September 11, 2012 • 34 mins
When Alfred Kinsey conducted his sex surveys he turned up, but ignored, a fourth sexual orientation: people who don't experience sexual attraction. It took 60 years for Group X to gain a name and recognition, but with that has come increased scrutiny.
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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 you stuff you should
know from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W.
Chuck Bryant and he I can't really say what he's
(00:24):
doing right now, but he's having a fine time. I'm
playing by a little what is this try stop try Saratops?
We have dinosaurs in a jar in here. I don't
know who brought these in, but I thank them because
it's kind of fun. It is fun. It looks really
uncomfortable for the dinosaurs, like I've seen too many of
the toy story movies too. That's to leave these things
(00:45):
b That's why I've secured the try sterotops by my
side today. That's nice. He'll be with us through a sexuality,
Yes he will. Um, We're gonna go on a little
journey through a sexuality today. UM. This is this is uh,
I guess new to me. Like I've heard the term
before a sexual um, but I never really realized that
it's becoming. And there's a group of people who who
(01:10):
claimed this as their sexual orientation. Yeah, you hear the
word kind of thrown around like, you know, well, they
never really had a girlfriend and boyfriend that scene. They're
they're just sort of a sexual, right or it's often
it's often um put alongside androgyny, you know, so like
a sexual meaning genderless, but that's not at all what
(01:31):
it means and improperly tied to uh abstinence, celibacy, celibacy.
Tim Tebow, Yeah, if you believe the lies, I don't know.
I think he's for real, do you yeah, sure yeah
um Or Morrissey, Yeah, he's legendarily celibate celibate, right, but
not necessarily a sexual difference. So I looked into this
(01:53):
a little more before even proposing this, and I was
just fascinated with it. Not in like a prurient sense,
I was interested. And what kicked it all off was
I was in Lyne at the bank and there was
this woman reading a book while she was going through
like the teller transaction, and she had um this uh
(02:13):
this T shirt on and it said uh aven a
V and and I looked a little closer and it
said a Sexuality Visibility and Education Network. Right, It's not
off the top of my head did have a logo
or anything it did. I didn't recognize it until now,
and I still can't conjure it up in my mind's eye.
But it was a triangle, and I took it to
me like a like a the pink triangle for homosexuality.
(02:37):
It is not. It's just a triangle. Had I looked
a little closer, I, had I looked now, I would
see that. I think it's a slice of cake, okay, sure,
which is their their symbol, right supposedly from a quote
from someone and a sexual who said, between the slices
of cake and sex, I'd take the cake, right, So
this think everyone feels that way once or another though, right, Okay,
(02:58):
So that's an excellent point. Yeah. The difference is if
you're a sexual, you feel that way virtually all the time.
That is quite literally your orientation. You're oriented towards no
sexual attraction, no sexual preferences. Um, although you may still
if you do feel any kind of romantic feelings, it
(03:20):
would still possibly go along homosexual or heterosexual lines, right right, Yes,
let's get into this okay. Um, I guess Alfred Kinsey
is a pretty good place to start whenever you're talking
about people doing it or not doing it. Man, I
don't know how he got into these people's how we
got people to talk like this back then? Have you
(03:40):
seen the movie? No, it's good. Yeah, the y fine,
he beat everybody up. He did a bunch of poles
and then whipped everyone's But yeah, um, he's like, I
have a very specific data set. Uh so in his
Kinsey uh scale, the famous Kinsey scale rates very inclusively
(04:02):
a scale from I think in here they say from
fleeting attraction to longer term, longer term compulsions like tries
to include everyone in the scale, but it's still generally
not inclusive of a sexuals group X. It's like completely
non inclusive. It goes from zero to six and it's
straight up hetero to straight up homo sexual that's right, right,
(04:26):
and then there's stuff in between, and you can fall
somewhere in on this spectrum. But it was pretty groundbreaking
at the time because first of all, people weren't really
talking about homosexuality much so to make a scale that
was inclusive of them that was pretty revolutionary. Yeah, but
he did identify group X, he just didn't include it
on the scale. Group X to him was the one
(04:47):
point five percent of men and of women who said
I don't have sexual relations, that I'm not interested in it. Right,
but he just kind of disregarded that as an anomaly
group or maybe he thought he would come back to
it at some later day. Never did. Uh. And but
out of this he said something that's kind of a
famous quote. He said, the world is not to be
(05:07):
divided into sheep and goats, which means, like you're not.
There's more than just straight, there's more than just gay,
there's some stuff in between, there's a range. But he
still left out group X. He still left out group
what's weird? And Kristin Conger, who wrote this article, good
job too. Yeah, she did a good job tying this
all together. There was a study in two two of
(05:30):
rams that produced another group X, and it's in its sample. Interestingly,
also rams and cheap because apparently there's a guy named
m Charles Roselli and he was looking to find if
there's a biological basis for homosexuality. So return to the
animal kingdom, right, Apparently rams can be gay. They rams
(05:54):
can party down with other rams for like, and when
there's females around, they'll still just say, hey, that guy
looks pretty good. To me. So he also found that
there's some that don't go for either, and UM this
this group X among rams started to UM. This formed
(06:15):
the basis of the idea of a sexuality is an
orientation as far as like academy is concerned, right, And
the flip side of this, which we haven't really mentioned,
is as opposed to UM, a physiological problem, an issue,
or a mental illness, which up until waste homosexuality is
(06:35):
considered a mental illness. So until seventy three, and then
in nineteen eighty six they finally took out the secondary
UM basically being stressed out from being gay was it
was a diagnosis until six and finally there's like no
homosexuality in the DSM any longer, but essentially until eighty six,
(06:56):
and in seventy three that was when the straight up
like if you're gay, you're mental ill was taken out.
And the d s M is we've talked about it before,
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders basically where
they classify everything, and it's important, Chuck, we should say
what goes in there, because it's basically the book that says,
here's what society thinks is normal. And here's what society
(07:18):
thinks is abnormal. And if you who considers yourself normal,
is in there that society has a lot of leverage
against you to tell you that there's something wrong with you.
But it's doctor's opinions, right, It's not like they took
polls from society. Right. No, But I mean, like that's
that's based on a lot, it's not not all of
it's based on empirical evidence. It's basically saying, like, like,
(07:41):
you act this way in society thinks there's something wrong
with you. That's mental illness. Uh So we mentioned is
not like celibacy, because that is a choice to remain uh,
sexually inactive. Morrisey battles that every day. I'm sure he does.
I mean, look at him. He dresses sexy. Oh, Morrissey's
a sexy guy. I look at him. So he's a
(08:02):
pop star, right, don't have anyone he wants on either side,
but he chooses not to. That's right. Is he still
I think he is? Isn't he? Oh? I think he's
like lifetime celibate. Yeah. Yeah, but you never know. That's
I mean, I don't know Morrissey personally. You never told me.
