211: Leilani fell off an elephant

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Asian elephants are incredibly huge animals. An adult elephant can be roughly 9 to 11 feet tall. Just standing next to one is pretty intimidating. But imagine being on top of one of them. It would be like if you had an average size man, then another man was standing on the first man’s shoulders. Then you would be sitting on that second man’s shoulders. That’s pretty high up. For Leilani, it was a dream from her childhood to interact with a full-size Asian elephant. And that’s where she found herself – in Thailand, on a mountain trail, on top of one of those huge animals. And then things went wrong. Leilani socials – https://www.instagram.com/rowoffire/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leilani-otuafi-558a77b9/ Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/211 Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS. Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app Sponsor deals: Head to http://Lumen.me/WWTL for 20% off your purchase. Go to bluenile.com to shop Blue Nile, the original online jeweler since 1999! Follow “MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories” on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS and get on your way to being your best self. To get 15% off your next gift, go to UNCOMMONGOODS.com/WHATWAS Sign up today at https://www.butcherbox.com/whatwas and use code whatwas to get chicken breast, salmon or ground beef FREE in every order for a year, plus $20 off your first order. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/WHAT Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Go to cookunity.com/What or enter code What before checkout for 50% off your first week. Go to Seed.com/what and use code 25WHAT to get 25% off your first month. Go to storyworth.com/what to save $10 on your first purchase! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to RocketMoney.com/whatwas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Asian elephants are incredibly huge animals.
0:08.7	An adult elephant can be roughly 9 to 11 feet tall.
0:14.3	Just standing next to one is pretty intimidating.
0:17.9	But imagine being on top of one of them.
0:24.0	It would be like if you had an average size man and then another man was standing on the first man's shoulders.
0:29.1	Then you'd be sitting on that second man's shoulders.
0:33.2	That's pretty high up.
0:35.9	For Lelani, it was her dream from her childhood to interact with a full-size Asian elephant.
0:43.2	And that's where she found herself in Thailand, on a mountain trail, on top of one of those huge animals.
0:52.6	And then things went wrong.
0:58.8	Real people in unreal situations.
1:03.7	The eerie silence when I walked in and he's just staring at me.
1:09.1	I was like, hello, like, are you okay?
1:11.6	And then I had to tell him it was me.
1:14.6	There was just blood everywhere.
1:17.6	They're shouting, they're screaming, they're being hit by bullets, they're hitting the ground.
1:21.6	And in that moment, I literally thought, this is how I die.
1:24.6	Everything changed then. And I just thought to myself,
1:29.7	this isn't happening. Every single story deserves to be heard. I'm Scott Johnson, and this is
1:38.6	what was that like? You know, I realized something recently.
1:46.0	I've been listening to podcasts now for around 14 years.
1:50.1	And it's funny because my early podcast playlist would be so different from what it is now.
	...

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