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Stranger Than Fiction · 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. If you think about it, each of us
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  Speaker 1: is really two people. There's the side we show to
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  Speaker 1: the outside world each day, and then there's the side
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  Speaker 1: we keep hidden, the side almost no one else knows about,
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  Speaker 1: except for maybe a partner or a close friend. Chris
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  Speaker 1: Cardini was also two people, but he made sure that
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  Speaker 1: everyone was aware of all of his different sides. He
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  Speaker 1: kept nothing secrets. Chris was born in London in May
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen one e two. His father was a World
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  Speaker 1: War One veteran and his mother was an Edwardian beauty
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  Speaker 1: who inspired numerous portraits and sculptures from the greatest artists
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  Speaker 1: of her time. Sadly, his parents were not happily married,
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  Speaker 1: and they divorced by the time he was six years old.
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  Speaker 1: He went to live with his mother and older sister
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  Speaker 1: in Switzerland, where he developed an interest in acting. His
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  Speaker 1: first role was as the title character in a grade
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  Speaker 1: school production of rumpel Stiltskin. As he got older, he
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  Speaker 1: continued to act, but eventually took a break to focus
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  Speaker 1: on his studies. Chris took up fencing and crickets, and
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  Speaker 1: even tried his hand at sports like rugby and boxing,
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  Speaker 1: although he wasn't particularly good at those. Chris was forced
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  Speaker 1: to get a job during his last year at school
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  Speaker 1: when both of his parents lost their incomes. He took
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  Speaker 1: a position at a shipping company as a mail clerk,
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  Speaker 1: and then in nineteen thirty nine, he followed in his
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  Speaker 1: father's footsteps and joined up with the Finnish Army. Their
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  Speaker 1: winter war had begun against the Soviets three months after
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  Speaker 1: the start of World War Two. He didn't serve long,
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  Speaker 1: though he and the other volunteers had been hosted his
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  Speaker 1: guards far from the front lines. They spent two weeks
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  Speaker 1: in Finland before coming home again. Chris went back to
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  Speaker 1: work at the shipping company for a short time and
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  Speaker 1: then enlisted in World War two after his father died
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  Speaker 1: from pneumonia. In this time, Chris joined the Royal Air Force.
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  Speaker 1: He traveled to southern Rhodesia with plans to fly solo,
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  Speaker 1: but those plans crashed and burned after a series of
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  Speaker 1: headaches and I problems forced him to give up his dream.
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  Speaker 1: Despite being grounded, though, Chris found other ways to support
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  Speaker 1: the war effort. For one, he became a reliable intelligence officer,
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  Speaker 1: making a name for himself as a man who could
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  Speaker 1: not only get things done, but also rallied the troops
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  Speaker 1: and keep everyone on task. He spoke several languages as well,
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  Speaker 1: including German, Italian, and French, which made him a valuable
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  Speaker 1: asset to the military. His tour of duty sent him
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  Speaker 1: everywhere South Africa, Libya, Tunicia, Italy, and countless other parts
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  Speaker 1: of the globe during his years with the Royal Air Force.
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  Speaker 1: After the war, he hunted down and interrogated Nazi war criminals.
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  Speaker 1: Chris's time in the Royal Air Force had changed him.
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  Speaker 1: Upon returning home, he no longer felt like the office
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  Speaker 1: life was for him, but he was at a loss
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  Speaker 1: for what to do next. It was his cousin, Niccolo,
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  Speaker 1: who suggested that he'd try his hand at acting. Niccolo
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  Speaker 1: even knew of a producer who could help him break
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  Speaker 1: into the business. Shortly after meeting with the few producers,
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  Speaker 1: Chris signed a seven year contract with an agent named
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  Speaker 1: David Henley. The roles Henley would be able to get
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  Speaker 1: him were small at first, a line here, an unspoken
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  Speaker 1: part there. He performed alongside some of the greatest actors
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  Speaker 1: who had ever graced the screen, including Lawrence Olivier and
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  Speaker 1: Gregory Peck, but hardly said a word. He didn't break
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  Speaker 1: out until the early nineteen fifties. Several years into his career,
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  Speaker 1: he began starring in horror films made by Hammer, British
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  Speaker 1: studio that had cast him as Frankenstein's Monster, as well
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  Speaker 1: as a career defining role as a certain famous vampire.
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  Speaker 1: From there, Chris's roles only got better. He appeared in
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  Speaker 1: critically and commercially successful films, including an installment in the
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  Speaker 1: James Bond franchise, Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings trilogy,
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  Speaker 1: and the Star Wars prequels. In two thousand and ten,
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  Speaker 1: when he was eighty eight years old, Chris released a
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  Speaker 1: hit heavy metal album. It was the first of several.
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  Speaker 1: He loved to sing and took a particular interest in
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  Speaker 1: metal after hearing Black Sabbath perform in the nineteen seventies.
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  Speaker 1: It seems that there wasn't anything this man could do.
