# That "Wet Dog Smell" (and other fascinating facts)

An episode of [TheThinkingAtheist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/412308695), 20 Jan 2026, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/711/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/68880438/podcast854_wetdogsmell.mp3

Here's a fun one for the holiday. In this show, we answer questions like, "Why do we get the hiccups?" "How do flu shots work?" And of course, "Why do dogs stink when they get wet?" Science can indeed be fun! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: The Thinking Atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
[0:09] Speaker 1: an idea.
[0:10] Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through.
[0:13] Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If
[0:18] Speaker 1: I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth,
[0:22] Speaker 1: not because.
[0:22] Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a.
[0:24] Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Truth Usian wisdom will come to you that way.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
[0:43] Speaker 1: Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
[0:56] Speaker 2: Today, I want you to give yourself permission, permission, the
[1:02] Speaker 2: permission to dis engage from the fresh hell of headlines
[1:06] Speaker 2: that has awaited us every single day since forever. And
[1:11] Speaker 2: we deal so often with the critical stuff as we
[1:14] Speaker 2: must I know you do in your own life. There
[1:17] Speaker 2: are important things to be discussed, There are alarms to
[1:20] Speaker 2: be sounded, there are things that need to be fixed,
[1:23] Speaker 2: so many things in this crazy world. And it's heavy
[1:26] Speaker 2: and it's hard, and we carry that burden with us
[1:29] Speaker 2: from day to day. It is okay to take an
[1:33] Speaker 2: hour and not do that, which brings me to this
[1:37] Speaker 2: week's show. We are going to learn interesting stuff about
[1:41] Speaker 2: the things we see and say and do every day,
[1:44] Speaker 2: often without thinking about it. We're going to talk about
[1:47] Speaker 2: this idea that if you get a flu shot, you
[1:49] Speaker 2: might get the flu. Same with COVID, you're getting a
[1:52] Speaker 2: version of the disease. Vaccine science coming up. What causes
[1:57] Speaker 2: our hair to go gray? Why do we get the
[1:59] Speaker 2: hicic and what do we do about it? Why do
[2:02] Speaker 2: we call it extra virgin olive oil? Why do we
[2:06] Speaker 2: wear wedding bands on the fourth finger of our left hand?
[2:10] Speaker 2: And how full of crap is the diamond industry? And
[2:14] Speaker 2: I have a feeling you're probably way ahead of me
[2:17] Speaker 2: on that. So that's the broadcast today, and I think
[2:21] Speaker 2: you're going to have a really good time. Before I
[2:23] Speaker 2: get underway. The twenty twenty six events and conference calendars
[2:27] Speaker 2: starting to fill up. I've got a lot more that
[2:29] Speaker 2: are coming in but so far. Of course, it's the
[2:32] Speaker 2: event with Erica Got Sick Gibbon Forrest Falci and Me Tulsa, Oklahoma,
[2:37] Speaker 2: March seventh. Tickets still available for that, but they are
[2:40] Speaker 2: going fast. Then there's the Western Canadian Reason Conference We
[2:45] Speaker 2: Can Reason first weekend of May and Calgary, Huntsville, Alabama,
[2:49] Speaker 2: Rocket City Reason is going to be a great time
[2:51] Speaker 2: third weekend in October and then Baja Con August twenty
[2:55] Speaker 2: first three of the twenty third Insarnia, Ontario. And you
[2:59] Speaker 2: want to check or updates because more of this stuff
[3:02] Speaker 2: is coming in and the weeks ahead. But go to
[3:04] Speaker 2: the Thinkingatheist dot com slash events for links and details
[3:08] Speaker 2: and tickets and everything you need. Okay, here we go.
[3:14] Speaker 2: The time has come. You have put it off for
[3:17] Speaker 2: far too long. But the dog is stinky and dirty
[3:21] Speaker 2: and needs a bath. Right here a little bit. Are
[3:25] Speaker 2: you ready for a bath? Did you want to take
[3:27] Speaker 2: a bath? Your dogs know the word bath. Linus and Gracie,
[3:32] Speaker 2: they hear the word bath and they just look at
[3:35] Speaker 2: us with that pathetic, sad resigned Ah crap, do we
[3:40] Speaker 2: really have to take a bath? But I think they
[3:43] Speaker 2: know it's inevitable, so they don't bother trying to escape.
[3:46] Speaker 2: But when it's over, after we obeyed the dog, what's
[3:50] Speaker 2: up with the smell? That wet dog smell? And not
[3:54] Speaker 2: even a bath? Let's say the dog splashes around in
[3:57] Speaker 2: a puddle or a pond or a creek or it's
[4:00] Speaker 2: like you get the same result. You still get that
[4:03] Speaker 2: not pleasant odor. Why does this happen? Well? I looked
[4:08] Speaker 2: it up. There was an article published by the AKC,
[4:12] Speaker 2: the American Kennel Club, and they featured the findings of
[4:16] Speaker 2: a British chemist, a guy named Andy Brunning. Now, Andy
[4:20] Speaker 2: Brunning has done a lot of work on different kinds
[4:23] Speaker 2: of chemical reactions, and he publishes his findings on his
[4:27] Speaker 2: own site. It's called Compound Interest, and he does everything
[4:31] Speaker 2: from teaching how magnets work, why some fabrics are fire
[4:36] Speaker 2: resistant and others are not, how IUDs prevent pregnancies, how
[4:42] Speaker 2: sleeping pills work or usually work, why some apples are
[4:47] Speaker 2: sweet and others are tarts, etc. And he also got
[4:52] Speaker 2: into why dog fur can sometimes be so foul. Well,
[4:57] Speaker 2: the explanation here does not be again with a splash.
[5:01] Speaker 2: It begins with a walk. Now, we are all exposed
[5:05] Speaker 2: to a ton of microscopic organisms floating through the air,
[5:09] Speaker 2: and when our dogs are out and about, tiny yeasts
[5:13] Speaker 2: and bacteria take up residents on the dog hair. Of course,
[5:19] Speaker 2: yeast is the single celled fungus that grows pretty much everywhere.
[5:23] Speaker 2: It's in soil, it's on leaves, plants, and flowers, and
[5:26] Speaker 2: it just flies around us. A handful of yeast types
[5:30] Speaker 2: digest sugars and they turn those sugars into alcohol through fermentation.
[5:36] Speaker 2: And yes, that does get us into conversations about the
[5:39] Speaker 2: yeast that's in sour dough bread. That's a whole other show.
[5:42] Speaker 2: I want to come back to the micro organisms on
[5:46] Speaker 2: our canine kids. So the yeast and the bacteria latch
[5:50] Speaker 2: on to our dogs, and as they go about their
[5:54] Speaker 2: little microscopic lives, they are excreting volatile organic compound which
[6:00] Speaker 2: merge into moisture, and the moisture evaporates of course, evaporation vapor.
[6:08] Speaker 2: Essentially the smell then results when bacteria is pooping and
[6:13] Speaker 2: those excretions hitch a ride on the water vapor that
[6:17] Speaker 2: comes off of a dog. Many have described that distinct
[6:21] Speaker 2: smell as a mixture of sense, almond, fruit, honey, mushrooms, sulfur,
[6:27] Speaker 2: and feces, all combining together for one delightful aroma. Now,
[6:34] Speaker 2: do certain breeds stink worse than others when they get
[6:38] Speaker 2: wet or in general? The AKAC recommends extra care for
[6:43] Speaker 2: dogs that have large skin flaps because those can retain
[6:47] Speaker 2: the moisture which have those little yeasts and bacteria. The
[6:52] Speaker 2: Chinese Sharpei pods, bulldogs, basset hounds, mastiffs, great danes, etc.
[6:58] Speaker 2: They say, if you can those handy wipes nearby, and
[7:02] Speaker 2: you might be able to reduce just a little bit
[7:05] Speaker 2: of that. But can the wet dog smell be prevented
[7:09] Speaker 2: or at least reduced, Well, if you don't bathe your
[7:12] Speaker 2: dog very often, that means that the microscopic critters have
[7:15] Speaker 2: more time to accumulate on the hairs and on the skin.
