The History of Morning Routines, Part One: Thank Goodness People Learned to Wash Themselves

Summary

Ridiculous History: The History of Morning Routines, Part One: Thank Goodness People Learned to Wash Themselves

Release Date: June 3, 2025 | Host: Ben Bollen & Noel Brown | Produced by iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In the premiere episode of "The History of Morning Routines," hosts Ben Bollen and Noel Brown delve into the evolution of one of our most fundamental daily practices: morning hygiene. This episode, titled "Thank Goodness People Learned to Wash Themselves," explores the origins and development of bathing rituals, the invention of soap, and the societal shifts that have made morning routines an integral part of modern life.

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The Origins of Soap

Ben Bollen kicks off the discussion by highlighting how morning routines, though often taken for granted today, have deep historical roots. He remarks, “The history of soap, its origin story is gross,” emphasizing the crude beginnings of this essential hygiene product ([01:55]).

Max Williams adds humorously, “The origin of soap is apocryphal's right word. It's as mysterious as the origin of cheese,” underscoring the unclear and often unverified stories surrounding soap’s invention ([07:08]).

The hosts explore various legends, including one where soap-like substances may have been discovered accidentally through animal fat and ashes. They discuss saponification, the chemical reaction that produces soap, noting its accidental discovery akin to other significant inventions.

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Development of the Morning Shower

Transitioning from soap, Ben Bollen introduces the concept of the morning shower, tracing its origins back to ancient civilizations. “Back in the day, your beloved ancestors were waking up in ancient mornings, fellow ridiculous historians, they also liked a good morning shower,” he states ([10:49]).

Max Williams elaborates on the methods used before modern plumbing, such as bathing under waterfalls or in natural bodies of water. They discuss the Greeks' advancements in drainage systems, which allowed water to be transported in and out of rooms via pipes—albeit initially made of lead, which had its own health repercussions ([14:34]).

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Impact of Plumbing Advances by the Greeks

Ben Bollen discusses how the Greeks built upon prior Egyptian and Mesopotamian concepts to create more sophisticated plumbing systems. “The Greeks are history's first plumbers,” he declares, highlighting their role in advancing personal hygiene ([30:36]).

Max Williams humorously adds, “The humble vessel,” referencing the jug's role in transporting water, a simple yet revolutionary invention that made regular bathing more accessible ([12:07]).

They also touch upon the unintended consequences of these innovations, such as the use of lead pipes contributing to the decline of the Roman Empire due to lead poisoning, affecting public health and societal stability ([15:31]).

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Decline of Bathing Practices Post-Roman Empire

The conversation shifts to the fall of the Roman Empire and its impact on bathing practices. Ben Bollen notes, “After Rome fell around 467 CE, Europe got dirty. Bathing habits declined so much that it became a public health crisis,” referencing cleaninginstitute.org ([21:21]).

Max Williams reflects on the reality of declining hygiene standards, linking it to broader public health issues like the Black Death. They discuss how remnants of Roman and Greek plumbing were lost, leading to centuries where regular bathing became a rarity in Western Europe ([21:18]).

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Resurgence of Cleanliness in the 17th and 18th Centuries

By the 17th century, attitudes towards cleanliness began to shift again. Ben Bollen asserts, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” highlighting the renewed emphasis on personal hygiene as a sign of good citizenship and moral standing ([25:16]).

Max Williams discusses the invention of the modern shower in 1767 by William Feetham, who introduced a mechanism to dump water over one's head. While innovative, the early showers had significant drawbacks, such as lack of water purification and inefficient water use ([25:58]).

They explore how the reintroduction and improvement of plumbing systems in the 19th century, particularly post the rediscovery of Roman and Greek techniques, revolutionized personal hygiene by making clean water more accessible and baths more sanitary ([27:04]).

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Modern Shower and Bath Practices

The hosts examine how the 20th century solidified the shower's place in daily life, especially in the United States. Ben Bollen notes, “By the 1920s, the US begins pushing the shower as an idea in a wide social move,” illustrating how marketing transformed showers into a symbol of modernity and good citizenship ([36:08]).

Max Williams reflects on personal experiences, sharing how showers became a staple over baths, emphasizing efficiency and the fast-paced nature of contemporary life ([37:10]).

