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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm opome to Stephane.

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Speaker 1: Never told you protection of iHeartRadio, And.

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Speaker 2: We are back with another feminist around the world. And

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Speaker 2: today we're celebrating the works and activism of Vietnamese musician

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Speaker 2: my Koi, and my Koi has been referenced as the

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Speaker 2: Lady Gaga and Pussy Riot of Vietnam. I always say

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Speaker 2: that's weird to me when you're like this person is this,

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Speaker 2: like this former so you know, right, huh, especially when

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Speaker 2: they're still alive, like Lady Gaga is still very much,

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Speaker 2: very present. But I get it from different countries because

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Speaker 2: you want to reference.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's interesting because that's actually a conversation that

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Speaker 1: comes up a lot when you're trying to like I

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Speaker 1: tried to get a book published, and some people really

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Speaker 1: hate when you're like it's like this because they're like, no,

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Speaker 1: it's your thing. It's your thing that other people really appreciate, right,

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Speaker 1: you're giving them the context of oh, okay, I see

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Speaker 1: it now. Yeah, but it also feels sometimes kind of

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Speaker 1: I get what they're doing, but it's sort of like, no,

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Speaker 1: it's my coy.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, exactly, she's an award winner of her own.

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Speaker 2: We might not know her, but we know that she

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Speaker 2: is massive, and of course her works are huge, which

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Speaker 2: is while we're talking about her. And again, the reason

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Speaker 2: for these two different titles are for two completely different reasons.

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Speaker 2: Of course, both of them are musicians, but I think

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Speaker 2: one has to do with talent and the other one

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Speaker 2: has to do with the activism. As we said before,

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Speaker 2: I think we're going to talk a little bit. We'll

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Speaker 2: explain a little.

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Speaker 3: Bit more through her own words, with their own sight words.

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Speaker 2: Coy's career skyrocketed after she won Vietnam Television song an

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Speaker 2: Album of the Year awards in twenty ten, making her

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Speaker 2: one of the first women songwriters in Vietnam at the time.

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Speaker 3: I know there's others.

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Speaker 1: Again, one of.

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Speaker 3: The first, so just to preface that.

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Speaker 2: And music has always been a huge part of her life,

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Speaker 2: with her father a music teacher himself, teaching how to

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Speaker 2: play guitar at the age of eight and even playing

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Speaker 2: with him at weddings at the age of twelve, and

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Speaker 2: then she went on to attend up music school in

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Speaker 2: Hochi Men City. Yeah, and with her rise in stardom

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Speaker 2: thanks to her musical career, Coy used her platform to

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Speaker 2: uplift and advocate for her community. She wrote songs that

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Speaker 2: spoke out for women's rights, LGBTQIA plus Rise and challenged

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Speaker 2: her government when it came to freedom of speech, and.

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Speaker 1: With her outspoken is came criticism. She was criticized for

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Speaker 1: her songs, her style like shaving VN in her hair,

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Speaker 1: and her opinion on not having children. And knowing that

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Speaker 1: the government often criticized her lyrics and songs were being

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Speaker 1: too controversial and using coarse language, she stopped sending her

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Speaker 1: songs to Vietnam censors who had to approve her songs

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Speaker 1: before release, and her music was soon banned by the government,

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Speaker 1: but that didn't stop her. She soon went underground with

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Speaker 1: her music, performing in secret with her new group my

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Speaker 1: Koi and Dissonance.

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Speaker 3: But music wasn't her only activism. In twenty sixteen, Koy

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Speaker 3: was part of the environmental protests that fought the harms

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Speaker 3: of the formosa Ha ten Still Corp. That caused a

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Speaker 3: major disaster with its wayte dumping into their waters, killing

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Speaker 3: off a lot of marine life. She also went on

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Speaker 3: to try to take part in the politics that she

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Speaker 3: was trying to reform. She applied to run as an

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Speaker 3: independent for the National Assembly of Vietnam, but was denied,

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Speaker 3: and again that didn't stop her either. She openly criticized

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Speaker 3: Facebook for cooperating with the tyrannical censorship laws in the country,

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Speaker 3: saying quote, it was damaging one of the last reveugues

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Speaker 3: for freedom of expression in the repressive state, and because

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Speaker 3: of their censorship, she was not able to live stream

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Speaker 3: her music without the possibility of arrest, and in an

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Speaker 3: interview with Radio Free Asia, Cooy said this about her

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Speaker 3: work over the past three years. My friends and I

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Speaker 3: have been fighting against AK forty seven or the cybersecurity

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Speaker 3: forces in Vietnam, in order to protect the freedom of

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Speaker 3: expression on social media. The achievement that I am most

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Speaker 3: proud of is to have been able to create enough

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Speaker 3: pressure on Facebook so that it had to change its policy.

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Speaker 3: Facebook has been removed many groups of public opinion workers

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Speaker 3: in Vietnam who used to report political dissidents on purpose

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Speaker 3: in order to get their accounts closed down and to

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Speaker 3: muzzle them. Although the human rights situation in Vietnam is

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Speaker 3: still very bad and the Vietnamese government continues to arrest

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Speaker 3: and punish political dissidents who express their opinions, online. This

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Speaker 3: can be seen as a small success and contribution of

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Speaker 3: myself and my team.

