Speaker 1: Ooh god, Hi everybody, it's Chuck here. Oh boy. My
Speaker 1: selection this week is Hell the Flu Works, and I'll
Speaker 1: give you one reason why. This is from November fourteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. H I hope you like it. I'm going
Speaker 1: back to bed. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's
Speaker 2: Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry. This is Stuff you
Speaker 2: Should Know about the flu, which I have.
Speaker 1: You know the flu?
Speaker 2: Do you? I don't know, man, I can't. I can't.
Speaker 2: I've been on the planet for forty one years. Okay,
Speaker 2: I still can't really tell the difference between a flu
Speaker 2: and a cold.
Speaker 1: I think the difference that I can tell, and I
Speaker 1: don't get a flu much. You know, always get the
Speaker 1: stomach bug, which, as it turns out, is not a
Speaker 1: flu I just learned. But I don't get the flu
Speaker 1: flu much. But I can always tell though when I'm
Speaker 1: super achy, like the flu just makes me feel like
Speaker 1: dog doodoo. Right, Where's the cold? Is just a big inconvenience?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had uh no, I've definitely had like lots
Speaker 2: of aches and I woke up like shivering one night.
Speaker 1: I don't see you. I had a fever, for sure,
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 2: So, I guess it must have just been one night
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night. So that's that's the flu, right, probably,
Speaker 2: So I guess I do have the flu. No, no joke, everybody.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm erecting the clear glass in between us.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that I've had it long enough now
Speaker 2: based on the research from this article that I'm not contagious,
Speaker 2: or else I would have called this off.
Speaker 1: So did you get it in New York?
Speaker 2: I wonder, I think so. Yeah, I'm letty New York, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Which I was like, I was just walking walking around
Speaker 2: like with my hands inside of a couple of like
Speaker 2: plastic Dwayne Reid bags and it still didn't work.
Speaker 1: Well, that was your problem probably right there, Dwayne Reid.
Speaker 2: Because I didn't take them off when I ate gross. Yeah. So, yes,
Speaker 2: we were in New York for some Bellhouse shows, right,
Speaker 2: those went pretty well?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought they were great.
Speaker 2: All right, So the flu. We won't reminisce about past victories.
Speaker 2: We'll just talk about the flu instead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how about a stat right off the get go? Here?
Speaker 2: Okay, the flu. And also sorry everybody for the sniffling
Speaker 2: that we knew inevitably happen. I'm trying hard not to
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 1: You're a method podcaster, all right, which is also what
Speaker 1: I said in my very first episode. That's right, remember that. Yep,
Speaker 1: it's not any funnier now. So the CDC right here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the CDCP.
Speaker 2: No, they just stuck with the original.
Speaker 1: Yes, they reckon that. About five to twenty between five
Speaker 1: percent and twenty percent of United States people's get the
Speaker 1: flu each year, compared to about ten percent to twenty
Speaker 1: five percent in dirty cold Canada.
Speaker 2: Right, I know. And normally when you get the flu,
Speaker 2: it's just you're laid up for a couple of days, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: like you said, you feel like dog do or something
Speaker 2: like that. Yeah, that's the seasonal flu. But even with
Speaker 2: the seasonal flu, which usually here in the United States
Speaker 2: or in North America runs from what like October to March,
Speaker 2: yeah roughly. Uh, and then I didn't really think about
Speaker 2: this before, but in the Southern Hemisphere it runs the
Speaker 2: opposite and actually peaks in August, right, Yeah, most of
Speaker 2: the time, it's just an inconvenience for you, but it
Speaker 2: actually kills people sometimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it can be dangerous for sure.
Speaker 2: So in two thy eleven and twelve that was a
Speaker 2: pretty low year, and for deaths from the flu in
Speaker 2: the US, there were twelve thousand people who died from
Speaker 2: the flu or complications from the flu. Twenty twelve thirteen
Speaker 2: flu season, fifty six thousand people died that year, and
Speaker 2: I think the average is something around thirty six thousand
Speaker 2: people in the US die from the flu every year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and apparently the World Health Organization says around the
Speaker 1: world as many as a quarter of a million people
Speaker 1: to a half a million people can die every year
Speaker 1: from the flu.
Speaker 2: Right, there's a lot of folks it is. So, I mean,
Speaker 2: in the idea of dying from the flu, that's awful
Speaker 2: because I mean, if you feel bad enough, as it
Speaker 2: is from a flu that you recover from in a
Speaker 2: few days, imagine dying from that. That would just be
Speaker 2: a terrible way to die.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the whole thing, chuck, comes down to this little
Speaker 2: tiny virus, that influenza virus, and there's different types and
Speaker 2: influenza I found actually a shout out to the Italian
Speaker 2: name for it originally did you know this? Uh? Did not,
Speaker 2: So I'm going to say it normally, but then you
Speaker 2: have to say it in your famous Italian accent, Influenza
Speaker 2: di fredo.
Speaker 1: Are you talking about the influenza de fredo?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, which means influence of the cold. Oh, all right,
Speaker 2: a lot of For many, many, many many years, because
Speaker 2: the flu is most predominant in the colder months, everybody
Speaker 2: just assumed that it was the actual cold that was
Speaker 2: getting you sick, right, That turns out not to be true.
Speaker 2: It's an actual it's a virus that does seem to
Speaker 2: favor the cold, drier conditions of the winter months. But
Speaker 2: this little tiny virus gets into your body and it
Speaker 2: starts this chain reaction that is just fascinating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it is a respiratory illness. So, like I
Speaker 1: said before, when you hear people say the stomach flu,
Speaker 1: which I've said lot in my life because I get
Speaker 1: it once a year with the poopy butt and the
Speaker 1: vomitous mouth and the ill belly.
Speaker 2: At the same time. Though I can't I think I've
Speaker 2: asked you this before, but.
Speaker 1: As it literally ever happened at the same time, I
Speaker 1: think once in my life.
Speaker 2: Man, that's rough.
Speaker 1: I was on the john with a bucket. That's so rough. Well,
Speaker 1: the worst time I ever had it. I may have
Speaker 1: told the story before. I was sick at a friend's house,
Speaker 1: which is the worst when I was not living in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: but I was in Atlanta, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: just got to get to my mom's house. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, I just much more comfortably being sick there,
Speaker 1: and he was working. It was just one of those things.