[7:19] Speaker 2: So if you bathe your dog a little more often,
[7:22] Speaker 2: you're not going to see that kind of accumulation. It
[7:26] Speaker 2: is critical to properly dry your dog. And yes, they
[7:30] Speaker 2: make doggie blow dryers. Hang on, I cannot let this go.
[7:36] Speaker 2: We use the one for humans that we use Natalie's
[7:39] Speaker 2: hair dryer on the dogs. It takes forever, but there's
[7:42] Speaker 2: an option just for canines. Let me pull it up
[7:44] Speaker 2: your dog blow dryer. Look at that. There's a ton
[7:53] Speaker 2: of these different brands, different sizes, different velocities. They look
[8:01] Speaker 2: or at least the ones I'm seeing, there's cylinders with
[8:03] Speaker 2: a hose out of the end. They look kind of
[8:05] Speaker 2: like a shop back. They resemble you know, those vacuums
[8:10] Speaker 2: at a car wash, except this would of course be
[8:12] Speaker 2: in reverse because it's blowing warm air out of the hose. Now,
[8:17] Speaker 2: how powerful are they Because if you've got a tiny
[8:20] Speaker 2: little rat dog like I do, do you inadvertently, you know,
[8:25] Speaker 2: blow him into the next county when you were just
[8:28] Speaker 2: trying to dry his fur? Okay, fine, then answers my question.
[8:32] Speaker 2: The doggie blow dryer. It exists and looks like they
[8:37] Speaker 2: run around. The one I'm looking at is eighty bucks
[8:40] Speaker 2: for one of those. Now, if bathing and drying little
[8:45] Speaker 2: Muttley is just too much for you, you can't handle
[8:48] Speaker 2: it logistically, or you just don't have the time, it
[8:51] Speaker 2: is advised that you use a reputable groomer after that.
[8:55] Speaker 2: If your pooch is still putrescent, it might be time
[8:58] Speaker 2: to go get a check up with a vet, just
[9:01] Speaker 2: in case something more serious is going on. On a
[9:05] Speaker 2: related note, unique dog smells are common beyond the wet
[9:10] Speaker 2: dog thing, beyond the baths and the creeks and the ponds, etc.
[9:15] Speaker 2: Veterinary dermatologist doctor Ashley Bourgeois, and yes, her name is Bourgeois,
[9:21] Speaker 2: she told the American Kennel Club that dogs pick up
[9:24] Speaker 2: all kinds of sense from their specific environments, so dogs
[9:29] Speaker 2: with yards will often smell like grass. Dogs in rural
[9:33] Speaker 2: areas might smell like hay or dirt. Smaller dogs get
[9:37] Speaker 2: held more often, so sometimes they will carry the smells
[9:41] Speaker 2: of us, whether it's deodorant, perfume, detergent, or maybe we
[9:47] Speaker 2: just have body odor. Yeast infections on the skin or
[9:51] Speaker 2: in the ears are the most common reasons dogs will
[9:54] Speaker 2: smell bad, But allergies can prompt licking, which then opens
[9:59] Speaker 2: the skin to various infections. Whatever you do, do not
[10:03] Speaker 2: try to fix a stinky dog with peroxide, vinegar, or
[10:08] Speaker 2: even bleach. And I'm guessing that the AKC had to
[10:14] Speaker 2: post that warning because somebody tried it. Some people should
[10:20] Speaker 2: be prohibited from caring for another living creature. I'm just saying,
[10:25] Speaker 2: vets have good medicine that is safe and usually effective.
[10:30] Speaker 2: So keep your eye and your nose on your fuzzy family,
[10:35] Speaker 2: and if everybody stays well groomed and well bathed, all
[10:39] Speaker 2: should come out smelling like roses. Back in the first
[10:49] Speaker 2: part of December, I went down to the local CBS
[10:53] Speaker 2: here near my house and I got my vaccines, flu vaccine,
[10:56] Speaker 2: COVID booster. I am, of course a big vaccine proponent.
[11:01] Speaker 2: I think it is one of the greatest human inventions ever,
[11:05] Speaker 2: like ever, and how many millions upon millions of lives
[11:09] Speaker 2: have vaccines saved. So I got two shots in one trip,
[11:14] Speaker 2: and I was sitting there in the chair and I
[11:16] Speaker 2: was waiting for the woman to arrive with the syringes,
[11:19] Speaker 2: and I had this thought. I thought, you know, it
[11:22] Speaker 2: has been explained to me several times, but I cannot
[11:26] Speaker 2: remember how flu vaccinations actually work. This is information I
[11:32] Speaker 2: should know if I'm pro vaccine. Why am I pro vaccine?
[11:37] Speaker 2: Is listening to the expert immunologists enough or do I
[11:41] Speaker 2: actually need a base of information? Well, the common misconception
[11:45] Speaker 2: out there is that when you get a flu shot,
[11:48] Speaker 2: you actually are being given the flu, or at least
[11:51] Speaker 2: a mild version of the flu. And I can understand
[11:54] Speaker 2: why there is a little bit of trepidation here, because
[11:57] Speaker 2: there are side effects. In many case, you go, you
[12:01] Speaker 2: get your shot, and afterwards you feel like hammered shit.
[12:07] Speaker 2: And I went in and I got my flu shot
[12:10] Speaker 2: and my COVID shot, and I'm telling you, for the
[12:12] Speaker 2: next twenty four hours, I felt like death. I got
[12:17] Speaker 2: horrible shivers, I could not get warm, I was lying
[12:20] Speaker 2: in bed. I had pants on, I had a long
[12:22] Speaker 2: sleeved shirt on, I had socks on, and I had
[12:26] Speaker 2: this microwavable corn pillow. If you don't have a corn pillow,
[12:30] Speaker 2: by the way, they're amazing. It's I don't know, it's
[12:34] Speaker 2: like it's hard corn. How do you describe it. It's
[12:39] Speaker 2: hard corn in a sewn up pillow about the size
[12:44] Speaker 2: of a shoe box. You put it in the microwave
[12:47] Speaker 2: for three minutes. It gets really hot and stays hot
[12:51] Speaker 2: for maybe an hour, and then you can tug it
[12:54] Speaker 2: under the covers. You can put it next to your
[12:55] Speaker 2: cold feet or your cold hands, or you can just
[12:58] Speaker 2: hug it, put it next to your I love my
[13:01] Speaker 2: corn pillow. Well, even the corn pillow and a full
[13:04] Speaker 2: body of clothing would not warm me up. I was miserable,
[13:07] Speaker 2: and then an hour later I was so hot that
[13:09] Speaker 2: it felt like someone set me on fire. This horrible night,
[13:13] Speaker 2: I was up all night thinking what have I done? Well?
[13:17] Speaker 2: This takes us to the data that has been published
[13:20] Speaker 2: on vaccines by the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control. Now,
[13:24] Speaker 2: the only reason that I'm quoting from the CDC website
[13:28] Speaker 2: is because this data was published before RFK Junior became
[13:33] Speaker 2: the Health director and essentially gutted the staff and is
[13:36] Speaker 2: now distorting the CDC recommendations. So the CDC to day
[13:42] Speaker 2: is kind of a nightmare. But this is known information
[13:45] Speaker 2: that was published years and years ago, so roll with it, okay.
[13:50] Speaker 2: Influenza the flu is a respiratory infection caused by the
[13:56] Speaker 2: flu virus, and that virus passes through the air and
[14:00] Speaker 2: it gets breathed then through the nose in the mouth.
[14:03] Speaker 2: The influenza virus can also be picked up through contaminated surfaces.
[14:08] Speaker 2: Depending on the year, five to twenty percent of Americans
[14:12] Speaker 2: get the flu. Sometimes it's a mild case, sometimes it's
[14:16] Speaker 2: nasty and dangerous and deadly. There is an influenza type A,
[14:21] Speaker 2: which doesn't just affect people. You might see influenza A
[14:25] Speaker 2: in birds, pigs, horses, and other critters. There's a type
[14:29] Speaker 2: B that's usually only in humans and usually less severe.
[14:34] Speaker 2: And then finally an even more mild version called type C.
[14:39] Speaker 2: And type C is not even covered by the flu shot.
