Endless Thread - Come to the Orchestra

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Can you have an orgasm from listening to music? Can you legally own more than six dildos in Texas? Endless Thread digs into several sexy questions that have taken over the internet. Note: This episode may not be suitable for children. Credits: This episode was produced and hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Additional production by Dean Russell. Mixing and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

Support for endless thread comes from Mathworks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink Software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com. Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Merotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like, why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey folks, heads up. This episode deals with some adult themes, which means if you're my parents or Amory's parents or parents listening with their kids right now, maybe apply earmuffs or, you know, pick another one of our fun and family-friendly episodes. Okay, here's the show. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. Amory. Yes. Are you ready? Are you ready? I'm ready.

We've gone into R-rated territory before. Yeah. So it's fine. It's going to be fine. Do you want to go first with a story? What would you prefer? Let's see. Does yours end in a climax? I was going to say, there's so many jokes. Do you want to go first? Something about something, something, something go,

At the same time, you know, there's a lot of terrible jokes to be made that we won't make. Sorry, go ahead. Why don't you go first? So, you know, when you're at a party or you're in some other sort of loud environment and there's music playing and you're talking to someone, maybe you're doing a little bit of gossiping or you're sharing a secret. Maybe you're telling an embarrassing story. And then all of a sudden the music stops whatever you were. just saying, seems like it's now amplified because it's heard loudly and clearly by everyone. The worst.

Yeah. So this is how a Silver Lake California resident and music agent Lucas Barton described something that happened recently during a performance of Chikovsky's Fifth Symphony at the L.A. Philharmonic. He said this to the L.A. Times. He said, quote, one can't know exactly what happened, but it seemed very clear from the sound that it was an expression of pure physical joy. There was a sort of gasp in the audience, Burton said. But I think everyone felt that was a rather lovely expression

of somebody who was so transported by the music that it had some kind of effect on them physically or, dare I say, even sexually. And that sound was quickly characterized on Twitter this way. Jocelyn Silver, who's a writer and editor for various outlets, said, friends who went to the L.A. Philharmonic last night are reporting that in the middle of the show, some lady had a screaming orgasm, to the point where the whole orchestra stopped playing. Some people really know how to live.

I feel like with so many things, as soon as this thing gets put on the internet, it immediately gets like both pornified and also maybe turned into misinformation. Yeah, well, and as I'm reading the tweets, I'm also seeing some pushback in the Twitter comments. You know, some people are saying, I was there, this happened. Other people are saying, I was there, this didn't happen, or it isn't, it didn't happen the way that other people are describing it to have happened. Okay. One of the first things I did was reach out to the L.A. Philharmonic. I called, I emailed, I wanted verification that the recording was actually from that performance.

which was on Friday, April 28th. They've been contacted and they haven't refuted that it was the moment. So for now, that is believed to have been the moment from the actual performance. I wanted response from people in the orchestra of, you know, what was the experience like from the stage? Did it seem like what these people on Twitter are describing?

Did it seem like the woman was experiencing a real moment of pleasure? Or as other people were commenting on Twitter and to the LA Times, which, as I mentioned, covered this, did this look like something else, maybe? So another thing that I wanted to do immediately was to find out, is this even possible? Is it possible that music can bring on a full-body orgasm? Maybe not even a full-body. Are all orgasms full-bought? Who knows? Is this possible? Just the full-body thing is like, I don't really anyway.

Yeah, it's very dramatic. It's very dramatic, yes. So one thing that I found was this was a piece in The Daily Mail from 2015 that cites research from one of the researchers' name is Psyche Louis. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. She was at Wesley, and at the time she's at Northeastern now, so I'm like, Professor Louis. Explain. I never heard back from Professor Louis, but I did, I did. read some of her research here. This was a piece in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. And this piece

talks about, you know, have you, I'm sure you have listened to a piece of music and gotten, you know, goosebumps or, you know, the shiver down the whole body. Of course, of course, yes. Right. That we wouldn't, I would not describe that as an orgasm, but, you know, some people refer to that as a skin orgasm, or that it has this kind of. A skin gasm, if you will? A skin gasm, if you will? A skin gasm, the term that they use is frisin or frisian. I'm not sure how to pronounce that. It looks like frisson. They say that that might be the most accurate term.

But when we think about a skin orgasm or frisn, this journal says the term implies a pleasurable sensation that is paradoxically both universal and variable. It affects different parts of the body depending on the person and circumstances of induction and retain similar sensory, evaluative, effective biological and psychological components to sexual orgasm. It's my understanding that orgasms for men and women are, you know, maybe a mix of physical and mental, but they can be, like, very mental. Like, and so I would posit that anything can give anyone an orgasm, depending on their own particular genesis. Seikwa. Yeah. I don't know if that's true, but I'm putting it out there. Yeah. Well, and this researcher, for this researcher, Professor Louis, Psyche Louis, she said that Rachmaninoff's Piano concerto number two really does this for her.