They highlight statistics like Katherine Aschenberg’s finding that nearly one in four American homes built in 2005 had three or more bathrooms, showcasing the shower's essential role in modern American households ([37:50]).

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Overuse of Cleanliness and Antibiotic Resistance

The episode takes a critical turn as the hosts discuss the downsides of excessive cleanliness. Ben Bollen references a report from the National Museum of American History, warning that over-bathing can lead to antibiotic resistance and the destruction of beneficial skin bacteria ([39:11]).

Max Williams adds, “Antibiotic resistance, the idea of superbugs as well,” stressing the importance of balanced hygiene practices to prevent the evolution of resistant pathogens ([39:11]).

They caution against the indiscriminate use of antibacterial soaps, citing potential health issues and drawing parallels to previous discussions on the dangers of such products ([39:57]).

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Conclusion and Teaser for Part Two

As the episode draws to a close, Ben Bollen and Max Williams acknowledge that their exploration of morning routines is just beginning. They tease future discussions on other aspects of morning hygiene, such as hair care products and oral hygiene.

Ben Bollen concludes, “We are going to get back into more of this stuff,” promising listeners that Part Two will continue unraveling the intricate and often ridiculous history of our daily morning practices ([43:19]).

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Notable Quotes

• Ben Bollen: “The history of soap, its origin story is gross.” ([01:55])

• Max Williams: “The origin of soap is apocryphal's right word. It's as mysterious as the origin of cheese.” ([07:08])

• Ben Bollen: “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” ([25:16])

• Ben Bollen: “After Rome fell around 467 CE, Europe got dirty. Bathing habits declined so much that it became a public health crisis.” ([21:21])

• Ben Bollen: “This idea of miasma theory was debunked is what I'm getting at.” ([22:33])

• Ben Bollen: “Americans now bathe so frequently that they can cause themselves,” referring to overuse leading to antibiotic resistance ([39:51])

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Acknowledgments

The hosts extend their gratitude to their super producer, Max Williams, and research associate, Jeff Factor G. Bartlett, for their contributions to the episode. They also mention upcoming segments and collaborations, ensuring listeners remain engaged for future installments.

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Final Thoughts

Ben Bollen and Noel Brown successfully shed light on the often overlooked yet fascinating history of morning routines. From the accidental discovery of soap to the societal transformations surrounding bathing practices, this episode provides a comprehensive and entertaining exploration of how we came to prioritize morning hygiene. Stay tuned for Part Two, where they promise to delve deeper into other facets of our daily cleansing rituals.

Transcript

[Ben Bollen]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow Ridiculous historians. Thank you as always, so much for tuning in. In let's Hear it for Mr. Morning himself, our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[Noel Brown]

You're saying about like the. I'm such a night owl, even years after being a getting out of the bartending game, like if I stay up way too late, like one night, it goes straight back to it.

[Max Williams]

It's tough. You get to a certain age, you gotta catch up on that sleep. I've become the same way. It's like 9:30pm to bed for me sometimes and 6am to rise. The morning routine is a big part of my life these days and I'm here for it, y' all.

[Ben Bollen]

And I don't really sleep. My name is Ben Bollen. That voice you just heard is none other than Mr. Noel Brown. And in this episode, we are exploring the history of something that a lot of us don't think about through this lens. For many, the majority of people, I imagine when you wake up, whatever time that is, you have a wake up routine. If you're rising in the morning. We see this all the time in real life and in fiction, you have rituals, right? They may be elaborate for some, they may be very simple. You might have your morning shower, brush your teeth, right? Give your hair a comb and wink at yourself in the mirror. You might also have a bunch of makeup and so on.

[Max Williams]

Some words of affirmation perhaps. What is it? Stuart Smalley from snl. Old school snl. He says, I'm smart enough, I'm something enough, and gosh darn it, I matter. I forget, you know, people like me. People like me. That's exactly right. No, you know, maybe not all that, but I'm serious when I say that the morning routine and just routine and ritual in general has become a lot more important to me of late as far as, like a way to kind of center things and focus energies in the right direction. I always was kind of like down on it or thought it was stupid. But I am fully on board these days, whether it be scary. Skin care, you know, hair washing, shampoo, face washes. I'm here for all of it, guys. Beard, poultices. No poultices has leaves and sticks in it. But we are going to talk about unguent. An unguent. That's the word.

