Latest / Stuff You Should Know / THE HUMAN SCREAM
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's
- 0:13Speaker 2: Chuck and I'm not going to scream to start this
- 0:15Speaker 2: off because I care about all of you listening.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a new for you. Yeah, we're talking about.
- 0:24Speaker 1: Julia helped us out with this one, and I commissioned
- 0:27Speaker 1: this one. And I don't remember what instigated it. It
- 0:30Speaker 1: definitely wasn't from hearing somebody scream. I may have seen
- 0:36Speaker 1: an article or something that piqued my interest and I
- 0:39Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, what like screaming? Is interesting
- 0:42Speaker 1: that people scream and for all different kinds of reasons
- 0:45Speaker 1: people scream, and that's why I picked it.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Here we are. Yeah, I was very surprised and impressed this.
- 0:54Speaker 2: It's one of those ones where you just think you
- 0:58Speaker 2: know about it because you never really thought about it.
- 1:00Speaker 2: When you diving into it. There's a lot more to
- 1:02Speaker 2: it than you ever realized. Although all of it makes
- 1:05Speaker 2: sense anecdotally, you're like, oh, yeah, oh yeah, I've done that.
- 1:08Speaker 2: I've screamed like that. I'd screamed and screamed and screamed
- 1:12Speaker 2: again it. Yeah, I like ones like this. I guess
- 1:15Speaker 2: human human nature explained, and there's a comment there somewhere.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Somewhere in there definitely not a colon. We should get
- 1:24Speaker 1: some nuts and bolts out of the way. As far
- 1:26Speaker 1: as like, everyone knows what a scream is. It's obviously
- 1:29Speaker 1: a very loud, high pitched, harsh thing on the ears.
- 1:33Speaker 1: It's a sound that you make with I was about say,
- 1:36Speaker 1: with your mouth, but we'll get to the parts that
- 1:38Speaker 1: make the scream. But nuts and bolts wise, the scream
- 1:41Speaker 1: is in about the eighty to one hundred and twenty
- 1:43Speaker 1: decibel range. In volume, sixty decibels is normal speech unless
- 1:51Speaker 1: you're my wife. That's more like an A seventy five.
- 1:54Speaker 1: I would say she and her her friend Stacy, or
- 1:59Speaker 1: to the loudest humans on earth, and they admit that
- 2:04Speaker 1: they're not wallflowers, and they own it and I respect it.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Nice they reach frequent Not Stacey and Emily, but humans.
- 2:13Speaker 1: I'm sorry. The human scream can reach a frequency in
- 2:16Speaker 1: the range of two thousand to three thousand herts, whereas
- 2:19Speaker 1: a normal talker is about eighty to three hundred herts.
- 2:22Speaker 2: Yeah, and for dumb dums with sound like me, the
- 2:25Speaker 2: higher the hurts, the higher the pitch, so hurts is
- 2:28Speaker 2: a measure of actual frequency. Pitch is basically a measure,
- 2:33Speaker 2: a description of how we experience that frequency.
- 2:37Speaker 1: That's right, And just to clear up something for what's
- 2:40Speaker 1: coming later. A sound, a tone can have two different frequencies.
- 2:46Speaker 2: I've got it. I have it now.
- 2:48Speaker 1: Okay, that's it.
- 2:51Speaker 2: No, I can't wait to explain it later because it's
- 2:53Speaker 2: gonna get flubbed all over the place.
- 2:57Speaker 1: Well, it isn't intuitive like you would think, like a
- 3:01Speaker 1: guitar string makes like, you know, one frequency range. But
- 3:06Speaker 1: it's just yeah, it's not true. It's one of those things.
- 3:09Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not true. We'll just leave it at that.
- 3:11Speaker 2: But we're getting ahead of ourselves, chuck.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Yeah. Back to screaming, right.
- 3:15Speaker 2: Yeah, because if you think about screaming, I always think
- 3:18Speaker 2: of someone screaming, usually in a horror movie or something
- 3:21Speaker 2: like that. I haven't heard too many, like real deal
- 3:24Speaker 2: screams in real life, which is nice. But we're not
- 3:29Speaker 2: the only animals that scream. There's plenty of other animals
- 3:32Speaker 2: in the animal kingdom that scream that we know of.
- 3:35Speaker 2: I'm quite sure there's plants that scream too, we just
- 3:38Speaker 2: can't hear them. Maybe but birds scream, seals, marmots, mountain lions,
- 3:46Speaker 2: and I didn't know giraffes scream. That's got to be
- 3:49Speaker 2: off putting. The funniest scream of all as a goat screaming. Yeah,
- 3:54Speaker 2: if you have never witnessed a goat scream, go right
- 3:59Speaker 2: now to YouTube and just look up goat screaming videos.
- 4:03Speaker 2: And they don't all scream the same way, but every
- 4:05Speaker 2: once in a while, one of them is going to
- 4:06Speaker 2: come along and scream like a man. And it is like,
- 4:10Speaker 2: you will, you can't not laugh out loud when you
- 4:13Speaker 2: see it. Every time I watched the same goat scream
- 4:15Speaker 2: over and over again, and I laughed out loud every
- 4:18Speaker 2: time I watched it.
- 4:19Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's so non goat sounding because it's not
- 4:24Speaker 1: even like a loud bleat that you wonder like, is
- 4:27Speaker 1: somebody punking me? And that's just like, you know, that's
- 4:30Speaker 1: James con from misery that they're looping in there.
- 4:34Speaker 2: Does kind of sound like that. Another one to look
- 4:36Speaker 2: up real quick, or two links in Ontario screaming at
- 4:39Speaker 2: each other. It's like right in their faces. Have you
- 4:41Speaker 2: seen that one?
- 4:42Speaker 1: I haven't seen that.
- 4:43Speaker 2: Oh, it's it's nuts.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Animals well, they Well, let's just talk about why anything screams.
- 4:51Speaker 1: It's a very effective tool. It's obviously a great fear
- 4:55Speaker 1: response because everyone's going to sit up and take notice
- 4:58Speaker 1: because it's so harsh and loud. It's a very jarring thing.
- 5:02Speaker 1: It can also distract predators, obviously, screaming if you're lost,
- 5:07Speaker 1: you know, scream can travel a great distance in the
- 5:09Speaker 1: woods or anywhere, and you can, you know, alert somebody
- 5:13Speaker 1: from a great distance. So it's a it's a great
- 5:15Speaker 1: communicative tool for humans and animals alike.
- 5:19Speaker 2: Yeah, and that loudness. I saw the Guinness record for
- 5:22Speaker 2: the loudest scream is one hundred and twenty nine decibels,
- 5:26Speaker 2: which is one decibel under a jet engine and almost
- 5:30Speaker 2: in almost ten times louder than a police siren.
- 5:34Speaker 1: Wonder you that was.
- 5:35Speaker 2: I don't know, but man, I can't imagine that they
- 5:38Speaker 2: did that too many times because, as we'll see, screaming
- 5:41Speaker 2: can really mess up your your neck junk.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really gross. I'm getting older, so I'm getting
- 5:49Speaker 1: more and more neck junk.
