Something You Should Know - How Stress Distorts Your Thinking & What You Never Knew About the Clothes You Wear

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Starting point is 00:00:34 probably tell you you should drink more water, and they're probably right. I'll tell you why. Then we all have stress, but too much of it can be a real problem. So the stress hormone cortisol is living within you on a regular basis, which causes negative thinking, weight gain, inflammation, hair loss, breaks down muscle tissue, causes flabbiness, depression, anxiety, and memory loss. Also good and bad email subject lines that will determine if your emails get read. And things you never knew about the clothing business and the clothes you wear. We produce about 100 billion garments a year, but we only buy 80 billion. So that means we have 20 billion that are just sort of left over and destroyed in one

Starting point is 00:01:20 way or another. Of those 80 billion, the average garment today is worn seven times before it's thrown away. All this today on Something You Should Know. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic.

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Starting point is 00:02:26 would often ask, why? And the answer was always, well, it keeps you hydrated. You don't want to get dehydrated. It all sounded very vague to me. But actually, there are a lot of benefits to drinking more water, and they include benefits to your bloodstream, your skin, your kidneys, your heart, and your limbs. But there's another reason that you should drink more water. Staying hydrated keeps your memory sharp, your mood stable, and your motivation intact. Researchers found that when you're well hydrated, you can think through and solve a problem more easily.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Why? Well, it could just be that not drinking enough water may reduce oxygen to the brain or shrink up your neurons. Or it may just be that being thirsty distracts you. But whatever the reason, you really should drink more water. And that is something you should know. People throw around the word stress a lot. As in, I'm under stress. This stress is killing me. My life is so stressful. But what's interesting to me about stress is that stress is something we really impose on ourselves for the most part, which means it's really up to us to manage it and eliminate it when we can.

Starting point is 00:03:49 Someone who understands stress really well is Dr. Arthur Sierra-McCauley. He's a clinical psychologist and author of the book, The Stress Solution. And I think when you listen to him, you'll have a better understanding of what stress really is, what it does, and how to manage it and control it better. Hey Arthur, welcome. Thank you very much, I appreciate it. So everyone knows that feeling of stress, but how do you define it? What is it exactly? Well stress really is produced mostly by misperception. When we're perceiving inaccurately, we produce stress, and we produce the stress hormone cortisol. And when we do that, we narrow our ability to think in a more expansive way,

Starting point is 00:04:32 and it also reduces our capacity for empathy, meaning that when our thinking becomes narrow, and that is a result of the stress hormone cortisol, we can't see things very clearly, and we tend to perceive in distorted ways. And so when you say it's distorted, but if I'm in a stressful situation, what I'm seeing is, it's what I'm seeing. Well, you may be, but the issue is, and here's where empathy comes in, Mike, is empathy is really about perceiving beyond the surface. So if you're in a stressful situation, the question is, can you slow down your perceptions enough and slow down your reactions enough to see the truth so that you can make very good decisions rather than making quick, impulsive decisions based on narrow thinking? But that stress reaction that we all get when

Starting point is 00:05:22 we're in that situation must be serving a purpose. And we've all heard about, you know, the tiger chasing the caveman kind of thing, that it serves that purpose of protecting yourself. Has it outlived its purpose? Well, you know, when we needed to be protected against tigers, yes, we had that flight system activated through our brains that makes us want to run away and produce these stress hormones that allow us to do that, make our heart beat faster and get more energy and sugar into our muscles. But most of the time today in our current world, in our civilized world, we're producing

Starting point is 00:05:58 stress when we're sitting in a chair not going anywhere. If your boss walks by you and he has a frown and you think that it's because he's angry and upset with you, you produce the stress response. Then later you found out that he has a migraine this morning and he wasn't even thinking about you, but you overreacted because your perceptions were distorted. And again, that's where empathy comes in because empathy allows us to slow down our perception, find out where our biases are, and that's where cognitive behavioral therapy helps, because it focuses on the distortion we make in thinking, like generalizing or mind-reading.

