Stuff You Should Know - How the GED Test Works

Episode Date: December 23, 2014

The GED test was once part of a non-profit organization. That all changed in 2014, when it was privatized, made more expensive and more difficult to pass. But that also brought about a couple of more testing options. Learn all about how high school dropouts can earn their equivalent degree in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

attention bachelor nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, it's Chikis from Chikis and Chill Podcast and I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience, were there any red flags that you think you missed?

What I saw as a weakness of his, I wanted to embrace. The way I thought of it was whatever love I have from you is extra for me. Like, I already love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner? Yes. Is it required for me to feel good about myself? No. Listen to Chikis and Chill on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your 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 Bright. This is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast. Good day. Oh, there's Jerry. She snuck up on us. Yeah, this one is a part of our, I guess, law enforcement suite? No. Military suite? No.

All a little sort of. Addiction suite? Yes. Okay. Because people are addicted to knowledge, buddy. And here in the United States, and I believe in Canada, if you don't graduate high school, and then later on you say, you know what? That was a mistake. I'm just going to go back to high school. They say, you can't do that. You say, well, what do I do? And then they say, get your GED dummy. And you go, oh, oh, that's great because that's my general equivalency diploma, right? And they say, no, that's not what it stands for. No. You should have stayed in high school. Although I don't think they teach this in high school. No, of course they don't. GED, a lot of people do think it stands for general equivalency diploma. I always did.

It stands for general education development, which is a company, a brand name. Yeah. Like seeing eye dogs. Brand name. Heroin. Yeah, brand name. Kleenex. Brand name. Barbecue. No. Very nice. Xeroxes, though. Yeah. Those are called genericized trademarks. Yeah. Bandaid. Yeah. Things that were a trademark name, or still are, but have become so widespread and so dominant in their market, they become the name for all of the other versions of themselves. Petroleum. No. Vaseline, though. Yes, which should be called petroleum jelly. Yeah, no one says that, though. Weirdos say that. They just say Vaseline or lube. Do you have any petroleum jelly for sale? Yeah. People say, I don't know what you mean. You say, well, I mean Vaseline. And they say,

well, why didn't you just say that? And then you just get quiet. And then they say, yes, we have some Vaseline for sale. And then you buy the Rite Aid brand because it's cheaper and it's the same thing. But it just says petroleum jelly. That's right. All right. This is off to a bang and start. That was a horrific story. About 850,000 people in the United States in 2013 took, this has got a lot of stats in it, by the way. Was it just 850? I'm surprised. I thought it was like a million. No, I've got the stats right here, my friend. Okay. Under key findings. In 2013, more than 848,000 adults worldwide took at least one of the five content area tests. So that's our first point is the GED isn't a single test, but it is five subtests are what they call them. Well,

it was in 2013. That's right. It switched in 2014. This is a heck of a time to be talking about GED. It really is. Because there's been some big changes lately. And only, not only, but 743,000 completed the entire test battery in 2013. And the reason why was because that change, usually it's fewer than that. Usually the proportion of people who take the GED to the people who take and finish the GED the same year is much different. There's a huge difference. This year, or 2013, it was close because everybody wanted to complete it because it was about to get a lot harder in 2014. Yeah. And 75% of those who took the complete battery test passed it. And the way they have, it's pretty cool. The way they establish the passing score is they give

it to high school graduates. And the top 60% of high school seniors, they compare that against the test. They use that as the norm. I did not know that. Yeah. That is very clever. Yeah. I thought so. I mean, that's a high school equivalency test. Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Well, in the whole, I mean, you kind of said it like, well, people, you know, to drop out of high school and then years later, they say, yeah, maybe I should go back. An average of nine years, by the way. Is it nine now? Yeah. Nine years later. And they had statistics from, I think, starting from, geez, many, many years ago. And they've remained pretty consistent as far as racial divide and men or women and then people who pass or