- 5:52Speaker 2: Stress and neck chunk too.
- 5:54Speaker 1: All right, So humans are are born with this ability.
- 5:58Speaker 1: We know how to scream right away because we come
- 6:02Speaker 1: out of the womb screaming. In fact, that's a very
- 6:05Speaker 1: comforting sound when a baby is born, is that first scream.
- 6:09Speaker 1: They're going to clear that flem in their airway so
- 6:11Speaker 1: they can breathe. It lets everybody know, Hey, I'm here,
- 6:15Speaker 1: I'm ready for action. I'm feeling good despite the fact
- 6:18Speaker 1: that I'm screaming. If a baby is born and there
- 6:21Speaker 1: is no scream, that is a very scary, scary moment
- 6:25Speaker 1: for parents and everybody in that room.
- 6:28Speaker 2: Yeah, I can imagine. It's like there the one time
- 6:29Speaker 2: we're not screaming means that there's an issue.
- 6:32Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, totally.
- 6:35Speaker 2: And there's a lot of information in a baby's scream.
- 6:37Speaker 2: It says I'm in distress, I'm in pain, I could
- 6:41Speaker 2: use a gnash. There's just a lot that makes a
- 6:46Speaker 2: parent because we're tuned to this kind of thing, especially
- 6:49Speaker 2: if you're the parent of that baby. Studies show that
- 6:52Speaker 2: you respond to your own baby's cries or screams a
- 6:56Speaker 2: lot more easily or quickly than somebody who is not
- 6:59Speaker 2: the parent into that baby. But you rush over there
- 7:02Speaker 2: and you say, here's some food, here's a little blanket,
- 7:05Speaker 2: and way to go. You just got all the phlegm
- 7:08Speaker 2: out of your throat, so now you can breathe normally.
- 7:11Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember when you met Ruby as a baby
- 7:13Speaker 1: and she was screaming, and you're like, what the hell's
- 7:15Speaker 1: wrong with this kid?
- 7:16Speaker 2: Yeah? I just you know, I tried to bounce around
- 7:19Speaker 2: my knee faster and it did the opposite help.
- 7:22Speaker 1: And I said, oh, Josh, I'm in tune already, not
- 7:25Speaker 1: in tune, tuned already. I was also in tune. And
- 7:29Speaker 1: I said, that just means she's hungry. So just raise
- 7:33Speaker 1: your shirt. Yeah, her what she needs.
- 7:35Speaker 2: That didn't work either. She got like hair in her
- 7:38Speaker 2: mouth though.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Oh my god, this got really disturbing very fast.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Yeah, we got it out.
- 7:44Speaker 1: What about that cat cry?
- 7:46Speaker 2: So, there is a a syndrome that's colloquially called I
- 7:50Speaker 2: think creed a shot cry of the cat in French,
- 7:54Speaker 2: and it has some similarities to down syndrome. But one
- 7:57Speaker 2: of the defining characteristics of creed a shot is a
- 8:00Speaker 2: larynx mauthformation, so that babies, when they cry, like the
- 8:04Speaker 2: loud screaming cry, have a make us, a very specific
- 8:09Speaker 2: cry that sounds very much like a cat crying. Yeah,
- 8:13Speaker 2: if like you can find a couple of videos on
- 8:15Speaker 2: YouTube of people with their baby with crew to a
- 8:18Speaker 2: shot of crying, and it's it's really cute in a
- 8:21Speaker 2: lot of ways. But also you're like, that sounds a
- 8:24Speaker 2: lot like a cat, And it's so distinct that you
- 8:26Speaker 2: can actually initially diagnose an infant with crewdishot syndrome because
- 8:31Speaker 2: of their cry. It's that distinct.
- 8:33Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean that's a benefit that can save
- 8:37Speaker 1: a lot of time and discomfort for this kid and
- 8:41Speaker 1: diagnosing this kind of condition exactly, it's great. It also
- 8:45Speaker 1: is a sign obviously when a kid is screaming saying hey, parent,
- 8:50Speaker 1: go into fight or flight mode because I need something,
- 8:54Speaker 1: and you know, if it's one of distress, even more
- 8:57Speaker 1: so obviously and not just like I'm hungry, like beer distress.
- 9:01Speaker 1: I don't know that we need to discuss fighter flight
- 9:04Speaker 1: in detail because we did it three hundred and sixty
- 9:07Speaker 1: four times over the first like five years of the show, right,
- 9:10Speaker 1: but everyone knows what that is, right, Yeah, I.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Would think, so, I don't think we really need to
- 9:15Speaker 2: describe fight or flight.
- 9:17Speaker 1: You're like, uh, but it's uh, I didn't.
- 9:19Speaker 2: I stopped myself. I exercise a great restraint. Nice work, Okay, Well, anyway,
- 9:26Speaker 2: I'll take it from here, Chuck. Yeah, because the reason
- 9:28Speaker 2: you brought that up is screams activate fireflight mode in
- 9:31Speaker 2: some really like basic ways, as we'll see. And so
- 9:35Speaker 2: a scream actually activates in you a human who hears
- 9:38Speaker 2: a scream, that that readiness to like either spring into
- 9:41Speaker 2: action or run like hell or freeze or fawn is
- 9:46Speaker 2: the other one now, because the fight or flight syndromes
- 9:50Speaker 2: really come a long way since we last talked about it,
- 9:52Speaker 2: And fawn is the response that you want when a
- 9:55Speaker 2: baby's crying. You want to go over and be like, oh,
- 9:57Speaker 2: it's okay.
- 9:59Speaker 1: Yeah, that's here. Never mind abandoned that line of thought.
- 10:05Speaker 1: So let's talk about sound for a minute. Because all
- 10:08Speaker 1: sound comes from and is perceived by us through a
- 10:13Speaker 1: series of processes in the brain, and most of these
- 10:18Speaker 1: are in the higher brain region. But screams are different.
- 10:21Speaker 1: They happen in the lower brain region. And it's a
- 10:26Speaker 1: very interesting thing. It kind of lives in its own
- 10:29Speaker 1: as far as like humans making sound lives in its
- 10:31Speaker 1: own area. It's very distinct from all the other sounds
- 10:34Speaker 1: we make.
- 10:34Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's a lot faster to basically activate us
- 10:38Speaker 2: than the normal speech that we hear. Right, So when
- 10:41Speaker 2: you talk, when you're making just talk like I am
- 10:45Speaker 2: right now, say this is a good example. I'm using
- 10:49Speaker 2: this description as an example in real time. Okay, that's right.
- 10:53Speaker 2: So I'm using my laryngeal motor cortex that's basically running
- 10:56Speaker 2: the show right now, and that is a higher brain process. Right,
- 11:00Speaker 2: So I'm using cognition. I'm figuring out how my mouse
- 11:04Speaker 2: should move, which also requires fine motor coordination and processing sound.
- 11:09Speaker 2: I think from our Internal Dialogue episode, I'm doing a
- 11:13Speaker 2: quick quality check right before I actually say the words
- 11:16Speaker 2: yeah and Josh exactly, and do I sound like a
- 11:19Speaker 2: muppety tenor I do, let's go. And then this stuff
- 11:24Speaker 2: is sent to the brain stem, which basically says, okay,
- 11:26Speaker 2: laryings and vocal cords and lungs and abdominal muscles, let's talk.