But I mean this is just from being a fan,
(08:22):
this is why. Yeah. Yeah, And he's come out very
hard lineed, you know, for his celibacy, so it's not
like he's been a secret or anything like that. I
don't know. Well, in the same it's like Tim Tebow,
all of them, and we'll mention this even more. But
the uh, it's the same with a sexuals. They the
what is it, one percent roughly of the population in
(08:45):
these samples. In these samples, it was one point five
in this big survey. So there's this is all very
very very new, like thinking about it. That Ram study
was from two thousand two, right in two thousand four,
that Ram study I think piqued somebody's interest enough to
start looking into this. So it's real new, like this
is the twenty one century sexual orientation and people are
(09:06):
at least people who study it are just now starting
to look into it. Well, I've already figured out how
to discriminate again. Anthony Bogert bo Garrett, I don't know
how you say it. We'll just say Bogert, Uh, he
is the one in two thousand four. He's a psychologist
at Brock University in Canada. I don't think they have
any kind of a football team and Brock University Brock.
(09:28):
We're probably wrong though, but um he is the one
who did uh publish a journal in Journal of Sex
Research in August of two thousand four that you know,
one of the first people to do a lot of
studying on this in recent times. He examined data from
a survey in the UK UH from n and basically
(09:49):
out of the nineteen thousand sample size, which isn't too bad, no,
it's huge, Yeah, he found one point five said I
have never never ever felt sexual attraction to anyone at all.
And that wasn't like part of that was it was
a huge survey with of a huge sample of a
bunch of questions and that was just one of the
(10:11):
one group with lumped into a little data set based
on that response. And this guy went back and found
that and they really started to look at it well.
And he's the first one in two thousand six to say,
you know what, this is a sexual orientation and that's
how it should be treated. And a sexuals were you know,
they're they're proud to be who they are. I mean,
(10:33):
the ones that come out in the support groups at
least I'm sure, there's a lot more that, you know,
wrestle with it, and they're quiet about it. But at
least with the what is it, the a v ETON. Yeah,
that a Sexuality Visibility and Education Network. They're all all
about being proud to call it a sexual orientation, like
(10:53):
we don't need to be treated for any kind of dysfunction. Yeah,
leave us alone. We're happy with the basically how we're born.
The thing is is like, leave us alone. It's not
just that, it's also take us seriously. Yeah, because there's
there's a lot of accusations that are leveled against them,
like you know, you guys are all victims of trauma,
(11:14):
so you know that's probably what it is, or you're
being willful or you know, and to not be taken
seriously as a human being, that's a big deal. Uh.
David J. Would agree with that. Not to be confused
with David J. From bau House. No, and there's another
David J. Too. Yeah, I think it was some other
kind of writer, unless about House guys a writer. Now,
(11:37):
David J. From the House just goes by David capital
J period saying that this is David J. A y
J a y founder of the A d e n
And there's a site a sexuality dot org that he
founded in two thousand one where you can find out
all kinds of information and get support if you uh
find yourself in this one point five percent. And and
(12:00):
he made a lot of news because you know, he's
a young, handsome dude, and everybody's like, why don't you
want to do it with anybody exactly? And he's just like,
because my orientation is a sexual and start wrapping your
heads around that. People. I think Matt Lauer actually like
poked him in the stomach like, ma'am, what's going on
during an interview Videoally now, okay, But there is a
(12:23):
range of you know, not a sexuals are the same.
Um Kristen points out that some are virgins, some are
not um and it's not even just necessarily from a
past experience before they kind of figured out where they were.
Some still have sex to satisfy their partner, only to
satisfy their partner. And if you like want to get
a first person, firsthand view of, you know, what it's
(12:46):
like to be a sexual in a very hyper sexual world.
They have a lot of essays and UM tips and
guides for interacting with a sexual people, I'm sure. Um.
And one of them that I read was like having
sex with an a sexual person, and like, how you
get to that point? Yeah, I mean it's not, it's
(13:08):
like that's a a gift, as I understand it. Yeah,
like that means they that person really cares about you
because they are not into this since really at all,
or if if they are into it, it's not it's sexual,
it's romantic, right. Well, And that's the other point Conger
goes on to make, like some are virgins, some are not,
(13:28):
Some masturbate, some do not, Some pursue romantic, long term,
committed relationships, and some don't pursue that like anything beyond
platonic relationships. So it kind of runs the gamut on
how they choose to integrate and live their life or
not integrate and just still live their life, which I
guess is still integration. Uh you're thinking of that rough
(13:52):
song pretty well, okay, Um, And I think we should
also say chuck, like there's even while we're trying not
to pidge whole anyone, we're still managing to still I'm
sure like leave some people out, like there's this is
a it's a very broad swath of people, and that
was a good point to say, like a lot of
different ways to live as an a sexual person, we
(14:15):
haven't figured them all out, just as there are a
lot of ways to live as a sexual person exactly exactly.
The tie that binds a sexual a sexually oriented people
is that they literally don't feel sexual arousal or sexual attraction.
That's just not part of it. And this Indiana University study,
(14:39):
you didn't talk about that, right, So these researchers set
down to Indiana University with four self identified um A
sexuals and basically said, tell us about it, you know,
and most of them, I think, basically the the consensus
was was that, um yeah, it's kind of tough, especially
(15:00):
when you're attracted romantically to people like you want to
have a relationship, but most people aren't a sexual. This
is one point five percent of that sample. So you're
gonna have to have there's gonna be some sort of
conflict or problems or no matter how understanding your partner is,
this is gonna be tough. Sure, not just for you,
but for them. Um So they said that that's tough,
(15:23):
But on the flip side, you have a lot more
free time and your chances of getting an STD or
an unwanted pregnancy or like virtually nil. Well I kind
of laughed at the free time thing, like you know,
how many hours a day or people spending having sex.
But if you totally are devoid of sex, that means,
(15:43):
as a single person, you're not spending any time going
looking for it or you're not doing people. So a
lot of time theoretically goes into people you know, out
there trying to hook up. You know what I'm saying exactly,
Like there's if you step back and think about it,
especially especially if you're like single person. Yeah, like there's
a lot of time and energy that goes into all
(16:05):
that goes into getting to the sexual act. Right, It's
not just the time that you spend remember those days.
It was a long time ago. I don't remember what
that's like, But the point is, like, that's a lot
of time and energy, and like, what else could you
have done with that? Often spent my time doing other things.
Actually I was never that guy, yeah, cruising the bars,
you know. I was always just hanging out with my friends,
(16:27):
which probably explains a lot. Uh So interestingly in these
polls as well, um women make up generally across two
different polls. They both made up seventy five I'm sorry
of the population of a sexual individuals. Yeah, that British
(16:48):
survey of the households. And then later um, the an
Avan pole that just last year. No, that was two
eight that was and then it went down. The ratio
of men to women changed in the last year's pole
it went to like women. And then but the other
thirty three percent wasn't all men? A lot of them
(17:11):
identify themselves as a gender neutral? Yeah, that's a lot.
