Smells Like Humans
Top 5% global podcast! Smells Like Humans is a seasonal podcast dedicated to bringing a humorous perspective to quirky and curious aspects of human behavior. Each show, the SLH crew will focus on a different topic, and share personal stories and observations in a way that sounds like you’re hanging out with your funny friends. The stories and commentary are presented with humor and warmth, since let’s face it: we all smell like humans. (Contact us: contactSLH19581980@gmail.com)
Smells Like Humans
THIS TITLE SHOULD BE READ IN A VOICE JUST ABOVE A WHISPER (ASMR)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Tracey the therapist joins Ross to discuss the world of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR. Tangents include: Bob Ross; wooden legs; sound bath; MDMA; mukbang; Helper Girl; golf whisper; Maria; misphonia; screaming dogs; bad laughs.
Notes:
- https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2022/03/asmr-or-not-unpicking-the-science-behind-a-sensory-phenomenon
- MARIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3go6fX-bvp8
- Bob Ross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLWEXRAnQd0&list=PLAEQD0ULngi67rwmhrkNjMZKvyCReqDV4
- Mukbang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh93NlN9ctE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukbang
Contact us: contactSLH19581980@gmail.com
Uh decided to wear an outfit that you usually wear.
SPEAKER_02Oh, she's killed on me right now. Okay, you know what's weird? I'm getting it. It's happening.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to another episode of Smells Like Humans. This is the podcast where we explore the curious things that people do, the very human things that grab our attention and cause us to wonder what and why. I'm Ross, your host, and my guest today is not only the funniest psychotherapist I know, she is a talented artist and will loan me a used tennis ball anytime. It's Tracy.
SPEAKER_02Yay! I'm so glad to be back. Yes. I will used tennis ball. I'm your gal.
SPEAKER_01It's great to have you back and welcome everyone. Friends, please help us grow this little community by sharing the show with somebody you think would like what you like, which is hopefully this show, which is why you're tuned in. It's the best way for us to make our tiny little show just a little bigger. It'll still be tiny, but it'll be a little bit bigger, tiny, and that's what we're going for. Also, know that we really appreciate you tuning in every week. It's a pleasure to spend this time with you. So thanks for being here. Let me just make a mini announcement. Do it. We just got a new financial supporter on Patreon. Exciting. A person named Scott became a tangent master. I think if you pledge about six dollars a month, you become a tangent master. Wow. And that entitles you to a shout out, like what is happening right now. Instead, yeah. We really appreciate people like Scott. So, Scott, thank you. And also anyone else that can afford, I think the levels are very low. Three dollars a month?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Six dollars a month.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And if you're really rolling fat in the coin, go on. I think it's $12 is the high, or maybe $10. And what is that level called? Uh that's called well, see, the lowest level is the the mini horses.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Tangent masters in the middle. Oh, and the last one is Super Smeller.
SPEAKER_02Oh my God, who doesn't want to be that?
SPEAKER_01And the Super Smeller, I just changed the reward. I can't remember what it is. I think I think I come over and mow your lawn for three months.
SPEAKER_02You don't like to do that, so that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So, but Scott, thank you very much. And you know, this show does cost money for us to put on. And as you can tell, we do not take advertising currently. And if we ever do, I don't know what I'm gonna do because on almost every show I say, we're small, we don't have any ads. And of course, we probably never will have any. But if we ever do, like like Nike comes along and says, Well, we must give you millions of dollars. That'd be nice. Uh then I've got all these shows where I say, We don't ever take ads. And then people will see say that I'm a sellout.
SPEAKER_02I are well, there are worse things.
SPEAKER_01So, uh, but in the meantime, since that's not in the offing, anything you can do to support us financially is appreciated. But really, we just are glad that you're here. And a lot of people have been reaching out to us lately on Instagram and email, and it's great to hear from you. That's very inspiring. And if we go flat broke doing this, but we garner just a smattering of your love, it was worth it. Yes. Now we know, Tracy, that people have all sorts of interesting individual reactions to sensory stimuli.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01Like, have you ever listened to a song and gotten goosebumps?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01Certain ideas might make you break out in a cold sweat.
SPEAKER_02This is true.
SPEAKER_01A roller coaster might give you the experience of butterflies. A spooky story might give you the shivers. A toothless old man with a wooden leg might give you the creeps. By the way, whatever happened to wooden legs?
