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The Appendix: No Respect · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey you, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: There's Charles w Chuke Bryant's willing away in some champagne.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: You're sorry, sparkling my shando and so it's from NAPA.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: And there's Jerry over there, Jerry Scudder champagne too. We're
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: all just hanging out. We're gonna talk to you guys
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: while we wait for the shrimp cocktail with aw literally
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and that makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Uh,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: we're back in the same room everybody for the first
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: time in about fourteen months. And Jerry brought in champagne
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and frozen shrimp cocktail. There's a story behind that. Go
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: ahead and say it. You go ahead and say, I
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: don't remember you were the shrimp you first started it,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like twelve years ago we we we
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: were tracking to hit number one on iTunes in like
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, I think at the beginning of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: two thousand no nine maybe whatever, and um, I was like,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I want a shrimp cocktail in the in the recording
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: studio when we hit number one. We hit number one,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: came and went stayed number one, hit number one again.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: No shrimp cocktail. This is the shrimp cocktail from two
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: thousand nine. Yeah, finally has made an appearance, and it's frozen.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It might literally be from two thousand It might be.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It's turning. The veins are turning kind of purple as
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: it thaws. I can't wait to eat the shrimp cocktail. Yeah,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: we're having shampagne. Jerry classed it up basically, I feel
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I feel it was a nice homecoming she did. But
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the three of us are fully backs. Were in a
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: room together. The microphones don't have fake years attached to them. Yeah,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I mean that joke won't make sense to you now,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: But we recorded another episode before this one, but it
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: was getting released later, so this technically our second episode.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It just put that in your button and smoke it
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: in your hat. What do you talk about? Have a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: weird urged a curse? I don't know why. I think
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you just did so, Jerry Beppe bp P p peep.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: But it's it's great to be back together in a
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: little weird um, but not as weird as I thought
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it would be. That first one was weird because we're
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in a different room. Yeah, we got all the weirdness
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: out in a weird situation, it would have been weird regardless.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: But now we're back in in Studio one A. That
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was a really good move. Jerry, did you plan it
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: like that to get the jitters out? Jerry thumbs up.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Jerry's real. Everybody she chooses not to talk. Jerry's let
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: her hair grow out. I know she got a ponytail,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: but the first time I've ever seen it's got an
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: even more peppery, no salty in a salt and pepper way.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: It doesn't get more peppery unless you make a you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: a move to make it so. And she looks like
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a wealthy retiree who drives a Maseratti and knows their
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: way around the club. You know what I mean, That's
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: what Jerry looks like. She looks distinguished but also foxy. Yeah.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: So I spent my last January of losing twenty five
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: pounds and then COVID hit and now I have gained backunds.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I'm exactly where I was. Is that right? Exactly to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the pound? And it makes me really angry. Oh no,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: just go with you. Oh I know, but I just,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you know, let me get back together. I was like, man,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I'm doing so good. I'm so good pandemic And I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: was like, well, now I can eat and drink all
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I want because it's sad. So you lost the weight
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: before the pandemic hit, Yeah, I hit it hard in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: January to junior March January one probably, yeah, okay, And
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: like I was working with a trainer, like you know,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: so I was having to go to her every like
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: three days a week, and just you know, I was
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: making the right decisions and tracking and and the weight disappears.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: And then COVID hit and I just started making all
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the wrong decisions and let myself do that. Yeah, that
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: happened to all of us, myself included. I went through
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: what you went through where I lost a bunch of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: weight and I managed to keep it off. And then
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: COVID hit and I was still doing okay, doing okay,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: maybe eating a little more than usual, like I'm not
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: gonna let it happen though, and I was. I wasn't.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: And then our book hit, and that's what got me.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: When we were writing it and working on a two
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: hours a day every day, I was eating so much weight.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I gained book weight, and I actually I have not
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: been this big since I don't know when. Man, but
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I still got it. So I'm I'm doing what I can.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You look the same? I do? Well? Then I what
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I started two weeks ago was kicked in. I guess
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: if I look the same, well, you look great. Great,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: everyone looks and feels great. Yeah, let's talk about the appendix,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the Rodney Dangerfield of organs. This is one of my
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: favorite articles that we've done in a while. Yeah, and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you know how I often complain about science. This is
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a kind of science I love. Yeah. Understandable, Yeah, body science, understandable.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Super cool. This factors into our hygiene hypothesis episode, our
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: human microbiome episode, digestive system episode. Yeah, it all sort
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: of fits together. In that little worm like organ, it's
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: an organ, right, yeah, it's an organ. Yeah. A lot
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: of people thought it was a vestigial organ. They're wrong, right,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: But that weird little thing, uh, hanging out there, just