[Ben Bollen]

Unguents.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, I can jump in here real quick. I mean, to Noah's point right there. Like, I was always just like, you know, brush your teeth, go to class. Brush your teeth, go to work type of person. But you know, as age, I've learned more and more. And it's actually like, funny enough, like your blood pressure is often the highest, like an hour or so before you wake up. Your brain is just running through REM and stuff like that. So I've learned that in the morning, it's super important for me to just kind of take some time and not just run out the door. Because I can just run out the door, do things and just be a jerk to every person I meet.

[Ben Bollen]

You have to have those quiet moments with yourself.

[Max Williams]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Ben Bollen]

We hope to see you back here.

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[Ben Bollen]

It's carried forward.

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[Ben Bollen]

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[Ben Bollen]

For NBC Nightly News, I'm Tom Yamas. A new chapter begins. NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas evenings on NBC. A lot of these processes, or processes, whatever you prefer, that we're going to talk about today, they have varying levels of importance to varying individuals. I'm not going to get into my weird routines, but we know they have ancient origins. They tend to. Right, Especially your routines. Mega ancient. Oh, geez. Thank you.

[Max Williams]

Like Eldritch origins, if I'm not mistaken.

[Ben Bollen]

Oh man. Yeah, the blood covenant holds. But still everybody, everything has to make a living. And we wanted to start with the origins of soap, which Noel, I feel that we have discussed somehow in the past.

[Max Williams]

But yeah, it's another accidental invention.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah.

[Max Williams]

Because I believe there was material running down a mountain from burning of bodies and then it created life.

[Noel Brown]

Animal sacrifice.

[Max Williams]

Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

And it went down Mount Sapo. But the problem is no one has ever found a Mount Sapo or anything referred to Mount Sapo.

[Ben Bollen]

And this is coming to us thanks to some excellent research by our good pal and research associate, Jeff Factor G Bartlett. I asked him what he wanted to be called and he said Factor G. Okay, that's mysterious.

[Max Williams]

That sounds like a brand of fuel, like a Valvoline rating or something like that. But yeah, I mean, look, the whole, you know, coming down the mountain situation does reek of apocrypha, but at least it doesn't reek of BO and that's because of soap, which it may or may not have invented.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, the origin of soap is apocryphal's right word. It's as mysterious as the origin of cheese. Right. Which also has a. A cool story about its providence that has not been proven. The thing is, the history of soap, it's its origin story is gross. You could tell we were referencing an earlier episode on sacrifices. So apparently this is according to the New York Times, by the way. So most likely originated as a product of a long ago cookout. So if you've ever roasted meat over a spit. We are all three big fans of cookouts. Then you'll see that these of unctuous fat drip into the ashes.

[Max Williams]

Unctuous, I love that word. So whether or not the specifics of the like and then it slid down the side of Mount Whatever and they discovered it and soap was born. That usually is an oversimplification whenever you hear like a one story solution to something that all encompassing like soap. Once again, parallel thinking and also just parallel accidents. Because it is a result of something in every interesting discovery. Many interesting, interesting discoveries are the result of something happening as a byproduct and someone thinking, oh, what if I like Rubbed this all over my filthy body. You know, not everything specifically soap, but, you know, like a mushroom. We talk about this like someone decided they were going to eat it, then they died. Then another people tried to eat different ones that they figured out that this one was tasty and this one will kill you, and this one will make you see funny pink elephant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ben Bollen]

So they. They did figure out. Now, listen, the past was a very dirty time, just to be quite honest. And that point about BO holds true. If you traveled back to the past, depending on when you emerged in the timeline, one of your first impressions would be just the hellish combination of unpleasant smells. So people somewhere figured out that you could take this stuff, this fat dripped into ashes, and you would have a substance that was kind of slippy, slippery, and it could lift dirt off your skin. We know that. So we don't really know the origin of soap. And I love the way you frame that story, Noel. We do know, however, that written recipes for soap date back almost 5,000 years. And there's a lot of. It's a phrase that you often use. There's a lot of parallel thinking. It's something that people probably independently invented at multiple points in history because everyone.

