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
F THAT NOISE
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Madeline joins Ross to discuss the role of noise in our lives. Tangents include: Genitalia confidence; getting in trouble for cheering at a baseball game; Hamnet; Tim's Vermeer; childbirth TKO; Karmic Boomerangs; why silence is terrifying; more pickle ball tension; remodeling revenge plan.
Notes:
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/06/09/health/noise-exposure-health-impacts.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/sports/pickleball-noise-complaints-lawsuits.html
- https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1181246866/pickleball-noise-problem-courts-bats-play
Contact us: contactSLH19581980@gmail.com
If a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? I don't know, but I sure don't fucking want to find out.
SPEAKER_00Welcome 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 a fascinating human who is more articulate than a French squirrel and six times as friendly, it's Madeline. Welcome and welcome everyone to the show. Last time we had the call to action.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We're recording this before we know if it was effective. If you were one of those people that you were listening and we said please give us a five-star rating and a sparkling review on Apple Podcasts, and you forgot to do it and you felt guilty about it, and you were wringing your hands and gnashing your teeth, you couldn't sleep at night. Guess what? It's not too late to do that. It's easy and so appreciated. So uh if you missed your call to action, this is your mulligan, this is your opportunity, this is your second chance. We need it.
SPEAKER_02Opportunity knocks once, but action calls twice.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And we also wanted to give you a heads up that we're gonna take a midsummer break, maybe a late summer break. We're gonna take a moment to recharge, regroup, and uh what else can we do with an R reuse, recycle. Uh recharge, regroup, and reconnoiter. Can we reconnoiter?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're reconnoitering.
SPEAKER_00So if you uh don't see any fresh episodes uh for the rest of the summer, uh just assume we're on a bender, a reconnoiter bender.
SPEAKER_02Getting a banana bag.
SPEAKER_00Uh that was last episode. So if you were on the listening to the last episode, you know what banana bag is. And if you weren't listening to the last episode, you don't know what banana bag is. You need to go back.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Listen to it, then you'll get fresh. You'll get the call to action.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you'll get it fresh.
SPEAKER_00And you'll be you'll be in in the present in the sense that you'll be reacting as you hear it. And that's the beauty of recorded speech. Okay, so we know that people living in the modern world have to deal with noise.
SPEAKER_02Noise.
SPEAKER_00If you think about it, it's very difficult to escape noise. It's true. You have noise in your ears right now. This podcast is noise. It's noise. Noise is a part of our life, and even in places where you think there's going to be very little noise, there's noise. There's noise. Most of my life I've associated noise with one major consequence, and that's hearing loss. When I was younger, okay, yeah. Well, I started playing the drums when I was about 10 years old.
SPEAKER_02I did not know that about you, but that makes so much sense. So I still play the drums now, but you ever learned things about a friend and you're just like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like, oh yeah, of course that guy's boss played the drums as a child.
SPEAKER_00Of course that guy's in jail. You know how people always say, I wish I could be at my own funeral so I could see what who my real friends are and what they say. So I came up with a version of that. It's a pretty fresh idea. Fresh, fresh. So you don't have to die for this.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So all you have to do is somehow get a credible person to tell somebody you know that you have been accused of being a murderer.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and see how they react.
SPEAKER_00And see if they go, oh my god, I can't believe it. He's such a great guy, and I just can't believe it. Or they say, Yep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, tracked.
SPEAKER_00That's on brand. That's how you know who your friends are. There you go. Because even your real friends, even if they believe you could do it, they pretend you couldn't.
SPEAKER_02And then there's this, no, then there's this third category of friend, though, right? That goes, oh, well, if they did, then they had it coming.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they have a reason.
SPEAKER_02They wouldn't kill somebody without a good reason.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there must have been a that person must have stole their seat on the bus.
SPEAKER_02Exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_00So, anyway, I play the drums my whole life without ear protection. I used to also do stupid things like, you know, stick my head really close to speakers just to show people that I would do something crazy.