Speaker 1: And so I got in my brother's car that I
Speaker 1: was borrowing while I was in town.
Speaker 2: I don't like where this story's going.
Speaker 1: And I drove no lie, probably about one hundred miles
Speaker 1: an hour to Snellville from Atlanta, thinking, and I pooped
Speaker 1: in my pants in the car, and I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: if a cop pulls me over, he would have to
Speaker 1: be a cold heartless individual to give me a ticket,
Speaker 1: because I would just say, sir, don't take me to prison,
Speaker 1: take me to a hospital because I'm dying. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I trove one hundred miles an hour. It's kind of fun.
Speaker 2: So you made it home. You showed up with poopy
Speaker 2: pants and your mom took care of you.
Speaker 1: Yep, showed up to Diane's house, and I lived. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that was a long way of setting up this which
Speaker 1: is that is actually not a flu. The stomach flu
Speaker 1: is not because the flu is one hundred percent of
Speaker 1: respiratory illness, right, and is not something that happens in
Speaker 1: your stomach or in your butt. Right.
Speaker 2: And let's let's talk first before we talk about the
Speaker 2: actual effect of the flu. Let's talk about the virus
Speaker 2: a little bit. I second, Okay, So back in nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty one, there was this Iowa farm physician, which is
Speaker 2: to say he was a human physician of humans, but
Speaker 2: he probably lived on a farm because it was Iowa
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty one. Yeah, his name was Richard schop
Speaker 2: and he was trying to figure out what this bug
Speaker 2: that was getting people was. And he investigated with pigs first,
Speaker 2: because there are plenty of other animals that can come
Speaker 2: down with the flu, not just humans, right, right, And
Speaker 2: he finally isolated, isolated a flu virus in swine and
Speaker 2: it led to this discovery of the isolation of the
Speaker 2: flu virus in humans too. So right after that they
Speaker 2: started classifying the flu by strains.
Speaker 1: You got A, B, and C, right, So A is
Speaker 1: the most common and most severe that's the bad news. Yeah,
Speaker 1: B is a little milder, a little less prevalent. And
Speaker 1: then we go all the way down to C, which
Speaker 1: is I get the feeling. CE doesn't happen a lot,
Speaker 1: and it definitely isn't the one that you're going to
Speaker 1: have like a big epidemic of the flu from a sea.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I couldn't find much on C influenza either orse C. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it'll make a comeback one day and it'll shock the
Speaker 2: heck out of all of us. Right, So Type A
Speaker 2: infects all sorts of different species, right, humans, birds of
Speaker 2: all kinds, pigs, bats, horses, even.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean remember the Avian flu that was that
Speaker 1: scared the world, and that was a right, that was
Speaker 1: a strain.
Speaker 2: B strain is almost exclusively effective of humans. Apparently. The
Speaker 2: only other species we've ever found a Type B influenza
Speaker 2: virus in is seals. God knows where they got it from,
Speaker 2: or if we got it from seals, who knows? Maybe
Speaker 2: up North, I don't know. And then that C one,
Speaker 2: it just infects humans and pigs. So you got the
Speaker 2: three types. And then one other thing about them about
Speaker 2: the classification of flu strains is that there are also subtypes, right,
Speaker 2: And so you mentioned like avian flu and the one
Speaker 2: that scared everybody. I think H five N one, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was it.
Speaker 1: I remember.
Speaker 2: So that H and the N are the they refer
Speaker 2: to the two kinds of the two main proteins that
Speaker 2: you find on the outside of a flu virus, hemagglutinin
Speaker 2: and neurrominiase. Okay, and so depending on those types of
Speaker 2: H protein or M protein. Uh, that's that's how they
Speaker 2: subtype flu strains.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I mean that's a good little factoid. I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone really understands what those letters mean.
Speaker 2: That's what they mean, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But as far as you're concerned, just pay attention
Speaker 1: to the news, and when they talk about the scary ones,
Speaker 1: they'll mention those letters in numbers, and then you can
Speaker 1: impress your friends.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can be like, oh, well they're talking about
Speaker 2: hema glutenant and neurominidase, and they'll.
Speaker 1: Say, shut up, nerd, I hope you get sick. So,
Speaker 1: as far as the standard flu that we're talking about here,
Speaker 1: the virus, it gets into your body and it kind
Speaker 1: of makes a b line to your respiratory tract and
Speaker 1: it binds with your cells. It's viruses. Did we do
Speaker 1: one a general on viruses?
Speaker 2: The one I think we really went in depth on
Speaker 2: was HIV, where we talked about how virus centers the
Speaker 2: body takes over. It's just vicious, it is, but it's
Speaker 2: also it's kind of like admirable in a really deadly
Speaker 2: efficient way, you know.
Speaker 1: It is. So they bind to the surface of the
Speaker 1: cells in that respiratory tract and then they say, hey,
Speaker 1: i'd like you to meet my little friend RNA. Why
Speaker 1: don't Why don't I inject my genetic information into your
Speaker 1: nucleus and see how you like it? Right?
Speaker 2: And when it does that, the cell has been officially hijacked,
Speaker 2: and the virus uses the cell's own RNA transcription process
Speaker 2: to create the proteins that are needed to make new
Speaker 2: versions of the virus. The virus is using this host
Speaker 2: cell in your respiratory tract to make copies of itself,
Speaker 2: and suddenly, before the cell knows what's going on, it's
Speaker 2: made millions of copies of these viruses. Right, And apparently
Speaker 2: when you talk about it step by step, it seems
Speaker 2: like this takes a little while, right, No, in seconds.
Speaker 2: Seconds after that, the virus has entered your respiratory cell.
Speaker 2: Millions of copies of it have been made.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like this is happening so fast it moves in there,
Speaker 1: it says I'm in charge.
Speaker 2: Now, so out of the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, completely out of the way. I'm running the show. Here.
Speaker 1: We're copying each other and we're going to move out
Speaker 1: to the cell membrane because this cell's going to die
Speaker 1: very quickly, and then that's just going to poof me
Speaker 1: out into the body further to infect other cells. And
Speaker 1: it's scary how quickly this happens.
