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Swish · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the cabinet of curiosities. Our memories, not the
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  Speaker 1: memories themselves, but the act of remembering, are fragile. As
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  Speaker 1: we get older, it gets harder for us to hold
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  Speaker 1: onto our past. It starts simply, sometimes without us even
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  Speaker 1: noticing what's going on. We forget to pick up an
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  Speaker 1: item at the store, or it wasn't on the list.
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  Speaker 1: We'll just at it next time, but we never do.
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  Speaker 1: Or we walk into a room and forget why we're
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  Speaker 1: there in the first place. We look around for clues
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  Speaker 1: as to what brought us there, only to leave empty
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  Speaker 1: handed until we can remember again. There is a fickle thing. However,
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  Speaker 1: that fickleness can go both ways. Just ask Daniel McCartney
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  Speaker 1: in the mid eighteen eighties. Daniel's brain was a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a celebrity. He began his life in Muscotine, Iowa,
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  Speaker 1: but moved to Morrow County, Ohio, where he spent most
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  Speaker 1: of his life. And if you were to ask him
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  Speaker 1: about that life, he could tell you anything. You wanted
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  Speaker 1: to know the weather conditions of a particular day, or
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  Speaker 1: what he had for every meal, or how he occupied
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  Speaker 1: his time from the moment he woke up until he
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  Speaker 1: fell asleep. You see, Daniel McCartney had a special skill.
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  Speaker 1: What used to be called hyper thymesia is now known
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  Speaker 1: today as h S a m highly superior autobiographical memory,
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  Speaker 1: and from the age of nine years old, it gave
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  Speaker 1: Daniel the ability to recall every detail from every day
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  Speaker 1: of his life. He could even tell you the day
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  Speaker 1: of the week certain events fell on. Ask him what
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  Speaker 1: he was doing on March six of eighteen eighty, and
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  Speaker 1: Daniel could recount his breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well
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  Speaker 1: as who he spoke to, what they talked about, whether
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  Speaker 1: it was raining, and more. Within Daniel's head resided a
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  Speaker 1: complete encyclopedia of his own life available to him within seconds.
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  Speaker 1: He was also known as a human calculator. Mildly challenging
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  Speaker 1: equations could be solved in seconds without need for pencil
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  Speaker 1: and paper, although the truly difficult ones would take him minutes.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy, mathematicians in Salem, Ohio, asked Daniel to
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  Speaker 1: calculate eighty nine to the sixth power, it took him
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  Speaker 1: ten minutes to work out the correct answer. On another occasion,
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  Speaker 1: he was asked to find the cube root of four
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  Speaker 1: million seven Hunt one thousand, sixty two. Three minutes later,
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  Speaker 1: he rattled off the solution. If it sounds like Daniel
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  Speaker 1: was a kind of mental superhero, that's because he was.
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  Speaker 1: Only Twelve people in the world currently possess h s
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  Speaker 1: a M, including actress Mary Lew Henner and author Jill Price.
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  Speaker 1: When a newspaper asked Jill in two thousand seventeen what
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  Speaker 1: she was doing on August twenty nine of nineteen eighty,
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  Speaker 1: she had no problem remembering that it was a Friday
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  Speaker 1: and that she was with her friends and their family
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  Speaker 1: on a Labor day trip to Palm Springs. Nor had
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  Speaker 1: she forgotten about the spa she and those girlfriends had
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  Speaker 1: gone to before they arrived at Palm Springs. She'd been
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  Speaker 1: just fourteen years old at the time. The third time
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  Speaker 1: she drove a car, she remembered that one too, January
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  Speaker 1: tenth of nineteen eight one. It was a Saturday, and
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  Speaker 1: she just turned fifteen two weeks earlier. Surprisingly, all of
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  Speaker 1: the men who have been diagnosed with the condition have
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  Speaker 1: turned out to be left handed. And while all people
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  Speaker 1: with h S a M can recall personal memories and
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  Speaker 1: minute details, that doesn't mean they have photographic memories for
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of retaining information. For example, Daniel McCartney couldn't
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  Speaker 1: cram for an exam the night before and simply expect
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  Speaker 1: to remember everything he'd read. Ask anyone with a condition,
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  Speaker 1: and they might tell you how hard their lives can be.
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  Speaker 1: Every conversation, every cringe, every misspoken sentiment that has ruined
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  Speaker 1: a relationship can never be forgotten. What some might look
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  Speaker 1: at as a blessing can sometimes also be a curse
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  Speaker 1: to the person living with it. But in the late
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  Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, Daniel McCartney made the best of it. He
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  Speaker 1: entertained crowds of people who had never seen someone with
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  Speaker 1: such insight into their own brain, who could perform mental
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  Speaker 1: calculations faster than most mathematicians. Daniel was a force of
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  Speaker 1: nature and the epitome of that age old adage Knowledge
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  Speaker 1: is power. Fate has a funny way of messing with people.
