Latest / Stuff You Should Know / SYSK Selects: How Circumcision Works
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, It's November thirty two ten. What now it's not,
- 0:07Speaker 1: but I'm gonna bring you back in time. We're all
- 0:08Speaker 1: getting in the way back machine for this Saturday select everyone,
- 0:12Speaker 1: and we're going back to November because we published How
- 0:16Speaker 1: Circumcision Works that day and uh, this is a good one.
- 0:21Speaker 1: It kind of tied up medical some medical science along
- 0:26Speaker 1: with um. While the controversies around circumcision, there's really no
- 0:31Speaker 1: way around that. It's not a it's not an open
- 0:34Speaker 1: and closed, uh discussion. It's very much open for debate,
- 0:38Speaker 1: and we get into it in this episode. It is.
- 0:40Speaker 1: It's a pretty good one. So if you think you
- 0:43Speaker 1: can handle it, listen to How Circumcision Works right now.
- 0:53Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
- 0:57Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Joshua
- 1:06Speaker 1: m Clark. With me is Charles W. Bryant. That makes
- 1:09Speaker 1: this stuff. You should nizzo. Um and uh that's that. Hi, Hey,
- 1:16Speaker 1: josh m Clark. Joshua Clark. Yes, you don't have a
- 1:21Speaker 1: fancy setup today, I have an intro. Okay, let's hear it. Okay, Wow, Chuck,
- 1:27Speaker 1: you really kind of waiting up against the wall, aren't
- 1:30Speaker 1: you today. Are you waiting on me a little bit? Okay? Um?
- 1:34Speaker 1: Are you ready? I'm ready, Chuck, Josh, have you ever
- 1:36Speaker 1: heard of Lloyd Schofield? I have not. Yes, you have?
- 1:40Speaker 1: You always do this? Who is he? Uh? He is
- 1:43Speaker 1: a guy out in San Francisco who has proposed for
- 1:47Speaker 1: next Novembers. Um, I guess referendum elections. It wouldn't even
- 1:53Speaker 1: be mid term. What do you call the elections between
- 1:56Speaker 1: mid term and you know, the big ones quarter term?
- 1:59Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay, we'll call it that. For next
- 2:02Speaker 1: November's ballot in San Francisco, there may be a referendum
- 2:04Speaker 1: if Floyd Scofield has anything to do with it. The
- 2:07Speaker 1: Outright Band's male circumcision in San Francisco. Well, yeah, obviously,
- 2:12Speaker 1: but you gotta start somewhere, Um, scope Field needs signatures
- 2:18Speaker 1: and uh, basically read read the read the provision, Chuck,
- 2:22Speaker 1: the wording of the proposed referendum. Uh. It would make
- 2:26Speaker 1: it a misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut, or mutilate the
- 2:31Speaker 1: genitals of a person under eighteen. Right, and he he
- 2:35Speaker 1: says it's genital mutilation. That's how he feels, and other
- 2:38Speaker 1: people feel that way. Too. Yeah, he's definitely not um
- 2:42Speaker 1: on his own in that one. There's some people in
- 2:44Speaker 1: this CBS AP article they're like, it's a little too far.
- 2:49Speaker 1: It should be the choice of the parents, Scofield's idea,
- 2:52Speaker 1: And it's kind of it kind of appears in this
- 2:54Speaker 1: um in the wording of the ballot measure that it's
- 2:58Speaker 1: a parent's choice, but it's not the choice of most
- 3:00Speaker 1: people who are circumcised, because they're generally circumcised as newborn infants. Yeah,
- 3:07Speaker 1: little boys are. And he likened to to tooing because
- 3:10Speaker 1: you're not allowed to to to a child. When did
- 3:13Speaker 1: you start saying tattoo like that? What do you mean
- 3:15Speaker 1: to too? Is that weird? Yeah, it's a little weird.
- 3:18Speaker 1: It's like humans. Well that's what he says. He said that,
- 3:22Speaker 1: you know, to felony to to to a kid. So Jerry,
- 3:26Speaker 1: he's really laughing in there, to tattoo a child, and
- 3:30Speaker 1: so he says it's the same thing. Well, yeah, he's
- 3:32Speaker 1: actually saying it's way way worse than tattooing. Um, but
- 3:36Speaker 1: he he is saying it's along the same lines as
- 3:37Speaker 1: a choice by the parents that is possibly against the
- 3:41Speaker 1: child's will. Later on, UM and that's that. So let's
- 3:45Speaker 1: talk about circumcision, because this is a little that's an
- 3:48Speaker 1: odd approach to me, you know, like the way I've
- 3:50Speaker 1: always understood it is you, you know, there's circumcision out there.
- 3:54Speaker 1: It's not weird, it's not odd. But as you kind
- 3:59Speaker 1: of get older, you realize that there's, you know, two
- 4:02Speaker 1: sides to this whole story, and it kind of is
- 4:06Speaker 1: actually um and you kind of come to realize, like
- 4:09Speaker 1: there's people out there who think that people who aren't
- 4:12Speaker 1: you're circumcised or weird, and people out there who think
- 4:15Speaker 1: that people who are circumcised or weird. Right, exactly, Let's
- 4:19Speaker 1: do some stats, stat man, Well, I think the first
- 4:22Speaker 1: stat we should open with, perhaps is that if you
- 4:25Speaker 1: are an American boy or man in the last thirty years,
- 4:30Speaker 1: then there's about a three and five chance that you
- 4:32Speaker 1: are circumcised here in this country over the past three decades,
- 4:37Speaker 1: although that is falling big time. Yeah, what was the
- 4:41Speaker 1: three and five chance now? Um in two thousand five,
- 4:45Speaker 1: between night and I think two thousand it was about
- 4:48Speaker 1: three and five, right, and then by two thousand five
- 4:51Speaker 1: it had dropped to about fifty three. Yeah, and the
- 4:56Speaker 1: Scofield says that in uh, two thousand nine fell to
- 5:00Speaker 1: thirty three. That's a huge drop, So in a decade
- 5:03Speaker 1: it fell, and they actually think one of the reasons
- 5:08Speaker 1: why is because there's been an increasing presence of Hispanics
- 5:12Speaker 1: in the US, and Hispanics are much much less likely
- 5:15Speaker 1: than any other group, um to circumcise their male infants.
- 5:20Speaker 1: And it's also lower out west and uh, where there's
- 5:23Speaker 1: a larger Hispanic population. Yeah, in the Midwest, there's about
- 5:26Speaker 1: a chance that you are going to circumcise your boy. Uh.
