The Ridiculously Energetic History of Energy Drinks!

Summary

Ridiculous History: The Ridiculously Energetic History of Energy Drinks!

Podcast: Ridiculous History (iHeartPodcasts)
Hosts: Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown
Episode Date: August 22, 2025
Super Producer: Max Williams

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Episode Overview

In this lively, caffeine-fueled episode, Ben, Noel, and Max dive into the wild, bizarre, and occasionally dangerous history of energy drinks. They trace the cultural evolution of energy-boosting beverages from Victorian tonics (and Coca-Cola’s “zippier” days) through Japanese innovation, to the flashy, extreme-sport-powered global brands of today. The episode is packed with personal anecdotes, unexpected historical facts, and reflections on the science and marketing of “getting a buzz.”

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Energy Drinks in Modern Culture

• Caffeine-powered Episode: The hosts admit upfront that they’re running on caffeine due to different time zones.
• Gen Z and Energy: Modern energy drinks like Celsius are the “energy drink du jour” for younger generations (01:39). However, Gen Z is less interested in alcohol compared to previous generations.

  “Drinking alcohol is no longer cool for western kids and Gen Z.” — Noel Brown (02:13)

• Nostalgic Shout-Outs: They reminisce about Red Bull, Jolt Cola, and the infamous Four Loko—a dangerously caffeinated and alcoholic beverage that was ultimately reformulated due to health concerns (02:48-03:12).
• Energy Drink Lovers: Anecdotes about friends who stockpile energy drinks, especially among adult gamers.
• Work Culture Fuel: Caffeine as an indispensable ally in work and creative industries:

  “Our favorite executive producer: coffee caffeine.” — Benjamin Boleyn (07:06)

2. Caffeine’s Ubiquity & Consumption Stats

• Daily Intake: 80% of the world’s population consumes caffeine daily (07:06).
• Caffeine Escalation:
  • Average cola: 33 mg
  • Coffee: 96 mg
  • 16oz Red Bull: 160 mg (08:50)
• Energy Shots: 5-Hour Energy contains 200mg caffeine and high vitamin B (09:35).
• Maximum Dose: The Mayo Clinic recommends no more than 400mg caffeine daily—any more risks unwelcome side effects (10:56).

3. Marketing, Regulation & Risks

• Energy vs. Soft Drinks: The term “energy drink” is more marketing than science; early “energy drinks” were colas and tonics (07:06-07:53).
• Regulation Loopholes: In the US, the FDA considers energy drinks “dietary supplements,” not medicines—so oversight is minimal (13:35-14:08).
• Youth Risks: The hosts express concern that young people are consuming highly caffeinated and potentially addictive drinks with little oversight (14:23-14:47).

4. The Wild Beginnings: Cocaine, Cola Nuts & Wartime Stimulants

• Coca-Cola’s Origins:
  • Created by Dr. John Pemberton in 1886, originally contained both caffeine (from kola nuts) and cocaine (from coca leaves) (15:36).

  • “Coca-Cola today would contain cocaine if they did not decocainify the coca that goes into it. And apparently the cocaine…is a revenue stream in and of itself.” — Benjamin Boleyn (16:09)

• Prohibition & Exceptions: Legislation in the 1920s banned coca leaves in the U.S., but Coca-Cola lobbied successfully for a loophole, substituting with caffeine and sugar (17:33-18:24).
• Amphetamines in WWII: US soldiers were prescribed amphetamines for energy and morale—leading to addiction problems post-war (22:07-22:45).

5. American “Energy Tonic”: Dr. Enough

• Invented in 1949 in Chicago, Dr. Enough was a vitamin B/caffeine soda marketed as a midday pick-me-up, especially for tired housewives and laborers (22:07-24:15).
• Remains a regional favorite in parts of Tennessee, NC, Virginia, and WV (25:00).

• “Older relatives…would tell me this could do all sorts of things. It was like a light panacea.” — Benjamin Boleyn (25:00)

6. The Science Behind the Buzz

• Caffeine’s Mechanism: Blocks adenosine (a sleep chemical), leading to increased neuron firing, adrenaline (fight-or-flight), and dopamine release (29:20-30:04).
• Side Effects: Overconsumption leads to “jimmies,” anxiety, palpitations, and “the jitters” (30:33-30:49).
• Taurine: Common in energy drinks but not essential for humans. Its benefits as a stimulant additive are questionable (31:01-31:30).
• Glucose: Added for quick energy, but also responsible for energy “crashes” (32:08-34:45).

7. Japanese Innovation: Lipovitan D & the Rise of Red Bull

• Japan’s First Modern Energy Drink: Lipovitan D, released in 1962 by Taisho Pharmaceutical (39:07). Originally marketed to “salarymen” to cope with the country’s grueling work culture (39:19-41:09).
• Overwork Culture: Discussion of the extreme demands on Japanese employees and the “happy hour” tradition keeping workers out late (39:57-41:09).
• American Celebrities in Japanese Ads: Bizarre commercials starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper—made for Japanese audiences and rarely seen in the West (41:55-43:19).
• Going Global: Japanese firms looked to expand across Asia, but Red Bull, inspired by an energy drink in Thailand (“Krating Daeng”), beat them to global markets (44:08-44:30).
• Red Bull Launch:
  • Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian, formed Red Bull in 1987 after discovering Thai energy drinks (44:30-45:34).
  • Red Bull hit Europe first (1987), the U.S. only in 1997.
  • Became popular with truck drivers and young people; remains the world’s top-selling energy drink.

