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Can the sun kill you? · 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 toff works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant.
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Speaker 1: You may know us better as Joanie and Chocci. All right,
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Speaker 1: that's y SK Morning Edition. Yeah. I literally have had
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Speaker 1: two SIPs and coffee. This is an unusual recording time.
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Speaker 1: I'm not done. This is Stuff you should know, the
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Speaker 1: podcast from the revered website how Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
0:40
Speaker 1: there are employers, Hey, they are, and there where we
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Speaker 1: get all of our information, right, that's right, most of it. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: There's been like maybe two or three podcasts that we've
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Speaker 1: done that didn't come from articles off the site. Yeah,
0:52
Speaker 1: but that's the basis, right, Okay, sure, and now everybody
0:55
Speaker 1: knows the secret. You can all go back to bed, right,
0:58
Speaker 1: I'd like to go back to bed. I know you, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: you've been here since six thirty this morning. I know
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Speaker 1: I have. And like you said, that's two SIPs of coffee,
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Speaker 1: whereas when we usually record, you have had seventeen cups
1:08
Speaker 1: of coffee. This is gonna be an unusually sedate podcast
1:12
Speaker 1: about the Sun. Yes, this is almost almost Sun Take two.
1:18
Speaker 1: I think I feel like this might make up a
1:19
Speaker 1: little bit for the awful suncast we did. I don't.
1:22
Speaker 1: I don't think that's correct, and I don't think it's
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Speaker 1: sound take too. I think the Sun comes in for
1:26
Speaker 1: a guest appearance, a cameo, if you will. But there's
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Speaker 1: nothing that's ever gonna make up for how the Sun works,
1:32
Speaker 1: although there was something. Um, I think my favorite fact
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Speaker 1: from the Sun podcast was that you remember in the
1:40
Speaker 1: core of the Sun, Um, there's just helium bouncing all
1:44
Speaker 1: over the place, and um, what I think a proton
1:48
Speaker 1: gets loose or a neutron and it gets picked up
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Speaker 1: by something else, and like, this change in mass is
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Speaker 1: displaced energy, and it displaced energy takes the form of
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Speaker 1: a photon, remember the tiny packet of light. Here's the
2:01
Speaker 1: here's the kicker, and I know you remember this. It
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Speaker 1: takes a photon a hundred thousand years to travel from
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Speaker 1: the core of the Sun to the surface, and then
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Speaker 1: once it leaves the Sun, it takes eight minutes to
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Speaker 1: get the Earth. That's pretty cool, but yeah, a hundred
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Speaker 1: thousand years. So the light that hits your skin, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: is a hundred thousand years and eight minutes old. Wow,
2:26
Speaker 1: didn't take it that way, Well now you will. That's
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Speaker 1: a great sun fact. So, um, I I have a
2:31
Speaker 1: better intro than that. Alright, Apollo seventeen, Yeah, the last
2:36
Speaker 1: Apollo mission ninety two. These guys are training to go
2:41
Speaker 1: to the Moon one last time. Let's get some people
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Speaker 1: on on on the moon. Right, Um, Nixon's in office.
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Speaker 1: Everybody's really unhappy. Um, So they're training, but there's a
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Speaker 1: huge problem. There's a predicted solar flare coming, and not
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Speaker 1: just any solar flare, a megaflare. Chuck. The last one
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Speaker 1: scene of such magnitude was a hundred and fifty years before. Right,
3:02
Speaker 1: What does it do? Solar flare? Megaflare? You know? Solar
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Speaker 1: flare shoots protons um out, like highly radioactive protons out
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Speaker 1: into the pound of space and at Earth. Right, Earth
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Speaker 1: has a magnetic field that deflects these things, or else
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Speaker 1: they'd hit Earth's surface and us these radioactive protons at
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Speaker 1: about a million to three million kilometers per hour. So
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Speaker 1: what's a mega just a souped up version of that. Well,
3:29
Speaker 1: that's that's the Mega version. Yes, so say half a
3:32
Speaker 1: million kilometers an hour. It's way more protons. They're way
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Speaker 1: more radioactive, and they reach much further out in space.
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Speaker 1: It's just like a huge cough from the Sun, you know.
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Speaker 1: Like I said, we have a magnetic field. The Moon
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Speaker 1: does not have a magnetic field. So any astronauts standing
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Speaker 1: on the Moon when the solar flare erupted would have
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Speaker 1: gotten shot through with these radioactive protons and either would
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Speaker 1: have been burned on the spot or would have just
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Speaker 1: received a lace lethal dose of radiation sickness. So they
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Speaker 1: called it offer with postponed it. Luckily, the solar flare
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Speaker 1: occurred between Apolo sixteen and Apollo seventeen, so Apolo seventeen
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Speaker 1: went up on December second, nineteen seventy two. I think
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Speaker 1: um and the solar flare took place in August of
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, so they escaped it by six months
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Speaker 1: or so. But isn't it crazy that they could have
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Speaker 1: conceivably been standing on the Moon and just been like
4:21
Speaker 1: like some of the movies. It kind of like, um Sunshine,
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you saw that. I didn't think you saw that.