Starting point is 00:06:33 And in that case, the person would be mind-reading. They'd say, oh, gee, he's frowning. He must be upset with me when, in fact, the poor guy has a migraine. He's not even thinking of the teacher sitting in the classroom. So this way of thinking where we, I guess, we overthink and we think things that aren't true and all of that, it would be great to be able to sit back and say, well, now calm down, you know, this is just me and my stressful moment here. But in the moment, it's extremely hard to do. It's very hard to do, Mike, but if we practice the development of empathy, we more and more learn where our biases are, how they come from the past,

Starting point is 00:07:13 and when we realize which kind of cognitive distortions we tend to use repeatedly, we can filter them out over time, and when we're in a stressful situation, we tend not to use them. The more we become disciplined about trying as much as we can to perceive accurately. We kind of learn our old records, our old stories, and when we get a sense of repeating those old ways of perceiving, those ways of perceiving that we know are not based on the truth, we can tend to discard them much quicker than in the past. And so how do you start this process? What do you do first to kind of get a sense of what you're

Starting point is 00:07:52 talking about? Well, using empathy. Empathy actually produces the connecting hormone, oxytocin. It's called the love hormone or connecting hormone. It relaxes our physiology. It allows our brain to think more expansively. And when we use empathy and interactions, we are more able to see the whole of a situation. We're more able to perceive comprehensively. So it is a lot about empathy training, teaching ourselves to not jump to conclusions, to not impulsively react, to try to slow down enough to gain the facts. When we sense in our body that we're starting to feel our blood pressure elevate, we have to teach ourselves to slow down because once we produce those stress hormones, our thinking is becoming very narrow and empathy goes out the window.

Starting point is 00:08:51 So this is a lot about teaching ourselves to be more empathic and realizing that if we do that and we produce this oxytocin, the compassion and connecting hormone, it relaxes us and allows us to perceive much more accurately and comprehensively. So can you give me an idea of how maybe in an example that would work? For instance, if you're in an idea of how, maybe in an example, that would work? For instance, if you're in an interaction with a spouse or a significant other, and you come home from work, and you walk in, and maybe your wife has had a bad day with raising three young children, and she immediately looks up and is washing the dishes and doesn't say hi and come over and kiss you, and you react immediately by saying, I can't believe I worked all day and you're treating me this way, and together you're off to the races. Rather than walking into the house assuming that she's been alone with three young kids all day, she's probably going to be very stressed and she may not greet me in the most loving way, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and try to slow down my reaction and ask her, gee, how are things going? How can I help? Maybe start picking the benefit of the doubt and try to slow down my reaction and ask her, gee, how are

Starting point is 00:09:45 things going? How can I help? Maybe start picking up some of the kids' toys. And by that, you're not reacting quickly. You're not being so overly sensitive to the interaction. And when we react empathically, when we give our spouse or significant other or friends or colleagues a break because they're a little off in that moment, they tend to be more empathic with us, and we have much more likelihood of having an empathic interchange rather than starting an argument. But what about stress that is self-created, self-imposed? There's no other person to have empathy for. It's all in our head.

Starting point is 00:10:21 I have a chapter in the book on self-talk because we learn how to talk to ourselves very early in life. If you've been called names or you've been called stupid or told that you're unattractive or if you've been bullied, as a young child, you tend to internalize those views of yourself. And then you don't even realize that that's the way you talk to yourself. And that's the way you produce stress internally without even being in an interaction with other people because you're repeating interactions of the past. And early in life, those interactions are very influential, and they can have a dramatic effect on how you talk to yourself.

Starting point is 00:10:58 So what's the work? The work is trying, again, to engage in interactions where you take in rational feedback from other people to try to get a better sense of who you are because, you know, we all grow up with biases. We all grow up with inaccuracies about ourselves. In many ways, it's sort of like when we grow up, we were looking in a circus mirror and we can't see ourselves all that accurately unless we get very clear feedback from others. And if you didn't get very clear feedback from others growing up, you need to get it as an adult. You need to engage with other rational people.

Starting point is 00:11:32 That's, you know, when I do group therapy sessions, for instance, that's what we do. We spend time on giving each other feedback on how people interact with each other so that you can rewrite the old story and create a new story, sort of turning a fiction book into a nonfiction book. And you have to be open to feedback from other people to change that negative self-talk, especially rational people, people you know will be truthful and tactful with you.

Starting point is 00:11:57 So, Arthur, what is the connection between stress and worry? They seem to go hand in hand. Well, worry and stress and anxiety are all in the same circle because worry usually, not always, but usually is based on projected fears, fears from the past and, again, misperceiving. We worry about tomorrow when most of us cannot accept the fact that we can't predict tomorrow. You know, Americans right now, half of Americans say they are awake at night due to stress, anticipating stress for the next day. Seventy-five percent of Americans say they experience stress on a daily basis, and it is based on worry about what's going to happen.