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: going just wiggling around like a little worm is really
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: kind of cool and fascinating. And I love that it
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: has a great story behind its lack of usefulness and
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: then turns out usefulness. And it's just agreed, this is
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: really good stuff. It's smashed bang stuff. You should know.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: That's right. Let's talk about it. So um, like you said,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the appendix is like this little worm like thing that
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: dangles off the bottom of the ascending coal and large intestine.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Coal in large intestine and large bowl are the one
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and the same. So when you hear people say bowl,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: they're typically talking about that colon large intestine. It's all
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the same thing, which I found confusing until I looked
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: it up and found okay, it's all that um two
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to four inches long the appendix right generally, although the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: biggest one was pulled out of a seventy two year
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: old Croatian man named Sofranco August during his autopsy, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: his was ten inches or twenty six centimeters long. What
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: do you think they were like in that autopsy? They're like, wow,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I think that the medical examiner's staff had a T
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: shirt made up that Sofranco August was buried in that said,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I've got the biggest appendix ever. Maybe, I mean that's
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: crazy because when you, like I encourage you look up
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a picture of the appendix, it is it looks like
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: a little worm and it's hanging there on this little
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: bulbous pouch called the sikum, and the Sikim is kind
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of like where it's it's the part in between this
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: all Intestine and Large Intestine where there there's an agreement
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: that takes place, basically where the small Intestine it is like,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: all right, listen, I'll take all this food and I'll
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: make it into clime, but I am not going into
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the fecal zone. Now you handle the fecal stuff, colon,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And the colon says, fine, here's my buddy, the secum.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: It'll it'll service a little halfway house. You can pass
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: everything along to me. I will broke rate, you won't
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: get any poop on you Small Intestine, and I'll send
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: it to the Large Intestine. But off of that Secum
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: is dangling this this little dude yeah, which as far
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: as anybody could ever tell, had nothing to do with digestion,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: which makes it really weird because everything else around here
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: has to do with digestion. That's just what they do,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: that's their their their trade. And the appendix is just
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: hanging out and people just thought, Okay, this this thing
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. But the fact that is attached
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: there and doesn't seem to have to do with digestion,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: made people for a very long time think that it
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: was a vestigial organ right, which we'll get into the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: specifics of one man who really championed that idea in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a way that frankly made a lot of sense, and
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: you can see why it took that many years for
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: anyone to really poke around further into it. Yeah, because
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: you're just like, yeah, you just explained it's sure. But
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: there are other mammals that have secums, uh, and in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: some mammals, especially herbivores, that can be really big relative
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to their body size, because in herbivores it acts as
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the the predigestion house for plants, and since they're eating
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: tons of plants, they have large secums. Yeah, plant fiber
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: is really really good for you, but it's also really
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: hard to digest a lot of cellulose um. And that's
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: that large intestine coming into play again, because in the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: stomach and the small intestine there's um, a microbiota, a microbiome,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: which we talked about in that one episode the Human
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Microbiome Project. Um. There's some in the small intestine. I
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: think there's far far less even in the stomach, but
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in the large intestine. That's where it really shines. And
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: those microbes, the pathogens, the virus is the fung guy
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: all of the and the bacteria most of all. They
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: all kind of work or fight or play and digest
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: this stuff. They break it down so that we can
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: absorb it. They turn it into fiber. Um dietary fiber
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: uh keeps you from absorbing a lot of sugar or
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: fats or whatever at once. Um insoluble fiber bulks your
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: stool up, so it really kind of gets everything out
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: of the coal and really cleanses it when you finally poop.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Hand gestures. Yeah, I've missed you seeing my hand gestures
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: now that I think, even when we're recording at home, Um,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I forgot what it's like to be seeing so um.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So the large intestine has this microbiome that that lives
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: in there, and just just remember that. That's a big
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: important point. Yeah, put a pin in that, but not
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: literally because that would be dangerous. Um. Out of the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: three sixty one mammal species, only about fifty of us
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: have an appendix or something like an appendix. Obviously, the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: great apes do, rabbits, possums, wombats weirdly square poop. Did
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: they really comes out in cubes? Really? Yes? I can't
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: tell if you're messing with me right now? Wait, hold on,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: keep talking. You're thinking of the square watermelons in Japan,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: maybe thinking of all of bees. I'm pretty sure wombats
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: have square all right, a rare in show check. But
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: dogs and cats don't have appendix, cows don't, oranges don't,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: sheep don't. Oh yeah, little poop poop cubes square. Yeah,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it looks like those ice cube chocolates. How do they?