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Speaker 1: I remember we talked about the first half was too classic. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I've never seen a movie go off the rails like that,
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Speaker 1: but I know it was so good. It was astounding.
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Speaker 1: I know I really wanted it to finish off because
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Speaker 1: Danny Boils the best. I was. I'm on team Boil
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Speaker 1: all the way you are. Um. But it raises the question.
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Speaker 1: It raises an interesting point because I think we all
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Speaker 1: know the answer to the question post in this podcast.
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Speaker 1: Can the Sun kill you? Chuck? This is a Chuck
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Speaker 1: Bryant special. It's a little elementary. I thought, I disagree
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Speaker 1: when was it from. It's from a long time ago,
5:01
Speaker 1: but I don't know, like my introductions back in the
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Speaker 1: day were I thought they were like written for grade school.
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Speaker 1: Do you want to read the first sentence? I wanted
5:09
Speaker 1: to almost get Robert Laman here to do a dramatic
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Speaker 1: reading just to the first sentence. Anyone he's ever made
5:15
Speaker 1: it through the fifth grade can probably tell you that
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Speaker 1: the sun is a star. I think it's funny how somebody,
5:22
Speaker 1: I imagine your editor went back and was like, well,
5:24
Speaker 1: there's not necessarily every person that we can say with
5:27
Speaker 1: confidence can tell you that if you've made it through
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Speaker 1: fifth grade, So let's put probably in there. Yeah, so Josh,
5:34
Speaker 1: the answer can the sun kill you is most certainly yes,
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Speaker 1: resounding yes, and not just by standing on the moon
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Speaker 1: in a megaflare. Yeah. Um, there's plenty of ways here
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Speaker 1: on earth that the sun can get you. Basically, the
5:49
Speaker 1: point of this podcast is don't ever leave your house again, right,
5:53
Speaker 1: that's right? And you, Mr tan Man, I gotta do
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Speaker 1: you know where sunscreen? Um? I you? I wear seventy
6:01
Speaker 1: on my face. I swear to God, I wear seventy.
6:04
Speaker 1: And why is it every time you come in, like
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Speaker 1: on a Monday, you'll have like this bronze dark face
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Speaker 1: and he's like, oh's at the beach? So I have, um,
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Speaker 1: either Greco, Italian Jewish or some Mediterranean possibly Native American
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Speaker 1: in me somewhere down the line popping up. I tan
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Speaker 1: extremely well. But if you've got on seventy, you can't tan?
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Speaker 1: So how's it defeating the sun block? Clearly I can't,
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Speaker 1: and I promise you I really do wear seventy. I
6:37
Speaker 1: don't wear and just can't like I should. I know,
6:39
Speaker 1: and I appreciate that. Um, I don't wear as much
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Speaker 1: sun block as I should, but um, like everywhere because
6:46
Speaker 1: it's just so much of me I get bored like
6:48
Speaker 1: halfway through the clumps in like my hair, so like
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Speaker 1: I can't get it rubbed in. But it's not the seventies,
6:56
Speaker 1: you know, remember in the seventies, so it was just
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Speaker 1: baby oil out and sun actually yeah, kind of roast
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Speaker 1: you stuff like a turkey. Plus I'd be wearing a
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Speaker 1: medallion right now for this time. That's right by Lizzie,
7:07
Speaker 1: just cracking up. Yeah, guess guest producer Lizzie catch her
7:10
Speaker 1: early in the morning, and we're funnier, all right, So
7:13
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get going here with the first way,
7:16
Speaker 1: and then then the first couple are this is the
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Speaker 1: really the money is at the end of this podcast,
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Speaker 1: the most interesting part. Okay, before we we announced it,
7:24
Speaker 1: can we get a drum roll for the first way
7:27
Speaker 1: the sun can kill you here on Earth? Drum roll
7:29
Speaker 1: place It is heat stroke? That's right, yes, most obviously, Uh,
7:38
Speaker 1: you know everyone knows that the body cools itself down
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Speaker 1: by sweating. You get hot, your body tempature goes up
7:44
Speaker 1: a little bit, the sweat kicks in. In my case,
7:46
Speaker 1: it can be cold outside and the sweat still kicks in.
7:49
Speaker 1: Or you could be in like a fifty degree body
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Speaker 1: of water. I will never die of heat stroke, but
7:56
Speaker 1: you can dive. Heat stroke. It's when your body temperature
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Speaker 1: rises above a hund in four degrees and stays there
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Speaker 1: for a prolonged period. And um, that basically means, you know,
8:07
Speaker 1: you can't find shade. It's probably you're either an infant
8:10
Speaker 1: stuck in a car, which is the saddest. That's pretty
8:13
Speaker 1: you're elderly and you're you know, somehow shut in or
8:16
Speaker 1: infirmed and your power goes out, which is equally sad.
