Stuff You Should Know - What are crystal skulls?

Episode Date: January 30, 2014

Back in the early 20th-century mysterious skulls made from polished crystals began to enter the collections of private enthusiasts of the occult. Discovered by adventurers raiding sacred areas of the ancient world, these skulls were said to possess unusual supernatural powers and their owners, who could use them to "will death" to others. Learn about the strange history of these curious and suspect archaeological finds in this lost episode of Stuff You Should Know. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all. And now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Chuck. Yo. We're in the present time. Yes. Which means that we need to take this opportunity to do a little bit of an intro for the episode

everybody's about to hear, because it's a long episode. Yeah, this has never happened to us before. But you said, hey, I thought we already recorded one on Crystal Skulls. I went, yeah, I think you're right. And Jerry went, oh, it's right here in my desk drawer. We forgot to publish it. Yeah, so this is a long lost episode.

And we decided to publish it anyway. And just with a little caveat, because it might. I'm sure there's some stuff that sounds dated. Oh, it's dated right off the bat. We talk about whether the world's going to end or not. 2012, that's kind of the dead giveaway. There's some dating to it. But yeah, so it's a lost episode.

And thanks to whoever it was on Twitter that suggested a Crystal Skulls episode, because that's what started this whole thing in the first place. Well, you certainly gave them their due, by calling them whoever it was. Right, thanks, whoever. All right, so cool. So here we go with Crystal Skulls.

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck. Oh my god, everything's coming to an end, Brian. That makes this Stuff You Should Know, right? Yeah. How are you doing?

Oh, I shouldn't even ask. My life is a little upside down right now. I'll be all right. It's not like it's Mayan, and it's 2012 or anything. Well, we've already done that one. Yeah. And I guess we know that the world isn't necessarily going to end in 2012, so that kind of presupposes

how we feel about this podcast, I guess, right? Yeah, that's actually. But let me give some news first. And you know this, because you found this, and it's literally today's news. Yeah, that doesn't often happen. Yeah, but we're talking about Crystal Skulls, and there was a piece on Crystal Skull that

was found recently in a home in a Bavarian village. And this Crystal Skull, it weighs, I think, nine pounds. It's life-size. No, it weighs nearly 20 pounds. It's life-size, maybe a little bigger. It matches the Death's Head insignia worn by Nazi SS officers, which is appropriate because this Crystal Skull apparently belonged to Heinrich Himmler, who

was the chief of the SS. Yeah, and I wrote an article. We should podcast on this sometime about the Nazi's interest in archaeology. They were like all the Indiana Jones stuff was right on the money. They had all sorts of programs, archaeology programs, basically to try and prove through historical research

that the Aryan race was superior. Right, yes. That was behind it all. And supposedly, the Nazi party arose from some sort of kind of like good-time sex cult that all of the people who were eventually like the head of the Nazi party were members of. Hitler comes along and is like, you guys are freaks,

but I'm going to use this to my advantage. And Bada-Boom-Bada-Bing underfure. And everything starts to go horribly, horribly awry. But back to today's news, Crystal Skull was found, which is a very unusual thing. And it was found hidden on a rafter in the attic of this house in Bavaria that belonged to a woman who had been married

to a high-ranking SS officer. And it's now in the possession of Swiss journalist Luke Bergen. Yeah, he makes quite a claim. He claims that, quote, I am 99% sure that this is one of the skulls of the Mayans, but we need clarity, and all available tests will be carried out to ascertain authenticity.

So what Luke Bergen has just said is that he's about to be very, very disappointed. It's spoken like a man who just got his first Crystal Skull. Yeah, exactly. And has done zero research on it. Basically. The prevailing, Chuck, we should, hold on. Let's bring Sarcasm down a little.

OK, yeah, sorry. The legend behind the Crystal Skulls, and anybody who has not seen a Crystal Skull, just type that into your favorite search engine and find an image, and you'll be like, oh, yeah. Crystal Skull. Crystal Skull. There's supposedly 13 of them that were crafted by the Mayans.

