Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to you Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Know from House Stuff Works dot Com. It's all right,
Speaker 1: cry crying, that's sad out all of you. It's all right, hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles
Speaker 1: w Chuck Bryant. How are you doing good, sir? Are
Speaker 1: you doing good? Okay? Good? Um, you put the two
Speaker 1: of us together and you've got a little podcast called
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know, And that's what this is. And
Speaker 1: you get more than that. Even though, uh, this was
Speaker 1: an abnormal start, semi abnormal. We've had Devo kick us
Speaker 1: off before. Uh yeah, but hey, Divo has got nothing
Speaker 1: on Rosie Greer. No, you want to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about well, yeah, obviously, uh, children of the seventies
Speaker 1: might recognize that song. Um might be very fond to
Speaker 1: some of you, like it is to Me from the
Speaker 1: awesome album Free to Be You and Me, which uh
Speaker 1: Marlo Thomas headed up this this record in the seventies
Speaker 1: to basically build kids up, make him feel better about
Speaker 1: you know, if you're a boy and you're a little effeminine,
Speaker 1: you like to play with dolls. So was the one
Speaker 1: called William Wants a Doll. If you're a boy and
Speaker 1: you know you wanted to cry, Rosie Greer's there to
Speaker 1: tell you it's okay. Ye might make you feel better.
Speaker 1: And uh there was you know, there was one about
Speaker 1: like treating your grandparents with respect, and it's okay for
Speaker 1: girls to like do boy things and boys to do
Speaker 1: girl things. And you know it's very seventies. It's okay
Speaker 1: for girls to punch in the arm. Yeah, pretty hard.
Speaker 1: I think there was a song about that. I love
Speaker 1: the seventies for that reason. It was great though. Man,
Speaker 1: I listened to this one like a lot. Yeah. Mel
Speaker 1: Books was on it, and and Bancroft, and I mean
Speaker 1: it was a litany of awesome seventies guests. So thank you,
Speaker 1: Marlo Thomas, and now thank you to Uncle Chuck for
Speaker 1: bringing it back. Josh, before we go any further, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? We have a very special announcement that
Speaker 1: I'd like you to make right now. You want me
Speaker 1: to make it, and we're doing it at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the show, because not everyone listens all the way through,
Speaker 1: even though they're missing out. Yeah, uh so, yeah, please
Speaker 1: announce this is a very high honor. As everyone knows,
Speaker 1: We're doing a live podcast at south By Southwest on Sunday,
Speaker 1: March eleven, from three thirty four thirty in the Maximilian
Speaker 1: Room at the Drisco Hotel. Right that for badge holders,
Speaker 1: it's been pretty clear the whole time, I hope. So
Speaker 1: we've been kind of dancing around what we're doing at
Speaker 1: this special event, this stuff you should know. Variety Show
Speaker 1: the next day, which is Monday, March twelve, from five
Speaker 1: to nine at Fidoux Irish Pub on Fourth Street in Austin.
Speaker 1: Dance no more, sir, No, I hand the dance card
Speaker 1: over to you. Chuck do it, uh, dudes and do debts.
Speaker 1: We have been lucky enough to get a chance at
Speaker 1: television with a TV pilot for Science Channel. The awesome,
Speaker 1: awesome people at Science Channel have given us a chance
Speaker 1: for a half hour TV pilot. We made it. It's
Speaker 1: in the can. Yeah, like we'd gone over where in
Speaker 1: the second round of editing. We're just all together. It's happening.
Speaker 1: This pilot is coming together. It is coming together, and uh.
Speaker 1: That will be the basis of the Variety Show, featuring
Speaker 1: an appearance by Mr John Hodgman. How could we not
Speaker 1: include Hodgy? He's always there. Eugene Merman, who I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to meeting, very funny comedian big Man. His music
Speaker 1: by Lucy waynewright Roach, who is in the pilot to
Speaker 1: play Jerry Crazy and Jerry will be there too, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna put him right next to one another. Remember
Speaker 1: it's been the plan all along, our buddies Henry Clay,
Speaker 1: people who have been friends for a few years now.
Speaker 1: It's crazy and who you manage on the side, manage
Speaker 1: and the side sometimes. Uh, they did the score, Joey
Speaker 1: when the band did the score and the theme song,
Speaker 1: did a lot of composing, did some good stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they will be playing this this party and local
Speaker 1: Austin band Crooks, who it turns out are also fans
Speaker 1: of the show. And that just happened. Yeah, I like
Speaker 1: it when serendip happens to So Crooks are gonna be
Speaker 1: playing as well. And they're they're awesome, sort of old
Speaker 1: school country with a little new school rock thrown in.
Speaker 1: And uh, we will be showing clips from the show
Speaker 1: throughout the night, which we think, I mean, we've seen
Speaker 1: this show how many times? Chuck and I still like it.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a pretty neat pilot. So
Speaker 1: if you want to be in the know and get
Speaker 1: a sneak peek this thing and whatever I said on
Speaker 1: Facebook today, whatever you think this show was like, you're wrong.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, you've been You've been taunting people. I just
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone is gonna expect what we're gonna
Speaker 1: give him. Okay, well it's gonna air at some point
Speaker 1: right to yeah, the spring, but this is the debut,
Speaker 1: the premiere of the sneak peak clips of the Stuff
Speaker 1: You Should Know TV pilot. That's right, Monday, March twelve
Speaker 1: from five to nine Fidoe Irish Pub to fourteen West
Speaker 1: fourth Street, Austin, Texas. Free drink ticket to the first
Speaker 1: one guests. Yes, I mean that's really You don't have
Speaker 1: to like leg wrestle to find out who uses it.
