WEBVTT - Invention Playlist 3: The Condom 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:09.080 Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.200 welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.040 Joe McCormick. In today's episode is going to be on 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:17.919 a very important invention in the history of human health 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.919 and medicine, the condom. Now obvious statement on the subject 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.640 matter of today's episode, We're not going to be stigmatizing, uh, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.120 sex or birth control, but just wanted to give your 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.240 heads up in case this came on in the car 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.199 with the family or something and uh, it's uh and 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:35.880 you want to avoid any awkwardness or whatever. But hey, 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.280 if you want to keep listening, that's up to you. Yeah, 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.440 as always, we're gonna tackle the subject matter with decorum 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.040 here um. But but yeah, it seems like a great 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.720 invention to tackle on the show because it's one way, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.400 as we'll discussed whether the history is interesting and at 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.640 times not what we necessarily believe it to be in 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.000 sort of like the pop culture level of just you know, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.480 vague understanding of of you know, the history oral truth 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.160 regarding things. But then also we we have you know, 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:04.920 obviously we thought, well this would be kind of a 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.640 potentially sexy episode of Invention to you know, to what 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.800 extent any episode of the Invention podcast is sexy. Um. 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:16.240 I do think it is an important note, um, that 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.760 that condoms, despite their their clinical history, still have a 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.440 a sexy reality. Uh. And that's one of I mean, 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.679 that's one of the key talking points on material about 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.720 condoms uh, provided by organizations such as Planned Parenthood. Um. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:32.800 And we'll come back to that point in a bit. Yeah, 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.320 that's a really good point actually, I mean, despite their 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.919 important you know, their medical significance, I guess if you're 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.640 trying to encourage widespread use of them to you know, 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.320 stop the spread of s t S and and discourage 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:49.840 unwanted pregnancies, you don't want to treat them as something 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.480 that's like, you know, people associate with like a hospital 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.440 or that you know, like you want people to think 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.960 of them as something that's good to use in their 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.760 recreational sexual activity. Yeah, exactly. I mean human sexuality is 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.400 this mix of the biological, the things that we've evolved 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.280 to do, and you know, basically environmental conditioning, but then 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.840 there's all this cultural and societal conditioning as well. And 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.760 so I think the understanding of the condom and the 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.320 treatment of the condom and ultimately like communication about the 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.519 condom and other you know, contraceptive um efforts as well, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:24.799 you know, have to like take those two movements into account. Yeah, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.480 making the condom sexy is a public health concern. Now, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.919 before we make it sexy, I guess we should just say, 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.800 what what are the bare physical essential So the modern 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.440 condom is a physical barrier or sheath used during sex 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.200 to reduce the probability of both unwanted pregnancy and the 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.640 spread of sexually transmitted infections. Uh. And of course there 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.520 are other methods and technologies that people have used and 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.360 do use today to try to prevent both of these things. 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.160 But the condom is important to talk about because it 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.080 was one of it has been one of the most 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.200 widely used methods in history and around the world today 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.200 for both of these reasons. Absolutely. Again, one of the 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:02.960 other important things that we'll come back to is that, 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.119 like the condom doesn't you know, exist all on its 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.760 own within the uh you know, the the the the 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.480 tool chest of contraceptive methods. It can be used, can 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.760 and should be used alongside these other methods as well, 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.680 which we'll get to. Yeah, And so there are two 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.160 main versions of the condom that have been used throughout 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.799 the years. Uh. That I think the terminology that will 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.640 use is the internal condom and the external condom. The 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.560 internal condoms sometimes called the female condom, the external condoms 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.480 sometimes called the male condom. They essentially performed the same 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.400 job that they're worn differently. Uh. And I also want 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.280 to go ahead and side at the top of this episode. 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.280 Probably my main source of for the research today. It's 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.120 an excellent paper on this subject by Jean Jacques Amy 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.400 and Michel Thiery called the Condom A Turbulent History from 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.640 the European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Reproductive Healthcare. From 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.520 that was a really good resource, especially because it corrects 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.960 some previously widely circular related myths about the history of 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:03.640 the condom. That's right. There are a lot of just 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.840 like basic lists of facts on the internet that that 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.680 you can you know, they're not necessarily dangerous facts or anything, 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.680 but but they're not necessarily correct. And there is a 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.360 lot of stuff too that we'll get into some examples 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.720 of this where there'll be a story about the origin 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.640 of the condom and it sounds perhaps it sounds believable, 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.080 but is there any evidence for it? Uh, we'll discuss 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.680 the details as we proceed here. Yeah. So always on 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.120 this show, when we talk about an invention, we'd like 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.719 to ask the question of what came before this invention, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.400 And the answer here is well, a lot of s 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.240 t I S and unwanted pregnancy, that's right. Uh. You 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.200 know it's as humans, as Homo sapiens, were continuous breeders 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.960 rather than seasonal breeders. It's the same with with with 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:53.360 our fellow apes species. Um. There's no breeding season for us. Um. However, 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.520 various environmental factors do influence reproductive rates, so in a 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.960 way you can argue that this can produce so called 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:05.320 hidden human breeding seasons. Elsewhere in the animal kingdom, we 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.520 have seasonal breeders, of course, Um, there's a certain period 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.560 of the year during which they will breed, and then 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.640 they are also operative, opportunistic breeders who will breed during 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.640 favorable environmental conditions. But humans and other apes can make 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.640 year round and we've been this way for quite a while. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.800 You know, we've been biologically stable as a species for 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.039 roughly a hundred thousand years in this regard, and sex 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.480 among our ancient ancestors was still sex, right, meaning that 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.599 like there was a lot of it going on, and 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.520 there were a lot of things that sometimes I feel 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.560 like people can strangely think of as like recent additions 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.120 to human life and culture like S T I S. 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.960 Have you ever encountered this belief that it's like that's 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.200 a thing that happened recently. There's yeah, in a in 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.320 a weird way like part of it in terms of 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.520 like like just nostalgia for the past, like the recent 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.000 past like this, Like I've encountered like a vague idea 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.599 that like during the nineteen sixties that were not STDs 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.400 or something, or that certain STDs didn't exist. Um. And 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.400 in granted, you know, there's a you know, there's an 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.120 ebb and flow to to our to both you know, 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:14.640 illnesses and diseases that are affecting us and more to 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.320 the point, our awareness of said diseases. Um, you know, 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.040 in addition to the the actual spread of them. Uh. 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.839 But but yeah, I've seen like shades of this in 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.000 terms of recent history. I don't know if I've encountered 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.920 it in terms of ancient history, um, in part because 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:34.520 it just seems obvious that there have always been ailments 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.160 of this sort. Well, I just think I think it's 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.279 part of a sort of like naive moralizing that that 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.400 suggests like, uh, you know, sexual morality is not what 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.720 it used to be in the past, was better, and 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.239 therefore it's like this this fantasy that people weren't having 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.000 sex in the past, and part of that fantasy is 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.080 that there wasn't you know, any of the negative consequences 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.640 that can come from unprotected sex. So so kind of 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:03.039 this um like magic cold belief that that sexually transmitted 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.240 diseases are a product of not only um uh immoral behavior, 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.640 but a product of recent immoral behavior. Yeah, the false 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.280 kind of moral degeneracy theory. You know, the present of 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.480 kids are so bad these days now in terms of 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.920 ancient people though, according to David Buss, professor of psychology 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.880 at the University of Texas, who wrote a book titled 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.800 The Evolution of Desire Strategies of Human Mating, and he 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:28.559 points out that we don't know for sure what sex 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.280 was like for for you know, ancient humans. But he 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.800 points out, you know, something very much in line with 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.400 our past stuff to blow your mind discussions on pain. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.040 You know that that that human sexuality is a mixture 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.000 of the biological and the social Uh. You know that 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.280 there's a part of it is like what the body 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.560 is doing and how we're we're reacting to the sensations. 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.560 But then on top of that, as with most things 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.480 that conscious humans engage in, there is that conscious understanding 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.480 and how that changes what is going on in addition 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:05.160 again to culture and society and societal pressures. Now, as 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.520 we've also discussed on stuffable in your mind before, uh, 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.960 other organisms deal with reproduction and environmental demands, but humans 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.880 alone would seem to exercise conscious understanding of and to 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.800 an extent control of their reproductive anatomy. We're also the 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.119 most advanced tool users on the planet, so it's become 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.200 as no surprise that we eventually turned our toolmaking and 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.560 using skills to our own genitals and an attempt to 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.320 manage our desires the emotional aspects of sexuality and the 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.120 purely reproductive side of the act. And again that's just 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.400 the reproductive side of the equation, because humans have also 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.280 had to fight off an impressive parasite load but throughout 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.319 their history, throughout their history, and and to deal with 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.640 the risks of diseases that spread through, among other things, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.280 sexual activity. So it is definitely not effect that sexually 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.320 transmitted infections are recent. This is something we've been dealing 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.319 with as far back as as possible to imagine, right, 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:00.400 and and and this is another thing that should go 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.080 without saying, but I feel often needs to be stressed. Uh, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.240 sexually transmitted diseases are not merely a human thing like 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.440 animals have sexually transmitted diseases as well. This is just 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:13.479 part of being an organism. Yeah. Now, in terms of 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.920 of ancient accounts of sexually transmitted diseases to back the 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:18.679 sort of thing up, uh that there are a lot 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.240 of examples. One of the papers that we were looking 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.720 at in this comes from Frangio at All titled History 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.160 of Anereal Diseases from Antiquity to the Renaissance, and it 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.160 points out that some of our oldest records include details 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:37.319 of the neereal disease quote clay tablets from Mesopotamia, Egyptian papyri, 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.600 along with mythology, paintings of erotic scenes and the presence 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.560 of prostitutes, gives a sufficient information to assume that some 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.840 form of urethral and vaginal discharge and also herpes genitalis 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.520 were present among people at that time. And that these 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.560 diseases were considered a divine punishment. Oh yeah, bringing the 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.840 magic into it, right, And this has always been a 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.520 you know, the history of of humans understanding their diseases 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.040 and trying to understand their diseases and laying on this 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.679 level of society and culture. But on top of that, 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.840 you you look back to the writings and the work 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.480 of physicians throughout history, and the Greeks, the Chinese, the Arabic, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.080 the Arabics, Indian physicians as well, all wrote about this 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.240 sort of thing. And I think syphilis alone is a 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.040 great study and just how pervasive and influential a given 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.320 venereal disease can be, namely from at least the fifteenth 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.760 century onward in Europe. We've talked about this on again 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:36.760 our other podcast, Stuff to Blow your Mind in the past, 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:42.559 about just how widespread syphilis was, how difficult, if not impossible, 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.680 to suppress, and just you know, to the extent to 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.000 which it it affected society. It trickled down into culture too, 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.520 and we've talked about everything. We even talked about the 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.000 ways it may have influenced some vampire lore. