Stuff You Should Know - Selects: How Vampires Work

Episode Date: October 29, 2022

Out of obligation, Chuck and Josh mention Twilight, but it is the longstanding vampire lore that gets the most attention in this examination of how the bloodsucking undead evolved from baby-stealing demonesses to suave counts in our collective psyche. Explore the wild world of vampires in this spooky classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to

believe. You can find in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Good evening. This is Josh. And for this week's select, I've ch- Sorry about that. My lockjaw was acting up. Where was I? Oh yeah. For this week's select, I've chosen a very spooky episode from 2013, How Vampires Work. Hopefully it will really

boost your Halloween spirit with its spookiness. And also, I just want to include an apology at the outset to all the Twilight fans out there. When this episode was recorded, I hadn't fully adopted the concept of not yucking someone's yo. And with all that said, from Chuck, Jerry, Dave, and me, Happy Halloween. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant sitting across from me back in the saddle. And this is Stuff You Should Know, yo. Back in the saddle, eh? Yeah. You want to explain that? Or should we just leave it a mystery? Saddle? No, well. What the metaphorical saddle is in this case? Yeah. Well, you know, we have been

kind of away, even though it seems like we've been here every week. I know. Through the magic of digital recording. That's right, pre-recording. We batch-recorded our episodes and covered ourselves. We built up what we call a kitty. And we've been releasing them steadily and faithfully while we've been off recording a TV show. Recording a TV show, that's right. Our own TV show, where, and Yumi pointed this out to me, how cool this is, we play ourselves. Yeah. I think that's the only thing I'm qualified to do as an actor. Oh, yeah, totally. We would have failed miserably if we'd done anything else, like a Sherlock Holmes update or something like that. Oh, there's so many of those going on already. I know, so why not us? Yeah, why not? Elementary,

my dear Clark. Yeah. But yeah, we have a TV show coming out. I guess we can talk about it freely. We're done. Yeah, we'll really ramp up the plug-edge come December, but look for it in January on Science Channel. Yep. And if you don't have Science Channel, go out and purchase Science Channel. Yeah, and we do not know, because I know people are already asking about online stuff, if they're going to be available through various media outlets online. Yeah, we don't know yet. And we're working on that. We'd love for it to, but it's not up to us. Yeah, so I mean, you have to hedge your bets and get Science Channel. Yes, add it to your cable subscription. And if your cable provider doesn't offer Science Channel, you burn down their offices

until they do. That's right. Okay, so Chuck. Yes. Have you ever heard of a little movie called Twilight? Yeah, I've seen all those. You've seen them? Oh yeah. Emily's read the books and she's way into it, so I have been sucked into it. That is very supportive of you. I don't think they're very good, but I must admit, I do want to see the final one just because it's like, when you watch four of something or however many it's been, three of something, it'd just be kind of weird to stop there. Gotcha. So I will see the last one. When does that come out? I think probably sometime around this published date. Oh really? Yeah, I think it's a Thanksgiving or Christmas release. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. Well, I bring that up to propose that

that's the only time we talk about that franchise throughout this whole podcast. Sure. Agreed. Agreed. Because vampires, which is what we're talking about, they go back a very, very, very long way. Yeah. They've evolved, they've changed, they've shifted their shape, but they seem to all have certain characteristics in common, right? Yeah. For example, they can't see their own reflection. Well, not necessarily. Okay. If we go back to the ancient myths. Okay. They are wary of crucifixes. Crucify. No, crucifixes. Yeah. They only come out at night. Yeah, they're the undead. Yeah. Suck blood from a victim's neck. They have to be invited into your home. Yeah, garlic as well, holy water. Yeah. Superhuman strength,

all tenants of the modern vampire lore. Yes, and modern is a good, it's a good way to put it, because all of this is a fairly recent image of the vampire, thanks to Bram Stoker, and then shortly after that, Bella Lugosi. Yeah. We now have this conception of the vampire. But like I said, it goes back way, way further than the 19th century or even the 18th century. Yeah. It goes back as much as 4,000 years as far as we know, and probably further back, right? Yeah. And I will say one thing, not to bring up the T-word again, but Bram Stoker and other authors and filmmakers, the cool thing I like about the vampire in pop culture is you can pull from all these different things to create your own creature of the night. Yes. Like some of them in true blood,

for instance. They can retract their fangs. They're super sexy. Lilith is in that. Oh, yeah. A version of Lilith that we'll talk about. Okay. So I just think that's one of the cool things about vampires is Bram Stoker did the same thing. He pulled from different areas of mythology and said, this is a fictional character I'm going to create using all these old folk legends. Right. But there are some things that are very basic. The commonalities among all vampires is that generally they suck blood. Yeah. And they are dead in some way, shape, or form. Yeah. Undead. They are. They're undead. That's a great word. He just coined an excellent term. Just made that up. So you have undead people, former people in most cases, feeding on the

