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Child's Play · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. For children, a darkened bedroom can
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  Speaker 1: be one of the scariest places on earth. There's a
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  Speaker 1: reason popular culture is rife with stories about inanimate playthings
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  Speaker 1: coming to life. The Twilight Zones, Talking Tina bart Simpson's
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  Speaker 1: sentient Krusty, the clown doll on a Halloween episode of
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  Speaker 1: The Simpsons, and perhaps the most famous of all, the
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  Speaker 1: Murderous Chucky from the popular child's play film franchise, all
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  Speaker 1: of which have haunted the nightmares of children and adults alike.
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  Speaker 1: But where did our fear of evil dolls come from?
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  Speaker 1: Is it the cold black void of their unblinking eyes,
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  Speaker 1: the rigid movements of their arms and legs, or could
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  Speaker 1: it be the tinny robotic voices emanating from deep inside
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  Speaker 1: their chests? Thanks to Thomas Edison, it was all three.
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  Speaker 1: Back in nine, Edison saw how technology was changing In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he was responsible for a lot of those changes, and
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  Speaker 1: he believed that there was no better place to explore
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  Speaker 1: its benefits than within the home. He had already made
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  Speaker 1: history with the phonograph twelve years earlier, but its lack
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  Speaker 1: of success in the market had led him to abandon
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  Speaker 1: the project. Other inventors stepped into advance what Edison had begun,
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  Speaker 1: specifically by replacing his tinfoil wrap cylinder with one made
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  Speaker 1: entirely of wax. The breakthrough was achieved by Alexander Graham Bell,
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  Speaker 1: his cousin Chichester Bell, and frequent collaborator Charles Tainter. Edison
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  Speaker 1: recognized the benefits of using wax instead of foil and
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  Speaker 1: debuted his up aided phonograph, produced by his Edison Phonograph Company.
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  Speaker 1: That company was eventually bought by a man named Jeff Slippingcott,
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  Speaker 1: who saw phonographs as perfect for the business world, specifically
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  Speaker 1: for dictation purposes. Edison, however, believed the device's future was
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  Speaker 1: within the average American home, and he wanted to demonstrate
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  Speaker 1: that belief in a profoundly bold way. He got to
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  Speaker 1: work in his New Jersey lab on a new product,
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  Speaker 1: one that would be made for children, not adults. It
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  Speaker 1: was a doll measuring twenty two inches tall and fitted
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  Speaker 1: with four wooden limbs. It's porcelain head boasted a long
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  Speaker 1: mane of hair, and its metal torso held a tiny
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  Speaker 1: phonograph inside, the sound cone of which pointed out toward
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  Speaker 1: the holes in the doll's chest, so kids could hear
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  Speaker 1: twenty second long nursery rhymes and songs. All they had
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  Speaker 1: to do is turn the crank on the back of
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  Speaker 1: the doll a few times, and suddenly they'd hear Jack
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  Speaker 1: and Jill or Mary had a little lamb pumping out
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  Speaker 1: from the minuscule wax disc inside. At least that's what
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  Speaker 1: they expected to hear. Unfortunately, the dolls were often returned
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  Speaker 1: due to the wax records being broken or the sound
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  Speaker 1: quality being dismal. It was believed that a few of
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  Speaker 1: the women working in Edison's factory had recorded the sound bites,
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  Speaker 1: which came out distorted and incomprehensible when replayed via the
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  Speaker 1: miniscule phonograph, especially after repeated use. Although Edison had expected
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  Speaker 1: these dolls to wind up in the arms of all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of children, their price tags made them affordable only
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  Speaker 1: to the wealthiest ones whose parents could actually afford them.
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  Speaker 1: A doll without clothes sold for ten dollars back then,
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  Speaker 1: while a fully clothed version sold for twenty. If they
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  Speaker 1: were on store shelves today, those prices would be two
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  Speaker 1: hundred dollars and five dollars, respectively. Worse yet, the dolls
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  Speaker 1: were heavy, weighing four pounds apiece, and customers often demanded
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  Speaker 1: better quality in terms of sound and manufacturing, especially given
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  Speaker 1: their cost. Edison, when asked about them, often referred to
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  Speaker 1: them as his little monsters. They were more trouble than
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  Speaker 1: they were word, and after only one month in production,
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  Speaker 1: he shut the whole operation down. Edison was believed to
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  Speaker 1: have made over dollars, only selling five hundred or so
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  Speaker 1: during those turbulent weeks on the market. He had also
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  Speaker 1: planned on building a second version with better internals and
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  Speaker 1: clearer sound, but there was no way to get the
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  Speaker 1: cost down. Combined with the mountain of debt crushing the company,
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  Speaker 1: any chances for a talking doll two points Oh, we're
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  Speaker 1: dashed pretty quickly. Today, Edison's talking to toys are considered
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  Speaker 1: one forgotten loss among many of the famous inventor, and
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  Speaker 1: by today's standards they're charming glimpses into how technology has
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  Speaker 1: advanced at the turn of the century. Just make sure
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  Speaker 1: you admire them with the lights on. Famous people aren't
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  Speaker 1: just fascinating while they're alive. They also keep us asking
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  Speaker 1: questions long after they're gone. When Albert Einstein died in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, pathologist Thomas Harvey conducted an autopsy on
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  Speaker 1: his body and removed the physicist's brain. Then he took
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  Speaker 1: it to the University of Pennsylvania to be studied. It
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  Speaker 1: was dissected and pieces were handed off to other experts
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  Speaker 1: for further examination. In the end, a large portion of
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  Speaker 1: Einstein's brain was preserved by Harvey, while much of it
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  Speaker 1: was cut into small pieces and put on display in
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  Speaker 1: museums and laboratories later on. His wasn't the only body
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  Speaker 1: part save for posterity, either. Visitors to the National Museum
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  Speaker 1: of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, can see
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  Speaker 1: fragments of President Lincoln's skull alongside the bullet that killed him.