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.600 there's some strong theories for that as well. But of 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.520 course without germ theory, there's only so much you can 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.000 do to control STDs, right, and the efforts are going 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.200 to range from herbal treatments which you know may or 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:11.880 may not have have you know, some degree of validity, 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.480 but two things that are just outright magic and superstition, 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.599 as well as plenty of classist and misogynistic treatments of 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.040 venereal disease. Like even in the twentieth century, as we 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.120 learn more and more about how these diseases actually work, 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.559 you still saw like a lot of pretty awful propaganda, 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.360 especially or at least the main examples I've seen avator 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.800 from US the U. S. Military during the Second World War, 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.520 for the First World War, that that play into the 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:43.000 notion of monstrous females being like the sole domain of 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.560 sexually transmitted diseases. Yeah, the idea that there are these 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.400 immoral women out there that you don't want your you know, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.480 your young soldiers going off to war consorting with, and 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.000 you warn them about it, almost treating them like their vampires, right, 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.079 and then ultimately like placing all the blame on on 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.360 one gender. But throughout history, you know, they've also been 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:06.240 these larger scale social movements, um, you know, involving generally abstinence, 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.280 and they can't stuff the spread of these illnesses as well, 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:13.360 because humans continue to engage in this sort of sexual behavior, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.960 this kind of sexual behavior they've evolved to engage in, 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.760 and society. Society continues to provide outlets of accessibility, be 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.040 it in war, prostitution, etcetera. Plus, you also have plenty 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.480 of venerial diseases that can be acquired via other other 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.160 methods such as, uh, the you know the public baths 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.720 in history, you know, but before we really knew how 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.440 to properly maintain them. Uh, and then am ancient romans? 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.959 Yeah that that that that sort of thing. And then 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.040 also in some times in places this sort of these 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.640 baths provide a social outlet for sexuality as well. Uh. 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:47.400 And then there are other cases where they're gonning to 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.840 be other public health issues that make the spread of 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.280 these illnesses possible. And then also syphilis is an example 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.440 of an STD that can be spread uh congenitally as well, 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:02.280 so it can spread from a mother to an offspring. Okay, 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.440 So obviously sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies or like 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.400 huge issues that people have been trying to avoid going 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.280 back millennia. Uh So this is one. This is I 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.800 guess where we should bring in the condom, and maybe 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:17.160 we should take a break, and then when we come 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.200 back from the break, we can explore the question of 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:28.920 who invented the condom? Alright, we're back. We're discussing the 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.080 invention of the condom. We have not yet gotten to 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.360 the part in the episode we will make condom sexy 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.559 because we're gonna be talking about animal bladders here for 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.480 a little bit. Well, uh so we're asking the question 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.000 who invented the condom. We like to ask this about 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:44.920 any invention we talked about, and this is one of 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.720 those cases where we have no idea. Uh there is 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.800 no known inventor of the condom. So the use of 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.920 animal tissues such as bladders like the swim bladders of fish, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.439 or the bladder of goats or sheep, or intestines or 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.839 scum like the intestines of sheep. Often, uh these types 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.439 of animal membranes and tissues have been used as protective 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.280 barriers during intercourse going way back into history, and we 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.680 don't know for sure how far back. Our first direct 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.400 physical evidence of the use of an animal membrane as 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.120 a as a condom is from the seventeenth century, but 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.760 that's just we have accounts going back farther than that. 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.160 That's just the oldest example we have in the archaeological record, 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.600 and we'll talk more about that later. Um So, it's 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:33.160 an ongoing debate among historians and archaeologists whether anything like 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.720 a modern condom was ever widely used in the ancient world, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.760 and if if it was used to what extent. There 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.720 were believed to be tons of different methods of sexual 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.200 protection in the ancient world. Of course, there was a 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:50.320 lot of use of amulets and magic spells and potions 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.120 and things like that. We mentioned a little bit about 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:57.600 herbal remedies before. There was the use of of pessaries sometimes, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.880 which would be like an object placed inside vagina. In 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.520 an eighteenth century b CE medical papyrus from ancient Egypt, 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.640 there is the claim that quote crocodile dung mixed with 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.080 honey and placed in the vagina of a woman prevents conception, 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.600 which that sounds gross. That might have actually worked some 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.000 of the time. I don't know. Maybe I don't know 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.480 that there have been any modern studies into this particular. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.640 We're not advocating, but but yeah, what about condoms? What 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.840 about a protective physical barrier in the form of like 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:31.080 a sheath. So I've come across some claims that several 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.840 types of protective sheaths in the form of both internal 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:38.040 and external condoms were used by cultures like the ancient Egyptians, 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.680 the Romans, the Chinese, the people of New Guinea, and 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.480 the people of Japan and some others. As of just 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.360 one example of a claim like this I've come across. 