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: How does that happen? How do they? Yeah? How does
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: that work? Um? I don't have time to read that,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: but it looks like there's a science alert from January
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: that says wombats are the only animals that poop cubes
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and now we know how Okay, well that's a definite
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: short stuff. Okay, we'll do it. Look for that soon.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Uh So, back to the vestigial organ aspect. Charles Darwin
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: is the person who came out and said, hey, I've
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: been looking at these And by the way, that was
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: named officially by an anatomous named Phelippe Verhan in seventeen ten.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Appendix vermiformists, which means worm shaped detachment, and I think
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the first appendix removals in seventeen thirty five. But Darwin
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: was the one who said, hey, everybody, I've been looking
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: at these herbivores and they've got these really big Secum's
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: giant for this, for this reason that Josh just described
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: future Josh and he said, so, here's the deal is,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: when we see a bunch of plants, we had humongous
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: secombs as well. And as our diet changed and we
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: got away from plants, you know, our body started to
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: change along with it, and that seek them just kind
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of shrank. And the appendix is just a little shriveled
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: up piece of that formerly large secum and it's just dangling.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: They're doing nothing. Isn't that amazing? And everyone until two
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: thousand seven said it sounds right to me. Darwin's got
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: it right. It does. I mean, it totally makes sense
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and seems completely believable. Yes, But now that I know
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: it was wrong, I questioned every single thing he ever
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: thought of or set. Welcome to our world, Darwin, So
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you guys messed up that one thing. I just don't
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: know I believe anything. May we hear that like every
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: week too? Don't we it's fun so um. But yeah,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: it went for We went for well over a hundred
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and fifty years of just everyone believing that the appendix
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was a totally useless fastigial organ that had no function
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: whatsoever any longer. And so it was fine if you
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: just took it out, which is we'll see like people
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: do a lot actually and it is fine for the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: most part, which we're lucky that it's fine. But also
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I think if if it weren't fine, we would have
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: figured out very quickly, like, oh wait, this is you're
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: not supposed to do that. So the fact that we
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: were able to remove the appendix later on, um without
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a problem, um, just kind of lent to this, let's
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: support to the idea that it was a Vista gi organ. Right. Um,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: But it turns out it does serve some function. We'll
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: start talking about that. I think after a break, what
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: do you think, Chuck? That was so smooth? Thank you
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: so much smoother in person? All right, we're back from
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: our break. Um, who knows what amazing as you guys
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: just heard. But I'm envious of you because we didn't
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: hear it. We just have a moment of silence in
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: between that's right. Uh, And now we can talk about
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the microbiome a little more. And if you want to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: look into our Human Microbiome Project works show that was
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: it's when fourteen there are trillion cells in the body.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: About thirty trillion of those are human cells with DNA
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and the rest of those hundred trillion are the microbiome.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: That isn't just amazing and it's really there's something about
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the digestive system that just frankly turns us both on
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, there were these animations that can
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I remember who made them? Um many many years ago? Yes,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: but the animator just understood us on a level that
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: even I'm like, I'm like, oh, I didn't know myself.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Just little shorts from clips show. They did one about
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a four and a half minute clip from how the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: digestive system works, which is worth looking up on YouTube.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: It's where I watched it the other day. They are
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: they were just gifted and talented. It's one of my
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: favorite little things that we ever that someone ever did
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: for us. I want to say, Nick Nick sounds right? Okay,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I think it was Nick. I hope it's Nick Nick.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Please like right in if you still listen. Nick moved on. Okay, well, anyway,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: they were really great. What Nick's work, and if it
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't Nick, Nick's new nickname is Nick. That's right, Okay,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: So um, Yes, the digestive system does get us jazz,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and in particular the microbiome, which we wouldn't have a
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: digestive system, or at least one that functions, because again,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: those bacteria help us break down stuff that we would
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: normally have trouble breaking down, help us form poop all
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: of that stuff. And there's a it's a symbiotic relationship
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: because in breaking those those things down, like that plant
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: fiber for instance, they're eating, they're happy, they're reproducing, but
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: then the byproducts and the stuff that they break open
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: make that stuff bioavailable for us, so we can kind
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: of get the nutrients and all that stuff from it
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: as well. It's a beautiful relationship. Not all bacteria is good, though, No,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: there's the bad stuff. And we should point out that
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: most of this bacteria is in that large intestine, uh,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the in the stomach and the small intestine. Most of
