WEBVTT - Ep 200 Poop Part 1: How the sausage gets made 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:00.480 Hello. 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:05.920 My story about poop is an embarrassing one, and one 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:08.039 I am comfortable to share, but one that is embarrassing, 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:10.880 and like a lot of embarrassing stories, it happened when 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.480 I was much younger. I was in fifth grade at 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:18.759 my first experience of staying away from my parents with 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.880 my school class. It was at an outdoor ed adventure 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.720 in the woods where you do ropes, courses and team 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:29.160 building exercises and you stay in a cabin. I remember 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.240 being excited for it. I remember having good friends in 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.240 elementary school, and I remember the first day going rather well, 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.200 where we were in the woods, playing outside. The first 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.360 night was a large like sort of cafeteria style lunch 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.760 where we had I don't remember what the food was, 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.720 but I sat with my friends. Everything was rather normal, 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.960 and then we took a long walk to there was 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:56.000 a planetarium attached to this outdoor ed facility, and we 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.720 were going to see a late night probably like eight 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.960 or nine o'clockanitarium show. And I remember walking with my 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:07.080 friends talking, and my memory is a little fuzzy at 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.959 this point, possibly for reasons to protect myself, but at 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.640 a certain point during this walk, I think I attempted 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:20.039 to fart and poop came out, and then poop continued 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.800 to come out, and at a certain point, I don't 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.560 know what happened in my brain, but I was okay 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.640 with continuing to let poop come out because there was 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.200 really nothing I could do. I was committed to going 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.120 to the planetarium. I was committed to seeing this through, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.520 and I truly didn't know. 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:39.640 What else to do. 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.440 And I'd already done the poop and I thought it 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:48.040 was done. So every time a new wave of having 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.320 to go to the bathroom came to me, I let 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:57.120 it happen. And I remember walking with a lot of 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.160 poop in my pants. My pa were jeans, they were 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:06.000 like tough denim jeans, and the poop was like I 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.680 would describe it as like toothpasting down my leg. It 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:16.040 was really horrible, but again I wasn't like super disturbed 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.400 by it. In the moment we went to the planetarium, 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:24.200 I sat next to my friends. I promise I think 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.840 I continued pooping. I remember people smelling it. I remember 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.080 successfully just saying it wasn't me and saying that I 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.600 smelled it too, And then I remember walking back to 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:42.080 our cabin immediately going to the shower, taking off my 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.360 pants in the shower, attempting to clean my pants so 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.360 that I could put them in a bag that I 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.480 could take home with myself. I remember that shower being possibly, 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.800 at least up until that point, the greatest shower of 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.680 my entire life. And that is the end of the story. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.040 I did put myself again the next day. It wasn't 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.360 as obscene or abundant, but it happened again. And I 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.600 don't know if it was nerves, if it was something 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.680 about the diet. But that is my poop story and 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.280 I am not proud of it. I think my life 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.120 would be very different had my friends found out, and 0:03:19.400 --> 0:04:08.840 most of them still don't know. But anyway, that's my story. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.480 Thank you so much for brilliant willing to share that. 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:14.760 Hi. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.560 I'm Erin Welsh and I'm Erin on an update and 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.440 this is this podcast will kill you. 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:24.320 Welcome to Poop Poop, Poop, Poop Yeah, Part one. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.320 I think we decided to do an episode or two 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.279 episodes about poop without really knowing what they were going 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:32.320 to be about, and we're just like poop that sounds 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.800 like something we would talk about, like it is. 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.200 On on on end, just like continue to talk. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.240 About yeah, yeah, but we are going to We eventually 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.440 were like, Okay, I guess we'll have to come up 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.240 with topics specific to poop. What do people want to 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:51.120 know about poop? And yeah, and so here we are. 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.440 Now here we are. So this episode we're going to 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.880 be talking about what is in poop, how we make poop, 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.599 and I'm going to go in to a little bit 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.240 of like poop in the Animal Kingdom. 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.480 I am so excited and not just like how animals poop, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.240 but like all of the ways in which we can 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.480 use poop. Yes, exciting. 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.280 Poop is a resource. Is how I had originally titled this. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.919 The second episode was just like poop is gross, poop 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.840 is gross. Yeah, So and next week we're going to 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.640 go into yeah, more of poop is gross? And then 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.880 what happens when you can't poop the way that you 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.960 should poop? Talk about it, and I'll talk about like toilets, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.720 the history of sanitation, just how disgusting ancient Rome really was. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.760 I cannot tell you how excited I am to hear 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:39.640 about how disgusting ancient Rome was. 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.880 Well, I want to hear more about fiber and I'll. 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.200 Tell you about it. I'm not going to tell you 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:45.200 that much about parastels. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.800 I just like the word, just wanted to be able 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:48.040 to say. 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:49.400 We'll say it multiple times. 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.719 Oh, poop quarantine any time we have that, Actually have 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:59.479 that completely forgot a while since we've like recorded recorded, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:02.320 What are we drinking this week? 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:04.800 We're drinking drink number. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:05.880 Two, drink number two. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:09.599 Of all the ways that you can say poop, we 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:11.480 found that one to be the most charming. 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.440 I really do, I really do like it. It's good, 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:15.200 it's a good one. 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:16.440 It's also a delicious drink. 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.680 It is what is in poop? Or sorry, what is 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.560 in drink number two? Not poop number two? 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.200 I'll tell you that later. But what's in drink number 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.720 two is basically like a mint chocolate martini situation. So 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:32.479 there's vodka, there's cremded cacao or something similar to that 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:37.080 chocolate liqueur Bevermitch knops. You can tell I don't make 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.200 the drinks. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.839 Some chocolate syrup. You know, it's gonna be all right done. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.440 We'll post that on social media at least at least 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.360 possibly website if we can get on that. 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.240 Honestly, it's been a struggle. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:52.680 You know, it's fine. 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.039 You just have to follow us on socials, Yes, please do, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:56.280 and then you'll see it there. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:01.279 And also on YouTube on YouTube because we're here in 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:06.880 the exactly right studio we are. It's really fun to 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.440 be here again. And if you would like to experience 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.840 some of that joy with us, please go to YouTube 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.160 dot com the exactly right media channel and you'll find. 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.480 Us and we're there. This whole season has been on YouTube. 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.160 It has been so it's been quite with some occasional 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.320 really fun videos and pictures. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.440 We have a couple for you today. We do all 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:30.200 right with some props, with some props also business last 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.800 piece we swear. We're also a website. We do have 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:33.520 a website. 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:34.560 Yeah, it's true. 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:36.800 This podcast with kill you dot com. We have a 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:38.800 lot of things there. You can find all of the 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:40.960 sources from this episode and all of our episodes. You 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.280 can find links to our bookshop dot org, affiliate account, 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:48.840 our good Reads list, and merch merch merch. You can 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:52.640 also find transcripts, YEP and bloodmobile. Who does all of 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.760 our music ye first hand account, first hand account form, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:57.720 contact us form. There's a lot there. 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.560 There's lots. Okay, are we finally ready for number two? 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.320 I think so Aaronka, Okay, we'll take a break and 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:09.920 get started. 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:25.360 Poop. