May 17, 2011 • 32 mins
Could the sun, typically known for providing light and warmth, kill us? The Apollo 17 mission almost resulted in tragedy due to a mega-flare -- and astronauts aren't the only ones at risk. Join Josh and Chuck to learn more about the sun.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
from House toff works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant.
You may know us better as Joanie and Chocci. All right,
(00:24):
that's y SK Morning Edition. Yeah. I literally have had
two SIPs and coffee. This is an unusual recording time.
I'm not done. This is Stuff you should know, the
podcast from the revered website how Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
there are employers, Hey, they are, and there where we
get all of our information, right, that's right, most of it. Yeah.
(00:46):
There's been like maybe two or three podcasts that we've
done that didn't come from articles off the site. Yeah,
but that's the basis, right, Okay, sure, and now everybody
knows the secret. You can all go back to bed, right,
I'd like to go back to bed. I know you, Chuck,
you've been here since six thirty this morning. I know
I have. And like you said, that's two SIPs of coffee,
whereas when we usually record, you have had seventeen cups
(01:08):
of coffee. This is gonna be an unusually sedate podcast
about the Sun. Yes, this is almost almost Sun Take two.
I think I feel like this might make up a
little bit for the awful suncast we did. I don't.
I don't think that's correct, and I don't think it's
sound take too. I think the Sun comes in for
a guest appearance, a cameo, if you will. But there's
(01:29):
nothing that's ever gonna make up for how the Sun works,
although there was something. Um, I think my favorite fact
from the Sun podcast was that you remember in the
core of the Sun, Um, there's just helium bouncing all
over the place, and um, what I think a proton
gets loose or a neutron and it gets picked up
(01:51):
by something else, and like, this change in mass is
displaced energy, and it displaced energy takes the form of
a photon, remember the tiny packet of light. Here's the
here's the kicker, and I know you remember this. It
takes a photon a hundred thousand years to travel from
the core of the Sun to the surface, and then
once it leaves the Sun, it takes eight minutes to
(02:12):
get the Earth. That's pretty cool, but yeah, a hundred
thousand years. So the light that hits your skin, Chuck,
is a hundred thousand years and eight minutes old. Wow,
didn't take it that way, Well now you will. That's
a great sun fact. So, um, I I have a
better intro than that. Alright, Apollo seventeen, Yeah, the last
(02:36):
Apollo mission ninety two. These guys are training to go
to the Moon one last time. Let's get some people
on on on the moon. Right, Um, Nixon's in office.
Everybody's really unhappy. Um, So they're training, but there's a
huge problem. There's a predicted solar flare coming, and not
just any solar flare, a megaflare. Chuck. The last one
(02:58):
scene of such magnitude was a hundred and fifty years before. Right,
What does it do? Solar flare? Megaflare? You know? Solar
flare shoots protons um out, like highly radioactive protons out
into the pound of space and at Earth. Right, Earth
has a magnetic field that deflects these things, or else
they'd hit Earth's surface and us these radioactive protons at
(03:22):
about a million to three million kilometers per hour. So
what's a mega just a souped up version of that. Well,
that's that's the Mega version. Yes, so say half a
million kilometers an hour. It's way more protons. They're way
more radioactive, and they reach much further out in space.
It's just like a huge cough from the Sun, you know.
Like I said, we have a magnetic field. The Moon
(03:42):
does not have a magnetic field. So any astronauts standing
on the Moon when the solar flare erupted would have
gotten shot through with these radioactive protons and either would
have been burned on the spot or would have just
received a lace lethal dose of radiation sickness. So they
called it offer with postponed it. Luckily, the solar flare
occurred between Apolo sixteen and Apollo seventeen, so Apolo seventeen
(04:06):
went up on December second, nineteen seventy two. I think
um and the solar flare took place in August of
nineteen seventy two, so they escaped it by six months
or so. But isn't it crazy that they could have
conceivably been standing on the Moon and just been like
like some of the movies. It kind of like, um Sunshine,
Oh yeah, you saw that. I didn't think you saw that.
(04:27):
I remember we talked about the first half was too classic. Yeah,
I've never seen a movie go off the rails like that,
but I know it was so good. It was astounding.
I know I really wanted it to finish off because
Danny Boils the best. I was. I'm on team Boil
all the way you are. Um. But it raises the question.
It raises an interesting point because I think we all
(04:50):
know the answer to the question post in this podcast.
Can the Sun kill you? Chuck? This is a Chuck
Bryant special. It's a little elementary. I thought, I disagree
when was it from. It's from a long time ago,
but I don't know, like my introductions back in the
day were I thought they were like written for grade school.
Do you want to read the first sentence? I wanted
to almost get Robert Laman here to do a dramatic
(05:12):
reading just to the first sentence. Anyone he's ever made
it through the fifth grade can probably tell you that
the sun is a star. I think it's funny how somebody,
I imagine your editor went back and was like, well,
there's not necessarily every person that we can say with
confidence can tell you that if you've made it through
fifth grade, So let's put probably in there. Yeah, so Josh,
(05:34):
the answer can the sun kill you is most certainly yes,
resounding yes, and not just by standing on the moon
in a megaflare. Yeah. Um, there's plenty of ways here
on earth that the sun can get you. Basically, the
point of this podcast is don't ever leave your house again, right,
that's right? And you, Mr tan Man, I gotta do
(05:57):
you know where sunscreen? Um? I you? I wear seventy
on my face. I swear to God, I wear seventy.
And why is it every time you come in, like
on a Monday, you'll have like this bronze dark face
and he's like, oh's at the beach? So I have, um,
either Greco, Italian Jewish or some Mediterranean possibly Native American
(06:23):
in me somewhere down the line popping up. I tan
extremely well. But if you've got on seventy, you can't tan?
So how's it defeating the sun block? Clearly I can't,
and I promise you I really do wear seventy. I
don't wear and just can't like I should. I know,
and I appreciate that. Um, I don't wear as much
sun block as I should, but um, like everywhere because
(06:46):
it's just so much of me I get bored like
halfway through the clumps in like my hair, so like
I can't get it rubbed in. But it's not the seventies,
you know, remember in the seventies, so it was just
baby oil out and sun actually yeah, kind of roast
you stuff like a turkey. Plus I'd be wearing a
medallion right now for this time. That's right by Lizzie,
(07:07):
just cracking up. Yeah, guess guest producer Lizzie catch her
early in the morning, and we're funnier, all right, So
let's go ahead and get going here with the first way,
and then then the first couple are this is the
really the money is at the end of this podcast,
the most interesting part. Okay, before we we announced it,
can we get a drum roll for the first way
(07:27):
the sun can kill you here on Earth? Drum roll
place It is heat stroke? That's right, yes, most obviously, Uh,
you know everyone knows that the body cools itself down
by sweating. You get hot, your body tempature goes up
a little bit, the sweat kicks in. In my case,
it can be cold outside and the sweat still kicks in.
