Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, the unscripted show that celebrates unsung

heroes, myth busts historical lies, and rediscovers the forgotten stories that changed our world.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

Hello, everyone. This episode is the first episode. We're going to be talking about this topic,

and that is vampires. Not just about vampires in general, but a very specific historical figure

whom many believe is the inspiration for the modern-day vampire myth. This episode is based

on a question from Marlene,

and she asks the following. I'd be interested in your take on whether Vlad Tepis, or Vlad the

impaler, was a real vampire or not. Another angle might be the history of vampires. Maybe a bit of both.

All right. Well, the first question I can answer very succinctly.

The second question is going to take a long time, and that's what we're here for.

Was Vlad the Impaler an actual vampire?

If you mean vampire in the sense of a creature of the knight who has to be invited into a house to actually enter it,

whose reflection can't be seen in a mirror

whom vampire hunters go after, then the answer is no because they do not exist.

Neither in the modern incarnation of the Twilight series where they glitter and hunt deer

if they happen to be the vegan variety of vampires that we see in popular media of today.

Now, the second part of your question is the history of vampires and where does Vlad the

impaler fit into this?

Now, this is a topic I'm very excited to get into because Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Tepez,

was a Wallachian ruler in modern-day Romania.

He had extensive dealings with the Ottoman Empire. And there was even a

...