Stuff You Should Know - Can the sun kill you?

Episode Date: May 18, 2011

Could the sun, typically known for providing light and warmth, kill us? The Apollo 17 mission almost resulted in tragedy due to a mega-flare -- and astronauts aren't the only ones at risk. Join Josh and Chuck to learn more about the sun. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. You may know us better as Joni and Chachi, right? S-Y-S-K Morning Edition.

Yeah, I literally have had two sips of coffee. This is an unusual recording time. I'm not done. This is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast from the revered website, HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, they're our employers. Hey, they are. And they're where we get all of our information, right? That's right. Well, most of it. Yeah, there's been like maybe two or three podcasts that we've done that didn't come from articles off the site. Yeah, but that's the basis. Right, okay, sure. And now everybody knows the secret. You can all go back to bed, right?

I'd like to go back to bed. I know you, Chuck, you've been here since 6.30 this morning. I know, I have. And like you said, that's two sips of coffee, whereas when we usually record, you have had 17 cups of coffee. Yeah, this is going to be an unusually sedate podcast about the sun. Yes, this is almost, almost sun take two. I feel like this might make up a little bit for the awful suncast we did. I don't think that's correct. No. And I don't think it's sun take two. I think the sun comes in for a guest appearance, a cameo, if you will. Right.

But there's nothing that's ever going to make up for how the sun works. Okay. Although there was something, I think my favorite fact from the sun podcast was that you remember in the core of the sun? Yes. There's just helium bouncing all over the place. Sure. And what I think a proton gets loose or a neutron and it gets picked up by something else and like this change in mass is displaced energy and that displaced energy takes the form of a photon. Remember the tiny packet of light? Yes. Here's the kicker. And I know you remember this. It takes a photon 100,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to the surface.

And then once it leaves the sun, it takes eight minutes to get to earth. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. All of a sudden, it hauls butt. Yeah. 100,000 years. So the light that hits your skin, Chuck, is 100,000 years and eight minutes old. Wow. Didn't think of it that way. Well, now you will. That's a great sun fact. So I have a better intro than that. All right. Let's hear it. Apollo 17. Yeah. The last Apollo mission. 1972. These guys are training to go to the moon. One last time, let's get some people on the moon. Right. Nixon's in office. Everybody's really unhappy.

So they're training, but there's a huge problem. There's a predicted solar flare coming and not just any solar flare, a mega flare, Chuck. The last one seen of such magnitude was 150 years before. What does it do? A solar flare, a mega flare, you know, a solar flare shoots protons out like highly radioactive protons out into space and at earth. Right? Earth has a magnetic field that deflects these things or else they'd hit earth's surface and us, these radioactive protons, at about a million to three million kilometers per hour. So what's a mega just a souped up version of that? Well, that's, that's the mega version. Yes. So say, oh, that is half a million kilometers at an hour. Okay. It's way more protons. They're way more radioactive and they reach much further

out in space. It's just like a huge cough from the sun. Now, like I said, we have a magnetic field. The moon does not have a magnetic field. So any astronaut standing on the moon when this solar flare erupted would have gotten shot through with these radioactive protons and either would have been burned on the spot or would have just received a lethal dose of radiation sickness. Wow. So they called it off or did it postpone it? Luckily, the solar flare occurred between Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. So Apollo 17 went up on December 2nd, 1972, I think, and the solar flare took place in August of 1972. So they escaped it by six months or so. But isn't it crazy that they could have conceivably been standing on the moon and just been like,

like something out of the movies. It's kind of like sunshine. Oh, yeah. You saw that. I didn't think you saw that. No, I remember we talked about the first half was just classic. Yeah. Yeah. I've never seen a movie go off the rails like that. But I know it was so good. It was astounding. I know I really wanted it to finish off because Danny Boyle's the best. Yeah. I was I'm on team Boyle all the way. You are. Yes. But it raises the question. It raises an interesting point because I think we all know the answer to the question post in this podcast. Can the sun kill you, Chuck? This is a Chuck Bryant special. Yeah. It's a little elementary, I thought. I disagree. When was it from? Oh, it's from a long time ago, but I don't know. Like my introductions back in

the day were, I thought they were like written for like grade school. Do you want to read the first sentence? I wanted to almost get Robert Lehman here to do a dramatic reading just to the first sentence. Anyone who's ever made it through the fifth grade can probably tell you that the sun is a star. I think it's funny how somebody, I imagine your editor went back and was like, well, there's not necessarily every person that we can say with confidence can tell you that if you've made it through fifth grade. So let's put probably in there. Yeah. So Josh, the answer can the sun kill you is most certainly yes. The resounding yes and not just by standing on the moon in a mega flare. Yeah. Yeah. There's plenty of ways here on earth that the sun can get you.

