Stuff You Should Know - Does the five-second rule work?

Episode Date: January 17, 2013

You know when you drop a piece of food and if you pick it up within five seconds it's still good to eat? Researchers have studied whether that's true or not and in doing so have inadvertently shone a light on how utterly covered our world is with bacteria and germs. Prepare to shudder in this episode of Stuff You Should Know. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner, the residue-free, fast-drying solution especially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like stone, tile, laminate, vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff, stuff that'll piss you off. 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 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 2012 Toyota Camry. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck Bryant's consulting his notes. He's wearing his glasses, everybody. He's getting ready to podcast. So that means this is Stuff You

Should Know. Stretching, doing my yoga. You just peed for the fourth time in the last hour. Got more coffee. I drink a lot of coffee. Yeah. Oh, that was exciting. Yeah. And while I was getting coffee, I was like, I used my elbow to press the buttons to make coffee. Are you doing that now? I have become, I'm trying to think back to what initiated it, but I've definitely become far more germ conscious. I'm not a germaphobe because I can just be like, oh, God, you know, that's fine. Your fingers touched your mouth. Stop simpering. Yeah. Right? Like, I can get a hold of myself like that. But at the same time, you know what it is? It was that it was flesh eating bacteria when it was going around Georgia for a little while. Yeah. And then simultaneously like being

aware that like the gym is lousy with germs. Yeah. And I think that that did a one, two number on me. And all of a sudden I'm just very, I'm very aware of what I touch. Yeah. I'm not super germ conscious. I have been more so though, since we've started learning more about this crap. Yeah. But we have a mutual friend whose girlfriend won't even keep her toothbrush in the bathroom. Oh, really? Yeah. She said, why would I among the fecal air, the particulates in the air makes why would I keep my toothbrush in the bathroom makes sense. Yeah. And she knows who she is. I don't know who she is. I'll tell you after. Okay, good. So you're kind of, you're okay with it. You're okay with the idea of germs. I mean,

there is this whole, there's this whole thing called the hygiene hypothesis, which makes uttering complete sense to me. What that if you're allowed more germs and you'll just learn to fight them and have a more robust immune system. Yes, especially growing up as a child. Yeah. And then children who develop allergies, it's because they are raised in a sterile, Lysol environment. My environment was filthy dirty. And so when they finally get out into this very filthy dirty world, e.g. preschool, yeah, they are, they don't have any antibodies built up for it. It makes a lot of sense. I don't know that there's any hard science that backs it up. But I don't know that's ever been disproven. But it's called the hygiene hypothesis. It

appeals to me. It appeals to me. I don't have allergies. I don't get sick that much. No. And I'm unhealthy as it gets. I wouldn't call you that. No, I'm in the middle. Yes, I appreciate that. Okay, I guess really the division line between a germaphobe and a non germaphobe would probably be found somewhere in the five second rule. Wouldn't you think? Sure. So like if I drop something, depending on what it was and where I dropped it, yeah, I would possibly eat it. There's a, there's a comedian here in Atlanta who's pretty good. His name's Noah Garden Schwartz. Oh, yeah. And he's saying great name. Yeah. Yeah. It means Noah Black Garden, I think. Yeah. And he was saying that the five second rule is basically

exists on a sliding scale. Like if it's a piece of broccoli, it's like a zero second. Agreed. If it's like a cheeto, it's like a whenever I find it rule. Yeah. Whenever I find it and pick it up and eat it rule. Right. He does it way better than me, but he had a great observation about the five second rule. The point is for me, it depends on what it is, where it is. Not really even how long it's been there. I mean, if it's been there so long and it's under the couch and there's like dust bunnies accumulated on it, I won't eat it. No, no, no. You wouldn't eat anything that you didn't recently drop. Would you? If you just found a cookie on the floor, you would eat it? Again, it depends on where the cookie on where it was found. Like some places seem far cleaner to