Speaker 2: Right, So if you think about it, if that first
Speaker 2: cell produces millions of viruses, viral copies, and then they're
Speaker 2: released from the cell out into the rest of the
Speaker 2: other respiratory cells, and each of those infects another cell,
Speaker 2: and then those cells all make millions. You see how
Speaker 2: quickly these viruses reproduce in your body. Yeah, And once
Speaker 2: that starts to happen, you are infectious. I think once
Speaker 2: that first cell ruptures, you become infectious. But this can
Speaker 2: be like a day before symptoms. Right, So this is
Speaker 2: something people are always saying, like, oh, I'm not infectious anymore,
Speaker 2: like me I said it earlier too, right, But supposedly
Speaker 2: the day before you even know you're sick, the day
Speaker 2: before the first symptoms start, before you start like sniffling
Speaker 2: a little bit or whatever. Huh, you're infectious, buddy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And you're infectious up to seven days after that day
Speaker 2: you first start showing symptoms with the flu. And if
Speaker 2: you're a kid, you can be infectious even longer because
Speaker 2: if kids are anything, they're walking germ factories.
Speaker 1: They are just disgusting monsters.
Speaker 2: It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: It's true. Man, Like, my kid didn't get sick at
Speaker 1: all for the first eighteen months of her life, and
Speaker 1: I thought, I've got a wonder baby. Yeah, really, I
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. We put her in daycare
Speaker 1: a couple of days a week, and she was sick
Speaker 1: NonStop for the next six months.
Speaker 2: Man. That is rough.
Speaker 1: It is rough. And then they get the family sick,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk a little bit about that and how
Speaker 1: that happens. But all this is to say, during flu season,
Speaker 1: especially if you work in like an office where you
Speaker 1: know when you hear like the flu's going around or whatever,
Speaker 1: or anywhere you work, or in school, if you hear
Speaker 1: about the flu going around, even if you don't feel sick,
Speaker 1: or your cube mate doesn't feel or look sick. Just
Speaker 1: start washing your hands a lot.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's like they say, that's the best way
Speaker 2: to prevent getting the flu or spreading the flu is
Speaker 2: washing your hands a lot.
Speaker 1: Do it.
Speaker 2: And it's so simple that you almost might discount it,
Speaker 2: but it's actually true, Like that's the best way to
Speaker 2: do it. You can wash the flu virus off of
Speaker 2: your hands with some soap that will buy and the
Speaker 2: water will wash it right off.
Speaker 1: Wash that flu right out of your hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you have the flu, stay home. Yeah,
Speaker 2: everybody but me stay home.
Speaker 1: Well, we're up against it. We had to record a.
Speaker 2: Today and also wash your hands just constantly. Like if
Speaker 2: I'm about to touch anything, I'll wash my hands first.
Speaker 2: If I'm going to go somewhere outside of the hot zone,
Speaker 2: which is whatever room I'm sequestered in, you know, I
Speaker 2: will wash my hands.
Speaker 1: You know I appreciate that. I mean, trust me. We're
Speaker 1: in this tiny studio now, the three of us.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm trying not to breathe.
Speaker 1: You know, you've done all this on one breath. It's impressive,
Speaker 1: I know. Well, quickly before we take a break, so
Speaker 1: you can breathe again. We're going to talk about symptoms afterward.
Speaker 1: Before you get these symptoms, though, what's happening is your
Speaker 1: respiratory system is going to become inflamed, and this inflammation
Speaker 1: might stick around for a few weeks, but from there
Speaker 1: it moves into your bloodstream, and then that's when you're
Speaker 1: gonna get these symptoms once it sort of moves into
Speaker 1: the bloodstream, right, and we're gonna talk about those symptoms
Speaker 1: as promised, right after this, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Chuck, let's bread yeah a little bit, let's talk symptoms. Okay,
Speaker 2: you know what I need? I need one of those
Speaker 2: like reads that bugs Bunny used to like hide in
Speaker 2: the water when Almer Fudd was hunting him.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: I could just like get a long one and maybe
Speaker 2: a crazy straw would be even better, and just like
Speaker 2: pipe it out to the air duct right there.
Speaker 1: That's a great idea.
Speaker 2: What do you think we'll get everybody else sick except
Speaker 2: you and Jeer.
Speaker 1: So the symptoms sound a lot like a cold because
Speaker 1: the symptoms are kind of the same. A cold is
Speaker 1: usually not as fraught with potential complications and maybe a
Speaker 1: little less severe, but they're pretty close which is why
Speaker 1: you couldn't tell earlier if you had a colder fever
Speaker 1: or flu.
Speaker 2: Right now, but that fever, that's the big one. Apparently,
Speaker 2: it's a big distinction between the Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the way I just distinguish it.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And the cold colds are also caused by
Speaker 2: viruses are caused by coronaviruses, which can there are types
Speaker 2: of coronaviruses that are really bad that cause like MYRS
Speaker 2: and SARS. Yeah, but for the most part, when you
Speaker 2: catch a cold from a coronavirus, it's a low level virus,
Speaker 2: or it's a rhinovirus. That's the other one that causes
Speaker 2: the common cold, right, So it's just a different kind
Speaker 2: of virus producing similar symptoms to a flu.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when Peter Sarscard was on Saturday Night
Speaker 1: Live years ago? He was, you know, the actor. Sure,
Speaker 1: he was on there during the SARS when there was
Speaker 1: that t SARS scare in the United States, and one
Speaker 1: of their skits was he had developed the SARS Guard.
Speaker 1: SARS Guard just basically a surgical mask. But it was
Speaker 1: just funny. They said Sarsgard Stars Guard like thirty times
Speaker 1: and I laughed every time.
Speaker 2: I think his younger brothers was Pennywise, the clown in
Speaker 2: the IT movie.
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that was a Sars guard and he
Speaker 2: is amazing. Yeah have you seen it?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Oh, you got to see it. You're gonna love it.
Speaker 1: Now. Was he a Sar's guard or a scars Guard?
Speaker 2: Oh? God, I didn't know there were two different things.
Speaker 1: Well, there are the scars Guards, which is like Stellin'
Speaker 1: scarsguard is the dad, okay, and then the son was
Speaker 1: the dude on True Blood the vampire show, and then
Speaker 1: recently on that pretty Little Liars I think one with
Speaker 1: Nicole Kidman, Okay, that's Alexander scars Guard.