living. That's the vampire. It's the basis of almost all vampires. Yes. But even that has exceptions because these early, the earliest vampires that we know of that arose out of the first civilization, Mesopotamia, were actually demon goddesses, right? Yeah. Lamastu was a demon goddess. And she was the daughter of Anu, the sky god. Yeah. And she would creep in and kill your babies. Yes. She was not a happy, nice person. She had talons, wings. Yeah. And they believed that the Assyrians and Babylonians were basically going like, what is going on when they would encounter sudden infant death syndrome? Yeah. Or miscarriages. And they said, well, of course, it is. Lamastu. Thank you. Yeah. I think it's so funny how so many of these things were sort of

used to explain, and not vampires, but all kinds of folk legends, to explain like what medicine house says is sids. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, like it's that this basis of the vampire legend, using it to explain stuff people didn't understand. Yeah. Usually some sort of sudden death or a wasting away, as we'll see later. It spans thousands of years. People have been going back to that well for thousands and thousands of years. True. That's pretty interesting. Agreed. You know, when you look at this one group in the 19th century with the Assyrians, 4,000 years ago, and they're all thinking the same thing. Yeah. That's, I find that very interesting. That's an archetype, if you ask Jung. Yeah. And it just goes to show you we're all

humans all over the world for as long as we've been around. We're all stupid. We're all stupid. All right. Lamastu is also associated with Lilith, who I mentioned, who this past season was on True Blood, like a version of Lilith, but she is in prominent in Jewish texts and is a lot like Lamastu. She was the first woman supposedly. Yeah. Not Eve, but Adam and Lilith. Yeah. That's like that question about like, who is the first president? Yeah. Well, apparently there were other presidents before Washington. There were like eight or nine before Washington, but you just have to say, well, were they the president of the United States? No, they weren't. Right. So Lilith was a modern woman, and she was like, you know, Adam, I ain't putting up with this

because I am just the same as you. I was created from God just like you are. Yeah. And so... Stop acting like you're not made of dust. Exactly. So she left Eden, said, I'm out of here. I'm going to go have my own kids. Yeah. God sends angels to bring her back. She's like, no, I'm not going. And the angels said, all right, you think angels are nice? We're going to kill 100 of your children every day until you get back up to Eden or heaven. Yeah. And rather than say, okay, well, let's go back to Eden, then Lilith said, do it. And they did it. And so she started killing human children in return. That's right. Again, with sharp talons, a winged demoness, stealing infants and fetuses. And I find that extremely interesting

that the vampire legend is kind of born out of this folklore of how you're supposed to be subservient to men. Right. You know, that's very interesting. Yeah. Because there's this element of seduction that kind of was reinvented with vampires here or there. But it's one of the... It may have gone away in some areas, but it always came back. This idea that there was a woman or a person who didn't follow sexual mores, whether that sexual meaning, like intercourse or gender, they didn't follow the rules. And that's kind of like another thing that's always kept the vampire legend going, or that's always been a part of it, I guess. That's a good point. Because Lilith does set up the notion of the seductress we see over and over in further legends.

Right. And then so Lilith is associated with ancient Jewish texts. Lamastu is from Mesopotamia. And they aren't certain if Lilith was a variation of Lamastu or if they both evolved from a third character. But those are the two most ancient ideas of vampires that we have. Shortly after that, we can head on over to Greece. And they feared a lot of vampire-like creatures. Yeah, Lamia was another demoness, head and torso of a woman, lower body of a snake. And evidently, this was one of Zeus's mortal lovers. Zeus's wife did not take kindly to this. Hera. Hera. And she was like, no, I'm going to make you go insane, lady, and eat all your children. You're so crazy, you're going to eat your kids. And then come to afterward.

That's right. And when she did, she went so berserk, not in the Viking way. Not berserk-er. No, just straight up berserk. That she became a monster. Again, killing children. Yeah, because she was jealous of other women who had children. Who else? They also had the Empusae. Yes. The daughters of Hikade, who was the goddess of witchcraft. Yeah, and they were shapeshifters for the first time, right? Right. So like, you have all these different cultures contributing to the vampire that we understand today here, there. And it wasn't just the Greeks, it wasn't just the Mesopotamians. You also had India getting into the mix. With the Rakshasa. Right. Which was basically like a ghoul.

A shapeshifting ghoul who once again killed children. Right. And same with the Vitalla, but they were more like a zombie, if you ask me. Yeah. A demon who took possession of recently dead bodies to wreak havoc on a living. That's a sound. It sounds like a zombie. Right. And then the Chinese also had their own thing. The Kui. Kui. Kui. Sure. Okay. You have to say it like that. Yeah. Yeah. Like the guy on NPR who always reports from China. Oh, does he over pronounce? He speaks normally and all of a sudden. I mean, he's doing it accurately, but it's like a little bit like Daniel Day Lewis doing Lincoln. It's like, yeah, that's accurate. But do you know what you sound like? I want to get rid of slavery.