Speaker 1: So wow, yeah that is that is reason up the coach.
Speaker 1: And this is not for badge holders, Nope, this is
Speaker 1: for the public at large and it's anybody can come free.
Speaker 1: It's totally totals free. Well we're not buying drinks or anything,
Speaker 1: but it's it's still like there's no admission. Uh, no
Speaker 1: admission whatsoever. I don't even think there's an age requirement.
Speaker 1: I believe they serve food. It's like just a restaurant
Speaker 1: as well, so you don't have to get all drinking.
Speaker 1: You can just come and sip on some iced tea. Excellent.
Speaker 1: So is that it? Can we get back to the
Speaker 1: show now? All right? Back to the show we recorded
Speaker 1: several weeks back. Okay, Wow, the focus obviously on this
Speaker 1: one is crying. If you notice the title, that shouldn't
Speaker 1: come as much of a surprise. UM, I have a
Speaker 1: little story for you. Um have you heard of the
Speaker 1: movie Water for Elephants? Uh? Yeah, it's like Reese Witherspoon
Speaker 1: and the dude from Twilight. Yeah. Emily saw that. Is
Speaker 1: it any good? She enjoyed it? Well. I was researching
Speaker 1: whether or not elephants can cry, and apparently at one
Speaker 1: of the premiers, I think the premiere in Australia for
Speaker 1: this movie, the elephant costar was there and it started
Speaker 1: crying really and apparently everybody was really affected by this
Speaker 1: elephant just crying in you know, the middle of public.
Speaker 1: Didn't think the Australians, We're going to eat them. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the elephant was thinking, And we're not
Speaker 1: even certain whether the elephant was crying, because as far
Speaker 1: as we can tell, humans are the only species that
Speaker 1: cry emotionally as the result of an emotion. Yes, but
Speaker 1: it is possible that elephants and guerrillas are the two
Speaker 1: like as candidates as it stands now do as well.
Speaker 1: But we're so far from understanding whether elephants do that.
Speaker 1: We don't even know how often humans cry, let alone
Speaker 1: whether elephants can cry for an emotion. Yeah, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot more studies done on laughter and its benefits
Speaker 1: than crying. I found out. Yeah, I've noticed, Chuck, we've
Speaker 1: been doing this what for coming up on twenty years,
Speaker 1: four years, we're coming up onto our fourth year eventually
Speaker 1: this year. UM And I found like, when we encounter
Speaker 1: stuff like this fields topics that haven't fully been sussed out,
Speaker 1: there's two ways it can go. It's either loaded with
Speaker 1: total bs hypotheses that like maybe makes sense in a
Speaker 1: really eight year old common sense way UM or are
Speaker 1: just filled with awesome like um ideas of just basically
Speaker 1: our demonstrations of how great humanity can use its mind. Right,
Speaker 1: this is the former, and I'm sorry for tapping on
Speaker 1: the table. I know that that's a new habit of mine,
Speaker 1: and then it screws things up, but it's it's for emphasis. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: As far as the gorilla thing, I can direct people
Speaker 1: if you want to cry to the video of Cocoa
Speaker 1: the gorilla sign language gorilla. Yeah. She uh. She had
Speaker 1: a pet kitten at one point, and it's very cute
Speaker 1: and you see this kitten and Cocoa bonding and it's
Speaker 1: those videos are the best. Anyway, she accidentally breaks its
Speaker 1: has to shoot her in the back of the head. No, no,
Speaker 1: Gary Sinise. Actually I think it was a chokehold. Um.
Speaker 1: But the cat of course gets out and gets hit
Speaker 1: by a car and killed. And they have on tape
Speaker 1: the the woman going and telling Cocoa that the kitten
Speaker 1: is dead, and Coco I might start crying right now.
Speaker 1: Coco starts making the signs for bad and sad and
Speaker 1: frown and then cry and like, dude, you gotta see it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a weepy guy anyway, but I was
Speaker 1: at my desk earlier just like fighting it back. But
Speaker 1: then I really encourage you to go look at the video.
Speaker 1: Right after that, Cocoa gets a new kitten. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that'll just make you feel better all over again. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm glad. Is it in like the replace screen? It's
Speaker 1: one of the ones that pops up. Is the next thing.
Speaker 1: It actually has a pop up while you're watching this,
Speaker 1: like click on here to see Cocoa get a new kitten.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it looks like Cocoa is very
Speaker 1: much emotional. Whether or not Coco is actually crying, and
Speaker 1: whether or not animals get emotional is under debate, and
Speaker 1: that's a whole other topic in itself. Um, but I
Speaker 1: guess the point is is we're we're only kind of
Speaker 1: beginning to get a loose grasp on why we cry
Speaker 1: and how we cry, and so the research is kind
Speaker 1: of um uh insufficient, I guess. But we're just gonna
Speaker 1: go through some of the ideas of what's behind crying.