[14:42] Speaker 2: The symptoms of the flu you already know what they are. Fever, cough,
[14:47] Speaker 2: muscle agches, and the overwhelming desire to dig a hole
[14:52] Speaker 2: and die in it. Complications can also include ear infections,
[14:57] Speaker 2: sinus infections, and it can make pre e existing conditions
[15:01] Speaker 2: even worse. The elderly are really at risk, as well
[15:05] Speaker 2: as anybody who's got a weak immune system or a
[15:08] Speaker 2: chronic disease. In fact, it can be a matter of
[15:11] Speaker 2: life and death for those of advanced age, those with
[15:14] Speaker 2: physical weaknesses, or they are immunocompromised. A new flu shot
[15:20] Speaker 2: is recommended every year because our immunity will decline over time,
[15:24] Speaker 2: and of course because the virus is constantly evolving, it's
[15:28] Speaker 2: always changing, always enjoying. People talk about evolution. I don't
[15:32] Speaker 2: believe in evolution. I think evolution is a lie. And
[15:35] Speaker 2: I'm like, evolution is the reason you have to get
[15:38] Speaker 2: a new flu shot every six months. By the way,
[15:41] Speaker 2: the recommendation is to get an updated flu shot every
[15:45] Speaker 2: six months. The vaccines sometimes really effective, sometimes not quite
[15:50] Speaker 2: as much. Your results may vary, but even if you
[15:54] Speaker 2: do get the flu, a vaccine might reduce the severity
[15:58] Speaker 2: of the flu. For vaccine users, I see you admissions
[16:03] Speaker 2: dropped by a quarter, hospital stays are shorter, and you've
[16:07] Speaker 2: got a thirty one percent lower risk of death and
[16:11] Speaker 2: of course, I have to mention that if you don't
[16:13] Speaker 2: get the flu, you are not breathing the virus onto
[16:17] Speaker 2: other people. Okay, back to how the shots actually work.
[16:22] Speaker 2: The influenza vaccine is either made with a virus that
[16:26] Speaker 2: has been killed or inactivated and is therefore not infectious,
[16:31] Speaker 2: or it is made with proteins from an influenza virus,
[16:35] Speaker 2: and those proteins also cannot give you the flu. So
[16:40] Speaker 2: the deactivated virus or the virus proteins are injected so
[16:44] Speaker 2: that our bodies can recognize influenza. The immune system says, hey,
[16:50] Speaker 2: wait a minute, there's a stranger in the house. We
[16:52] Speaker 2: have an interloper, and the body starts to produce antibodies
[16:57] Speaker 2: to fight off the intruder. In other words, the vaccine
[17:01] Speaker 2: tricks our bodies into building an army against an enemy
[17:05] Speaker 2: that has not actually arrived. We have fortified the barriers
[17:10] Speaker 2: and loaded the weapons to keep the nasty flu outside
[17:14] Speaker 2: the walls. And again, it doesn't always keep the virus out,
[17:18] Speaker 2: but our defenses are improved, the odds are ever in
[17:23] Speaker 2: our favor, so to speak. Okay, fine, why do we
[17:26] Speaker 2: sometimes feel sick after getting vaccinated? By the way, this
[17:30] Speaker 2: was the same scenario for the COVID vaccine as well,
[17:34] Speaker 2: and we should all just relax. If you go get
[17:38] Speaker 2: the shot and you feel like death for a day
[17:40] Speaker 2: or two, congratulations, Your body is telling you that the
[17:45] Speaker 2: vaccine is doing what it's supposed to do. The immune
[17:48] Speaker 2: system has activated, it is producing antibodies, so you might
[17:54] Speaker 2: feel fatigue or muscle aches, perhaps even a low grade fever,
[17:58] Speaker 2: but those symptoms will fade after twenty four to forty
[18:02] Speaker 2: eight hours, and you can feel at least somewhat good
[18:06] Speaker 2: knowing that the vaccines and your immune system are doing
[18:10] Speaker 2: exactly what they are supposed to do. And for those
[18:13] Speaker 2: who do get legitimately sick around the time they get
[18:17] Speaker 2: a flu vaccine, it's possibly due to coincidence because a
[18:22] Speaker 2: lot of people get the flu shots in the colder months,
[18:25] Speaker 2: when people are more indoors, which means viruses are often
[18:29] Speaker 2: passed back and forth. There's this myth that if you
[18:32] Speaker 2: go outside in the cold, you will catch a cold. Right,
[18:36] Speaker 2: don't go out in the freezing temperatures. You're going to
[18:38] Speaker 2: catch your death of cold. That's a myth. That's not
[18:41] Speaker 2: how viruses work. People more often will get a cold
[18:45] Speaker 2: or another virus born illness indoors because during the cold months,
[18:50] Speaker 2: more people are more often indoors, and it is not
[18:54] Speaker 2: uncommon for people who have been recently vaccinated to be
[18:58] Speaker 2: indoors with somebody else who has a cold. They pick
[19:02] Speaker 2: up a cold virus and then they wonder if the
[19:05] Speaker 2: flu shot was responsible, when actually it's just a bigkwinkie dink,
[19:11] Speaker 2: as they say. After this short break, we're going to
[19:15] Speaker 2: talk about the chastity of our olive oil. And I
[19:20] Speaker 2: want to talk about IQ tests. Are they real, are
[19:23] Speaker 2: they legit? What's the story? And can you really measure
[19:27] Speaker 2: how intelligent somebody is? All that and more next Having
[19:38] Speaker 2: some fun this week, learning new things this week hit
[19:44] Speaker 2: just various general knowledge type stuff that we do and
[19:47] Speaker 2: say every day. I am running to the store, Natalie
[19:54] Speaker 2: tells me, look, I forgot to put olive oil on
[19:57] Speaker 2: the list, so make sure you don't leave the store
[20:00] Speaker 2: or without getting some olive oil. Okay, no problem. I
[20:03] Speaker 2: walk over to the olive oil section and I am
[20:06] Speaker 2: presented with a wall of options that confuses me to death.
[20:12] Speaker 2: Wait a minute, I got small bottles, I got big bottles,
[20:15] Speaker 2: I've got imported bottles. I've got price tags ranging from
[20:19] Speaker 2: nine dollars to thirty nine dollars. What in the world's
[20:22] Speaker 2: going on? And then there are the labels, I've got
[20:25] Speaker 2: olive oil, I've got virgin olive oil, and extra virgin.
[20:30] Speaker 2: What the hell is extra virgin? Well, I have done
[20:35] Speaker 2: some Google foo on this probing question, and I have
[20:39] Speaker 2: learned a few things about olive oil. Let's begin with
[20:44] Speaker 2: its production. Olive oil is extracted from the fruits of
[20:48] Speaker 2: the olive tree, and there are seven phases of olive
[20:52] Speaker 2: oil production. The first step, of course, is that you
[20:56] Speaker 2: got to harvest the olives. They can be either handpicked
[21:00] Speaker 2: or harvested using big machines. And then comes the storage phase,
[21:04] Speaker 2: and this is important. You have to keep olives in
[21:07] Speaker 2: a specially ventilated box and plastic and you have to
[21:10] Speaker 2: store it far away from any heat source because heat
[21:14] Speaker 2: might cause them to ferment. Phase three is defoliation and washing.
[21:20] Speaker 2: You lean them and clean them and you get them
[21:22] Speaker 2: ready for the next step, which is the pressing of
[21:26] Speaker 2: the olives. Pressing machines will break the membranes of those
[21:30] Speaker 2: olives and they will push raw extraction into collection vats.
[21:36] Speaker 2: The first version of this oil is known as oil paste.
[21:40] Speaker 2: It is part solid part liquid. Phase five is the kneading.
[21:45] Speaker 2: This breaks down the emulsion between water and oil, and
[21:49] Speaker 2: then comes the oil extraction using pressure, percolation and even
[21:53] Speaker 2: the use of a cent reviuwe After that comes the
[21:57] Speaker 2: bottling and the storage and the transportation and the selling
[22:01] Speaker 2: on our grocery shelves. But why is some olive oil
[22:05] Speaker 2: virgin or extra virgin? Is some of that liquid less
[22:10] Speaker 2: sexually experienced than others in the bottles on the shelves. Well,
[22:16] Speaker 2: According to an actual organization called the International Olive Oil Council,
[22:22] Speaker 2: which and I am not kidding, was chartered by the
[22:25] Speaker 2: United Nations, both virgin and extra virgin oils are extracted
[22:31] Speaker 2: only mechanically. You can't use heat, you can't use solvents.
