1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to 2 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. This is gonna be a clean one. 3 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: I think you as always so much more. Tuning in. 4 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: Shout out to the man myth legend, super producer, mister 5 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,640 Speaker 1: Max zestfully clean Williams. 6 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 2: Soap me up, Daddy, don't never say that again. 7 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:51,360 Speaker 3: Shout out too, I will not. That is me. I'm triggered. Yeah, 8 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 3: and you're old brown and I've been bullet Yeah it 9 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 3: is we. Yeah. Oh gosh, I've got an image in 10 00:00:58,200 --> 00:00:59,280 Speaker 3: my head that I can't shake. 11 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: You know, some times a lot of our conversations fall 12 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: into like catchphrase things, and we just find weird moments 13 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: of speech that have suddenly become strange. 14 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 3: And I think we just had one right before going. 15 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 3: I think we did too, and it really it was 16 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 3: very affecting. Sometimes we just can carry on entire conversations 17 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 3: just with only catchphrases, right, yeah, sometimes the same one 18 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 3: over and over and over. Sure. 19 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,679 Speaker 1: Yeah, we did an entire Illumination Globe Blood Limited commercial. 20 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:32,960 Speaker 1: It's just zeros and ones, that's right. It's probably some 21 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: of our best writing. Our mental health is good. 22 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:41,040 Speaker 3: Yes, Yeah, a clean Bill of Mental Health, if you will. 23 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 1: There we go, and as you might be able to tell, now, folks, 24 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: we are going to explore something a lot of people 25 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: don't think about, which. 26 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 3: Is just so. I thought it was anti psychotic meds, 27 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 3: antipsychotic med I think about those all the time. Those 28 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 3: are the fun ones. Nor soap is okay. So maybe 29 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 3: we started out with a little bit of darkness here 30 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 3: and then we pivoted to something that seems very squeaky 31 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,520 Speaker 3: clean and all American and wholesome. But boy, howdy, does 32 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 3: soap have a messed up history, like really really grizzly, 33 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 3: you know. I mean, anyone who's seen the movie Fight 34 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 3: Club probably knows, at least to a degree where soap 35 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 3: comes from, or at least the very earliest formulations of 36 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:37,320 Speaker 3: soap from animal and or human fat mixed with ashes, 37 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 3: and then it creates this like alkali, right, Like, we'll 38 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 3: get to a lot of this stuff. But sure, I 39 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,120 Speaker 3: just was really kind of taken aback by some of 40 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,800 Speaker 3: the sort of it's one of these accidental discoveries. But 41 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 3: the circumstances that led to the accidental discoveries quite gruesome. 42 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 1: Yes, So that is a heads up for you. Friendly disclaimer. 43 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:00,919 Speaker 1: Still we think it's such a fascinating and dare we say, 44 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: ridiculous story. The first thing you have to know, and 45 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,560 Speaker 1: this also shout out to our research associated mister Max Williams. Here, 46 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: this is something that I know is important to you. 47 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 3: Matter. 48 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 2: I almost said the line again, but I respect a nol. 49 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 3: So this, this is the first. 50 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:25,239 Speaker 1: Thing you need to do. The world is filthy. Ever 51 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:31,160 Speaker 1: since the first guy looked through the first microscope, people 52 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:36,040 Speaker 1: have been kind of avoiding admitting that the world is 53 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: riddled with bacteria, all kinds of viruses, ugly dangerous things. 54 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: They're all over you, inside of you. 55 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 3: Can you imagine that moment, that realization where it's saying, 56 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,280 Speaker 3: there's like tiny things that are just crawling all over 57 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 3: us all the time. I mean this Dutch fellow by 58 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:59,360 Speaker 3: the name of amazing name Antoine Phillips van Lewinoke, who 59 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 3: created lenses. He didn't exactly I don't think he invented 60 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:06,000 Speaker 3: did he invent the compound lens? I know he is 61 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 3: credited with inventing the microscope, which is basically like a 62 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 3: reverse telescope. You know, it's like it's using a series 63 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 3: of lenses to magnify something that's very small as opposed 64 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 3: to seeing something that's very far away. 65 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, he made a lot of contributions to the microscope, 66 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 1: to microbiology, you name it. And this guy came into 67 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: force back when it was pretty common for self taught 68 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:37,919 Speaker 1: experts and scientists to make all these breakthroughs. And he 69 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: just happened to look too closely at the world and 70 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 1: found something terrifying. Oh boy, But we also know, just 71 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 1: just a pro bacteria point here, we also know that 72 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: your gut biome, the bacteria that live inside you, they 73 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: are absolutely vital to a good and healthy life. 74 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 3: And I will also argue that sort of like just 75 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,440 Speaker 3: living in squalor, or like licking a public toilet seat 76 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 3: or something like that. I don't know that I've ever 77 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:04,600 Speaker 3: seen someone like get sickened or die from just like 78 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 3: the world, you know what I mean, just encountering Like 79 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 3: I am a firm believer in the five second rule. 80 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 3: If I drop a fry on the ground, I will 81 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:15,240 Speaker 3: brush it off and I will eat that fry. 82 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:15,680 Speaker 1: No. 83 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:18,839 Speaker 2: Yeah, I read something on here that said, like the 84 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 2: transmission of the common cold would go down by twenty 85 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:24,520 Speaker 2: percent if everyone washed their hands for twenty seconds. So 86 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 2: I read that, and I'm like, nah, because I believe 87 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:28,880 Speaker 2: in the five second rule also, so. 88 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: Well, you know, we have to consider that there are 89 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: so many moments in every human life where you run 90 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:37,960 Speaker 1: into something that would have been really gross if you 91 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,239 Speaker 1: realize what was happening, but you made it through because 92 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 1: the human is a resilient creature. 93 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 3: That's my point. Yeah, it's like, we're not. You're not 94 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 3: just gonna walk outside and inhale some piece of you know, 95 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 3: filth and then just keel over dead. But to that point, 96 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:54,480 Speaker 3: and I don't want to de realist too it, We're 97 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 3: gonna give it to the story. I heard a really 98 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 3: cool piece of NPR the other day about how there 99 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 3: are some communities in the States that are starting to 100 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 3: move towards waste water processing and like converting it into 101 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 3: drinking water. 