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Episode 3: The Legacy

Episode 3: The Legacy

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 Summary: From Bogotá's Gold Museum, Jack Maddox examines El Dorado's cultural afterlife and lasting impact. The episode explores how the legend has inspired literature from Voltaire's "Candide" to García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and how it continues to shape our relationship with the Amazon basin. Maddox contrasts indigenous perspectives on gold with European obsessions, and draws parallels between historical quests and modern resource extraction that continues to devastate the region. Through personal reflections on his travels through Venezuela's Devil's Valley, Maddox considers what El Dorado reveals about human nature and our need for wonder, suggesting that the real tragedy of the gold-seekers was their blindness to the actual marvels surrounding them – the true treasures they failed to recognize.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.