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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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Chuck Bryant
Spring has so many wonderful things. Trees budding, flowers blooming, getting to wear straw hats. But for a lot of people, it also means a miserable season of allergies. And sneezing is the poster child for allergies.
Josh Clark
Let's just admit it. So we chose our episode on sneezing so we can at least help you understand what the heck is going on with your face. Even if we can't cure you, we wish we could. So seal all the doors and the windows. And kick back with this episode.
Narrator
Welcome to stuff youf should know, a production of iheartradio's how stuff works.
Josh Clark
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there.
Chuck Bryant
Jerry is a disembodied spirit, but she's
Josh Clark
still with us, haunting us. And we are now set up for achievement, which means this is stuff you should know.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Set up for achievement. That sounds like a very 80s Reagan era campaign.
Josh Clark
It does. It definitely does. Certainly not the kind of thing that would irritate you, whether it be in your nose or your brain or anywhere. Not. Not the best segue, huh?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I'm surprised you didn't try and work sternutation in there.
Josh Clark
Somehow I love that word. Are you. Were you familiar with that word before?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I don't think. You know, I'm 49 years old. I don't think I'd ever heard sneezing being called sternutation.
Josh Clark
I got. Oh man, I just remembered. I'm 44 now. So you. You got me beat. But I'm in the same boat with you.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, I never heard that. But that is. What if you're a scientist? Well, if you're a scientist and you want to be a real stiff, you probably say sternutation. If you're a scientist that wants to be friends with people, you'll still probably say sneezing.
Josh Clark
And I mean, it sounds super clinical, but it's actually really old. It's from. I think the first appearance of it is in a text from 1576. It sounds old to me. It sounds clinical, but there's also a couple derivative words. Sternutative or sternutatory are things that make you sneeze.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And Howard Stern. Baba booie.
Josh Clark
Right? Achooey. So we're talking sneezing, obviously, because we just discoursed on sternutitation. I'm adding an extra syllable there, aren't I?
Chuck Bryant
Sternutation.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
That's the Josh Clark way.
Josh Clark
Why do I have to complicate? Why do I have to complimicate?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
We're talking about sneezing. And sneezing is a really sort of. And I hate it when people call things like this elegant. So I'm going to refrain, but it's just a very efficient system that the human body has worked out to basically allow your nose. And we'll get into all the ins and outs of how it all happens, but to allow your nose and your nasal passage and your brain to act as bouncers and just say, get out of my body fast. You're cut off Pal, like, real fast,
Josh Clark
you're cut off cigarette smoke, you're cut off Chanel number seven that nobody likes, you know? Sure, yeah. That's pretty good way to put it. I mean, and it's an ancient reflex, too. I mean, basically, all mammals, at least sneeze, some more than others. I didn't realize this, but apparently iguanas sneeze the most because it's part of their digestion.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. And then I don't know what it's technically called, but, you know, when dogs do what it's called the reverse sneeze.
Josh Clark
Yeah, Momo has that bad.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
It's so scary.
Josh Clark
It is, it is. And we finally got her checked out, and they verified she doesn't have a collapsed trachea, which is when it really is threatening. It's just something to do with her nasal passages. She's brachiocephalic. You ever had a dog that has that?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I mean, I've never had a dog that didn't do it occasionally, but Nico, I feel like, goes. And it's not often, but it's like a. You know, it's like. Can be prolonged, like, for like a minute, and it just seems like. Are you about to die? Yeah, it's terrible.
Josh Clark
It's really bad.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I think you're just supposed to leave him alone, too, right? Just let him do it.
Chuck Bryant
No, we help her out.
Josh Clark
We'll rub her throat, just kind of stroke it. It seems to help. And then sometimes we'll just lightly plug her nostrils to kind of give her, like, a hitch to it. And that frequently cures it, too. Sometimes, though. Yeah, she just has to work it out. But she gets it every time. She gets excited, and she gets excited a lot, so it's sad for her.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, but it's really not a sneeze, actually, because a sneeze is when you are. You're trying to get something out of your nose. And that nose is a pretty amazing little system. It's an amazing filtration system. How it's designed with those narrow nasal passages. It's not like we have these big face holes. They're narrow for a very good reason, and that is to create turbulence inside your nasal passages. And that turbulence shoves all that air that you're inhaling to the sides of your nasal passages, the nasal mucosa. And that's got tiny little hairs called cilia. And the cilia mainly is sort of like a pre doorman, just saying, like, yeah, your ID's good. Why don't we just move you to the back of the throat, and we'll flush you out that way. But if it's too much, that's when you need to call in the big bouncer to initiate that sneeze response.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Sometimes they're just like, no, I'm staying here, I'm not leaving. You can't kick me out.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I hate the back of the throat.
Josh Clark
Super drunk, right?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
Yeah, so I didn't realize that. But it makes sense that we swallow a lot of the particles that we inhale through our nose, which is gross, but effective. Or cough it up, we poop it out eventually, right?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
But, yeah, if they get stuck in the nose, then they do something magical. Almost as magical as soap. But when they're sticking to the sides and they're not going anywhere, it's clear they're not going anywhere. They actually, like, irritate some specialized cells that are in that nasal mucosa. Mast cells and erinophils, I think. But basically they're there to look out for little particles that decide they don't want to leave. And when those things get irritated, they release histamines, which trigger this reaction, like an allergic reaction, basically, where your nose is runny, and they also simultaneously start sending signals to your brain saying, hey, we got one. We need some help.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. And I know we talked about this a little bit with another pollen episode, and I feel like we did another allergy centric one, but I can't remember. But the whole thing takes about a second for the single sneeze. And it's gonna send that message, like you said, that chemical message to the sneeze center of the brain, which is in the lateral medulla. And, you know, the lateral medulla gets, like, everything in the brain. It gets that signal and says, you know, all I gotta do is react fast whenever the body tells me to do something. And in this case, it's to jet out whatever's in the nose as fast as possible.
