Joe Rogan Experience #2563 - Dan Richards · Aired Oct 8, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
Approximately 8.9% of ancient Hawaiian human remains exhumed in prehistoric sites have elongated skulls.
The finding
What the evidence shows
The 8.9 percent figure is real, but it comes from one 1980 study of 79 adult skulls from a single site, Mokapu on Oahu, not from Hawaiian burials in general. That study counted skulls with severe head molding, and the molded skulls were shorter from front to back, which points to flattening rather than elongation.
Read the supporting source · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that Approximately 8.9% of ancient Hawaiian human remains exhumed in prehistoric sites have elongated skulls?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. 9 percent figure is real, but it comes from one 1980 study of 79 adult skulls from a single site, Mokapu on Oahu, not from Hawaiian burials in general. That study counted skulls with severe head molding, and the molded skulls were shorter from front to back, which points to flattening rather than elongation. Dan Richards said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2563 - Dan Richards, aired Oct 8, 2026, at 30:42. The supporting source is pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
- Not independently confirmed in this record
- Editorial context review
- Not recorded; generated finding
- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
No dated revision is recorded here. Older checks may predate this log.
Challenge this finding or add context →Keep the evidence coming.
Follow new checks in your RSS reader, or catch up with the weekly briefing on the site.
Email signup is currently unavailable.
Prefer to catch up here? Read the weekly briefing.