# What is a hiccup?

An episode of [Science for Kids / Science's Not Boring: The Kids Science Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896928296), 3 Aug 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2624612/episodes/19554412-what-is-a-hiccup.mp3

Have you ever wondered why your body does wild and wacky things without even asking you first? Join Mira and Finn on Science is Not Boring as they explore the strange secrets of the human body! Discover why a sneeze is like a powerful explosion that can launch a gross cloud of 40,000 tiny droplets at 100 miles per hour across a room! Learn the mind-blowing truth about yawning—it isn't just about being tired, it actually acts like a built-in air conditioner to cool down your brain! We will also uncover the mystery of hiccups, including the unbelievable true story of Charles Osborne, a man who hiccupped an estimated 430 million times over 68 straight years just from falling over on a farm! Finally, find out why we get goosebumps when we are cold or scared, and how it is actually a leftover survival trick from millions of years ago when our ancient human ancestors were covered in thick fur. Your body is basically a walking museum full of ancient tricks and involuntary reflexes. Tune in for fascinating facts that prove science is definitely not boring!

## Transcript

[0:46] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by Kidopoly.com.
[0:49] SPEAKER_01: I'm Mira! And I'm Finn.
[0:52] SPEAKER_01: Before we start, a big hello and a very happy 8th birthday to Jaden in Northern California.
[0:59] SPEAKER_01: He turns 8 on the 3rd of August and listens with his little brother Jordan.
[1:04] SPEAKER_00: Happy birthday, Jayden! And a big hello to Jack, Lila and Sadie in Saskatoon, Canada.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: They are huge fans, and their favourite episode is the one about the human heart.
[1:16] SPEAKER_01: This one is for all of you because we are diving right back into the weird and wild world of the human body.
[1:23] SPEAKER_00: So, what is today's episode about?
[1:26] SPEAKER_01: Imagine having the hiccups, non-stop, for 68 straight years.
[1:32] SPEAKER_01: That is exactly what happened to one man who hiccupped an estimated 430 million times.
[1:40] SPEAKER_00: 430 million?
[1:42] SPEAKER_00: My chest hurts just thinking about that.
[1:46] SPEAKER_01: Today we are talking about the surprising things your body does without asking you first.
[1:52] SPEAKER_01: Why do we yawn, sneeze, hiccup, and get goosebumps?
[1:56] SPEAKER_00: It is like our bodies have a mind of their own.
[1:59] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[2:01] SPEAKER_01: They are called involuntary reflexes.
[2:03] SPEAKER_01: They happen automatically, whether you want them to or not, to keep you safe and regulated.
[2:09] SPEAKER_00: Let's start with yawning.
[2:11] SPEAKER_00: I always thought we yawned because we were sleepy and needed more oxygen.
[2:16] SPEAKER_01: That is what scientists thought for a long time too.
[2:19] SPEAKER_01: But a researcher named Andrew Gallup at the State University of New York made a mind-blowing discovery.
[2:26] SPEAKER_00: What did he find out?
[2:28] SPEAKER_01: If it is not for oxygen, what is it for?
[2:31] SPEAKER_01: He discovered that yawning acts like an air conditioner for your brain.
[2:36] SPEAKER_01: Your brain uses a lot of energy, and just like a computer, it can overheat.
[2:41] SPEAKER_00: Wait, my brain has an air conditioner.
[2:44] SPEAKER_00: How does a yawn cool it down?
[2:46] SPEAKER_01: When you take that huge, deep gulp of cool air, it lowers the temperature of your blood.
[2:52] SPEAKER_01: The stretching of your jaw muscles also increases blood flow, replacing the warm blood in your brain with cooler blood from your heart.
[3:01] SPEAKER_00: So, do animals with bigger brains need bigger air conditioners?
[3:05] SPEAKER_00: Like, does an elephant yawn more than a mouse?
[3:08] SPEAKER_01: Exactly! Dr.
[3:09] SPEAKER_01: Gallup and his team of researchers watched over 1,200 animal yawning videos to measure yawn lengths.
[3:18] SPEAKER_01: They proved that there is a direct link between the size of a brain and how long a yawn lasts.
[3:24] SPEAKER_00: How long is an average human yawn?
[3:27] SPEAKER_01: An average human yawn lasts about 6.5 seconds.
[3:31] SPEAKER_01: But a tiny mouse, with its tiny little brain, yawns for just 0.8 seconds.
[3:37] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yawning calls the brain, that makes sense.
[3:40] SPEAKER_00: But what about sneezing?
[3:42] SPEAKER_00: Why does my body suddenly decide to fire a cannon out of my nose?
[3:47] SPEAKER_01: A sneeze is your body's defence mechanism to blast out germs, dust, or anything irritating your nose.
[3:55] SPEAKER_01: And it is an incredibly violent explosion of air.