And they were scattered throughout the globe. And nine of them were colored to represent the races of man. And then four of them were clear to represent the animals that crawl, walk, slither. Slide, which is slither, I guess. And fly. And you basically, the world's supposed to end on December 21, 2012 at 11, 11 AM.

And if these 13 Skulls aren't reunited, discovered and reunited in a specific alignment, I would imagine probably at some sort of Mayan Temple then the world will end. If we can get them aligned in this proper alignment by this time, we can prevent the world from ending. Yeah. Problem is, though, Josh, there's a lot more than 13

of these things floating around the world. Yes. And so there's some doubts as to their legitimacy. And depending on what this Skull looks like, I don't know if the daily mirror was the new source that you got this from. They're not exactly. They're tabloid.

They're a tabloid's tabloid, actually. Well, I believe that this Skull was found. I'm sure. But the picture that they've used, I don't know if that's the Skull that was supposedly found or whatever. But there are some telltale signs that a Skull might be a fake, that it could be real.

Let's start digging in, Chuck. OK. Let's dig into crystal Skulls. Well, they can vary in size and appearance. Some of them are sort of crudely shaped. Some of them are really detailed. Some of them are beautiful and clear. Some of them are hazy and colored.

Some of them have detached jaws. Some of them do not. Some of them have eye sockets. Some of them don't. That's just a brief overview. That's those crystal Skulls. Of the appearance. And some people believe that they are from the ancient Mayans,

descendants of the, what's the underwater? Atlantis. Atlantis. Is that where the Mayans came from? Some people say that. Some say they're direct descendants of Atlantis. So this whole idea that the Mayans created crystal Skulls, or that these crystal Skulls are of Mayan descent,

are based somewhat on fact. The Mayans did, they do reference crystal Skulls in their creation myth. Oh, they do? Yeah. So I mean, it's not like somebody was like crystal Skull and Mayans. Gotcha. There's definitely a legitimate connection between the two.

OK. But whether or not the crystal Skulls that are in existence right now are Mayan in origin is what's up for debate, and not really up for debate. Sure. And whether or not they have, they're rumored to have healing properties. The visions, like a crystal ball, you can see into the future

and to the past. It's like a crystal ball, but cooler. Yeah. What else is there? They say they can do. They make sounds. Yes. Like singing choirs.

I think it's mainly healing and visions. OK. That's pretty good ones in question. Or enlightenment of some sort. Yeah. But the world of crystal Skulls, when you start to kind of dig into it, is it doesn't really matter what you believe.

It's a really interesting world filled by almost caricatures of people. Yeah. The adventurers and fraudsters and hucksters. Can't wait to talk about them. Yeah. So let's start with, I guess, the most famous crystal Skull of all, the Mitchell Hedges Skull.

This one kind of set the tone for most other. Basically, the Mitchell Hedges said, this is what crystal Skull study is going to be all about. We're going to provide all the character for it and everybody else following our footsteps, OK? That's right. And supposedly, it was discovered. And we're going to say allegedly and supposedly a lot

because these stories are not verified as fact. And out of reverence for a dead 100-year-old woman. Who, Anna? Is she dead now? April 2007. Oh, really? Yeah. That's a bummer.

Yeah, so it was discovered allegedly in the 1920s by who we just referenced, Anna Mitchell Hedges, who is the adopted daughter of F.A. Mitchell Hedges, World Adventurer. Yeah. And he really was, too. Yeah, from the sounds of it, he was. She says that she found the skull beneath the Mayan temple

at an altar in Lubatan. Is that what he pronounced that? That's what I took. Have you seen the pictures of that place? No. Is it awesome? It's a ruined Mayan city in Belize. It's awesome.

It's like overgrown temples and stuff like that. It's very neat. I like the Mayan temples. So anyway, Anna says that she found this thing near Belize on her 17th birthday. And she said that the Mayans actually told her that it was a skull used to will death. So a priest would be too old to continue his priesting.