102 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: Well, that's a noble attempt, and it's one you would 103 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:15,480 Speaker 1: want to be very confident in before deploy. 104 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:17,400 Speaker 3: Well apparently they are, and then they and they had 105 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:19,679 Speaker 3: to They said the biggest stumbling block or the biggest 106 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,839 Speaker 3: roadblock is what they referred to as the ick factor. 107 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 3: That like to sell the community on it, they have 108 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:28,680 Speaker 3: to like be on board, you know, they're like, you know, 109 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 3: they would be like, okay, are you okay with using 110 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 3: this to water your plants? Yeah, totally, they start washing 111 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 3: gray water. I recently installed a dehumidifier in my basement 112 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 3: that fills up with water every single day, and it 113 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 3: is apparently some of the cleanest water. It's already predistilled, 114 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 3: and I, you know, you could drink it. The dehumidifier 115 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:50,520 Speaker 3: instructions say not to what do you do with it? 116 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:53,160 Speaker 3: I water my garden with it actually, which is right 117 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 3: outside the door, so there's a little bucket. I pull 118 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 3: it out and I wanted the plants, so it's great. Yeah. Also, 119 00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 3: my basement is never smelled fresher. And because as we know, bacteria, 120 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 3: you know, forms in moist conditions. 121 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:10,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, bacteria also produce your farts. If you're a human, 122 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: million it's not on you. So another thing we need 123 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: to know is right now, humanity is overall way cleaner 124 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: than it was in days of yore. As Jim Nizele 125 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: points out in Farmer's Almanac, centuries ago, the human race stink, stink, 126 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: and stunk, But today things were a little bit different. 127 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:33,920 Speaker 1: All thanks to an invention called soap. 128 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 3: We got there. It did man, that's okay, that's what 129 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 3: the people are here for. I always think of that 130 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 3: scene from Monty Python on the Holy Gril where everyone's 131 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 3: just covered in feces, you know, because that wasn't that 132 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 3: far off. I mean, that's this hilarious movie. But you know, 133 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 3: without drainage for sewage, like there were there was a 134 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 3: time where it would just run through the streets and 135 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 3: soap wasn't a thing, and if it was, it was 136 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,520 Speaker 3: not something that everyone had access too for sure. And 137 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 3: now soap is ubiquitous. 138 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:07,120 Speaker 1: You go to various businesses and they will have soap 139 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:07,920 Speaker 1: for free. 140 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 3: It's one of those things. Ye. 141 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: Soap is a twenty two billion dollar industry globally. Now 142 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: thirteen billion bars are sold every year in the US alone. 143 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 3: But how do we get there? 144 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 1: We're going to learn that with some great articles from 145 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,360 Speaker 1: our pals at the New York Times, some great work 146 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:33,000 Speaker 1: for Time magazine, and of course the Cleaning Institute dot org, 147 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:36,839 Speaker 1: because that's of course that's a thing, right, that's another 148 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 1: weird job. You're on a date and they say, so 149 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: what do you do? When you say, oh, I work 150 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:46,280 Speaker 1: at the cleaning Institute. That sounds sketchy. 151 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, like, are you like a crime scene cleaner? Right? Like, 152 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 3: what are we talking here? I remember then they're referred 153 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 3: to in that movie The Professional. They referred to professional 154 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 3: assassins as cleaners. Yeah. 155 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:01,440 Speaker 1: I'm also thinking of a one of my favorite weird 156 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:06,319 Speaker 1: Stephen King cameos in the in the TV show Sons 157 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:09,720 Speaker 1: of Anarchy is a small spoiler. He shows up as 158 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:12,880 Speaker 1: a cleaner, and in that use of the word, a 159 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:16,079 Speaker 1: cleaner is someone who covers up a crime. 160 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 3: Scene, like Winston Wolf in pulp fiction. Yes, yeah, yeah, 161 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 3: just so. But when you think to your point about 162 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 3: the absolute bookoo amounts of money that pour into the 163 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:28,520 Speaker 3: soap industry, companies like Procter and Gamble you may have 164 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,679 Speaker 3: heard of, You know that they represent tons of different brands, 165 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,680 Speaker 3: but some of them are you know, Ivory Soap, which 166 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 3: is a legacy soap brand. You know, brands that are 167 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 3: ubiquitous now like Dove, Irish Spring, Olay I guess, yeah, 168 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 3: I mean whatever they used to call it oil of Olay. Yeah, 169 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,280 Speaker 3: now it's just olay. Yeah, it's a fun word to say. 170 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 3: A bullfighter. What does that spring in Ireland smell like? 171 00:09:55,120 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 3: Is if fresh? I guess because of leprechan magic presumable. 172 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,720 Speaker 1: And I got to be honest. Nowadays, I'm not like 173 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:05,120 Speaker 1: a bar of soap. Person. 174 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:06,839 Speaker 3: Now, Max and I were talking about the same thing. 175 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 3: It's lately the thing is much more body wash, which 176 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 3: is still, you know, a similar thing. It's just a 177 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,680 Speaker 3: liquid form, and it's easier to dispense, and you know, 178 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:16,920 Speaker 3: bars of soap get gross and you don't only want 179 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 3: to share it, like if you live with somebody, Yeah, 180 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:21,600 Speaker 3: I can't really trust them not to rub it directly 181 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 3: on their bits. 182 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,119 Speaker 1: I remember bumming around. I was living a much different lifestyle, 183 00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: and I was going from. 184 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 3: Back when you were a beat poet. 185 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: I was going from hostile to hostile. And the thing 186 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:35,560 Speaker 1: that got me is they have bars of soap. 187 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 3: I know, you see one little curly on there. 188 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened, you know, I and I was 189 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,599 Speaker 1: not you know, I was by no means a billionaire. 190 00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:48,080 Speaker 1: But I thought, I'm gonna have to just buy a 191 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:50,679 Speaker 1: bar of soap. It's my bar. I take it with me. 192 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:54,439 Speaker 3: I even got wrap it up nice and tidy. Yeah, exactly. 193 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:58,599 Speaker 1: So the liquid body wash stuff that a lot of 194 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 1: people are using now is it's somewhat poetic that that 195 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,280 Speaker 1: has evolved from the original soap. Here's the gross part 196 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 1: we were teasing earlier. According to Dan Copple, writing for 197 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,560 Speaker 1: Wirecutter out New York Times, soap likely originated as an 198 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:20,680 Speaker 1: accidental invention, a byproduct of cooking meat over a fire. 199 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, arguably the best way to cook meat. 200 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:23,840 Speaker 1: First. 