me than others. Like mine and Yumi's apartment is very, very clean. Sure. So if it fell and was just slightly under the couch, yeah, yeah, I would. Yeah, I did it. It depends. I mean, if it were a piece of salami or something, I wouldn't, but if it were like a very dry cookie. Sure. Perhaps a good potato chip. Yeah. That wasn't stale yet. Yeah. It's very clean. I would blow it off and eat it. Yeah, I would, since we're talking about our sliding scales, I would eat nothing that I didn't recently drop unless it was a, if it was like a little bit sweets, um, the king, their candy bar, the king. Yeah, yeah. If I found one of those that I had just forgotten that was under my couch, yeah, unwrapped on the floor, I would eat that no matter how long

it had been there. Yeah. I would maybe rinse it off or I would melt it down or reform it or do something deconstruct it. That's all the rage now. That's what I would do that. Um, you know, they released a box, a selection of caramels called stuff you should eat a little bit sweets. Really? Yeah. And it says specifically on the website that that's in honor of us. Thank you, Liz and Jen. Um, okay. So I feel like we've gone in depth on what we do with the five second rule. The question still remains, Chuck, is it, is it viable? Is that a real thing? Like if you, if you are an adherent to the five second rule and you're like, I'm a very clean person, I only eat stuff that's been on the floor for five seconds or less, are you full of it?

Well, you're sort of full of it. You're totally full of it. There's a high school student, uh, in 2003, Jillian Clark, and, um, she was doing her internship at, uh, fighting Li and I of the University of Illinois. And she said, you know what, we should do a little study because it's the old wives tale about the five second rule. Right. And she coded, um, these tiles with E. Coli, which is really gross and dropped cookies and gummy bears and things onto the surface for certain amounts of time and studied what kind of bacteria it picked up. Yeah. And of course, no matter how long it had been down there, bacteria did jump onto the food. Within five seconds. What is important to point out though is the longer you left it there,

the more it picked up. So the five seconds are under as important. Like it's usually not five seconds for me. If I drop a piece of food, I've got it back within my hand in like two seconds. I've seen it. You're like, you're like a ninja. And it matters because the longer it's there, the more bacteria it's going to pick up. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so Jillian Clark just did this very initial preliminary investigation, but she was a pioneer and received the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize for public health for her efforts. Really? Yeah. Good for her. Um, and so she kind of, she established this trail. She blazed the trail. Uh, and then about, uh, four years later, some Clemson University researchers really kind of dug in to figure out what was going on with this five second rule and

built on Clark's work. Go Tigers. Yeah. I mean, we got to say it. I don't feel like we do. Okay. Screw you, Tigers. Um, all right. So what did they find out? They found out, well, if you thought that the same thing, right? If you thought the E. Coli bacteria and the tiles was gross, I know where you're going. These guys created a, a broth of Salmonella. Yeah, they call it Salmonella soup, which is so nasty. Yeah. And they, uh, they applied it to three different types of material because I mean like, sure, maybe five seconds, you're going to get some bacteria on it, but what, what doesn't it depend on the kind of food? Doesn't it depend on the kind of surface it comes in contact with? So these investigators, their pros, they were at

Clemson. Um, they applied the Salmonella soup to tile, wood surface and carpet. Right. And then they started dropping bread and bologna on it. Good choice. Sure. Why not? Um, and they, they found what Clark found that in less than five seconds, no matter how short the time, there was a bacterial transfer. Yeah, between 150 and 8,000 bacteria, if under five seconds, five seconds or under and consider this with Salmonella, you only need 10 individual bacterium to for what's called an infectious dose. Okay. So that is a five seconds or under. If you left it down there for a minute, it was going to be 10 times that. And, um, there are 10 strains of Salmonella, not, I mean, besides just the bacteria, it's, there's a lot of stuff going on down there

on your floor, most notably poop on your shoes. Yeah. That's another thing too. There's poop everywhere, but you should, you should take your shoes off. My wife is of Japanese ancestry. I definitely picked up from her is like, you take your shoes off when you come in the house. So you just walk around without shoes on all the, all the time or slippers or something. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Because like, especially if you're germ conscious, man, if you go into a public bathroom and you walk out of there, you're the bottom of your shoes are just like a nightmare. You don't want to track that all over your house because you may find a cookie on your couch that you want to eat. You have to plan for the future basically, and that starts with taking your shoes