Starting point is 00:12:42 When you are an anxious person and you have negative self-talk, the likelihood that you're anticipating negativity in the future is very, very high. And this whole approach, this empathic cognitive behavioral therapy approach, I developed over many years to help people slow down and recognize that old negative biased thinking and get help in correcting it through positive interactions with other people. Stress is our topic today, and I'm talking with one of the foremost authorities on the subject, Dr. Arthur Sierra McCauley, and he is a clinical psychologist and author of the book, The Stress Solution. Contained herein are the heresies of Redolph Buntwine, erstwhile monk turned traveling medical investigator.

Starting point is 00:13:37 Join me as I study the secrets of the divine plagues and uncover the blasphemous truth that ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children. The Heresies of Randolph Bantwine, wherever podcasts are available. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know,

Starting point is 00:14:02 you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences,

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Starting point is 00:15:15 I mean, how many people are consumed with stress? It is amazing because the stress rates in our country have really increased dramatically. I mean, and it goes along with several other things that stress rates in our country have really increased dramatically. I mean, and it goes along with several other things that have happened in our country. I mean, the empathy rates have diminished. The amount of Americans trusting each other has diminished. Twenty years ago, Americans said they had five to seven close friends. Today, it's two to three close friends.

Starting point is 00:15:42 So our empathy for each other has been reduced. Prejudice has been reduced. Prejudice has been increased. I mean, prejudice, if you have many prejudices, you're experiencing stress all the time because you're kind of walking through a minefield in life. If you feel uncomfortable with African Americans or Italian Americans or Irish Americans or Muslims, you have multiple ways of experiencing stress on an ongoing basis. So the stress hormone cortisol is living within you on a regular basis, which causes negative thinking, weight gain, inflammation, hair loss, breaks down muscle tissue, causes flabbiness, depression, anxiety, and memory loss. Well, who could remember that if they're all stressed out?

Starting point is 00:16:27 And what is it about, it does seem that people are so less empathetic and sympathetic to their fellow man today. Is that just a perception or do you think that's true? I mean, road rage and all this, is this just, what's going on? Well, I think it's part of our fast-paced society, Mike. I mean, we are at a point where we work too hard, we sleep too little, we love with half a heart, and then we wonder why we're stressed and unhappy. And the empathy rates, there's a number of studies that are done every year

Starting point is 00:16:59 where they test college seniors going into the workplace and what characteristics do they rate most importantly. Empathy used to be in the top five, top three, 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Now it's below 10, 12, 13. The first thing that people are emphasizing is making money. So we have begun to put a tremendous emphasis on status and image and prestige and far less emphasis on character and integrity. And it certainly is pervasive in our society currently. You know, it's amazing from what I've read and heard and talked to people about this who are experts on the topic that all this does, I mean, all this stress and getting all pissed off at everybody, all it does is hurt you.

Starting point is 00:17:45 I mean, it doesn't do anything. You get mad and brood about somebody who cut you off on the highway. They're not home worrying about you. Yes, yes. And you're hurting yourself when you misperceive. Even people who maintain that they believe in their prejudices, once they realize that they're actually hurting their health and their physiology, they start to take heed a bit.

Starting point is 00:18:10 And yes, the way we think, the way we perceive is how we produce stress for the most part. And we're damaging our entire physiology, our heart, our brain, our immune system, on and on. The stress hormone cortisol is incredibly damaging if it's experienced on a regular basis. People will often say, though, that, you know, I'm a worrier. That's what I do. That's part of my personality. Yes? No?

Starting point is 00:18:37 No. I mean, if you examine little children, they're not worried. One-year-olds are not worried. Two-year-olds are having a great time. We learn to worry by the environment we grow up in, and anything that's learned can be unlearned. So no one is genetically programmed to worry. That is not true. It's never been proven. It is a learned characteristic. And again, I'm not saying that it can be unlearned very easily, but anything that's learned, anything in your life that you have learned can be unlearned very easily, but anything that's learned, anything in your life that you have learned can be

Starting point is 00:19:05 unlearned if you focus on it with diligence and commitment. But that surprises me because I've seen plenty of families, kids in families, where, you know, one kid is a worrier, grows up to be a worrier, and the other kid didn't, and they grew up in the same house. Well, they grew up in the same house, but we all know from having siblings, siblings are treated differently. And we're born with a bit different temperaments. But if you were born when your father had a great job and was very happy in his life, and I was born when he was laid off and couldn't find employment for four years, or I was the youngest and you were the oldest of five, and I go through the divorce of our parents, but you were off in college when they got a divorce,