That was sort of like a jacked up Kennedy. That's weird. So how do Kui come about? They are corpses who would rise from the grave, kill again. And that happened when a person's lower spirit did not pass to the afterlife. Yeah. Because of bad things they did. So the Po was angered by this. That's the lower spirit. Yeah. And that would reanimate basically and say, you know what? I'm going to attack the living at night once again. Because what else do I have to do? Nothing. Well, that's a good way to exact revenge. Just have to hang around here and hit the wheelbarrow. So all of these stories were floating

around the world and eventually through trade and things wound up in Europe. Yeah. The first globalization, the Silk Roads started bringing all these things together. And yeah, they moved over to Europe. And that's where they really sort of took off. Yeah. I guess you could say. And in the place that became the epicenter, was Central Europe or Eastern Europe? Yeah, Russia. Yeah. Early on with the Upir. And again, Greek with the, oh boy, Rikolakis or Vikolakis? Yeah. Rikolakis. One of those is good. One of those, you can't start a word with four consonants. Right. One of them's got to be silent.

Yeah. And this kind of like was an offshoot of the Chinese conception of how a vampire became a vampire. The Upir, which they think is the word that led to vampire or vampire, was basically a person who during their life was a sinner, unbaptized baby. Yeah, which is really sad. A vampire baby? Yeah. That's kind of funny. And they, anyone who wasn't a Christian? Yeah. Practitioners of witchcraft especially, of course, for obvious reasons. Because you'd already sold your soul to the devil. Yeah. So you're doomed. You're like halfway there.

Right. So all of these factors combined to basically make you a loser in the afterlife and you're going to come back. And families were, I guess, aware of this kind of thing. They knew that there was the possibility that, you know, Uncle Vigo, who had a lot of big gambling problem, which the village looked down upon when he was alive. When he died, well, he was probably going to become an Upir. And so if all of a sudden Uncle Vigo's like nephews start dying in a weird way, say of maybe a dread disease, the family would probably go dig up Uncle Vigo and do crazy stuff to his body. Yeah. And one thing to point out here, this is, I think, the first time with the Upir that we get the notion that they would go back to the grave

to rest on a regular basis. And that sets things up moving forward kind of. Right. So like you said, they would sometimes dig these bodies up, sometimes burn them, drive a stake through the heart. They would really take care of this corpse. They would bury them face down sometimes. Yeah. So like if they tried to crawl out, they would be headed in the wrong direction. That's pretty awesome. Gotcha. Yeah. Or put stakes facing down. So if they tried to crawl up, they would stake themselves. Yeah. And that was, this was the, about a thousand years ago in Central Europe, this stuff, or Central or Eastern Europe, this stuff started to, these beliefs started to come about. Yeah. That you could solve your vampire troubles by

butchering the corpse of the suspected vampire. Yeah. And it started then and it carried on, anytime there was a vampire panic, which interestingly almost always attended an outbreak of some sort of disease. Yeah, I could see that. Because once again, they're just trying to explain away. Exactly. Medical conditions. Right. People would dig up corpses and like do crazy things to them. Like in Venice, they found a 16th century corpse that had a brick in its mouth. Oh, really? That was no accident. No. It didn't fall in there. And then in the 1850s, there's this really cool article, Chuck, called The Great New England Vampire Panic. Oh, yeah. It was on the Smithsonian website recently. It is awesome. And in the 1850s

in Connecticut, there was a tuberculosis outbreak and people panicked and started digging up graves and just completely rearranging the people's bones or cutting out their hearts and burning them and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. And these were, this is the 1850s. Yeah. I mean, this wasn't the dark ages. Like people were starting to have an understanding of like disease. Well, it's like the Salem witch trial, same deal. Right. But 200 years later, 150 years later, you know. So there was this big panic still as recently as the 1850s in the U.S. among folk who dug up their family members and like burned their hearts. Those people are funny. Yeah. They call them undecided voters. But those are the people that I'm talking about, that they're doing the same

thing or thinking the same things that the Assyrians did 4,000 years before. I just think that's so interesting. It is. And backward. Yeah. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I Heart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing could be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man.