people who fail, reasons people take it. It's fairly consistent over the years. It's pretty interesting. But the reason people take it ultimately is so they can get gainful employment. But it seems to flip flop depending on the economy, whether they're going to go on and go to college afterward because you need your GED to get into college. Yeah. Or because as the general education development people say, there's roughly four million jobs out there that are just waiting for people to prove that they can fill them. And one way to prove that is to have a GED. It basically says, I am qualified for most of your unskilled labor, at least. And so going and getting a GED is for a lot of people a huge investment in their future. Sure. So that's

pretty much why the GED provides, quote, proof of readiness for higher education or the workplace. That's the whole point. It's proof that you're ready to move on. Yeah. And they actually have statistics too on why people take it. 63% said they took it for educational reasons. And it's not just one or the other. I think it can be multiple reasons because more than half, and I thought this was pretty neat, 53% said they tested for personal reasons, such as being a positive role model and for a sense of personal satisfaction. And then 53% said for employment reasons to get a job, basically. So I thought those findings were interesting. I like the role model thing. Even though only 4.5% of the people who take it are

over 50 years of age, I say hats off to that 4.5% because that's probably personal satisfaction or role model reasons right there. You're never too old to get educated. Don't give up. That sounds like an ending, but this is just the beginning. Well, maybe we can cut and paste it onto the ending. I'll say it again at the end. Okay. So people have pretty great reasons for this. It also helps the economy. If you have a bunch of unfilled jobs out there in your economy and you have a bunch of unemployed people, and all that you need to get the two together is proof that this group of people is qualified to fill these unfilled jobs, then you have a real need to get those people qualified as easily as

possible. And for many, many, many, many years, the GED was a state sponsored, nonprofit way of making that happen. That's right. If you want stats to back that up, sir. Okay. The net lifetime fiscal contribution of a high school graduate or GED holder is almost $300,000. Wow. And you're going to have about a $10,000 difference in annual salary if you get that GED or do not. And with 1.2 million college dropouts each year, people should encourage people to take the GED, and I'm going to go out and say, and people are probably going to be mad. Some people, I think it should be subsidized if you want your GED. I think you should be able to take it for free. Well, in a lot of states it is. Some states, but a lot of people have a big problem with that.

Shouldn't have dropped out of high school to begin with. Yeah. But that doesn't make any sense, because what we need are more educated people so they can get better jobs and not be a tax burden in other ways. Right. You know what I'm saying? So the whole idea of the GED initially was, it was basically a compromise between the military and the ACE, the American Council of Educators, I believe. And apparently, when World War II broke out or when the U.S. entered the Second World War, there was this idea of just handing out wartime diplomas. Yeah. If you came aboard, you got drafted, you enlisted, whatever, you could just have your high school diploma. And the ACE said, that's a really bad idea, because you're going to have some people coming

back afterward who are unqualified, but people will think they're qualified. It's just bad for the economy to do that. Let's come up with something else. Military said, fine, do it. And the ACE said, fine, we will. And they went off and they came up with what is the GED. Yeah. For five years, it was just for military. Right. Like you had to be a military service member to take the GED. And then after that, they're like, you know what, this is a pretty good idea. So let's expand it to everybody. Yeah. It was a great idea. And they did expand it. And over the year since then, it has gone through now five iterations. Previously to 2014, the last one was in 2002. And it's changed quite a bit over the years. Like all standardized tests, I guess.

Previously, like back in the 1940s and 50s, it was pretty much just reading and writing, skills, social studies, science and math, but like basic skills. They didn't try to make it like a like a real world test. You know, does that make sense? Like real world applications. I see what you mean. Yeah. Like later on, they started putting things like newspaper articles that you could read instead of just like read this text about Johnny and his dog. Right. And yeah, I think it was definitely also geared toward people at high school level maturity too. And then later on, they were like, well, we've got a lot more adults taking this than we realize. So let's change it. It just took them like 30 years to make that change.

Yeah. It took on a lot more of a conceptual evaluation over the years as well. And showing people examples from like, like I said, real world, their home life and their work life. So they can say, Hey, that's me in these test examples. I get it. And it's not it's, it's more humanized, I think. Right. Plus they instituted a big one, the the writing test and essay section. Yeah. That was definitely new. Yeah. Critical thinking skills. Yeah. And all of a sudden GED got a little harder. Yeah. But it wasn't over then. And we'll talk about more after this. 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. 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. Yeah, 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. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If 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. 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. 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? 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. So Chuck, they revamped the GED in 1978 for like the first time seriously in 30 years. Yeah. And it's a little more real world, a little more reflective. And they just missed this, the cusp of a real change because in 1982, the world became a little more aware of the fact that it was globalizing.

