Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Monday Mini: The Benefits of Pet Ownership

Transcript

Monday Mini: The Benefits of Pet Ownership · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm hoping to stuff I never told you protection by her.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Radio, and you know, any of the world is bleak,
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: and honestly, I'm not doing too well, especially with all
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: the dark news.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm consuming.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, So for this Monday, Minnie, We're gonna take a
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: break with some insightful looks at why pets are wonderful
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: for these dark times.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Anyone's gonna rele you that cat.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: And there is a neighborhood cat listeners that I adore.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: She is so sweet and if I could, I would.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I love her.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Actually I came upon her as I was coming
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: to your house, to your apartment to bring you something.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: She was so sweet rubbing up on me. I almost
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: took her and brought her to you.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Because I was like, she needs this cat.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I love her. I'm debating her name, and I'm like,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: if I name her, then it's going to go out
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the window.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Princess Leah.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: She's she's got a sassy vibe. I could see that working.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, when I saw her, immediate was like, Josh,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I need to steal this cat. But then she's so
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: healthy and happy that I'm like I feel like she
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: belongs to somebody, so I don't know the kidnap catnap.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get you a cat though.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: But with that so, as you all know, Peter's carture
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: mcphusin is one of the loves of my life. And
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: though I may say she's a dick because she can be. Oh,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: and my anxiety may have made her this way. Pet
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: seemed to imitate their owner personality. Again, so they say,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: but with all of that, she has made my life better,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: more expensive, but better. And of course we know this
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: is scientific and you know we're gonna look at some findings.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: So in an article in Newsinhealth dot nih dot gov,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Yes INIH titled the Power of Pets, they say, this
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: research on human animal interaction is still relatively new, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: by the way, this is a twenty eighteen article, so
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: it's been seven years, but you.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Know, kind of close.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Some studies have shown positive health effects, but the results
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: have been mixed. Interacting with animals has been shown to
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: decrease levels of cortisol, a stress related hormone, and lower
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: blood pressure. Other studies have found that animals can reduce loneliness,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: increase feelings of social support, and boost your mood. So
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: if I was one of the people that I talked to,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I would absolutely agree about the loneliness, increasing feelings of
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: social support, and boosting your mood because sometimes just being
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: able to hug my.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Dog makes me feel better.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: She doesn't understand it, she probably doesn't love it. She
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: does that for me. In fact, they were so intrigued
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: by the benefits of pets and animals they were currently
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: at that time looking at how kids with autism, ADHD
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: and other diagnoses could benefit from animal interactions. Of course,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: we know that service animals have had a giant impact
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: on people with different types of diagnoses, ranging from anxiety,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: bipolar to diabetes schizophrenia, so it's no surprise that there
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: could also be help benefits in having pets. Here's some
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: more from that NIH article. They write, dogs are very
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: present if someone is struggling with something, they know how
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: to sit there and be loving.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not doing well with Peaches. I need to figure
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that one out anyway.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: And this was doctor An Berger, a physician and researcher
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: at the NIH Clinical Center and Bethesda, Maryland. She goes
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: on to say their attention is focused on the person
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: all the time, Burger works with people who have cancer
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: and terminal illness. She teaches them about mindfulness to help
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: decrease stress and manage pain, so she specifically uses them
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: for that. But there wasn't a back and forth again
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: about this because they were worried about germs, especially like
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: with cancer patients, and so making sure that they are relatively.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Clean.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I don't know how else to say that germ free,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: because dog is more more likely to pick up and
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: bring in germs than other humans, so that was kind
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: of a concern, and I think that the whole conversation
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: has happened, but they also again talk about how this
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: is still beneficial.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: For a lot of patients. I want to hug a dog.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Moving on, there's another article tell Tell t E l
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: l T a I l VET dot com that gives
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a list on how pets can have helpful benefits for
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: mental health, and it includes some of the things like
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: reducing stress and anxiety as we mentioned, providing companionship and
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: reducing loneliness. Yes, I do talk to peaches a lot,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: especially by myself, to the point that when my partner
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: moved in, he would often think I was talking to
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: him and I had to clarify, it's not for you.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Stop listening.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I'm talking to Peaches between.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Me and Peaches, but any you adapted to that very
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: quickly because you talked to preachers a lot, even with
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: me and my partner present, and you don't even know
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: what to do.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Beaches and I are the same person.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: You are essentially the same creature. And then they say,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: also is improving mood and boosting emotional resilience. So a
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty five report talks about the fact that a
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: dog or a cat can help your well being just
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: as much as being married or having friends or so
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: the scene an article says, so here's a quote, they write.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: The study, which was published on March thirty first again
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: in March twenty twenty five in the journal's Social Indicators, Research,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: concludes that having an animal companionship is a worth of
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: to seventy thousand pounds or ninety thousand dollars a year
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: in life satisfaction, a metric economists used to quantify the
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: quote implicit price of otherwise intangible things.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I found that fascinating. I'm not.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: They go on to give you a little more scientific
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: understanding of how they got this number and what this is,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: and of course, like the variables in there, as well