And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep. We know that Michael and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're

going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world can crash down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the I Heart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So in Wallachia, Moldavia, in Transylvania, which is now Romania, they had something called Strigoi. And Strigoi, they were a little bit different because they would go through different stages after rising from the grave. At first, they were just poltergeists and they were invisible spirits that would torment their family in the afterlife or in their regular life, the Strigoi's afterlife. Does that make sense? But then they would, as time passed, they would become visible looking like they did in life and they would still return and steal cattle and bring disease and all that stuff to their family. Big for food. Yeah. Why would they do this to

their family? That's what I never got. I think I saw later that metaphorically, it's basically a vampire lore is a life lesson. Don't be a drain on your family. Support your family. Take care of your parents in their old age. You don't want to be a Strigoi. You know what I mean? Sure. I guess it makes sense. And Strigoi or a Strigo, which I guess is the singular of the Strigoi, they would have to go back to the grave a lot just like the Upir did. And they followed the same pattern. If they thought someone was a Strigo, they would exhume the body and take care of it the old-fashioned way. But here's a little loophole. If you manage to survive for seven years as a Strigo, then you're good to go. They're like, all right, you've got staying power. You just go do your Strigo thing.

Right. You are like the living dead. You no longer have to return to your grave to rest. You're basically reborn. Well done. And apparently the Strigoi couldn't make their way in their town after that seventh year because they weren't allowed to vote. There was all sorts of riots and mutilations. Right. So they would move to other towns and they would have secret meetings with other Strigoi. And that's where the idea of vampire's fraternizing came from. Yeah. Hanging out. Yeah. Talking shop. Yeah. Basically the secret culture of vampires existing outside of our awareness. Yeah. Remember like on Jerry Springer when that was on, or it might still be on. I have no idea. I think it is. Is it really? Yeah. Wow. Is it still the

same crap? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He didn't take the high road at some point. No. I just remember back in the day they would have like those real vampires, the people that live the vampire lifestyle. There's a video of it in this article. Oh, boy. Yeah. Those people. Yeah. The guy looks like a cross between Marilyn Manson and Brandon Lee. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Kind of odd looking. He's got the contact lenses and everything. Yeah. And they'll shave down their fangs like for real, right? They'll file them down. Yeah. So there's two types of Strigoi, right? You've got the Strigoi Mort. Not Morty. No. Mort as in dead. Yes. So this is the, basically who we were just describing. And then the Strigoi view, which is the living,

the person who's going to become a Strigo when they die. Yeah. People that I feel very sorry for because they were probably just born with a bump. What are those called? The, when you're born with a, I was like really just racking my head. With a vestige, like a partial tail. Yeah. Vestigial tail. Yeah. That's what that is. No, there's a word for it. I can't remember. I'm so tired of doing this. Well, let's call it vestigial tail. How many hours have we wasted combined saying, oh, I wish I could remember it. Well, we just invented this off the top of our head. So don't mention yourself. Not adivans. Edivisms. Yes. Exactly right. Edivisms. Edivan is a, some sort of drug. Yeah, it is actually. So if you're poor baby, born with a

vestigial tail, a little bump on the top of your tailbone, or some sort of fetal membrane still attached to the head, which is called a call. Yeah. They would just call you a Strigoi view, or VU. Right. And you were sort of like, sorry, I was born with this bump. I'm not a vampire living, walking on the earth. They said, no, you are. Right. And if you have kids and they're going to be Strigoi in the afterlife, and we'll have to destroy your body when you die. And they did. And they did so. But I guess it's kind of nice that they didn't just kill the person while they were living. They just shunned them, I'm sure. Yeah, exactly. The idea of a call, like having some sort of special significance is, it goes beyond the vampire thing too. Like you're gifted

with a second sight, or there's all sorts of supernatural paranormal folklore surrounding people born with a call. Huh. Once again, people have proven to be stupid over the years. But this is where a vampire came in, right? Yeah. The Strigoi started to come to be called the Vampyr, which is again from Upir in the Russian. And all of a sudden, the stage is set for the vampire legend to really take hold as it's taking shape. Yeah. And like this is where pop culture came into play. Hysteria had set in. And so painters and artists and authors had this material that's pretty rich for the time. Right. All this hysteria is going on. So let's write a scary book about it. And that's what Brahm Stoker did. Yeah. And he was, he was, are you going with Brahm? I

go with Brahm. You go Brahm? Yeah. Have you ever read it? I know. I saw the movie though. Hey, I heard the movie was a pretty faithful adaptation. With the Coppola one? Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. Yeah. The book is great though. I took a literature of horror class at Georgia. Oh, neat. And it was one of the cooler classes I took. I'm sure. We did Dracula and Frankenstein and like the House of Usher and then a bunch of short stories. Yeah. Very cool. So Brahm Stoker, also Abraham Stoker, which I didn't know until I read this. Did you know that? That was his first name? Yeah. Yeah, just because of the class. He was a theater manager and a novelist and also a really great researcher. Yeah. Because, you know, all this stuff from this vampire. Hysteria.

