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Transcript

Mini: No Nut November · Why We Do What We Do

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to Why we Do what we Do Mini. I'm your
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: host Abraham.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm your host Shane.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We are a psychology podcast. We talk about the things
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that humans and non human animals do and sometimes what
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: humans choose not to do. And this is a many
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: short form discussion, which means that it's going to be
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a quick get in there and describe a thing and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: then get out of there. And I hope that none
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  Speaker 1: of this so far has been particularly sexual or tantalizing
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to people who are trying to partake in the festive
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: pastime that is no nut November also called no fap
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: November and falls in line with a thing called sperm retention.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So, if you heard my voice and then immediately had
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  Speaker 3: an orgasm, sorry.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Hashtag sorry not sorry, not sorry. If you are joining
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: us for the first time, we hope that you enjoy
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: what you here in this discussion today and are not
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: too put off by it because we don't usually go
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: this particularly overtly sexual. The purpose of this today is
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: because we are busting some myths. If you are a
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: returning listener, then welcome back. We're glad that you continue
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: to find value in our works. And either way, if
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you like to support us, you can leave us a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: rating and a review like subscribe, tell a friend, join
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: us on Patreon. I'll get back to that at the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: end of this discussion, but we're doing a mini which
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: means we need to dive right into our topic, and
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  Speaker 1: so I'm going to start with the fact that there
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  Speaker 1: is a group of fragile men constantly worried about how
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  Speaker 1: manly they are. There are some others who are just
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  Speaker 1: simply misguided by the fragile men who are constantly worried
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  Speaker 1: about how manly they are, which I think for now
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and use the acronym to
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  Speaker 1: describe them as FMCWAHMTA fragilemen who constantly worried about how
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  Speaker 1: many they are sure sure for sure Anyway, the whole
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: point is they engage in this practice now commonly referred
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  Speaker 1: to as no nut November, which is a challenge to
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  Speaker 1: not ejaculate throughout the month of November. Why, you may ask,
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  Speaker 1: We'll get there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll talk about it now.
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  Speaker 3: They claim a variety of health benefits based on some
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  Speaker 3: mental gymnastic reasoning and wishful thinking and zero evidence. It
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: sounds like a fun thing to debunk. We like to
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  Speaker 3: debunk things here, and we'll get into the recent history
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  Speaker 3: of this idea, the claims they make, and the science
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  Speaker 3: behind it, which you know, there's like none.
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  Speaker 1: There's tons of science, but it does not support it
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  Speaker 1: in some aspects of it, at least.
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  Speaker 2: It's not their science.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very much. So. Is there anything
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  Speaker 1: I missed or anything, any preamble before we get into this.
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  Speaker 2: No, I think we could just dive in.
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  Speaker 1: I guess there's maybe a warning that, like, if you
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  Speaker 1: struggle to listen to anything that is remotely sexual in nature,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: then this might be tough for you. But this really
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  Speaker 1: is not meant to be sort of titillating or exciting.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: We're gonna this is largely a busting sort of mini
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that we're going to do. I guess if you do
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: struggle with those types of things, then you'll hear a
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: lot of that in this, So you might want to
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  Speaker 1: set it out. Yeah, anyway, for history here, ancient Daoist
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  Speaker 1: literature described a practice of what they called semen retention,
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  Speaker 1: which was a form of self control, and they believed
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  Speaker 1: ejaculating was losing control and so they would profess keeping
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: it in as long as they could for periods of
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  Speaker 1: time moire retaining the semen and this was a way
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  Speaker 1: to both improve their health and regain control over their
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  Speaker 1: own bodies. That was the idea espoused in that tradition,
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  Speaker 1: at least right now.
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  Speaker 3: One source foul we found identified a post on a
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  Speaker 3: bodybuilding website all the way back in two thousand and four,
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  Speaker 3: in which the user lamented that his girlfriend would be
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  Speaker 3: gone for nearly two months and had requested that he
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  Speaker 3: not masturbate while she was gone, and he posed a
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  Speaker 3: challenge to the group about whether he could make it
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  Speaker 3: the entire time without touching himself.
