Stuff You Should Know - How Nude Beaches Work

Episode Date: September 28, 2017

Probably all beaches were nude early on, but as society developed and body shame became all the rage, people started wearing bathing suits. Some, though, liked the way it was before. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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, there's Jerry, this is Stuff You Should Know,

the totally nude edition. Gross. You looking good? Well, I think you're sort of kidding. Only, only time will tell. You wanna break the news? Go ahead. Yeah, lost another tooth.

I didn't wanna mention it. So here's the story, because I know people are interested in mine. Why everybody likes this tooth saga of yours? In my dental woes. It's riveting, but it also, like, people feel for you, you know? Yeah, I think so.

And I think the dentist and oral surgeons of our audience get a kick out of it. Yeah, this is the thrilling part for them. So I was on vacation, as you know. Isle of Palms, South Carolina. Yeah. Bought tons, well, not tons, pounds and pounds of seafood to cook.

And was having a great week, grilling fish and scallops and shrimp. Nice, did you? So you went to like the local seafood market that's like just one big long counter of seafood and it's super cold inside. And I love those places. There's always like a few bottles

of Tony Cacheri's Creole seasoning. Oh, and all the local stuff. Like here's the crab boil in a Ziploc that we make. Yes, I love those places. Nothing makes a beach vacation more than a visit to the local seafood place. Agreed. And I will even shout out Simon Seafood

and Mount Pleasant Seafood. They're gonna send you a box of shrimp. Well, I bought a box of 100 oysters while we were there. Wow. And we had oyster happy hour every night. Nice. And I learned to shuck oysters like a pro. Nice.

And I made my own version of Frogmore stew. Dude, one night. Can I come on vacation with you guys next time? We do it right, man. I bought probably seven or eight pounds of shrimp, five or six pounds of scallops, stone crab claws, king crab claws. Geez.

Flounder, snapper, salmon. You name it, dude. Do those guys have like a lean on your house now? No, I did spend a ton of money on the stuff. The other thing that we enjoyed was the dips, like crab dip and shrimp dip and salmon dip. Anyway, everything's speeding along. It's the final second to the last night.

And I make my own version of Frogmore stew, which is the low country boil basically of Charleston. And I bite, we have these Crestinis that we baked. And the one tooth that I've been saying is gonna go, they got hurt in college and it's been loose for whatever, 20 plus years. Right. And I've been afraid that my daughter's gonna kick it

in one day, I was just like counting down that clock. And I bit into a Crestini, heard the, felt the crack. And immediately it was like, there it goes. And Emily and my friends were like, no, really? Oh yeah, I know that, I know that crack. That sucks. It does suck. Did it hurt at all?

No, it never hurts. That's good. That is the one good thing. Like I finished my meal very gingerly eating on the, you know, I've learned how to eat in the back of my mouth. Yeah. Like a neanderthal. You use your eyes like a frog.

They just go inside your skull to push the food down. So I made an appointment the next day, I called around. It was like, do I go home? Then do I like tough out the rest of the vacation here and be stressed and go home and do it? Which means I probably can't get until Friday or do I ruin part of a day, my final beach day, doing this locally?

And so I decided to go in and get it done there. And two hours out of my day was all I wasted. Oh, wow. That's pretty good. Not bad. So big, big shout out to Apex, Oral, and Maxilla Facial Surgery. In janitorial services.

Of Mount Pleasant and Dr. Charlotte Marvel. She was great. Was she marvelous? She was. And you know, when I get it done here, I go under twilight sleep, which I don't feel a thing. And it messes me up the whole rest of the day.

I'm just groggy and in bed. And I didn't want to do that. And I was like, I'd like to enjoy the beach and go out to dinner tonight. We had reservations. This great place on our final night, the last night dinner out deal. And she said, well, I can just inject you.

And if you're okay with needles, and I long talked about the needle in the gums, is the worst thing. And she said, well, this will also be needle in the roof of your mouth. And I was like, all right, I gotta do it. And she stuck me in the roof of my mouth and my eyes just started running water.

And I literally said, I'm not crying. That's just a reaction. Yeah, it was fine. I mean, it numbed it up so much. I didn't feel a thing. And it was kind of interesting being awake for once during this procedure of extraction. And bone, what do you call it?