(07:49):
Or you could be in like a fifty degree body
of water. I will never die of heat stroke, but
you can dive. Heat stroke. It's when your body temperature
rises above a hund in four degrees and stays there
for a prolonged period. And um, that basically means, you know,
you can't find shade. It's probably you're either an infant
(08:10):
stuck in a car, which is the saddest. That's pretty
you're elderly and you're you know, somehow shut in or
infirmed and your power goes out, which is equally sad.
Or you're probably trapped if you're just a healthy adult
out in the desert or something. And heat stroking. There's
three things. Heat strokes the third in a series of
escalating problems. Right, you have heat cramps and then heat exhaustion,
(08:34):
and then heat stroke and when you have heat stroke
here in big trouble. Um. So your body is two
ways of cooling itself down sweating like you said, and
then pumping your blood close to the surface of your skin,
which pressed which is pressed up against the ambient air
which should be cooler, which is why you flush. Right Yeah,
Um in babies, like you say, if you're trapped in
(08:55):
a car, a baby's um sweat process mechanism isn't very
well developed, so it's not gonna get cool, right. And
then the other problem with heat stroke is you um
lose your ability to salivate, so you can't swallow. So
if you're out in the desert, even if you have water,
after a point, you can't. You can't drink fluids any longer.
(09:19):
They have to be introduced intravenously. That's right, that's bad news.
That's very bad news. And your blood thickens too, Chuck
with the heat stroke. Ye, really, you're one step away
from saying the word coagulate. I'm just gonna like, uh,
if you are very hot and you're overheated and you're
not cooling down, Josh, and you see some of the following,
then you're you should really try and get into some shade.
(09:43):
Toot sweet rapid pulse, very strong, like you said, imagine
the heart's beating really fast. Um hot, dry skin, headache, dizzy, hyperventilating,
and these I get the sense escalate as we go here, hyperventilate, confusion, nausea, seizures, hallucination,
and then unconsciousness. So if you're hallucinating, you're about to
(10:05):
go into the into the light or into the dark,
depending on what you want to look. Especially if your
hallucinations like get in the shade and your organs are
gonna swell, you could go into shock and you could die, Yeah,
pretty easy. Your whole body can just shut down. And
they're just from heat. That's not even from like the
sun's rays or damage or anything. That's just from getting
(10:27):
so hot, unbelievable. Um. And apparently when your blood does thick,
and once you hit that hundred and four to green
mark and your blisser so thick and it can't be
pumped towards the surface any longer. You're not sweating, you
can't swallow um. After that, you reach a point where
your body temperature just skyrockets up and that's that for you. Really, Yeah,
you're cooked. I wonder how high it can get. I
(10:48):
think it's a hundred and twelve and then you're dead. Yeah,
I know that. Like when you have a really bad fever,
if it gets up to a certain point, it's hospital time. Well,
plus a bad fever can cause brain damage, that's right,
Josh and uh I look for some Newsy items for this,
And of course it's always just some sad story about
a parking lot. But workers in Japan the nuclear reactor
(11:13):
site have been suffering from heat stroke and so they've
got you know, cool rooms set up, and they're very
aware of this problem from the radiation that he generated.
By the radiation, yeah, and just being in those suits
and they can't uh, you know, sweat and evaporate like
they normally could. Goodness wow, it's like add one more
risk the dangerous job they're doing. So what's what's another
(11:34):
way the sun can kill you? Chock uh skin cancer?
Josh um, No drum roll there, no drum roll there. Um.
The sun emits many different wavelengths of light, and the
one that is damaging to us is UV ultraviolet light
that we cannot see bluer than blue, shorter, it's bluer
than blue. Do you remember now, that's right, redder than red,
(11:54):
bluer than blue. We can't see it, that's right, but
we can be damaged by it very much. So, so
check there's two kinds of UV rays that hit us
here on Earth, UV A and UVB. And UV A
is the kind of ultra violet radiation that really penetrates
the skin down to the dermis um and does a
(12:16):
lot of cellular damage, UM DNA damage. Right. UVB is
the sun's burning rays. It's more potent actually than UV A.
But uh, first of all, it can be deflected by
window glass, so it doesn't hit us when we're inside UM.
But secondly, it can't penetrates deep into the skin, so
it doesn't cause cancer. It just burns you literally. But
(12:40):
UVA is the one that gets in there and can
disrupt the normal function of cells. Right, and uh, if
you get wrinkled and freckled, um, this is all because
of UV exposure. If I reckon, if you never saw
the sun's rays, he would probably look very youthful. I
would think so too, for for much longer than your
average joe out in the sun. We do have proteins
(13:01):
in the skin called elastin, and they're very springy and fibrous.
It helps us to stay young. But uh, UV exposure
damages and breaks down that elastin, and eventually that could
lead to lesions, tumors, that kind of thing. Right, and
UV A specifically goes in and UM basically turns our
(13:22):
melana sites the melanin producing pigment producing cells in the skin.
It basically says you're cancerous now because cancer is uncontrolled
cellular growth. Right, that's right. So the mel the melana
sites start to reproduce a little too quickly, then all
of a sudden you have a tumor. There are three
kinds of skin cancer, Josh, there's the basil is a
(13:42):
basil or basil basil I would imagine probably both, Chuck.
I think if you're from England needs say basil basil
cell carcinoma, uh, squamas cell carcinoma and melanoma. And the
first two aren't very dangerous. Um. They're about all cases
of skin cancer, the first two kinds, and you're you're
doing okay. If you have one of those, you can
(14:03):
get it removed. It's really not that big of a deal.
It turns to a melanoma. That's when it's serious. And
about skin cancer. Deaths are from melanoma. Yeah. And if
you if you find it early enough and treat it.
Um melanoma has a pretty high survival rate I think
survival rate um five year survival rate. If you get
(14:27):
it before it gets to the limps. When it hits
the limps, then the survival rates starts to drop dramatically. Yeah.
And this is an interesting fact of your whole life's
UV exposure comes before your eighteen right, And I thought
about that, and it makes perfect sense because that's when
you're a little kid who jumps like an idiot through
a sprinkler or something like that. That's when you're outside.
(14:48):
You're not punched over a computer. Your outdoors. Yeah, and
there's only I mean, if you're a parent, you should
take care of your child and slather them with sunscreen.
But you know, every if your kids out playing in
very active a lot, chances are you're going to be
slipping up there something. Well, but I think that I
don't know that that's necessarily okay though, I think that
needs to be a habit, you know, kind of like
(15:11):
your your kid, doesn't, you know, come out of the womb,
Like give me some pants and some shirt. The kid
knows to put on a pant right away, You're like,
you need to cover up. Um. I think this needs
to be part and parcel with going out if you
want to. You know, I think skin cancer is a
far greater problem than people are aware. Um. And I
(15:33):
think just you you make a good point in this
article that, um, it's one of the more preventable kinds
of cancers just by using sunscreen. Yeah, um, so I
think it should be part of going outside. And apparently
also not just on sunny days. On a cloudy, overcast days,
still like eight percent of the UV rays make it
(15:54):
to the surface containing that's too if you think that
it's not sun so it's not hurting me. That's handing
that does the same thing, Chuck. Can we talk for
a second about SPF. Can we solve the riddle of
what SPF is? Yeah, that they recommend fifteen, but I
would say higher than that if you want total protection.
