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Josh
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I turned off news altogether.
Kal Penn
I hate to say it, but I
Chuck
don't trust much of anything.
Ryan Seacrest
It's the rage bait.
Kal Penn
It feels like it's trying to divide people.
Josh
We got clear facts.
Kal Penn
Maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America.
Ryan Seacrest
Hey there, It's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway for you. Save days are here now through June 25th. Find hot deals throughout the store and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Triscuit, Quaker, Reese's, and Dot's Pretzels. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings. When you shop in store or online for easy pickup or delivery, restrictions apply. See the website for full terms and conditions.
Chuck
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. Josh here. Chuck. Here. Jerry. Here. Dave here in spirit at Short Stuff. Sorry, it's Short Stuff.
Josh
Yeah. I'm gonna start this one by telling a quick little story of last year. I got in my Instagram feed for a little while these choirs, these choral singing groups that were, you know, it's kind of a thing now where it's not like, oh, you know, we go to the church and it's in official choir, but like, hey, my friend has a warehouse space and we can put a piano in it and just put out a call to see, like, people want to show up and sing together.
Chuck
Like humanist choirs.
Josh
Is that what it's called?
Chuck
That's what I'm calling it.
Josh
Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, just cause. Yeah, Humanist episode. I gotcha. Yeah, exactly that. And, you know, they're doing like a cool Radiohead song or something like that or whatever, you know, Christmas music around the holidays. And I was like, you know what, man? I sang in a choir growing up in my church, and Emily and I both sang. She sang in show choir. And like, we both got a lot out of those experiences. And I haven't done it since I was a teenager. And I was like, man, we got a piano, and I bet you we could get a group together to come around and do this kind of thing. And I was. I still might do it this year, but I never got around to it. But it was something that was really kind of on my list.
Chuck
So are you going to do it, though, you think?
Josh
Well, I really want to do it.
Chuck
Okay, we'll do it.
Josh
Yeah, I do want to Cause I think, you know, I would be the facilitator, but I would get someone who's like, somebody's gotta lead the show. Cause I can't do that. But I'll sing and I'll put, you know, I'll provide the space and the piano.
Chuck
Okay. There you go. I think that's a good start.
Josh
I think it would be fun, like a neighborhood deal and long way of sort of getting around to this idea that they've kind of learned that singing is good for you. And specifically singing together, like in a choir.
Chuck
Right? Yeah, that's a big thing. And Chuck, if you did get a choral group together, you guys would be the 250,000 first chorus group in the United States, because that's how many are in there. Yeah, something like almost 29 million people regularly sing in a choral group in the United States. And it's the most popular of all arts related participatory activities. Yeah, it's more popular than cross country painting and charades leagues combined.
Josh
You know, interestingly, I saw a study the other day where they found one participatory activity helps stave off dementia more than any other, and it was dance.
Chuck
Oh, I believe that.
Josh
Yeah. Because the movement and all the benefits of doing a participatory activity, plus the benefits of the exercise and everything. But it was something about dance that and it was like kind of off the charts and like how good it was for you to do as you age.
Chuck
Sure. Get your troubles. Come on, get happy.
Josh
All right, so let's talk about singing, though. Because, like, if you get together with the choir, obviously everyone there is probably going because they like to sing and they're probably pretty good at singing. But you can just go to your local karaoke bar as evidence that, like, people love to sing who can't sing at all sometimes. And they will do that in front of people. And people will like, still watch that and be interested.
Chuck
For sure. Yeah, people will watch other people who can't sing sing.
Josh
Yeah.
Chuck
And then people who can't sing will sing in front of other people and feel good about it. Like, karaoke is a great example of like, the fact that this exists. There's something about singing, including singing in front of other people, that actually does give you a positive vibe.
Josh
Yes.
Chuck
So you said something though. I mean, like, you can sing at home in the shower. You can sing at home on the couch. You could sing at home in the kitchen.
Josh
Sing in the car. For sure.
Chuck
Sing in the car. You could sing in the laundry room. Like, you could sing basically anywhere by yourself. And yes, there are benefits, as we'll see. But because there's something about singing in a group as we'll kind of unpack, it's just it provides greater benefits. But if you do sing in your laundry room, you're still going to get some benefits from it. But if you got a group of people to sing with you in your laundry room, you would be doing really good for sure.
Josh
Good. Time for a break.
Chuck
Yeah. All right.
Josh
We're going to talk about what those benefits are because they seem kind of mysterious right after this.
Chuck
If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just listen up to Josh and Chuck stuff you should know.
Ryan Seacrest
Hey there, It's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway for you. Save days are here now through June 25th. Find hot deals throughout the store and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Triscuit, Quaker, Reese's and Dot's Pretzels. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings. When you shop in store or online for easy pickup or delivery restrictions apply. See the website for full terms and conditions.
Kal Penn
Hey everyone, it's Kal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the PODC, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project, Hail Mary Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.
Ray Porter
I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections. And it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, no. At this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that that deeply, emotionally affected me. And I left it on the mic. That's great because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude, me too.
Kal Penn
Listen to Hearsay. The Audible and iHeart audiobook club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Chuck
Stuff you should know. Stuff you should
Kal Penn
know.
Josh
All right, so like you mentioned before the break, all types of singing is good for you. We found it releases endorphins, which is Always great. If you're singing in front of people, it's gonna, you know, build your confidence. Like, I've seen some not very good singers at karaoke just like still kind of kill it and walk out of there clearly kind of brimming with confidence, which is going to have a great effect on your life and well being for sure.