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.000 Sorry, every time I say the word poop it makes 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:33.440 me laughs. I know. Poop is the non digestible parts 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.559 of our food, mixed up with a bunch of digestive juices, mucus, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.480 left off cells from our gi tract, and of course 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.160 tons of bacteria, both living and dead. 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:44.760 What do you mean by tons? 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.760 Oh, I'll tell you. Okay, just do you wait? So 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:51.800 I thought that for the start of this episode and 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:53.640 this series, really where we're going to be talking so 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.320 much about poop, it feels important and also fun for 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.160 me to go through the process of digestion and learn 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.120 how we make a poop together, How we make a 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.160 poop together, Learn together how we make a poop? 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.120 Okay, okay, I prefer that. 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:16.840 Yes, Miss Frizzle did this on a lovely journey through 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:18.200 Arthur's digestive tract. 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:20.160 I still remember this same. 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.480 So we're basically going to take Miss Frizzle's journey through 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:27.120 our own digestive tract. Along this journey, we might mention 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:29.559 a lot of places where things could go wrong. I'm 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.400 not going to get stuper into detail on the things 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.200 that could go wrong right now. But if you have questions, 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.720 I know you'll ask them. You know, I know qualms 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.240 about that, no, But mostly I'm going to be talking 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.240 about like the process of digestion, how we make a 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.800 poop so that we know really what is in our poop. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.280 And the next week is when we'll talk more about 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.680 how things can go wrong with a digestion and poop 0:09:50.240 --> 0:10:00.880 poop manufacturing, Yeah, manufacturing Ltd. So digestion and starts in 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:02.920 our mouth as soon as we put a bite of 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.880 food into our mouth. We've got amylases and other enzymes 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.280 in our saliva that start the process of breaking down 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:12.400 the complex starches that's in our food, and of course 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.559 our teeth are grinding and breaking things down into teeny 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.960 tiny pieces. As we swallow that food, matter will pass 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.640 through our esophagus aided by these muscular contractions that you 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.160 love so much that we call peristalsissus, as well as 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.240 aided by all of that saliva that we mixed our 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.760 food up with, and then our esophagus has to travel 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.640 all the way like from our mouth basically down through 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.440 a hole in our diaphragm, which is that muscle that 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:46.080 separates our chest from our abdomen through a hole in 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.520 that diaphragm, and then through a sphincter called the lower 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.800 esophageal sphincter. Sphincters are a recurring theme. 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.720 Oh yeah, they're attract They are essential. 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:01.880 Exactly, Yeah, very much so. And our food bowlless, which 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.200 is what it's called at this point, will land with 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:08.160 a splash I like to imagine in the digestive acids 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:08.720 of our stomach. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.679 Okay, so it's like a sea of acid. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.640 A little see it's probably not realistically, but it's the 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.440 way I like to imagine it, okay, okay. And our 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.120 stomach is up in the upper left hand side of 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.360 our belly, got it, okay, And there in our stomach 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:27.480 it will churn literally with muscular contractions and burn literally 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.000 with hydrochloric acid, as well as other enzymes that our 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.240 stomach makes, like pepsin and other things, to further break 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.240 down our food and create this kind of like liquidy, 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:43.559 mushy mass that's called chime cime chyme, and our stomach 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.680 then lets that cime out a little bit at a 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.800 time through yet another sphincter called the pyloric sphincter. 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.240 How little at a time do you what do you mean? 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.880 It's a great question. So the amount of time, how 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.920 little it kind of depends on what it is that 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.760 you're eating. So liquids are gonna donut. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:00.760 Like we just eight. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.520 It usually takes half of our food will be emptied 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.160 from our stomach in about an hour or so, wow, okay, 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.200 and then the rest of it. It can really just 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.840 depend on how much fat was in it, how well 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.360 we chewed it, because bigger pieces that are larger than 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.920 like two millimeters cannot pass through that sphincter, so they 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.520 have to be broken down further before they can pass through. 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.880 And all of that just happens in our in our stomach. 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.240 So it's doing all of that, but usually between two 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:31.600 and four hours, your stomach is completely empty after a 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:32.160 meal two. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.360 And four hours. And fat, more fat means longer time digestive. 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.880 Exactly, yes, because it kind of sits on top because 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.439 it floats, and so then it like whatever takes longer 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:43.480 for it to kind of end up passing through that sphincter. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.120 And in that way, our stomach is a really important 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:52.600 regulator of our digestion, right because it is slowly letting 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.720 food or cime rather out of our stomach into our 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.600 small intestine at a rate ideally that our small intestine 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.800 can actually handle it. If it just dumped all of 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.760 the contents at once, that would be miserable and you 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.320 would feel really sick from it because you're small intestine. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.160 And I feel like really doesn't get enough credit in 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:13.040 RGI track. 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.680 It's so huge, it's huge. It's it's not aptly named. No, 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:19.560 it is the long intestine. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:21.960 It is the long intestine. It is small in diameter, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.880 and that's why it's called the small intestine. But yes, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:30.040 it is also the place where we are doing all 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.839 almost of the absorption of our nutrients. Like you could 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.120 take out someone's entire stomach, you could take out someone's 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.800 entire colon. You really cannot take out their whole small intestine. 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.160 But you can take up like chunks of it. 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.680 Even taking out small trunks of it can have pretty 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.200 significant effects and ends up with what we called short 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.840 gut syndrome, which can have quite a lot of side effects. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.880 So anyways, I just really like small intestin doesn't get 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:52.320 enough cred. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.000 How long is the small intestine? 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.400 Great question? Anywhere from let me check my notes, because 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:02.200 that's later three to five meters, which is like nine 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:03.760 to sixteen plus feet. 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.640 I mean, it's just all coiled up in there. 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.719 Yeah. I want everyone to know that I tried really 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.120 hard to make like a large diagram. 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:14.440 Did you make it to scale like you were going 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.280 to have like nine It was like the size of 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.120 my child. Okay, well your child's not nine feet. 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:20.480 No no, no, well neither are we. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.320 But it was coiled yeah. Oh oh, I see. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.800 I just meant yeah anyways, but I didn't, so I 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:31.040 have no visuals right now except my hands. Okay, where 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:32.760 are we, Aaron? We've gotten way off course. 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.200 We started giving credit to the small intestine. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.000 So that's where all of our food that our stomach 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:41.040 lets out makes it. And in addition to all of 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.440 the absorption which is happening in our small intestine, our 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.560 small intestine is also a place of continued digestion. So 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.320 our gallbladder, which everyone is an expert on now because 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.520 we did an episode on gall batter as well as 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:58.400 our pancreas, are both secreting additional digestive enzymes into our 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.760 small intestine. They let them out in the first part 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.880 of our small intestine, and that like finalizes the process 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:06.680 of digestion essentially. 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:08.680 For the most part, so things are digested. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:10.760 So things are all the way broken down because they 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.720 have to be broken down all the way into like 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.520 their singular components. Right. All of our starches and carbohydrates 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.600 from things like bread have to be broken down into 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:23.120 single sugars. Our proteins have to be broken down into 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.920 single amino acids. Fats have to be broken down into 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:28.960 fatty acids so that in our small intestine they can 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.400 be absorbed through that intestinal wall and into our bloodstream 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.120 so that we can actually use these things. 