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: it's killed off by gastric acid. But the bad bacteria
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: is if you eat some bad chicken or if you
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: have you ever done that? Yes, yeah, you know me.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I've had all manner of stomach issues over the years.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Where where did you get your bad chicken? I don't remember.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: I don't remember specifically, but I know I've had bad
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: food before that made me sick. And in my case
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: in Guatemala, if you remember, you and Jerry both well,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: it was not me. You know what, we were even
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: closing our mouth in the shower. We're being so careful.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: But on that last night it was the ice, the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: mixed drinks. I forgot the ice is made from water,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and that water was not good for Americans. And I
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: stayed home that night so I didn't get diarrhea. It
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: was worth it though, Jerry and I had such a
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: good time. So yeah, I got bad sick after our
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: guatte trip. But that's the bad bacteria, and and that's
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: how it can get into your body. And your body
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: is solution to this, uh as Jerry can affirm, is
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is diarrhea. It's your body's way of saying, we're just
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: gonna flush you out human being. Just get rid of everything,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: get rid of all the stuff. But that's gonna take
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of the good stuff with it, and that's
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: no good because if you have all the good bacteria
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: or a large amount of good bacteria leaving your body,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: then that can leave you very vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and other bad stuff. Sure, yeah, because I mean, like
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of the neurotransmitters that make your brain function
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: correctly or produced in your gut from the function of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the bacteria. Like, there's a lot of bad things that
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: can happen if you don't have a balanced microbiome in
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: your gut. Right. So Interroduke University in two thousand seven,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I guess someone was staring at a picture of the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: human body from the inside out and locked in on
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that appendix and they're like, it's just sitting there attached
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to the scumb It's got to do something right. And
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: they did some studying and testing I know exactly you
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: like me, and they figured out this theory that this
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: is a safe house essentially for that good bacteria. It's
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: got a really rich uh biofilm, which is we've talked
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: about biofilm in a bunch of episodes. I feel like
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: it's like coating on the inside of the blindings of
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: all kinds of things. Yeah, it keeps bacteria from being destroyed.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: It's like a protective mucus get exactly, which is you
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: know that sounds gross, but it's a really a good thing.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And the appendix is just lousy with this great biofilm.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: And they said, I think we think the Duke University
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: blue devils think that this is a safe house for
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: that good bacteria. Because when the body is being flushed
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: out with diarrhea from his illness, the appendix is down
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: there at the end of the cul de sact. It's
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: not even getting affected, basically, right. And so when that
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: bacteria leaves and takes the good with it, the appendix says, hi,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I'm here, look at all my good bacteria friends, go
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: forth and do your work. Exactly, goes bloop and pushes
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: all like a big hunk of mucasy bacteria or bacteria
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: ridden mucus into your large intestine to recallonized, which is amazing.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: And and all of a sudden, the science world was
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: turned upside down because they thought they and it turns
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: out they did find a use for the appendix. Yeah. Um,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and not only uh is it a storehouse they found
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: for bacteria, the good bacteria that make up our microbio.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: It's also a place where um lymphocytes and other immune
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: cells are produced. Like it's called limphoid tissue, where like
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: T cells, B cells. I think there's one called T
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: natural killer cells, which you don't want to mess with
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the iced tea. Yeah, or um the uh Woody Harrelson
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and Julia Juliet lewis of immune cells. Um, they're produced
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: in the appendix right. Um, So when the recollonization process
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: is going on, you could still have bad bugs in
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: are but to prevent them from taking hold, those immune
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: cells come in and just wipe them out while the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: good stuff comes back in and recolonizes. So the appendix
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: is a really apparently a very useful organ It has
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: a use after all. Yeah, but you can still live
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: without it. That's the weird thing. Why why if it
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: produces this really important function, why would we still be
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: able to live without it? I don't know. Oh, well,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: well we'll talk about it later. Well, now, what I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: didn't see anywhere was like if you have if you
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: live you know in an adverse way because you don't
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: have your appendix, Like does that make you more susceptible
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to certain things? If you have that food borne illness
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: or right, okay, So here's the other thing. Um, the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: there was more support from the fact that you can
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: have your appendix remove so there's more support for the
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: idea that the appendix plays a role um and isn't vestigial,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: from the fact, weirdly that if you remove it, at
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: least in the developed world, you're you're still gonna be