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  Speaker 1: By the time he died in two thousand fifteen, Christopher
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  Speaker 1: Frank Parendini Lee had been an actor, singer, author, audiobook narrator,
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  Speaker 1: voiceover artist, and of course, a war hero. He had
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  Speaker 1: seen and experienced more than most people, perhaps evident best
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  Speaker 1: in an interaction between Lee and director Peter Jackson on
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  Speaker 1: the set of the third Lord of the Rings film,
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  Speaker 1: The Return of the King. Jackson was instructing Lee on
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  Speaker 1: how to act after being stabbed by another character. Lee,
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  Speaker 1: calling back to his time during the war, turned to
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  Speaker 1: Jackson and said, have you any idea what kind of
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  Speaker 1: noise happens when somebody's stabbed in the back? Because I do.
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  Speaker 1: The year is eighteen sixty six and a seven year
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  Speaker 1: old boy walks along a street near his family home
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  Speaker 1: on Street in Lower Manhattan. He's recently been diagnosed with asthma,
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  Speaker 1: and being raised in a world that teaches the superiority
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  Speaker 1: of a manly man, he isn't quite feeling on top
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  Speaker 1: of things. After all, his aspirations lay in doing the
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  Speaker 1: things his father did, all those manly things like hunting, boxing,
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  Speaker 1: and athletics. And while his family has not given up
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  Speaker 1: on curing his asthma, providing him numerous doctor recommended practices,
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  Speaker 1: such as strong coffee and midnight carriage rides. These symptoms
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  Speaker 1: still threatened to hamper the boy's life. As he passes
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  Speaker 1: a small market, he sees a display out front with
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  Speaker 1: the harbor seal carcass on ice. Now this may sound
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  Speaker 1: strange to the modern listener, but at the time, harbor
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  Speaker 1: seals were common in New York Harbor and could be
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  Speaker 1: found at just about any market that sold food goods.
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  Speaker 1: Fascinated by the carcass, the boy asked the vendor how
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  Speaker 1: much for the whole thing. The vendor looked at him quizzically,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps questioning how the boy would even carry it, even
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  Speaker 1: if he could afford it, and then he gave him
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  Speaker 1: a price, a price that is, unfortunately out of the
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  Speaker 1: budgets of the young boy. It's important to point out
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  Speaker 1: at this point that a full grown harbor seal weighs
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  Speaker 1: on average a hundred and thirty pounds, and the average
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  Speaker 1: seven year old, never mind the frailties of an asthmatics,
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  Speaker 1: seven year old ways maybe fifty. Regardless, Determined not to
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  Speaker 1: be defeated yet again, the boy countered how much for
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  Speaker 1: just the head. By this point, the vendor is so
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  Speaker 1: amused by the whole ordeal that he agrees to give
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  Speaker 1: the boy the seal's head as a gift, and promptly
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  Speaker 1: cuts it off and hands it over, Carrying it home
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  Speaker 1: with a gleeful smile, The boy goes straight to the
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  Speaker 1: kitchen and pulls out his mom's cooking pot, filling it
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  Speaker 1: with water and heating it to a rolling boil, before
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  Speaker 1: dropping the seal's head into the pot and waiting as
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  Speaker 1: it slowly boiled off, ski in sinew and gristle. In time,
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  Speaker 1: there was nothing left but the skull, exactly as the
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  Speaker 1: boy had planned. After bearing the brunt of his mother's
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  Speaker 1: frustrations at the soiling of her cookware, the boy begins
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  Speaker 1: his collection in his bedroom, the seal head the first
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  Speaker 1: of what would become many more such items. He enlisted
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  Speaker 1: the help of two cousins and officially formed his own
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  Speaker 1: mini museum of, for lack of a better description, dead
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  Speaker 1: animal parts. Raised in a family with plentiful members and
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  Speaker 1: household staff, many of whom frequented his room to clean
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  Speaker 1: and simply pass through, the boy was often begged to
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  Speaker 1: move his collection to somewhere more out of the way
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  Speaker 1: so they wouldn't have to see all of them a
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  Speaker 1: Cobb pieces anymore, and the boy listened, moving his growing
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  Speaker 1: collection of now twelve items to the less frequented back
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  Speaker 1: stairwell of the three story family home. By the age
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  Speaker 1: of nine, he had codified his collection of insects in
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  Speaker 1: a paper titled The Natural History of Insects, and at
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  Speaker 1: the ripe age of twelve, he donated some of his
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  Speaker 1: items a dozen mice, at a turtle, four birds, eggs,
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  Speaker 1: and the skull of a red squirrel to the Museum
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  Speaker 1: of Natural History. But this was just the beginning for
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  Speaker 1: this asthmatic young man who had suddenly found his calling
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  Speaker 1: in life. Just eleven short years later, he would donate
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  Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty two preserve birds to the Smithsonian.
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  Speaker 1: This young boy would go on to found nearly three
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  Speaker 1: natural preserves, parks and forests during his lifetime, as well
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  Speaker 1: as expanding the reach of the Museum of Natural History,
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  Speaker 1: including making numerous donations to the museum himself. He went
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  Speaker 1: on fabled expeditions into the Amazon, into Africa, and into
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  Speaker 1: the American West. He danced with death more than his
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  Speaker 1: fair share, and even today remains one of the most
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  Speaker 1: fabled characters of American history, not to mention the role
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  Speaker 1: he's best known for being President of the United States.
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  Speaker 1: The boy's name Theodore Roosevelt. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious, Ye