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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stump Mom? Never told

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Speaker 1: you from house Stop works dot com. Hey there, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. Is this Kristen Mrs Molly? So Molly,

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Speaker 1: today we are talking about circumcision. Yes, and um. You

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Speaker 1: know another episode we did what is the lipstick index

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Speaker 1: or the lipstick indicators that's sometimes called UM, which is

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Speaker 1: basically and we've talked about this in multiple episodes now,

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Speaker 1: but for those of you who haven't heard about it,

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Speaker 1: it's UM this idea that lipstick sales are correlated to

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Speaker 1: the economy. Basically, when the economy goes down, lipstick sales

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Speaker 1: go up because women buy it as a small luxury.

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Speaker 1: So with our circumcision research, Molly, I've come up something

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Speaker 1: new that I think economist seem to pay attention to.

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Speaker 1: That's called the circumcision index. Yes, Chris has already looked

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Speaker 1: into trademarking this term, patenting it so that if anyone

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Speaker 1: else says circumcision index, they have to pay her. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: pay up people, Um. Because the reason why I came

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Speaker 1: up with a circumcision index, aside from my innate brilliance

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Speaker 1: is because circumcisions are actually down in the down economy,

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Speaker 1: because it's an extra few hundred dollars on top of

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Speaker 1: the medical bills for having a little baby boy. So Ever,

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Speaker 1: since um insurance companies started cutting off payments for circumcisions,

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Speaker 1: they've seen a drop in the number of boys getting

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Speaker 1: their foreskin removed. Right, and in the states where it's

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Speaker 1: still a covered procedure they're having um there's the rates

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Speaker 1: of circumcision are still high. Basically, so that the thinking

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Speaker 1: goes that without health insurance, circumcisions, circumcisions drop. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: this is um. This comes from a story in Newsweek

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Speaker 1: from April two thousand nine, and there was a report

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Speaker 1: by researchers at u c l A that said that

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Speaker 1: the circumcision right in states offering coverage was on average

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Speaker 1: higher than states that don't. So, uh, the economy might

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Speaker 1: be influencing men's foreskins. Now, perhaps at this point you're thinking, Hey,

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Speaker 1: it's mom's stuff. Why are they're talking about circumcisions because

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Speaker 1: we're all about periods here, But you know, we heard

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Speaker 1: all about women's periods. We want to hear about men's penises.

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Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, foreskins effect us. All. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I mean, let's say your new mother, you've got to

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Speaker 1: make this decision. You've got three bucks at your disposal

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Speaker 1: to have the circumcision or do you do you skip that? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: And if you're a guy, you know it's part of

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Speaker 1: your anatomy, so obvious. Yeah. And I've talked about and

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Speaker 1: if you're a girl encountering that part of the anatomy

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Speaker 1: for the first time, you might be thrown. Yeah, what's

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Speaker 1: that like? Let's talk about circumcision, Mollie. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: the wonderful world of the male foreskin, right, So let's

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Speaker 1: talk some anatomy first, Kristen. We've got the foreskin, which

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Speaker 1: is a portion of skin on the penis that covers

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Speaker 1: and text the tip of the penis, also known as

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Speaker 1: the glands, and the foreskin is basically a protective shield

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Speaker 1: for the flaccid penis. It protects it against Nixon cuts

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Speaker 1: and excess rubbage. Yes, as the writer of this article

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Speaker 1: house circumcision works. Tom She've put it. It's a tough

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Speaker 1: world out there for a flacc of penis because you've

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Speaker 1: got abrasion from undergarments, you've got cold weather and dry air.

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Speaker 1: Apparently a lot of things can hurt that sensitive organ. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it's a pretty significant part of male genitalia because

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Speaker 1: the foreskin can account for one third to nearly one

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Speaker 1: half of total penile skin. And uh, then on the

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Speaker 1: inside of the foreskin, uh, he describes it as similar

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Speaker 1: to the inside of your mouth because it helps keep uh,

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Speaker 1: the penis naturally lubricated. Yes, and it's also not dead skin.