- 11:30Speaker 2: That's normal speech. And again it requires a lot of
- 11:33Speaker 2: higher brain processing. Screaming uses a different set of equipment
- 11:39Speaker 2: to make itself happen. It's nuts because you think screaming
- 11:43Speaker 2: is a form of speech. It's actually not. Even though
- 11:47Speaker 2: we use a lot of the same stuff, a lot
- 11:50Speaker 2: of the same bait and tackle, say like it's its
- 11:54Speaker 2: own thing, which is I just find this is where
- 11:56Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, this is super fascinating.
- 11:58Speaker 1: Now, yeah, that's right. So for screams, uh, and some
- 12:03Speaker 1: involuntary vocalizations, but really screams, the sound production takes a
- 12:07Speaker 1: different and, like you said, a much faster path. The
- 12:10Speaker 1: signal starts in the limbic system and it skips that
- 12:12Speaker 1: higher brain processing. Uh. The it happens in the amygdala. Basically,
- 12:18Speaker 1: the emotional stimulus that the amygdala is all about just
- 12:23Speaker 1: sends a scream signal. It's it's sort of like a
- 12:25Speaker 1: direct path, like a express train through that brain stem
- 12:30Speaker 1: to all the anatomy that you were talking about in
- 12:32Speaker 1: your in your the you know, the neck junk, and
- 12:35Speaker 1: that scream just comes out immediately. And the craziest part
- 12:39Speaker 1: is our body actually picks up on this before our
- 12:44Speaker 1: ears and brain can even process what we've just heard.
- 12:46Speaker 2: Yeah, once the scream comes out of someone else, when
- 12:50Speaker 2: we hear that scream, it puts us in fight or
- 12:52Speaker 2: flight mode before we're even consciously aware that we have
- 12:56Speaker 2: heard a scream. That's how that's how finely tuned we
- 13:00Speaker 2: are too responding to screams, which again, this is something
- 13:03Speaker 2: you just think exists out there, and then when you
- 13:06Speaker 2: dig in, you're like, my god. So there's like a
- 13:09Speaker 2: whole set of processes that take place that again are
- 13:14Speaker 2: different than how we would respond if we hear regular speech, right,
- 13:18Speaker 2: So it follows some of the same processes. It hits
- 13:20Speaker 2: the outer ear, goes through the ear canal, the ear
- 13:23Speaker 2: drum goes boom boom. That is amplified in the middle ear,
- 13:28Speaker 2: and that goes onto the cochlia, which triggers a wave
- 13:30Speaker 2: along the basel or membrane, which says, I'm going to
- 13:33Speaker 2: turn this into an electrical signal, sends it to the
- 13:36Speaker 2: auditory nerve, which sends it to the brain stem and
- 13:39Speaker 2: then to the thalamus. And the thalamus is the sensory
- 13:42Speaker 2: clearing house. It sends this to that and that to that.
- 13:45Speaker 2: All of your sensory information goes to the thalamus. And
- 13:48Speaker 2: here is where it diverges from normal speech.
- 13:52Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that's why when somebody screams, like
- 13:55Speaker 1: a blood curling scream out in public, you're instantly reacting.
- 13:59Speaker 1: You don't hear that and then decide like, well, maybe
- 14:02Speaker 1: I should go see what's going on over there, Like
- 14:04Speaker 1: your body is instantly reacting because it is unconsciously picked
- 14:08Speaker 1: up on that screen before it's even registered in your brain.
- 14:11Speaker 1: So it's really a pretty remarkable sort of evolutionary trait.
- 14:17Speaker 1: I think, like to help rescue, you know, probably back
- 14:21Speaker 1: in Tiktook's days, the wife or baby that the husband
- 14:25Speaker 1: who's out hunting and gathering has to protect from whatever
- 14:28Speaker 1: dangers are around the fire.
- 14:30Speaker 2: Yeah, And the reason why that happens is because when
- 14:33Speaker 2: it hits that balance, it gets sent two different ways. Like,
- 14:36Speaker 2: it gets sent the normal way to that higher brain processing,
- 14:39Speaker 2: and when it goes through that higher brain processing, that's
- 14:42Speaker 2: when you become conscious of hearing that scream. But what's
- 14:46Speaker 2: happened even faster is it got sent to that amygdala
- 14:49Speaker 2: and that sent in the fight or flight response, and
- 14:53Speaker 2: that happened before your higher brain finished processing, which is
- 14:57Speaker 2: just so there's this own pathway for just screams that
- 15:03Speaker 2: the human brain has evolved to basically make you able
- 15:09Speaker 2: to respond to a scream faster. It has its own expressway.
- 15:13Speaker 2: Screams only essentially, is what it says, and if your
- 15:16Speaker 2: regular speech you try to use that same expressway. It's
- 15:20Speaker 2: got those tire bursting spikes that will just stop you
- 15:23Speaker 2: cold right there, and they'll send you back along the
- 15:27Speaker 2: way you're supposed to go to the higher brain.
- 15:29Speaker 1: You go back to talk toown buddy exactly.
- 15:32Speaker 2: And it's gonna take you a while to get there
- 15:34Speaker 2: because you don't have tires. You're driving on just rims
- 15:36Speaker 2: now because you were domin made a poor decision.
- 15:40Speaker 1: Yeah, and you shouldn't do that because you're gonna damage
- 15:41Speaker 1: those rims. You need to pull over immediately.
- 15:43Speaker 2: Yeah. Bad.
- 15:44Speaker 1: Should we take a break?
- 15:46Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so.
- 15:47Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna take a break and come back,
- 15:49Speaker 1: and Josh is gonna explain something called the roughness domain
- 15:52Speaker 1: right after this.
- 16:27Speaker 2: All right, chuck, here we go. Here's the flubbing.
- 16:31Speaker 1: Okay, well we'll see. It's a little brain breaking, but
- 16:34Speaker 1: we'll get it.
- 16:34Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things where if I
- 16:37Speaker 2: just thought too hard about it and I've made it
- 16:38Speaker 2: brain breaking. But so, screams have something in common, and
- 16:43Speaker 2: that is that they exist in a region of human
- 16:47Speaker 2: perception that's called the roughness domain. Okay, And if you
- 16:53Speaker 2: take someone's voice right, it has a certain frequency. My
- 16:59Speaker 2: voice has a certain frequency. You can recognize it as mine.
- 17:02Speaker 2: But you can take my voice and make it modulate, right,
- 17:07Speaker 2: So like the British police car that goes.
- 17:11Speaker 1: Dude, do do do do doo?
- 17:13Speaker 2: That's modulating right. So it has its own its own frequency, right,
- 17:19Speaker 2: but you're making it change pitch do do do do?
- 17:23Speaker 2: So that's a second frequency that it has. And if
- 17:27Speaker 2: that frequency is between thirty hurts and one hundred and
- 17:30Speaker 2: fifty hertz, that modulation between up and down or left
- 17:34Speaker 2: and right, however you want to look at it. That
- 17:36Speaker 2: is that roughness area. And it also seems to be
- 17:40Speaker 2: reserved as far as human sounds go, just for screams.