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  Speaker 1: For example, Gary Hoy was a well known Toronto lawyer
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  Speaker 1: who liked to demonstrate the unbreakable nature of his boardroom's windows.
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  Speaker 1: He would throw himself into them and bounce off, landing
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  Speaker 1: safely on the boardroom's carpeted floor. Then, one day, while
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  Speaker 1: trying to impress a group of visitors, he tested the
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  Speaker 1: window one more time. Glass finally gave way, and Gary
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  Speaker 1: felt twenty four stories to his death. Pete Maravich also
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  Speaker 1: had an unconscious run in with fate. He was born
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  Speaker 1: in Ninete, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and knew from a very
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  Speaker 1: young age exactly what he wanted to do with his life.
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  Speaker 1: He shared a close relationship with his father, who pushed
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  Speaker 1: him to excel at many things, but especially basketball. It
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  Speaker 1: was only natural, considering how Mr. Marovich played professionally before
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  Speaker 1: becoming a coach himself, Pete took to the game immediately.
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  Speaker 1: He practiced for hours with his dad, who had him
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  Speaker 1: working on controlling the ball, passing head fakes, and taking
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  Speaker 1: shots from half court. By the time he made it
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  Speaker 1: to high school, he was ready for varsity. His family
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  Speaker 1: moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, where Pete played on
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  Speaker 1: the Daniel High School basketball team from nineteen sixty one
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  Speaker 1: to nineteen sixty three. For a senior year, his family
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  Speaker 1: moved to Raleigh, North Carolina for his father's new coaching job.
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  Speaker 1: That's where he earned the nickname Pistol Pete due to
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  Speaker 1: his tendency to pass the ball from his hip like
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  Speaker 1: he was firing a six shooter. After Pete graduated high school,
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  Speaker 1: he attended the Edwards Military Institute, followed by L. S U.
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  Speaker 1: In only three years, his skills on the court earned
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  Speaker 1: him a record breaking three thousand, six hundred sixty seven points.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, most of his n C double A scoring
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  Speaker 1: records still stand forty years later. Pete's talents took him
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  Speaker 1: all the way to the NBA, where the Atlanta Hawks
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  Speaker 1: chose him as their third pick in the first round
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  Speaker 1: of the nineteen seventy draft. He did well during the
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  Speaker 1: first several seasons he played for the Hawks, but another
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  Speaker 1: team was entering the fray down south and they were
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  Speaker 1: looking for a star. The New Orleans Jazz snatched him
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  Speaker 1: up and he gave them his all for another six years,
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  Speaker 1: but growing knee problems kept Pete on the bench from
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  Speaker 1: much of his last season with the Jazz. In nineteen eighty,
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  Speaker 1: he was traded to the Boston Celtics as a part
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  Speaker 1: time contributor who would jump in and substitute as necessary.
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  Speaker 1: With his knee problems showing no sign of healing, Pete
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  Speaker 1: had to make a decision. Ten years and six hundred
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight games later, it was finally time for Pete
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  Speaker 1: to retire. After he left the NBA, Pete disappeared for
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  Speaker 1: a few years. He explored the spiritual side, practicing yoga
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  Speaker 1: and studying Hinduism. He became a vegetarian before accepting Evangelical
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  Speaker 1: Christianity into his life. The NBA inducted him into the
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  Speaker 1: Naysmith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in nineteen seven. His
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  Speaker 1: jersey numbers were retired by all the teams he played for.
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  Speaker 1: Pete Maravich had become a basketball hero and too many
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  Speaker 1: a legend. Then, in one year after his induction into
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  Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame, a forty year old Pete died
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  Speaker 1: of an apparent heart attack. He'd been playing in a
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  Speaker 1: pickup game at a church in Pasadena, California, when an
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  Speaker 1: undiagnosed congenital defect caused his heart to stop beating. According
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  Speaker 1: to those who had been playing with him at the time,
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  Speaker 1: his last words were, I feel great. I just feel great.
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  Speaker 1: It's eerie, I know, but that's not what makes pete
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  Speaker 1: story so odd? You see, back in nineteen seventy four,
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  Speaker 1: just before he was traded to the New Orleans Jazz,
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  Speaker 1: Pete gave an interview to the Beaver County Times, his
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  Speaker 1: hometown newspaper. During the interview, he made a passing comment
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  Speaker 1: about his career and how he wanted to live his
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  Speaker 1: life once he'd stopped playing basketball. He told sportswriter Andy News, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to play for ten years in the
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  Speaker 1: NBA and diet a heart attack at forty. Unfortunately, for
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  Speaker 1: Pete Maravich, NBA star from n seven D to night,
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  Speaker 1: that is exactly what he did. I hope you've enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
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  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
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  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.