[Max Williams]

Was cooking flesh and all that flesh was excreting. That's the wrong word. The unction. Drippy fluids. Gosh, I'm really not doing myself any favors linguistically here, but you get the image. This is happening the world over. I mean, that was one of the first things man figured out was how to sustain themselves by eating living things. So tallow or animal fat. Or if you remember that pretty gross little sub and Fight Club where they used liposuction material to make soap. Tyler Durden and all that movie maybe didn't age the best, but I still. It holds a fond place in my heart. Totalo, or animal fat reacts with lye, which is also something that was featured in Fight Club in a process called saponification. We have discussed a lot of this soap stuff in previous episodes, but this is just step one of the morning routine, and we're gonna get to a myriad of others very quickly. We thought we'd do a little bit of a review view on soap for everyone.

[Ben Bollen]

Absolutely. And while we're reviewing that, let's take a brief excursion to talk about the origin of the morning shower. Back in the day, when your beloved ancestors were waking up in ancient mornings, fellow ridiculous historians, they also liked a good morning shower. And the best way to get clean was to go under a waterfall. If you were Lucky enough to live by one or two to bathe in a pool or a lake. The waterfall has natural water pressure, so it's better at getting junk and dirt off of you. Right. This also shows us that people who are not lucky enough to have this access didn't really have much recourse or much agency to clean themselves up. Society had to advance with the invention of the jug. It's so crazy because you never think to transport water.

[Max Williams]

Right. It's as simple as that. It was. How do we do this? It comes from these places and it's falling through our fingers. What do we do?

[Ben Bollen]

I just love it because that's peak ridiculous history to imagine that communities and civilizations rose and fell without ever figuring out jugs.

[Max Williams]

Yeah, the humble vessel.

[Ben Bollen]

The vessel.

[Max Williams]

And it's also why you see early culture, of course, bathing directly in rivers. I mean, that they hadn't also figured out jugs by that point. But even before that, like, when we think of, like perhaps in India, cultural significance of folks bathing in the Ganges, which of course held religious significance as well, but they obviously had vessels. But I can just imagine early man, for lack of a better term, early sapiens, coming upon these bodies of water and figuring out that if you just kind of splash the stuff on you, even without soap or just, you know, took a little swim, it would be refreshing and potentially defunctifying. And really quickly. I just want to say we're talking about the shower. And immediately popped into my mind my favorite European word for shower, which is from courtesy of the French, which is, of course, la douche.

[Ben Bollen]

Ah, yes.

[Max Williams]

It's just. It's good. It's visual. It's like I can hear it. I can hear what it's describing. The sound of the water cleansing you and splashing upon you and making a little adouche sound. You know, I also.

[Ben Bollen]

I am a fan. We come from very different backgrounds, folks. I am a fan of the Schwitz.

[Max Williams]

Yes.

[Noel Brown]

I love it.

[Max Williams]

Which is a sauna, right?

[Ben Bollen]

Yes. Steam bath.

[Max Williams]

Did we talk about this recently in the Sopranos? There was a whole situation where he wouldn't take a Schmitz. He wouldn't take a Schmitz. This is because he was a rat. He's a rat.

[Ben Bollen]

I see. Yeah. Schwitz means a lot of different things. But. But we love. We. We love these different words for these morning routines. And the shower, the cleansing of the body is one of the ancient and most fundamental and aspects of most morning routines. We also. I look thanks to the humble jug, the vessel, because now I can't get it out of my head. I'm picturing like thousands of years of human beings finding a river or a lake or a waterfall and saying, well, I live here now because I don't know how to move this.

[Max Williams]

Yeah. And then of course, we get into more advanced versions of water moving in the form of aqueduct and then of course, indoor plumbing. The Greeks, however, when it comes to the morning routine, adopted the idea of this morning cleanse, this bath, this douche, and improved upon it by developing the first, as we're alluding to drainage systems. Drainage, Eli. Drainage. Yeah.

[Ben Bollen]

And this is another pivotal moment in the history of cleanliness because the Greeks are adopted this idea of kind of again, cribbing from earlier concepts discovered and invented by ancient Egypt and Mesopotamian society. Egyptians never really got past the primary stage of having water carried in and out of a room manually. So the Greeks looked around. This is all perfect for an ancient made for TV commercial. The Greeks looked around and said, there's got to be a better way. And so they up with this. As he described ingenious drainage system, for the first time in known history, water could be transported in and out of rooms via pipes. Asterisk, caveat. It's not a total win because the first pipes were made of lead.