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  Speaker 1: And by group here we mean this is an online
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  Speaker 1: bodybuilding forum like community, and two thousand and four that
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  Speaker 1: was still a thing. That was the group that he
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  Speaker 1: was talking to. Now interestingly, although, and so this is
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  Speaker 1: where the term sort of no FAP started. But you
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  Speaker 1: actually had even noted that in the book Bluebeard by
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  Speaker 1: Kurt Vonneguet, there was some issue some description of this
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  Speaker 1: and issues around this in World War two.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the main character talks about as a young
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  Speaker 3: man during World War two that there is a belief
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  Speaker 3: that you did not ejaculate, because essentially what would happen
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  Speaker 3: is the sperm would like basically be reconstituted into their
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  Speaker 3: body and like make them more virile and more healthy
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  Speaker 3: and more manly.
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  Speaker 1: Like.
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  Speaker 2: That was a discussion that was happening.
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  Speaker 3: That book was written, I believe in the early seventies,
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  Speaker 3: so this conversation has been happening for quite some time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so again more wishful thinking here. So going back
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  Speaker 1: to our story, we have this guy who posted to
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  Speaker 1: his gym buddies that he was not supposed to masturbate,
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  Speaker 1: sort of pose a challenge, and in response that may
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  Speaker 1: come as a surprise to no one, the community railed
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  Speaker 1: with misogynistic ratings and recommendations, including excori aiding the girlfriend
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  Speaker 1: and telling him to cheat on her, and even went
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  Speaker 1: as far as to recommend sexual assault, because of course
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  Speaker 1: they did.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, because that's what happens when you get on
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  Speaker 3: the internet and it just goes wrong. I do think
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  Speaker 3: it's really important to point out too, like in Bluebeard,
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  Speaker 3: Vonnegut is using that as a device to like make
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  Speaker 3: fun of it too. Oh good, Hey yeah, yeah, he's
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  Speaker 3: not like saying you should, he's like going back in
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  Speaker 3: like the character is even like I was a silly man.
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  Speaker 2: I had no idea what I was doing.
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  Speaker 3: Like he does, he goes so far Like I mean,
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  Speaker 3: if you know Kurt Bonagut, he is very satirical and
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  Speaker 3: so like that was just one of those like kind
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  Speaker 3: of quirky moves that he did that I thought was like, really,
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  Speaker 3: like that's funny.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Tate would have been so mad.
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  Speaker 3: So this online posting was really the first time that
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  Speaker 3: the no FAP journey began as far as this journalist
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  Speaker 3: could find in terms of like larger community rallies and
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: like kind of becoming in the culturals like guys like
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  Speaker 3: we see these kind of discussions here and there, but
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  Speaker 3: like this was kind of like the event horizon of
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  Speaker 3: this particular movement. Sure, and this abstinence idea picked up steam,
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  Speaker 3: and eventually no FAP no became a thing on November first,
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  Speaker 3: two thousand and nine, again on a bodybuilding forum, which
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think explains everything, and then gained a
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  Speaker 3: lot of attention and truly surged in popularity and started
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  Speaker 3: making it into the broader social awareness pretty soon after.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, in twenty eleven, it switched to no nut November
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  Speaker 1: and then twenty seventeen, for some reason, it just like
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  Speaker 1: really moved into the public awareness about it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and for listeners who don't know, like what they
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  Speaker 3: mean by no nut, November nut is a euphemism described
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  Speaker 3: to ejaculate, like you're you supposedly bust the nut. That's
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  Speaker 3: where that comes from. Just so everybody has a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of that origin. Because I'm so I'm so thankful
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  Speaker 3: that I got to say that out loud.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: That actually is a great time. Then to Pellett cleanse
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  Speaker 1: with an advertisement.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna go wash my mouth out.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so we're back. The people who take on
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  Speaker 1: this prous they claim the reason they do it is
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  Speaker 1: primarily well, there's a lot of things. They claim that
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  Speaker 1: it offers. Increased mental clarity, increased concentration, better quality sperm,
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  Speaker 1: increased testosterone, deeper and happier relationships, increasing ejaculate volume, and
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  Speaker 1: improvements in fertility. Those are the things that they say,
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  Speaker 1: let's investigate them.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, myth busting on its way.