Speaker 2: I think that might be him. Is sars Guard the
Speaker 2: one who's in Fire Starza? No, who is that Peter
Speaker 2: sars Card?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another dude. What is up with all these guys?
Speaker 2: So are you sure you're not just dropping the kof
Speaker 2: of Peter's scars Guard?
Speaker 1: All right, here's the deal. Okay, the guy in Fargo, Man,
Speaker 1: this is such a bad sidetrack already, it's pretty bad.
Speaker 1: The guy in Fargo was Peter Stormyre.
Speaker 2: Okay, so he's not even in the equation.
Speaker 1: Then no, but I definitely know that there is Peter
Speaker 1: sars Guard okay, because he either was or is married
Speaker 1: to Maggie Gillenhall.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I guess I knew that Peter sars Guard.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then they're stelling an Alexander scars Guard and
Speaker 1: I don't know who it the clown was.
Speaker 2: It's Bill scars Guard.
Speaker 1: And is he related to the scars Guards?
Speaker 2: I guess so.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I believe he's the youngest of them.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry. I was wrong. It was Tim Curry
Speaker 2: I was talking about.
Speaker 1: No, Actually we didn't know. Looks stuff up. But I
Speaker 1: didn't look that up because the headline here says Alexander
Speaker 1: Scarsgard's reaction to his brother Bill's clown costume.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good his acting, it goes way beyond the costume.
Speaker 2: They did good with the costume, but it was doing that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was good.
Speaker 1: I know there were so many people screaming at their phones,
Speaker 1: but I think we finally got it right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry about that everybody. I also want to apologize
Speaker 2: for any medical students who are being forced to listen
Speaker 2: to this as part of their class. Hopefully your instructor
Speaker 2: fast forwarded through that part.
Speaker 1: All right, fact this all got started with Stars Guard
Speaker 1: Stars Guards.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, because that's from the coronavirus. This
Speaker 2: is the influenza virus we're talking about that creates this
Speaker 2: inflammation which is your immune response right in your lungs.
Speaker 1: That's correct. And the symptoms like a cold are coughing, sneezing,
Speaker 1: that the fever which is different, like we said, with
Speaker 1: the flu, achy body which usually comes with that fever,
Speaker 1: and then Josh's running nose and congestion that you can
Speaker 1: hear in your overall lethargy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am a little under the weather, I guess
Speaker 2: is a good way to put it. I can tell.
Speaker 2: So those are just standard flu symptoms. You can have
Speaker 2: secondary symptoms from complications of the flu. Right. One thing
Speaker 2: that has long gone hand in hand with the flu
Speaker 2: as far as like death from flu complications goes is
Speaker 2: bacterial pneumonia.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's good.
Speaker 2: And for a very long time science wasn't quite sure
Speaker 2: why that why you were just so susceptible to bacterial
Speaker 2: infections when you were battling the flu, and they figured
Speaker 2: it out. It's actually your body's immune response that is
Speaker 2: responsible for it, right, right, So when you have the
Speaker 2: flu and your body starts to battle it off and
Speaker 2: you get a fever and your lungs become inflamed, that's
Speaker 2: that's your immune your immune system's response to the flu virus.
Speaker 2: But when your body says, okay, calm down, everybody, let's
Speaker 2: bring the temperature back down, and your body represses its
Speaker 2: own immune response, it opens the door for bacteria that
Speaker 2: normally it would be able to fight off, to take
Speaker 2: advantage of this kind of naturally weakened state that your
Speaker 2: immune system is in, and you can you're much more
Speaker 2: susceptible the infections from bacteria, and that's where pneumonia comes from.
Speaker 2: You can get viral pneumonia, but you usually get bacterial pneumonia.
Speaker 2: And that's the stuff that people can die from because
Speaker 2: that bacteria infects your air sex and your lungs, which
Speaker 2: feel a fluid and puss and blood, and you die
Speaker 2: from choking on bloody froth that fills up your airway. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a bad jam man.
Speaker 1: Severe dehydration is another secondary symptom of the flu. That's why,
Speaker 1: of course you always want to drink plenty of water
Speaker 1: when you have a cold or flu.
Speaker 2: I look that one up too, Chuck, Because if you
Speaker 2: think about it, why why would you be dehydrated from
Speaker 2: the flu. It's from sweating, yeah, sure, your nose running.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just leaking fluids.
Speaker 2: You you are, and like they start to add up
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden you're dehydrated before you even
Speaker 2: knew it.
Speaker 1: That's right. Ear infections, especially if you're a kid, sinus issues.
Speaker 1: Emily always gets bad sinus problems along with this stuff.
Speaker 2: I know she was starting to get a little Sniffley,
Speaker 2: is she sick? She did get sick, that poor lady. Yeah,
Speaker 2: New York Man. Yeah, it killed everyone I love.
Speaker 1: And then if you like, in Emily's case, she's slightly asthmatic,
Speaker 1: But if you are asthmatic, you're like diabetes, it can
Speaker 1: make that stuff worse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she doesn't have diabetes, right, No, Well, the reason
Speaker 2: diabetes is comorbid with the flu or is problematic when
Speaker 2: you have with the flu, is because type one diabetes,
Speaker 2: especially is an autoimmune disease, So your immune systems already repressed,
Speaker 2: I guess yeah, And then heart conditions can be exacerbated
Speaker 2: by it because you're getting less oxygen from your lungs
Speaker 2: into your bloodstream, which strains the heart. And if it's
Speaker 2: already weak, people have heart attacks from the flu if
Speaker 2: they already have a heart condition. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, again,
Speaker 2: it's a bad jam.
Speaker 1: Well, actually, we in the episode coming up about the
Speaker 1: silly one about the ten Cursed movies. Remember the little
Speaker 1: girl from Poltergeis died from at twelve from a heart
Speaker 1: attack brought on by the flu.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, or she had like a stomach blockage.
Speaker 2: They initially diagnosed it as the flu.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, but I thought it was not never like
Speaker 1: a virus like that.
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think they mistook it all. Well,
Speaker 2: then forget all that, but people do, so your point
Speaker 2: still remains correct.
Speaker 1: Okay, So how you get the flu? Is this? Like
Speaker 1: you said, it's generally about November through March. Jane in
Speaker 1: February tend to be the worst of it here in
Speaker 1: the United States, And as we mentioned, offices and schools,
Speaker 1: especially because children are filthy monsters who just don't wash hands,
Speaker 1: and they breathe on each other and touch each other,
Speaker 1: and they don't cover their mouths when they call for sneeze.
