Podcast
The Secret Society of Strangers Podcast
Hosted by SSOSPod · EN
This is the Secret Society of Strangers — the podcast where we explore history's strange and unexplained events. The dark, often misunderstood rituals, beliefs, and people behind them. From ancient occult practices to murders and disappearances that leave witnesses and officials baffled.
Ever found yourself at 3am researching the Hex Hollow Murder? Wondered why the Dyatlov Pass evidence doesn't add up? Questioned what really happened at Flannan Isles Lighthouse?
You've found your tribe.
Join Lee, Josh, and Jen as we investigate documented cases where Dark Reality meets High Strangeness — real crimes with supernatural elements, disappearances that defy logic, and historical mysteries where every explanation fails.
We focus on cases where something fundamentally wrong happened. Where the evidence suggests the impossible. Murder cases with occult connections. Vanishings where the physics don't work. Ancient rituals that left modern crime scenes.
This isn't Hollywood horror or internet folklore. These are police reports that include the unexplained. Documented events from ancient times through the 1990s that resist rational explanation.
With meticulous research, dark humor, and forensic curiosity, SSOS serves the professionally curious and academically strange.
Got a high strangeness experience? Witnessed something that violated reality? We're listening.
New episodes weekly. Side Quests for lighter paranormal fare.
🕯️ Come Curious. Stay Strange.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Gregor MacGregor & the Poyais Scheme .(April Fools series )
May 301:31:02Tap to summarizeHe called himself a prince. He created a flag, a constitution, a currency. He published a 355-page guidebook to a capital city with an opera house and a cathedral. And none of it existed. In the finale of our April Fools series, we tell the story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish soldier who invented an entire nation called Poyais, convinced hundreds to invest their life savings, and sent 250 settlers to die in an empty jungle. Nearly 180 people never came home. And MacGregor? He was never convicted. He died a general, buried with full military honors in a cathedral in Caracas. The deadliest con in modern history. The man who sold a country. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. YouTube THE MAN WHO INVENTED A FAKE COUNTRY AND KILLED 180 PEOPLE | Gregor MacGregor & The Poyais Scheme | SSOS In this episode, we cover the incredible true story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish con artist who invented an entire nation called Poyais in the 1820s, printed fake currency, sold government bonds for a country that didn't exist, and convinced 250 settlers to sail across the Atlantic to a "paradise" that was actually empty jungle. Nearly 180 of them died. MacGregor was never convicted. He died a hero in Venezuela. This is the finale of our April Fools con artist series, covering: Frank Abagnale Jr., Anna Delvey, Ann Odelia Diss Debar, and now the deadliest fraud in history. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production
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Ann O'Delia Diss Debar -The Spook Priestess (APRIL FOOLS SERIES)
Apr 2201:07:08Tap to summarizeShe called herself a Princess of Bavaria. The newspapers called her "The Empress of Swindle." In 1888, Ann O'Delia Diss Debar convinced one of New York's most powerful attorneys that she could summon oil paintings from thin air—works created by Raphael and Rembrandt from beyond the grave. She took his fortune, his mansion, and his sanity. But that was just the beginning. From the Gilded Age parlors of Madison Avenue to the courtrooms of London's Old Bailey, the Spook Priestess left a trail of broken lives, impossible escapes, and crimes so dark the courtroom had to be cleared. And when the final curtain fell? She simply... vanished. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. SOURCES "Duped By A Spook Priestess" — The New York Times, April 1888 "The Horos Trial" — Old Bailey Proceedings, December 1901 Occult America by Mitch Horowitz (Bantam, 2009) The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Alex Owen Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary K. Greer (Park Street Press, 1995) The Cincinnati Enquirer archives, 1909 LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production
