WEBVTT - Season 6 Episode 6 Extra: So Many Monsters

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<v Speaker 1>Nothing's better than feeling comfortable in your own shoes. Maybe

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<v Speaker 1>That's ALLLBI rds dot com. Welcome to Unexplained Extra with

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<v Speaker 1>me Richard McClean smith, where for the weeks in between episodes,

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<v Speaker 1>we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason

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<v Speaker 1>or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In

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<v Speaker 1>last week's episode, Tales from the Cryptid, we heard the

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<v Speaker 1>unnerving story of a group of prospectives who claim to

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<v Speaker 1>have been attacked by a number of strange, apelike creatures

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<v Speaker 1>in the Cascade Mountains back in the summer of nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>twenty four. In nineteen sixty seven, one of the group,

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<v Speaker 1>Fred Beck, and his son Ronald, published a full account

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<v Speaker 1>of the apparent episode in a book titled I Fought

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<v Speaker 1>the ape Men of Mount Saint Helen's, Washington. Though no

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<v Speaker 1>conclusive evidence was ever found to confirm Beck's account, the

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<v Speaker 1>story remains one of the most loved accounts of an

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<v Speaker 1>apparent encounter with Bigfoot in the annals of Cryptozoology. The

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<v Speaker 1>story was, however, given a slight air of credibility after

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<v Speaker 1>the mysterious disappearance of a man in nineteen fifty not

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<v Speaker 1>far from where Beck and his team had been working.

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<v Speaker 1>Jim Carter was part of a twenty member strong skiing

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<v Speaker 1>party enjoying the last of the year's snow at the

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<v Speaker 1>top of Mount Saint Helen's when he volunteered to take

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<v Speaker 1>some photographs of the group making their way down to

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<v Speaker 1>the bottom. Carter told the group to wait thirty minutes

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<v Speaker 1>before they set off to give him time to set

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<v Speaker 1>up his equipment, and then promptly skied away. Having watched

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<v Speaker 1>Carter disappear behind a rocky outcrop, the group waited the

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<v Speaker 1>agreed thirty minutes, then one by one shot off down

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<v Speaker 1>the mountain, but Carter never arrived to meet them all

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<v Speaker 1>at the bottom. A search team later found Carter's tracks

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<v Speaker 1>and traced them to the rocky outcrop where he'd last

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<v Speaker 1>been seen, where they found a discarded film container and

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<v Speaker 1>another set of ski tracks pointing straight down the mountain.

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<v Speaker 1>Bob Lee, a member of the Seattle Mountain Search and

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<v Speaker 1>Rescue team that searched for Carter, recounted years later that

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<v Speaker 1>Carter appeared to have set off at an astonishing taking

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<v Speaker 1>chances that no skier of his caliber would take unless

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<v Speaker 1>something was terribly wrong or he was being pursued, even

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<v Speaker 1>jumping over two or three large crevasses in the process.

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<v Speaker 1>The search team eventually traced Carter's ski tracks to the

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<v Speaker 1>edge of the gorge where fred Beck's group had apparently

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<v Speaker 1>had their terrifying encounter, astonished to find that they continued

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<v Speaker 1>straight down into the canyon. Despite a two week search,

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<v Speaker 1>no sign of Carter was ever found. For Bob Lee,

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<v Speaker 1>it was one of the strangest rescue operations he'd ever

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<v Speaker 1>participated in. As he said, it was as though somebody

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<v Speaker 1>was watching me the whole time. I could feel the

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<v Speaker 1>hair on my neck standing up. It was eerie. I

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<v Speaker 1>was unarmed except for my ice ACKs, and believe me,

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<v Speaker 1>I never let go of it. Almost every culture, it

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<v Speaker 1>seems as a story of wild mythical creatures living out

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<v Speaker 1>in the woods and mountains, from Bigfoot to Sasquatch, to

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<v Speaker 1>the Yetty and the Yawi. These ape like creatures seem

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<v Speaker 1>to supersede folklore, and sometimes they even break out from

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<v Speaker 1>the myth to be apparently captured on film, recorded on audio,

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<v Speaker 1>and seen in real life, and in eighteen fifty one

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<v Speaker 1>was even said to have been caught. The mountainous regions

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<v Speaker 1>of the Caucuses and Pamir in Central Asia and the

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<v Speaker 1>Altai Range in Mongolia are said to be home to

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<v Speaker 1>a group of creatures known locally as the Almas or

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<v Speaker 1>the Almasty, loosely translated to English from Mongolian to mean wild,

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<v Speaker 1>and the Almasty are believed to be half human half ape,

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<v Speaker 1>walking upright like a human, but looking much more like

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<v Speaker 1>a primate with wild, dark hair, a thick set skull,

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<v Speaker 1>and low, stooping brow. In eighteen fifty, in the region

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<v Speaker 1>of Abcacia, an area in the South Caucuses that lies

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<v Speaker 1>between present day Georgia and Russia, it was claimed that

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<v Speaker 1>one such wild creature stalked the woods in the snow

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<v Speaker 1>covered foothills of a local mountain range. Incredibly, the creature

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<v Speaker 1>was eventually tracked down, where it was then set upon

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<v Speaker 1>by a group of men who forcibly bound it to

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<v Speaker 1>a log and placed a felt gag in its mouth

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<v Speaker 1>before carrying it back to a nearby village. There, the

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<v Speaker 1>creature was kept locked up where locals could come and

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<v Speaker 1>gorpet it, trading stories about how it could run as

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<v Speaker 1>fast as a horn and even swimmed the freezing rivers

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<v Speaker 1>at high tide. The creature was described as having dark

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<v Speaker 1>skin and was covered head to toe in coarse red hair.

