The True Story of Tsantsas, or "Shrunken Heads"
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 11K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever heard the story of "shrunken heads"? In the West, a ton of people sadly associate this with their own self-centric pop-culture experiences. However -- as Ben, Matt and Noel discover in tonight's episode -- the ancient practice of creating tsantsas is far more fascinating than any nostalgia reference. Tune in to learn the true conspiracy behind the popularity of "shrunken heads".
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is riddled with unexplained events. |
| 0:06.9 | You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. |
| 0:12.0 | A production of IHeart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt. |
| 0:29.6 | My name is Noel. They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our guest producer, Max, the Freight Train Williams. |
| 0:36.5 | Most importantly, you are you, you are here. |
| 0:39.8 | That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. |
| 0:43.9 | Guys, we're recording on January 5th, 2026, and it's weird to say it, but what a year already. |
| 0:53.8 | It's not weird at all. I mean, it's already. It's not weird at all. |
| 0:55.0 | I mean, it's true. |
| 0:56.5 | It's been a weird year, that's for sure. |
| 0:59.5 | Noel, just before the break, Ben and I had a conversation about the National Endowment for Democracy. |
| 1:04.1 | And in that episode, we had a bit of a discussion about Venezuela and some stuff's been happening. |
| 1:12.2 | Oh, yeah, I've heard rumblings. |
| 1:14.4 | We recorded it on December 19th. |
| 1:17.6 | And then you wake up, you know, just after Christmas, just as the New Year's |
| 1:22.1 | were ringing in. |
| 1:24.1 | You know, a head of state gets abducted. |
| 1:26.8 | It's cool. |
| 1:27.5 | It's almost like we've seen this before. It reminds me a lot of state gets abducted. It's cool. |
| 1:30.0 | It's almost like we've seen this before. |
| 1:33.2 | It reminds me a lot of Sadami-type era stuff. |
| 1:33.5 | Uh-huh. |
... |
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