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ANNA DELVEY: THE CON ARTIST WHO INVENTED AN HEIRESS (APRIL FOOLS SERIES)
Apr 1401:29:54Tap to summarizeShe had no money. No trust fund. No Swiss bank account. What Anna Delvey had was a fake name, a designer wardrobe, and the nerve to walk into New York's most exclusive rooms and act like she owned them. For four years, she fooled banks, hotels, and Manhattan's social elite — using Microsoft Word and an AOL email address. In this episode, Josh walks us through the full story: from a working-class suburb of Moscow to a $135 million Park Avenue building, from Rikers Island to Dancing with the Stars. Lee breaks down the Netflix empire built on the con. And Josh asks the uncomfortable question: did she exploit a flaw in the system — or did she exploit the system as designed? LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production SOURCES Jessica Pressler, "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It," New York Magazine / The Cut, May 2018 Rachel DeLoache Williams, My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress (Simon & Schuster, 2019) Manhattan District Attorney's Office, People v. Anna Sorokin, trial transcripts and evidence exhibits, 2019 Netflix, Inventing Anna (Shondaland, 2022) 60 Minutes Australia, Anna Sorokin interview, 2022 Netflix Tudum, Julia Garner accent interview, February 2022 Newsweek, "Julia Garner on How She Mastered Anna Delvey's 'Wild' Accent," February 2022 Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and various court reporting from 2017-2025
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INMATE #25367 — The True Story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (April Fools Series)
Apr 701:01:32Tap to summarizeINMATE #25367 — The True Story of Frank Abagnale Jr. You know the legend. The teenage con artist who impersonated a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, a lawyer. Who cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks. Who escaped from prison twice. Who became so famous that Steven Spielberg made a movie about him. There's just one problem. While Frank Abagnale claimed he was crisscrossing the globe as a teenage super-criminal — the records show he was somewhere else entirely. Inmate #25367. Great Meadow Correctional Facility. Comstock, New York. The greatest con he ever pulled wasn't the pilot, the doctor, or the lawyer. It was his own story. This week on Secret Society of Strangers — we pull the receipts on America's most famous fraudster. And ask the question: what's the difference between a con artist and a storyteller? 🕯️ Come Curious. Stay Strange. YOUTUBE VERSION The REAL Story of Catch Me If You Can | Frank Abagnale EXPOSED | SSOS Podcast Frank Abagnale Jr. told the world he was a teenage criminal mastermind — Pan Am pilot, doctor, lawyer, professor. Steven Spielberg made a movie about him. Leonardo DiCaprio played him. He charged $25,000/night to lecture about fraud. But prison records tell a different story. In this episode, we break down: ⚡ The claims vs. the court documents ⚡ Why nobody fact-checked him for 50 years ⚡ The BANDIT car (yes, really) ⚡ Who Frank Abagnale actually was ⚡ Why we WANTED to believe the lie Welcome to April Fools Month on SSOS — four weeks, four con artists, one question: who's really getting played? Come Curious. Stay Strange. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production 📚 SOURCES Logan, Alan C. The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can. 2020. Wikipedia: Frank Abagnale — citing New York State Archives, federal court records, prison documents. Britannica: Frank Abagnale Jr. Hall, Stephen S. "Johnny is conned. A convict who makes up crimes." San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 1978. Perry, Ira D. Four-part investigative series. Daily Oklahoman. Leiva, Javier. "Pretend – The Real Catch Me If You Can." Podcast series, 2022–2023. All That's Interesting: "Inside The True Story Behind Catch Me If You Can." The Irish World: Alan C. Logan interview, August 2021. Louisiana Voice: Reporting by Tom Aswell on Abagnale claims. New York State Archives: Inmate records, Great Meadow Correctional Facility, Comstock, NY. Federal court records: Pan Am check forgery conviction totaling less than $1,500. Decoding the Unknown: "Frank Abagnale: The Real Story Behind Catch Me If You Can." October 2025.