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Speaker 1: It's got all these nerve bundles, blood cells. This will

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Speaker 1: be important later because our question today is our circumcision

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Speaker 1: is really necessary and some people say that those very

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Speaker 1: nerve bundles maybe the reason that it's not. And there

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Speaker 1: is a little piece of skin called the tissue I

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Speaker 1: should say called the frenulum, and that's what connects the

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Speaker 1: foreskin to the glands. And the frenulum will come more

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Speaker 1: into play when we talk about how a circumcision procedure

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Speaker 1: actually happens. Now, Kristen, just as all penises are different,

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Speaker 1: all four skins are different. Some men have foreskins that

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Speaker 1: just cover the entire glands, some only have partially covered. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there are different conditions that can be associated with

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Speaker 1: that because sometimes in the case of a man who

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Speaker 1: has pomosis, his foreskin is not going to fully retract

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Speaker 1: when his penis becomes erect, which can be really painful.

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Speaker 1: And then on the flip side of that, you can

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Speaker 1: have paraphimosis, in which the foreskin will retract but it

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Speaker 1: won't cover the penis back up once it has gone

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Speaker 1: to wrist. Yeah, so it causes a lot of swelling. Um.

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Speaker 1: There are also there's also balin postphitis. Is that right, Christen?

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Speaker 1: Sure sounds good. That's a swelling of the mucous surfaces

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Speaker 1: of the foreskin, which can If that happens a lot,

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Speaker 1: then you may need a circumcision. And there's also a

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Speaker 1: skin disease that affects that area called balonitis zerotica of

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Speaker 1: litterons perhaps I'm gonna call it b XO and um.

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Speaker 1: That can cause pain and it can also be linked

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Speaker 1: with fumosis. So there are a lot of medical reasons

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Speaker 1: why you might not want your foreskin around. And on

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Speaker 1: top of that, since we've got all this lubrication going

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Speaker 1: on on the underside of the foreskin, uh and bacteria

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Speaker 1: that can get caught up in their men need to

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Speaker 1: keep that area clean earls, they're going to have a

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Speaker 1: build up of something called smegma, which is a cheesy

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Speaker 1: discharge which doesn't sound very pleasant. So if you do

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Speaker 1: have your foreskin, you've got to clean it, basically, is

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Speaker 1: the point, because no one wants any smegma hanging around,

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Speaker 1: and that can lead to infections. You can get a

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Speaker 1: urinary tract infection. It does not sound. Does not sound

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Speaker 1: plus that which I think you know. These are just

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Speaker 1: a few of the reasons. We're gonna get into all

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Speaker 1: of them later. Why people thought, hey, let's just get

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Speaker 1: rid of this problem. Let's get rid of foreskin. Let's

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Speaker 1: do a circumcision. So let's talk about how you actually

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Speaker 1: get rid of the skin. Yes, let's go two into

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Speaker 1: the hospital room with that little little infant boy and

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Speaker 1: find out what doctors do. There's either they either use

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Speaker 1: a clamp or something called a plasta bell device to

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Speaker 1: get rid of that foreskin. So here's how you use

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Speaker 1: a clamp. You separate, You separate the foreskin out and

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Speaker 1: then protect the rest of the penis. And then, as

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Speaker 1: the writer of this article puts it, you crush or

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Speaker 1: cut a ring of skin from the penis. And so

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Speaker 1: it happens really fast. And if you use that other device,

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Speaker 1: a plasta bill, it just kind of like you stay.

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Speaker 1: It stays in there, and then um, the skin just

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Speaker 1: falls off. It clings onto it for a while. Um. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you are an adult male and you decide to

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Speaker 1: get circumcised, things are a little bit different. It's a

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Speaker 1: little more involved of a procedure where they actually have

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Speaker 1: to snip off manually cut off the foreskin. Yes. On

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Speaker 1: the on the one hand, it's probably positive to know

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Speaker 1: you're not gonna have a clamp involved. On the other hand,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have some scissors involved. Yes, I take your poison. Man.

