WEBVTT - How Soap Works 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.800 Hello friends, we have a book coming out finally and 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:09.240 it is awesome. You're gonna make me say the title again. Yeah, fine, 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.039 it's Stuff you Should Know colon An Incomplete Compendium of 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.760 mostly Interesting Things. And get this chuck. You don't have 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.119 to wait to order until the book comes out. You 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.600 can do what we in the book biz called pre 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.560 ordering it, and then when it does come out, you'll 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.280 be the first to get, or among the first. Well, 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.400 and not only that, you get a pre order gift. 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.800 You get this cool custom poster from the illustrator of 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.080 the book, Carli Manardo, who is awesome. 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So 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.680 anywhere you can buy books, you can go pre order 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.519 the Stuff you Should Know colon An Incomplete Compendium of 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.279 mostly Interesting Things, and then after you do you can 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.680 go on over to stuff you Should Read books dot 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.880 com and upload your receipt and get that order poster. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.200 So thank you in advance for everybody who is pre ordering. 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.160 That means quite a bit to us and we appreciate you. 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.440 Stuff you should read books dot Com pre order Now, 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.160 welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:23.560 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.400 I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck, Brian over there, 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.080 and Jerry flitted in and out like a little COVID 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.040 ferry and uh, this is this is stuff you should know. 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.200 I don't think you want the COVID ferry to visit. Uh, 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:43.080 how about the COVID safety Faery. You want the soap ferry? Yeah, 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.679 because the soap faery can take on the COVID ferry 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:52.160 and smack that bword down. Yeah. And more specifically, it 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.720 can pry it open and say, spill out your guts, yeah, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.920 correct virus. It's pretty amazing what it does. I mean, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:05.760 like soap just just from like just this research. I'm 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.320 just fascinated with it. It's a magical potion. And I 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.919 think the fact that like we have no real clue 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.440 how we figured out how to make soap is just 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.160 makes the whole thing even that much more delightful. Yeah, 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.680 and knowing how it actually works is really neat. And 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.000 hopefully this convinces some people that it does work better 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.880 than hand sanitizer. Yeah, rather than just running your your 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.480 hands under some water for half of a second then 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:34.320 wiping them on your shirt. Yeah. So um, and we 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.200 are talking about soap and I want to choke. Before 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.000 we started, want to give a special shout out to 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:43.720 Dr Brauner's because they are soap makers and they also requested, 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:50.320 um this this episode years ago. Yeah, they rode in 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.239 and said, hey, here's some free samples. How about an 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.720 episode on soap? And we said, okay, we can't be 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.400 bought with free samples, but an episode of soap is 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.880 a good idea. So finally we're getting around to it. Yeah, 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:06.400 and we had their uh big Jumbo daddy uh liquid 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.480 casteel soaps by our sink here at work. Remember we 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.480 had that that Casteel soap fight, the Great cast Steel 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:19.880 Soap Fight of of of the Odds. Yeah, twelve. No, 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:21.840 they're stuck good. And you know, if it wasn't for 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.120 the fact that my wife makes soap, then I would 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.680 I would be firmly on the Dr Brauner strain. I 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:33.160 like their stuff. I feel like you can do both. Now. No, okay, 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.200 Emily wouldn't allow that she's like you, it's never me. Well, 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.440 I mean how about this. Tell you mean to open 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.520 a business for twenty years and then say, I feel 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.480 like I might like to use your competitors some as well. Okay, 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.320 all right, all right, but I'll bet the people that 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:53.160 Dr Brauner's use Emily soap. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.680 let's find out. Maybe they can write in so um so. Yes, 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.680 Emily does make soap too. She sells it at I 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.040 Love your Mama dot Com, don't she? Yeah? I mean 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.440 I haven't had to buy soapen and fifteen plus years, 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.200 it's been great. Do you help out making the soap 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.720 I did in the early days. I've made quite a 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.520 few batches in my day, but just not anymore. What's 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.400 your specialty? Uh? Well, I mean I didn't have a specialty. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.000 I would just make whatever she told me to make. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.920 I got. It's funny, I've got I have to make 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:26.560 genitals soap again. God, And that's not so for the genitals. 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.599 It's soap in the shape of genitals and also for 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.080 the genitals. Sure, I guess you probably shouldn't really make 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.120 a distinction there. So, like we said, soap is kind 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:38.920 of magic. Chuck and I feel like we just kind 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.799 of off the bat talk about, um, why it's magic, 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.600 because it's one of those things where science can explain it. 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.279 But that doesn't really make it any less impressive, you know. 