[22:36] Speaker 2: After extraction, that oil is then graded. It's graded on purity, acidity,
[22:41] Speaker 2: and fruitiness. So if the acidity is ranked between zero
[22:46] Speaker 2: point eight and two point zero, that's designated virgin. But
[22:50] Speaker 2: if the acid is lower zero point eight or less,
[22:54] Speaker 2: that oil is then labeled extra virgin. So the short
[22:59] Speaker 2: answer to the question comes down to purity. Higher quality
[23:03] Speaker 2: olives that are processed without heat, without solvents, and which
[23:07] Speaker 2: provide better texture and flavor. Those are ranked according to
[23:12] Speaker 2: how optimal they are. Extra virgin is less acidic, less processed,
[23:18] Speaker 2: more fruity and tasty, not mixed with any other oils,
[23:23] Speaker 2: and they are even healthier, retaining more of their antioxidants, minerals, enzymes,
[23:30] Speaker 2: and vitamins in so many ways, in literal ways, it
[23:35] Speaker 2: is the extra virgin that is more refined. So if
[23:40] Speaker 2: you love good olive oil, keep calm and press on. Okay,
[23:54] Speaker 2: I wasn't going to get into anything political, but indulge
[23:57] Speaker 2: me for just a second. Okay, it's a lighthearted question
[24:00] Speaker 2: question and just a little bit of a detour into
[24:03] Speaker 2: Donald Trump. The next probing question on my list has
[24:07] Speaker 2: to do with IQ tests. How is someone's intelligence quotient
[24:11] Speaker 2: actually measured? Can you measure it? Or is the whole
[24:14] Speaker 2: IQ testing thing bogus? And of course my first thought
[24:18] Speaker 2: about cognitive tests ran to Donald Trump. That guy is
[24:22] Speaker 2: still bragging that his supposed IQ test proved his genius. Now,
[24:28] Speaker 2: of course he didn't take an IQ test. Donald Trump
[24:33] Speaker 2: did not take an IQ test. He ended up apparently
[24:36] Speaker 2: going to Walter Reed Medical Center and he was given
[24:39] Speaker 2: a standard dementia and Alzheimer's screening that he's still boasting
[24:44] Speaker 2: about two days. Been several years. I think he called
[24:47] Speaker 2: the test quote very hard, and he has weaponized his
[24:52] Speaker 2: perfect test results against critics like Texas Representative Jasmine Crocketts
[24:57] Speaker 2: and New York's AOC calling the DO women low iq
[25:02] Speaker 2: they could never pass the test that he passed perfectly. Now,
[25:07] Speaker 2: his test was likely a variation of something called the
[25:10] Speaker 2: Montreal Cognitive Assessment. This is a ten minute test designed
[25:15] Speaker 2: to identify signs of dementia or Alzheimer's. And I pulled
[25:19] Speaker 2: up that test. It is one page and it looks
[25:22] Speaker 2: like this. I'll do my best to describe it for you.
[25:25] Speaker 2: The first box on the page is about visuospatial awareness.
[25:30] Speaker 2: You're supposed to connect letters and numbers in a certain
[25:33] Speaker 2: order one two, A would leave to two, then B
[25:36] Speaker 2: three to c et cetera. Box two is and I
[25:40] Speaker 2: am not making this up. Box two is draw a clock.
[25:50] Speaker 2: Draw a clock showing the time to be ten oh five.
[25:55] Speaker 2: Box number three shows drawings of three animals. There's a horse, tiger,
[26:00] Speaker 2: and a goose. You're supposed to name them. Then there's
[26:03] Speaker 2: a memory test and you see this at the bottom,
[26:06] Speaker 2: but it gives you the words leg cotton school, tomato
[26:09] Speaker 2: and white, and then in a couple of minutes you're
[26:11] Speaker 2: supposed to try to remember those. Trump's version had person woman,
[26:15] Speaker 2: man camera TV. There was a line where you had
[26:19] Speaker 2: to read numbers forward, then read them backward. You had
[26:23] Speaker 2: to repeat a line about a child walking his dog
[26:27] Speaker 2: in the park after midnight in one minute. Come up
[26:30] Speaker 2: with as many words as you can that start with
[26:33] Speaker 2: the letter B. You have to describe similarities between various objects.
[26:38] Speaker 2: Is a banana a fruit or is it a light fixture?
[26:43] Speaker 2: This is the test. Now a dementia screening has utility.
[26:48] Speaker 2: But this test is not an application to MENSA. By
[26:53] Speaker 2: the way, MENSA is that international club for people with
[26:56] Speaker 2: high IQs. I guess you have to take a test
[26:59] Speaker 2: to be a part of me NSA. Mensa comes from
[27:01] Speaker 2: the Latin word which means table, and the idea is
[27:04] Speaker 2: that there are equally qualified people sitting around a table
[27:08] Speaker 2: with each other, kind of a round table of smart
[27:11] Speaker 2: But can intelligence quotient be defined by a test? Well,
[27:17] Speaker 2: the very first IQ test was developed by psychologists in France,
[27:21] Speaker 2: and this was many, many many decades ago. It was
[27:24] Speaker 2: not made to measure intelligence. It was designed to help
[27:28] Speaker 2: identify kids in school who might need extra individualized tutoring.
[27:33] Speaker 2: But IQ tests are to be evolved out of that
[27:36] Speaker 2: first incarnation and they measure things like working memory, fluid reasoning,
[27:41] Speaker 2: verbal comprehension, and more. The problem is that there are
[27:46] Speaker 2: so many variables with people who take the tests. So
[27:50] Speaker 2: you might be super smart, super intelligent, but you're just
[27:53] Speaker 2: not trying all that hard. The test result will show
[27:57] Speaker 2: you as average. If you know how to take a test,
[28:00] Speaker 2: if you know test taking strategies, maybe that'll bump you
[28:04] Speaker 2: up a percentile or two. There are cultural biases that
[28:08] Speaker 2: are kind of baked in too many of the tests.
[28:10] Speaker 2: An example might be questions about shapes. There are cultures
[28:15] Speaker 2: in this world that don't use labels for shapes. So
[28:19] Speaker 2: if there was a question on the test that had
[28:22] Speaker 2: to do with shapes and the person got it wrong,
[28:25] Speaker 2: is that a lack of intelligence or is it simply
[28:28] Speaker 2: a language and culture barrier. And beyond that, you've got
[28:31] Speaker 2: the test makers, who for so very long have very
[28:35] Speaker 2: often been white and affluent. Minorities are often not considered
[28:41] Speaker 2: or barely considered when situationals are presented in a very
[28:45] Speaker 2: white centric way, stanking the deank in favor of a
[28:49] Speaker 2: privileged demographic. IQ tests have been used legitimately to find
[28:54] Speaker 2: gifted people in this world, but they have also been
[28:57] Speaker 2: used to dehumanize and persecute, quote dumb people by the
[29:02] Speaker 2: promoters of eugenics. Now I browse some websites trying to
[29:07] Speaker 2: find a legit, you know, an actual valid IQ test,
[29:11] Speaker 2: because I was just curious how I might do. But
[29:14] Speaker 2: I really didn't find much. Most of the tests that
[29:17] Speaker 2: I found looked like they'd been assembled by people who
[29:19] Speaker 2: got their degrees on TikTok. In fact, many of them
[29:22] Speaker 2: had disclaimers. This is not an official tool to gauge
[29:26] Speaker 2: cognitive ability. But on the test that I did see,
[29:30] Speaker 2: there was a lot of pattern recognition, dots and squares
[29:33] Speaker 2: and triangles and shades and various orders and directions. There
[29:37] Speaker 2: were puzzles of sequential reasoning one, seven, thirteen, twenty one
[29:41] Speaker 2: point thirty one? What number will come next? What is
[29:44] Speaker 2: a palindrome? Which seems like an educational quiz, not an
[29:49] Speaker 2: intelligence quiz. Orientation. If you're standing on a map facing
[29:53] Speaker 2: one direction, and then you turn here, here, and here,
[29:56] Speaker 2: then what would be above you on the map. There
[29:59] Speaker 2: was one websit site that actually wanted me to pay
[30:02] Speaker 2: seventy dollars to take the test, seventy bucks, And I
[30:08] Speaker 2: was thinking about it afterwards, and I thought, you know,
[30:10] Speaker 2: that might itself have been an IQ test. They're like,
[30:14] Speaker 2: anybody stupid enough to pay seventy dollars to take this,
[30:18] Speaker 2: we'll get an automatic deduction on the score. They can't
[30:23] Speaker 2: be all that smart. He just gave us his credit
[30:26] Speaker 2: card number. Mental health professionals and education experts admits IQ
[30:32] Speaker 2: tests might have some utility, but they remain messy and flawed,
[30:37] Speaker 2: and there's a whole lot of argument and debates about
[30:40] Speaker 2: just how we might measure the human mind. Okay, here's
[30:50] Speaker 2: a fun little segment for you. Humorous questions that make
[30:54] Speaker 2: you say, hmm. I don't have the answers to these questions,
[30:58] Speaker 2: but maybe you do. If bread slices our square, why
[31:04] Speaker 2: is the sandwich meat always round? If somebody wants a
[31:10] Speaker 2: penny for your thoughts, why do you offer your two cents?