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:40.400 So it's like digestion, extraction, excretion, yeah, okay. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.360 Yeah, except the colon does more than excretion and we'll 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.680 get there just one second. So yeah, So that's our 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.360 small intestine and what it's doing the whole way down. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.760 There's like three different parts that have different names, and 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:56.040 each of them absorb different things. Don't ask me any specifics. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.000 Most all of everything is absorbed within the first two 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.120 thirds are duodenum and ju juna, the first parts of 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.640 our small intestine, and then the last part is called 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.920 the ilium. And there, even though most things have been 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.280 absorbed by then a few things are very important to 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.880 be absorbed only in that spot, like B twelve as 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.600 well as our bio salts throwback to our salt better episode. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.760 Interesting why it's so specialized. Each part of our system 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:28.000 has a purpose. And then at the end of this 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:33.360 sixteen ish feet journey, there's yet another sphincter, the iliosecual valve. 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:35.720 Okay, I just have to say that all of my 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.840 all of my favorite words apparently are digestive. 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:43.240 Yeah, sphincter, peristosis, du yeah. 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.560 Not sphincter. It was the ill sekul il, I mean sphincter. Fine, 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:49.680 I love like spin. I would put it up there, 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.320 but not like it's not it's nowhere near duodenum. 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.080 Okay, it's a good yeah, yeah, these are good words. 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.360 So at this iliosecal valves is what separates the small 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.800 intestine from our large intestine, which is also called our 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.400 colon and our colon. It kind of is the star 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.280 of the show when it comes to poop, because this 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:14.760 is where this mushy mass of chime and digested food 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.080 bits that are left over turns into poop. This happens 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.400 in our colony. Our colon starts down in the right 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:27.200 lower right quadrant of our abdomen. It snakes up that's 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.719 called our acending colon. Oh yes, towards our lever. It 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.199 goes across the top of our belly, and then it 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:37.280 travels down to our lower left quadrant, and then it 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:42.639 does a s curve okay, like colon down and back 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:48.080 to our rectum okay, and then it exits our anus. 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.120 Yet another sphincter, two sphincters exactly what. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:56.040 Yes, The large intestine is called the large intestine because 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.800 it's much wider than our small intestine, So it's like, yeah, 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:00.679 it's like five to eight send me instead of two 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.840 to four centimeters, but it's not nearly as long. It's 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.520 like five feet ish one hundred and fifty centimeters or 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.840 so long a meter and a half. And the way 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.040 that we go from this pure liquid cime that's rushing 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.879 through the water side of our small intestine and into 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:19.400 the formed tubes that we think of as turds is 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:24.080 because our colon is absorbing all of the water that 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.119 is left over. Right, our small intestine does a crap 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.359 ton of water absorption as well, but our colon that 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.639 is the primary function of it. It's reasorbing water and electrolytes, 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:41.359 especially sodium, because the water follows the sodium, and that 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.959 is like its main job. It's absorbing like one to 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:47.959 two liters of water per day. It also has a 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.960 ton of musculature around it, and so it is doing 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:55.560 peristalsis to really mix all of those contents to make 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.760 sure that any other things that didn't get absorbed, things 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.480 that need further breakdown by the microbes that live in 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.560 our colon, which do a really important role in breaking 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:06.760 down the last bits of things. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.879 And I'm assuming that the our microbio our gut microbiome 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.119 is very different from one start of the small intestine 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.439 all the way to the end. 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:22.120 Absolutely, yes, every aspect of our gi tract has its 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.160 own microflora. Love that, yes, but yeah that. And then 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:29.480 at the end of that, at the very bottom of 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.159 this gastro intestinal tract, the last pieces, the rectum and 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.879 the anus, are really really important. Now, the anal canal, 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.399 it's only a couple of inches long, super short, but 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.639 it has in that two different sphincters. There's the internal 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.320 sphincter and the external sphincter. Now, the internal anal sphincter 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.720 is not really under voluntary control, so that's automatically opening 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.800 and closing. And it does this when your rectum starts 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:01.600 to fill with poop. Listen, we're going there, We're there. 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:05.240 It's we're deep in it. As your rectum starts to 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.680 fill with poop, this causes your internal anal sphincter to relax, 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.919 to let a little bit of the contents of that 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:18.120 rectum into the anal canal. Okay, okay. Then there's sensors there. 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.959 There's like a system where it talks back to your 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:25.040 brain through the sensory system in your anal canal that 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.320 can tell is it a pooper? Is it a part? 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:32.120 But they can't. I mean, it can't always always account. 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:37.280 But you sometimes can. And so then you go and 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.560 have control over that external anal sphincter so that if 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.960 it senses poop and you're in a place where you 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.800 can let it out, then you relax that external anal 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:52.440 sphincter and letter poo. Or you sense that there's poop 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:54.280 and you're like, I'm not there yet, and so you 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.560 can clench that external anal sphincter, which everyone's probably doing 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:03.520 right now as they listen, or you can sense that 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.720 it's a fart and you're like, now's the time. 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:06.520 Now's the time. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:09.440 Release okay, and hope you're right and hope that you're 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.800 right about it. And that is how we make. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.120 Poop amazing, isn't it. 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.280 I just really feel like that journey deserves credit. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:23.520 So there's more parastals. The large intestine or the colon 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.040 is the star when it comes to parastlsis. 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.240 Everything is parisalicing because you need it to be able 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:31.320 for your food to even make it to your stomach 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.160 to begin with, your stomach has a lot of musculature 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.639 and it's also contracting, but your colon just has like 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.600 a different setup of muscles where they have these like 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.600 transverse muscles that run along the whole colon as well 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.800 as around, so they just do a little different types 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.080 of contraction to really form those turds. 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.160 I really want to ask questions about like what when 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:55.639 does your stomach hurt? What is actually hurting? But I 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.879 know that that's probably more next week and it's so variable. 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.000 But yes, we'll talk where about that next week when 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.320 you have where does that happen? Oh? Do you mean 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:04.159 bor barrigmy? 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.240 What there's a word for that? And get another really 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:07.919 good world. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.040 I know it's really good. Wow, bor Berrigmy is the 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.080 tummy gurgs that you get? The gas bubbles? 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.400 Okay? Why does it have a name because it's so good? 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:19.120 Where does that come from? 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:20.120 I have no clue. 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:21.000 Is it a person? 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:22.320 These are questions for you. 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:25.040 No, I know, I literally in that one of the episodes, 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:26.680 I have a whole thing on etymology. 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:28.200 It might be is it this one? 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:29.719 I think it is this one? It is? 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:31.960 Yeah, Well I don't have answers for those questions, but 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.080 I do want to talk a little bit more about 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:36.960 the poop that that we have now formed. You asked 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:38.560 at the beginning, like how long does it take for 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:40.960 us to just empty that stomach? And so that's you 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.280 know again anywhere from like one to four hours. But 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.639 this whole process of forming a turd can take such 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.840 a long time. It's anywhere from like twenty four to 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.840 seventy two hours. We're talking like one to three days, 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:54.320 or if. 0:22:54.240 --> 0:23:00.479 It's gum, it's five years. 