WEBVTT - When Words Take on New Meanings 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.120 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:18.880 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and uh, let's see, we've 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.000 got a couple of producers out there. We're in a 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:24.599 new studio. We've got Will and man Guesh from Part 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.840 Time Genius. It's like we all have our pants on. 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.080 It's a that's weird. That's the weird part. It's a 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.840 it's a just a big family fest. Stuff you should know. Yeah, 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.440 welcome you guys. Thank you. Guys were in this brand 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:42.920 new studio. Isn't this exciting? From from the fromale the hide. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.240 It's a lot like a science class And yes, yes, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.120 I think that's what happens in here at night science class. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.519 There making extra money to pay for this new studio 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.080 to fill everybody in. We're just doing like in joke 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.320 frenzy right now, Stuff you should Know or I'm sorry, 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.160 How Stuff Work says um expanded. We've got so many 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.520 podcasts these days, and so many coming down the pike 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.200 that they've built out new studios and we're using this 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:08.800 is our first time, but you guys have used this 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.080 one before, right, yeah, it's an awesome studio. So Chuck, 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.840 let's introduce these guys. Huh, okay, well, will is who 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.560 you've heard speak? Man guesses who you've heard laugh? I 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.840 would say you do have a great laugh uh, and 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:23.600 they are the we should have a laugh off at 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.959 some point you and me laugh. Right, I've been told 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:38.040 I don't know all right man, guests, you go oh wow. Yeah. Uh. 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.280 So these guys are the hosts of Part Time Genius, 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.119 and they just let us know that it is your 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.840 and co founders of Mental Plus many years ago. But 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.400 today is your one year anniversary. We have been at 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.600 house stuff works for one year. Congratulation. Hopefully Jerry will 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.120 work in some sort of post production sound effect or 0:01:55.120 --> 0:02:00.960 applause or the fanfare button. Right, yeah, well, congrat um 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:02.680 and you guys. So you guys have been doing Part 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.040 Time Genius? Has it come out like three times a 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.919 week from the get go? No, it was two times 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.680 a week at the beginning, and then and we decided 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:15.880 we didn't have enough work. Right there was it was 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.320 around the time of the eclipse, and we thought, you 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.560 know what we should have done in eclipse episode and 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:22.679 let's just share some fun facts and then the next 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:24.880 week we were like, you know what, there's been some 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.400 really bad news, as there has been frequently recently, and 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.280 so we thought, you know what, let's do an episode 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.880 on nine things to make you smile. And so most 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.040 of our episodes are big questions where we ask a 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.840 question like, you know, will we ever be able to 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.160 live without sleep? Or something like that, and so we 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.600 decided to start throwing in these bonus episodes where we 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.560 do nine things about whatever. It might be, facts about 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.840 Mr Rogers or house plants. Yeah, you know, house plants, 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.400 the usual. But there's still pretty robust episodes of like 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.840 twenty minutes basically. Right. Yeah, so three times, three times 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:55.760 a week. My hat is off to you. I'm also 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.720 vaguely threatened by that because I'm worried, like, did you 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.320 guys put out three a week? Yeah? We were running 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.239 at the Classic. I don't know if that counts because 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.480 it's not extra work, you know what I mean. So 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.160 I'm a little a little nervous, but still it's pretty awesome. 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.280 We're so building up to get the Classics Wednesdays, Thursdays 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.359 and Fridays, right, that's right, So how did you guys 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.639 end up at housetuf works because Chuck said, you're you're 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.079 the co founders of mental floss, Like, I feel like 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.640 that's worth saying a couple more times. Yeah, Mental Flaws magazine. Ye, 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.080 like a site we used and still use all Ye, 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.280 actually we don't use anymore now that you guys, that's 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.040 not true. I emailed them about a bug. I found 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:34.960 a bug where like if you went to go put 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:39.120 the like the like easy reader format or whenever I'm Firefox, 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.400 it would bring up a different article. So I let 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.000 them know I did, but I was like one degree 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:50.080 separated from the dev team mental Floss. Yeah, Josh emailed me, 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:51.840 and of course we reached out to them, and they 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.320 were very much appreciative like that. It's a great team there. 