Jun 22, 2026 · 35 min · 10 segments
The **Reticulated Python**: not only the longest snake in the world, but also the only one you could reasonably call a man-eater. A snake that kills by constriction - but how does constriction…
Earlier this year, 2026, The Baroness had her measurements taken, and her numbers were pretty extraordinary.
The Baroness is a reticulated python who lives on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The special thing about Ibu Baron is that she is the longest wild snake ever officially measured as far as the Guinness World Record people are concerned anyway.
Seven-point-two-two meters, around twenty-four feet of snake, which is an underestimate because big live snakes are notoriously difficult to measure precisely.
Ibu Baron was not anesthetized or sedated when her length was recorded, which is considered the only way to get a really precise maximum measurement on a huge living wild snake.
If she had been, it's estimated her true length would be close to eight meters, twenty-six feet.
But even the lower measurement makes her the longest wild snake ever measured with any sort of real accuracy, and it's relevant that she's a baroness, not a baron.
There are, of course, plenty of reports, claims of longer snakes, both in South America, anacondas, and in Asia, pythons.
Even discounting the ridiculous ones, you can find plenty of respectable sources that say the reticulated python can get to nine or even ten meters in length.
Some of the extreme reports are pretty convincing, but those sizes are not generally accepted as proven by really reliable measurement.
There's a long-standing prize available, I think it's still available anyway, of something like fifty thousand dollars for anyone who can produce a living snake of over thirty feet in length, nine-point-one meters.
So we go with Ibu Baron as the longest wild snake we've ever definitely encountered.
As long as four and a half average American male humans are tall, fractionally fewer adult male humans required in, say, Finland or the Netherlands because human height varies depending on where you are, and those guys are on average a bit taller than Americans.
Maybe even ten meters or more, which would be pretty much as long as one of those yellow American school buses.
Whatever the upper limit is, all this makes the reticulated python an absolutely enormous predator.
Earlier this year, 2026, The Baroness had her measurements taken, and her numbers were pretty extraordinary.
The Baroness is a reticulated python who lives on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The special thing about Ibu Baron is that she is the longest wild snake ever officially measured as far as the Guinness World Record people are concerned anyway.
Seven-point-two-two meters, around twenty-four feet of snake, which is an underestimate because big live snakes are notoriously difficult to measure precisely.
Ibu Baron was not anesthetized or sedated when her length was recorded, which is considered the only way to get a really precise maximum measurement on a huge living wild snake.
If she had been, it's estimated her true length would be close to eight meters, twenty-six feet.
But even the lower measurement makes her the longest wild snake ever measured with any sort of real accuracy, and it's relevant that she's a baroness, not a baron.
There are, of course, plenty of reports, claims of longer snakes, both in South America, anacondas, and in Asia, pythons.
Even discounting the ridiculous ones, you can find plenty of respectable sources that say the reticulated python can get to nine or even ten meters in length.
Some of the extreme reports are pretty convincing, but those sizes are not generally accepted as proven by really reliable measurement.
There's a long-standing prize available, I think it's still available anyway, of something like fifty thousand dollars for anyone who can produce a living snake of over thirty feet in length, nine-point-one meters.
So we go with Ibu Baron as the longest wild snake we've ever definitely encountered.
As long as four and a half average American male humans are tall, fractionally fewer adult male humans required in, say, Finland or the Netherlands because human height varies depending on where you are, and those guys are on average a bit taller than Americans.
Maybe even ten meters or more, which would be pretty much as long as one of those yellow American school buses.
Whatever the upper limit is, all this makes the reticulated python an absolutely enormous predator.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