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:02.880 That was way too big of a laugh for that, Sorry, 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:08.280 but I thought it was quite funny. Yeah no, uh yeah, 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:10.639 but it's it's hugely variable, which I think is so 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:14.280 fascinating because it's not just that it varies person to person, 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:16.439 which it does, but it can also vary depending on 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:20.280 what you're eating. So fiber, I was just about to say, 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:23.120 which we'll talk more about next week. Okay, fiber can 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:27.640 significantly increase transit times, meaning that things move quicker through 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:29.640 your colon and through your small intestine as well. 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:33.880 Okay, increase transit times as in like faster, faster moved through. 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:39.560 Yeah, yeah, less traffic Okay, okay, But anyway, the main 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.720 timeframe is like between one to three days. 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.639 One to three days, And what about other things that 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:46.760 change transit time. 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:49.480 Fiber is the biggest one that has been studied, but 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:51.960 there's also like there's lots of medications that can slow 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.919 down transit, big huge glp ones that everyone is on 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:58.320 right now, the like ozembics of the world. That's like 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:01.800 one of their main mechanisms is slowing down gastric emptying 0:24:01.800 --> 0:24:03.399 and so they slow your transit time. But lots of 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:04.400 other medicines can too. 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.840 Yeah. Why do like opioids slow down transit time? 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:10.920 I think because of something about the receptors that they're 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:13.640 working on, where there's also opioid receptors in your GI tract, 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:18.160 but yeah, they can cause pretty substantial constipation. The SSRIs 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:21.520 also can affect your gut motility in general, not necessarily 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:23.840 slowing it down, but sometimes sometimes spinning it up, but 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:27.160 just cause more worried me, just more movement there because 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:29.720 of how much serotonin we have in our guts. So 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:31.359 there's a lot of different medicines that can do that. 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:34.600 And there's also, in addition to a range in like 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:37.640 how long it takes you to make your poop, which 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:41.320 might affect how often you poop, there's also a huge 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:46.959 range in consistency of poops. And for that we can 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:49.040 talk about one of my favorite things in all of 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:52.040 medicine to talk about, which is the Bristol stool scale 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:54.840 or the Bristol formed stool scale. And I think we 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:56.359 have an image of it, but you can google it 0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:59.240 if you're just listening. It's called the Bristol stool chart. 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:04.760 And this was invented in nineteen ninety, yeah. 0:25:04.119 --> 0:25:06.879 Which feels like it should have been invented in much 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:08.480 year ago, ten. 0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:11.880 Right exactly, But it wasn't. It was within our lifetimes. Yeah, 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:15.919 And they actually invented this or they came up with 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:20.320 this really as a way to correlate stool transit time. 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:23.040 So it was like the longer that your stool was 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:26.320 taking to move through your guts, the harder your poops 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:29.720 were going to be. So a type one stool are 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:33.760 described as separate hard lumps like nuts. So like you're 0:25:33.760 --> 0:25:38.080 popping out pellets, rabbit pellets. Oh, like these rabbit pellets 0:25:38.160 --> 0:25:41.320 rabbit pellet, which I have a shout out to the 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:43.520 San Diego Natural History Museum for letting me borrow their 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:44.320 poop there. 0:25:44.359 --> 0:25:47.480 It's not real poop, just in case anyone is concerned 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:48.360 that it's. 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:51.960 Really accurate fakeo. So yeah, like hard hard rabbit pellets 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:54.879 is like a type one, and then a type seven 0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:58.000 is just like pure liquid poop, just completely watery, no 0:25:58.119 --> 0:26:02.440 pieces type of poop and deal poop is considered usually 0:26:02.560 --> 0:26:05.640 between three and four and sometimes the type five. 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:08.520 So sometimes is that just like depending on. 0:26:08.440 --> 0:26:11.399 The person dependence really like what is normal for you 0:26:11.480 --> 0:26:13.200 might be different than what's normal for someone else. 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:15.400 That's interesting in and of itself. 0:26:15.040 --> 0:26:15.920 I know, right. 0:26:16.960 --> 0:26:17.360 Uh. 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:20.080 And also this is a slightly different scale for kiddos 0:26:20.119 --> 0:26:22.960 who are very prone to constipation, but their scale is 0:26:23.000 --> 0:26:24.480 a little bit different. Just to make it easier for 0:26:24.560 --> 0:26:26.639 kids because they have a harder time describing their poop. 0:26:26.800 --> 0:26:29.720 Okay, yeah, why why do kids have Is it just 0:26:29.720 --> 0:26:30.719 they're not eating fiber. 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:35.400 I think it's more that they hold their poop, especially 0:26:35.400 --> 0:26:38.720 in toddlers, like they'll be like volitional stool holding, it's called, 0:26:38.720 --> 0:26:40.600 and so they basically are like either afraid to poop 0:26:40.600 --> 0:26:41.919 in the potty or it's like too big of a 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:44.560 change for them, or they have one bad poop and 0:26:44.560 --> 0:26:46.560 now they're scared of it. There's like so many things. 0:26:46.440 --> 0:26:49.280 That during the potty training. 0:26:49.320 --> 0:26:51.840 But then once constant We'll talk more about this next week. 0:26:54.040 --> 0:26:56.159 But once constipation starts, it's really hard, like it's a 0:26:56.240 --> 0:26:58.840 it's a vicious cycle. Oh yeah, it's a heart it's 0:26:58.840 --> 0:27:00.679 a hard Okay, break, I want to ask questions I 0:27:00.720 --> 0:27:04.160 know next week, but that I mean, that's like how 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:06.000 we make poop. These are the ways that our poop 0:27:06.040 --> 0:27:11.159 can look really varied. I don't know what other questions 0:27:11.160 --> 0:27:12.480 that you have about poop. 0:27:14.200 --> 0:27:21.520 Fiber. Talk to me about fiber and yeah, no, excuse me. 0:27:21.960 --> 0:27:23.119 What do you want to know? I'm gonna talk more 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:26.760 next week about fiber. Okay, Okay, what fiber does on 0:27:26.800 --> 0:27:29.960 like a general level is it holds onto water. 0:27:30.359 --> 0:27:31.240 It holds onto water. 0:27:31.440 --> 0:27:35.600 So fiber are parts of plant material that we cannot 0:27:35.600 --> 0:27:39.840 break down ourselves. Some parts of fiber, our gut bacteria 0:27:40.000 --> 0:27:42.159 can break down, and they do so, and when they 0:27:42.200 --> 0:27:44.600 do then they usually produce gas. And so that's why 0:27:44.640 --> 0:27:47.639 sometimes fiber can make you real bloated and gassy because 0:27:47.680 --> 0:27:52.120 your gut bacteria are so thrilled about it. But other 0:27:52.240 --> 0:27:54.080 times they don't really break it down. And then all 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:57.359 it is is this basically like large structure that holds 0:27:57.400 --> 0:28:00.560 onto water. And so because your colon is mostly just 0:28:00.640 --> 0:28:02.960 absorbing water, the more fiber that you have, the less 0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:06.280 water that you're absorbing from that, so the softer your 0:28:06.320 --> 0:28:11.280 stool stays. It also provides this like bulking agent, which 0:28:11.520 --> 0:28:14.440 then your colon can peristals against and that is why 0:28:14.480 --> 0:28:19.480 it moves along as well too. Okay, so that's basically fiber. 0:28:19.640 --> 0:28:21.800 I do have a question I was thinking, So, okay, 0:28:21.880 --> 0:28:25.760 so you talked about that the poop is our undigested 0:28:26.080 --> 0:28:27.960 or well okay, the. 0:28:28.119 --> 0:28:31.160 Leftover fliptovers, Yeah, leftovers. 0:28:31.040 --> 0:28:35.240 And then it's also bacteria and some of our own 0:28:35.280 --> 0:28:40.200 gut microbes. How much of it is gut microbes, what 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:43.080 about our intestinal shedding? You know what? Tell me? 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:45.160 So glad you asked, that's the last thing I wanted 0:28:45.160 --> 0:28:49.120 to tell you, Like we work so well together. So 0:28:49.160 --> 0:28:51.160 because that gets into like, okay, I said that it's 0:28:51.200 --> 0:28:52.880 just the leftover parts, and now we know what our 0:28:52.920 --> 0:28:54.840 guts are doing the whole way down. But like, what 0:28:55.000 --> 0:28:57.640 really is our poop made out of? What is the 0:28:57.720 --> 0:28:59.720 a turd in the toilet? What is it really? 0:29:00.040 --> 0:29:02.920 Well on the stool scale, on some stale. 0:29:02.720 --> 0:29:06.520 Yeah, seventy five percent of our poop is just water, 0:29:06.960 --> 0:29:09.560 seventy five percent on average if we're talking like a 0:29:09.600 --> 0:29:14.160 Bristol three to five. Sure, Okay, the less the more constipated, 0:29:14.160 --> 0:29:15.880 the harder the stool, the less water it's going to have. 0:29:17.240 --> 0:29:18.880 But so seventy five percent or so of it is 0:29:18.920 --> 0:29:23.360 usually water and the remaining twenty five percent is like biomass. 0:29:24.520 --> 0:29:30.360 Up to fifty five percent of that biomass is bacteria. Wow, 0:29:30.400 --> 0:29:34.840 and up to fifty percent of that bacteria are still alive. 0:29:35.680 --> 0:29:39.440 Of those bacteria, Sorry for my grammar. So we're talking 0:29:39.560 --> 0:29:41.800 like I also didn't even mention this, but like in 0:29:41.840 --> 0:29:44.360 your in your colon, especially because that's where we think 0:29:44.400 --> 0:29:46.920 about our gut microbiome the most because that's where we 0:29:46.960 --> 0:29:50.400 have the most abundant flora, even though we have microbes everywhere. Sure, 0:29:50.480 --> 0:29:54.760 we are talking hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of 0:29:54.840 --> 0:29:59.880 individual bacteria from hundreds, if not thousands of different species, 0:30:01.040 --> 0:30:03.719 all of which are doing different things. They're serving different roles, 0:30:04.160 --> 0:30:07.840 including helping break down the final bits of food that 0:30:07.920 --> 0:30:11.120 weren't broken down by our digestive tract in our small 0:30:11.160 --> 0:30:15.920 intestine and our stomach, including making vitamin K and a 0:30:16.000 --> 0:30:18.400 number of B vitamins that are essential for us to 0:30:18.440 --> 0:30:22.840 then absorb in our colon, and playing a huge role 0:30:22.880 --> 0:30:26.440 in our immune system protecting us from infection with other bacteria, 0:30:26.560 --> 0:30:29.040 and then also just like modulating our immune response. And 0:30:29.080 --> 0:30:31.160 the more that we learn about our gut microbiome, the 0:30:31.160 --> 0:30:33.640 more of a role that we know that it has 0:30:33.680 --> 0:30:38.320 in like our total body health. So when we're pooping out, 0:30:38.360 --> 0:30:41.320 like half of the actual mass of our poop is 0:30:41.520 --> 0:30:43.040 just bacteria. 0:30:42.920 --> 0:30:45.800 Yeah, which is also you can't get over that, And. 0:30:45.760 --> 0:30:48.360 It's also why our poop is so gross, because half 0:30:48.360 --> 0:30:51.000 of that bacteria is alive and could make you sick 0:30:51.080 --> 0:30:53.040 if it was the right type of bacteria or if 0:30:53.080 --> 0:30:54.640 it was opportunistic and I can't wait for you to 0:30:54.680 --> 0:30:56.760 tell us more about that. And then the rest of 0:30:56.800 --> 0:31:01.400 it is fiber insoluble plant matter, undigestive sugars, undigested protein, 0:31:01.560 --> 0:31:04.560 whatever other stuff, and then some cells in mucus. The 0:31:04.600 --> 0:31:06.800 rest of that fifty percent, and the breakdown depends on 0:31:06.840 --> 0:31:12.800 what you're eating. But Aaron, unless you have any other questions, 0:31:12.840 --> 0:31:14.080 I'm going to transition to you. 0:31:14.520 --> 0:31:17.800 Okay, I mean, I just okay, So there's so much 0:31:17.840 --> 0:31:20.040 back to I just didn't that's incredible. 