Josh Clark
Right. So. And I was looking this up, if you wanna get super clinical, if you're the kind of person who uses words like sternutation instead of sneezing, there's actually something called an afferent phase and an efferent phase. And an afferent phase is when you get ready to sneez. Your nerves have been tickled and are triggered and are itching, and they're sending messages to your brain in your sneeze center. And then the efferent phase is when your sneeze center goes, okay, it's go time. And that's actually pretty interesting. Stuff. And the way that that happens is basically from what I can tell, through a system of nerves. Olfactory nerve, ethmoidal nerve, which is a terrible word. And then your trigeminal nerve, which is basically responsible for most of the sensation in your face and your ability to bite and chew. And when these nerves spring into action, they hit that message, or the sneezing center in your brain, and your sneezing center sends it back over this kind of same switchboard of nerves in your face. And all this is happening in just a very short amount of time.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, I mean, like I said, the whole thing takes place in less than a second.
Josh Clark
And.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And it's gotta reach. You know, in order for it to reach that sneeze center, it's gotta be past a certain threshold of irritation, basically.
Josh Clark
Right.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And once it does reach that irritable point of which there's no going back, he's had too much to drink. Everybody in the bar knows it. That's when it finally sends that impulse down through the head and neck to initiate that response. That involves a lot of muscle groups. You know, if you. When you sneeze, it's a. And especially with some people, it can be a pretty violent action for the body.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Like, if you stop and take stock of what you're doing. Right. Then you might find that you're hunched over, One of your legs is in the air. Like, your knees kind of pulled up, your face is all scrunched up, your neck is tight. There's a lot of muscles involved. And the reason why is because you're taking in a bunch of air, and then you're expelling a bunch of air with a lot of force to get that thing that won't leave out of your nose.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. Like, you can. And I've seen professional athletes that have been sidelined from sneezing. If you've got a bad back or something, like, it can really hurt. Luckily, I don't have back problems, but occasionally I have. And a sneeze can really tweak it to where you're like. That's when you know you're in old man territory. You have a sneeze, and you're like, hold on, I can't get up.
Josh Clark
Yeah, I'm gonna have to lay down this weekend.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
But your abdomen, your chest, your diaphragm, your vocal cords, you know, you mentioned that you take that deep inhalation. That's that, like, right before you go, and that builds up a lot of pressure in your chest. And that happens because your Vocal cords just initially clamp shut, right?
Josh Clark
Yeah. So you're sucking in a bunch of air holding it, and so the pressure's building in your thorax, and then when you release it, your vocal cord openings open up to allow the air out. But then also your diaphragm is pushing that air out really violently so that it's going out your mouth and your nose. I saw about 100 miles an hour. Is the speed that the can hit?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, easily around 100 miles an hour. That is crazy to think about.
Josh Clark
Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Your eyes close. But, you know, we can go ahead and dispel the. The old myth that you can pop your eyes out if you keep your eyes open during a sneeze.
Josh Clark
Right. Yeah. Not true. And apparently there are some people who do keep their eyes open when they sneeze, and they show quite clearly that your eyes don't pop out.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
There's just. That's just. Would be impossible. Plus, they usually close anyway. Just automatically.
Josh Clark
Yeah. It's a very small group of people who sneeze with their eyes open. Most people just. It's like it's part of the involuntary process of sneezing. I don't know if we said that or not. Sneezing is an involuntary reaction to an external stimuli in your nose.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. Like, you can't. I mean, you can try and trigger a sneeze and we'll talk about certain things that can trigger a sneeze, but you. You definitely can't make yourself sneeze, like, full stop.
Josh Clark
Yeah, no, no. I mean, yeah, there's definitely things you can do to make yourself sneeze, like you're saying. But there are things you can do to keep yourself from sneezing. Whether you want to or not is a different question. Because, you know, sneezing can feel pretty good if you don't throw your back out.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Well, we'll talk about my sneeze pattern later. I know I've talked about it before, but I find it fascinating.
Josh Clark
You accidentally tap out, drink your Ovaltine, and Morse code through your sneezes. Is that your thing?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Very nice.
Josh Clark
Thanks.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Should we take a break?
Josh Clark
Let's take a break, Chuck, and then we'll come back and talk more about sneezing.
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Promo Voice
Well now, when you're on the road driving in your truck, why not learn a thing or two from Josh and Chuck? It's stuff you should know.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
All right.
Josh Clark
Hey man, before we get back into it too far, I realized I didn't give a shout out to the guy who gave me the idea for this episode.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Dr. Sneeze a lot.
Chuck Bryant
Yes.
Josh Clark
Dr. Todd G. Sneeze a Lot.
Chuck Bryant
No.
Josh Clark
One of my neighbor friends, Wesley, was like, hey man, he actually listens and he's like, hey, man, have you guys ever done one on sneezing? And I'm like, sure, of course we have. He's like, oh, because if you haven't, you know, you really should. That's a great one. And I went back and looked into my astoundment. We had never done one on sneezing. Like, never. I just can't believe that that wasn't, like, one of the first 10, you know?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, that seems like it would be an early stuff. You should know for sure.