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: okay without it. Okay, it makes no sense. It's a paradox.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: But then when they looked into the paradox there, like, actually,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: this does make sense because of that hygiene hypothesis that
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier. Should we dive into it? All right? Uh? Well,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: hygiene hypothesis in a nutshell, And I recommend you listen
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to that episode because it was really good, but is
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: sort of it goes a little something like this, uh
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and developing. I'm sorry. In the developed world are immune
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: systems can be overactive, and that's why we have things
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: like allergy allergies, especially food borne allergies to like peanuts
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and trimp that's sitting here in front of us thawing
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: out slowly because our immune system really wants to do something.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: It is not good at Netflix and chill it likes
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: to really be act of and if you've got clean
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: water and really good fresh food and you know your
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: body didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: it starts to attack your body in other ways just
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: because it wants something to do. Right. It's like one
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of those people at work who, like, you know, break
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: something and then fixes it just to show they're working.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Do people do that? There's gotta be some people out
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: there we like nudge of vase off their desk or
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: what right at the at the base putting back together plane? Okay,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: but there haven't been any breaks for a while, so
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to see how that would happen at
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: our office, Like how does somebody break a podcast? Uh,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you can break in RSS feed or something like that,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: or maybe an I T person who like screws up
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the system, so everyone's like, you gotta help us fix it, right,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: kind of like that? What about this? What about somebody
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: who organizes things when they're already a certain way, but
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: they just have too much idle time, so they organize
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: stuff and all of a sudden there's a problem. That's
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: kind of what I'm talking about. So um with the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: hygiene hypothesis. The idea as far as it relates to
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the appendix is that because we live in this very
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: sanitary version of the world where we don't get hookwork,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: because we don't wear bare feet and poop outside, are
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: drinking water is clean, we don't have like giardia in
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: it typically um. Because we're not exposed to this stuff,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: our immune system is on high alert. So it attacks
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: not just peanuts, but also potentially the appendix too, because
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: it's just sitting there. It is just sitting there, but
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: also remember it's a storehouse of bacteria. It's also a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: storehouse of um. The lymph system, so it's producing immune cells.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: And apparently, if you're a kid and you get appendicitist,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a minute, all that whole thing,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the number one cause of that is overproduction of limp cells.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: So it's possible that your immune system says, uh, this,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: this part of the body is producing a lot of
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: weird immune cells are way more than it should. There's
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of bacteria here. I hadn't noticed before. Let's
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: go attack it. That your immune system attacks your appendix
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and causes inflammation and then that creates the Appendicitis that
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: can be dangerous later. That sounds very weird. Why would
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: anybody say that, Well, Chuck, turns out that there's a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: paradox that goes hand in hand with developing countries. Huh. Well, yeah,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I mean they've seen this kind of proven out in
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: developing countries is as they've become more developed and more industrialized,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: their rate of appendicitis has gone way up, and their
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: body previous to that industrialization is maybe getting water that's
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: not great for them or food that might carry some
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: sort of food born illness. So their immune system is like,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: we're we we love this person in this culture because
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: we're always busy flushing this system out with with diarrhea
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and we're just hard at work and we don't have
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: time to to create some fake peanut allergy or to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: go after the appendix is not sitting there around do
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and anything. So they're it's just it's busy, and they've
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: seen as they become more industrialized, Uh, appendicitiss have gone
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: up and sort of lock step with that. Yeah, it
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: happened in the United States and Europe in the beginning
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. There was a big spy Like
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: before that, there was no such thing. As appendicitis basically, Um,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: there was, but it was very very rare, and then huge,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: an enormous spike, and then it plateaus and stabilizes. I
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: think in both Western and Eastern Europe and the US
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: were hovered around a hundred cases per hundred thousand people
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of appendicitis these days UM over in like I think uh,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: South Korea UM around that time, no appendicitis. Later in
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century, early twenty one century, as their development
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: just went through the roof huge cases, a huge increase
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: of appendicitis UM and there you can just kind of
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: follow it around the world. As development comes, appendicitis goes up,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and they think that it's this hygiene hypoths that explains it.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: So you've got the safe house theory that the pendix
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: actually does have a purpose and a role, and then
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you have the hygiene hypothesis that explains, um, why appendicitis