- 5:31Speaker 1: In the South, there's half right, it's like um Russian
- 5:36Speaker 1: roulette with a two barreled two chamber gun. Yeah, sure, uh.
- 5:41Speaker 1: And then out west, Yeah, it's less than a quarter
- 5:43Speaker 1: um of of the male infants are circumcised out there
- 5:47Speaker 1: every year. But ultimately there's about one point two million circumcisions.
- 5:52Speaker 1: Well there were in two thousand five. Yes, so now
- 5:55Speaker 1: we're down to less than that. But in two thousand
- 5:57Speaker 1: five there about one point two million male boys born
- 6:00Speaker 1: in the United States who were circumcised. Right, Yeah, and
- 6:04Speaker 1: since you mentioned that, that about two hundred dollars a pop.
- 6:08Speaker 1: Even though it's included in your in your birth and bill,
- 6:11Speaker 1: it's about two million dollars that UM insurance companies would
- 6:15Speaker 1: love to not have to pay exactly. So there's actually
- 6:18Speaker 1: UM I don't know if it's overt support or maybe
- 6:22Speaker 1: quiet financial support or whatever, but the insurance companies are
- 6:25Speaker 1: very happy to side with the anti circumcision movement and medicaid. Yes,
- 6:31Speaker 1: of course, So Chuck, let's talk about the penis. Let's
- 6:55Speaker 1: talk about the foreskin. That's part of it. We're gonna
- 6:57Speaker 1: say the word penis a whole lot because you can't
- 7:01Speaker 1: avoid it when you're talking about circumcision. That's right, Because
- 7:04Speaker 1: let's just go ahead and set up for our foreign
- 7:06Speaker 1: friends who may not know what circumcision is, like Roller Derby. Uh,
- 7:11Speaker 1: circumcision is when the foreskin of the penis, it's also
- 7:14Speaker 1: called the prep use prepuse is removed, simple as that.
- 7:19Speaker 1: So you've got the prep use, which is the foreskin. Yes,
- 7:23Speaker 1: it covers the tip of the penis, which is also
- 7:25Speaker 1: called the glands g L A N s uh. And
- 7:28Speaker 1: then there's a piece of connective tissue that works much
- 7:32Speaker 1: like the connective tissue that anchors the bottom of your
- 7:34Speaker 1: tongue to the floor of your mouth, called a frenulum.
- 7:38Speaker 1: And that, yes, the prep use connected to the glands. Yeah.
- 7:42Speaker 1: And they also said the inner portion of the foreskin
- 7:46Speaker 1: is also much like the inside of your mouth, and
- 7:49Speaker 1: that it has a natural moisture to lubricate the glands.
- 7:54Speaker 1: It's hot and moist in there, that's what it says. Yes, um, yeah,
- 7:59Speaker 1: it provides luber cation which kind of keeps it safe
- 8:02Speaker 1: and sheathed. I guess right, yeah, from abrasion. And like
- 8:06Speaker 1: they've mentioned, cold and wind dry, the dry winter air
- 8:08Speaker 1: can be rough on a glands. Yeah. And they this
- 8:11Speaker 1: was the Tom Sheef article, and my hat is off
- 8:13Speaker 1: to him for this one. Yes, Tom did a great
- 8:16Speaker 1: job with us. I liked your first response, um, chuck.
- 8:20Speaker 1: It also contains the prep use, also contains um, some
- 8:26Speaker 1: nerve cells, bundles blood, special blood cells. Just it makes
- 8:32Speaker 1: the the penis that much more sensitive. And the fact
- 8:35Speaker 1: that it's uh, it produces movement aids in stimulation. Yeah,
- 8:41Speaker 1: and lubrication. So there's a lot of people who are
- 8:43Speaker 1: happy with their prep use or foreskin and are very
- 8:46Speaker 1: glad that they are um uncut, as the anti circumcision
- 8:51Speaker 1: groups would call it right, right or natural is another
- 8:55Speaker 1: one that's right. And since we're talking about the four skin.
- 8:57Speaker 1: It's not the same on all dudes. It's uh like
- 9:00Speaker 1: every human body part. It varies from person to person. Uh.
- 9:04Speaker 1: And some men actually are sort of naturally circumcised because
- 9:08Speaker 1: they're either born with very little foreskin, or they have
- 9:11Speaker 1: foreskins that actually retract during puberty they go or maybe
- 9:17Speaker 1: sad trombone and uh, they do serve a protective purpose,
- 9:23Speaker 1: but they can also And for people that are on
- 9:26Speaker 1: both sides, we're gonna present both sides of the argument.
- 9:28Speaker 1: So don't say you guys are just talking about this
- 9:30Speaker 1: one side. We're gonna talk about both sides, sure of course.
- 9:33Speaker 1: But some one camp believes that, uh, it can cause
- 9:37Speaker 1: some problems. Well it can. I think everybody agrees on
- 9:40Speaker 1: these like these are the very rare problems that can
- 9:43Speaker 1: come about it, and having force, we should say that
- 9:46Speaker 1: it's rare, though, because one of the big problems that
- 9:48Speaker 1: the anti circumcision folks have is that these are overstated.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Like when you say it can it's easier to get
- 9:57Speaker 1: dirty and bacteria can build up and all these things
- 10:00Speaker 1: can happen. That is true, but it's not like if
- 10:03Speaker 1: you skip a shower, this is gonna happen. Well, let's
- 10:06Speaker 1: talk about this because there there are some some problems
- 10:10Speaker 1: that can arise just from having an or normal foreskin.
- 10:14Speaker 1: One of those problems because it is like the inside
- 10:16Speaker 1: of your mouth and they're warm, moist. You gotta keep
- 10:19Speaker 1: it clean. You do have to keep it clean. And
- 10:20Speaker 1: if you don't, a um, white build up, a white,
- 10:24Speaker 1: soapy build up, soapy, soupy. This say is cheesy in
- 10:29Speaker 1: the article cheesy. That's right, A white, cheesy build up
- 10:32Speaker 1: called smeg mum can develop. Um. And once you start
- 10:35Speaker 1: developing a white, cheesy build up called smegma within your foreskin, um,
- 10:40Speaker 1: you want to take a really hard, long look at
- 10:43Speaker 1: your grooming habits. Yeah, did you say smegmum? Smegma? Okay,
- 10:48Speaker 1: smegmums maybe the plural. No, I want to make sure
- 10:52Speaker 1: you were saying it right, s magma, because the last
- 10:54Speaker 1: thing I want is listener mail on the pronunciation of smegma.