Josh Clark
And, like, it kind of feels like one of those right now as we're doing it.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
But, you know, my neighbors think I'm unemployed. It's great.
Josh Clark
Yeah. But hats off to Wes for coming up with that one.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Thanks, Wes. Yeah, now leave Josh alone.
Josh Clark
He's the one that we got the loveyourmama.com stuff 4. And he's like, we're halfway done with our room spray. We need some more because we're using it so fast.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And you're the pusher, man.
Josh Clark
Yeah. I was like, first one's on me. Next are going to cost you.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. I don't correct my neighbors. They think I'm down on my luck. So that's all good, in my opinion.
Josh Clark
No, that's definitely the way to go. He's very nosy. So he found out. I had to finally just stop lying.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Oh, that's good stuff.
Josh Clark
So we're back to sneezing. We're talking sneezing, and one of the things we mentioned was the sneezing center, which is this. Up until not too many years ago, a theoretical part of the brain that causes us to sneeze that coordinates this involuntary response. Because you're not, like, your brain's not consciously saying, like, okay, now diaphragm, expel the air. Like, this is all, like we said, involuntary.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
That'd be great if you had to say that every time you wanted to sneeze.
Josh Clark
Right. Expel air. So it makes sense that there would be a region that was responsible for this, because we'd already seen it in cats. Don't ask how we know where it is in cats, but in cats, it's in the medulla. And so it was hypothesized that it was in the lateral medulla in humans, too. And finally, I think around 2005, there's basically incontrovertible evidence that came in the form of this fisherman, I believe he might have been Spanish, who had this sneezing fit one day of, like, about 20 really violent sneezes in A few minutes. And then all of a sudden, he stopped sneezing and couldn't walk right. Like, his gait was affected, almost like he'd had a stroke. And apparently, either he caused a lesion on his lateral medulla from the sneezing or that violent sneezing was like an initial symptom of a lesion. Kind of like, here's your last sneezes ever. And he went to the doctor and they started testing, and they would do things like put capsaicin in his nose, like red hot chili pepper in his nose, which makes everybody sneeze. It's like a universal sternotatory. Right. Makes everyone sneeze. And it wouldn't make this guy sneeze. It would burn his nose, and it would make his nose runny, but it wouldn't make him sneeze on the other side. It would make him sneeze the other nostril, but not the right, I think. And so they found this lesion on his lateral medulla, and they said, sneezing center. Welcome to our understanding.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I had such a bad Red Hot Chili Peppers joke that I just sat on through that whole spiel.
Josh Clark
That's very grown up of you.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Should I say it?
Josh Clark
Sure. Whoever said we were grownups?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
No, I was just thinking. The doctor would do the capsaicin and ask him how he feels, and he'd say, well, I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner.
Josh Clark
That was pretty good. Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
You know, it's better than fight like a brave.
Sponsor Announcer
I don't know.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I'm trying to think of chili pepper songs.
Josh Clark
What if the doctor came in wearing nothing but one of those reflector headbands and a sock on his penis, saw that coming, and that was it.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Oh, that'd be great. You know, you got the right doctor.
Josh Clark
Yeah, you do. The party doc.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
So things that can make you sneeze. I know you kind of rattled off some jokes about perfume and smoke earlier.
Josh Clark
Oh, I wasn't joking.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
But those are all realities. The most common cause of a sneeze is. And the collective term is rhinitis, R H I N I T I S. And that is just your sort of standard inflammation and swelling of your mucous membrane when you got allergies, when pollen's in the air, when you have a cold. But there are all kinds of other things that can cause a sneeze, too, that are all different types of rhinitis.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Speaking of rhinitis, too, I ran across a term, the clinical term for a runny Nose is rhinorrhea.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Oh, gross.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Isn't that grody? Like that makes it at least 12 or 15 times worse than runny nose, you know?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. Weird.
Josh Clark
Yeah. So there's occupational rhinitis, which is basically when stuff you're working around makes you sneeze or irritate your nose. Things like cleaning supplies or, you know, flour I saw was a pretty common occupational rhinitis. Sternotatory or sternatative, depending on your preference.
Chuck Bryant
Cigarette smoke.
Josh Clark
If you work in a place where they let you smoke, like maybe a cigarette factory. Although I heard that they don't allow smoking inside some cigarette factories now in like North Carolina. Isn't that just the end all be all?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
You think they would allow you to do that while you're working?
Josh Clark
They used to, up until very recently. Really? Oh, yeah. I have the impression you could just plug one off the line and light it up.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Wow. I guess if you're a smoker, that's a big perk.
Josh Clark
It is. But then now they're like, no smoking inside. Which leads you to the follow up question. Why? Why would you.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Because it kills you. And they go, yeah, what?
Josh Clark
Very dangerous, you dummy.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Let me see. You've also got the hormonal rhinitis, which is. Women might experience that when they have high estrogen levels. Maybe if you're pregnant or you're on the pill or you're going through puberty, you might have some sort of run on sneezing episodes.
Josh Clark
Sure. There's drug induced rhinitis. There's certain drugs that have been identified. What'd you say?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
The hippest kind, right?
Chuck Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
Mushrooms will make you sneeze, apparently. I'm guessing that I didn't see this anywhere, but this is an educated guess. Tell me if you think it sounds convincing. Those drugs probably stimulate your mast cells to release histamines and then that's just basically almost like a phantom allergen. Okay, that's what I'm going with.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
All right.