Speaker 2: But it's pretty cute when they hug each other.
Speaker 1: It's very cute.
Speaker 2: Actually, it's worth it's worth all the sickness in the world.
Speaker 1: It's pretty great. But that's the reason that kids tend
Speaker 1: to spread it more because as much as you try
Speaker 1: and teach them to cover their mouth when they call
Speaker 1: and sneeze and wash their hands a lot, it's just
Speaker 1: not really on their radar like it is for adults.
Speaker 2: No, you know, because they are dirty, dirty, dirty creatures.
Speaker 1: And then you know, the kid then in turn brings
Speaker 1: it home and the family gets infected pretty quickly because
Speaker 1: try as you might, there's just a lot of close
Speaker 1: contact with kids that you can't avoid. And even if
Speaker 1: you're washing your hands, they will find a way to
Speaker 1: infect you.
Speaker 2: Right, And if you go even further back, there's an
Speaker 2: even earlier origin before kids picking it up at daycare
Speaker 2: or preschool. For the flu, usually it comes from other animals.
Speaker 2: We were finding, right, Yes, frequently birds, like we were saying, right,
Speaker 2: And they used to think that for a human to
Speaker 2: catch a flu from a bird, especially, that flu had
Speaker 2: to show up in a mixing vessel. Usually a pig
Speaker 2: which was capable of taking it could be infected by
Speaker 2: a bird flu and a human flu and flu viruses
Speaker 2: have this amazing talent called reassortment, where a flu strain
Speaker 2: and another flu strain can get together and be like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: you have eight proteins that make up your RNA. I
Speaker 2: do too, Let's mix and match and see what happens.
Speaker 2: And they thought for a long time that this really
Speaker 2: only took place in pigs and then out would come
Speaker 2: a new super virus that no one had ever seen
Speaker 2: before that humans could catch. But from Southeast Asia, people
Speaker 2: being in close contact with infected birds, especially like in
Speaker 2: the poultry industry or something, there have been cases that
Speaker 2: started in the nineties of AVM flu coming directly from
Speaker 2: birds to humans, so that that theory went out in
Speaker 2: the window. Yeah, and that's what set off those fears
Speaker 2: of a bird flu pandemic that we lived with for
Speaker 2: many years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right as far as and you know that
Speaker 1: a lot of that was just spread from bird poop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it scared people because that those bird flus
Speaker 2: are no joke, Like they have like a sixty percent
Speaker 2: mortality rate sixty percent. Six out of ten people who
Speaker 2: come down with H five N one bird flu die right. Luckily,
Speaker 2: it's really really difficult to catch it even when you
Speaker 2: are around sick birds. It doesn't very frequently make the
Speaker 2: jump to humans, but it can, is what they what
Speaker 2: they found.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as far as the regular flu, the garden variety
Speaker 1: flu that we're talking about mainly here, it spreads from well,
Speaker 1: like we said, from touching stuff, from coughing and sneezing.
Speaker 1: When you cough and sneeze, even even if you think
Speaker 1: you're covering your mouth pretty well, there may be little
Speaker 1: little fluids squirting out between your fingers up to a
Speaker 1: few feet. It's in the air around you. That stuff
Speaker 1: can travel, you know. So if that lands on a doorknob,
Speaker 1: or if someone covers her mouth like a like a
Speaker 1: normal and then opens a door or borrows a stapler
Speaker 1: or whatever, it's going to be on that door knob
Speaker 1: and then you touch it. And that's why like hand
Speaker 1: washing by the sick and by the non sick is
Speaker 1: so crucial. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And if you're like having an anxious day at work
Speaker 2: and you're doing your normal thing of chewing on your
Speaker 2: stapler to relieve anxiety and the guy who borrowed it
Speaker 2: was sick, your toast.
Speaker 1: You are toast. And as you mentioned earlier, bears repeating
Speaker 1: you can be sick a day before symptoms, and you
Speaker 1: can or you can be contagious a day before symptoms
Speaker 1: and still remain contagious up to seven days after the
Speaker 1: symptoms start. Right, So even if you feel better after
Speaker 1: day four, you could still be spreading that junk around
Speaker 1: for a few more days. Right.
Speaker 2: And they say that even after you feel better, you
Speaker 2: should stay in bed an extra day because again, your
Speaker 2: immune system is compromised and you are are like, you
Speaker 2: can catch other stuff, so you want to be careful.
Speaker 2: That extra day really pays.
Speaker 1: Off, and that's when you just lay in bed and
Speaker 1: watch Stranger Things.
Speaker 2: Too, Right, I haven't seen it you? Is it good?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we just finished it last night.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 1: Did you see the first season? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, that was great.
Speaker 1: Season two is just as great, if not better.
Speaker 2: Wow. I'm glad to say that too.
Speaker 1: I was a little nervous, you know, because it was
Speaker 1: something I loved and it's like, oh man, it's easy too.
Speaker 1: A lot of pressure.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's how it happens. The sophomore season is
Speaker 2: very frequently like everyone's aware of the success of the
Speaker 2: show and what people are saying about and they try
Speaker 2: to adapt to the expectations rather than continuing on doing
Speaker 2: what they were doing before. But good for you guys.
Speaker 2: Stranger things.
Speaker 1: Yeah so great. I want to get those Duffer brothers
Speaker 1: on movie Crush.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it'd be cool.
Speaker 1: Those guys'd be great.