- 10:57Speaker 1: We get all these voice files. Although I've awaysa smegma,
- 11:00Speaker 1: but I think it's magma. Yeah, maybe I've just said
- 11:03Speaker 1: smegma for humor sake. Maybe all right, that was around
- 11:07Speaker 1: the time wains World was out, wasn't it. Probably um,
- 11:10Speaker 1: that's just one but that's probably a pretty minor thing.
- 11:14Speaker 1: I'm sure that's easily corrected. Your force game, though, can
- 11:17Speaker 1: also be um well. It can develop to two ways,
- 11:23Speaker 1: too tight or too loose, right and each other problems.
- 11:28Speaker 1: Too tight, it can cause a condition known as pimosis.
- 11:31Speaker 1: It's like trying to put on a sweater that's way
- 11:33Speaker 1: too small for you. It's a good way to look
- 11:35Speaker 1: at it, and that is a medical that's the main
- 11:38Speaker 1: medical determinant for whether or not you should get a circumcision.
- 11:41Speaker 1: Like the main medical reason would be phi mosis. I
- 11:44Speaker 1: think that's probably because it's the most frequent. It's probably
- 11:48Speaker 1: the most frequent problem. You think, I think, Okay, if
- 11:51Speaker 1: it's too loose, then it's going to be called paraphymosis.
- 11:54Speaker 1: And that's like wearing your dad's sweater. Yes, And it
- 11:57Speaker 1: can cause swelling of the glands and the forced in
- 12:00Speaker 1: And there's also something called balance post thesis, which is
- 12:05Speaker 1: swelling of the mucous surfaces of the four skin and
- 12:09Speaker 1: that can lead to skin disease, UH, problems with the urethra, pain,
- 12:17Speaker 1: all sorts of things that you don't want to have
- 12:18Speaker 1: in general, like why God, why, I would imagine so
- 12:22Speaker 1: you can have your frenulum attached too tightly. That's the
- 12:25Speaker 1: frenulum brevi where it's just like that's like trying to
- 12:29Speaker 1: poke your head through that very very tight sweater. That's
- 12:31Speaker 1: a good way to look at it as well. Thank you, Chuck,
- 12:34Speaker 1: very evocative, Josh. And um circumcision can help correct all
- 12:38Speaker 1: of these problems, but it is rarely a medically necessary
- 12:43Speaker 1: to get circumcanced. Right. And like we said, um, these
- 12:46Speaker 1: problems do exist. They are serious problems. It's at the
- 12:49Speaker 1: very least uncomfortable, if not, you know, downright dangerous. Um.
- 12:53Speaker 1: And I think both sides agree that there are circumstances
- 12:57Speaker 1: such as these that do UM warrant circumcision. The problem
- 13:01Speaker 1: is most circumcision. I'm sure the vast majority of circumcisions
- 13:06Speaker 1: are um customary, cultural preventative, right, yeah, sociological in nature.
- 13:14Speaker 1: Let's talk about the origins of circumcision. When did humans
- 13:18Speaker 1: get the idea to cut the foreskin off of boys penises? Well?
- 13:22Speaker 1: Did it start with the Bible? This is where tom started.
- 13:25Speaker 1: But no, it didn't start with the As far back
- 13:28Speaker 1: as we can find, the Egyptians were doing Okay, that's
- 13:31Speaker 1: what we understand. Okay, you want to talk about that, Well,
- 13:33Speaker 1: let's talk about the Bible first, because in the Book
- 13:36Speaker 1: of Genesis God made a covenant with Abraham, and as
- 13:41Speaker 1: we all know, Abraham was a Jewish patriarch and his descendants,
- 13:45Speaker 1: Abraham was the patriarch of the houses of the Jews
- 13:49Speaker 1: and the Muslims. Dude, really, yes, Isaac, his son went
- 13:53Speaker 1: on to found the Jews. Well, went on to found
- 13:56Speaker 1: Judaism with the father Judaism Ishmael. What the other one
- 14:01Speaker 1: was a legitimate son, right, but he went on to
- 14:03Speaker 1: found um Islam. Yes, and Isaac, they said, basically, God's
- 14:08Speaker 1: gonna bless um Jews with riches and success all the
- 14:12Speaker 1: you know, the land will be fruitful if you get
- 14:15Speaker 1: circumcised by your eighth day of life. And not just you,
- 14:20Speaker 1: but your sons, any servants that you capture, any sir,
- 14:25Speaker 1: any sons that those captured servants has All boys have
- 14:30Speaker 1: to be circumcised. And this has led to the fact
- 14:33Speaker 1: that today of Jewish men are in fact circumcised and
- 14:37Speaker 1: um According to biblical tradition, uh Ishmael was circumcised before
- 14:43Speaker 1: he was basically run off from Abraham's family and um
- 14:48Speaker 1: so that kind of formed the basis of the Muslim
- 14:51Speaker 1: tradition of circumcision, which continues today. If you look at
- 14:55Speaker 1: um Muslim texts, the Kuran, apparently it doesn't have any
- 14:59Speaker 1: endorsement or mentioned of secumcision. But most Muslims today still
- 15:03Speaker 1: do circumcise because Muhammad apparently was circumcised. So there, I
- 15:08Speaker 1: guess it's a reverence for their profit. Yes, And today
- 15:11Speaker 1: about two thirds of every circumcised men on the planet
- 15:14Speaker 1: or Muslim of Jewish men, and two thirds of Muslim
- 15:21Speaker 1: and circumcised of all men on the planet are Muslim exactly.
- 15:29Speaker 1: That's a tough one. It's kind of an odd qualifier.
- 15:33Speaker 1: Christian sex don't really endorse one way or the other.
- 15:36Speaker 1: They say, like, you know, decide amongst yourselves and Buddhism
- 15:40Speaker 1: and Hinduism. They don't really have a stance one way
- 15:42Speaker 1: or the other. Is that right? That's right? And we
- 15:45Speaker 1: talked about the Egyptians probably being the earliest group as
- 15:48Speaker 1: far as Western culture is concerned. Um like with most things, Uh,
- 15:54Speaker 1: the Egyptians came up with this idea, not necessarily independently,
- 15:58Speaker 1: or if it did independently, they weren't the only ones,
- 16:01Speaker 1: but they apparently were the ones who exposed, um, the
- 16:05Speaker 1: early Israelites, early Jews to write this concept, right yeah,
- 16:11Speaker 1: and then uh, at about the same time, possibly even
- 16:14Speaker 1: before other groups the Mayans and the Aztecs. Yeah, we're
- 16:17Speaker 1: both um circumcising their boys. Um, indigenous Australians, African Asian
- 16:24Speaker 1: and other American tribes, right yeah. And Georgians. Yeah, what
- 16:31Speaker 1: is that that I've never heard of them? The coal Colchians. Yeah,
- 16:34Speaker 1: I hadn't heard of him either, but described them. So
- 16:37Speaker 1: they were ancient people that is now modern day Georgia
- 16:39Speaker 1: and they were into it. Yeah, well they practiced it.