Josh Clark
But apparently NSAIDs, beta blockers, and some antihypertensive drugs are the ones that are known. Drug induced rhinitis, sternututores.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
If you are of advanced age, you might have what's called geriatic rhinitis, which is that's when those submucosal glands atrophy. And that means your nose can get really irritated and you might sneeze a lot.
Josh Clark
Right. That is very sad to me if you think about it, because there's not much that can be done. I'm sure you just put like, maybe vaseline or something in your nose. That's gotta be the cure for that. But that's just that because it's like your little body's running down. We should have a cure for that.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
Like our medicine is not far enough along in my opinion for this to be 2020. It's kind of a disappointing 2020 everybody.
Chuck Bryant
Am I right?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
So we've talked before, Chuck, multiple times about photic sneezing, which. I am a photic sneezer. And I don't remember if you are or not.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I feel like I have, but I don't. It's not like roundly something that happens to me. I don't think so.
Josh Clark
Okay. I am a photic sneezer more than I'm a native born Toledoan even. Maybe they're tied.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
So how does it get you, like anytime you like, turn on a light?
Josh Clark
Very rarely light. It's almost always sunlight. And I think it's just because of the intensity of it. But yeah. Walk out. Say like if I go see a movie in the middle of the day, like, it's just slacker.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I miss those days.
Josh Clark
And I come out, isn't that nice? And I come out and it's very sunny.
Chuck Bryant
Sure it is.
Josh Clark
Guaranteed three sneezes in a row.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Is that your usual pattern?
Josh Clark
Yeah, usually. And I looked into that. Like why do we sneeze multiple times? Apparently there's a very simple answer for it. And it's that your, your brain has determined that the, the irritant hasn't been ejected yet. But with photic sneezing, it's. It's almost like it's mistaken identity. Right.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. I actually did see some other things too about the patterns. Cause that's always fascinated me because I always sneeze in threes.
Josh Clark
Oh yeah. Okay.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And I did see where some places said that just once isn't enough. So it's like a setup. Get it to the front of your nose and then a get out. But I also saw where it could be genetic.
Josh Clark
Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Like that you inherit a sneeze pattern.
Josh Clark
Oh really?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And that like double sneezers beget double sneezers.
Josh Clark
It makes sense because there are like photic sneezing is one of a couple ways that you can inherit a genetic sneezing trait. So that would make sense.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, that's right. Photo. I'm sorry. Photic sneeze reflex is passed on by autosomal dominant inheritance. And I love this acronym because this is one of those reverse engineered ones that we like so much.
Josh Clark
Do you like this One I like this one.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I hated the other one.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Man with a passion like I wouldn't even.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I wasn't even gonna bring that one up, to be honest.
Josh Clark
Okay, we'll just pass it by and let everybody wonder for the rest of their lives.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
But autosomal, dominant, compelling Helio ophthalmic outburst syndrome. Achoo. It's a little rough.
Josh Clark
It is. I mean, there's a whole d. A whole dominant in there that's missing, but. Okay, fine, we'll go with that. But that's the. That is a term for photic sneezing that was coined at some point by someone. Obviously.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
That's your biggest pet peeve. Right. For acronyms is when they just sneak a word in there and don't use it for a letter.
Josh Clark
Yeah. It's lazy. Although, I mean, I get where they were coming from. You don't want it to be AD Chew. It's like, why even do it? But you got to figure it out, you know? Yeah. I mean, just take dominant out. Just go with autosomal, you know?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. No one who would know.
Josh Clark
I wouldn't have noticed. So you were saying, was that it for the patterns? The sneezing patterns?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. I mean, there are just a couple of theories, either hereditary or that it just takes that much. But I'm not. I just don't know if I buy that for myself because it's always threes, and it's not like I have a weak sneeze. So it takes three. I don't know. It feels ingrained somehow.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Like, if you only do two, you notice and it. Does it feel incomplete?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
It does, but that almost never happens. Occasionally I'll do a four banger, but I don't. I don't know that I ever sneeze once or twice. It's almost always three.
Chuck Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
And speaking of incomplete, if you actually go. If you experience the afferent phase, but the efferent phase isn't triggered, but it's enough to drive you nuts. There's things you can do, and one of those things that's recommended is to look at a bright light or look kind of. Don't look directly at the sun, but look toward the sun, and that should help jumpstart that efferent phase, the second part where the actual sneeze takes place.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Oh, okay. Well, that makes sense.
Josh Clark
But they think what's going on is that there's a crossover between the sneeze reflex arc and the pupillary light reflex arc, which basically is one nerve becoming so stimulated that Stimulates by proxy the, the other nerve, the sneeze nerve. So you're getting so overloaded with bright light when you see that sunlight that it, it accidentally jumps on over to your sneeze reflex as well and makes you sneeze.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
It's like, are you getting all this light? Are you getting this?
Josh Clark
Get a load of this.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I think they've landed on about between 23 and 25% generally of people have this photic sneeze reflex.
Josh Clark
Right. So that's, I mean, that's pretty substantial. There are some other, like small identity groups of sneezers that are far smaller than that. Apparently there are people who. There's four families, not one in four people, four families, as far as anyone knows, who have something called seneciation, which is where you. If they eat too much and they feel overly full, it will trigger a sneezing attack.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, I would call that rare.