So this suddenly now you have a subset of a
subset of as far as sexual orientation goes. Um. And
I was reading on Avan today about how to use
Remember when we did our Executive order UM podcast, the
(17:35):
Flawless one on Executive Orders, UM. They we were trying
to figure out what you would call a gender neutral president.
It's not out there. No one has any idea. Like
even people who are gender neutral don't really know. There's
not a standard way to address somebody like that with
a gender neutral pronoun So we gotta figure that one out. Well,
(17:58):
somebody smarter than us and more sensitive than us should
do that. So the A V E. N Has grown
since two thousand one, from nineteen thousand to thirty thousand members,
which is pretty great. These people are getting some pretty
good community support. Um they Conger points out that disinterest
in sex is usually regarded as a symptom, a problematic symptom,
(18:23):
rather than like a sexual identity. So that's the battle
they're kind of facing now is again, don't treat us.
We don't need We're not dysfunctional, like we were born
this way. The guy uh that founded the network uh
said that, you know, I remember being a kid and
once people started talking about like hot movie stars, I
was just like, what, Like, I don't get it, what
(18:44):
does that mean? And you know, from a very young age,
are you making humping motions in the air? Little kids
are dirty? Kids are so healthy, dirty. I don't even
know they're innocent. You know what's going on, what's going
on with my hips? Yeah, it's all very sweet. They're
just trying to figure it all out, you know, poor kids.
(19:05):
And then comes the hair spray. So um. The we
we mentioned the the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, there
are two disorders that look like they could cover this
as far as sexuality goes, and one of them is
s a D sexual aversion disorder, and the other is
(19:27):
hypoactive sexual desire disorder. You can throw out s a
D because that's an actual phobia of sex. Yeah, it's
like you you get real anxiety from that, even the
idea of having sex. Right, that's not what a sexuality is. No,
it's not, So go ahead and toss that out. H
s d D is a little closer because it's described
(19:49):
as persistently or currently deficient or absence of sexual fantasies
and desire for sexual activity. The difference there, though, is UM,
as Congress calls it critical footnote, Uh, it must be
UM inciting marked distress or interpersonal difficulty, which I'm sure
can happen. Happen. But a sexual is also a lot
(20:10):
of more saying you know what, I'm fine. Well, that's
part of what avan is all about, is kind of
like accepting and celebrating and saying like, dude, you're okay.
You don't have to I don't have to feel bad
about this is it's just who you are. Um. So yeah,
that last little that last one, what is it HSD D.
That's I feel so bad because it's like, okay, guys
(20:32):
are starting to make their way through the civil rights
discrimination road, and they're you know, starting to come out
on the other end. And okay, who who else is
there discriminated against? We're almost out of people. Who can
we go to next? Oh good, here's a group called
a sexuals and here they come. So let's run them
through the pike because that's what's about to happen. It
(20:54):
looks like, well, I could see them being more accepted about,
you know, the people that don't accept homosexuality. I could
see them being more lenient with asexuality, yes, because it
doesn't threaten anything in their life. You know. I agree,
it's tough to discriminate against somebody based on the lack
of sexuality. It's more like, you know, taking it seriously
(21:14):
and treating it not as a mental illness. Does are does? Are?
You know? That's got to be big because think about it,
like like the whole Chick fil A thing that's going on, right,
So let's say that. Um still, to this day, uh,
the field of psychology considered homosexuality a mental illness. Now
(21:34):
consider you know, those donations, what they're going to Are
they going like to discriminate? Are they going to treat
mental illness. That's that's a big deal to be in there.
It's a lot of power that little book wields totally,
and if for no other reason than just respect and
self respect, like you're talking about. I mean, what's our motto,
chuck live and let live. That's one of them to
(21:56):
each his own. That's right, that's kind of the same thing.
Uh So they have petition the board though to have
that removed, much like they did in nineteen seventy three
with homosexuality. So we'll see what happens there. Do you
think the DSM five maybe how often does it published,
you know, like seventy three to eighty six, because we're
(22:16):
in between. Yeah, so when you're in there, it's it's
a big deal. I wonder if it's a set republished
or if it's every time they need to like have
some changes stacked that they really different editions of different
versions like um, that makes sense, revised ones. But like
it's a it's I mean, they've been working on this
for years and so much controversy around it because it's
(22:38):
saying here's what's here's what's normal hot off the press.
On one hand, it's like it's great to be able
to diagnose people with problems. But the other hand, there's
something about just taking a book and seeing, like, let's
see what you are. Let me look it up. It's
kind of like I'm a person. Well it's it's there's
a checklist. It's like, if this person, here's the set
of symptoms we say are associated with this disease based
(23:01):
on probably a lot of study, and if they have
eight of twenty, then there that they're that thing. They had,
that mental illness down the list. So there are some
supposed notable a sexuals throughout history. Yeah. I found a
few lists that were pretty hanky Nicola Tesla, and one
(23:24):
of them had like fictional characters. They're like Dexter Texture
not a sexual. Yeah, no, he's not he at all.
He's weird. He's a serial killer. But he had like
affairs like girlfriends, live ins, well those were mostly damask
his homicides. No, I mean he goes at it pretty
(23:46):
good season and the first couple of seasons like he's
I could see him being considered a sexual, especially the
first season. Plus Michael see how was just coming up
six ft under. Yeah, he's like I went from homosexual
to a sexual when I really just want to be
a serial killer. But he was straight in her life
because he was married to his co star. Yeah, I
(24:08):
think they're reconciling. Oh, they reconciled. Isn't that nice? Alright,
So back to the supposed list. These are the ones
that I kind of weeded out to potentially be correct
off of the bunk list. What about Nikola Tesla made
you think it was hinky? I don't know. It didn't
come from like his cousin the report. I think it
(24:30):
was just from the website where I got it, and
I didn't see him on any other websites. Um, Paula Poundstone,
the comedian perfect, she supposed he's a sexual. Tim Gunn,
he's okay, fashion guy right. Um Edward Gorey the illustrator,
I did not know that. And J. M. Barry, the
(24:50):
creator of Peter pan Um. Although it's hard to substantiate
that one because I've seen some works where he was
called a pedophile without a whole lot of backup aside
from rumors has it that he and his wife like
never consummated the marriage and he sure did like hanging
around kids. But that's kind of unfair too. But see
(25:12):
that's the other thing too. It's like, that's really unfair. Actually,
I think about it. If he is a sexual, then
then how would you rectify that. I mean, if this
were twenty years from now, years from now, and a
sexuality were normal, you could look back at that set
of behaviors and be like, oh, he was obviously a sexual.