- 17:45Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a study. They learned this because of
- 17:48Speaker 1: a study.
- 17:49Speaker 2: We how'd I do?
- 17:51Speaker 1: Oh? You'd a great? Okay kid, I'm sorry I didn't
- 17:53Speaker 1: the customary thank you.
- 17:55Speaker 2: We usually edit the colaps out. I think we should
- 17:57Speaker 2: leave that one in.
- 17:58Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, let's leave that one in. They know this
- 18:00Speaker 1: because in twenty fifteen NYU, the neuroscientists, theyre published a
- 18:04Speaker 1: study supporting this role of amplitude modulation. And the crazy
- 18:11Speaker 1: part is that the only other sound in that rough
- 18:14Speaker 1: this domain, like that's the only sound a human can make.
- 18:18Speaker 1: That's like that. The only other sounds are all artificial alarms.
- 18:22Speaker 1: So the human screen lives in the roughest domain alongside
- 18:26Speaker 1: sirens and car alarms and you know, just other other
- 18:31Speaker 1: like claxon. Maybe what is that?
- 18:34Speaker 2: Is that the bad guys in Doctor Who?
- 18:36Speaker 1: I think a claxon is the Eh?
- 18:40Speaker 2: Oh those are terrible, like pull your credit card out
- 18:42Speaker 2: of the card terminal.
- 18:44Speaker 1: Does it actually do that?
- 18:45Speaker 2: Yes, so they did originally. I think they've kind of stopped,
- 18:48Speaker 2: but it would used to be really jarring.
- 18:51Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, because that's the sound that happens when
- 18:54Speaker 1: a nuclear facility is melting down.
- 18:57Speaker 2: Right, forget your credit card, melt on a nuclear facility,
- 19:00Speaker 2: basically the same thing.
- 19:03Speaker 1: Yeah, So thanks NYU for that. Right.
- 19:04Speaker 2: Well, okay, that was just part one of this study.
- 19:08Speaker 2: This is a really robust study. So they analyzed recorded
- 19:10Speaker 2: sounds and they found that screams were all in roughness
- 19:14Speaker 2: and the only other sounds that were in there were alarms. Right.
- 19:17Speaker 2: Then they got a bunch of volunteers, almost guaranteed NYU
- 19:22Speaker 2: undergrads looking for extra credit, and they said, we want
- 19:25Speaker 2: you to make a bunch of sounds. We want you
- 19:27Speaker 2: to scream, we want you to speak normally, we want
- 19:30Speaker 2: you to scream speak yeah, and make a bunch of
- 19:34Speaker 2: meaningless vocalizations like yips, yammers, yelps, that whole thing, right, sure,
- 19:39Speaker 2: And then they analyzed those just like they analyzed the
- 19:42Speaker 2: recorded sounds, and they found that all of the scream
- 19:44Speaker 2: sounds were in the roughness domain, and all of the
- 19:48Speaker 2: non scream sounds, including yips and yamers, were not in
- 19:52Speaker 2: the roughness domain whatsoever. So they're really zeroing in. And
- 19:55Speaker 2: yet there's more to this study. This is how robust
- 19:58Speaker 2: it was.
- 20:00Speaker 1: Yeah. So then they said, all right, we got all
- 20:02Speaker 1: this collection of sounds, neutral sounds is what we'll call,
- 20:05Speaker 1: the ones that aren't screams, and then the screamy things.
- 20:08Speaker 1: And they brought in some other volunteers, other NYU students
- 20:11Speaker 1: for sure, and said, all right, we want you to
- 20:14Speaker 1: rate the scariness like maybe on a one to ten,
- 20:17Speaker 1: one to five, who knows what they used, maybe a
- 20:19Speaker 1: Yelp star system, and they said, rate the scariness of
- 20:23Speaker 1: the sounds. All the sounds in the roughness domain. This
- 20:27Speaker 1: is pretty obvious. We're rated as scarier than the neutral sounds.
- 20:30Speaker 1: And the sounds that were rated the scariest were the
- 20:32Speaker 1: ones that were highest on the roughness scale.
- 20:35Speaker 2: All makes sense, right, So they're really drilling down here.
- 20:38Speaker 2: It keeps going, everybody. They actually took volunteers, probably the
- 20:43Speaker 2: same ones who rated the scariness of the sounds, and
- 20:45Speaker 2: they scanned them while they were listening to scary sounds
- 20:49Speaker 2: and not just screamed but also the artificial alarms too,
- 20:52Speaker 2: and probably some of the nonsense sounds and musical sounds,
- 20:57Speaker 2: And as they were listening, the scream and the alarms
- 21:01Speaker 2: were the only ones that cause spikes in the amygdala. Remember,
- 21:04Speaker 2: the amygdala is where that set aside pathway for screams is,
- 21:10Speaker 2: and that the higher on the roughness scale, if you
- 21:13Speaker 2: can call it that, that the screams or alarms were,
- 21:15Speaker 2: the greater the amygdala activity, and then the greater the
- 21:20Speaker 2: amygdala activity that was shown in the scans, the higher
- 21:24Speaker 2: those sounds had been rated for scariness by the volunteers previously.
- 21:29Speaker 2: And when they wrapped it up and put all this together,
- 21:31Speaker 2: they were like, I forgot what we were studying in
- 21:34Speaker 2: the first place.
- 21:38Speaker 1: So the upshot, to borrow a term from Josh, is
- 21:43Speaker 1: that it seems like humans are specifically attuned and our
- 21:49Speaker 1: amygdala is specifically activated by the sound of a scream,
- 21:55Speaker 1: to say like, hey, it's time to panic or it's
- 21:58Speaker 1: time to kick into high gear. They found that this
- 22:01Speaker 1: works if you're awake or asleep. Yeah, at the rough
- 22:06Speaker 1: vocalizations and that rough domain that we were talking about
- 22:08Speaker 1: penetrate human sleep cycles more than neutral vocalizations. And that's
- 22:14Speaker 1: not to say that like, yeah, of course it's louder, dummy.
- 22:18Speaker 1: We're not talking about decibels here, We're talking about a
- 22:20Speaker 1: frequency range. Like I think what they're saying and correct
- 22:24Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, is that is that a scream
- 22:26Speaker 1: that might be the same decibel level as like a
- 22:28Speaker 1: really loud talk will penetrate that sleep cycle unlike that
- 22:31Speaker 1: really loud talk.
- 22:32Speaker 2: Yes, And they think it's because the amygdala is tuned
- 22:35Speaker 2: to that thirty to one hundred and fifty hertz rightness band.