201 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember the spit urned dogs. That was the 202 00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:30,839 Speaker 3: whole thing, poor guys. Yeah, I mean, at least the 203 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,840 Speaker 3: spitturned boys got out of it, but the dogs were 204 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:37,440 Speaker 3: definitely overworked as well. But yeah, you have this a 205 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 3: giant metal thing attached to a crank that slowly turns 206 00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:45,319 Speaker 3: meat over and open fire. Well, it does create delicious meat. 207 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:48,760 Speaker 3: It also has some byproducts which can be used in 208 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 3: their own ways. You've ever been to France, Ben, and 209 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 3: I know you actually have. They a big popular thing 210 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:54,640 Speaker 3: and it's a lot of like kind of what we 211 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:57,600 Speaker 3: would call bodega's. They have chickens that are roasting and 212 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 3: the fat drips down onto potatoes. Yeah, man, that's what's up. 213 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:04,320 Speaker 3: And you can buy the potatoes separately. But back in 214 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,240 Speaker 3: these days they would be an open fire. So what 215 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 3: happened is the fat would drip into the fire and 216 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:11,240 Speaker 3: then eventually the fire would go out, leaving all these 217 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:13,920 Speaker 3: globs of fat mixed in with the ashes. 218 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:19,439 Speaker 1: Yeah, meat boogers and ashes too, very unclean sounding things 219 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:24,080 Speaker 1: are key ingredients to what we call soap because what's crazy. Yeah, 220 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: what happened was you have to applaud the ingenuity and 221 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 1: inquisitiveness of these earlier humans. 222 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:33,080 Speaker 3: What happened? Who tried that? Who did something? Yet that mum? 223 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: Who's like, I don't know, man around, Let's say, rub 224 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:41,479 Speaker 1: it on my face might feel fresh, zestfully clean. How 225 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,520 Speaker 1: much other stuff had they been rubbing on themselves? 226 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:44,960 Speaker 3: You know? 227 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,200 Speaker 1: They're like, I know the poison ivy didn't work out, 228 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:53,840 Speaker 1: but I got a good feeling about these meat boogers guys. 229 00:12:56,679 --> 00:12:59,720 Speaker 3: I mean, I just can't understand quite what aha moment 230 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 3: would have led someone to realize that this chemical, this 231 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:06,839 Speaker 3: kind of slippery stuff that was created was good at 232 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:12,040 Speaker 3: removing dirt. I also don't fully understand scientifically speaking, how 233 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 3: that even works. Oh, we'll get it, Okay, I'm excited. 234 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: So you can see that after someone figured this out, 235 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: they said, you can rub this on yourself. It'll take 236 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 1: dirt off you, and you can, for the first time 237 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,959 Speaker 1: in your life be kind of clean. Everybody loved this. 238 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: It became super popular. You can find recipes for making 239 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: soap that are almost five thousand years old, and it's 240 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:40,880 Speaker 1: all around the ancient world Greece, Rome, Egypt. You know, 241 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: all the hits and alchemists made a lot of soap. 242 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 3: So how come I didn't catch on Like in the 243 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:48,600 Speaker 3: Middle Ages when everyone was covered in poop? 244 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:52,680 Speaker 1: Well it, I will tell you. From what I understand 245 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: about the Middle Ages and at least Western Europe, it 246 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 1: was pretty rare to take a bath. It was often 247 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:01,760 Speaker 1: considered like a ritual list thing like a night may 248 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 1: take a bath once a year before the big jousting tournament. 249 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: Otherwise it's just sort of normalized to to stink. So 250 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:15,560 Speaker 1: maybe soap was something that the elite would have. People 251 00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: were trying to be clean. We're not saying they were 252 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:18,520 Speaker 1: a bunch of degenerates. 253 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 2: They I will say, there's some stuff that coming up 254 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:24,640 Speaker 2: about why they'd invade in the medieval era. 255 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,160 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. 256 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 2: I think I think I know a bit of a reason, 257 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:33,440 Speaker 2: some humorous level science. 258 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,600 Speaker 3: Dare I say ridiculous. I also remember, like there was 259 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 3: a thing we discussed in an episode of ways back 260 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:42,400 Speaker 3: about people washing their linens and urine. Mm hmm, yeah, 261 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:44,000 Speaker 3: a thing. I think it was underwear. I think it 262 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:44,680 Speaker 3: was in the underwear. 263 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: It was washing underwear in urine. And then also while 264 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: we're on the point of well we're on the point 265 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:55,480 Speaker 1: of underpants history, check out the origin of pink lemonade. 266 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,960 Speaker 3: Remember that episode clown Tights, the Rise of the Clown. 267 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:01,680 Speaker 3: Let's just leave it at the Yeah. Sorry, it's crazy 268 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,280 Speaker 3: to me that this is something that has existed for 269 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 3: so very long, just based on some accidental stumbling into 270 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 3: like however this happened, We don't know. What we do 271 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:13,640 Speaker 3: know is that we have recipes dating back between either 272 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 3: the eighth and tenth century from alchemists, like you said, 273 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 3: and this is when here spread well burnt ashes from goodlogs. 274 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 3: It has to be good logs over woven wicker work, 275 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:25,920 Speaker 3: which I guess acts as sort of like a cheese 276 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 3: cloth kind of situation, like cloth, Yeah, and gently pour 277 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 3: hot water on them, so it goes through drop by drop. 278 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,920 Speaker 3: After it is clarified, well, let it cook, add enough 279 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,320 Speaker 3: oil and stir very well. 280 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 1: So I want to point something out that you guys know, 281 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:47,360 Speaker 1: I love food writing and reading. There's a great book 282 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,680 Speaker 1: called Choice Cuts that has a lot of strange old recipes. 283 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:52,840 Speaker 1: I'll bring it in one day. We should read it 284 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: out loud. And and what I love is just like 285 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:01,080 Speaker 1: the George Washington recipe. There's a vagueness to it. Add 286 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:05,960 Speaker 1: enough oil, get a goodly amount, enjoy liberally. 287 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 3: I believe it was in the eggnog recipe that you're 288 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:11,720 Speaker 3: referring to. Yeah, and this comes from actually a book 289 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 3: called the Maypie Clavicula, which is it's kind of cute 290 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:21,640 Speaker 3: and Latin that translates to a little key to everything. 291 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 3: You know, it's like little live laugh love. You know, 292 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 3: it's kind of cute. I bet it had some like 293 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:28,920 Speaker 3: nice life hacks in it. 294 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like the how stuff works of it to day. 295 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:37,800 Speaker 1: The Alchemist recipe for soap said you need to use 296 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:43,040 Speaker 1: either olive oil or beef tallow animal fat, and today 297 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 1: animal fat, along with lye, is still a basic ingredient 298 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 1: of soap. Here's some of the science so fat reacts 299 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:55,280 Speaker 1: with lye and this can be pretty toxic. So soap 300 00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:58,240 Speaker 1: makers when they're making this stuff they have to wear 301 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: protective gear. The process that can be dangerous to humans 302 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:05,600 Speaker 1: is something called saponification. 