[Max Williams]

Oh, yeah, yeah. And we, I think we talked about on stuff they don't want you to know, in a strange news segment, a study that recently showed that the fall of Rome was at least in part due to all the lead that they were taking in. They. They experienced a decline in, let's just say, intellect over time.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, yeah. And impulse control and things like that. Please check out later studies. We're going to do an episode about lead in the near future. But please also check out the studies about lead exposure in more modern times. There's some real science to it and it's disturbing.

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[Ben Bollen]

If we want to keep it on a positive note, I guess we could say, Nolan Max, that this means the ancient Greeks were history's first plumbers. The the showers were also made accessible to people who were not the 1 percenters. There were bath houses, you know, communal areas just like a modern public pool where everybody can have a schvitz together for sure.

[Max Williams]

And there definitely still are. We've talked about, I think more than one occasion here in Atlanta. We've got an amazing Korean bathhouse out in Beaufort highway area called Jeju. And in Europe and in Germany in particular other places in Europe for sure, bathhouse culture is huge. And there are these incredibly elaborate and ornate, these Roman style kind of bathhouses that are very popular for, you know, young and old alike.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, and I can't wait when we finally get our ridiculous history field trips in play. I can't wait to take you guys to an onsen in Japan. Those are so this communal bathhouse thing, to your point, still is very much a extant invention and phenomenon. Unfortunately for ancient history, as we know, spoiler. The Roman and the Greek empires collapsed and this technology, all the progress they were making making on it, was consequentially held back. It was put on pause for centuries.

[Max Williams]

Not exactly lost, but the brakes were indeed pumped.

[Ben Bollen]

Shift in priorities we could call it. Maybe this is. This is not us talking trash about Western Europe back in the day. Instead, we're Referring directly to cleaninginstitute.org which tells us the following. After Rome fell around 467 CE, Europe got dirty. Bathing habits declined so much that it became a public health crisis.

[Max Williams]

Oh for sure. And you can check out our episode on the Great stink of London, which deals with a lot of these same concepts. The idea of miasma theory, or diseased air, which, as we know, there is such a thing as airborne contagions. The idea of a virus becoming airborne is very, very real. But stink can't exactly kill you, but bacteria can. You know, I mean, the really, really nasty byproducts of, you know, sewage, untreated sewage flowing through the streets. And while it's not exactly the same as an airborne contagion, it's not good. But this idea of miasma theory was. It was debunked is what I'm getting at.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, it was debunked, but they were on the right track, you know what I mean? So picture the open sewers. Picture all the nasty stuff that is a product of human society becoming a vector for bacteria, for mold, for fungus, for vermin, vermin for intestinal parasites. You know, things that humans at the time didn't really have an understanding of. Hence we have miasma theory. So there were a couple of areas of the medieval world where people still tried to keep themselves, themselves clean. Oh, we should also mention. Yes, if you are thinking this as you play along at home. Being dirty was a factor that led to the Black Death, the plague. It was not the only reason. The main reason was the fleas on the rats. But not having cleanliness rituals also helped. Still, daily bathing was a common custom in Japan by this time, by what we call the Middle Ages. And in Iceland, people did the coolest thing. They went to hot springs. Have you ever been to a hot spring?

[Max Williams]

Once. It's literally a town, I want to say, in North Carolina called Hot Springs. And there are these, like, open, kind of, I don't know, like vats sort of coming out of the earth that have this bubbling, you know, kind of Jacuzzi water in it. And they're great. I actually went with my kid's mom when she was pregnant with said kid. And it was. There were like some really low tem which were okay for her to sit in, and then some that got really, really, really, really hot as well. But it's interesting how there were the thermal vents. I think, like the location of them and the number of them sort of determined how hot the particular pool would be.

[Ben Bollen]

Absolutely. I've been to. I think I've been to the one you're describing. I've also been to some in several other countries. And I gotta tell you, they're not all created equal.

[Max Williams]

That's right.

[Ben Bollen]

Some of the most Disappointing. Some of the most disappointing hot springs I visited were in Guatemala when I was living there. But I do want to give points for honesty. If you go to Warm Springs, Georgia. Yeah. They don't say they're hot because they're not.

[Max Williams]

Tepid springs.