SPEAKER_02But also tracks, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I've always been a very loud person. What? My sister, when I was when we were both young, she called me the earbender because she'd be trying to sleep in, and my she said, your voice penetrates the walls and goes directly into my brain. I'd be like, thank you. Um, I once was asked to show my ticket at a Dodger game, baseball game.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So there's like 30,000 people in the stands yelling, and someone complained that I was yelling too loud at a baseball game. And I was like, the usher comes over and he's like, I'm gonna have to see your ticket. And I go, why?
SPEAKER_03Why?
SPEAKER_00Well, you there's a complaint by this woman who's like in front of you that you're cheering too loudly.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, That's the most Ross story of all time.
SPEAKER_01Do we need to show?
SPEAKER_00I'm like, do we check with the Dodgers on this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was probably like 17 years old. And so Ross. So I said, Okay, I'll show you my ticket if she shows you hers.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, there that makes it even that's even more Ross. Damn, this story is so Ross.
SPEAKER_00We both had to show our tickets. So, uh, and I was allowed to stay and cheer at a baseball game. By the way, baseball's played outside, built for cheering.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, all the things they're prompting you to yell all the time. All the time. All the time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, noise has always been part of my life, and either uh listening to it myself or creating it. The latest research, watch out. The latest research shows that noise can play a more insidious and deleterious role in our health than we thought.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, deleterious. I love when you say a word I don't know, because I know a lot of words. I don't know this one. I know you know that word. What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00You know, it basically harmful.
SPEAKER_02Okay. But the same root as delete, like it deletes good things. You know, deleterious.
SPEAKER_00That's a good question. Anyway, anyway, what we find is that the noise in our life is actually hurting us more than we thought. Not just our ears, and not in and my ears are destroyed. Like I can't, I'm just reading your lips right now.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00But if the noise gets too loud or startling, it can cause additional health problems, including hypertension, stroke, heart attacks. This is a worldwide phenomenon and something that affects over 100 million Americans. And so, first of all, we tend to think about okay, if you live next to a highway, yeah, or a train or an airport, yeah, fire station. You think of those people, but it it it's much more than that. But a lot of people when when you um when you talk to them about this, say, oh, I've lived next to a highway, I'm used to it. Like I don't even hear it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the background noise.
SPEAKER_00Uh the data show that it's still hurting them, even if they're used to it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you might be able to mentally tune it out, but that doesn't mean your body can magically not experience it.
SPEAKER_00In fact, they find that being exposed to noise in your life, okay, in your past, primes the body to overreact and it makes the negative effects even worse.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So having uh being someone who's used to noise, that's really bad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh even people who live like, you know, you're from Ohio, I'm sure you live.
SPEAKER_02I'm I'm well, I'm from Michigan and then Washington, but I went to college in Ohio.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so all those places are farms, basically. Yes. Michigan, Ohio, Washington, Eastern Washington.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00You grew up and there was uh a pig under one arm and a and a backhoe under the other.
SPEAKER_02That's your yeah, that's my childhood, right?
SPEAKER_00Noise for you was corn growing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. Wheat mostly, but yeah. Even people and lentils.
SPEAKER_01Madeline, listen to that sound of wheat blowing. The wheat blowing in the wind.
SPEAKER_00Even people who live in a peaceful rural community are at risk. Yeah. If you live in a peaceful, otherwise peaceful suburb, but there's a train that goes by, like a lot of East Coast cities in our country, uh, and it kind of blows its horn in the middle of the night. Yeah, that can really cause a lot of health problems for you.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I used to live near a train station in New Jersey, and the train wasn't the problem. Whenever the train was coming, the train station would sound something that I can best describe as the loudest, most disturbing alarm you can imagine. It was something like this. Ready?
SPEAKER_02I'm ready. Yeah, I hate that.
SPEAKER_00And it was very loud. You could hear it. We were a few blocks away, but you could hear it. Oh, it just echoes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it it that reminds me of some of those like really loud parking garage alarms when they open and close their doors, but I imagine louder and worse.
SPEAKER_00It really bugs me when people have the horn honk, lock the door, and they keep doing it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like honk, honk, honk, honk, honk. Your door's locked.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like take We heard it.
SPEAKER_00Your OCD is killing my mood. It's gonna make sure it's locked. Honk, honk, honk, honk. And then you're walking by and it honk. It's like that's very distressing. I know where you live. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03A great sentence.