Starting point is 00:19:48 your experience may be very different than mine because parents are different at different ages. And parents interact with males differently than they interact with females. So there's a lot of variables in the family that we have to account for that can produce worry and anxiety. As someone who has certainly experienced that waking up at 4 in the morning and worrying, to not do that seems almost impossible. I think when you've been accustomed to it for a long time,

Starting point is 00:20:18 and these habits, we've established neural pathways in our brain where they're easily continued, and it feels like automatic thinking. But you have to kind of step outside yourself and, in a way, use empathy toward yourself. It's almost like you're observing yourself. You have to learn those old records that you repeat over and over again. For instance, some people wake up at the same time every night, 2.10, 3.10 in the morning, and they'll tell you exactly what they're going to be thinking. And I say practice the night before not thinking that,

Starting point is 00:20:50 knowing that that's your old record. We're trying to change old conditioned ways of thinking by almost being prepared for them. So instead of waking up every morning at 3 o'clock saying the same thing, oh, my God, I've got to go to work, it's not going to be good, my boss doesn't like me, on and on and on. You counter that immediately and you don't fall into it. And that again is what happens when you know your old records. It's like dropping a needle on an album. You know, instead of playing all 22 records, you pick the needle up. You don't let

Starting point is 00:21:20 it go on and on and on. You know, this is what I always do. And instead of just letting it roll on and roll on and letting your thoughts have a life of its own, you begin to be more thoughtful and aware of what you're thinking so that you can intercede in those old conditioned ways of perceiving. When I've had those times in life, and I imagine everybody does, where you're up at night worrying and catastrophizing and everything. One of the fascinating things I've found, maybe it's just me, but if I just get up and really wake up and not be in that kind of half-asleep fog, then things seem better. Things seem more real, as opposed to when I'm lying there ruminating, then things seem worse.

Starting point is 00:22:05 Well, when we're sleeping and when we first wake up, our temperature is the lowest it is all day. And we've been fasting, so we don't have the nutrients to make the brain chemicals we need to think accurately. That's why people, when I say, when you wake up in the morning, get up and start moving. I'm a fan of teaching people to exercise first thing in the morning, for instance, because you find that you start to produce more energy, you produce more calming neurochemicals, you get some food that produces the nutrients that your brain can turn into the right neurochemicals to think accurately. So when we're just sitting there in a kind of dull state, yes, your thoughts can easily go into a negative place. That's why I depress people.

Starting point is 00:22:49 The worst time for them is when they wake up in the morning. But again, when you're waking up in the middle of the night, yeah, if you're just going to lay there and reminisce about all the negative things that have happened in your life, it is better to get up. Maybe have a little something to eat and go back to bed. You just don't want to make it a habit, though, because then your brain gets conditioned to waking up at the same time over and over again, and you don't want to lose an hour of sleep every night. Why do people who do this and then things usually eventually work out, why don't we learn from that? Well, because it's emotional learning,

Starting point is 00:23:26 Mike. It's not something that we can rationally easily change. It's when we're conditioned early in life to think a certain way. It's like dropping that needle on a record. It starts immediately unless we intercede. And we have to keep learning how and discipline ourselves to break up that thought pattern. And we do that by always asking ourselves, what is the truth? What is the truth? And empathy is focused on truth finding. And that's why it's such an important capacity. And you can continue to think in negative ways your entire life without ever realizing it

Starting point is 00:24:00 because you're not very aware of what's happening. You're just allowing that old story to dominate your life. But what if the truth really is horrible? Well, the likelihood of that being so is very low. I mean, how many human beings do you know that are horrible human beings with no talent, no abilities, and are utterly ugly. So most of the fears that people have don't tend to be fact-based. I mean, we all have imperfections, and if there is something that we need to improve on, like you tend to react too quickly, you tend to be too angry,

Starting point is 00:24:38 again, these are all learned patents that can be unlearned. So you have to acknowledge your misgivings and have to acknowledge your misgivings and have to acknowledge your imperfections, but the likelihood that you're going to end up in such a dismal place that you're a horrible human being, I mean, I just haven't met anyone in my travels that's like that. Yeah, well, you probably wouldn't, because they're hiding in a cave somewhere, I suspect. But if 75% of people are doing this, it almost has become the new normal. 75% of my practice right now are not people who are mentally ill, but they're highly stressed.