Josh Clark
Yeah, four families for sure. We're just gonna pass right on by, right, Chuck?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yes. Acronym. Getting back to the photic sneezing, though, they think it also could be a holdover and an evolutionary advantage from when we were little babies, because little babies don't have. They can't blow their nose. They don't know what that even is. So the only. They can't pick their nose. They can't use any implement at all to clear out their nose except the sneeze. They rely on the sneeze to get that mucus out. Or of course, parents who will suck that stuff out through a little device which is no fun but necessary.
Josh Clark
Or you hold them on their side and you blow in their ear. It usually clears out the nose. I should probably just go ahead and say, don't do that. That was a joke.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
You can whisper sweet nothings, sure. But don't. Yeah, don't do that. But babies are pretty sensitive to that photic light reflex. And they think that may be a reason that basically we. That's just sort of a holdover from when we were babies.
Josh Clark
It makes sense. It also makes sense to me that babies might have more active or kind of raw or nerve pathways. So maybe they're just more sensitive to that, that jump over that crossover.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Maybe.
Josh Clark
Plucking nose hair. Does that ever happen to you?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Every time.
Josh Clark
So it doesn't make me sneeze, but it makes my eyes water like I've just seen every long distance commercial from the 90s all at once.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. And it's interesting because those you talked earlier about the trigeminal nerves that are all through the Face. I think it's just all related. Like you could pluck an eyebrow and it could make you sneeze and your eyes are watering and that's part of your face. Like it's just all sort of one big nerve bundle that's all interrelated. And any of those could trigger either watering of eyes or. Or definitely sneezing. Even if you, like, pluck a hair out of your head, that could do it.
Josh Clark
That's never happened to me. But my nose hair and my eyebrow hair, oh, man, my eyes will start watering. It's not a pleasant experience for sure.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I've never plucked an eyebrow hair.
Josh Clark
Oh, every once in a while I'll get one that's a big, fat, long goat hair. It just suddenly comes up overnight.
Sponsor Announcer
Now I've seen.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I've got those too.
Josh Clark
Okay, well, I pluck those.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I just trim those.
Josh Clark
You know, it's. Maybe I should trim them. That's a good idea. But have you ever noticed if you get one, there's almost invariably one on the other side too? Like they come up in pairs. Does that happen to you?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Have not noticed that when you pull on one, does the other one get shorter?
Josh Clark
That was a wonderful chip.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
That'd be great.
Josh Clark
Yeah. It's like pulling that spaghetti through your nose and out your mouth.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Don't do that either.
Josh Clark
Can you do that?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
No, I've never tried to do stuff.
Josh Clark
I've never tried either. I don't want to. There's also a group of people who sneeze when they become sexually aroused.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, that's a thing, apparently. Or if you orgasm, like after you orgasm, it could trigger a sneezing fit.
Josh Clark
Yeah. It's apparently a bigger group than you would expect. Some researcher went around to Internet chat rooms and said, hey, does anybody sneeze when they become aroused or when. When they have an orgasm? And she found 17 people who sneeze from sexual ideation and three who sneeze from orgasm, which is. That is way more than I would expect from just going around on Internet chat rooms and asking people, you know.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. And also we should point out way not scientific.
Josh Clark
No, not at all. But yeah, anecdotally, it's still impressive. But I read an explanation for this. It's a terrible explanation, but it's an explanation by the journal of the association of Physicians of India. It's an Indian journal, coincidentally enough. They suggest that it's because the nose contains erectile tissue, which it does. Which erectile tissue is just tissue that can become larger and gorged by blood flow. And yes, you have erectile tissue in your genitalia. Yes, you have it in your nose. But they're not in any way related as far as anyone's ever even thought. Aside from the people in this journal, Isn't that the most bizarre thing you've ever heard?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
It's pretty bizarre.
Josh Clark
Like your nose is becoming aroused is basically what they're saying. And so you sneeze. Yeah. Fantastic.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
There's also intractable sneezing or psychogenic. And that is something that's almost exclusive to young women, girls, adolescents basically, going through puberty. And these are girls who may not suffer from allergies. They're not sick with a cold or anything, but can go on these big sneezing binges for days and days at a time.
Josh Clark
Yes. And apparently the. The world. The world. Oh, my goodness. The world record holder is a girl named Donna Griffiths, who was 12 when she started. She started in 1981, January of 1981. And her sneezing fit ended 977 days later in September of 1983.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I remember hearing about this one.
Josh Clark
And as it. I mean, as it went on, I was way too young for this, but, you know, had I. Had I been more aware, I would have felt very bad for this girl. Because as it went on, she could. If she sneezed once in a day, it was considered part of the record. And I think that that was kind of how it was toward the end. But that first year sounds like a bear.
Sponsor Announcer
Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
No good.
Josh Clark
A million sneezes in the first 365 days, which is basically a sneeze a minute on average. And Chuck. And it's impossible to sneeze in your sleep. You cannot sneeze in your sleep. If you sneeze while you're sleeping, you wake up to sneeze. Your brain just isn't functioning correctly to sneeze while you're sleeping. So that means this girl was averaging a sneeze a minute just during waking hours, but sneeze a minute over 24 hours, compressed into, say, 10 or 12 hours that she was awake that day.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Or would she wake herself up sneezing?
Josh Clark
I don't know. If that's the case, then she had a really, really rough year because she was sneezing every minute and not getting any sleep.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, I mean, it's disruptive no matter what. No one. I mean, you can't hold on a job if you're sneezing every minute.
Josh Clark
Well, luckily she was 12. And this is after child labor laws were passed. I'M hoping she didn't get out of that cigarette factory. That's right. She has nimble little fingers for sorting cigarettes.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Perfect. Should we take another break?