SPEAKER_00I've been to your home, your current home.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00And I know where you live. I know where you live. I you're never you're never there when I was never aware of this, but sure, yeah. You're never aware of it. We're on to a whole nother tangent, which is an important one, but one we will not go into much. But I feel like you live currently in what I would describe, and I think most people would expect, is a fairly quiet environment.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there are these two either cars or motorcycles that are piloted by people who are not confident in their genitalia and therefore feel the need to come roaring up the hill at about two in the morning um grinding their gears. So every we we got a few things, but those are especially noticeable because it's usually so quiet.
SPEAKER_00Not confident in their genitalia. What a horrible condition that is. I would hate that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. If you have a body, there is a chance that you are not confident. Good well genitalia.
SPEAKER_00Well played. So leaf blowers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Those are loud. Yeah, you gotta wear ear protection with those.
SPEAKER_00Kind of, yeah, but I just don't like hearing them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Back in the old days when there were leaves on the ground, we used to rake them up.
SPEAKER_02What's a rake?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02No, I'm totally kidding.
SPEAKER_00Rake them into a pile.
SPEAKER_02I know that was when I was little, we had a big backyard with lots of leaves that would fall, and we'd rake them up and I'd jump in it.
SPEAKER_00Putting aside the fact that I don't even know if you need to rake leaves so much, but that's what people would do who cared about. You'd rake the leaves. Usually the kids would be forced to do if you had any kids.
SPEAKER_02And then they get to jump in it, though, and that's good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you could jump in the leaves, build a fort, whatever, but eventually the leaves would be bagged and tossed or burned or something.
SPEAKER_02Put aside to make a gross rotting pile.
SPEAKER_00What they would what you wouldn't do is say, go out, spread the leaves around.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then come back in and we'll call it a day.
SPEAKER_02Now there's someone else's problem.
SPEAKER_00So now they have the leaf blowers just blow these things around in the city. So these things are very loud, especially the gas-powered ones. They make a lot of noise, but it's there's no street sweepers here. Right. So they blow this stuff off the sidewalk, and a lot of it just blows in the air and lands right back down where it was, or just slightly uh adjacent. What's the point? It's so noisy, and it's just like it's it's Kafka-esque.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it really is. Yeah, that's a good description.
SPEAKER_00So pointless.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so let me full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
SPEAKER_00Boom. Shakespeare. Boom! Or whoever. Yeah. Sir Francis Bacon. I don't know. Do you know they don't know no one is confident in you about how Shakespeare looked? Like what do you look like?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's like a whole area of inquiry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, there's also conspiracy theorists who think we don't actually know who Shakespeare is, but that usually comes from w whether you realize this or or not subconscious or conscious classist beliefs that a a poor man from Stratford could not have written these beautiful things.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well and would have the audacity to name his kid Ham Net.
SPEAKER_02The unmitigated hull.
SPEAKER_00It's Shakespeare at ham.net. I uh saw for the first time something came out ten years ago called Tim's Vermeer. This is a tangent that has no connection anymore. So the art Dutch artist Vermeer painted a very few paintings, but his paintings are considered some of the best ever. They're gorgeous. And so there's uh been research into how Vermeer actually did this. And so this guy, Tim, who is sort of a genius, not a painter, okay, painted a Vermeer using uh mirrors.
SPEAKER_02Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_00To show how Vermeer would have done exactly what he did. Because his paintings use light in a way that people have to do it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Fascinating.
SPEAKER_00This guy, Tim, recognized that the painting, because he's a graphics guy. And he said these paintings look like photos. Right. But back in the what whatever, 17th century or yeah, it was 17th century, I think, Vermeer. Uh might be auto. But anyway, he rigged up a very simple use of mirrors to show how you and he's not a painter. You can paint a vermeer. And he did. It took him a year. It was kind of weird. It was that's cool though. But it was very, it's a very interesting. I recommend it. Tim's Vermeer. Okay, here's how the whole noise thing works. Unpleasant noise enters your body through your ears. So far, so good. Yeah. But then it quickly gets relayed to the stress detection center in your brain. Hate. This area is called the amygdala.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00And it triggers a cascade of reactions in your body.