- 16:43Speaker 1: And then so here in the West, Um, I guess
- 16:47Speaker 1: there was strictly religious until about the nineteenth century, right,
- 16:50Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, medicine is like we
- 16:52Speaker 1: we can do that. Well yeah, but that's also around
- 16:55Speaker 1: the same time that they were doing all sorts of
- 16:57Speaker 1: things saying that this could solve this this like we
- 17:01Speaker 1: can treat v D and we can cure homosexuality with circumcision,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and uh, impotence was another one. So they were a
- 17:09Speaker 1: little bit off base, I would say, they're as in
- 17:11Speaker 1: way off base, I would think, so, yeah, but it
- 17:14Speaker 1: did it did have a lasting impression circumcision did become
- 17:19Speaker 1: associated with the medical establishment here in the West, and
- 17:22Speaker 1: that I think that's translated elsewhere in the Jewish faith.
- 17:26Speaker 1: A um mohel mohole mole mole, yeah, mole okay, Um,
- 17:32Speaker 1: they still perform briss us briss i brisom I just
- 17:38Speaker 1: the only thing I know about that is from Seinfeld
- 17:41Speaker 1: when Jerry was supposed to perform the snap. Um. They
- 17:46Speaker 1: they may still perform these procedures, Uh, in the Arab world,
- 17:51Speaker 1: in the Muslim world, Um, that's it's generally done in
- 17:55Speaker 1: the medical realm um. And then that's actually that was
- 18:02Speaker 1: taken away from barber's in ancient Turkey and yeah, in
- 18:06Speaker 1: Turkey and the Middle East of the Middle Ages, barbers
- 18:10Speaker 1: used to do amputations, blood lettings and circumcisions. Blood lettings
- 18:15Speaker 1: like give you a nice bleating and you'll be feeling better,
- 18:18Speaker 1: get all the toxins out of your blood. Uh. Let's
- 18:22Speaker 1: talk about it around the globe, like how how it
- 18:24Speaker 1: actually goes down like today? Yeah, Like the Jews still
- 18:29Speaker 1: still do it traditionally before the Eighth Day, they kind
- 18:33Speaker 1: of stick to that. And Egypt it' um anywhere from
- 18:35Speaker 1: birth to about eight years old and in Malaysia. It's
- 18:39Speaker 1: in other places it's like a rite of passage, like
- 18:42Speaker 1: at early adolescence. Yeah, some um and some Muslim cultures.
- 18:47Speaker 1: Once a boy can recite the Koran um once like
- 18:52Speaker 1: all the way through right right, which I mean think
- 18:54Speaker 1: about that and think about if you don't want to
- 18:56Speaker 1: get circumcised. Like remember one, once a boy can do
- 19:01Speaker 1: that um there that's associated with the time when he'll
- 19:04Speaker 1: be circumcised after that. And you didn't see there's some
- 19:08Speaker 1: really sad cute pictures in this article. Now. Yeah, there's
- 19:12Speaker 1: a little boy who's clutching his genitalia under his hospital
- 19:15Speaker 1: gown and crying because he's like second in line to
- 19:18Speaker 1: be circumcised. There's a kid who's being circumcised on page zero.
- 19:22Speaker 1: It's sad stuff. I'm glad I don't print the pictures out.
- 19:25Speaker 1: I don't want to see that. In Africa, Josh, it
- 19:28Speaker 1: is also in a lot of tribes, coming of age
- 19:30Speaker 1: type of thing. And here's the deal in Africa, though
- 19:34Speaker 1: sometimes there's not in these remote areas a trained professional
- 19:39Speaker 1: with all the right equipment, and they do it anyway.
- 19:42Speaker 1: And because of this, there's like a thirty five percent
- 19:44Speaker 1: increased risk of complications six percent, like severe complications that
- 19:49Speaker 1: possibly um result in partial or full amputation of the penis. Yeah. Um,
- 19:54Speaker 1: but sometimes a traveling uh circumcis or will roll through
- 20:00Speaker 1: town and his ice cream truck, and everybody comes out
- 20:03Speaker 1: and UH with boys of all ages because they know
- 20:06Speaker 1: the safe, real doctor with the real clean equipment is there,
- 20:10Speaker 1: and so they'll bring up boys of all ages to
- 20:12Speaker 1: get circumcised when he rolls through. Yes, which is a
- 20:15Speaker 1: good thing that happens. Asia, it's extremely rare unless they
- 20:19Speaker 1: have um thriving Muslim populations. But in Asia, among Asian cultures,
- 20:25Speaker 1: it's it's pretty uncommon, except chuck. In South Korea and
- 20:29Speaker 1: the Philippines, circumcision is pretty common. Who knew the American
- 20:34Speaker 1: serviceman knew? Yeah? Is that the reason why Korea, Yes,
- 20:37Speaker 1: and the Philippines. American servicemen stationed there in the ladder
- 20:42Speaker 1: half Beginning in the ladder half of the twentieth century.
- 20:45Speaker 1: UM apparently got the word leaked out that they were
- 20:49Speaker 1: missing their pre pious and UM. South Koreans and Filipinos
- 20:53Speaker 1: started following suit already. Well, that's circumcision around the globe today.
- 20:58Speaker 1: If we forgot your country then we apologize. Please write
- 21:01Speaker 1: in Shall we talk about the procedure itself? Yeah, as
- 21:05Speaker 1: Tom put it next up, the big show. Is that
- 21:08Speaker 1: what he said? I didn't see that part. There's some
- 21:12Speaker 1: did you? So you didn't see the pictures, the illustrations
- 21:16Speaker 1: like step by step illustration. I didn't need it, dotted
- 21:20Speaker 1: lines like where you clip out a coupon, have a
- 21:23Speaker 1: pretty get what's going on down there? So I didn't.