[31:16] Speaker 2: Why do we say sleep like a baby. Babies keep
[31:20] Speaker 2: their parents up all night. This makes no sense. Why
[31:25] Speaker 2: is an actor in a movie but on television? Why
[31:31] Speaker 2: do we get fifty contestants when we choose miss universe,
[31:35] Speaker 2: but we have only two options for the president of
[31:38] Speaker 2: the United States. Why do doctors leave the room when
[31:44] Speaker 2: we change if they've already seen us naked? Why is
[31:49] Speaker 2: the alphabet in that particular order ABCDEFG Who came up
[31:54] Speaker 2: with that? Why are they called apartments? They are red
[32:00] Speaker 2: sences that are actually pressed together. If there was ever
[32:05] Speaker 2: a typo in a dictionary, how would we know it?
[32:11] Speaker 2: Does cereal qualify as soup? I guess this relates as
[32:16] Speaker 2: well to the question does a hot dog qualify as
[32:19] Speaker 2: a taco? I've seen people get passionate on that subject.
[32:25] Speaker 2: They say hot dogs are tacos because you've got the
[32:28] Speaker 2: shell and the whatever. Why does slow down and slow
[32:34] Speaker 2: up mean the exact same thing. Why do we put
[32:39] Speaker 2: a suit in a garment bag, but we put garments
[32:41] Speaker 2: in a suit case here in the United States we
[32:46] Speaker 2: call Australia down Under? Do Aussies refer to this country
[32:52] Speaker 2: as up over? Why in the world does the word
[32:56] Speaker 2: abbreviation have five syllables, same with the word monosyllable. Monosyllable
[33:04] Speaker 2: has five syllables. That makes no sense. In the classic
[33:09] Speaker 2: story Cinderella, if Cinderella's shoe fit so perfectly. Why did
[33:15] Speaker 2: it fall off? Why does a British accent disappear when
[33:21] Speaker 2: somebody sings? Why does the poem never actually tell us
[33:27] Speaker 2: that Humpty Dumpty was an egg? Never noticed that before?
[33:33] Speaker 2: It never says he's an egg? How is it even
[33:38] Speaker 2: possible to draw a blank? If I'm sitting in a
[33:43] Speaker 2: movie theater, how do I know which armrest is mine
[33:48] Speaker 2: and which one belongs to the person next to me?
[33:51] Speaker 2: I see the little slot where my soft drink goes,
[33:54] Speaker 2: but I don't know if I'm supposed to use it,
[33:56] Speaker 2: because does it belong to me or to them? How
[34:00] Speaker 2: do we know when does the sky stop being partly
[34:05] Speaker 2: cloudy to become partly sunny? Would it in fact be
[34:11] Speaker 2: appropriate to call air conditioning domesticated wind? If we are
[34:18] Speaker 2: texting on the phone or typing into Microsoft Word and
[34:22] Speaker 2: we have to go back and fix something that autocorrect
[34:26] Speaker 2: got wrong, are we then the auto correct? Here's a
[34:32] Speaker 2: fun question. If there is an earthquake around a cemetery,
[34:37] Speaker 2: could we perhaps call the coffins buried maraccas? If everybody
[34:44] Speaker 2: in the world seems to know who James Bond, the
[34:47] Speaker 2: Spy is, doesn't this make him the world's worst spy.
[34:53] Speaker 2: And why is the most popular pencil in the world
[34:57] Speaker 2: called the number two pencil? Okay, I had to go
[35:01] Speaker 2: and look this one up, and there's actually a website
[35:04] Speaker 2: called pencils dot Com. Now it's not just numbers that
[35:09] Speaker 2: we use to designate pencils. We also hear letters B, HHB.
[35:15] Speaker 2: Each designation, of course, has a meaning. There is something
[35:18] Speaker 2: called a graphene grading scale. The graphite core of the pencil.
[35:23] Speaker 2: The lead is gauged by its hardness. Number two would
[35:28] Speaker 2: be softer. Number three is going to be harder. The
[35:31] Speaker 2: higher the number, the harder the writing core is going
[35:35] Speaker 2: to be. That means a lighter mark on the paper.
[35:39] Speaker 2: Now this seems counterintuitive, but it is the softer lead
[35:43] Speaker 2: that's going to make the thicker mark. There's no international
[35:48] Speaker 2: standard for pencils. Everybody's got their own charts and gauges.
[35:52] Speaker 2: Outside of the US, manufacturers will use the letter H
[35:56] Speaker 2: to designate a hard pencil. Write H for hard, B
[36:01] Speaker 2: might speak to how black the color is. F might
[36:05] Speaker 2: address how fine the pencil lead is going to sharpen.
[36:09] Speaker 2: And then of course there are combinations HB hard and black.
[36:14] Speaker 2: HH is doubly hard. And you get mixes like two
[36:19] Speaker 2: B and three H, and the number two pencil is
[36:23] Speaker 2: considered just about in the middle. It's not too hard,
[36:27] Speaker 2: it's not too soft. It is average. No surprises here,
[36:31] Speaker 2: just a good, solid, medium, soft, fairly dark pencil. Quick
[36:37] Speaker 2: related story. On the palm of my right hand, there
[36:41] Speaker 2: is a tiny black dot the size of a pencil tip,
[36:45] Speaker 2: just underneath the skin. It's right under my pinky finger.
[36:49] Speaker 2: I think I was around ten years old. I can't
[36:51] Speaker 2: remember exactly how it happened, but I was using a
[36:55] Speaker 2: sharp pencil and something slipped and I stabbed myself in
[36:59] Speaker 2: the hand. And the lead from that accident is still there,
[37:04] Speaker 2: very visible, forty seven years later. Well, when I was
[37:09] Speaker 2: a kid, I was terrified that I was going to
[37:11] Speaker 2: get lead poisoning. Of course, that speaks to the different
[37:15] Speaker 2: kind of lead, the heavy metal lead that can cause
[37:19] Speaker 2: serious symptoms and can be very dangerous. The pencil lead
[37:23] Speaker 2: not the same thing. Graphite is not harmful. It just
[37:28] Speaker 2: acts like a tattoo. The pencil lad embedded particles in
[37:32] Speaker 2: the dermis layer of my skin, and if there had
[37:36] Speaker 2: been any danger at the time, it would be because
[37:38] Speaker 2: of the open wound. Perhaps getting infected, but the lead
[37:42] Speaker 2: itself totally safe, and this tiny knot is going to
[37:46] Speaker 2: remain a passenger in my right hand for the rest
[37:50] Speaker 2: of my life. I am a secular wedding officiant or
[38:07] Speaker 2: a humanist efficiant, which means a few times a year
[38:10] Speaker 2: I get the honor of helping couples who want to
[38:13] Speaker 2: get hitched get hitched. And it is always so much fun.
