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Does smiling make you happy? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
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Speaker 1: that makes this stuff you should know? Hey, man, how
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Speaker 1: are you doing? You're all smiles, aren't you? I am?
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Speaker 1: Is this uh, this article that we're about to talk about?
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Speaker 1: Did it make you smile? Reading it? Like the contages? Yawn? Anyway,
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Speaker 1: I'm pretty smiling though. You're fairly smiling unless I'm actively
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Speaker 1: piste off about something, and then I'll probably be smiling. Okay,
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Speaker 1: but you just seen me up sat too. That happens.
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Speaker 1: I've never seen you upset. Hey, you just smiled just now?
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Speaker 1: Maybe smile? Was that a fake smiler? Was that a
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Speaker 1: what's called a duchese smile? That was Duquese baby all
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Speaker 1: the way? So we're gonna go with Duke, but it
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Speaker 1: could be Duken. Uh, there's two ends, so I think
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Speaker 1: it may be Duken zu Ken smile. It's French. It's
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Speaker 1: named after a frenchie, Giom Duken. He's a neurologist, one
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Speaker 1: of the early ones where it was basically like, oh,
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Speaker 1: there's a brain there and it's in control of everything,
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Speaker 1: so let's test all sorts of crazy stuff and we'll
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Speaker 1: begin the field of neuroscience right in in eighteen sixty two,
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Speaker 1: sort of oddly at the time, I think there was
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Speaker 1: so much more interesting things going on to study. He
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Speaker 1: figured out that the you know, there's a natural smile,
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Speaker 1: and there are facial muscles involved in that that are
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Speaker 1: involved with the brain, and so he said, I will
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Speaker 1: name it after myself. Well, he was kind of an
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Speaker 1: interesting guy and that he was, from what I understand,
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Speaker 1: somewhat obsessed with the idea that muscles were connected to
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Speaker 1: the soul. Okay, which is weird because that kind of
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Speaker 1: provides the basis of later research into facial expressions and
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Speaker 1: specifically miling. But he was kind of onto something in
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Speaker 1: a weird, roundabout way. But the the way that he
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Speaker 1: isolated he was famous for isolating the facial expressions involved
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Speaker 1: in the smile. But he did it by taking emotion
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Speaker 1: out of the equation. I He did that by shocking
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Speaker 1: the facial muscles of patients in his hospital. That's how
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Speaker 1: he that's how he identified what muscles were involved in
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Speaker 1: a smile and a genuine smile yeah um and uh yeah.
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Speaker 1: He he was known to um basically shock people's faces.
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Speaker 1: There's a picture of him with a patient these two um,
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Speaker 1: these two basically rods that you would use to shock
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Speaker 1: somebody and the person is going like, uh, I'm not
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Speaker 1: doing this on my own. Yeah wow, Well let's do
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Speaker 1: can okay, And that was some pretty shocking experiment station.
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Speaker 1: So you can right comes up with a smile and
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Speaker 1: it's a that's the genuine smile, but there's also a
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Speaker 1: fixed mile and the do ken smile. Also, if you're interested,
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Speaker 1: Chuck Um, I didn't send it to you, but there's
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Speaker 1: this thing called spot the Fake Smile on BBC. It's
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Speaker 1: like twenty different pictures and you pick whether it's fake
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Speaker 1: or genuine. Apparently people stink at it. I didn't have
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Speaker 1: time to really do it, so I don't know what
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Speaker 1: my score was. I did like four of them, but
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Speaker 1: they were kind of hard. But the key is when
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Speaker 1: you're looking for a genuine smile, the eyes are involved.
