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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bunjelung Calcotin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daly oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday,

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Speaker 2: the twenty eighth of February.

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Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 2: On February third this year, just over three weeks ago,

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Speaker 2: a train derailed in a small town in the US.

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Speaker 3: This morning, growing concern about the toxic trained derailment in

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Speaker 3: East Palestine, Ohio.

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Speaker 1: Eleven of thirty eight tanks were carrying toxic chemicals.

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Speaker 4: This was one hundred percent preventable. We call things accidents.

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Speaker 4: There is no accident.

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Speaker 2: So what's happened in this disaster so far and what's

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Speaker 2: likely to happen next? Well, we're going to let you

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Speaker 2: know in the deep dive. But first Sam the.

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Speaker 3: Headlines Australia's first ever dedicated fund to support global LGBTQIA

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Speaker 3: plus communities will be launched this week. The fund will

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Speaker 3: be announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong at the

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Speaker 3: World Pride Human Rights Conference tomorrow and will begin with

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Speaker 3: an initial three point five million dollars in government funding.

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Speaker 2: The four people taken hostage for a ransom in a

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Speaker 2: remote area of Papua New Guinea last week, including an

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Speaker 2: Aussie resident, have all been freed. Pmng's Prime Minister confirmed

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Speaker 2: the freeing of the captives, saying there is no profit

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Speaker 2: in crime.

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Speaker 3: The soft plastics recycling program that abruptly suspended operations last

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Speaker 3: year will now be liquidated after being declared insolvent in

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Speaker 3: the New South Wales Supreme Court yesterday. Red Cycle was

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Speaker 3: used by Coals and Woolworths to recycle its plastics, with

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Speaker 3: its collapse in November forcing tons of plastic to be

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Speaker 3: dumped in the landfill. Coles and Woworth will now take

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Speaker 3: control of the soft plastics being held by Red Cycle.

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Speaker 2: And the good news. Michelle Yeoh has become the first

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Speaker 2: Asian woman to win the Best Actress category at the

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Speaker 2: Screen Actors Guild Awards for her performance in Everything, Everywhere,

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Speaker 2: All at Once. She's this second Asian woman to be

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Speaker 2: nominated in the category. Federal environmental authorities in the US

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Speaker 2: have ordered a temporary pause in the removal of contaminated

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Speaker 2: waste that's from the site of the train derailment in Ohio.

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Speaker 2: It's the latest development in a story that has been

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Speaker 2: growing and growing for weeks, and it certainly doesn't feel

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Speaker 2: like it's likely to reach any sort of conclusion soon.

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Speaker 3: And if this story is just hitting our radars, what

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Speaker 3: do we need to know about what actually happened.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's start at the beginning, and the information

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Speaker 2: that I'm about to rattle off we have because of

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Speaker 2: the National Transportation Safety Board in the US. They are

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Speaker 2: the people that have provided information and details of what's

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Speaker 2: happened here. So let's start on the third of February,

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Speaker 2: which is when a freight train derailed in a town

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Speaker 2: called East Palestine in Ohio. Some of the cars that

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Speaker 2: were derailed were carrying hazardous materials which then caught on fire.

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Speaker 2: First responders implemented an evacuation zone and up to two

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Speaker 2: thousand residents were told to evacuate. There were no reported

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Speaker 2: human injuries or fatalities. Remember, it was a freight train, although,

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Speaker 2: as we're going to go on to discuss Sam and

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Speaker 2: through this chat, it's pretty clear that there are some

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Speaker 2: serious health concerns about long term exposure to the chemicals

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Speaker 2: that I referred to that were actually released by this derailment.

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Speaker 3: Zara, What are the chemicals that we're actually talking about here?

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Speaker 2: So one of the substances being transported was something called

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Speaker 2: vinyl chloride. It's a petrochemical. It's used to manufacture PVC,

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Speaker 2: which is a type of hard plastic often used to

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Speaker 2: make things like pipes, and when exposed to heat, vinyl

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Speaker 2: chloride can become explosive. So, while two days after the

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Speaker 2: train had derailed, responders had got most of the fires

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Speaker 2: under control, the temperature in one of those tank cars

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Speaker 2: were still rising and that meant that the vinyl chloride

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Speaker 2: inside of it posed an explosion risk. So to avoid

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Speaker 2: that risk of an explosion, officials intentionally released and burnt

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Speaker 2: the chemical only after doubling the evacuation zone to of course,

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Speaker 2: try to minimize the risk of exposure to people around there.

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Speaker 3: And what happens if someone was to be exposed to

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Speaker 3: vinyl chloride in.