[38:17] Speaker 2: And you see, the ceremonies will vary depending on the couple,
[38:21] Speaker 2: which is I think as it should be. But a
[38:24] Speaker 2: common thread is the ring finger right, the exchange of rings,
[38:28] Speaker 2: and then what finger does the wedding ring go on?
[38:31] Speaker 2: It's always left hand, fourth finger. Well, where does that
[38:34] Speaker 2: tradition come from? And there has been a common story,
[38:39] Speaker 2: a false history, about the origins of the ring finger
[38:43] Speaker 2: linked to bad science. The claim has been that long ago,
[38:47] Speaker 2: before people understood the human body, they used to believe
[38:50] Speaker 2: there was a vein that ran from the heart directly
[38:54] Speaker 2: to the fourth finger of the left hand. That perceived
[38:58] Speaker 2: connection prompted them to aim the finger the vena amoris,
[39:03] Speaker 2: which is Latin for vein of love, which I think
[39:07] Speaker 2: sounds more than a bit naughty. Would you like to
[39:12] Speaker 2: place the finger on their vein of love. It just
[39:15] Speaker 2: sounds a little naughty, But we're talking about ring fingers here. Okay.
[39:19] Speaker 2: However romantic that story might sound, the story has not
[39:23] Speaker 2: held up through the years because honestly, nothing differentiates that
[39:28] Speaker 2: particular finger from any of the others. There are veins
[39:31] Speaker 2: coming out of the heart and they go throughout the body,
[39:33] Speaker 2: and all the fingers kind of work the same. Not
[39:36] Speaker 2: only that, but the tradition of fourth finger rings actually
[39:40] Speaker 2: dates to before the origin of the love vein theory.
[39:45] Speaker 2: So it is thought that the wedding ring tradition became
[39:48] Speaker 2: a thing about forty eight hundred years ago in Egypt,
[39:52] Speaker 2: with the circle of the ring signifying eternity and the
[39:56] Speaker 2: hole in the middle of the ring a gateway or
[40:00] Speaker 2: a door. So you are entering a time of forever
[40:04] Speaker 2: love with your love. Okay. Now, around the world, there
[40:08] Speaker 2: are different ways that people signify their marriage or mark
[40:12] Speaker 2: the occasion or whatever, beit with a ring or something else.
[40:16] Speaker 2: And if it is a ring, sometimes the rings are
[40:19] Speaker 2: placed on the index finger of the right hand. There's
[40:22] Speaker 2: the signet ring that goes on the pinky. There are
[40:25] Speaker 2: no rules, just some traditions. So where what you want
[40:30] Speaker 2: where you want. Okay, it's your thing. Now. This takes
[40:34] Speaker 2: me to a related subject, the subject of the rings themselves,
[40:38] Speaker 2: which often come with expensive diamonds, especially here in the US.
[40:44] Speaker 2: The value of the diamond is linked to the measuring
[40:48] Speaker 2: of our love for our partner. And this shows us
[40:51] Speaker 2: just how much we have been brainwashed into consumerism by
[40:55] Speaker 2: the diamond industry. Billions of marketing dollars have been to
[41:00] Speaker 2: program us to think about diamonds in a certain way.
[41:04] Speaker 2: We've all seen the commercial, right, the music plays, and
[41:07] Speaker 2: there's the soft lighting, and the young man's there, and
[41:09] Speaker 2: he opens up the little case and he presents the
[41:12] Speaker 2: diamond to the beautiful woman, and she sees this obviously
[41:16] Speaker 2: pricey babble, and she throws herself all over the guy
[41:20] Speaker 2: and they live happily ever after. This is advertising in
[41:25] Speaker 2: that model. Then the babble bribes the babe and diamonds
[41:30] Speaker 2: are forever, which is yet another marketing slogan. But are
[41:34] Speaker 2: those precious stones really all that rare and precious. Nope.
[41:41] Speaker 2: In fact, rough diamonds are actually considered common compared to
[41:45] Speaker 2: many other gemstones. Geologists estimate that over a quadrillion tons
[41:50] Speaker 2: of diamonds exist beneath the mantle of the earth. So
[41:55] Speaker 2: much of this all comes down to who's doing the digging,
[41:58] Speaker 2: who's cornering the market, and who has been putting the
[42:02] Speaker 2: marketing campaigns together. The De Beer's company controls the majority
[42:08] Speaker 2: of the global diamond market. I will call it a
[42:11] Speaker 2: near monopoly, and it's De Beer's, and they're billions of
[42:14] Speaker 2: dollars that have created this myth about those pretty little
[42:19] Speaker 2: rocks diamonds that are obviously not that rare because people
[42:24] Speaker 2: have jewelry boxes where they keep the extras. Am I
[42:28] Speaker 2: going to wear the diamond ear rings today? Or do
[42:30] Speaker 2: I want the diamond necklace or maybe another diamond piece
[42:33] Speaker 2: of jewelry. People have extras because they are relatively common. Now.
[42:38] Speaker 2: One of the arguments for spending more is that diamonds
[42:42] Speaker 2: are not just lovely gems. They are investments. Whoever gives
[42:48] Speaker 2: you that advice buy the more expensive diamond because it
[42:52] Speaker 2: is an investment, that person should be caned on the
[42:56] Speaker 2: fingers because they are totally full of craptial Experts say
[43:01] Speaker 2: you will never get back what you pay for a
[43:04] Speaker 2: diamond because the retailers have already marked those suckers up.
[43:08] Speaker 2: One hundred percent, three hundred percent or much more. The
[43:12] Speaker 2: day you buy that stone, just like when you buy
[43:15] Speaker 2: a car, you'll walk out the door the depreciation will
[43:19] Speaker 2: kick in immediately. And diamonds are not forever. They are
[43:25] Speaker 2: made a physical material in a form that is finite.
[43:29] Speaker 2: They might become discolored, they can chip or even chatter. Now,
[43:34] Speaker 2: there is a slightly heavier history to the diamond ring,
[43:38] Speaker 2: or the wedding ring here in the United States, taking
[43:41] Speaker 2: us back to the early twentieth century, the ring between
[43:44] Speaker 2: a man and a woman considered a kind of contract,
[43:48] Speaker 2: even a legal contract, and the thinking was like this,
[43:52] Speaker 2: there's a guy and he's trying to convince the woman
[43:54] Speaker 2: to sleep with him. So he promises her that hey,
[44:00] Speaker 2: I'm gonna marry you, and she says, okay, if you promise,
[44:04] Speaker 2: and he promises with the ring. Then he leaves her
[44:08] Speaker 2: hanging at the altar before the wedding. He just freaking
[44:11] Speaker 2: disappears because he got what he wanted. So under something
[44:15] Speaker 2: that was called the Breach of Promise Act, women were
[44:19] Speaker 2: supposedly protected from that seduced and abandoned scenario, and she
[44:24] Speaker 2: might have some legal recourse because she had been left
[44:28] Speaker 2: humiliated at the altar. Now, the rules of society have
[44:32] Speaker 2: certainly changed, but I think the message of the ring
[44:35] Speaker 2: still serves as a kind of contract, at least an
[44:38] Speaker 2: unspoken or unofficial contract. This is a promise to you
[44:43] Speaker 2: and a message to everybody else that you are taken.
[44:48] Speaker 2: And on the subject of the wedding ring as a
[44:50] Speaker 2: potential shield against proposition out there, how much does a
[44:55] Speaker 2: ring on the finger really mean to people on the prowl?
[44:58] Speaker 2: And I don't think Natalie would mind telling you this.
[45:00] Speaker 2: I mean, she might be a little she might blush
[45:03] Speaker 2: about it, but Natalie's a lovely woman, right, and she's
[45:07] Speaker 2: working among people all the time, many of them men,
[45:10] Speaker 2: and she's got this ring on her finger saying I
[45:14] Speaker 2: am married, right, I have a husband somewhere in this world.
[45:18] Speaker 2: I am taken. And it does not stop men from
[45:23] Speaker 2: flirting and even propositioning. They don't care if there's a
[45:27] Speaker 2: wedding ring on the finger. They're going to make their
[45:30] Speaker 2: move anyway. So we have to ask, well, does it
[45:33] Speaker 2: work as a sign that you're taken or I don't know.