The destruction? No, not destruction. Yeah, because now I've learned when they take out a tooth now, the best practices are you immediately graph bone to it. Yes. Because you lose it so quickly. Pocket protection is what it's called.

Yeah, that's awesome. That is so nerdy awesome. I love it. But man, it is a rough procedure. They are so rough. And now I know why they knock you out because they don't want you to know how rough they are with you.

Yeah. Like I was getting assaulted. Yeah. Yeah, they don't play. Dennis, don't play. And that's not to knock Dr. Marvel. She did great. I mean, you got to get in there and do it, you know?

Yeah. So anyway, I was literally on the beach two hours later with a gin and tonic. That's great. That is really great. Good story. Story had it all. Yeah.

Had food, surgery. Yeah, the beach. Dennis with a great name. The beach, yeah, the whole thing. And also, this also means for people coming to see us on tour for the remainder of the year, I'm not even bothering with the insert tooth. Thank goodness, because I had to sit there with it

right next to me staring at me during each show. No, I'm used to it by now. I'm just going to bubba it up for the next nine months or whatever. They're going to love it. We should start charging double for tickets then. We should. So thank you for indulging that story.

Well, it leads to a burning question that I've been trying to ask this whole time. Were you nude on the beach at any point? No. No nude beach at Isle of Palm, huh? No. I thought about during a nighttime ocean swim doing it, Fulagrante, is that how they say that?

Yes. But then I thought, you know what? I'm being sort of brave swimming in the ocean at night anyway. Yeah. I'm not going to have things exposed. There's something really creepy about swimming at night. In the ocean, particularly. Agreed, but I did it, and it's great.

Yeah. It's really like, I think that's part of the exhilaration is, I don't know what's out here. Yeah, I guess as long as you say, and I don't care, I'm just going to enjoy myself, then it would be enjoyable. Yeah, but I did keep saying, but at least I've got my pants on in my pants. Well, I did have pants on, I had tuxedo pants on.

Oh, but there's a lot of what? I had tuxedo pants on, as is per tradition at Isle of Palm. Oh, OK. To cover your junk from the sea turtles. Yeah, that's what you do at night, you swim in the beach and tux pants. Right. So that's almost the exact opposite, then,

of a traditional new beach, which is what we're talking about. You ever been to one? I have. Did you go nude? No, I went and visited. I just went and looked for a second. You wanted those guys? Yeah, no, but I wasn't poking people with a stick

or anything like that. Right. Like, I just went to see, OK, what is this? And I'll tell you what really drew me over to look. You and me and I were down in Florida, and there's a nude beach. It's a clothing optional, and I believe unofficial nude beach at the Canaveral National Seashore.

I've been there. And OK, yeah, that's right. We'll share our stories. OK, and we drove down at one point just to kind of see. And sure enough, there was a woman walking around just wearing shorts, and that was it. But what really got me to go check was we saw this girl who must have been 17 or something.

And she was totally clothed, like fully dressed, not even wearing a swimsuit. She was just dressed. And she was coming back from the beach with her hand over her mouth and her eyes like the size of bread plates. And her mom was sitting there, laughing at her, waiting at the car, watching her come back like this.

And I was like, I got to go to see. So I went and looked, and I was like, yep, there's a couple of naked people. They're all dudes. And well, I've seen the nude beach now. But at the same time, I was like, I would love to just go nude at a nude beach. But the more I did this research,

the more I was like, I could take or leave it. I have no problem, and probably would still like to go nude at a very secluded nude beach. But I get the impression that public nude beaches, and I don't even think I would enjoy like a nudist resort nude beach. It would have to just be like a remote deserted island. Not because of any shame or anything like that,

but because I just think that that would be the way that I most enjoyed the experience of just being nude out there on the beach. So you want to be nude on the beach with just like you and your wife. Right, yeah. And that's it. Yeah, you know, just hanging out.