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Speaker 1: So what they do is, um, they make a slit

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Speaker 1: in the foreskin and cut it away basically, and then

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Speaker 1: they make a stitch to hold it in place. And

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Speaker 1: it takes about thirty minutes. Now, and both procedures, both

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Speaker 1: for a child and for an adult, you're probably gonna

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Speaker 1: have some local anesthetic, little anesthesia. You're not gonna be under.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna be you know, it's gonna be awake, yeah,

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Speaker 1: for that, and it's gonna take some healing. Even for

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Speaker 1: for the child. I think the healing process is a

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Speaker 1: little shorter. But you know, for men. Obviously there's not

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Speaker 1: gonna be any sort of intercourse or anything like that

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Speaker 1: involved for the next little while. And you know, I

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Speaker 1: mean it's sensitive area, so it's not gonna be entirely painless. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie Kristen. When I read how the

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Speaker 1: actual procedure worked, even though its medical procedure, I was

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Speaker 1: just like, why would anyone do this? It seems it

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Speaker 1: seems like a bad thing. So let's talk about historically

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Speaker 1: why people have chosen to cut away the foreskin. Well,

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Speaker 1: people have been circumcising penises for quite a while. There's

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Speaker 1: a rich history of male circumcision, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: times we think of it as going back to the

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Speaker 1: story of Abraham and the Bible where he makes a

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Speaker 1: covenant with God to protect the Jewish people. Um. And

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Speaker 1: you know, he goes ahead and circumcises himself if I'm

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Speaker 1: not mistaken, on the age of ninety nine. At the

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Speaker 1: age of ninety nine and then beyond that, um, he

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Speaker 1: was directed to circumcise mail males by the eighth day

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Speaker 1: of life. And if not uncircumcised men would have to

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Speaker 1: be cast away from the Jewish tribe. So he circumcises

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Speaker 1: his sons, and this sets this president that now about

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Speaker 1: of American Jews are circumcised, and of course goes through

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Speaker 1: and circumcises his son Ishmael. But um he gets cast

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Speaker 1: out and he becomes the forefather of the modern day

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Speaker 1: Arab people. And so he passes down that tradition to

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Speaker 1: his ancestors, which include the prophet Mohammed. Yeah, and since

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Speaker 1: Mohammed there, well, there's nothing in the Koran that's explicitly

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Speaker 1: says you must circumcise your male children. But since Mohammed

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Speaker 1: was known to have had a circumcised penis, a majority

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Speaker 1: of Muslims um will circumcise their sons. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: according to the World Health Organization, almost two out of

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Speaker 1: every three circumcised men on the planet are Muslim. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Fun fact. Now, Muslims will differ when they actually do

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Speaker 1: the procedure. Some will do it when the baby is

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Speaker 1: an infant, like the Jewish people do, or they'll wait

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Speaker 1: till it can be more of like a rite of passage. Um. Now,

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Speaker 1: it's not so much a big deal. In Christianity, no one,

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Speaker 1: most Christian sex don't endorse the procedure. You kind of

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Speaker 1: do your own research and um. Other religions such as

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Speaker 1: Buddhism and Hinduism, they don't have a stance on it either.

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Speaker 1: But the thing is it did not start just with

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Speaker 1: Abraham and the Jewish people, because if you go back

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Speaker 1: and look at historical documents, the ancient Egyptians probably passed

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Speaker 1: the practice onto the Jews and they were practicing this

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Speaker 1: thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Yes, I

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Speaker 1: was reading about priests who would have like this golden thumbnail,

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Speaker 1: and that's how they would just like sort of press

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Speaker 1: off the foreskin was this big thumbnail. But so even

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Speaker 1: though we think of it as this ancient biblical directive,

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Speaker 1: it was probably practiced before then. There's evidence that Minds

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Speaker 1: and Aztecs did this. Um. It's it's in ancient history

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Speaker 1: going all the way back. Well, it's also interesting because,

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Speaker 1: like you mentioned, Minds and Aztecs also practiced this, but

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Speaker 1: it also um happens uh in native parts of Australia, Africa, Asia.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty global. It's pretty clow will except in a

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Speaker 1: few places. It looked like Europe and South America are

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Speaker 1: not really on the circumcision train. Yeah, so, ladies, if

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Speaker 1: you're traveling now, circumcision for medical purposes for those health

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Speaker 1: reasons that you and I touched on briefly really come

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Speaker 1: into vogue in the nineteenth century, when doctors begin treating

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Speaker 1: adult famosis. But one little fun fact too, is that

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Speaker 1: during the Victorian era, doctors became fans of circumcising men

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Speaker 1: to treat as a therapeutic treatment for masturbation because they