8. The Energy Drink Industry Today

• Industry Size: Worth $193 billion worldwide (12:35).
• Second Most Popular Supplement: In the US, energy drinks are the #2 supplement behind multivitamins with young people (46:45).
• Red Bull’s Marketing Mastery: Extreme sports, music events, and creative content keep Red Bull relevant (47:49-49:00).
• Urban Legends & Facts:
  • Taurine in Red Bull is not from bull testicles (51:53)!
  • Caffeine’s half-life is 2–4 hours, so that afternoon cup may not be the only thing keeping you up (51:53-52:39).
• Correlation with Risk:

  “If you report that you have six or more energy drinks over the course of a month...You are statistically more likely to also report that you got in a fight over the previous year, that you have sex without a condom, or that you drive without a seatbelt.” — Noel Brown, quoting Dr. Kathleen E. Miller (53:09)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On America’s Energy Obsession:

  “The United States is the country where cocaine didn’t have enough pep. Someone was walking down the street and they said, what if we make crack meth?”
  — Noel Brown (13:06)

• On the marketing shift:

  “While coffee, tea and soda could technically be considered energy drinks… [‘energy drink’] seems relatively a recent phenomenon in terms of advertising.”
  — Benjamin Boleyn (07:06)

• On Japanese salarymen:

  “You’re not supposed to leave before your boss leaves. And when your boss leaves…you’re required to go have a happy hour that can last for multiple hours.”
  — Noel Brown (39:57)

• Arnold Schwarzenegger in Japanese ads:
  Described as “bonkers bananas” and “a delight”—YouTube is your friend here! (43:19)

• On energy drinks’ dangers and appeal:

  “There’s almost no federal oversight, which means that the makers of these beverages don’t have to play by the same set of rules that soda manufacturers have to play by… it’s only a matter of time before another dangerous chemical makes its way into your favorite energy drink.”
  — Noel Brown (50:34)

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Fun Facts & Segment Timestamps

• Personal energy drink anecdotes: 03:12–04:47
• Caffeine content rundown & “wiggly wobblies”: 07:53–10:56
• Energy drinks as “dietary supplements”: 13:35–14:23
• Coca-Cola's origin story: 15:36–18:24
• Dr. Enough & WWII amphetamines: 22:07–25:00
• How caffeine works in the brain: 29:20–30:33
• Japanese energy drinks & work culture: 39:07–41:55
• Red Bull’s international leap: 44:08–46:10
• Modern supplement stats & Red Bull’s marketing: 46:45–49:00
• Debunking taurine myths & risky behavior stats: 51:53–53:22

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Memorable/Lighthearted Moments

• “Vintage” five-hour Energy left in a hot car:

  “That just makes it stronger, right? Just makes it better.” — Benjamin Boleyn (10:26)

• Japan’s sugar moderation vs. America’s sweet tooth:

  “One of the main things…when they travel to the US for the first time is, holy crap, why is everything so sweet?” — Noel Brown (32:49)

• "Max with the Facts" jingle:
  Max, the resident fact-checker, gets a musical intro (46:18–46:30).
• Red Bull’s marketing: “It gives you wings!” (46:10)

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Takeaways & Closing Wisdom

• Energy drinks are a modern global phenomenon, rooted in a long legacy of chemical, cultural, and marketing experiments.
• Despite their popularity, the regulatory gray area and aggressive marketing towards youth raise important concerns about consumption and health.
• The U.S. is the world leader in consumption but was not the “inventor”; credit goes largely to Japanese and Southeast Asian innovators.
• The history of “getting a buzz” is tied to larger questions of work culture, advertising, and social behavior—as well as surprising moments in medical, military, and celebrity history.
• Remember moderation—and maybe just drink some water.

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End Note:
This episode is a classic Ridiculous History blend of humorous banter, genuine curiosity, and sharply researched facts. For anyone interested in why we love to “get amped,” and the sometimes wild places that desire has taken humanity, this is an energizing listen.

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For further info or to listen, check out Ridiculous History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite shows.

Transcript

[Noel Brown]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you as always so much for tuning in. We are amped about this one. We are very absolutely buzzing, buzzing, buzzing with our cousins. Something else that rhymes. There's Our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[Max Williams]

A cousins by a dozen.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Okay, yeah, yeah.

[Noel Brown]

I don't want to do a loving joke. Oh, look guys, we'll be honest with the cousin.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Loving with the cousin, that's a different topic entirely. That's about like royalty.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, different. Dirty dozens. Habsburgs maybe. We'll be honest with you folks, we're in very different time zones right now. So this episode of Ridiculous History is brought to you by caffeine and brought to you by imbibed energy.

[Max Williams]

Who.

[Noel Brown]

Mm, there. That's the dulcet tone of none other than Mr. Noel Brown.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Tis aye. And those are the dulcet tones of none other than Mr. Benjamin Boleyn. Not to be confused with Anne Boleyn, which is also a topic for a different day. Ben, did you hear the story recently about the Celsius energy drinks that were accidentally filled with vodka?

[Noel Brown]

I did, I did. Someone got in trouble for that, right?