Speaker 1: We have something of a good grasp on the physiology
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah. And this whole thing, this guy that
Speaker 1: that surmised about our ancestors, Yeah, this one that was
Speaker 1: so weak. This is BS hypothesis number one. Do you
Speaker 1: want to take? Yeah. Dr Paul D. McClean theorized that
Speaker 1: our you know, cave ancestors would um, cremate the deceased
Speaker 1: become overcome by emotions, and then the smoke would get
Speaker 1: in their eyes, which would trigger reflex tears, which we'll
Speaker 1: talk about. And um, then all of a sudden they
Speaker 1: were just linked forever and crying or death and mourning
Speaker 1: and crying, which and that was the birth of emotional tears.
Speaker 1: I don't buy that one, any of I don't either,
Speaker 1: but it does lead us pretty uh pretty uh segway
Speaker 1: into what emotional tears are. Right there. One of three
Speaker 1: types of tears that we've sussed out, um, the first
Speaker 1: being basil tears, which with or without cocoa you've got
Speaker 1: right now. We cry every day. Tend it what five
Speaker 1: to announces? Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, and you were
Speaker 1: you aware of that? Well, I didn't know it was
Speaker 1: that much. It's almost a bottle of beer. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a good point. Yeah, that makes me want to cry.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. Um yeah, I mean obviously your
Speaker 1: eyes would dry out, So that's just your body's uh
Speaker 1: taking care of itself by by working up these tears.
Speaker 1: And most of that, UM, well, I guess just about
Speaker 1: all of the five to ten ounces of basal tears, uh,
Speaker 1: that you produce every day. Drain through your sinuses, your
Speaker 1: scinus cavity instead of streaming down your cheeks, which you
Speaker 1: might get stopped up. They sit and here a running
Speaker 1: nose when you cry. But I get stopped up personally,
Speaker 1: do you, yeah, like stops up my sinuses, um, my
Speaker 1: nose ruins generally? Really? Yeah? Um? Well, what are tears?
Speaker 1: I don't think we even said that. Oh, tears are
Speaker 1: liquid e secretions of fats, proteins, mucus oil, but for
Speaker 1: the most part water um. And depending on the type
Speaker 1: of tears, this is very significant. Though, depending on the
Speaker 1: type of tears, the composition is going to be different.
Speaker 1: So if you look at, um, say, reflex tears, which
Speaker 1: are designed to um rid your eye of some sort
Speaker 1: of irritant, right smoke? Onions? Onions? Do you want to
Speaker 1: tell everybody how onions work? Yeah? I feel like it's
Speaker 1: time that we finally explained that one not step off
Speaker 1: the list. Uh. There's an enzyme called lachrymatory factor synthas
Speaker 1: and that is released when you cut into the onion,
Speaker 1: and then that converts amino acids to sol phenic acid,
Speaker 1: and then that sulfenic acid turns into uh, sin roepan,
Speaker 1: the theol s oxide, and that is what irritates your
Speaker 1: lacrymal glands to cry when you cut an onion. Right,
Speaker 1: and mine, really, I think I mentioned this before. Mine
Speaker 1: really go hey, whire burns. It's it's pretty bad. So
Speaker 1: I got Emily got me those little goggles everywhere. Can
Speaker 1: you post a picture of you cutting onions wearing goggles?
Speaker 1: I can't. Actually, I'd like we'll not cutting onions. But
Speaker 1: I tried them on on Christmas Day when she got them,
Speaker 1: same effect. But I'm saying the next time that you
Speaker 1: cut onions wearing these goggles, I'd like to see that.
Speaker 1: Um So, yeah, you you also mentioned another important point,
Speaker 1: the lacrimal gland. It's in the upper outer region of
Speaker 1: your eye, and this is where tears are produced. That
Speaker 1: um so, you've got basil tears, you've got reflex tears,
Speaker 1: and then you have the emotional tears. The great grand
Speaker 1: mystery of humanity and why we cry? Right right? Um
Speaker 1: so with with emotional tears. Uh. From what we can
Speaker 1: it is a great picture of you wearing goggle. That's
Speaker 1: really great. They work too. Um you look like wow,
Speaker 1: that's a great I gotta stop right there. Um. But
Speaker 1: so with emotional tears, what we suspect is going on
Speaker 1: is that the cerebrum, which registers sadness, um says, hey eyes,
Speaker 1: uh you know, says hey, endocrine system, you're feeling a
Speaker 1: little blue. Why don't you go activate the lacrymal glands
Speaker 1: and let's get the crying commenced, release the hormones. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't think it's any coincidence that you
Speaker 1: that you expressed tears at the same time you're expressing emotion, right,
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. And that's what you were
Speaker 1: kind of talking about earlier, the whole theory of whether
Speaker 1: or not having a good cry it makes you feel better.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned earlier that the composition of the tears
Speaker 1: dippers and they collected let's just call them onion tears
Speaker 1: for lack of a better well, we have reflex hears.
Speaker 1: They collected onion tears, and they collected sad movie tears.
Speaker 1: And uh, I found that the reflex onion tears were
Speaker 1: what like ninety eight percent water, whereas the other ones
Speaker 1: were chuck full of sad proteins like prolactin, which is
Speaker 1: very much involved in the process of um producing breast milk,
Speaker 1: hence the name. It's for lactating pro lactin. What else
Speaker 1: are you gonna say that other one? Yes, I am chuck.
