Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, something huge, red-haired, and reeking of death still walks on backward feet. Locals call it the Mapinguari: one eye, impenetrable skin, and a screaming vertical mouth in its stomach. First written about in 1542, it has terrified people ever since (hunters, rubber tappers, miners, even indigenous elders who say it was once a shaman cursed for revealing forbidden knowledge). Bullets don’t kill it. Only fire and deep water keep it away. Tonight we bring you the clearest sightings, the scariest recordings, and the chilling indigenous origin story no one outside Acre has ever heard.

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Sources:

Historical / Early Written Sources

1. Pero de Magalhães Gandavo – História da Província Santa Cruz (1576) – first European use of “mapinguari”
2. João Daniel – Tesouro Descoberto no Máximo Rio Amazonas (written 1757–1776, published 1975) – earliest detailed Jesuit description
3. Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira – Viagem Filosófica pelas Capitanias do Grão-Pará… (1783–1792, published excerpts 1971–1974) – first scientific expedition mention

1. Terri Vale de Aquino – “O Mapinguari: um estudo etnográfico entre os Kaxinawá” (Master’s thesis, Universidade Federal do Acre, 1995)
2. Angelika Gebhart-Sayer – “The Cosmos Encoiled: Indian Cosmos and Shamanic Transformations among the Kaxinawá” (in Shamanism, History and the State, 1996)
3. Elsje Lagrou – A Fluidez da Forma (2007) – chapter on the Mapinguari as transformed shaman

1. David C. Oren – various articles:
   • “Did Ground Sloths Survive to the Present?” Cryptozoology 12 (1993)
   • Interview in Veja magazine (June 17, 1998)
   • “O Mapinguari” in Revista do Museu Goeldi (1994–2000 internal reports)
2. Glenn Shepard Jr. – “Sloth Man: The Mapinguari and the Giant Ground Sloth Hypothesis” (blog post & academic talks, 2001–2010)

1. Stefano Varese – Salt of the Mountain: Campa Cosmology (on Boraro in Peru/Colombia, 2002)
2. Fernando Santos-Granero – “The Enemy Within: Cannibals and Sorcerers in the Amazon” (on Boraro and similar beings, 2009)
3. Peter Rivière – Individual and Society in Guiana (1984) – on Didiman/Yurokon in the Guianas

1. Cândido, M. – Na Planície Amazônica (1997) – classic collection of caboclo testimonies
2. Bruce Means & David Oren – chapters in Lost Animals (2020) – short, accessible summary with sources

Explore dragons in folklore—from Mesopotamian origins like Tiamat to Chinese rain dragons and European hoarders. They cover common traits across cultures, vulnerabilities like soft spots and tricks, historical sightings involving Alexander the Great and Mount Pilatus, and how many tales symbolize draining swamps to fight malaria. Plus, why dragon fossils haven't been found (hint: not thin bones). Listen for myths, history, and facts.

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Sources:

Core/Very Common Traits

• Slavic: Russian byliny.
• Greek: Hesiod's Theogony (700 BCE, Hydra/Typhon/Ladon).
• Indian: Rigveda (1500–1200 BCE, nāgas).
• Japanese: Kojiki/Nihon Shoki (712–720 CE, Yamata-no-Orochi).
• Norse: Völsunga Saga (13th cent., Fáfnir).
• Chinese: Shanhaijing (4th–1st cent. BCE, dragon kings).

Mesopotamia (Earliest Dragon-Like)

• Tiamat: Enūma Eliš (1800–1100 BCE); cylinder seals (2500 BCE).
• Mušḫuššu: Sumerian texts (2300 BCE); Ishtar Gate (604–562 BCE).

Earliest "Dragon" Word

• Tunnanu: Ugarit tablets (14th cent. BCE).

Chinese Lóng

• Proto: Hongshan jade artifacts (4500–3000 BCE).
• Full: Shang oracle bones (1200 BCE).

European Drakōn

• Da-ra-ko: Linear B tablet KN V 52 (1250 BCE).
• Myths: Homer's Iliad (750 BCE); Hesiod's Theogony (700 BCE).

Indian Nāga

• Vritra: Rigveda (1500–1200 BCE).

Americas Feathered Serpent

• Proto-Quetzalcoatl: Olmec La Venta Monument 19 (900 BCE).

Weaknesses/Vulnerabilities

• St. George: Golden Legend (1260 CE).
• Sigurd/Fáfnir: Völsunga Saga.
• Beowulf: Beowulf MS (1000 CE).
• Hydra: Hesiod/Ovid.
• Zmey Gorynych: Byliny (12th–16th cent.).
• Knucker: Sussex folklore (1614).
• Yamata-no-Orochi: Kojiki.
• Lambton Worm: Durham ballads (1400 CE).