- 21:25Speaker 1: I was just fine with the words. Uh so what
- 21:28Speaker 1: happens Josh is ah a baby? If it's a baby
- 21:32Speaker 1: in infant circumcision, then they strapped the baby down of
- 21:35Speaker 1: course arms and legs, which it just seems like an
- 21:38Speaker 1: awful thing to bed start when you read it. Um,
- 21:41Speaker 1: they give a either a topical anesthetic, uh you know,
- 21:44Speaker 1: rubbed around the area or injected around the base of
- 21:48Speaker 1: the penis to numb the area. Um. There are a
- 21:52Speaker 1: few different devices that the person performing the procedure can
- 21:56Speaker 1: choose from, and I know you know a little bit
- 21:58Speaker 1: about these. I do. Let's hear it. There's like three things. Well,
- 22:02Speaker 1: there's the Gomko clamp, the Mogan clamp, and the Plasta
- 22:05Speaker 1: bell device. Right, so I did. I didn't really look
- 22:08Speaker 1: into the Mogan clamp um because it just too wow.
- 22:13Speaker 1: But the Gomco clamp um has been around for a
- 22:17Speaker 1: while and it sounds like something you could see on
- 22:19Speaker 1: a late night TV head. You can actually buy them
- 22:22Speaker 1: on the internet for bucks. Yeah, search Gomco clamp it
- 22:26Speaker 1: comes up and do not do not buy one and
- 22:30Speaker 1: do this at home. That is in no way in endorsement,
- 22:34Speaker 1: and it just stop stop right now. Um there. The
- 22:38Speaker 1: Gomko clamp involves a bell with a an arm, an
- 22:42Speaker 1: appendage that comes off the tip of the bell. Put
- 22:44Speaker 1: that in, pull the um foreskin up around the bell.
- 22:49Speaker 1: So what you're doing is you're inserting this metal layer
- 22:51Speaker 1: between the glands and the foreskin. Like all these things,
- 22:55Speaker 1: you're separating the foreskin from the gland exactly. That's pretty
- 22:58Speaker 1: much the key to circumcision um. You pull it up around,
- 23:01Speaker 1: you slide it through this hole, has an arm attached
- 23:04Speaker 1: to the top of the bell holding everything taut, and
- 23:08Speaker 1: then you cut around it and remove the four skin.
- 23:11Speaker 1: The plastic bell um devices it's similar. It doesn't have
- 23:15Speaker 1: the arm and the clamp holding everything, but basically you're
- 23:19Speaker 1: just you're putting a bell in between the glands and
- 23:21Speaker 1: the four skin and um. Then you you basically tie
- 23:25Speaker 1: off the suture around the the four skin that's been
- 23:31Speaker 1: pulled up, and then you cut that and then eventually,
- 23:34Speaker 1: after like a few days, the bell falls off and
- 23:37Speaker 1: you're fine, supposedly well, And that's about the recovery period.
- 23:41Speaker 1: Uh period if you're an infant is about three to
- 23:44Speaker 1: four days. Plan on having a grumpy little baby boy
- 23:48Speaker 1: for those next few days, and plan on keeping the
- 23:51Speaker 1: area really really clean and maybe you might even have
- 23:54Speaker 1: to bandage it, and just you got to make sure
- 23:57Speaker 1: that you keep it uh separate from diaper poopoo, because
- 24:03Speaker 1: you don't want a fresh surgery being around fecal matter.
- 24:07Speaker 1: Not not a good thing. No, it's you're you're looking
- 24:09Speaker 1: at a pretty hefty, little horrible infection there. And it
- 24:12Speaker 1: takes about thirty minutes. Yeah, if you're an adult, you
- 24:15Speaker 1: don't necessarily need to use any of these other bells
- 24:19Speaker 1: or whistles literally bells, um. But you can just pull
- 24:22Speaker 1: the for skin forward, make a couple of incisions, UM,
- 24:25Speaker 1: cut off the frenulum, stitch back. Basically, you're stitching this
- 24:29Speaker 1: hanging loose skin to the just to the corona, which
- 24:33Speaker 1: is the strip just below the gland um and ba
- 24:38Speaker 1: boom bada being no sex for a couple of weeks,
- 24:40Speaker 1: which no one should have to tell you that, but
- 24:43Speaker 1: we're telling you that. Yeah, that would be common sense
- 24:45Speaker 1: if you asked me, then it's done. So why are
- 24:47Speaker 1: people doing this, Chuck, I mean, think about that, especially
- 24:50Speaker 1: as an adult. Why why are people circumcising uh, both
- 24:54Speaker 1: there themselves and their infant sons? Why is it like
- 24:58Speaker 1: all the rage? So this is the argument four, and
- 25:01Speaker 1: we will cover the argument against before you get upset
- 25:04Speaker 1: by Mr Scofield. The reasons, some of the reasons, Josh
- 25:08Speaker 1: are obviously, like we said, you're raised in a religion
- 25:11Speaker 1: or culture where that's the thing you do, then you
- 25:14Speaker 1: would probably do that. Um. Some fathers think that their
- 25:18Speaker 1: son's penis should kind of be like theirs, and they're
- 25:21Speaker 1: a little bit fact. Um. Nine tenths of circumcised men
- 25:27Speaker 1: opt to have their sons circumcised, and about three quarters
- 25:30Speaker 1: of uncircumcised men opt to have their sons not circumcised.
- 25:34Speaker 1: Yeah about natural. Interesting, Uh, some parents want their sons
- 25:40Speaker 1: to just be like the rest of the little boys.
- 25:42Speaker 1: If and then if you live in the United States
- 25:44Speaker 1: and most boys are like that, They don't want you
- 25:47Speaker 1: to stand out in the locker room and potentially be
- 25:49Speaker 1: teased that kind of thing. Um, this one uncircumcised men
- 25:55Speaker 1: or twice as likely to contract HPV and pass that along.
- 26:01Speaker 1: It's what it's what of here? And apparently circumcision also
- 26:03Speaker 1: helps prevent or protect against Chlamydian syphilis, they say, and
- 26:08Speaker 1: this is from the Journal of American Medical Association. We
- 26:11Speaker 1: should say, we should the same. Same goes with a
- 26:14Speaker 1: study that found recently that UM areas that don't circumcise,
- 26:20Speaker 1: or where circumcision is uncommon um tend to have higher
- 26:24Speaker 1: prevalences of HIV. I don't know if those two are causal,
- 26:30Speaker 1: like HIV is more easily contracted because there's this maybe
- 26:35Speaker 1: the blood vessels are closer to the surface when the
- 26:39Speaker 1: foreskin is attached, yeah, um, or if it's just correlated,
- 26:44Speaker 1: like maybe they have maybe these areas have lesser healthcare
- 26:50Speaker 1: right right or less adequate healthcare well at any rate,
- 26:53Speaker 1: they put that number at six less likely. But it's
- 26:56Speaker 1: only it's not for male to male sex. It's only
- 26:59Speaker 1: female to male train mission of HIV is what it says. Go.