You want to own your own beach? I guess, I think that's what I'm getting at. I'm hoping a wealthy listener will send us one. So here's my experience with that very beach. Was that Playa Linda or Klondike? Or is it basically the same? Playa Linda. All right, so my deal was many years ago,

I did a long like three month out West trip with my best friend, Brett, and we started in Atlanta and said, all right, where should we go first? And this is pre-internet. And you know, when you're doing book research, and I said, there's this place in Florida near Canaveral that's called Klondike Beach. And I said, and I don't know if this is true,

but what I read is that there is a law enforcement vacuum there because no one, there's some overlap with counties and national land where there's a space where there's no law. Yeah, there's supposedly a place in I think Yosemite National Park that's like that too. Well, yeah, I've heard that stupid story where you can like kill somebody and get away with it.

Is that not true? Well, I don't know. I don't think this is, they would, I remember reading that article and they would get just, you know, somehow. Sure. But I think there wasn't like, I think it wasn't no law, but there wasn't,

technically there was no legal overseer of this one area. And that was Klondike Beach. And there were hippie smoking weed and nudists. And I was like, that's where we should start. I have no idea what drew me because, you know, it wasn't like I was going for either one of those things. There's, that sounds a bit like a place called Wreck Beach in Vancouver,

where it's not like there's no jurisdiction or questionable jurisdiction. It's just really hard to get to. Like there's like 400 steps down to the beach. So apparently the cops a long time ago said, whatever, you guys can do whatever you want there. We don't care. So not only is it a nude beach,

it's like a drug-addled drunken beach, but apparently it's a lot of fun. But supposedly they started cracking down on it recently and it's not as fun as it once was. Well, I do remember actually what drew me was, you can camp on the beach there, which is sort of rare to, it wasn't a campground. There's like back country camping on the sand.

And there's not a ton of places in the States where you can do that. Yeah, that sounds kind of fun actually. It was way. Waking up to the sound of waves like that. That's wonderful. And we did go down there and we did camp and it was a great way to start the trip.

And we did. There's this dude walked up to us this, and of course, I think this is usually the story. This, you know, probably 50 something year old man, but naked walks up to us and just starts a conversation. Oh, really? Uh-huh. So I got a lot of like differing advice

from doing research on this. Yeah. So the guy started a conversation with you. Yep. What did you do? Did you go, hey, Bob, good to meet you. Nice penis. Like that Saturday Night Live sketch.

No, I think we just tried to treat it like a normal conversation, which it was. The, I guess what I've been hearing different things on is that at nude beaches, you will possibly be surprised by the standoffishness of the nude bathers. You might be expecting free spirits like Bob the guy you met, right? Yeah, I think the deal is,

and we will be corrected through listener mail, but I think if you are clothed, they may be a little more standoffish, but from what I understand, if you're not clothed, that's all kind of part of the community, and we should do a larger one on nudist at some point. I could not agree more. I had an idea, but I had no idea how lengthy

and longstanding the nudism movement is, or the naturism movement, I should say. Yeah, naturalists, like from what I understand, they're very much a community, and that's the whole point is to normalize it to where it's just like talking on the beach with anybody. Right. Like it's not like any different than being clothed,

and that's their whole bag is, hey, this is just, this is how we come into the world, and we have all shamed each other with our bodies over the years to where we have clothed ourselves, and of course, me growing up Southern Baptist, I have a very weird relationship with nudity to the point where I'm like, yeah, man, like what's the big deal?

Europeans have got it right. It's just your body, who cares? And then the other half of me says, oh my God, put some clothes on. Do you want to go to hell today? Right, and it's not even that, it's just, I guess I'm kind of shy. Yeah, but I mean, I'm sure it's ingrained shyness.

Oh yeah, for sure. From an upbringing like that. Yeah. So you definitely hit on something, right? So when you're talking about the natures movement, like if you go to a natures resort, like a specific, a nude beach that's part of a natures resort where you have to say be a member to get in

or something like that. Yes. Yes, you're going to find people who are very happy that you're there and they're very happy to be naked and everybody's very happy that everyone's naked, right? Yes. But you're also probably going to encounter

something like compulsory nudity, to where if you're there, you have to be naked. They don't want anybody coming along and be like, what's this all about? What are you guys doing over here? Shake your money maker for me, you know? Yeah, they're not into that. No, so they have to have their own set aside resorts.