SPEAKER_02This maybe they should come back. When did they go out? I don't know, 1847.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. When were there pirates? If you want people to step off, just mix in a wooden leg, you will rule the roost. You show up at your coffee shop with a wooden leg, people are clearing a path, don't you think?
SPEAKER_02Well, like I mean, I hope they would, because that seems hard to have a wooden leg.
SPEAKER_01I think it's awesome. I want more wooden parts. So, anyway, there are all these different reactions you can have, all these things, and people know they're real. People talk about them all the time. And then there are people who experience a tingling sensation from the scalp down the upper part of the spine, and they're often called the tingles or now ASMR. You've heard of this?
SPEAKER_02I have. I don't know much about it, so I'm excited to talk about it. Um, but I have, and my daughter loves it. Loves it how she reacts to certain things, and she says she uses it. Um, she really likes it for relaxation when she feels stressed.
SPEAKER_01That is one of the potential benefits. It is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. So it's a basically a pleasant feeling. And people describe it as sometimes as very relaxing. Sometimes it's described as sort of having like this fuzzy brain moment where everything is just kind of tingling, and it's it's quite described as quite pleasant. And they have been doing some research on this to find out is this a real thing? The early evidence suggests that it is real, huh? But it's still premature, the research. Some things that create an ASMR response for you may not create the same response as someone else. They might actually hate that noise. Here are some of the things. Whispering.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. I don't know that I'd like that. Tapping, licking, oh no, scratching, nope, blowing, crinkling, oh no, chewing, oh no, humming, also watching someone get a massage, watching someone stamping books, huh?
SPEAKER_01Watching and listening to someone turn pages in a book. That certain hand motions.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01Or watching that old Bob Ross show.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's so calming.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's it for people with ASMR, some of them really like that Bob Ross, you know, because he's like very s gentle. He is. And he talks, you know, he's like cut just above a whisper. I think that tree is gonna live right there. It's just a happy, a happy little accent. Happy little tree. It's just a happy little accent. You can put it anywhere. You can just put that tree anywhere.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I think it's gonna be right here. Don't you think that's okay?
SPEAKER_02Oh, Bob.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And with that, he had the fro.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, he had a good look. You like that look, the Bob Ross look.
SPEAKER_02It's comforting somehow.
SPEAKER_01You oh, the the skinny guy with the big hair?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, I think it just must be uh I've clearly associated with the 70s or 80s.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, but he kind of wore, I think his shirts were kind of open. A little bit, yeah. Big hair, skinny white guy, big fro. Yeah. You're that's that's comforting. Apparently. Well, that's good to know. So, Tracy, do you yourself have you ever experienced this ASMR thing?
SPEAKER_02Well, as you read through those things, the first ones, the lots of the auditory ones you talked about, I thought, oh no, I'm very auditorily sensitive. And um, I'd all of those would activate me in a very negative way. Right. But the other ones you talked about, I guess more visual, with some sound that I could imagine were more comforting. And then as you talked like Bob Ross, I was like, oh, I could go to sleep to that.
SPEAKER_01Yes. It's interesting because it is relaxing to people who are sensitive to ASMR stimuli, but it's not necessarily relaxing in a s in a classic way. So you might like Bob Ross and find it relaxing, but not get the tingles.
SPEAKER_02Oh, fair enough, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You can be sensitive to ASMR stimuli, but there are certain things that just drive you nuts.
SPEAKER_02Oh, there are a lot of auditory things that drive me nuts, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But but but the certain kind of thing will be perfect. So that's I find that very interesting.
SPEAKER_02I wonder if I could find that.
SPEAKER_01Are you skeptical at all about this? Do you think it could be real or does you Oh, I think it could absolutely be real.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I think there is such a clear um uh c connection between the body and the brain and the spirit and the the um just the the system in general. So I think that you know, sensory information that we're taking in from our environment has a huge impact on us. So if we could tap into how that would help us, you know, calm and relax and have pleasant experiences in a simple way.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I fully believe that.
SPEAKER_01Well, some people are skeptical about it because over the last few years there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of ASMR uh videos made for YouTube.