They changed it recently thirty. Now American Academy of Dermatology
(16:16):
recommends thirty. They should double it just to be on
the side pretty much. But there I suspect that there
is something of like a mechanism like that involved. Because
SPF means a sun protection factor. Um, the number, right
is the number of times longer that product will prevent
a sunburn then unprotected skin. Right, So if it takes
(16:39):
ten minutes for unprotected skin to get a sunburn, SPF fifteen,
it'll take a hundred and fifty minutes in that same sunlight. Right.
The problem is they're like, well, you should still go
ahead and reapply this every two hours anyway at least
um and then after you sweat or after you're in
the water, so that two hours at the most, so
(17:02):
in SPF fifteen would protect you. And if they say
SPF thirty is recommended, I don't understand it. But I mean,
any idiot can look at suntan lotion it's SPS seventy
compared to SPF five and see that it's thicker. So
I guess it's just that. Either that or you can
just put primer on yourself. Right. Yeah, but that's I've
(17:25):
always wondered what SPF was, how they how they categorize that. Yeah,
you didn't know that un till now. Interesting, that's because
you don't wear it. I do wear it. I just
did you look like George Hamilton? I don't am I
aging or something like that. No, you're just tan. I'm
always tanned the beach oddly alright. So broccoli and if
(17:47):
you want to, if you want to help yourself out,
eat broccoli and eat Brussels sprouts. And if you say
I don't like Brussels sprouts, grill them. Baby, so good.
I've never had that. Yeah, man, I never eight them either.
But what you do is you get the Brussels sprouts,
you kind of chop off a little nubby end, toss
it in a bowl with some olive oil and whatever
(18:08):
your spices, you know, salt, pepper, rosemary, whatever you like.
Throw it on the grill and grill. It's so good.
I do the same exact thing, but instead of the grill,
I just roast them for a while until they're really
really crisp good stuff. Or another thing you can do
is you chop it in half and then do it
in the skillet and it kind of caramelizes on the
flat sides. I have a good recipe for broccoli, So
(18:31):
you take as much broccoli as you can find, chop
off the stalks, take the whole thing, put it into
a plastic bag, and throw it away. You don't like broccli,
I hate broccoli. That's so weird. I love broccoli. I
think broccoli is the most disgusting thing that's ever been
on this planet. I think broccoli is the worst thing
the Romans ever invented. I think I think BROCCOLI's delicious.
(18:56):
And they say, you know, steaming is probably the I mean,
raw is the best way to eat it. But I'm
not into raw broccoli. I have to steamine a little bit.
It is kind of tasteless, though not super flavorful. You're
just not having an area. No, I think it's disgusting,
and it's actually the taste that I can't stand. All right.
So anyway, the reason I brought all this up is
(19:16):
that there's a topical compound called I S C DASH
four found in these vegetables, and they think that if
they add this, uh, they've made a robust, more robust
version called I C S four and if you add
this to sunscreen, which they're trying to get done, they
think it might be able to really beef up the
skin cancer prevention by adding this stuff from these veggies
(19:40):
to your sunscreen. But like it enhances its protection protectiveness
very much. So it is way too early. No, I
don't think we should record at nine am any longer.
This is an emergency, all right, So, Josh. The final way,
and this is the most interesting and saddest condition of
all is called zero dar uma pigmentosum, and that is
(20:03):
very rare. Zero derma is Latin for dry skin, and
pigmentosum refers to the colorations, the skin colorations that you
get if you're one of the sufferers, one of the
few sufferers. Yeah, I think there's been like two cases
in the US. Yeah, at an't given moment, I think
there's about two fifty. So, Chuck, where did you find
(20:24):
this this condition? How did you stumble upon us when
you're writing this article? I think I was just looking
for you know, I think it came from a skin
cancer site, because you're very much likely to die from
skin cancer if you have this condition, right, probably by
the time you're middle aged. And so I think a
person with UM zero derma pigmentosa you say that there,
(20:45):
we'll call it XP. Okay, that's what That's what most
people call it, right, Um, people with XP are about
a thousand times more likely to develop skin cancer than
a person without it, and that can be up to
two thousand times more likely. And so this isn't like
you know, from laying out. This is like walking around
in your house, right and getting indirect UV radiation from
(21:08):
indirect sunlight any kind of sunlight whatsoever. Yeah, indirect direct
obviously is the worst, even fluorescent lights. Yeah, there was this. Uh,
there's been a bunch of stories about this, and they're
all very sad and titled sad titles, And this one
from the New York Times is called Midnight's Children, and
it's about Camp Sundown, which is a camp that these
(21:30):
parents started who have a daughter who suffers from this,
and it's basically, um, a couple of weeks out of
the year in the summer, they just have a summer
camp for kids to have this and it's all you know,
flip flop. It's all at night. All the activities are
because they can't go out in the sun at all.
And it's not just that camp, Like, don't families who
(21:50):
have a kid with XP half to UM basically do
that anyway, like flip flop their their nighttime and data. Yeah,
the camp is just to give them some one and
like to be able to go to camp and socialize
and flirt and do things that normal kids do. Because
one of the saddest parts about this is your sequester
to your house during the day and you're outfitted, you know,
all the windows are outfitted with the UV blockers and everything,
(22:14):
and um, you know, all the kids that are interviewed
are like, you know, when we're awake at night, my
friends are all asleep, so there's nothing to do at night.
And that's one of the big problems if you're a kid,
and that and infomercials are big problems of staying up
all night. Yeah, that's true, Um, chuck. They recently figured
out what people with XP are lacking. Right, it's an
(22:38):
end time, which is well, there's a couple of ways
to say this. The wrong way, which is what I'm
about to do, and then the right way, which will
probably never get but palmer sita that sounds right, um
or depending on which part of the same article you
want to consult, palm raise ada like the Greek letter um. Basically,
(23:01):
it's a it's an enzyme that allows DNA to continue
replicating successfully even when u V a yeah, UVA radiation
is damaged. It it's basically like the the shield Like
you guys keep going on, I'll stand here and take
all the bullets and uh, there's it's actually hopeful, um
(23:22):
that it's an enzyme because stem cell stem cells are
gang busters at replacing enzymes that are missing lacking in
in conditions. So there could be an all out cre
for this in the next decade or so. Well, there
is none now. And one of the reasons why it's
taken so long to crack the nuts, so to speak,
is that it's um. It's genetic, and both parents have
(23:46):
to have this gene that you inherit. So it's um
if both parents have to have it. And it's probably
not the kind of because if you have the gene
and you don't have it, you don't even think about it.
You're getting married to somebody who also has this gene
that you have no idea exists. All of a sudden,
you have a kid that's born with this, and it's
usually diagnosed by the age of two because it's so clearly, uh,
(24:10):
the sun so clearly damages your baby. This is the
story from New York Times. The mother describes this The
baby was about six weeks old, and we put her
to sleep in the shade of a tree. She began
screaming hysterically, like three minutes later. I mean it's not
like all day long. I mean it's literally, go out
into the sun and your skin starts blistering immediately, she said.