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Speaker 1: thought that masturbation led to insanity, and since the foreskin

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Speaker 1: is basically like a nice little lubricated sock, that can

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Speaker 1: make it easier to do. According to some sources, obviously

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Speaker 1: I'm not a primary source on that um, they thought

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Speaker 1: that by circumcising and then it would make them less

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Speaker 1: likely to masturbate and then less likely to become insane. Yes,

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Speaker 1: as the article put it, it was a source of mischief. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and we need to nip that right in the bud

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Speaker 1: with a little snip SNeW. You gotta love Victorian era

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Speaker 1: medical practices, you really do. Yeah, you can't fault them

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Speaker 1: at all. They were creative. So that's when the number

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Speaker 1: of circumcisions really begins to spike, when it becomes sort

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Speaker 1: of like the default thing to do, even if you're

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Speaker 1: not religious. About your reasons for circumcising. They do at

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Speaker 1: this point, bringing anesthesia into which I think was a

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Speaker 1: great directive. Um And and you know, the sad thing

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Speaker 1: is that it was used as sort of a thing

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Speaker 1: that you could do for all sorts of ailments, everything

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Speaker 1: from impotence to homosexuality. They thought, cut off the foreskin,

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Speaker 1: everything will be better. Yeah, yikes, But Molly, in recent years,

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Speaker 1: the rate of circumcision has actually dropped in the U. S.

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Speaker 1: And it does I think has something to do with

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Speaker 1: the circumcision index that I mentioned earlier, that extra two

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Speaker 1: or three hundred dollars that will be tacked onto the

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Speaker 1: tub that parents have to pay if they want to

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Speaker 1: have their child circumcised. But um in two thousand five,

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Speaker 1: the percentage of circumcised boys dropped from sixty five percent

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Speaker 1: of male infants to only fifty six percent, which I

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Speaker 1: was surprised at. I was more surprised about where the

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Speaker 1: breakdowns occur. Did you know that three out of four

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Speaker 1: Midwestern babies are circumcised, Well, only slightly more than half

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Speaker 1: of all Southern babies are circumcised. Yeah, but then in

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Speaker 1: the West, very little circumcision. Only about of infants are circumcised,

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Speaker 1: and the group that probably is least likely to circumcised

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Speaker 1: are Hispanics. But another fun fact there we go. It's

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Speaker 1: I when once I read this article, I started walking

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Speaker 1: around just look at people trying to guess, is that wrong?

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Speaker 1: I don't know. It's odd, but not wrong, Molly. Okay.

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Speaker 1: So the next question, Molly, that we have to address

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Speaker 1: in this circumcision discussion is whether or not there are

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Speaker 1: any health benefits associated with removing the foreskin. Because we

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Speaker 1: have all of these religious traditions, these cultural traditions, But

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Speaker 1: is there really any medical point in putting that placid

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Speaker 1: bell clamp on that little baby penis and make and

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Speaker 1: the fores can fall off a few days later. As

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Speaker 1: I mentioned, they avoid all those problems of pomosis of

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Speaker 1: an unclean penis, of this magma. And you've probably heard

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Speaker 1: about how in Africa they're making circumcision a huge part

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Speaker 1: of their campaign to lower HIV rates. Yes, they have

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Speaker 1: found that circumcised, circumcising men can lower the rate of

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Speaker 1: female to male HIV transmission. And this year the Bill

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Speaker 1: and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just donated fifty million

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Speaker 1: dollars um for I think it's up to six fifty

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Speaker 1: thousand male circumcisions in Africa to hopefully lower the rate

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Speaker 1: of HIV transmission. And the thinking behind this is that

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Speaker 1: the cells in the foreskin are particularly susceptible to binding

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Speaker 1: with HIV. Yeah, these are called langer Hans cells, and

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Speaker 1: they are present in the foreskin, and there are sentinel

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Speaker 1: cells that are supposed to detect anti or antigens which

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Speaker 1: are bad things coming into your body and then alert

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Speaker 1: the immune system to fight it off. But the problem

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Speaker 1: is they attached to UH these HIV cells and obviously

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Speaker 1: the immune system can't fight them off. And since the

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Speaker 1: foreskin is so sensitive to ripping and tearing UH, it

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Speaker 1: makes them a lot more susceptible to getting those HIV

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Speaker 1: cells um in the body and binding too those langer

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Speaker 1: Han cells, and then HIV spreads throughout the body. Right,

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Speaker 1: so it will cut down the rate. As Kristen said,

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Speaker 1: a female to mail transition transmission. It has no effect

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Speaker 1: on mail to female transmission or on mail to mail transmission.