303 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:09,200 Speaker 3: That's right, and we believe that the origins of that 304 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:15,480 Speaker 3: word come from the Proto German word sipo, which means 305 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,920 Speaker 3: to strain. And again going back to that alchemist's recipe, 306 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,080 Speaker 3: we're talking about straining substances through kind of like a 307 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 3: porous piece of fabric. 308 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:29,280 Speaker 1: Another greasy strain is another really gross phrase. 309 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 3: Why not great? Yeah, and to that point, Ben, the 310 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 3: Latin word sebum is also associated with this, which translates 311 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:43,160 Speaker 3: to Greece or another alternative is from something originating from 312 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,119 Speaker 3: Mount Sappo, which is a mountain in Italy where I 313 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:51,240 Speaker 3: believe there were like sacrifices being made or something it. 314 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 1: Gets its name from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's okay. 315 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:57,919 Speaker 3: So the sources are great. Another meat and fat and 316 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 3: ash situation, Yes, not consensual. 317 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,719 Speaker 1: So the wild soap is still very much I think 318 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,800 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three we have to be very we 319 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: have to be extremely clear with you folks. The soap 320 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:15,000 Speaker 1: from back in the day was very different. Early soap 321 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,520 Speaker 1: would not have looked cool to you if you traveled 322 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:21,440 Speaker 1: back in time and hung out in a Roman bathhouse. 323 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: These soaps were probably people have recreated the sancient stuff 324 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:29,200 Speaker 1: using those recipes. These soaps were like brown or gray. 325 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:31,840 Speaker 1: They were kind of soft and mushy. They didn't have 326 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,760 Speaker 1: any nice smells at the time. They're purely functional. At 327 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,720 Speaker 1: the time, they were just a huge improvement. They were 328 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:45,440 Speaker 1: a game changer for hygiene because beforehand, before soap, people 329 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,560 Speaker 1: would clean themselves by rubbing their bodies with clay or 330 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:54,000 Speaker 1: scraping them with scraping pumas across their flesh. 331 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:57,439 Speaker 3: Sure, it was just pretty popular. People love a puma stone. 332 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:02,199 Speaker 1: I mean, it's just exfoliating, true, true, but exfoliating is 333 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:03,760 Speaker 1: part of bathing. 334 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 3: They were straight up at fully Lake. I don't know it. Yea, 335 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 3: it is a dry shower, is what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, 336 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:11,919 Speaker 3: that's kind of that's kind of that's kind of it. 337 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:16,800 Speaker 3: Really quickly, we talked about another of the potential origins 338 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 3: of the words, so Mount Sapo alluded to some some 339 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,840 Speaker 3: gnarly goings on at this place that apparently the location 340 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:30,880 Speaker 3: is lost to history. What exactly was Mount Sapo famous 341 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 3: for in ancient Rome? Oh? 342 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,359 Speaker 1: Good, save, yes, I wast forgot about this one. Yeah, 343 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: all right, absolutely right. It is a It is believed 344 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:44,040 Speaker 1: to be a hilly area somewhere near somewhere near Rome 345 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:49,359 Speaker 1: and back in one hundred BC or b C, whatever 346 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: you prefer. There was a legend about this place and 347 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:58,439 Speaker 1: the idea that was that Mount Sapo was a sacrificial 348 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:03,600 Speaker 1: site for adnimals and rain water. They would kill these 349 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:08,720 Speaker 1: animals pretty much constantly, and then rainwater would fall down 350 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:13,640 Speaker 1: and mix with the animal fat and ashes, and then 351 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:16,080 Speaker 1: from there it would run down to a river. 352 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 3: It's very interesting and just again. I always learned about 353 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,520 Speaker 3: it stuff initially from the movie Fight Club, where Tyler 354 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:27,119 Speaker 3: Dirt and Brad Pitt's character is a soap salesman who 355 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:33,080 Speaker 3: gets his makings his ingredients by dumpster diving at liposuction clinics. 356 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:37,000 Speaker 1: You get in situations you do and think about this 357 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:40,840 Speaker 1: river that we both thought it was so cool. Is 358 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:46,200 Speaker 1: once these sacrifices, all the gunk and the remains, once 359 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,080 Speaker 1: it flows down from the mountain into the river, there 360 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:54,960 Speaker 1: are people washing clothes in the river and they're saying, wait. 361 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,959 Speaker 3: This ninety's never been this clean in my life. What 362 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,119 Speaker 3: gives go looks brand new? That's better. 363 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:02,639 Speaker 2: That's more. 364 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:03,760 Speaker 3: We were more in the token. 365 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: The poop stains are all gone. We should make more sacrifices. 366 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,320 Speaker 1: That's how soap started, according to this legend. 367 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,160 Speaker 3: But it's a good legend. It seems a little apocryphal 368 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:16,439 Speaker 3: once again, you know what I mean. Yeah, but it 369 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,800 Speaker 3: does lead. It does make more sense than the fat 370 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:23,080 Speaker 3: dripping into the fire and the ashes and someone just 371 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,880 Speaker 3: figuring out how to just to take it and rub 372 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,200 Speaker 3: it on themselves. Yeah, unless they were trying to eat 373 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,560 Speaker 3: the fat. Yeah, exactly. But I'll tell you what, they 374 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:35,280 Speaker 3: never used bad language again, right, because they washed their. 375 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:39,040 Speaker 1: Mouths so so I think it was worth it, no 376 00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:44,040 Speaker 1: joke left behind. We were talking earlier about why the 377 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:48,439 Speaker 1: Middle Ages, again in Western Europe, were so very dirty, 378 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: So let's maybe let's explore that, because although soap was 379 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:58,199 Speaker 1: an amazing discovery, people weren't always using it. It was 380 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,959 Speaker 1: considered a high craft or in art. In Italy and 381 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,800 Speaker 1: Spain and France, they were making soap. There in the 382 00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: Middle East, people were also making soap with olive oil, 383 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:13,040 Speaker 1: and it was actually quite a flex to import that. 384 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,600 Speaker 1: So rich people in Europe were saying, ah, yes, my 385 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,680 Speaker 1: Middle Eastern soap olive oil. 386 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:22,719 Speaker 3: Soap is still kind of like a bespoke sort of 387 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,880 Speaker 3: like popular thing, you know, like the kind of fancy 388 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,560 Speaker 3: hand soaps are all the rage these days. You see 389 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 3: them at hotels. You U see the hotels and also 390 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 3: like places where they're sort of irregularly shaped and have 391 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 3: like kind of weird like striations in them. They almost 392 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:40,120 Speaker 3: look like little blocks of sediments, you know, fancy one 393 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,440 Speaker 3: c see at the grocery store sometimes. But no, it's true. 394 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,119 Speaker 3: This was considered kind of a luxury item. So this 395 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 3: is almost some of the earliest days of bath products 396 00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:53,879 Speaker 3: as luxury. Yeah. Yeah. 397 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,920 Speaker 1: And a lot of people, of course were making their 398 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,400 Speaker 1: own soap at home because they were this was these 399 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:04,560 Speaker 1: were largely agrarian economies, right, So you are on a farm, 400 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,680 Speaker 1: you raise and kill animals, and you want to maximize 401 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,720 Speaker 1: your productivity, so of course you have a soap recipe. 