(24:32):
In less than two minutes, her arms broke out in
ferocious blisters that we thought were aunt bites. At first,
each burn began as a little pin prick, then swelled
up to the size of a quarter into a blister.
You could literally see it happening in front of your eyes,
like time lapse photography. So it's like something like a
vampire in a movie goes out and the sun just
starts like burning their skin. Wow, it's unbelievably sad and
(24:56):
that that damage. Like, like we said, there are one
thousand and too sometimes more likely to develop skin cancer
UM apparently, so it takes about sixty years of sun
exposure before skin cancer really develops most people UM and
people with XP it starts the same tumors can start
by age ten, so you have like skin damage, like
(25:19):
horrific external skin damage. But at the same time they're
the radiation damage is just working over time beneath the
surface too. Yeah, well this the same girl. You know.
They go to this pizza place at ten pm, one
of their favorite pizza joints because it doesn't have fluorescent lights,
and there's literally like a case with SODA's an ice
(25:40):
cream with fluorescent lights, and the kid can't even go
near that, like all the other kids are they're picking
out their ice cream and she can't do it. I mean,
she's a very sweet girl and she says, you know,
night is cool. I love the moon so much better
than the sun. And it seems like she's got a
great attitude, but it definitely it's a scary thing when
you can't play with other kids in the day light.
(26:00):
Like she's literally never seen the sun. She said, I've
seen it on television. Wow, isn't that sad? Yes, but
there is NASA is on the scene, right. Yeah, they
got a cool suit, yes, for like two grand, which
is relatively cheap considering what it can let you do.
But basically, you can put a kid in one of
these suits, a kid with XP and one of these suits,
(26:22):
and they can walk out into the into the sunlight.
It blocks I think of UV A and UVB radiation
and uh, it's bulky suit or whatever. But they can
go outside and play with their friends. So there is
some hope. There's the stem cell thing to write, and
there's Camp Sundown, which is awesome, and uh, if you
are one of the few sufferers, I'm sure you already
(26:44):
know about XPS, but it's the XP Society and that's
like the place to go for information and support and
stuff like that. So um mega flares, heat stroke, skin
cancer zero derma pick mintosum anything else, I don't think
so those are the way. Yeah, and actually one extra
(27:07):
fact about XP is a lot of the suffers go
blind because it's very harsh on the eyes as well.
I know, I'm so sorry. This is pretty heavy for
at nine am. Really is bunge you up for the day? Well,
if you wanna learn more about the sun and ways
it can kill you and you want to read Chuff
Bryant's first sentence in this one, it's good stuff. Um,
(27:31):
you can type in can the sun kill you in
the search bar at our venerable website How Stuff Works
dot com. Right, that's right, and it's time for listener mail. Chuck. Yes,
this is a little long, but this is actually a
follow up, and so few follow ups do we get.
(27:52):
This is a guy Dan. I don't know if we
read it on the air, but he was inspired by
our Bhutan podcast. Remember do you need money to be happy?
That kind of thing? That was his bouton onto something
with gross national happiness. Well yeah, but it was the
essence of it was money equating happiness and should you
give it all up and and drop out? Yeah? Yeah, well, yes,
(28:16):
we called for stories of the end. So this new
dan Ah did so a year and a half ago,
and he told me he was going to do it
at the time, and he actually followed up a year
and a half later. Wow, So this is like a
real test case. So two years ago I was living
the American dream, two thousand square foot house in rural
New Hampshire, working a stable job at a fortune company,
(28:37):
raking in at six figures. I had the dog, I
had the loving girlfriend, but my life was hell. I
worked mornings, nights, weekends, stressed beyond comprehension, and commuted two
hours a day and spent my free time doing house
related chores. Saw so little of my dog that when
I came home he didn't even get up off the
couch to greet me. That sad, lazy, Okay. My girlfriend
(29:01):
and I discussed the predicament and came to the conclusion
we would choose to continue. We could choose to continue
living such a dreadful life until we died, or we
can make a break for a new experience on our
own terms. So that's what they did. They put their
house on the market, sold it that spring, quit their jobs.
I got married in June with a simple celebration and
(29:21):
a bluegrass band, and then with only a car, our dog,
and a couple of suitcases, set off for Portland, Oregon.
I'm not sure why Portland's, but I think that's where
everybody in its situ way to started in Portlandia. Uh.
It's been close to a year now living in Portland,
and it's been an interesting experience. There was a close call.
We were running out of funds, still unemployed, and almost
(29:43):
cashed in on our dreams, but we were saved by
a random occurrence that landed my wife a job. They
met Daddy Warbox. Despite ten percent unemployment in Portland, we
both had jobs by January and we're confident that we
could be successful in our transition. Now we live in
a small, one room apartment and make one third of
the salary that I did back in New Hampshire. But
(30:05):
I only work forty hours a week. I love my job.
I have a thirty minute bicycle commute to work, which
is along the waterfront. I only drive my car twice
a month. I used to have heart palpitations from the
daily stress, now I have none. I have a lot
of free time on Monday's. My wife and I have
dance lessons. Wednesdays, I'm in a kickball league, which you
(30:26):
know something about. So I've played kickball with Jerry on
her team. Never should have played kickball again. Tuesday's a
volunteer to local nonprofit theater. Thursdays and Fridays that catch
several pints at the local pubs. And weekends I hike
and experienced the great things that Portland has to offer.
He's written and produced songs, and he says he actually
(30:49):
has saved more money now than when he had the
big six figure job. But that is so cool. Isn't
that cool? I'll bet his hair is increased in length
by at least it has. And now when I come home,
the dog is wagging his tail meeting me at the door.
So what a great ending here. He says, it hasn't
been easy on in traditional terms, but it has been
easy for us. Once you decide that what you own
(31:11):
has no value to you, then most things that you
worry about go away. That is so cool, Dan, And
uh yeah, that's basically the essence, he said. Having free
time is a great opportunity to get to know your
significant other, to volunteer, and to get in shape, and
that is all I have to say from Dan, well,
congratulations Dan, that's a fantastic story. Yeah, I'm literally giddy
(31:36):
you went from a dirty yuppie to a dirty hippie
in a year. We applaud you for it. Yes, it's
an excellent story and I'm glad he rode in. Thank
you very much for following up. Dan. Yeah, and let's
I'd like to hear from Dan every year to see
what's going on. So Dan, I challenge you to email
us again next spring. Okay, okay, how about that. That's
(31:56):
good stuff, Chuck Q. Have any stories of amazing transformation.
It doesn't have to be necessarily like taking a step back.
It could be anything. If you haven't seen so many
in a couple of years and they change from pointing
any to point B and it's just been astounding. We
want to hear about it. We love stories like that. Right,
you can post it on our Facebook page Facebook dot
com slash stuff you should know. You can tweet it
(32:18):
to us s y s K podcast, or you can
send us an old fashioned email at stuff podcast at
how stuff works dot com for moralness and thousands of
other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com to
learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon
(32:38):
in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How
Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
from House toff works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant.