Starting point is 00:25:14 They're good people. They are oftentimes educated people. They're loving people, but their lives are in such a fast pace. They're living such a fast-paced life. Everything is so hectic. And as I said, they work long hours. They don't sleep enough. They don't exercise enough. Their health habits in terms of eating and exercise tend to be poor. You know, we live our lives according to our mood.

Starting point is 00:25:40 And if we're stressed and producing cortisol with consistency, we are not going to choose the best ways of taking care of ourselves. And so I do believe it has become epidemic in our society. Well, even though we all experience stress, few of us really take the time to consider what it is, what it does to us, where it comes from. So it's interesting to get that insight. Dr. Arthur Sierra McCauley has been my guest. He is a clinical psychologist, a leading expert on the topic of stress, and the name of his book is The Stress Solution.

Starting point is 00:26:13 And you'll find a link to that book in the show notes. Thanks, Arthur. Enjoyed it. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me again. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology.

Starting point is 00:26:56 That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? Each week, we deliver four fun-filled shows.

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Starting point is 00:28:18 you're most likely wearing clothes. Everyone wears clothes. Fashion is a big business. Yet there are some problems with that business. I'm sure you've heard about sweatshops where a lot of clothes are made in horrible conditions and people make very little money. And that's just one issue. The clothes we wear and wash and throw away also have an impact on the environment, and I suspect most people don't really know about it. Dana Thomas is a writer who has served as cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek. She is a contributor to the New York Times Style section, and she's author of a book called Fashionopolis, The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes.

Starting point is 00:28:54 Hi, Dana. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. So talk about what you found when you peeked behind the curtain of the clothing business. We produce about 100 billion items, garments a year, but we only buy 80 billion. So that means we have 20 billion that are just sort of left over and destroyed in one way or another, whether it's thrown away, burned, incinerated, whatever. And then of those 80 billion, the average garment today is worn seven times before it's thrown away. And in China, I've heard it's as little as three times. And when we do wear them, the way we wash

Starting point is 00:29:33 them releases microfibers. We have way too much polyester in our clothes. Polyester is basically plastic. And 60% of our clothes are made of polyester today because it's cheap and because it's light, which means that you can ship it easily too. And polyester releases microfibers when we wash them and we wash our clothes way too much. And now we have microfibers in our water systems and in fish that we eat and in the ice in Antarctica, polyester never biodegrades. Polyester is like plastic. It's made of petroleum, which we pump out of the ground. It's a horribly environmentally damaging product. And yet 60% of our closet has polyester in it, our wardrobe. We have to start thinking more carefully and more thoughtfully about our clothes. We have to start thinking more carefully and more thoughtfully about our clothes.

Starting point is 00:30:28 We have to look into how they're made, why they are so inexpensive, how long we wear them, and how we discard them. If 20% of the 100 billion garments that are manufactured every year go unsold. Why? What happens to them? Why aren't they being sold? Ah, that's that old business model of the economies of scale, that it's cheaper to make 100 than it is to make 80. So we make 100 and we throw 20 away. It's a crazy model that's so, so wasteful. And it's ruled business for eons, since the birth of the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago, essentially.

Starting point is 00:31:12 So that's one of the things that we sort of need to rethink. Maybe we should be making to order. Maybe we should go back to those pre-Industrial Revolution ways of thinking and consuming and shopping, where when you need something, it's made for you. Back before the Industrial Revolution, you went to your dressmaker and consuming and shopping, where when you need something, it's made for you. Back before the industrial revolution, you went to your dressmaker and you're like, I need a new dress, or you went to your tailor and said, I need a new suit, and then it was made. So we can do that now if we meld this with the digital age through the internet, where you go online and you order something, and then it's made once you've ordered it.