402 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:13,919 Speaker 1: You pass it down to your kids and so on. 403 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:20,560 Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, though, the fall of the Roman Empire is 404 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: a big reason more Europeans didn't have soap, which I 405 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,720 Speaker 1: did not know that way, I did not see that coming. 406 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:30,360 Speaker 3: Have we talked about the term castile soap. We have 407 00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:30,920 Speaker 3: not yet. 408 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: That's the one from the fancy soap in Italy, Spain 409 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:34,960 Speaker 1: and France. 410 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,120 Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was the name, and that is if 411 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:41,280 Speaker 3: you if anyone's familiar with doctor Bronner's so very very 412 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:43,920 Speaker 3: popular you use it to clear anything. But it is 413 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,040 Speaker 3: like one of those kind of olive oil based soaps 414 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,720 Speaker 3: that originated in Spain and they are still around today 415 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:54,560 Speaker 3: and considered kind of the you know, the holy grail 416 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:55,720 Speaker 3: of soaps. 417 00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And soap was kind of the holy 418 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:05,080 Speaker 1: grail in parts of Europe during the medieval period because, 419 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,240 Speaker 1: as we know from soap and Detergent's history, after the 420 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:13,919 Speaker 1: Fall of Rome, bathing habits went downhill in Europe and 421 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: this made they really let themselves go and and this 422 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 1: contributed in a very serious and disturbing way to plagues, 423 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:30,360 Speaker 1: to illness, to infection. People were bathing and then they stopped. 424 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,920 Speaker 1: That's kind of what happened. And this was a big 425 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:38,320 Speaker 1: help to the fleas that traveled on the rats that 426 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:40,000 Speaker 1: brought the Black Death to Europe. 427 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,600 Speaker 3: Oh, just a perfect storm of nastiness. Yeah, that was 428 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:49,000 Speaker 3: in the fourteenth century. But elsewhere in the world, folks 429 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 3: were taking care of themselves, you know, in terms of 430 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:57,639 Speaker 3: their personal hygiene. In Japan, people bathed every day. It 431 00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 3: was very very common and you know, as I mean 432 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,080 Speaker 3: We always think Japan is kind of having there together, 433 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,879 Speaker 3: you know, in terms of organization, in terms of innovation, uh, 434 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,840 Speaker 3: and just kind of civilization. You know, all the Asians. 435 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:14,320 Speaker 1: We you guys got to go to Japan with me. 436 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:16,240 Speaker 1: We don't have to hang out together the whole time. 437 00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,520 Speaker 3: No, no, I'll be right by your side. 438 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 2: It's just three of us can be in a hot 439 00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 2: tub together. 440 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:24,000 Speaker 1: In Japan, they've got their classy they're called on st. 441 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,000 Speaker 2: Oh I know, eisode. 442 00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:28,960 Speaker 3: I really want to do this. 443 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool, for sure, and it's it's an important 444 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: point for us to make that although a lot of 445 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 1: people in the West only think of Western Europe when 446 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:41,960 Speaker 1: they think of the Middle Ages, the rest of the 447 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,160 Speaker 1: world was still there totally, you know, and didn't have 448 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:50,800 Speaker 1: all the same problems. In Iceland, people loved gathering together 449 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,520 Speaker 1: in the hot springs. Also, you know what, ma'am, we 450 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,720 Speaker 1: got to go to Scandinavia one day. I would love 451 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,000 Speaker 1: to go there. I want to walk in a country 452 00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,640 Speaker 1: where it's considered normal to have a sauna. 453 00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, have a Schwitz. That's so crazy to me. You 454 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 3: ever heard that referred to as Schwitz? I think it's 455 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 3: a Sopranos thing. I think it might be Yiddish actually, 456 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 3: but it's just like getting getting your sweat on. And 457 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:19,639 Speaker 3: then there's even like there's certain meats that are appropriate 458 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:20,600 Speaker 3: to eat in a sauna. 459 00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: That that part the second part I I hadn't heard before. 460 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:32,680 Speaker 3: Uh yeah, sauna sausage. There's a whole company uh that 461 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:35,960 Speaker 3: was obscure actually has an article in Finland. You cook 462 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:40,200 Speaker 3: sausages in the stones. Yeah, that makes you guys. 463 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 2: Do you guys remember this from the uh Sausage War 464 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,800 Speaker 2: episode the Expedition. 465 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 3: Oh that's right. 466 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, at the very end of were talking about like 467 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,360 Speaker 2: they have like a little like in the saunas. They 468 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:53,399 Speaker 2: have just like a stone cut out sausage in and 469 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:57,280 Speaker 2: they getting in there. And also expedition remember that. 470 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:00,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that's fun one to say. Yeah, and that's 471 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,639 Speaker 3: how it's pronounced. Yeah. And now there are modern innovations 472 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 3: that keep your sausage from getting soggy. It's like a 473 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 3: little sleeve that you put it in. It's sort of 474 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,120 Speaker 3: like a stone and the sausage goes inside and then 475 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,119 Speaker 3: that goes on the rocks. 476 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:16,479 Speaker 1: So they're doing hot pocket rules amazing. So there's another 477 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:18,200 Speaker 1: thing that happens here aside from the fall of the 478 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:24,399 Speaker 1: Roman Empire. Medical experts of the time, working again with 479 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:28,200 Speaker 1: the limited information they had, they started putting out some 480 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:33,639 Speaker 1: scare pieces, some propaganda about bathing. They began to think 481 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:39,560 Speaker 1: that bathing was a vector for spreading illness, and powerful 482 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:43,040 Speaker 1: people believed them. King Louis the fourteenth over in France 483 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,639 Speaker 1: was convinced that baths were bad for you, like they 484 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 1: were like unnecessary surgery. Apparently he only took three baths 485 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,280 Speaker 1: throughout the course of his life and just you know, 486 00:27:57,359 --> 00:27:59,800 Speaker 1: covered his his swamps. 