SPEAKER_02I have heard this, and this is what my daughter talked about as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And I guess there are so many of these people doing this that at least by the according to this one article, over 200 different videos are posted every day. Wow. Some of these ASMR tests, as they're called, um, have become celebrities in their own little world. Wow. They've made a lot of dough. Oh, good for them. And they have millions of fans, and sometimes they're even recognized on the street. Wow. So when people haven't really thought about this before and then see all this stuff on the internet, they go, is this a thing or is it like a sex thing? What is happening here?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And what's been happening is people have been talking about this a long time before there was the internet. But now with the internet, we have people out there actually creating the different sounds that different people like. And you can go on the internet for free and go on YouTube free and you can listen to these. And I have done that.
SPEAKER_02And what did you find?
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm going to tell you. Oh, please do. First, I will tell you that I am definitely a believer, but I'm not going to tell you why just yet. So the people that are researching this phenomenon do find some evidence that people who are sensitive to ASMR stimuli do experience a reduction in heart rate and at the same time an increase in skin conductance. So it means it's activating and deactivating at the same time, which is a very unusual. So you're having this relaxing feeling, but you're also feeling the tingling and kind of the excitement of that. So that's interesting. Something that one researcher described as a combination of euphoria and relaxation.
SPEAKER_02How cool is that?
SPEAKER_01It sounds good. It sounds like a drug.
SPEAKER_02It sounds like an MDMA kind of thing, if that's if that's what you're describing there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess I've never done MDMA.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_01Tell me about that experience. Is that when you started liking Bob Ross when you're doing a lot of I wouldn't say I've done a lot of MDMA, but after You've done enough of it?
SPEAKER_02I have. It's that euphoric feeling where all your senses are very receptive, like they're extra sensitive. Okay. Um, but you also feel very safe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Perdent.
SPEAKER_02Very relaxed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Neat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. The come down is terrible.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it is?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, so bad. Bad enough that I wouldn't I would really think about doing that again. Really?
SPEAKER_01After all of those chemicals flow into your brain, then you're depleted.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. And I just tend to get terrible hangovers from anything.
SPEAKER_01And then are you cranky or something?
SPEAKER_02Nauseous.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's worse.
SPEAKER_02Super nauseous and just depleted and um And then you've become pregnant. Gratefully I have not.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so that's not necessarily a side effect.
SPEAKER_02No. And in fact, for many people it would be impossible on that particular drug.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad you're here as an expert to kind of straighten this out. So some researchers think that the ASMR experience mimics the pleasures of social engagement and bonding.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01They've looked at MRI brain scans and have shown that while people are experiencing these so-called tingles, these brain tingles, they saw on the MRI scans that uh certain brain regions were stimulated, especially ones involved in reward activation.
SPEAKER_02I was wondering serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Emotional arousal. Yes. And somatosensory processing, which is the ability of the body to interpret a bodily sensation. And you say that's the same as MDMA?
SPEAKER_02Yes. But what if you could get that without Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So the researchers right now, they're still working on this, but they think that ASMR is a complex state. It's associated with increased activation in neural regions associated with emotion, empathy, and affiliative behaviors. My story suggests that this is a very real thing. Go on. And my experience is all you need. You can just pack up your little science books and stick them back in your Hello Kitty backpack. Because I'm bringing you some clear, crisp, anecdotal information. Great. Study of one. So as a kid, I never heard of this. I never heard of anything. I was deprived of information. You know, I know we've had this conversation before, but when your parents send you to school and you're younger than everybody else, you quickly learn that everybody knows things that you don't know.
SPEAKER_02This is true.
SPEAKER_01Were you a young kid or an old kid in school? And did you discover this? Like people would be like, oh, they would say things you'd be like, I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And I look back and I'm like, I it was I was just not getting it. It didn't process the same way.
SPEAKER_01No, it's a horrible thing. Parents, listen up. If you got a kid at home and you're gonna send him to school, wait a year, hold them back a year. Wait a year. Or five years.
SPEAKER_02Five, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wait, you just see a little stubble.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I think one to five before you, you know, years before you.
SPEAKER_01But I've seriously, I was always just in the dark. Same. I felt like I was on a different planet.
SPEAKER_02I yep.
SPEAKER_01And I and the thing, the weird thing was because I was kind of a gregarious little kid, I had friends and stuff, and I had to kind of fake it through some of these conversations because I was like, I yeah, what?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sure. You know I what month is your birthday?