Famous Encounters

• Alexander's Serpent (325 BCE): Aristotle's Meteorologica (340 BCE); Onesicritus (quoted); Strabo's Geography Bk 15 (20 AD); Pliny's Natural History 8.36 (77 AD); Arrian's Anabasis (2nd cent. AD).
• Mount Pilatus (1421): Von Wattenwyl testimony (1422, Lucerne Archives Nr. 221); later reports (1499/1619).
• Brienzersee (1934): Swiss newspapers (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Basler Nachrichten); Federal Police file; Air Force historian (1984).

Malaria Theory

• Wawel Dragon: 13th-cent. Polish chronicle.
• St. Mercurialis: Giovanni Villani's chronicle (14th cent.).
• Tarasp Dragon: Graubünden folklore.
• Context: Comparative history (e.g., Winegard's The Mosquito, 2019).

Thin Bones/Paleontology

• Examples: Pterosaurs (1,200+ specs, e.g., Quetzalcoatlus); Archaeopteryx (Solnhofen); Microraptor/Velociraptor (Liaoning); Sauropods/mosasaurs/plesiosaurs (global); Sarcosuchus/Deinosuchus (Cretaceous); Protoceratops (Gobi); Karoo Basin (300,000+ specs).
• General: Paleontology texts (e.g., Benton/Mayor).

The Hat Man (Internet) and Draugr (Iceland)

“The Hat Man”

Paranormal investigator Mara Ellison tracks a global wave of identical sleep-paralysis nightmares: a tall, featureless man in a wide-brimmed hat who silently watches victims, radiating pure evil.She calls it internet folklore—until he appears on her own camera in an empty asylum. Now people are dying of sheer terror, and once you learn his name, he learns yours.

He’s already standing behind you.

Draugr

Not ghosts. Not zombies.

A corpse that swells monstrous in the grave, turns blue-black with death-bloat, and rises heavier than any living man could lift. Greedy, hateful, tireless. It guards its hoard with crushed bones and broken necks, rides rooftops until the beams explode, and drives whole valleys mad with terror. Normal weapons glance off it. Fire is slow. And some refuse even ash. In this episode we meet the worst of them: a dead man so stubborn that the living have only one weapon left: the law itself.

One courtroom. One doorway. One final judgment for the restless dead.

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Sources:

• Book: The Secret War by Heidi Hollis (2008) Popularized the "Hat Man" as a demonic entity; draws from radio show reports and early online sightings.
• Book: Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us by Jason Offutt (2009) Collects eyewitness accounts of shadow figures, including Hat Man encounters tied to sleep paralysis.
• Book: Sleep Paralysis: What It Is and How to Stop It by Chris White (2015) Scientific guide with personal stories; debunks supernatural claims while offering prevention tips.
• Documentary: The Nightmare (2015, dir. Rodney Ascher) Explores sleep paralysis hallucinations through interviews and reenactments, featuring shadow intruders.
• Article: "Who is the Hat Man? ‘Shadow people’ and sleep paralysis" (The Week, 2025) Overview of global reports, folklore roots, and the role of online forums like The Hatman Project.
• Article: "Have You Seen 'The Hatman'?" (IFLScience, 2025) Examines cultural influences on hallucinations and consistency in descriptions.
• Primary source Eyrbyggja saga, chapters 30–34 & 51–55 (the entire Þórólfr bægifótr and Fróðá haunting episodes) – Best modern English translations:
  • The Saga of the People of Eyrr (Penguin Classics, 1989, tr. Judy Quinn & Kate Heslop)
  • Eyrbyggja Saga (Penguin Classics, 1972/1989, tr. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards)
• Old Norse text (for reference) Eyrbyggja saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson & Matthías Þórðarson, Íslenzk fornrit IV (1935) – available free on heimskringla.no and snerpa.is
• Supporting medieval references to draugr and door-court
  • Landnámabók (Sturlubók & Hauksbók redactions) – mentions re-burying walking corpses
  • Grágás (Konungsbók) – early Icelandic laws on dealing with “aptrgǫngumenn” (revenants)
  • Grettis saga, ch. 35 (for comparison of draugr traits)
  • Hilda Roderick Ellis, The Road to Hel (1943) – classic study of Norse undead
  • John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (2001)
  • Ármann Jakobsson, “The Fear of the Dead in the Íslendingasögur” (in Trolls and Revenants, 2012)