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:49.800 I was reading apart from a book called The Humble 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:54.000 Little Condom of History by Anya Collier, and she writes 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:58.239 that before the fifteenth century in China, quote Chinese condoms 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:02.400 yin Chia were ultraly made from oiled silk paper and 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:06.120 lamb intestines. And she doesn't specify how far back this 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.520 is thought to have been used. She does say before 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:12.040 the fifteenth century, but she writes that this condom only 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.640 covered the top of the penis, and this is actually 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.560 common with a lot of models throughout history. Is not 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.880 common in condoms today, but many models, especially some you'd 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.240 see later in Europe, would only cover the glands. And 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.360 this was employed primarily with an understanding that it would 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.600 prevent pregnancy. It was not aimed at preventing disease, according 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.920 to a. Collier. But whether each of these individual claims 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.680 about condom use or earlier than the fifteenth century are 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.040 correct or not, it's clear that some use of physical 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.600 barrier prophylaxis does go back into the fog of history, 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.960 and there is no known inventor of the condom. Some 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.080 of the people who have been given credit as the 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.680 inventor are definitely not the inventor. And of course I 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.120 think all of this makes sense because ejaculation would have 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.520 been identified as a key event uh in um inmating 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.240 in pregnancy, and therefore a physical barrier between the opening 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.360 of the male urethra, if not the entire penis itself 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.280 and female genitals would seem a likely tactic that that 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.919 even you know, ancient people's would have realized. Now, I 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.359 want to talk about mythology, because there are some indications 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.399 of something like a condom in uh in the mythology 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.639 of the ancient world. Here's an example that came up 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.280 in the paper by by Ommi and Tieri. Uh something 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.800 like a condom appears in a fascinating Greek myth as 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.040 told by Antoninist liberalists in the second century CE in 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.680 his work Metamorphoses. Now, this is a prose work that's 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.840 a lot like Ovid's poetry work The Metamorphoses. It's a 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.960 collection of tellings of Greek myths in which God transforms 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:54.200 a person into something else. And this particular story concerns Minos, 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.720 the king of Crete, and his wife Pacific. So in 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:02.080 liberalists version of the story, Minos and specific or married 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.360 and they couldn't conceive a child because Minos was cursed. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:10.400 His semen was apparently full of snakes and scorpions, which 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:12.959 which would kill any woman that he had sex with. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.400 So on. On that alone, it sounds like you could 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.919 look at that is either a possible um you know, 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:27.600 magical version of sexually transmitted disease like his his semen 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.200 causes some sort of illness that eventually is painful and 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.800 could even you know, bring death. Um Or of course 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.760 it could just be a treatment of infertility. To say that, 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.639 you know, again kind of a mythological exaggeration. Uh. Yeah. 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.120 The method they're going to propose for fixing the problem 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.440 in this story, I think would not really correlate with 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.640 it being modeled on a disease, it would correlate more 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.280 with it just being like a magical convention in the story. 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.679 But then again, even if this is inspired by some 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.159 kind of real experience with the sexually transmitted infection or something, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.879 you can still see how it could get sort of 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.439 warped and acquire different mythical baggage over time. But anyway, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.080 so in the story, he's got this problem. His semen 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:11.800 is full of snakes, it's got scorpions, it's got centipedes. 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.800 It's a problem. So to get around the problem, King 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.639 Minos is instructed to put the bladder of a goat 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:23.119 into another woman's vagina. I think this is uh procris 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.679 and uh, and then to have sex with her. And 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.760 after that all the snakes and scorpions would be gone, 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.840 so he and Pacific could safely have sex and conceive. 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.400 And the implication is that the goats bladder here serves 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.800 as a protective barrier for this other woman so that 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.399 the serpents and the scorpions don't harm her. Now this 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.840 is straight because you can almost I don't know, could 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.920 they not think about other ways around this problem? Yeah, 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:51.399 I mean, on one level, it does sound like you 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.280 could also be an example of uh, you know, there 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.480 being some sort of situation, some sort of sexual situation 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.200 that needed to be addressed, and then the solution was here, 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.600 used this uh, this bladder uh in intercourse as some 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.919 sort of a barrier. And then perhaps you just have 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.000 mythological explanations and story making on top of that, almost 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.399 as if like the people generating the stories don't understand 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:20.000 and or don't care what the original reason was, you know, 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.840 or it could just be a mythical invention. Certain, but yeah, 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.399 um yeah, it's interesting to consider how it could have 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.080 been inspired by some real practice. Like basically, if nothing else, 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:33.640 it shows that during the second century CE, the idea 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.760 of using a physical barrier during a sex act was 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.400 at least in the zeitgeist. Right. It's it's at least 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:45.439 possible indication that there could have been some consciousness about 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.040 this in the culture. Basically, this would be the form 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.640 of an internal condom. Now, I do want to say 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.119 something real quick though about the you know, about the 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.919 use of intestines and and bladders in all of this. 