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Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and

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Speaker 1: we're the co hosts of Stuff You Missed in History Class.

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Speaker 1: We are a history podcast that tries to look at

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Speaker 1: the things that maybe we're overlooked in your history classes,

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Speaker 1: maybe not covered in as much detail, or frankly, maybe

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Speaker 1: covered in a way that was not accurate. New episodes

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Speaker 1: come out every Monday and Wednesday on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify,

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Speaker 1: or anywhere else that podcasts can be listened to. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to assume that if you're listening to this

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Speaker 1: podcast that you like knowledge, right, That's probably why you're listening.

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Speaker 1: That's why I'm recording it. So I'm excited to tell

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Speaker 1: like advice on lighting, framing perspectives. It's very interesting. So

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Speaker 1: Plus dot Com slash brain Stuff. That's the Great Courses

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Speaker 1: plus dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff

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Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works. Hey there, brain stuff gang. I'm

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Speaker 1: Christian Seger, and have you ever been to the gas

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Speaker 1: station before filling up your gelope when suddenly your nostril

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Speaker 1: hairs twings with an aromatic burning sensation. It's like the

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Speaker 1: wise sages of Leonard Skinner'd once saying, oh that smell.

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Speaker 1: Can't you smell that smell? I'm talking about gasoline, people,

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Speaker 1: Why does it smell so good? Well, the first answer

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Speaker 1: is pretty simple. Actually, gasoline or petrol, as our friends

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Speaker 1: across the pond like to call it, contains a chemical

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Speaker 1: hydrocarbon called benzene used to boost its octane rating, and

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Speaker 1: benzine naturally has a sweet scent to it that our

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Speaker 1: noses are specially sensitive to. In fact, it evaporates so

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Speaker 1: quickly that you'd smell benzene instantly if you just put

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Speaker 1: some in a dish in the same room you're in.

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Speaker 1: It is so pungent we can get a whiff of

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Speaker 1: it if there's only one to five parts per million

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Speaker 1: in the air we breathe. And benzine is not just

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Speaker 1: in gasoline. We use it in plastics, pesticides, and detergents.

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Speaker 1: It's also in a lot of mass produced toys, so

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Speaker 1: it's possible you're associating the smell of gasoline with that

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Speaker 1: new toys smell from your childhood. But don't let it

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Speaker 1: odor get its enchanting hooks and you too far. Because

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Speaker 1: skinnerd also had it right when they saying, oh, that smell,

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Speaker 1: the smell of death surrounds you. That's right. The smell

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Speaker 1: of benzine can be euphoric, but it's also toxic. If

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Speaker 1: you inhale large amounts of it, it actually attacks your

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Speaker 1: nervous system. Luckily, it's so pungent that we have plenty

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Speaker 1: of warning before hazardous exposure. That's why it can start

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Speaker 1: to make you nauseous or give you a headache after

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Speaker 1: a while. And the consequences of sniffing too much. Benzine

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Speaker 1: and gasoline are not pretty. Inhalent abuse leads to loss

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Speaker 1: of consciousness, seizures, liver injury, and distress within your heart

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Speaker 1: and lungs. Keep going after that and you're looking at

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Speaker 1: neurological impairment and straight up brain damage. The E. P. A.

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Speaker 1: Osha and Who also categorized benzine as a carcinogen. The

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Speaker 1: cancers it's associated with the most are leukemia and lymphoma.

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Speaker 1: And get this, there's possibly another, less dangerous reason why

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Speaker 1: we like the smell of gasoline so much. A study

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Speaker 1: published in two thousand nine issue of Addiction Research and

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Speaker 1: Theory indicates that gasoline smells better to us when we're hungry.

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Speaker 1: It found that people rate the smell of gasoline as

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Speaker 1: being more pleasant and intense the longer it had been

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Speaker 1: since they had last eaten. More research is obviously required,

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Speaker 1: but there seems to be a link between our degree

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Speaker 1: of hunger and our odor perception of gasoline. Maybe that's

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Speaker 1: why gas stations make such a killing on selling junk food.

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Speaker 1: Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for

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Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com.