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: is a thing in developed countries. Well, should we take
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: a break and dig into appendicitis? I think we should.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: It's going to be awfully painful and gross. I'll bet
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the ads everyone heard were just astounding. So we've been
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: dancing around the appendicitis kind of this whole episode It
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: was identified for the first time in six by Reginald
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Fitz and before that they just said, you know, if
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you've got an abdominal illness and you die because of it,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's just you had a bad stomach
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: ache that killed you. Sorry. Yeah. So sad Dave wrote
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite lines in the history of stuff
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: you should know articles. He said, fits was the first
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: to finger the appendix is the culprit. I was like, man,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: finger the appendix. That's a that's a spinal tap record.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: That's gross. But you actually probably could finger the appendix
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: because it is like it's like a little pouch. Just
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to just think about finger sized. Yeah, you can figure
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: a whole forearm into uh. So Franco August appendix. Oh man,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that's an intr so uh appendix, everyone the appendix. Everybody
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: grow up, Calm down, calm down. Um. So the appendicitis
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: happens because basically I mentioned it was a cul de sac.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: It's a it's the end of the road situation once
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: you get to the far end of the appendix. But
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that other end that connects to the sikum is very
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: narrow and the opening is not that bigg and it
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: can get clogged up with bacteria. It can get clogged
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: up with certain kinds of seeds to go through your
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: body undigested hay seeds. Hay seed. Sure, it can get
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: this is really gross. But it can get clogged with vecaliths,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: which are stone like pieces of petrified feces. My friend
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I saw that. That is the number one reason appendicitis
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: and adults. Uh, it's a hard word to say, but
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: they you know, that's what happened. The opening blocks, bacteria
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: builds up, it gets inflamed, and inflammation is that sort
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of enemy of all the human body. And you start
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: to get fever and nausea, you've got pain. You might
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: get a pain in your sort of lower right side
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of your gut. Yeah, because that's where your appendix is.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Like if you make a L shape with your thumb
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: and forefinger, like the loser put exactly. I didn't want
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to say it, but okay, we're gonna get some email
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: about that. Um the if you take the thumb and
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: put it in your navel and point your finger to
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: your hip, Okay, that is like in the little um.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: The is where your appendix is. Okay, where your thumb
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and yeah, the little webbing. Yeah, all right, Well that's
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: if you get a pain there and you are nauseous
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and you might have a fever, then get thee to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: a hospital emergency room because you might have advanced appendicitis.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: At that point, you might have an appendectomy quick like
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: they can do them super fast. Um, if you get
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: it really really early, they might concure it with just antibiotics,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: which is great. But I think eighteen eighty seven, the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: very year after FITS identified the disease in six is
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: when they had their first appendex tomy, which means they
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: had been happening the whole time. They finally just said,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: oh wait a minute, I think it's the appendix is
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: why all these people are dying from the stomach pains.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: So maybe we can start removing this little useless dangle. Yeah.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I think it was a guy named Thomas Morton. Yeah,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Thomas Morton was the surgeon who looks like he lost
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: his brother and son. It was from mysterious stomach ailments,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: but it was probably ruptured appendixes and that's what happens
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: at ruptures and then leaks bad stuff into your intestines
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: and your your toast. Yeah. So so when the appendix
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: is infected and it leaks that stuff. It perforates is
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: what they called burst is another way to put it,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: depending I think on how bad it is. All of
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the infected pus. If there's fecalists in there, that whatever
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: bacteria they have with them, um, all that stuff it bills, right,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: it spills into your abdomen, and your abdomen has an
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: inner has an abdominal wall, and it has an inner
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: coating called the peritonium. And the peritonium um is not
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: to be infected with anything. It's very delicate. It doesn't
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: like gross stuff. Keep all that and the appendix and
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the intestines and all that large intestine. But when your
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: appendix bursts and releases all that stuff, it gets your
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: paritonium infect and your paritonium is like a highway straight
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: to your blood vessels, straight into your organs. And so
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, your infection goes from your appendix,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: which you can deal with, to your piritonium being infected,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: which means your blood and then your organs are infected,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: which means you can go into shock and you're you
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: have a like cascading system failure. That's why it's such
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: an emergency when you when you have like a pendicitis,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: because it may rupture and that can be problematic. Yeah,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: and you can still die from that. I think the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: surgery itself in the mortality rate from an appendectomy was
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: now it's down to point well, it's one tenth of