off in your house. For some reason, I don't think the Japanese culture is rooted in the hopes that you'll find a cookie on your floor and be able to eat it. No, maybe not, but they are big enough taking the shoes off. My friend, Jason, then in Tokyo, that he is married to a woman in Keiko. And years ago when we were living in Athens, they started that tradition of removing your shoes and he was like, Hey, you mind? I was like, of course not. Watch this. Well, sometimes they will even provide like slippers and stuff for guests. Like if you're in a Japanese home. So you're still wearing shoes in there. But shoes that have never left your house. So that's the deal. Yes. And I don't like I want the environment. You're all good. Yeah. And I

won't wear my slippers in the bathroom either. I got to tell you, I just got some new slippers. Are they nice? What do you go barefoot in there? The other socks or whatever. Yeah. But like, I don't want any burn the socks. I bought some new slippers, dude. I'm not usually one to plug things on the air. But if you're a grown man and you want some of the best slippers you've ever had, yeah, and you don't mind throwing down a little cash, uh, this men's slippers. My friend, what do you think I wear? I was everywhere. Yes. I wonder if they're the same ones. They are like little loafers sort of suede. Mine don't have a back. They just have this sole. Oh, okay. Mine have a back and they have like the hard bottom so you can like go out and get

in the mail or if you're me, go to the grocery store. Man, it's so comfortable. Yeah, that's nice. And all the, the, what is it? Uh, the shirt or whatever. It's not a sherpa. It's called sherpa lining. Oh, is it? Yeah. The sheep shear. Oh, it's called sherpa lining. That's what, oh, that's what some people call it. So cozy. Okay. So slippers. I need to start plugging these things and giving them for free. I'm a sucker. I always buy them and then plug them. Right. I know. But it's not a suck rich chuck here above the boards. Okay. Um, so back to it. Oh, oh, so the longer the stuff stayed in contact, the more, the more it was the, the more bacteria that came upon it. But surprisingly what they found was that the transfer was the least for carpet.

The type of surface that came in contact with made a difference. I thought it was the most for carpet. It was the least. It was the least transferred, but the stuff survived in the carpet longer. So it all washed out. Gotcha. So it made some difference, but not really. Whether it's wood, tile or carpet, when you drop something on it, there's going to be a, a lot of bacteria transfer. But this stuff survives on these surfaces. Carpet, you're kind of like, okay, yeah, there's a lot to it. There's pile and, you know, there's some sort of Berber factor and all that. Um, can't forget the Berber factor. Right. Uh, so of course carpet is not much of a surprise that there's a lot of bacteria in there, but wood or tile. Yeah. Not only do they find that like

this stuff can survive for a while, it survives for up to a month, a month after they put the stuff on there. A month later, there was still living bacteria enough for an infectious dose on all three surfaces. A month, dude. That's okay. I'm becoming more of a germaphobe. And yeah, we're all turning into David Putty right now. Yeah. David Putty, was he a germaphobe? Yeah. Remember he and, uh, Peggy, who, uh, called Elaine Suze, Suze. Uh-huh. They both turned out to be germaphobes. They had like a little bacteria necklace. I don't remember that. Yeah. Remember, Kramer made a, uh, a radish rose in his shower. He had a garbage disposal in his shower. So he could cook and bathe at the same time. It was that episode. Okay. Um, so I know earlier you

mentioned, um, you just kind of offhandedly said, you know, if it's something dry, like a cookie or that actually makes a difference, you found out that moisture can be the key to more bacteria transfer. Yeah. Um, so a dry cookie versus a piece of like wet bologna or salami or moist bologna. I said moist bologna. Um, we'll have more bacteria. And that's why they say when you go to the restroom and you wash your hands, the drying is just as important. It's not more important than the washing. Yeah. They found that, um, this transfer of bacteria seems to be facilitated by moisture, right? Yeah. So when you touch something with your wet hands, you're going to get a bunch of, a bunch of bacteria transferred onto your hands. Right. If you wash

your hands and then use one of those hands, free paper towels, dispensers and dryer hands, you can touch that same surface that you would have touched with your wet hands and you're going to have far less bacteria transferred to it. Yeah. Or nowadays the air dryers in the bathroom have, have you noticed in the past few years or just like for 50 years, it was the same air dryer. Oh no, there's the accelerator. Now there's the accelerator and the Dyson blade dryer. I like the accelerator because the Dyson blade, you have to stick your hands down in there. I like that. And it's almost like playing operation. Like it's almost impossible not to touch the sides. Yeah, that's true. And then like what's, what does anyone clean the bottom of those things?