Speaker 1: It's UH. Adreno corta co tropic hormones. Adrenal corte tropic
Speaker 1: hormones to UM indicate high levels of stress. So that
Speaker 1: makes sense, which is a commonly experienced thing while you're crying.
Speaker 1: And then there's lucine and fallen episodes have just turned
Speaker 1: into like this parade of me humiliating myself. Now you
Speaker 1: did well. Lucine and cafollen, which is an endorphment that
Speaker 1: reduces pain and improves moon. Yeah, so that it makes
Speaker 1: sense that you would find these in tears when you
Speaker 1: might not in emotional tears instead of reflex tears. The
Speaker 1: problem is is that not all UM studies who have
Speaker 1: looked into this, that have looked into this have found
Speaker 1: that crying does make you feel better. There's been plenty
Speaker 1: of studies that have found the opposite. Most studies, I
Speaker 1: shouldn't say most, but some studies have found UH that
Speaker 1: there's no change whatsoever. People don't feel any better or worse.
Speaker 1: And one study that required UM I think like like
Speaker 1: twelve hundred. No, there were like twelve hundred account of
Speaker 1: crying over like seventy days among like x number of
Speaker 1: UM female college students. UM it found that that crying
Speaker 1: was preceded by two days of low mood and proceeded
Speaker 1: by two days of low mood. So on either side
Speaker 1: of a crying incident, there was two bad days before
Speaker 1: and after, so there wasn't necessarily an improved mood. Well,
Speaker 1: and one of the studies that you have sent me
Speaker 1: earlier kind of gave some reason behind this, which makes
Speaker 1: sense to me. UM. One reason might be because laboratory
Speaker 1: crying you may not be getting consolation, which might be
Speaker 1: what makes you feel better when someone sees you crying
Speaker 1: they came over to patch on the back and you know,
Speaker 1: buck up, camper. And the other was that it's not
Speaker 1: a realistic study. Oh well, the the helplessness factor, which
Speaker 1: made a lot of sense to me, Like you're watching
Speaker 1: the Sarah McLaughlin uh animals dying thing and a good
Speaker 1: cry when that doesn't make you feeling better because animals
Speaker 1: are still dying. So there's this helplessness like when you're
Speaker 1: watching the sad movie that like I can't these characters.
Speaker 1: So a good cry, is it gonna make me feel
Speaker 1: any better? No, but it may in a real world
Speaker 1: setting where you're crying and it's cathartic and somebody's making
Speaker 1: you feel better and then also explaining to you how
Speaker 1: things actually are better, and you're like right. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of a tough nut to crack because when you
Speaker 1: study something like this, they sit you down in a
Speaker 1: lab and make you watch Brian's Song and you know,
Speaker 1: I've never seen it. It's a little clinical. Brian's song
Speaker 1: is Brian looks very sad? Isn't that John Voight? Now
Speaker 1: it was Jimmy Cohn And uh, I can't remember who
Speaker 1: played Gayl Sayers, but um, yeah, it was the famous
Speaker 1: story of the football player dying of cancer, Gayl Sayers
Speaker 1: teammate very sad, you know, speaking of sad and dying. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a whole I wish I would have looked it
Speaker 1: up ahead of time. I read an article about people
Speaker 1: who love these books but you know, like Sweet Valley High.
Speaker 1: Imagine if each book was about a different Sweet Valley
Speaker 1: High girl and they were all dying young, but they
Speaker 1: were like the brave, like captain of the cheerleading squads,
Speaker 1: a student class president, don't ever feel bad for me
Speaker 1: kind of gals. But they always died at the end.
Speaker 1: And there's like this series of like fifty books of
Speaker 1: like young adult fiction that's by this one author and
Speaker 1: it's all like dying young. I wonder if the purpose
Speaker 1: of those was too, you know, prepare kids for losing
Speaker 1: friends young, because that does happen ladies, where they're dying
Speaker 1: all over the place. Was it a female author? You know, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm interesting. I don't remember that. I'm sure somebody will, right,
Speaker 1: and please do um So Japan you want to mention that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I even look this up to verify because it sounds
Speaker 1: a little wacky. But you know, the Japanese, they're always
Speaker 1: setting the standard for things like this. They have crying
Speaker 1: clubs over there where they do believe that it makes
Speaker 1: you feel better, so they'll get together as a group
Speaker 1: and watch these sad movies or having read these books
Speaker 1: and talk about them just to have a group cry.
Speaker 1: But you also, you just hit something on the head.
Speaker 1: And importently is that they believe that crying makes you
Speaker 1: feel better. Apparently it's culturally bound. So yeah, if you're
Speaker 1: in a if you live in a society that doesn't
Speaker 1: think crying makes you feel better. Maybe you're kind of
Speaker 1: a whisp for crying. You're less likely to report feeling
Speaker 1: better after crying than somebody who lives in a society
Speaker 1: like Japan where it's supported, yes, that makes sense, or
Speaker 1: where people think that crying does make you feel better.
Speaker 1: It's like zombies and I cry a lot. I'm a
Speaker 1: very weepy guy. I know you are, and I think
Speaker 1: it said one reason, Uh, we'll go ahead and give
Speaker 1: away a secret. One reason they think men might cry
Speaker 1: less because they sweat more. And if crying is a
Speaker 1: way to release some of these build up of toxins,
Speaker 1: then sweat would do that. But I sweat bs hypothesis,
Speaker 1: I could cry. I've got an overactive bladder. I know.