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.919 I feel like it seems gross to people today. It 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:02.919 can seem gross to us today, and I think a 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:04.840 lot of that is because we are so many of 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:07.520 us anyway, are removed from the culture of butchery and 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:09.960 can easily forget that animal bladders could be used for 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.080 a number of different things. A dried animal bladder was 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.040 essentially a balloon, well, and these membranes and tissues were 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:18.880 used for all kinds of things in the ancient world. 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.040 I mean, this isn't the only use of a goat's 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.240 bladder or sheep intestine in the ancient world. They were, uh, 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.199 they were very versatile materials that were used in all 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:29.960 kinds of consumer goods. And we'll come back to this 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.800 in a bit, Okay. So another thing that Ammy and 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.320 Thierry point out in their paper is that a lot 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.840 of sources point to a sixteenth century Italian physician and 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:46.560 anatomist named Gabrielli Fallopio as as the person who published 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.919 the earliest confirmed description of the condom and so Filippio 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.000 lived fifteen twenty three to fifteen sixty two, and he 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:56.760 was very influential in his discoveries about the human body 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.800 and in overturning some of the misconceptions of physicians from 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:05.320 antiquity like Galen and through dissection of cadavers, Filipio made 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.680 a lot of important observations about about the human head, 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.760 about the ears, and about the reproductive organs. Uh he 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:15.520 discovered the tubes that travel between the ovaries and the uterus, 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.040 now known as phillopian tubes. But uh I Mean and 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.639 Terry dispute this tendency to give Filipio credit for the 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.760 first published description of the condom, and they disputed in 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.240 multiple ways. First of all, there is at least one 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.400 known example, much earlier than this, of a published description 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.800 of a condom. In the tenth century, the Persian physician 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.680 al A Kawani published a treatise in which he advocated 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.679 the use of an animal's gall bladder to cover the 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.119 penis during sex, and this was understood to be for 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:50.680 the purpose of preventing pregnancy. But Amy Interiery also dispute 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.359 the Filipio ever described a condom as a barrier to 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.120 be used during intercourse. Well, then what's this dispute about. Well, 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:02.280 Filipio did definitely right about a thing that covers the penis. 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.240 According to Ammi Interieri, Philippio wrote about a sheet of 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:09.240 fabric that would be filled with a concoction of wine 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:13.639 and wood shavings and bits of copper and antler ashes 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:18.640 and mercury precipitate whatever that is, um, and that by 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.480 placing this sheet full of stuff over the glands, it 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:26.840 would protect a man from contracting syphilis. However, what the 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.399 authors here point out is that he actually doesn't recommend 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:35.720 using this during intercourse. He recommends using it after intercourse 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:39.320 has already taken place. Okay, Well, that that makes a 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.399 lot more sense given all the details of the ingredients 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:44.879 that are placed within. Yeah, and so obviously that's not 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.480 a condom. That's just more like a bizarre home remedy. Uh. 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:52.040 If Philippio claimed that men had used this method and 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:56.240 none of them ever got syphilis, I'm suspicious of that claim. Yeah, 0:23:56.280 --> 0:24:00.719 I mean, especially given how confusing syphilis, uh, you know, 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:03.679 historically was to h to document. It was called the 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:06.880 great imitator, for example, because it could was so often 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:09.399 misdiagnosed as other things, and then it can of course 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:12.560 go dormant for long periods of time and seem as 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.520 if it is cured. Yes. So, even though this doesn't 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:18.040 actually describe the use of a condom during intercourse, some 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:22.160 historical writings do indicate that by the seventeenth century, animal 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:25.600 membrane and linen condoms were being used in various places 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:28.960 throughout Europe. So by the seventeenth century, there's definitely their 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:32.119 writings all over the place indicating people are using these things. 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:35.800 They're definitely in fashion by then. And another thing is 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:38.200 the physical evidence here. So we mentioned a while back 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.840 that the earliest surviving physical evidence of a condom goes 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:44.920 back to the seventeenth century. What is this physical evidence. Well, 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:49.879 in the nineteen eighties archaeologists found sheep intestine condoms in 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:54.320 an excavation of an English latrine pit from the sixteen forties. 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:56.840 So it looks like they were used and then thrown 0:24:56.840 --> 0:25:00.440 in the latrine sometime between sixteen forty two and sixteen 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:03.800 forty six. The pit was actually covered in sixteen forty seven, 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:05.720 and we know that. Uh and this was at a 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:09.600 keep of Dudley Castle in West Midlands, England. Uh So 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:12.840 if anybody's been there and has seen the famous condom 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:16.040 pit right in, let us know. Now this brings us 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:18.879 to the obvious question condom, Like, where does the word 0:25:18.920 --> 0:25:21.600 itself come from? This is a huge debate all on 0:25:21.680 --> 0:25:25.119 its own. Yeah, exactly and uh and and we should 0:25:25.160 --> 0:25:28.000 note that you know that there's certainly the myth out 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:31.280 there of the British doctor Condom or Colonel Condom or 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:36.200 colonel yeah who Reverend Condom. Well, I didn't run across reverend, 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:38.959 but Captain. I mean, as long as we're we're just 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.600 clearly making him up. His holdiness the Pope Condom, Well, 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:44.440 he said, well, probably not that one, but he was 0:25:44.480 --> 0:25:48.119 said to have lived in the seventeenth century, uh in 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:50.800 England under the reign of Charles the Second, and he's 0:25:50.800 --> 0:25:54.399 pointed out by Ammy and Terry in Condoms of Turbulent History. 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:57.399 There there's seemingly no basis for this at all, but 0:25:57.480 --> 0:26:00.200 there is a whole lot of conflicting stories on where 0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:04.280 the term condom comes from. Just be beyond this story. 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:07.720 So if it's not from a non existent English name, 0:26:08.080 --> 0:26:10.400 and that's the thing, like condom is not even an 0:26:10.440 --> 0:26:12.680 English name from that time period, then where did it 0:26:12.760 --> 0:26:15.400 come from? Well, they point to a few plausible theories. 