- 22:39Speaker 2: So the amygdala has its own route for getting you
- 22:42Speaker 2: aroused and not necessarily in the best way when you
- 22:45Speaker 2: hear a scream, and it's also listening out to a
- 22:48Speaker 2: specific band of modulation to that screams existence. So clearly,
- 22:55Speaker 2: thanks to our NYU researchers back in twenty fifteen, scream
- 23:00Speaker 2: are a really important and kind of overlooked part of
- 23:03Speaker 2: human speech right, and yeah for sure, and they think also, Chuck,
- 23:08Speaker 2: that not only has like have we evolved to develop
- 23:13Speaker 2: this alarm system, which clearly is what it is, because
- 23:17Speaker 2: not only you're saying help, you're also, depending on how
- 23:20Speaker 2: nice or altruistic the people listening are, you're also saying
- 23:25Speaker 2: look out, there's danger, and they may run away if
- 23:27Speaker 2: they're flee or they might run to you to help
- 23:30Speaker 2: you if they're ready to fight. But they also have
- 23:33Speaker 2: shown that screams have evolved in other ways too, Like
- 23:36Speaker 2: we don't scream just out of an alarm system anymore.
- 23:40Speaker 2: There's actually at least six other screams that they discovered
- 23:43Speaker 2: that correlate or correspond to six other separate emotions.
- 23:47Speaker 1: Yeah, anger, of course is going to be one you
- 23:49Speaker 1: can scream at somebody in traffic.
- 23:51Speaker 2: There's a europe song called scream of Anger. Really in Europe,
- 23:56Speaker 2: of course, is known for a different song.
- 23:59Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know what I heard? Oh what was it?
- 24:03Speaker 1: That other europe song I forgot about the other day
- 24:06Speaker 1: on hair Nation on serious except OK, which I'm still
- 24:10Speaker 1: pounding by the way, I can't get away from it.
- 24:12Speaker 1: I'm so back into the hair metal. It's really funny
- 24:15Speaker 1: that's awesome. What was it? Keep on walking that road
- 24:19Speaker 1: and I'll follow. Yeah, and if a mirror shit break, superstitious.
- 24:27Speaker 2: That was Europe.
- 24:28Speaker 1: Yeah, that was Europe. That was another big song besides
- 24:30Speaker 1: Final Countdown.
- 24:32Speaker 2: Okay, well so Scream of It it's a great song. Okay,
- 24:35Speaker 2: Scream of Anger is even better. It's like actual metal tinge.
- 24:39Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you just made me think of Europe.
- 24:42Speaker 1: They're They're definitely not screamers. They had voices of angels.
- 24:45Speaker 1: They did obviously screaming fear, which is kind of one
- 24:48Speaker 1: of the things we've been talking about. Screaming in pain.
- 24:52Speaker 1: That's something that I have never experienced. I've been I've
- 24:56Speaker 1: felt great deals of physical pain, but I'm very internal.
- 25:00Speaker 1: I kind of go inward. But I've been to emergency rooms,
- 25:04Speaker 1: and a screamer in an emergency room is a very
- 25:07Speaker 1: unsettling situation.
- 25:09Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. The one I always associate with that
- 25:13Speaker 2: is Tom Berenger telling that guy who got shot in
- 25:15Speaker 2: the gut and platoon to eat the pain.
- 25:18Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that's right.
- 25:20Speaker 2: That guy was definitely screaming in pain.
- 25:22Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, he put his hand over his mouth, was
- 25:25Speaker 1: that j Yeah.
- 25:27Speaker 2: So there's also this one's great scream of extreme joy.
- 25:32Speaker 1: Yeah, like at a concert.
- 25:33Speaker 2: Maybe, sure, that's one. Or if you watch The Simpsons
- 25:38Speaker 2: and go back and watch I think the murder House
- 25:40Speaker 2: episode where Marge is a real estate agent selling a
- 25:43Speaker 2: murder house to Ned Flanders. You hear a terrible scream
- 25:47Speaker 2: and it turns out it's Ned Flanders screaming in joy
- 25:50Speaker 2: because there's purple drapes in the house. It's great. Just
- 25:53Speaker 2: go look it up. It's like a tense, pretty good clip.
- 25:57Speaker 1: I guess you know we're not going to dance around this.
- 25:58Speaker 1: We're adults here, obviously during intercourse and orgasm can produce
- 26:04Speaker 1: quite a scream, I'm told.
- 26:06Speaker 2: Yeah, next to that, I just have an ellipse.
- 26:09Speaker 1: Right, intense pleasure, so you know that extreme joy and
- 26:14Speaker 1: intense pleasure probably encapsulates both of those if you're doing
- 26:17Speaker 1: it right. And then a scream of sadness, and I
- 26:21Speaker 1: guess this is just like wailing.
- 26:24Speaker 2: Plus yeah, I feel like this one may have just
- 26:27Speaker 2: been mislabeled because I think you can make a case
- 26:29Speaker 2: that what they're describing here is actually a scream of
- 26:32Speaker 2: emotional pain, not physical pain. Emotional pain and.
- 26:36Speaker 1: What's the sadness? Is right.
- 26:38Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so so sure. I mean, maybe it's
- 26:40Speaker 2: just me that was like, no, that's wrong. A really
- 26:43Speaker 2: good example of it as far as movies go, is
- 26:46Speaker 2: Tony Collette in Hereditary.
- 26:48Speaker 1: Oh God, she.
- 26:49Speaker 2: Finds out that her daughter has died. It's yeah, wrenching
- 26:53Speaker 2: the work she does, like like, oh my god, it's
- 26:57Speaker 2: really tough to watch, and of course it's all over
- 26:59Speaker 2: the internet.
- 27:00Speaker 1: I am about to say something I thought I would
- 27:03Speaker 1: never say. I think I would like to see that
- 27:05Speaker 1: movie again.
- 27:06Speaker 2: Oh what did you not like it the first time?
- 27:09Speaker 1: I loved it, but it was it's a tough movie.
- 27:11Speaker 1: Oh it was one of those where I was like, wow,
- 27:14Speaker 1: that was amazing. But I don't think I need to
- 27:16Speaker 1: see that ever again. But I think I might want
- 27:17Speaker 1: to because it was really that great.
- 27:19Speaker 2: I've seen people here there describe it as potentially the
- 27:22Speaker 2: darkest dark comedy around.
- 27:24Speaker 1: Oh interesting.
- 27:25Speaker 2: And there's there's this one part that I think kind
- 27:27Speaker 2: of supports it. Do you remember the part where Steven
- 27:30Speaker 2: is in the classroom and he messes himself up pretty good?
- 27:33Speaker 1: Mmmm, it's been a while, but yeah, sort of.
- 27:37Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I mean, it's really good. I've seen it.
- 27:40Speaker 2: I think just a couple of times, but the second
- 27:42Speaker 2: time I saw it was not too long ago. But Chuck,
- 27:45Speaker 2: please please watch Saint Maud. As far as a twenty
- 27:50Speaker 2: four horror movies go, that's one of the more overlooked ones.
- 27:53Speaker 2: It is off the chain. It's so good and it's
- 27:56Speaker 2: just so nuts. Man.
- 27:58Speaker 1: Uh, why have I heard of that?
- 28:00Speaker 2: Is that I've told you to watch this before? I think, yeah,
- 28:02Speaker 2: And I don't think you watched it, because you would
- 28:04Speaker 2: have definitely come back and been like.
- 28:05Speaker 1: Dude, okay, Saint Lawed. That's all I need to say. Okay, dude. Yeah,
- 28:11Speaker 1: Well it's a British org. I'm all about those.
