The Cowboy Philosopher

This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta. Today's episode begins in a subterranean labyrinth. It's 2018 and we're below the streets of Washington, DC. I've come here in search of clues.

So here we are in deck 50 in the stats of the Library of Congress. I'm opening a door that's marked door 20. My guide through the Library of Congress's massive collection is a tall, Shaggy man. His name is Steve Winnick.

He looks a lot like Hagrid from Harry Potter, which seems about right for someone with the title of folklorist. Steve has already led me through a maze of low-ceiling stacks, across a small bridge, and into a tiny elevator where the floor numbers go up as we move down. Finally, we arrive at our destination. And in here we find row upon row of collection boxes on the shelves, and I'm looking for this collection, which is numbered AFC 1979008. Steve pulls from the shelf a cardboard box.

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