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Speaker 1: Or you're probably trapped if you're just a healthy adult
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Speaker 1: out in the desert or something. And heat stroking. There's
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Speaker 1: three things. Heat strokes the third in a series of
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Speaker 1: escalating problems. Right, you have heat cramps and then heat exhaustion,
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Speaker 1: and then heat stroke and when you have heat stroke
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Speaker 1: here in big trouble. Um. So your body is two
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Speaker 1: ways of cooling itself down sweating like you said, and
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Speaker 1: then pumping your blood close to the surface of your skin,
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Speaker 1: which pressed which is pressed up against the ambient air
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Speaker 1: which should be cooler, which is why you flush. Right Yeah,
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Speaker 1: Um in babies, like you say, if you're trapped in
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Speaker 1: a car, a baby's um sweat process mechanism isn't very
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Speaker 1: well developed, so it's not gonna get cool, right. And
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Speaker 1: then the other problem with heat stroke is you um
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Speaker 1: lose your ability to salivate, so you can't swallow. So
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Speaker 1: if you're out in the desert, even if you have water,
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Speaker 1: after a point, you can't. You can't drink fluids any longer.
9:19
Speaker 1: They have to be introduced intravenously. That's right, that's bad news.
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Speaker 1: That's very bad news. And your blood thickens too, Chuck
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Speaker 1: with the heat stroke. Ye, really, you're one step away
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Speaker 1: from saying the word coagulate. I'm just gonna like, uh,
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Speaker 1: if you are very hot and you're overheated and you're
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Speaker 1: not cooling down, Josh, and you see some of the following,
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Speaker 1: then you're you should really try and get into some shade.
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Speaker 1: Toot sweet rapid pulse, very strong, like you said, imagine
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Speaker 1: the heart's beating really fast. Um hot, dry skin, headache, dizzy, hyperventilating,
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Speaker 1: and these I get the sense escalate as we go here, hyperventilate, confusion, nausea, seizures, hallucination,
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Speaker 1: and then unconsciousness. So if you're hallucinating, you're about to
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Speaker 1: go into the into the light or into the dark,
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Speaker 1: depending on what you want to look. Especially if your
10:11
Speaker 1: hallucinations like get in the shade and your organs are
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Speaker 1: gonna swell, you could go into shock and you could die, Yeah,
10:19
Speaker 1: pretty easy. Your whole body can just shut down. And
10:22
Speaker 1: they're just from heat. That's not even from like the
10:25
Speaker 1: sun's rays or damage or anything. That's just from getting
10:27
Speaker 1: so hot, unbelievable. Um. And apparently when your blood does thick,
10:31
Speaker 1: and once you hit that hundred and four to green
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Speaker 1: mark and your blisser so thick and it can't be
10:35
Speaker 1: pumped towards the surface any longer. You're not sweating, you
10:37
Speaker 1: can't swallow um. After that, you reach a point where
10:40
Speaker 1: your body temperature just skyrockets up and that's that for you. Really, Yeah,
10:45
Speaker 1: you're cooked. I wonder how high it can get. I
10:48
Speaker 1: think it's a hundred and twelve and then you're dead. Yeah,
10:52
Speaker 1: I know that. Like when you have a really bad fever,
10:54
Speaker 1: if it gets up to a certain point, it's hospital time. Well,
10:57
Speaker 1: plus a bad fever can cause brain damage, that's right,
11:02
Speaker 1: Josh and uh I look for some Newsy items for this,
11:06
Speaker 1: And of course it's always just some sad story about
11:08
Speaker 1: a parking lot. But workers in Japan the nuclear reactor
11:13
Speaker 1: site have been suffering from heat stroke and so they've
11:16
Speaker 1: got you know, cool rooms set up, and they're very
11:18
Speaker 1: aware of this problem from the radiation that he generated.
11:21
Speaker 1: By the radiation, yeah, and just being in those suits
11:23
Speaker 1: and they can't uh, you know, sweat and evaporate like
11:25
Speaker 1: they normally could. Goodness wow, it's like add one more
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Speaker 1: risk the dangerous job they're doing. So what's what's another
11:34
Speaker 1: way the sun can kill you? Chock uh skin cancer?
11:36
Speaker 1: Josh um, No drum roll there, no drum roll there. Um.
11:40
Speaker 1: The sun emits many different wavelengths of light, and the
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Speaker 1: one that is damaging to us is UV ultraviolet light
11:48
Speaker 1: that we cannot see bluer than blue, shorter, it's bluer
11:51
Speaker 1: than blue. Do you remember now, that's right, redder than red,
11:54
Speaker 1: bluer than blue. We can't see it, that's right, but
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Speaker 1: we can be damaged by it very much. So, so
12:01
Speaker 1: check there's two kinds of UV rays that hit us
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Speaker 1: here on Earth, UV A and UVB. And UV A
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Speaker 1: is the kind of ultra violet radiation that really penetrates
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Speaker 1: the skin down to the dermis um and does a
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Speaker 1: lot of cellular damage, UM DNA damage. Right. UVB is
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Speaker 1: the sun's burning rays. It's more potent actually than UV A.
12:26
Speaker 1: But uh, first of all, it can be deflected by
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Speaker 1: window glass, so it doesn't hit us when we're inside UM.
12:32
Speaker 1: But secondly, it can't penetrates deep into the skin, so
12:35
Speaker 1: it doesn't cause cancer. It just burns you literally. But
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Speaker 1: UVA is the one that gets in there and can
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Speaker 1: disrupt the normal function of cells. Right, and uh, if
12:46
Speaker 1: you get wrinkled and freckled, um, this is all because
12:49
Speaker 1: of UV exposure. If I reckon, if you never saw
12:53
Speaker 1: the sun's rays, he would probably look very youthful. I
12:55
Speaker 1: would think so too, for for much longer than your
12:57
Speaker 1: average joe out in the sun. We do have proteins
13:01
Speaker 1: in the skin called elastin, and they're very springy and fibrous.