Yeah. Panic from, all this took place like hundreds of years before him. And I guess, I don't know what inspired him exactly or where he saw it or where this all took place, but he didn't just go, oh, that's a pretty good idea. And wrote his book like he went and did some serious research. Yeah. Supposedly he was inspired by, he was a personal assistant to this actor who ran the theater that he worked at. Okay. And supposedly Henry Irving was a guy's name, was the inspiration to write the book. And I don't know if that meant he was some jerk. And he was like, I'm just going to personify you as a blood sucker. Right. Or what? But, or maybe he just inspired him creatively, who knows? Right. But I bet someone knows more

about this than I do. Oh, I'm sure. So write in and tell me. And so Bram Stoker goes and he starts to do some research and pokes around and he finds a great place to set this vampire tale is in Transylvania, which is the heart of the Strigoi vampire. This is where everything that we just talked about came together, Wallachia, Transylvania. Romania is what we call it today. Yeah. And he thought, well, this is just perfect. I'm going to set it there. And let's see if I can find somebody of that area who I can base this vampire character on. And he came up with a guy named Vladislav Bazarab. Yeah, that's a creepy name, period. Yeah. But it would be even creepier. He was a prince ruled Wallachia in the mid 1400s. Creepier is

that his father was Vlad the dragon or the devil. And Vlad Jr. was referred to as Vlad Dracula, which is son of Dracula or Vlad Tepis or Vlad the impaler, because even though it's not verified, supposedly he was a very fierce warrior. He would impale his victims. Okay. I really feel like we should do the real Count Dracula episode sometime. Yeah. I wrote this awesome article on it and it's verified. Was there a real Count Dracula? It's about Vlad Tepis, the Vlad the impaler. Yeah, because he just borrowed the name in the title, right? He wasn't really based on this guy. Who? Count Dracula? Bram Stoker's version, right? Vlad Tepis was probably far, far worse than anything

Bram Stoker wrote about Count Dracula. Way worse. Oh yeah? Yeah. It is verified. Yes, he had all sorts of guys who were against him and who published extensively all these books and pamphlets and all this stuff to smear his name. But they got a lot of stuff right. He was into some horrible stuff. He killed a lot of people. He had a lot of people killed. His armies killed a lot of people. He was probably like most rulers of the day. He was worse. He was most likely worse than anybody else. So he borrows this name in this title in social standing as an Aristocat. Aristocat? Great movie. Aristocrat. He has a naked woman in that one. In the Aristocats? Yeah. The Disney cartoon? Yeah. That's the one with the,

is that the one with the, no, I'm thinking of the rescuers. Oh, I remember that. There's a naked woman in the rescuers? Yeah. When they're flying through the city, if you watch it frame by frame, they pass by a window and there is a photograph of like a woman standing in the window naked. And like you have to watch it like in, you know, frame by frame is the only possible way to see it. But it's in there. Those animators. Yeah. They were dirty. There's also the little mermaid thing. The phalluses? Yeah. The hidden, not so hidden phallus. Yeah. I'll bet that guy was like, no one's ever going to see this. And then he lost his job forever. So Stoker borrows this, the name, like I said, the social standing says this would be a great setting. Let's throw it in

Transylvania. Let's change a few things. Let's borrow from a bunch of different folklore and let's say maybe you can't go out in the sunlight and let's bring up the crucifixes now and let's make them really smart and charming. Well, that was largely Bella Lagoste that did that. Well, no, Brom Stoker's was totally like that. I thought his was that he was like a withered, ugly old man. You know, but he was still had like the stuctive powers. Oh, his suave and all that. His suave. Well, because he changed ages, if I remember correctly. Well, he does in the movie and I've heard the movies are pretty faithful adaptation. It was also I think the first time where all of a sudden they didn't have any reflection because most of the previous legends, they loved their

reflection. Yeah, apparently not only were they in love with their own reflection and they could be lost for hours staring into a mirror. They were also supposedly obsessive compulsive as some like Eastern folklore goes and one way to ward off vampires was to spread seeds outside of your house because the vampire would be bound to count every single seed and if you put a little nail or attack or something in there, when the vampire went and picked that one up, it would prick itself and all drop all the seeds and forget where it was and start counting all over. Oh yeah, gotta start counting again. And then you'd just be sitting inside laughing, drinking your ale. Stupid vampires. Yeah. So you mentioned... That was another difference. I'm sorry.

We've been calling them stupid vampires and up until the 19th century, you could make that case. Like they were kind of dead zombie-esque a little bit. Yeah. It was Stoker that introduced, like you say, not just all this other stuff, but the acute intelligence. That's right. This very smart like power persuasion, almost hypnotic, Svangali type. And in True Blood, they have this thing they do called glamoring, which is kind of a silly name, but it's almost like a charm, like a spell that they can put over you if you like lock eyes with one. And you know, when you glamor them, they're basically in a hypnotic state. They're highly suggestible. I get into it in a sexual way. Oh really? Well, in all kinds of ways, but yeah, there's plenty of...