And so six years after that, 1988, the GED said, we need to make some changes as well. Right. And they revamped again. Had they just waited until 1988, they could have skipped the whole 1978 revamp. That's true. And 88 is when they added that essay component, which was, makes a lot of sense to me. Did they, I thought they added it in 1978? No. Huh. And in 78, this is when they separated the reading test and basically said, we're not going to do any more of this just straight up like fact recall stuff. Gotcha. And at this point, 1988, only 30% of the takers were taking the test for employment. 60% were taking it to basically go to college. Yeah. And that's reflective of a larger thing where the premium or the rebate you get for a college degree was much higher.

Right. And that fluctuates over time. And I read this paper where you can basically look at it like supply and demand, where if employers are saying, we need more skilled labor. So you need to go to college, but if you do, we're going to pay you more than more people who took the GED would go on to college or whatever. Right. But if not, when the premium was lower, say like unions were in charge and they were like, are people don't need college educations? Right. But you're still going to pay them well? Sure. Then people would take the GED just to get into industry. Yeah. Interesting. They're all very closely aligned. Now people are like, do you even need a college education? Which to me, I think is a separate episode that we should do.

I totally agree, do because the whole notion of there's a lot of people challenging the validity of college these days. Yeah. And especially the stupidity of taking out exorbitant amounts of student loans. Right. They're going to cripple you and cripple the economy of the United States. Well, yeah. I mean, especially if you're not going to be able to make that back. Yeah. There's some people that say that the student loan problem is like the biggest problem facing our economy. Yes. They're called Occupy Wall Street. No, they're called Mark Cuban, like a lot of smart people. Yeah. Businessmen are saying this is just getting out of hand. Yeah. I think we should definitely do an episode on that. Yeah. So before you can go to college,

though, you need that GED or your high school diploma. So let's say you do want to take the GED these days. You can prep yourself. You don't have to just go in cold. There are all kinds of materials you can get online. If you go through the official GED site because there are now three things you can do. There are three tests you can take. GED isn't your only option. No. It used to have a monopoly in the United States. Yeah. But since Pearson Education, a private company, basically, I guess bought it out, right? Yeah. The A.C.E., the American Council of Educators, right? On education. Okay. They were the ones that owned GED. Right. And they were running it as a nonprofit. That's right. And they said, we need to revamp this. So we're going to take

on a for-profit educational publisher, Pearson. And Pearson came in and said, okay, thanks for bringing us on. Do you know what a hostile takeover is? And the A.C.E. said, not really. And then they were pushed out of the door. Here's a banker's box. Exactly. So Pearson took over and is running this as for-profit. Yeah. But there are other options now. I think Pearson and the official GED is the only one available in all 50 states. But in most states now, you can also take the TASC, which is run by also known as TASC, McGraw-Hill, or H-little-I, Big-S-E-T, Highset, which is administered by ETS. And in most states now, you can have your choice of all of those. Yeah. What happened was in 2014, the GED, which was a basically NGO run non-profit

testing resource, became privatized. And now there's competition among private businesses. That's right. So where I started with all this gobbity-gook was how to prep, depending on which test you take. You will probably want to use their testing materials, although they say that any kind of preparatory materials that you can find are probably going to be good for all three of the tests. Because while they're not exactly like, they all have the basic standard five components. Or four. Oh, and only four on some of them? Yeah. So apparently the GED went from two language and language arts and reading modules to one. Okay. But basically they're covering language arts or reading, science, math, and social studies.