It's like their own place, it's like a private area. But it'd say like a different kind of beach, like a clothing optional beach where it's a public beach that allows nudity but it is in compulsory. Yes. That's when it seems to, it seems to be kind of like paradise lost

for the natures, historically speaking. Well, there's a culture clash going on. There definitely is, you know? Yeah, and it seems like just about every country that has beaches has nude beaches. And if they are public nude beaches where clothing is optional, it seems like the natures who are actually there

to just enjoy being naked, it has nothing to do with sex. Their kids are running around naked. The whole family's there, it's very family oriented, naked beach, tend to lose control of it because outside elements usually come in, start like partying, having public sex.

And then all of a sudden, this nude beach gets a terrible reputation and the government steps in, local people complain. And usually when they do, it's successful. And the government steps in and nobody can be naked anymore. And it's ruined for all the natures. Yeah, and that is not the same thing at all

as topless beaches that you find in Europe. And in some places here in the United States, I went to one of those too. And I mean, you call it topless beach, it was, I think it was just a beach, you know? I think a lot of the beaches in Europe are topless, it's not like a big thing. Right.

And we saw ladies with their no bikini top on. And of course, being a kid, I was young, I was like, oh, hi, hey. You're like that wolf in the cartoon where his jaw just hits the floor. But I was respectful, because I knew even then, like, you know, you don't want to ogle somebody because that's probably not too cool.

Sure. But then even as a young guy, it normalized. And I was like, oh, well, that's just a body part. It ain't a big deal. Yeah. Yeah, that after you turn, I don't know, 19 or 20, it's really easy to become desensitized to that kind of stuff.

Yeah. You know? So let's take a break, man. Yeah, a lot of good setup there. Yeah, that was a lot of setup. And heath, and penises, and... Right, all kinds of things. BOOVES, the whole chivang.

Woo. We'll be right back. Hey dude. The 90s called David Lacher and Christine Taylor stars of the co-classic show. Hey dude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it.

It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound, like poltergeist?

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So, Chuck, you've mentioned it a couple of times, and it seems like anybody who even basically knows about new beaches tends to think of Europe. Sure. And for good reason, too, there was a survey in 2016 that surveyed, I think, like 90 different countries or something like that. That was a pretty extensive survey to find out what the attitudes were toward nude sunbathing on public beaches. Yeah.

And they found that Austrians, the Austrians, I really would not have guessed the Austrians. And I'm not, I'm not misspeaking Australians, I mean, the people from Austria. Do they have a shoreline, Josh? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. I wish I did, but I don't know. At any rate, they're fine with nudism.

At the very least, I'm sure they have sandy lakes. They're fine with nude sunbathing at the beach. Something like 76% of Austrians say it's, quote, absolutely acceptable to sunbathe in the nude in public. It used to be Germany was the champion of being cool with nude sunbathing. And they're famous, very famous shoreline. But they, yes, in the North Sea. But they, they fell the second place, 72% of Germans say it's absolutely acceptable.

And you're sure it didn't say Australians, right? Because they're way down with it. Positive. Okay. Yeah, I know. Well, Australia has a, has a roller coaster relationship with nude beaches. I think it depends on who's in charge of the culture at any given point in time. Oh, really?

Yeah. Well, maybe while we're there, we'll be in charge of the culture for a short time. Yeah. Nudeity everywhere. Man. Until Chuck gets grossed out. Our shows are about to get raucous. Yeah, you never know.

A nude show. How about that? So, no, no, absolutely not. No, I mean the audience, not us. So I'm still not comfortable with that either. Well, that's how they say to, the reason I say that is because they say, It's a too live cruise show. They say to picture your audience in the nude.

Right. If you're nervous. I think they say underwear. Oh, okay. Gotcha. I remember that Brady Bunch, that's all I know. Oh, so I don't know Australians. Okay.

But I do know 18% of Americans say it's absolutely acceptable to somebody in the nude. That seems about right. Pretty low percentage. That's what I had to figure. Well, you know who had an even lower percentage is Italians, 71% of Italians say they are not okay with having somebody, somebody's nude by them on a public beach. That surprises me. It surprises me as well.

But such as the way, but they're kind of an outlier as far as Europe goes and Europe actually again, have some of the earliest nude beaches around. This article says that like the first one was in Bordeaux in France that started around after World War II, but actually saw footage of a nude beach in Georgia, the country, not the state, from dating from the 1920s. Whoa. So as far as nudity goes, Georgia is even more progressive than France, apparently. I don't know about progressive.