- 27:03Speaker 1: I know, uh, some people think it's cleaner but that's
- 27:07Speaker 1: completely unsupported from what I can tell medically. Right, that's
- 27:11Speaker 1: that's just a perception, if I'm not mistaken. And then
- 27:15Speaker 1: there are some who just think it's prettier, yeah, better looking,
- 27:20Speaker 1: sleeker fish. All right, Josh, that's the case for generally.
- 27:38Speaker 1: Let's talk about people who are against this, like Mr Scofield.
- 27:41Speaker 1: What are their arguments. Well, I get the impression that
- 27:44Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who well, the people who
- 27:46Speaker 1: are against it are vehemently against it. One of the
- 27:48Speaker 1: biggest arguments is that it's um mutilation. Yeah, general mutilation.
- 27:54Speaker 1: It is genital mutilation. Female um circumcision, which we'll talk
- 27:57Speaker 1: a little bit more about in a minute, is basically
- 28:02Speaker 1: considered now in the Western world, the developed world, female
- 28:06Speaker 1: genital mutilation, not female circumcision any longer. And the one
- 28:11Speaker 1: of the big points among anti circumcision people is that
- 28:14Speaker 1: this is the same thing with men. It's just for
- 28:17Speaker 1: some reason more accepted in the West than female circumcision is. Yeah,
- 28:22Speaker 1: but if you're against it, you probably think it's old
- 28:24Speaker 1: fashioned and unnecessary. Unnecessary is a big one. The American
- 28:28Speaker 1: Academy of Pediatrics considered this in and said, you know,
- 28:33Speaker 1: we're not gonna endorse this. We're not gonna come out
- 28:35Speaker 1: against it. But we've looked at all of the information.
- 28:37Speaker 1: We see no medical reason to do this, and we're
- 28:41Speaker 1: not gonna endorse it. So that's that's a big one
- 28:43Speaker 1: that the the anti circumcision lobby sites. Yeah. When I
- 28:47Speaker 1: was when I read that that they didn't endorse it,
- 28:49Speaker 1: or they said that you shouldn't do it. This is
- 28:51Speaker 1: such a tender subject. That kind of got the impression
- 28:54Speaker 1: they were a little bit like, I ain't going there.
- 28:57Speaker 1: Why don't you just decide. We don't have a lot
- 29:00Speaker 1: of data either way, so we're not gonna say it's
- 29:03Speaker 1: I get the impression that it's a lot like the
- 29:05Speaker 1: natural birth movement. There's a lot of probably similar sentiment,
- 29:08Speaker 1: maybe a lot of crossover actually between the two. Josh,
- 29:12Speaker 1: there are risks of scarring, their risks of infection. Yeah,
- 29:15Speaker 1: this is a big one right here. It can go wrong. Yeah,
- 29:18Speaker 1: and it does like you can have your penis lopped
- 29:20Speaker 1: off because of a bad circumcision. Yeah, that's a pretty
- 29:24Speaker 1: good reason not to do it. I don't have it
- 29:26Speaker 1: super common, but it's very uncommon. But when you're talking
- 29:29Speaker 1: about your your maybe your only male son. It can
- 29:34Speaker 1: only be a male son, but your only son. Do
- 29:37Speaker 1: you want to take that kind of risk? I don't
- 29:40Speaker 1: know yet. Well, yeah, sure, I don't know. Stop pressuring me. No,
- 29:44Speaker 1: I'm not pressuring you. I was just I'm not asking you.
- 29:46Speaker 1: I'm just asking theoretically. But I think that's probably the
- 29:49Speaker 1: sentiment among a lot of like first time parents, you know,
- 29:52Speaker 1: like should we do this? I haven't really thought about
- 29:54Speaker 1: it before, and like hold account. Now we have to
- 29:57Speaker 1: decide or do we um. Another another argument against is
- 30:02Speaker 1: that you take away the child's right to choose. Um.
- 30:05Speaker 1: There are there is a procedure called an epipasm which um,
- 30:10Speaker 1: there's actually a surgical procedure which is kind of a
- 30:13Speaker 1: skin graft. Um. Yeah, is not always desirable. Sometimes you
- 30:17Speaker 1: get a different color, different texture because this is someone
- 30:21Speaker 1: else's foreskin or else it's skin from elsewhere on your body.
- 30:24Speaker 1: That's I would say. And then there's also like a
- 30:27Speaker 1: non there's non surgical things you can do to right
- 30:30Speaker 1: chuck to to to create a new foreskin, to recreate it. Yes, Josh,
- 30:36Speaker 1: there are non surgical ways. And I have never heard
- 30:39Speaker 1: of this at all. I hadn't either until I read
- 30:42Speaker 1: this article. Um over time, and we're not recommending that
- 30:45Speaker 1: you try this at home, by the way, this is
- 30:48Speaker 1: this is something you really need to know a lot
- 30:49Speaker 1: about um over time. Though. You can apparently stretch your
- 30:53Speaker 1: foreskin using weights and straps and it will eventually stretch
- 30:59Speaker 1: to where it could cover your glands. That's what they say.
- 31:02Speaker 1: There's another method that has UH involves inflating little balloons
- 31:07Speaker 1: under your skin, under your penile skin prompt new skin
- 31:10Speaker 1: cell growth. I guess, to fill in the void, I guess,
- 31:13Speaker 1: and then when you deflate the balloons, you've got all
- 31:16Speaker 1: that extra skin right, and you go to So that's
- 31:19Speaker 1: an epipasum. So yeah, the point is um one of
- 31:24Speaker 1: the arguments against circumcisions that you take away a kid's
- 31:27Speaker 1: right to choose, and if the kid turns like fifty
- 31:31Speaker 1: and goes I really want to for skin, basically he
- 31:34Speaker 1: doesn't have a lot of options available to him balloons
- 31:37Speaker 1: and weights and straps and skin graphs and skin graphs. Yeah,
- 31:41Speaker 1: so that's that's another reason. What are some more reasons, Chuckers, Well,
- 31:44Speaker 1: like we said, in the foreskin, there's a lot of
- 31:46Speaker 1: sensitive areas for sexual stimulation, and that once you lose
- 31:51Speaker 1: that it's gone. Yeah, so theoretically you're cutting down on
- 31:54Speaker 1: the man's pleasure centers. So I'm white sure, and he
- 31:59Speaker 1: wants to do that to your kid, puritan, I don't know. Uh,
- 32:04Speaker 1: they say, you know, like psychologists might say that, Um,
- 32:07Speaker 1: a child might remember this somehow, resulting in lingering psychological repercussions.