SPEAKER_03Row.
SPEAKER_00And if it's chronically overactivated by noise, the reactions produce harmful effects.
SPEAKER_02I don't yank that.
SPEAKER_00Your endocrine system, your endocrine system can overreact, causing too much cortisol. That's stuff that makes you fat and cranky. Adrenaline and other chemicals to course through the body and just burn it all up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The sympathetic nervous system, which is our fight or flight system, can also be hyperactivated. Your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure goes up, inflammatory cells start inflaming. Okay. And over time, these changes lead to inflammation in your body. And this inflammation causes hypertension, plaque buildup and arteries, and that increases the risk of heart disease. Wow. Heart attacks and stroke.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's bad.
SPEAKER_00And they've done a lot of cool research to really study this and study people in different situations and uh even people while they're sleeping, they play noises. Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_02And so the body reacts.
SPEAKER_00Right. And they have found that in fact, these consequences without getting into it, these consequences are legit. Like this happens to people when they're exposed to the city.
SPEAKER_02This is actually cause and effect, yeah.
SPEAKER_00The people who actually live in areas with high levels of transportation noise, whether it's cars, trains, buses, whatever, airplanes, uh, they have highly activated amygdalas. They have a lot of inflammation in the arteries. And within five years, they tend to have more major cardiac events. Can you believe it?
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah, I I wouldn't have thought of it, but that's that everything you're saying tracks. Like that's wild.
SPEAKER_00So they've been able to like control for factors like environment and behavior and lifestyle factors like smoking and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02Genetics, I'm sure, predispositions.
SPEAKER_00Hold all that con yeah, poor cardiac health, hold all of that constant, and the effect still is there. And the the it noise can trigger like immediate heart attacks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_00They have found that even if you don't remember hearing the noise, like you don't remember you slept through it, as they say. Oh, I didn't hear it, I slept through it. Yeah, yeah. It still has an effect. So the World Health Organization says that you should have less than 40 decibels, 40 dBs as your annual average nighttime noise outside your bedroom.
SPEAKER_02I wonder how many people, while listening to this episode, are gonna find themselves turning down the volume.
SPEAKER_00Like to nothing.
SPEAKER_02Like, well, and just subconsciously, too, right? Like just, you know, oh, I'm thinking about noise and the impact it has on me. Oh, this is a little loud.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they you they say you should shoot for less than 30 dBs of nighttime noise inside your bedroom for high quality sleep, and that's probably quieter than your bedroom is.
SPEAKER_02Even where you rules out a lot of my activities.
SPEAKER_00Well, well said. Well said. I wish that was on video because her facial expression really sold it for me. Of course, these horrible effects, these harmful effects, um, tend to affect people who are living around uh chronically noisy environments, and those people tend to be poorer and communities of color. This excess noise is associated with uh uh heightened stress hormones in kids, lower reading scores, and hyperactivity.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00A very quiet room is 27 dBs.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So that's a quiet room. A busy street is 69.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Sorry, I had to say it.
SPEAKER_00Hairdryer, 87. Oof. Freight train going by 117. Oof. So compared with a quiet room, a passing freight train peaks at about four times as many decibels.
SPEAKER_02But the three times higher than the recommended.
SPEAKER_00And it's a logarithmic scale, so the effects are way worse. It's more than just four times as harmful. It's a lot harmful. I can't tell you exactly how many times, but it's many times more harmful the higher it gets. Or logarithmic. We can argue about that later. You're the math whiz. So guess what?
SPEAKER_02What? Chicken butt.
SPEAKER_00Guess what is a current source of very harmful noise?
SPEAKER_02Is it phones?
SPEAKER_00No. We talked about this before. You and I have talked about this before on this podcast.
SPEAKER_02Uh, is it throwing oranges at each other?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00No, that's a different kind of injury. Is it it's a game that we play.
SPEAKER_02A game that we play.
SPEAKER_00It's a game that we talked about. Pickleball. It's right, pickleball.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, pickleball!