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Speaker 1: You get the crow's feet right, um, you you're you're
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Speaker 1: you get kind of squinty. That's a real smile. Fake
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Speaker 1: smiles just the mouth. Yeah. I have jokingly doctored up
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Speaker 1: photos of Emily and myself, um, like smudging away wrinkles
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Speaker 1: and stuff and crow's feet, just kidding around. I wouldn't
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Speaker 1: you know me and pictures I don't care, no you,
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Speaker 1: that's that's my bag. Um. But it Emily always says,
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Speaker 1: it looks like we're like smiling without her eyes. It
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Speaker 1: looks like, you know, that fake smile, like you've been botoxed,
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Speaker 1: which will come up later exactly in this discussion. So
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Speaker 1: um fax smiling, real smiling. Obviously, the one you want
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Speaker 1: to go for is the genuine smile because you you
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Speaker 1: can feel it. It's like kind of starts in your
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Speaker 1: gut and comes out of your heart right. Um, Like
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Speaker 1: when you see a guy fall down on the street
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Speaker 1: and you just like you feel that sense of happiness,
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Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, you just start whistling. Maybe as you
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Speaker 1: walk along your way, you're like, sorry, mr, need need
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Speaker 1: a hand, Yeah, And then you happen to have your
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Speaker 1: your prosthetic hand in there and you let him pull
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Speaker 1: it right off, and you're like, WHOA did I ever
4:29
Speaker 1: tell you about the guy in college that fell off
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Speaker 1: his bike and his books splayed out all over the
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Speaker 1: street in front of like hundreds of students on campus
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Speaker 1: and he, uh, he just put his arm on his
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Speaker 1: chin and started throwing through one of the boats, laying down.
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Speaker 1: Its awesome. It was one of the better reactions I've
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Speaker 1: ever seen. That is awesome. Wow. I think that would
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Speaker 1: have emotionally crippled me. I was so self conscious in college.
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Speaker 1: I would not have like that either. I would have
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Speaker 1: been like, well, that's it for me in college, transferring
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Speaker 1: to attent exactly in my dad's back, y'all. Um, So chuck,
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Speaker 1: we've got the fake the difference between the fake smile
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Speaker 1: and the real smile. And I don't know if you
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Speaker 1: noticed this. You're a little older than me, but in
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Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties, were you aware that there was
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Speaker 1: a lot of like, this is the heyday of smile research.
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Speaker 1: I didn't know that. It sort of makes sense just
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Speaker 1: because that's from the whole happy face boom um. You
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Speaker 1: know once Forrest Gump invented that with the face T shirt. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: that was a big deal. Smiling was a big deal. Okay,
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Speaker 1: So well, people don't put funding into figuring out, what,
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Speaker 1: you know, just evaluating smiles. And one of the things
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Speaker 1: they found that was kind of surprising, is that that
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Speaker 1: fake smile we were talking about, the one that just
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Speaker 1: has to do with the mouth and it's not necessarily
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Speaker 1: connected to any emotion. The fake smile um actually can
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Speaker 1: lead to more positive feelings or a better sense of
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Speaker 1: well being, at least in these studies that came out
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Speaker 1: of the seventies and eighties. Yeah, there's a lot of studies,
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Speaker 1: as it turns out. But that's kind of weird because
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Speaker 1: you know, the way we've always thought of smiling is
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Speaker 1: your smile as the result of positive feelings. You can
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Speaker 1: generate positive feelings from smiling. Right, But there there are
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Speaker 1: a bunch of studies, as you say that, and they
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Speaker 1: found this body of researches is surprisingly consistent, right, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: and the in the late eighties, Uh, this psychologist named
6:16
Speaker 1: Robert jan I just took it as a johnic. I
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Speaker 1: think there's no Balkan I know, but they add like
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Speaker 1: um invisible. It's not silent, it's an invisible vowel a Right.
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Speaker 1: This doctor from the Falklands where Balkans Balkans from the Falklands,
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Speaker 1: from the Falkland Islands published a study This smile stuff
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Speaker 1: is making us so silly. Uh. He had subjects repeat
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Speaker 1: vowel sounds, obviously, which would mimic either a smile or
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Speaker 1: a frown. So if you're going to mimic a smile,
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Speaker 1: you would do like an E R and uh frown,
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Speaker 1: you would do a long you you and even your
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Speaker 1: brow furrows, even though I think you're exaggerating, but that's
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Speaker 1: sort of what happens naturally to your face, right. But
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Speaker 1: what he was making them use these vowel sounds because
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Speaker 1: to find out whether it has an effect positive or
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Speaker 1: negative or none, you have to take emotions out. You
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Speaker 1: want them to be emotionally neutral to begin with, which
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Speaker 1: is kind of hard because I would be sitting there
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Speaker 1: kind of giggling anyway at the stillness of the whole thing.