13:05
Speaker 1: It helps us to stay young. But uh, UV exposure
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Speaker 1: damages and breaks down that elastin, and eventually that could
13:13
Speaker 1: lead to lesions, tumors, that kind of thing. Right, and
13:16
Speaker 1: UV A specifically goes in and UM basically turns our
13:22
Speaker 1: melana sites the melanin producing pigment producing cells in the skin.
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Speaker 1: It basically says you're cancerous now because cancer is uncontrolled
13:32
Speaker 1: cellular growth. Right, that's right. So the mel the melana
13:35
Speaker 1: sites start to reproduce a little too quickly, then all
13:37
Speaker 1: of a sudden you have a tumor. There are three
13:39
Speaker 1: kinds of skin cancer, Josh, there's the basil is a
13:42
Speaker 1: basil or basil basil I would imagine probably both, Chuck.
13:47
Speaker 1: I think if you're from England needs say basil basil
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Speaker 1: cell carcinoma, uh, squamas cell carcinoma and melanoma. And the
13:53
Speaker 1: first two aren't very dangerous. Um. They're about all cases
13:58
Speaker 1: of skin cancer, the first two kinds, and you're you're
14:01
Speaker 1: doing okay. If you have one of those, you can
14:03
Speaker 1: get it removed. It's really not that big of a deal.
14:05
Speaker 1: It turns to a melanoma. That's when it's serious. And
14:09
Speaker 1: about skin cancer. Deaths are from melanoma. Yeah. And if
14:14
Speaker 1: you if you find it early enough and treat it.
14:17
Speaker 1: Um melanoma has a pretty high survival rate I think
14:22
Speaker 1: survival rate um five year survival rate. If you get
14:27
Speaker 1: it before it gets to the limps. When it hits
14:30
Speaker 1: the limps, then the survival rates starts to drop dramatically. Yeah.
14:34
Speaker 1: And this is an interesting fact of your whole life's
14:38
Speaker 1: UV exposure comes before your eighteen right, And I thought
14:42
Speaker 1: about that, and it makes perfect sense because that's when
14:44
Speaker 1: you're a little kid who jumps like an idiot through
14:46
Speaker 1: a sprinkler or something like that. That's when you're outside.
14:48
Speaker 1: You're not punched over a computer. Your outdoors. Yeah, and
14:53
Speaker 1: there's only I mean, if you're a parent, you should
14:55
Speaker 1: take care of your child and slather them with sunscreen.
14:57
Speaker 1: But you know, every if your kids out playing in
15:01
Speaker 1: very active a lot, chances are you're going to be
15:03
Speaker 1: slipping up there something. Well, but I think that I
15:06
Speaker 1: don't know that that's necessarily okay though, I think that
15:08
Speaker 1: needs to be a habit, you know, kind of like
15:11
Speaker 1: your your kid, doesn't, you know, come out of the womb,
15:13
Speaker 1: Like give me some pants and some shirt. The kid
15:17
Speaker 1: knows to put on a pant right away, You're like,
15:21
Speaker 1: you need to cover up. Um. I think this needs
15:25
Speaker 1: to be part and parcel with going out if you
15:27
Speaker 1: want to. You know, I think skin cancer is a
15:29
Speaker 1: far greater problem than people are aware. Um. And I
15:33
Speaker 1: think just you you make a good point in this
15:36
Speaker 1: article that, um, it's one of the more preventable kinds
15:39
Speaker 1: of cancers just by using sunscreen. Yeah, um, so I
15:44
Speaker 1: think it should be part of going outside. And apparently
15:47
Speaker 1: also not just on sunny days. On a cloudy, overcast days,
15:51
Speaker 1: still like eight percent of the UV rays make it
15:54
Speaker 1: to the surface containing that's too if you think that
15:57
Speaker 1: it's not sun so it's not hurting me. That's handing
16:00
Speaker 1: that does the same thing, Chuck. Can we talk for
16:02
Speaker 1: a second about SPF. Can we solve the riddle of
16:05
Speaker 1: what SPF is? Yeah, that they recommend fifteen, but I
16:08
Speaker 1: would say higher than that if you want total protection.
16:11
Speaker 1: They changed it recently thirty. Now American Academy of Dermatology
16:16
Speaker 1: recommends thirty. They should double it just to be on
16:19
Speaker 1: the side pretty much. But there I suspect that there
16:22
Speaker 1: is something of like a mechanism like that involved. Because
16:25
Speaker 1: SPF means a sun protection factor. Um, the number, right
16:30
Speaker 1: is the number of times longer that product will prevent
16:35
Speaker 1: a sunburn then unprotected skin. Right, So if it takes
16:39
Speaker 1: ten minutes for unprotected skin to get a sunburn, SPF fifteen,
16:44
Speaker 1: it'll take a hundred and fifty minutes in that same sunlight. Right.