Josh Clark
Yeah, I think so.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
All right, we'll talk about these, the travel and droplets right after this great band. Burning stuff is fun with Josh and
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Josh Clark
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This message is sponsored by Regeneron and Sanofi. Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant do not have direct experience with the product advertised or the disease.
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Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
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Josh Clark
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Promo Voice
Well, now, when you're on the road, driving in your truck, why not learn a thing or two from Josh and Chuck? Stuff you should know.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Stuff you should know. All right, all right. So this is pretty relevant now. And I know, and I think this was put together before. I feel like we've been sitting on this one. Was this before coronavirus?
Josh Clark
No, I think it was during.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Was it during? Okay.
Josh Clark
Yeah. And this is a. Dave helped us out. Dave Roos helped us out with this one.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. So. And I think we've all seen these videos by now with everything that's going on. But. But in 2016, a researcher from MIT named Lydia. Oh, boy. Goodness me. Burrubia.
Josh Clark
Sure.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Buriba.
Josh Clark
I'm going with Buruiba. There's a couple of oo sounds in there that follow one another. It makes it very difficult. Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Whenever you pack three vowels in a row, it's always sort of a dealer's choice. So she published some slow mo 2000 frame per second film images of people sneezing and what that looked like. That's where we get. And other people have done this, too, and measured the sneeze, but that's one place where we get the 100 miles per hour, stat.
Josh Clark
Oh, from that study.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. And other places. I mean, that's pretty common knowledge now, but up to 25, 30ft, you can blow a sneeze. It can stay suspended in the air for a few minutes. And they likened it to if you would take a bucket of paint and just throw the paint out of the can into the air, sort of is how a sneeze works. They call it sheets of fluids. And, you know, you got these big hunks of mucus and saliva that just sort of come out together and then break apart little by little until you get to the fine mist that sort of can hang in the air.
Josh Clark
Yeah. It starts as a clump and then turns into ropey filaments and then into increasingly smaller particles and those really small particles, the aerosolized stuff.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
That's the scary stuff.
Josh Clark
I saw a Bristol study that said, and this wasn't necessarily coronavirus, but that contagious germs can stay in the air, suspended in the air for weeks, possibly. That would have to be a very hardy contagious virus or bacteria.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. With like no airflow.
Josh Clark
Right. Yeah. To just sit there. But the 27ft, which is kind of common knowledge these days in the era of coronavirus, that your sneeze can project those particles up to like 27ft, there's little pockets of gas and turbulence that are in a room, even a room that seems still, but certainly one that has like the AC on or air flowing through it. And those little particles can hitch rides on those pockets and travel, I saw, 200 times further than you expel them with just your sneeze.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah.
Josh Clark
So you know what prevents that?
Chuck Bryant
Covering yourself, your mouth and your nose
Josh Clark
when you sneeze and. Or wearing a mask.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. I mean, they teach. I mean this has nothing to do with coronavirus, but it's especially important. But they teach little kids, from the moment they can even understand things in preschool to always sneeze into your elbow and cough into your elbow because that's something that kids can, you know, you can't always get to a tissue, which is what they say is sort of the best thing to do. But that elbow is a pretty good system.
Josh Clark
I think it's really cute to see a little kid do that too.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. Because they're doing the right thing. It is adorable. I agree.
Josh Clark
But yeah, the ideal is to. To sneeze into a tissue, throw your tissue away and wash your hands thoroughly. That's what you're supposed to do after you sneeze. Every time. Every single time.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Every single time. And I don't sneeze a lot. Emily sneezes a lot.
Josh Clark
Oh, yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. Because she's got the allergies.
Josh Clark
Oh, yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Don't do it. So she's got a lifelong persistent tickle in her nose. It's terrible.
Josh Clark
Does she have, what's it called, that kind of sneezing where it's. Oh, psychogenic, intractable sneezing?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Well, no, because she's not 13,
Josh Clark
man.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
No, it's just allergy related. But lots of sneezing when it's really bad, it's pretty tough to be around. Not tough for me, but you know.
Josh Clark
Right, right. Yeah, it's really annoying.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Stop.
Josh Clark
So I did look up to find out where we stood as far as knowledge on sneezing and contagion outdoors goes. And from what I can tell there was some study that was done by some engineers that sprayed an aerosol can, running, walking, and then on a bike. And the results showed that this stuff spreads really far and wide, but they didn't take into account a lot of different things, a lot of different factors. So that if you are outdoors, as long as somebody doesn't sneeze at you basically in your face or in your direction, within, you know, 20 or 30ft directly toward you, you're probably not going to catch enough of a viral load of something like coronavirus to become sick from it. Especially if you're not in a crowded group. If you're just walking outside and somebody else is walking, you know, 15ft ahead of you, and they're just breathing and they're on the other side of the street, you're probably going to be fine. Just because that stuff's going to dissipate so much because of all the factors, the environmental factors that exist outdoors, rather as opposed to indoors. Indoors is a totally different ball game. Outdoors, you're much safer.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. I mean, I haven't. I haven't been around a human that sneezed, aside from my wife in, you know, four or five months.
Josh Clark
Great.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Like, I would. Even when I've gone to the store and, like, I'm on the lookout for that stuff.
Josh Clark
Oh, yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And, like, I think we all are. But I haven't even been in a store, like, on an aisle where someone's, like, sneezed because I would. And probably unreasonably freak out a little bit.