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Speaker 1: But it's similar to like Duke Ken using the shocks.
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Speaker 1: You're trying to keep emotion out of it to generate
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Speaker 1: I don't think it's something happy, just go right. Uh.
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Speaker 1: And they in fact reported the subjects reported feeling better
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Speaker 1: with the long sound the sound, and feeling bad with
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Speaker 1: the you. So there you have it in case closed, right. Uh. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I guess I do kind of You know, I have
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Speaker 1: problems with studies like that anytime it's a they base
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Speaker 1: everything on a measure of reported well being subjective well being. Sure, like,
7:52
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about happiness, right, We've got an
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Speaker 1: audiobook just sitting there that we've never released on happiness
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Speaker 1: just gathering dust. Um, so we know a lot about this,
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Speaker 1: and we know that there are a lot of studies
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Speaker 1: out there that are just kind of like, you know, yes,
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Speaker 1: and if it were just this one, I would I
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Speaker 1: would be poop pooing it. But there's a bunch of
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Speaker 1: other ones that have kind of followed similar methodology have
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Speaker 1: come up with similar results. Well, rather than making vowel sounds,
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Speaker 1: there was another study that had people hold a pencil
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Speaker 1: and they're in their mouths to make it makes the
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Speaker 1: smile or sticking out, which makes a pout out makes
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Speaker 1: a pout always remember that there's your mnemonic device. Uh,
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Speaker 1: And they found the same thing that people who were
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Speaker 1: who had the pens sticking out of their mouths were
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Speaker 1: unhappier afterward, and people who are holding the pencil or
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Speaker 1: pen lengthwise, we're happier afterwards. That's right, again self reported,
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Speaker 1: But this is kind of strange that people are still
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Speaker 1: coming in the same conclusion yes, and yet another. Josh
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Speaker 1: had um three groups of people. One was shown pictures
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Speaker 1: of facial expressions, another group made those facial expressions, and
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Speaker 1: yet another made those expressions while looking at themselves in
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Speaker 1: a mirror. And then they were asked questions at pinpointed
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Speaker 1: their emotional state before and after, and overwhelmingly they scored
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Speaker 1: happier after smiling, and the mirror subjects saw an even
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Speaker 1: more pronounced change in mood than those who didn't see
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Speaker 1: the mirror. So it went. The people who just looked
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Speaker 1: at pictures of people smiling didn't have much of a change.
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Speaker 1: He didn't have any at all. Mild, they didn't have
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Speaker 1: any at all. What it says people who smiled but
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Speaker 1: didn't look at pictures and didn't look into a mirror
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Speaker 1: had some change. But the people who smiled but they
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Speaker 1: looked into a mirror head like through the roof change.
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Speaker 1: That's the jackpot. That's when you're looking, You're like, hey,
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Speaker 1: look at you got like that guy he's smiling. I'm
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Speaker 1: smiling right back, and it's just the love fest. That's
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Speaker 1: the finny. I'm always disappointed when I look in the mirror,
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Speaker 1: even when I'm smiling. Yeah, yeah, but I shouldn't even
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Speaker 1: look in mirrors that much anymore. I think we've talked
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Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, we and probably in the How Mirrors
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Speaker 1: Work episode. I'm gonna suspect that one. Although that little
10:07
Speaker 1: trick mirror. We were on that photo film shoot not
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Speaker 1: too long ago and they had one of those mirrors.
10:11
Speaker 1: It makes you all squatty. Fun house mirror. I think
10:14
Speaker 1: you and I, like five year old stood in front
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Speaker 1: of that thing for thirty minutes laughing. Yeah. The funniest
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Speaker 1: part with you and I are like going up and down,
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Speaker 1: you know, like we're playing in the mirror. But then
10:22
Speaker 1: the crew was just walking by, and they looked really deliberate,
10:26
Speaker 1: you know, but they like little little person there carrying
10:30
Speaker 1: that light it was but with big feet. That was
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Speaker 1: pretty cool. Fun house mirrors the best. Um. But this
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Speaker 1: is this kind of raises a big question like why
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Speaker 1: would looking in the mirror um increase your happiness more
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Speaker 1: than just smiling? Right? Um, unless you love yourself? I
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Speaker 1: I think you know, I mean that's an explanation. Sure, um,
10:53
Speaker 1: but you're probably gonna lose your funding if that's what
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Speaker 1: you come you come up with instead, these researchers who
10:58
Speaker 1: conducted this particular it um suggested that there's a self
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Speaker 1: conscious aspect to um smiling right where if you so
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Speaker 1: in the group that just smiled there, if there are
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Speaker 1: people who were introspective, who thought about their feelings, who
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Speaker 1: were aware of their changes and emotion, those people would
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Speaker 1: have had the most UM boost in happiness from just smiling.