Speaker 2: Should we take a break, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll come back and talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about pandemics, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Chuck. So we were talking about how seasonal flu
Speaker 2: has seasons. That's why it's called seasonal flu. Right, That's
Speaker 2: that's I guess one classification of flus. There's also a
Speaker 2: pandemic flu, and the same kind of flu virus can
Speaker 2: be a pandemic flu or a seasonal flu. And I
Speaker 2: think usually the way it happens is a new virus
Speaker 2: will emerge from say like livestock or poultry or something
Speaker 2: like that and infect humans. And if it's totally novel
Speaker 2: where no human has ever encountered a flu of this
Speaker 2: type before, it can just lay waste to people. It
Speaker 2: can kill a lot of people, It can infect a
Speaker 2: lot of people that can spread the world. And when
Speaker 2: that happens, it becomes classified as a pandemic flu. After
Speaker 2: a couple of rounds around the world, people will have
Speaker 2: started to develop an immunity to it, but it'll still
Speaker 2: be passed around. And so for the decade or so,
Speaker 2: it can be the predominant strain of the flu, but
Speaker 2: it'll be it'll have changed over to a seasonal type
Speaker 2: of flu. So it's almost like that the pandemic versus
Speaker 2: seasonal type flu describes how contagious it is and how
Speaker 2: virulent it is. I think that's the big distinction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think also in a pandemic, doesn't that
Speaker 1: mean it is left the country?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that is kind of one of the
Speaker 2: indicators of it too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Nineteen eighteen, that was These numbers are staggering. This
Speaker 1: is the worst flu pandemic and world history in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighteen for I don't know what months exactly, but nineteen
Speaker 1: eighteen and nineteen and it killed more than twenty million
Speaker 1: people around the world.
Speaker 2: And it killed most of those people actually in four
Speaker 2: months from September to December.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? More lives were lost than all twentyth
Speaker 1: century wars combined to the flu.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said twenty million, twenty.
Speaker 1: Million worldwide, about half a million in the United States.
Speaker 2: I saw in many reputable places fifty million people died
Speaker 2: around the world.
Speaker 1: It's just it's staggering.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was like right at the end of
Speaker 2: World War One and just came out of nowhere. And
Speaker 2: one of the other really noteworthy things about it that
Speaker 2: just baffled people was it was killing like healthy people
Speaker 2: under the age of like twenty two, twenty three, twenty four,
Speaker 2: like just healthy young people killed by the flu. A
Speaker 2: lot of them died from pneumonia. And they finally figured
Speaker 2: out that it was because it had been about twenty
Speaker 2: something years since a flu resembling that type of strain
Speaker 2: had made the rounds, so people under say, like age
Speaker 2: twenty five had never been exposed to it. So it
Speaker 2: was a novel flu which just leveled the people it
Speaker 2: was exposed to had never never encountered something like it before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I mean, it's scared to think about. I mean, truly,
Speaker 1: that couldn't happen today, could it? Or could it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, sure, man, you think that we could had
Speaker 1: something like that off these days?
Speaker 2: Do you know, like a of the population of the
Speaker 2: world was infected with that flu that year? Wow, isn't
Speaker 2: that crazy?
Speaker 1: I know, that's hard to believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that can totally happen. It's a real concern, all right.
Speaker 1: So as far as your risk of getting the flu,
Speaker 1: if you're a kid, like there's different risk groups like
Speaker 1: high risk, low risk, whatever, medium or average risk. But
Speaker 1: if you're under two years old, your little immune system
Speaker 1: isn't quite smart enough yet to know how to fight
Speaker 1: things off, so you're definitely more at risk. And as always,
Speaker 1: what affects the children also affect the elderly. So if
Speaker 1: you're over sixty five seniors is elderly wrong to say,
Speaker 1: I think elderly?
Speaker 2: Technically eighty one? Oh?
Speaker 1: Really? Yeah, all right, so we'll go with seniors.
Speaker 2: Seniors, active senior adults who have decades left ahead of them,
Speaker 2: that's right.
Speaker 1: Who else, anyone who has any kind of chronic like
Speaker 1: I mentioned asthma or diabetes, any kind of chronic condition,
Speaker 1: if you're pregnant, if you work in a hospital or
Speaker 1: a doctor's office or nursing home.
Speaker 2: Nursing home is not just people who work there, but
Speaker 2: the residents too are in a really vulnerable position. Because
Speaker 2: they are in the elderly age range, their immune systems
Speaker 2: are pretty compromised. If they're in a nursing home, they're
Speaker 2: probably ill already and then they're living in close quarters
Speaker 2: with other people who are ill. That's a that's a
Speaker 2: recipe for a disaster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure is. It's also a recipe for tapioca pudding.
Speaker 1: It is the best around remedy wise. And we'll talk
Speaker 1: about vaccinations here in a minute, because I thought that
Speaker 1: was kind of one of the most interesting parts of this.
Speaker 1: But as far as remedies, if you get the flu,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a virus. So you can't take anti biotics. No,
Speaker 1: you can't take a pill that's going to cure you.
Speaker 1: There are some anti viral drugs, which I've never tried
Speaker 1: any of these of you.
Speaker 2: No, no, no.
Speaker 1: I tried zycamlast year once. I think that's for colds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought that was like discredited.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I had a few people say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, you try as I can. It helps not
Speaker 1: cut your cold faster.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: It killed my sense of taste and smell. Oh no,
Speaker 1: for several days, to the point where I was scared.
Speaker 2: I don't remember that. I'll bet you were scared.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I looked it up and it's a thing.
Speaker 2: Oh I do remember that actually.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just really unnerving. The idea of maybe it's permanent.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was. It was pretty pretty freaky, yeah, I'll bet,
Speaker 1: and super noticeable. It wasn't like a subtle thing.
Speaker 2: You'd be like chilling, I miss you.
Speaker 1: So that was my experience. I'm not making some sweeping
Speaker 1: statement about that medication.
Speaker 2: Way to see amen.
Speaker 1: But there are antiviral drugs called there's one called tama
Speaker 1: flu relenza flumidine a little on the nose if you ask.
Speaker 2: Me flu stop, Well, any viral they seem like a
Speaker 2: good idea, But they seem like a good idea under
Speaker 2: the premise that seasonal flu strains were used to think.
Speaker 2: They used to think that they died out at the
Speaker 2: end of a season. Right, Well, they started tracking them,
Speaker 2: like our global monitoring system is really top notch and
Speaker 2: they can track flu around the world, and they've found
Speaker 2: that seasonal flu at the end of the season in
Speaker 2: North America, it just goes to South America. So since
Speaker 2: since that's the case, when you use anti virals and
Speaker 2: you're exposing these flus that go on to survive, you're
Speaker 2: also training them evolutionarily speaking, to adapt so that those
Speaker 2: antiviral drugs are useless against them. For people who really
Speaker 2: need them. So, just like with antibiotics, using anti virals
Speaker 2: just to cure a common flu or to shorten a
Speaker 2: common flu is probably a bad idea when you're talking
Speaker 2: about the whole population.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what they do. They they what they
Speaker 1: try to do is just keep the red cellular spread
Speaker 1: from happening as much as it can. Right, And that's
Speaker 1: sort of the easiest way to say it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, there's there's one keeps them well to a
Speaker 2: pair of them, keep them from replicating, and then another
Speaker 2: one traps them inside to sell. Once they enter, it's like,
Speaker 2: oh God, I can't get out, the door is locked,
Speaker 2: and then death.
