245: Honor encountered an angry hippo

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Here on the podcast we’ve several episodes with guests who have told the story of being attacked by an animal. These include a grizzly bear, a monkey, a shark, a rattlesnake, a tiger, a pair of dogs, an alligator, and a swarm of yellow jackets. But we haven’t yet had a story about a hippo attack. Until today. My guest today is Honor. She was traveling throughout Africa and she learned about the list of animals in Africa that cause the most fatalities. Hippos are number TWO on that list, and number one may surprise you. She told me what it was in our conversation. Hippos look like they would just want to roll over and scratch their belly. But don’t be fooled. They are extremely territorial, and can get very angry. And, as Honor saw first-hand, they are also quite fast. If you’d like to contact Honor, she’s in the Facebook group - https://WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/245 Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS. Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app Sponsor deals: Visit AuraFrames.com and use promo code WHATWAS at checkout to get $45 off. If you’re 21 or older, get 25% OFF your first order + free shipping @IndaCloud with code [WHATWAS] at https://inda.shop/[WHATWAS]! #indacloudpod Go to ThriveMarket.com/WHATWAS to get 30% off your first order, plus a FREE $60 gift just for signing up. Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Try Mint Mobile for 3 months, for just 15 bucks a month - MintMobile.com/WHAT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here in the podcast, we've had several episodes with guests who have told the story of being attacked by an animal.
0:14.1	These include a grizzly bear, a monkey, a shark, a rattlesnake, a tiger, a pair of dogs, an alligator, and a swarm of yellow jackets.
0:30.6	But we haven't yet had a story about a hippo attack until today.
0:39.3	My guest today is Honor.
0:42.3	She was traveling throughout Africa and she learned about the list of animals in Africa
0:48.3	that caused the most fatalities.
0:51.3	Hippos are number two on that list and number one may surprise you. She
0:58.8	told me what that was in our conversation. Hippos look like they would just
1:05.1	want to roll over and have you scratch their belly. but don't be fooled.
1:16.9	They are extremely territorial and can get very angry.
1:23.8	And as Honor saw firsthand, they're also quite fast. Real people in the world? Fast.
1:33.4	Real people in unreal situations.
1:39.6	The eerie silence when I walked in, and he's just staring at me.
1:42.0	I was like, hello, like, are you okay?
1:46.0	And then I had to tell him, it was me. There was just blood everywhere.
1:49.0	They're shouting, they're screaming, they're being hit by bullets, they're hitting the ground.
1:53.0	And in that moment, I literally thought, this is how I die.
1:56.0	Everything changed then.
1:59.0	And I just thought to myself, this isn't happening.
2:01.6	Every single story deserves to be heard.
2:06.6	I'm Scott Johnson, and this is what was that like?
2:14.6	Ready to launch your business?
	...

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