Chuck
But like I said, singing with a group, choral singing has the most dramatic effects. And there's actually some studies that have shown this. Apparently In Australia and 2008, a study looked at choral singers and said, hey, how satisfied are you with your life? And they said, really satisfied. So satisfied that if you compared us to the average person from the general public, we're more satisfied with our life. They're like, well, wait a minute, what if we control for all these differences and the only difference is these people sing and the rest of the people don't? Will that still hold true? Yes, it will.
Josh
That's right. It's Australia. They said, yes, and not narrow.
Chuck
And I mean, Australians are generally happy on a whole compared to other groups.
Josh
No, I totally agree.
Chuck
That was so like Australian choral singers, through the roof happy. They can't stop smiling.
Josh
Yeah. In fact, I'm going to start saying that. I'm going to say, man, they were as happy as an Australian choral singer.
Chuck
That's a great one. That's great.
Josh
In 1998, there was another study that found after nursing home residents were, you know, active in a singing program for a month, there were big time decreases in both anxiety and depression levels. And a study in England, 600 British choral singers found that singing plays a central role in their psychological health. Like, people get a lot out of it.
Chuck
Right. And that would have included Ireland and Wales.
Josh
That's right. Actually, I'm not, I didn't look too deeply into that one. But yeah, if it said British, then for sure, sure.
Chuck
So some of the physical effects though, it actually does. Like we've been talking mostly about well being. We'll talk a little more about that. But physically speaking, singing has a great effect on your body. It's essentially an aerobic exercise because of the way you're breathing. You're getting more oxygen in your blood. That improves your circulation. Good circulation makes you happy. I've seen that it's prescribed. Singing is prescribed to people who are going through lung rehab for some sort of lung issue. Yeah. And there's also like a. You, you need to breathe deeply. So you're spending like an hour or so like a week breathing deeply. That's essentially one of, like, the main parts of meditation and relaxation techniques is. Is deep, you know, controlled breathing. Singing in a choir requires you to do that.
Josh
Yeah, for sure. I remember talking. Oh, when was it? I guess it was sometime late last year when. Or I guess early last year, when I was very upset a lot about politics. Not like I am now, which is, like, just super stoked all the time. But I remember talking about sing therapy, and that's what I did for a little while. I would, like, put on my piano. It's a little player piano. So I would put that on and I would sing as hard as I could sing. And it really, really felt good. It made a big difference in how I felt.
Chuck
What were you singing?
Josh
Whatever. A lot of Billy Joel.
Chuck
Oh, that's great.
Josh
No, like, I was singing whatever. Whatever you could really belt out, you know.
Chuck
Okay. I think that's wonderful that you did that for yourself, man.
Josh
Yeah, it was fun.
Chuck
So one of the things that you could have also done, since you probably know every word to every Billy Joel song, you could have learned some new songs, right?
Josh
Sure.
Chuck
And had you done that, you would have been working your brain, which is another benefit of singing, especially in a group. You have to learn new stuff every week.
Josh
Yeah, for sure. And if you're learning things and if you're concentrating, like, all right, I gotta work out my alto part on this thing. I'm a tenor, actually. Work on your tenor part. And then when you get together with your little choir or big choir, and you're like, all right, I gotta remember my part here where I come in. That's what you're thinking of. That's what's on your mind. You're not thinking of the stress at work or the stress at home or the stress in your life or your health stress. Like, it's your chance to park that stuff and really dwell on something else for a while.
Chuck
Right. And then we finally arrive at one of the big reasons why. Probably the biggest reason why singing in a choir actually has the most benefits of any kind of singing is because you are becoming part of a group. Like, if you've ever been a member of any kind of choir, like, that's a fairly tight group. Everybody knows one another. You're required to rely on one another. Like, you are needed by this group. Your voice is needed. Your part is needed. Like, there's a sense of belonging and inclusion that comes from being a member of a choir. And then on top of that, adding in all of the benefits of singing again, like, this is. It's just really good for you.
Josh
Yeah. It's amazing when we were. I think I told you this backstage, but when we were in Madison, I went a day early, and I woke up the next morning, and my hotel was, like, kind of right on the water. So I had the windows open because I could hear the water gently lapping, and it sounded really nice. But I heard singing, and I was like, group singing. And I was like, where is that coming from? And I went and looked out of my window, and there was. It turns out that in the hotel, there was a choral festival going on. So there were a bunch of choirs standing there, and there was a group of young people, like probably 20 of them, on a dock, on a pier, singing a Radiohead song. And it was the most lovely thing I had ever heard. You can't imagine a better way to sort of start your morning than just by hearing that.
Chuck
In reality, though, backstage, everybody, he told me that he shouted, pipe down. And slammed his window.
Josh
Shut up, kids.
Chuck
That's cool, man.
Josh
It was great. It was so, so lovely.
Chuck
Great. Well, I think so, since we ended that on a high note from one of Chuck's good memories. Good recent memories from our visit to Madison. It means Short Stuff is out.
Josh
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Podcast: Stuff You Should Know
Episode: Short Stuff: Does singing make you happy?
Date: June 17, 2026
Hosts: Josh & Chuck
In this Short Stuff episode, Josh and Chuck explore whether singing—especially in groups—makes people genuinely happier. They discuss personal anecdotes, studies on the physical and psychological benefits of singing, and why group choral singing stands out as a particularly uplifting experience.
Josh and Chuck make a compelling, humorous, and heartwarming case for singing together, illustrated with studies, pop culture references, and personal stories. Their discussion encourages listeners to consider joining—or starting—a group singing experience, highlighting the joy and fulfillment that comes from raising your voice with others.