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Speaker 1: So some critics will um be against this practice, mainly

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Speaker 1: because isn't it better to educate them about things like condoms?

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Speaker 1: You know, once you circumcise the guys, you're going to

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Speaker 1: go out and just think that he's immune from this. UM.

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Speaker 1: So it's it's somewhat controversial, by the studies that they've

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Speaker 1: done it with have been like really effective, right um

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Speaker 1: and one studying from two thousand five in South Africa, UM,

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Speaker 1: they found a sixty three decrease in HIV transmission for circumcisement.

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Speaker 1: In a you gand and study, there was a forty

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Speaker 1: eight percent reduction in AIDS infection UM and then in

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Speaker 1: Kenya they had a fifty reduction. And because they had

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Speaker 1: such staggering results, they actually ended the study prematurely because

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Speaker 1: it was basically unfair to the uncircumcised control group because, uh,

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Speaker 1: the circumcision was so effective against HIV transmission and it's

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Speaker 1: not just UM you know HIV in Africa. Also, uncircumcised

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Speaker 1: men are about twice as likely to be infected with

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Speaker 1: u HPV and they're also more risk for chlamydia and syphilis.

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Speaker 1: But then the people who are anti circumcision will say, hey,

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Speaker 1: just use a condom. Same diff Yeah, you just need

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Speaker 1: to practice good hygiene, keep the foreskin clean, keep the

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Speaker 1: bacteria out, put on a condom, and you're gonna lower

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Speaker 1: your rates of HIV and STD transmission anyway. Right, So

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Speaker 1: let's go through a few of the reasons why you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't circumcise the boy besides those. First of all, Molly,

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Speaker 1: and this is something we talked about a lot on

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Speaker 1: Mom Steff. Choice. Yes, if you circumcise the baby boy,

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Speaker 1: what choice does he have in the matter. Um, would

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Speaker 1: he make the same decision to cut off part of

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Speaker 1: his penis when he was twelve, twenty thirty? Um? And then,

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Speaker 1: like I said, there are all those nerve bundles, So

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Speaker 1: some people think that an uncircumcised mail has a little

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Speaker 1: bit more fun when it comes to sex. Yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: the nerve bundles and that natural lubrication from the foreskin,

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Speaker 1: so they could be missing out on more sexual pleasure.

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Speaker 1: And it also has a lot to do with whether

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Speaker 1: the father is circumcised or not. There's a study from

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Speaker 1: the World Health Organization that found that nine outton men

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Speaker 1: who are circumcised will have their son's circumcised as well,

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Speaker 1: and of uncircumcised men will have their sons stay natural. Right,

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Speaker 1: And you know, while we talked about some of the

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Speaker 1: health problems that you could face if you know you

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Speaker 1: never have. My most instident is an unnecessary procedure. What

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Speaker 1: else would you put in baby and baby under the

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Speaker 1: knife for that was unnecessary? And they think that it

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Speaker 1: could have psychological repercussions down the road of that childhood

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Speaker 1: trauma of pain and suffering. Yeah, it's a compelling argument,

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Speaker 1: it is. And you know, one thing, a topic that

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Speaker 1: Chris and I will cover at some point on mom

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Speaker 1: stuff is female genital mutilation where they cut out you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, it depends how much they'll cut out, but

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Speaker 1: sometimes they'll cut out all of a woman's reproductive system.

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Speaker 1: And obviously that is wrong. And so they're saying that

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Speaker 1: if you think that's wrong, then this is sort of

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Speaker 1: the equivalent for a male is a circumcision. Now, I

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Speaker 1: was reading one article that said a female general mutilation

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Speaker 1: is more like cutting off half the penis for a guy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's so it's the way all pleasure for a woman.