[Benjamin Boleyn]

I imagine some head rolled, if not many. I believe it's a similar, the same company or distributor or whatever factory, I guess that makes High noon hard seltzer or vodka kind of cocktail canned drinks that you'll pay like $25 for at a concert. And they did a little switcheroo by accident and so. And you know what's funny is the K love energy drinks and Celsius is kind of the energy drink du jour of the Gen Z's for sure. Yeah, some kids got tanks.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. The way Red Bull used to be. And those, those kids, by the way, if they are Gen Z, they were probably disappointed to have their alcohol mixed with caffeine because drinking alcohol is no longer cool for western kids and Gen Z.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

No, it definitely isn't. It's not something that they're particularly interested in, which I am absolutely here for. At least my kid and their friend group, they are much more interested in music and culture and memes and you know, just like hanging out irl. It's. You love to see it.

[Noel Brown]

You do love to see it. Love to see it.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Remember Four Loko, Ben?

[Noel Brown]

I do remember Four Loko. I was recently talking with some folks about this in preparation for today's episode. Spoiler for anybody didn't read the title. It's a ridiculous history of energy drinks. Had. You know, I have my Days I.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Have my 4 loco being an on purpose combination of alcohol and energy drinks.

[Max Williams]

I was telling someone recently, I'm like back in my day, 4 loco had caffeine in it. But you guys don't mind a quick aside, I want to shout out my not at all. My boy Matt right here because a couple weekends ago I was house sitting for him watching this cat and it's a pretty nice place up in northern Atlanta area. Like, you know, and it's like, you know, an adult's house. And I open up the fridge and there's like an entire shelf dedicated just to energy drinks. And then above the fridge I later found was just like more and more cases of energy drinks. And I'm like, matt, I love you buddy. He's like this an adult but he's also a giant gamer and nerd.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

So it's just like gamers need their fuel, that's for sure.

[Noel Brown]

Well, shout out Matt. Also, there may be a pattern at play here because our brother Matt Frederick from stuff we don't want you to know. Not a coffee guy, but definitely, you know what? You will take that mon from his cold dead paws.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Big fan of the Go Go juice.

[Noel Brown]

Yes. Yeah.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

This is an I heart podcast.

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[Noel Brown]

So Shout out to Matt's Shout out to Energy Drinks Shout out to Caffeine in general, one of the silent partners for our shows, especially when we're on the road, is our favorite executive producer, coffee Caffeine.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah, for sure. So for better or worse, an estimated 80% of the world's population drinks caffeine daily, and we are part of that number. Like when the Saints Go Marching In. While coffee, tea and soda could technically be considered energy drinks, which is something I've always found it's more of a marketing tactic than anything. The idea of a soft drink versus an energy drink, which seems relatively a recent phenomenon in terms of advertising, around 30% of caffeine consumers like their drinks a little on the stronger side. Like you said, the aforementioned monster Shout out to Matt Frederick Red Bull, you also mentioned and Celsius that I also mentioned. When we were younger, before the days of Red Bull and these kind of drinks, there was Jolt Cola. Yes.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, I love that you're mentioning Jolt Cola. Due to my Tennessean background, I also have to shout out do not spelled the way you think Dr.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Enough. There's never enough Dr. Enough.

[Noel Brown]

Well, because they were so energetic when they invented it that they had to spell it E N U F. Because they were in a hurry. We'll get to it, right? We're going to get to all of this. We'll have some personal anecdotes and shout outs to things that got us through our, our associated musical and theatrical performances back in the day. Yeah. Right now if you are looking at a can of your average cola, you're looking at 33 milligrams of caffeine. One average cup of coffee, that's 96 milligrams of caffeine. And now we get to an escalation when we get to energy drinks. Right.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

We do a 16 ounce one of those skinny boy cans of red bull contains 160 milligrams of caffeine. We're also, we're not gonna talk too much about sugar. There's something to be said about that from a marketing standpoint in and of itself. Because remember back in the day where sugar was advertised like to give you pep. So the idea of like a sugar high, but we don't really think about it in those terms so much anymore. And a lot of these highly caffeinated drinks are on the diet side in terms of like sugar free Red Bulls being so popular in Celsius, being mega low sugar, mega high caffeine. What are those little like. Absolutely. Condensed energy shots. There's a bunch of those now, but I think there was the OG oh.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, the OG 5 Hour Energy, which I've. I've messed with. I'll mess with a five hour energy shot that has 200 milligrams of caffeine also. It's essentially a vitamin B overdose. That's.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

I got.

[Max Williams]

I gotta jump in here.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah.

[Max Williams]

We had a field trip earlier this year that I won't spoil, but we have an upcoming episode about it. And part of the gig was I had to go and pick up a lot of field recording equipment from the office, which is like, you know, thousands of dollars worth of stuff, and then drive it over to the said thing. And so I was like, crap, I need oil for my car. I texted Ben, Ben got me some oil. So I put it in there. I sold a little five hour energy that Ben had bought himself. That just sitting in my car waiting for the next time I see him, which has been a long time, but you will get that 500 energy that's been sitting in the Atlanta sun for a while now.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah, that just makes it stronger, right? Just makes it better.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, it's vintage. It's vintage.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It soaks up. The power of the yellow sun was what happened.