- 28:14Speaker 2: It's good. There's it's rough though, like this is not
- 28:16Speaker 2: for kids, and there's you know, really upsetting stuff throughout.
- 28:19Speaker 1: So just FYI, all right, So back to screaming. Obviously, rage, fear, pain.
- 28:26Speaker 1: These are alarm screams. The non alarm screams, Like we
- 28:30Speaker 1: talked about, the joy, intense pleasure. I don't think I'll
- 28:34Speaker 1: throw sadness in there, because that can be alarm. But
- 28:36Speaker 1: those aren't things that you will find in the animal Kingdom.
- 28:40Speaker 1: It is a distinctly uniquely human instinct to signal something
- 28:45Speaker 1: positive with the scream. Animals don't scream out in joy.
- 28:48Speaker 2: No, but we do think that some non human primates
- 28:51Speaker 2: scream out in grief though. Isn't that awful?
- 28:53Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah, I.
- 28:55Speaker 2: Think that's a great way to end this section and
- 28:58Speaker 2: start with the ad break. What do you think?
- 29:01Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it and things all right, So back
- 29:37Speaker 1: to screaming. I was I was afraid you're gonna scream.
- 29:39Speaker 2: At one point.
- 29:41Speaker 1: Not something we're gonna do. I can't remember the last
- 29:43Speaker 1: time I tried to scream. Yeah, like just like as
- 29:47Speaker 1: a like, Hey, what's your scream sound like at a
- 29:49Speaker 1: party or something? You know, that old party trick? And
- 29:53Speaker 1: I wonder, like I always think of, like the best
- 29:57Speaker 1: scream I've ever heard is probably from American movie, the
- 30:02Speaker 1: documentary you saw that, right, No, the American movie. It
- 30:07Speaker 1: was about the the guys in Wisconsin making the low
- 30:10Speaker 1: budget horror movie. That's why I would say Covin because
- 30:13Speaker 1: he pronounced it covin.
- 30:14Speaker 2: I never saw that. I know what you're talking about
- 30:16Speaker 2: is worth seeing.
- 30:18Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh, it's one of the great great documentaries of
- 30:20Speaker 1: all time. Highly recommend it. But Mike Shank rest in peace,
- 30:24Speaker 1: Mike has leftist very sadly. There's one part in there
- 30:29Speaker 1: where the main guy is trying to record screams for
- 30:34Speaker 1: his low budget horror film he's making in the studio,
- 30:37Speaker 1: and Mike shank was this very very low key friend
- 30:42Speaker 1: of his out of nowhere else send you the clip
- 30:46Speaker 1: produces the most blood curdling scream I've ever heard in
- 30:51Speaker 1: my life. It's incredible, definitely, and one of the funnier
- 30:54Speaker 1: parts of that too, because nobody saw it coming, including
- 30:57Speaker 1: his friend, and his reaction is great and it's just
- 31:00Speaker 1: one of the great parts of that movie.
- 31:01Speaker 2: Well, me and everybody listening will definitely see it coming. Now.
- 31:05Speaker 1: Oh it's yeah, I guess that is a little bit spoiler,
- 31:08Speaker 1: but it's a twenty year old documentary.
- 31:10Speaker 2: So all right, I'll watch it though.
- 31:11Speaker 1: Okay, if you watch t Et goes Home to everybody.
- 31:16Speaker 2: Okay. So there's a name that's been kind of bestowed
- 31:21Speaker 2: on some actresses over the years, which is scream Queen.
- 31:25Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 31:26Speaker 2: I always associate that with Jamie Lee Curtis, who got
- 31:29Speaker 2: that from Halloween and prom Night. It actually dates back
- 31:33Speaker 2: like fifty plus years before Halloween with Fay Ray when
- 31:37Speaker 2: she was in King Kong. In nineteen thirty three. Apparently
- 31:41Speaker 2: I've not seen the original King Kong, but her screams
- 31:43Speaker 2: are supposedly really terrifying, and they did them all in
- 31:47Speaker 2: post production, like apparently American movie, and then they mixed
- 31:50Speaker 2: them together to just make them as disturbing as possible.
- 31:53Speaker 2: But Fay Ray, the nineteen thirties actress, was the original
- 31:57Speaker 2: scream queen.
- 31:58Speaker 1: That's right. It's a pretty good screw. Not nearly as
- 32:01Speaker 1: chilling as Mike Shanks, but it was nineteen thirty three.
- 32:04Speaker 1: They did a pretty good job. You usually associate it
- 32:08Speaker 1: with like a scream queen, like you know, it's usually
- 32:12Speaker 1: a woman screaming in a horror movie. That's just sort
- 32:14Speaker 1: of the trope. But there have been some notable man screams.
- 32:18Speaker 1: James concert Lam mentioned earlier from Misery, but another that
- 32:22Speaker 1: was done in post production, but it is so great.
- 32:26Speaker 1: You should just check out this clip on YouTube. Is
- 32:28Speaker 1: that the chilling ending of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- 32:31Speaker 1: from nineteen seventy eight with Donald Sutherland. And you know
- 32:35Speaker 1: who was in charge of that scream? My friend, you
- 32:38Speaker 1: probably looked this up, but it's our old pal from
- 32:41Speaker 1: Star Wars, oh, who was hitting that high tension wire
- 32:45Speaker 1: with a wrench. Ben Burt.
- 32:47Speaker 2: Yeah, he was just a legend, wasn't he.
- 32:50Speaker 1: Yeah, apparently this was layering pig squeals on top of
- 32:53Speaker 1: each other. And it's a sort of a classic ending
- 32:57Speaker 1: to that movie because that is the same that the
- 33:01Speaker 1: pod people make when they see a human. And well,
- 33:05Speaker 1: I mean, I guess this is all spoiler stuff, but
- 33:06Speaker 1: it's from nineteen seventy eight. Donald Sutherland makes that sound
- 33:10Speaker 1: at the end when he sees a human, indicating chillingly
- 33:15Speaker 1: that he is now a pod person.
- 33:16Speaker 2: Yeah, so keep an eye on Donald Sutherland when you
- 33:18Speaker 2: watch that movie for the first time.
- 33:21Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
- 33:21Speaker 2: There's a couple others. Thomas Jane gives a really terrible
- 33:26Speaker 2: scream at the end of The Mist, which has one
- 33:29Speaker 2: of the unsettling endings I think of any movie ever,
- 33:36Speaker 2: maybe tied with it Comes in the Night, which is
- 33:40Speaker 2: another really unsettling a twenty four movie. Bruce Campbell he's
- 33:43Speaker 2: a great man, screamer, I guess, scream king.
- 33:48Speaker 1: He does everything great and then justin.
- 33:50Speaker 2: Long He's definitely he's been in like way more horror
- 33:53Speaker 2: movies than you would think, but he I'm pretty sure
- 33:55Speaker 2: he screams pretty well in Barbarian Man. And then also
- 34:00Speaker 2: I can't help but bring up since I mentioned Justin Long,
- 34:02Speaker 2: He's in a new movie called Coyotes, which is a
- 34:05Speaker 2: horror comedy about coyotes going on a rampage. And it
- 34:08Speaker 2: just so happens that my niece, Mela Harris is in
- 34:10Speaker 2: that movie too. She plays his and Kate Bosworth's daughter.