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.400 Actually it makes it kind of more impressive, to tell 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:55.000 you the truth. Yeah, and you know, what soap is 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.040 is just a couple of things. Like if you were 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.440 to go back a long time and we'll talk about 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.679 the history, or go out in the middle of the 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.800 furthest reaches of oh, I don't know, the jungle where 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.960 people are sort of making their own versions of soap. 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.440 You really just need a couple of things, which is 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.680 some sort of a fat or an oil and an 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.200 alkali and uh, that's really it. You know, people can 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.440 use a lot of people through history have used animal 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.560 fats and stuff like that. Obviously, Fight Club had the 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:29.280 big joke about using lard from liposuction large I think, right, 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.840 so that's fat too. But um, you know, Emily's is 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.840 an olive oil based oapen. I'm a big fan of that. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.400 they figured out finally you could you didn't need to 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:45.040 sacrifice goats anymore. You could just use s right. Yeah, 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.680 the same ceremony it's just dinkier, that's right. So, Um, yeah, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:51.359 that's I mean, that's all there is two and an 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.239 alkali in this case, Um, it's a well. An alkali 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.800 in every case is a type of base. Um. It's 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.599 the opposite of an acid on the p H scale, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.279 has a high pH and usually traditionally when making soap, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.240 it comes in the form of lie and and lie 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.560 you can get by chopping down some wood, specifically hardwood 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.679 you don't want softwood, burning it, taking the ashes, boiling 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.599 them and then scraping off what floats to the top. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.480 You have lie right there, and that's one of the 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.679 two main ingredients along with fat, like you said, um, 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.200 and in making soap, that's it. That's all there is 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.640 just to soap, right. But it's so you would have 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.479 like you would never put those two things together that 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.520 it's almost like it makes more sense how we figured 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.360 out how to make alcohol, and it does how we 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.400 figured out how to make soap, you know what I mean. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.120 It's not very intuitive, No, it's not at all, But 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.360 that is what soap is. And we've been making it 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.720 for at least about forty hundred five thousand years as 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.640 we'll see. Um. But before we get to the history, Chuck, 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.080 let's talk a little bit about how the whole thing works. Okay, Yeah, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.880 So you know you've got water and that's a key 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.120 component to washing your body. And if you've ever heard 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.640 the term oil and water don't mix, that's true because 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.240 it's all about you know, it goes down to a 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:15.040 molecular level and water molecules they like each other a lot, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.640 but they don't like oil. They don't like fat because 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.480 the oil molecules are big and they don't have these 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.920 poles that have different electrical charges. And it really is 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.680 interesting that it comes down to literal chemistry in this case. Yeah. 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.120 Do you remember, I think in our pepper spray episode, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.320 we explained why if you rinse your face off with 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.280 water after you've been pepper sprayed, Um, it doesn't work. 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.360 It's because the water and the I think the cap 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.440 sasan don't bind together. But if you use something like milk, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.840 like a fat, that fat binds the cap sasan. So 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.800 that's why you'd want to use milk to wash your 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.640 eyes out after being pepper sprayed. Yeah, yeah, the end. 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.480 So um, there's a very similar thing going on with 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:00.800 water water, Like you said like to bind to itself, 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.120 and that binding chuck is what it counts for surface tension, 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.679 which is how you can fill a glass of water 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.240 up with water slightly over the rim of the glass 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.200 and it will hold its shape. It's because water molecules 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.720 are so attracted to each other that they form like 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:22.080 basically a well, a tense surface. Hence surface tension. So 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:26.160 when you add soap, things change. Soap comes along and says, 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.800 I see what you like, see what's going on here, 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.559 but I'm going to shake things up a little bit. Yeah, 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.679 And it's it's so cool because soap basically gets oil 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.400 and water to party together. Uh. Soap comes in. They 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:43.800 have these pin shaped uh ends and each end and 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:45.800 it's it's almost like it was meant to be this 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.839 way or something. They have very distinct ends and they 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.520 bind with the water on one side and the oil 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.600 on the other as if it was just made to say, 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.200 you guys need to get together and clean things. Yeah. 