[3:58] SPEAKER_01: How powerful are we talking?
[4:00] SPEAKER_01: Dr.
[4:01] SPEAKER_01: Lydia Buraweeber, a fluid dynamics scientist at MIT, has spent years studying this.
[4:08] SPEAKER_01: She uses special high-speed cameras that record at 2,000 frames per second to see exactly what happens when we sneeze.
[4:17] SPEAKER_01: 2,000 frames per second?
[4:19] SPEAKER_01: What did she see in the footage?
[4:21] SPEAKER_01: She discovered that a sneeze isn't just a simple spray.
[4:25] SPEAKER_01: It is a turbulent, swirling cloud, containing up to 40,000 tiny droplets, and it can launch out of your mouth at nearly 100 miles per hour.
[4:36] SPEAKER_00: Ew, 100 miles per hour?
[4:39] SPEAKER_00: That is as fast as a roller coaster dropping.
[4:41] SPEAKER_00: How far does this gross cloud go?
[4:44] SPEAKER_01: That is the crazy part.
[4:46] SPEAKER_01: Because of how the hot, moist air swirl, the smallest droplets in that cloud can travel up to 27 feet.
[4:55] SPEAKER_01: That is like sneezing from one end of a school bus all the way to the other.
[4:59] SPEAKER_00: 27 feet?
[5:01] SPEAKER_00: Note to self, never stand anywhere near someone who is about to sneeze.
[5:06] SPEAKER_01: Good plan.
[5:08] SPEAKER_01: Now, let's move from the nose down to the chest.
[5:11] SPEAKER_01: Hiccups.
[5:12] SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I hate hiccups.
[5:15] SPEAKER_00: What exactly is happening inside my body when I get them?
[5:18] SPEAKER_01: A hiccup starts with a massive muscle under your lungs called the diaphragm.
[5:22] SPEAKER_01: It is the muscle that helps you breathe.
[5:25] SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it gets irritated and suddenly spasms, pulling a huge gulp of air in.
[5:31] SPEAKER_00: But the diaphragm is in my chest.
[5:34] SPEAKER_00: What makes the actual hick sound in my throat?
[5:37] SPEAKER_01: Right after the muscle spasms, the opening between your vocal cords, which is called the glottis, suddenly snaps shut.
[5:45] SPEAKER_01: That violent closure cuts off the air and makes the famous hick sound.
[5:50] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[5:51] SPEAKER_00: But usually my hiccups stop after a glass of water, or if someone scares me.
[5:56] SPEAKER_00: What about the guy you mentioned earlier?
[5:58] SPEAKER_00: The one who hiccupped for 68 years?
[6:01] SPEAKER_01: Ah, Charles Osborne.
[6:03] SPEAKER_01: His story is one of the wildest medical mysteries in history.
[6:07] SPEAKER_01: It started on June 13, 1922.
[6:11] SPEAKER_01: 1922?
[6:12] SPEAKER_01: What was he doing when it happened?
[6:14] SPEAKER_01: Charles was a young farmer living in Iowa.
[6:17] SPEAKER_01: One day he was working on the farm, trying to weigh a massive hog.
[6:21] SPEAKER_01: He took a fall during the incident, and almost immediately the hiccup started.
[6:27] SPEAKER_00: He got a lifetime of hiccups just from falling over while working with a pig.
[6:31] SPEAKER_01: Yep.
[6:32] SPEAKER_01: Doctors think the accident might have ruptured a tiny blood vessel in his brain that controlled his diaphragm reflex.
[6:39] SPEAKER_01: After that fall, he averaged 20 to 40 hiccups every single minute of his life.
[6:45] SPEAKER_01: 40 hiccups a minute?
[6:47] SPEAKER_01: Every minute?
[6:48] SPEAKER_01: How did he even eat, or sleep, or talk?
[6:52] SPEAKER_01: It was incredibly difficult.
[6:54] SPEAKER_01: Charles travelled all over the country looking for a cure, even visiting famous hospitals like the Mayo Clinic.
[7:00] SPEAKER_01: But absolutely nothing worked.
[7:03] SPEAKER_00: That sounds utterly exhausting.
[7:05] SPEAKER_01: It was, but he was resilient.
[7:07] SPEAKER_01: He learned a special breathing technique to hide the hick sound between his words so he could speak normally.
[7:14] SPEAKER_01: Later in life, he even had to blend all his solid food into a liquid just so he could swallow it safely without choking.
[7:21] SPEAKER_00: He lived his whole life like that.
[7:23] SPEAKER_01: When did they finally stop?
[7:25] SPEAKER_01: In February 1990, a full 68 years after they began, his hiccups mysteriously stopped all on their own.
[7:33] SPEAKER_01: Over his lifetime, he had hiccupped an estimated 430 million times.
[7:39] SPEAKER_00: 430 million?
[7:41] SPEAKER_00: I am never, ever complaining about a five-minute hiccup attack again.
[7:45] SPEAKER_01: Which brings us to our final bizarre body trick.
[7:49] SPEAKER_01: Goosebumps.
[7:50] SPEAKER_01: You know, there's little bumps that pop up all over your arms when you're cold or scared.
[7:55] SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
[7:56] SPEAKER_00: Or when I hear a really spooky story, or even listen to a really epic piece of music.
[8:02] SPEAKER_00: But what actually causes them?
[8:04] SPEAKER_01: These bumps are caused by a microscopic, elegant piece of anatomy called the erector pili muscle.