Basically, the point of this podcast is don't ever leave your house again, right? That's right. And you, Mr. Tan man, I've got it. Do you know where sunscreen? I do. I wear 70 on my face. I swear to God, I wear 70. Then why is it every time you come in like on a Monday, you'll have like this bronze dark face and you've like, oh, is it the beach? So I have either Greco, Italian, Jewish or some Mediterranean, possibly Native American in me somewhere down the line that's popping up. I understand. I tan extremely well. But if you've got on 70, you can't tan. So how is it defeating the sunblock? I can tan. Clearly I can. And I promise you I really do wear 70. I don't wear enough sunblock

like I should. I know and I appreciate that. I don't wear as much sunblock as I should, but like everywhere. Yeah. Because there's just so much of me. I get bored like halfway through. And there's only some sunblock. It clumps in like my hair. So like I can't get it rubbed in. But yeah. It's not the 70s, you know, remember in the 70s. So it was just baby oil. Yeah. Go out in the sun. Yeah. Kind of roast yourself like a turkey. Plus I'd be wearing a medallion right now for this. That's right. Boy, Lizzie's just cracking up. Yeah. Yeah. Guess producer Lizzie. Catch her early in the morning and we're funnier. All right. So let's go ahead and get going here with the first way. And then the first couple are really the money is at the end of this podcast,

the most interesting part. Okay. Before we we announce it, can we get a drumroll for the first way the sun can kill you here on earth? Drumroll please. It is heat stroke. That's right. Yes. Most obviously, uh, you know, everyone knows that the body cools itself down by sweating. You get hot. Your body temperature goes up a little bit. The sweat kicks in. In my case, it can be cold outside and the sweat still kicks in. Yeah. Or you could be in like a 50 degree body of water. Yeah. Sweat kicks in. I will never dive heat stroke, but you can dive heat stroke. It's when your body temperature rises above 104 degrees and stays there. Yeah. For a prolonged period. Yep. And, um, that basically means, you know, you can't find shade. It's probably,

you're either an infant stuck in a car, which is the saddest. That's pretty old. Your elderly and your, you know, somehow shut in or informed and your like power goes out, which is equally sad. Or you're probably trapped if you're just a healthy adult out in the desert or something. Right. And heat stroke. There's three things. Heat strokes, the third in a series of escalating problems, right? Yeah. You have heat cramps and then heat exhaustion and then heat stroke. Yeah. And when you have heat stroke here in big trouble, um, so your body has two ways of cooling itself down sweating, like you said. Yes. And then pumping your blood close to the surface of your skin, which press, which is pressed up against the ambient air, which should be cooler, which is why

you flush, right? Yeah. Um, in babies, like you say, if you're trapped in a car, a baby's, um, sweat process mechanism isn't very well developed. So it's not going to get cool, right? That's so sad. And then the other problem with heat stroke is you, um, lose your ability to salivate. So you can't swallow. So if you're out in the desert, even if you have water after a point, you can't, you can't drink fluids any longer. They have to be introduced intravenously. That's right. That's bad news. That's very bad news. And your blood thickens too, Chuck. With, uh, heat stroke? Yeah. Really? Yeah. You're one step away from saying the word coagulate. I'm just gonna like... The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public

enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute, uh, 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil asset for it.

Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save for retirement? Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet. Roughly four in five New Year's resolutions fail within the first month or two. But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals. Our podcast, How to Money, can help. That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now. And we want to see you achieve your money goals. And it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering listener questions, interviewing

experts, and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about. Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week, and we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing, and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, How to Money has got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you are very hot and you're overheated and

you're not cooling down, Josh, and you see some of the following, then you should really try and get into some shade too sweet. What's here? Rapid pulse, very strong, like you said. I imagine the heart's beating really fast. Hot, dry skin, headache, dizzy, hyperventilating, and these I get the sense escalate as we go here. Hyperventilate, confusion, nausea, seizures, hallucination, and then unconsciousness. So if you're hallucinating, you're about to go into the light or into the dark, depending on which way you want to look at it. Especially if your hallucinations like get in the shade. Yeah, and your organs are going to swell. You could go into shock, and you could die. Yeah, pretty easy. Your whole body can just shut down.