They usually are just like, take off your pants. Do they say like that? They point and say in a creepy tone? Yeah. See, you don't tell me you can't act. You could play the role as a vampire. Take off your pants. Yeah. Yeah. You got the job. Let's do some voguing. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay. I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so,

my husband, Michael, um, hey, that's me. Yep. We know that Michael and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular, and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get second hand

astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So you mentioned 1931's Bella Lugosi film, Dracula, which was where we get the cape and the I want to drink your blood and the sort of familiar modern vampire that pop culturally speaking that we're familiar with today. Yeah. And one of the best songs ever, Bauhaus's Bella Lugosi's Dead. Yeah. Excellent. 1922 silent film, Nas Varatu with Max Shrek. Yeah. It's a little more true to the original creepy looking guy. What was the movie starring Willem Dafoe and... Oh, about making Nas Varatu? Yeah. Yeah. That was good. What is the name of that movie? Do you remember? I can't remember. Dude, that is such a good movie. Yeah. I want to see that movie again. I do too, actually. It's a great one. The ending is just...

Yeah. What is it? Shadow of the Vampire. Thank you, Jerry. That live correction. Anne Rice then came along and... Yeah, nothing happened in between Bella Lugosi and Anne Rice. But Anne Rice definitely brought things more into the forefront as far as this range of emotions and these really complex characters. Yeah. I didn't think the books were very good, but it's just not my bag. Oh, yeah? No, I read the first one and it's just not my thing. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying it was not good. It's just not my thing. I'm with you. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, of course. Classic. Not so great movie. Great TV series. Love that movie. Oh, well, that's good. It was a good movie. Yeah. I thought it really became

itself when the cast changed in the... I love that movie. Yeah. Well, that's great. Have you seen that South Park where all the kids start becoming vampires, all the good kids? It's very trendy and hip to be a vampire and give yourself a new name and everything. And they drink Clamato. Oh, I love Clamato. Yeah. You're in the minority, buddy. That's the secret to my famous Bloody Mary. I know. You've told me. Yeah. It's a good South Park Chuck. I'll check it out. Where are we now? Should we talk about psychic vampires a little bit? I guess. All right. These are people in modern times that claim that they crave and feed on others' energy, their psychic energy. And they claim to be vampire-rich

or vampiric. Vampiresque. Vampiresque. And that they will not... If they do not do this, then they will not feel like they have fed on sustenance. That is their sustenance, is other people's psychic energy. Gotcha. And it also goes back... Modern people claim this, but it goes back thousands of years. This phenomenon does. It's nothing new. Well, I actually think that it may have given rise to vampire lore as we understand it now. And it's also a metaphor if someone can call someone a psychic vampire if they're just a drain as a person. Yeah. You know those people. Oh, I do. Energy vampires. That's right. Not to be confused with the other kind of energy vampire, which is like your coffee maker.

Yeah, these things that are left on all night. So there's... We kind of touched on it earlier, the idea of why... Where we would have gotten vampire legends. People use it to explain phenomenon that we didn't understand before. There was such a thing as like germ theory, right? Right. So you have like lamastu being blamed for sids and miscarriages, that kind of thing, right? Yeah. And then you have a couple other diseases that we've come to understand that they're like, you know what? We've never really definitively linked this to vampire lore, but I'll bet you this gave rise to it. It probably didn't help. Like what? What? Porphyra. Is that how you pronounce that? Porphyria. Porphyria. All right. We'll go with that.

Have you ever seen the others? Nicole? Oh, is that what those kids had? Yeah. Okay. All right. That makes sense. It's a rare disease. Irregularities in the production of him with Hemi, which is an hemoglobin. Heme. Yeah. I like Hemi. That thing got a Hemi? That's an engine. Yeah. And basically you're going to be sensitive to sunlight. You're going to have bad stomach pains. You may be delirious. Back in the day, one prescription may have been to drink blood. So I would say that's probably a dead giveaway right there. Yeah. And have you seen pictures of people stricken with this? Creepy looking. Their teeth can be like red or black and their gums can be red and black. Which is,