But we have to drag these poor people's lives out
(25:33):
into the spotlight for the rest of us to observe
and you examine, so then we can say, okay, all right,
we will agree that this is normal, and they can
come out of the DSM agreed like he might have
been straight up a sexual and they just didn't know
what that was. So we love not having sex with
his wife, so that means he's a pedophile because he
writes children exactly, because we don't understand man. So that
(25:53):
was the list of a sexuals. Huh. Yeah, there were others,
but that didn't feel great about. There were two in
this article that I thought were pretty good. So apparently
among a sexuals, like the a sexual TV character is
Doctor Who. I'm not a Doctor Who guy, but I
know that a lot of our army is. So doctor
Who's supposedly a sexual. He Um, he exhibits a lot
(26:15):
of the behavior, but he's also not very judgmental, and
he has satisfying, um, substantial relationships with others. Those are
great points. And who else was in there? Sheldon from
Um Big Bang. Yeah. I don't watch that oht either,
but I know who they're talking about, and I could
see him being a sexual because that's more rumor. Apparently
doctor who is like, that's that's an a sexual hero.
(26:38):
I saw Doctor House listed to no way. He was
like all about that, um, his sex wife and and
uh he was all about, um, oh what's that. There's
another doctor who's like an administrator. Yeah, this is not
a sexual that. I think that was the same list
that had Tesla and Dexter on it. That's why I
was like, well, that's a poo poo list. You watch House,
(27:01):
I mean from time to time if it's on and
I'm like jogging or whatever and there's no law in
order on, I'll watch House gotch TV when you jug
yeah nice, Yeah, it's it's nice. That's great. So yeah,
if I ever go outside and run, I'll be like,
what's on? Uh. If you want to learn more about
(27:21):
a sexuality, we strongly encourage you to go check it out.
There was another, Um, there's another uh podcast stuff Mom
never told you did this? Oh did like years back?
Maybe go give that one to listen to get their
take on it. Yeah, and then um, you can also
go check out the Asexuality Visibility and UM Education Network
(27:45):
and it's AVIN and I what's it's a sexuality or
that's right. You can check them out or you can
type in a sexuality in the search bar at how
stuff works dot comm and it will bring this up,
I said, search bar. So it's time for all right,
(28:09):
this is uh, maybe our last installment. This is what
we do when folks have sent in uh little tokens
and chatchkeys and gifts and cards and letters. We like
to give them their du on the air because a
lot of times there are small businesses and their Etsy
sites and talented people. So did you, um, did you
grab the one from yesterday that I didn't finish? I
(28:30):
did finish it, didn't they? Okay? Good, alright, So we're
all all right. So we got a postcard from Claire
Hinders in New Zealand. It's very nice. Yeah, you want
to go ahead? How is that it? I thought you're
gonna say thanks Claire or something. Oh, thanks Claire from
Etsy dot com, slash shop, slash b F four e Emily,
(28:52):
and you me got some charms. Yeah, thank you very
much for those. That was very sweet. Yes it was
uh coffee, we got coffee. I'm jin you got that
from Corey who was living in Haiti at the time.
Huh do you remember that? Yes? I do. It was good. Oh, yes,
it was nice. I drank the heck out of that
good and um I had many sleepless nights because of it. Uh.
(29:13):
We got some real men Way two Bills T shirts.
That's right. We said that off handedly in the podcast
a long time ago, and apparently it was on a
T shirt. So we got that from custom inc dot com.
Thanks for that. We have received several books that I'm
going to list here. Seven Deadly Women by Jamie Hale. Uh,
the official Doomsday survival handbook. This one was really good.
(29:37):
W h mumphrey. I've been prousing that in my brakes
here at work. You have brakes I do the Savvy
Converts guy to Choosing Religion. Really good book. Uh. Knock
Knock dot biz is where you can find that. And uh,
then this one is really cool. Wind of Water a
bartender's quest to bring clean water to the world followed
(30:00):
up with This guy's name was Doc Henley and he
was a bartender that founded an organization called uh Wine
to Water dot org and they're doing awesome, awesome work.
That's a great name for it. Yeah, very very cool.
That's that was a long good Um. So Glenn and Sonja,
who we thank for the champagne of course. Um, we
(30:22):
also want to thank there are Kiva captains by the way, Um,
we want to thank them for these t shirts from
the Princeton Library. I think of Einstein and it says
Einstein Simplified, and it's three drawings and they just get
simpler and simpler. It's awesome my way all the time
while I'm jogging and watching television. Right, Russian candy, remember
(30:43):
the Russian candy? Yeah, you're all over that. We got
some Russian candy from Audrey. It was like it had
pop rocks in the middle and I couldn't stop eating
as crazy. It was pretty funny. Yah. Um. We got
a postcard from Margaret in Chile, Joanne and Stephen in
Colombia from the Amazon Institute. Oh yeah, that's right. Those
(31:03):
our friends. That's who uh nominated us with the Grammy.
That's right, thank you very much that we were Grammy
nominated nominated podcast. It's right. Uh Dan Burtwell from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
And some graphic novels just as a like, here, dudes,
I heard your comic book thing, and just here's some
graphic novels that I've enjoyed in my life. Right next time. No, no, no,
(31:27):
he's very cool. Um Watchman, which I've already read. I
want to see that one. Yeah, I think I have
it over there. Um Coward which I have not read yet,
The Punisher Max, which I have not gotten to yet
and I definitely yeah, And Why the Last Man, which
I did read. And um, I want to thank Dan
(31:49):
because Why the Last Man was awesome. And I also
want to punch Dan because now I have to buy
the other nine volumes to see where the story goes.
But I'm gonna get him. Actually with to Amazon the
other day. Oh you gotta go to Oxford Comics and
get them. Man, what you gotta like stand around in
the comic book shop and buy them. Then you can't
just order them. You can. It's pretty easy actually, So um,
(32:12):
let's see remember our Roller Derby episode. Well, the Deutsche
land Rollers sent us a sticker. Thank you for that.
That's right, kick. But uh and my last one is
Maureene from the Therapy Sisters at therapy Sisters dot com.
They sent us their music CD and it's like funny stuff.
Yes it is. Yeah, thank you for um. I've got more.
(32:35):
Do you want to split these? No? Go ahead? Alright?
So Emily from Idaho sent us a cool photo pulled
out postcard from Maui. That's right, remember, thank you, um.
Jennifer from Nature's Classroom in New Englandton is a handwritten letter. Again,
very rare. It's nice to see those. Um. Leah from
Halifax sent you a birthday card. Ah, yeah, that was
(32:57):
very nice. That was nice. Um. And then can Crowder
sent us a one dollar bill which I still have
yet to get any of. It's over there on my desk.
I have a brain like a little like our first
dollar earned, like businesses do. Do you really? Yeah, that's
our first dollar earned. It's actually not braining, but it's
still over there. Okay, I leave it out, just daring
(33:17):
somebody to be brave enough. The steels well if you
if it's replaced by fifty cents soon. That's me okay. Uh,
and then Aaron Spivey sent us in Atlantic Core Vets,
Drum and Bugle core patch. That's right. Thank you very
much to all of you for awesome free stuff. Yeah,
that's really cool when you guys think of us and
send us things like that, it's very sweet. So that
was it. Huh. Administrative details is over. Yeah, I'm gonna
(33:39):
start my new list we uh, we need some emails then,
right for a listener mail, which will start up next. Uh.