[Ben Bollen]

Warm Springs, yeah. Which sounds better than tepid. But anyhow, here we are. We are fast forwarding. We see that right around the 17th century. Excuse me, cleanliness and bathing starts to be a priority again in society, particularly if you have a lot of money and prestige.

[Max Williams]

Right. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Isn't an old adage for nothing. Right. I mean, it was literally intended to wash their. As some people might say, beat me on that, Max. Because it was a genuine public health crisis. But it's interesting, too. We're gonna get to a place where the tables kind of turn and people are like, washing too much and that can cause a problem too. Teaser, teaser for what's to come. So Fast forward to 1767, when the first, you know, modern equivalent of the shower hit the market and was patented by a stove maker by the name of William Feetham from London town.

[Ben Bollen]

I just want his name to be pronounced Feet Ham.

[Max Williams]

So bad Feet Hamilton. Yeah. Or Ham Feet. You know, whatever. And it piggybacked on a lot of this incredibly innovative technology, not least of which is the humble basin, the humble vessel, the humble jug. Water was pumped into this basin above a user's head before a chain was pulled that would. Basically, it's like the. Remember the ice bucket challenge?

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah.

[Max Williams]

It's just getting dumped. A bucket of water dumped on your head that you have a little bit of control over. It's sort of on a hinge. Right.

[Ben Bollen]

Which is so weird because this guy also manufactured stoves, so why wouldn't he figure out some warmer hot water process?

[Max Williams]

Anyway, Isn't that funny? Isn't that funny, Ben? Sometimes the answer's right. Right under your nose and it takes somebody else looking in from the outside to figure that part out. Which we're going to get to.

[Ben Bollen]

Yes, we are. And by 1810. Well, obviously just to summarize here, folks, that first modern shower had some serious disadvantages. It didn't have a way to purify water for one, and reused a lot of water. That's gross.

[Max Williams]

That's.

[Ben Bollen]

No, that's the opposite of cleaning yourself.

[Max Williams]

It's what they call wallowing in your own filth.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, a little bit of bathrot. By 1810, the English Regency shower is invented.

[Max Williams]

Now, we Sounds fancy.

[Ben Bollen]

We don't know who Invented this. But we know it did offer the first hot shower of its kind for people. And then in 1840, 50, after the Greek and Roman method of reliable plumbing was rediscovered, people looked around and said, oh my gosh, we don't have to reuse the same dirty bath water. And that's great.

[Max Williams]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to put a gross image in anyone's head, but if anybody has seen the film Gummo, there's a very intense scene where there's a kid eating a chocolate bar. No, eating spaghetti in the filthiest bathwater you've ever seen. And then he starts eating chocolate bar and he drops it in the water and picks it up and continues.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, it is the ick y' all.

[Max Williams]

Cool movie. Armini, Korin. Very, very. Not for everyone, but not for everyone. Interesting film. Early Chloe Sevigny performance.

[Ben Bollen]

Singular vision for sure. The man has so. All right, the thing is, as we mentioned, interest in personal cleanliness or prioritization of personal cleanliness, it waxes and wanes over, over time. Now, if you've ever had to spend some time sleeping rough, you know, no judgment, but you know that personal cleanliness becomes its own job. And it may be surprising to realize that at certain points in Western Europe and even before the mid 19th century in the United States, people didn't really bathe for personal cleanliness. It might be a religious ritual if you're a knight right before a big fight or something, but it's washing of.

[Max Williams]

The feet of your apostles, for example.

[Ben Bollen]

Right, Right. So it had more of a spiritual significance. But when it came to the average wake up at sunset and take your shower kind of thing, a lot of Americans thought it was unhealthy. They thought similar to that coating on a chicken's egg. They thought that the dirt and grime they picked up in their day to day lives was a protective layer and that if they got rid of the layer, they would expose their body to unclean things, the miasmas or diseased air. As you mentioned earlier, and for a long time Americans associated the bathing of the body with these bad stereotypes of stuck up Europeans who were soft and opulent. Eventually people started installing bathtubs in their homes, but this did not roll out at a uniform pace. And a lot of working class people living in tenements did not have access to running water in cities. And being a person with some very rural backgrounds in my past, I can assure us all that running water took a long time to get across the United States. And some people still don't have running water today, which is a crying shame.