SPEAKER_01November.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, August.
SPEAKER_01So I was sent, like I went to kindergarten when I was four. Yeah. Because see, my parents, not my dad was uninvolved. He he was living in a bus. He was living in a broken down school bus. But my mother's interest, since we had a big family, was just getting them out. Get them out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Move them along as soon as they could put their shoes on. Get out there. Get out and make something yourself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And come back when you got a degree or a job.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, I had only just turned five, so Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so this is a real thing. So anyway, as a kid, I would be in a class, and a lot of times I didn't know what was happening with uh whatever they were teaching because I wasn't paying attention or I was up to no good. So the nuns would send around smart kids to help out.
SPEAKER_02Oh God.
SPEAKER_01No, it's okay. This is how this is part of my discovery story. It's not a bad story.
SPEAKER_02Okay, go on.
SPEAKER_01Smart kids helping other stupid kids is a nice it's a nice it's a lovely story. It's a touching story.
SPEAKER_02Go on.
SPEAKER_01This is a hallmark card.
SPEAKER_02Is it? All right.
SPEAKER_01So I'm I'm dumb and I'm sitting there, and uh so I get some smart kid, and usually I feel always in these situations the person was a girl person. Well, and so they would come over, but it would be in the middle of class, so they couldn't talk loudly. So they would talk sotovoce, so with a very soft voice, but it was audible. It wasn't a whisper.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01For me, it wasn't a whisper, it was just, you know, Ross, this is how you have to do this problem. You'd be like that. And they would be helping me.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I wonder where those helper girls are now.
SPEAKER_01I know one for sure.
SPEAKER_02She had teacher, social worker, doctor. Wow.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't know that.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01I I haven't looked up any of the helper girls. Well, if you look up helper girls now, you get a whole different thing. It would be a whole different thing. You can't even look up helper girl. So, anyway, they they had to be talking just above a whisper, and they had to be um teaching or explaining something to me. And what would happen is I would be overcome with this tingling sensation. And I had no idea what was happening.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01And for those of you who are going, like, oh, it's a sex thing, it's not a sexy thing at all. Of course, I was a little kid then anyway, but it was it's very much like sometimes people, when you're kids, you play the game where you pretend to crack an egg on somebody's head and you'd kind of run your fingers down their hair and back into set.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, it's like that.
SPEAKER_01It's vi it's like that, but it's even better. It's even more euphoric. So I would this would happen frequently because I was frequently not getting whatever they were teaching.
SPEAKER_02Also, you were getting reinforced not to get it because then you'd get a helper girl.
SPEAKER_01I didn't know, but I didn't know it was gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02It was just unconscious.
SPEAKER_01It would happen automatically. But yes, I am always I've never turned down a helper girl.
SPEAKER_02I can't think of one time. It's good to know.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, so this would happen. I never mentioned this to anybody because I didn't even know what it was. It was just like this pleasant feeling. It would only happen in that situation, but I never really thought about it in a concrete way. Like, oh, when this happens, then I feel this way.
SPEAKER_02I wonder if that was a Mr. Rogers thing, too.
SPEAKER_01Oh what? What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02Mr. Rogers neighborhood. What about it? He talked like that. Welcome.
SPEAKER_01That guy was a goon.
SPEAKER_02He was great.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I know everybody. You have to like Mr. Rogers.
SPEAKER_02Well, you don't have to like. Here are the people you have to like.
SPEAKER_01Here are the people you have to like.
SPEAKER_02Go on.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Mr. Rogers. Sure. Ray Charles. And um Elvis. Oh, I don't like Elvis. If you don't like any of any of those three, people will hate on you forever.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's fair, but I'm well I will I will invite their hatred.
SPEAKER_01I I I watched Mr. Rogers every day go on. Didn't his mother say when things are going badly, look for the helper girls.
SPEAKER_02That's what she said.
SPEAKER_01I'm paraphrasing. I'm not exactly sure if she said helper girls.
SPEAKER_02I think she just said helpers, but I mean for our purposes.
SPEAKER_01I'm pretty sure you can't say helper girls anymore. We've said it all for sending someone. We're not doing it on purpose. So anyway, I would get these feelings. I thought it was just totally some weird idiosyncratic thing about me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I never told anybody. I never said, Oh, wow, I got this really weird feeling. Or I go went home and told my What are you gonna say? I never told my parents anything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I avoided telling me.