You may know us better as Joanie and Chocci. All right,
(00:24):
that's y SK Morning Edition. Yeah. I literally have had
two SIPs and coffee. This is an unusual recording time.
I'm not done. This is Stuff you should know, the
podcast from the revered website how Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
there are employers, Hey, they are, and there where we
get all of our information, right, that's right, most of it. Yeah.
(00:46):
There's been like maybe two or three podcasts that we've
done that didn't come from articles off the site. Yeah,
but that's the basis, right, Okay, sure, and now everybody
knows the secret. You can all go back to bed, right,
I'd like to go back to bed. I know you, Chuck,
you've been here since six thirty this morning. I know
I have. And like you said, that's two SIPs of coffee,
whereas when we usually record, you have had seventeen cups
(01:08):
of coffee. This is gonna be an unusually sedate podcast
about the Sun. Yes, this is almost almost Sun Take two.
I think I feel like this might make up a
little bit for the awful suncast we did. I don't.
I don't think that's correct, and I don't think it's
sound take too. I think the Sun comes in for
a guest appearance, a cameo, if you will. But there's
(01:29):
nothing that's ever gonna make up for how the Sun works,
although there was something. Um, I think my favorite fact
from the Sun podcast was that you remember in the
core of the Sun, Um, there's just helium bouncing all
over the place, and um, what I think a proton
gets loose or a neutron and it gets picked up
(01:51):
by something else, and like, this change in mass is
displaced energy, and it displaced energy takes the form of
a photon, remember the tiny packet of light. Here's the
here's the kicker, and I know you remember this. It
takes a photon a hundred thousand years to travel from
the core of the Sun to the surface, and then
once it leaves the Sun, it takes eight minutes to
(02:12):
get the Earth. That's pretty cool, but yeah, a hundred
thousand years. So the light that hits your skin, Chuck,
is a hundred thousand years and eight minutes old. Wow,
didn't take it that way, Well now you will. That's
a great sun fact. So, um, I I have a
better intro than that. Alright, Apollo seventeen, Yeah, the last
(02:36):
Apollo mission ninety two. These guys are training to go
to the Moon one last time. Let's get some people
on on on the moon. Right, Um, Nixon's in office.
Everybody's really unhappy. Um, So they're training, but there's a
huge problem. There's a predicted solar flare coming, and not
just any solar flare, a megaflare. Chuck. The last one
(02:58):
scene of such magnitude was a hundred and fifty years before. Right,
What does it do? Solar flare? Megaflare? You know? Solar
flare shoots protons um out, like highly radioactive protons out
into the pound of space and at Earth. Right, Earth
has a magnetic field that deflects these things, or else
they'd hit Earth's surface and us these radioactive protons at
(03:22):
about a million to three million kilometers per hour. So
what's a mega just a souped up version of that. Well,
that's that's the Mega version. Yes, so say half a
million kilometers an hour. It's way more protons. They're way
more radioactive, and they reach much further out in space.
It's just like a huge cough from the Sun, you know.
Like I said, we have a magnetic field. The Moon
(03:42):
does not have a magnetic field. So any astronauts standing
on the Moon when the solar flare erupted would have
gotten shot through with these radioactive protons and either would
have been burned on the spot or would have just
received a lace lethal dose of radiation sickness. So they
called it offer with postponed it. Luckily, the solar flare
occurred between Apolo sixteen and Apollo seventeen, so Apolo seventeen
(04:06):
went up on December second, nineteen seventy two. I think
um and the solar flare took place in August of
nineteen seventy two, so they escaped it by six months
or so. But isn't it crazy that they could have
conceivably been standing on the Moon and just been like
like some of the movies. It kind of like, um Sunshine,
Oh yeah, you saw that. I didn't think you saw that.
(04:27):
I remember we talked about the first half was too classic. Yeah,
I've never seen a movie go off the rails like that,
but I know it was so good. It was astounding.
I know I really wanted it to finish off because
Danny Boils the best. I was. I'm on team Boil
all the way you are. Um. But it raises the question.
It raises an interesting point because I think we all
(04:50):
know the answer to the question post in this podcast.
Can the Sun kill you? Chuck? This is a Chuck
Bryant special. It's a little elementary. I thought, I disagree
when was it from. It's from a long time ago,
but I don't know, like my introductions back in the
day were I thought they were like written for grade school.
Do you want to read the first sentence? I wanted
to almost get Robert Laman here to do a dramatic
(05:12):
reading just to the first sentence. Anyone he's ever made
it through the fifth grade can probably tell you that
the sun is a star. I think it's funny how somebody,
I imagine your editor went back and was like, well,
there's not necessarily every person that we can say with
confidence can tell you that if you've made it through
fifth grade, So let's put probably in there. Yeah, so Josh,
(05:34):
the answer can the sun kill you is most certainly yes,
resounding yes, and not just by standing on the moon
in a megaflare. Yeah. Um, there's plenty of ways here
on earth that the sun can get you. Basically, the
point of this podcast is don't ever leave your house again, right,
that's right? And you, Mr tan Man, I gotta do
(05:57):
you know where sunscreen? Um? I you? I wear seventy
on my face. I swear to God, I wear seventy.
And why is it every time you come in, like
on a Monday, you'll have like this bronze dark face
and he's like, oh's at the beach? So I have, um,
either Greco, Italian Jewish or some Mediterranean possibly Native American
(06:23):
in me somewhere down the line popping up. I tan
extremely well. But if you've got on seventy, you can't tan?
So how's it defeating the sun block? Clearly I can't,
and I promise you I really do wear seventy. I
don't wear and just can't like I should. I know,
and I appreciate that. Um, I don't wear as much
sun block as I should, but um, like everywhere because
(06:46):
it's just so much of me I get bored like
halfway through the clumps in like my hair, so like
I can't get it rubbed in. But it's not the seventies,
you know, remember in the seventies, so it was just
baby oil out and sun actually yeah, kind of roast
you stuff like a turkey. Plus I'd be wearing a
medallion right now for this time. That's right by Lizzie,
(07:07):
just cracking up. Yeah, guess guest producer Lizzie catch her
early in the morning, and we're funnier, all right, So
let's go ahead and get going here with the first way,
and then then the first couple are this is the
really the money is at the end of this podcast,
the most interesting part. Okay, before we we announced it,
can we get a drum roll for the first way
(07:27):
the sun can kill you here on Earth? Drum roll
place It is heat stroke? That's right, yes, most obviously, Uh,
you know everyone knows that the body cools itself down
by sweating. You get hot, your body tempature goes up
a little bit, the sweat kicks in. In my case,
it can be cold outside and the sweat still kicks in.
(07:49):
Or you could be in like a fifty degree body
of water. I will never die of heat stroke, but
you can dive. Heat stroke. It's when your body temperature
rises above a hund in four degrees and stays there
for a prolonged period. And um, that basically means, you know,
you can't find shade. It's probably you're either an infant
(08:10):
stuck in a car, which is the saddest. That's pretty
you're elderly and you're you know, somehow shut in or
infirmed and your power goes out, which is equally sad.