I think sometimes it's just, you know, freaks are going to let their flag fly. No, you got it. You got it. And if you got a group of them together, I don't care if it's 1920 in Georgia, and they find each other, they're going to do it. I don't think that necessarily means that Georgia was super progressive. You know what I mean? Oh, okay.

I see what you mean. Or maybe it does. I don't know. But I'm just saying, and that's the case with these, a lot of these nude beaches is it bears pointing out some of these are sanctioned and some of them are just have happened over the years to this extent where, like you said, the local cops are just kind of like, they're not hurting anybody. This is sort of where they gather and everyone knows that so they can either choose to go

there or stay away from there. And these places are usually somewhat removed too. Not all the times, but usually, like I remember with Klondike Beach, it wasn't the, it wasn't like the main beach. You had to kind of work a bit to get there. Yep. It's almost always, if not remote, as far as just beaches in general go, it is like the say the northernmost part or the southernmost part.

So it's secluded in some way, shape or form. Yes. I read this fascinating article about a nude beach off of Palm Beach called Air Force Beach. And it was a private island owned by John D. MacArthur of the famous John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. NPR fame. And he, yeah, and he made his billions selling insurance, I believe. And he, I apparently was a bit of a natureist himself, but he had, like he allowed people

to use his beach and he also allowed one of the sides of the beach to become a nude beach. And there was a big struggle because he died as he was signing over, or his son was signing over the deed to this beach to the county with the stipulation that this part remain nude. And he died before the nude part document was signed. So the county took the beach and was like, nah, we're not going to sign that other thing. And there's been a struggle ever since. I think that was in the 90s when he died.

But it was a lost nude beach. But for a while there, there was apparently something like 5,000 people a day coming there to sunbathe nude on the weekends. It was one of America's most populated nude beaches and it was all because it was this old rich guys. He was okay with it. Did it have a sign that said these penises are brought to you in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation?

Yeah. And you push a button and it's read by Ira Glass? Yeah. Actually, Ira didn't read those, does he? Can you do it though? I think everyone wants to hear that. No, I don't think so. I've retired by Ira Glass impression.

The other thing with some of these beaches is like sometimes they're so remote and removed, it's just sand and you're on your own. They may not even have trash cans and stuff. Other ones are a little more advanced and they might have activities, they might have a beach, well a toilet, but what do you call it, like a bathhouse and a shower or maybe they even serve booze. But it bears pointing out that I think a lot of Americans and especially like more conserved like in the kind of way I grew up, more conservative religious Americans might think that's just

like a hedonistic sexual free for all with these weirdos and that is generally not the case at all. It is a bunch of old people naked and talking to each other about whatever, the economy, how the fish are biting. Yeah, I don't think how the fish are biting. Well, hopefully not. As long as it's not sea turtles, I guess. We can't really overstate that a genuine, naturist, nudist, nude beach has nothing to

do with sex. It might be a sensual experience to have like, you know, it was one guy quoted in the article says, you know, like just being out there and feeling the breeze and feeling the water and all that. It's sensual. Sure. But this guy's talking about the senses, like the tactile senses, just making him feel good.

He's not saying like, you know, I got a giant erection. Right. Because of it. Yes. It's not about sex. A lot of these places are more family friendly than even adjacent beaches. Yeah. And there is no shame in our bodies.

Right. And we respect each other's bodies. I mean, they're probably the least or most open minded body type community on planet earth. Right. Yeah. You would think so. You know, like there's no body shaming in nudist communities. That's the whole point.

Yeah. And we're all together to accept where we all hang and wrinkle and all the things that happen to bodies over the years. Sprout weird goat hairs. Well, you should take care of those. I was, yeah, even the nudists are like, you need to do something about that. Yeah. You just come back to your little cabana and there's like a pair of tweezers and scissors

on your pillow. I was reading, dude, Milwaukee used to have a nude beach. Huh. Yeah. I was pretty surprised to hear that one. But it was called Paradise Beach. And it was like a legit, I think it was clothing optional because it was county. Usually if it's a government beach, they can't legally exclude anybody.