Right. Before it was language arts and writing, and then language arts and reading. And now that's just one. Yeah. It's called reasoning through language arts and the GED battery. Nice. The whole kit and caboodle is going to take you close to eight hours. It's all parsed down into time. But if you do need more time, if you have some sort of learning disability or something, or if you want to be in a room by yourself, most of these testing centers will accommodate that. Yeah. Visual learners are easily distracted by other people in the room. Yeah, I am. So that's why they stick. Oh, that makes sense. You can have your own room. Dude, I never thought about that. That makes total sense. I do my best studying for the

podcast when I go in one of our office rooms and just lock the door. Right. And also because Jonathan Strickland is super loud. He's pretty loud. He loves telling stories really loudly. Okay. So also a lot of, if you're interested in taking the GED, a lot of information you're going to want is, it depends on the state. Like where you can take it, how much it's going to cost. It all varies by state and the guidelines of your state are going to dictate sometimes which one you have to take. I think state of Washington signed a deal with Pearson to make that the only one for the state. Yeah. I think there's 12 states where you have a choice of all three. Oh, is that all just 12? But the GED is available in not all 50 states. I think some

of them dropped it. Interesting. I think Pearson really ticked off a lot of companies by basically saying, you remember these fees that before it was, the state was subsidizing it to an extent. Some states were saying, okay, so this is how much the test people charge. Right. And then we can add fees onto that. So that's how it stands still today. That's to run the center where they take it is where those fees come from. Right. Exactly. Some states said, we're not adding any additional fees and we're going to subsidize the actual cost of the test. Right. So when GED doubled basically their rates, they were passing it along to the states and basically saying, pass it along to the test takers if you want. Right. The thing is, these are disproportionately

low income people. Right. And doubling the rates, even if we're talking like $50, $60 suddenly being like $100, $120, that's a significant increase in cost. Yeah, cost prohibitive in some cases. Right. That's just for the test too. That's not for prep materials and that kind of thing, which a lot of states also subsidized as well and gave up for free. Yeah. So I think Pearson ticks some people off with the sudden for-profit model, but Pearson in its defense says, we really kind of updated this thing for the 21st century. Yeah, they moved it to a computer-based test, not an online test, but it has to be taken, the GED brand test, Pearson test has to be taken on a computer now, whereas the other two you can still take with pen and paper or on a computer.

Right. But Pearson says in the long run this is going to save money because it's cheaper to do things on a computer, but that also came with some controversy because while it seems to us like computers are ubiquitous and everybody in 2014 knows how to use one, maybe a really poor 50-year-old person has never touched a computer. So they have to learn how to use a computer before they can even take the test. Right. So Chuck, we were talking about the controversy, right? Yes. Because I put it kind of flipply earlier, like the GED was privatized and it is essentially as simple as that, but there's so much more to that. It doesn't just exist in a vacuum. It's still a loaded concept these days to take education and privatize it. Sure. Or add a

for-profit model to education. It has brought a lot of criticism. Again, Pearson is saying, yeah, we kind of need these people to take this test on computers because that's where the jobs are. Like you have to know how to use a computer to work almost anywhere these days. That's a good point. So it's a good thing to make these people learn to use a computer first. Yeah. So what's the problem in that? A lot of people would respond and say, that's great. Maybe this is something we could have implemented a little more slowly. Right. Maybe you could have given the states and then hence the state-funded testing centers a little more of a heads up that this is where it was going to go. Right. Or provide the computer as an option. Right. Because not every job involves

a computer. No, it's true for now. But task and high set both offer computer and paper versions, right? Yeah. Like you said, again, Pearson says, well, that's great. The state still has to pay for grading of the pen and paper versions. With the computerized version, we have it all built in. People don't have to wait around for their scores. They get it immediately. Sure. Since it's on a computer and it can be graded by the computer, apparently you can take a module and you can find out that you didn't pass the module immediately and take it two more times before having to enter like a 30 or 60 day waiting period. You can just sit there and take it two more times right there. Yeah. That's pretty handy. So I mean, it's not entirely like, you know, evil co came in and took

over the GED. But I think the sweeping changes they made were so abrupt that it caught a lot of people off guard. And I mean, they're suffering as a result. Some states have just entirely dropped the GED. It's not even an option. Wow. The official GED. Right. So you brought up a good point. You don't have to take the entire test at once because some people can't afford 160 bucks or more. You can break it out into modules and pay as you go. And like you said, if you don't pass one, you can retake just that module. It's not all or nothing. Right. Which is great. You can take it in Spanish. You can take it in French, I think too. Yeah. You said at the very beginning that around the world, 850,000 people took it. Yeah. You can be elsewhere in the