Like I don't think so. The accelerator, it's all just like blowing your hands and you're, you're done and it's, you cannot touch things more easily. That's true. I like the accelerator because the, the way it makes your skin ripple like the G-forces is pretty amazing. Like we were in the indoor skydiving thing. Oh yeah, exactly. And let's talk about hands real quick Chuck. Chuck. So there's a study that came out of the University of Colorado at Boulder and they found some really surprising things using this technique called metagenomics where they take a swab of like a sample of your hands and then rather than doing culture, they do basically a DNA profile for everything found in that swab. What they find? Well, they did 51 participants.

They found 4,700 different bacteria species across the 51 participants. And what, what I found was particularly interesting. They found that only 5% of these species were found in all 51 participants. No, 5 period, not even percent. Oh yeah, 5 period. So out of all these species, the only one we're sharing. So that means we, there's just way more out there than we thought, I guess, huh? Yep. And it's just luck of the draw as to what leaps to your hands. I guess so. And not only your hands, but specific hands too. They found that the right and left palms of a single person shared only 17% of the bacterial species. So that means that there's different species on different hands of the same person. That's weird. And then women tend to have a higher diversity of bacteria

on their hands than men. Not necessarily more bacteria total, but more diversity among species. Interesting. So depending on which hand you shake, you're going to be getting a different type of bacteria from someone. Yeah. And if somebody like shakes your hand is like, oh, it's just water. I washed my hand. Oh yeah. Punch them in the head. Yeah. Because you're, that's bacterial transfer, jerk. Dry your hands. Yeah. And since you mentioned women, I think the study by the girl in 2003 found that women are more likely to eat something off the floor than men, which surprised me. What surprised me is where the person who wrote this article got that. I couldn't find it anyway. I couldn't either. I saw that women were more familiar with

the concept of the five second rule, but that not that they used it more. Yeah. You know what, I'm going to call that a dubious statement then. Dubious indeed. 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 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. 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 podcast or wherever you get your podcast. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington, the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien, the senior executive editor for Bloomberg opinion. And I'm your host for

Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and iHeart radio. Every week on Crash Course, I'll bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur. And I'm going to explore the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts and big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political and social disruptions and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and iHeart radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, so you've eaten something off of the floor. Are we good on hands? Yeah, thanks for that. Okay. I like in the article they pointed out that out of the 51 participants there were 102 hands. Yeah. This is like, all right, so good. Well, you didn't have any amputees in the study. Right. What was funny is I was, I didn't think it added up and then I realized that's why I stopped for a second a minute again. All right, so you've picked up a cookie off of the floor. It's dry. It's been down there for three seconds. And you think, you know what, I'm going to roll the dice and eat it because my stomach acids and the acids and my saliva is going to kill all this stuff. Factor fiction. That is fiction. That is very much fiction. So

it says the germ guru of the University of Arizona. Go. Are they wildcats? Sun devils? Who's that Arizona state? Arizona's wildcats. Go wildcats. Charles Gerba. His name almost looks like germ. Yeah. Close. Or Gerber. It's closer than Clark. Like he's the adult version of the Gerber baby. So he says that viruses actually survive the low pH. In fact, a lot of them like it in that pretty much any bacteria that you can infect your intestine with is going to stay alive long enough to get your intestine. Right. It's going to survive that, that acidity in your stomach. Yeah. Look, look for a podcast on digestion. That was a good one. Man, that was great. If you want to learn how that works. And it does make a difference on where it's landed. Like you