I think, probably another reason why they linked that to that. And it's hereditary. So there were places where there was more of this happening than other places, which would also lend itself to the whole vampire thing. And feeding on your family. Yes. Same with tuberculosis. When people were kind of spread out except your family and there were 19 of you and you all lived in one house, if one of you had TB, probably the rest of you were going to catch TB and a lot of you were going to die from it. Yeah. And whoever was the first one to die of this was probably the original vampire who was feeding on the other. And you were probably the one who's going to be dug up and have your heart cut out and burned. Yeah. But at that point, who cares? And then there's

another disease called catalepsy, which is associated with epilepsy. Yeah, this one is freaky. Do you ever see that twilight zone where I can't remember what actor it was. It may have been the professor from Gilligan's Island or he's in a car wreck and he's paralyzed. And the whole thing is just him talking to himself in his head, like he's locked in these people. Yeah. To not bury him. Wow. Because he's not dead. And it's really, it's a great episode. So is he cataleptic? No, he was kind of like you said, locked in twilight zone. Catalepsy is a, it's a specific neurological disorder. Like I said, it's associated with epilepsy where your muscles just freeze up. And an episode like this can last for days. Yeah. And your heart rate slows and your

respiration slows and you're alive. And God knows what your brain's doing, but you're alive during this time. Yeah. But you know, prior to say embalming, you may have just been taken for dead and put in the ground and you had to dig your way out and go back home. Yeah. And it's also associated with schizophrenia. So you're sitting around the dinner table and uncle, uncle what? Vigo. Uncle Vigo. Who remember, like the gamble. He comes in three days after you buried him, brushing dirt off his overhauls in a schizophrenic, having a schizophrenic episode. And you, you know, you're going to put a stake through his heart. Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you're smart. Which is just not fair because after an experience like that, it's like, why would you wait? Why not, why not

let fate kill this man before he goes through this horrific, cataleptic experience and then it all end with a stake through the heart. Just let him get hit by a truck or the hammy or something ahead of time. And then I'm not so sure about this suggestion, but it might carry a little weight that what happens after a regular human body dies might have fed into this a little bit. I would say so. Fingernails and hair continue growing. So this is like, if they dig you back up, they're like, look, the fingernails are long, the hair is grown, they're bloated because you're full of, you know, gases expanding. So let's cut them open and this, all this fluid drains out and say, see, they've been growing their hair and fingernails and feeding on others

bodily fluids. They're alive. They're well or undead. Right. But yeah, I could see that. Like they're going back and resting and like they obviously have gorged themselves. Look at their stomach. It's all distended. So I mean, I think it was probably like the nail in the coffin on their beliefs. Like this is all absolutely correct. Yeah, I could see that now. And then the notion of the vampire bat came along later on where the vampire could shapeshift into bats and sometimes wolves. Right. Although in Twilight, wolves and vampires are on opposite sides. Yeah. I said I would mention it again. Yeah, I know. There I went. But the whole thing of the vampire bat was just like a creepy, you know, real vampire bats are docile creatures and they

might drink like the blood of a cow, but they're not attacking people. No. That was all for, there's harmless as vampire babies. Yeah. You know. What are some of your favorite movies, Josh? Oh, vampire movies? No, just comedies. Like DC Cab, Dr. Detroit. I would say probably the best of all time in my opinion is Lost Boys. It definitely has a kitsch value now. That is a great movie. It doesn't hold up super well though. Have you seen it lately? No, I haven't seen it in a while. It's the ways that other 80s movies don't. Huh. Really? Because that was like a cool movie. Echoing the Bunnyman, cover the doors in it. Come on. That's a weird one. It's a strange song.

Near Dark. Did you ever see that one? I don't think so. 1987, Bill Paxton and that one guy, Lance Heinrichson. They're like these modern vampires traveling in an RV through the desert and killing people. Really good. I have not seen that. Near Dark is excellent. What about first bite with George? George Hamilton? Yes. First bite? Was that one? Yeah, he's like a disco Dracula. Vampire's Kiss was funny, Nick Cage. I never saw that one. It was good. I thought the original Fright Night, granted it was the 80s again, but for me it was pretty good back in the day. I haven't seen that. Chronos, have you seen that? No. Guillermo del Toro. I don't think I've seen it. And then, of course, let the right one in. That's a great one. Both versions to me. Very

good. I really, I heard the American version was compared to the original. I thought they were both pretty great. I'll check it out then. They definitely didn't ruin it by Americanizing it. And then there are, of course, the bad ones like Van Helsing, Wes Craven's Dracula 2000, Blood Rain, RA, Y, and E. I mean, there's lots and lots of bad vampire movies. Dracula dead and loving it. That was good though. Do you know how many emails we're going to get from people that say like, you forgot about this one? Yeah. Let's just say there are hundreds of vampire movies. There's TV shows now, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, which I mentioned, which is sort of good again after falling off the rails in my opinion. And Twilight Breaking Dawn, part two.