[Noel Brown]

There we go. I like how it's a superhero origin story. And we cannot wait to share that very weird episode with you folks. Unfortunately, we do have a little Bit of a moratorium until we, meaning I, get our stuff together on that interview. We can tell you there is a house involved as well as some waffles involved. Noel. I think you and I were all surprised when we got some stats from our excellent research associate Ren that showed us, per the Mayo Clinic, 400 milligrams is the maximum amount of caffeine a healthy adult can consume per day without experiencing the wiggly wobblies. You know, the adverse side effects like heart palpitations and so on.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah, yeah, don't want that. But you know, per Wren's excellent outline, if you were to decide to shotgun three energy drinks in the parking lot of a Buc EE's, it is perfectly legal. Although we do know that lawsuits can arise from perhaps under advertising and over caffeinating certain beverages. I'm looking at you, Panera Bread company with your like deathly caffeinated sodas that are just. Were just sort of masquerading as reg sodas and instantly cause people to have these gnarly side effects.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, they got in trouble for that. When anybody doing the quick, we won't call it cocktail napkin math, but anybody doing the quick Celsius Napkin math here? 400 milligrams. If one cup of coffee is 96 milligrams, you're looking at a little under four cups of coffee per day.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

And if you're looking at marketing sometimes on these energy drinks, you will often see a little legend on the back with a little symbol of a cup of coffee and bragging that this one little skinny can of energy drink contains the equivalent of like six or seven cups of coffee. And that's like a feature, not a bug, right?

[Noel Brown]

Right. This is bad for you. You're welcome. The energy drink industry is worth US$193 billion. And bad for you.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Good for business.

[Noel Brown]

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So say we all. And you might be surprised folks to learn that the United States is the top consumer of energy drinks across the world. I don't know if that's surprising because.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

This is like tweakers over here in.

[Noel Brown]

The U.S. yeah, like Dennis Leary said, once upon a time, the United States is the country where cocaine didn't have enough pep. Someone was walking down the street and they said, what if we make crack meth?

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It does seem like the culture of multitasking and bad work life boundaries here in the United States could well be a reason for those stats.

[Noel Brown]

And here we go into the ridiculous origin story. Because despite being the world's top consumer of energy drinks, The United States did not invent this concept and we're gonna find out about that in a second. We are not medical professionals. This is not medical advice. The fda, Food and Drink Drug Administration of the US considers all energy drinks not to be medicinal. They are dietary supplements.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Get loophole.

[Noel Brown]

Right. Which speaks to your point, Noel, about how there's no one to stop you from shotgunning a Celsius or a Nas at the BUC EE's. The products are not reviewed in any serious way before they hit the shelves.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Don't care for that, Ben. Don't care for that. Especially with a lot of young people housing these highly caffeinated and arguably addictive.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, a hundred. A hundred percent. Yeah.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Whether it's physically addictive or just like psychologically addictive because it gives you a quote unquote edge, you know what I mean? And again, not medical professionals, but it does weird me out a little bit. There's not more oversight to this stuff.

[Noel Brown]

A hundred percent, man. Yeah. 100% of your daily caffeine intake.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah. In one sip.

[Noel Brown]

In one sip. So here's the deal, folks. The energy drinks that you see in your typical American gas station wouldn't have been a thing were it not for the proud nation of Japan during the 1960s. They really led the charge on energy drinks, but there was a long time coming, right? Japanese research is really the culmination of an earlier bevy of research. We've got to shout out one of our favorite soda companies on the planet being all Atlanta boys these days, Coca Cola.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Coca Cola. The coca is for cocaine invented in 1886 by Dr. John Pemberton, who is a Confederate veteran in quotes, who had a bit of a sweet tooth for the hard stuff, the dope morphine. In fact.

[Noel Brown]

That was his malign.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It was, yeah. And of course, the product did get its name from the two key ingredients, the African cola nut and the South American coca leaf. And boy, oh boy, this is a fun opportunity to mention this. And I think it's come up. But technically, Coca Cola today still contain. Would contain cocaine if they did not decokain ify the coca that goes into it. And apparently the cocaine that is generated from that is a revenue stream in and of itself.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. It's medicinal. It can be prescribed to you by a. By a doctor who is surely on the up and up, the feel good variety. Right, Right. Yes. The doctor never enough. We would call it Kola nut has the caffeine, the coca leaf, you know, you can derive cocaine from it if you are clever and Motivated. That is the original recipe for Coca Cola. And it was Pemberton meant this to combat that all too common mid afternoon post lunch lethargy. But as you were saying, Noel, politics and the law intervened. In 1922, the Harrison act prohibited the import of Coca leaves into the good old United States of America. But by the time this happened, Pemberton is kind of out of the picture. Coca Cola is run by a guy named Candler who has a lot of roads and buildings named after him in Atlanta.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah, I live off of his road. I live off of one of those roads. Not to dox myself, because you'll never figure it out. Because to your point, Ben, there are quite a few.

[Noel Brown]

There's so many at this point in the early 1920s, Coca Cola is already a giant and they have a small army of very influential lobbyists. So other businesses are forced to close because their income stream depended on marketing cocaine based products. However, as you alluded to so beautifully earlier, Coca Cola got an exception. They got a loophole. They rubbed the right. They rubbed the right elbows and weaknesses in Congress.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Ooh, yeah. Circular motion. Exactly. That's how it's done.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. This gave Coca Cola a right to use, as you said, decocainified leaves in their recipe. And so now, despite being named Coca Cola, the beverage was relying on caffeine and sugar to provide a more moderate. Pick me up.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Where are we going to get that zip? We got to put the zip. We lost the zip. We got to put the zip back. Yes, caffeine indeed. Doctor. Enough. Wow. He came next in the American quest for energy drinks.

