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A Stone's Throw · 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 are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Let me tell you a curious story from South Munster,
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  Speaker 1: in Ireland, before recorded history. A chieftain falls in battle.
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  Speaker 1: Dying of his injuries, he crawls to the banks of
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  Speaker 1: the River Lee, and there he lies upon a large
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  Speaker 1: flat stone and waits to die. Now his identity has
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  Speaker 1: been lost to time, but not so for the woman
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  Speaker 1: who finds him by the river. She was the Queen
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  Speaker 1: of the Fairies, a woman of immense power. For many
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  Speaker 1: years she had doated on this chieftain, but she had
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  Speaker 1: been unable to win his love. As his blood ran
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  Speaker 1: onto the stone at the river's edge, she wept for him,
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  Speaker 1: her tears mixing with the blood upon the rock. She
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  Speaker 1: kissed the stone as well, and with the gesture her
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  Speaker 1: powers sank into the mineral itself. Countless centuries later, in
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  Speaker 1: the fifteenth century, Kormick Lardit McCarthy, ninth, Lord of Muskery,
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  Speaker 1: was facing a dilemma. He was to appear before Queen
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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth the First to make an appeal to keep his
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  Speaker 1: ancestral lands. On the eve of this appearance, he prayed
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  Speaker 1: to the pagan goddess Cleona. That night he would be
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  Speaker 1: visited by this very same Queen of the Fairies, and
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  Speaker 1: she told him that there was a stone in his
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  Speaker 1: castle that had absorbed her magic. If he was to
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  Speaker 1: kiss that stone, any problem he had would be resolved.
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  Speaker 1: And of course he followed her advice, and after he
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  Speaker 1: kissed that stone, he was able to eloquently argue his
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  Speaker 1: case against the Queen and keep his land. This is
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  Speaker 1: one of the many legends that circulate around a particular
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  Speaker 1: castle in Ireland, or, more specifically, a part of that
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  Speaker 1: castle's battlements, a block of limestone set into the tower
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  Speaker 1: sometime around fourteen forty six. What makes this block so
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  Speaker 1: special has been shrouded in myth and fanciful history. There's
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  Speaker 1: not a single part of the story that everyone agrees on,
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  Speaker 1: up to and including the ways in which Cormick, Lord
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  Speaker 1: of Muskery, learned of its special powers. One myth says
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  Speaker 1: that Cormick rescued an old woman from drowning in a river,
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  Speaker 1: and the woman, revealing herself to be a witch, informed
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  Speaker 1: him of this magical stone that existed in the foundations
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  Speaker 1: of his own castle. A more historically grounded tale says
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  Speaker 1: that this stone was a gift from Robert the Bruce
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  Speaker 1: to Cormick in thanks for aiding him in battle during
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  Speaker 1: the First War of Scottish Independence. This would imbue the
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  Speaker 1: stone with great significance, having been gifted from Scotland to Ireland.
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  Speaker 1: The legend even claims that this stone is from the
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  Speaker 1: same bed as the Stone of Scoon, the traditional stone
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  Speaker 1: used in the ceremony to crown Scottish and later British monarchs.
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  Speaker 1: It's an appealing tale of solidarity, although the geology tells
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  Speaker 1: a very different story. You see, the Stone of Scon
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  Speaker 1: is red sandstone, while the Stone of Cormick Lardit McCarthy's
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  Speaker 1: castle is three hundred and thirty million year old limestone,
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  Speaker 1: more similar in composition to the rock in the south
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  Speaker 1: of Ireland. This also cast out on another of the
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  Speaker 1: stone's fanciful origin stories, that it was the stone the
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  Speaker 1: biblical figure Jacob slept on in the Holy Land, the
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  Speaker 1: resting place that gave him a vision of the latter
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  Speaker 1: to heaven, which would henceforth be known as Jacob's Ladder.
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  Speaker 1: Some have maintained that this stone was retrieved during the
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  Speaker 1: Crusades and eventually made its way back to Ireland, where
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  Speaker 1: McCarthy installed it in a place of honor upon his castle.
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  Speaker 1: Oh and the name of that castle, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: is Blarney Castle. The stone itself is known as the
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  Speaker 1: Blarney Stone, and it said that if you kiss it,
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  Speaker 1: it will bestow upon you the fabled gift of the
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  Speaker 1: gab or, a special eloquence and charm. Over the years,
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  Speaker 1: many famous figures had traveled to Blarney Castle to receive
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  Speaker 1: this particular blessing, including most famously Winston Churchill. A countless
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  Speaker 1: number of taurusts have followed in his footsteps. Kissing the
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  Speaker 1: Blarney Stone may sound trivial, but it's not the easiest
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  Speaker 1: thing to do. In order to reach the stone, you
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  Speaker 1: have to lie on your back and lean out over
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  Speaker 1: the castle's battlements. If you have a fear of heights,
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  Speaker 1: it would be a literal way to face your fears.
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  Speaker 1: But in the end it just might be worth it.
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  Speaker 1: Whether you're partaking in the blessing of the God of
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  Speaker 1: Jacob and Irish, which the Queen of the Fairies, or
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  Speaker 1: simply linking yourself to the history of Robert the Bruce
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  Speaker 1: and his fight against the English, you are taking a
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  Speaker 1: moment to connect yourself with the past in a very
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  Speaker 1: tangible way that at the very least will give you
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  Speaker 1: something curious to talk about. Randy was roughly four days
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  Speaker 1: into the experiment when he started to think that he
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  Speaker 1: had made a terrible mistake. The high school student from
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  Speaker 1: San Diego was out for a midnight's stroll when he
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  Speaker 1: saw something that just about broke his brain. As he
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  Speaker 1: approached an intersection with a pedestrian crossing sign at the corner,
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  Speaker 1: the stick figure man at the center of the sign moved.