Speaker 1: I've seen you cry, sweat, and pe all at the
Speaker 1: same time. Dude, I'm just constantly leaking fluids. I know
Speaker 1: it doesn't help, believe me, because there's always some kind
Speaker 1: of fluid right behind it, and there's always another Coco
Speaker 1: video coming up. I've I'm very eye rolly as a result.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, thank you for that. Um So what else
Speaker 1: we have? Well, let's talk about babies. When we start crying,
Speaker 1: obviously is when we're a little uh crying newborns, which
Speaker 1: makes sense. I mean, you cry, you need help, you
Speaker 1: want to be changed, You're totally you're you're helpless, useless,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do, so you cry. I'm hungry
Speaker 1: at everybody. Now, I'm sleepy, sleepy. I was looking into this,
Speaker 1: chuck like that still doesn't quite make sense. Why babies cry.
Speaker 1: I mean, we take it for for you know, granted,
Speaker 1: it's just babies cry, it's what they do. But when
Speaker 1: did the first human baby cry? And why did the
Speaker 1: first human baby cry? And I looked into it and
Speaker 1: there was actually this cool study that put up a
Speaker 1: few hypotheses that aren't necessarily be us. They're the very least,
Speaker 1: very interesting of why humans started to cry. And it's
Speaker 1: like based on natural selection, like the first few babies
Speaker 1: that cried were selected one because it reduces infanicide, okay,
Speaker 1: which is apparently very common in early early cultures. It
Speaker 1: reduces yes, and here's why. It emotionally manipulates the parent
Speaker 1: into not just abandoning the baby or leaving the baby
Speaker 1: melicicits sympathy, yes, but it also um basically says, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm a very healthy, fit baby. You don't want to
Speaker 1: leave me behind. I'm gonna be great at picking berries
Speaker 1: when yes, exactly. Now, if if I were the type
Speaker 1: of baby just abandoned and leave for dead, I may
Speaker 1: just not even be able to get a good cry going.
Speaker 1: So it makes sense a little whimpering cry might not
Speaker 1: be as strong, exactly. So it was that led to
Speaker 1: natural selection of crying in babies, and that's why we
Speaker 1: cry today. At least, that's that makes sense. That's one
Speaker 1: of the better hypotheses I've run across. I was just
Speaker 1: thinking my own hypothesis might be that, you know, back then,
Speaker 1: it's not like the mother was always right over the
Speaker 1: baby like they are today. No, that's not you. The
Speaker 1: opposite is true. Oh really, there were more present. They
Speaker 1: carried him everywhere. Well, then there goes my hypothesis. It's okay,
Speaker 1: we I thought they had just part of science. Okay, no, no,
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying. And actually that kind of
Speaker 1: coincides with the reason why you would cry, because a
Speaker 1: baby that cries is being abandoned and knows it. Right
Speaker 1: when you're away from the mother for a very long time.
Speaker 1: That means Mom's gone. She's like twenty clicks that way
Speaker 1: and not coming back right. That's very sad. Reduces infanticide.
Speaker 1: So babies cry differently as they grow, to communicate different
Speaker 1: things in a in a in tune. Parent will tell
Speaker 1: you that, like from the other room of that cry
Speaker 1: probably means she needs to be changed. That cry means
Speaker 1: he's hungry or has fallen out of his crib and
Speaker 1: he's playing with power tools maybe you know. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then uh at ten months they think that's when babies
Speaker 1: start to cry to manipulate their parents for attention. And this,
Speaker 1: by the way, I thought it was a very sexist article.
Speaker 1: Did you notice some of the lines, oh, man, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's when your mascara runs. If the guy had
Speaker 1: written this, could you imagine the backlash? No, I totally can.
Speaker 1: I picked up on that as well. I know what
Speaker 1: you're about to say. I couldn't even bring myself to
Speaker 1: underline and I just ignored it completely. Well, I highlighted
Speaker 1: it in green because I wanted to read it. Here's
Speaker 1: what the line is. Some studies have reported that women
Speaker 1: in particular continue this manipulative crying throughout their life in
Speaker 1: order to manipulate others into giving them what they want,
Speaker 1: for example, forgiveness, pity, or a diamond bracelet. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It is very I'm even offended. I
Speaker 1: was too. I read that to Emily. She's like, are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? The author is in trouble. Maybe she is. Um.
Speaker 1: So you've got manipulative crying at about the age of
Speaker 1: ten months, right, But there is manipulative crying as adults.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to say there's not, because there definitely is.