Or you're probably trapped if you're just a healthy adult
out in the desert or something. And heat stroking. There's
three things. Heat strokes the third in a series of
escalating problems. Right, you have heat cramps and then heat exhaustion,
(08:34):
and then heat stroke and when you have heat stroke
here in big trouble. Um. So your body is two
ways of cooling itself down sweating like you said, and
then pumping your blood close to the surface of your skin,
which pressed which is pressed up against the ambient air
which should be cooler, which is why you flush. Right Yeah,
Um in babies, like you say, if you're trapped in
(08:55):
a car, a baby's um sweat process mechanism isn't very
well developed, so it's not gonna get cool, right. And
then the other problem with heat stroke is you um
lose your ability to salivate, so you can't swallow. So
if you're out in the desert, even if you have water,
after a point, you can't. You can't drink fluids any longer.
(09:19):
They have to be introduced intravenously. That's right, that's bad news.
That's very bad news. And your blood thickens too, Chuck
with the heat stroke. Ye, really, you're one step away
from saying the word coagulate. I'm just gonna like, uh,
if you are very hot and you're overheated and you're
not cooling down, Josh, and you see some of the following,
then you're you should really try and get into some shade.
(09:43):
Toot sweet rapid pulse, very strong, like you said, imagine
the heart's beating really fast. Um hot, dry skin, headache, dizzy, hyperventilating,
and these I get the sense escalate as we go here, hyperventilate, confusion, nausea, seizures, hallucination,
and then unconsciousness. So if you're hallucinating, you're about to
(10:05):
go into the into the light or into the dark,
depending on what you want to look. Especially if your
hallucinations like get in the shade and your organs are
gonna swell, you could go into shock and you could die, Yeah,
pretty easy. Your whole body can just shut down. And
they're just from heat. That's not even from like the
sun's rays or damage or anything. That's just from getting
(10:27):
so hot, unbelievable. Um. And apparently when your blood does thick,
and once you hit that hundred and four to green
mark and your blisser so thick and it can't be
pumped towards the surface any longer. You're not sweating, you
can't swallow um. After that, you reach a point where
your body temperature just skyrockets up and that's that for you. Really, Yeah,
you're cooked. I wonder how high it can get. I
(10:48):
think it's a hundred and twelve and then you're dead. Yeah,
I know that. Like when you have a really bad fever,
if it gets up to a certain point, it's hospital time. Well,
plus a bad fever can cause brain damage, that's right,
Josh and uh I look for some Newsy items for this,
And of course it's always just some sad story about
a parking lot. But workers in Japan the nuclear reactor
(11:13):
site have been suffering from heat stroke and so they've
got you know, cool rooms set up, and they're very
aware of this problem from the radiation that he generated.
By the radiation, yeah, and just being in those suits
and they can't uh, you know, sweat and evaporate like
they normally could. Goodness wow, it's like add one more
risk the dangerous job they're doing. So what's what's another
(11:34):
way the sun can kill you? Chock uh skin cancer?
Josh um, No drum roll there, no drum roll there. Um.
The sun emits many different wavelengths of light, and the
one that is damaging to us is UV ultraviolet light
that we cannot see bluer than blue, shorter, it's bluer
than blue. Do you remember now, that's right, redder than red,
(11:54):
bluer than blue. We can't see it, that's right, but
we can be damaged by it very much. So, so
check there's two kinds of UV rays that hit us
here on Earth, UV A and UVB. And UV A
is the kind of ultra violet radiation that really penetrates
the skin down to the dermis um and does a
(12:16):
lot of cellular damage, UM DNA damage. Right. UVB is
the sun's burning rays. It's more potent actually than UV A.
But uh, first of all, it can be deflected by
window glass, so it doesn't hit us when we're inside UM.
But secondly, it can't penetrates deep into the skin, so
it doesn't cause cancer. It just burns you literally. But
(12:40):
UVA is the one that gets in there and can
disrupt the normal function of cells. Right, and uh, if
you get wrinkled and freckled, um, this is all because
of UV exposure. If I reckon, if you never saw
the sun's rays, he would probably look very youthful. I
would think so too, for for much longer than your
average joe out in the sun. We do have proteins
(13:01):
in the skin called elastin, and they're very springy and fibrous.
It helps us to stay young. But uh, UV exposure
damages and breaks down that elastin, and eventually that could
lead to lesions, tumors, that kind of thing. Right, and
UV A specifically goes in and UM basically turns our
(13:22):
melana sites the melanin producing pigment producing cells in the skin.
It basically says you're cancerous now because cancer is uncontrolled
cellular growth. Right, that's right. So the mel the melana
sites start to reproduce a little too quickly, then all
of a sudden you have a tumor. There are three
kinds of skin cancer, Josh, there's the basil is a
(13:42):
basil or basil basil I would imagine probably both, Chuck.
I think if you're from England needs say basil basil
cell carcinoma, uh, squamas cell carcinoma and melanoma. And the
first two aren't very dangerous. Um. They're about all cases
of skin cancer, the first two kinds, and you're you're
doing okay. If you have one of those, you can
(14:03):
get it removed. It's really not that big of a deal.
It turns to a melanoma. That's when it's serious. And
about skin cancer. Deaths are from melanoma. Yeah. And if
you if you find it early enough and treat it.
Um melanoma has a pretty high survival rate I think
survival rate um five year survival rate. If you get
(14:27):
it before it gets to the limps. When it hits
the limps, then the survival rates starts to drop dramatically. Yeah.
And this is an interesting fact of your whole life's
UV exposure comes before your eighteen right, And I thought
about that, and it makes perfect sense because that's when
you're a little kid who jumps like an idiot through
a sprinkler or something like that. That's when you're outside.
(14:48):
You're not punched over a computer. Your outdoors. Yeah, and
there's only I mean, if you're a parent, you should
take care of your child and slather them with sunscreen.
But you know, every if your kids out playing in
very active a lot, chances are you're going to be
slipping up there something. Well, but I think that I
don't know that that's necessarily okay though, I think that
needs to be a habit, you know, kind of like
(15:11):
your your kid, doesn't, you know, come out of the womb,
Like give me some pants and some shirt. The kid
knows to put on a pant right away, You're like,
you need to cover up. Um. I think this needs
to be part and parcel with going out if you
want to. You know, I think skin cancer is a
far greater problem than people are aware. Um. And I
(15:33):
think just you you make a good point in this
article that, um, it's one of the more preventable kinds
of cancers just by using sunscreen. Yeah, um, so I
think it should be part of going outside. And apparently
also not just on sunny days. On a cloudy, overcast days,
still like eight percent of the UV rays make it
(15:54):
to the surface containing that's too if you think that
it's not sun so it's not hurting me. That's handing
that does the same thing, Chuck. Can we talk for
a second about SPF. Can we solve the riddle of
what SPF is? Yeah, that they recommend fifteen, but I
would say higher than that if you want total protection.