Speaker 1: And they're all prescription drugs, right, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2: So vaccines are like pretty hot. They're like the hot
Speaker 2: thing to do on a Friday night is to go
Speaker 2: get a flu vaccine, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't get I didn't get flu shots for many, many,
Speaker 1: many many years until I had a kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And they say like if you especially if you
Speaker 2: have a baby under six months of age, they can't
Speaker 2: be vaccinated and so everyone around them should be vaccinated,
Speaker 2: is the recommended recommendation from the CDC.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like our close family, the grain and the abbas
Speaker 1: all and the pop pops and the papas and the
Speaker 1: poupas and the memangs and the momos. Yeah, yeah, Momo
Speaker 1: got a flu shot.
Speaker 2: That was nice of her. She's very kind.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we all got flu shots. And I just
Speaker 1: wasn't you know, I never got the flu much. I'd
Speaker 1: never I didn't have a disbelief in the flu vaccine.
Speaker 1: I was just like, yeah, I don't really need to
Speaker 1: bother with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of it was fine. Do you get
Speaker 2: them now though? Is it a habit of yours now?
Speaker 1: Well? Yeah, now, just they just sort of recommend it.
Speaker 1: When you have kids up up until they're a certain age,
Speaker 1: you should get vaccinated as a family.
Speaker 2: Right, And when you have kids, if you get them vaccinated,
Speaker 2: you once they're able to be vaccinated again under six months,
Speaker 2: they say, no, no, no, don't do that. When they're
Speaker 2: young though, and you're getting them vaccinated, they need to
Speaker 2: be vaccinated twice, like a month apart. Yes, And so
Speaker 2: with flu vaccines in general, they recommend that you get
Speaker 2: it as early in the season is possible because it
Speaker 2: takes about two weeks for that to take effect. So
Speaker 2: with a kid, then I guess you would want to
Speaker 2: get them, so that six weeks before the flu season,
Speaker 2: I don't know, or there is that second one pretty
Speaker 2: much like, okay, now it's taking effect. So is that
Speaker 2: four weeks plus two weeks or just.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the schedule. Yeah, I don't remember the schedule.
Speaker 2: Well, ask your doctor. Okay, we're not doctors. Stop pressure.
Speaker 1: They'll tell you, like when you go to get your
Speaker 1: little kiddy checkups, they say, you know, come back in
Speaker 1: this month and get your flu shot number one and
Speaker 1: then flu shot number two.
Speaker 2: And so for a while there they there were two
Speaker 2: kinds of flu shots that the CDC recommended. One was
Speaker 2: an actual shot, the flu vaccine that was in a
Speaker 2: shot form, yes, and then there was another one that's
Speaker 2: called live attenuated influenza virus, which came in the form
Speaker 2: of a nasal spray, and that was usually recommended for kids.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's because kids still like needles
Speaker 2: or what, but the CDC is officially stopped recommending nasal
Speaker 2: flu vaccines. Yeah, don't do those right.
Speaker 1: Well, And when they were doing it, when we say kids,
Speaker 1: you had to be over five because it was a
Speaker 1: like you said, a live a live virus.
Speaker 2: Right, it was a live, weakened virus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's different. Like if you think, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a flu shot, so that means I'm
Speaker 1: going to get the flu virus shot into me, and
Speaker 1: so I might feel like I have the flu. That's
Speaker 1: not really the case. It's it's really kind of neat
Speaker 1: how they do it. These these scientists and doctors, like
Speaker 1: you said, track what's going on in the world of
Speaker 1: flu all over the world, and they they sort of
Speaker 1: make up normal. They don't sort of. They very definitely
Speaker 1: make a prediction and say, here's the flu strain specific
Speaker 1: to the United States. Let's say that I think we're
Speaker 1: going to be faced with this year, and they make
Speaker 1: their best side scientific guests possible, and that is, you
Speaker 1: get a not live version of that virus injected into
Speaker 1: your body. Your body sees, hey, foreign invaders here, let
Speaker 1: me produce antibodies. Then if that virus or if the
Speaker 1: real flu knocks on your door later that winter, your
Speaker 1: body says, wait, I've met you before, I know how
Speaker 1: to fight you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And it literally the effectiveness. I looked up this year
Speaker 1: and it's a year to year thing. It's forty to
Speaker 1: sixty percent on this year's strain, and it varies because
Speaker 1: it really just depends on how well those scientists have
Speaker 1: predicted how much they get it.
Speaker 2: Right right, because if they get all three wrong, well
Speaker 2: then you're toast when you encounter the flu that's going
Speaker 2: around that season's right, it's introducing. But even when they
Speaker 2: do get it right, it's kind of baffling that sometimes
Speaker 2: the flu vaccine just doesn't bestow any kind of immunity. Yeah,
Speaker 2: apparently Australia just came out out of a really bad
Speaker 2: epidemic flu season down there, and what didn't cause a
Speaker 2: lot of deaths, but everybody was sick with the flu.
Speaker 2: It was an H three type flu that went around.
Speaker 2: And even though that strain showed up in the vaccine
Speaker 2: that was given out, only like fifteen percent of people
Speaker 2: who got vaccinated and were exposed to the flu were
Speaker 2: immune to it. Like eighty five percent of people who
Speaker 2: got flu vaccines and then encountered the flu still got sick.
Speaker 2: That's a pretty bad track record for a flu vaccine,
Speaker 2: and they're they're just not sure why. And one of
Speaker 2: the theories is so when they make flu vaccines they
Speaker 2: grow them in egg protein typically like hats eggs. That's
Speaker 2: the medium they use actually grow the viruses that they
Speaker 2: then kill. One researcher pointed out that at least one
Speaker 2: kind of flu virus mutates in the presence of egg protein,
Speaker 2: so that the virus that you put in to grow
Speaker 2: in there is different from the one that comes out.