If you want to get in touch with this, you
can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
you Should Know, and you can also send us an
email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Yeah. For
(34:06):
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
Stuff works dot com. MHM 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 you stuff you should
know from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W.
Chuck Bryant and he I can't really say what he's
(00:24):
doing right now, but he's having a fine time. I'm
playing by a little what is this try stop try Saratops?
We have dinosaurs in a jar in here. I don't
know who brought these in, but I thank them because
it's kind of fun. It is fun. It looks really
uncomfortable for the dinosaurs, like I've seen too many of
the toy story movies too. That's to leave these things
(00:45):
b That's why I've secured the try sterotops by my
side today. That's nice. He'll be with us through a sexuality,
Yes he will. Um, We're gonna go on a little
journey through a sexuality today. UM. This is this is uh,
I guess new to me. Like I've heard the term
before a sexual um, but I never really realized that
it's becoming. And there's a group of people who who
(01:10):
claimed this as their sexual orientation. Yeah, you hear the
word kind of thrown around like, you know, well, they
never really had a girlfriend and boyfriend that scene. They're
they're just sort of a sexual, right or it's often
it's often um put alongside androgyny, you know, so like
a sexual meaning genderless, but that's not at all what
(01:31):
it means and improperly tied to uh abstinence, celibacy, celibacy.
Tim Tebow, Yeah, if you believe the lies, I don't know.
I think he's for real, do you yeah, sure yeah
um Or Morrissey, Yeah, he's legendarily celibate celibate, right, but
not necessarily a sexual difference. So I looked into this
(01:53):
a little more before even proposing this, and I was
just fascinated with it. Not in like a prurient sense,
I was interested. And what kicked it all off was
I was in Lyne at the bank and there was
this woman reading a book while she was going through
like the teller transaction, and she had um this uh
(02:13):
this T shirt on and it said uh aven a
V and and I looked a little closer and it
said a Sexuality Visibility and Education Network. Right, It's not
off the top of my head did have a logo
or anything it did. I didn't recognize it until now,
and I still can't conjure it up in my mind's eye.
But it was a triangle, and I took it to
me like a like a the pink triangle for homosexuality.
(02:37):
It is not. It's just a triangle. Had I looked
a little closer, I, had I looked now, I would
see that. I think it's a slice of cake, okay, sure,
which is their their symbol, right supposedly from a quote
from someone and a sexual who said, between the slices
of cake and sex, I'd take the cake, right, So
this think everyone feels that way once or another though, right, Okay,
(02:58):
So that's an excellent point. Yeah. The difference is if
you're a sexual, you feel that way virtually all the time.
That is quite literally your orientation. You're oriented towards no
sexual attraction, no sexual preferences. Um, although you may still
if you do feel any kind of romantic feelings, it
(03:20):
would still possibly go along homosexual or heterosexual lines, right right, Yes,
let's get into this okay. Um, I guess Alfred Kinsey
is a pretty good place to start whenever you're talking
about people doing it or not doing it. Man, I
don't know how he got into these people's how we
got people to talk like this back then? Have you
(03:40):
seen the movie? No, it's good. Yeah, the y fine,
he beat everybody up. He did a bunch of poles
and then whipped everyone's But yeah, um, he's like, I
have a very specific data set. Uh so in his
Kinsey uh scale, the famous Kinsey scale rates very inclusively
(04:02):
a scale from I think in here they say from
fleeting attraction to longer term, longer term compulsions like tries
to include everyone in the scale, but it's still generally
not inclusive of a sexuals group X. It's like completely
non inclusive. It goes from zero to six and it's
straight up hetero to straight up homo sexual that's right, right,
(04:26):
and then there's stuff in between, and you can fall
somewhere in on this spectrum. But it was pretty groundbreaking
at the time because first of all, people weren't really
talking about homosexuality much so to make a scale that
was inclusive of them that was pretty revolutionary. Yeah, but
he did identify group X, he just didn't include it
on the scale. Group X to him was the one
(04:47):
point five percent of men and of women who said
I don't have sexual relations, that I'm not interested in it. Right,
but he just kind of disregarded that as an anomaly
group or maybe he thought he would come back to
it at some later day. Never did. Uh. And but
out of this he said something that's kind of a
famous quote. He said, the world is not to be
(05:07):
divided into sheep and goats, which means, like you're not.
There's more than just straight, there's more than just gay,
there's some stuff in between, there's a range. But he
still left out group X. He still left out group
what's weird? And Kristin Conger, who wrote this article, good
job too. Yeah, she did a good job tying this
all together. There was a study in two two of
(05:30):
rams that produced another group X, and it's in its sample. Interestingly,
also rams and cheap because apparently there's a guy named
m Charles Roselli and he was looking to find if
there's a biological basis for homosexuality. So return to the
animal kingdom, right, Apparently rams can be gay. They rams
(05:54):
can party down with other rams for like, and when
there's females around, they'll still just say, hey, that guy
looks pretty good. To me. So he also found that
there's some that don't go for either, and UM this
this group X among rams started to UM. This formed
(06:15):
the basis of the idea of a sexuality is an
orientation as far as like academy is concerned, right, And
the flip side of this, which we haven't really mentioned,
is as opposed to UM, a physiological problem, an issue,
or a mental illness, which up until waste homosexuality is
(06:35):
considered a mental illness. So until seventy three, and then
in nineteen eighty six they finally took out the secondary
UM basically being stressed out from being gay was it
was a diagnosis until six and finally there's like no
homosexuality in the DSM any longer, but essentially until eighty six,
(06:56):
and in seventy three that was when the straight up
like if you're gay, you're mental ill was taken out.
And the d s M is we've talked about it before,
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders basically where
they classify everything, and it's important, Chuck, we should say
what goes in there, because it's basically the book that says,
here's what society thinks is normal. And here's what society
(07:18):
thinks is abnormal. And if you who considers yourself normal,
is in there that society has a lot of leverage
against you to tell you that there's something wrong with you.
But it's doctor's opinions, right, It's not like they took
polls from society. Right. No, But I mean, like that's
that's based on a lot, it's not not all of
it's based on empirical evidence. It's basically saying, like, like,
(07:41):
you act this way in society thinks there's something wrong
with you. That's mental illness. Uh So we mentioned is
not like celibacy, because that is a choice to remain uh,
sexually inactive. Morrisey battles that every day. I'm sure he does.
I mean, look at him. He dresses sexy. Oh, Morrissey's
a sexy guy. I look at him. So he's a
(08:02):
pop star, right, don't have anyone he wants on either side,
but he chooses not to. That's right. Is he still
I think he is? Isn't he? Oh? I think he's
like lifetime celibate. Yeah. Yeah, but you never know. That's
I mean, I don't know Morrissey personally. You never told me.