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Speaker 1: It's not like once you cut off the foreskinn, a

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Speaker 1: man can't become a rouse. Yea. So it's it's not

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Speaker 1: necessarily a one to one argument, but I do think

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Speaker 1: that that's interesting to think about. Is there's we really

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Speaker 1: would frown upon just putting a girl under the knife

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Speaker 1: for the same reason. But like you said, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: save female genital mutilation for another podcast um at a

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Speaker 1: different time. But let's say, Molly, Um, a baby boy

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Speaker 1: was circumcised and he grows up and he's really not

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Speaker 1: happy about the fact that he does not have his

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Speaker 1: for skin feels a little incomplete. For skin back, what

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Speaker 1: can you do? There are a few options. There are

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Speaker 1: non surgical means, which means you stretch what you've got left. Um.

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Speaker 1: It involves using weights, straps, and manual stretching. So I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it sounds exactly fun. I've never I've

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Speaker 1: never talked to anyone who has done this, but that's

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Speaker 1: one option to try and just get it to come

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Speaker 1: back up and cover a little bit more. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: there's this other method that involves inflating tiny balloons under

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Speaker 1: the penile skin to prompt new skin cell growth, which

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Speaker 1: will results which will result in permanent skin gain. I

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Speaker 1: don't really understand exactly how that happens with the tiny balloons.

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Speaker 1: But as a non surgical option, there are surgical options.

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Speaker 1: If you want plastic surgery on the penis, that is

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Speaker 1: an option they will take skin from another part of

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Speaker 1: the body and graft it onto the remaining for skin.

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Speaker 1: They do say in this article that the one drawback

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Speaker 1: is that the skin might be different colors and graft

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Speaker 1: so be sort of like a I would like to

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Speaker 1: think of it as a rainboat for skin. That makes

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Speaker 1: it sound a little nicer than actually how the article

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Speaker 1: puts it. But I I probably shouldn't make jokes about foreskin,

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Speaker 1: but you know, Molly, our listeners can make jokes about

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Speaker 1: foreskin if they'd like. If you guys have any opinions

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Speaker 1: about circumcision, whether or not you think that it is

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Speaker 1: necessary or is not necessary, and then we definitely want

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Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts on circumcision because, like I said,

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Speaker 1: me and Molly are only secondary sources on this. We

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Speaker 1: we cannot personally relate, so we would like to hear

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Speaker 1: your thoughts. Um please email us with your foreskin jokes

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Speaker 1: or other and more elevated conversation at mom stuff at

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Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com. And in the meantime, let's read

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Speaker 1: some listener mail. All right, I'm gonna kick off a

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Speaker 1: list of mail today with an email from Russell, who

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Speaker 1: wrote about our episode on whether women's magazines do more

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Speaker 1: harm than good. And I have to say, Krista, whenever

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Speaker 1: a guy wrote in on women's magazines, they always gave

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Speaker 1: them the big thumb down. Thumbs down they liked that

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Speaker 1: Ben's magazines had the horribly embarrassing stories. But here's what

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Speaker 1: Russell writes. As for the sexual tips, more often than

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Speaker 1: not their way off base. And the best advice either

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Speaker 1: member of a couple when it comes to sex is

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Speaker 1: to communicate with your partner. But that is only one

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Speaker 1: line of text, and it would be tough to sell

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Speaker 1: a subscription based on that alone, even though that might

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Speaker 1: be the only thing a couple really needs. Perhaps these

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Speaker 1: magazines should rely less on the idea that each new

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Speaker 1: episode will unlock secrets that your guy is just too

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Speaker 1: embarrassed to bring up himself. Perhaps they should dedicate their

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Speaker 1: sexual sections two ideas and things to do an experiment

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Speaker 1: with with your partner. And as for the idea of

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Speaker 1: them damaging the youth, I think it lies more with

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Speaker 1: how the child is raised. If a young girl sees

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Speaker 1: her mother treated Cosmo like a Bible, she will likely

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Speaker 1: do the same. But if her mother says it's just

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Speaker 1: trash your fluff with little or no real value, much

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Speaker 1: like a new grocery store romance novel. She will hopefully

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Speaker 1: take on that same attitude. All right, Um, I've got

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Speaker 1: an email from Jackie and this is in reference to

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Speaker 1: our hair podcast. Says, Hello, Molly and Kristen. I've had long,