- 34:15Speaker 1: Oh that's great. I love that. The odd connection of
- 34:21Speaker 1: Justin Long and Hodgman. Of course with the mac Apple
- 34:24Speaker 1: commercials for sure. When I was out in New York
- 34:27Speaker 1: that time, after hanging out with Hodgman, you and I
- 34:29Speaker 1: think went to a thing with him. Then later that
- 34:31Speaker 1: night I saw Justin Long out, Oh weird, and I
- 34:35Speaker 1: had to say something to him. I was like, you know,
- 34:37Speaker 1: John's a friend of mine. I was just hanging out
- 34:38Speaker 1: with him. It's funny that I saw you. And he said, well, Mela,
- 34:42Speaker 1: Josh's future niece is right behind me.
- 34:44Speaker 2: That's awesome.
- 34:45Speaker 1: It was very funny.
- 34:46Speaker 2: Thanks for a circling back like though. That was really
- 34:48Speaker 2: kind of course.
- 34:49Speaker 1: And then you know we have to also give a
- 34:52Speaker 1: do to the a couple more scream queens. Very famously
- 34:55Speaker 1: Janet Lee and Psycho and you got to talk about
- 34:58Speaker 1: Nev Campbell in the movie Scream.
- 35:01Speaker 2: Yes, And I would make an assertion that Mia Goth
- 35:03Speaker 2: is the current Scream queen from the Maxazine trilogy.
- 35:06Speaker 1: I think she's great.
- 35:07Speaker 2: He's the one killing it right now.
- 35:09Speaker 1: Yeah, she's awesome. And speaking of Scream, and I'm only
- 35:13Speaker 1: plugging an old movie crush because guest Nate Bargetzi is
- 35:18Speaker 1: now the biggest comedian on planet Earth.
- 35:20Speaker 2: I know it's so great.
- 35:21Speaker 1: But I had Nate on because I was a fan
- 35:24Speaker 1: of Nate's very early on and I just wanted to
- 35:26Speaker 1: meet Nate. So I drove to Nashville and had Nate on,
- 35:29Speaker 1: and his movie crush pick was Scream.
- 35:31Speaker 2: Did he know you were coming?
- 35:34Speaker 1: Yeah? I took cornered him in a studio and he's like,
- 35:36Speaker 1: who's this guy?
- 35:37Speaker 2: He's such a good guy too, man, It's like his
- 35:39Speaker 2: comedy's perfect, like he's it's I'm just really happy that
- 35:42Speaker 2: he's so huge now.
- 35:44Speaker 1: He's a great guy and super super nice in person,
- 35:47Speaker 1: and I'm sure he is still that way even now
- 35:49Speaker 1: that he's super famous. He seems like he's still a
- 35:51Speaker 1: great guy. But Nate was very charming guests, So you
- 35:53Speaker 1: can if you want to. If you're a big fan
- 35:55Speaker 1: of Nate's now and you want to hear him talk
- 35:57Speaker 1: to me, you can check out that old movie crush.
- 35:59Speaker 2: Don't just check out that old movie crush, check out
- 36:01Speaker 2: all the movie crushes because they are all priceless gems.
- 36:05Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely missed that show, but you know, some
- 36:07Speaker 1: things just have to be retired eventually.
- 36:10Speaker 2: Exactly, Chuck, So did you mention death metal? I thought
- 36:14Speaker 2: you did.
- 36:17Speaker 1: I don't think so, but that's obviously a place where
- 36:20Speaker 1: screaming can be a profession in a way.
- 36:23Speaker 2: So yeah, So, the University of Utah conducted these tests
- 36:27Speaker 2: where they took dynamic MRI, so like you don't have
- 36:30Speaker 2: to just be laying down still to get an MRI
- 36:33Speaker 2: image of a person. They took MRIs of a guy
- 36:36Speaker 2: named Will Ramos who's a death core singer for a
- 36:38Speaker 2: band called Lorna Shore, and he is extraordinarily talented. Whether
- 36:43Speaker 2: you like death core or can't stand death cores, go
- 36:46Speaker 2: look up to the hell Fire the Lorna Shore video
- 36:50Speaker 2: and his range of the work he does with screaming,
- 36:53Speaker 2: like death core screaming is you can't help but be impressed.
- 36:58Speaker 2: He's really good, right, so they got a really good
- 37:01Speaker 2: person to study, because not only is he really good
- 37:04Speaker 2: at screaming deathcore wise or death metal wise, his vocal junk,
- 37:10Speaker 2: his neck junk is like entirely intact, like it's really healthy.
- 37:15Speaker 2: He's been doing this for years and he hasn't done
- 37:18Speaker 2: any damage. So these University of Utah researchers are like,
- 37:20Speaker 2: what are you doing? Can we take MRIs of you singing?
- 37:24Speaker 2: And they did, and it's really cool because the one
- 37:27Speaker 2: of him just singing normally, you can barely see any
- 37:31Speaker 2: movement inside the neck. Right when he screams, it just
- 37:36Speaker 2: is chaos in there. And apparently people who know what
- 37:40Speaker 2: the anatomy is can look at him and be like,
- 37:42Speaker 2: oh my god, he's doing this and this is how
- 37:43Speaker 2: he's keeping from ruining his vocal cords. So they actually
- 37:47Speaker 2: got pretty far with it. But it's worth checking out
- 37:49Speaker 2: that article because just for the MRIs side by side amazing.
- 37:54Speaker 1: I thought, so yeah, and you know, it sounds like
- 37:57Speaker 1: he has something special going on in his neck junk,
- 38:00Speaker 1: because screaming can definitely like it's very hard on your throat.
- 38:06Speaker 1: So good for him. He found his calling.
- 38:09Speaker 2: He found his niche he got him where he fought in.
- 38:12Speaker 1: That's right. Another reason to scream kind of here is
- 38:16Speaker 1: where finishing up is pain control. They did a pretty
- 38:20Speaker 1: interesting survey in twenty twenty of children that had been
- 38:24Speaker 1: in the hospital and pain like screaming to relieve pain control.
- 38:29Speaker 1: It turns out is probably a thing I haven't seen
- 38:31Speaker 1: like the most robust scientific study, but at least from
- 38:34Speaker 1: this survey, children routinely described feeling a feeling of liberation
- 38:40Speaker 1: when they screamed, and then a feeling of calmness afterward
- 38:44Speaker 1: that helped them experience pain in a more manageable way.
- 38:48Speaker 1: The problem is is that adults and doctors and nurses
- 38:52Speaker 1: can't take it. Obviously, parents, it's going to be very
- 38:56Speaker 1: disturbing because they're going to try and get their kid
- 38:57Speaker 1: to not scream, and the same goes for doctors and
- 39:00Speaker 1: nurses trying to comfort them. But the status quote of
- 39:04Speaker 1: all it seems like it helped them. In an eight
- 39:06Speaker 1: year old noted, maybe it's good to scream, but they
- 39:10Speaker 1: don't know that. Nobody asks me, my god.
