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Oyster Wars · 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: Homer's Odyssey is one of the foundational literary works of
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  Speaker 1: Western civilization. For a reason. It speaks to the journey
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  Speaker 1: that we all take in life, braving various difficulties as
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  Speaker 1: we struggle to find home, whatever that might mean for
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  Speaker 1: each of us. For some people, home is a metaphor.
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  Speaker 1: For others, it's a very literal place. During World War
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  Speaker 1: One in Russia, one band of soldiers tried desperately to
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  Speaker 1: re turned to their homeland, but to get there they
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  Speaker 1: had to fight several armies and travel in the completely
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  Speaker 1: wrong direction. The Czech and Slovak people are two distinct
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  Speaker 1: subgroups of Slavs who suffered under the oppression of the
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  Speaker 1: Austro Hungarian Empire for decades. Austria had closer ethnic ties
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  Speaker 1: to Germany, and so at the onset of World War
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  Speaker 1: One in nineteen fourteen, they sided with Germany and the
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  Speaker 1: Central Powers. This gave the Czechs and Slovaks the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to declare their own state, Czechoslovakia and fight with the
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  Speaker 1: Allied Powers. Now, this Czechoslovakian Legion fought on many fronts,
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  Speaker 1: but the bulk of their force was stationed in Russia.
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  Speaker 1: The legion consisted of over forty thousand soldiers, as well
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  Speaker 1: as wives, children, and civilian aids. They helped Zar Nicholas's
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  Speaker 1: armies fight the Germans until the fateful year of nineteen seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: when the Russian Civil War broke out and the Czechoslovakian
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  Speaker 1: legions suddenly found themselves in an awkward position. Russia withdrew
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  Speaker 1: for World War One as internal struggles between the Red
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  Speaker 1: Bolsheviks and the White Tsarists toward the country apart. The
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  Speaker 1: Czechoslovak Legion didn't want to choose a side. They wanted
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  Speaker 1: to get back to fighting Germany and winning independence for
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  Speaker 1: their own country. But the problem was the legion couldn't
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  Speaker 1: just go back west into contested Austria Hungary without the
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  Speaker 1: support of the Russians, and so they had to take
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  Speaker 1: a long railroad trip east across Siberia so that they
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  Speaker 1: could sail across either the Pacific or Indian Oceans to
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  Speaker 1: re enter their homeland from the south or the west.
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  Speaker 1: The Bolshevik army agreed to let them do this, and
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  Speaker 1: at first it seemed like the Legion would have a
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  Speaker 1: relatively smooth trip home, but then disaster struck. In May
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighteen, the train containing the Czechoslovak Legion made
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  Speaker 1: a pit stop at a station at the same time
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  Speaker 1: that a train full of Austro Hungarian prisoners made a stop.
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  Speaker 1: Tensions were high, and they soon boiled over. One of
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  Speaker 1: the prisoners in the Austro Hungarian car threw a piece
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  Speaker 1: of iron that struck a Czech member of the Legion.
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  Speaker 1: He was seriously hurt and a fight soon broke out.
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  Speaker 1: The scuffle was eventually ended, but the Legion had killed
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  Speaker 1: the Austro Hungarian prisoner who threw the piece of iron.
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  Speaker 1: The Bolsheviks were furious that the Legion had harmed one
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  Speaker 1: of their prisoners. They demanded that the Legion hand over
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  Speaker 1: all of its weapons, but the Legion refused. Instead, they
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  Speaker 1: took an armed train from the Bolsheviks and took off
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  Speaker 1: along the railroad. They became a sort of mobile city
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  Speaker 1: state again. There were tens of thousands of soldiers in
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  Speaker 1: the Legion, and they were all now concentrated along the
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  Speaker 1: Trans Siberian Railroad. They had multiple trains with various cars,
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  Speaker 1: including a bakery and even their own bank that they
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  Speaker 1: used to barter with different towns as they passed through.
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  Speaker 1: It was, in a way, a World War One era
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  Speaker 1: version of snow Piercer. They clashed occasionally with the Bolsheviks
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  Speaker 1: as they continued east. In November of nineteen eighteen, they
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  Speaker 1: learned that the war was over and their new nation
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  Speaker 1: had officially been recognized. They had more reason than ever
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  Speaker 1: to want to get home, but the Allies wanted them
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  Speaker 1: to stay in Russia and fight the Bolsheviks. They did
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  Speaker 1: this for a time, but they struggled to do much
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  Speaker 1: against such a huge army along such a long and
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  Speaker 1: freezing railroad, and throughout nineteen nineteen it became clear that
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  Speaker 1: the remaining White Russian forces would not be able to
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  Speaker 1: prevail against the Bolsheviks. As the Legion caravan arrived on
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  Speaker 1: the eastern coast of Russia, they began to load their
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  Speaker 1: troops into ships and start the long voyage home. Some
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  Speaker 1: traveled south around India, while others traveled east and actually
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  Speaker 1: crossed North America. The majority made it home safely. It
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  Speaker 1: could now begin the work of building their new country.