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: one percent whatever that is. That's pretty low, and that
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: was since the mid fifties. But that's the that's the
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: mortality rate for the appendectomy, right, for appendicitis. I think overall,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: maybe worldwide it's um I think point two to point
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: eight percent, which means to between two and eight of
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: every to and eight people who get appendicitis, out of
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: every thousand people who get a pendicitis. There's kind to
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: be an easier way to say this. Uh, they die
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: from it, they buy the farm. Not many, but that's significant.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: If you're you know, eight people out of a thousand,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that's one. I wanted that to be point eight. And
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I think the mortality rate is lowest in young people obviously,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: although young people between ten and thirty are the most
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: likely to have an ependectomy, I think, right, yes, which
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: is interesting, that's weird. Um, the reason that it's lowest
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and very young people is The common knowledge among um
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: doctors and in the medical field is that the appendix
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: has played a role for a long time, but it's
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: just part of your immune system when you're very young.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I have the impression that that is old school thinking,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: That is pre bacteria safe house thinking. What that young
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: kids don't get it because they just have killer immune systems. Yeah,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: And that the appendix is just on fire and it's
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: just happily working, and that it can become problematic after
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: it stops providing it its function. The idea is that
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the younger you are, the more vulnerable you are to
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: dying from diarrheal diseases, for infections, and so you would
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: have a healthier immune system. And kids do have like
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: just as hopped up immune system. But I think the
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: medical understanding up until recently is that that the appendix
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: plays a part of that, right, but that it stops
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: functioning as you get older, and then you're vulnerable to appendicitis,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and then after you make it out of the danger zone,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: you can just basically coast and get fecal with all
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: day long blocking up your appendix and it doesn't matter.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: The new thinking is that, no, it's the storehouse for stuff.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: We just don't need it anymore because we don't really
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: get diarrheal infections here in the developed world. Right, yeah, okay,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. But appendicitis is a thing, and if
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: you do go to if you do have symptoms that
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: seems weird, generalized pain around your navel or where your
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: appendix is, you should go to the doctor. The thing is,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: as this new idea that the appendix actually does serve
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: a function um has has, at least in some quarters,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: created this call for doctors to stop doing what are
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: called negative appendectomies, where it's like, oh, you got stomach pain,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: let's take your appendix out and right, because supposedly a
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: non perforated appendix may actually resolve itself, like it may
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: go and like spit that set out and like go
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: back to normal or whatever. Right, um, And you don't
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: want to just lose your appendix willy nilly, for no.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: For one, you're undergoing surgery. There's always complications in rest
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: of the point is, though, don't just stay home the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the this one paper I read was like, you're better
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: off for the physician to wait and see in the hospital.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Keep you in the hospital under observation. So that if
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: do need emergency surgery, you're there, um and then it
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: may resolve itself on its own if it hasn't perforated
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: already or um, and that that's that's preferable to just
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: removing the appendix. Don't be like I can still play
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: my street hockey game later, right. Yeah. I think they
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: were saying, like, it's not up to you the patient,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: like just go to the hospital. I'm talking to the
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: doctors right now. The paper was saying, of course, you know,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: don't remove the appendix if it if it doesn't need removing.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Are we at Harry Yudini? Yeah, so this is a
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: little addendum. Uh. I kind of think it's like an appendix.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I kind of think we should do uh Harry Judini
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: episode at some point, you bet, don't you think? Yeah,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: should we talk about this now at all? I think
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: we should do Houdini around HALLOWEENI okay, okay, that sounds fantastic.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I tried to think it's something to rhyme with Weenie. No,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: it's like a thumbs up like Magnafini. Oh that's great.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: That was Yeah, all right, I'm gonna stop it right
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: there by using good Well, people really don't know that.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I just left the room for like fifteen minutes trying
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: to think of something and keep the magic of editing.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Jerry didn't do like the star wipes. Uh. So there
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: have been a few people who have died from a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: ruptured appendix. They believe that bring him young. The Mormon
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: prophet did Um Charles Floyd the only person that Lewis
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and clark journey expedition to die. I didn't remember that,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: did you. I think I remember just mentioning. I do
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: remember one person die and we're like, what was his problem?
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Why did he screw everything up? And it's hiss appendix.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: So Harry Houdini did die of an appendicitis. And I
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: don't think we even said, uh, Perry and IDAs, Yeah
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: we did, did we say that was the actual words?