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TESLA: Part 2 - WHAT THEY TOOK — March Madmen Madness Series Finale
Mar 3100:56:13Tap to summarizeThe man who invented the modern world died alone in a New York hotel room. By the next morning, federal agents had seized everything. 80 trunks of research. A legendary safe deposit box. Decades of documents. All of it taken by the Office of Alien Property — despite Tesla being an American citizen for over 50 years. The man who evaluated his papers? Dr. John G. Trump — Donald Trump's uncle. His verdict: nothing of value. But only 60 trunks made it to the Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Twenty remain unaccounted for. Some files are still classified. The Edison Medal — vanished. In this series finale, we cover Tesla's final years, his offers of a "death ray" to multiple governments (including $25,000 from the Soviets), the bizarre Tunguska theory, and the uncomfortable questions that remain unanswered 80 years later. What was actually in those trunks? What is still being protected? Come Curious. Stay Strange. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production SOURCES Seifer, Marc J. Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. Citadel Press, 1996. Tesla, Nikola. My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla. 1919. History.com: "The Mystery of Nikola Tesla's Missing Files" PBS: Tesla — Master of Lightning, "The Missing Papers" + "A Weapon to End War" FBI Vault: Nikola Tesla FOIA Files (2016, 2018 releases) MuckRock: "FBI Releases Catalog of Nikola Tesla's Writings Seized After His Death" Lapham's Quarterly: "Spying on Tesla" Wikipedia: John G. Trump Wikipedia: Teleforce Wikipedia: Tunguska event Tesla Universe: "The Death Ray of Nikola Tesla" Tesla Universe: "Map showing Tunguska lies on a direct line from Tesla's Wardenclyffe" The Unredacted: "The Tunguska Blast: Tesla's Death Ray" Science History Institute: "The Undying Appeal of Nikola Tesla's Death Ray" Nicholsen, Oliver. "Tesla's Wireless Power Transmitter and the Tunguska Explosion of 1908" El Ciudadano: "Donald Trump's Uncle Reviewed Nikola Tesla's Confiscated Documents" (Feb 2026) Interesting Engineering: "The Mysterious Disappearance of Nikola Tesla's Files" OCD-UK: Nikola Tesla profile AAAS: "The Brilliant and Tortured World of Nikola Tesla"
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TESLA: Part 1 -THE RECEIVER — March Madmen Madness Series Finale
Mar 3101:07:39Tap to summarizeNikola Tesla invented the modern world — but the textbooks leave out the mystic. At three years old, he stroked a cat and watched blue fire erupt from its fur. By adulthood, he could design complete machines entirely in his mind, run them for weeks, check for wear — then build them once, perfectly. "My brain is only a receiver," he said. A receiver of what? In the finale of March Madman Madness, we trace Tesla from a lightning-struck birth in Croatia to the War of Currents, from Edison's betrayal to the night he sat alone in Colorado Springs and heard something counting back at him from the stars. One. Two. Three. This is Part One: The Receiver. Part Two out now ! LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production SOURCES Seifer, Marc J. Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. Citadel Press, 1996. Tesla, Nikola. My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla. 1919. PBS: Tesla — Master of Lightning, "Tesla's Early Years" + "The Missing Papers" The Franklin Institute: Case Files: Nikola Tesla Britannica: Nikola Tesla OCD-UK: Nikola Tesla profile International OCD Foundation: Historical Profiles — Nikola Tesla History.com: "How Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse Battled to Electrify America" Wikipedia: Wardenclyffe Tower Wikipedia: Topsy (elephant) Wikipedia: William Kemmler Corum, Kenneth L. & James F. "Nikola Tesla and the Planetary Radio Signals." 2003. IFLScience: "Nikola Tesla Thought He'd Picked Up A Signal From Aliens On Mars" Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe: Tesla's Wireless Power AAAS: "The Brilliant and Tortured World of Nikola Tesla" American Physical Society: Wardenclyffe historic site Big Think: "Tesla on Inspiration" Tesla Universe: "The Miracle Mind of Nikola Tesla" Tesla Universe: "Making Your Imagination Work for You" All That's Interesting: "Nikola Tesla's 3 6 9 Obsession"
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JOHN DEE — PART 2: "THE MAN WHO TAUGHT THE ANGELS TO LIE" ( MARCH MADMAN MADNESS)