So it has to be clothing optional. But I think it was clothing optional. It was Paradise Beach, but it was like family oriented nudist beach. And it was adjacent or just down the beach from a beach called Bradford Beach. And that was a, you had to wear clothing beach is not nudist, but it was a party beach. And Bradford Beach, where you had to wear clothes was a bigger party beach than Paradise Beach, which was a clothing optional beach. Yeah.

And that's usually how it, how it is, although eventually, and this is normally the case at sometime in the early nineties, some of the people from Bradford Beach started hanging out naked on Paradise Beach, started like getting wasted and having sex. And it wasn't family friendly anymore. And there were complaints. And then the Paradise Beach is no longer yet that the whole sex thing is weird to me. It's not like a bathing suit is, if that's the barrier that keeps you from just going hog wild sexually, it's not much of a barrier.

No, it's true. I get the impression that this hall over park in Miami, it is known as the largest nude beach in the United States. And one of the most popular in the world. So says our article. I get the feeling it's, it's way more of a party scene. Yes it is. Because have you ever been there?

No. I was reading about it. Yeah. I read about it and I looked up pictures. And of course, you know, I'm sitting in my desk today looking at nude people on the beach. That's part of the job. But there's pictures of, you know, it looks like a spring break with like 40 people posing

and they're all naked. And these were younger people too. This wasn't like the older set. It's Miami. I mean, it's all kind of people older and younger. But and again, just because I am who I am, I was like, Oh, well, that's kind of completely normal actually. And the other part of me went, Oh my God, what is going on there?

I just don't know what to think. It's funny. It is funny and sad. But I mean, the very fact that you are aware of it means that there's hope for addressing it like once and for all. Yeah. I think the nudity problem. Yeah.

You just go one way or the other, either be like, I'm totally fine with nudity. I'm going to make this my mission to just be fine with nudity totally or just go never nude and just always wear like that pair of like Daisy Dukes under your clothes. No. But like you said, I am fine with it in my adult rational evolved brain, but that shame is so ingrained. I know, man. Childhood is really hard to escape.

It'll get you. It'll get you. But let's take another break out. How about that? And we'll come back and talk a little bit about Cape Cod and some of the behaviors you should obviously avoid. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal?

No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you.

Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step.

Oh, not another one. Uh-huh. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. So tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever

you listen to podcasts. All right, so I promised a little Cape Cod talk. We mentioned Hall over Park. There's Blacks Beach in San Diego, very popular, long standing nude beach. Yeah, one of the first in the U.S., I think. Yeah, for sure. And that, of course, San Diego, they, I figured they would have one there. Yeah.

And I figured San Diego beaches in the 70s were like whatever you wanted to do. Yeah, it's like Threes Company all day long, all over the place. Not just the innuendo, like the stuff they were making innuendo about was actually going on there. Right. I always think of, whenever I think of like San Diego in the 70s and Threes Company, I think of the, what was bars called? Fern bars?

Yeah, Fern bars that we covered in the bars episode. Yeah. And it was like literally a Fern bar, I think they had Ferns there. So anyway, Cape Cod in the 1970s in Massachusetts had a bit of a fight going on their hands. The NPS, the National Park Service, outlawed public nudity. And it was a big deal because there, I guess, in parts of Cape Cod, there were people that would go nude. It ended up in lawsuits and the nude ban was upheld.

And they, I believe, still are the only national park with a specific ban on nudity. Yeah. It's not, I didn't know that. It's not a federally, it's not a federal law. No. Basically. In any federal park, apparently. Yeah.

Except Cape Cod now. Yep. It's the only one. So congratulations, Cape Cod. You really showed your butt. Yeah. And I love it here. It says now, if there are conflicts, the park employees attempt to resolve it informally.

Right. And like, I think everyone is just like, come on, you know, can we just work this out? Like, why don't you go over here, you go over there and don't look at them. And can I go back, you know, to my office and eat some, which is a, you need a lobster roll, rough human law cabin of my own making. Probably so. So yeah, you, you, Cape Cod is kind of an outlier. Usually there are like a nude beach getting legislated.