But I mean this is just from being a fan,
(08:22):
this is why. Yeah. Yeah, And he's come out very
hard lineed, you know, for his celibacy, so it's not
like he's been a secret or anything like that. I
don't know. Well, in the same it's like Tim Tebow,
all of them, and we'll mention this even more. But
the uh, it's the same with a sexuals. They the
what is it, one percent roughly of the population in
(08:45):
these samples. In these samples, it was one point five
in this big survey. So there's this is all very
very very new, like thinking about it. That Ram study
was from two thousand two, right in two thousand four,
that Ram study I think piqued somebody's interest enough to
start looking into this. So it's real new, like this
is the twenty one century sexual orientation and people are
(09:06):
at least people who study it are just now starting
to look into it. Well, I've already figured out how
to discriminate again. Anthony Bogert bo Garrett, I don't know
how you say it. We'll just say Bogert, Uh, he
is the one in two thousand four. He's a psychologist
at Brock University in Canada. I don't think they have
any kind of a football team and Brock University Brock.
(09:28):
We're probably wrong though, but um he is the one
who did uh publish a journal in Journal of Sex
Research in August of two thousand four that you know,
one of the first people to do a lot of
studying on this in recent times. He examined data from
a survey in the UK UH from n and basically
(09:49):
out of the nineteen thousand sample size, which isn't too bad, no,
it's huge, Yeah, he found one point five said I
have never never ever felt sexual attraction to anyone at all.
And that wasn't like part of that was it was
a huge survey with of a huge sample of a
bunch of questions and that was just one of the
(10:11):
one group with lumped into a little data set based
on that response. And this guy went back and found
that and they really started to look at it well.
And he's the first one in two thousand six to say,
you know what, this is a sexual orientation and that's
how it should be treated. And a sexuals were you know,
they're they're proud to be who they are. I mean,
(10:33):
the ones that come out in the support groups at
least I'm sure, there's a lot more that, you know,
wrestle with it, and they're quiet about it. But at
least with the what is it, the a v ETON. Yeah,
that a Sexuality Visibility and Education Network. They're all all
about being proud to call it a sexual orientation, like
(10:53):
we don't need to be treated for any kind of dysfunction. Yeah,
leave us alone. We're happy with the basically how we're born.
The thing is is like, leave us alone. It's not
just that, it's also take us seriously. Yeah, because there's
there's a lot of accusations that are leveled against them,
like you know, you guys are all victims of trauma,
(11:14):
so you know that's probably what it is, or you're
being willful or you know, and to not be taken
seriously as a human being, that's a big deal. Uh.
David J. Would agree with that. Not to be confused
with David J. From bau House. No, and there's another
David J. Too. Yeah, I think it was some other
kind of writer, unless about House guys a writer. Now,
(11:37):
David J. From the House just goes by David capital
J period saying that this is David J. A y
J a y founder of the A d e n
And there's a site a sexuality dot org that he
founded in two thousand one where you can find out
all kinds of information and get support if you uh
find yourself in this one point five percent. And and
(12:00):
he made a lot of news because you know, he's
a young, handsome dude, and everybody's like, why don't you
want to do it with anybody exactly? And he's just like,
because my orientation is a sexual and start wrapping your
heads around that. People. I think Matt Lauer actually like
poked him in the stomach like, ma'am, what's going on
during an interview Videoally now, okay, But there is a
(12:23):
range of you know, not a sexuals are the same.
Um Kristen points out that some are virgins, some are
not um and it's not even just necessarily from a
past experience before they kind of figured out where they were.
Some still have sex to satisfy their partner, only to
satisfy their partner. And if you like want to get
a first person, firsthand view of, you know, what it's
(12:46):
like to be a sexual in a very hyper sexual world.
They have a lot of essays and UM tips and
guides for interacting with a sexual people, I'm sure. Um.
And one of them that I read was like having
sex with an a sexual person, and like, how you
get to that point? Yeah, I mean it's not, it's
(13:08):
like that's a a gift, as I understand it. Yeah,
like that means they that person really cares about you
because they are not into this since really at all,
or if if they are into it, it's not it's sexual,
it's romantic, right. Well, And that's the other point Conger
goes on to make, like some are virgins, some are not,
(13:28):
Some masturbate, some do not, Some pursue romantic, long term,
committed relationships, and some don't pursue that like anything beyond
platonic relationships. So it kind of runs the gamut on
how they choose to integrate and live their life or
not integrate and just still live their life, which I
guess is still integration. Uh you're thinking of that rough
(13:52):
song pretty well, okay, Um, And I think we should
also say chuck, like there's even while we're trying not
to pidge whole anyone, we're still managing to still I'm
sure like leave some people out, like there's this is
a it's a very broad swath of people, and that
was a good point to say, like a lot of
different ways to live as an a sexual person, we
(14:15):
haven't figured them all out, just as there are a
lot of ways to live as a sexual person exactly exactly.
The tie that binds a sexual a sexually oriented people
is that they literally don't feel sexual arousal or sexual attraction.
That's just not part of it. And this Indiana University study,
(14:39):
you didn't talk about that, right, So these researchers set
down to Indiana University with four self identified um A
sexuals and basically said, tell us about it, you know,
and most of them, I think, basically the the consensus
was was that, um yeah, it's kind of tough, especially
(15:00):
when you're attracted romantically to people like you want to
have a relationship, but most people aren't a sexual. This
is one point five percent of that sample. So you're
gonna have to have there's gonna be some sort of
conflict or problems or no matter how understanding your partner is,
this is gonna be tough. Sure, not just for you,
but for them. Um So they said that that's tough,
(15:23):
But on the flip side, you have a lot more
free time and your chances of getting an STD or
an unwanted pregnancy or like virtually nil. Well I kind
of laughed at the free time thing, like you know,
how many hours a day or people spending having sex.
But if you totally are devoid of sex, that means,
(15:43):
as a single person, you're not spending any time going
looking for it or you're not doing people. So a
lot of time theoretically goes into people you know, out
there trying to hook up. You know what I'm saying exactly,
Like there's if you step back and think about it,
especially especially if you're like single person. Yeah, like there's
a lot of time and energy that goes into all
(16:05):
that goes into getting to the sexual act. Right, It's
not just the time that you spend remember those days.
It was a long time ago. I don't remember what
that's like, But the point is, like, that's a lot
of time and energy, and like, what else could you
have done with that? Often spent my time doing other things.
Actually I was never that guy, yeah, cruising the bars,
you know. I was always just hanging out with my friends,
(16:27):
which probably explains a lot. Uh So interestingly in these
polls as well, um women make up generally across two
different polls. They both made up seventy five I'm sorry
of the population of a sexual individuals. Yeah, that British
(16:48):
survey of the households. And then later um, the an
Avan pole that just last year. No, that was two
eight that was and then it went down. The ratio
of men to women changed in the last year's pole
it went to like women. And then but the other
thirty three percent wasn't all men? A lot of them
(17:11):
identify themselves as a gender neutral? Yeah, that's a lot.
So this suddenly now you have a subset of a
subset of as far as sexual orientation goes. Um. And
I was reading on Avan today about how to use
Remember when we did our Executive order UM podcast, the
(17:35):
Flawless one on Executive Orders, UM. They we were trying
to figure out what you would call a gender neutral president.