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Speaker 2: The atmosphere, Well, vinyl chloride is potentially dangerous and it's

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Speaker 2: associated with increased risks of cancers, cancer like brain and

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Speaker 2: lung cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia. The US Environmental Protection Agency,

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Speaker 2: the EPA, has screened five hundred and seventy eight homes

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Speaker 2: I believe for air quality and say that none so

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Speaker 2: far have shown dangerous levels of contaminants. But when residents

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Speaker 2: were cleared to return to their homes back on the

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Speaker 2: eighth of February, we heard reports of some locals experiencing

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Speaker 2: things like headaches, nausea, itchiness, and dizziness. And then, according

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Speaker 2: to The New York Times, there were also reports of

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Speaker 2: a strong odor lingering in the town. But the real

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Speaker 2: health consequences of an event like this are only likely

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Speaker 2: to emerge further down the line. What's become more obvious

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Speaker 2: in the days and weeks since is the very, very

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Speaker 2: big risk to animal life. So the Ohio Department of

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Speaker 2: Natural Resources has estimated that close to forty four thousand

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Speaker 2: animals and fish were potentially killed as a result of

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Speaker 2: the trained derailment.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's a huge number of wildlife, and I'm sure

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Speaker 3: for residents of the town they're now thinking what the

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Speaker 3: effects have been and what will the effects continue to

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Speaker 3: be If fish and waterways have been impacted. Do we

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Speaker 3: know whether there's been any impact on drinking water in

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Speaker 3: the town.

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Speaker 2: Well, official there have tested the public water sources and

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Speaker 2: they've said that they haven't found any contaminants related to

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Speaker 2: the derailment, although there has been a fair amount of

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Speaker 2: skepticism that local tap water in East Palestine is safe

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Speaker 2: to drink. This was a segment on CNN a few

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Speaker 2: weeks ago.

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Speaker 3: Would you drink the water in East Palestine? And do

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Speaker 3: you think the officials there who are saying it's safe

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Speaker 3: they should drink the water too, to show the residents

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Speaker 3: that they would drink it.

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Speaker 2: And last week they did just that your studio, local

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Speaker 2: officials that gathered together to drink the tap water on

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Speaker 2: camera in an effort to prove that it's safe.

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Speaker 3: It's pretty good water, okay. And have officials looked into

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Speaker 3: how exactly this disaster happened.

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Speaker 2: Well, the body that's investigating what went wrong, as I said,

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Speaker 2: is the National Transportation Safety Board. This was the chair

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Speaker 2: of that board, Jennifer Hommon Dy speaking at a press

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Speaker 2: conference at the end of last week.

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Speaker 4: We've talked to community members who are suffing health effects,

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Speaker 4: have pets who've died, have damage to businesses and homes.

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Speaker 4: But I can tell you this much, this was one

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Speaker 4: hundred percent preventable. We call things accidents. There is no accident.

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Speaker 4: Every single event that we investigate is preventable.

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Speaker 2: So now the board will hold an investigative hearing where

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Speaker 2: they'll call expert witnesses and information before forming a final report.

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Speaker 2: And I guess that's when we'll find out more about

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Speaker 2: what has actually happened here and if there is somebody

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Speaker 2: to blame for it.

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Speaker 3: We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 3: There's clearly a lot of moving parts in this story

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Speaker 3: and discussions happening both in these Palestine and across the US.

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Speaker 3: What's the next steps now for residents in the town.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've already heard reports of dozens of lawsuits being

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Speaker 2: filed in the federal court by residents of East Palestine,

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Speaker 2: but I think it's likely to only be the beginning

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Speaker 2: of it. On Friday night, there was a meeting at

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Speaker 2: the local high school organized by an Ohio law firm,

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Speaker 2: and the crowd who gathered was mainly addressed by a

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Speaker 2: prominent Texas lawyer, but actually began with a speech from

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Speaker 2: consumer advocate and environmental activist Aaron Brockovich, who if you've

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Speaker 2: heard of her, it's probably because of the Julia Roberts movie.

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Speaker 2: So the idea of the session was about informing locals

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Speaker 2: about the logistics of actually launching a lawsuit moving forward

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Speaker 2: in light of this derailment.

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Speaker 3: You're going to be tall.

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Speaker 2: It's safe, You're going to be tall, not to worry.

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Speaker 3: Well, let's just rush.

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Speaker 1: We often find out five and ten years down the

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Speaker 1: road after you were told it was safe, oh boops,

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Speaker 1: Houston had a problem.

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Speaker 2: So, with lawsuits likely to come thick and fast, we're

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Speaker 2: definitely going to be hearing a lot more about this

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Speaker 2: story in the coming months and years.

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Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us today on the Daily OS.

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Speaker 3: If you learn something from today's episode, don't forget to

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Speaker 3: hit subscribe, so there's a TDA episode waiting for you

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Speaker 3: every morning. We'll be back again tomorrow. Until then, have

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Speaker 3: a great day.