Starting point is 00:31:43 And you can do this on a global scale at a retailer like Moda Operandi where you're ordering from Marc Jacobs and you put in your order six months in advance and then they make the clothes based on those orders. Or you can order from a place like Alabama Chanin in Florence, Alabama where you see a dress online on her website. You order it and she has it made by a local seamstress and shipped directly to you within seven to 10 days. Now, these clothes do cost more, but they should cost more. The great aha moment was when I was reading a piece from 1940 in the New Yorker talking about Hattie Carnegie, the wonderful New York retailer. And during the Depression, she had a line of clothing for the middle market consumer called Spectator Sport. Raymond Chandler called it the Secretary Special because it's what secretaries

Starting point is 00:32:32 could afford to buy during the Depression. And those suits and dresses cost $19.99. That's the same price we pay today in Zara and H&M. Not $19.99, you know, scaled with to, you know, based on inflation and real prices and all along. No, it still costs $19.99, which is what we were paying at the height of the worst economic situation in the history of our country. So if the price of clothes hasn't gone up in almost 100 years, it shows that they've really dropped to a point that makes them throwawayable, that we don't invest in them financially, so therefore we don't invest in them emotionally. And we should be paying more for our clothes and caring for them and caring

Starting point is 00:33:12 about them more. Something I've always wondered about is when you go into a department store and you see clothes in the men's section, right? And the next day you could go into that same department and all the clothes you saw the day before are gone. And now the new stuff is in, the new fall fashions or whatever are in, and the summer clothes are gone. Where do they go? Where do all those clothes go after the day when they switch everything? Well, they get incinerated, they get shredded, they get put in outlets, they get marked down and marked down and marked down again. I remember I went to an outlet once and I saw something from a luxury brand company, and it had been started out at sort of like $1,000 and marked down to $500,

Starting point is 00:34:00 then marked down to $250. I mean, each time it's like with a line through it and a new price on this price tag, this poor worn out price tag. And then from $250 down to $125, and then $125 down to $39.99. And there it was sitting in a cardboard box on the floor of an outlet. And the box said, anything in here, $15. And it had started out at $1,000. Now, if that company could still make money on that item at $15, that shows you what the profit markup was. So, you know, that's where they go. They go to these, you know, they just go. They get marked down.

Starting point is 00:34:35 They get thrown away. They get burned. They wind up in landfill. What we need to think about is recycling them or recirculating them somehow, whether we swap clothes with our friends, we resell them, we give them to charity. Though, watch out for that because charity is overwhelmed with donations as well. We can resell them on consignment in places like the RealReal. We can repair them, dye them. We take, you know, when you have all those unmatching socks, we tie-dye them, and then they don't match anyway, but they look really cool.

Starting point is 00:35:12 You can give clothes a new life in many different ways. And there's also cool technology like Ever New that takes cotton T-shirts and regenerates the cotton, breaks it down to its molecular level and regenerates it into virgin cotton that can be used again. There's all sorts of cool innovation like that in what we're calling the circular economy, where things are back in circulation and they stay in circulation. That it's not linear anymore where it's birth of a product, use of a product, and death of a product, but the product carries on and on and on. The impact of that is great because it doesn't go in the landfill, but it also means that we don't have to grow so much cotton.

Starting point is 00:35:50 Now you say, oh, what about the poor cotton farmers? But the poor cotton farmers are using genetically modified cotton that turns out four times more than it should or exponentially more than it naturally would if it were organic. You know that story about the cow that's fed hormones and it gives you four times as much milk? Well, we've done that manipulating in science and chemicals and genetic engineering to do for cotton. That's why cotton has a reputation of being a thirsty plant because it requires so much more water because it's producing so much more cotton. And then it causes erosion

Starting point is 00:36:25 because it's sucking so many more nutrients out of the land than original organic cotton. So if we regenerate the cotton, we can go back to organic cotton, which is better for the planet and for humanity as well. Talk about blue jeans, because you say they are the most popular garment on the face of the earth. They are. At any given moment of the day, half the planet is wearing blue jeans. Now, when I first read that, I said, get out of here. And then I found myself standing on a street corner and I looked around me and sure enough, half the people were wearing blue jeans. And then I was at the gate of an airplane. I looked around me and half the people were wearing blue jeans. And then I was giving a talk in a class and I asked people to raise their hand who had either worn jeans that day or were wearing them right then.

Starting point is 00:37:08 And more than half the hands went up. I'm like, right, it's true. It's really true. And blue jeans were the original sustainable garment. I mean, if you think about them, when they were made for the California miners in the 19th century, the pockets and seams were reinforced with copper rivets so they would hold together and last longer. And they were made of this really sturdy fabric that would be worn in the mines and didn't tear.

Starting point is 00:37:38 So they were totally sustainable. And they were passed down from miner to miner. They were also the original great hand-me-downs. And somehow along the way, that all got bastardized. And, you know, now they are pre-washed. When I was a youth, we had to wear our jeans and break them in ourselves. We bought shrink-to-fit, two sizes too big. They were made of this stiff, stiff cardboard-like denim

Starting point is 00:38:02 that, you know, took six months before you sat down. You're like, oh, that hurt. So, you know, now they're pre-washed for us. They're shredded. They're broken in for us. They're frayed for us. You don't even have to. They're cut off for us.

