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For many of us right now,
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our lives are quieter than normal.
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And quiet can be unnerving.
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It can make you feel lonely,
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or just all too aware
of the things you're missing out on.
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I think about sound all the time.
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I'm a sound designer,
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and I host the podcast
"Twenty Thousand Hertz."
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It's all about the world's most
recognizable and interesting sounds.
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But I think this is the perfect time
to talk about silence.
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Because what I've come to understand
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is that there is no such thing as silence.
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And the person who opened
my mind to this idea
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is one of the most influential
composers in history.
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(Piano music)
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John Cage has made an impact
on artists in many genres,
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from avant-garde musicians,
to modern dance, to pop music.
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Right now, we're listening
to his 1948 piece
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called "In a Landscape."
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This version was recorded in 1994
by Stephen Drury.
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(Piano music)
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This piece is actually not very typical
of John Cage's writing.
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He's more known for his innovations
and avant-garde techniques.
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But despite his reputation,
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no one was prepared
for what he did in 1952,
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when he created the most daring
piece of his career.
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It was called "Four Minutes
and Thirty-three Seconds."
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And it was a piece that some critics
even refused to call music.
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Because for the entire
duration of the piece,
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the performer plays
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nothing at all.
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Well, to be technical,
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the performer is actually playing rest.
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But to the audience,
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it looks like nothing is happening.
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John Cage's "4' 33" "
was performed for the first time
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in the summer of 1952,
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by a renowned pianist David Tudor.
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It was at the Maverick Concert hall
in Woodstock, New York.
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This is a beautiful wooden building
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with huge openings to the outdoors.
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So, David Tudor walked out on stage,
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sat down at the piano,
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then closed the piano lid.
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He then sat in silence,
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only moving to open
and close the piano lid
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between each of the three movements.
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After the time was up,
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he got up
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and walked off the stage.
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The audience had no idea what to think.
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It made people wonder if Cage
is even taking his career seriously.
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A close friend even wrote to him,
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begging that he not turn
his career into a joke.
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John Cage had, well, if you can call it,
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composed a piece of music
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that really challenged
some very established ideas
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about music composition.
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It's something that musicians
still debate today.
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To understand just what
John Cage was thinking,
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let's back up to the 1940s.
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Back then,
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John Cage was making a name for himself
composing for the prepared piano.
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To make music like this,
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John Cage would put objects
inside the piano,
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between the strings.
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Things you just find lying around,
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like screws, tape and rubber erasers.
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So now, you've transformed the piano
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from a tonal instrument
with high and low pitches
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into a collection of unique sounds.
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The music you're hearing
is Cage's "Sonata number five,"
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from "Sonatas and Interludes
for Prepared Piano."
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Probably his most famous work
outside of "4" 33"."
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This version was performed
by Boris Berman.
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John Cage wrote incredibly
detailed instructions
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about where to place
each object in the piano.
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But it's impossible for every performer
to get the exact same objects,
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so the sound you get is always different.
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Basically, it comes down to random chance.
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This was pretty bananas and pretty alien
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to the way most composers and musicians
are taught to do things.
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John Cage was becoming
increasingly interested
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in chance and randomness,
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and letting the universe
provide the answer to the question
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"What note should I play next?"
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But to hear the answer to the question,
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first you have to listen.
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And in the 1940s,
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listening to the universe
was getting harder to do.
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(Music)
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The Muzak company was founded in the '30s.
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It really took off,
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and soon, there was constant
background music nearly everywhere.
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It was almost impossible to escape.
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John Cage realized that people
were losing the option
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to shut out the background
music of the world.
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He worried that Muzak would prevent people
from hearing silence altogether.
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In 1948,
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four years before he wrote "4' 33","
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John Cage mentioned
that he wanted to write
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a four and a half minute-long
piece of silence
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and sell it to the Muzak company.
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It started as something
of a political statement
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or an off-hand comment,
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but this idea struck a nerve
and quickly evolved.
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John Cage was starting to think
deeply about silence.
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And when he visited a truly quiet place,
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he made a startling discovery.
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John Cage visited an anechoic chamber
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at Harvard University.
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Anechoic chambers are rooms
that are acoustically treated
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to minimize sound to almost zero.
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There are no sounds in these rooms,
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so John Cage didn't expect
to hear anything at all.
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But he actually heard
his own blood circulating.
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I've personally experienced
an anechoic chamber,
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and it's a really wild experience
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that can completely change
your perceptions
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about sound and silence.
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It really felt like my brain
just turning up an amplifier,
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grasping for anything to hear.
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Just like John Cage,
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I could very clearly hear my blood
pushing through my body.
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John Cage realized in that moment
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that no matter where we are,
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even our bodies are making sound.
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There's basically no such thing
as true silence.
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As long as you are in your body,
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you're always hearing something.
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This is where John Cage's interest
in chance and randomness
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met his interest in silence.
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He realized that creating an environment
with no distractions
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wasn't about creating silence.
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It wasn't even about controlling noise.
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It was about the sounds
that were already there,
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but you suddenly hear for the first time
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when you're really ready to listen.
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That's what's so often
misunderstood about "4' 33"."
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People assume it's a joke.
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But that couldn't be further
from the truth.
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It sounds different
everywhere you play it.
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And that's the point.
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What John Cage really wanted us to hear
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is the beauty of the sonic
world around us.
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(Birds chirping)
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(Overlapping voices)
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(Church bell ringing)
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(Crickets chirping and owl hooting)
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"4' 33" " should be a mindful experience
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that helps you focus on accepting things
just the way they are.
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It's not something that anyone else
can tell you how you're supposed to feel.
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It's deeply personal.
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It also brings up
some pretty big questions
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about our sonic world.
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Is "4' 33" " music, is it sound,
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is sound music?
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Is there even a difference?
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John Cage reminds us
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that music isn't the only kind of sound
worth listening to.
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All sounds are worth thinking about.
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We have a once in a lifetime opportunity
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to reset our ears.
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And if we become more conscious
of what we hear,
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we'll inherently make
our world sound better.
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Quietness is not when we turn off
our minds to sound.
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But when we can really start to listen
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and hear the world
in all of its sonic beauty.
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So in this spirit,
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let's perform "4' 33" " together,
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wherever you are.
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It's three movements,
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and I'll let you know when they start.
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Listen to the texture and rhythm
of the sounds around you right now.
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Listen for the loud and soft,
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the harmonic, the dissonant,
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and all the small details
that make every sound unique.
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Spend this time as mindful and focused
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in this real life sonic moment.
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Enjoy the magnificence
of hearing and listening.
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So here comes the first movement.
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Starting
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now.
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[I. Tacet]
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And here's movement two.
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It will be two minutes and 23 seconds.
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[II. Tacet]
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And here is the final movement.
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It will be one minute and 40 seconds.
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[III. Tacet]
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And that's it.
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We did it.
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Thanks for listening.