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Speaker 1: Approach production. Welcome to Silent Secrets, the bedtime Podcast for

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Speaker 1: curious minds. I'm Jay and I'm glad you're here. This

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Speaker 1: is your time to let go of today, to settle

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Speaker 1: in the slow down, let curiosity gently carry you towards sleep.

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Speaker 1: In each episode, I'll share a true story of the unexplained,

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Speaker 1: not to alarm you, but to quiet your mind, to

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Speaker 1: remind you that the world is still full of wonder

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Speaker 1: and that sometimes mysteries never fade even when the world

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Speaker 1: moves on. So take a deep breath, fail your body

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Speaker 1: sink into comfort, let the weight that today drift away

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Speaker 1: as we begin tonight's story. This story begins in the

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Speaker 1: frozen heart of Northern Canada. It's the winter of nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty and the world above the trees is silent. Snow

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Speaker 1: stretches for miles white upon white, and the wind moves

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Speaker 1: across like a whisper from another time. A fur trapper

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Speaker 1: named Joe LaBelle knows this silence well. He spent years

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Speaker 1: moving along the same trails, visiting the trading posts and

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Speaker 1: tiny settlements that cling to the edges of the Arctic Circle.

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Speaker 1: One of them is about the fishing village of Lake anticuney,

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Speaker 1: a cluster of wooden huts and snow block shelters beside

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Speaker 1: a frozen lake. Joe have visited before. He knows the people,

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Speaker 1: their dogs, and their laughter. But when he arrives this time,

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Speaker 1: something is different. The village is quiet, too quiet. He

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Speaker 1: calls out a greeting, his voice muffled by snow. No answer.

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Speaker 1: He walks between the huts. The snow crunches beneath his boots.

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Speaker 1: Smoke should be rising from the chimneys, but there is none.

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Speaker 1: Every door stands open inside, pots of stew sit frozen

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Speaker 1: over cold fires. Fish nets hangs stiff and unmoving. Joe

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Speaker 1: steps into one hut and stops. A rifle leans against

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Speaker 1: the wall, valuable but left behind. A coat hangs neatly

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Speaker 1: on a peg. A cup rests on a table, half full.

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Speaker 1: The water has turned to ice. It's as if the

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Speaker 1: people simply vanished mid sentence, leaving the moment untouched. He

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Speaker 1: moves from house to house. Every hut is the same,

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Speaker 1: no people, no sound, only the wind and the snow.

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Speaker 1: He then sees something that chills. The sled dogs, loyal

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Speaker 1: companions to every family here, are gone from their posts.

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Speaker 1: He searches the ridge behind the huts and finds them

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Speaker 1: lying together in the snow, still tethered as if they'd starved,

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Speaker 1: waiting for their masters to return. Joe kneels beside them.

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Speaker 1: The silence feels heavier now. He hurries to a nearby

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Speaker 1: telegraph station to raise the alarm. When the Canadian Mounties

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Speaker 1: arrived days later, they find what Joe described a village

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Speaker 1: frozen in time, but the strangeness runs deeper. In one hut,

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Speaker 1: they find food stores full and untouched. In another, they

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Speaker 1: find a single human grave. The grave is empty, the

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Speaker 1: stones scattered as if disturbed. No footprints lead away from

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Speaker 1: the village. There's no signs of a struggle, just absence.

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Speaker 1: Over the years, explanations have come and gone. Some say

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Speaker 1: the villagers migrated suddenly, following the caribou herd. Others claimed

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Speaker 1: a blizzard forced them to flee, but that doesn't explain

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Speaker 1: the meals left uneaten, or the empty grave, or why

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Speaker 1: no tracks were found in the snow. A few whisper

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Speaker 1: older stories. But something from the sky came that night,

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Speaker 1: a shimmering light that moved across the lake, the northern

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Speaker 1: lights perhaps, or something else entirely. There are no photos,

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Speaker 1: no bodies, no answers, just the ghost of a settlement

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Speaker 1: and a mystery that drifts like fog across history. Today

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Speaker 1: the lake is quite again. The wooden hearts have long

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Speaker 1: since collapsed into the snow. Fishermen pass through the summer months,

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Speaker 1: but few stay very long. They say, the lake feels strange,

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Speaker 1: like it's watching. Sometimes, when the moon is high, you

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Speaker 1: can still hear the faint echo of sled dogs in

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Speaker 1: the distance, crying out for someone who never came back.

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Speaker 1: As you drift towards sleep, Imagine snow falling softly outside

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Speaker 1: the world, blanketed in silence. Maybe there are places meant

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Speaker 1: to stay, unknown, places where time folds in on itself,

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Speaker 1: keeping its secrets safe beneath the ice. Close your eyes,

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Speaker 1: breathe deeply, and let the quiet take over. Because some

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Speaker 1: mysteries don't want or need to be solved, They just

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Speaker 1: want to be remembered. Sleep well.

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Speaker 2: Sto one of them.