SPEAKER_00And during that episode, we talked about one of the one of the tensions that pickleball craze is causing is in neighborhoods because of the noise.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Well, that has become even more because it's hitting the the it's like a hollow ball, right?
SPEAKER_02So there's a huge like crack noise when you hit it.
SPEAKER_00Right. It's uh measured at about 70 dBs.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So it's more than a busy street.
SPEAKER_02Wow. By one.
SPEAKER_00Uh yes.
SPEAKER_02But still one.
SPEAKER_00But the problem is that it's intermittent and it's irregular.
SPEAKER_02You can't expect it.
SPEAKER_00And the thing that I didn't tell you it when I was going through the research very quickly is that it's the intermittent noise, the startling noise. Oh, that makes sense. Unpredictable noise, entire harm.
SPEAKER_02It sets off PTSD, which it sounds like there's the this is sounding like a lot of the same science behind the way that our fight or flight response and other things. Yes. So that makes sense to me.
SPEAKER_00And if you've never heard it, you need to go listen to some pickleball whacking.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh a hundred feet away, it can reach 70 dBs, similar to running a vacuum cleaner. Um, and it goes on all day. If you live in a neighborhood with outdoor pickleball courts, because there's more than there might be like eight games going at a time. And it's so it's just this crazy. So the high pitch of the hard paddle slamming the plastic ball and then the erratic, frantic rhythm of the smacks, the intermittent nature of it. It drives the neighbors nuts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so there now there's lawsuits being filed, and and uh, you know, people are saying, why don't they just play with a tennis ball? Yeah. Well, the minute it's not because it's not pickleball anymore. In fact, the reason it's so easy to play is because the ball doesn't really do anything. Yeah, it just kind of goes, it doesn't go very fast.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it doesn't have behavior of its own.
SPEAKER_00And the racket's not strung, so it's easier to handle, it's smaller, it's lighter, it's easy. That's why people like it so much. So, you know, people say, well, these courts have to be built inside, uh, they have to change the equipment. And, you know, I don't know how that's gonna get how it's gonna get resolved.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what the resolution will be.
SPEAKER_00But I do have empathy for people who live you're living, you buy a house, you're looking for a house today, you buy a house in a neighborhood, and you're like, oh, we're near a park. That's so cool. We can go there, we can take walks, we can work out. And then the pickleball suddenly shows up as a thing that wasn't there like three years ago. Yeah, it was a game that existed, but nobody was playing it.
SPEAKER_02Right, not on this massive scale.
SPEAKER_00I actually think that pickleball craze has peaked. And here's how I know whenever, whenever I see a fad, yeah, I look for some clue that the fad has like it's become oversaturated. There's always a tell. And the other day I actually went with someone to play pickleball. Okay, and we get there, and there is a woman teaching people how to play pickleball.
SPEAKER_02Well, and once women get involved, the fad is over.
SPEAKER_00Nope, that's not my point, but it's good to always have that. Oh, it's always good to have that sardonic humor. But so we go there and the person says, Yeah, I teach pickle. The person I'm with says, hey, I would like to take some lessons. And the person, the teacher says, If you can find out my phone number, then I'll consider you as a student.
SPEAKER_02There's I'm I'm sorry, there's a a mystery quest to obtain a pickleball under this pickleball master.
SPEAKER_00To me, that was a yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I am the Jedi pickleball master.
SPEAKER_02You must prove yourself worthy of your time by discerning my phone number.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Start listing digits, bitch.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Um, I was like, really? So to me, this is this looked like the beginning of the end to me. And it's neat, it's gonna calm down. Yeah, it'll calm down, but right now it's sort of I think it's at the height, but I think we're past peak.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think it'll calm down. But in the meantime, I do have empathy for people who have to deal with the pickleball madness. So I'm gonna take this a different way and ask. Okay, take it. So that's sort of the background. Yeah. Noise, noise, noise. It's everywhere. It's harming us in ways that we don't even know.
SPEAKER_02As the Grinch would say, the noise, noise, noise. No, no. Noise.
SPEAKER_00I thought about starting with that. Yeah. I thought about the Grinch and I knew you would know the reference, but I just didn't go there.