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  Speaker 1: That is, until the next World War, when the Nazis
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  Speaker 1: invaded them. After that, Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviet Union,
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  Speaker 1: ironically merging with Russia after all their ancestors had fought
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  Speaker 1: to escape it. In nineteen ninety two, after the fall
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  Speaker 1: of the USSR, Czechoslovakia split into two nations, the Czech
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  Speaker 1: Republic and Slovakia, finally giving b both ethnic groups a
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  Speaker 1: place they could call home. It was a curious odyssey,
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  Speaker 1: one that made Homers seem brief by comparison. It was
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty one and the Revolutionary War was over. As
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  Speaker 1: the British surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. The Americans were finally
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  Speaker 1: masters of their own country, no longer ruled by a king.
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  Speaker 1: They would soon learn that winning a war was the
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  Speaker 1: easy part. Running a country with a new kind of
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  Speaker 1: democratic government, well, that would be much harder, and the
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  Speaker 1: creation of the American Constitution, the document on which the
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  Speaker 1: country based all its laws, would take blood, sweat, and
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot of oysters. In seventeen eighty five, the
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  Speaker 1: Potomac River was one of the world's best areas for oysters.
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  Speaker 1: But these salty little shellfish weren't just delicious, they were
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  Speaker 1: also big money. Oyster Harvesters up and down the river
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  Speaker 1: and the Chesapeake Bay were raking it in literally, and
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  Speaker 1: big money, of course, led to bigger problems. The Potomac
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  Speaker 1: River divides the states of Maryland and Virginia, and both
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  Speaker 1: states wanted to own the river's oysters. Skirmishes had been
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  Speaker 1: breaking out for years between Maryland and Virginia watermen, and
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  Speaker 1: both sides claimed that they had a mandate. The state
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  Speaker 1: of Virginia said that in sixteen thirty two, King Charles
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  Speaker 1: of England had signed a charter giving the river to them.
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  Speaker 1: Virginia argued that it had an earlier charter from King
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  Speaker 1: James Charles's father that promised them the river. Although the
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  Speaker 1: states were technically united after the Revolutionary War, it was
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  Speaker 1: a loose union. Many of the states operated under their
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  Speaker 1: own rules, and the Articles of Confederation, the federal laws
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  Speaker 1: that bound the former British colonies together, didn't say anything
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  Speaker 1: about commerce between the states. The central government had no
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  Speaker 1: power over the oysters, and Virginia and Maryland couldn't come
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  Speaker 1: to an agreement. Americans feared that if the conflict wasn't
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  Speaker 1: settled soon, it might spill into an all out war,
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  Speaker 1: and the American experiment would be over before it truly started.
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  Speaker 1: In the middle of the budding oyster battle came a
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  Speaker 1: familiar figure, James Madison. Today we know him as the
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  Speaker 1: fourth President of the United States. Back then, though most
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  Speaker 1: Americans knew him as a Virginia legislator. Madison and the
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  Speaker 1: other delegates from Virginia and Maryland were invited to Mount Vernon,
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  Speaker 1: the home of George Washington, to help put this whole
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  Speaker 1: oyster war to rest. After several days, the Virginians and
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  Speaker 1: Marylanders were able to hammer out the Compact of seventeen
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  Speaker 1: eighty five, which established that oystermen from both states could
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  Speaker 1: freely use the river. The Maryland and Virginian oyster War
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  Speaker 1: was averted, but the issue at its core was still
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  Speaker 1: keeping Madison up at night. If the country was to succeed,
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  Speaker 1: it needed a stronger federal government, making it a united country,
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  Speaker 1: not just a loose confederation. So Madison proposed that they
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  Speaker 1: needed to meet again to discuss how to structure that
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  Speaker 1: central government. Delegates from every colony met in Philadelphia in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty seven, and over months of debate, proposals and
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  Speaker 1: revisions that came up with the US Constitution, the document
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  Speaker 1: that lays out the American federal system that we still
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  Speaker 1: use nearly two hundred and fifty years later, and with
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  Speaker 1: it we can deal with the important stuff, you know,
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  Speaker 1: things like inner state oyster trade. As for the oysters,
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  Speaker 1: the peace from the seventeen eighty five compact held for
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  Speaker 1: nearly one hundred years until after the Civil War. By then,
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  Speaker 1: the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay was providing more
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  Speaker 1: than half of the world's oysters, which attracted a unique
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  Speaker 1: type of opportunist to its waters, oyster pirates. Beyond the
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  Speaker 1: pirates illegally fishing oysters, New England oystermen were also invading
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  Speaker 1: the waters after their northern oyster beds had been overfished,
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  Speaker 1: and this crowding led to multiple violent incidents and both
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  Speaker 1: Maryland and Virginia establishing an armed oyster police force. The
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  Speaker 1: oyster Wars finally ended in nineteen fifty nine after a
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  Speaker 1: Potomac River fisheries officer killed in a legal oyster harvester,
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  Speaker 1: the fisheries disarmed the Fisheries police, and since then, no
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  Speaker 1: blood has been spilled over Potomac oysters. So the next
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  Speaker 1: time you eat a Chesapeake oyster, remember what that little
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  Speaker 1: bivalve brought us, the sweet taste of freedom. 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. No