It's not out there. No one has any idea. Like
even people who are gender neutral don't really know. There's
not a standard way to address somebody like that with
a gender neutral pronoun So we gotta figure that one out. Well,
(17:58):
somebody smarter than us and more sensitive than us should
do that. So the A V E. N Has grown
since two thousand one, from nineteen thousand to thirty thousand members,
which is pretty great. These people are getting some pretty
good community support. Um they Conger points out that disinterest
in sex is usually regarded as a symptom, a problematic symptom,
(18:23):
rather than like a sexual identity. So that's the battle
they're kind of facing now is again, don't treat us.
We don't need We're not dysfunctional, like we were born
this way. The guy uh that founded the network uh
said that, you know, I remember being a kid and
once people started talking about like hot movie stars, I
was just like, what, Like, I don't get it, what
(18:44):
does that mean? And you know, from a very young age,
are you making humping motions in the air? Little kids
are dirty? Kids are so healthy, dirty. I don't even
know they're innocent. You know what's going on, what's going
on with my hips? Yeah, it's all very sweet. They're
just trying to figure it all out, you know, poor kids.
(19:05):
And then comes the hair spray. So um. The we
we mentioned the the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, there
are two disorders that look like they could cover this
as far as sexuality goes, and one of them is
s a D sexual aversion disorder, and the other is
(19:27):
hypoactive sexual desire disorder. You can throw out s a
D because that's an actual phobia of sex. Yeah, it's
like you you get real anxiety from that, even the
idea of having sex. Right, that's not what a sexuality is. No,
it's not, So go ahead and toss that out. H
s d D is a little closer because it's described
(19:49):
as persistently or currently deficient or absence of sexual fantasies
and desire for sexual activity. The difference there, though, is UM,
as Congress calls it critical footnote, Uh, it must be
UM inciting marked distress or interpersonal difficulty, which I'm sure
can happen. Happen. But a sexual is also a lot
(20:10):
of more saying you know what, I'm fine. Well, that's
part of what avan is all about, is kind of
like accepting and celebrating and saying like, dude, you're okay.
You don't have to I don't have to feel bad
about this is it's just who you are. Um. So yeah,
that last little that last one, what is it HSD D.
That's I feel so bad because it's like, okay, guys
(20:32):
are starting to make their way through the civil rights
discrimination road, and they're you know, starting to come out
on the other end. And okay, who who else is
there discriminated against? We're almost out of people. Who can
we go to next? Oh good, here's a group called
a sexuals and here they come. So let's run them
through the pike because that's what's about to happen. It
(20:54):
looks like, well, I could see them being more accepted about,
you know, the people that don't accept homosexuality. I could
see them being more lenient with asexuality, yes, because it
doesn't threaten anything in their life. You know. I agree,
it's tough to discriminate against somebody based on the lack
of sexuality. It's more like, you know, taking it seriously
(21:14):
and treating it not as a mental illness. Does are does? Are?
You know? That's got to be big because think about it,
like like the whole Chick fil A thing that's going on, right,
So let's say that. Um still, to this day, uh,
the field of psychology considered homosexuality a mental illness. Now
(21:34):
consider you know, those donations, what they're going to Are
they going like to discriminate? Are they going to treat
mental illness. That's that's a big deal to be in there.
It's a lot of power that little book wields totally,
and if for no other reason than just respect and
self respect, like you're talking about. I mean, what's our motto,
chuck live and let live. That's one of them to
(21:56):
each his own. That's right, that's kind of the same thing.
Uh So they have petition the board though to have
that removed, much like they did in nineteen seventy three
with homosexuality. So we'll see what happens there. Do you
think the DSM five maybe how often does it published,
you know, like seventy three to eighty six, because we're
(22:16):
in between. Yeah, so when you're in there, it's it's
a big deal. I wonder if it's a set republished
or if it's every time they need to like have
some changes stacked that they really different editions of different
versions like um, that makes sense, revised ones. But like
it's a it's I mean, they've been working on this
for years and so much controversy around it because it's
(22:38):
saying here's what's here's what's normal hot off the press.
On one hand, it's like it's great to be able
to diagnose people with problems. But the other hand, there's
something about just taking a book and seeing, like, let's
see what you are. Let me look it up. It's
kind of like I'm a person. Well it's it's there's
a checklist. It's like, if this person, here's the set
of symptoms we say are associated with this disease based
(23:01):
on probably a lot of study, and if they have
eight of twenty, then there that they're that thing. They had,
that mental illness down the list. So there are some
supposed notable a sexuals throughout history. Yeah. I found a
few lists that were pretty hanky Nicola Tesla, and one
(23:24):
of them had like fictional characters. They're like Dexter Texture
not a sexual. Yeah, no, he's not he at all.
He's weird. He's a serial killer. But he had like
affairs like girlfriends, live ins, well those were mostly damask
his homicides. No, I mean he goes at it pretty
(23:46):
good season and the first couple of seasons like he's
I could see him being considered a sexual, especially the
first season. Plus Michael see how was just coming up
six ft under. Yeah, he's like I went from homosexual
to a sexual when I really just want to be
a serial killer. But he was straight in her life
because he was married to his co star. Yeah, I
(24:08):
think they're reconciling. Oh, they reconciled. Isn't that nice? Alright,
So back to the supposed list. These are the ones
that I kind of weeded out to potentially be correct
off of the bunk list. What about Nikola Tesla made
you think it was hinky? I don't know. It didn't
come from like his cousin the report. I think it
(24:30):
was just from the website where I got it, and
I didn't see him on any other websites. Um, Paula Poundstone,
the comedian perfect, she supposed he's a sexual. Tim Gunn,
he's okay, fashion guy right. Um Edward Gorey the illustrator,
I did not know that. And J. M. Barry, the
(24:50):
creator of Peter pan Um. Although it's hard to substantiate
that one because I've seen some works where he was
called a pedophile without a whole lot of backup aside
from rumors has it that he and his wife like
never consummated the marriage and he sure did like hanging
around kids. But that's kind of unfair too. But see
(25:12):
that's the other thing too. It's like, that's really unfair. Actually,
I think about it. If he is a sexual, then
then how would you rectify that. I mean, if this
were twenty years from now, years from now, and a
sexuality were normal, you could look back at that set
of behaviors and be like, oh, he was obviously a sexual.
But we have to drag these poor people's lives out
(25:33):
into the spotlight for the rest of us to observe
and you examine, so then we can say, okay, all right,
we will agree that this is normal, and they can
come out of the DSM agreed like he might have
been straight up a sexual and they just didn't know
what that was. So we love not having sex with
his wife, so that means he's a pedophile because he
writes children exactly, because we don't understand man. So that
(25:53):
was the list of a sexuals. Huh. Yeah, there were others,
but that didn't feel great about. There were two in
this article that I thought were pretty good. So apparently
among a sexuals, like the a sexual TV character is
Doctor Who. I'm not a Doctor Who guy, but I
know that a lot of our army is. So doctor
Who's supposedly a sexual. He Um, he exhibits a lot
(26:15):
of the behavior, but he's also not very judgmental, and
he has satisfying, um, substantial relationships with others. Those are
great points. And who else was in there? Sheldon from
Um Big Bang. Yeah. I don't watch that oht either,
but I know who they're talking about, and I could
see him being a sexual because that's more rumor. Apparently
doctor who is like, that's that's an a sexual hero.