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<v Speaker 1>Tall and muscular at six foot six inches, with a

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<v Speaker 1>thick low brow, it was simply like nothing any of

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<v Speaker 1>the villagers had ever seen before. After being examined by

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<v Speaker 1>a doctor, the creature was declared to be female and

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<v Speaker 1>given the name Zana. As a subject of intense interest,

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<v Speaker 1>Zana was traded between a number of people until she

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<v Speaker 1>was apparently bought by a local businessman named Edgi Gannaba,

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<v Speaker 1>who took her home to his estate in nearby Tequina. There,

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<v Speaker 1>she was kept shackled in a cage while Gannaba tried

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<v Speaker 1>to figure out what exactly he should do with her.

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<v Speaker 1>There something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from

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<v Speaker 1>to start living a happier life today over time. Having

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<v Speaker 1>realized that Zana was not hostile, Guanaba had her removed

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<v Speaker 1>from the cage and placed an a fenced in enclosure

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<v Speaker 1>outside instead, where she was given more freedom and space

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<v Speaker 1>to roam about. Attempts were then made to tame Zana

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<v Speaker 1>by giving her clothes and teaching her how to speak.

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<v Speaker 1>Although she learned to respond to her name, she rejected

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<v Speaker 1>the clothes and proved uninterested in learning words, and despite

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<v Speaker 1>having the opportunity to sleep indoors, she always preferred to

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<v Speaker 1>sleep outside in a pit that she dug for herself

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<v Speaker 1>in the ground. When it was found that Zanna could

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<v Speaker 1>understand simple instructions, she was then incorporated into Naba's workforce

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<v Speaker 1>and forced to carry out various manual labor jobs. At

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<v Speaker 1>some point, some of the local men on the estate

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<v Speaker 1>started coming to Zarah at night, then plied her with

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol and raped her. After falling pregnant and then giving

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<v Speaker 1>birth to a healthy daughter, Zana is said to have

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<v Speaker 1>taken her baby and washed it in the near freezing

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<v Speaker 1>waters of a local river, whereupon it died in her arms.

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<v Speaker 1>When the same thing happened again, some of the women

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<v Speaker 1>from the local community soon realized it was simply because

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<v Speaker 1>she didn't know that the cold waters would kill them.

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<v Speaker 1>It is said that Zana would go on to have

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<v Speaker 1>a further four children, with each of them being removed

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<v Speaker 1>from her care and adopted by local families. After twenty years,

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<v Speaker 1>enslaved on Gonaba's estate, Zanna died. Little else is known

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<v Speaker 1>about her. All four of her children were believed to

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<v Speaker 1>have integrated well and been accepted into local society. The

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<v Speaker 1>Almusty hunters of Russia continued to believe after Zana's death

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<v Speaker 1>that she was either a genuine example of the mythical

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<v Speaker 1>almasty or some kind of subset of Neanderthal that had

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<v Speaker 1>somehow survived undiscovered in the snowy foothills of the South

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<v Speaker 1>Caucuses while humanity evolved around them. The truth, however, was

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<v Speaker 1>far more tragic. In June twenty twenty one, as Shot Margarian,

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<v Speaker 1>a scientist specializing in the field of ancient human population genomics,

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<v Speaker 1>headed a paper titled the Genomic Origin of Zana of Abkhazia,

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<v Speaker 1>which stated although the exact location of Zanna's burial site

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<v Speaker 1>was unknown, the grave of her son Quit was identified

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen seventy one. The genomes of Quit and the

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<v Speaker 1>alleged Zana skeleton were sequenced using ancient DNA techniques. The

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<v Speaker 1>identical mitochondrial DNA and the parent offspring relationship between the

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<v Speaker 1>two indicated that the unknown woman was indeed Zana. Population

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<v Speaker 1>genomic analysis demonstrated that Zana's immediate genetic ancestry can likely

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<v Speaker 1>be traced to present day East African populations. We speculate

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<v Speaker 1>that Zana might have had a genetic disorder such as

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<v Speaker 1>congenital generalized hypertrichosis, which could partially explain her strange behavior,

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<v Speaker 1>lack of speech, and long body hair. In July twenty

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<v Speaker 1>twenty one, Zana's origins were narrowed down even further by

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<v Speaker 1>molecular anthropologist doctor Miguel Villa of the University of Maryland.

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<v Speaker 1>After analyzing her DNA data, Phila concluded that she was

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<v Speaker 1>likely related to the Dinka pastoralist people from South Sadan,

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<v Speaker 1>describing them as a marginalized group known to be above

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<v Speaker 1>average in height and body size. In short, the so

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<v Speaker 1>called Zana wild Woman of the Forest wasn't Almusty at all,

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<v Speaker 1>but simply a human of East Central African descent. This

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<v Speaker 1>episode was co written by Donna McKay smith. If you

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<v Speaker 1>enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you

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<v Speaker 1>can now do so via Patreon to receive access to

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<v Speaker 1>add three episodes. Just go to patron dot com Forward

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<v Speaker 1>Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained, The book and audiobook,

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<v Speaker 1>featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on

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<v Speaker 1>are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and

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<v Speaker 1>free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas

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<v Speaker 1>regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you

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<v Speaker 1>have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.

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