This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing on mythical

creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

As we're slap-dab in the middle of a Stuff to Blow Your Mind series on the Dog Days of Summer,

I figured, hey, it's time to finally talk a little bit about the Yopja, the central

extraterrestrial hunters in the Predator Universe.

And, of course, sometimes crosses over with the alien universe as well.

I've talked about numerous organisms from the alien universe already.

And I've actually talked about the Calusk from Predator Badlands. But this is the first time

I'm really zeroing in and talking a bit about the Yachtja. I guess one of the things about them is

that they're very technologically inclined culture in the films and in the related media.

So I almost would need to come back and do a sci-fi artifact episode on the various

weapons of the yachtja. So maybe I'll do that in the future. But hey, let's talk about the

organism here. In case you need a refresher, the Predator Films, beginning with the 1987 sci-fi action

testosterone fest, these revolve around technologically advanced bipedal alien hunters who

periodically ventured to earth to hunt dangerous human game. Decked out with everything from

plasma cannons and cloaking devices to wrist blades and spears, the hunters who have eventually

come to be known canonically as the Yatja,

seek out areas of intense human conflict so as to hunt only the most dangerous and violent humans

against the chaotic backdrop of warfare and violence.

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