Speaker 1: I think done it as a man. No, for what,
Speaker 1: what did you want when you're young and emotional and
Speaker 1: that your girlfriend breaks up with you and you just
Speaker 1: want you just want her back, man, you just want
Speaker 1: her back and maybe if you seem sad enough, she'll
Speaker 1: feel sorry for you and take you back. So you
Speaker 1: weren't sad, uh, yeah, if you weren't sad enough to
Speaker 1: cry naturally, But I'm still working at the crocodile tears
Speaker 1: just to uh. Crocodiles only try to excrete excess salt water. Well,
Speaker 1: that's why they call them crocodile tiers, because there's nothing
Speaker 1: a motive behind it, all right, moving on to adolescence, Well,
Speaker 1: not quite yet. The adolescence. Uh, we should say that
Speaker 1: up to adolescents. From the time that we're infants to adolescence,
Speaker 1: boys and girls supposedly cry at about the same frequency
Speaker 1: and amount, at least same frequency. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of um change or difference between the gender. But when
Speaker 1: we do hit adolescents, and this one makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense, um voice, testosterone shoots up, and there's a
Speaker 1: negative correlation with crying. It decreases. They can just get
Speaker 1: angry with girls. They're crying actually increases. And there's a
Speaker 1: positive correlation with estrogen production. Um, which that sounds kind
Speaker 1: of sexist, but it's true physiologically speaking, it's true, right, Um.
Speaker 1: And in conjunction with estrogen production, you've also got prolactin, which,
Speaker 1: don't forget, is found in emotional tears. And a crying
Speaker 1: researcher named is it William Fry William Fry and Muriel
Speaker 1: trying the Mystery of tears? Okay, he Fry, I believe
Speaker 1: actually in Alzheimer's researcher and he just did like crying
Speaker 1: as a as an amusement. Yeah, he's one of those, um.
Speaker 1: But he uh, he suggests that girls have about six
Speaker 1: more prolactin in their bodies at any given time than men.
Speaker 1: Um and as a result, they tend to cry more
Speaker 1: and more frequently. Um four times as much as what
Speaker 1: he says, Yeah, which is a lot. But again, no
Speaker 1: one's really done a great, big, huge survey on how
Speaker 1: often people cry. Yeah, this one, I don't know how
Speaker 1: large it was, but it was a study, um the
Speaker 1: head people record how many times they cried over the
Speaker 1: period of one year. This one found women cried roughly
Speaker 1: sixty four times compared to seventeen and men and everyone
Speaker 1: underestimated men and women how much they would have cried.
Speaker 1: But um, that seems low to me, or maybe I'm
Speaker 1: just speaking personally as a weepy guy, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like seventeen. I was like, I think sixty four is low.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I'll cry. And and something I
Speaker 1: didn't see in here was crying over some over beauty.
Speaker 1: That happens to me a lot too, or something that's
Speaker 1: just so beautiful at a concert or a sunrise or something.
Speaker 1: We look at that guy's light. Yeah, it's the most
Speaker 1: beautiful thing I've ever seen. It is what do you
Speaker 1: mean it a concert? Well, like the music or something like.
Speaker 1: I saw the the Oh De Joy at Carnegie Hall
Speaker 1: one time. When that kicked in, I was so like
Speaker 1: overwrought I started crying. I um, I just I thought
Speaker 1: Bonnie Prince Billy concert. Not No, I would cry at
Speaker 1: a Bonny Prince Billy concert with the music moved me enough.
Speaker 1: Um I I want to say, on behalf of everybody,
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing so much of yourself in this one.
Speaker 1: It's making the whole thing way better. I don't mind.
Speaker 1: I mean, who cares, No, it certainly doesn't. Rosie Greer says, so. Um.
Speaker 1: So let's see men also here we arrive at BS
Speaker 1: hypothesis three. Okay, men cry less chuck because they supposedly
Speaker 1: have smaller tear ducks or lacrymal glance. Cry fewer tears,
Speaker 1: no less volume volume because women have larger Okay, well
Speaker 1: you think that's BS totally Yeah, yeah, well maybe women
Speaker 1: are equipped with larger ones because they cry more. You
Speaker 1: think maybe most of the hyper season research I'm crying.
Speaker 1: It's done in the back of cocktail napkins for some reason.
Speaker 1: According to Women's Health Magazine, though Josh, men typically only
Speaker 1: cry when they suffer a major loss and I find
Speaker 1: this to be true for a lot of guys. Is
Speaker 1: usually it's anger and frustration. Uh, or anger is how
Speaker 1: they express frustration and stress, whereas a woman might be
Speaker 1: more prone to cry if they're frustrated or stressed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably been true for me, and I'm a weepy guy.
Speaker 1: I think though, that it's a difference in threshold. Sure,
Speaker 1: possibly because I think frustration and anger can lead to
Speaker 1: tears pretty pretty frequently when you reach that point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's just a difference in threshold. There's
Speaker 1: a lower threshold perhaps in women, maybe not. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like that would be my take
Speaker 1: on that. Or maybe men maybe the the stereotypical his
Speaker 1: street of men not being allowed to cry, or it's
Speaker 1: just a sign of weakness. Maybe that leads to even
Speaker 1: more frustration, so it's expressed his anger. Which is funny
Speaker 1: because there is a study that's mentioned in this article that, um,
Speaker 1: they did a survey of people saying, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: does men crying bother you? And do you think it
Speaker 1: bothers other people? And most people were like, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really bother me, but yeah, I'm sure it bothers everybody else,
Speaker 1: and like virtually everybody responded that way. So in other words,
Speaker 1: people don't mind, they're just not talking about it. Well,
Speaker 1: it's just like this this social ideal or societal ideal
Speaker 1: that men shouldn't cry, and other people are bothered by it,
Speaker 1: even though no one's really bothered by it. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Rosie Greer, it's called the Greer effect. He was a
Speaker 1: football player too. I don't know if I mentioned that.