0:26:16.040 --> 0:26:20.760 It could come from the verb um condary, which has 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:23.639 numerous meanings, including to protect, to protect or to sheath, 0:26:24.480 --> 0:26:29.040 or the corresponding noun condus, which means one who stores 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:32.800 that which preserves or a receptacle. Or It also could 0:26:33.000 --> 0:26:37.480 derive from the Italian word guantan, which more specifically is 0:26:37.920 --> 0:26:43.480 it's a Phoenician variant gondum, meaning a gauntlet or glove. Yeah, 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:45.800 I love really. Another thing that's great in this paper 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:48.760 is a documentation of many of the euphemisms that people 0:26:48.800 --> 0:26:52.359 have had for condoms throughout the centuries, especially in the 0:26:52.400 --> 0:26:57.520 eighteenth century, you had these great One thing about euphemisms 0:26:57.520 --> 0:27:02.360 for condoms is that almost every national culture puts the 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:06.760 name of another national culture in the euphemism for the condom. 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:10.720 So like the the French sometimes called them the English 0:27:10.760 --> 0:27:14.679 writing code, and the English sometimes called them quote French 0:27:14.920 --> 0:27:18.520 letters letters What does that mean? The letters apparently comes 0:27:18.560 --> 0:27:22.199 from a common word meaning envelope, so like you know, 0:27:22.280 --> 0:27:24.400 the letters would be the envelope. So it's like saying 0:27:24.440 --> 0:27:26.920 the French envelope. Now I wonder where this comes from? 0:27:26.920 --> 0:27:30.440 It is it is it perhaps tied to the invention 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:34.360 actually you know, entering into the country from say France 0:27:34.480 --> 0:27:37.679 or or from England. You know, are they actually contributing 0:27:37.760 --> 0:27:39.840 the source or is it like this is the kind 0:27:39.880 --> 0:27:41.560 of it's useful, but it's the kind of thing that 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:44.280 those French would have come up with or correspondingly. This 0:27:44.320 --> 0:27:47.400 is a very useful invention, but clearly the English did 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:50.080 this there. I wish there was a name for this. 0:27:50.160 --> 0:27:51.639 I know there might be a name for it, I 0:27:51.680 --> 0:27:55.639 don't know of. Yeah, this general phenomenon of um applying 0:27:55.840 --> 0:27:59.800 the name of another country to an object or practice 0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:03.679 doesn't necessarily come from there, right or you know, another 0:28:03.800 --> 0:28:06.560 way of looking at is that since for so long 0:28:06.720 --> 0:28:11.359 contraception has been you know, unfairly thrust solely upon on 0:28:11.520 --> 0:28:15.640 females in these situations, I guess it's possible that it's 0:28:15.760 --> 0:28:19.960 it could be due to um men traveling to another country, 0:28:20.520 --> 0:28:23.560 say French traveling to England, English traveling to France, uh, 0:28:23.600 --> 0:28:26.280 in a military scenario or outside of a military scenario, 0:28:26.640 --> 0:28:29.840 and then it is, you know, they attribute it to 0:28:29.880 --> 0:28:33.040 the nation in which the females are introducing them to 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:36.960 the technology. Oh that's interesting. Yeah, but that's that's merely 0:28:37.000 --> 0:28:40.520 my guesswork. Okay. So by the nineteenth century, condoms had 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:44.400 definitely become very popular in Europe for both contraception and 0:28:44.480 --> 0:28:48.240 prophyl access against infections, but they weren't without problems. That 0:28:48.560 --> 0:28:51.520 the most popular condoms were these skin condoms. There were 0:28:51.560 --> 0:28:54.720 linen condoms to There were various materials used, but the 0:28:54.760 --> 0:28:58.400 most popular were the skin condoms made from animal membranes. 0:28:58.400 --> 0:29:01.880 And these could actually be expensive and expenses a problem 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:05.840 in contraceptives and in uh profile access against infection. Yeah, 0:29:05.840 --> 0:29:07.760 I mean as as well. We'll discuss later. To Like, 0:29:07.800 --> 0:29:10.360 one of the big appeals of the modern condom is 0:29:10.400 --> 0:29:14.520 that they are generally inexpensive and or free. Uh So yeah, 0:29:14.520 --> 0:29:17.160 if you if it's expensive, that is, that's that's not 0:29:17.240 --> 0:29:20.360 good for overall, um, public health and also just overall 0:29:20.360 --> 0:29:24.120 public usage of the technology. In terms of animal membranes, 0:29:24.320 --> 0:29:28.560 like we said, membranes and bladders, they were used for 0:29:28.600 --> 0:29:30.920 a number of different purposes, you know, the creation of 0:29:31.000 --> 0:29:35.840 wine skins or floats. The Aztecs would use inflated bladders 0:29:36.520 --> 0:29:40.000 inflated with air for religious purposes. They were like, you know, 0:29:40.080 --> 0:29:44.240 burned afterwards. And uh you see the sort of sort 0:29:44.240 --> 0:29:46.600 of thing pop up in other people's writing too, sometimes 0:29:46.640 --> 0:29:50.760 the outside of of actual um you know, utilitarian use 0:29:50.800 --> 0:29:54.000 of the bladders. Uh. Leonardo da Vinci wrote of inflating 0:29:54.000 --> 0:29:57.720 intestines as a means of better understanding their structure. Um, 0:29:57.760 --> 0:30:01.120 you know, after you know, after dissecting could havever uh. 0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:04.080 And he also wrote of the vessels and the penis 0:30:04.120 --> 0:30:07.960 that were filled with wind to make it erecked, which wind, 0:30:08.080 --> 0:30:10.560 which isn't exactly how it works, but I guess it's 0:30:10.600 --> 0:30:13.720 the same idea, uh, you know. And by the way, 0:30:13.760 --> 0:30:18.960 having access to rubber, some Mesoamerican cultures used actual rubber 0:30:19.000 --> 0:30:21.560 in the creation of enema bags for the administration of 0:30:21.600 --> 0:30:24.720 smoke or other substances. In other parts of the world, 0:30:24.760 --> 0:30:27.080 such as Africa, animal bladders had to be used to 0:30:27.120 --> 0:30:31.120 create such medicinal devices. Well, it's funny you mentioned rubber there, 0:30:31.160 --> 0:30:34.360 because the revolution in the condom world was definitely insured 0:30:34.760 --> 0:30:37.440 by the introduction of rubber as a material that you 0:30:37.720 --> 0:30:41.320 could use in manufacturing these things. So in eighteen thirty nine, 0:30:41.320 --> 0:30:45.040 when Charles Goodyear invented the process of vulcanization, I think 0:30:45.080 --> 0:30:47.040 I think that was a turning point and this could 0:30:47.080 --> 0:30:50.040 even be the subject of a future invention episode. Um. 0:30:50.120 --> 0:30:54.480 But in short, vulcanization is a process used for improving 0:30:54.520 --> 0:30:58.680 the material properties of rubber by chemically treating it. Specifically, 0:30:58.920 --> 0:31:02.440 you expose rubber to sulfur and other additives and things 0:31:02.480 --> 0:31:06.120 called accelerants at high temperatures, and the sulfur and the 0:31:06.160 --> 0:31:10.320 rubber and the additives they'll combine and they form these 0:31:10.360 --> 0:31:13.520 these chemical cross links, and the final product is much 0:31:13.520 --> 0:31:18.000 more durable and elastic than untreated rubber. And vulcanization opened 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:21.200 the door to using rubbers of versatile industrial material and 0:31:21.240 --> 0:31:23.760 made it useful in a huge range of consumer products. 0:31:23.760 --> 0:31:27.400 It sort of changed the world of materials, and in 0:31:27.520 --> 0:31:31.440 eighteen fifty five condoms became one of those products that 0:31:31.640 --> 0:31:35.000 used rubber on the interior. Note that at the first 0:31:35.080 --> 0:31:38.280 World's Fair in Philadelphia in eighteen seventy six you could 0:31:38.320 --> 0:31:41.920 buy quote rubbers that people were calling them. They were 0:31:42.040 --> 0:31:46.200 quote handmade and as thick as inner tubes had a seam, 0:31:46.280 --> 0:31:49.560 and being costly, they were sold by the unit, so 0:31:49.840 --> 0:31:53.320 not really selling all the advantages on those early ones. 0:31:53.440 --> 0:31:56.960 But the the early model rubber condoms were not extremely 0:31:57.000 --> 0:31:59.640 popular since they were they were expensive, a lot of 0:31:59.680 --> 0:32:03.600 people didn't like how they felt. Some industrial modifications were 0:32:03.640 --> 0:32:05.800 made over the years and how they were molded. But 0:32:06.120 --> 0:32:08.920 another major upgrade was in the nineteen thirties when the 0:32:08.960 --> 0:32:12.400 process of using latex was introduced, and latex rubber is 0:32:12.400 --> 0:32:15.840 made from a dispersion of rubber particles in a water 0:32:15.960 --> 0:32:20.920 based solution, and latex manufacturing made condoms significantly cheaper and 0:32:21.000 --> 0:32:24.719 lead to people widely thinking of them as disposable, single 0:32:24.880 --> 0:32:29.200 use products rather than as like a reusable appliance. Both 0:32:29.280 --> 0:32:32.680 of these ultimately um selling points for the modern condom right, 0:32:32.760 --> 0:32:35.680 and of course today they are also non latex condoms 0:32:35.680 --> 0:32:38.000 you can buy. Some are still made from animal membranes 0:32:38.040 --> 0:32:41.880 actually like lamb secum. Some are also made from materials 0:32:41.880 --> 0:32:44.480 like polyurethane, and this can be useful for people who 0:32:44.480 --> 0:32:47.760 are allergic to latex. Some people are, though I believe 0:32:47.800 --> 0:32:51.440 the scientific consensus is that animal membrane condoms don't protect 0:32:51.440 --> 0:32:53.920 against S t I S t I s like latex 0:32:53.920 --> 0:32:57.520 condoms do, and that polyurethane condoms have a lower rate 0:32:57.560 --> 0:33:01.440 of effectiveness at contraception and are more owned breaking than latex. 