And that's just from heat. That's not even from like the sun's rays or damage or anything. That's just from getting so hot. Right. Unbelievable. And apparently when your blood does thicken, once you hit that 104 degree mark, and your blood starts to thicken, it can't be pumped toward the surface any longer. You're not sweating. You can't swallow. Right. After that, you reach a point where your body temperature just skyrockets up, and that's that for you. Really? Yeah, you're cooked. I wonder how high it can get. I think it's at 108, 112. Really? And then you're dead? Yeah. I know that when you have a really bad fever, if it gets up to a certain point, it's hospital time.

Well, plus a bad fever can cause brain damage. That's right, Josh. And I look for some newsy items for this. And of course, it's always just some sad story about a parking lot. But workers in Japan at the nuclear reactor site have been suffering from heat stroke. And so they've got cool rooms set up, and they're very aware of this problem. From the radiation that heat generated by the radiation? Yeah, and just being in the suits, and they can't sweat and evaporate like they normally could. Goodness. I know. Wow. It's like add one more risk to the dangerous job they're doing. Yeah. So what's another way the sun can kill you, Chuck? Skin cancer, Josh. No drumroll there. No drumroll there. The sun emits many different wavelengths of light,

and the one that is damaging to us is UV, ultraviolet light, that we cannot see. Which means it's blue, red, and blue. Shorter. It's blue, red, and blue. Yeah, remember? Yeah, that's right. Redder than red, blue, red, and blue. We can't see it. That's right. But we can be damaged by it. Yeah, very much so. So check, there's two kinds of UV rays that hit us here on Earth, UVA and UVB. Right. And UVA is the kind of ultraviolet radiation that really penetrates the skin, down to the dermis, and does a lot of cellular damage, DNA damage, right? UVB is the sun's burning rays. Right. It's more potent, actually, than UVA.

But first of all, it can be deflected by window glass, so it doesn't hit us when we're inside. But secondly, it can't penetrate as deep into the skin, so it doesn't cause cancer. It just burns you, literally. But UVA is the one that gets in there and can disrupt the normal function of cells. Right. And if you get wrinkled and freckled, this is all because of UV exposure. If, I reckon, if you never saw the sun's rays, you would probably look very youthful. I would think so, too. For much longer than your average Joe out in the sun. We do have proteins in the skin called elastin, and they're very springy and fibrous.

It helps us to stay young. But UV exposure damages and breaks down that elastin, and eventually that could lead to lesions, tumors, that kind of thing. Right. And UVA specifically goes in and basically turns our melanocytes, the melanin producing, pigment producing cells in the skin. It basically says you're cancerous now. Right. Because cancer is uncontrolled cellular growth, right? That's right. So the melanocytes start to reproduce a little too quickly, then all of a sudden you have a tumor. There are three kinds of skin cancer, Josh. There's the basal. Is it basal or basal?

Basal. I would imagine probably both, Chuck. I think if you're from England, you'd say basal. Basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. And the first two aren't very dangerous. They're about 95% of all cases of skin cancer, the first two kinds. And you're doing okay if you have one of those. You can get it removed. It's really not that big of a deal. It turns to a melanoma. That's when it's serious. And about 75% of skin cancer deaths are from melanoma. Yeah. And if you find it early enough and treat it, melanoma has a pretty high survival rate. I think 98% survival rate, five-year survival rate, if you get it before it gets to the lymphs, when it hits the lymphs,

then the survival rate starts to drop dramatically. Yeah. And 80%, this is an interesting fact. 80% of your whole life's UV exposure comes before you're 18. Right. And I thought about that and it makes perfect sense because that's when your little kid who jumps like an idiot through a sprinkler or something like that. That's when you're outside. You're not punched over a computer. Right. You're outdoors. Yeah. And there's only, I mean, if you're a parent, you should take care of your child and slather them with sunscreen. But every day, if your kid's out playing and very active a lot, chances are you're going to be slipping up there or something. Well, but I think that, I don't know that that's necessarily okay though. I think that needs to

be a habit. Kind of like your kid doesn't come out of the womb, like give me some pants and some a shirt. Right. The kid knows to put on a pant. I did actually, I asked for a shirt right away. You're like, I need to cover up. I think this needs to be part and parcel with going out if you want to, you know, I think skin cancer is a far greater problem than people are aware. Yes. And I think just you make a good point in this article that it's one of the more preventable kinds of cancers just by using sunscreen. Yeah. So I think it should be part of going outside. And apparently also not just on sunny days, on a cloudy overcast days, still like 80% of the UV rays make it to the surface. Yeah. So tanning beds too. If you think that it's not sun, so it's not