SPEAKER_01It was a mistake. Always. You don't want to give them any information. It's like the KGBs. Like, no, that you don't need to know. You don't need to know what's happening.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01Anything I tell you is gonna be used against me. It is. So uh I never said anything. So I never knew about this.
SPEAKER_02And then as like the first time you've shared this story then?
SPEAKER_01I think I shared some aspect of it in the first season of this podcast. But I was talking with uh Rob and Amy and they thought it was stupid. Oh so I I'm that's why I wanted you to come back because I know that you have empathy and they don't. Well, um Amy's Amy has some empathy. Rob has no empathy, and that's why he's never on the show anymore. So when I started hearing about this thing ASMR, I just thought it was some stupid internet thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I did not connect it with this whole experience.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I was aware of it extremely tangentially, like I knew there were videos of people on YouTube licking something. Oh, like making smacking noises.
SPEAKER_02I would avoid that.
SPEAKER_01And that's not my I don't like any of the other noises that ASMR people like. I don't like the tapping, I don't like the scratching, I don't like the chewing, the humming. No, you know, the bird calls, whatever it is, the bongo playing, all those things. I don't like them. I only like exactly that. Somebody, a helper girl voice explaining something or helping.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01That's the only thing that does this. And it does it every time.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01So when I saw these videos, just I was like, okay, this is either a weird sex thing or it's just people are in the weird sex. Weird licking noises, and that's not for me. So I just didn't go down that rabbit trail. And then I started reading about ASMR because at some point, I think it was during the first season, I was interested, like, what is this?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And when I started reading about it, I go, Oh, this is the thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then I found out that different people are differently sensitized so that you don't have to be triggered by everything. And so then I started watching, I started looking for videos that did exactly the helper girl thing.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and you found them?
SPEAKER_01I found some. And I quickly found the best one. But I watched a lot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I watched a lot of these videos of people doing everything, like checking you into a hotel.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or giving you an eye exam or a, you know, some sort of medical inventory. They don't actually do anything, but they just talk to you for like an hour about something. It would normally take three minutes. Like you're checking into a hotel for like an hour.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And they're just, now let me tell you what's what other services we have. You might want to take advantage of the spa.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01And if you want to book a spa appointment, it just goes on. If they were happening in real life.
SPEAKER_02It actually sounds delightful.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me tell you, they're all over there. And they're all free and they're all fun. So, um, and also just to do my research completely, I looked at the ones that are labeled erotic.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And nothing. No. No, they were a lot of the licking. Oh, and I just that's nothing about that is sexy for me.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01No. So I found my favorite.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01It's a person who just who says her name is Maria. She's either from Russia or affects a believable Russian accent to my little ears. Doesn't matter if she's making it up or not. I don't even care if her name is Maria. She is the queen, as far as I'm concerned, because she has a lot of videos that are perfect for me. Soft voice, and she's helping me. And that's my secret sauce, right? Yeah. And she's been making these videos for maybe eight to ten years, and she's got a huge following. And I want you to listen to just a little bit of this.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And um I know that uh you have um uh decided to wear an outfit that you usually wear.
SPEAKER_01Oh, she's killing me right now.
SPEAKER_02Okay, you know what's weird? I'm getting it. It's happening.
SPEAKER_01Jesus really. That's really bizarre.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Like it started in my head. So here's a question. Do you what like what so is this suit one one of your favorite ones? You're like, oh, I really want to hear her talk about that suit while I relax or feel this way. Or or can she talk about anything? Does it have to be a novel one? Like, tell me more about this.
SPEAKER_01So I I've listened to the suit one many times because it's the best. She does some where she whispers that don't do anything for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So she does a lot of mixing it up. She's not just a one-trick helping girl. She does whispering, but she also does that kind of voice, which is the soft voice, which works perfectly for me. She's always like in one of them, she's explaining how she irons. In one, she explains how to fold your bathroom towels. In one, she explains proper dinner etiquette, like uh table setting etiquette and how which fork to use and how to how to slurp your suit. Those don't do much for me. The ones that do the best for me are the suit one, where she's fitting, she's getting you a nice suit, and it's like 45 minutes of that of trying on a suit. And then the other one that I really like is um she's uh working as a car salesperson and she's selling me a car.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01I love that one, and I've watched that one, but she's really good. Like she not only has all these different topics, because she's been doing it for years, like every month a new one. Wow. And they're always like she has she has a really good sense for like staging. She has a nice backdrop. I don't know if she uses green screen, but sometimes it looks like it's really there. And she comes up with all these scenarios.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01So it's like, you know, oh, welcome to the spa, welcome to the clinic, welcome to and now I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen today.