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  Speaker 3: So on some aspects of this, there has been a
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  Speaker 3: lot of research, and you know, because for some reason,
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  Speaker 3: human researchers love to research, just like male sex organs,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: and like male sexual performance and all that.
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  Speaker 2: There's there's countless penis studies.
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  Speaker 3: Like just so many, there are a lot, it's kind
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  Speaker 3: of absurd, but mostly what they were looking at is
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  Speaker 3: with respect to fertility. But for others there is barely
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  Speaker 3: any research and they are very small studies as far
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  Speaker 3: as like some of these like these these claims go.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's talk about the testosterone one. Only two
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  Speaker 1: studies have looked at whether abstinence increase testosterone in any
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  Speaker 1: meaningful way. In one of the studies, they asked ten
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  Speaker 1: young healthy men to masturbate, and then they had asked
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  Speaker 1: them to maintain abstinence from ejaculating for three weeks. Then
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  Speaker 1: after the three weeks, they came back and measured again
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  Speaker 1: and there was an increase in their testosterone. But they
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  Speaker 1: also it was likely attributable. They sort of discovered it
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  Speaker 1: was likely attributable to the fact that there were many
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  Speaker 1: anticipatory cues that indicated that they were going to ejaculate
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  Speaker 1: soon that were likely associated with the increased production of
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  Speaker 1: the sperm. So the abstinence itself was not a reason
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  Speaker 1: for the testosterone boost. It was the fact that they
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  Speaker 1: were about to they were approaching ejaculation, opportunity to ejaculate
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  Speaker 1: that led to the testosterone boost.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: Another study that looked at this with a slightly larger
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  Speaker 3: volume of twenty nine men found that testosterone increased for
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  Speaker 3: about seven days, but then return to baseline levels. So
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  Speaker 3: there's no good evidence suggest that seemen retention increase testosterone
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  Speaker 3: at all.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and if it does, it's like transitory, it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: last very long. Right, So these studies they kind of
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  Speaker 1: support each other and kind of contradict each other in
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  Speaker 1: some ways. But that's really all we have on this,
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  Speaker 1: and these are very small, Like, those are really small
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  Speaker 1: populations for doing a group size groups to design in
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  Speaker 1: a study. So that's just the thing to consider as
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  Speaker 1: well as far as mental clarity. Evidence actually suggests that
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  Speaker 1: masturbation abstinences are correlated with negative health outcomes, including stress, anxiety,
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  Speaker 1: and shame. The community that promotes this also tends to
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  Speaker 1: promote anti Semitism, false conspiracies about pornography. They spread misogyny,
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  Speaker 1: and has even been flagged as a common talking point
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  Speaker 1: amongst terrorist organizations. So terrorists, no FAP.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, just another argument why should mass rate? Now?
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  Speaker 3: The claim about increased ejaculate volume is true. There have
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  Speaker 3: been many, many studies, meta analyzes, and systematic reviews that
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  Speaker 3: have shown that seeman volume increases about twelve percent per
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  Speaker 3: day of abstinence for about four days. Then the increase
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  Speaker 3: slows down to a tiny increase per day until it stops.