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.360 But not only do they like bind with the water 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:02.320 on one end and oil and the other end that 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:07.120 they have like polar opposite ends as a single soap 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.960 molecule does. So not only does like the end like 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:14.840 to bind with oil, which means it's oleophilic. It hates water, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:20.000 which makes it hydrophobic. And because that end is hydrophobic, 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.280 it does everything it can to get away from water, 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:29.080 including pushing through water and separating water into its constituent molecules, 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.880 which loosens that surface tension of water um, which makes 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.120 soap a surfactant, a surface active agent, which means that 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.000 it makes water a little more permeable, like water can 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.640 get into tinier cracks and crevices than it normally would 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:49.160 because that that um hydrophobic end of the soap molecule 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.240 is keeping the water from from coming together because it's 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.280 just plowing right through trying to get away from the water. Yeah, 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.760 that's the tail end. The head end of the soap 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.240 has a little bit of a negative charge, and that says, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.439 all right, I really want to bond with that positive 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.680 hydrogen atom and water. So that made makes it hydrophilic. 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.240 So that end loves water, the other end loves the oil, 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.719 and and and when they come together. And I love 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.320 the way Dave Verus put it. He said, Uh, the 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.920 hydrophilic head and the hydrophobic tail act like a team 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.280 of bouncers that's around the particles, uh, and say get 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:26.960 out of here. And I think the one thing we 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.040 didn't mention that makes us all work is the fact 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.000 that uh. And the reason why just rinsing your hands 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.559 off doesn't work as well as with soap is that 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:36.920 all those all the dirt and all that stuff that 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.240 builds up on your body has oil in it, right, right, 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.760 So so let's let's give an example here, Chuck. Let's 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.559 say that you have some cake frosting on your hands. 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.040 Don't ask, well, you just you know how you take 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.400 care of that. Yeah, but you've licked it so so 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.120 much so that now it's kind of getting gross, okay, 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.120 and you just need to You finally reached that point 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.439 where you need thought you're gonna suggest washing that off 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.400 of your hand, right, Okay, No, not that, No, that 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.840 we're past that stage, the licking stage, and we're at 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.520 the hand washing stage. Now. When you when you wet 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:09.679 your hands with water, you get it nice and primed. 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.240 Then when you add soap and you lather the soap up, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.360 what you're doing is you're you're introducing those soap molecules, 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.959 which are again special magic little molecules, into this You're 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.480 creating like a solution of soapy water solution, and so 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.920 those soap molecules are basically trying to get away from 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:32.160 the water on one side, and on that side they're saying, oh, hey, 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:36.560 a little bit of oily hydrogenated cake frosting, great, I 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.960 want to be attracted to you. And a bunch of 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.040 different soap molecules are going to do that to a 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.520 single little particle of cake frosting, and they essentially surround it. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.600 So the tail ends of a bunch of different soap 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:53.520 molecules are all pointing inward, enveloping basically a little particle 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.360 of cake frosting, and then on the outside they're connecting 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.760 to the water molecules that are surrounding that. So that's 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.360 basically stage one, and the cake frosting starts to sweat 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.280 a little bit. It's like, well, what's gonna come next? 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:08.960 What's coming next? I don't really like being surrounded like 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:13.600 this without knowing what's coming next. And the cake frosting 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:15.440 doesn't want to know what comes next because it doesn't 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.160 pan out well for it. Yeah, so it gets surrounded 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.400 and like you said, the tails are pointing in, the 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.480 heads are pointing out, and it surrounds and basically traps 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.720 the dirt and the oil and what are called my 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:34.040 cells am I C E L L E S. And 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.800 that's a little bubble around the dirt basically, and all 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.600 those little little outside pointing heads lift that dirt from 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.319 the surface and all of a sudden it's floating around 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.120 a little bit now and not not bound to your skin. 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.240 He's like, I don't know what's happening. And that's where 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.640 your good friend water comes in to just wash it 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.000 all down the drain. Yeah, Because so remember um, in 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:58.319 addition to being oleophilic where it's attracted to oils, it's 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.079 also a surfactan, so it breaks water molecules up, which 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.440 means that that water can get into smaller crevices, for example, 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.200 underneath that piece of cake frosting, So it makes it 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.040 easier for it to just get carried away too. So 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.319 it's all just kind of coming together into this amazing 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.600 little process that happens every time you wash your hands 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.560 and form those little mice seller bubbles. Um. That's where 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.439 all those particles go. They just get carried off thanks 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.560 to these soap molecules surrounding them, connecting with the water 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.360 molecules and then just getting rinsed away. It's kind of like, um, 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.360 you know that scene in True Lies where Jamie Lee 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:39.520 Curtis is hanging from the helicopter and Arnold Schwartzeneger is 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.439 holding onto her, and he's actually holding on the helicopter. 