487 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, with scented oils and lotions and perfumes. I've done 488 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 3: that every time in a pin. 489 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:10,080 Speaker 1: Sure, every time I go somewhere and I smell a 490 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,280 Speaker 1: little bit like close. 491 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 3: Little underarm sprits, Yeah, it's because I have not showered. 492 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 3: It's definitely for you guys. 493 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:19,000 Speaker 2: If you guys ever put deodorant on a turd, I 494 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,080 Speaker 2: haven't either. I have on when I'm a teenager. 495 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:23,320 Speaker 3: That's a weird question. 496 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,359 Speaker 2: Basically, what it smells like, they said, was dedorant, and 497 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,119 Speaker 2: turn is what it smells like. The Uran doesn't cover what. 498 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 3: You're saying, So this is a hypothetical. 499 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,639 Speaker 2: So no, this person actually did it. But what I 500 00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:38,040 Speaker 2: feel like this is a common thing to do. 501 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:38,600 Speaker 3: It's not. 502 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,040 Speaker 2: No, it's not agreed. Thanks, I'm such a never friend 503 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,840 Speaker 2: of mine from like the end of middle school told 504 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 2: me to do that. You're wrong. 505 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,479 Speaker 3: I once pooped my pants in middle school and hit 506 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,320 Speaker 3: it in a drawer in my friend's house. 507 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 1: I once pooped in another guy's pants. That's crazy. 508 00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,920 Speaker 3: You win, you win. All this is coming out any 509 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:09,560 Speaker 3: of us watched or staying in. But here's what I 510 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,480 Speaker 3: do know. I always thought of King Louis the fourteenth 511 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,920 Speaker 3: is the real fancy lad you know it wasn't he 512 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 3: the son king? Wasn't he like the Versailles guy, you know? 513 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,160 Speaker 3: And he wore like fancy ruffles and was it all 514 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 3: into the height of fashion and all of that stuff. 515 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:27,520 Speaker 3: He was, Yeah, Louis the Great? 516 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:32,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, and he was I think the longest running ruler 517 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:33,400 Speaker 1: of France. 518 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:33,800 Speaker 3: Yeah. 519 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:38,240 Speaker 2: And then didn't his son king Yeah, his grandson was 520 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 2: the sixteenth. He got shoved into the guilloteen. I think 521 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,280 Speaker 2: that French Revolution is right after the fourteenth. 522 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 3: Yeah. Point being though, is I just didn't really pick 523 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,560 Speaker 3: You'll get all these paintings of him with his glorious 524 00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,080 Speaker 3: flowing locks and all of this stuff, and you just 525 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,160 Speaker 3: don't picture him smelling like crap. 526 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, but at all. Frederickston was very in shape and skinny, 527 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 2: and he's the he was the king of Sweden who 528 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:02,200 Speaker 2: aid himself to death. 529 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,680 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, but he just loved those buns man. Yeah. 530 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 2: I mean, so like these paintings are generally not true, 531 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:11,720 Speaker 2: well not super duper accurate. 532 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: I mean, imagine if you are the painter and you 533 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 1: have to make a picture of the most powerful person 534 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:24,520 Speaker 1: in the country who can just have you killed. Yeah, 535 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 1: you are going to you know, judge it up a 536 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:30,840 Speaker 1: little bit, sure, give him some definition, you know. 537 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:33,000 Speaker 3: I would also say that the modern equivalent would be 538 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 3: like the way the social media pictures are curated. Nobody's 539 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:41,719 Speaker 3: that happy, nobody lives that happy. A life is so contented. 540 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:47,320 Speaker 1: Agreed, Agreed, social media curation and portraits of royalty may 541 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:52,040 Speaker 1: not be the full truth. Soap is now modernized. How 542 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:57,040 Speaker 1: did it become a modern thing? Well, technology, There were 543 00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:03,680 Speaker 1: advances in production and more sophisticated manufacturing techniques that are 544 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:08,800 Speaker 1: responsible for the soap we have today. Soap is way 545 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:13,800 Speaker 1: older than the United States, obviously, and the soap making 546 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,520 Speaker 1: business in the US is also older than the United States. 547 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:22,840 Speaker 1: It started way back in the sixteen hundreds, and it 548 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 1: wasn't anybody's job. It was just another household shore you 549 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,400 Speaker 1: had to do. So if you think laundry stinks now, folks, 550 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: imagine another part of doing laundry was making the soap 551 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 1: you would use. So you're like, the clothes are getting 552 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:42,320 Speaker 1: pretty dirty. I guess I have to kill an animal, 553 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,680 Speaker 1: render its fat, start a fire, make some soap, and 554 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: then find a river. 555 00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 3: Yeah. I have noticed that some kind of more traditional 556 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:57,680 Speaker 3: soaps they don't really smell good. They kind of have 557 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,960 Speaker 3: an acrid kind of smell all to them, you know 558 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,200 Speaker 3: what I mean. Like, even just like a really basic 559 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:05,760 Speaker 3: bar of soap, when you wash your hands in it, 560 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 3: there's a certain chemically kind of unpleasant odor. Certainly Trump's 561 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 3: whatever odor was there before it literally Trump said, gets 562 00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:16,800 Speaker 3: rid of it. But the smell isn't pleasant. It wasn't 563 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,920 Speaker 3: until oils and the scents were introduced, and then that 564 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:22,080 Speaker 3: that became more of a thing. 565 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,000 Speaker 1: And this, you know, it reminds me of a common 566 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,760 Speaker 1: scene in grocery stores. When you go to the cleaning aisle, 567 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,120 Speaker 1: you'll it'll typically be on a bottom shelf. You'll see 568 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:35,360 Speaker 1: that soap you're talking about. I always think of it 569 00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,520 Speaker 1: as the industrial stuff. It's like the soap, the lie soap, 570 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,520 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that can hurt your hats. 571 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:44,800 Speaker 3: Right, that's yeah, yeah, or you know it's because that's 572 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,479 Speaker 3: literally the substance is used to like dissolve a body. 573 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,520 Speaker 3: No comment, Okay, fair enough, So we'll call Stevi King. 574 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,720 Speaker 1: There's something unique about the early North American soap industry. 575 00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:01,720 Speaker 1: It gets started because of bacon and canned lighting in 576 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,640 Speaker 1: general was a big part of commercial cleansers because both 577 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,840 Speaker 1: making candles and making soap, both of them traditionally rely 578 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,400 Speaker 1: on byproducts from animals. So as the US becomes more 579 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:18,040 Speaker 1: industrialized and people are less and less likely to raise 580 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: their own animals for meat, they're going to purchase stuff 581 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:26,040 Speaker 1: from butchers. That means they're also less likely to make. 582 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 3: Soap at home. So that's when we have, you know, 583 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:35,280 Speaker 3: the first steps of the I guess soap industry starting 584 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:38,280 Speaker 3: to pop up, right, soap revolution, soap evolution. But it's 585 00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 3: earlier than you might think. Back in seventeen ninety one, 586 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,959 Speaker 3: we've got a French chemist by the name of Nicholas LeBlanc. 