Mar 2700:49:07Tap to summarizeJohn Dee built the greatest library in England. He advised the most powerful queen in Europe. He coined the phrase "British Empire." Then Edward Kelley knocked on his door. In Part 2, the angels go quiet, the library gets looted, and a covenant signed in Třeboň changes everything. What happened in that room in 1587 — and what it cost Dee to believe. CREDITS: Hosts: Lee, Josh, Jen | Edited by: Jeremy/Lee LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM production SOURCES ——————————————————————————————————— PRIMARY SOURCES: Dee, John. Personal diaries and almanacs (1577–1601). British Library (Sloane MS 3188, 3677). Dee, John. Mysteriorum Libri Quinque. Sloane MS 3188, British Library. Casaubon, Méric. A True & Faithful Relation (1659). Dee, John. Compendious Rehearsall (1592). BIOGRAPHIES: Woolley, Benjamin. The Queen's Conjurer (2001). Henry Holt. French, Peter J. John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus (1972). Routledge. Parry, Glyn. The Arch-Conjurer of England (2012). Yale. EDWARD KELLEY: Wood, Anthony à. Athenae Oxonienses (1691–1692). Weever, John. Ancient Funerall Monuments (1631). Browne, Sir Thomas. Correspondence to Elias Ashmole (1674). ENOCHIAN LANGUAGE: Laycock, Donald C. The Complete Enochian Dictionary (1978; revised 2001). Weiser. Churton, Tobias. The Golden Builders (2005). Weiser. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Radio Prague International. "Alchemy and Wife Swapping in Renaissance Bohemia" (2021). Rožmberk family archives, Třeboň Castle. Roberts & Watson. John Dee's Library Catalogue (1990). Bibliographical Society. Royal College of Physicians. "The Lost Library of John Dee" exhibition (2016).
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JOHN DEE: THE QUEEN'S CONJURER — Part 1 March Madman Madness
Mar 2400:56:21Tap to summarizeIn 2016, researchers X-rayed a famous painting of Dr. John Dee standing before Queen Elizabeth I. Underneath the surface — painted over, deliberately hidden — he was standing in a circle of human skulls. Someone decided that was too honest. John Dee built the largest private library in Elizabethan England. He coined the phrase "British Empire." He picked the date of Elizabeth's coronation — and she reigned for forty-four years after it. He may have served as her spy, embedded in the same intelligence network that cracked the Babington Plot and sent Mary Queen of Scots to the block. By any measure, he was the most important intellectual in England. And none of it was enough. Part 1: From Cambridge to the Queen's court — a mind that mastered mathematics, navigation, and espionage, but couldn't stop chasing the one question no library could answer. Part 2 drops Friday: A convicted forger with no ears knocks on his door. In under forty-five minutes, everything changes. ss building holding two metal cans connected to a machine, telling a stranger their deepest secrets. Everything they say is being written down. And kept. They don't know that yet. In Part 1, we showed you the con artist. The college dropout who faked a war record, stole Jack Parsons' girlfriend and savings, and turned a self-help book into a movement. In Part 2, the con becomes a church — and the church becomes something far worse. When governments revoke his tax exemptions and ban him from their borders, Hubbard does the only logical thing: he buys a fleet of ships and declares himself Commodore. What follows is a floating authoritarian state crewed by devotees working hundred-hour weeks for ten dollars, pre-teen girls appointed as his personal messengers, and punishments that included being thrown overboard in open water. While his followers ate rice and beans, Hubbard was pulling fifteen thousand dollars a week through shell corporations and stashing cash in Swiss bank accounts. Then there's OT III — the secret scripture members spend years and tens of thousands of dollars to access. Written by the same man who spent two decades cranking out pulp sci-fi for a penny a word. Operation Snow White. The Rehabilitation Project Force. The IRS capitulation. And a final act that ends with a paranoid old man hiding in a motorhome in California under a fake name, surrounded by llamas, asking someone to build him a lethal E-meter. He died alone. The machine kept running. 🕯️ Come Curious. Stay Strange. This is Part 4 of March Madman Madness — five two-part deep dives into history's most dangerous minds. CREDITS: Hosts: Lee, Josh, Jen | Edited by: Jeremy/Lee 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com 🔗 linktr.ee/SSOSPOD 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube: @SSOSPodcast | Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram: @secretsocietyofstrangerspod | TikTok: @ssospodcast 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us or DM on socials — we're listening. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening. The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static Media production GcvdmuXPRAsOeuqCnFkx