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Speaker 1: and I mean long hair my entire life. It was

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Speaker 1: ridiculously long as it went to my button. Sure, I've

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Speaker 1: known people was longer hair than that, but that was

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Speaker 1: the style that I maintained. I thought it was pretty

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Speaker 1: happy with my hair for the most part, but recently

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Speaker 1: my life had been feeling a little way down. I

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Speaker 1: felt as though there was something that wasn't right, so

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Speaker 1: she decided to cut her hair. Initially, I went to

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Speaker 1: the shoulder and donated all of my hair to Locks

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Speaker 1: of Love, and I adored my new hair, but a

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Speaker 1: lot of friends were very upset about it. None of

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Speaker 1: them knew me any other way, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: them acted as though I betrayed them and cutting off

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Speaker 1: the hair. They got over it, and once they did,

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Speaker 1: I went for a boy cut, not bothering to warn

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Speaker 1: them this time. I've got nothing but compliments since then.

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Speaker 1: People say I look more mature unless princessy, which is

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Speaker 1: the word used to describe me in the past, more

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Speaker 1: energetic and just all around more awesome, and most importantly,

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Speaker 1: I no longer feel way down. I love my hair,

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Speaker 1: and so does my boyfriend, not that his opinion would

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Speaker 1: have changed my mind in this case. After twenty one years,

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Speaker 1: I finally have a haircut I actually like, and not

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Speaker 1: one I was maintaining for everyone around me. It's short,

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Speaker 1: easy to take care of, it looks cute on me,

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Speaker 1: and I don't have to schedule my life around my hair.

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Speaker 1: I say foodie on people who shunned short hair on women.

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Speaker 1: It's made a better woman out of me. Sounds good.

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00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: Shall I read one more? Yes? Please? This is from Amy,

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00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 1: and her subject line caught my eye. It was nerdy

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00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,720
Speaker 1: blonde has something to say about hair, She writes, I

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00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:42,679
Speaker 1: just finished listening to your podcast on hair and I

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00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: wanted to write you about this. Blonds have more fun stereotype.

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00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:47,879
Speaker 1: First of all, I was a very nerdy piano and

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00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 1: clarinet playing book reading completely unpopular library rat as a

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00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: child and teenager. It really didn't seem to make a

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00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:55,679
Speaker 1: difference that I had blonde hair at the time. My

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00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:57,679
Speaker 1: teachers and peers always seemed to respect me, and they

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00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: didn't seem to expect me to act like a blonde, mostly,

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00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:02,440
Speaker 1: I believe because everyone had known me for a long time.

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00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: This changed, however, and really adversely affected me. In college

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00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,720
Speaker 1: and especially in graduate school. All of the successful and

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00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: smart brunettes made snide comments about my hair, while my

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00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 1: male professors either dismissed me as stupid or asked me

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00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: out on dates. In fact, eight different professors asked me

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00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:19,359
Speaker 1: out over the course of four years in college and

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00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: graduate school. I was told by my advisors that my

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00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:23,399
Speaker 1: students would like me more if I was more like

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00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: a cheerleader. How was I supposed to cheerlead my students

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00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 1: to the history of Western music? Is beyond me? Give

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00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: me a B, A C H. I don't think so.

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00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 1: I might add that the men in my program could

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00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 1: be boring and dull, and no one ever thought twice.

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00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: When I meet new people, they seem to expect a fun, loving,

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00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,440
Speaker 1: not too serious, cheerleading blonde girl, and when they get

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00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: a dorky, serious, slightly sarcastic music historian either makes them

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00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:47,120
Speaker 1: really angry or at least throws them for a loop.

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00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:49,200
Speaker 1: My hair always seems to come up as a topic

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00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: of conversation, Kristin Amalie, will you please tell your listeners

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00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:54,560
Speaker 1: that women with blonde hair can be just as serious

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00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,919
Speaker 1: and successful as you brunettes. You heard it. There you go.

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00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: It's um And if you guys want to write us again,

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00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,000
Speaker 1: please feel free to Molly and I love listener mail.

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00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 1: Our email is mom Stuff at how stuff works dot

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00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 1: com and during the week you can check out our

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00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:13,640
Speaker 1: blog called how to stuff, where we talk about how

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