Speaker 1: Cool dude. He was also in uh, The Thing with
Speaker 1: Two Heads, The Thing with Two Heads, The Man with
Speaker 1: two Brains. He and oh man, it wasn't like I
Speaker 1: don't think it was. It may have been William Holden.
Speaker 1: It was a a rich um scientist who had his
Speaker 1: head attached to a convict name played by Rosy Greer's body,
Speaker 1: and they were like this odd couple. It was like
Speaker 1: a creature feature Saturday shocker type. Never heard of the
Speaker 1: seventies The Thing with Two Heads is think is what
Speaker 1: it's called. Great movie. Trying to get that immediately that
Speaker 1: in The Incredible Melting Man. I never heard of that one.
Speaker 1: That was a good one. Was that because of a
Speaker 1: at the ice age. I remember, that was my hypothesis.
Speaker 1: You have a good memory. All right, Well there's our
Speaker 1: tangent for this episode. Um. Getting back to men crying, though,
Speaker 1: they have done some research and some people think that
Speaker 1: a note noted man crying in public is actually good
Speaker 1: for your career and good for your pr like John Bayner. Sure,
Speaker 1: Tim Tebow. Now, do you remember when I think Florida
Speaker 1: lost the Tennessee and Tebow cried? It was there was
Speaker 1: some guy who's like, oh, Tebow, your tears taste so sweet.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful to see. Yeah, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: dislike him as much now though, because of uh, I'm
Speaker 1: not like some big fan. But I found that once
Speaker 1: a player leaves or coach leaves the University of Florida,
Speaker 1: like I love Coach Spurrier, you're you disgusted me for
Speaker 1: even saying that. Now, once they leave Florida, I don't
Speaker 1: have that time to keep that to yourself. I've found
Speaker 1: that that's not the case with me. Like I hate Spurrier, still,
Speaker 1: I can't stand Tebow Urban Meyer like everybody, I can't
Speaker 1: stand anybody who has Florida stank on him. Rex Grossman,
Speaker 1: I don't care who you're talking about that. I I
Speaker 1: can't stand any of them. Well, you know, I like
Speaker 1: that kind of consistency. I just got so angry accidentally
Speaker 1: licked the mic cover. That's grass. Um. What else have
Speaker 1: we got here? Oh? Well, why why we cry? Um?
Speaker 1: There's again the fields wide open for any quack to
Speaker 1: come up with an idea and get it published in
Speaker 1: an article on how stuff works keeps us healthier? Yeah,
Speaker 1: by removing toxins stress related hormones. But but your pooh, pooh,
Speaker 1: But do you remember when we did how saunas work,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about how, yes, you have um kidneys
Speaker 1: and you're bladder and your euretha euretha. To get rid
Speaker 1: of all these toxins, you don't really need to sweat,
Speaker 1: but sweating does get rid of some of it, and
Speaker 1: every little bit helps conceivably, Well, these stress related hormones
Speaker 1: do exit your body through your tears. And I think
Speaker 1: it's beyond just the toxins. I think that I believe
Speaker 1: that holding onto the these negative emotions is not good
Speaker 1: ultimately for for your heart and your body. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think a good cry could help. I've
Speaker 1: seen it, and you've experienced. I've experienced, you've seen it.
Speaker 1: Don't back off now, yeah, you're right. Um, people from
Speaker 1: colitis and ulcers tend to have a poor view of crying. Uh,
Speaker 1: then people who don't have that, which apparently suggests that
Speaker 1: if you don't cry, you're gonna end up with ulcers
Speaker 1: in colitis. I don't know about that one, that's true.
Speaker 1: You gave me something interesting on depression. Uh. They studied
Speaker 1: forty four people with mood disorders. I guess the forty
Speaker 1: person just they couldn't show up, you know. Uh, And
Speaker 1: they said that they were in fact more prone to
Speaker 1: crying than than people who they were comparing them to
Speaker 1: who didn't have the mood disorder. But if you had
Speaker 1: severe depression, a lot of times you had an inability
Speaker 1: to cry altogether, which is really sad to me. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's very sad. I guess it's just that dead inside
Speaker 1: feeling that's awful. Um. There's also symptoms of crying excessively
Speaker 1: apparently some people with PTSD, right. Uh. One of the
Speaker 1: symptoms is excessive crying postpartum. Yeah, postponton depression, which I
Speaker 1: didn't know this. Nine of women suffered from postpartum depression
Speaker 1: following birth. What do you think it was? Lower? Yeah? Really,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was that prevalent. Yeah, I did,
Speaker 1: and I guess it would have to follow birth to
Speaker 1: be postpartum depression. That was redundant. Uh. In this interesting
Speaker 1: study in Israel, they had men sniff sailing solution compared
Speaker 1: to real human tears, and that they found that when
Speaker 1: they smelled the real tears or testosterone dipped and brain
Speaker 1: scan showed less activity in areas associated with sexual arousal.
Speaker 1: So that made good sense to me because if someone
Speaker 1: if someone's really upset and crying, it's not sexually stimulating
Speaker 1: to to you, unless unless you're you're real sick person.