SPEAKER_02And so do you watch and listen?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay, but listening is really all I need. And just like when the helper girls would help me as a kid, they usually be kind of behind me. Right. And they would kind of lean over and point at my paper and see, What you you don't even know how to write your name. You're so dumb. But I wasn't hearing that. Because I was getting this brain tingling, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It didn't matter.
SPEAKER_01Well, no, it didn't matter, but also their assistance did not make any impact because I was just kind of floating. It was like somebody injecting me with like a drug. What was it? MDMA?
SPEAKER_02MDMA, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I'm like floating and I'm high, and then they walk away and I'm like, oh crap, I did not pick up on anything they just told me. Once I discovered that this is a thing that people talk about, it wasn't just me. And then I found out that there were people who were doing exactly what I wanted. Uh I watched a lot of these.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because it's like, wow, it's very relaxing. Some people do it because it does give you this euphoric and relaxation feeling at the same time. A lot of people do it to fall asleep. Yeah. And and Maria, who is not sponsoring the show, but she should. Yeah, she's never even listened to the show, but she should. She um has ones that are um geared toward helping you fall asleep.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_01So she's got ones that are for that. She's got ones that are um where she's actually massaging somebody's face or something and talking about it or their hair. But she also works, she has videos where she does a lot of these other things. She doesn't do the chewing, but she'll do the tapping and the scratching. And if there's any of that in there.
SPEAKER_02No, you don't want that one.
SPEAKER_01No, that's my misphonia. I hope that's really what it's called. Misphonia.
SPEAKER_02It sounds right.
SPEAKER_01Uh it's something like that. It's when you hear something and you really don't like it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I have some strong reactions to things like that.
SPEAKER_01Here are some noises people like. This isn't tingles, these are just things people like. Yeah. These are the like the top noises people like. I bet you can guess. I'm not even gonna say which ones do you think are on here? People noises they like to hear, and it just makes them feel good.
SPEAKER_02Oh, God, don't put me on the spot.
SPEAKER_01Anything, just guess one. A dog?
SPEAKER_02No, that's terrible.
SPEAKER_01A dog screaming in the back of a car?
SPEAKER_02No, that's not on the Oh no, it is. It's number 14.
SPEAKER_01Dog screaming.
SPEAKER_02I've got nothing. I don't even know. I don't like most noises. I like a lot of quiet.
SPEAKER_01You liked Maria?
SPEAKER_02I did.
SPEAKER_01People like to hear waves against rocks.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Water, waves, rain.
SPEAKER_01Rain is one.
SPEAKER_02Um uh like crickets.
SPEAKER_01Nice kind on the list. Crickets.
SPEAKER_02Like a like a summer sound.
SPEAKER_01Well, they like birds chirping.
SPEAKER_02There we go.
SPEAKER_01They like uh for some reason they like to hear babies laughing.
SPEAKER_02Oh, a thunderstorm? Um that's different than babies laughing.
SPEAKER_01A baby laughing during a thunderstorm? A maniacal baby laughing? Yes. Some babies have a bad laugh.
SPEAKER_02They do.
SPEAKER_01And they should be disciplined. Like, don't laugh like that.
SPEAKER_02Don't laugh like that, baby.
SPEAKER_01There are some people that have a bad laugh.
SPEAKER_02It's true.
SPEAKER_01And then what are you gonna do with them?
SPEAKER_02I can't be friends with them.
SPEAKER_01Well, you can't live with them for sure.
SPEAKER_02You really don't want to be on a train with them.
SPEAKER_01You don't want to be in a train. You you can't really live with them. Like you could be super attracted to them, but when they laugh unless you're a dour sort. If you're dour, if you're a moper and you never make anyone laugh, but there's always a chance they could be watching something and laughing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You can't stop them from laughing. That's wrong.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You shouldn't stop people from laughing. Well, if they're terrible laughers, people like crackling, the sound of crackling fire. Uh leaves crunching beneath your feet. Right. Snow crunching, snow people like that.