It will go one of two ways. Like it'll start with a beach that people just say, this is our new nude beach. We're going to start being nude here. Taking my pants off. It's very remote normally. It's hard to get to. And a lot of nudists prefer it that way. Like it's a little harder for them to get to it, but that also means that it's a little

harder for perverts and, you know, looky loos to get to. Well, plus remote beaches are the best kind of beaches, you know, right? Yeah. They're going to score with like a very remote kind of tranquil scene. Yep. And then, so you've got that, it'll be an unofficial public beach, public nude beach. And then something will happen and the local government will either legislate that officially it's clothing optional or else, no, it's not, everybody needs to get dressed.

Normally it's every, everybody needs to get dressed because usually it's the result of a complaint. Like there's a, there's some residents or an HOA group or somebody nearby who considers that their beach and doesn't want a bunch of naked people frolicking around. And if the nudists are trying to make their case like, no, we just want to be naked, we're not perverts or anything like that. If they're making their case, it's usually, again, underscored by people like getting wasted and having public sex on the nude beach, which brings us, Chuck, I think to where we

should share some tips to people who are thinking of maybe going to a nude beach and the cardinal rule of a genuine nude beach is no sex, don't have sex on the beach, no one wants to see that. Yeah. I think the first two cardinal rules of a nude beach don't have sex and don't be a creep are the same rules at a regular beach. Definitely. Just don't, you don't want to be a creep with your clothes on or off.

Yeah, this one says, you know, it goes to a lot of trouble to say, like, don't take pictures of people. No. Don't take pictures. They, I mean, they mention selfies, like, if you're in the background, you may not realize someone's in the background. Or God forbid, if there's a child in the background as part of a nudist family, like, just put your camera away for a bit.

Yeah. I mean, like, if you're taking pictures and there's a naked kid running around, do you are really putting your life in jeopardy, depending on that kid's father and what his opinions are on creeps? Very true. So, but again, my point is, is that applies to regular beaches too? Yeah. Fully clothed beaches.

Don't take pictures of people at the beach. That's creepy and wrong. Agreed. What else? What's another tip? This says, and these were, we should point out, these were from the Hallover Beach website. And that's the party beach in Miami. It says, don't just sit right down next to another person if there's like plenty of space

on the beach. And again, that's sort of like a regular beach. It's, it would be a little weird on a very, when I was just at, at Isle of Palms, not many people there on a weekday this time of year, like hundreds of yards in between blankets and chairs. If someone would have sat down right next to me, I would have been like, that's a little weird. Yeah.

Why don't you go over there or over there or anywhere else? And especially true in a nude beach. And then you turn and the person is actually made of sand and they blow away. What is that? I just made it up. Okay. Not everything's a reference. All right.

I didn't know if that was some sort of weird fantasy film or something. No. What else? Maybe Dune. This thing says, be sure to bring a towel. Yeah. This was good advice. Yeah.

I mean, that's pretty obvious. And they say that most people, nudists bring two towels, one to sit on and put all your junk on that can get potentially gross, right? And then another one to actually dry your face with. Right. I would have brought a towel just to dry off with, but it wouldn't have occurred to me like, no, you also need to bring a towel to sit on. Like if you're going to sit on a stool or a chair or something, nobody wants your butt

funk on their chair. No. That's grody. And you don't want somebody else's either. So let's think here. Yeah. I would say a beach chair rental company at a nude beach is probably not thriving. Don't you think?

Yeah. I mean, that should be a tip as well. Like maybe bring your own chair. Another tip that it said is if you get an erection, there's ways of taking care of that. Get in the water, turn over onto your stomach. Think about nuns playing baseball. I mean, if you're getting an erection on a nude beach, I don't know. That's, I'm not sure what to say about that.

Well, you could be like 13. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. I didn't really think about that. Even if you're a dude and it's your first time or something gets you just right. Yeah. There's got to be some sort of etiquette for that.

I think the point of this is like, don't just walk around like, hey, everybody, it's happening. Check it out. Right. You know, like you want to just kind of keep that to yourself is the point. Yeah. I would think that would be a big like stay away from me sign to other people. Right.

You know. You could take an eye out. Oh man. I really feel like we may have crossed the lines here and there in this episode and I'm not sure. Yeah. Do you think so? No, I just, I'm surprised that I'm able to make it through this episode to be honest.