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.240 It's still obviously a great site, and uh, we love 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.880 all the crew at mental floss. And we were just 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.320 excited about what's happening in the world of podcasting. We've 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.120 been big fans of you guys for a long time, 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.440 thank you, and just knowing how much is happening in 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.120 this space. Um, we were eager to try something new 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.440 when we were approached about the idea of coming here 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.320 and and we've been doing mental Flass. We've been talking 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.800 about Mental Class since we were nineteen, you know, like 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.719 like it's been a long time and and we've done 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.240 like so many fun projects, so many things. But by 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.719 the end of it there we're just managing so many people, 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.000 you know, and we weren't getting to do the creative 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.640 stuff as much. At least that's how I felt. And 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.240 when we started, like you know, thinking about podcasts, it 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.240 just really felt like how Mental Class started, where it 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.479 was conversations and it felt like intimate and the way 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.520 you have to build such an amazing community of people 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:50.360 who care and are so invested, and and somewhere along 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.400 the way I felt like, um, you know, mental Class 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.919 was such a massive site that I didn't know the 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.040 readers anymore. Too many and somehow, somehow, even the a 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.680 podcasts are huge, Like you know, you guys have millions 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:04.960 and millions of listeners, like they all feel like they 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.480 know you, and we sort of missed that connection. Is 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:14.520 truly in the cradle, guys. Very sad with the Silverspoon. Well, 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.719 I'm glad you guys are here. I know Chuck is too, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:22.360 so welcome, Welcome to the family. After a year, Well 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:24.800 on our first day here. Were talked about this previously, 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.679 but like we we went around the house, works offices, 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.640 we met everyone. We're in these meetings and stuff. Everyone 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.920 went home early and and and yeah that's a staple. 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.800 It's amazing. I mean, everyone works hard, but they also 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.840 get to spend time with their families. And uh, when 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:42.960 we got in the elevator, We're like, where did they 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.520 keep the jerks? Like there don't seem to be any 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.200 in this company. It was just so not did you say, 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:57.039 are we the jerk? That's what I said, We're here 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.239 at the jerks. Yeah, that's one of the really cool things, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.400 Like we I think we differ from a lot of 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.800 podcast companies in that way, and that we have all 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.920 this great like talent on the roster and we're also 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.000 going out and developing cool stuff. Yeah, very cool. So 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.240 so enough about all this, Let's talk about the show 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.359 some more. All Right, you guys have like quizzes typically 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.200 you have lots of guests on what are some of 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.320 the best um questions that you've asked and some of 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.320 the best guests that you've had so far. I mean, 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.160 that's been one of the most fun parts about this 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:27.599 is getting to reach out to experts in different things, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.080 and even experts in areas that we didn't realize there 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.120 were experts. You know, we got to talk to America's 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.120 only certified water Somali A. I mean, we always hear 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:38.840 about in the world of wine and that there's an 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.520 expert in the world of water that these fine restaurants 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.480 reach out to and getting me hear the ins and 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.360 outs of that. But it was Antarctica's poet in residence 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.680 right right, So it's wonderful or she's not allowed to 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:54.039 leave the hu Well she eventually left, but we didn't 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:55.360 get to take a lot of hot showers, don't you. 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.000 I can imagine, And she probably swam away made her getaway. 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.640 We had a a guest on recently that an author 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.279 of a book called When, and it was about the 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.719 science of perfect timing. His name is Daniel Pink, and 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.520 he was teaching us about, you know, how much time 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.200 of day affects all of us and helping us learn 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.160 the uh, the disturbing fact that we're all a little 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.840 more racist than the afternoons. And it was just weird 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.360 things like that. He was talking about staging these court 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.200 cases where they have these kind of mock jurors and 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.240 they put them together. This was not on a real trial, 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.160 that would be an unfortunate way to test this, and um, 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.400 they would test their behavior and whether they were more 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.760 or less likely to convict someone um in certain scenarios. 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:36.440 And they looked at what happened in the morning and 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.680 what happened in the afternoon, and had people of different races, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.320 and they were more likely to come down more hard 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.720 on on someone of you know, a different race in 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:50.400 the afternoons. Yeah, I mean it really does have to 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.440 do with our our body clocks are circadian rhythms, and 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.840 it's honestly that's that's that's part of it. But yeah, 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:00.880 the the science of that perfect timing, and uh, we 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.360 learned we've changed our behavior around this. A different fact 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.680 that came out of that one was that they've done 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:10.200 a statistical analysis on teams that do more high fiving 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.680 and chest bumping, and it said head slapping. I'm not 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.600 sure exactly what that dangerous mango slaps my head before 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.440 every episode and they are actually shown to win more frequently. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.160 It might be because they're winning, so they're high fiving. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.880 Probably not high fiving, but it's just a lot of 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:28.960 fun to have these people on that have studied such 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.520 fascinating things. You know, we consider them the experts. Were 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:33.480 not experts, but it's a selfish thing for us. We 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.000 get to sit back and learn from people who know 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.480 so much about so many interesting things. Yeah, we we 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.720 had we didn't show on rudeness and and whether there's 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.040 a rudeness epidemic. And there's this guy at Danny Wallace 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.640 who wrote this great book, and one of the facts 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.200 he was talking about was that this mayor in uh 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:56.120 Cortina or somewhere in Columbia he uh he fired the 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.440 corrupt police force and hired a bunch of mimes to 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.679 mock people as they were jaywalking. And it basically shames 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.760 the into being more polite. It was amazing or annoyed 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.720 them into being either way. But I mean, I feel 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.280 like minds are underused career. They really are, especially as 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:22.000 civil servants arise in mind violence. That's right, there's another 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.920 study being done about how that could have happened. Well, 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.600 everybody out there, if you haven't picked up on the 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.320 idea that you would love Will and Man guests show, 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:32.880 all you have to do is go to their website. 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.400 It's part time Genius dot Com. Right, part Time Genius 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.640 dot Show. We decided to check it to another lot, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:42.440 right Yeah, yeah, Um that's really really um forward thinking 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.640 of you or dot com was, but we were really 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.679 thinking about it. Yeah, Part Times Genius dot Show. You've 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.520 got the podcast archives on there, so everybody go check 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.679 it out, yeah, or of course iTunes or where we 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:57.720 get your podcast. That's right, and that what we say. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.520 I think we say those things all right, fis bumps, guys, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:07.720 no head slaps, Thank you so much. All right, thanks guys. 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.439 It's always a joy to hang out with those two. Huh. 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:17.240 I love those guys. They are truly good guys. Um, so, Chuck. 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:24.920 We are talking about words today, Yeah, specific words, historical 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:29.240 words that people may or may not be using correctly, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.040 correct that people may or may not have really defined 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.320 some of these instances. There's really no problem with them, 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.520 but they're fun to talk about, right. It's that whole 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.480 descriptive ist prescriptive ist thing, you remember, that whole thing 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.040 we used to get into. Boy, it's a trip down 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.679 memory lane, isn't it. Thing? So so like descriptivists are 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.440 kind of like language is constantly involved. Just go with 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:58.199 the flow. Prescriptivists are like, no, no, that languages language, 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.080 and you're if you're using it wrong, you're wrong, right, Um, 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.120 Like David Foster Wallace was a prescriptivist, like basically, grammar 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.920 nazi is another way to put it right. Yeah, And 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:09.520 I want to go ahead and this is not on 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.560 our list, but let's go ahead and throw decimate in there, 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:14.439 because um, that is a word that we used to 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.840 hear from a lot when we said something was decimated, 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:22.000 and we would have perse script which one is the 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.360 yes email us and say decimate means you know, desa 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.679 is by tin, so reducing by ten percent is what 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.559 it means, guys. And eventually I had just started writing 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.000 people back and saying, you know, the modern dictionary even 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:43.000 says that it has now come to learn decimate can 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.960 just mean you know, yeah, later waste wiping out like this, 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.400 this bush mails decimated me last night. It well reduced 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.440 you by probably more than ten percent, depends on how 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:57.640 But anyway, that's always been a grete for me. Like 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.720 even when it's officially changed its stephan and over time 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.240 and recognized as such, people will still get their hackles up. 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.240 And I'm like, dude, it's usually dude. Yeah, but that's 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.079 a prescriptive ist railing against it. Well yeah, and it's 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.960 also like, come on, man, like I'm sorry, we're not 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:20.640 using the fifteen century usage of the word. So yeah, 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.960 decimate they got their tunic in a twist, no tunics technically, 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.640 So I guess this one is. I think this episode 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.120 is kind of for the prescriptivists if you think about it, 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.200 I still don't know who's who. Prescriptivists are the ones 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.440 who are who you're talking about the what are we 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:42.720 prescriptive ist pennant? So we're not that, no, no, okay, 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.360 we're definitely we go with that to each each their 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.719 own motto. Yeah, and this is, of course another we 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.200 haven't done a top ten in a while, but as 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.360 everyone knows, our top tens are never ten U And 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.000 it kind of occurred to me that's usually because some 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.679 of them we just think are dumb, and also because 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.920 of because the way we go these things would be 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.360 a way we're an hour long, we decimate the top 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:10.559 ten lists. Actually, yeah, alright, so let's start. Man, we're 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.439 talking again. I don't know if we got this across 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:17.079 yet or not, but we're talking about historic words that 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.760 come from history that are either used wrong or not 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:26.040 fully not not. They don't really get across the original 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.319 intent necessarily. They're just kind of evolved over time, right, 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.160 and the first to kind of pair together quite well, 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.880 like a nice like a nice wine and a shot 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.360 of bush mills. Right. Oh god, I'm not even on 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.320 a bush mills kick. I don't know where this came from. 