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[Noel Brown]

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[Benjamin Boleyn]

Dr. Enough. Not a real person, sadly. Sort of like Dr. Pepper or Dr. Bob, which is one of my favorite off brand Dr. Drinks was invented in 1949 by a chemist named Bill Schwartz in Chicago as addressed during the Fad Diets episode. Also, research associated by Wren amphetamines were prescribed to U.S. soldiers during World War II to boost energy and morale. Arguably, once the comedown happens, I would argue that the morale is gonna suffer a little bit But I guess I get what they were going for.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. But it also created some serious addiction problems. And we see this all the time in modern conflict. Right. Like service members returning from the Vietnam War were heavily dosed with painkillers and they came back to the States with an itch they couldn't scratch. The same thing happened to a lot of soldiers in World War II. They survived the war, they came back to the States and they were missing that extra zippity doo dah. This is where Dr. Enough comes in. Like we said, our buddy Bill Swartz creates a lemon lime soda that you can still find.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

I thought it was lemon lime. Interesting.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, you can still find it in East Tennessee today. So when we get on our road trip up to that part of the world, we're going to have some pals.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

That's it. We're going to ask, we're going to drink some.

[Noel Brown]

Dr. Enough. This stuff is not initially marketed as a beverage you would have at lunch or dinner. Instead it's a tonic. It's a medicinal substance that is supposed to pick you up if you're a tired housewife, if you're a business tycoon, if you're a farmer laboring from, from dawn to dusk. And just like the five hour energy drink later. This has a lot of vitamin B and a little bit of caffeine.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

You know what else has a lot of vitamin B in it, Ben? Cocaine on the streets. Because that is a cutting agent that is very, very popular because it can cut down into a clear, you know, a powdery white consistency substance and it does actually give you a little bit of zip. So it is a hugely popular cutting agen agent to get more bang for your buck when you're slinging drugs.

[Noel Brown]

Better than fentanyl, I guess, but I would say. But I'm just learning this now. Oh my gosh. This is why I love hanging out with you. B12.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Sorry, I'm not, I don't mean to be the, the drugs facts guy. I know a lot of other stuff too, but yeah, I actually just learned this recently on a, on a podcast called Shock Incarceration that I'm working on. That's a lot of fun.

[Noel Brown]

Oh yeah, I like shock incarceration as well. I'm excited to hear more of it. So. So here's the thing about Dr. Enough. It was never a success in the national market, but it did catch fire and become a regional hit in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. And that's why we have to drive up. We've Got to take a road trip to East Tennessee to get some doctor. Enough people still swear by it. I remember older relatives telling me this could do all sorts of things. It was like a light panacea. We also have to take a quick tangent here, folks. Soft drinks were called soft drinks originally to indicate that they did not contain alcohol. And our super producer Max unfortunately just disclosed to us that he cannot have energy drinks nor soft drinks due to the condition.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Ah, the dreaded condition.

[Max Williams]

I can have coffee though.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Okay, well, that's good. Coffee is the OG and that's what my. It's my preference as well.

[Noel Brown]

It's the one that matters.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Oh yeah, 100. You can do it up so many different ways. And it also, you know, doesn't have all of the crazy chemical additives that some of these drinks have. Soft drinks, hard cider, hard seltzer. Yeah, there you go. In case you were wondering, which you probably weren't, I think it's a little self explanatory.

[Noel Brown]

Hard boiled eggs, very much the same thing. 100% the same thing. No one fact check us ever. So there is maybe some sand to the claim that vitamin B heavy drinks can be somehow restorative because conditions like lethargy and fatigue can be linked to vitamin B deficiencies.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Well, and a lot of times you'll hear about rock stars or you know, folks on the road, touring actors, even having like a medic on staff or a personal doctor who will shoot them in the butt with some B12 to get them through the day.

[Noel Brown]

That's how you know you're famous.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

That's how you know you're famous. They are real popular in the whole med spa craze of today. Like with all these GLP1s and various types of injectable. People are really into injecting themselves with B12. Not that that's like a brand new thing at all, but it's just. It seems like it's having a bit of a resurgence in popularity.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, yeah. Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant from Stuff youf Should Know as well as Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quizzter, have it in their contracts that they have to get shot in the butt with vitamin B12 before recording.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It's true. Gives them the zip, gives them the pep they need to give you the content you crave.

[Noel Brown]

There we go. So that is also. They're gonna be so mad at us if they hear that while Americans are enjoying the energy buzz from these sodas that have vitamins but no longer have cocaine, we flash to Japan. We journey To a place called Taisho Pharmaceutical company. And the clever boffins there are trying to figure out how to make an energy beverage with a higher caffeine content. And this is where they stumble across something we call taurine.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

In the modern market, the common active ingredient in most energy drinks includes taurine, sugar, and, of course, caffeine. Caffeine was first isolated from the coffee bean by Francis Runge in 1819, and it is the first major chemical compound responsible for increasing energy level levels, and according to our alma mater, how stuff works. Caffeine works by blocking the effects of adenosine, A brain chemical involved in sleep. When caffeine blocks adenosine, it causes neurons in the brain to fire, giving you that oh so pleasant zippity doo dot feeling that we're all chasing.

[Noel Brown]

Pew, pew, pew.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

That's the sound of neurons firing.