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: That's the Oh I don't know. But that's the affection
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of the peritonium. Yeah, that's the name of it. Though. Yeah,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and that's what you do. You're like, you don't die
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: from your appendix, person, because again, like, yeah, it provides
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: a funk, but it's not it doesn't keep you alive.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: It's not like your heart bursting, right, It's it's the
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: parent of the paratoneum getting infected that kills you. So
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Houdini did die of that. But you know, the old
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: story is that he had come off stage. He was
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: backstage in his green room and uh, presumably having smart
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: food and beef jerky. If you're at the stuff, you
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: should know show everywhere from opening the bottle. Oh, man,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to do that again. Uh, but I
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: can't wait because I'm not doing that anytime soon. Still
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: want to get on a plane, you know, not quite yet,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: but we're looking forward to that for sure. But you know,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: there are these college students came backstage and one of
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: them was like, I heard that anyone can put you
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: in the stomach and that you, uh, you can make
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: your stomach strong and it won't even hurt you. And
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: I'm a pretty good stomach puncher. He goes, well, that
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: is sort of true. And the guy punches him before
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: he even has a chance to really prepare and say, sure,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: bring it, and uh that the sucker punch and that
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: burst as appended, and that's how he died. And that
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: story is just a little blurry around the edges as
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: how that went down exactly right. Yeah, So there there
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: were there were eyewitnesses, and they did say that this
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: guy um did punch Houdini. It's conflicting whether or not
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Houdini gave the guy permission to punch him. And I
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: were the guy just started punching um. But there was
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: a young man named Joscelyn Gordon white Head, white Head,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Whodini's last words were done in by it guy named Jocelyn.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't see that. One account was that he was
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: still laying on the couch and the and the guy
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: started wailing on his stomach. Well, yeah, because he he
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: had injured his ankle the the I think night before,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: a couple of days before, so he was reclining on
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the couch. I guess somebody was sketching him. Was basically
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: like that scene in Titanic. Yeah, he was like and
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: um and the guy started drawing right Uh, and then
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the guy punches him while he that happened. Uh. The
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: question the thing that's that's that's sketchy is whether or
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: not that guy punched Udini. In the appendix and Jodie's
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: appendix ruptured where otherwise wouldn't have they think that that happened.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Very very rarely appendicitis prodom by blood trauma. Um, they
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: think that he probably had appendicitis already. This guy punched
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Harry Houdini in his inflamed appendix, and that that created problems.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: So the guy definitely killed Houdini one way or the other.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: It's just did Houdini already have appendicitis or not? And
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: he probably did? Most most scholars say yes, there's just
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: no way this this little guy from McGill University. I mean,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: come on, the Canadian Harvard, give me a break. Yeah. Um,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: that that he burst Houdini's appendix. Yeah. I was had
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: a weird brief Houdini obsession when I was a little kid.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think I did a you know, some
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: sort of visual report, you know when you would just
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: do not even maybe it was a book report, an
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: interpretive dance. Is that what you're saying. Yeah, that's what
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: it was. But yeah it was on Judini, and I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: was just for a little while, I just was really
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Hudini obsessed and then kind of magic obsessed. Oh yeah,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: and then you have one of those kids at a
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: magic phase. Did you have a kid. I may have
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: had a kid. Did you go to like the trick
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: shops magic shops? Yeah, there was one called Eddie's Trick
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Shop here in the Stone Mountain. Then I went to
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: That's awesomes were great deck of fake cards or some
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: nice fake vomit or yeah, and you always looked up
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to the person behind the counter and then you grew
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: up and you're like, oh, that's a used to work.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: They're kind of thing. Yeah, it was the magic shop
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and then the place that sold sold old mad magazines.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Those were the two greatest places on the planet. When
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: you're a certain age, you know, yeah, you got anything
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: else about Appendix appendicitis Judini, this is a good I
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: quite enjoyed this experience. I did too, Thanks to you
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: guys for listening. And uh, since we don't have anything
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: else about the appendix, that means it's time for a
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: listener mail. I'm gonna call this great idea from a
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: ten year old listener and this one, this one is
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: genuinely going in the two do file. Uh, dear, and
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: this is short and sweet deer Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark. Hi,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: my name is Jack and I'm ten years old and
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: from hi Watha, Iowa. And I listen to your podcasts
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: while I'm mo. My dad introduced me to your podcast
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: and they've been great. My favorite one so far was
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: probably Titanic. It's really interesting. Before I listened to that one,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I wasn't really interested in the Titanic, but when I listen,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I got more interested. I was wondering if you ever
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: thought doing one on child labor It was after am
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the Grass, So okay, yeah, I learned about it in
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: school and want to know more about it. Thank you
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: for all your great podcast. And then it's from Jack
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and that is is on brand of stuff you should
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: know episode as I've ever heard. Yeah, but also coming
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: from child Laborer, it really kind of has a certain
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: like glow to it, you know. Yeah, I think, uh,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: that's a great idea. I wonder if this kid is
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: just like, I'm gonna get my parents back for this
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: maybe because do you remember wanting to mow the grass
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: when you were ten? Totally and then you started to
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: about the third or fourth time, You're like, I've made
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a terrible mistake. Well, it'll depend that, but it also
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: depended on the kind of mo word that your parents
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: stuck you with. We did have a writer for a
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: short time, so that was kind of pre go card
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: car driving. Yeah, it's like driving, Yeah, but with it
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: blade spinning at thousands of RPMs right beneath like sure,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: just put that nine year old in the sea right,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Who is that again? That was Jack? Jack? Thank you,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: great name, great idea, great person all around, Coming soon
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: like you can. You can count on that one, Jack.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with this like
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Jack did with the Great Idea, we are always open
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: for those. Take your idea, wrap it up, spank it
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: lightly on the bottom, and send it off to Stuff
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should
• 43:07
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• 43:09
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• 43:12
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• 43:18
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