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.400 We had bush mills and a long time. Yeah, and 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.320 it's not something you would normally shoot it either, oh yeah, 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.400 or dropping a glass of cabernet. Right, yeah, I think 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.160 people shoot bush mills. Yeah, you probably shoot anything. You 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:00.560 know who do headonists? Very nice, thank you, very clever. 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.000 So that's so that's the first word is hedonism, right yeah. 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.840 So uh, most people think of the word hedonism as 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:11.760 and and they do mention in this article that there 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.520 is a nudist resort in Jamaica called Hedonism, which I 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.000 and there's hedonism too. I think there's more than one. Well, 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.880 there's a lot of nudists crowded on the island. I 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:27.120 remember remember when we did our nudist episode. Um, I 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.920 ran across an article about like a swingers resort. I 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.120 think it was hedonism and it was just like it 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.160 may have been immense health article or BuzzFeed or something 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:39.960 like that, but it was like, I want to a 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.000 nudist swingers resort and basically never want to have sex again. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.600 I'm so grossed out with myself humanity. Yeah. Yeah, not 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.240 to say that that's hedonism, because they may eventually be 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.080 a sponsor one day, that's right. But hedonism is most 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.520 people use that throw that word around to equate with 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:07.080 just the ultimate in like sexual slash uh party, debauchery. 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:12.479 Debauchery is a great word for it. Drinking fornicating orgies 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:23.080 or find uh scented oils and silken linen's being completely ruined. Yeah, 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.280 so that is that's basically what most people think of 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.360 with hedonism. It's like giving into your every desire, especially 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:34.560 carnal desires um even at great personal risk and without 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.400 much foresight. Right. Apparently that is not at all the 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.200 case of what hedonism meant originally, but you can kind 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.800 of see how it evolves over time because hedonism stems 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:51.280 from the Greek word for pleasure, right, hedonia, And the 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:56.280 idea is that originally the Heatonist it was an umbrella 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.360 school of philosophy. I think We kind of touched on 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.880 it in our Stoicism episode, but it was an umbrella 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.600 philosophy where I basically said, there's two things in life 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.040 that are that you need to pay attention to, and 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:13.280 everything else falls into place if you are maximizing pleasure 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.440 and avoiding pain. Yes, those are the two things, pleasure 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.720 and paint. Maximize one, minimize the other. Yeah, But the 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.000 whole thing is they don't say. Nowhere in there does 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:29.320 it say and by the way, this involves um orgies, 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.720 um charcooterie trays, which is weird because we're talking the 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.800 Greeks here. You know. Well, I mean, I'm sure hedonism 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.040 it also meant that, but it didn't exclusively mean that, 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.120 you know what I'm saying, so like, it could also 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.920 mean delights of the mind, intellectual pursuits, stuff like that. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:53.160 It even says altruism, which is it's kind of funny 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.040 to think about someone saying like I brought I bought 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.840 groceries from my elderly neighbor and it was a pure 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:04.200 hedonistic sensation came up from So you're such a hedonist. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.280 But technically back then that could have been the way 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.360 you might use that word. Yeah, And and even more 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:17.240 to the point that hedonist said, there is there's something 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.000 you really want to pay attention to here. Yeah, you 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:23.399 want to experience pleasure, but it is really easy for 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:28.520 pleasure to turn into pain or degradation or addiction. And 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.240 you have to bear this stuff in mind or else 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.359 you're you're you're going to pursue pleasure at your own expense, 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.040 and then you're not doing it right. Um, there's actually 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.920 this guy in the I think the eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.320 I can't remember if he was at Cambridge or Oxford. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.439 Were five million emails, surely we have. But he was 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:54.000 a fellow or a dawn or whatever of philosophy at 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.560 this university that's still around, and every year at one 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.400 of their annual banquets they bring his mummified head out 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.159 and put it at the head of the table. I 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.919 think on it like a wax dummy. So he's dressed 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.600 as himself and they've got the guy's mummified head. That's 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.000 how much of a revered philosopher he was. He came 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:18.680 up with this thing called philosophic calculus. It's basically a 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:23.439 an equation an equation, right, This is pretty dry, but 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.479 it's the whole point is is to pursue pleasure as 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.280 much as possible and to avoid pain. And he said, 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.639 you have to consider things like the duration of the 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.479 pleasurable event, the intensity um, how certain it is, the 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:40.680 fecundity like is it going to spawn more pleasure afterward? Um, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.240 the purity will it actually devolve into pain? Um? The 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.200 extent of it, which means how many people are are 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.040 affected by it um. And if you take all these 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:55.119 factors into account, you can you can run any experience 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.639 or any decision you have in life through that and 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.639 decide I'm not gonna do this, or yeah, I'll have 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.960 that bite of cool whip out of the fridge. Is 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.240 anyone still use that? I'm sure there's a few people 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.520 out there that do. They're very exacting, I mentioned so, 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:15.399 so that's hedonism. Yeah right, we took all the pleasure 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.600 out of that pretty quick. But that leads to another 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:23.080 word that's misused frequently, epicurean. Epicurean. Yeah, that's the thing 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.919 that nowadays you hear people use the word epicurean. There 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.600 are probably a lot of restaurants that have a name 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.000 on some derivation of this word, but it's tied into 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:38.800 food and drink, like really fine food, top shelf wine 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:43.159 and food. If you have epicurean tastes, then you were 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.280 someone who concerns yourself with the finer things at in 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.760 the dining room specifically, right, And it's not quite as much, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.120 it's not quite as much identified with overdoing it as hedonism, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.040 But there's um I think more than anything. It's like 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.440 you said, it's it's the finer things, but you might 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.400 overindulge here there. Yeah, and if you use that word 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:07.360 about yourself then you are probably pretty obnoxious. Yeah, it's 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.920 people like you who are needed at parties for other 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:16.240 people to avoid. But the word, once again from Greek epicure, 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:22.240 came from the philosopher Epicurus, and people, if you don't 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.080 know much about the root of the word, you probably 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.920 think that his whole deal was about food, and that's 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.080 not necessarily the case. But he was a a hedonist 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:31.840 in there, right. Yeah, he was like one of the 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.439 great hedonistic thinkers, but in the ancient Greek sense of 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.679 the word. Right. So his whole his whole deal was 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.159 at our axia, which was inner tranquility, and that you 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:47.080 should pursue pleasure by just being content rather than going 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.119 off and getting like wasted or eating a bunch or 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.280 something like that. That and that if you did have desire, 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.080 it was better to eliminate it than satisfy it. But 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.439 it was. But if you did satisfy it, you should 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.560 do it thoughtfully your mind. So really he was kind 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.560 of the opposite of what people who consider themselves epicureans 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.199 or Yeah, but also didn't he have a lot to 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.199 say about following your own path when it comes to that. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.280 It's like it was very, very centered around the self. 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.680 So you do whatever you whatever is best for you 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.640 in the moment, and not necessarily what someone else thinks 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:24.879 might be the best thing for you. Right. But again 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:29.119 the point is his virtue um like value hedonism, like 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.399 doing things that are actually good and that produced good 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.800 rather than um, I'm going to shoot this heroin even 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:39.640 though my my significant other doesn't want me to. That's 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.600 that's not what it was about at all. It was moderation. 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.000 You have to find what gives you pleasure in life 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.280 rather than looking to other people, look inward to yourself. Right. 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:50.880 But yeah, moderation was a huge part of it. Yeah, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:52.840 And what I couldn't find and that was the case 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:54.520 with a few of these is where it got all 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.560 wrapped up in food. I couldn't either, Um, I think 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:02.760 it was people like food. So we just sort of yeah, 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:05.359 that's all I can think of. I couldn't find. I 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:07.679 was really hoping that there was like a turning point 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:10.240 where it was like, this is where it happened. And 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.439 there are a few places where I couldn't find that 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.080 kind of thing. It's just not out there, is lost 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:17.639 to history. All right, So we're disappointed. So we're going 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.600 to take a break, go put our heads together, pull 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.040 ourselves together, and turn our attitude around. We'll be right back. 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:53.760 All right, we're back. We're gonna stick around in ancient 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:56.000 grease for a little while long. Why not? I mean 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:00.240 they've produced a lot of misused words. Frankenstin's all open here? 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:02.959 Do you like frankinsense? I don't even know what it is. 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:08.400