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Speaker 1: And though she was successful, it did come at a cost,

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Speaker 1: as she was arrested several times for her activism. She

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Speaker 1: eventually fled the country and moved to the US, but

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Speaker 1: that hasn't stopped her from advocating for her country. In

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Speaker 1: the same interview, she said this about her fellow women

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Speaker 1: in Vietnam. Up to sixty three percent of women have

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Speaker 1: experienced a type of violence, whether physical, mental, or economic.

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Speaker 1: Sixty three percent of women having been abused by their

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Speaker 1: men is a big and sad number. I really hope

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Speaker 1: that the Vietnamese government will pay sufficient attention to this

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Speaker 1: issue and make efforts to change it. The most important

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Speaker 1: thing is every Vietnamese woman needs to understand her rights.

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Speaker 1: Once they have a good understanding, they will use their

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Speaker 1: rights properly and will not allow violence and abuse. They

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Speaker 1: will also be able to become the person they would

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Speaker 1: like to be.

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Speaker 2: Yep, and she's been hard at work while living in

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Speaker 2: the US, studying at the University of Pittsburgh with the

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Speaker 2: Artist Protection Fund Fellowship and serving on the International Advisory

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Speaker 2: Board of the International Free Expression Project. She has also

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Speaker 2: been releasing music, including through her storytelling project titled Bad Activists,

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Speaker 2: which was released in twenty twenty two. Here's a description

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Speaker 2: from her site. Bad Activist is my Cooi's multimedia autobiography,

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Speaker 2: a stage showed that combines original music projections, archival footage,

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Speaker 2: and storytelling to integrate the relationship between art and activism.

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Speaker 2: The story begins with Cooy's upbringing in a country devastated

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Speaker 2: by war, and follows her rise to fame as a

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Speaker 2: pop stars, turned towards politics and activism, and finally her

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Speaker 2: exile to the United States.

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Speaker 1: And there's a documentary based on her story. Here's a

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Speaker 1: synopsis from HRC Film Festival site. Ten years ago, pop

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Speaker 1: singer Mike Cooy's patriotic hit song Vietnam launched her quickly

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Speaker 1: to fame and fortune, encouraged and supported by the Communist

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Speaker 1: Party in state run media, who saw her as a

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Speaker 1: promising new role model. When Coy's creeping on ease with

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Speaker 1: the government censorship of her songs pushes her to release

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Speaker 1: her controversial new album without their approval, it results in

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Speaker 1: a media and performance band constant surveillance and threats of imprisonment.

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Speaker 1: Compared to Russian musician activists, Pussy Riot and dubbed Vietnam's

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Speaker 1: Lady Gaga. Coy must now go to great links to

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Speaker 1: disseminate her music as she fights a champion women's rights,

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Speaker 1: LGBT rights, and free speech right. So there you go.

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Speaker 2: That's the description of why she is called the Pussy

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Speaker 2: Riot and then the Lady Gaga of Vietnam, which makes sense.

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Speaker 2: And her works has earned her accolades include being named

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Speaker 2: one of Amnesty International's twelve Inspiring Human Rights Activists to

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Speaker 2: Follow in twenty eighteen, awarded the twenty eighteen Vuklufjavel Prize

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Speaker 2: for Creative Dissent, twenty twenty twos Franklin D. Roosevelt for

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Speaker 2: Freedom's Award for Freedom of Speech and as in fact,

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Speaker 2: there was a whole video of her sitting next to

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Speaker 2: President Obama as one of the dissidents at the time

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Speaker 2: doing her work apparently like soon after she was in

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Speaker 2: hiding previously to going to do that meeting, and then

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Speaker 2: she was also intimidated by Vietnam police. So she had

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Speaker 2: a lot of things going on, and she still does,

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Speaker 2: but it's currently in I believe Pittsburgh at this point,

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Speaker 2: still working on her music and doing some amazing things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait to check it out. I always

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Speaker 1: love when we get to the end of the ease

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, ooh, maybe that's some music I get

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Speaker 1: to go listen to now. Yeah, And as always, listeners,

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Speaker 1: if you have any suggestions for this segment or anything else,

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Speaker 1: you can email us Steph Media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 1: dot com. Can find us on Twitter at momstup podcast,

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Speaker 1: or on Instagram and TikTok at steff I Never Told You.

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Speaker 1: We have a tea public store with merchandise, and we

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Speaker 1: have a book that you can pre order at stuff.

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Speaker 1: You should read books dot com. There's an audiobook and

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Speaker 1: a physical book. It's coming out soon. It's coming out soon.

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Speaker 3: Panic.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited and panicked. I will say thanks as always

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Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and

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Speaker 1: our contributor Joey. Thank you all, and thanks to you

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Speaker 1: for listening. Stuff I Never Told You is production by

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