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Speaker 1: But looking in the mirror. You take all those people
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Speaker 1: who aren't necessarily introspective and force them to confront their
11:30
Speaker 1: change and emotion by by making them watch themselves smile,
11:35
Speaker 1: and so that that it's that almost UM is a
11:38
Speaker 1: supplement to self consciousness. If you're not self conscious. This
11:42
Speaker 1: simulates that that phenomenon. You see what I'm saying, Like you,
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Speaker 1: you don't have to just sit there and think, oh,
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Speaker 1: I'm smiling right now, you can see it. You're taking
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Speaker 1: it in. So they think that there's a there's a
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Speaker 1: psychological aspect to it. But this guy, Roberts Johnic, that's
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Speaker 1: what we concluded his name is. He suggests that there's
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Speaker 1: a physiological basis for it, right, So there's maybe both.
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Speaker 1: So the only thing we're missing now is what Duken thought,
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Speaker 1: which is that they're all facial muscles are connected to
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Speaker 1: the soul. That's right, and then everybody will just be
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Speaker 1: happy and covered. That's right. And interestingly, Josh, this goes
12:21
Speaker 1: back to one Chucky Darwin. Yeah, he actually thought of
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Speaker 1: the stuff back in the nineteenth century that facial expressions
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Speaker 1: don't only reflect emotions, but could be the cause of them.
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Speaker 1: And then he got busy with you, now, the whole
12:36
Speaker 1: other stuff that he did. That's that little matter if
12:39
Speaker 1: the galappa goes and uh, it kind of sat on
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Speaker 1: the backburner until the eighties when these new dudes started
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Speaker 1: studying it, and uh, doctors aghn I looked at the
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Speaker 1: research a little further and basically says, you know what,
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Speaker 1: I've got a physiological reason. I've got a hypothesis here
12:56
Speaker 1: why a smile might trigger happiness. And it has to
13:00
Speaker 1: do with the temperature of your body parts change when
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Speaker 1: there's activity there in the muscles, and there's chemical activities
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Speaker 1: that happen in that area as well because of that
13:11
Speaker 1: temperature change, just like in smiling. Right. Well, he was saying,
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Speaker 1: there was other research, I don't think anything to do
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Speaker 1: with smiling that that found that changes in temperature in
13:21
Speaker 1: the brain led to biochemical changes, right, So like maybe
13:25
Speaker 1: more of an endorphin was released when it's cooler. Or basically,
13:29
Speaker 1: what they found was when you can connect emotions to temperature,
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Speaker 1: A warmer brain is an anxious brain. Yes, maybe it
13:38
Speaker 1: has to do with fight or flight. Sure, Um, a
13:41
Speaker 1: cooler brain comparatively is a happier brain. And Zgohnic said, Okay, well,
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Speaker 1: how does this relate to smiling and what did he find?
13:50
Speaker 1: The answer is in the carotid artery, that's right, not
13:54
Speaker 1: the cartoid artery is some people mistaken, they say, uh,
13:58
Speaker 1: and that is the pipe that livers. Most of the
14:00
Speaker 1: blood of the brain flows through an opening called the
14:03
Speaker 1: cavernous sinus, and that's got a lot of facial veins there.
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Speaker 1: So when you smile, Uh, those muscles tighten, those veins
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Speaker 1: are constricted. It's gonna cut down the blood flow going
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Speaker 1: through the car Toyd carotid artery, and uh, you're gonna
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Speaker 1: get a cooler brain. So it's gonna gonna make you happier.