What is your problem? It's twice. In theaters near you. Oh, actually, the 79 Dracula with Frank Langella. That was good. Did he play Dracula? Yeah. Yeah, he was good. Oh, yeah, okay. I could see him. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking of the right person. And then if you're into old movies, you know, you can't go wrong with Bella Lugosi or Nasfaratu. Yeah. Take some time, watch an old movie. That's what I say. Yeah. That's pretty much your life coaching. Is it? I think so. Okay. Take some time and watch an old movie, says Chuck. Yeah. Watch something in black and white for a change. Hey, also, while we're on this kind of scary-esque topic, you want to plug somebody real quick? Yeah, I think we have another horror fiction dude selling

his stuff, right? Right. As we said, we would plug people who send in their stuff for our horror fiction contest and who went on to publish stuff. And one of the guys, Christopher Kelly, who wrote the very cool short story variable, took us up on that. And he says that he has a creepy novella about two boys whose father tries to kill them called Abraham Road, not Bram Road. He says that it's what would have happened if HP Lovecraft rewrote of Mice and Men, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. It's available on Kindle. You can go find that on amazon.com, Abraham Road e-book. And then he also has a collection called, I held my breath as long as I could, 23 Stories of the Strange, the Sinister, and the Literary. And you can get that on amazon

as well. So check those out. Christopher Kelly, thanks for sending in your work. We liked it a lot. And remember, anybody else who has published and entered our horror fiction contest, we want to say thanks by letting everybody know about your stuff. If you want to know more about vampires, man, it's been a while, haven't it? Yes. You can type that word into the search bar at howstuffworks.com. It will bring up a bunch of cool stuff, including who is the real count Dracula. This vampire article written by Tracy Wilson, which is a great one. Oh, Tracy wrote that? Yeah. Couldn't you tell? It was pretty thorough. Yeah. And then also another one I liked a lot was Hungarian Countess, the world's most prolific serial killer. She's like the female Dracula,

Elizabeth Bathory. Yeah, yeah. Awesome stuff. I type that in the search bar and it will bring all this great stuff up. As I said, search bar, it's time for a listener mail. All right, Josh, we're going to call this trivia plug. We went to New York for Comic-Con and we had one of our trivia nights there. And one of the things that we were required to do is and want to do is read the names of the trivia winners. And so I got emails from them and the runner-up team. Yeah. Because they were cool and I'm going to read them all. This is from the winner, Kyle Janusz, or Janusz. I'm not sure how you pronounce that. Thanks guys for hosting the event. As an avid SYSK listener, our team, Steve Holt, had a great time. Their team name was Steve Holt.

Yeah, I remember. We were made up of mainly former Midwesterners, which gave us a good advantage in the Great Lakes question. We had three girls in fashion, Caitlyn Grummel, Monica Lange, and Amy Guidal. We also had three teachers, Dan Ferrell, Michael Rakofsky, and myself, Kyle Janusz. And my twin who does social work, Mike Janusz. Yeah. And my friend who seems to always be working for a pyramid scheme, Micah Sterling. So those were the winners there. And he says the fashion expertise did not come in handy this time, but we were prepared for anything except for the Kevin Smith movies category, which I wasn't a fan of. It was rough. They were far behind coming in the last question, but wagered it all and won.

It's crazy. That's how it goes at one of our trivia events. Yeah. So Kyle and his brother, Mike, remember meeting them? They were buddies with Joe Randazo. Yeah. And he says, thanks for hosting and thanks for the sweet t-shirts. Yeah. And then the runner-ups. Runners up. Runners ups. Sorry, the ghost of William Sapphire just ran through me. Thanks for hosting the super fun trivia night at the cutting room. And boy, by the way, thank you, cutting room. Yeah. That place is amazing and very generous in hosting us. And it is back up and running after like redoing the inside. And it is really nice. So give them some love if you live in New York. I'm a long time listener, four years of pure love. And I recently got my boyfriend David hooked as well. And it has been

a nerdy bonding experience for us. Anyway, we decided to come up from Virginia. Came up from Virginia for this. That's a long drive. We met some awesome people in line and formed Team Phil. Our lovely teammates were Paul Nagowski, Leah Tallman, Jim Nelson, Charlie Tran, David Burry, and two others who skipped out early, and myself, who is Natalie David. And Natalie is the one who brought us the Mike's On pants off t-shirts. Oh, yeah. Thank you. So not only was that super nice, but they sat in the table next to us and I was able to talk a lot of smack with them. And so I said I would read about them on the show. That's just how it goes at one of our trivia events.

We bring people together. Chuck talks smack like directly to you. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. So Natalie David says thanks a lot and cheers and I hope you enjoy the shirts and all that good stuff. Yeah. We also, we met the Convo Kings who we've been in touch with. That's right. They have a podcast of their own called appropriately the Convo Kings. Very nice guys. And yeah, that's worth checking out too. Yeah. So it was great fun meeting everyone and it's always fun. I enjoyed rubbing elbows like that. Nice people. Yeah. What else? All right. If you have had a good experience because of stuff you should know, whether it's at one of our trivia events, standing in line for one of our trivia events or nothing at all, you can tweet to us, right? At syskpodcast. You can

join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know, or you can send us an email to stuffpodcast. HowStuffWorks.com. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen

to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find in major league baseball, international banks, k-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.