hurting me that tanning bed does the same thing. Yeah. Can we talk for a second about SPF? Can we solve the riddle of what SPF is? Yeah. They recommend 15, but I would say higher than that if you want total protection. They changed it recently. It was a 30 now. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends 30. They should double it just to be on the same side. Pretty much. Yeah. But I suspect that there is something of like a mechanism like that involved because SPF means a sun protection factor. The number, right, is the number of times longer that product will prevent a sunburn than unprotected skin. Right. So if it takes 10 minutes for unprotected skin to get a sunburn, SPF 15, it'll take 150 minutes in that same sunlight, right? The problem is they're

like, well, you should still go ahead and reapply this every two hours anyway, right? At least. And then after you sweat or after you're in the water. So that's two hours at the most. So an SPF 15 would protect you. And yet they say SPF 30 is recommended. I don't understand it. But I mean any idiot can look at suntan lotion. It's SPF 70 compared to SPF 5 and see that it's thicker. Yeah. So I guess that's just it. Either that or you can just put primer on yourself and really protect. Some kills. Yeah. But I've always wondered what SPF is, how they categorize that. Yeah, you didn't know that till now? No. Interesting. That's because you don't wear it. I do wear it. I just didn't ask questions. Why do you look like George Hamilton?

I don't. Am I aging or something like that? No, you're just tan. I'm always tan. I'm tan when you come back from the beach. Oddly. All right. So broccoli and if you want to help yourself out, eat broccoli and eat Brussels sprouts. Yeah. And if you say, I don't like Brussels sprouts, grill them, baby. So good. I've never had those. Yeah, man. I never ate them either. But what you do is you get the Brussels sprouts, you kind of chop off a little nubby end, toss it in a bowl with some olive oil and whatever your spices, you know, salt, pepper, rosemary, whatever you like, throw it on the grill and grill it. So good. I do the same exact thing, but instead of the grill, I just roast them for a while until they're really, really crisp. Yeah. Good stuff. Or another thing

you can do is you chop it in half and then do it in the skillet and it kind of caramelizes on the flat sides. Yeah, that's good. I have a good recipe for broccoli. So you take as much broccoli as you can find, chop off the stalks, take the whole thing, put it into a plastic bag and throw it away. You don't like broccoli? I hate broccoli. That's so weird. I love broccoli. I think broccoli is the most disgusting thing that's ever been on this planet. I think broccoli is the worst thing the Romans ever invented. I think broccoli is delicious. And they say, you know, steaming is probably the, I mean, raw is the best way to eat it, but I'm not into raw broccoli. I have to steam mine a little bit. It is kind of tasteless though. Not super flavorful. You're just not having it,

are you? No, I think it's disgusting. It's actually the taste that I can't stand. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss y'all. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like

pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save for retirement. Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet. Roughly four in five New Year's resolutions fail within the first month or two. But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals. Our podcast, How to Money can help. That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now and we want to see you

achieve your money goals and it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering listener questions, interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about. Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week and we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly spend-thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing, and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, How to Money has got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing

progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. So anyway, the reason I brought all this up is that there's a topical compound called ISC-4 found in these vegetables and they think that if they add this, they've made a more robust version called ICS-4. And if you add this to sunscreen, which they're trying to get done, they think it might be able to really beef up the skin cancer prevention by adding this stuff from these veggies to your sunscreen. Like it enhances its protection, protectiveness? Very much so. It is way too early. I don't think we should record at 9 a.m. any longer. This is an emergency. All right. So Josh, the final way, and this is the most interesting and saddest

condition of all, is called Xeroderma pigmentosum. Yep. And that is very rare. Xeroderma is Latin for dry skin and pigmentosum refers to the colorations, the skin colorations that you get if you're one of the sufferers, one of the few sufferers. Yeah. I think there's been like 250 cases in the U.S. Yeah. It didn't give a moment. I think there's about 250. So, Chuck, where did you find this condition? How'd you stumble upon this when you're writing this article? I think I was just looking for, you know, I think it came from a skin cancer site because you're very much likely to die from skin cancer if you have this condition. Right. Probably by the time you're middle-aged. And so, I think a person with Xeroderma pigmentosum, you say that they're... We'll call