[45:37] Speaker 2: Maybe the more important thing is that she is reminded
[45:40] Speaker 2: of my love. Maybe that's it. Okay, finally, on the
[45:44] Speaker 2: subject of diamond jewelry, I want somebody to explain to
[45:48] Speaker 2: me why we are so obsessed with the expensive, and
[45:52] Speaker 2: I mean super obscenely, ridiculously expensive diamonds. People spend more
[45:58] Speaker 2: on a rock and we spend on our entire lives.
[46:03] Speaker 2: And we have to talk about celebrities here. Jennifer Lopez's
[46:06] Speaker 2: pink diamond engagement ring, which was given to her by
[46:10] Speaker 2: Ben Affleck in a marriage that didn't survive twice, that
[46:15] Speaker 2: was purchased for four and a half million dollars. We
[46:18] Speaker 2: all heard about that ring that was stolen from Kim
[46:21] Speaker 2: Kardashian and Kanye West. Right, he spent five million on
[46:25] Speaker 2: that diamond engagement ring and somebody broke in and took
[46:28] Speaker 2: it and they didn't even blink because they're so filthy rich.
[46:31] Speaker 2: Nicole Kidman has a diamond necklace at Cardier necklace valued
[46:36] Speaker 2: at seven million. Drake has a necklace worth ten million.
[46:42] Speaker 2: Lady Gagaz Tiffany diamond necklace valued at thirty million dollars.
[46:49] Speaker 2: And this is not the most expensive stuff. There is
[46:52] Speaker 2: a twelve carrot diamond. It's called the Blue Moon of Josephine.
[46:56] Speaker 2: It was recently purchased by some rich guy in Hong Kong,
[47:00] Speaker 2: and he paid for a stone, He paid forty eight
[47:05] Speaker 2: point four million dollars. And finally, how about the pink
[47:11] Speaker 2: star diamonds. It holds the title of the most expensive
[47:14] Speaker 2: beasts of jewelry that was ever auctioned. Somebody paid for
[47:19] Speaker 2: fifty nine point six carrots. He paid seventy one point
[47:24] Speaker 2: two million dollars seventy one plus million bucks. Let's do
[47:29] Speaker 2: the math on that seventy one million. So let's say
[47:33] Speaker 2: you were building houses for the homeless, and the building
[47:36] Speaker 2: costs are just what we're going by, and let's say
[47:38] Speaker 2: they're nice houses. Raw building cost one hundred and fifty
[47:42] Speaker 2: thousand dollars. Right, you could build four hundred and seventy
[47:46] Speaker 2: five of those houses for homeless people. You could fund
[47:51] Speaker 2: over ten million meals for the hungry. Seventy one million
[47:55] Speaker 2: bucks is medicine for low income hospital patients, could on
[48:00] Speaker 2: cancer research, You could buy Christmas gifts for underprivileged children, whatever. Instead,
[48:07] Speaker 2: somebody somewhere in an obscenely privileged home gets a shiny rock.
[48:14] Speaker 2: Somebody explain this to me. And the last thing on diamonds,
[48:18] Speaker 2: because I didn't know this. What's a carrot? Somebody bought
[48:23] Speaker 2: that fifty nine point six carrot diamond. Oh that sounds impressive.
[48:28] Speaker 2: I don't know what a carrot is. Well, a carrot
[48:32] Speaker 2: with a C is a unit of weight for precious stones.
[48:36] Speaker 2: It is equal to two hundred milligrams. Now, carrot with
[48:39] Speaker 2: a C is about the weight of the gemstone. But
[48:44] Speaker 2: carrot with a K is something different, and a lot
[48:47] Speaker 2: of people get them confused. Carrot ka r at, carrot
[48:51] Speaker 2: with a K is about the purity of the stone.
[48:56] Speaker 2: So the next time you and I walk into the
[48:59] Speaker 2: corner jewelry store and say I would like to spend
[49:02] Speaker 2: millions on a ronck, now we'll know what those little
[49:05] Speaker 2: carrots are all about. And if we actually had that
[49:10] Speaker 2: much money and we were that stupid and wasteful, we
[49:13] Speaker 2: should be caned on the fingers. We ain't done yet.
[49:20] Speaker 2: We have much more to talk about. I want to
[49:22] Speaker 2: find out why do we get the hiccups? Why does
[49:25] Speaker 2: that happen? It is so freaking annoying, and the science
[49:30] Speaker 2: of gray hair. We will solve that mystery in just
[49:34] Speaker 2: a moment. Thanks so much for your patronage. Your support
[49:45] Speaker 2: really makes a huge difference. You know, we've seen some
[49:49] Speaker 2: ups and downs in the podcast space and the content
[49:52] Speaker 2: creation space, and yet my patrons have really helped to
[49:56] Speaker 2: balance that out and sort of keep things flowing smooth,
[50:00] Speaker 2: allowing me to be a host full time and a
[50:02] Speaker 2: creator and a speaker full time. And I'm just so
[50:05] Speaker 2: honored and thankful. And if you would like to support
[50:07] Speaker 2: this show moving into twenty twenty six, go to patreon
[50:11] Speaker 2: dot com slash seth Andrews. Why do we get the hiccups?
[50:21] Speaker 2: What even is a hiccup? And what do we do
[50:24] Speaker 2: about them? When they happen? Sometimes they're even painful? You
[50:27] Speaker 2: ever had the hiccup so bad that actually kind of hurts,
[50:31] Speaker 2: and then you get irritated because there's nothing you can
[50:34] Speaker 2: do about it. Well, the entomology of the word hiccup
[50:37] Speaker 2: pulls no great mysteries. It is one of those words
[50:40] Speaker 2: that just imitates the sound it describes, hiccup. The word
[50:45] Speaker 2: likely originated about five hundred years ago from earlier terms
[50:49] Speaker 2: like hicket, so hickett I guess an early variant was
[50:54] Speaker 2: spelled with a K, and scientists believe that that embarrassing
[50:59] Speaker 2: little reflect again links us evolutionarily to the non primate world,
[51:05] Speaker 2: our relationship to other animals. Hiccups are repeated spasms of
[51:11] Speaker 2: the diaphragm that we cannot control. Now. The diaphragm is
[51:15] Speaker 2: the muscle that separates the chest from the stomach area,
[51:18] Speaker 2: and it plays an important role in our breathing. The
[51:21] Speaker 2: spasm forces our vocal cords to close suddenly, which is
[51:26] Speaker 2: why we make that sound. And this involuntary, annoying and
[51:31] Speaker 2: useless reflex seems to be an evolutionary leftover from our
[51:35] Speaker 2: more fish like ancestors. We see a similar contraction closing
[51:41] Speaker 2: of the throats in many amphibians. For example, when tadpoles
[51:46] Speaker 2: are breathing underwater at a certain stage, that stage where
[51:49] Speaker 2: they have both lungs and gills, they will take in
[51:52] Speaker 2: a mouthful of water though close the opening to the lungs,
[51:56] Speaker 2: and then they'll force the water out of the gills,
[51:59] Speaker 2: and that little hiccup comes from the brainstem. This theory
[52:03] Speaker 2: reminds me of that book by paleontologist and anatomy professor
[52:07] Speaker 2: Neil Schuben called Your Inner Fish, which reveals with strong
[52:13] Speaker 2: evidence how you and I do carry within us genetic
[52:17] Speaker 2: leftovers of our ancient swimming critter ancestors. In fact, a
[52:22] Speaker 2: twenty twenty two study which was carried out by the
[52:25] Speaker 2: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology theorized that the middle of the
[52:29] Speaker 2: human ear is actually an evolution of fish gills. So
[52:35] Speaker 2: think about that the next time you see the middle
[52:37] Speaker 2: ear in a mirror. In humans, common triggers for hiccups
[52:42] Speaker 2: seem to include drinking too many carbonated beverages or too
[52:46] Speaker 2: much alcohol, overeating, getting too excited, temperature changes that happen suddenly,
[52:53] Speaker 2: and swallowing air when you are chewing gum or smoking.