And he would lie down and transfer his knowledge to a younger priest via the powers of the skull and then die. Right. So that's her story. That's what the skull was for. That's what she says. And said, sorry. That's right.

So the, and the Mitchell Hedges skull is like the, it's a trendsetting skull in another way in that it's pretty much the pinnacle of craftsmanship of crystal skulls. Yeah. It's clear quartz crystal. It's very pretty. It's life size. It's about five inches high, five inches wide,

eight inches long, totally transparent, 12 pounds. It's got the ridges and cheekbones and nose socket and eye sockets that are like very anatomically correct. And as far as I know, it's the only one that has a detachable jaw bone. Oh, really? Which is really anatomically correct. Like this is just an amazing work of art.

Sure. And that's how they should be viewed, Josh. All right, did I just ruin it? Do you want to poke some holes in Anna's story? Yeah. First of all, in 1936, a description of this skull was in a British journal called Man. But they said it was owned by a guy named Sidney Bernie.

Right. Anna says, oh, no way. My dad, FA, gave it to Sidney. And he auctioned it off to pay a debt in the 40s. And then we bought it from Sotheby's from him to get it back in the family. Right, like it came down to the wire at the Sotheby's auction. So basically, what you can take from that story

is that FA Mitchell Hedges acquired this Mitchell Hedges skull at Sotheby's. That part is completely documentable and true. But they think that that may be where he got it for the first time. Probably. Because in that 1936 journal, the author, I guess Bernie, wrote a letter that was, I'm sorry, it was quoted later.

But Bernie, the guy who actually had that Mitchell Hedges skull before Mitchell Hedges, said that he acquired it from a collector who had it for several years. And that collector bought it from another collector who had it for several years. No mention of FA Mitchell. Who was not a collector.

He was an adventurer. He probably called it the Bernie skull, too. Yeah, I'm sure. And so that was in 1933, which by this time, FA Mitchell Hedges supposedly already had it or owned it. Right. And then the other, well, there's several other weird parts, Mitchell Hedges FA,

we'll just call him, or FA, he only wrote about this skull once. This is my favorite part of this article. The name of his book. I'll take it. He wrote a book about his adventures, I guess some sort of memoir. And it was called, Danger, My Ally.

That's the way you say it, too. That was from 1954, I think. And in that book, that's the first and only mention he makes of the crystal skull. By this time, it was in his possession. He owned it. Seems like he would have mentioned it. Yeah.

Prior to this, he says, Chuck, that it dates back at least 3,600 years. That it took about 150 years to rub down with sand from a single block of quartz. Yeah, so he alleges it was shaped from rubbing sand on it and not actually carved with tools. Over the period of 150 years. Which, I mean, that's a lot of dedicated people.

A lot of sand rubbing. Yeah. He never mentions that his adopted daughter found it. No, he doesn't. He actually says that he has reason to not mention how it came into his possession. Yeah, he warns very forebodingly about several people have cynically laughed at it and died.

Others have been stricken ill. So he says, how I got it? I have reasons to not tell you. This is a really easy way to get around, not telling people. Yes. That's what we should say. Whenever somebody wants to know, like, what's your backstory? How did you guys meet?

We have reasons to not tell you. We have very important reasons. Because it's very boring. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. 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.

OK, 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 will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander 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, 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. Attention, Bachelor Nation. He's back. The man who hosted some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with a brand new Tell All podcast, the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. And then also, Chuck, there were two people. So F.A. Mitchell-Hedges did actually go down to Luba Tan. Yeah, one of his adventures. Right. And he was there in 1926. That's documented. There's plenty of photos of the dig.

Two friends who went with him who later wrote about this experience, never mentioned Anna being there. Certainly never mentioned the Crystal Skull. Yeah, Lady Richmond Brown and Dr. Thomas Gann. Right. And then lastly, Anna in different interviews gave different dates of when she acquired the skull, never the correct one.

