier Frank Hart instead, and heart
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  Speaker 1: was a wonder The press even described him that way
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  Speaker 1: in backhanded articles that dubbed him the Negro Wonder. No
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  Speaker 1: matter how many times he won or how popular he became,
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  Speaker 1: people never let him forget where he stood. He dealt
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  Speaker 1: with hostility from local competitors as well. They wouldn't shake
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  Speaker 1: his hand and often lobbed racial slurs at him before
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  Speaker 1: and during each race. In one instance, it was believed
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  Speaker 1: that a spectator who had given Heart a cup of
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  Speaker 1: soda water before the race had actually poisoned him. He
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  Speaker 1: got sick almost immediately, but he didn't let the pain
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  Speaker 1: stop him. Heart ran and one Finally, in eighteen eighty,
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  Speaker 1: Heart entered the competition that would define his career. He
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  Speaker 1: was one of three black men going up against fifteen
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  Speaker 1: white men and what was called a six day go
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  Speaker 1: as you please race. Before baseball became America's national pastime,
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  Speaker 1: crowds gathered to cheer on a sport called pedestrianism. In
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  Speaker 1: this particular race, competitors went around an oval track for
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  Speaker 1: six days by any means necessary. They could walk, run, crawl,
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  Speaker 1: or jump whatever they wanted to do as long as
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  Speaker 1: they went around the track as many times as possible.
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  Speaker 1: For the duration of the event. Cots were set up
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the track for them to rest
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  Speaker 1: for a few hours before picking back up again, and
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  Speaker 1: the audience cheered the men on, especially Heart, who ran
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  Speaker 1: well walked circles around the competition. Over the course of
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  Speaker 1: six days, frank Hart walked five hundred sixty five miles,
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  Speaker 1: which averages out to roughly ninety four miles A day.
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  Speaker 1: Before the event had started, Heart had wisely wagered thirty
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  Speaker 1: six dollars on himself, combined with the prize money he'd wont.
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  Speaker 1: After the race, Heart went home with almost twenty two
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  Speaker 1: dollars by today's standards, that made him one of the
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  Speaker 1: wealthiest athletes in the country. Unfortunately, pedestrianism is popularity wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: last forever. An up and coming sport called baseball was
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  Speaker 1: gaining in popularity and would quickly overtake pedestrianism as the
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  Speaker 1: national pastime, and Frank Hart Well, he faded into obscurity
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  Speaker 1: along with the thing that made him famous. Today, collectors
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  Speaker 1: remember him thanks to the tobacco companies of the time.
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  Speaker 1: They used to insert trading cards of famous pedestrians into
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  Speaker 1: their cigarette packs, making Hearts one of the first black
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  Speaker 1: athletes ever portrayed on a trading card a point of
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  Speaker 1: pride for a man who, despite his treatment both on
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  Speaker 1: and off the track, at every reason to walk tall.
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  Speaker 1: While the numbers aren't exact, it's been said that percent
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  Speaker 1: of people who start writing a novel never finish it.
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  Speaker 1: My you, it's a difficult task, inventing a brand new
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  Speaker 1: world full of fictional characters who are meant to feel
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  Speaker 1: real to your readers. Writing a novel takes determination and
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  Speaker 1: a dedication to one's craft, and even if three percent
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  Speaker 1: actually do finish writing their first book, chances are it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be very bad. Travis was part of that
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  Speaker 1: three percent. He wanted to be a writer, and in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand four he set his eyes on a very
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  Speaker 1: specific prize. The publishing company Published America was looking for
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  Speaker 1: manuscripts of a particularly high quality. They didn't bother with
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  Speaker 1: what they saw as low brow genres like science fiction
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  Speaker 1: or fantasy. Of the seventies submissions they received each day,
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  Speaker 1: almost of them were rejected. Published America wanted to sign
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  Speaker 1: only the best works of literary fiction. Travis believed that
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  Speaker 1: he was just such an author, and he finally saw
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  Speaker 1: his chance to be taken seriously. So he hunkered down
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  Speaker 1: at his computer and wrote for weeks on end, pouring
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  Speaker 1: his heart and soul onto the page. When he had
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  Speaker 1: finished the final draft of his new book, titled Atlanta Nights,
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  Speaker 1: he sent it to publish America and waited for their response.
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  Speaker 1: He was hopeful, to say the least, they had to
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  Speaker 1: love it, after all, he had worked so hard to
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  Speaker 1: give them the kind of literary revelation they had asked for.
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  Speaker 1: On December seventh of that year, Travis finally got his response.
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  Speaker 1: Published America had read his novel and they loved it.
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  Speaker 1: They sent him a contract to review over the holidays
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  Speaker 1: and to return to them after the new year. Travis
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  Speaker 1: brought the contract to his lawyer, who looked it over
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  Speaker 1: and decided it wouldn't be in his best interest to
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  Speaker 1: publish the novel. After all, Travis should have been crushed.
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  Speaker 1: His dream of seeing his book on a bookstore shelf
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  Speaker 1: had just been dashed. But he was okay with it.
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  Speaker 1: They all were. You see, Travis wasn't a real author.
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  Speaker 1: He was a persona created by a group of professional
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  Speaker 1: authors with the grudge against Published America. The company had
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  Speaker 1: presented itself as a sophisticated publisher that only accepted books
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  Speaker 1: of the highest caliber in reality, though it operated more
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  Speaker 1: like a vanity press in that it made authors pay
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  Speaker 1: a handsome fee upfront to have copies of their manuscripts
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  Speaker 1: printed offended at their statements against certain genres of fiction,
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  Speaker 1: author James D. McDonald assembled a group of science fiction
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  Speaker 1: and fantasy writers to work together on a little scheme.
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  Speaker 1: They wrote Atlanta Nights with the express purpose of creating
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  Speaker 1: something awful. There was almost no plot, spelling and grammar
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  Speaker 1: came and went with the breeze. Two chapters were written
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  Speaker 1: by two different authors based on one small piece of
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  Speaker 1: an outline they both shared, and one chapter was duplicated
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  Speaker 1: word for word and included as another separate chapter. Later,
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  Speaker 1: characters died and came back to life without explanation. Characters
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  Speaker 1: changed roles and occupations. They even included an entire chapter
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  Speaker 1: that had been written completely by an artificial intelligence program
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  Speaker 1: which examined the previously written chapters and then spit out
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  Speaker 1: what it thought was the appropriate text. The authors then
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  Speaker 1: came up with the pseudonym Travis, who we met earlier.
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  Speaker 1: He was given the last name of Tea like the beverage,
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  Speaker 1: making him Travis t and then the team submitted the
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  Speaker 1: manuscript for review, and of course Published America accepted it.
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  Speaker 1: They accepted almost everything as long as someone was willing
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  Speaker 1: to pay their fees. But after the company sent over
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  Speaker 1: the contract and the authors had a lawyer look it over,
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  Speaker 1: they decided they couldn't go through with publication. They let
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  Speaker 1: Publish America in on the joke, and the company immediately
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  Speaker 1: rescinded its acceptance of the manuscript. That wasn't a problem, though,
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  Speaker 1: The authors published it any way through a print on
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  Speaker 1: de man service and donated all proceeds to the Science
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  Speaker 1: Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund. Atlanta
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  Speaker 1: Knights got some pretty awful reviews, which is very understandable.
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  Speaker 1: After all, it was supposed to be terrible, which might
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  Speaker 1: just be the best example ever of the problem with
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  Speaker 1: design by committee. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the world of lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,