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  Speaker 1: Truth be told. The preservation of body parts belonging to
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  Speaker 1: historical figures is fairly common, and it's been going on
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  Speaker 1: for a long time. Way back in sixteen ten, astronomer
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  Speaker 1: Galileo Galilei was attacked by the Roman Catholic Church for
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  Speaker 1: his belief in helio said trism. By claiming that the
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  Speaker 1: Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around,
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  Speaker 1: Galileo went against the commonly held belief that the Earth
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  Speaker 1: was the center of the universe. An inquisition was formed
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  Speaker 1: and he was accused of contradicting the Church. The deck
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  Speaker 1: was stacked against him as experts of his day, also
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  Speaker 1: known as qualifiers, concluded that the astronomer was wrong in
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  Speaker 1: his assessment. Holy scripture dictated that the Earth stood still
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  Speaker 1: while other planets moved around it. Galileo was ordered to
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  Speaker 1: stop discussing heliocentrism going forward, and it was not to
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  Speaker 1: be taught or written about unless he wanted to receive
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  Speaker 1: further punishment, and he agreed, although he didn't stay silent
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  Speaker 1: for long. He published a book soon after which featured
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  Speaker 1: a dialogue between a scientist, a philosopher, and a scholar
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  Speaker 1: where the concept of heliocentrism came up more than once.
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  Speaker 1: Its conclusions were a clear shot across the bow of
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  Speaker 1: the Church, and Galileo was brought before the court once
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  Speaker 1: more to defend himself. He was found guilty of heresy
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  Speaker 1: and sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest, which is
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  Speaker 1: how he spent the rest of his days. It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: all bad. He welcomed guests to his home, and he
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  Speaker 1: continued to write, publishing books that eventually found their way
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  Speaker 1: into the hands of great thinkers like Albert Einstein. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen forty two, Galileo died of heart failure, and
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  Speaker 1: the world lost one of its stars. Now he was
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  Speaker 1: originally meant to be buried alongside his father in the
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  Speaker 1: main body of Italy's Basilica of Santa Croce. Instead, the
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  Speaker 1: pope had his body placed in a small, unmarked grave,
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  Speaker 1: continuing his punishment, and it would reside there in obscurity
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  Speaker 1: for almost a hundred years. Attitudes changed in seventeen thirty seven, though,
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  Speaker 1: by which time Galileo's actions didn't seem so sacrilegious anymore.
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  Speaker 1: So a monumental tomb was erected in the Basilica in
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  Speaker 1: his honor. His remains were exhumed and placed within the
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  Speaker 1: new tomb, giving the disgrace scientists both the respect and
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  Speaker 1: the peace he had deserved all along. However, during the
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  Speaker 1: move three of His fingers as well as a tooth,
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  Speaker 1: were all taken off his corpse, not theft, but an
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  Speaker 1: act of admiration by men who saw Galileo as a
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  Speaker 1: saint despite the Church's views. The fingers and tooth found
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  Speaker 1: their way to numerous owners over the years. One finger,
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  Speaker 1: his middle finger, in fact, was sealed in a glass
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  Speaker 1: egg and put on display in museums all over Italy,
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  Speaker 1: while the two others wound up in a private collector's
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  Speaker 1: vase around nineteen o five, and that was where the
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  Speaker 1: trail went cold, with no one knowing exactly what had
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  Speaker 1: happened to the missing appendages until two thousand nine. That
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  Speaker 1: year the vase was put up for auction. It had
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  Speaker 1: been kept inside a wooden box adorned with the bust
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  Speaker 1: of Galileo on top, although the label describing its contents
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  Speaker 1: had fallen away. The new owner had opened the box
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  Speaker 1: with his daughter and did some research of their own,
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  Speaker 1: coming across the story of what had happened to the
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  Speaker 1: man's remains and how they had been tampered with during
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  Speaker 1: their move Tests were run on the finger, confirming that
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  Speaker 1: they once belonged to the man who had watched the
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  Speaker 1: stars and stood up for what he believed in. Today
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  Speaker 1: they are on display in Florence, Italy, pointing up towards
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  Speaker 1: the sky, just like their owner had done so many
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  Speaker 1: years before. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
• 9:15
  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 Manky
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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,