it XP. Okay. That's what most people call it, right? Yeah. People with XP are about a thousand times more likely to develop skin cancer than a person without it. Yeah. And that can be up to 2,000 times more likely. Yeah. And so, this isn't, you know, from laying out, this is like walking around in your house, right? And getting indirect UV radiation from indirect sunlight. Any kind of sunlight whatsoever. Yeah. Indirect, direct, obviously, is the worst. Even fluorescent lights? Yeah. There's been a bunch of stories about this, and they're all very sad and titled, sad titles. And this one from the New York Times is called Midnight's Children. And it's about camp sundown, which is a camp that these parents started who have a daughter who suffers from

this. And it's basically a couple of weeks out of the year in the summer, they just have a summer camp for kids that have this. And it's all, you know, flip-flopped. It's all at night, all the activities are, because they can't go out in the sun at all. And it's not just at a camp, like don't families who have a kid with XP have to basically do that anyway, like flip-flop their nighttime and daytime. Yeah. The camp is just to give them some fun and like to be able to go to camp and socialize and flirt and do things that normal kids do. That's very sweet. Because one of the saddest parts about this is your sequester to your house during the day, and you're outfitted, you know, all the windows are outfitted with the UV blockers and everything. And, you know,

all the kids that are interviewed are like, you know, when we're awake at night, my friends are all asleep. So there's nothing to do at night. That's one of the big problems. Yeah. If you're a kid. Yeah. That and infomercials are big problems of staying up all night. Yeah, that's true. Chuck, they recently figured out what people with XP are lacking, right? It's an end time. Yeah, let's hear it. Which is, well, there's a couple of ways to say this. The wrong way, which is what I'm about to do, and then the right way, which you'll probably never get. But Palmarisita, that sounds right. Or, depending on which part of the same article you want to consult, Palmaris Eta, like the Greek letter, right? Basically, it's a it's an enzyme that allows

DNA to continue replicating successfully, even when UVA UVA radiation has damaged it, right, is basically like the shield. Like you guys keep going on, I'll stand here and take all the bullets. And there's this actually hopeful that it's an enzyme because stem cells are gangbusters at replacing enzymes that are missing, lacking in conditions. So there could be an all out cure for this in the next decade or so. Well, there is none now. And one of the reasons why it's taken so long to crack the nut, so to speak, is that it's genetic and both parents have to have this gene that you inherit. So it's, if both parents have to have it, and it's probably not because if you have the gene and you don't have it, you don't even think about it, you're getting married to somebody

who also has this gene that you have no idea exists. Also, you have a kid that's born with this, and it's usually diagnosed by the age of two because it's so clearly, the sun so clearly damages your baby. This is the story from the New York Times. The mother describes this. The baby was about six weeks old, and we put her to sleep in the shade of a tree. She began screaming hysterically like three minutes later. I mean, it's not like all day long. I mean, it's literally go out into the sun and your skin starts blistering immediately. She said in less than two minutes, her arms broke out in ferocious blisters that we thought were ant bites at first. Each burn began as a little pinprick then swelled up to the size of a quarter into a blister. You could literally see it happening

in front of your eyes like time-lapse photography. So it's like something like a vampire in a movie goes out and the sun just starts like burning their skin. It's unbelievably sad. And that damage, like we said, they're 1,000 to 2,000 times more likely to develop skin cancer. Apparently, so it takes about 60 years of sun exposure before skin cancer really develops in most people. In people with XP, it starts the same tumors can start by age 10. So you have skin damage, like horrific external skin damage, but at the same time, the radiation damage is just working over time beneath the surface too. Yeah. Well, the same girl, they go to this pizza place at 10 p.m., one of their favorite pizza

joints because it doesn't have fluorescent lights. And there's literally like a case with sodas and ice cream with fluorescent lights and the kid can't even go near that. Like all the other kids are there picking out their ice cream and she can't do it. I mean, she's a very sweet girl and she says, you know, night is cool. I love the moon so much better than the sun. And it seems like she's got a great attitude, but it definitely is a scary thing when you can't play with other kids in the daylight. Like she's literally never seen the sun. She said, I've seen it on television. Wow. Isn't that sad? Yes, but there is NASA's on the scene, right? Yeah, they got a cool suit. Yes. For like two grand, which is relatively cheap,

considering what it can let you do. But basically, you can put a kid in one of these suits, a kid with XP in one of these suits, and they can walk out into the sunlight. It blocks, I think 99.9% of UVA and UVB radiation. And it's bulky suit or whatever, but they can go outside and play with their friends. So there is some hope. There's the stem cell thing, too. Right. And there's Camp Sundown, which is awesome. And if you are one of the few sufferers, I'm sure you already know about XPS, but it's the XP Society. And that's like the place to go for information and support and stuff like that. So mega flares, heat stroke, skin cancer, zero derma pigment, TOSM. Anything else? I don't think so. So those are the ways. Yeah. And actually,