0:31:20.080 --> 0:31:20.320 I know. 0:31:20.920 --> 0:31:22.920 Oh, I do have a question about just like water 0:31:23.040 --> 0:31:26.320 in general. So you know, obviously we're drinking a lot 0:31:26.360 --> 0:31:31.520 of water. How does dehydration play a role in poop formation? 0:31:31.920 --> 0:31:36.400 Huge role, especially in constipation. So, like the biggest, one 0:31:36.440 --> 0:31:39.680 of the biggest risks with diarrhea is that your colon 0:31:39.800 --> 0:31:42.680 is not absorbing that water, and so you're at really 0:31:42.760 --> 0:31:45.440 high risk of dehydration because now you're losing one to 0:31:45.480 --> 0:31:48.160 two liters of water or more depending on how much 0:31:48.160 --> 0:31:51.680 you're pooping. And so that's a huge risk of diarrhea. 0:31:51.760 --> 0:31:55.520 And so if you are dehydrated, your colon is still 0:31:55.560 --> 0:31:58.960 going to absorb ninety percent or more of the water 0:31:59.080 --> 0:32:01.840 that is left in or colon. But if you are 0:32:01.840 --> 0:32:05.080 dehydrated to begin with, then you're not drinking as much water. 0:32:05.120 --> 0:32:06.960 There's not as much water making it there, and so 0:32:07.040 --> 0:32:11.520 that's why you're at risk of constipation. Got it? Yep? 0:32:12.320 --> 0:32:17.200 My second episode is now also done. Just kidding, So 0:32:18.440 --> 0:32:21.000 I'm going to just end this by saying, if we 0:32:21.080 --> 0:32:24.120 think back again to what our poop is made out of, right, Yes, 0:32:24.360 --> 0:32:29.080 it's bacteria, it's plant matter, it's fats and proteins. If 0:32:29.120 --> 0:32:32.240 you go even more nitty gritty on it, our poop 0:32:32.400 --> 0:32:38.240 is hydrogen and oxygen, sure water, carbon, nitrogen, especially from 0:32:38.240 --> 0:32:41.959 the bacteria, and undigestive protein. And then there's some amount 0:32:41.960 --> 0:32:44.440 of inorganic matter that we haven't used or that came 0:32:44.440 --> 0:32:48.480 from these cells, like iron and calcium and phosphate. There's salts. 0:32:49.080 --> 0:32:54.000 So really, aerin poop is just the building blocks of life. 0:32:54.320 --> 0:32:55.160 Uh duh. 0:32:55.560 --> 0:32:59.640 So tell me about how animals use it? 0:33:00.120 --> 0:33:03.400 Oh, I can't wait, I cannot wait. 0:33:03.440 --> 0:33:21.880 Okay, we have. 0:33:22.400 --> 0:33:28.080 So many names for poop, so many names. There's excrement, 0:33:28.160 --> 0:33:31.600 which comes from the Latin to separate or sift out. 0:33:32.360 --> 0:33:38.440 H turd I loved it comes from similar meanings which 0:33:38.480 --> 0:33:41.760 I find interesting to split flay, torn off the body. 0:33:42.760 --> 0:33:47.360 Crap originates from the word for residue, specifically from rendered fat. 0:33:48.160 --> 0:33:49.160 I love the word crap. 0:33:49.640 --> 0:33:52.600 I do too. I think turd is still but like 0:33:52.640 --> 0:33:55.120 crap is more versatile, right like a crap. 0:33:55.320 --> 0:33:57.320 Yeah, I can my two year old saying, and it 0:33:57.400 --> 0:33:58.080 just cracks me up. 0:33:59.520 --> 0:34:02.280 There's fee sees, which is from the Latin for sediment 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:05.080 or dregs. Stool. I don't need to take us on 0:34:05.120 --> 0:34:08.920 that animalogical journey. It's it's longer, but it basically is 0:34:08.920 --> 0:34:10.719 like thrown as part of it, which I find fast, 0:34:10.800 --> 0:34:14.080 like like thrown like toilet. Yeah, it's like, okay, fine, 0:34:14.080 --> 0:34:16.560 I'll take I'll take us on this journey. It starts 0:34:16.719 --> 0:34:20.040 as seat for one person, as in like thrown, and 0:34:20.080 --> 0:34:21.920 then to the other stool that we think of today, 0:34:22.040 --> 0:34:24.279 you know, like the just a stool, like the little 0:34:24.280 --> 0:34:28.120 stool to then privy to then poop. Huh yeah, interesting, 0:34:28.800 --> 0:34:31.400 dung all manure. 0:34:32.840 --> 0:34:33.200 Poop. 0:34:33.520 --> 0:34:35.480 Do you want to know where poop comes from? It 0:34:35.480 --> 0:34:38.160 comes from the okay, does not come from poop deck, 0:34:38.320 --> 0:34:41.520 which I think is a comics swabbing the deck. Those 0:34:41.520 --> 0:34:45.840 are not the same, not the same etymological origin. I 0:34:45.840 --> 0:34:49.560 think so poop probably comes from the Middle English word 0:34:49.840 --> 0:34:53.960 poopen poopin referring to the sound a horn makes, which 0:34:54.000 --> 0:35:01.240 then became fart fart, and then through automatopoeia became poop poop, 0:35:01.280 --> 0:35:04.719 and and then there are so many words that we 0:35:04.840 --> 0:35:08.759 use to describe animal poop droppings, scat which means any 0:35:08.800 --> 0:35:13.160 wild animal poop, guano, bat and bird poop. So much Yep, 0:35:13.200 --> 0:35:14.040 bring out the guano. 0:35:14.200 --> 0:35:16.960 This is some bat guano. Again, thank you to the 0:35:17.000 --> 0:35:21.719 San Diego Natural Museum. We've got some carnivor poop. 0:35:22.000 --> 0:35:22.800 Carnivor poop. 0:35:23.360 --> 0:35:26.040 Look at that. It's so gross it is. 0:35:26.239 --> 0:35:31.360 Yeah, yep, that's carnivor poop. There's frass, which is like 0:35:31.440 --> 0:35:35.399 inside was Yeah, yep, sprint. Oh, I haven't heard that 0:35:35.520 --> 0:35:36.960 otter poop specifically. 0:35:37.040 --> 0:35:38.960 I'm sorry. I don't have an example of. 0:35:39.080 --> 0:35:41.200 I I just was like, wait, so then I was 0:35:41.239 --> 0:35:44.239 like exactly, so, I don't know. I tried to look 0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:47.080 up others, like species specific names for poop, and I 0:35:47.120 --> 0:35:50.320 couldn't really find very many. I didn't do a huge search. 0:35:50.840 --> 0:35:53.560 I mean, just cubic poop. That's all really I know 0:35:53.600 --> 0:35:56.719 about that. I don't think that's that's not that's not 0:35:56.800 --> 0:36:00.080 the name. But perhaps the most versatile word for poop 0:36:00.320 --> 0:36:02.000 is shi t. 0:36:03.080 --> 0:36:05.279 I have a non explicit rating us so we're not 0:36:05.280 --> 0:36:06.719 going to say, we're not going to say it. 0:36:06.880 --> 0:36:10.200 But like I do love so it shares a similar 0:36:10.400 --> 0:36:15.000 kind of etymological origin as excrement and turd. It comes 0:36:15.040 --> 0:36:17.799 from this idea of separation from the body, which also 0:36:17.960 --> 0:36:21.520 means it shares an origin with the word science. Really 0:36:21.600 --> 0:36:23.720 need to like separate one thing from another. 0:36:24.200 --> 0:36:26.760 Huh, so that's so interesting. 0:36:26.640 --> 0:36:28.920 And science have the same well not poop. Excrement and 0:36:28.960 --> 0:36:33.480 science have the same origin. Ish actually shi t but anyway, 0:36:33.560 --> 0:36:36.640 so but like, yeah, sahi t has so many different 0:36:36.640 --> 0:36:39.520 We can attach that word to like shoot the bull, 0:36:39.840 --> 0:36:44.840 you know, chicken, whatever, I love it, I blank my pants, 0:36:48.200 --> 0:36:51.480 that kind of thing. But there is no shortage of 0:36:51.520 --> 0:36:53.840 the ways to refer to the gut derived waste that 0:36:53.840 --> 0:36:58.520 we leave behind. But none of these words properly convey 0:36:58.960 --> 0:37:03.960 the respect and a preciation that poop truly deserves, even 0:37:04.000 --> 0:37:05.920 the word waste, which is one of our more like, 0:37:05.960 --> 0:37:09.279 you know, polite words for poop means something of no use, 0:37:09.480 --> 0:37:12.040 something you don't want, something that you like, You're like, well, 0:37:12.080 --> 0:37:15.319 I don't need this, get it away from me. Can 0:37:15.400 --> 0:37:18.440 that be said for poop? I mean, as a species, 0:37:18.520 --> 0:37:22.920 we have devised massive, intricate sewer systems, true feats of 0:37:22.960 --> 0:37:27.799 engineering to increase the distance between us and poop feces. 0:37:27.960 --> 0:37:32.239 Poop elicits a feeling of disgust universally across all cultures, 0:37:32.840 --> 0:37:37.200 probably evolutionarily ingrained because avoidance of feces would also help 0:37:37.280 --> 0:37:41.800 to avoid diseased. So yes, not wanting to be around 0:37:41.840 --> 0:37:47.120 poop is reasonable, it's adaptive. But labeling it as waste 0:37:47.280 --> 0:37:50.600 really only tells one part of the story. Poop as 0:37:50.600 --> 0:37:53.400 a problem to deal with, And that's the story that 0:37:53.400 --> 0:37:56.560 I'm going to tell more of next week. But this 0:37:56.640 --> 0:37:59.759 week my goal is to shine a more appreciative light 0:38:00.320 --> 0:38:01.440 on this dark matter. 0:38:03.000 --> 0:38:04.399 Dark matter, that's another good one. 0:38:04.719 --> 0:38:06.879 There's a book I stole that from that it's called 0:38:06.880 --> 0:38:10.760 The Other Dark Matter. But because without poop, and especially 0:38:10.840 --> 0:38:13.640 the creatures that repurpose it, our planet would be a 0:38:13.760 --> 0:38:19.319 vastly different place, a lifeless empty shell. So we have 0:38:19.360 --> 0:38:21.480 a lot to thank poop for. Yeah, and this is 0:38:21.480 --> 0:38:24.160 we had a parasite appreciation Hour at one point this 0:38:24.200 --> 0:38:25.359 is the poop appreciation Hour. 0:38:25.440 --> 0:38:27.399 Oh I love it. I'm here for it. Yes, let's 0:38:27.400 --> 0:38:28.400 appreciate some poop. 0:38:28.520 --> 0:38:32.080 Let's appreciate it. Okay, here we go. When I started 0:38:32.080 --> 0:38:34.440 traveling to Panama to do field work for my PhD, 0:38:34.800 --> 0:38:37.880 I picked up the book Tropical Nature by Adrian Forsyth 0:38:37.920 --> 0:38:40.560 and Ken Miata, And by now I've forgotten most of 0:38:40.600 --> 0:38:43.200 what I learned in that book, but there was one 0:38:43.239 --> 0:38:46.080 piece of advice that has stuck with me. If you 0:38:46.160 --> 0:38:49.400 want to see the forest come to life, watch what 0:38:49.520 --> 0:38:54.640 happens after you poop in the woods. Okay, I'm reading 0:38:54.640 --> 0:38:58.239 a quote from this quote. After nature calls, do not 0:38:58.440 --> 0:39:03.040 beat a hasty, embarrassed treat, but sit quietly nearby. The 0:39:03.160 --> 0:39:06.920 earliest contestants will arrive soon after you settle down. First 0:39:06.960 --> 0:39:10.320 are the tiny dung scareb beetles and metallic otitted flies. 0:39:10.920 --> 0:39:14.800 The later arrivals are larger and behaviorally more complex scaub beetles. 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:18.680 Upon landing, they embark on a series of maneuvers designed 0:39:18.760 --> 0:39:21.399 to secure a private cache of food that they will 0:39:21.440 --> 0:39:25.840 either eat themselves or barter for copulatory rites. While the 0:39:25.840 --> 0:39:30.240 scarabs are carting away dung, long sleek stapho linid beetles 0:39:30.320 --> 0:39:33.799 arrive on the scene. Agile and voracious. They burrow under 0:39:33.800 --> 0:39:36.919 the dung mass in search of their prey. Of all 0:39:37.040 --> 0:39:41.040 the dung deposited in tropical rainforest, human scat is the 0:39:41.040 --> 0:39:45.359 most avidly sought and the most quickly removed. More than 0:39:45.480 --> 0:39:48.960 fifty species of dung scabs may converge on a pile 0:39:49.040 --> 0:39:52.799 of our manure before it is gone species. 0:39:53.360 --> 0:39:54.919 I don't even think I knew there were that many 0:39:54.960 --> 0:39:56.040 species of dung beetles. 0:39:56.120 --> 0:40:00.960 Oh there are, do I have it. We'll see lots, lots, 0:40:01.200 --> 0:40:05.720 many more than fifty species. Isn't that great? 0:40:06.080 --> 0:40:06.840 Yeah? 0:40:06.960 --> 0:40:08.680 I love that. So anyway, that is the piece of 0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:11.800 advice that I will also say, do this, do this. 0:40:11.800 --> 0:40:14.640 Do poop in those woods, Do poop in the woods, 0:40:14.640 --> 0:40:16.839 poop in the woods in the tropics specifically, Like, does 0:40:16.880 --> 0:40:17.720 it have to be tropics? 0:40:17.880 --> 0:40:19.920 No, there are poop. There are dung beetles on every 0:40:20.040 --> 0:40:21.520 continent except Antarctica. 0:40:22.000 --> 0:40:22.400 Wow. 0:40:22.560 --> 0:40:25.960 Yeah, they I mean, they really are the unsung heroes 0:40:26.080 --> 0:40:29.320 of poop. I mean, in fact, all heroes of poop, 0:40:29.680 --> 0:40:34.040 including like the microbes and the fungi and the and 0:40:34.080 --> 0:40:36.799 they're so cute. They're all unsung, right, because no one 0:40:36.840 --> 0:40:40.759 really appreciates no. Dung beetles. They do the environment, Yeah, 0:40:40.840 --> 0:40:43.920 because without them, we would be buried in the stuff. 0:40:44.120 --> 0:40:46.279 Because they take our waste product and they use it 0:40:46.320 --> 0:40:50.080 themselves or they turn it into something that other organisms 0:40:50.120 --> 0:40:54.880 like plants can use. Case in point Australia in the 0:40:54.960 --> 0:41:00.920 years following European colonization. Dung beetles are globally distributed, like 0:41:00.960 --> 0:41:03.400 I said, every continent except Antarctica, but they can be 0:41:03.440 --> 0:41:07.360 pretty picky about the poop that they utilize. When cattle 0:41:07.400 --> 0:41:11.520 were introduced to Australia by Europeans, the dung beetles there, 0:41:11.840 --> 0:41:15.319 which had evolved on a diet of marsupial poop, primarily 0:41:16.440 --> 0:41:21.279 were not interested in this new cattle dung, and the 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:25.600 poop began to accumulate at a rate that approached thirty 0:41:25.640 --> 0:41:31.560 three million tons per year just mounds. 0:41:31.640 --> 0:41:34.760 It's like so much poop that you can't I can imagine. 0:41:36.760 --> 0:41:39.120 Yeah. I'll talk a little bit about more other poop 0:41:39.239 --> 0:41:42.319 quantities that there's better visualizations, but this one, I don't 0:41:42.320 --> 0:41:45.879 have a good one for huge, huge, huge pest fly 0:41:46.080 --> 0:41:49.919 populations grew out of control and grazing land shrink because 0:41:49.960 --> 0:41:52.480 the cattle were like, I'm not going to graze near 0:41:52.520 --> 0:41:57.040 these towering piles of maneuver. That's grosss Yeah, And after 0:41:57.080 --> 0:41:59.640 about one hundred and eighty years of this, the government 0:41:59.680 --> 0:42:04.399 decided that they just couldn't take it anymore. I mean, 0:42:04.400 --> 0:42:07.120 that's like when the first cows were important. Okay, but 0:42:07.239 --> 0:42:12.720 still yeah, the first fleet. Yeah, so between between nineteen 0:42:12.800 --> 0:42:15.440 sixty eight and nineteen eighty two, in a move that 0:42:15.480 --> 0:42:19.680 I find shocking considering the issues that introduced species have 0:42:19.760 --> 0:42:22.359 caused in the past. Guess what Australia did. 0:42:22.440 --> 0:42:23.640 Introduce some dung beetles. 