- 32:13Speaker 1: Its very Freudian sentence. Uh. Some people think it's better
- 32:17Speaker 1: looking to have the foreskin in prettier that way. Yeah,
- 32:20Speaker 1: I would like to conduct a poll. I don't know
- 32:22Speaker 1: how we could do this conceivably, but I would like to,
- 32:25Speaker 1: I know, not and not and not get in trouble right, Um,
- 32:28Speaker 1: but I am curious, like where, like which one is
- 32:32Speaker 1: considered more attractive? I have no idea. Um, so I'm
- 32:36Speaker 1: I'm I'm very curious, you know, like is it like
- 32:40Speaker 1: do people think people who like a foreskin? I think
- 32:44Speaker 1: those people are weird or vice versa. Or I'm very curious.
- 32:47Speaker 1: This is all just I'm curious this. You've been even
- 32:50Speaker 1: fascinated by this whole thing, Huh? I have from paid zero. Uh.
- 32:55Speaker 1: And there are a couple more reasons some men subconsciously
- 32:57Speaker 1: might not feel complete. And then the big reason you're
- 33:00Speaker 1: born with it, so that might mean that you should
- 33:03Speaker 1: keep it on your body. Yeah, Like, if we didn't
- 33:06Speaker 1: need it, why would we have it? And it have
- 33:08Speaker 1: whether you whether you believe in creationism or evolution, there's that.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Both of those kind of touch upon that. Yeah, we
- 33:16Speaker 1: wouldn't have it if we didn't need it, it didn't
- 33:18Speaker 1: serve some purpose. Did you already cover the language part?
- 33:23Speaker 1: I think you'd mentioned that right a little bit. If
- 33:25Speaker 1: you are talking to somebody who is in the anti
- 33:29Speaker 1: circumcision camp, you don't want to use the term uncircumcised
- 33:34Speaker 1: because it implies that there is something wrong, that there's
- 33:38Speaker 1: something missing, They something hasn't been done yet. That's not
- 33:42Speaker 1: the norm, right, and so they people in the anti
- 33:46Speaker 1: circumcision camp tend to prefer um terms like natural, uncut,
- 33:52Speaker 1: full length, intact, intact. Yeah, yeah, we would be remiss, Josh,
- 33:59Speaker 1: you did mention female genital mutilation. This is a big
- 34:01Speaker 1: problem around the world. Between a hundred and a hundred
- 34:04Speaker 1: and forty million women have been victims of this um
- 34:08Speaker 1: A lot of times there are I'm sorry all the time.
- 34:12Speaker 1: There's no medical reason for doing this, Like they will
- 34:15Speaker 1: remove the clitterest sometimes. Yeah, this actually, um was kind
- 34:20Speaker 1: of It came about in the West too. It's still
- 34:24Speaker 1: a huge problem in Africa apparently, UM. Two million girls
- 34:28Speaker 1: under the age of ten have undergone female genital mutilation. UM.
- 34:34Speaker 1: And that's just Africa alone. Um. But in the West
- 34:38Speaker 1: it was popular. I had no idea. But here in
- 34:42Speaker 1: the West, in the United States, until ninety seven, Blue
- 34:46Speaker 1: Cross covered its female They covered clitter ectomy, clitter clitter clittery, cliterodectomy,
- 34:54Speaker 1: that's awful. Cliterodectomy, which is the partial total removal of
- 34:58Speaker 1: the clitteress right UM. And this, this fad of circumcision
- 35:05Speaker 1: came about at about the same time in the nineteenth
- 35:08Speaker 1: century and for the same reasons as male circumcision, which
- 35:12Speaker 1: is yet another argument against male circumcision because we've come
- 35:15Speaker 1: to see female circumcision as barbaric, even though they were
- 35:18Speaker 1: both brought up for the same reasons, which was it's cleaner,
- 35:22Speaker 1: it's more hygienic, it's it's healthier. And also with girls,
- 35:26Speaker 1: they had the added bonus of it reduces reduces their
- 35:30Speaker 1: sexual pleasure from masturbation. Therefore it will it's much more
- 35:34Speaker 1: morally hygienic as well. This is one of the reasons
- 35:37Speaker 1: why it's become or come to be seen as barbaric
- 35:41Speaker 1: because it actually does reduce tremendously the sensitivity a woman
- 35:45Speaker 1: can experience in sex. Right, there's a lot of other
- 35:49Speaker 1: problems with it too. Um. There's a little procedure called
- 35:52Speaker 1: in fabulation that basically is you cut the inner outer
- 35:59Speaker 1: lay you so that it grows back to narrow or
- 36:04Speaker 1: close the vagina. And what's the idea here are they
- 36:08Speaker 1: Is it a moral thing where they're trying to prevent
- 36:10Speaker 1: their daughters from being tempted to have sex or having sex. Yes,
- 36:13Speaker 1: because to to get this reversed, you to have children,
- 36:17Speaker 1: to have sex, to conceive, to do all these things,
- 36:20Speaker 1: you basically have to have the procedure reversed. And then
- 36:23Speaker 1: in some cultures that promote this um after childbirth, after
- 36:28Speaker 1: the reproductive years, it's closed up again. So not only
- 36:31Speaker 1: are you undergoing it this first time, you're having a
- 36:33Speaker 1: reverse and then you're having it done again. So it
- 36:36Speaker 1: is a huge problem and it is viewed as barbaric
- 36:38Speaker 1: in the West, um, and the World Health Organization has
- 36:41Speaker 1: come out starting against this, and then I guess over
- 36:45Speaker 1: the ensuing decades really lobbied the rest of the u
- 36:50Speaker 1: N and and got much wider support. In February two
- 36:52Speaker 1: thousand eight, pretty much the entire un issued the statement
- 36:55Speaker 1: saying like this has to stop. This is really bad.
- 36:59Speaker 1: But it's still continues. It happens in the US, it
- 37:02Speaker 1: happens in um Great Britain, and a lot of the
- 37:07Speaker 1: minority African populations that immigrate here immigrate here. It's it's
- 37:11Speaker 1: a problem. Yeah, well, thank god for the w h
- 37:14Speaker 1: O in. Groups like UNICEF and other human rights groups
- 37:16Speaker 1: are trying to get the word out on that too. Right,
- 37:18Speaker 1: But Chuck, we just arrived at a really kind of
- 37:22Speaker 1: a hinky place. Like everybody agrees this is barbaric. One
- 37:28Speaker 1: of the reasons why is because it serves absolutely no
- 37:30Speaker 1: medical reason whatsoever. No, there's no medical purpose to it.