said, some floors are more dangerous than others and bathrooms are the worst place on earth. Yeah. And kitchens. Actually kitchens are the worst. They're supposedly dirtier than bathrooms. It depends on the bathroom. But yeah, Gerber points out that of all the shoes that he's ever analyzed and this guy like runs around on Good Morning America and the Today Show and like analyzes stuff and just freaks people out. It's like kind of his trade. Sure. He's calling. Yeah. He said that the fecal matter appears on about 93% of the shoes he's ever analyzed. Of course it does. Yeah. Like I said, there's poop everywhere. Poop everywhere, especially in my house. So yeah, you'd think a public restroom is pretty bad and it is. But it depends on what

part of the public restroom you're talking about. And sometimes compared to other places that it doesn't hold a candle. There's some surprising germ statistics that we're about to unleash on you. Let's start with, let's just jump all over then. I got the kitchen floor, the area on the kitchen floor just in front of your sink where you're going to be doing your dishes and dropping food and poop. It has more bacteria than your trash can, 830 per square inch as opposed to 411. So double. And your kitchen sponge, I know everyone knows it, that's a really filthy thing to have. Yeah, remember that one. It's necessary but filthy. Remember the, I think the Clorox wipes or Lysol wipes commercial where the lady was using a sponge

or like if you're using a sponge, you might as well be doing this and she was just rubbing like a raw chicken breast on her counter like it was a sponge. That's basically true though. It's so gross. Like you, you should be really careful with your sponge. What you clean with it, what you don't clean with it, um, letting it dry out, changing it like regularly. Like if you've got a two month old kitchen sponge and you're using that to wipe your counter, you're spreading bacteria all over the place. You don't love your family. So you can use it at first is what I do because I'm a clean guy. My wife is not. I will clean up after her with a sponge and then I'll go back with my organic spray and then do the paper towel wipe after that. So that's the final

step in the process is always the dry paper towel with my 7th heaven stuff is what I use. And then a little bit of lighter fluid. Yep. Sterilize the counter. All right. So your kitchen floor is dirtier than your trash can. Your sponge holds 60 times more bacteria than your pet food bowl. Even though pet food bowls are pretty gross too supposedly because you don't clean them out as much. Sure. And all of this is germier than a toilet seat. Yeah, you always hear that. The old toilet seat. Yeah. And I think the reason why the toilet seat is surprisingly cleaner in comparison or surprisingly germ free compared to other things like your kitchen sink and all that is because people clean the toilet seat more frequently because they think of it as a dirty place.

And this is kind of born out in another study that Gerba carried out on behalf of the Clorox Corporation who make lice all wipes. And he found that one of the dirtiest places in the universe is a person's desk. Yeah. And he found that apparently the average desk has 100 times more bacteria than a kitchen table and 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet. And one of the reasons is because people don't ever wipe the stout. So he did this study where he divided workers into two groups. One group used the sanitizing wipes once or twice a day and then the other group didn't. And after two days there was a 99.9% reduction in bacteria on the desk of the people who are using the wipes. So wiping down your telephone handset, your desk. Mouse

is a big one. Your mouse. You let your keyboard. Apparently where you typically rest your hand on your desk. Yeah. Mine's on my mouse. Has about 10 million bacteria on average. But he also found that over the course of a day if you don't wipe your stuff down, you actually increase your bacteria from 19 to 31% on telephone mouse keyboard desktop surfaces. Throughout a day it increases that much more. Man, I haven't cleaned my desk in so long. It's been a while for me too. I don't use the phone though. I don't either. Yeah, no one calls us. I don't even know my number to give out. And anytime if somebody asks for I'm like just email. Yeah, that's what I do. Molly Edmonds, the former co-host of Stuff Mom Never Told You,

back in the day. She wrote about cubicle death and specifically germs in the workplace like we were just talking about. And she points out that if you're a restaurant and you have more than 700 bacteria per square inch, you're going to be considered unsanitary. But you will come into contact with 10 million bacteria a day in your office. And statistics like 20% of people eat at their desk and don't clean. I eat at my desk occasionally. I don't clean. 75% of people only occasionally will wipe down their work area. And your desktop itself, not the computer desktop, but your desk is going to be 100 times germier than a kitchen table. Right. And again, 400 times germier than a toilet seat. And presenteeism, which is a big problem. 75% of workers,