0:42:23.640 --> 0:42:27.320 They did fifty five different species of dung beetles, primarily 0:42:27.320 --> 0:42:31.560 from Southern Africa. I know, risky whisky. 0:42:32.960 --> 0:42:33.920 But it paid off. 0:42:33.960 --> 0:42:37.320 It paid off. About eight species took hold and since 0:42:37.360 --> 0:42:40.880 have been relatively successful in restoring some of the Australian pasture. 0:42:41.080 --> 0:42:44.440 It's that's so interesting. Have we ever done an episode 0:42:44.480 --> 0:42:48.399 that's just focused on the introduced species issues. We haven't. 0:42:48.440 --> 0:42:51.160 It's very outside of our and yet inside of our 0:42:51.400 --> 0:42:52.280 personal interest. 0:42:52.600 --> 0:42:55.480 We should do that. Let's do fire ants. Okay, okay, 0:42:55.960 --> 0:43:01.520 all right, done, done, But these dung beetles, I mean, 0:43:01.560 --> 0:43:04.440 it just showed how integral they are in the poop cycle, 0:43:04.560 --> 0:43:08.640 and what valueabill work they perform. So for about fifteen 0:43:08.680 --> 0:43:12.160 percent of the Earth's ice free surface is used for agriculture, 0:43:12.960 --> 0:43:17.000 and that translates into a lot of livestock dung, much 0:43:17.000 --> 0:43:19.800 of which is handled by dung beetles and other decomposers. 0:43:20.560 --> 0:43:24.120 In two thousand and six, that's that's like, it's twenty 0:43:24.200 --> 0:43:27.239 years ago. But you know it's fine. Dung Beetle contributions 0:43:27.239 --> 0:43:30.719 to the US beef cattle industry alone were estimated at 0:43:30.760 --> 0:43:33.399 three hundred and eighty million dollars per year. 0:43:33.520 --> 0:43:34.480 And no one's paying them. 0:43:34.560 --> 0:43:37.879 No one's paying them. They're getting paid in poopt, paid 0:43:37.920 --> 0:43:39.200 and poop and they're happy about that. 0:43:39.280 --> 0:43:39.719 They're through. 0:43:39.920 --> 0:43:43.880 Yeah. By reintegrating dung into the landscape, dung beetles are 0:43:43.920 --> 0:43:48.080 helping to fertilize the soil cycle. Nutrients distribute seeds both 0:43:48.160 --> 0:43:51.920 reduce and distribute parasites, which have a role in ecosystems 0:43:52.000 --> 0:43:52.400 as well. 0:43:52.440 --> 0:43:53.560 We still appreciate parents. 0:43:53.680 --> 0:43:58.160 I love parasites. They control pest fly populations. Some are 0:43:58.200 --> 0:44:01.919 even pollinators. Yeah, I don't know how, so don't ask. 0:44:01.920 --> 0:44:02.480 That's fine. 0:44:04.480 --> 0:44:07.359 For the past forty million years, dung beetles have been 0:44:07.400 --> 0:44:10.799 bringing new meaning to the phrase one man's trash is 0:44:10.840 --> 0:44:11.720 another's treasure. 0:44:12.040 --> 0:44:12.839 God, I love it. 0:44:13.000 --> 0:44:16.600 Yeah, over five thousand species there it is, I do 0:44:16.719 --> 0:44:19.759 have it. Five thousand species, five thousand species. I mean 0:44:19.800 --> 0:44:22.680 it makes sense though, because like think about niche differentiation. 0:44:22.920 --> 0:44:25.319 Like no, but just of dung beetles. Dung beetles, Oh, 0:44:25.360 --> 0:44:28.359 insects are so cool, I know, okay. 0:44:28.120 --> 0:44:31.280 We are, oh speaking of if you are watching on YouTube, 0:44:31.280 --> 0:44:33.439 we have these sweet dung beetle shirts. 0:44:33.160 --> 0:44:36.160 Shout out to Yu see Davis and entomology. 0:44:35.760 --> 0:44:37.680 And there are very There are other cute shirts that 0:44:37.719 --> 0:44:39.239 we saw there too, but we just had to have these. 0:44:39.320 --> 0:44:41.680 Dog thank you for selling them. 0:44:41.840 --> 0:44:47.480 Yes, but yeah. Among dung beetles, there are rollers that 0:44:47.600 --> 0:44:50.560 transport balls of dung to later bury under the soil. 0:44:50.640 --> 0:44:53.839 There are tunnelers which bury the dung close to where 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:56.920 it fell. There are dwellers which live in the poop 0:44:57.160 --> 0:45:00.440 or brewed. They're young in the poop mm hmm. And 0:45:00.520 --> 0:45:03.560 dung beetles are not innovators, right like they didn't inherit 0:45:03.600 --> 0:45:06.319 a planet that was piled high with poop. They are 0:45:06.360 --> 0:45:09.439 carrying on a tradition that is foundational to life as 0:45:09.440 --> 0:45:12.560 we know it, whereby quote unquote, waste is in the 0:45:12.560 --> 0:45:17.040 eye of the beholder. For the earliest microbes, oxygen was 0:45:17.080 --> 0:45:19.680 thought it was waste, right, it was a toxic byproduct. 0:45:20.280 --> 0:45:24.520 Carbon dioxide was king and then came along the aerobic bacteria, 0:45:24.600 --> 0:45:27.680 for whom oxygen was not just like weight. It wasn't 0:45:27.719 --> 0:45:30.880 just not waste, but it was essential essential. 0:45:31.920 --> 0:45:32.120 Deep. 0:45:33.120 --> 0:45:35.120 I mean, that's like as deep as we're going to go, 0:45:35.360 --> 0:45:37.040 just a little bit of a dive in the backup 0:45:37.120 --> 0:45:40.560 of it. But what one organism produces as waste, another 0:45:40.640 --> 0:45:43.840 views as an opportunity. For us, we may view the 0:45:43.880 --> 0:45:47.000 poop that we produce as waste and nothing more, like 0:45:47.160 --> 0:45:49.440 get this away from me. It stinks, it's gross, it's 0:45:49.440 --> 0:45:52.480 gonna make me sick. But for dung beetles and flies 0:45:52.520 --> 0:45:56.120 and earthworms and soil microbes and fungi, our poop is 0:45:56.200 --> 0:45:59.839 a rich substance packed full of nutrients. It's a place 0:45:59.840 --> 0:46:02.640 to raise your young, to make your mark, and to 0:46:02.760 --> 0:46:05.160 do your part to reuse and recycle. 0:46:07.040 --> 0:46:10.280 I love imagining them like telling their kids this, like, okay, kids, 0:46:10.719 --> 0:46:14.440 get right on the family biz. One kid is like dad, 0:46:14.760 --> 0:46:17.120 can we just eat like broccoli. 0:46:17.600 --> 0:46:23.200 Yeah, but we really don't give these organisms, these king 0:46:23.280 --> 0:46:26.560 midases of the world, enough credit for transforming our waste 0:46:26.600 --> 0:46:30.680 into a pile of gold. That waste comes in all 0:46:30.880 --> 0:46:35.319 shapes and sizes. From the cube shaped poop of a wombat, 0:46:35.800 --> 0:46:37.359 which is something to do, is just the way that. 0:46:37.320 --> 0:46:41.600 It they're colon, Yeah. 0:46:40.360 --> 0:46:44.000 To the kidney shaped dung of a horse, the pellets 0:46:44.080 --> 0:46:44.680 of rabbits. 0:46:44.800 --> 0:46:47.160 I did not know that horse poop is shaped like 0:46:47.160 --> 0:46:48.239 a kidney, like. 0:46:48.239 --> 0:46:53.560 A bean beanish, yeah, beanie, yeah, to the cylindrical tubes 0:46:53.600 --> 0:46:58.880 of carnivores and us and us and omnivores. Yeah, yeah, sure. 0:46:59.640 --> 0:47:02.200 I mean, I don't know if all omnivores have cylindrical poop. 0:47:03.280 --> 0:47:05.920 There are generalizations that we can make, and there are 0:47:05.960 --> 0:47:07.200 exceptions to everything. 0:47:08.040 --> 0:47:10.400 There's probably a bristol stool scale for every animal. 0:47:10.560 --> 0:47:14.080 Just kidding well, I was actually thinking that they probably should, 0:47:14.200 --> 0:47:17.360 right like there would be because a sick rabbit probably 0:47:17.360 --> 0:47:21.680 wouldn't produce my dog's poop ranges, Oh god, in texture, 0:47:21.920 --> 0:47:23.520 and I'm like, how am I supposed to get this 0:47:23.560 --> 0:47:24.480 off in the grass? 0:47:24.520 --> 0:47:27.279 It is just embedded in especially the second or third 0:47:27.320 --> 0:47:27.919 poop of the walk. 0:47:27.960 --> 0:47:30.399 It's just like you know, when it's a third poop 0:47:30.440 --> 0:47:33.720 and you're just like, please, don't, just please, there's nothing 0:47:34.280 --> 0:47:41.600 at least, yeah, you can wipe it. On second thought, 0:47:41.600 --> 0:47:44.200 I'm glad we don't have more pictures for this episode thing. 0:47:47.400 --> 0:47:49.799 But the variation in poop across the animal kingdom is 0:47:49.840 --> 0:47:52.240 so vast that you might wonder if there are any 0:47:52.400 --> 0:47:55.839 real common threads, And it turns out that there are so. 0:47:56.320 --> 0:48:00.440 By modeling how different species pooped, some researchers conclude that 0:48:00.480 --> 0:48:02.840 the magic number for poop duration. 0:48:03.040 --> 0:48:03.880 Is twelve seconds. 0:48:03.960 --> 0:48:04.280 Yeah. 0:48:04.560 --> 0:48:06.879 I found this paper, Aaron, and I told my whole 0:48:06.920 --> 0:48:10.000 family about it, and now my kid counts every time 0:48:10.000 --> 0:48:12.880 he goes to the bath and me. He's like yeah, 0:48:13.120 --> 0:48:14.680 and I'm like, it's been more than twelve seconds, bro, 0:48:15.480 --> 0:48:16.360 I've been coming. 0:48:16.080 --> 0:48:18.200 My dog and I'm like seven, are you okay? 0:48:18.239 --> 0:48:20.600 Yeah, but it was twelve plus or minus seven seconds. 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:23.120 That was the twelve plus or minus seven second I mean, okay, 0:48:23.120 --> 0:48:25.280 that's still like quite a small range just in terms 0:48:25.280 --> 0:48:28.520 of yeah, because it was like from elephants to rabbits 0:48:28.600 --> 0:48:29.120 or something. 0:48:29.239 --> 0:48:30.200 Oh yeah, give it to me. 0:48:30.360 --> 0:48:34.239 So like, okay, elephants poop fifteen pounds a day fifteen 0:48:34.400 --> 0:48:38.360 pounds pounds, yeah, oh my gosh, which is one hundred 0:48:38.360 --> 0:48:40.000 times more than a dog poops. 0:48:40.719 --> 0:48:41.200 Hm. Wow. 0:48:41.760 --> 0:48:41.880 Uh. 0:48:42.320 --> 0:48:46.640 Elephants poop at a rate of three inches per second, 0:48:48.400 --> 0:48:51.280 keep going. Dog poop at about a rate ofo point 0:48:51.400 --> 0:48:52.520 five inches per second. 0:48:52.560 --> 0:48:56.160 Okay, so it's a much smaller volume, smaller but same rate, 0:48:56.760 --> 0:48:59.000 same and humans are like just under an inch a second. 0:48:59.680 --> 0:49:02.840 Although, so are humans actually pooping twelve seconds? Absolutely not. 0:49:02.880 --> 0:49:03.520 We'll talk about it. 0:49:03.520 --> 0:49:05.680 We'll talk me about that next week. But they're both like, 0:49:05.800 --> 0:49:08.319 how how is an elephant pooping fifteen pounds and a 0:49:08.320 --> 0:49:10.040 dog poopy? You know, like, how are they all pooping? 0:49:10.080 --> 0:49:12.160 The poop from like the time that it exits the 0:49:12.200 --> 0:49:14.840 anus until the time it's done on the floor is 0:49:14.960 --> 0:49:18.040 twelve seconds plus or minus from an elephant to a 0:49:18.120 --> 0:49:19.200 dog to a dog? 0:49:19.440 --> 0:49:19.680 True? 0:49:19.680 --> 0:49:19.879 Wow? 0:49:20.160 --> 0:49:22.239 Even yeah? 0:49:22.280 --> 0:49:26.319 How how the mucus? The mucus is the mucus that 0:49:26.440 --> 0:49:29.839 lines are intestines. It keeps everything moving along, getting there, 0:49:29.880 --> 0:49:32.560 getting out there smoothly. I just love this so much, 0:49:32.960 --> 0:49:35.080 So glad that you also found a twelve second Yes, 0:49:36.080 --> 0:49:38.799 that's all I have for like the commonalities. 0:49:38.000 --> 0:49:40.960 Though for changed my life forever though me too. Oh 0:49:40.960 --> 0:49:42.400 We're going to talk more about it next week. The 0:49:42.440 --> 0:49:44.320 twelve seconds will come up. I guess the number is 0:49:44.600 --> 0:49:46.880 the magic number. We should be able to poop in 0:49:46.920 --> 0:49:50.040 twelve seconds because we have cylindrical poops, just like all 0:49:50.080 --> 0:49:51.640 of these mammals that they model. 0:49:51.400 --> 0:49:54.360 I mean fiber. Is that the bottom line. 0:49:54.160 --> 0:49:55.640 Paper was out of Georgia Tech. For a second, I 0:49:55.640 --> 0:49:56.920 thought it was also out of Davis, and I was 0:49:56.920 --> 0:49:58.799 going to give them another shadow, but it was Georgia Tech. 0:49:58.880 --> 0:50:02.680 I don't know. I read it book I found because 0:50:02.680 --> 0:50:04.839 I was still loved it. I need to know more. 0:50:06.200 --> 0:50:08.359 But yeah, as far as commonality is like, that's all 0:50:08.400 --> 0:50:12.440 I've got fascinating. But the scent, the shape, the color, texture, 0:50:12.480 --> 0:50:14.759 and location of poop, they vary so much across the 0:50:14.800 --> 0:50:17.960 animal kingdom, and they can tell us about the animal 0:50:18.000 --> 0:50:20.239 that produced it and the kind of life that it 0:50:20.320 --> 0:50:24.080 is leading. Okay, right, so scent can tell us what 0:50:24.120 --> 0:50:27.400 the animal ate. Carnivore poop tends to smell much worse 0:50:27.480 --> 0:50:30.240 to us than herb of war poop to us, although 0:50:30.280 --> 0:50:32.840 scent is definitely again in the nose of the beholder, 0:50:33.000 --> 0:50:37.080 right Like, yes, as anyone who has had a dog 0:50:37.160 --> 0:50:40.840 can attest watching as their dog rolls in something unspeakably foul. 0:50:41.640 --> 0:50:44.799 I'm just like why why? Still, there are a lot 0:50:44.800 --> 0:50:47.680 of reasons why. Actually, scent is a really powerful method 0:50:47.760 --> 0:50:50.400 of communication. So, for instance, it can alert a predator 0:50:50.440 --> 0:50:53.680 to prey species nearby. This is one reason why your 0:50:53.680 --> 0:50:55.279 dog might be rolling in poop just to be like 0:50:55.360 --> 0:50:58.160 I'm not I'm not a prey, yeah, or like I 0:50:58.600 --> 0:51:06.080 am you know mighty predators smell my body, my own feces. Yeah, 0:51:06.120 --> 0:51:09.200 so it might be like a disguising of scent. Sharks 0:51:09.239 --> 0:51:12.640 apparently can recognize the poop of seals and humans and 0:51:12.800 --> 0:51:14.920 have may use it as a queue to like, oh, 0:51:15.000 --> 0:51:18.880 there's prey nearby certain sharks. Wow. 0:51:19.040 --> 0:51:21.640 Yeah, I feel like you hear so much about how 0:51:21.719 --> 0:51:24.080 much sharks can scent blood, you know, like they can 0:51:24.120 --> 0:51:26.480 sense blood. But I never thought about them using poop 0:51:26.560 --> 0:51:28.920 as a That makes sense because it would just be 0:51:29.760 --> 0:51:33.280 floating in the right interesting. 0:51:32.800 --> 0:51:35.879 And also poop would tell you more about the individual 0:51:36.680 --> 0:51:37.399 animal than. 0:51:37.320 --> 0:51:39.680 Blood and just blood yeah right, blood is just I mean, 0:51:39.680 --> 0:51:40.160 I'm sure. 0:51:40.000 --> 0:51:42.920 Blood is also a cue, but like, yeah, poop apparently 0:51:42.960 --> 0:51:47.439 too juicy juicy seal yep up ahead to the right, 0:51:49.280 --> 0:51:51.360 take a left at the booi. 0:51:51.480 --> 0:51:51.920 I don't know. 0:51:52.200 --> 0:51:57.040 Yeah. Some species bury their poop or they shoot their 0:51:57.040 --> 0:52:00.239 poop in a projectile manner to throw predators if the 0:52:00.280 --> 0:52:02.400 trail butterflies do this called fresh shooting. 