14:21
Speaker 1: But he said, also conversely, when you frown, it actually
14:25
Speaker 1: relieves even more pressure on that corodid artery, so more
14:29
Speaker 1: blood flows. More blood flow equals more higher temperature in
14:33
Speaker 1: the brain and I mean, we're talking about such a
14:36
Speaker 1: minute change. But it certainly makes sense that if if
14:40
Speaker 1: our brains are sensitive, if the chemical processes in our
14:44
Speaker 1: brains are sensitive to very minute changes, which I imagine
14:47
Speaker 1: they would be, then this explanation is perfectly rational reasonable. Uh,
14:52
Speaker 1: it's not supported in any way. There's like, none of
14:56
Speaker 1: these studies show definitively that yes, um, smiling makes you happier,
15:02
Speaker 1: but they suggest that the results suggest that there's a
15:05
Speaker 1: pretty good chance that people become happier just from smiling,
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Speaker 1: even even faking it. Yes, but you found a study
15:14
Speaker 1: that refuted that. Josh, Well, let's talk about the botox first. Yes,
15:18
Speaker 1: two more studies with both very interesting. So the botox one,
15:21
Speaker 1: remember when it supports this, we were saying, like with
15:23
Speaker 1: the uh, with the shocks, do Ken's shocks are using
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Speaker 1: the pen all right, You're you're trying to take emotion
15:31
Speaker 1: out of the equation to see if facial expressions can
15:33
Speaker 1: create emotions. With botox is doing the opposite. You're taking
15:37
Speaker 1: the facial expressions out to see how that affects emotions.
15:41
Speaker 1: And what they found. There's a study from two thousand
15:44
Speaker 1: ten from Barnard College in New York UM that found
15:48
Speaker 1: that people who have botox botalks we should unsure most
15:52
Speaker 1: people know. But it's a it's a toxic proteins, yeah,
15:57
Speaker 1: that they inject into your uh skin and too basically
16:01
Speaker 1: paralyze it so like you don't have that troublesome space
16:05
Speaker 1: between your eyes when you frown, or your your forehead
16:08
Speaker 1: doesn't crinkle up, or your crow's feet don't don't crinkle
16:11
Speaker 1: up when you smile, and paralyzes the nerves. Yes, and
16:14
Speaker 1: it's sort of creepy looking sometimes especially it's not too
16:18
Speaker 1: too bad, right, but it's it's super popular these days.
16:21
Speaker 1: It is. To have injected into your face is very popular.
16:26
Speaker 1: It is pretty we have finally arrived at the dystopian
16:30
Speaker 1: future that's been predicted forever. UM. But what they found
16:34
Speaker 1: was that people UM who had botox injected reported UM,
16:40
Speaker 1: they showed him basically like tear jerk or clips from
16:43
Speaker 1: movies or or something like that, like a net Banning
16:45
Speaker 1: is on a couch and she's like crippled or something
16:48
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, like Sweet Home, Alabama or something. Yeah,
16:51
Speaker 1: exactly like at the end when things turn out right
16:54
Speaker 1: for everybody, it's UM. And the people who had received
16:59
Speaker 1: botox and actions reported less of an emotional response than
17:03
Speaker 1: people who've been given restling, which is another injection, but
17:06
Speaker 1: it's a filler, it doesn't paralyze anything. So basically the
17:09
Speaker 1: idea it matched their face and the results were that
17:14
Speaker 1: they if you can't produce a facial expression, then your
17:20
Speaker 1: emotional experience is slightly lessened. Yeah, it's muted. So this
17:25
Speaker 1: shows both ways facial expressions are somehow connected to emotion,
17:31
Speaker 1: to producing emotion. The other study, which I like, talks
17:35
Speaker 1: about fake smiling, like, uh, you know, turn that frown
17:39
Speaker 1: upside down and you won't be so gloomy. Not true.
17:42
Speaker 1: Fake smiling can actually make things worse. So Walmart greeters,
17:47
Speaker 1: when you're being told the smile on your job, that
17:51
Speaker 1: can actually bum you out more. And that's that's the reason.
