The Average Person Swallows Eight Spiders a Year in Their Sleep

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we are dissecting the myth that the average person swallows a certain number of spiders in their sleep by following this false fact's bizarre and mysterious trail on the early internet, looking at other spider-related urban legends, searching for pop culture references to spiders in mouths, as well as old newspaper articles about the alleged dangers of swallowing spiders, and analyzing the surprising theories behind American's fear of these eight-legged freaks. Thanks to listener Rebekah for her submission! Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Find us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Voice Actor: Will Rogers Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Urban Legends Hotline, where we investigate the mysterious tales of your hometowns and stories passed through the old Lockard halls of your schools to get to the
0:26.1	haunted heart of the urban legends that you grew up hearing and maybe even telling.
0:35.0	This week we are covering the claim
0:37.4	that the average human swallows eight spiders a year
0:42.0	in their sleep. I'm your host Chelsea Weber Smith and from one friend of a friend to
0:49.0	another this is American hysteria. This is something I would love to learn more about, I'm sure many of your less
1:05.6	nurse to remember for those new old enough back in the late 90s on early 2000s when
1:12.1	email was like first becoming a big thing and email
1:15.1	chains would go around with lists of facts and the one that always really
1:20.2	got me was that you swallow so many spiders a year and it's embarrassing to admit that I
1:26.1	believe that for way too long and thought that was true. So what I would be curious now is where does that urban legend come from that you swallow spiders and even where do these lists come from?
1:37.5	Thank you so much. I look forward to learning about it if you choose to investigate it. Thanks.
1:45.0	My greatest little fear is, you guessed it, spiders, those skittering little vampires that mummify their insect prey before sucking them dry.
1:59.3	If I see a spider, I suddenly feel that they are all over my body and if I run into a spider web you bet I am bellowing and stomping
2:10.0	aggressively trying to brush off that phantom arachnid.
2:15.0	So when, as a kid, I heard that the average person swallows eight spiders a year in their sleep, this was a living, breathing nightmare.
2:28.3	Making this episode felt like it should be some kind of exposure therapy, and yet I'm not sure that I've been able to even
2:37.1	begin to get over my terror.
2:40.6	So first thing, let's get this out of the way.
2:44.0	We do not, on average, swallow eight spiders a year in our sleep.
2:50.0	We do not, on average, swallow any spiders in our sleep and the explanation for that is pretty simple
2:59.2	spiders like people are hardwired to avoid danger.
	...

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