16:48
Speaker 1: The problem is they're like, well, you should still go
16:52
Speaker 1: ahead and reapply this every two hours anyway at least
16:56
Speaker 1: um and then after you sweat or after you're in
16:58
Speaker 1: the water, so that two hours at the most, so
17:02
Speaker 1: in SPF fifteen would protect you. And if they say
17:05
Speaker 1: SPF thirty is recommended, I don't understand it. But I mean,
17:09
Speaker 1: any idiot can look at suntan lotion it's SPS seventy
17:14
Speaker 1: compared to SPF five and see that it's thicker. So
17:17
Speaker 1: I guess it's just that. Either that or you can
17:19
Speaker 1: just put primer on yourself. Right. Yeah, but that's I've
17:25
Speaker 1: always wondered what SPF was, how they how they categorize that. Yeah,
17:29
Speaker 1: you didn't know that un till now. Interesting, that's because
17:31
Speaker 1: you don't wear it. I do wear it. I just
17:34
Speaker 1: did you look like George Hamilton? I don't am I
17:37
Speaker 1: aging or something like that. No, you're just tan. I'm
17:40
Speaker 1: always tanned the beach oddly alright. So broccoli and if
17:47
Speaker 1: you want to, if you want to help yourself out,
17:49
Speaker 1: eat broccoli and eat Brussels sprouts. And if you say
17:53
Speaker 1: I don't like Brussels sprouts, grill them. Baby, so good.
17:58
Speaker 1: I've never had that. Yeah, man, I never eight them either.
18:00
Speaker 1: But what you do is you get the Brussels sprouts,
18:02
Speaker 1: you kind of chop off a little nubby end, toss
18:05
Speaker 1: it in a bowl with some olive oil and whatever
18:08
Speaker 1: your spices, you know, salt, pepper, rosemary, whatever you like.
18:11
Speaker 1: Throw it on the grill and grill. It's so good.
18:13
Speaker 1: I do the same exact thing, but instead of the grill,
18:15
Speaker 1: I just roast them for a while until they're really
18:18
Speaker 1: really crisp good stuff. Or another thing you can do
18:21
Speaker 1: is you chop it in half and then do it
18:24
Speaker 1: in the skillet and it kind of caramelizes on the
18:27
Speaker 1: flat sides. I have a good recipe for broccoli, So
18:31
Speaker 1: you take as much broccoli as you can find, chop
18:34
Speaker 1: off the stalks, take the whole thing, put it into
18:38
Speaker 1: a plastic bag, and throw it away. You don't like broccli,
18:41
Speaker 1: I hate broccoli. That's so weird. I love broccoli. I
18:44
Speaker 1: think broccoli is the most disgusting thing that's ever been
18:46
Speaker 1: on this planet. I think broccoli is the worst thing
18:49
Speaker 1: the Romans ever invented. I think I think BROCCOLI's delicious.
18:56
Speaker 1: And they say, you know, steaming is probably the I mean,
18:59
Speaker 1: raw is the best way to eat it. But I'm
19:01
Speaker 1: not into raw broccoli. I have to steamine a little bit.
19:04
Speaker 1: It is kind of tasteless, though not super flavorful. You're
19:07
Speaker 1: just not having an area. No, I think it's disgusting,
19:10
Speaker 1: and it's actually the taste that I can't stand. All right.
19:14
Speaker 1: So anyway, the reason I brought all this up is
19:16
Speaker 1: that there's a topical compound called I S C DASH
19:19
Speaker 1: four found in these vegetables, and they think that if
19:22
Speaker 1: they add this, uh, they've made a robust, more robust
19:26
Speaker 1: version called I C S four and if you add
19:28
Speaker 1: this to sunscreen, which they're trying to get done, they
19:31
Speaker 1: think it might be able to really beef up the
19:36
Speaker 1: skin cancer prevention by adding this stuff from these veggies
19:40
Speaker 1: to your sunscreen. But like it enhances its protection protectiveness
19:45
Speaker 1: very much. So it is way too early. No, I
19:48
Speaker 1: don't think we should record at nine am any longer.
