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Hey everyone, welcome to

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The Secret Room, I'm Ben Ham. We've

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shared so many secrets together this year,

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some sad, some funny, some uplifting, and

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others that just make you better understand

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the strength and fragility of the human

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spirit. Thanks to all of

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our secret tellers this year for the strength they showed sharing

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their stories. It's not always easy. And

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next year is going to be even more amazing. In

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our very next episode, To Die Young, a

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man will explain why he's not telling his

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family that he has a terminal condition. It's

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a heartbreaking exploration of an inner struggle no one

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should have to endure. And

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coming early next year to the podcast, how

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a man's digital heist in a virtual world

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led to real world gains. We'll

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also hear a woman who, as a child,

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was a revered psychic in her community. But

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what all the believers around her didn't know was

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that her predictions were 100% the product

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of a little girl's imagination. And

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I can hardly wait to share a complicated secret from

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a nurse who worked at a psychiatric facility. She

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crossed ethical boundaries when she fell in love with

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a patient. But making it even

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more complicated, she's of mixed race. And

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he was a ranking official in a white supremacist

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group facing 20 years in

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prison. And that's just for starters,

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2024 is going to be our best

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year yet. And if you're looking

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to relive one of our listener favorites over

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the holidays, go back to episode 158, Sugar

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Rush, because we'll have a long-awaited update coming

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soon. Then at Errolan turned to a Sugar

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Baby website to make ends meet while taking

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care of her special needs kid. But she

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had no idea where a relationship would take

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her when she was paired with a very

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abrupt man, nor was she prepared for the

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devastating way that it would end. Look

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for episode 158, Sugar Rush, in our feed. And stay

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with us for an update coming soon. And

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now, a collection of street secrets to round out the year.

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First up, Kristy's secret reveal. She

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was inspired to send this one in after

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our last episode, Karma, where Samantha tried, in

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vain, to fix a mailbox she had backed

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into. on

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the very same day I got

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my driver's license to be legal.

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I don't know what they were

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thinking but they let me have

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the vehicle for that night and

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as I was driving it I

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somehow ended up on the curb

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and there was this baby tree there and

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I hit said baby tree. Baby

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tree was unearthed because

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like when I went to get off the curb I

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kind of like drug it with me. I

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pulled into the parking lot next to

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where I hit the tree. I felt

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horribly bad because I killed the

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tree and I got out

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of the car I went over to see

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and I realized that thanks to the brace

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that the city put on the bottom of

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the tree and the protective barrier they had

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around it because of

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bad weather blah blah blah to give the

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tree a chance at

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life the tree didn't

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snap in half and I couldn't believe it so I started

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like putting it back into

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the ground but I was kind of like digging around

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with my hands and

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then a cop pulls

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up puts his lights on looks

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at me and says what are you doing and

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I had to think really quick and I

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lied to him because I didn't want

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a ticket I didn't want reckless driving

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I didn't want my parents to

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ground me from my car for life and never

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be able to drive again and I was a

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brand new driver literally

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got legal that

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day and I hit something like

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a tree so I said

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well I came across this tree that was

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just kind of pulled out of the

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ground I don't know what happened but

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I didn't want us to lose the tree so

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I'm trying to put it back in and

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he's like oh well that's so nice of you

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let me see what I have in my car

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so that we can dig

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the hole deeper together and we'll get

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this girl standing back up so. this

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cop unknowingly helped me

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cover up my crime. And

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I never told him any different. I lied

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to him. He believed me. We put the

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tree back in the ground. We patted it

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all down. She looked like it was normal

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again. And to this day, that tree is

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still standing and the cop just

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retired from the police force not

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too long ago who helped me

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unknowingly cover up my crime. So

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yes, that is my little

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tree secret. I

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make up and sing secret songs

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to my dog that no one else

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is ever allowed to hear. And I

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would be absolutely humiliated if anybody ever

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heard me singing these ridiculous

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songs to my dog. Okay,

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here's a funny little story

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for you. This morning I

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was rushing out of the house and

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when I opened the door of my house to leave

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I realized it was colder than I expected. So

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I needed a jacket or something. I needed a coat. So

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I turned around to go back to

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my bedroom which has a lock on it. I

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locked my bedroom door before I leave every day

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because I know my mother will and can't often

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go in there to steal a

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stuff or just rummage to

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my stuff or whatever. So

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I went back to my bedroom to get my coat which is where

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I keep my coat and

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my bedroom door is locked. So

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I go to unlock it. I

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take my car key and I try pushing the

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unlock button and I try unlocking my bedroom door.

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And I do it twice. Twice.

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I pick up my car key, push

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the unlock car

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button and expect

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it to open my bedroom door. I

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need a, I need some kind of

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vacation. I need coffee. break?

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I don't know. I don't

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know. But I started laughing by

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myself. So yeah, that's my funny

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story today. My

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secret is I was Christmas

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shopping with my mom and

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we went into a store that

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we both love and she was

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like, oh do you like this? Do you like that?

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And we were picking out things and she had something

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in her hands that I had liked. It was like

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a shirt. And then we continued shopping and she was

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like holding it the whole time. And then

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we just walked out of the store. The

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alarms didn't go off and she

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just kept walking and halfway down the mall she said, oh

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my god, I still have a shirt in my hand. And

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I said, just keep going, just keep going. We can't

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turn back now. And we ran

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through the mall, stuffed in one

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of our bags and just like got away

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with it. When

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I was in grade 11, me and

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my best friend were in the same

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art class. And one day we went

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on an art field trip to the

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art galleries Ontario. So we

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started on the top level. And one

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of the first things we see is

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these kind of half walls separating this

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one section. And on

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a platform, there are these three

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cylindric pyramids

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that look like they're made out of

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metal. So me and my friend, we just

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look at each other and we go,

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I want to touch this so bad. So

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we both decided, okay, we're going to do

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it. We're going to touch it. We looked

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at each other, we counted to three, and

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we reached out to touch the sculpture. But

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when our hands came away, our hands

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were filled with black

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goop. It was not made

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out of metal. It was made

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out of some sort of goop. We freaked

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out. We ran over and rubbed it off

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under the bench and

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then went and hid in the bathroom. We're

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panicking. We're freaking out. We did

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fine. brave enough to

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leave the bathroom. And

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we casually walk past the art installation

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and you can just

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see two distinct

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gouge marks in the

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side where we had

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touched the art. For the

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rest of the day we were in a

8:19

panic, probably until like the next day honestly,

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I thought that they were going to come

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and reprimand us, but nothing

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happened and my best

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hope is that there was some sort of butter knife

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that they had to account

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for these sorts of things. We'll

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be back in just two short weeks with episode 210, To

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Die Young. Thanks to

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everyone for supporting your favorite indie podcast that

8:42

could, The Secret Room. And Happy New Year,

8:45

I'm Ben Ham. you