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.840 So Arnold Schwarzenegger is the soap molecule, Jamie Lee Curtis 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.640 is the cake frosting, and the helicopter is the water 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.040 that's rinsing it all away down the drain, that's right, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.680 and the dirt saying I'll be back, and the sub 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:00.679 saying no, you won't. Terrible the face of us retort 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:04.040 to I'll be back. And the coolest thing about all 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:05.600 of this, I mean, that's just how it takes care 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:07.560 of the dirt on your body, which is amazing in 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.120 and of itself. But it can do the same thing 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:14.920 with viruses and bacteria, especially well, not especially, but including 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.120 the coronavirus, because a lot of these things have this 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:23.000 double layered lipid membrane, including the coronavirus, and the deal 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.960 with that that hydrophobic into the soap. It's really really sharp, 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.880 and so it can actually you get a bunch of 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.400 those guys together, and it can wedge in between those 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.120 membranes and kind of if you get enough of them 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.960 pried up like it's a crowbar or something. And then 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.480 that's when the virus is all of a sudden, you know, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.360 like Arnold Schwarzenegger just taking care of business. Yeah, it 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.480 basically gets ripped apart by so many let's like death 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.360 by a thousand paper cuts. But instead of paper, it's 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.480 soap molecules, and the lipid memory that protects the virus 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.520 just gets torn right open. It fills the virus proteins out, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.160 and those virus proteins actually um get enveloped by even 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.240 more soap molecules. So not only does it like get 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:10.640 rid of microbes, it actually like kills certain kinds of microbes. 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:15.120 Just we're just talking about regular plain old soap and 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.120 water here, everybody. Yeah, and you know, not to get 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.880 to ahead of the game, But that's why soap is 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:24.160 better for washing your hands during well, at all times, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.840 but especially during a time like this, because I think 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:32.400 people just figure, like because we have this association with 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.880 like alcohol and that smell, like it just kills everything 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:38.400 on contact, but it doesn't kill everything on contact. And 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:40.800 if you're in a pinch and you don't have soap, 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.240 and you're at a store or something, and it's good 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.360 to have that stuff to use, but uh, it doesn't 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.240 necessarily kill it. And what you're not doing is washing 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:54.000 it off with water and down the drain. No you're not, 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.120 you're and so so there's two problems here. Um. Yes, 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.840 it killed a bunch of stuff, especially things that alcohol 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.440 and kill. But the stuff that it can't kill. You 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.000 just basically gave an alcohol bath too. And it's still 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.600 there on your hands. So when you do touch your 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.560 face again, inevitably, um, those things are going to be 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.880 introduced to your mouth, including things like poliovirus, which, as 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.200 we learned recently, you don't want to go into your mouth. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.240 Should we take a break, I think we should, and 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.440 then what we'll come back and talk history maybe, yeah, 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:52.360 let's do it. Okay, all right, chuck, so soap. Like 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.960 we said, we're not entirely sure how we ever figured 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.800 out how to make soap, um, but we do know 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:06.320 from records, hieroglyphics, cuneiform tablets, all that jazz that um. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:11.800 In Mesopotamia, people were making soap, you know, taking an 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:16.480 alkali and a fat, mixing them together, adding heat into 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:21.960 water and through hydrolysis, going through this process called supontification. Uh, 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.159 and producing soap. That's how you produce soap has to 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.560 have gone through supontification to be considered soap. Right that 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.880 we've been doing this, we humans for at least five 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.520 thousand years. Yeah, it's kind of cool. Uh. When I 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.560 was making batches of soap that I heard that word 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.640 a lot from Emily because I would you know, there's 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:42.399 a lot of mixing involved, and I would think I 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:44.480 was done with the mixing, and she say, it hasn't 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.280 supontified yet, And you know, it's just sort of an 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.959 easy test. You would lift the mixer out, kind of 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.440 sling a little bit of it on the surface, and 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.439 it's almost like seeing when a pasta noodles done. You 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.560 can just sort of tell by the way it's that, 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.760 the thicknesses and the way it sets, and when you 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.600 finally reach that suppontification point, you're you know, you're right 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.199 or rock. It's a great word, it is. I always 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.080 called it. I would always say that we're pulling into 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.760 suppontification station, which was my old joke. That's a good one. Um, 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.159 So suppontification actually, Chuck, I didn't realize that it was 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:23.119 from um uh legendary mythical mountain. Did you know that 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:28.120 Mount Sappo? Is that the Roman one? Yeah? Yeah, that's 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.800 the sort of the legend, and no one knows if 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.000 it's true, but it sounds it makes for a good story. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.400 From what I understand, it is definitely not true, okay, 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:37.960 but it does make for a good story, so we're 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.879 gonna tell it anyway. So, yeah, in ancient Rome there 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.879 was a Mount Sapo, and as the legend goes, that 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.680 is not true. Ancient priests would sacrifice animals up there, 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.239 and when it would rain, that animal fat from that 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:58.199 disgusting animal sacrifice ceremony would flow down along with the 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.840 wood ash that you already mentioned and was the Alkali 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.040 and go down there to the river, the Tiber river, 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:07.200 and people were washing their clothes down there, and when 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.960 that happened, they would be like, man, this stuff sudds 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.280 it up in. My clothes have never been cleaner. Yeah 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:18.760 that's not just plain clean, Yeah, that's Sappo clean. Right, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.040 So U we, from what I understand, there's just no 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.320 question that there is no such thing as Mount Sappo, 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:25.960 and that this is all just kind of a made 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:31.240 up the God I didn't know that that was fake. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.040 The Mount Sappo was fake. I just thought the legend 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.840 was fake. I didn't like, are there Romans? Are they fake? 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.720 I don't know. The jury is kind of still there 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.640 are today, but we're not sure where they came from. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:45.720 Um No, from what I From what I know, there's 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.439 not a real Mount Sapo. But the fact is the 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:52.240 Romans felt compelled for some reason to say, where'd this 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.960 come from? Oh well, let me explain with this made 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.200 up story. So um and by the time this Mount 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:01.720 Sappo a legend came around. I mean, people have been 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.000 making this stuff for a couple of thousand years already. 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.320 So it definitely did not originate a Mount Sappo because 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.960 there is no Mount Sappo. But we do know the 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.399 Romans were into it, not just from that legend, but 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.560 also plenty of The Elder mentioned it in his Naturalists 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.120 story of from seventies seven CE. You know what else 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.840 the Romans were into? Yeah, they were into a lot 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.119 of stuff. They're like, I got a great story for 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.240 you about the soap. Come on into this room with 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.120 these other thirty five people. Have you met my friend press. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:36.200 I'll tell you all about it. You're gonna love him. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:40.080 So they were definitely producing um what you would call 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.960 soap though by two b c e. That was from 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.439 Kurd and like goat fat and beech tree ash, and 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.560 they would clean stuff in towns with that kind of stuff. 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:54.080 They would wash their pots out. Other people would use 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.720 it to clean cotton to make textiles and stuff like that. 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.480 But it wasn't like, uh wasn't for personal use yet. No, 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.480 that was like the one thing in common is people 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.480 were using it for everything but washing themselves. Like I 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.679 don't know if it just didn't hit upon them or whatever, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.399 but they didn't like Apparently the galls even used it 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:16.840 to slick their hair back, not to wash their hair, 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:18.880 just to slick it back and give it a nice 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.800 little reddish tint apparently. But the but Europe, so Europe 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.720 had like soap making guilds from I think the seventh century. 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.240 For for a very long time people have been making 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.560 soap in Europe. But it wasn't until after the Crusades 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.280 that some of the crusaders returned um, as the legend 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:42.679 goes in Mount mount Sapo style story, but they returned 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.639 supposedly with Aleppo soap from Syria, which is fragrance with 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.879 bay laurels, very nice, beautiful olive oil soap you can 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.320 still get today. But the story goes that the returning 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.359 Crusaders said, get this stuff. It's soap, but you use 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.560 it to wash your genitals and you're up. Started to 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:03.560 get very clean, at least like the elite aristocracy who 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.320 had the money to afford things like that got very clean. Well, 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.440 at least their genitals did, right, right. It took another 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:12.239 three years for something and be like, I wonder if 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:15.080 you could use this on your under arms as well, right, 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:16.760 And they went, what about your face or like, you 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:20.600 know where you've been washing with that stuff. It's true, 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:26.359 it's got hair on it to prove it. Oh dude, 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.680 that was too much for you. I don't know. I 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.960 didn't even use the word pubic here. I mean we 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:36.280 said the word genitals like five times. That's true. So 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.760 that was That was how Europe supposedly started to come 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.919 into soap. It was imported from the Middle East, but 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.680