19:50
Speaker 1: This is an emergency, all right, So, Josh. The final way,
19:54
Speaker 1: and this is the most interesting and saddest condition of
19:57
Speaker 1: all is called zero dar uma pigmentosum, and that is
20:03
Speaker 1: very rare. Zero derma is Latin for dry skin, and
20:06
Speaker 1: pigmentosum refers to the colorations, the skin colorations that you
20:11
Speaker 1: get if you're one of the sufferers, one of the
20:13
Speaker 1: few sufferers. Yeah, I think there's been like two cases
20:18
Speaker 1: in the US. Yeah, at an't given moment, I think
20:20
Speaker 1: there's about two fifty. So, Chuck, where did you find
20:24
Speaker 1: this this condition? How did you stumble upon us when
20:26
Speaker 1: you're writing this article? I think I was just looking
20:28
Speaker 1: for you know, I think it came from a skin
20:30
Speaker 1: cancer site, because you're very much likely to die from
20:33
Speaker 1: skin cancer if you have this condition, right, probably by
20:36
Speaker 1: the time you're middle aged. And so I think a
20:40
Speaker 1: person with UM zero derma pigmentosa you say that there,
20:45
Speaker 1: we'll call it XP. Okay, that's what That's what most
20:48
Speaker 1: people call it, right, Um, people with XP are about
20:51
Speaker 1: a thousand times more likely to develop skin cancer than
20:55
Speaker 1: a person without it, and that can be up to
20:57
Speaker 1: two thousand times more likely. And so this isn't like
21:01
Speaker 1: you know, from laying out. This is like walking around
21:04
Speaker 1: in your house, right and getting indirect UV radiation from
21:08
Speaker 1: indirect sunlight any kind of sunlight whatsoever. Yeah, indirect direct
21:13
Speaker 1: obviously is the worst, even fluorescent lights. Yeah, there was this. Uh,
21:18
Speaker 1: there's been a bunch of stories about this, and they're
21:20
Speaker 1: all very sad and titled sad titles, And this one
21:24
Speaker 1: from the New York Times is called Midnight's Children, and
21:26
Speaker 1: it's about Camp Sundown, which is a camp that these
21:30
Speaker 1: parents started who have a daughter who suffers from this,
21:33
Speaker 1: and it's basically, um, a couple of weeks out of
21:37
Speaker 1: the year in the summer, they just have a summer
21:39
Speaker 1: camp for kids to have this and it's all you know,
21:41
Speaker 1: flip flop. It's all at night. All the activities are
21:45
Speaker 1: because they can't go out in the sun at all.
21:47
Speaker 1: And it's not just that camp, Like, don't families who
21:50
Speaker 1: have a kid with XP half to UM basically do
21:55
Speaker 1: that anyway, like flip flop their their nighttime and data. Yeah,
21:58
Speaker 1: the camp is just to give them some one and
22:00
Speaker 1: like to be able to go to camp and socialize
22:02
Speaker 1: and flirt and do things that normal kids do. Because
22:05
Speaker 1: one of the saddest parts about this is your sequester
22:07
Speaker 1: to your house during the day and you're outfitted, you know,
22:10
Speaker 1: all the windows are outfitted with the UV blockers and everything,
22:14
Speaker 1: and um, you know, all the kids that are interviewed
22:17
Speaker 1: are like, you know, when we're awake at night, my
22:20
Speaker 1: friends are all asleep, so there's nothing to do at night.
22:23
Speaker 1: And that's one of the big problems if you're a kid,
22:27
Speaker 1: and that and infomercials are big problems of staying up
22:30
Speaker 1: all night. Yeah, that's true, Um, chuck. They recently figured
22:34
Speaker 1: out what people with XP are lacking. Right, it's an
22:38
Speaker 1: end time, which is well, there's a couple of ways
22:42
Speaker 1: to say this. The wrong way, which is what I'm
22:44
Speaker 1: about to do, and then the right way, which will
22:46
Speaker 1: probably never get but palmer sita that sounds right, um
22:51
Speaker 1: or depending on which part of the same article you
22:54
Speaker 1: want to consult, palm raise ada like the Greek letter um. Basically,
23:01
Speaker 1: it's a it's an enzyme that allows DNA to continue
23:05
Speaker 1: replicating successfully even when u V a yeah, UVA radiation
23:11
Speaker 1: is damaged. It it's basically like the the shield Like
23:15
Speaker 1: you guys keep going on, I'll stand here and take
23:18
Speaker 1: all the bullets and uh, there's it's actually hopeful, um
23:22
Speaker 1: that it's an enzyme because stem cell stem cells are
23:26
Speaker 1: gang busters at replacing enzymes that are missing lacking in
23:31
Speaker 1: in conditions. So there could be an all out cre
23:35
Speaker 1: for this in the next decade or so. Well, there
23:37
Speaker 1: is none now. And one of the reasons why it's
23:39
Speaker 1: taken so long to crack the nuts, so to speak,
23:42
Speaker 1: is that it's um. It's genetic, and both parents have
23:46
Speaker 1: to have this gene that you inherit. So it's um
23:51
Speaker 1: if both parents have to have it. And it's probably
23:53
Speaker 1: not the kind of because if you have the gene
23:56
Speaker 1: and you don't have it, you don't even think about it.
23:57
Speaker 1: You're getting married to somebody who also has this gene
24:00
Speaker 1: that you have no idea exists. All of a sudden,
24:02
Speaker 1: you have a kid that's born with this, and it's
24:05
Speaker 1: usually diagnosed by the age of two because it's so clearly, uh,
24:10
Speaker 1: the sun so clearly damages your baby. This is the
24:13
Speaker 1: story from New York Times. The mother describes this The
24:17
Speaker 1: baby was about six weeks old, and we put her
24:20
Speaker 1: to sleep in the shade of a tree. She began
24:22
Speaker 1: screaming hysterically, like three minutes later. I mean it's not
24:27
Speaker 1: like all day long. I mean it's literally, go out
24:29
Speaker 1: into the sun and your skin starts blistering immediately, she said.
24:32
Speaker 1: In less than two minutes, her arms broke out in
24:34
Speaker 1: ferocious blisters that we thought were aunt bites. At first,
24:38
Speaker 1: each burn began as a little pin prick, then swelled
24:41
Speaker 1: up to the size of a quarter into a blister.