Right. So there's a lot of holes in her story. Yet up to her death, she alleged that this was the truth. And she had what I take to be an indomitable spirit. Like, you could tell her just about anything, but she knew what was right with the Crystal Skull. Yeah, and she also claimed, not verified, but claimed that it had been used for healing

a number of times. And she didn't get very specific with that. And that she hoped one day it would go to an institution where it could be studied. And that might happen. If you go on to MitchellHedgesSkull.com or MitchellHedges.com, I think there's a hyphen in there. Not Benson and Hedges?

No. The skull is now in the possession of its newest owner, Bill Holman, who is a very dashing guy. Likes to wear it like an Indiana Jones hat. Of course he does. He loves posing with the Crystal Skull. It's very cool. But his aim is to build a museum for the skull

in Sedona, Arizona, so that it can be studied and basically be available to the public all the time. Which is pretty cool. Where he would sell tickets? I don't know. Sure he would. Who knows? There's not a free museum.

Oh, actually, that's not true. There's plenty of free museums. I don't know. I'll take that back completely. OK. But there's plenty that aren't as well. I agree with you. So that's what's going on with the MitchellHedges Skull

right now. Bill Holman has it here in the US. And there may be a, well, I don't know if it will be reunited. Surely people who own Crystal Skulls are going to take them to Mexico or something in December of 2014 to see what happens, right? Yeah. So MitchellHedges Skull is the most famous,

but it's far from the only one, right? Yeah, there's one, another famous one in the British Museum. And I believe they just call this the British Museum Skull, right? Yeah. It's kind of the let down. They call the Periscull the Periscull. And it's also life-size.

It's not quite as detailed as the MitchellHedges. And the jaw does detach, as you say. And it's cloudy quartz. It's not completely clear. And this was purchased. We know a little bit about the real backstory on this one. It was purchased by the museum from Tiffany and Company in 1898. Supposedly came from Mexico.

And here is where we have a guy enter the picture named Eugene Boban. Yeah, he's kind of an important character as well. Yeah, he's a French art dealer. And a lot of these skulls seem to have passed through his ownership at one point or another. Which isn't necessarily fishing in and of itself. Like a dealer can specialize in something.

And Boban specialized in Mayan relics and artifacts. And the pre-Columbian stuff. So yeah, it's not like that makes it hinky. I'm just pointing that out. Then you got the Periscull. And it's a more crude still than the other two. And it has a hole cut in the top that they think is supposed to hold a cross.

Yes. And that is in Paris. Are you going to pronounce that one for me? The Musée des Lommes. OK. The Museum of Man. Oh, is that what it is? Do you speak French?

I'm Pequito. I used to do that. I took German in high school and then learned to sort of rough Spanish by working in the Mexican restaurants. And I would always mix German and Spanish up in my college days. I was mixing up a lot back then, though. Anyway, and then in 1992, this one's a little weird. I like this one.

And the Smithsonian received a crystal skull in the mail. Anonymous. Yeah, with an anonymous note that said, hey, this is Aztec. I bought it in 1960 in Mexico City and do what you will with it. It's brought me nothing but bad luck. Yeah, maybe. Please don't ever try to track me down. And that one is hollow, which is slightly unique as well.

Yeah. So there's a couple of points that you've just brought up. One, Eugene Boban, remember him? Yeah. Secondly, this anonymous skull is thought to be Aztec or was mentioned as Aztec. Right. The British Museum skull is possibly considered Aztec.

Possibly? So that kind of knocks the Mayan legend out a little bit. It does? Let's do that some more. OK. Well, first let's talk about some more crystal skulls real quick. There's, again, there's a whole world of crystal skull collectors. And some people have a few.

Some people have one. But all of them are pretty. Like if you have a crystal skull, like you're a well-known individual. Yeah, it's not like being a commemorative plate collector. Right. Like Joanne Parks, who owns Max, the Texas crystal skull. Yeah. She apparently got it in the 80s.

And it's supposed to be from Guatemala, which is Mayan. Yeah, OK. We've been there. And Jake Van Dieten, who supposedly owns a few of them. Joke. Joke? What do I call him, Jake? Yeah.