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: as possibly conflicting ideas, not a lot. But I was like, wait, what,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: wait what, Maybe I'm not Maybe she's not as expensive
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: as I thought if she's making you know, ninety thousand
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: dollars or giving me back ninety thousand dollars worth of
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: intangible things. Of course, again, both the article and the
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: study warns about the ideas of equating pets to humans
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: on a literal basis, saying that yes, our connections to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: animals are powerful, but not they are not the same
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: as humans. Whatever, because my dog is better than a
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: lot of people, and though does cause me stress, caused
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: me less stress than so many people in my life.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Not you any.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Because Peaches and I are the same, because.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Y'all are one.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Essentially, If there's such a thing as a soul dog,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: it's yours.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Please you have the same personality.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure my personality is that of a cat,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: although Peaches sometimes reminds me of a cat, because she's like, no,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: don't touch me, No, don't look at me, No, don't
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: come near me.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Oh you want me to come sit next to you? No,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: thank you.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Friend of the show. Friend in real life, Lauren, when
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I was dog sitting and I was trying to record
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: and Peaches was being a little extra. Uh, Lauren said,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Peaches is the most calico dog I've ever seen.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I think you're wrong.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Of course, we wanted to break down the women factor
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: to this, if there is any. And here's an article
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: that comes from the myts dot com titled ken dogs
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: and cats help women live longer, healthier lives. Well, yes,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: but it's kind of the same as the Telltale vet
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: dot com article. The benefits are similar, but there isn't
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: added plus that they've tagged on that I was like, yeah, okay,
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: in which they say under the emotional connection, they talk
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: about the many complicated parts of a women's lives and
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: stages and how pets can give some more stability in
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: grounding in those what they would call milestones like perimenopause, menopause,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: having a period, all those different things, and I'm like,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: you know what, that's actually true. That may be a
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: little more beneficial in that level. Now, Potts is a
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: fairly new er or I guess more recently talked about
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: diagnosis and condition and not very well studied from what
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I gather and I have seen many women, so because
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I have not seen many men talk
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: about this or I've been diagnosed with this, and I
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: could be wrong, but they use they do have service
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: dogs to help since when they're about to pass out
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: and they know that so they'll come and tap them.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: So that makes sense to me that I'm like, okay,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: these different types of milestones that's based on hormones and
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: periods and like uterine complications could be stress relief. So
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, that's an interesting take. But also
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: I know Kristen and Caroline had this conversation previo like
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: a while ago about pets becoming children the substitute children
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: for many women, and I did want to talk about that.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: So an article from Psychology Today which was written in
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, so after their episode, but not so
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: reason or about four years ago, they have some thoughts.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: So here's here's an interesting quote from them in this
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: survey seventy percent, So they did talk about specific survey
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: in the article, seventy percent of the women who have
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: chosen not to have children view their dog or cat
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: as their child. However, the door still seems to be
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: open toward eventually having children, since sixty six percent view
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: caring for their pet as a practice for one day
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: having a child, if they ever were ever to change
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: their mind, so seventy two percent explicitly state that they
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: prefer the company of their pet over the company of children.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Sixty nine percent say that having a pet is easier
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: than having a child, which I would agree with, which
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: I would agree with. So I think this is interesting
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: in that conversation because again a lot of people are like, yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: but this is not the same all these and then
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: TikTok trends of like if you're saying, you know, you
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: don't think a birth this, and then they'll show the
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: picture of the pet, and then they'll also have a
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: like photoshop.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Copy of them you'res.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And I think it's quite funny.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: But just them really talking about the fact that this
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: was their first child. I'll know many people who have
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: pets and then have children talk about this is their brother,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: this is their first child, this is this And I've
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: even seen like older generations who like get dogs after
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: their children move talking about this is your brother, this
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: is your new brother.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: They and the children human children being like they love
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the dog more than me. You know, stuff like that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: So I do find that interesting in that conversation once
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: again and whether or not this is a practice or
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: whether this is their choice. And more and more people
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: are talking about the fact that they don't want children.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: A new article just came out about, like, I think
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: it said twenty thirty that women from twenty five to
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: forty four would not be married and not have children.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: There's gonna be a record number of women who would
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: be single and childless. I'm like, yeah, whose fault is
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: that anyway, moving smoothing.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: And then of course there was this one article that
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I have to shout out that I thought was hysterical
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: and also very relatable. Emily Bettington and The Guardian shout
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: out to that wrote this article titled why do so
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: many women spend more time with pets than people? And
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: she starts the article with this quote, the average woman
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: with a pet now spends more time actively engaged with
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: her pet than she spends hanging out face to face
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: with bellow humans on any given day. I read in
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: the Atlantic. It was a dissection of the quote crisis
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: in Social fitness, alternatively known as while We're all destined
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: to die alone, our faces eaten by the very pet
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: whose company we have chosen above our own kind? Am
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: I a pet owner or my pet owning? Friends of
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: all genders surprised?