world to get your US high school diploma. Yeah. That's interesting. Very equivalent of the diploma or your GED. They have Braille versions. They have large print and audio versions. And don't show up and expect that though. That's the kind of thing that when you're registering, you have to let them know and make sure that they can accommodate you. Yeah. And it's also interesting that people, some people say, you know, this whole computer thing is a mess. But most of the information you're going to have to go to online to find out this stuff. Right. Right. I mean, it's available too. I mean, you can go to the learning center and stuff like that and get a pamphlet, I'm sure still. But everything I saw was like, hey, go online and

check out this. Go online and check out your state's guidelines. Right. Go online and check out study courses. Yeah. So it helps to have that capability. But you can go to a public library and get online. You can. You can also get all the printed stuff at your library too. One of the big changes to that that Pearson took a little heat for was they were revamping everything so much from five modules to four. Scoring went in completely different directions. I think it used to be something like a 2100 or 2250 was the minimum. Now it's 150 score is the minimum. So no total, I think. What? Yeah. So overall, they just completely revamped everything. So they said, if you are taking your GED in 2013 and you've got like three or four of the five modules,

you might want to finish your fifth one because come 2014, you are going to have to take it all over again, which is why there was this huge rush to go take it. But I read this one article and a guy named Jose Ortiz of Fort Myers, Florida, said that he was waiting to take it in 2014 because he heard it was going to be harder and he looked forward to the greater challenge of it. Nice. Hats off, Jose. Yeah, that's awesome. I think the math section got considerably more difficult. Yeah. Because now you are expected to be able to pass up through Algebra 2. Yeah. And apparently that's more math than is required at the community college level in a lot of cases. Algebra. So they've taken a lot of heat. I was interested in taking the GED actually.

Yeah. If it was free, I would have taken it to see how I did. And there's no free sample test online? I don't know. I can see them having it locked down now. Maybe. If you are going to take the test, it is still at a testing center. There are over 3200 of those across the U.S. and they are going to be at community colleges, public schools, adult education, continuing ed centers. Adults. Stuff like that. Adults. Education. I love how they are like the hipster band now. Are they? Oh yeah, hipsters are all like, yeah, holo notes is so awesome. It's like, where were you in 1987? Man, that was my first show.

Made fun of. Oh yeah? Yeah. I wish I was. Holo notes until Tuesday. They're still great, man. Holo notes sounds awesome still. Yeah. That live from Darrell's house. Have you ever seen that? No. He has a studio in his place and he's a show on Palladia. I think where he has musicians come in and like everyone from Billy Gibbons of CZ Top to Hootie. 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 bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If 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 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. 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? 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. There is Rucker. Yeah. He's a country now. Yeah, that's what I heard. He's a country guy. And they'll just come in and do like a hollownote song and then like a ZZ Top song or whatever they want to do. It's pretty fun. Did you ever see the Guar at the AV Clubs live concert series? Oh, and they did the cover series? Yeah. That's one of my favorite things, is the AV Clubs undercover. Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, every year they take, I think it's like 20 songs, put them on a board, and then one at a time, bands choose them and mark them off. And so as like time goes on, you have less and less choice. Yeah, but Guar, who did they do? Man, I don't remember what they did. Oh man, it was really good

too. And it was that they'd been on once before. The only one I saw was their second appearance. I can't remember. It's worth just look up Guar and AV Club. Yeah, I highly recommend the whole series. They've been doing it for a few years now. It's pretty cool. I saw Ted Leo in the pharmacist that awesome version of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Man, that is a good, that whole record from beginning to end is amazing. Songs from the Big Chair? Yeah. Yeah, agreed. We do El Chippo Does Shout. It's a good one. Yeah, and it's super easy. Oh, the one I saw was Billy Ocean. Oh, that's right. But apparently Guar also has done, they've covered Kansas. They've covered the Pet Shop Boys. Yeah, the Kansas one I've seen. They did carry on my wayward son, didn't they?