Oh, okay. All right. Rock Monano. Rocks her world. Is that what you're saying? That's right. It rock mononof's her world. She said, quote, the aesthetic experience can be so intense that you can't do anything else. And that's That really resonates that when you have an experience where, like, you can't do anything else, you can't think about anything else, it does kind of take hold of the senses like an orgasm. As it were, yes. That's good. However, we don't know what this was. And so I started reaching out to some of these other Twitter commenters who said, hey, I was there. This is not what happened.

And, Ben, are you familiar with the term deep background? Yes, I am. Okay, can you explain what it is for the listeners, since that's not an everyday term? Well, like, when you're doing important journalism as we are today, there's a couple different options for how someone can talk to you in a way that sort of like protects them. And on background means someone can tell me something and I can refer to it in my reporting, but I can't attribute it. to them. So I can say, you know, an unnamed source told me X, right? That's on background.

So deep background is some form of that. Yeah, it's similar. Deep background is I'm asking you, the listener, to trust me right now that I reached out to a source that has legit connections to this story. And because their connections are legit, if this information were traced back to them, it could cause some harm, they believe, in some way. And so I will not be telling you who got back to me. That it was the second oboest. You would not be telling us that it was the... That's right.

I will not tell you if it was the second or the third or the fourth chair. None of that. No, so this person was in the audience. And they also have tangential connections to the orchestra itself, to the L.A. Philharmonic. Okay. And what they have told me is that they were really upset. to see this orgasm rumor spreading online. Okay.

Because what they say is, I do not know who the woman is. I can definitely say it was not anything sexual, contrary to what the L.A. Times rushed out to say. There were no signs of it being sexual, and no one I spoke to after the concert even mentioned that being a possibility. And this person went backstage after the show. It sincerely never crossed my mind,

and nothing I saw points to it being an orgasm. Her face was rather pale, not flushed. She didn't have the multiple muscle contractions that come with an orgasm, but rather she went immediately slack after the scream and groan, collapsing to her right side. She didn't have jaded and intense breathing, but actually had to be promoted to breathe by the man next to her. The man next to her was not smiling, as had been reported,

but was worried and immediately reacted to sustain her from falling and prompted her to take deep breaths. To be honest, she didn't seem very aware of her surroundings or the people around her. I've known people with mental health needs and her entire demeanor and behavior was something that fitted right in with what I've come to expect. So this person believes to have been witnessing something totally different than what was reported. And again, we don't know what happened. just know there's a rumor.

There are other accounts. Obviously, sex is always going to win. It's always going to be actually sexier than whatever the real story is. Or maybe it is the real story. But we shouldn't jump to conclusions as tempting as it might be. If you are listening to this right now and you are at the show and you can tell us, because I know we have a number of L.A. listeners. what your thoughts are, we'd love to know.

And if you have an experience that you would like to share with us. Yeah. Has music, have you ever had a full-body orgasm from music? Tell us. Yeah, we'd love to know because we're building a playlist. I'll have what she's having. No, seriously. What an interesting, fascinating story.

It reminds me, it does remind me of. the power of like full orchestra music and it actually makes me it makes me want to go just for normal reasons to you know to an orchestra performance so get out there do hit your summer pops hit up your local summer pops folks yeah you'll feel something you'll definitely feel something orgasm i don't know but you can't come unless you come and on that note we'll be right back. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But, but we do also like to get into other kinds of stories, stories about policing, or politics, country music, hockey, sex, of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science

or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radio Lab, adventures on the edge of what we think we know. wherever you get your podcast. There is something powerful about the sound of the human voice. Beautifully produced audio has the unique power to connect and inspire. Tell your organization's story with a custom podcast from City Space Productions, the creative studio from WBUR's business partnerships team. Become a thought leader.

Recruit new talent. Reach new audiences. Whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org. slash creative studio. Okay, Amory, I got a story for you. Okay. It is the second not safe for work story that we're talking about today.

All right. So this was a response that was posted in the Ask Reddit, subreddit. The query was, what is the smallest crime you can commit? Hmm. which I just, you know, I just love that as a prompt. Because this is a person who they're smoking what I'm rolling. You know what I mean? What's the smallest crime one can commit?

I love that. You could steal a grain of rice from the whole food's dry goods bin. If you're feeling naughty. And we're speaking from experience here. Apparently. Sometimes when I'm feeling rebellious. I just help myself to a grain. Well, it's funny that you say that as your first

response because there were a lot of extremely popular responses to this thread. One of which was, when I was in high school, there was a gas station that used to sell beer to anyone, but they'd charge ridiculous prices, like $20 for a 12-pack of Bud Light in the late 1990s. On my way out, I always would steal a bag of ice from their freezer box, which was outside the building. I figured I'd more than paid for the ice with their upcharge, and if they saw me, they couldn't call the police because then they'd have to explain selling beer to a 16-year-old. That's a real interesting, that's a pretty good, you know, kind of like they're committing a crime, I'm committing a crime, we're all committing tiny crimes together.

Those are the criminals you really have to watch out for, the really clever ones. It's true. Selling beer to a 16-year-old is probably, it's not a small crime. No. No, but the ice dealers. The ice dealers. Yeah, the ice dealers. Yeah, it is.