587 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:49,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, he patents this process where you can make soda 588 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:53,800 Speaker 1: ash from salt. Soda ash is important because you can 589 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,680 Speaker 1: combine it regular fat and you'll make soap. And that discovery, 590 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:03,560 Speaker 1: the blancs breakthrough makes soap making one of the fastest growing, 591 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,320 Speaker 1: most explosive industries in the United States. 592 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 3: By eighteen fifty. 593 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,839 Speaker 1: We also see real life factories coming into play, and 594 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:15,640 Speaker 1: the soap business is boomy. It's good to be This 595 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:17,800 Speaker 1: is back when you could be a soap tycoon. 596 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:20,239 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and even like I think there were 597 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:23,080 Speaker 3: like traveling salesmen and stuff like that, you know, with 598 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 3: their suitcases full of bars of soap. And this was 599 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,000 Speaker 3: also the time remember that propaganda of like you know, 600 00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 3: the previous era, the sort of main people question soap. 601 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,880 Speaker 3: Now we have I think a little bit more medical 602 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,920 Speaker 3: kind of support for soap. That's good and like expressions 603 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,000 Speaker 3: like cleanliness is next to godliness and all of that stuff. 604 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,840 Speaker 3: God is empty. It's yeah, he is, he really is. 605 00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:50,040 Speaker 3: It's cool to be clean though, you know what I'm saying. 606 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,919 Speaker 3: This is definitely starting to be the message. So during 607 00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:56,839 Speaker 3: the Crimean War in the eighteen fifties, we have Florence Nightingales, 608 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:01,000 Speaker 3: very important figure in the mystery of medicine, who's credited 609 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:07,040 Speaker 3: with kind of changing the way nursing is done and 610 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:12,280 Speaker 3: really made a big deal about washing those hands because 611 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:19,200 Speaker 3: that could potentially save lives by preventing the spread of cholera. Yeah, yeah, 612 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:20,839 Speaker 3: and she is. 613 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,680 Speaker 1: She's in the pantheon of people who who were underappreciated 614 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,920 Speaker 1: by civilization. I would argue she's up there with Samalwis, 615 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,760 Speaker 1: the guy who asks surgeons to wash their hands before 616 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:40,160 Speaker 1: they do operations, right, or assistant childbirth. So this is 617 00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 1: very important stuff. Also in the mid eighteen hundreds, in 618 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,719 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty seven, there's this candle maker out of Cincinnati, 619 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:50,960 Speaker 1: William Procter, and he says, oh, yeah, well making candles 620 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 1: making soap. I have the ingredients for both, and he 621 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:57,879 Speaker 1: puts them together. He teams up with a guy named 622 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:04,359 Speaker 1: James Gamble and makes a company that ultimately becomes not 623 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,160 Speaker 1: just a huge deal in the soap business, but the 624 00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,160 Speaker 1: world's largest consumer products company ever. 625 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:14,880 Speaker 3: Procter and Gamble, P and G, baby and G. What 626 00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:17,880 Speaker 3: do they not make? I don't know, humans? 627 00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:24,000 Speaker 1: Yeah now as of now, yeah, they're making prototype humans. 628 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:28,800 Speaker 1: So Procter and Gamble is also one of the first 629 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:33,759 Speaker 1: soaps to gain national distribution. It's the Ivory brand, which 630 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:35,080 Speaker 1: is still around today, right. 631 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's still distributed by parct and Gamble. They're 632 00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:39,160 Speaker 3: the kind of company that has been in the game 633 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 3: for so long, diversified so much, and they've created so 634 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,400 Speaker 3: many like ubiquitous kind of brands. So remember that cast 635 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:48,480 Speaker 3: deal soap we were talking about from Spain that was 636 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:53,200 Speaker 3: sort of the fancy lad soap. This plain white soap 637 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:59,080 Speaker 3: was designed to be competition for that, like perhaps the 638 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:00,279 Speaker 3: people soap. 639 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:04,960 Speaker 1: The people's soap, soap for the people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 640 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 1: It was pretty affordable, and the name was from a 641 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:16,360 Speaker 1: biblical passage. The company said, the name of the soap 642 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,520 Speaker 1: is an indicator of its purity. There even came to 643 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 1: be a kind of modern legend, a creation myth about 644 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:29,880 Speaker 1: how Ivory was made. The story was that there was 645 00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,600 Speaker 1: a mixing machine left on someone took a long lunch 646 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:38,080 Speaker 1: break and extra air accidentally pumped into what was what 647 00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:43,000 Speaker 1: was being mixed, And in two thousand and four, weirdly enough, 648 00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:48,320 Speaker 1: people working for Procter and Gamble went through Old Man 649 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:52,240 Speaker 1: Gambles diary from eighteen sixty rude. 650 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:57,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, they read his diary and dear diary. Yeah, that's exactly. 651 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,680 Speaker 3: I got a crush on this diary. 652 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,000 Speaker 1: I made floating soap today I think will make all 653 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,680 Speaker 1: of our stock that way. So the legend that was 654 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:08,880 Speaker 1: the quote, Yeah, that was the quote. The legend was 655 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:09,719 Speaker 1: probably made up. 656 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:13,360 Speaker 3: Got it. But here's the thing. A lot of the 657 00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:21,040 Speaker 3: soap that you think is soap isn't in fact soap scale. 658 00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:23,760 Speaker 3: There's a lot to be said, as we alluded to earlier, 659 00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:27,560 Speaker 3: about the chemistry of soap and how it actually works. 660 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,840 Speaker 3: It something that's always eluded me. This seems like a 661 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:33,600 Speaker 3: mystical substance. A lot of these manufacturing processes stayed very 662 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:37,439 Speaker 3: much the same until nineteen sixteen during World War One, 663 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:39,719 Speaker 3: and then there was another change that happened during World 664 00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:42,280 Speaker 3: War Two, as often as the case during wartime, because 665 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,480 Speaker 3: of shortage and things that were needed as part of 666 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:47,960 Speaker 3: the supply chain, because a lot of these fats that 667 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:52,160 Speaker 3: were needed to make chemicals were being used elsewhere, probably 668 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 3: for those like k rations or whatever. 669 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:58,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, and back to our pal Dan writing for Wirecutter, 670 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:02,799 Speaker 1: he said, German and Ears figured out they could use 671 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:06,760 Speaker 1: a different cleaning product that didn't need animal fat and ashes. 