[Max Williams]

When you picture that. Ben, I did in my mind, think, like so literally about the idea of how long it would take to run water across the entire country. That would take a really long time. But, yeah, in terms of the evolution of it and the availability of it, you are absolutely correct.

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[Ben Bollen]

You're in the garage, hands covered in grease, just finished tuning up your engine with a part you found on ebay. And you realize, you know what? I could also use new brakes.

[Max Williams]

So where do you go next? Back to ebay.

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Wipers, headlights, even cold air intakes. It's all there.

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[Max Williams]

Hell man, it's a little bit of an inexact science in certain houses to this day I have a bit of an older house and you really gotta keep on top of them pipes man, or else things cause water. Boy oh boy. It's great for a lot of things, but man is it insidious when it is not being your friend.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, it is also unstoppable and tenacious. 100% water doesn't take a nap.

[Max Williams]

Yeah, it's crazy. It's like fire. I mean, I mean stating the obvious here but like how. How crucial it is for life but how also deadly and anti life it can be drowning, floods and you know, the decimation of entire homes whether it be through storms or just a slow leak that you're not aware of that can cause rot and literally entirely damage the foundation of one's home.

[Ben Bollen]

Dude, I don't want to sound too Buddhist on it's outside the scope of this show but think about it folks. In a PvP, a one on one contest, a match between stone and water, the water will always win if there is not a time limit. Yeah, wins the race.

[Max Williams]

It's true, it's true. Tenacity is it will always come out on top if you've got time. And water has nothing but time.

[Ben Bollen]

Water's petty. That's what we're saying.

[Max Williams]

Oh yeah, sure.

[Ben Bollen]

Anyway, we are saying there's some great marketing. If you enjoyed our conversation about hair dye earlier, eel of clocked our shout out to Edward Bernays. Marketing is a huge part of selling cleanliness to Americans. In New York in 1891, they're trying to sell the idea of a public bath, a bathhouse. And so New Yorkers who visit this public bathhouse are given a free bar, or cake, as they called it, of Colgate soap as they're waiting in line to go into this big communal bathhouse. And now personal hygiene starts. The stereotypes flip once again. Now, if you are clean and reverent, you are seen as being a good American. It even made it into the Boy Scout oath for sure.

[Max Williams]

And just like l' Oreal got in on the ground floor with hair dye and then expanded their reach to all aspects of beauty, Colgate did the very same thing. And it all started with a humble cake of soap. A freebie. The ultimate marketing maneuver.

[Ben Bollen]

Exactly, yeah. And so from this we see that around the 1920s, the US begins pushing the shower as an idea in a wide social move. And they say, look, you don't have to be a robber baron or a trained tycoon to get a shower. You should have a shower just to be a good clean American. And the US then emerges as this sort of underdog, becoming a front runner in the world of normalizing cleanliness. The UK is lagging behind folks. They don't start pushing for showers on a wide scale until about the 1960s.

[Max Williams]

I find this insane and that never occurred to me. It's so wild. Not to mention that wasn't really until the 80s when the shower became like, like a must have. That's insane. I just assumed. You know what's funny though, I do recall a time as a little kid mainly where I only took baths. And then there came a crossover point where I never really took a bath again. It was just all showers.

[Ben Bollen]

I think that happens to a lot of people because now a bath is especially in these are hurried times, a bath is seen more as a meditative event. You know what I mean?

[Max Williams]

Yeah. Whale songs, candles.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Max Williams]

All the whole night.

[Ben Bollen]

Maybe a nice book, some instrumental music. So, all right, now we are in 2025, as we record on May 29, year of our Lord. It is considered a central part of being a modern person in the United States to bathe yourself, to have a good hygiene regimen. Katherine Aschenberg points out nearly one in four American houses built in 2005 had three or more bathrooms. So 25% of the homes built that year had three bathrooms or more. That's a lot of bathrooms. I don't object to it. I am pro bathroom. I like that there are options. But this goes to something we mentioned earlier that I think we should dive into right now. Take a dip in this, folks. Americans now bathe so frequently that they can cause themselves. This is coming to us from our friends at the National Museum of American History. And this reminds me of an episode our pals Josh and Chuck recorded way back in the day about the danger of antibacterial soaps. Can you tell us what's going on with that?