I'm sorry, one third of workers. That's not 75%. It's close. Reported to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases that they felt like they were obligated to go to work even when they were sick. Yeah, that's the problem. It's not okay. And I know around here, especially Tracy, are from pop stuff. She takes it pretty serious. She's like, she gets pissed off when people are in here sick. She'll yell. Yeah. She'll say, if you're sick, please stay home because the office is dirty. Your bathroom is dirty. Your kitchen is dirty. That cutting board that you're cutting your vegetables on, filthy. Yeah. It's all dirty. It's all gross. Well, I can't remember. I was trying to think of what episode biofilm came up. You were telling everybody about biofilm. Oh,

yeah. What was that? I can't for the life of me remember. But that's how bacteria survive. That's how they can survive on stainless steel. That's how they can survive on wood, on tile, on non-porous surfaces, on synthetic surfaces that are designed to keep bacteria from thriving. These things can survive because they live in biofilm. Yeah. It's a protective film on any surface. And if a surface has grooves or things like that, that where a biofilm can hide, there's going to be a lot more bacteria and a cutting board apparently is one of those great examples. Yeah, especially a wood cutting board, I think. Yeah. Which I prefer. Me too. Got to clean them well though. Yeah, because I'd rather have some bacteria in my food than like shards of plastic, you know. Yeah. It's

a good point. So before you freak out and jump in a pool of Purell, most of these germs are benign. Like we've coated all these tens of thousands and millions of germs and things. Most of them are benign. And your body's going to take care of most of it too. But it only takes like, you know, when you find yourself retching over the toilet with a stomach virus, it might have just been one little bacteria that got through. And all it takes is 10 for salmonella to get you and 100 for E. coli. Wow. 10. 10 little guys. The bottom of a woman's purse randomly, uh, Gerba, again, just ran up to some people and was like, let me test your purse. And he found, um, uh, from the hundreds to 6.7 million on the bottom of one woman's purse,

and all it takes is 10 or 100. He didn't say that that also had like pieces of pot pie. Then like, there were probably reasons. Yeah. But I think that was a good thing to go out on took you to get by reassuring everybody that as long as your immune system is in order, you're probably okay as far as these bacteria go. Don't keep your toothbrush in your bathroom. So says our friend's girlfriend. The war on drugs impacts everyone whether or not you take 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 a 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 on the prime example, 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. 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. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington, the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien,

the senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion. And I'm your host for Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and iHeart Radio. Every week on Crash Course, I'll bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur. And I'm going to explore the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts and big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political and social disruptions and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and iHeart Radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's see. Before we say anything like listener mail or go find this article, I want to do a quick shout out, okay? Do it. Our Kiva team, Chuck, recently hit a very significant milestone, $1.5 million in loans. Wow. That's enormous. What's Kiva? No, say it. Oh, yeah. Kiva is kiva.org is a microlending site where you can make loans and little $25 increments to people in the developing world to use for entrepreneurship, to have their taxi license, to buy oxen, to retail clothes. What have you? Farming, whatever. And our Kiva team has doled out $1.5 million in these $25 loans. That's just such an amazing accomplishment. Yeah. When we started this,

we had no idea that it was going to have legs like this. And I mean, we're going to keep it going in perpetuity, so. We are. One of the reasons I wanted to shout out is because we are resetting our goals. We're setting our goal to $2 million by the summer solstice, June 21st. It's an international date, right? Yeah. And Glenn, the team leader at Kiva, came up with this. I think it's a sound idea. Yeah. Thank you to Glenn and Sonia, as always. So we're going to $2 million by June 21st. And if you want to join us in this, we are not the least bit exclusive. We're very inclusive and welcoming group of people. You can go to www.KivaKiva.org, slash team, slash stuff you should know. Okay. And if you want to know anything more about the five second rule,