672 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:12,640 Speaker 1: It was a synthetic substance they called detergent Latin for 673 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:18,919 Speaker 1: to wipe away. Detergents didn't have soap. They used enzymes that, 674 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:24,560 Speaker 1: through chemical reactions, lift stains off of clothing and skin. 675 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:28,000 Speaker 1: American companies get on board with this and again the 676 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:34,839 Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds and they start making new detergents and 677 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:39,760 Speaker 1: mixing ingredients up to see what other properties they can discover. 678 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:47,160 Speaker 1: And eventually, after the times of privation had passed, they 679 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:50,120 Speaker 1: were left with something that actually worked better than the 680 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:54,240 Speaker 1: original soap. And they said, okay, well, you know, history 681 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:55,920 Speaker 1: is cool, but we're going to have to go with 682 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:57,440 Speaker 1: a thing that's a better cleaner. 683 00:39:57,600 --> 00:39:57,839 Speaker 2: Yeah. 684 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,680 Speaker 3: It also doesn't like SuDS up the same. It behaves 685 00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:03,719 Speaker 3: differently when mixed with water, Like I don't know if 686 00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:07,400 Speaker 3: anyone's ever been unfortunate enough to accidentally put the regular 687 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:10,720 Speaker 3: soap into a dishwasher or something like that, you're gonna 688 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,839 Speaker 3: have like SuDS shooting all over your kitchen. Totally. Yeah, 689 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,759 Speaker 3: it's a rite of passage as an adult. But that's 690 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:19,600 Speaker 3: the thing like with you know, if you look at 691 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,400 Speaker 3: what laundry detergent does, for example, in the washing machine. 692 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,000 Speaker 3: It's not full of bubbles. It's much of much like 693 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,080 Speaker 3: you know, it's clearly a different process. It's more of 694 00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:32,279 Speaker 3: a smooth operator. It's a smooth operator. It creates kind 695 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:33,799 Speaker 3: of like this slurry, you know. 696 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,040 Speaker 1: And as a result, like you were saying earlier, Man, 697 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:42,040 Speaker 1: what people are calling soap today is not completely soap. 698 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,480 Speaker 1: Most of the cleansers, the majority of them liquid and solid, 699 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:51,319 Speaker 1: are gonna be synthetic detergent products. And people like these 700 00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:55,880 Speaker 1: products because they don't form gummy deposits. The origin story 701 00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:59,680 Speaker 1: of them is not as disturbing to some people. And 702 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:04,680 Speaker 1: modern cleansers also include a lot of other ingredients. Stuff 703 00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,640 Speaker 1: to make it the bar of soap, brighter stuff to 704 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:12,280 Speaker 1: make the liquid, you know, look bluish water, softeners, antibacterial 705 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:16,360 Speaker 1: stuff like alcohol, and these bars can have some of 706 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:20,840 Speaker 1: the same ingredients as soap, Like when you see what 707 00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:23,480 Speaker 1: is it, the animal fat is still in some of them. 708 00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,080 Speaker 1: It's just not called that anymore. 709 00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,279 Speaker 3: Yeah, And some of the main ingredients in these are 710 00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,279 Speaker 3: something that we both tittered at. I guess a little 711 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,279 Speaker 3: bit off my sodium talowate. It's just because it's a 712 00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:34,680 Speaker 3: funny word. 713 00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:36,520 Speaker 1: I don't know why it feels like someone trying to 714 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: do pretend Latin. 715 00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:40,520 Speaker 3: It does sound that way. And then sodium lard eate, 716 00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:43,440 Speaker 3: which sounds like what it is, or it can also 717 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:51,120 Speaker 3: include vegetable fats such as sodium palmitate and sodium coco eate, 718 00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:57,560 Speaker 3: which sounds delightful. But chemically speaking, they're not actually soap, 719 00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:00,160 Speaker 3: but it does seem that they mean they're obviously it's 720 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:02,880 Speaker 3: like chemically or like scientifically in terms of what the 721 00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:06,640 Speaker 3: process is doing a similar job, right right. 722 00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:09,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is one of Max, I think this 723 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:12,080 Speaker 1: is one of the big questions for you, and I 724 00:42:12,120 --> 00:42:15,000 Speaker 1: appreciate this because we've got to give a shout out 725 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:18,879 Speaker 1: to our alma matter. How stuff works. Maybe we end here, 726 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:21,920 Speaker 1: how does soap actually work? Well, it's less of a 727 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:27,160 Speaker 1: disinfectant and more of what you called, Max, I think 728 00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:31,480 Speaker 1: quite appropriately a germ slipping slide. They're not killing the germs, 729 00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:36,320 Speaker 1: they're moving them. The slipperiness of soap lowers the surface 730 00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:40,240 Speaker 1: temperature of water when you mix them together, and rubbing 731 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:44,279 Speaker 1: your hands together while washing gets the dirt to temporarily 732 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:46,840 Speaker 1: bond with the water and soap, and then it. 733 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,760 Speaker 3: Leaves with the water. It lifts it right off. Yeah, 734 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:54,960 Speaker 3: it's interesting, just like those commercials exactly leaving U zestfully clean. 735 00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,040 Speaker 3: I'm sorry, man, I think you got that jingle stuck 736 00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:00,200 Speaker 3: in my head a little while ago. I think, ye, 737 00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,480 Speaker 3: not fully clean and unless you zest fully clean. 738 00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:08,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's jaunty. It's a jaunty jingle. And this has 739 00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,719 Speaker 1: been a pretty fascinating episode. It took us a lot 740 00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:16,480 Speaker 1: of places. We got into some pretty dark territory. We 741 00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:19,759 Speaker 1: got into some really interesting stuff about hygiene, and we're 742 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:25,080 Speaker 1: going to have to continue the journey next week. 743 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:29,120 Speaker 3: To our personal hygiene journey. Our personal hygiene journey. Yeah, man, 744 00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 3: we're look at us. All three of us are being 745 00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:34,960 Speaker 3: pretty good. Now, we're working out, we're taking showers. Oh man, 746 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,440 Speaker 3: I took one three days ago. I feel like you're 747 00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:40,960 Speaker 3: high roading me. But congratulations. My favorite place it took 748 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,120 Speaker 3: us was the top of the Sacrifice Mountain. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 749 00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:48,680 Speaker 3: Can you imagine finding that place in the modern day, 750 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:52,239 Speaker 3: Probably pretty creepy piles of bones and whatnot like the 751 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:55,400 Speaker 3: Predator's Layer, but it would be an adventure. Indeed, it 752 00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:57,319 Speaker 3: would until the predatory is too. 753 00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:02,359 Speaker 1: Thanks as always to super producer mister Max Williams, thanks 754 00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:06,720 Speaker 1: to research associate Max Williams, thanks to Chuck Palinook, thanks 755 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:10,640 Speaker 1: to Brad Pitt, thanks to Ed Norton. 756 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:13,360 Speaker 3: He's apparently a bit of a pill, but he's a 757 00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:15,479 Speaker 3: fabulous actor, and of. 758 00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:21,600 Speaker 1: Course thanks to our own theatrical professional Jonathan stricklandka the poster. 759 00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:31,879 Speaker 3: Indeed, we'll see you next time, folks Stickley. For more 760 00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,440 Speaker 3: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 761 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:37,520 Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.