0:52:02.480 --> 0:52:04.719 Oh my gosh, yeah, yep. 0:52:05.239 --> 0:52:07.240 The smell of poop can also signal to other members 0:52:07.239 --> 0:52:09.880 of your species, like, hey, this is mine, this is 0:52:09.960 --> 0:52:14.000 my territory. Paws off. Big cats do that, hippo, Yeah, 0:52:14.080 --> 0:52:18.320 and also hippos do this. Big cats do this. Yeah, Okay, 0:52:17.960 --> 0:52:20.800 their they'll tails will be like helicopters, and they're. 0:52:20.600 --> 0:52:25.800 Like just like just getting their over the little spot. 0:52:26.680 --> 0:52:30.840 Some species have specialized glands that leave concentrated sense like dogs. 0:52:31.680 --> 0:52:34.879 They might even have Other species have communal latrines where 0:52:34.880 --> 0:52:36.440 they all go poop. It's kind of like a very 0:52:36.440 --> 0:52:39.760 stinky message board, like hey, what's everyone up to? Who's 0:52:39.800 --> 0:52:42.839 down to like party this weekend? There. I don't think 0:52:42.880 --> 0:52:46.359 they hang out. I'm can just poop and walk away. Yeah. 0:52:46.400 --> 0:52:49.600 Certain infections might make poop have a distinctive smell like 0:52:49.680 --> 0:52:52.919 seed iff kind of warns like, hey, this is I'm 0:52:52.920 --> 0:52:56.480 not I'm not good. Yeah, don't roll in this. And 0:52:56.520 --> 0:52:58.560 for those species that have a keen sense of smell. 0:52:58.600 --> 0:53:02.040 Poop is a rich source of formation, and we humans 0:53:02.080 --> 0:53:05.239 have harnessed that power for our own data gathering. What 0:53:05.560 --> 0:53:08.160 oh yeah, tell me so. There are several researchers that 0:53:08.200 --> 0:53:11.680 have trained dogs to search for and alert to the 0:53:11.719 --> 0:53:15.440 poops of certain species to help with like estimating biodiversity 0:53:15.920 --> 0:53:18.640 or where animals are distributed in a region, things like 0:53:18.760 --> 0:53:22.200 territory size, habitat preference, diet composition, and so on. It's 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:24.640 hard for us to find poop in a landscape, but 0:53:24.719 --> 0:53:25.320 a dog. 0:53:25.200 --> 0:53:26.960 Is, like, they know exactly where it is. 0:53:27.200 --> 0:53:28.719 You just got to train to not roll in it. 0:53:28.800 --> 0:53:31.560 So they use the dogs to find the poop and 0:53:31.560 --> 0:53:32.480 then they examine them. 0:53:32.480 --> 0:53:33.319 They'll look at the poop yet. 0:53:33.400 --> 0:53:35.320 Yeah fascinating. Yeah, that's so cool. 0:53:35.480 --> 0:53:39.239 There are even whale poop sniffing dogs. Whale poop whale 0:53:39.239 --> 0:53:42.120 poop sniffing dogs. Oh yeah, whale poop is I cut 0:53:42.120 --> 0:53:44.600 a huge There was like a quote about the different 0:53:45.080 --> 0:53:48.239 fl likes, colors, and shapes that whale poop can come in. 0:53:49.840 --> 0:53:53.799 About it, Do the dog sniff the whale poop on 0:53:53.880 --> 0:53:56.440 the like when it washes up on the shore. 0:53:56.600 --> 0:53:58.040 I think they go on boats. 0:53:58.280 --> 0:54:00.840 They go on boats and they can sniff it from the. 0:54:00.800 --> 0:54:03.759 Water, I think because it's pretty diffuse, like it'll just 0:54:04.239 --> 0:54:06.920 coo yeah, and like. 0:54:06.880 --> 0:54:09.440 A plume whale poop so much. 0:54:09.520 --> 0:54:11.120 And so there are some dogs that will, like I 0:54:11.120 --> 0:54:14.560 think it's orcs specifically that they'll like track individual whales 0:54:14.560 --> 0:54:16.920 to be like okay, let's now test the water or 0:54:16.960 --> 0:54:19.399 test the poop, and like let's check their health. Oh 0:54:19.440 --> 0:54:22.239 my god, I know that's so cool. I don't know. 0:54:22.480 --> 0:54:22.839 I don't know. 0:54:23.600 --> 0:54:25.960 And so we may not be able to smell as 0:54:25.960 --> 0:54:28.120 well as our canine companions, but once we get our 0:54:28.160 --> 0:54:30.879 hands on some poop, there is really like no end 0:54:30.920 --> 0:54:32.680 to what we can tell. So, Aaron, you took us 0:54:32.719 --> 0:54:35.400 through the Bristol stool scale. But that's just one species. 0:54:36.000 --> 0:54:38.640 Consider the variation that you might find if you are 0:54:38.680 --> 0:54:41.759 tracking a bear, a black bear throughout throughout the course 0:54:41.760 --> 0:54:43.520 of a year, right, Like where does that bear live 0:54:43.760 --> 0:54:46.360 on the east, you know, in the east, on the west, 0:54:46.800 --> 0:54:49.799 north or south? How does that influence its diet? Is 0:54:49.800 --> 0:54:52.399 it a cicada year? Is it living in a more 0:54:52.480 --> 0:54:55.040 urban environment and digging in trash? Or is it just 0:54:55.120 --> 0:54:59.160 like total wilderness? Is it eating huckleberries or blackberries, fish 0:54:59.239 --> 0:55:01.960 or squirrels. You know, like there's is it an older 0:55:01.960 --> 0:55:05.680 bear or a baby bear? There are there parasites, is 0:55:05.680 --> 0:55:08.560 it stressed? I mean, poop is an informational pile of gold. 0:55:09.280 --> 0:55:11.600 Even if we don't know who's poop we've just stumbled 0:55:11.640 --> 0:55:14.040 upon on a hike in the woods, we can usually 0:55:14.160 --> 0:55:17.240 make some guesses based on its shape or its size. 0:55:17.760 --> 0:55:21.920 Carnivores tend to poop less than herbivores. Their scat often 0:55:21.960 --> 0:55:24.080 will contain like hair or bones, and so if you 0:55:24.120 --> 0:55:29.440 see that, you're like, oh, carnivor, and it comes in 0:55:29.520 --> 0:55:33.000 a more cylindrical shape. Herbivores, on the other hand, poop 0:55:33.200 --> 0:55:36.560 way more and their poop tends to be floatier with 0:55:36.680 --> 0:55:40.880 plant material. So that's carnivor. If you're twoing an on YouTube, 0:55:40.880 --> 0:55:44.959 we have some samples some herbivor poop, some herbi bore poop. 0:55:45.000 --> 0:55:49.960 So that's like mountain lion and rabbit right there. And yeah, 0:55:50.000 --> 0:55:52.399 so like the herb over poop, it's like floating or poop. 0:55:52.440 --> 0:55:55.480 There's plant material, and that it could vary from like 0:55:55.640 --> 0:55:59.160 sheep pellets to cow pies and so on, And it 0:55:59.200 --> 0:56:01.840 depends in part on how much moisture an animal retains. 0:56:01.920 --> 0:56:03.560 Of course, of course we know. 0:56:03.880 --> 0:56:05.920 So for example, we think of these rabbit pellets as 0:56:05.960 --> 0:56:09.440 little hard balls. But rabbits also produce another type of 0:56:09.440 --> 0:56:12.480 poop that is softer and more nutrient dense, and we 0:56:12.520 --> 0:56:14.840 don't really see this type of poop because they produce 0:56:14.880 --> 0:56:18.440 it in their dens and they typically eat it straight 0:56:18.440 --> 0:56:20.520 away right from the source. 0:56:20.920 --> 0:56:23.480 They eat it themselves. 0:56:23.640 --> 0:56:26.640 They eat it themselves. I mean a lot of animals 0:56:26.640 --> 0:56:30.520 will eat their baby's poop too, and that's for a 0:56:30.600 --> 0:56:33.440 number of reasons. Part it's like re extraction of nutrients. 0:56:34.440 --> 0:56:37.760 And it's not just rabbits. It's a lot mice, cows, 0:56:37.880 --> 0:56:42.000 termites sometimes again it's like nutrient reabsorption. Cows will tell 0:56:42.000 --> 0:56:44.040 you in a second it could be to conceal the 0:56:44.080 --> 0:56:48.560 poop of their offspring from predators or some researchers, especially 0:56:48.560 --> 0:56:50.200 when it comes to cows, think it might be a 0:56:50.200 --> 0:56:54.320 strategy to refresh the gut microbiota during about of intestinal disease. 0:56:55.239 --> 0:56:57.800 So like when cows are really showing like not good poops, 0:56:57.840 --> 0:56:59.839 will sometimes eat it to be like do I need 0:56:59.840 --> 0:57:01.200 to get something like that? 0:57:01.200 --> 0:57:04.000 That's so interesting? Like why would you want to eat 0:57:04.000 --> 0:57:06.320 the poop? You would think like, let me eat my 0:57:06.360 --> 0:57:06.920 friends poop. 0:57:08.160 --> 0:57:08.520 Yeah. 0:57:08.600 --> 0:57:10.719 If my friend's not pooping bad and I'm pooping bat, 0:57:10.719 --> 0:57:11.919 I'll eat my friends poop. Yeah. 0:57:11.960 --> 0:57:14.279 Let's find the best cap I hear they and make 0:57:14.280 --> 0:57:14.799 a little meal. 0:57:14.800 --> 0:57:16.400 They eat their own I. 0:57:16.280 --> 0:57:17.160 Think they eat their own. 0:57:17.240 --> 0:57:18.320 Yeah. 0:57:18.360 --> 0:57:21.160 And before we turn up our noses at this, it's 0:57:21.160 --> 0:57:24.280 probably too late. Some of the most expensive coffee in 0:57:24.320 --> 0:57:27.160 the world is made from beans that have passed through 0:57:27.200 --> 0:57:32.680 the bowels of a palm. Civet civit coffee. Coffee. Yeah, 0:57:32.800 --> 0:57:35.640 Kobe luwak, it's the civic coffee. It's not the only 0:57:35.760 --> 0:57:39.960 prized Pooh products. Okay, there's also ambergriss. 0:57:40.440 --> 0:57:41.480 Ambergriss? What is that? 0:57:41.640 --> 0:57:45.720 Oh, I'm so glad you asked. I am so glad 0:57:45.760 --> 0:57:48.760 you asked. I'm just gonna tell you anyway, but well 0:57:48.800 --> 0:57:51.880 tell me that we're asking. For over a thousand years, 0:57:52.000 --> 0:57:55.080 ambergriss has been one of the most valuable and sought 0:57:55.120 --> 0:58:01.160 after natural substances. What is it? It is a hardened 0:58:01.280 --> 0:58:06.560 mass of fecal material and undigested squid beaks that forms 0:58:06.600 --> 0:58:09.560 in the intestines and rectum of about five percent of 0:58:09.600 --> 0:58:10.360 sperm whales. 0:58:10.960 --> 0:58:12.800 Sorry, yeah, let. 0:58:12.720 --> 0:58:14.040 Me know if you need me to reread. 0:58:13.760 --> 0:58:16.200 That, can you just so that I can really sure? 0:58:16.320 --> 0:58:21.840 Okay, hardened mass of fecal material and undigested squid beaks. 0:58:22.080 --> 0:58:23.840 They're just chunks of yeah. 0:58:23.680 --> 0:58:26.720 That forms in the intestines and rectum of about five 0:58:26.760 --> 0:58:28.320 percent of sperm whales five percent. 0:58:28.360 --> 0:58:36.880 So it's basically constipated sperm whale rectal mass exactly. And 0:58:36.960 --> 0:58:39.400 people eat this or oh, they do. 0:58:39.360 --> 0:58:41.800 All kinds of things with it, okay. So the reason 0:58:41.840 --> 0:58:45.160 that it like forms into a hard mass, so of 0:58:45.200 --> 0:58:49.040 course sperm whales eat squids. They can't digest their beaks, 0:58:49.080 --> 0:58:51.320 and so usually they'll vomit the beaks up. That is 0:58:51.400 --> 0:58:56.040 your strategy. Because whale poop is liquid, and if some 0:58:56.120 --> 0:58:58.600 get through all the way, it just gets stuck. 0:58:58.720 --> 0:59:00.680 It's like a beez or exactly. Yeah. 0:59:00.680 --> 0:59:04.160 And so because the the poop, like the rectum can't 0:59:04.160 --> 0:59:06.360 relax enough to let the poop or to let the 0:59:06.400 --> 0:59:09.120 squid beaks through, and so then it just sort of 0:59:09.160 --> 0:59:12.720 forms and forms into these beaks will mold together formatively, 0:59:12.880 --> 0:59:17.000 is masturpated. It's like a hardened ball of huge chunk 0:59:17.160 --> 0:59:21.160 of hardened whale poop and squidbeaks, and what happens there's 0:59:21.520 --> 0:59:23.520 kind of two different schools with thought. One is that 0:59:23.560 --> 0:59:25.840 finally the rectum relaxes enough to let it out. The 0:59:25.880 --> 0:59:28.160 person whose book I read was like, I don't think 0:59:28.200 --> 0:59:31.400 that happens. I think that it bursts and the whale dies. 0:59:31.080 --> 0:59:34.480 The whale dice. Yeah, so people aren't killing sperm whales 0:59:34.520 --> 0:59:36.240 to get this. I mean, I know they killed them. 0:59:37.360 --> 0:59:41.320 There was they would have, and they probably did for 0:59:41.360 --> 0:59:43.680 a while. So for a long time this was called 0:59:44.440 --> 0:59:47.240 floating gold because people were just finding it on the 0:59:47.280 --> 0:59:51.080 surfaces of the ocean and they were like, this smells amazing. 0:59:51.240 --> 0:59:55.000 This is like we could use this for everything. Yeah, 0:59:55.280 --> 1:00:00.160 listen possibly, oh, I mean yeah. Uh and so but 1:00:00.200 --> 1:00:02.200 then it was when whaling kind of picked up in 1:00:02.280 --> 1:00:04.840 the seventeen hundreds eighteen hundreds that people finally were like, 1:00:04.880 --> 1:00:06.800 they would kill a whale and be like, oh my god, 1:00:07.000 --> 1:00:07.800 it's ambergriss. 1:00:08.320 --> 1:00:10.600 Can you believe it? They kicked it out. 1:00:10.680 --> 1:00:13.480 Yeah, so that's the most Finally it was like the 1:00:13.720 --> 1:00:15.960 different theories like, oh, I think it's what I can't 1:00:16.000 --> 1:00:16.520 remember some. 1:00:16.480 --> 1:00:17.120 Of the series. 1:00:17.320 --> 1:00:23.920 Okay, they used it for medicine, a condiment an aphrodisiac, 1:00:24.040 --> 1:00:27.720 and it is still today incorporated as a fixative and 1:00:27.760 --> 1:00:31.160 a musky scent in perfumes. Fixative meaning like it makes 1:00:31.200 --> 1:00:34.479 the smell like the scent stay stronger. So it's still 1:00:34.560 --> 1:00:37.920 used today. And it is I mean floating gold. So 1:00:37.960 --> 1:00:40.920 there was a chunk of ambergris found in nineteen fourteen 1:00:41.040 --> 1:00:46.240 that weighed four hundred and fifty five kilograms massive, massive, 1:00:47.040 --> 1:00:50.080 and it sold then in nineteen fourteen for twenty three 1:00:50.200 --> 1:00:54.720 thousand pounds, which in today's money is three point four 1:00:54.800 --> 1:00:58.080 million pounds or four and a half million dollars, so 1:00:58.160 --> 1:01:02.400 that it's more in gold. It's more than gold. Actually, 1:01:02.480 --> 1:01:04.720 I don't know if that is definitely. 1:01:04.440 --> 1:01:12.160 Not right, but okay, uh, this is I am fascinating you. 1:01:12.520 --> 1:01:14.200 If we like checked on the back of like a 1:01:14.240 --> 1:01:16.560 perfume bottle, and if it says ambergriss on it, that 1:01:16.640 --> 1:01:19.640 means it is it is constipated sperm whale. 1:01:19.760 --> 1:01:21.480 I mean I've never I've never looked at the back 1:01:21.520 --> 1:01:23.880 of a perfume bottle and saw a list of ingredients. 