This is she. Oh, OK. Now, she says that her skull, ET, healed her brain tumor. That's right. And that's a pretty cool name for a skull, if you're a skull owner, I would say, a movie fan. And then what else is there? There's Shana Ra, not Shana Na.

Yeah. And it's a big one. It weighs about 13 pounds, owned by Nick Nosarino. And he is a self-described expert, which are a favorite kind of experts. Right. In crystal skulls. And he claims he found that one in Mexico. And then, lastly, there's an amethyst skull called Amy, AMI,

or a me, if you're speaking French. And that supposedly has a squiggly white line around the circumference of the skull. No idea what that means. And supposedly mine. Yeah. And then there's a bunch of smaller skulls, like little ones that are about an inch in diameter, that have holes drilled

through them, and they think that they were amulets or pendants or some sort of, they were worn as necklaces. They were sold at the gift shop, the crystal skull gift shop back in the day. So is the deal, do all these people think they have one of the 13? Is that pretty much what's going on here? That's the impression I have. OK. Yeah.

Especially if you consider your crystal skull as the source of the healing of your brain tumor. Well, yeah, sure. And Chuck, there's a certain rationale to the idea that a crystal skull can allow you to see visions of this. There's just something more going on there besides it being just a lump of quartz. And that actually is found in one of the properties of quartz, which is piezoelectricity. You want to say it's kind of Italian.

Piezoelectric. Right. So that is the property of quartz in particular, but generally crystals and ceramics. To be able to generate an electrical charge, just from pressure, from like what's called mechanical energy, stress. So basically just rubbing like a piece of quartz, a crystal skull, you should be able to generate electricity. And the harder you rub, the more electricity you generate.

So that no one's ever been able to say, well, then that's why you would heal your brain tumor or anything like that. But the fact that quartz is piezoelectric is one of the things that people who believe in the healing powers of these crystal skulls point to. And crystals in general. Yeah. That, you know, little five points has had that crystal shot for ever. Is it still around?

Yeah, I think so. And people go in there and they buy their crystal and hanging around their neck and they believe it has healing properties or energy properties. Or at the very least, it generates a mild electrical current. Yeah. Then there's also slightly wilder claims that the piezoelectricity isn't necessarily for healing. It's to facilitate time travel or it serves as some sort of communication device between

the aliens who brought it here or Atlantis. We just haven't figured out how to tap it or unlock it yet. Yeah. What does it they compare it to is like a computer chip potentially that has all this ancient wisdom and facts and knowledge. Just waiting. Just waiting. We just don't know how to access.

It's like the lunar doomsday arc, but in crystal skull form. Exactly. So speaking of Mitchell Hedges, which we weren't speaking of, but I'll bring it up anyway. She has loaned it out for study a couple of times. Yeah. Some people who own skulls are cool with them being studied, but more frequently the ones that are in possession of a biomuseum. Yeah.

Those are the ones that have been studied the most. Right. In 1970, an art restorer named Frank Dorland studied the Mitchell Hedges skull for six years. Yeah. And he said he heard ringing bells, the sound of choir singing. He saw auras around the skull and he could see images when gazing into it. Yeah.

And this is an art restorer. He's not necessarily like a crystal skull devotee. Right. But he also claimed on the other hand that it showed signs of mechanical grinding and holes drilled that were obviously using modern techniques of metal drill. So he sort of said it was mystical in some ways and also said, well, but this thing is an ancient because it was clearly made with modern technology. Right.

And he also supposedly took it to Hewlett Packard's laboratories. Yeah. I thought this was interesting. He said there that they performed a test on it to find out if it was pure quartz and they dropped it in benzoyl alcohol. And it disappeared. Yes. It vanished because benzoyl alcohol and quartz have the same diffraction coefficient, which

means they bend light at the same angle, which means that if you immerse one in the other, it's going to disappear and turn invisible. Right. Yeah. They also found at Hewlett Packard that was carved from a single piece of crystal and it was carved against the grain, which is very unusual. Yeah. Yeah.