0:33:01.760 --> 0:33:03.840 All Right, well, on that note, let's take one more break, 0:33:03.880 --> 0:33:06.400 and when we come back, we're going to discuss more 0:33:06.440 --> 0:33:10.560 about the current state of condoms, especially the benefits of condoms, 0:33:10.560 --> 0:33:14.280 some of the statistics backing up why you should be 0:33:14.360 --> 0:33:22.800 using condoms. All right, we're back. All right, Robert, tell 0:33:22.840 --> 0:33:25.520 me what have condoms ever done for the world. Oh, well, 0:33:25.520 --> 0:33:28.080 they've done a great deal for the world and continue 0:33:28.120 --> 0:33:30.480 to do a great deal for the world. UM. I 0:33:30.600 --> 0:33:32.440 was looking up some some good stats on this, and 0:33:32.440 --> 0:33:35.320 one of the great sources you can go to is 0:33:35.360 --> 0:33:38.880 the World Health Organization UM. They point out that condoms 0:33:38.960 --> 0:33:42.280 are safe and they're highly effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy 0:33:42.320 --> 0:33:45.920 and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Like, one of the 0:33:45.920 --> 0:33:47.800 take comes from looking at the information is really like 0:33:48.520 --> 0:33:51.440 there's no better time than now to make use of 0:33:51.480 --> 0:33:54.360 condoms in terms of just where the invention is, just 0:33:54.480 --> 0:33:58.360 how well engineered and refined everything is. It's come a 0:33:58.400 --> 0:34:01.000 long way. It's no longer the a ginner tube rubber 0:34:01.040 --> 0:34:03.680 with the seam right. Yeah. And if and like you said, 0:34:03.680 --> 0:34:06.480 if you have one is allergic to latex, uh, there 0:34:06.520 --> 0:34:09.960 are these other options as well. Uh. And also none 0:34:10.040 --> 0:34:12.279 of the made The World Health Organization points out that 0:34:12.320 --> 0:34:15.240 none of the major manufacturers of male and female latex 0:34:15.280 --> 0:34:19.480 condoms use mb T or ZMBT. This is a chemical 0:34:19.560 --> 0:34:23.640 material that has recently been identified as a potential carcinogen 0:34:23.880 --> 0:34:27.480 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Again, you 0:34:27.560 --> 0:34:30.640 are not going to find that in being used by 0:34:30.719 --> 0:34:35.360 major manufacturers of male and female latex condoms and uh on. 0:34:35.440 --> 0:34:37.520 On top of that, evidence just shows that male let 0:34:37.600 --> 0:34:42.840 aatex condoms have or greater protective effect against HIV and 0:34:42.880 --> 0:34:46.759 other sexually transmitted infections. That being said, we do have 0:34:46.760 --> 0:34:51.160 to stress that condoms are are not one effective. Um 0:34:51.200 --> 0:34:53.520 you know that. And then that can be said for 0:34:53.520 --> 0:34:56.759 for for most contraceptive methods, you know, aside from abstinence. 0:34:57.320 --> 0:35:00.080 Uh and by that I mean absolute abstinence, not a 0:35:00.120 --> 0:35:03.000 striving for abstinence, because I think there is an important 0:35:03.000 --> 0:35:06.280 distinction to be made there. Uh Still, if used correctly 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.520 every time, they are proven means of preventing the spread 0:35:09.560 --> 0:35:13.680 of HIV in women and in men. According to Planned Parenthood, 0:35:14.160 --> 0:35:17.760 which if you if you haven't visited the Planned Parenthood website, 0:35:17.920 --> 0:35:21.080 I recommended planned parenthood dot org. They have a whole 0:35:21.120 --> 0:35:24.760 host of services, uh you know, aimed at at educating 0:35:24.760 --> 0:35:28.760 people about reproductive health and reproduction. Uh. And in fact, 0:35:29.440 --> 0:35:33.000 just the other day had a Planned Parenthood representative come 0:35:33.000 --> 0:35:36.640 out and give like an age tailored talk uh to 0:35:37.239 --> 0:35:41.319 my son and some of children from from his school group. Um, 0:35:41.320 --> 0:35:43.040 you know, on just like the parts of the body 0:35:43.080 --> 0:35:46.239 and what the official names for these parts of the 0:35:46.239 --> 0:35:48.399 bodies are and you know what's different from a boy 0:35:48.400 --> 0:35:50.200 and a girl, etcetera. You know, just like a very 0:35:50.280 --> 0:35:54.640 base age level, um uh, you know, talk on on 0:35:54.840 --> 0:35:58.719 on the the realities of our our different bodies. That's 0:35:58.719 --> 0:36:01.280 a great service because I think a lot of times, 0:36:01.360 --> 0:36:04.400 you know, if people don't know how to talk about 0:36:05.080 --> 0:36:08.839 reproduction and you know, reproductive organs and stuff with kids, 0:36:08.880 --> 0:36:12.200 just like the not having the right words and feeling 0:36:12.239 --> 0:36:15.200 awkwardness about it can lead to not talking about it 0:36:15.239 --> 0:36:17.719 at all, which can put like a kind of like 0:36:17.840 --> 0:36:20.520 shame or stigma around it that there shouldn't be right. 0:36:20.840 --> 0:36:22.640 And that can also be of course the same thing 0:36:22.719 --> 0:36:26.280 with the use of contraceptives and condoms. I know, for 0:36:26.280 --> 0:36:30.400 for my part um, like, the main bits of sexual 0:36:30.520 --> 0:36:33.279 education that I was exposed to in school were like 0:36:33.640 --> 0:36:39.160 high school level, like highly snickery class environments where like 0:36:39.239 --> 0:36:43.720 a football coach was begrudgingly demonstrating a condom being applied 0:36:43.760 --> 0:36:45.600 to a banana, that sort of thing, and I don't 0:36:45.640 --> 0:36:48.239 think anybody learned anything from it. You know, you had 0:36:48.239 --> 0:36:50.759 to sort of hope that that each individual in the 0:36:50.760 --> 0:36:54.200 class had somebody else, some other um you know, group 0:36:54.320 --> 0:36:57.640 or individual in their life taking an interest in explaining 0:36:57.680 --> 0:37:00.000 to them, you know what this was, how it worked, 0:37:00.040 --> 0:37:05.120 and how it fits into into healthy sexuality. Yeah, not 0:37:05.239 --> 0:37:09.880 teaching kids about reproductive health and reproductive reproduction does not 0:37:09.960 --> 0:37:12.120 mean they're not going to find out anything. It just 0:37:12.160 --> 0:37:14.960 means they're going to learn mostly like dubious facts from 0:37:15.000 --> 0:37:19.520 their friends. Right, or television which you depending on, or 0:37:19.600 --> 0:37:23.200 or the internet nowadays. Right. But again, planned parenthood um 0:37:23.440 --> 0:37:26.120 a really good source for information. Uh. It's a nonprofit 0:37:26.200 --> 0:37:30.120 organization that provides reproductive healthcare in the United States and globally. Uh. 0:37:30.120 --> 0:37:33.320 And according to them, condoms are ninety eight percent effective 0:37:33.360 --> 0:37:37.040 at preventing pregnancy if you use them perfectly and use 0:37:37.080 --> 0:37:40.839 them every time you have sex, but making a room 0:37:40.920 --> 0:37:44.640 for user air, the rate is actually more like percent effective. 0:37:45.000 --> 0:37:47.680 So statistically, they say, quote, fifteen out of a hundred 0:37:47.680 --> 0:37:50.360 people who use condoms as their only birth control method 0:37:50.520 --> 0:37:54.080 will get pregnant each year. Okay, So, as such, Planned 0:37:54.080 --> 0:37:56.880 Parenthood suggests using condoms and conjunction with other forms of 0:37:56.880 --> 0:37:59.400 birth control in the form of a pill and i 0:37:59.520 --> 0:38:03.360 U D, an implant ring or a shot. Basically, the 0:38:03.400 --> 0:38:06.719 combo just increases your odds of preventing pregnancy. And they 0:38:06.719 --> 0:38:10.239 also mentioned that employing a pullout method that means uh, 0:38:10.400 --> 0:38:15.480 pulling the penis out prior to ejaculation with the condom 0:38:15.800 --> 0:38:18.800 can also help, though on its own, the pullout method 0:38:18.880 --> 0:38:23.320 is not recommended. Also, we mentioned, you know, internal and 0:38:23.360 --> 0:38:26.400 external condoms, the male and the female condom, how they 0:38:26.520 --> 0:38:29.080 you know the usefulness of both. However, they should not 0:38:29.120 --> 0:38:32.520 be used at the same time. Likewise, one should not 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:36.120 use more than one condom at once. Uh quote. Condoms 0:38:36.120 --> 0:38:38.600 are designed to be used on their own, and doubling 0:38:38.680 --> 0:38:42.080 up won't necessarily give you extra production. One condom used 0:38:42.080 --> 0:38:45.399 correctly is all the production you need. But again that's 0:38:45.440 --> 0:38:48.000 just the pregnancy angle. They also helped prevent the spread 0:38:48.000 --> 0:38:52.399 of STDs like HIV, clamydia, and gono rhea. They also 0:38:52.440 --> 0:38:55.040 point out the condoms are a great option for a 0:38:55.120 --> 0:38:57.719 number of other reasons. They're you know, they're inexpensive and 0:38:57.800 --> 0:39:00.760 sometimes free like we mentioned, and they do not require 0:39:00.760 --> 0:39:03.720 a prescription. You can you can buy them or obtain 0:39:03.760 --> 0:39:06.240 them again sometimes for free, from a number of different places. 0:39:06.800 --> 0:39:09.439 And they have no side effects, you know, aside from 0:39:09.520 --> 0:39:12.239 you know, some individuals may have a latex allergy or 0:39:12.239 --> 0:39:15.280 have sensitivity to latex. But again, there are other condoms 0:39:15.280 --> 0:39:18.600 on the market made of say plastic, and this can 0:39:18.640 --> 0:39:22.200 make is essentially makes this a non issue. And really 0:39:22.239 --> 0:39:26.360 the only downsides two condoms that the according to plant parenthood, 0:39:26.440 --> 0:39:28.239 or that they do require just a little getting used to. 0:39:29.040 --> 0:39:31.080 But again, I feel like that can be said for 0:39:31.200 --> 0:39:34.680 pretty much everything in human sexuality. So it's just one 0:39:34.680 --> 0:39:38.480 more thing to you know, learn the ropes on. But 0:39:38.480 --> 0:39:40.520 but that is but but also they stress that as 0:39:40.560 --> 0:39:44.160 part of a like modern human sexual culture, they're actually 0:39:44.200 --> 0:39:47.160 part of the excitement of sexual activity and and not 0:39:47.280 --> 0:39:49.480 a like hard stop to the action, you know, like 0:39:49.520 --> 0:39:51.560 the the Again, like we said at the beginning of 0:39:51.560 --> 0:39:55.360 the episode, like condoms are and should be considered sexy 0:39:55.520 --> 0:39:59.000 and not something that's like this purely clinical, like deeply 0:39:59.080 --> 0:40:01.359 serious thing that's want to you know, take you out 0:40:01.360 --> 0:40:03.719 at the moment, right. I mean, yeah, I guess that's 0:40:03.719 --> 0:40:06.520 a really interesting issue. It comes up throughout the history 0:40:06.560 --> 0:40:09.319 of the condom that we were reading, um, you know, 0:40:09.560 --> 0:40:12.800 different reports about how the different technologies at different times 0:40:12.880 --> 0:40:16.560 were said to feel and how people felt about using them. 0:40:16.560 --> 0:40:18.839 Where they you know, excited to use them, where they 0:40:18.920 --> 0:40:23.080 disinclined they kind of not really like having to use them. Uh, 0:40:23.120 --> 0:40:25.040 these are the kind of things that I feel like 0:40:25.600 --> 0:40:28.760 from from one type of like medical or clinical approach, 0:40:28.760 --> 0:40:30.680 you would look at stuff like that and say like, well, 0:40:30.719 --> 0:40:33.400 that's just extraneous details. You know. What we want to 0:40:33.400 --> 0:40:35.600 know is like how effective is it when it's used? 0:40:36.080 --> 0:40:40.239 But whether or not people feel like using something is 0:40:40.280 --> 0:40:42.399 an important thing in public health. That's going to tell 