They changed it recently thirty. Now American Academy of Dermatology
(16:16):
recommends thirty. They should double it just to be on
the side pretty much. But there I suspect that there
is something of like a mechanism like that involved. Because
SPF means a sun protection factor. Um, the number, right
is the number of times longer that product will prevent
a sunburn then unprotected skin. Right, So if it takes
(16:39):
ten minutes for unprotected skin to get a sunburn, SPF fifteen,
it'll take a hundred and fifty minutes in that same sunlight. Right.
The problem is they're like, well, you should still go
ahead and reapply this every two hours anyway at least
um and then after you sweat or after you're in
the water, so that two hours at the most, so
(17:02):
in SPF fifteen would protect you. And if they say
SPF thirty is recommended, I don't understand it. But I mean,
any idiot can look at suntan lotion it's SPS seventy
compared to SPF five and see that it's thicker. So
I guess it's just that. Either that or you can
just put primer on yourself. Right. Yeah, but that's I've
(17:25):
always wondered what SPF was, how they how they categorize that. Yeah,
you didn't know that un till now. Interesting, that's because
you don't wear it. I do wear it. I just
did you look like George Hamilton? I don't am I
aging or something like that. No, you're just tan. I'm
always tanned the beach oddly alright. So broccoli and if
(17:47):
you want to, if you want to help yourself out,
eat broccoli and eat Brussels sprouts. And if you say
I don't like Brussels sprouts, grill them. Baby, so good.
I've never had that. Yeah, man, I never eight them either.
But what you do is you get the Brussels sprouts,
you kind of chop off a little nubby end, toss
it in a bowl with some olive oil and whatever
(18:08):
your spices, you know, salt, pepper, rosemary, whatever you like.
Throw it on the grill and grill. It's so good.
I do the same exact thing, but instead of the grill,
I just roast them for a while until they're really
really crisp good stuff. Or another thing you can do
is you chop it in half and then do it
in the skillet and it kind of caramelizes on the
flat sides. I have a good recipe for broccoli, So
(18:31):
you take as much broccoli as you can find, chop
off the stalks, take the whole thing, put it into
a plastic bag, and throw it away. You don't like broccli,
I hate broccoli. That's so weird. I love broccoli. I
think broccoli is the most disgusting thing that's ever been
on this planet. I think broccoli is the worst thing
the Romans ever invented. I think I think BROCCOLI's delicious.
(18:56):
And they say, you know, steaming is probably the I mean,
raw is the best way to eat it. But I'm
not into raw broccoli. I have to steamine a little bit.
It is kind of tasteless, though not super flavorful. You're
just not having an area. No, I think it's disgusting,
and it's actually the taste that I can't stand. All right.
So anyway, the reason I brought all this up is
(19:16):
that there's a topical compound called I S C DASH
four found in these vegetables, and they think that if
they add this, uh, they've made a robust, more robust
version called I C S four and if you add
this to sunscreen, which they're trying to get done, they
think it might be able to really beef up the
skin cancer prevention by adding this stuff from these veggies
(19:40):
to your sunscreen. But like it enhances its protection protectiveness
very much. So it is way too early. No, I
don't think we should record at nine am any longer.
This is an emergency, all right, So, Josh. The final way,
and this is the most interesting and saddest condition of
all is called zero dar uma pigmentosum, and that is
(20:03):
very rare. Zero derma is Latin for dry skin, and
pigmentosum refers to the colorations, the skin colorations that you
get if you're one of the sufferers, one of the
few sufferers. Yeah, I think there's been like two cases
in the US. Yeah, at an't given moment, I think
there's about two fifty. So, Chuck, where did you find
(20:24):
this this condition? How did you stumble upon us when
you're writing this article? I think I was just looking
for you know, I think it came from a skin
cancer site, because you're very much likely to die from
skin cancer if you have this condition, right, probably by
the time you're middle aged. And so I think a
person with UM zero derma pigmentosa you say that there,
(20:45):
we'll call it XP. Okay, that's what That's what most
people call it, right, Um, people with XP are about
a thousand times more likely to develop skin cancer than
a person without it, and that can be up to
two thousand times more likely. And so this isn't like
you know, from laying out. This is like walking around
in your house, right and getting indirect UV radiation from
(21:08):
indirect sunlight any kind of sunlight whatsoever. Yeah, indirect direct
obviously is the worst, even fluorescent lights. Yeah, there was this. Uh,
there's been a bunch of stories about this, and they're
all very sad and titled sad titles, And this one
from the New York Times is called Midnight's Children, and
it's about Camp Sundown, which is a camp that these
(21:30):
parents started who have a daughter who suffers from this,
and it's basically, um, a couple of weeks out of
the year in the summer, they just have a summer
camp for kids to have this and it's all you know,
flip flop. It's all at night. All the activities are
because they can't go out in the sun at all.
And it's not just that camp, Like, don't families who
(21:50):
have a kid with XP half to UM basically do
that anyway, like flip flop their their nighttime and data. Yeah,
the camp is just to give them some one and
like to be able to go to camp and socialize
and flirt and do things that normal kids do. Because
one of the saddest parts about this is your sequester
to your house during the day and you're outfitted, you know,
all the windows are outfitted with the UV blockers and everything,
(22:14):
and um, you know, all the kids that are interviewed
are like, you know, when we're awake at night, my
friends are all asleep, so there's nothing to do at night.
And that's one of the big problems if you're a kid,
and that and infomercials are big problems of staying up
all night. Yeah, that's true, Um, chuck. They recently figured
out what people with XP are lacking. Right, it's an
(22:38):
end time, which is well, there's a couple of ways
to say this. The wrong way, which is what I'm
about to do, and then the right way, which will
probably never get but palmer sita that sounds right, um
or depending on which part of the same article you
want to consult, palm raise ada like the Greek letter um. Basically,
(23:01):
it's a it's an enzyme that allows DNA to continue
replicating successfully even when u V a yeah, UVA radiation
is damaged. It it's basically like the the shield Like
you guys keep going on, I'll stand here and take
all the bullets and uh, there's it's actually hopeful, um
(23:22):
that it's an enzyme because stem cell stem cells are
gang busters at replacing enzymes that are missing lacking in
in conditions. So there could be an all out cre
for this in the next decade or so. Well, there
is none now. And one of the reasons why it's
taken so long to crack the nuts, so to speak,
is that it's um. It's genetic, and both parents have
(23:46):
to have this gene that you inherit. So it's um
if both parents have to have it. And it's probably
not the kind of because if you have the gene
and you don't have it, you don't even think about it.
You're getting married to somebody who also has this gene
that you have no idea exists. All of a sudden,
you have a kid that's born with this, and it's
usually diagnosed by the age of two because it's so clearly, uh,
(24:10):
the sun so clearly damages your baby. This is the
story from New York Times. The mother describes this The
baby was about six weeks old, and we put her
to sleep in the shade of a tree. She began
screaming hysterically, like three minutes later. I mean it's not
like all day long. I mean it's literally, go out
into the sun and your skin starts blistering immediately, she said.