SPEAKER_02I did.
SPEAKER_00So we probably would agree that we live in a noisy world.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So not a surprise. No. However, when you get in your car, when you get in your car today at the end of this session and you go driving off on your merry way, are you gonna turn on your music? Are you gonna turn on okay?
SPEAKER_02I'm a music, music car person.
SPEAKER_00I w how often do you not have noise in your life, really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's such a good question. When I go to bed.
SPEAKER_00Um So a lot of people keep a screen on or keep something on or play something or have some kind of noise going.
SPEAKER_02I turn I turn all that stuff off at bedtime. So for me, I have quiet, quiet w once it's actually like lights off and I'm trying to sleep, I turn off noise makers.
SPEAKER_00But a lot of us seek out noise all the time. You ever hear somebody say, Oh, I just turn this show on for background noise.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just for self-soothing.
SPEAKER_02And I do that every once in a while, yeah. If I need if I need self-soothing. It's not a common thing for me, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think that we like noise.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Human can human beings can only stand so much solitude, right? And noise is such a visceral signifier that we are not alone.
SPEAKER_00Yes, there you go. You're always right there. This is my thought. Silence is terrifying. Yeah. That's what I think. And I think it re and I think the reason is because it reminds us of being dead.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I don't I don't think you're wrong.
SPEAKER_00Silence is scary because that's what dead people do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Peace and quiet.
SPEAKER_02With the with, of course, the qualifier that if you are a a hearing person to begin with and you are used to having noise in your life, then it's sudden absence feels. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. Silence is terrifying.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, and there's there's studies about babies being soothed by by voices, particularly low voices, and what that has to do with yada yada yada. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00When my first child was in the womb, I would talk through the mother's stomach.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So the child would uh under you know know your voice. Know my voice. I would talk to them and say, you know, hey, this is dad. You know, I'm looking forward to, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_01I can't wait to meet you.
SPEAKER_00So when the baby comes out, yeah. So it's a very it's a miraculous thing. Yeah. It's to see a childbirth is amazing. It really is. It just changes your life. And the baby came out, and the nurse gave me the child still covered in the baby cheese. And I said, uh, and this person's name is Katie. And I said, Hey Katie, it's dad. And they punched me in the heart.
SPEAKER_01Because they're like, You're the one that's here! You're the one yelling. You noisy asshole. Ruin my the only time I could have some peace of mind.
SPEAKER_00And man, that kid could punch that little baby right in the chest. You go, Katie. Knock me out. Um so silence terrifies us, it reminds us of being a dead person.
SPEAKER_02Why do you think I talk so fucking much?
SPEAKER_00Well, or how meaningless life is. If we have noise going, it kind of like okay, okay, okay, we're alive. This is what I'm supposed to be doing, even if what I'm doing is hating this noise. At least I'm doing something. My life isn't completely meaningless. People go to the mountains or the desert, and a lot of them bring noise. They bring their music, they bring their noise, they bring other people. Bring the noise, bring the funk. Yes. And I would say my argument to you, and uh, I know you'll push back if you wouldn't need to, that noise is anything that just keeps us from being present in the moment. Noise is everything everywhere. There's that famous question that you've probably heard that if you eat and read at the same time, do you enjoy either?
SPEAKER_02Ah, interesting. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00You got the TV dinner, you turn on your favorite reality TV show.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Something is noise. Are they both noise? One is noise. What's the signal? What's the noise?
SPEAKER_02But also we need the noise, right? Because otherwise we feel alone.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02We get oversaturated in it, right? But we need an element of it.
SPEAKER_00I think the thing that we talk about, and that's hard for us, is to really just kind of let go of the noise and clutter and distraction and really be present and sit with yourself. It's a it's a constant, you know, something it's hard to do uh in the world we live in because there's so much noise, always competing for our attention and our energy and our emotional calories.
SPEAKER_02I'm torn between the agreement of that. I think I think where I'm torn is something about the importance of moderation in all things in life, and that it's important to be able to learn how to sit with yourself in a quiet room, but also it's okay then and and in some ways even but also it's good that noise makes us feel less alone, and that it's about finding the balance between those things, right? And the moments being able to take a step back from yourself and say, What which do I need in this moment?