0:40:42.440 --> 0:40:46.560 you probably how often it actually gets used in in 0:40:46.719 --> 0:40:49.400 people's real lives. Yeah, and you know, this is an 0:40:49.400 --> 0:40:52.280 area probably where you know, things like portrayal of condoms 0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:56.719 and media are ultimately important because if the if the 0:40:56.760 --> 0:40:59.960 scene in which a condom is produced, it is still erotic, 0:41:00.040 --> 0:41:03.439 cortitilating um. You know, that is going to be part 0:41:03.560 --> 0:41:07.160 of the overall messaging that this this is, this is 0:41:07.200 --> 0:41:10.520 not you know, a deterrent to your sexual activity. This 0:41:10.640 --> 0:41:13.719 is a part of the sexual activity. You don't want 0:41:13.719 --> 0:41:16.000 people thinking about it as like something you've got to 0:41:16.040 --> 0:41:19.320 do but it's a bummer. Yeah. And it's interesting to 0:41:19.560 --> 0:41:22.240 think about all this too, in in comparison to other inventions, 0:41:22.239 --> 0:41:24.440 because there are probably let their levels of this within 0:41:24.520 --> 0:41:27.600 the invention, like the invention not only we've seen this 0:41:27.640 --> 0:41:29.359 in some of the examples we've discussed on the show, 0:41:29.400 --> 0:41:32.200 where it doesn't only have to work, Uh, it has 0:41:32.239 --> 0:41:35.279 to be something that people are you know, have ease 0:41:35.320 --> 0:41:37.880 and using and want to use. You know, see that 0:41:37.960 --> 0:41:40.080 in the history of let's say, you know, the motion 0:41:40.120 --> 0:41:43.640 picture cameras that we've recently discussed. Yeah, that's right. I 0:41:43.640 --> 0:41:46.960 mean it's not enough for a technology or technological capability 0:41:47.040 --> 0:41:50.520 to merely exist. It has to be adopted. I mean, 0:41:51.440 --> 0:41:53.640 you know, you can you can lead a horse to water, right, 0:41:53.880 --> 0:41:56.759 but you can't make it wear a giant rubber condom. 0:41:56.800 --> 0:41:58.719 I haven't looked this up, but I wonder what some 0:41:58.840 --> 0:42:01.960 of the like mark keting materials on those things said. 0:42:02.200 --> 0:42:06.520 You know, is it like vulcanized for extra strength? Yeah, 0:42:06.680 --> 0:42:08.799 or just you know, I can imagine them. Uh, you know, 0:42:09.040 --> 0:42:12.400 like selling this the science of the of the material 0:42:12.560 --> 0:42:15.440 you know, I mean because ultimately that the history of 0:42:15.600 --> 0:42:18.800 condoms as the history of material science, because that, again, 0:42:18.840 --> 0:42:23.319 the basic concept was was clearly evident to us, you know, 0:42:23.480 --> 0:42:26.359 thousands of years ago. Uh, it's just been figuring out 0:42:26.360 --> 0:42:28.760 exactly how they work and then figuring out the best 0:42:29.239 --> 0:42:32.040 uh you know, use of materials to make it possible. Yeah, 0:42:32.080 --> 0:42:34.719 But now now that we've had this conversation, it really 0:42:34.800 --> 0:42:37.600 doesn't make sense to me that most of the marketing 0:42:37.680 --> 0:42:41.080 you see around condoms is not based on like how 0:42:41.120 --> 0:42:43.759 effective they are and how you know, it's not like 0:42:43.840 --> 0:42:47.360 citing statistics about how good they are at stopping the 0:42:47.400 --> 0:42:51.240 spread of diseases and and preventing pregnancy. It's more about 0:42:51.280 --> 0:42:54.279 trying to make them sexy, like the brands tend to 0:42:54.320 --> 0:42:57.759 advertise with sexually charged imagery and stuff like that. And 0:42:57.800 --> 0:42:59.319 I mean, on one hand, you could just say, well, 0:42:59.320 --> 0:43:01.360 they're just trying to elder product, which they are, But 0:43:01.440 --> 0:43:02.799 on the other hand, you could say, well, in a 0:43:02.880 --> 0:43:05.839 in a way that's actually a public good. Yeah. Yeah, 0:43:05.840 --> 0:43:09.560 I guess ultimately you have to have both um streams 0:43:09.560 --> 0:43:13.160 of communication going on, Like an individual needs to to 0:43:13.320 --> 0:43:16.920 know like the the the hard medical side of the equation, 0:43:17.080 --> 0:43:19.239 but also be exposed to like the you know, the 0:43:19.719 --> 0:43:24.239 cultural sexy messaging of it. And uh, I mean it 0:43:24.239 --> 0:43:26.120 would be interesting so to look at, you know, how 0:43:26.400 --> 0:43:28.040 you know, what sort of tug and poll goes on 0:43:28.360 --> 0:43:31.880 with these two streams of communication in the media today. 0:43:32.480 --> 0:43:35.840 But I'm I'm guessing that we have perhaps a healthy 0:43:35.840 --> 0:43:38.520 balance of the two, I should hope. So anyway, that 0:43:38.560 --> 0:43:42.520 being said, clearly, like we we still have to have 0:43:42.600 --> 0:43:45.600 to push communication on the use of condoms, and they're 0:43:45.600 --> 0:43:50.040 put plenty of initiatives around the world in the US 0:43:50.080 --> 0:43:53.279 as well, Uh, you know, to remind everyone, to educate people, 0:43:53.320 --> 0:43:56.080 to keep the you know, the fire burning on this 0:43:56.160 --> 0:43:59.560 topic and make people aware that you know, this is 0:43:59.560 --> 0:44:01.279 what they all, this is why you should use them, 0:44:01.560 --> 0:44:03.800 and uh and and this is why they are effective. 0:44:04.360 --> 0:44:06.839 But also some of these caveats like uh, like you know, 0:44:07.120 --> 0:44:09.239 it's better if you use them in conjunction with these 0:44:09.280 --> 0:44:12.120 other birth control methods as well. Right now with a 0:44:12.160 --> 0:44:13.879 lot of as with a lot of inventions that we've 0:44:13.880 --> 0:44:17.359 talked about on the show, Um, the innovation is not over. 0:44:17.960 --> 0:44:20.960 Oh there are tons of modern variants and it attempts 0:44:21.000 --> 0:44:25.279 to continue, Yeah, changing it innovating, didn't the was it 0:44:25.320 --> 0:44:27.920 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that was investing in 0:44:28.000 --> 0:44:32.000 prizes for essentially I think that they were trying to 0:44:32.040 --> 0:44:36.359 create effective condoms that that we're just like better from 0:44:36.360 --> 0:44:39.239 a sensation point of view. Yeah, that was That was 0:44:39.280 --> 0:44:41.440 one of the facts brought up to us by Scott Benjamin, 0:44:41.480 --> 0:44:43.880 who helped us on the research for this show. He 0:44:43.920 --> 0:44:46.400 pointed out that this was in March of Bill and 0:44:46.440 --> 0:44:49.440 Millindi Gates Foundation issued a challenge the public develop econdom 0:44:49.480 --> 0:44:52.040 that was safe and effective while still preserving pleasure for 0:44:52.080 --> 0:44:55.400 the user. Uh. Twenty two grants were awarded to organizations 0:44:55.400 --> 0:44:58.279 claiming to have the next generation of condoms. Um. You know, 0:44:58.320 --> 0:45:01.240 so of talking about using things like graphene and nano 0:45:01.320 --> 0:45:05.040 fabric and hydro gel, etcetera. Which is which does bring 0:45:05.080 --> 0:45:07.560 to mind the idea of someone creating like the stealth 0:45:07.600 --> 0:45:10.560 bomber of condoms that is perhaps maybe not at all 0:45:10.880 --> 0:45:13.759 you know, practical at this point, but you know, hey, 0:45:13.840 --> 0:45:18.520 could lead to just improved material usage in the future. Yeah. Well, 0:45:18.560 --> 0:45:21.680 but also making them more and more appealing to the 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:25.280 user makes makes it likely that they will be used 0:45:25.320 --> 0:45:28.640 more often in a greater percentage of cases. Yeah, exactly. 0:45:29.040 --> 0:45:32.760 And yes, Scott actually included a list of like various 0:45:32.920 --> 0:45:37.520 um uh possible future condoms that are in development, things 0:45:37.600 --> 0:45:41.880 like spray on condoms or the galactic cap, which Scott 0:45:41.960 --> 0:45:46.360 just tells us looks complicated. Um, things like the consent condom, 0:45:46.360 --> 0:45:49.560 which requires four hands to open um. Yeah, so there 0:45:49.560 --> 0:45:52.560 are a lot of different initiatives out there, both technological 0:45:52.719 --> 0:45:56.279 and again uh, you know, messaging initiatives to uh to 0:45:56.600 --> 0:45:59.400 to let everyone know you know about the benefits of 0:45:59.400 --> 0:46:02.920 condom use. All right, So there you have it. Um, 0:46:03.239 --> 0:46:05.399 I'm trying to remember if we've done any any other 0:46:05.440 --> 0:46:08.480 like health related invention episodes. So we did the X 0:46:08.560 --> 0:46:11.759 ray X ray and we did that's the main one 0:46:11.800 --> 0:46:14.759 I'm remembering. Okay, well, I guess the call out to 0:46:14.840 --> 0:46:18.160 listeners a toothpaste toothpaste. Yes, So yeah, we would like 0:46:18.200 --> 0:46:20.000 to continue to you know, just sort of hit these 0:46:20.000 --> 0:46:23.280 different classifications of invention. So if there's another health related 0:46:23.800 --> 0:46:25.839 invention you would like to hear us cover on the show, 0:46:26.000 --> 0:46:28.680 or if there's some angle in this episode that you 0:46:28.719 --> 0:46:32.880 feel like we could explore in another episode, let us know, like, 0:46:33.040 --> 0:46:36.480 for instance, rubber as we discuss um, let us know, 0:46:36.560 --> 0:46:40.440 we'd love to explore those topics. And in the meantime, 0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:42.320 if you want to check out other episodes of Invention, 0:46:42.360 --> 0:46:44.640 head on over to invention pod dot com. That's where 0:46:44.680 --> 0:46:46.759 you'll find them. And if you want to support the show, 0:46:47.360 --> 0:46:49.360 here's what you can do. First of all, tell some 0:46:49.400 --> 0:46:52.040 friends about us, spread the good word, uh, and in 0:46:52.080 --> 0:46:55.000 spreading the good word. If you have the ability to 0:46:55.120 --> 0:46:58.520 leave some stars or a few nice comments at wherever 0:46:58.560 --> 0:47:01.160 you get this podcast, do that because that really helps 0:47:01.239 --> 0:47:03.560 us out, helps it helps uh, you know, the almighty 0:47:03.600 --> 0:47:08.000 algorithms that rule our our lives. Huge thanks as always 0:47:08.040 --> 0:47:11.800 to our audio producer Tori Harrison and our guest producer today, 0:47:11.880 --> 0:47:14.799 Maya Cole UH. If you would like to get in 0:47:14.880 --> 0:47:17.239 touch with us directly to let us know feedback on 0:47:17.320 --> 0:47:20.600 this on today's episode, to suggest topic for the future, 0:47:20.719 --> 0:47:23.200 to say hello suggested guest any of that, you can 0:47:23.239 --> 0:47:32.600 email us at contact at invention pod dot com. Invention 0:47:32.719 --> 0:47:35.440 is production of I Heart Radio. 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