(24:32):
In less than two minutes, her arms broke out in
ferocious blisters that we thought were aunt bites. At first,
each burn began as a little pin prick, then swelled
up to the size of a quarter into a blister.
You could literally see it happening in front of your eyes,
like time lapse photography. So it's like something like a
vampire in a movie goes out and the sun just
starts like burning their skin. Wow, it's unbelievably sad and
(24:56):
that that damage. Like, like we said, there are one
thousand and too sometimes more likely to develop skin cancer
UM apparently, so it takes about sixty years of sun
exposure before skin cancer really develops most people UM and
people with XP it starts the same tumors can start
by age ten, so you have like skin damage, like
(25:19):
horrific external skin damage. But at the same time they're
the radiation damage is just working over time beneath the
surface too. Yeah, well this the same girl. You know.
They go to this pizza place at ten pm, one
of their favorite pizza joints because it doesn't have fluorescent lights,
and there's literally like a case with SODA's an ice
(25:40):
cream with fluorescent lights, and the kid can't even go
near that, like all the other kids are they're picking
out their ice cream and she can't do it. I mean,
she's a very sweet girl and she says, you know,
night is cool. I love the moon so much better
than the sun. And it seems like she's got a
great attitude, but it definitely it's a scary thing when
you can't play with other kids in the day light.
(26:00):
Like she's literally never seen the sun. She said, I've
seen it on television. Wow, isn't that sad? Yes, but
there is NASA is on the scene, right. Yeah, they
got a cool suit, yes, for like two grand, which
is relatively cheap considering what it can let you do.
But basically, you can put a kid in one of
these suits, a kid with XP and one of these suits,
(26:22):
and they can walk out into the into the sunlight.
It blocks I think of UV A and UVB radiation
and uh, it's bulky suit or whatever. But they can
go outside and play with their friends. So there is
some hope. There's the stem cell thing to write, and
there's Camp Sundown, which is awesome, and uh, if you
are one of the few sufferers, I'm sure you already
(26:44):
know about XPS, but it's the XP Society and that's
like the place to go for information and support and
stuff like that. So um mega flares, heat stroke, skin
cancer zero derma pick mintosum anything else, I don't think
so those are the way. Yeah, and actually one extra
(27:07):
fact about XP is a lot of the suffers go
blind because it's very harsh on the eyes as well.
I know, I'm so sorry. This is pretty heavy for
at nine am. Really is bunge you up for the day? Well,
if you wanna learn more about the sun and ways
it can kill you and you want to read Chuff
Bryant's first sentence in this one, it's good stuff. Um,
(27:31):
you can type in can the sun kill you in
the search bar at our venerable website How Stuff Works
dot com. Right, that's right, and it's time for listener mail. Chuck. Yes,
this is a little long, but this is actually a
follow up, and so few follow ups do we get.
(27:52):
This is a guy Dan. I don't know if we
read it on the air, but he was inspired by
our Bhutan podcast. Remember do you need money to be happy?
That kind of thing? That was his bouton onto something
with gross national happiness. Well yeah, but it was the
essence of it was money equating happiness and should you
give it all up and and drop out? Yeah? Yeah, well, yes,
(28:16):
we called for stories of the end. So this new
dan Ah did so a year and a half ago,
and he told me he was going to do it
at the time, and he actually followed up a year
and a half later. Wow, So this is like a
real test case. So two years ago I was living
the American dream, two thousand square foot house in rural
New Hampshire, working a stable job at a fortune company,
(28:37):
raking in at six figures. I had the dog, I
had the loving girlfriend, but my life was hell. I
worked mornings, nights, weekends, stressed beyond comprehension, and commuted two
hours a day and spent my free time doing house
related chores. Saw so little of my dog that when
I came home he didn't even get up off the
couch to greet me. That sad, lazy, Okay. My girlfriend
(29:01):
and I discussed the predicament and came to the conclusion
we would choose to continue. We could choose to continue
living such a dreadful life until we died, or we
can make a break for a new experience on our
own terms. So that's what they did. They put their
house on the market, sold it that spring, quit their jobs.
I got married in June with a simple celebration and
(29:21):
a bluegrass band, and then with only a car, our dog,
and a couple of suitcases, set off for Portland, Oregon.
I'm not sure why Portland's, but I think that's where
everybody in its situ way to started in Portlandia. Uh.
It's been close to a year now living in Portland,
and it's been an interesting experience. There was a close call.
We were running out of funds, still unemployed, and almost
(29:43):
cashed in on our dreams, but we were saved by
a random occurrence that landed my wife a job. They
met Daddy Warbox. Despite ten percent unemployment in Portland, we
both had jobs by January and we're confident that we
could be successful in our transition. Now we live in
a small, one room apartment and make one third of
the salary that I did back in New Hampshire. But
(30:05):
I only work forty hours a week. I love my job.
I have a thirty minute bicycle commute to work, which
is along the waterfront. I only drive my car twice
a month. I used to have heart palpitations from the
daily stress, now I have none. I have a lot
of free time on Monday's. My wife and I have
dance lessons. Wednesdays, I'm in a kickball league, which you
(30:26):
know something about. So I've played kickball with Jerry on
her team. Never should have played kickball again. Tuesday's a
volunteer to local nonprofit theater. Thursdays and Fridays that catch
several pints at the local pubs. And weekends I hike
and experienced the great things that Portland has to offer.
He's written and produced songs, and he says he actually
(30:49):
has saved more money now than when he had the
big six figure job. But that is so cool. Isn't
that cool? I'll bet his hair is increased in length
by at least it has. And now when I come home,
the dog is wagging his tail meeting me at the door.
So what a great ending here. He says, it hasn't
been easy on in traditional terms, but it has been
easy for us. Once you decide that what you own
(31:11):
has no value to you, then most things that you
worry about go away. That is so cool, Dan, And
uh yeah, that's basically the essence, he said. Having free
time is a great opportunity to get to know your
significant other, to volunteer, and to get in shape, and
that is all I have to say from Dan, well,
congratulations Dan, that's a fantastic story. Yeah, I'm literally giddy
(31:36):
you went from a dirty yuppie to a dirty hippie
in a year. We applaud you for it. Yes, it's
an excellent story and I'm glad he rode in. Thank
you very much for following up. Dan. Yeah, and let's
I'd like to hear from Dan every year to see
what's going on. So Dan, I challenge you to email
us again next spring. Okay, okay, how about that. That's
(31:56):
good stuff, Chuck Q. Have any stories of amazing transformation.
It doesn't have to be necessarily like taking a step back.
It could be anything. If you haven't seen so many
in a couple of years and they change from pointing
any to point B and it's just been astounding. We
want to hear about it. We love stories like that. Right,
you can post it on our Facebook page Facebook dot
com slash stuff you should know. You can tweet it
(32:18):
to us s y s K podcast, or you can
send us an old fashioned email at stuff podcast at
how stuff works dot com for moralness and thousands of
other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com to
learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon
(32:38):
in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How
Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.
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