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

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Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The

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Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

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Speaker 2: In the Stuff to Blow Your Mind Core episodes, we

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Speaker 2: recently returned to a favorite topic of listeners, that is

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Speaker 2: the topic of squirrels, which prompted me to finally cover

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Speaker 2: a mythic squirrel from Meso American traditions here on the

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Speaker 2: Monster Fact. This entity stems from the traditions of the

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Speaker 2: Tabasco people of southeast Mexico, whose roots go back thousands

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Speaker 2: of years to the old Mech civilization. To you, it

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Speaker 2: may is described in the Encyclopedia of Religion, second Edition

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Speaker 2: as a goddess presiding over women who died in childbirth

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Speaker 2: within the region of Uruchao or place of women. In

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Speaker 2: contrast to some of the emaciated death entities of the

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Speaker 2: Mayans and the Aztecs, to Um takes on the form

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Speaker 2: of a black squirrel. You'll find a captivating modern interpretation

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Speaker 2: of this goddess by Mexican engraver and painter Echo in

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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty book, a pre Columbian bestiary by Elon Stevens,

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Speaker 2: a black squirrel perched upon a human skull, a traditional

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Speaker 2: Makwait weapon toothed with obsidian teeth in its forepots. Stevens

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Speaker 2: describes to Uma as a goddess of war who roams

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Speaker 2: the battlefields, and includes a contemporary account from a veteran

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Speaker 2: of Mexican descent who claimed to have experienced a visitation

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Speaker 2: of to Uma during the Iraq War following an experience

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Speaker 2: with a land mine. The black squirrel appeared to him,

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Speaker 2: but the soldier pleaded with to Uma to let him

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Speaker 2: live in The goddess indeed moved on. Does the tradition

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Speaker 2: of to Um at all connect with Objuru of squirrels

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Speaker 2: as occasional scavengers or even hunters of flesh. It's hard

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Speaker 2: to say, but surely not impossible. Black squirrels certainly do

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Speaker 2: exist as a rare melanistic subgroup in various squirrel species,

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Speaker 2: with possible advantages for thermoregulation in northern climates or camouflage

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Speaker 2: in dense forests, and some researchers think this adaptation may

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Speaker 2: also aid squirrels in urban environments as well, And of

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Speaker 2: course even in places where black squirrel morphs are not

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Speaker 2: found or in the absence of their observation, humans are

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Speaker 2: still certainly capable of dreaming up black squirrels. After all,

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Speaker 2: Black Swan theory ties directly into such considerations, either in

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Speaker 2: reality or within the imagination, and indeed, in the realm

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Speaker 2: of the imagination, black squirrels have been associated with magic,

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Speaker 2: such as in a Celtic folklore, and indeed, in the

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Speaker 2: writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, we are told that

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Speaker 2: the squirrels of the haunted Forest of Mirkwood are in

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Speaker 2: fact black furred and not good to eat, to say

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Speaker 2: nothing of the various traditions concerning black dogs, black cats,

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Speaker 2: and other such animals. To you and may would seem

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Speaker 2: to be another example in human traditions of the dark

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Speaker 2: furred animal being positioned as a unique entity, an avatar

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Speaker 2: of the night and mysteries of the other world. Tune

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Speaker 2: in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact each week.

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Speaker 2: As always, you can email us at contact It's Stuff

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Speaker 2: to Blow Your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,