[8:11] SPEAKER_01: It is a tiny, smooth muscle attached to the base of every single hair follicle on your body.
[8:17] SPEAKER_00: Wait, you're telling me I have thousands of tiny muscles attached to my arm hairs?
[8:23] SPEAKER_01: You sure do.
[8:25] SPEAKER_01: When your brain detects a cold temperature or a strong emotion like fear, it sends a sudden signal through your sympathetic nervous system.
[8:34] SPEAKER_01: Those tiny erecta peli muscles contract all at once, pulling your hair follicles straight up.
[8:40] SPEAKER_00: But why?
[8:42] SPEAKER_00: My tiny little arm hairs definitely don't keep me warm in the winter.
[8:46] SPEAKER_01: Exactly! But millions of years ago, our ancient ancestors were covered in very thick fur.
[8:53] SPEAKER_01: When they got cold, pulling that fur straight up trapped a thick layer of warm air right next to their skin.
[9:00] SPEAKER_01: It was built-in winter insulation.
[9:03] SPEAKER_00: So it's basically a leftover survival trick from when humans were super furry.
[9:08] SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is an evolutionary leftover, which scientists call a vestigial reflex.
[9:14] SPEAKER_01: It also worked for self-defence.
[9:17] SPEAKER_01: Puffing up all their fur made our ancestors look much bigger and scarier to predators.
[9:23] SPEAKER_00: Haha.
[9:23] SPEAKER_00: Just like when a cat gets scared and puffs up its tail.
[9:27] SPEAKER_00: That makes so much sense.
[9:29] SPEAKER_01: Exactly! Today, humans simply don't have enough body hair to look scary or trap heat.
[9:35] SPEAKER_01: But our tiny erecta pili mussels still try their best, giving us goosebumps instead.
[9:41] SPEAKER_01: Alright, Finn, it's quiz time! Are you ready?
[9:44] SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm ready.
[9:45] SPEAKER_00: Bring on the weird body facts.
[9:48] SPEAKER_01: First question.
[9:49] SPEAKER_01: How many years did Charles Osborne have the hiccups for?
[9:56] SPEAKER_01: Next one.
[9:58] SPEAKER_01: What is the name of the tiny muscle that causes goosebumps?
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: Question three.
[10:06] SPEAKER_01: According to MIT scientists, how far can a sneeze cloud travel?
[10:14] SPEAKER_01: Here's number four.
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: According to researcher Andrew Gallup, what is the main reason our bodies yawn?
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: Last question.
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: How many seconds does an average human yawn last?
[10:33] SPEAKER_01: Great job! Let's see how you did.
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: Let's go through the answers.
[10:37] SPEAKER_01: The first answer is, Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 68 years.
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: For question two, the tiny muscle that causes goosebumps is called the erector pilly muscle.
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: Number three, the answer is a sneeze cloud can travel up to 27 feet.
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: Question 4.
[10:58] SPEAKER_01: We yawn to cool down our brains, just like an air conditioner.
[11:02] SPEAKER_01: And the final answer is, an average human yawn lasts 6.5 seconds.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: Wow, I actually remembered most of those.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: Our bodies are basically just walking museums full of ancient survival tricks and tiny air conditioners.
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: They really are.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: From sneezing out massive clouds at a hundred miles an hour to hiccupping hundreds of millions of times, the human body proves that science is definitely not boring.
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you manage to listen to this whole episode without hiccupping for 68 straight years, you should totally leave us a five-star review.
[11:40] SPEAKER_00: Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the five stars.
[11:44] SPEAKER_01: Oh, and don't forget to check out our site, kidopoly.com.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: We've got tons of fun learning games and amazing activities waiting for you there.
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is like our own digital treehouse.
[11:56] SPEAKER_00: And if you want a shout out on the show, or just want to tell us your favourite weird body fact, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.
[12:04] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for exploring the strange secrets of the human body with us.
[12:08] SPEAKER_01: See you next time on Science Is Not Boring.
[12:11] SPEAKER_01: Bye everyone!

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