Josh Clark
Sure. I think you're allowed to yell at
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
that person, but I haven't even seen anyone been around anyone that sneezed, so that's been a comfort.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Yumi went to the store and came back and said somebody sneezed twice. And the whole store just started looking around, like, where'd that come from?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Oh, God. Yeah. It's weird, huh?
Josh Clark
Yeah. Yeah. There's basically, like a stampede or something to get away from that thing.
Chuck Bryant
It is.
Josh Clark
It's a weird, weird time to be alive. We're all going to be very, very weird, even after things go back to normal, I think.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. You know, it's gonna.
Josh Clark
I know. I will be. Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
So should we talk a little bit about culture and, you know, sort of what people say all around the world? I know here in America, it's sort of custom to say, God bless you, or bless you, and that, you know, there's some different explanations. But one of them that seems to hold water, I think dates back to the Middle Ages with the Black Plague, when Pope Gregory VII basically said, hey everyone, you know, things are pretty bad. We should just. We should say God bless you if someone is sneezing because they might be dying.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Which is from what I saw, a big departure from earlier Christian teachings which taught people to just totally ignore sneezes
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
or say God is dead.
Josh Clark
Which I. Right. Which I find very weird. Like why would you teach people, do you ignore sneezes? I didn't get that. But I found this really awesome article called Romance and Tragedy of sneezing by Dr. Wilson D. Wallace in Scientific Monthly from 1919. And he cited that. That earlier Christians were like, just ignore it. Just pretend it didn't happen.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. I'm a bless you guy. And don't do the gesundheit or salute, which is Spanish, to your health, that kind of thing. Yeah.
Josh Clark
It's also a toast.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, I say that. I don't say that ever really. Sometimes I'll say it when I toast, but it's been. I don't know, I don't remember what I do with anyone anymore. You know, I've forgotten to deal with people.
Josh Clark
I always raise my glass and say it's time to get toe up from the flow up.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I say, may Jupiter bless you.
Josh Clark
Right. I saw another one from the Greeks too. I love that one. Live Zeus preserve you.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I think you and I should bring back both of those.
Josh Clark
Okay.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
That's fantastic.
Josh Clark
Can't you imagine everyone in Greece just like being like, don't sneeze, don't sneeze. Just everyone's all twitchy and shaky from people yelling that at them.
Sponsor Announcer
Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I mean, it's weird too because it's a very kind thing to do to a stranger. It's this one, I guess Dave just says an academic, but they called it a micro affection, which is nice, you know, it's just a little quick nice thing to say to a stranger. And I'll always do it. We've done it during our live shows when someone sneezes and not to be funny, it gets a laugh, but it's just sort of a. It's almost like an involuntary micro affection, I think for most, you know, non monsters for sure.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Where people just kind of have a brief connection right then, you know, even though they don't know each other.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
But now it's like a human being.
Josh Clark
You're a human being. What is it now?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Well, just bless you and please get very far away from me if you're going to do it again.
Josh Clark
Bless you over there. So there's also a very common understanding that people thought that a demon was trying to get in or your soul was trying to get out. And I kept seeing other cultures or old, ancient cultures, that kind of thing. The closest one I could find that seemed like that was in Persia. Zoroasters believed that your body was fighting off a fiend that had invaded, like an invading demon or spirit. And that a sneeze was basically your body signaling that it had been victorious in fighting this fiend and getting this fiend out and that deserved a prayer. And that if you overheard somebody sneeze, you would say the same prayer with them. I couldn't find what prayer, though.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, it seems to be a good luck thing in a lot of cultures throughout the years. According to the Talmud, it's a good omen if you sneeze when you're praying. In China and Japan, if you sneeze, it means someone's sort of like your ears are burning, someone's talking about you.
Josh Clark
Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And one sneeze means they're saying nice things. Two means they're spreading gossip. I don't know what they would think about me with my three. Three means you die, Right.
Josh Clark
What would three mean?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I don't know. I mean, because there's only two ways people can talk about you, right?
Josh Clark
Exactly. They might be saying something like, chuck has a beard.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Okay.
Josh Clark
You know, that's as neutral as it gets. Exactly. So there's folklore and then there's what we think is true, which is a kind of folklore, but it's actually. It's just folklore too. Urban legends is what we call them. Or old wives tales. And we talked about one where that your. Your eyes will pop out of your head if you sneeze with your eyes open. Bonk. That one pretty clearly, I think. Don't.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
You can't do it.
Josh Clark
And then there's some other ones too. There's one that Yumi told me about that I had no idea until she said this, but apparently some people believe that you basically die for a second while you're sneezing. Like your body just shuts down, including your heart. And that you're technically dead for that half second while the sneeze is going on.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I've heard your heart stops.
Josh Clark
I had never heard that before until a couple days ago. And yeah, I looked it up and it's a thing. But no, that's not at all true. Like your heart rhythm might actually change and the volume of blood in your heart might decrease or increase because of the pressure of the Air in your chest or the release of pressure, but the electrical activity remains the same. And that's the key to whether your heart's alive or not.
Sponsor Announcer
Yeah.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. Your heart does not stop. No. That's like playground stuff.
Josh Clark
It is. I thought it was very cute. What about sneezing after sex? Preventing pregnancy? Did you see this one?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Well, I mean, what are you sneezing out of?
Josh Clark
Right. So, I mean, like, that's the idea that if you sneeze, you're expelling. Well, there's really no other way to put it. Semen. And that. That would keep you from getting pregnant.