24:43
Speaker 1: You could literally see it happening in front of your eyes,
24:46
Speaker 1: like time lapse photography. So it's like something like a
24:50
Speaker 1: vampire in a movie goes out and the sun just
24:52
Speaker 1: starts like burning their skin. Wow, it's unbelievably sad and
24:56
Speaker 1: that that damage. Like, like we said, there are one
24:59
Speaker 1: thousand and too sometimes more likely to develop skin cancer
25:03
Speaker 1: UM apparently, so it takes about sixty years of sun
25:07
Speaker 1: exposure before skin cancer really develops most people UM and
25:12
Speaker 1: people with XP it starts the same tumors can start
25:15
Speaker 1: by age ten, so you have like skin damage, like
25:19
Speaker 1: horrific external skin damage. But at the same time they're
25:24
Speaker 1: the radiation damage is just working over time beneath the
25:28
Speaker 1: surface too. Yeah, well this the same girl. You know.
25:31
Speaker 1: They go to this pizza place at ten pm, one
25:33
Speaker 1: of their favorite pizza joints because it doesn't have fluorescent lights,
25:37
Speaker 1: and there's literally like a case with SODA's an ice
25:40
Speaker 1: cream with fluorescent lights, and the kid can't even go
25:42
Speaker 1: near that, like all the other kids are they're picking
25:45
Speaker 1: out their ice cream and she can't do it. I mean,
25:48
Speaker 1: she's a very sweet girl and she says, you know,
25:50
Speaker 1: night is cool. I love the moon so much better
25:52
Speaker 1: than the sun. And it seems like she's got a
25:54
Speaker 1: great attitude, but it definitely it's a scary thing when
25:57
Speaker 1: you can't play with other kids in the day light.
26:00
Speaker 1: Like she's literally never seen the sun. She said, I've
26:02
Speaker 1: seen it on television. Wow, isn't that sad? Yes, but
26:07
Speaker 1: there is NASA is on the scene, right. Yeah, they
26:10
Speaker 1: got a cool suit, yes, for like two grand, which
26:14
Speaker 1: is relatively cheap considering what it can let you do.
26:17
Speaker 1: But basically, you can put a kid in one of
26:20
Speaker 1: these suits, a kid with XP and one of these suits,
26:22
Speaker 1: and they can walk out into the into the sunlight.
26:26
Speaker 1: It blocks I think of UV A and UVB radiation
26:31
Speaker 1: and uh, it's bulky suit or whatever. But they can
26:33
Speaker 1: go outside and play with their friends. So there is
26:36
Speaker 1: some hope. There's the stem cell thing to write, and
26:39
Speaker 1: there's Camp Sundown, which is awesome, and uh, if you
26:42
Speaker 1: are one of the few sufferers, I'm sure you already
26:44
Speaker 1: know about XPS, but it's the XP Society and that's
26:47
Speaker 1: like the place to go for information and support and
26:50
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So um mega flares, heat stroke, skin
26:57
Speaker 1: cancer zero derma pick mintosum anything else, I don't think
27:03
Speaker 1: so those are the way. Yeah, and actually one extra
27:07
Speaker 1: fact about XP is a lot of the suffers go
27:09
Speaker 1: blind because it's very harsh on the eyes as well.
27:13
Speaker 1: I know, I'm so sorry. This is pretty heavy for
27:16
Speaker 1: at nine am. Really is bunge you up for the day? Well,
27:20
Speaker 1: if you wanna learn more about the sun and ways
27:24
Speaker 1: it can kill you and you want to read Chuff
27:26
Speaker 1: Bryant's first sentence in this one, it's good stuff. Um,
27:31
Speaker 1: you can type in can the sun kill you in
27:35
Speaker 1: the search bar at our venerable website How Stuff Works
27:39
Speaker 1: dot com. Right, that's right, and it's time for listener mail. Chuck. Yes,
27:47
Speaker 1: this is a little long, but this is actually a
27:49
Speaker 1: follow up, and so few follow ups do we get.
27:52
Speaker 1: This is a guy Dan. I don't know if we
27:55
Speaker 1: read it on the air, but he was inspired by
27:57
Speaker 1: our Bhutan podcast. Remember do you need money to be happy?
28:02
Speaker 1: That kind of thing? That was his bouton onto something
28:05
Speaker 1: with gross national happiness. Well yeah, but it was the
28:09
Speaker 1: essence of it was money equating happiness and should you
28:12
Speaker 1: give it all up and and drop out? Yeah? Yeah, well, yes,
28:16
Speaker 1: we called for stories of the end. So this new
28:19
Speaker 1: dan Ah did so a year and a half ago,
28:23
Speaker 1: and he told me he was going to do it
28:24
Speaker 1: at the time, and he actually followed up a year
28:25
Speaker 1: and a half later. Wow, So this is like a
28:27
Speaker 1: real test case. So two years ago I was living
28:30
Speaker 1: the American dream, two thousand square foot house in rural
28:33
Speaker 1: New Hampshire, working a stable job at a fortune company,
28:37
Speaker 1: raking in at six figures. I had the dog, I
28:40
Speaker 1: had the loving girlfriend, but my life was hell. I
28:43
Speaker 1: worked mornings, nights, weekends, stressed beyond comprehension, and commuted two
28:47
Speaker 1: hours a day and spent my free time doing house
28:50
Speaker 1: related chores. Saw so little of my dog that when
28:53
Speaker 1: I came home he didn't even get up off the
28:55
Speaker 1: couch to greet me. That sad, lazy, Okay. My girlfriend
29:01
Speaker 1: and I discussed the predicament and came to the conclusion
29:04
Speaker 1: we would choose to continue. We could choose to continue
29:07
Speaker 1: living such a dreadful life until we died, or we
29:11
Speaker 1: can make a break for a new experience on our
29:13
Speaker 1: own terms. So that's what they did. They put their
29:15
Speaker 1: house on the market, sold it that spring, quit their jobs.