17:54
Speaker 1: Can't you just one intuitively, didn't you intuitively know this
17:58
Speaker 1: already that that Porsche mom whose job it is a
18:01
Speaker 1: smile at everybody is probably the one who like wants
18:04
Speaker 1: to punch in the stomach most by the end of
18:06
Speaker 1: the day. Sure, yeah, but it's just interesting because all
18:09
Speaker 1: these other things say like a smile can actually increase
18:11
Speaker 1: your emotion, but it's got to be a real smile.
18:15
Speaker 1: A fake smile has the reverse effect. And they actually
18:19
Speaker 1: did some research on this, Yeah, Michigan State two thousand
18:22
Speaker 1: eleven study Spartans. It was in the Academy of Management Journal,
18:26
Speaker 1: And basically this professor Um, he's a professor management. He
18:29
Speaker 1: studied a group of bus drivers over two weeks and
18:33
Speaker 1: found that the ones who fake smile the most had
18:36
Speaker 1: more withdrawal and emotional exhaustion and had less hemorrhoids probably
18:41
Speaker 1: um and but so basically that's surface acting fake smiling.
18:46
Speaker 1: But he did find also that deep acting, which is
18:49
Speaker 1: where you're like trying to cultivate a more positive outlook
18:54
Speaker 1: inside yourself, like thinking of a really pleasant memory that
18:57
Speaker 1: genuinely makes you happy, right you, you're doing that can
19:00
Speaker 1: lead to actual more positive feelings, better performance at work.
19:04
Speaker 1: Because again it's a management study, so that's what they
19:06
Speaker 1: care about. But do you you actually do um experience
19:11
Speaker 1: more better feelings. There's a positive effect rather than an
19:14
Speaker 1: emotional withdrawal or waste that comes from fake smiling, Which
19:19
Speaker 1: makes sense to me because I mean think about it,
19:21
Speaker 1: like facial expressions are we've always assumed designed for another person.
19:27
Speaker 1: This is how I'm feeling right now, respond accordingly, If
19:30
Speaker 1: you are misleading everybody, you're you're going to at the
19:34
Speaker 1: very least feel like you're not connected anyone because there's
19:37
Speaker 1: no one who's understanding you. Yeah, they said it causes
19:40
Speaker 1: feelings of in in authenticity, which makes sense. And they
19:44
Speaker 1: also found that women, who are typically viewed as more
19:48
Speaker 1: emotional than men, got in worse moods with the fake
19:51
Speaker 1: smiling and reacted even more positively when they were deep
19:56
Speaker 1: acting and really able to able to conjure up those
19:59
Speaker 1: pleasant feelings puppies. Yeah, so men are just apes. Well.
20:04
Speaker 1: Another study two thousand five minut University study found that
20:10
Speaker 1: UM women are likelier to smile, what whether they feel
20:14
Speaker 1: like smiling or not, in almost all social situations, compared
20:17
Speaker 1: to man. So there that explains why women are often
20:22
Speaker 1: emotionally exhausted. Yeah, my mom was much more inclined to
20:26
Speaker 1: put on a happy face around other people than my
20:28
Speaker 1: dad was. My dad would literally just like go off
20:31
Speaker 1: by himself and sulk in front of everybody and just
20:34
Speaker 1: be like here's me. But still in two thousand and eleven,
20:38
Speaker 1: the point that we're at is um putting pens in
20:40
Speaker 1: people's mouths and telling him to make e sounds in
20:44
Speaker 1: our smile research. This is where we are. But at
20:46
Speaker 1: the very least the findings are they're interesting and man,
20:52
Speaker 1: it has been forever since we've done like a study fest. Yeah,
20:56
Speaker 1: this feels like two thousand and eight, two thousand nine, crazy. Yeah,
21:00
Speaker 1: you know we've been doing this for more than three
21:01
Speaker 1: years now. Really that means uh Sarah our fan that
21:07
Speaker 1: is she's like ninety, she wrote recently. I think she's fourteen? Now?
21:14
Speaker 1: Is she fourteen? Now? Yes, she's she's on the Facebook
21:17
Speaker 1: page now. No, I haven't keeps the darn button. Well
21:21
Speaker 1: that's great. Well that's it for smiling. I'm done smiling
21:23
Speaker 1: for the day. Yeah, I'm not. I don't feel like
21:26
Speaker 1: being emotionally withdrawn and exhausted. Although our next podcast that
21:30
Speaker 1: we're recording is pretty fun, it is, but that'll be
21:34
Speaker 1: a genuine smile. Yes, okay, So Chuck, you got anything?