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L. Ron Hubbard Part 2: "The Commodore's Church" | March Madman Madness
Mar 2101:17:41Tap to summarizeSomewhere right now, someone is sitting in a windowless building holding two metal cans connected to a machine, telling a stranger their deepest secrets. Everything they say is being written down. And kept. They don't know that yet. In Part 1, we showed you the con artist. The college dropout who faked a war record, stole Jack Parsons' girlfriend and savings, and turned a self-help book into a movement. In Part 2, the con becomes a church — and the church becomes something far worse. When governments revoke his tax exemptions and ban him from their borders, Hubbard does the only logical thing: he buys a fleet of ships and declares himself Commodore. What follows is a floating authoritarian state crewed by devotees working hundred-hour weeks for ten dollars, pre-teen girls appointed as his personal messengers, and punishments that included being thrown overboard in open water. While his followers ate rice and beans, Hubbard was pulling fifteen thousand dollars a week through shell corporations and stashing cash in Swiss bank accounts. Then there's OT III — the secret scripture members spend years and tens of thousands of dollars to access. Written by the same man who spent two decades cranking out pulp sci-fi for a penny a word. Operation Snow White. The Rehabilitation Project Force. The IRS capitulation. And a final act that ends with a paranoid old man hiding in a motorhome in California under a fake name, surrounded by llamas, asking someone to build him a lethal E-meter. He died alone. The machine kept running. 🕯️ Come Curious. Stay Strange. This is Part 4 of March Madman Madness — five two-part deep dives into history's most dangerous minds. CREDITS: Hosts: Lee, Josh, Jen | Edited by: Jeremy/Lee 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com 🔗 linktr.ee/SSOSPOD 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube: @SSOSPodcast | Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram: @secretsocietyofstrangerspod | TikTok: @ssospodcast 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us or DM on socials — we're listening. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening.
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L. Ron Hubbard Part 1: "The Pulp Fiction Prophet" | March Madman Madness
Mar 1700:59:37Tap to summarizeA man lies in a naval hospital bed in 1945, claiming war injuries nobody can verify. He's been relieved of command — twice. One time for fighting enemy submarines that didn't exist. But by the time he tells the story himself? He's a decorated combat veteran who healed his own wounds through sheer willpower. None of it was true. And that was just the warm-up. Before Scientology, before the tax-exempt empire and the celebrity recruits — L. Ron Hubbard was a college dropout, a pulp fiction writer cranking out stories for a penny a word, and a man with an extraordinary talent for reading what people wanted to hear. In Part 1, we trace Hubbard from a restless childhood spent as the perpetual new kid, through a wildly embellished military career, into the occult rituals of Jack Parsons' Pasadena mansion, and straight to the publication of Dianetics — the book that turned a broke science fiction writer into the leader of a movement. Along the way: a bigamous marriage, a kidnapped baby, and the moment a con artist realized that if you package a self-help system as a religion, the money never has to stop. Part 2 drops Friday. 🕯️ Come Curious. Stay Strange. Secret Society of Strangers is part of the March Madman Madness series — five two-part deep dives into history's most dangerous minds. Catch up on Jack Parsons, Aleister Crowley, and more in your feed now. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email us or DM on socials — we're listening.
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