[52:58] Speaker 2: In more serious cases, it might involve a nervous system disorder,
[53:02] Speaker 2: issues with the metabolism, or maybe some nerve damage. There
[53:06] Speaker 2: are lots of alleged home remedies for hiccups, and no
[53:11] Speaker 2: none of them have been clinically proven. But I'm guessing
[53:14] Speaker 2: you've heard the same ones that I have heard. Hey,
[53:17] Speaker 2: go and breathe into a paper bag and the hiccups
[53:20] Speaker 2: will go away. Sip cold water, hold at your breath.
[53:25] Speaker 2: Have somebody scare you? How does that even work? Because
[53:29] Speaker 2: we're talking about an element of surprise. So you tell
[53:33] Speaker 2: a friend or a child, or a spouse or somebody
[53:35] Speaker 2: looking I want you to hide somewhere in the house,
[53:40] Speaker 2: and I'm going to walk around corners for the next
[53:43] Speaker 2: half hour and at random, I want you to jump
[53:45] Speaker 2: out and just scare the crap out of me, and
[53:47] Speaker 2: maybe my hiccups will go away. I had somebody recommend
[53:51] Speaker 2: this cure to me, and yeah, I tried. It didn't work,
[53:54] Speaker 2: and I just felt totally stupid. But they said, drink
[53:58] Speaker 2: a glass of water with out actually swallowing, which is
[54:02] Speaker 2: harder than you think. So I drank water, had it
[54:05] Speaker 2: in my mouth and without swallowing, I simply leaned my
[54:09] Speaker 2: head backwards and that liquid trickled down into the throat,
[54:14] Speaker 2: into the stomach. And again, it was not an effective cure.
[54:19] Speaker 2: What's your solution for getting rid of the hiccups? Because
[54:23] Speaker 2: if it works, the rest of us would like to know.
[54:31] Speaker 2: If you are one of those people who is enjoying
[54:34] Speaker 2: a full head of lustrous and naturally colorful hair, enjoy it,
[54:40] Speaker 2: enjoy it. Good on you. I'm delighted for you. These
[54:44] Speaker 2: are precious moments because one of the tricks that nature
[54:47] Speaker 2: likes to play on you as you age is that
[54:50] Speaker 2: everything starts to go gray. Now I am seeing this
[54:55] Speaker 2: happen every single day, every single year. Facebook Memories is
[54:59] Speaker 2: killing me. I saw a screenshot from a speech I
[55:03] Speaker 2: gave in twenty fifteen or was it twenty seventeen, which
[55:06] Speaker 2: didn't now that long ago, and I saw this big
[55:09] Speaker 2: what looked like a big dark brown helmet on my head,
[55:13] Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, who's that guy? He didn't look
[55:15] Speaker 2: anything like what I'm seeing in the mirror today. I
[55:18] Speaker 2: am going gray, And then lovely people all around me
[55:21] Speaker 2: tried to make me feel better about it. It's not gray,
[55:24] Speaker 2: it's silver. You're just a silver fox. Yeah, that kind
[55:28] Speaker 2: of thing. You ever gone to those aging apps? Some
[55:33] Speaker 2: of them are just terrifying. There's one and I had
[55:36] Speaker 2: my photo put into it and I'm like, okay, put
[55:38] Speaker 2: me at seventy five, what am I going to look like?
[55:40] Speaker 2: And holy snikes, I looked like my father. It was uncanny.
[55:48] Speaker 2: And now I want to hang onto that picture and
[55:50] Speaker 2: then reference it in twenty some years just to kind
[55:53] Speaker 2: of see how accurate was it. But why is my
[55:56] Speaker 2: hair turning gray? Is it because of things like stress?
[56:00] Speaker 2: People say, oh, you know what, I'm gonna go gray
[56:03] Speaker 2: with all the stress I've got in this life. No
[56:07] Speaker 2: stress does not turn your hair gray, and that has
[56:10] Speaker 2: been scientifically proven. Human hair is always going through a
[56:14] Speaker 2: cycle with distinct stages, So at any time the hairs
[56:19] Speaker 2: on the scalp might be growing, resting without getting any longer,
[56:23] Speaker 2: or just falling out. Now, if you see hair accumulating
[56:28] Speaker 2: in the shower drain, do not panic, because human beings
[56:31] Speaker 2: lose on the average fifty to one hundred hairs from
[56:36] Speaker 2: our heads every single day, and it's like three thousand
[56:41] Speaker 2: hairs a month leave our heads, and then they begin
[56:45] Speaker 2: to regrow as part of the cycle. That cycle has
[56:49] Speaker 2: at its literal root melanin, which gives the hair its color,
[56:54] Speaker 2: whether it's brunetra, blonde, red, or whatever, and that melanin
[56:59] Speaker 2: will fuel the color of the hair, which grows and
[57:02] Speaker 2: then stops and then falls out the cycle begins again.
[57:06] Speaker 2: The normal cycle in a human life is to see
[57:09] Speaker 2: that melanin lasting for seven to fifteen cycles, and then
[57:15] Speaker 2: it kind of spends itself out, which means there's no color,
[57:20] Speaker 2: and that results in the hair coming out gray. Some
[57:24] Speaker 2: people go gray prematurely. They don't last the entire seven
[57:28] Speaker 2: to fifteen cycle thing, and all of a sudden they
[57:30] Speaker 2: look up at the age of twenty and they have
[57:33] Speaker 2: gone gray. Dermatologists say that there may be some things
[57:37] Speaker 2: to help delay gray hair, whether it's eating better, getting
[57:42] Speaker 2: more sleep, not smoking, getting out of the sun so
[57:45] Speaker 2: that the UV rays aren't hitting your head. But honestly,
[57:50] Speaker 2: it's kind of what it is. The melanin wears out,
[57:53] Speaker 2: hair goes gray because we are getting older. Many people
[57:58] Speaker 2: like to dye their hair because they're not a fan
[58:01] Speaker 2: of the gray. They use things like synthetic hair dyes,
[58:05] Speaker 2: or some people like to use Hannah. Now Hannah will
[58:08] Speaker 2: fade a lot more quickly, so you have to touch
[58:10] Speaker 2: it up much more often. But some people say, well,
[58:13] Speaker 2: it's a more natural alternative than some of the other
[58:18] Speaker 2: sort of chemically enhanced dyes that people use. I've seen
[58:21] Speaker 2: some amazing, really creative hair dye patterns and expressions out there.
[58:27] Speaker 2: There was somebody on the Great British Baking Show that
[58:30] Speaker 2: I saw just a few weeks ago. It was the
[58:32] Speaker 2: holiday show. She must have had twenty different shades, like
[58:36] Speaker 2: I don't know how you do that, Like one strand
[58:38] Speaker 2: was red and the other one was green, the other
[58:40] Speaker 2: one was blue, the other one was something else, And
[58:42] Speaker 2: she had this sort of kalitoscope of hair and it
[58:46] Speaker 2: was so much fun. So anyway, I'm not doing that
[58:50] Speaker 2: for myself. I've just accepted it. I am now going
[58:54] Speaker 2: gray day by day. What's that line by Kathleen Madigan,
[58:59] Speaker 2: She's like, I'm getting older. It's the third quarter and
[59:03] Speaker 2: I'm losing. Maybe as the gray arrives, the gray matter
[59:08] Speaker 2: will expand as well. Right, learning new things. This has
[59:12] Speaker 2: been a fun broadcast and a lovely distraction. Let's just
[59:16] Speaker 2: go out and be the epitome of what Da Vinci
[59:18] Speaker 2: once said, right learning never exhausts the mind. Actually that
[59:24] Speaker 2: may not be true. My learning things can be exhausting.
[59:29] Speaker 2: Bo all right, doctor Seuss. Doctor Seuss has the wisdom
[59:32] Speaker 2: we need. The more that you read, the more things
[59:35] Speaker 2: you will know. The more that you learn, the more
[59:38] Speaker 2: places you'll go. So go some places and hang in
[59:43] Speaker 2: there and be safe, and I will see you next week.
[59:46] Speaker 1: Follow The Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a
[59:49] Speaker 1: complete archive of podcasts and videos, products like mugs and
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[1:00:00] Speaker 1: and conventions. Log onto our website, The Thinkingatheist dot com.

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