21:38
Speaker 1: Uh no, Just to plug the fact that we're on
21:42
Speaker 1: the radio now, you can listen to us on Friday
21:44
Speaker 1: nights from seven eight if you're in the New York
21:46
Speaker 1: area New Jersey area on WFMU ninety one point one.
21:49
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, we cover the whole Hudson
21:52
Speaker 1: Valley like a wet blanket that's been left out in
21:55
Speaker 1: the street for a couple of days. Hudson Valley. You
21:59
Speaker 1: can find us it in dy point one Friday's from
22:01
Speaker 1: seven eight and big thanks to Ken Friedman. Yeah, huge thanks.
22:06
Speaker 1: Ken Friedman is like he should wear a cape. Yeah
22:08
Speaker 1: he might, he probably does. But I Ken is a
22:11
Speaker 1: w FM you and he's like everyone we've talked to
22:14
Speaker 1: in public radio, because we've talked to other folks, has said, boy,
22:17
Speaker 1: Ken is like one of these stand up guys. So
22:21
Speaker 1: so thanks Ken, And if you're listening to this right
22:24
Speaker 1: now on WFMU, we'll bet you appreciate Ken yourself. Yeah
22:29
Speaker 1: they um, okay, So what do you want to do? Listener?
22:33
Speaker 1: Mail now? Oh, if you want to know more about
22:36
Speaker 1: smiling and happiness, type happy in to the search bar
22:39
Speaker 1: at our beloved venerable website How Stuff Works dot com,
22:43
Speaker 1: and it's gonna bring up a ton of stuff. There
22:46
Speaker 1: was so much happiness stuff that we wrote like last year,
22:49
Speaker 1: what people love studying emotion? Yeah, yes they do. That's
22:53
Speaker 1: psychologists that that's just that's their thing. It certainly is
22:57
Speaker 1: let's make people cry and then ask him about it.
23:00
Speaker 1: Let's make people to shock people in the face. We
23:02
Speaker 1: got to get that happiness audiobook released. Is it still relevant?
23:07
Speaker 1: Sure it is, okay, it was ever greenest timeless classic. Anyway,
23:10
Speaker 1: I said how stuff works in handy search bar. So
23:13
Speaker 1: listener mail, should we go with the underground railroad or
23:20
Speaker 1: um fear orgasms? I think fear orgaism. I got permission
23:27
Speaker 1: to read this, by the way, as I do all
23:29
Speaker 1: of them. Hi, guys, love the podcast. Thanks for making
23:31
Speaker 1: me learn and laugh. I swear the following story is true,
23:34
Speaker 1: bizarre but true. So I'm listening to the Fear podcast
23:37
Speaker 1: at the gym today, and you gave an example of
23:40
Speaker 1: men asking women out after experiencing fear because they feel
23:43
Speaker 1: invisible or sexual. And Josh said something like, if you've
23:46
Speaker 1: ever had a strange reaction to fear, let us know
23:48
Speaker 1: invincible invisible. I think she made invincible maybe. So last
23:54
Speaker 1: month I had a truly bizarre experience related to fear.
23:57
Speaker 1: My boss was out of town. You put me in
23:59
Speaker 1: charge of a webinar he had planned to do, and
24:01
Speaker 1: I've moderated them before, but this was the first time
24:04
Speaker 1: I had to make sure all the mechanics worked. Correctly.
24:07
Speaker 1: About fifty people were expected to join. I'd practiced thoroughly,
24:10
Speaker 1: going through it a few times to make sure I
24:12
Speaker 1: had it down. When the day came to do the webinar,
24:14
Speaker 1: I loaded it up two hours beforehand to make sure
24:17
Speaker 1: it was already and it did not work correctly. I
24:21
Speaker 1: read through my notes and tried again. I could not
24:23
Speaker 1: get the slides up and started to panic. I can't
24:26
Speaker 1: get the phone lines to work. All of a sudden,
24:28
Speaker 1: I try again and again, and I am panicking. Now
24:31
Speaker 1: I call the client to let them know my difficulties.