The problem is Hewlett Packard has absolutely no record of these tests being performed. Suki. It's possible that that Dorlan had a friend who, you know, said, come on by. We'll have some beers and test your skull. Yeah. And it wasn't like an official project. Or he didn't really take it there. It's such a weird claim.

Yeah. True. And on a TV show in 1980, Arthur C. Clarke had a show called Mysterious World and it was a gem expert named Alan Jobbins, who also studied the crystal skull, the Mitchell Hedges one, and said that he thought that it was from a crystal, Brazilian crystal. Yeah. From the 1700s. Yeah.

Which would not make it ancient. Right. And that's not the only skull that they think is possibly Brazilian. The Paris skull and the British Museum skull, they think are probably Brazilian. No Mayans in Brazil. And like you said, after the 1700s, this is post-Colombian, not just post-contact. This is like there's a revolution stirring in America by this time when these things were made, right?

And all signs start pointing further back to Eugene Boban. Yeah, and they also thought they were carved in Germany, most of these. Yes. Which kind of the Himmler thing all of a sudden makes sense. But I would venture to guess that Himmler would have never thought that it was made in Germany. I'm sure he thought it was like one of the 13 Mayan skulls. They were very superstitious, those Nazis.

All right, so back to Boban. So Boban had his hands on like several of these. You mentioned Germany, apparently there was a lot of Brazilian crystal that was being worked in Germany in the 1700s, right, or no, the 19th century, the 1800s. And apparently Boban got his hands on these things, sold them, but it's not clear whether he knew that they were frauds or not. I mean, there was a lot of money to be made during the museum period. There was a big boom in artifacts and museums and auctions like this, so, you know, obviously

if you're claiming it's one of the original things, you're going to get top dollar for it. Exactly. Which is how the British Museum came about its skull. It was purchased, like you said, in 1898 from Tiffany and Company during the age of the museum when people would pay a pretty penny for these things. But I guess to its credit, the British Museum led the way in proving that these things were fakes.

And I just made air quotes because they're still amazing works of art. Oh yeah, sure. They're made by Master Craftsman in the 1800s. Just call it that. That's what I say. What works of art? Yeah, so they can be admired and not kind of poked fun at by non-believers. Well, that's why that skull is still in the British Museum.

They're like, this thing isn't mine, but still, check it out. Yeah, exactly. You know? Staring to the aura. Now, the Mitchell Hedges skull doesn't fall into that because there's been no, I guess, acceptance that it was made recently. Yeah, and she at one point, she kind of withdrew it from further investigation, isn't it right? Yeah.

So the British Museum concluded that theirs was made using a jeweler's wheel after the European arrival in the Americas. It's high polish indicates it was carved using traditional European techniques. And then in 2005, Jane Walsh, who was an anthropologist with the Smithsonian, took the Smithsonian skull to the British Museum and said, hey, look at this one, too. Through an electron microscope. And they did, and they're like, it's the same thing. They may have actually been made by the same craftsman.

Yeah, they said that there's, you know, there would have been pretty clear evidence that it was made with ancient tools by the fact that it wouldn't be nearly as smooth. There would be scratch marks, things like that. Yeah. But it bore none of those. Right. And they found, you know, the telltale signs of modern tool use, right? Yeah.

They didn't, yeah, there were no signs of ancient tool use. Again, if you were a believer in crystal skulls, well, these things are, they were made over 150 years. Of course, you're not going to find hacks marks or whatever you hack. Right. It's 150 years of sand rubbing. Right. Doing that kind of work.

But this is the thing that I like the most. What's up? There are out there, very crude crystal skulls. There are some that don't, that don't look like they were made from modern tools, a jeweler's wheel in Germany in the 19th century. So you're saying those are the ones? Who knows? You know what my favorite part is?