type five second rule in the search bar, howstuffworks.com. I said search bar, so it's time for listener mail. It is, Josh. This is, we are just a few days away from our TV show premiere, though, when we would be remiss. I know you're probably tired of hearing about it by now. I'm not. But we would be remiss if we didn't remind everyone that on Saturday night at 10 p.m. Eastern, on Science Channel, you're going to get two episodes of Stuff You Should Know Back to Back, the premiere episode two following the season premiere of Ricky Gervais' Idiot Abroad with Carl Pilkington. That comes on first and then we come on at 10 with two brand new, the first two episodes of Stuff You Should Know, the TV show. That's right. And if you do not have cable,

fear not because as we have announced, you can purchase these episodes on iTunes after they are released the next day. And because we love everyone so much in the world, you can get the premiere episode for free on iTunes. So just seek it out, download it, watch it, and make some noise over at Science Channel folks. And on Twitter too. And we think you're going to like it. It's us, and we play ourselves. But it's set in like a kind of a fictionalized version of the office, our office. And there's podcasting and action and adventure and all sorts of goodness. So it should be, hopefully, everybody likes it. Yeah. As we have said before, it's the real us in a fictional world with the spelling factual information. Yes. That's what we tag-line it.

All right. I hope you stuck around for this listener mail because it's pretty good. This is from Ben. Guys, my name is Ben. I'm a 30 year old husband and father. Never consider myself a very smart man. I did mediocre in high school, not because of lack of trying, but because of being viewed as a lazy student. And I was just socially awkward, to be honest. My wife has talked me into catching up with your podcast. And since then, I've gotten a smartphone and done so. And all I can say is thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. It has helped me become a better husband and father. Let me explain. After high school, I became a father to a beautiful boy with an ex girlfriend who was not the best person due to some heart complications. My son Logan passed away

four days after his first birthday. This resulted in me not following through with college, shutting down emotionally, basically becoming angry at the world and God for my son's passing. To put it bluntly, I became someone who I said I never would become. I was full of hate. The years that followed in my life was just gray as I went through the motions of life. Things turned around when I met my wife Jordan, got married, and had our son Raiden. And yes, I did name him Raiden after Mortal Kombat. And then I was turned on to your podcast after listening to over 200 of them. You two have opened a hard spot in my heart. After listening to you guys and hearing how good-natured you are, I myself have been trying to give everything in life a fair

chance and have become more of a good-hearted person who no longer battles something bad within myself. I'm happier in life than ever before and I have my wife and son and now Chuck and Josh to thank for helping. I'm trying to further my education. I can't stop reading and learning and I save your show so when my one-year-old son is old enough, he can experience something that changes daddy's life for the better, just like he and his mommy did. So I can't thank you guys enough for all you've done without even knowing it. Sometimes all it takes is good hearts and a good podcast to make even a small difference. If you guys are ever in Ohio, I would like to buy you a drink. That is from Ben Chilton. Man, Ben, thank you for that. Good one. We're not even

trying. I know dude, I read this stuff and I'm just like, are you kidding me? That's pretty cool. What are you supposed to say to that? Thank you. So thanks Ben. If you want to get in touch with Chuck and me about five-second rule, how about this? We want to know the nastiest thing you've ever eaten, whether it was something that was prepared, something that touched the ground. Wow. Tell us your nasty eating story. Yeah, and if you're one of those kids, I had friends in elementary school that would have like gross eating contests that would like throw mashed potatoes on the floor and then eat them. I explored that once. I was like, you know what, maybe I am that kid. Let's find out. And I had a sticker that was on the ground with some hair

attached to it. And I was like, nope, I need to keep seeking my persona. Is that one stuck? Not me. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Well, we want to know about them, right? Yeah. I can't believe you pulled out me that one. That's right. Tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. Join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. And as always, you can send us an email to stuffpodcast at discovery.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. 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 podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Langston Kermit. Sometimes I'm on TV. I'm David Borey and I'm probably on TV right now. David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting ground breaking and sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories. We've had amazing past notable guests like Brandon Kyle Goodman, Sam J, Quinta Brunson and so many more new episodes around every Tuesday, many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you, the listeners, conspiracy theories. Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.