[Max Williams]

For sure. I mean, it's about antibiotic resistance, the idea of superbugs as well. When we expose ourselves to this antibiotic, I guess, which is essentially what antibacterial soap is, we develop a resistance to it, especially if we use it too much. And I do remember a time where antibacterial soap was a selling point. And I do think that that is not as much the case anymore. It was specifically soaps containing the compound triclosan, which had become so popular that some scientists were truly concerned this could contribute to aforementioned antibiotic resistance and the development of superbugs, antibiotic resistant viruses.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, yeah. The pickle of it is that overusing antibacterial soap, it can decimate the good bacteria that you need. And it can also at the same time encourage that skyrocketing evolution of a superbug. And that's why you have to be a little bit careful about it. It doctors will warn you that there are skin conditions that can be caused by the soaps we use to wash our bodies and clothing. And I've experienced that too. It's not pretty. And here we are going to pause. This turned out to be a two parter. We haven't maybe more than a two parter. We haven'T even gotten to hair gel, hairspray, history of deodorant, the history of toothpaste and brushing your teeth.

[Max Williams]

We've got a mouthwash, mouthwash, skin care. I was going to say when, when we're talking about developing these resistance and cleaning off things that you need. I recently went through a situation where I was like, you Know what? I'm going to start washing my face. I've never been a face wash guy. I've never had a skincare routine. And the face wash that I picked, all of a sudden it caused me to break out and I'd never broken out in my life. I was sort of like, well, I guess I should do this. So you do have to kind of be careful and not, not wash your face too much because you can wash off these certain oils that you actually need on your skin to maintain a healthy, you know, biome kind of. Right.

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, this is true. I'm laughing because I've been in those situations as well and it kind of reminds me of other non human cleaning products where they tell like a fabric cleaner or something and says, test this on a small area that's inconspicuous before you put it all over the floor. Yeah, and who does that?

[Max Williams]

Does anybody ever actually do that? I'm always just willy nilly, just let's go. I'm all in.

[Ben Bollen]

Right. This is my time for this. Yeah, I've been in some non ideal situations with that. But we are in an ideal situation right now, folks. We are going to call it a day. We're going to be back later in the near future where we're going to explore some of the other aspects of the modern morning routine. We can't wait for you to tune in. Big, big thanks to our super producer, Mr. Max Williams. Big, big thanks to our research associ. Jeff Factor, G. Bartlett, and let's see, who else? What do you think Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quizzter's morning routine is like? Huh?

[Max Williams]

It's a good question. Maybe polish his dome perhaps?

[Ben Bollen]

Yeah, maybe wash himself in the tears of children.

[Max Williams]

Ooh, yeah, that tracks.

[Ben Bollen]

Big thanks to Jonathan. Of course. Man, we're just messing with you. Who else, Noel? Who else?

[Tom Brokaw]

Who else?

[Max Williams]

AJ Bahamas Jacobs, who I believe uses the morning ritual that was very popular during the Revolutionary War exclusively. You think he probably like bathes in like cold tar or something.

[Ben Bollen]

Maybe that's the one part of living constitutionally that he just kept doing after that year.

[Max Williams]

If it works, tried and true. Yeah, time honored tradition.

[Ben Bollen]

If it works, it works. As he said, big thanks to the rude dudes of ridiculous crime. Do check out their show if you like us. You'll love then. And Noel, thanks to you, man, I, I can't wait for us to get into more of this stuff.

[Max Williams]

Me too. We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Tom Brokaw]

Horsepower zero to 60 times. These are among the benchmarks when considering a new vehicle. But Lexus believes there are some things immeasurable things, that matter more. Awe. Exhilaration. Joy. How a cabin feels like it was crafted with you in mind. The way an engine note resonates with your soul. Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. That's the standard of amazing Lexus experience. Amazing.

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[Ben Bollen]

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[Zoe Saldana]

I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the podcast Betrayal. Police lieutenant Joel Kern used his badge to fool everyone, most of all his wife, Caroline.

[Max Williams]

He texted, I've ruined our lives. You're going to want to divorce me.

[Zoe Saldana]

How far would he go to cover up what he'd done?

[Ben Bollen]

The fact that you lied is absolutely.

[Noel Brown]

Horrific, and quite frankly, I question how.

[Ben Bollen]

Many other women are out there that may bring forward allegations in the future.

[Zoe Saldana]

Listen to betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Max Williams]

This is an iHeart podcast.