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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

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Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb. And

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Speaker 1: this is The Monster Fact, a short form series from

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,

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Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. The Yokai tradition of Japan

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Speaker 1: is rich with strange beings that range from the comical

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Speaker 1: to the terrifying, and today's subject falls somewhere in the middle. Imagine,

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Speaker 1: if you will yourself alone in a graveyard or on

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Speaker 1: the grounds of an abandoned temple in the darkness, you

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Speaker 1: glimpse something pale and bloated. It carries with it the rancid,

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Speaker 1: unmistakable stench of death and decay. As it bumbles closer,

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Speaker 1: you see it more clearly, a bloated, headless torso of

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Speaker 1: ghastly flesh that walks about on two lumpy legs and

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Speaker 1: flounders about with two lumpy arms. It is naked, and

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Speaker 1: the folds of its fat seem to vaguely form the

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Speaker 1: contours of a saggy face. This is the new Peppo,

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Speaker 1: and despite its disturbing appearance, it is said to be

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Speaker 1: quite harmless. It just wanders about, disturbing those who encounter it,

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Speaker 1: but otherwise harming no one. It's related in the excellent

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Speaker 1: book Yokai Attack by Hiroko Yoda and matt Alt. An

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Speaker 1: eighteenth century tale recounts a new Peppo haunting at the

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Speaker 1: castle of Shogun took Agaya Yayishu, who lived fifteen forty

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Speaker 1: three through sixteen sixteen. According to the tale, the shogun

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Speaker 1: demanded the creature be removed from the premises and released

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Speaker 1: deep into the willderness, where a wooden trouble human settlements

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Speaker 1: or bother anyone again. Only afterwards did Tokugawa learn that

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Speaker 1: the new p pose flesh was said to restore youth

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Speaker 1: and health to anyone who consumed it. A frequent subject

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Speaker 1: of yokai art and toys, New Peppo depictions often walk

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Speaker 1: a thin line between the ghastly and the weirdly cute,

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Speaker 1: which I think is one of its appeals. Its exact

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Speaker 1: origin seems to be shrouded in mystery, though perhaps it

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Speaker 1: is related to the word new perry, a derogatory name

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Speaker 1: for older women with too much makeup, as well as

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Speaker 1: to its fellow Yokai no Parabbo, which appears to be

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Speaker 1: an otherwise normal human figure without a face. I like

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Speaker 1: the mystery though, is the new Peppo walking accumulation of

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Speaker 1: dead flesh some sort of shambling, amorphous grave slime and

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Speaker 1: why does it invite us to become the ghoul by

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Speaker 1: devouring its life giving meat. Tune in for additional episodes

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Speaker 1: of The Monster Fact each week. As a ways, you

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Speaker 1: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

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Speaker 1: Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a

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Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my

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Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.