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Of course not. And y'all this article is.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Too good not to add a little more bits to it,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: including she writes, pet hangouts are blissfully free from social awkwardness, aggravation,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: and anxiety. You will never engage in agonizingly polite dance
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: with your pet over who should eat the last morsel
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: on a sharing plate. Your pet doesn't have a partner
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: you can't stand, and if they did, you wouldn't have
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: to be polite to or about them. If you hang
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: out at home, your pet doesn't care if you watch
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Project repeats, Star Wars repeat or instead of a subtitle drama,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: or reveal you don't understand inflation. Yeah, I agreed, I agree,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: And she goes on to say this last part, which
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: by the way, is hysterical. It says, because I think
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: you and I I've said this many times, but also
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: to end, Yes, your companion might eat your face one day,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: but why would you care? You'll be dead and it's
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: a small price to pay for all that blissfully accepting
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: hang time. Being understood is overrated. Being treated as a
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: snack dispenser in life and potentially also death is the
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: way forward. I am a snack dispenser. She only cares
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: about me when she thinks it's time for me to
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: hide a greenie.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, and then if you don't do it, she hides
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: behind me and looks at you passive aggressively. And I
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: love it because I'm suddenly the favorite.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: She's bad if I don't give it to her, or
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: she doesn't because she was sick the other day that
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: I couldn't. She goes to bed. That's quite funny. But
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: I thought this was interesting. And if you don't have
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: a pet, that's okay. If you have inanimate objects like
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: a bee as your pet, that's okay. Am I still
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: going to find you a kitten? Yes, any I am.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: If you want to have a snake as a pet,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: go ahead, Katie. I'm not coming to your house though.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I haven't told Katie. My good friend Katie has
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: a snake and a bunch of mice. And I told
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Samantha and her partner about it, and I haven't told
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: her about your reaction and determination not to go.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Because it also escapes it.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Escape snake escapes.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: You can't have it and love it all you want.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And I'm proud of you, and I'm so glad you
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: take care of that thing.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: But I don't want it.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: She sent me an update about it today. I'll send
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: it to.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: The amount of screams that would happen if it touched me. Anyway,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: all that to say is, yes, your pets can't help
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: do all of these things.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: They are benefits to that during these times.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: It's awful, we know, And it's sometimes nice to have
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: a dog that actually is judgmental.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: She does judge me.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: She judged me a lot, actually, and sighs at me
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: quite often in frustration and irritance. But I enjoy that
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: because in the end I can still cuddle her.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a I mean going back to my friend Katie.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: She also helps dog sit sometimes, and she once told
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: me Peaches is the kind of weird that I really love.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: She has a personality. She has a personality.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Wait what does that say about me? Oh? Good?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Anyway, don't read too much into it. It was a compliment.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I suspect.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I'm a dic.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: We should we should.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna steal you.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: A cat all right, well, listeners, we always love hearing
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: about your pets. Pictures of pets appreciated, Please let us
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: know send them all away. You can email us at
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Hello at Stuffnever Told You dot com. You can find
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: us on Blue Sky at bomb Stuff Podcasts, or on
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You. We're
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: also on YouTube and we have a you can get
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: wherever you get your books. Thanks as always too, our
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: super producer, Christina, our executive producer and a contributor Joe.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Christina has a wonderful cat.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, we have indeed, and thanks to you for listening.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Stuff I Ever Told You Instruction by Heart Radio. For
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: more podcasts in my heart Radio, you can check out
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: the heart Radio Apple podcast where if you listening to
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: your favorite shows