Medical Disclaimer Voice
Wow.
Josh Clark
Seems a little ridiculous.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah. That's another playground thing, I guess.
Josh Clark
So what playground have you been hanging out on?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Pretty advanced playground activity.
Josh Clark
You got anything else? Oh, I've got one more thing. Chuck, you got anything else?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I got nothing else.
Josh Clark
In 2016 or 18, a man in Leicester in the UK ruptured his throat from trying to stifle a sneeze. The pressure was so great, it broke open his throat.
Sponsor Announcer
Wow.
Josh Clark
Yeah. Internally didn't break through the skin, but his. His intern. His throat internally was ruptured because that's
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
what I pictured, right? Like a throat explosion.
Josh Clark
It just blew his head completely off. Like that guy in Scanners. Well, like, I guess that's it for sneezing, everybody. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again to Wes for the idea. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I'm gonna call this Atlanta, Texas. Hey, guys. My name's Ben Lee, local Atlantan, Georgia, and my wife and I are huge, longtime fans. In your recent episode on Pirate Radio, y' all briefly brought up Radio Atlanta, which was named after Atlanta, Texas. And you joke that no one knew that town exists, even the people that live there. And that's pretty much true. My family is originally from Atlanta, Texas. It's pretty small, just about 5,000 residents. So it's totally understandable. I was born in Texarkana, Texas, not too far from there, which is basically famous for being in the Smokey and the Bandit movie.
Josh Clark
I thought that was the town that dreaded sundown too, wasn't it?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I don't know about that. I definitely remember from Smokey and the Bandit.
Josh Clark
Okay.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Because they were driving that beer from Texarkana to Atlanta, and Benjamin here says, I don't know why they didn't do Atlanta to Atlanta. Wasted opportunity.
Josh Clark
It really is. It sounds like Benjamin moved from Atlanta to Atlanta, though, huh?
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Maybe.
Josh Clark
Kinda.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
I mean, he's in Atlanta, right? He teaches at Georgia State.
Josh Clark
That's pretty awesome. Hey, hats off to you for teaching these days. Benjamin.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yeah, he says there's a lot of towns in Texas, though, named that are also Georgia names. There's an Athens, Texas, a Douglasville, a Columbus, Dallas, Georgia and Texas. And he said there's even a Georgia, Texas.
Josh Clark
Well, that's just confusing.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
And he said thanks for all the great stuff. And that is from Benjamin Bowden Lee.
Josh Clark
Thanks a lot Benjamin Bowden Lee. That was a great email. We appreciate it. Any email that references Smokey and the Bandit, we're all right with.
Charles W. 'Chuck' Bryant
Yep.
Josh Clark
Well, if you want to email us about Smokey and the Bandit or anything else, we'd love to hear from you. You can send it to stuff podcast@iheartradio.com
Narrator
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Hosts: Josh Clark & Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant
Podcast: Stuff You Should Know (iHeartPodcasts)
Date: March 20, 2026
This episode dives into the biology, neurology, and cultural curiosities of sneezing—why we do it, how it works, and all the weird, gross, and fascinating facts surrounding this ancient reflex. Hosts Josh and Chuck pepper their conversation with jokes, personal anecdotes, and some truly memorable cultural rabbit holes.
Sternutation:
"If you're a scientist and you want to be a real stiff, you probably say sternutation. If you're a scientist that wants to be friends with people, you'll still probably say sneezing." — Chuck (03:38)
Why We Sneeze:
Nasal Filtration System:
How a Sneeze Works:
Muscle Involvement:
Myth Busting:
“They found this lesion on his lateral medulla, and they said, sneezing center. Welcome to our understanding.” — Josh (20:43)
Types of Rhinitis:
Photic Sneeze Reflex ("ACHOO" syndrome):
“I am a photic sneezer more than I'm a native born Toledoan even. Maybe they're tied.” — Josh (25:31)
Rare & Fascinating Triggers:
Intractable (psychogenic) sneezing:
Expulsion Force and Distance:
“If you would take a bucket of paint and just throw the paint out of the can into the air, sort of is how a sneeze works.” — Chuck (41:46)
How it Spreads Germs:
COVID Context:
"Bless you" and Global Variants:
Other Beliefs:
“The pressure was so great, it broke open his throat.” — Josh (53:20)
Micro-Affections:
On the elegance of sneezing:
“It’s just a very efficient system that the human body has worked out…to allow your nose and your brain to act as bouncers and just say, get out of my body fast. You’re cut off, pal.” — Chuck (04:33)
On the world’s longest sneezing fit:
“A million sneezes in the first 365 days…a sneeze a minute over 24 hours, compressed into, say, 10 or 12 hours that she was awake that day.” — Josh (36:00)
On sneeze hygiene during the pandemic:
“But yeah, the ideal is to sneeze into a tissue, throw your tissue away and wash your hands thoroughly. That’s what you’re supposed to do after you sneeze. Every time. Every single time.” — Josh (44:07)
On “bless you” as a micro-affection:
“It’s almost like an involuntary micro affection, I think for most, you know, non-monsters for sure.” — Chuck (49:06)
“Stuff You Should Know” delivers a surprisingly fascinating exposé on the humble sneeze—spanning biology, genetics, public health, and superstition—wrapped in the show’s signature humor and curiosity. If you’re a regular sneezer or just a sneezing fan, you’ll never see a “Bless you!” the same way again.
For questions, feedback, or to share your favorite sneeze-related urban legend, email stuffpodcast@iheartradio.com.