- 39:14Speaker 2: I know it said it's awful. The reason why they
- 39:18Speaker 2: think that it does help with pain relief is because
- 39:21Speaker 2: one of the hormones or one of the chemicals released
- 39:24Speaker 2: in the fight or flight response is are endorphins, which
- 39:27Speaker 2: can dull pain. So it does make sense that screaming
- 39:30Speaker 2: could help you with pain. There's another clever use of screaming,
- 39:35Speaker 2: if you ask me, then screaming in the emergency room,
- 39:38Speaker 2: which is replacing the current paradigm for creating anxiety inside
- 39:44Speaker 2: a lab to study anxiety for research, which is to
- 39:48Speaker 2: threaten people with a shock. And they've actually found that
- 39:52Speaker 2: you can threaten people that with a scream and generate
- 39:56Speaker 2: anxiety just as reliably. So people are like, we should
- 39:59Speaker 2: stop threatening people with shocks because it's unethical and just
- 40:03Speaker 2: start saying somebody's gonna scream in a second or maybe
- 40:06Speaker 2: two seconds. You're never going to know, and that can
- 40:08Speaker 2: generate anxiety as well.
- 40:10Speaker 1: But you know, we're so soft. Before long, they're gonna
- 40:13Speaker 1: be like, you can't scream with people either, right.
- 40:16Speaker 2: They'll be like, we want you to feel anxiety right now.
- 40:19Speaker 1: Please, yeah, and would you do that for.
- 40:21Speaker 2: I'm sure the participant would be like, I feel anxiety
- 40:23Speaker 2: all the time, can do right?
- 40:27Speaker 1: Then? I guess finally we should at least mention scream
- 40:29Speaker 1: therapy or primal scream therapy. I feel like we talked
- 40:33Speaker 1: about this at a certain point, but this has been
- 40:35Speaker 1: around since the sixties. I felt like it was probably biggest,
- 40:38Speaker 1: maybe in the late sixties and seventies. The original primal
- 40:42Speaker 1: scream therapy psychologist was Arthur Janoff and this was based
- 40:50Speaker 1: on the idea that like we all have this repressed
- 40:52Speaker 1: trauma from childhood, it's stored as primal pain. And Arthur
- 40:57Speaker 1: Janell said, well, you know what, a good old fashion
- 41:00Speaker 1: screaming session can release that stuff and get it out there.
- 41:05Speaker 1: The bad news is it turns out there's not a
- 41:07Speaker 1: lot of evidence that supports it as being a credible
- 41:11Speaker 1: form of therapy.
- 41:13Speaker 2: No, and actually I think it's possible it can hurt
- 41:15Speaker 2: in trauma therapy because screaming can arouse anxiety in the
- 41:21Speaker 2: person screaming even too, so not necessarily the best thing
- 41:25Speaker 2: to do.
- 41:26Speaker 1: No, but very sixty seventies I could see that being
- 41:29Speaker 1: a thing.
- 41:29Speaker 2: Super There's like one of those wicker chairs that people
- 41:32Speaker 2: used to take prom pictures in one of the wicker throne.
- 41:37Speaker 2: There's definitely one of those in the office.
- 41:39Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Black Moses album cover wasn't Isaac Kay's
- 41:43Speaker 1: in one of.
- 41:43Speaker 2: Those, I believe, So, yeah, was there like a panther
- 41:46Speaker 2: laying at his feet too?
- 41:48Speaker 1: Probably there should have been.
- 41:50Speaker 2: Okay, Well, obviously, since we started talking about Isaac Hayes,
- 41:54Speaker 2: I think we've just unlicked listener mail.
- 41:55Speaker 1: Chuck, that's right, and I am wrong actually, because of
- 42:00Speaker 1: course the Black Moses album cover was just that great
- 42:03Speaker 1: picture of Isaac Kay's with the shades on and wearing
- 42:06Speaker 1: that sort of striped colored hood. But maybe it was
- 42:10Speaker 1: on the back. I definitely have seen Isaa Kays in
- 42:12Speaker 1: a wicker throne.
- 42:13Speaker 2: Here, Joe.
- 42:15Speaker 1: Maybe it was Escape from New York. All right, guys,
- 42:18Speaker 1: this is Leslie. All right, guys. I don't remember how
- 42:20Speaker 1: I was turned onto your podcast, but I've been a
- 42:22Speaker 1: regular listener for several years now, and finally I'm getting
- 42:25Speaker 1: around to writing. Often. Wish I was in the studio
- 42:28Speaker 1: during her recording so I could comment or applaud hey
- 42:31Speaker 1: like I did today. Yeah. I was sad to learn
- 42:35Speaker 1: that you weren't doing San Francisco's Sketch Fest this year,
- 42:38Speaker 1: but I'm hoping you come back next year. My friend
- 42:40Speaker 1: Christina and I will be there. I wanted to write
- 42:43Speaker 1: when the topic was animal communication because the musical interlude
- 42:47Speaker 1: was an homage to the Beach Boys Pet Sounds, which
- 42:50Speaker 1: was brilliant. You thank Jerry for that. By the way,
- 42:53Speaker 1: I work in animal care, you see, so I love
- 42:55Speaker 1: your animal episodes. I appreciate how you guys accept a
- 42:59Speaker 1: correction showing up. It's okay to make a mistake as
- 43:01Speaker 1: long as you learn from it. And I appreciate how
- 43:03Speaker 1: you present important yet sensitive topics in a respectful way,
- 43:06Speaker 1: or how you share multiple points of view on divisive issues.
- 43:11Speaker 1: I just want to thank you for keeping me company
- 43:13Speaker 1: during my commute, explaining complex things, making seemingly unsavory topics palatable,
- 43:18Speaker 1: entertain me, educating me, and more ps in support of
- 43:22Speaker 1: your efforts to grow your listenership. Still, I shared your
- 43:25Speaker 1: Sesame Street episode on my Facebook page, so Leslie really
- 43:28Speaker 1: appreciate that. Yeah, and then there's a PPS. I've often
- 43:32Speaker 1: thought a good drinking game could be to drink every
- 43:34Speaker 1: time Chuck says that's right, roll off the tongue or
- 43:38Speaker 1: for sure for sure. But I don't drink alcohol, so
- 43:42Speaker 1: if I were to play, I'd probably just get really
- 43:43Speaker 1: well hydrated. It's very funny, Leslie s in the San
- 43:47Speaker 1: Francisco Bay area. And yeah, Leslie, we'd love to see
- 43:52Speaker 1: you at our show next year because hopefully we'll be there.
- 43:55Speaker 2: That was really really sweet when a very nice email, Leslie,
- 43:58Speaker 2: thank you for taking the time to write all that,
- 44:00Speaker 2: and thank you for sharing our Sysame Street episode. That's
- 44:02Speaker 2: a pretty good one to share. If you ask me,
- 44:05Speaker 2: and if you want to be like Leslie and send
- 44:07Speaker 2: us a very nice email. We always love getting those.
- 44:10Speaker 2: You can send it off to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio
- 44:13Speaker 2: dot com.
- 44:17Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
- 44:20Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
- 44:24Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.