A deep dive into Xibalba, the Maya underworld whose name translates to the place of fright. Drawing on English translations of the Popol Vuh and the anthropological work of Dennis Tedlock, this episode explores how the K'iche' Maya imagined the realm of the dead not as a chaotic wasteland but as a meticulously organized city with a government, an infrastructure, and a bureaucracy built to test, humiliate, and break anyone who entered.

The conversation maps Xibalba's dual geography, from the cave systems near Coban in Guatemala believed to be its physical entrance to the Milky Way as its cosmic road. It introduces the twelve Lords of Xibalba, led by One Death and Seven Death, and the paired demons assigned to specific forms of human suffering. Then it follows the Hero Twins as they outwit the underworld's rigged trials, and considers Tedlock ...