SPEAKER_02I could I could get into that one.
SPEAKER_01And dog screams.
SPEAKER_02And dog screams. I don't know. I went stuck. My mind was blank. I was so obsessed with Maria.
SPEAKER_01Isn't she great?
SPEAKER_02She's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01I'm telling you, I have listened to a lot of others. There's another person that comes close, but she's not as good. Maria, it's clear she has really thought about this.
SPEAKER_02Well, there seems to be a certain frequency or something, and I'm sure everyone wants it differently on that.
SPEAKER_01But that's the thing, but you can find there's so many different kinds, you can find the one that's perfect for you. That's what was exciting. But there was this, there's a woman, I think she's Scottish, and she um she actually did the one with the hotel check-in, and I like that one a lot. But once I discovered Maria, I felt like the Scottish woman was like, that's my backup plan. Like if Maria's videos get yanked from the tube, yeah, and I'm like freaking out, I can always go to the Scottish woman and get checked into the hotel for an hour and a half. It's funny because it's so stupid, but you wanted to keep going.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes, tell me about the shuffleboard court.
SPEAKER_02Tell me again about the shuffleboard court. Tell me about the spa services, please.
SPEAKER_01Let me tell you about the continental breakfast. The pancakes are really old.
SPEAKER_02Rubbery even.
SPEAKER_01You'll enjoy them. My mother once told me that she liked the golf whispering. And I'm wondering.
SPEAKER_02What is golf whispering?
SPEAKER_01Well, in the old days when they announced the golf club, they have the guys right there, and they're like, okay, Arnold Palmer is lying up for a I actually really like that's gonna break to the left about three inches.
SPEAKER_02I could listen to that.
SPEAKER_01If he doesn't make this one, Johnny, it's I'm afraid it's gonna be all over for him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And my mother said that that was very relaxing and she could fall asleep to it because it was you could hear it, but you didn't really have to listen to the words. Yeah. And I just wonder if she had a little ASMR going on.
SPEAKER_02I'll bet.
SPEAKER_01Because we never talked about it. I don't know if I mentioned this, but we never talked about anything. You have said this in my household.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01And I know what you're thinking, you're probably into a little mukbang.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01What do you like about that?
SPEAKER_02I um the the mucking. The banger. You're more of a mucker. Not so much the bang, more of more of the muck. So mukbang. I have no idea what mukbang is.
SPEAKER_01It's a Korean word, and it's also refers to an eating show. And you go online and you watch and listen to someone consume various quantities of food.
SPEAKER_02Nope. Would not like that.
SPEAKER_01That is a huge thing, mukbang.
SPEAKER_02Wow. People are fascinating. The things we like, the things we don't like, the things that work for different people. It I it is endlessly fascinating to me, and I am learning so much today. Mukbang.
SPEAKER_01I'm just pulling up one here. This is a compilation of ramen mukbang.
SPEAKER_02No, I don't like that at all. What are you seeing? That it it it's it's just it's noodles going in a person's mouth that's really full. There's chopsticks, and I I'm concerned that the noodles are gonna spill, but they're not. There's all over the face, and it's um there's nothing about that I like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so people enjoy watching this. They they think it gives them a sense of community, like they're at a table and they're having um this experience of you know, sharing a meal with somebody. Maybe there's something also sensory about it that makes it doesn't do anything for me.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01So do you think, in your professional opinion, that there's something wrong with me if I watch a lot of these videos?
SPEAKER_02I don't know if it's related to the videos, but I do think something's wrong with you. What's wrong with me? Let's get it. Absolutely nothing. No, I don't think I mean, no, if those videos work for you, and you know, I mean, at like most things, if they don't hurt anybody else and they don't hurt you, then there is nothing wrong with it. And if you find, you know, peace or satisfaction or whatever from it, whether it's a sex thing or it's not a sex thing, if it works for somebody and nobody else is getting hurt, uh it then there's nothing wrong with it.
SPEAKER_01That's really the theme of our entire show. Is if it's not hurting anybody and it's not hurting you and you like it, you should do it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And there's, as you know, there's every kind of thing on the internet available to you. You're bound to find your niche. But uh, this ASMR thing was it was very um validating to find out that it was actually a thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because I went most of my life not knowing that. And the thought I didn't finish before, but so at some point I did get out of grade school. And you don't there were no more helper anybody. Nobody was helping you.