I'll bet there's a lot of people who are like, can't, I can't listen to Josh and Chuck talk about this one. Bring sunscreen, of course. Yeah. And then, you know, kind of kidding around, but definitely not kidding around because they make the very fine point if you're in your 20s or 30s or 40s and it's your first time ever doing this, then by all accounts, it's probably the first time your body parts down there, your private parts, they've seen the sun.

Yeah. And that's a bad recipe. You know? Can you imagine? No, I can't. Like sunburn there? No. Wow.

Could not imagine. Yeah. This sunburn will ruin your vacation period. Yeah. I can imagine a sunburned penis would really put a dent in things. Yeah. This article suggests even bringing a hat to use, which I thought was smart. Yeah.

I got a cut. A pith helmet. That would definitely work. I got a couple more things. What else? So, back in the 19th century, the Victorians were pretty well known for being pretty prudish, right? Yeah.

On the surface, that is. Yes, exactly, on the surface. But at a public beach, all of that is out on display, so the surface is all that matters, right? So, I ran across this invention that they came up with, at least in Australia, if not in England as well. But they had cabanas on the back of wagons that were pulled by horses and you would get into the cabana and the horse would draw the wagon with you and the cabana in it out

to the ocean and then you would get out into the water so that nobody else would see you in any kind of remote state of undress. And we're still talking like wrists and ankles covered. That was too much. So they would get in these private cabanas and be drawn by horse out to the water. Wow. Yes. That was crazy.

And then fast forward to the 1950s and there was a nudist trend that sparked all over Australia. And I think now Australia has something like, I think, five designated nude beaches, which I was surprised it was that little, because in Britain, there's 11 of them. Really? Yeah, I was surprised by that too. And there's a great quote from this one counselor, Brighton, who is like, I guess, a local elected official from back in 1979 when Brighton became the first official nude beach. He said, I personally have got no objection to people showing their breasts and bosoms

and general genitalia to one another. Jolly good luck to them. But for heaven's sake, they should go somewhere more private. And they had a great quote. Yeah, maybe that's where I lie. Is it really? So you have a problem with nude beaches? No, they're fine.

Just not for me. So what about the private, private, private nude beach that I envisioned? The island that you own? I would visit it without you there and I would pull my shorts down for a minute, for 60 seconds. Right. But not past the ankle. You just stay in there with them. Oh, no, no, no.

I would still have my hands on them. And I'd be like jokes on you, whole islands under surveillance. Jokes on you. Surprise party. Well, that's nude beaches, man, unless you got anything else. I got nothing else. If you want to know more about nude beaches and you made it this far through the episode or what we could probably call a psychodrama between me and Chuck, you can type that word

in the search bar at HowStuffWorks.com and we'll bring up this fine article. And since I said search bar is time for listener mail, I'm going to call this we helped a dude get into medical school. And here it goes. Hey, guys, I started listening at the beginning of middle school, although the moment I was completely hooked was when I listened to the Delta Force episode. Since then, I don't think I missed an episode for nine years straight. Jumping back to present day, a few weeks ago, I had a medical school interview.

One of the interviewers asked me something to the effect of how have you cultured a spirit of continuous learning in your life outside the classroom? One of the things I brought up was stuff you should know in the interviewer who asked the question was a fan. That shared connection at the beginning of the interview really helped to break the ice a bit and the rest of the interview went really smoothly. Just her back that I had been accepted. I guess I can't say that our mutual love of SYSK was the reason I got in, but I do think

that having that connection helped me to relax and nail the interview from that point on. So thanks for helping break the ice for me. Jumping back from you guys would make my week. We'll do you one better, Isaac Lam. We ride it on the air. Good luck in med school. He lives in Indianapolis, said he wants to visit there for a tour and I think we're going to try and hit up Indianapolis at some point.

It's possible. And yeah, way to go, buddy. Yeah, congratulations on getting into med school, Isaac. Great name too, by the way. Agreed. If you want to get in touch with us like Isaac did, you can tweet to us. I'm at Josh Clark and at SYSK podcast. Chuck's on Facebook at Charles W. Chuck Bryant and at Stuff You Should Know.

You can email us at stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com and as always, join us at our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it.

Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever

have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.