24:33
Speaker 1: At this point, I am really panicked. It's been two hours.
24:37
Speaker 1: Folks sending me text while they can't connect sending emails.
24:41
Speaker 1: I like the build up here. It's just like especially coming.
24:46
Speaker 1: Two phone lines went down, no way to reach the
24:48
Speaker 1: software support line, and fifty people waiting for me to
24:50
Speaker 1: connect them to the webinar that is supposed to start
24:52
Speaker 1: right now. I'm shaking with anxiety. And guess what my
24:56
Speaker 1: body does. I have an intense orgasm, and then another one.
25:03
Speaker 1: She doubled down. Well, I'm thinking my body was trying
25:08
Speaker 1: to get rid of extra energy so I could focus,
25:10
Speaker 1: which kind of makes sense. Maybe or it's just like
25:13
Speaker 1: enough of this, right, let's party. Who knows? It was
25:18
Speaker 1: so unexpected that I almost started laughing. And no, I
25:22
Speaker 1: have not told many people about this. I'm not sure
25:24
Speaker 1: how you can share it if you find it of interest,
25:30
Speaker 1: but please only use my first name. And Julie I
25:34
Speaker 1: wrote her back and said, yeah, I really would like
25:37
Speaker 1: to read this, and by the way, good for you,
25:40
Speaker 1: and she said, yeah, right now, she like goes into
25:46
Speaker 1: a bear dens and she hang glides and does all
25:51
Speaker 1: sorts of crazy stuff. All that exactly crazy, Julie beckon
25:55
Speaker 1: with by the way, I just made up that last name.
25:57
Speaker 1: And literally she didn't send her last name. Man, So
26:01
Speaker 1: for all those years that you know, I was stumbling
26:05
Speaker 1: around in the dark not knowing what the heck was
26:07
Speaker 1: going on, I should have just like none at a webinar. Okay,
26:16
Speaker 1: so I don't even know what to call for now. Um,
26:21
Speaker 1: let's see if you have ever encountered a bear, let
26:24
Speaker 1: us know. Sorry, yeah, we don't get too many outdoors
26:27
Speaker 1: and emails these days. How about that you've ever encountered
26:30
Speaker 1: a bear? Tell us about it? And uh, you can
26:34
Speaker 1: tweet to us right s y s K podcast, which
26:38
Speaker 1: by the way, I should tell you we have a
26:39
Speaker 1: little campaign going that started last night a guy named
26:43
Speaker 1: OMG Chris. That's his Twitter handle OMG C h R
26:48
Speaker 1: I S S S. Right, Okay, he had he asked
26:52
Speaker 1: us to take a vacation because he wanted to catch up,
26:54
Speaker 1: and I tweeted that, like many other people have caught
26:57
Speaker 1: up and succeeded, you know you need to so um
27:00
Speaker 1: I asked all of our fans and followers on Twitter
27:04
Speaker 1: to let Chris know that he can do it. And
27:06
Speaker 1: there's a hashtag now, it's pound Chris can do it,
27:10
Speaker 1: And all these people send him these words of encouragement
27:12
Speaker 1: and tips and on how to catch up. Some people
27:15
Speaker 1: listen to us at one point five or two times
27:17
Speaker 1: and they say, your your laugh is very funny. Twice
27:20
Speaker 1: the speed. Yeah, We've gotten a lot of people that
27:21
Speaker 1: said they do that. So if you want to encourage Chris,
27:24
Speaker 1: I've been retweeting a lot of words of encouragement. But
27:27
Speaker 1: you can send him a tweet and c c us
27:31
Speaker 1: on it, and then make sure you use the hashtag
27:34
Speaker 1: pound Chris can do it? All right, R S S S.
27:38
Speaker 1: You know it's just h C H R I S
27:41
Speaker 1: can do it. Good, good thinking. Awesome um. And then
27:44
Speaker 1: also we were on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash stuff
27:47
Speaker 1: You should know and you can send us your bare
27:50
Speaker 1: stories at Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
28:01
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
28:03
Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how staffork staff as we explore
28:06
Speaker 1: the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to
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Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
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Speaker 1: are you