[Noel Brown]

Right. So when this chemical is blocked, your body and your brain essentially enter what we would call fight or flight mode. And that's because the little pew, pew, pew signals in your neurons cause your pituitary gland to make adrenaline. Adrenaline is your number one superpower. Hormonally, it is your survival hormone. It's what causes your heart to beat faster. It makes your liver secrete more sugar into your bloodstream. That gives you an energy high. And then at the same time time, caffeine does help your mood. It rigs your mood. It gives you dopamine. And that's why we have such strong associations with a nice cup of coffee or a little espresso in the morning.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah, but if you're not careful, you can also experience some of those negative side effects in the form of a caffeine crash. Caffeine is a stimulant. So while it probably won't kill you unless you have some sort of pre existing heart condition, for example, it does put stress on your nervous system as a whole. And this stress can lead to what is often colloquially referred to as the jitters, A form of anxiety that many of us feel hours after we've had a little too much caffeine.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, it can give you the jimmies, the palpitations, and so on. So this is where we see a new player on the stage touring. So I don't know about you, but I first learned about taurine when I was reading the ingredient label ingredients label on a can of Red Bull, and I said, okay, caffeine, got it. Vitamin B. Copy. Taurine. What is taurine?

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Well, we'll tell you. It is a substance, an amino acid, to be specific, that occurs naturally in foods that are high in protein, like chicken or fish, While amino acids are. Are used to synthesize protein, only nine of them are absolutely essential for human life. And the Cleveland Clinic reports that taurine is not one of them. It's the extra one.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

You don't need it.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Do you want it? Maybe.

[Noel Brown]

Right. So it sounds useful if you're a young Ben Bullen reading the back of a can, because you're the guy who reads ingredient lists for fun. But there is. To your point, Noel, there is very little to suggest that taurine as an additive helps your body's energy production. We know it helps with other stuff. Taurine is imperative to your vision, your digestion and your nervous system. And this is where we get to one of the other big energy rush sources for humanity. Glucose.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Ah, yes, glucose. Not to be confused with gluten. That's its own thing and probably worthy of an episode on its own while we're in the like. Yeah, the health, the food science realm. Right. The idea of being, you know, gluten free, gluten intolerance, celiacs and all of that. And some of the fads that have sprung up around that in terms of food marketing. Not to say that they're all fads and people definitely have gluten sensitivity, but it is an interesting topic. But we're talking about glucose. I don't mean to get off track. It is your body's main source of energy. It is, of course, a type of sugar. So let's just add on to all these extra chemicals in these energy drinks with a copious amount of sugar.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. This is a story that's familiar to a lot of our non American ridiculous historians. One of the main things that our pals say when they travel to the US for the first time is, holy crap, why is everything so sweet? Why does everything have so much sugar in it?

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Totally. Yeah. Even in Japan, and I have not been. And I'm so jealous of you getting to go so much but one day. But like a lot of their dessert type foods, even like cheesecakes, are not that sweet. They're all about kind of a more mild, almost bordering on savory. Vah. And if you go to like boba tea places that are more or less authentic here in the States, you will have an option to really tailor the sweetness. And very low sweetness is absolutely an option, which just seems unheard of in American sweet treat culture.

[Noel Brown]

I can't wait until we all go together. Right. There's a reason there's a. The physical chemical reason that sugar is so popular. And for our purposes here, we need to quote our friends at the Harvard Medical School. They point out that brain functions like thinking, memory and learning are very closely linked to glucose levels and how efficiently your brain uses said glucose. So if you don't have enough glucose in your brain, your little chemical messengers, your neurotransmitters are not, they're not queuing, they're not peeing, pew pew pew, right. And the communication between your neurons breaks down. So that's why the added sugar in energy drinks makes you feel more zippity do dah in the short term. Processed sugar, however, lacks key vitamins and minerals. And if we're being super duper honest and square about it, you can get the same effect from a more complex carbohydrate it without the subsequent energy crash for sure.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Like fruits, vegetables and grains.

[Noel Brown]

Boring.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Dr. Well, for sure there is also I've been on a bit of a fitness journey recently and trying to just adjust my diet in certain ways to kind of help promote muscle growth and weight loss. And there is something to be said about limiting even those natural sugar sugars in your diet to a certain degree in certain periods of your fat loss attempts.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, exactly. There is such a thing as too much fruit and everything in moderation. Even moderation. Let's get back to the lab. As we like to say in hip hop. By the way, spoiler folks. Noel and I are eventually going to work on some hip hop together.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Together. Frick. Yeah. We are in the lab. The Rainbow Cave. I can't wait, Ben. But for now we're going to pop back to the Japanese lab that we were hanging out in earlier.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. Yeah. So it's Taisho Co. Taisho Pharmaceutical Co.

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[Noel Brown]

It's 1962. Our buddies, the boffins at Taisho released the first modern energy drink. It's called Lipovitin D. Of course it is.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Of course, not particularly sexy. Sounds a little a little clinical. But by the 1980s, the beverage, which was sold in little mini Bott models wasn't strong enough. So Japan, known for its ruthless, sleepless business culture, Salarymen, I believe, is a term that gets thrown around a lot. That type of individual was looking for a little bit of extra something, something to help them climb that corporate ladder in order to. I mean, gosh, I mentioned the whole lack of work life boundaries here in America as potentially being responsible for the energy drink craze. But in Japan, it's even worse. I mean, it is pathological over there.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, yeah. It's a very sensitive issue. And there's a lot of. I would say there's a big cultural inertia toward it. So the idea, simply put, is this. You have to be at work all the time. Even if you are not really working traditionally, you are not supposed to leave before your boss leaves. And when your boss leaves, in that competitive corporate environment, you don't get to go home immediately. You're required to go have a happy hour that can last for multiple hours. And then you have to.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

You want to be able to drink your boss under the table or at the very least, keep up. That's part of the culture too. And I think we've talked about this. There was a really interesting photo, I guess you could call it essay kind of thing that I saw online about a few years ago where it was salarymen just passed out because they've missed all the trains and so they're just like on benches. They literally can't get home because of exactly the phenomenon that you're describing.