Speaker 1: So I would say it it's its sympathy and lowers
Speaker 1: your sexy time feelings, which which kind of um gives
Speaker 1: it a which kind of supports the idea that like
Speaker 1: a social bonding theory of crying. Yeah, you know, you're
Speaker 1: signaling to somebody else that you're not aggressive, you're you're
Speaker 1: you're submitting, you're you're allowing yourself to be vulnerable. So
Speaker 1: he just lay off of you, hold me, don't hit me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: put the rock down. Did you ever see the doctor
Speaker 1: cats about the man hugs. I've seen all of them,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember that. There was one bit where
Speaker 1: he was talking about the man hugs. When the man
Speaker 1: hug and they slap. He was like, men have to
Speaker 1: do that because I'm holding you, but i'm hitting you. Right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do remember that, right, doctor kats so good? You
Speaker 1: got anything else? Um? And you know I'll post that
Speaker 1: photo of me with the goggles always forget, but someone
Speaker 1: Cooper will remind me. Then he'll turn it into something
Speaker 1: sick and twisted. Right, Well, I was crying. We did
Speaker 1: pretty good with that one. Did a little poop pooing,
Speaker 1: did a lot of explaining, you did a lot of sharing.
Speaker 1: No crying, No, there's no crying in podcasting. Uh. There
Speaker 1: is crying on how Stuff Works dot com. You want
Speaker 1: to go to your favorite search engine and you want
Speaker 1: to type in how crying works into the search bar,
Speaker 1: and that will bring up the how crying works article
Speaker 1: on our sister site TLC dot com. It was definitely
Speaker 1: TLC Uh if you want to do that, if you
Speaker 1: want to learn more about crying, um, and if you
Speaker 1: can't remember what we said about the onion and why
Speaker 1: it makes you cry, and you want to impress your friends,
Speaker 1: just it's in that article you'll be very happy to
Speaker 1: see it. Um that is on your favorite search engine,
Speaker 1: but it's on house stuff Works. I think I said
Speaker 1: search bar and there's somewhere, which means it's time for
Speaker 1: a listener mail. I'm gonna call this from Lori in Germany.
Speaker 1: Like Germany, guys, Uh, you recently saved my butt and
Speaker 1: I thought it would write in to tell you about it.
Speaker 1: I'm an Atlanta girl. Originally, he was currently teaching English
Speaker 1: at a kindergarten in Germany. Don't I mean garden of children?
Speaker 1: I think so. Uh. In the last week before Christmas,
Speaker 1: I showed my kids a Muppet Christmas Carol, one of
Speaker 1: the best Christmas movies ever. If he asked me, and
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you know, there was. There are several
Speaker 1: ghosts in the story, but since it's a kids movie,
Speaker 1: I assumed it would not be too scary for my
Speaker 1: wee laws. Well. I showed the first half on Monday,
Speaker 1: and then I was out sick for a couple of days.
Speaker 1: When I came back on Thursday, I learned that one
Speaker 1: of my little girls, six year old Anka, had barely
Speaker 1: slept since she had seen the movie. Apparently the ghosts
Speaker 1: were too scary for her, and her mother was apparently
Speaker 1: stink sala, which is an excellent German word meaning stinking angry,
Speaker 1: so she was stink salau. In an effort to run
Speaker 1: damage control, I showed Anka and a couple of other
Speaker 1: kids the pictures from the Muppets article on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com the diagrams uh and this this was
Speaker 1: a really great article as far as that stuff goes.
Speaker 1: The visuals the diagrams showing how the muppeteers control the
Speaker 1: various types of muppets were a really interesting to both
Speaker 1: me and the kids and be a miracle cure for
Speaker 1: Anica's spears. That cool little behind the scenes tour help
Speaker 1: meet my wiwas It's a little disconcerting, isn't it. No,
Speaker 1: you help my weas appreciate the cool design of the
Speaker 1: ghosts instead of being afraid of them, and Anica's mom
Speaker 1: was no longer stink salaz hazah to that. Thank you
Speaker 1: for helping me teach my wiwas something new, and for
Speaker 1: helping me get out of hot water as well. That
Speaker 1: was the first time I've looked up an article after
Speaker 1: listening to one of your episodes, But I'm really glad
Speaker 1: I did it and thank you for what y'all do
Speaker 1: and for the upbeat and open minded attitudes in which
Speaker 1: you do it. Uh ydd site dahmma figured of translation,
Speaker 1: y'all are awesome literal y'all or the hammer here them
Speaker 1: That is Lori in Germany, he was definitely no stink
Speaker 1: sala Yeah, I love you German. It's great stuff fun Um,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot for that. Lori and Germany were glad
Speaker 1: we could help you out. And uh, I urge everybody
Speaker 1: and anybody you go check out our beloved site, how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com in mothership connection, how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com right indeed, um, if you want to let
Speaker 1: us know how our podcast has gotten you out of
Speaker 1: hot water, how how Stuff Works has gotten you out
Speaker 1: of hot water. If you want to go on site
Speaker 1: and find an article and say, hey, podcast on this,
Speaker 1: We're happy to get links like that. You can tweet
Speaker 1: to us at s y s K podcast. You can
Speaker 1: go on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash stuff you
Speaker 1: Should Know, and you can send us a plan on
Speaker 1: fashion email to stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Be
Speaker 1: sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
Speaker 1: the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore
Speaker 1: the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow brought to
Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
Speaker 1: are you