Starting point is 00:38:16 I mean, cutoffs used to be what you did to your jeans when you wore them out. And now we buy cutoffs. And all of that, that finishing process, as we call it, is very destructive on the environment. It requires five gallons of water to wash a pair of jeans. And that five gallons is at once, not spread out over years. And people, I've seen, I've been to sweatshops and factories where they're distressing the jeans and it's a hundred degrees and their fans blowing all the dust around and they're drilling and sanding and rasping by hand and not wearing masks and inhaling all the

Starting point is 00:38:51 fibers and indigo dust. And it's, you know, it's just awful. Let's be frank. It's just awful. And they're being paid pennies. So the impact of genes has traditionally been really terrible. But happily, there are companies like Genealogia that have invented a way to distress genes with lasers in an air-conditioned clean room by a computer person who is operating it. You know, a bit like the dentist who steps outside the office when he's about to x-ray your teeth and he goes behind in that little booth that does the x-ray. Well, that's what they do now to distress your genes with lasers and they have a vacuum that sucks it all up in an enclosed environment. Or they have a water system that uses one glass of water to five gallons and then to wash the genes. It's a super high-tech

Starting point is 00:39:41 and sophisticated system. And then that water is recycled. And Levi's recently contracted this company, Genologia, to finish all their jeans, and Levi's is the largest producer of jeans in the world. So we have hope. You've said a couple of things, suggestions to help solve the problem, like, you know, you could order your clothes six months in advance, and you pay more for them and get them six months later, or you could swap clothes with your friends. Well, I'm not going to be swapping clothes with my friends. I don't have those kinds of friends. I mean, these suggestions may be wonderful,

Starting point is 00:40:17 but I just don't think most people would do them. Teenagers are totally swapping clothes. They're completely into it. My daughter walks in the kitchen and I said, what's that shirt? I don't know. Oh, it used to be Maya's. I gave Maya my sweater and she gave me her shirt. I'm like, okay, cool. So there's definitely a generational thing here. The millennials are also picking up really cool things like they're starting to sew again. There's a rise of knitting circles and embroidery circles and sewing circles, which I love. And I recently met a woman getting on the bus to Shelter Island in New York City who was carrying a little spinning wheel. And I'm like, what are you doing? And she said, I'm spinning my own wool, which I'm going to dye with my own indigo in my kitchen garden.

Starting point is 00:41:00 And I thought, oh, here's some crunchy granola hippie sort. And it turns out she's in finance works on Wall Street. And this is how she spends her weekends. I'm like, ah, there's hope. And she was young and hip. I think after 30 years of the digital revolution and globalization, there's this young generation who wants to go back to a way of doing things that's slower and to craftsmanship, working and making things with our hands and not just staring at screens all the time and tapping and scrolling. And I think this is where we're going to see change. It's just going to come because we need it. It's in our DNA.

Starting point is 00:41:39 We need to make things, and we need to appreciate things, and we need to touch things, and we need to make things and we need to appreciate things and we need to touch things and we need to craft again. Comment, if you will, on the argument that yes, people are paid, you know, pennies to make clothes, but if you stop it, then they don't make anything. So at least they're making something. Yes and no. I mean, that's the traditional conservative argument. Oh, we're giving these good jobs to good people and they're rising up the economic ladder, the middle class. Well, I've been to Bangladesh, and that middle class is a long way from suburban America, believe me. It's not middle class. You're raising them from maybe extreme poverty to poverty, but they're still very much stuck in poverty because they're not paid a living wage. They are not paid enough to cover the basic expenses of food, clothing, and housing for their families. So they have to work two or three of these jobs to make ends meet.

Starting point is 00:42:34 And they're stuck in these jobs. They can't get out because they are so cash-strapped. So, no, that's a lousy argument. Instead, coming up with things like the genealogy of machines, which I saw, you know, the laser distressors, which I saw in Vietnam, you're creating better jobs, cleaner, safer jobs. They're not in sweatshops and factories that collapse. They're not in 100-degree warehouse with fans blowing the dust around and people not wearing masks and walking around in inches of black indigo water. You know, they're working in air-conditioned environments that are clean and silent. They're given better skills.