(26:38):
I saw Doctor House listed to no way. He was
like all about that, um, his sex wife and and
uh he was all about, um, oh what's that. There's
another doctor who's like an administrator. Yeah, this is not
a sexual that. I think that was the same list
that had Tesla and Dexter on it. That's why I
was like, well, that's a poo poo list. You watch House,
(27:01):
I mean from time to time if it's on and
I'm like jogging or whatever and there's no law in
order on, I'll watch House gotch TV when you jug
yeah nice, Yeah, it's it's nice. That's great. So yeah,
if I ever go outside and run, I'll be like,
what's on? Uh. If you want to learn more about
(27:21):
a sexuality, we strongly encourage you to go check it out.
There was another, Um, there's another uh podcast stuff Mom
never told you did this? Oh did like years back?
Maybe go give that one to listen to get their
take on it. Yeah, and then um, you can also
go check out the Asexuality Visibility and UM Education Network
(27:45):
and it's AVIN and I what's it's a sexuality or
that's right. You can check them out or you can
type in a sexuality in the search bar at how
stuff works dot comm and it will bring this up,
I said, search bar. So it's time for all right,
(28:09):
this is uh, maybe our last installment. This is what
we do when folks have sent in uh little tokens
and chatchkeys and gifts and cards and letters. We like
to give them their du on the air because a
lot of times there are small businesses and their Etsy
sites and talented people. So did you, um, did you
grab the one from yesterday that I didn't finish? I
(28:30):
did finish it, didn't they? Okay? Good, alright, So we're
all all right. So we got a postcard from Claire
Hinders in New Zealand. It's very nice. Yeah, you want
to go ahead? How is that it? I thought you're
gonna say thanks Claire or something. Oh, thanks Claire from
Etsy dot com, slash shop, slash b F four e Emily,
(28:52):
and you me got some charms. Yeah, thank you very
much for those. That was very sweet. Yes it was
uh coffee, we got coffee. I'm jin you got that
from Corey who was living in Haiti at the time.
Huh do you remember that? Yes? I do. It was good. Oh, yes,
it was nice. I drank the heck out of that
good and um I had many sleepless nights because of it. Uh.
(29:13):
We got some real men Way two Bills T shirts.
That's right. We said that off handedly in the podcast
a long time ago, and apparently it was on a
T shirt. So we got that from custom inc dot com.
Thanks for that. We have received several books that I'm
going to list here. Seven Deadly Women by Jamie Hale. Uh,
the official Doomsday survival handbook. This one was really good.
(29:37):
W h mumphrey. I've been prousing that in my brakes
here at work. You have brakes I do the Savvy
Converts guy to Choosing Religion. Really good book. Uh. Knock
Knock dot biz is where you can find that. And uh,
then this one is really cool. Wind of Water a
bartender's quest to bring clean water to the world followed
(30:00):
up with This guy's name was Doc Henley and he
was a bartender that founded an organization called uh Wine
to Water dot org and they're doing awesome, awesome work.
That's a great name for it. Yeah, very very cool.
That's that was a long good Um. So Glenn and Sonja,
who we thank for the champagne of course. Um, we
(30:22):
also want to thank there are Kiva captains by the way, Um,
we want to thank them for these t shirts from
the Princeton Library. I think of Einstein and it says
Einstein Simplified, and it's three drawings and they just get
simpler and simpler. It's awesome my way all the time
while I'm jogging and watching television. Right, Russian candy, remember
(30:43):
the Russian candy? Yeah, you're all over that. We got
some Russian candy from Audrey. It was like it had
pop rocks in the middle and I couldn't stop eating
as crazy. It was pretty funny. Yah. Um. We got
a postcard from Margaret in Chile, Joanne and Stephen in
Colombia from the Amazon Institute. Oh yeah, that's right. Those
(31:03):
our friends. That's who uh nominated us with the Grammy.
That's right, thank you very much that we were Grammy
nominated nominated podcast. It's right. Uh Dan Burtwell from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
And some graphic novels just as a like, here, dudes,
I heard your comic book thing, and just here's some
graphic novels that I've enjoyed in my life. Right next time. No, no, no,
(31:27):
he's very cool. Um Watchman, which I've already read. I
want to see that one. Yeah, I think I have
it over there. Um Coward which I have not read yet,
The Punisher Max, which I have not gotten to yet
and I definitely yeah, And Why the Last Man, which
I did read. And um, I want to thank Dan
(31:49):
because Why the Last Man was awesome. And I also
want to punch Dan because now I have to buy
the other nine volumes to see where the story goes.
But I'm gonna get him. Actually with to Amazon the
other day. Oh you gotta go to Oxford Comics and
get them. Man, what you gotta like stand around in
the comic book shop and buy them. Then you can't
just order them. You can. It's pretty easy actually, So um,
(32:12):
let's see remember our Roller Derby episode. Well, the Deutsche
land Rollers sent us a sticker. Thank you for that.
That's right, kick. But uh and my last one is
Maureene from the Therapy Sisters at therapy Sisters dot com.
They sent us their music CD and it's like funny stuff.
Yes it is. Yeah, thank you for um. I've got more.
(32:35):
Do you want to split these? No? Go ahead? Alright?
So Emily from Idaho sent us a cool photo pulled
out postcard from Maui. That's right, remember, thank you, um.
Jennifer from Nature's Classroom in New Englandton is a handwritten letter. Again,
very rare. It's nice to see those. Um. Leah from
Halifax sent you a birthday card. Ah, yeah, that was
(32:57):
very nice. That was nice. Um. And then can Crowder
sent us a one dollar bill which I still have
yet to get any of. It's over there on my desk.
I have a brain like a little like our first
dollar earned, like businesses do. Do you really? Yeah, that's
our first dollar earned. It's actually not braining, but it's
still over there. Okay, I leave it out, just daring
(33:17):
somebody to be brave enough. The steels well if you
if it's replaced by fifty cents soon. That's me okay. Uh,
and then Aaron Spivey sent us in Atlantic Core Vets,
Drum and Bugle core patch. That's right. Thank you very
much to all of you for awesome free stuff. Yeah,
that's really cool when you guys think of us and
send us things like that, it's very sweet. So that
was it. Huh. Administrative details is over. Yeah, I'm gonna
(33:39):
start my new list we uh, we need some emails then,
right for a listener mail, which will start up next. Uh.
If you want to get in touch with this, you
can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
you Should Know, and you can also send us an
email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Yeah. For
(34:06):
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
Stuff works dot com. MHM brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
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