Speaker 2: It's a mutated version, and so maybe that would would
Speaker 2: prevent your body from recognizing the original one that you
Speaker 2: were trying to introduce it to in the vaccine. So interesting,
Speaker 2: it is pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: Well, and they say there's a list of people who
Speaker 1: should not receive the flu shot, and one of the
Speaker 1: one of those qualifications is if you are allergic to
Speaker 1: chicken eggs, then you shouldn't get a flu shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's like a couple of other ways that they
Speaker 2: make flu shots flu vaccines, but that chicken egg is
Speaker 2: the most predominant way to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're currently have a fever weight on your
Speaker 1: flu shot under six months, of course, we said you
Speaker 1: cannot if you have had flu shots in the past
Speaker 1: and you had a bad reaction, because like I said,
Speaker 1: it's not going to make you sick, but you might
Speaker 1: feel a little achy or have sore muscles or something,
Speaker 1: but you can't have a bad reaction. And if that's
Speaker 1: the case, then maybe flu shots aren't for you, right.
Speaker 2: And if you're an anti vaxxer, then you probably are
Speaker 2: decided that flu shots aren't for you, correct, which we
Speaker 2: will never do an episode on that.
Speaker 1: On vaccinations, right. Oh, you don't think.
Speaker 2: So, I don't know, man. So the idea that a
Speaker 2: flu vaccine can, you know, check all the boxes but
Speaker 2: still just be wrong, wrong, wrong, or not confer immunity
Speaker 2: has some people looking for a universal vaccine or one
Speaker 2: that lasts way longer than just a year. What they're
Speaker 2: targeting is, so when you get a normal vaccine, that
Speaker 2: vaccine is based on that HA protein, the hema gluten. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's the most quickly evolving part of any flu virus. Right.
Speaker 2: So they're saying, well, let's look at other parts of
Speaker 2: the flu virus that don't evolve nearly as quickly and
Speaker 2: target that. And some of those parts are even basically
Speaker 2: universal among all flu viruses. So if you can find
Speaker 2: if you can create a vaccine based on a stable
Speaker 2: part of a flu virus that's a part of every
Speaker 2: flu virus. One vaccine could confer ideally lifelong immunity from
Speaker 2: all influenza for anybody who takes the vaccine.
Speaker 1: One vaccine to cure them all exactly. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you got anything else?
Speaker 1: No? I mean, I guess we're not going to cover
Speaker 1: the boogie Wigi Flu.
Speaker 2: I thought that was boogie woogy fever.
Speaker 1: No, it's the rock and pneumonia the boogie wigy flu.
Speaker 2: Oh that's nice. What's that from? Is that an Atlanta
Speaker 2: Rhythm Section song?
Speaker 1: No, they're better than that.
Speaker 2: Okay, Uh, well, since I said Atlanta Rhythm Section everybody,
Speaker 2: that means it's time for a listener mail.
Speaker 1: Uh. Yeah. This is a Simpson's Overlooked overlook Simpsons bet
Speaker 1: from us. And this is not one of those We
Speaker 1: got plenty of things where people like, hell, could you
Speaker 1: not have mentioned this quote or this episode? But the
Speaker 1: response was good. Then people weren't necessarily poopooing it.
Speaker 2: No. And also I want to say thank you to
Speaker 2: everybody who wrote in to just say congratulations or to
Speaker 2: thank us. That was all. Every single one of those
Speaker 2: emails or tweets or posts were all well received. So
Speaker 2: thanks for those guys.
Speaker 1: Totally, But this is something we failed to mention, which
Speaker 1: definitely deserves its own email. And this is from rich
Speaker 1: our Man on Cape cod As. He says, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: was listening to The Simpsons two parter. Enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 1: You explained how an episode came to be, from conception
Speaker 1: to animation, etc. And you paid respect to each portion.
Speaker 1: But then you slide it off one of the most
Speaker 1: important men in the franchise, you just said, and then
Speaker 1: they slapped Danny Elfman's score on it and it's done well.
Speaker 1: Is any true Simpsons officionado would know? Danny Elfman has
Speaker 1: never once written a score to The Simpsons. He wrote,
Speaker 1: as we know, just the title or the theme song.
Speaker 1: So he says that job fell to the immensely talented
Speaker 1: and recently terminated via email, Alf Clawson. For twenty seven years,
Speaker 1: every score, every queue, every song was composed, orchestrated and
Speaker 1: conducted by Clawson and his live orchestra. He's won two
Speaker 1: Emmys and seven Annie Awards for his work. The reason
Speaker 1: this is such a painful sight it was because this
Speaker 1: omission has been happening for years. Clawson has worked insane
Speaker 1: hours writing music for a live orchestra to accompany an
Speaker 1: animated show. He's always played second fiddle. Nailed it, he
Speaker 1: said to all those who think Elfman is any part
Speaker 1: of the show, after he pinned the main title. In fact,
Speaker 1: the main title theme song We All Know and Love
Speaker 1: is actually Clawson's re orchestration of Elfman's theme that took
Speaker 1: place mid season three with a lusher, more crisp orchestration. Wow,
Speaker 1: I bet you anything, Rich plays the obo.
Speaker 2: Alf Clawson. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: I know, he said. I myer your podcast for being
Speaker 1: light to information that has been stuck lurking in the shadows.
Speaker 1: You always make sure a credit is given to those
Speaker 1: who sometimes went their entire lives without getting the nod
Speaker 1: they deserve.
Speaker 2: Well, this guy's really turning the knife in our back,
Speaker 2: saysn't he.
Speaker 1: And I feel you, oh Clawson, that respect. So Alf
Speaker 1: clawsan for real. And then it was a bit of
Speaker 1: a longer email. He told the story of how he
Speaker 1: was recently fired by email, which is not cool.
Speaker 2: No, it's definitely not Yeah. So twenty seven years yeah,
Speaker 2: of dedicated work.
Speaker 1: No man, not cool, guys, So that is a rich
Speaker 1: our Man on Cape cod.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks a lot, Rich appreciate that that was one
Speaker 2: of the better emails I've heard in a while.
Speaker 1: I agreed.
Speaker 2: If you want to try and top Rich, let's see
Speaker 2: what you got. You send us an email, stuff podcast
Speaker 2: at houstuffworks dot com and join us at our home
Speaker 2: on the web. Stuff you Should Know dot Com.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
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