[Noel Brown]

And then get up and back to work, very hungover at 7 in the morning. What are you going to do?

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Smell great?

[Noel Brown]

You're going to reach for some Levovitin D. And so these energy drinks in Japan and this Milieu in the 1980s, they have found a huge demographic, right? The powerful industry folk of Japan. And now these energy drinks are getting consumed everywhere. They're being sold in every conbini or every convenience store. And the companies who are manufacturing these drinks are paying tons and tons of cash to us celebrities. We should do an entire ridiculous history of American celebrities in weird Japanese commercials. I love.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Well, I mean, it was famously kind of brought to light in the incredible film Lost in Translation, where Bill Murray was in Japan. It was kind of like a sort of a. His career had stalled a little bit in the States, and so he went to Japan to do a series of commercials for Suntory Whiskey. Because what is it? Make it Suntory relaxing times. Make it Suntory time. But for this energy drink craze, we Saw the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicholas Cage, Dennis Hopper. I've even seen, like, Andy Warhol maybe not doing this particular product, but you would be shocked. Nicholas Cage also does an incredible series of commercials for a famous. A very popular pachinko parlor brand, but the Arnold Schwarzenegger ones in particular for this very tiny bottle energy drink. It's called, like, he just. He says dai jo bui buoy. That's what he says at the end of it. So I don't know if the drink is called one of those things or if that's their catchphrase, but they are bonkers bananas. He turns into all kinds of weird, like a genie. And it starts juggling these salary men at a certain point. Google them. You can find a compilation of all of these. And they are a delight because to Ren's point, at the time, Americans were never going to see their favorite movie stars shilling for these Japanese companies. But with the beautiful thing and often terrifying thing that is the Internet, we can now, now enjoy those relics of the past.

[Noel Brown]

It is so amazing. I don't want to sound like a weeaboo or whatever, but Japanese advertisements, packaging and packaging. You know, check out our bidet episode as well, folks. There's a technology gap, right, in advertising, in tech and toilets. So now these energy drinks, it's like. Like mid to late 80s, verging into the 1990s. These drinks are mainstream in Japan, and the manufacturers creating these beverages say we've got to think bigger. Right? Let's go from addition to multiplication. Let's go from checkers to chess. Let's distribute our stuff outside of Japan to other countries in Asia.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah. But not yet the US Because I imagine there were maybe FDA regulations around it, not 100% sure why they weren't able to immediately make that leap, but someone took advantage of that. A guy named Dietrich. Meita Schiz. Don't Tidder, don't do it. Okay? He can't. It's worthy of a titter. This is where he got the idea for Red Bull.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. So our buddy Dietrich is an account executive for a company that doesn't sell energy drinks. They sell bathroom products. And he has to travel around a lot for his job. He finds himself in Bangkok, in Thailand, and he tries an energy drink called Krating Daeng. And there was nothing like, okay, so Dietrich's from Austria, right? And there is nothing like this back home. And so he says, what? This is amazing. We could take Vienna by storm. And he teams up with the folks who make Kreutendag and. And he says, we gotta figure out something like this that we can sell to Europeans. And this is how Red Bull gets launched in 1987. This is so wild, because we were not to date ourselves too hard, but all three of us were around in 1987. And I simply don't remember seeing Red Bull. When's the first time you saw Red?

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It, I would say in the early 2000s. Right. Late 90s, as a teen. And there's good reason for that because it was launched in 1987 only in Europe, and became a huge favorite among long haul truck drivers and other blue collar types. Very similar to, you know, how it was popularized in Japan. And Red Bull did not enter into the US markets until 1997. So all that tracks. And despite some competitors popping up like Monster and Rockstar, it does still remain the top selling energy drink in the world because it gives you wings.

[Max Williams]

And to jump in here, I actually was not around in 1987.

[Noel Brown]

All right, Max with the facts.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Who's that sneaking in the phone?

[Noel Brown]

It's Max, and he's full of knowledge.

[Max Williams]

Just for you right now.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Here we come. It's Max with the facts.

[Noel Brown]

We're just overdue for that. All right, Max. Well, you know what? You didn't miss too much.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Nah, you didn't miss Red Bull because it wasn't around then. But why don't we pop the top, drain the can on this topic. Take us home, Ben, why don't you?

[Noel Brown]

Ah, yes. All right, so homeward bound, West Virginia, Mountain mama, et cetera. Energy drinks are relatively recent then in the grand scheme of things. But despite being the newbies, they have become the second most popular dietary supplement amongst the Utes of the world. Of the US in particular, the number one thing is multivitamins, right? Your old Flintstone vitamins or those delightful gummies. I have a problem with gummy gummy vitamins. I don't have too many addictions anymore. But I'll tell you, man, a multivitamin gummy, I just, I keep eating them. They're delicious.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Oh, no, you're gonna OD on the.