Starting point is 00:43:13 They're paid better because they're bigger, better jobs. And then we're creating other jobs in making the machines, building these buildings, all of that. So while we're getting rid of the crummy jobs, we're creating better jobs, cleaner jobs, and safer jobs. Nobody wants to work in a sweatshop, honestly. I mean, anyone who says that should go try it for a day and then we can talk. Well, this whole idea of, you know, thinking about maybe washing your clothes less. I mean, we do wash our clothes an awful lot. And I remember being in other places around the world and people were amazed. What? You're washing your clothes every day? What? Yes, it's true. Now, the CEO of Levi's, Chip Berg, says you should never wash your jeans.

Starting point is 00:43:58 There does come a point when your jeans are so embedded with everything that they could probably walk out of the room on their own. When they get to that point, you should probably wash them. But at the same time, he's right that we shouldn't wash them after one or two wears. You can wear them for a week or two at least, and they'll be perfectly fine. A friend of mine from Jamaica said that they didn't wash their clothes so much. What they did when they got dirty, they put them out in the sun, and the sun cleaned them, which I thought was a really curious and probably an old-fashioned idea, like putting them out on the laundry line

Starting point is 00:44:31 and just letting the air and the wind and the sun clean them. There are ways to clean your clothes without putting it on the long wash in hot water. And doing that, putting it on the long wash in hot water, beats up and breaks down your clothes and gives them a much shorter life. They wear out more easily. The man from Procter and Gamble that I talked to said, you know, wash your clothes on the short cycle with cold water. And he wants us to wash our clothes. That's his business. And he says, if you do that, you're saving water because it's the short cycle. You're saving electricity because it's the short cycle. You're saving electricity because you're not heating up the water.

Starting point is 00:45:05 You're giving your clothes a longer life because you're not boiling them and spinning them to death. And he said it also releases less microfibers because it's not in hot water that releases them and it's not a longer wash that releases them. And so we're getting less of the plastic microfibers from polyester in our water system. And he said, you know, it's a win-win for everybody, even Procter and Gamble somehow. I'm not sure how, because if you just wash cold short, simple as that,

Starting point is 00:45:38 big impact. Well, this is interesting to me because this is a topic I didn't even know was a topic. And so I appreciate you shedding some light on it. My guest has been Dana Thomas, and she is author of the book Fashionopolis, The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes. You'll find a link to that book at Amazon in the show notes. Thank you, Dana. My pleasure. My pleasure.

Starting point is 00:46:10 Whether or not people bother to read and respond to your email depends a lot on what you put in the subject line. The people at Yesware did some interesting research. They powered through subject line data from more than 100 million emails sent by over 7,800 companies to uncover patterns of open and reply rates to email. Here are some of the things they found. Immediacy helps. A subject line that says, Today's meeting will more likely be read than if it says, This week's meeting.

Starting point is 00:46:40 Putting the phrase, Can you chat? in the subject line will lose about 98 out of 100 people who will never reply. The phrase check in, in the subject line, works much better than can you chat. The phrase something of interest in the subject line has a very low response rate, probably because it sounds pretty spammy. And the phrase next steps has a very high open and response rate, as does the phrase follow up. The phrase touching base falls pretty flat, likely because it doesn't mean much and it's pretty vague. Thank you as a subject line is golden.

Starting point is 00:47:18 It gets a high open rate and a high response rate. So thank you emails are well worth the time. And by the way, any subject line more than five words long is probably not good. Open and response rates fall dramatically for emails that have a subject line that's five words or longer. And that is something you should know. We are always looking for new listeners, and you can help by sharing this podcast with someone you know.

Starting point is 00:47:44 I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Do you love Disney? Do you love top 10 lists? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show,

Starting point is 00:48:01 we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. The parks, the movies, the top 10 lists of all things Disney. The parks, the movies, the music, the food, the lore. There is nothing we don't cover on our show. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed. I had Danielle and Megan record some answers to seemingly meaningless questions. I asked Danielle, what insect song is typically higher pitched in hotter temperatures and lower pitched in cooler temperatures? You got this. No, I didn't.

Starting point is 00:48:29 Don't believe that. About a witch coming true? Well, I didn't either. Of course, I'm just a cicada. I'm crying. I'm so sorry. You win that one. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:48:49 Hi, I'm Jennifer, a founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Something You Should Know - How Stress Distorts Your Thinking & What You Never Knew About the Clothes You Wear

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