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  Speaker 1: Randy froze and rubbed his eyes. Now the stick figure
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  Speaker 1: man was sliding down the signpost. He reached the pavement,
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  Speaker 1: turned and strode away across the intersection, whistling as he went. Randy,
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  Speaker 1: of course, almost ran, screaming in the opposite direction. Fortunately,
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  Speaker 1: his friend Bruce was on hand to calm him down.
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  Speaker 1: When Randy described later what he had seen, Bruce explained
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  Speaker 1: that it wasn't real. The man and the sign had
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  Speaker 1: not moved. Randy was just hallucinating, but he wasn't on psychedelics.
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  Speaker 1: The only drug in his system was the caffeine from
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  Speaker 1: the Coca colas that he had downed. The seventeen year old,
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  Speaker 1: you see, hadn't slept in over four days, and unfortunately
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  Speaker 1: he still had seven more to go. It was December
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty three, and at that point the record
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  Speaker 1: for the longest time spent awake was eleven days or
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and forty hours. Randy and Bruce had decided
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  Speaker 1: to try and break the record as part of an
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  Speaker 1: experiment for their school science fare. Randy lost the coin
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  Speaker 1: toss to determine who would stay awake, which meant that
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  Speaker 1: Bruce and their friend Joe would take turns monitoring him.
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  Speaker 1: Even before they began, though, the experiment started attracting attention,
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  Speaker 1: Randy was interviewed by a San Diego newspaper and contacted
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  Speaker 1: by scientists who offered to monitor his recovery after the
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  Speaker 1: experiment was complete. Meanwhile, his parents deliberately tried to convince
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  Speaker 1: him to choose another project. They had a good reason
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  Speaker 1: to be concerned too. At that point, no one knew
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  Speaker 1: the impact of staying awake so long, but a few
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  Speaker 1: years earlier, scientists had conducted an experiment where some cats
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  Speaker 1: were kept awake for fifteen days straight. In that case,
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  Speaker 1: there hadn't been any long term side effects to study,
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  Speaker 1: because the cats all died from stress. Despite this potential danger,
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  Speaker 1: Randy and his friends were determined to go through with
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  Speaker 1: their plan. The first thirty six hours passed with only
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  Speaker 1: minor changes. Randy had difficulty focusing his eyes and he
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  Speaker 1: stumbled over tongue twisters, but otherwise he felt okay. The
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  Speaker 1: next day, though, his body temperature dropped and he struggled
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  Speaker 1: to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes.
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  Speaker 1: He also grew increasingly irritable, which made monitoring him a
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  Speaker 1: lot less fun. It wasn't until the hallucinations began on
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  Speaker 1: day four that the boys started to worry, and things
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  Speaker 1: got more serious from there. On day five, Randy spent
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  Speaker 1: several hours convinced that he was a famous football player. Later,
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  Speaker 1: he screamed at Joe to turn off the radio because
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  Speaker 1: he thought the DJ was laughing at him. Even when
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  Speaker 1: Randy was not hallucinating, he was always at risk of
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  Speaker 1: falling asleep. Bruce or Joe had to accompany him to
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  Speaker 1: the bathroom out of fear that he would pass out
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  Speaker 1: while on the toilet. They kept him alert through frequent
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  Speaker 1: walks or games of basketball, and while these distractions worked temporarily,
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  Speaker 1: Randy would always start to fade once again when he
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  Speaker 1: was back home. By the final day, Randy was a zombie.
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  Speaker 1: His speech became slurred, and he couldn't complete basic math
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  Speaker 1: problems or recite the alphabet without forgetting what he was doing. Oddly,
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  Speaker 1: his basketball skills kept improving, though, probably thanks to all
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  Speaker 1: the practice. On January eighth, Randy finally crossed the finish line.
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  Speaker 1: After setting a new record for two hundred and forty
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  Speaker 1: six hours awake. He passed out and slept for fourteen
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  Speaker 1: hours straight. His brain waves were monitored by those scientists
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  Speaker 1: who had volunteered to help, and what they found was startling.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed that different sections of Randy's brain had been
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  Speaker 1: taking turns shutting down for brief periods, so while he
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  Speaker 1: had never been completely asleep, parts of him had literally
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  Speaker 1: been dreaming. To everyone's surprise, Randy's sleep patterns were back
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  Speaker 1: to normal within just a few days with no signs
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  Speaker 1: of any lasting side effects, and as you'd imagine, his
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  Speaker 1: story became a national headline. While the data that Bruce
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  Speaker 1: and Joe had gathered was circulated throughout the scientific community.
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  Speaker 1: Randy's swift recovery in nineteen sixty four seemed to suggest
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  Speaker 1: that people were capable of staying awake for long periods
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  Speaker 1: without suffering long term side effects. At least that's what
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  Speaker 1: they thought at the time. By twenty seventeen, though, Randy
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  Speaker 1: Gardner was once again lying awake each night, although this
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  Speaker 1: time it wasn't by choice. Fifty three years after beating
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  Speaker 1: the world record, he had developed a horrible case of insomnia.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps it was his brain having revenge on him, or
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  Speaker 1: maybe Randy's body had simply gotten use to staying up
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  Speaker 1: later than most. Either way, the boy who dared to
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  Speaker 1: stay awake was now desperate to fall asleep. 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 the Worldoflore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.