[Noel Brown]

D. He died as he lived eating multivitamin gummies. What a boring funeral speech that would be.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Or maybe the bee and I'm not meaning to be dirty here. Nah, Ben, there are worse ways to go out. You know, you're happy.

[Noel Brown]

We actually, I think the statute is passed so we can tell you that years back we were in conversations with Red Bull to see about doing some stunts with them. One of those was going to be a very extreme version of the old Pinewood Derby that was due to a show called Car Stuff. It didn't happen, but we also pitched the idea of base jumping and cliff div. So Red Bull, if you're hearing this, hit us up.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Well, to that point, though, Ben, Red Bull did kind of keep its relevance. Not necessarily because it was the only game in town or maybe even the best tasting energy drink in town, but a lot of its marketing focus on kind of hip stuff and X Games type sports and all of that and making really interesting Internet content and even musicians having like Red Bull Academy and stuff like that. I mean, I got to give them props because they actually have put some interesting and useful stuff out into the world in terms of. Yeah, you know, live performances, clinics about making music and. And about extreme sports.

[Noel Brown]

So, you know, and speaking of extremes, since we are an audio podcast, Noel, you have pulled up what I hope is an Arnold Schwarzenegger ad from Japan.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Yeah. And I just wanted to play the audio to get us out of this episode. I wish you could see it, but just do Google it. Just type in Schwarzenegger Japanese energy drink ads and you're gonna hear Arnold as he is. Let's set the scene. He's dressed as a Japanese salaryman. He's talking to his boss. There's charts and graphs on the. On the wall. And it would appear that his boss is giving him what for because he's not. He's not carrying his weight. Me. Yeah, that's the thing that happened. Maybe we should describe. He does get yelled at and bonked on the nose by like his boss with the pointer stick, at which point he disappears almost like a Superman transformation, slams this little energy vial and then becomes like a super powered genie type creature carrying way too many boxes on his shoulders and bouncing across the tops of cars in heavy traffic.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, and you can go to any Japanese convenience store today and find an entire section of a shelf which is just different versions of these small tonics and energy drinks with every imaginable flavor. This is still kind of catching on. In the United States, there's almost no federal oversight, which means that the makers of these beverages don't have to play by the same set of rules that soda manufacturers have to play by. So this means logically, and we don't want to be bummers about this, this means logically, it's only a matter of time before another dangerous chemical makes its way into your favorite energy drink. And I gotta be honest, other than coffee and maybe five hour Energy drinks once in a while. I can't handle most of the stuff. I have no idea how our pal Matt Frederick is just sh gunning monster energy drinks. When I was doing a lot of stage comedy and sketch and acting, I would drink something called Nas. Did you ever hear of that one? Nos that was crazy.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

I always thought it was like a drink version of no doze. Remember no Doze? Yes, I do like trucker speed. Over the counter type of speed. I do want to wrap up with a couple of fun facts that ran found here at the end. This idea that the next name Red Bull comes from the fact that taurine is derived from bull testicles. Not true, not true. Let's just put an end to that one. And this one I think is helpful for a lot of folks who maybe are like, oh, I can't drink a coffee after, you know, two o' clock or something. That'll keep me up all night. It would seem that that is not the case. Likely a half life of caffeine is only two to four hours. So if you're having trouble getting to sleep at night, chances are it wasn't that cup of coffee or afternoon dc that's die co folk to blame.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. And if we want to kick one more fact, let's go to Kathleen E. Miller, who is a big deal at a place called the Research Institute on Addictions over at the University of Buffalo. And Dr. Miller is dropping a gem here. This is a fun stat for you to share at your next party, folks. If you report that you have six or more energy drinks over the course of a month, Not a week, over a month.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It's a month, folks.

[Noel Brown]

You are statistically more likely to also report that you got in a fight over the previous year, that you have sex without a condom, or that you drive without a seatbelt.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Okay.

[Noel Brown]

Life on the edge.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

So a bit of a correlation between energy drink consumption and risky behavior.

[Noel Brown]

Yes, but not necessarily causation. And I appreciate that you pointed that out. So with that, we are going to wrap today's episode. We can't wait to hear from you folks. Please be safe with your energy drinks and your stimulants. Remember, a lot of times there's nothing that beats a good old glass of water. God, we sound old.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

It's true. And I just want to point out one last thing to that point, Ben. Coffee, of course, and caffeine are diuretics. So if you're drinking a lot of coffee, that is, you need to almost offset that by drinking water. Would not consider your coffee intake to be part of that daily water consumption that we're all shooting for.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, 100%. And we are 100% grateful that you have joined us today. Big thanks to our super producer, Mr. Max Williams. Big thanks to Alex Williams, who composed this track. And big thanks, reluctantly, to Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quizzter. You know, I'm kind of mad at him, Noel, because he is huge in Japan. He's in every advertisement for a lot of weird stuff.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

That's true. Yeah. It's because he looks like the Buddha.

[Noel Brown]

Okay, so you've seen the advertisements as well. Big thanks to Christopher Osciotes. Eve's Jack Jeffcoat here in spirit. Dr. Rachel Big Spinach Lance. Oh. Oh, gosh. A.J. bahamas Jacobs. Please check out his show, the Puzzler. And if you dig our show, you're gonna love our pals over at Ridiculous Crime.

[Benjamin Boleyn]

Oh, yeah, the Rude Dudes over Ridiculous Crime. And once again, huge thanks to Ren Ren Fair Jones for rocking this incredible research brief for today's episode. 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.

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