1:01:23.960 --> 1:01:25.880 But I think you would probably be able to find 1:01:26.040 --> 1:01:29.680 perfumes that contain ambergriss. Do you want to know what 1:01:29.720 --> 1:01:30.320 it smells like? 1:01:30.480 --> 1:01:31.080 Yes? Okay. 1:01:31.760 --> 1:01:34.640 According to a New Scientist article, it has a rich 1:01:34.720 --> 1:01:39.160 and complex odor consisting of quote, fine tobacco, the wood 1:01:39.240 --> 1:01:43.920 of old churches, the smell of the tide, sandalwood, fresh earth, 1:01:44.320 --> 1:01:45.600 and seaweed in the sun. 1:01:46.200 --> 1:01:50.080 I believe seaweed fresh tide, because let me tell you, 1:01:50.160 --> 1:01:50.959 I've smelled a lot. 1:01:50.880 --> 1:01:52.560 Of my life. 1:01:52.880 --> 1:01:55.479 I want it to be fine tobacco in the wood 1:01:55.520 --> 1:01:57.960 of old churches stecifically. 1:01:57.560 --> 1:01:58.520 That's quite specific. 1:01:59.560 --> 1:02:02.920 What about an old shirt? You know, there's how old? 1:02:04.000 --> 1:02:05.400 I don't. I don't have any answer. 1:02:05.560 --> 1:02:07.840 I don't either, I have no answers. I mean, I'm 1:02:07.880 --> 1:02:12.800 left totally baffled. Still, Okay, Ambergris and Kobe Luoc done. 1:02:12.920 --> 1:02:15.480 They may be treasured as poop novelties. Are you ready 1:02:15.480 --> 1:02:18.040 to move on from Ambergris? Are you ever going to 1:02:18.080 --> 1:02:24.640 be ready? Good? Twelve seconds as But these two, they're 1:02:24.680 --> 1:02:27.160 not the only way that poop can be used. Poop 1:02:27.200 --> 1:02:30.760 can be used as fuel, as insulation, as insect repellent, 1:02:30.840 --> 1:02:34.960 as fertilizer, as building material, as paper. One elephant can 1:02:35.000 --> 1:02:37.240 produce enough dung in one day to make one hundred 1:02:37.280 --> 1:02:40.600 and fifteen sheets of paper. How do you make paper 1:02:40.640 --> 1:02:44.160 from fiber from the undigested cool plant material? 1:02:44.200 --> 1:02:46.240 And people doing that can I buy elephant poop. 1:02:46.040 --> 1:02:50.040 Paper google it? Okay, yeah, well you know we will 1:02:50.080 --> 1:02:55.000 after this, we'll make some Yeah, we can DNA test 1:02:55.040 --> 1:02:58.160 it to determine the diet of an animal or catch 1:02:58.160 --> 1:03:02.560 a criminal. This was done by matching DNA of dog 1:03:02.600 --> 1:03:05.000 feces at the scene of a crime to dog poop 1:03:05.040 --> 1:03:06.120 on the suspect shoe. 1:03:06.600 --> 1:03:08.560 Oh fascinating, isn't that wild? Yeah? 1:03:08.560 --> 1:03:10.760 I mean talking about like spinking outside the box. 1:03:10.480 --> 1:03:13.120 Coming from that dog. It was that same pile of poop. Yep, 1:03:13.440 --> 1:03:13.960 shcause they. 1:03:13.920 --> 1:03:16.800 Saw it, Like I think in the crime scene photos 1:03:16.920 --> 1:03:19.280 there was like a yeah, like a shmear like the 1:03:19.320 --> 1:03:21.960 dog poop smear, and then someone had it. 1:03:22.400 --> 1:03:24.400 Yeah, that's why you gotta clean your shoes. 1:03:24.600 --> 1:03:28.480 I mean, or just like not you know, murder people. 1:03:28.640 --> 1:03:37.400 But yeah, you choose. But poop is so crucial ecologically 1:03:37.440 --> 1:03:41.200 in seed dispersal and parasite transmission. But the most important 1:03:41.280 --> 1:03:45.080 role of poop is in nutrient redistribution. Critters like dung 1:03:45.120 --> 1:03:48.240 beetles that move and berry poop soil microbes that transform 1:03:48.240 --> 1:03:51.400 it into plant food. Animals like hippos and otters that 1:03:51.440 --> 1:03:54.520 live in water and on land, and they move nutrients 1:03:54.520 --> 1:04:00.680 across those boundaries. Oh interesting, whales that beat at lower 1:04:00.720 --> 1:04:04.280 depth and then rise to poop and breathe. They redistribute 1:04:04.680 --> 1:04:09.040 nutrients across that depth. Fish poop and whale poop that 1:04:09.120 --> 1:04:13.080 helps to offset ocean acidification. Like, all of these are 1:04:13.160 --> 1:04:17.360 critical players in the poop nutrient cycle, but we humans 1:04:17.400 --> 1:04:19.560 are making it harder for them to do their work. 1:04:20.120 --> 1:04:23.160 As a planet, we are producing more poop than we 1:04:23.320 --> 1:04:29.480 have ever before produced for more people and more animals, livestock, 1:04:29.560 --> 1:04:32.480 more livestock. Yeah, and it's not even across the landscape. 1:04:32.720 --> 1:04:35.400 History has never seen the likes of the factory farming 1:04:35.400 --> 1:04:38.360 that exists throughout the world today. Okay, I'm gonna give 1:04:38.400 --> 1:04:41.000 you some numbers. So in nineteen sixty one, there were 1:04:41.000 --> 1:04:45.400 approximately four hundred million pigs, nine hundred and forty million 1:04:45.440 --> 1:04:48.919 cows around the world around the world, one point three 1:04:49.120 --> 1:04:53.160 billion sheep and goats, and three point nine billion chickens. 1:04:54.120 --> 1:04:56.840 Just over sixty years later, in twenty twenty three, which 1:04:56.880 --> 1:04:59.000 is the most recent data I could find, we are 1:04:59.080 --> 1:05:03.919 at one billion pigs, which is more than double, one 1:05:03.920 --> 1:05:07.440 point six billion cattle from nine to forty million, two 1:05:07.520 --> 1:05:11.720 point two billion sheep and goats, and from three point 1:05:11.800 --> 1:05:15.040 nine billion chickens in nineteen sixty one, we're at twenty 1:05:15.120 --> 1:05:16.520 nine billion chickens. 1:05:17.360 --> 1:05:18.720 And we wonder why bird flu? 1:05:19.440 --> 1:05:21.600 Do we wonder why bird flu? We know exactly why 1:05:21.640 --> 1:05:25.920 bird flu? Yeah, oh my god. And humans have more 1:05:25.960 --> 1:05:28.840 than doubled over that time, from three billion to eight billion. 1:05:28.560 --> 1:05:30.720 But all of those numbers were like more than double 1:05:30.960 --> 1:05:32.240 over the amount of humans. 1:05:32.400 --> 1:05:37.920 Yes, yeah, each of us humans poops about one percent 1:05:37.920 --> 1:05:40.640 of our body weight a day, so one of our 1:05:40.800 --> 1:05:42.520 entire selves every few months. 1:05:43.080 --> 1:05:45.560 Wow, we poop our weight every few months. 1:05:45.720 --> 1:05:50.280 Each year, Domestic animals produce about eight trillion pounds of poop, 1:05:50.400 --> 1:05:54.440 which is ten thousand Empire state buildings or seven hundred 1:05:54.560 --> 1:05:55.760 Great Pyramids of Giza. 1:05:56.680 --> 1:05:58.600 You can't poop, can't. I can't poop. 1:05:58.920 --> 1:06:01.280 That's the best visualization because we can even still, how 1:06:01.320 --> 1:06:03.600 do we? How do we envision envisions? And I can 1:06:03.720 --> 1:06:06.160 envision the single Empire states? I know. 1:06:07.720 --> 1:06:10.200 That's how much poop. That's more than New York City 1:06:10.400 --> 1:06:11.000 worth of poop? 1:06:11.080 --> 1:06:14.600 Oh my gosh, yeah, oh I think, Oh, next episode, 1:06:14.600 --> 1:06:20.120 I have a New York City statistic. But that excess poop, 1:06:20.160 --> 1:06:22.560 that incredible amount of poop that we are pooping now 1:06:22.760 --> 1:06:25.960 it doesn't translate into more dung beetles and more nutrient 1:06:26.040 --> 1:06:29.120 dense soils. Like I mentioned at the top, dung beetles 1:06:29.120 --> 1:06:31.600 can be picky about the pooh they use, but even 1:06:31.640 --> 1:06:34.400 those that, like cattle poop are under threat because of 1:06:34.440 --> 1:06:38.760 the pesticides that livestock are treated with, like ivermectin, which 1:06:38.800 --> 1:06:41.000 is then like excreted in their poop and is toxic 1:06:41.040 --> 1:06:43.480 to dung beetles. And so there are like dung beetle 1:06:43.480 --> 1:06:47.320 they are like threatened dung beetles, or like deforestation can 1:06:47.400 --> 1:06:48.960 also reduce dung beetle. 1:06:49.800 --> 1:06:51.520 Relate on other things too, exactly. 1:06:51.920 --> 1:06:58.480 Yeah, and I'm singling out dung beetles because they're really charismatic, 1:06:59.040 --> 1:07:01.560 you know, our shirts, like you know, who else would 1:07:01.560 --> 1:07:04.280 want poop on a shirt? But this ripples far beyond 1:07:04.400 --> 1:07:08.680 dung beetle populations, Like we are facing a global poop catastrophe, 1:07:08.960 --> 1:07:12.960 too much of it and in all the wrong places. Potastrophe, 1:07:14.480 --> 1:07:18.280 cock catastrophe. No, actually, I like that, did you say? 1:07:19.240 --> 1:07:27.760 Yeah, a catastrophe that's very funny, Thank you. Wow. 1:07:28.320 --> 1:07:30.240 But you know, in the past when poop has come 1:07:30.320 --> 1:07:33.160 up on this podcast, it's mostly been in the context 1:07:33.200 --> 1:07:35.560 of like public health, right, Like that wrong place has 1:07:35.600 --> 1:07:39.000 been in our water or our food supplies. But that's 1:07:39.080 --> 1:07:43.960 just one component. What about our farm runoff, our waterways, 1:07:44.040 --> 1:07:46.840 our pasture lands leeched of nutrients, and the poop just 1:07:46.880 --> 1:07:47.840 going down the river? 1:07:48.080 --> 1:07:48.280 Right? 1:07:48.840 --> 1:07:50.840 And so I wanted to use these two episodes to 1:07:50.920 --> 1:07:54.200 approach poop from a different perspective than the typical public 1:07:54.200 --> 1:07:56.439 health one that we usually go with. It's one where 1:07:56.480 --> 1:08:00.880 we suspend our disgust and we consider what poop represents 1:08:01.480 --> 1:08:04.760 not as a waste, but as a hugely valuable substance. 1:08:05.160 --> 1:08:07.400 And hopefully today I have left you with a little 1:08:07.400 --> 1:08:10.080 bit more appreciation for crap, or at least some fun 1:08:10.120 --> 1:08:14.439 facts to share. Twelve seconds Ambergris And next week I'll 1:08:14.480 --> 1:08:17.559 go into how we attempted to solve our poop problem 1:08:17.600 --> 1:08:20.320 over the centuries and what the future of waste management 1:08:20.479 --> 1:08:23.479 might hold. And that's all I've got for you today 1:08:23.560 --> 1:08:27.280 on poop. I love it, except for sources erin. 1:08:27.360 --> 1:08:28.599 That was so much fun. 1:08:28.920 --> 1:08:30.720 I'm glad. 1:08:29.800 --> 1:08:31.320 I know. 1:08:31.760 --> 1:08:33.920 Well that's good because we have another episode next week. 1:08:34.000 --> 1:08:38.160 Perfect yay, Oh wow, that was really good. We should 1:08:38.200 --> 1:08:39.720 tell everyone where they could read more. 1:08:39.280 --> 1:08:42.599 Of There is so much I mean, narrowing down the 1:08:42.720 --> 1:08:47.120 narrative for poop was impossible, ridiculous. Yeah, and so there 1:08:47.160 --> 1:08:48.920 is so much more out there that you can read. 1:08:49.160 --> 1:08:51.960 Let me tell you a few examples. So a couple 1:08:52.000 --> 1:08:55.080 of books, one by Joe Roman called Eat, Poop Dye, 1:08:55.280 --> 1:08:56.439 How Animals Make Our worlds? 1:08:56.720 --> 1:08:58.680 Poop Die, Poop Die? What else do you do? 1:08:59.160 --> 1:09:01.559 And then another on this is I think my favorite 1:09:01.600 --> 1:09:03.680 title of a book that I've come across lately. So 1:09:03.720 --> 1:09:08.000 it's by David Waltner. Tow's The Origin of Feces. 1:09:08.400 --> 1:09:10.599 The Origin of Feces, so. 1:09:10.840 --> 1:09:14.840 Good, it's good. And then there's a paper by Robert 1:09:14.840 --> 1:09:17.200 Clark The Origin of ambergris, and then by Nicols at 1:09:17.200 --> 1:09:20.839 All from twenty from two thousand and eight Ecological Functions 1:09:20.840 --> 1:09:25.360 and Ecosystem Services provided by Scarabina Da dung Beetles. I 1:09:25.400 --> 1:09:28.040 love it, and more on the website. 1:09:28.120 --> 1:09:30.960 Yeah, my sources are not as much like fun because 1:09:31.000 --> 1:09:35.160 I mostly used a textbook that was incredibly boring, but 1:09:35.280 --> 1:09:37.320 shout out to the people who wrote it because it 1:09:37.360 --> 1:09:39.880 was quite useful. It was called the Digestive System from 1:09:39.920 --> 1:09:43.080 Basic Scientis to Clinical Practice. I didn't read the whole thing. 1:09:43.120 --> 1:09:45.280 It was like four hundred plus pages, but it's quite useful, 1:09:45.320 --> 1:09:49.320 so especially if you want more about poop. I also 1:09:49.760 --> 1:09:54.040 have a few different papers here. There's the Characterization of 1:09:54.080 --> 1:09:56.559 Feces in Urine, A review of the literature to inform 1:09:56.560 --> 1:09:59.360 Advanced treatment technology. I actually really loved that. It was 1:09:59.400 --> 1:10:01.799 a paper from twenty fifteen in Critical Reviews and Environmental 1:10:01.800 --> 1:10:03.760 Science and Technology by Rose at All. And then there 1:10:03.800 --> 1:10:05.840 was a paper that I or a book that I 1:10:05.880 --> 1:10:08.479 only read part of, but I really enjoyed the parts 1:10:08.520 --> 1:10:09.519 that I read, so I'm going to give it a 1:10:09.560 --> 1:10:12.040 shout out. It was called Flush, The Remarkable Science of 1:10:12.040 --> 1:10:14.519 an Unlikely Treasure. Did you read that book? No? It 1:10:14.560 --> 1:10:15.760 was good, it was interesting. 1:10:16.000 --> 1:10:18.040 Wow, I looked up so many poop books. 1:10:18.080 --> 1:10:20.760 I don't I came across this book, but I enjoyed 1:10:20.760 --> 1:10:22.479 the parts that I read. But there's a whole bunch more. 1:10:23.880 --> 1:10:26.280 Uh yeah, there's literally so many more. We'll post them 1:10:26.280 --> 1:10:27.960 all on our website, this post dot com. 1:10:28.080 --> 1:10:31.679 We will. We will thank you again to the provider 1:10:31.720 --> 1:10:32.919 of our first hand account. 1:10:33.240 --> 1:10:37.280 It's I think I can't express enough thank you so 1:10:37.520 --> 1:10:40.519 much for sharing that story with this. I will cry 1:10:40.560 --> 1:10:41.960 laughing thinking about it once again. 1:10:42.080 --> 1:10:46.240 Oh yes, me too. Thank you also to Bloodmobile for 1:10:46.280 --> 1:10:49.160 providing the music for this episode and all of our episodes. 1:10:49.160 --> 1:10:53.639 Thank you to everyone and Exactly Right one, including everyone 1:10:53.720 --> 1:10:56.040 here today and Tom and Leanna and Brent and Pete 1:10:56.120 --> 1:10:58.839 and everybody who's involved in every is possible. 1:10:59.160 --> 1:11:02.599 It's amazing. And thank you to you listeners for listening 1:11:02.640 --> 1:11:05.839 and watching. Yeah, however you partake in this podcast, we appreciate, 1:11:05.920 --> 1:11:06.559 appreciate it. 1:11:06.600 --> 1:11:09.400 Please subscribe to the Exactly Right YouTube channel or us 1:11:09.439 --> 1:11:12.200 on the podcasters that you like. Yeah, we don't say 1:11:12.200 --> 1:11:14.040 that enough. We don't say but it helps us, so 1:11:14.080 --> 1:11:14.800 thank you for doing it. 1:11:14.800 --> 1:11:15.720 We just say that a lot. 1:11:15.840 --> 1:11:16.479 You're right, we do. 1:11:17.240 --> 1:11:20.479 And thank you also to our fantastic patrons. We really 1:11:20.520 --> 1:11:22.160 appreciate your support. You mean the world. 1:11:22.320 --> 1:11:23.760 Yes, truly, truly, thank you. 1:11:24.000 --> 1:11:28.160 Yeah, until next time, wash your hair out, you filthy animals.