29:19
Speaker 1: I got married in June with a simple celebration and
29:21
Speaker 1: a bluegrass band, and then with only a car, our dog,
29:24
Speaker 1: and a couple of suitcases, set off for Portland, Oregon.
29:28
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why Portland's, but I think that's where
29:30
Speaker 1: everybody in its situ way to started in Portlandia. Uh.
29:34
Speaker 1: It's been close to a year now living in Portland,
29:36
Speaker 1: and it's been an interesting experience. There was a close call.
29:39
Speaker 1: We were running out of funds, still unemployed, and almost
29:43
Speaker 1: cashed in on our dreams, but we were saved by
29:46
Speaker 1: a random occurrence that landed my wife a job. They
29:49
Speaker 1: met Daddy Warbox. Despite ten percent unemployment in Portland, we
29:53
Speaker 1: both had jobs by January and we're confident that we
29:56
Speaker 1: could be successful in our transition. Now we live in
29:59
Speaker 1: a small, one room apartment and make one third of
30:02
Speaker 1: the salary that I did back in New Hampshire. But
30:05
Speaker 1: I only work forty hours a week. I love my job.
30:08
Speaker 1: I have a thirty minute bicycle commute to work, which
30:11
Speaker 1: is along the waterfront. I only drive my car twice
30:14
Speaker 1: a month. I used to have heart palpitations from the
30:17
Speaker 1: daily stress, now I have none. I have a lot
30:20
Speaker 1: of free time on Monday's. My wife and I have
30:22
Speaker 1: dance lessons. Wednesdays, I'm in a kickball league, which you
30:26
Speaker 1: know something about. So I've played kickball with Jerry on
30:30
Speaker 1: her team. Never should have played kickball again. Tuesday's a
30:34
Speaker 1: volunteer to local nonprofit theater. Thursdays and Fridays that catch
30:37
Speaker 1: several pints at the local pubs. And weekends I hike
30:42
Speaker 1: and experienced the great things that Portland has to offer.
30:46
Speaker 1: He's written and produced songs, and he says he actually
30:49
Speaker 1: has saved more money now than when he had the
30:51
Speaker 1: big six figure job. But that is so cool. Isn't
30:54
Speaker 1: that cool? I'll bet his hair is increased in length
30:56
Speaker 1: by at least it has. And now when I come home,
31:00
Speaker 1: the dog is wagging his tail meeting me at the door.
31:02
Speaker 1: So what a great ending here. He says, it hasn't
31:05
Speaker 1: been easy on in traditional terms, but it has been
31:08
Speaker 1: easy for us. Once you decide that what you own
31:11
Speaker 1: has no value to you, then most things that you
31:15
Speaker 1: worry about go away. That is so cool, Dan, And
31:19
Speaker 1: uh yeah, that's basically the essence, he said. Having free
31:22
Speaker 1: time is a great opportunity to get to know your
31:24
Speaker 1: significant other, to volunteer, and to get in shape, and
31:27
Speaker 1: that is all I have to say from Dan, well,
31:31
Speaker 1: congratulations Dan, that's a fantastic story. Yeah, I'm literally giddy
31:36
Speaker 1: you went from a dirty yuppie to a dirty hippie
31:39
Speaker 1: in a year. We applaud you for it. Yes, it's
31:42
Speaker 1: an excellent story and I'm glad he rode in. Thank
31:44
Speaker 1: you very much for following up. Dan. Yeah, and let's
31:46
Speaker 1: I'd like to hear from Dan every year to see
31:49
Speaker 1: what's going on. So Dan, I challenge you to email
31:52
Speaker 1: us again next spring. Okay, okay, how about that. That's
31:56
Speaker 1: good stuff, Chuck Q. Have any stories of amazing transformation.
32:01
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be necessarily like taking a step back.
32:04
Speaker 1: It could be anything. If you haven't seen so many
32:06
Speaker 1: in a couple of years and they change from pointing
32:08
Speaker 1: any to point B and it's just been astounding. We
32:10
Speaker 1: want to hear about it. We love stories like that. Right,
32:13
Speaker 1: you can post it on our Facebook page Facebook dot
32:15
Speaker 1: com slash stuff you should know. You can tweet it
32:18
Speaker 1: to us s y s K podcast, or you can
32:21
Speaker 1: send us an old fashioned email at stuff podcast at
32:26
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com for moralness and thousands of
32:32
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32:35
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32:38
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32:41
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