- 37:34Speaker 1: It's all just basically chastity. Um, so we all agree
- 37:38Speaker 1: that that's barbaric. If there's really no medical reason for
- 37:43Speaker 1: male circumcision, isn't the same thing? Is it barbaric? Well?
- 37:48Speaker 1: People against it sure say it is, people like Schofield.
- 37:51Speaker 1: And I'm not here to make a judgment either way
- 37:53Speaker 1: because I don't have a son at this point. But
- 37:57Speaker 1: maybe that day will come when I'm gonna have to
- 37:59Speaker 1: make that decision. Hopefully we put out at least some
- 38:01Speaker 1: facts and figures on both sides, some stats. Yeah, it's tricky. Well,
- 38:07Speaker 1: if you want to know more about circumcision and you
- 38:09Speaker 1: want to see probably more illustrations of the male reproductive
- 38:14Speaker 1: organ uh than any other article on the site, including
- 38:19Speaker 1: cut here dots cut along the dotted line dots, you
- 38:23Speaker 1: can you can type circumcision into the search bar at
- 38:27Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and that will bring all
- 38:28Speaker 1: that stuff up. It's an interesting article, right, yes, sir, uh,
- 38:32Speaker 1: since I said handy search bar while I said search
- 38:34Speaker 1: bar at least right, Yeah, it's time for a listener mail. Yes, Josh,
- 38:40Speaker 1: I thought this might be appropriate. You asked for stories
- 38:42Speaker 1: about people who had their fingers cut off, and what
- 38:45Speaker 1: podcast was at one of them? Yeah, one of the
- 38:49Speaker 1: podcasts one one of the things we did. And so
- 38:53Speaker 1: we got a bunch of stories of people who have
- 38:55Speaker 1: lost fingers, and I picked out three fairly short ones
- 38:58Speaker 1: to read. The one comes from Melanie fro Minnesota. She
- 39:01Speaker 1: did not lose a finger, but her husband's uncle did.
- 39:04Speaker 1: He was doing some woodworking in his garage, solid his thumb,
- 39:07Speaker 1: index finger and part of his middle finger clean off.
- 39:11Speaker 1: His wife rushed him to the hospital. They're able to
- 39:13Speaker 1: reattach the thumb, but not his index finger. They were
- 39:16Speaker 1: never able to find the rest of his ring finger,
- 39:18Speaker 1: and they suspect that the dog ate it. Now he
- 39:22Speaker 1: now has a prosthetic index finger, which he likes to
- 39:24Speaker 1: remove and toss to people just to freak them out.
- 39:27Speaker 1: He was a musician before the accident. He's still able
- 39:29Speaker 1: to play the piano with his faux finger, which is
- 39:32Speaker 1: pretty cool. And he has a winter and summer version.
- 39:35Speaker 1: One his tan and one isn't no way way uh.
- 39:39Speaker 1: This next one is from Abbey from Hampden, Connecticut. Guys
- 39:43Speaker 1: who thought you might find this interesting? I am in
- 39:45Speaker 1: fact missing two fingers, but I still have five fingers
- 39:48Speaker 1: on each hand. Awesome, awesome. This one. The same is
- 39:53Speaker 1: true for my mother and her grandmother. We all have
- 39:55Speaker 1: a slight genetic disorder called polydactylism, which is when you
- 40:00Speaker 1: were born with extra pinkies. The extra fingers were all
- 40:02Speaker 1: cut off at birth because the bones in them were
- 40:05Speaker 1: not fully formed. So now we all have little bumps
- 40:07Speaker 1: on the sides of our hands that were once pinkies
- 40:11Speaker 1: that circumcision of fingers. It is. I kind of wish
- 40:14Speaker 1: I had kept the little extra fingers and that they
- 40:16Speaker 1: were fully functional, because I would use them to play
- 40:18Speaker 1: impossible pieces of music. I told my bio teacher about
- 40:22Speaker 1: Polly dactyalism in high school. She got very excited and
- 40:25Speaker 1: give me extra credit. She gave her extra credit for
- 40:27Speaker 1: missing those fingers. It's pretty cool. Or she gave her
- 40:31Speaker 1: extra credit for being born with two extra fingers, or
- 40:34Speaker 1: being brave enough to admit it in the classroom setting.
- 40:37Speaker 1: All right, And this last one is from James from Ohio, Guys.
- 40:39Speaker 1: I have a missing finger story you might find disturbing.
- 40:42Speaker 1: We're fascinating. In high school, my shop class teacher always
- 40:45Speaker 1: had these crazy stories about his work in the industry field.
- 40:49Speaker 1: In the industry field, and that's pretty wide field, it is.
- 40:53Speaker 1: And one day he had a story to tell us
- 40:54Speaker 1: about a man who was unfortunate enough to lose some fingers. Uh.
- 40:58Speaker 1: The story starts when my shop teacher worked at a
- 41:00Speaker 1: metal sheet shaping factory. I bet you there's a lot
- 41:03Speaker 1: of fingers in one of those places. Um, they make
- 41:06Speaker 1: impossible curves on metal that couldn't normally exist. Fellow worker
- 41:10Speaker 1: decided to pull an all nighter an attempt to work
- 41:12Speaker 1: machinery with coherency. Unfortunately, the fingers of the worker were
- 41:17Speaker 1: caught in the metal working machine, pinched clean off, not
- 41:21Speaker 1: cut pinched off. My teacher explained that it took about
- 41:25Speaker 1: a half an hour to find all the missing fingers,
- 41:27Speaker 1: keep them cool and a fridge until they were able
- 41:31Speaker 1: to reattach them. It's like the Machinist, uh Christian Man.
- 41:36Speaker 1: That movie was messed up. Yes, it was. So we
- 41:39Speaker 1: got a lot more stories and a lot were very
- 41:40Speaker 1: detailed and more gruesome. So we went with these because
- 41:42Speaker 1: it was short and a little lighter in nature. That's
- 41:46Speaker 1: very good. That's all I got. If you have an
- 41:49Speaker 1: email that has absolutely nothing to do with that, we
- 41:51Speaker 1: want to hear about it. You should wrap it up,
- 41:54Speaker 1: send it to us, spank it on the bottom, and
- 41:58Speaker 1: send it to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot
- 42:02Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
- 42:08Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com. To learn more
- 42:10Speaker 1: about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the
- 42:13Speaker 1: upper right corner of our homepage.