July 21, 2026

Should items from The Titanic be auctioned off?

Show Notes
Transcript

RMS Titanic Incorporated, which holds salvage rights, is seeking to auction over 100 recovered Titanic artifacts, sparking debate between funding expeditions/exhibitions and preserving the wreck as a memorial; England research from Queen Mary University of London reports young women vaccinated for HPV at 12–13 have close to zero risk of dying from cervical cancer before 30, with an estimated 200 lives saved since 2008 and zero deaths among ages 20–24 from 2020–2024; conservationists in Queensland spotted a northern hairy-nosed wombat joey, raising the global population from 450 to 451; Dylan, once given eight months to live with stage four kidney cancer, graduated cancer-free after chemotherapy supported by Dr. Mary; and a long-lost wallet was returned after being found and identified via a Facebook post and a Leeds United membership card.

00:10 Titanic Artifact Debate
01:37 HPV Vaccine Breakthrough
02:16 Rare Wombat Joey Spotted
03:19 Dylan Beats Cancer
04:02 Lost Wallet Returned

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Kalaroga Shock Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with five

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good news stories. It's been over a century since the

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Titanic slipped beneath the waters of the North Atlantic, and

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now a battle is underway to see what should happen

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to the treasures recovered from the wreck. The company that

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holds the salvage rights to the Titanic wants to auction

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them off or MS Titanic Incorporated has spent decades recovering

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objects from the wreck site. Thousands of items have been

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brought to the surface, ranging from personal belongings and pieces

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of the ship itself to everyday objects used by passengers

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and crew. Until now, those artifacts have been largely displayed

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in museums and traveling exhibitions, but court documents recently unsealed

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revealed that the company is trying to auction off over

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one hundred items. Among the objects reportedly being considered or

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a bronze cherub, a necklace made of gold nuggets, and

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a heart shaped pendant. Here's the debate. On one side,

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some argue that recovered artifacts can help fund future expeditions

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and keep public exhibitions operating. The other side, are historians, preservationists,

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and some relatives of Titanic victims who view the wreck

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site as something closer to a memorial than a treasure trove.

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O should explorer Greg Stone says he has no objection

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in recovering artifacts if it's done carefully and scientifically. Earlier

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this year, a life jacket won by a passenger reportedly

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sold for more than nine hundred thousand dollars. In twenty

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twenty four, gold pocket watch connected to the captain of

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the rescue ship that saved some survivors fetched nearly two

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million dollars at an auction. Critics note that those items

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were never part of the rex site itself. Meanwhile, in England,

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scientists getting it done once again. A new study has

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found that young women who receive the HPV vaccine at

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age twelve or thirteen now have what researchers describe as

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a close to zero risk of dying from cervical cancer

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before the age of thirty. Researched by the Queen Mary

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University of London examine the vaccine's impact on debts from

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the disease. Researchers estimate the roughly two hundred line lives

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that had already been saved since the vaccination program began

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in two thousand and eight. Between twenty twenty and twenty

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twenty four, they were zero recorded cervical cancer deaths among

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women age twenty to twenty four in England. Researchers say

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that without the vaccine, statistically, they would have had about

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twenty three deaths. Conservationists in Australia are excited. They saw

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a tiny bulge on a trail camera. What was it?

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It was one of the world's rarest mammals, a northern

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hairy nosed wombat Joey, which probably will soon be like

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running along a highway in Texas if you listen to

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the show Eagily Now. This is both happy and kind

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of sad by spotting the singular northern hairy nosed wombat

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Joey that increased the global population from four hundred and

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fifty to four hundred and fifty one. The baby was

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spotted in Queensland at the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge, where

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motion sensored cameras captured images of a female wombat carrying

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a youngster in her pouch. A volunteer said, when we

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first saw the little budge on the belly, we got

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very excited. The images were sent to experts who confirmed

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that the female was indeed carrying a newly born Joey.

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The northern hairy nose wombat is considered one of the

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rarest mammals on Earth. By the nineteen eighties, only about

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thirty five animals remained. Conservation efforts helped pull the species

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back from the brink. Protected habitats, predator fencing, and intensive

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monitoring have allowed the population to slowly recover. Good news

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for Dylan. When Dylan was fourteen years old, doctors told

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him he had stage four kidney cancer and he might

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only have eight months to live. However, four years later,

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Dylan walked across a graduation stage cancer free. Doctor Mary

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treated Dylan through a grueling year of chemotherapy. She checked

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in regularly, shared meals with him, incourgon throughout his darkest moments,

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and gave him a goal to hold on when the

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future looked uncertain. You told him, if you keep fighting

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and make it through treatment, should be there for the graduation.

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Sure enough, she was there. Dylan's dad said, just the

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trick of saying hey, I'll make it to your graduation

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changed everything. He just decided to keep fighting. Dylan has

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been declared cancer free. She lives fifteen hundred miles away.

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You know, sometimes the past doesn't arrive in a dusty

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attic box or a carefully labeled family album. Sometimes it

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shows up in the form of a wallet you didn't

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even realize you had lost. Mark was surprised on a

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Facebook post appeared showing the contents of a weathered wallet

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that had shown up after a dig. The wallet had

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some clues pointing back to its owner, including an old

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Leeds United membership card from the nineteen ninety two to

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nineteen ninety three season. At that time, Matt was covering

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Leeds United for the Yorkshire Evening Post. You see where

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this is going, right, Yes, he explains, the wallet was

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found by the organizer of a local forest school, but

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I have no recollection of ever walking down there at

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any time in the past, so I have no idea

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how the wallet got there. One theory is the wallet

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might have disappeared after a night out many years ago.

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Another possibility it was stolen and thrown out. Anyway, Claire

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found the wallet posted out on the Internet. Matt's wife

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spotted the post and realized the owner was sitting right

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next to her. That's amazing looking back at the membership

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card photograph, Matt couldn't resist poking fun at his younger self.

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He said, given that I was a sports reporter, you

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might have thought I've had more of a smile on

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my face than on the leads card in ninety two.

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I was thirty and happy, having a good time, loving journalism,

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loving working in newspapers. It was just great. And now

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he's got his wallet back. And those are your five

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good news stories for today. You have an awesome day.