All right, another one that I thought was very funny and could warrant its own endless threat episode. In Germany, crossing the street in an angle other than exactly 90 degrees. It is not directly a crime, but punishable with a fine of five euro. Also, someone said, I sometimes scan a chocolate croissant as a plain croissant at the self-checkout. Which did that as a person after my own heart right there. Get that chocolate croissant. Do it. I love it.

But for a long time, the most popular response to this thread with 15,000 upvotes was owning more than six dildos in the state of Texas. So this is apparently in Section 43.23.23 of Texas's penal code. I know.

I know. Penal code. Yes, it's hilarious. And it has been a lot of, around since a law in Texas came into being in 1973. This is a law that is still on the books. So apparently back in the 70s, Amory, there were a lot of legal cases around the country dealing with obscenity. So you might remember this is the decade in which Larry Flint, creator of Hustler

magazine, was in court a lot in fighting anti-porn activists. This was just like a thing that was apparently in the ether in our court. system in the 1970s, this idea of like what's obscene, what's not obscene, what should be allowed, what should not be allowed. So there were obscenity cases that reached the Supreme Court, that were in courts all over the place in states. So this law specifically takes aim at so-called obscene devices, quote, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs. Human is funny in there. I guess maybe because there's like, some things we don't want to think about when we think about artificial insemination animals and stuff like that.

Another quote from this penal code, A person who possesses six or more obscene devices or identical or similar obscene articles is presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same. This is just a bunch of malarkey. Someone actually was arrested for this, hey, Marie. about 20 years ago. Really? In the town of, yeah, in the town of Burlston, Texas in 2004. They were apparently throwing a passion party.

So it's like one of those MLM kind of like, everybody come over and I'll teach you how to enjoy sex more. And she was arrested because she said that sex toys could be used to improve sex. Isn't that kind of sad? As opposed to improving what? I don't know, man. I don't know. Like, it's very weird. She faced a year in jail and $4,000 in fines, but the judge dismissed the case.

You know, you'll also be shocked to learn that somehow Senator Ted Cruz has gotten involved in this law. Supposedly, he filed a brief when he was Solicitor General in Texas that compared owning sex toys to hiring a prostitute. Very Ted Cruz energy there. But really this law, we should say, isn't heavily enforced. There have been precious few cases as near as I can tell where this penal code has been invoked. However, the interesting thing here is that it really lives on. This law, this fact lives on. I found it in all sorts of places.

And it's kind of this like meme in popular culture. And Y-6. Do we know? I don't know, man. I don't know. It's not like after that, there are no more holes. It just doesn't make sense. It's true. There's too much of so many things.

There are too many billionaires. There's too much crappy clothing. There are too many. There's too much factory farmed meat. I mean, no factory farm meat is okay. But there's too much of so much stuff. God, pleasure, passion, enjoyment. There will never be too much.

much of that. It's just we are so backwards. I know. Well, it's interesting that you make this comment, Amory, because one of the interesting things about this fact is sort of how it gets invoked. And

as it sort of lives on as this meme, it pops up in all sorts of places. And one example is Colin Jost pointing it out on Saturday Night Live. There is a real law in Texas that says it's illegal to own more than six dildos.

And I get why. No one needs that many. If you have more than six dildos, it's a clear sign. You are training for something awful. And what we notice from the times this law is referenced, is that it's often referenced to show the absurdity of regulation on sex toys in comparison to, for instance, in Texas, firearms. Yes.

So Texas will curtail you when it comes. comes to owning sex toys, but you can have as many guns of as many kinds as you want in Texas. And bullets are pretty phallic themselves. They're like little miniature dildos. I don't even want to go as far as thinking about that any deeper than you've just made me think about it. Okay. So this person on Reddit writes this comment.

This reminds me of Section 377 introduced by the British in their former colonies. Section 377 criminalizes any sexual activity deemed unnatural. No specifics given. So things like sodomy, oral sex were considered as crimes. Repealing of Section 377 in India in 2018 decriminalized homosexuality. It was a landmark change. 2018? 2018.

So I think like what this makes me think about, right, is that our laws, even if they seem ridiculous and are not really, you know, enforced necessarily, they can be used for, you know, enforcing things. They can be leaned on by law enforcement to, you know, pull you into jail for, you know, other reasons, right? Like, I think the things that are happening around the country when it comes to women's reproductive rights are connected to sex, right? When it comes to the rights of LGBTQIA people around the country, they can be connected, I think, to laws like this by a sort of like aggressive forms of, you know, policing of people's behavior and identities. And so, you know, something, something write your senator about dildos, I don't know. But that's what I came to think about at the end of this little adventure. I hope people feel, I hope this episode makes you feel something. Something good.

Something maybe a little frustrating. Yeah. But all for making things feel even better. Heck yeah. All right, y'all. We'll see you next week. Hide your seventh dildo. Where you hide it is up to you. This week's episode was full-body produced by co-hosts Benny Brock Johnson and Amory Siebertson and Dean Russell.

Sound design, which does not run afoul of the Texas Penal Code from Texan, Emily Jenkowski. Endless thread is a show about the blurred lines between online communities and Frisian. If you got an unsolved mystery and untold history or a wild story from the internet that you want us to explore like we did in college, hit us up. Email endless thread at wbUR.org.