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  Speaker 3: There is an upper limit for how much your body
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  Speaker 3: can produce and retain for a period of time, so
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  Speaker 3: you can really only hold so much.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and actually what happens here is that extended periods
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of absentence from ejaculation tends to lead to nocturnal emissions,
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  Speaker 1: which of course resets the whole process. And it is
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  Speaker 1: worth pointing out, like there's not something to be ashamed
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  Speaker 1: or worried about it. It happens to people. Also, by
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  Speaker 1: the way, this whole idea of like building up sperm,
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  Speaker 1: like unused sperm and semen, they just get reabsorbed back
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  Speaker 1: into your body. You don't build up a gigantic supply.
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  Speaker 1: Sperm are created and then they're either ejaculated or destroyed
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  Speaker 1: and reabsorbed back into your body. They don't just hang
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  Speaker 1: around and build up an infinite arsenal until you're ready
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  Speaker 1: to go. And I think an important thing also in
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: here is that like our bodies work best when they're regulated.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: We don't always want to increase or decrease things that
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: our bodies are doing. Infinite increase is bad. That's actually
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: kind of what cancer is like. If a decrease is bad,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: that's what death is, right. So, like, you don't want
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: gigantic increases in surpluses of things. You want things to
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: regulate in their optimum range of frequency and a like
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: volume and amount.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like that should be common sense, but
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: that's not a flower that grows and everybody's garden. As
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: far as increased volume, it doesn't actually help as far
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: as increased fertility goes. In fact, this is almost backward.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Abstinence from ejaculation can increase fertility and sperm for a
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: couple of days. Research actually shows that the quality of
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  Speaker 3: sperm decreases with increased abstinence, so there are increased sperm deformities.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: The longer you go without this lower motility which is
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: how well the sperm can move, and lower overall quality.
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  Speaker 3: So the longer you go without regular ejaculations, the worse
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  Speaker 3: your sperm gets.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, actual fertility experts recommends that if you were trying
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: to conceive, like there is a couple of days where
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: like the quality will build back up. So they recommend
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: every other day or every couple of day that you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: have sex because like you do get a little bit
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  Speaker 1: for a couple of days, but after that it actually
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  Speaker 1: starts to decrease, and then it starts like it just
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  Speaker 1: keeps decreasing. I mean, there's probably a point at which
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  Speaker 1: it stops decreasing. But like, yeah, abstinence does not actually
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  Speaker 1: improve fertility. It makes it worse if it goes on
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: for a long time, and it seems like the maximum
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  Speaker 1: was sort of about maybe three or four days that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: you'd have sort of continued improvement, but after that it
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: starts to decrease, right, Okay, for the other things that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: they talk about, increased concentration, deeper relationships, there really isn't
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a way to measure such a thing such that changes
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: or improvements might be detectable. Ultimately, if you want to participate,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: go nuts or don't beautiful. I mean really it's like
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: do whatever you want, but like, you know, don't expect
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: these magic outcomes, and like if you feel like you're
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: getting benefit, then like there's not there's not actually inherent
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: health detriments to doing it. But don't go participate in
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the toxic, fragile, masculine misogyny bullshit or think that it's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: going to magically make your ejaculations epic. Like that's just
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: not how bodies work. So right, that's sort of where
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: we're ending.
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  Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, And to make up for it,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do it twice as much in November.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Team, all right, thank you all for listening. I think
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that's what we have to say about this one. If
• 13:23
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• 13:25
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• 13:40
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• 13:42
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  Speaker 1: that right now, but in the future. You can email
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: us your thoughts on November or other things. If you
• 13:51
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  Speaker 1: for hearing from you. Yes, all right now that we
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: are here, thank you to my team of people. Thank
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: you for recording with me today, Shane. Thank you everyone
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: for listening. Beyond that, is there anything that I missed
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: or that you would like to add before we wrap
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: this one up?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Nothing else right now.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Go forth and enjoy the rest of your in November
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: without restrictions. Yes, this is Abraham, this is Shane. Why
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: we Do what we do?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Mini is out. Bye.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: going to wwdwwdpodcast dot com. Thanks for listening, and we
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: hope you have an awesome day.