SPEAKER_02Nobody was helping.
SPEAKER_01So I just kind of forgot about it.
SPEAKER_02But your brain and body didn't.
SPEAKER_01And every once in a while I'd be in a situation where it would happen, but I just again I was never ever thinking like this is some sort of thing that other people would experience, or I never tried to figure out seek it out. I never I never tried to seek it out, and I never really understood why it was happening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like just what I said to you seemed so obvious. Somebody has to be talking in a soft voice, right? And they have to be helping me. I didn't ever dissect it. Right. So I never thought about why it was happening, and it would happen, and it would happen random times. But once I got out of school at yeah, to grade school, there was very few and far between. So I just forgot about it. And then once I discovered what it was and then started looking at the videos, it felt very validating. It's like, oh no, this is a real thing.
SPEAKER_02Well, and I wonder how much of that was part of the enjoyment of it was like the dots being put together in your brain of making sense of all of it, and then being like, oh, that makes sense. And then both your sensory system and your emotional system and your cognitive system could all line up and make it okay, and you could access it. Like, wow, those are some real stars aligning. No wonder it's so satisfying.
SPEAKER_01And I found Maria.
SPEAKER_02And you found Maria.
SPEAKER_01And she is very interested in making sure that I get a good suit. Yes. She has spent a lot of time working with me, and she's also sold me some cars. Nice. I wonder if anyone out there that listens to the show is similarly triggered by some of these things. And if you are, you should reach out to us and let us know. You can do that on Instagram. We're there. Smells like humans.
SPEAKER_02Now I want to go find my thing. I mean, I like Maria, but I want to go find my thing. Have you ever been to a sound bath?
SPEAKER_01Uh no.
SPEAKER_02They're gr that's sound bath. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Are you in water?
SPEAKER_02No, it's it's you're like in a room, like on a yoga mat, and someone's doing this like it's just all like it it surrounds you in sound. And it had I've been to a couple of them and they had a similar experience to that. Like you it trans it it takes you somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01Who's naked in the sound bath?
SPEAKER_02Well, in my experience, no one was, but I'm sure there are clothing optional sound baths.
SPEAKER_01I did do a century deprivation float.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I don't think there were any sounds.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the sound bath is uh it was it's pretty wild. I would do that again.
SPEAKER_01Do you get to pick the sounds? No. Are you tripping on MDMA while you're in the room?
SPEAKER_02No, I was no.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And you're are you by yourself?
SPEAKER_02No, it was a room full of people.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, you could hear the other people? Were they muckbanging?
SPEAKER_02Well, not that I know of. Now that I know what it is, I'll have to look for it more. But the um no, you're just in a room like a yoga room with people in yoga and yoga outfits, and uh then it's like kind of like a yoga cauldron that they make sounds in, like a yoga drum. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, like uh oh yeah, like a metal drum kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01And somebody's actually making the sounds.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And do they take requests or no, no, you just take what they have to give.
SPEAKER_01And how long did this sound bath go on?
SPEAKER_02I honestly don't know. It I just I I lost time.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Because you start floating.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was just floaty and like I wasn't in my body anymore.
SPEAKER_01Did at any point you start asking yourself, what the hell am I doing here?
SPEAKER_02Well, sure, but then then that's lots of woo-woo things that I've done. And then, you know, I let that that I let that judgmental voice drift on by and invite the other ones to come back.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Tracy, for talking to me about this.
SPEAKER_02Oh, thank you. I can't wait to go try it out.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad. Well, I've sent you on your way. You might lose the weekend.
SPEAKER_02Well, that would be fine.
SPEAKER_01Thank you everyone for joining us for this episode. If you like what we're doing, we would sure love your help. You can do that by following the show on Instagram, sharing your favorite episodes with people. You can like our good friend Scott and support us on Patreon, that would be awesome. And we really appreciate that you listen to the show and enjoy it, and we like having you in our family. And we hope you will tune in to another episode because whether you are dropping MDMA with Tracy in a sound bath or just someone binging mukbang videos, it's important to remember that we all smell like humans. Goodbye, everybody. Don't give me any of this noise about you living in the back of a 72 pinto eating ramen like a mukbanger.