What? Danger in my ally. Yeah, I know. It's pretty good stuff. So we have to mention a few pop culture references starting with Stargate SG-1. Yeah. And then it's been in some video games. Nancy Drew, Legend of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of the Caribbean, third greatest selling video

game of 2006. And then obviously the biggest reference would have to be the abominable and forgettable, I said it, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And man, I've never wanted to love a movie so much in my life and I've never been as disappointed. I know. And I'm on record, I'm saying this. I know and I feel bad because, you know, I know that it hurts when we're criticized

we're like, we're doing our best. I know. I'm sure that they really wanted to put out a great movie. I know. They've just kind of missed the mark. Supposedly they're going to do another one and I heard, I think if Steven Spielberg, if you're listening, Mr. Lucas, get back to basics, brothers, that's what I say. Forget all the...

I don't know if Harrison Ford can do his own stunts though. Forget all the CGI monkeys and killer ants and all that silliness. Just get back to basics. Yeah, I agree. Go practical. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. 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. Yes, 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 bander 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. 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. Attention, bachelor nation, he's back. The man who hosted some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with a brand new tell all podcast, the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison.

It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. But I promise you this, we have a lot to talk about. For two decades, Chris Harrison saw it all. And now he's sharing the things he can't unsee. I'm looking forward to getting this off my shoulders and repairing this, moving forward and letting everybody hear from me.

What does Chris Harrison have to say now? You're going to want to find out. I have not spoken publicly for two years about this and I have a lot of thoughts. I think about this every day, truly every day of my life. I think about this and what I want to say. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And that's that for Chuck.

That's it. Right? Yes. If you want to learn more about Crystal Skulls and see some cool images of Crystal Skulls, type Crystal Skull into the handysearchbarthousestuffworks.com and since I said that, Chuck's got a letter in his hand and that means it's time for listener mail. That's right, Josh. A few weeks ago you asked for a call if you have any ways you're trying to better humanity

and we got quite a few of these and so we're going to read some of them over the next few episodes. Okay. This one I'm partial to because I just think it's neat. This is from Rachel. She's written in before. I have a project which I'm attempting to approve humanity. Almost every day for the past three years, I've written a pep talk at my website, website,

dailypeptalkfromabestfriend.com. My goal is to improve the reader's self-esteem by telling them what their best friend might say in a moment of crisis. Type your issue into the handydandysearchbar, find yourself a pep talk. There's more than 800 of these and I'm pretty sure I've covered whatever has you blue or befuddled. So, if I haven't covered a particular topic, readers can write to me and request a pep talk. I also do shout outs for anything a reader wants to celebrate and I have a podcast called

Your Effing Awesome, E-F-F-I-N-G. That's how I'm trying to improve humanity. If you were to mention this, I would be thrilled. I'm forever looking to share the pep and traffic like self-esteem can always use a boost. And then she gives an example of a pep talk and it's kind of cool, you know, I showed this to Emily, she liked it as well. It's very cool. It's almost like a daily horoscope or fortune cookie, but much better because it's a fortune

cookie. Well, you know how a fortune cookie is. It's much less vague. Yeah, I mean, it gives you a pep talk. It's like a choose your own adventure fortune cookie. Yeah, so that's Rachel. The website is dailypeptalkfromabestfriend.com and it's just, it's positive, it's neat. I'm glad she's doing it.

That's great. She's a bad voice. That has a lot of work. I know, I wouldn't figure there'd be a need for more than like six different kinds of pep talks. Yeah, I wonder if it's one of those things where she thought that too and then started to really think about it and kept going and going and she went mad along the way and ended up killing house cats and then like coming back from the brink and then-

And then had to write pep talks about all those experiences. Exactly, yeah. And now she's done. Okay, if you have something that you need a pep talk on, ask Chuck and me. And if we can't do it, maybe we'll just send you to, what is it? Daily pep talk from abestfriend.com. Yes, send us an email. We can address it to stuffpodcastatdiscovery.com.

This episode of Stuff You Should Know is brought to you by Lynda.com. Lynda.com offers thousands of engaging, easy to follow video tutorials taught by industry experts to help you learn software, creative and business skills. Membership starts at $25 a month and provides unlimited 24-7 access. Try Lynda.com free for seven days by visiting Lynda.com slash S-Y-S-K. Attention Bachelor Nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic

podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.