meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Ridiculous History

CLASSIC: Back When the Rich Ate Corpses

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nowadays it's safe to say that cannibalism isn't a widely-accepted practice, but not so long ago it was considered the bleeding edge (get it?) in medicine throughout Western Europe. Join Ben and Noel as they explore the odd practice of consuming human body parts in hopes of curring all one's ills, through everything such as the King's drops to bandages soaked in human fat, along with related stories of the legendary Mellified Man and the current, tragic phenomenon of Tanzanian criminals hunting down those suffering from albinism to use their body parts in magic rituals.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Oh, we're doing some, we're doing some cool stuff with our classic episode this week, Noel.

0:05.4

We're exploring mummies.

0:08.4

We are indeed not that, not mummies and daddies.

0:11.5

No, mummies, the embalmed kind, the kind that potentially rise from the dead and spook

0:17.4

people out on Halloween.

0:19.1

It's also a fun lo-fi costume just involves some toilet paper

0:22.8

right yeah this is the story of a city called guano yato and back in the day they instituted a

0:29.9

grave tax which just feels terrible like that's so petty and penny pinching you're going to tax

0:37.1

people on the way out as well.

0:39.6

If you couldn't pay the grave tax, you would run into some harsh penalties. If you fall three years

0:46.7

behind on your loved ones resting place, they will dig the body up and they will take it out of the

0:53.5

grave. Yeah. And these bodies were not just from ancient Egypt.

0:57.4

They weren't like wrapped in linens and mummified in that classic fashion.

1:02.0

They were somehow found to have been naturally mummified and word spread and it became

1:08.0

something of a sideshow attraction, which is pretty gross.

1:12.8

Gravediggers are trying to make a quick buck charging folks to take a peek at these

1:17.1

naturally mummified remains. So why don't we jump into the story and hear all about the

1:22.6

mummies of Guanayato. This is an iHeart podcast.

1:36.3

In 2012, 16-year-old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

1:39.3

I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

1:43.3

After nearly a decade, no, keep fighting.

1:47.2

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything.

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.