one extra fact about XP is a lot of the sufferers go blind because it's very harsh on the eyes as well. Good Lord. I know. I'm so sorry. It's pretty heavy for 9am. It really is bummed you up for the day. Well, if you want to learn more about the sun and ways it can kill you and you want to read Chuck Bryant's first sentence in this one, it's good stuff. You can type in, can the sun kill you in the search bar at our venerable website, howstuffworks.com, right? That's right. And it's time for listener mail, Chuck. Yes, this is a little long, but this is actually a follow up and so few follow ups do we get. This is a guy, Dan, I don't know if we read it on the air, but he was inspired by our Bhutan podcast.

Mm hmm. Remember, do you need money to be happy, that kind of thing? No, that was, um, his Bhutan onto something with gross national happiness. Well, yeah, but it was the essence of it was money equating happiness. And should you give it all up and drop out? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yes, we called for stories at the end. So this dude, Dan, did so a year and a half ago and he told me he was going to do it at the time and he actually followed up a year and a half later. Wow. So this is like a real test case. So two years ago, I was living the American dream 2000 square foot house in rural New Hampshire working a stable job at a fortune 100 company raking in at six figures. I had the dog, I had the loving girlfriend,

but my life was hell. I worked mornings, nights, weekends, stress beyond comprehension and commuted two hours a day and spent my free time doing house related chores saw so little of my dog that when I came home, he didn't even get up off the couch to greet me. That's sad. That is a lazy dog. Okay, my girlfriend and I discussed the predicament and came to the conclusion we would choose to continue. We could choose to continue living such a dreadful life until we died or we can make a break for a new experience on our own terms. So that's what they did. They put their house on the market, sold it that spring, quit their jobs, got married in June with a simple celebration and a bluegrass band. And then with only a car or dog and a couple of suitcases set

off for Portland, Oregon. Not sure why Portland. I think that's where everybody in the situation starts. Yeah. Portlandia. Yeah. It's been close to a year now living in Portland. It's been an interesting experience. There was a close call. We were running out of funds. It's still unemployed and almost cashed in on our dreams. But we were saved by a random occurrence that landed my wife a job. They met Daddy Warbox. Despite 10% unemployment in Portland, we both had jobs by January and we're confident that we could be successful in our transition. Now we live in a small one bedroom apartment and make one third of the salary that I did back in New Hampshire. But I only work 40 hours a week. I love my job. I have a 30 minute bicycle commute to work,

which is along the waterfront. I only drive my car twice a month. I used to have heart palpitations from the daily stress. Now I have none. I have a lot of free time on Mondays. My wife and I have dance lessons. Nice. Wednesdays. I'm in a kickball league, which you know something about. Sure. I played kickball with Jerry. Yes. On her team. Never should have played kickball together. Tuesdays. I volunteered a local nonprofit theater Thursdays and Fridays. I catch several pints at the local pubs and weekends. I hike and experience the great things that Portland has to offer. He's written and produced songs and he says he actually has saved more money now than when he had the big six figure job. That is so cool. Isn't that cool? I'll bet his hair is

increased in length by at least 40%. It has. And now when I come home, the dog is wagging his tail and meeting me at the door. So what a great ending here. He says it hasn't been easy in traditional terms, but it has been easy for us. Once you decide that what you own has no value to you, then most things that you worry about go away. That is so cool, Dan. And yeah, that's basically the essence. He said having free time is a great opportunity to get to know your significant other, to volunteer and to get in shape. And that is all I have to say from Dan. Well, congratulations, Dan. That's a fantastic story. Yeah. I'm literally giddy. You went from a dirty yuppie to a dirty hippie in a year. We applaud you for it. Yes. It's an excellent story and I'm glad he wrote in.

Thank you very much for following up, Dan. Yeah. And let's, I'd like to hear from Dan every year to see what's going on. So Dan, I challenge you to email us again next spring. Okay. Okay. How about that? That's good stuff, Chuck. If you have any stories of amazing transformation, it doesn't have to be necessarily like taking a step back. It could be anything. If you haven't seen somebody in a couple of years and they changed from point A to point B and it's just been astounding. We want to hear about it. We love stories like that, right? Yeah. You can post it on our Facebook page, facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can tweet it to us, syskpodcast, or you can send us an old fashioned email at stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com.

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