Probably. Yeah. That's pretty cool, man. Guar. How do we get on that? From GED. Hall of Notes. Adult education. Yeah. I don't think I have anything else. I don't either. So like I said before, I would say it again, it's never too late. You can inspire your kid, your grand kid maybe. They're thinking about dropping out of high school. You go out and take that test and show them that education is valuable. Yes. That's from your Uncle Chuck. Nice Chuck. And Uncle Josh. Yeah. Your Aunt Jerry. Aunt or Aunt? I say Aunt, but people say Aunt, so I do. Aunt? You say Aunt, right? Yeah, I say Aunt. Yeah. It's supposed to be guttural and clipped like German. Yeah, I still call my, as a 43-year-old, I still call my aunts and uncles like Uncle Jimmy,

Uncle Steve. Yeah, I still do. I just, it'd be weird. And my nieces are in their early 20s now, and they call me Uncle Chuck and Aunt Emily. And it'd be weird if they just called me Chuck. I have mine call me Mr. Clark. Very nice. Well, since we got into the Aunt versus Aunt debate, that means you can type in GED in the search bar at howstuffworks.com and get your foot in the door, get started at learning how to use a computer to prepare to take the Pearson-based GED test. And I think I said search bar in there, right? Yeah. Which means it's time for Listener Mail. This is from Joaquim in Denmark, and it's about goats licking feet. Oh yeah, this is serious. Hey guys, I'm sitting here listening to your salt podcast, re-listening to it.

And suddenly, you remembered why that episode annoyed me last time I listened to it. Yeah, I didn't see why he had to say annoyed him. Well, I think he's from Denmark. I don't think they're annoyed. It's like, are annoyed. Oh, gotcha. You know? Hey, you have to hook Joaquim. You mentioned a particular type of torture called goat's tongue, and categorize it as kind of a tickle torture. What you need to know about goats is they can eat and digest about anything, including you, me, the thing you live in, the thing you drive in, the thing you're married to, and the thing that pays you money. Really like that. Goats will very slowly but very doggedly lick the flesh clean off the soles of your feet. If you ever had a small cut underneath your feet,

you'll know that you were actually quite sensitive down there. Having the flesh licked off will expose all your nerve endings, which the goat will then proceed to lick through. Think of it like having the soles of your feet sandpapered off, and then just keep sandpapering till there's nothing left but bone. That is from, like I said, Joaquim in Denmark. That was it. It just kind of stopped right there. He gets a total break because he, no, he had other stuff to say like what a big fan he was, and he's relistened to a lot of these, so he can say whatever he wants. Oh, awesome. Because he relistens. Yeah. And who on earth would do that? Some people do, like, relisten to the whole thing. Man, my eyes bleed at the thought.

Are you okay, everybody? Are you okay? Yeah. People who are listening to this for the third time. Well, you keywayed the podcast before their release. Yeah. I listened to them after the release to make sure that nothing got through that shouldn't have. Oh, really? Do you didn't know that? No. Yeah. I didn't know my keyway was being keywayed. No, no, no. Not that. I'm just teasing. There's been a few times where we've been like, there's a little mess up in there, Aunt Jerry. Aunt Jerry. But all that. Oh, wait. Yeah, that's right. We say Aunt when we're angry. All that is to say that it's all I can do to say this stuff and listen to it again. I'm sure you feel the same way. Yeah. That's like one of the worst parts of our job. Yeah. And happy Thanksgiving to us one and all.

Right? Right. So if you want to get in touch with Uncle Chuck, Mr. Clark, or Aunt Jerry, you can tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com. And as always, join us at our home on the web. It's called stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Hey, guys, it's Cheekies from Cheekies and Chill Podcast. And I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience, were there any red flags that you think you missed?

What I saw as a weakness of his, I wanted to embrace. The way I thought of it was whatever love I have from you is extra for me. Like, I already love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner? Yes. Is it required for me to feel good about myself? No. Listen to Cheekies and Chill on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Attention Bachelor Nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all. And now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most

dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.