SPEAKER_00Right. You know, I look at my own behavior and I'm just constantly all day long, I'm just going from one noise source to another. Me too. All day long. And a lot of things are enjoyable. You know, the TV or sunscreen is on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, I'm playing a musical instrument, I'm talking to somebody. I'm of course, I live downtown, so there's constant sirens and city noise and screaming, random screams, and you know, we just had 4th of July in this country, so people are constantly setting off fireworks.
SPEAKER_02Week and a half of hell, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Week and a half of getting rid of everyone's explosive devices at all hours. And so, but I'm constantly I just go from one noise source to the other. I noticed there uh over the last few years there's a trend where um sometimes you'll be playing golf, and golf is usually associated, you know, with this bucolic, tranquil kind of setting.
SPEAKER_02And um Yeah, there is something really funny about you being the same person who was who was challenged at a baseball game for making too much noise and being a golfer. Like there's something amazing about this.
SPEAKER_00Well, here's here's the here's the karmic boomerang.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00So I know what a great phrase.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, the karmic boomerang.
SPEAKER_00I noticed there are people who, and they're usually younger guys, like in their 20s, uh-huh, will be on the golf course with like boom boxes going in their golf cart so they can hear their music. Of course, everybody else can too.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00And during this game, which is supposed to be predicated on quiet and solitude and communing with nature and all this. BS. I'm not saying it is that, but that's how it's the marketing line. But it's this idea like, let's add the noise. Like, what's missing from this situation?
SPEAKER_02Clearly, noise.
SPEAKER_00We need some noise.
SPEAKER_02That cracks me up when there's something that is a design feature of a thing, and then somebody else comes in and says, like, like it's a feature that we don't have this thing that and that defines this experience. And then someone else comes in and says, you know what? I could market if we add the thing that's missing. And it's like, yeah, but then it's not the thing anymore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but it's a it was a little bit of a boomerang because I was the one accused of yelling too loudly at a baseball game.
SPEAKER_02And now I'm and now you're the one saying it's kids with their boom boxes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm irritated by the noise, but I just feel like it's uh experience. It's not so much that I don't think they should be able to play music. It's more like why do you need the music?
SPEAKER_02Right. You're you're creating you're you're entering a space that is meant to be absent of this thing, and you're you're providing it in a way that changes everyone's experience.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's one thing to take your noise with you to quiet places. But if you're if it's a private experience, that's on you. That's what you want, that's fine.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But when you take your noise into the campground or into right and there's nothing worse than being like a like you've spent hours getting to this really cool spot, and then you've hiked your little butt off getting up to this spot, and then there's somebody either being extra loud or playing some noise, maybe.
SPEAKER_02And it's never music you like, right? When you're in that situation, even if it's never music.
SPEAKER_00Even if it were music you like, it's still like this doesn't really go. And what's why why is this so important for you to have your noise bubble like this? It's almost like you're staking out your noise territory. You're marking your noise territory. Yeah. Like this, I'm sending out these.
SPEAKER_02Does a if a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? I don't know, but I sure don't fucking want to find out. Blast it.
SPEAKER_00I uh I have a neighbor who's had going on an eight-month uh what's it called? Um remodeling. Eight months of remodeling. And I have uh video, I forgot I had this, of just one day.
SPEAKER_02Just like noise recording. Oh, I hate that.
SPEAKER_00That went on for hours and hours.
SPEAKER_02Oh, Ross, I'm so sorry. Oh, that one would drive me crazy.
SPEAKER_00I figured my out my revenge. Eventually, these people are gonna move into their beautifully remodeled condo.
SPEAKER_03Uh huh.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what. They tore the whole thing apart, and I'm sure it's covered in solid gold, and it's got just it's gonna be so rhinestone toilet. But I've got these sounds.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_00And I'm gonna play them back in the middle of the night over stadium quality speakers.
SPEAKER_02I love that idea for you.
SPEAKER_00And if they s knock on my door and say, What the hell's going on? I'm gonna say, I don't know. I don't hear anything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So there must be revenge. I'm sure I can't let it be.
SPEAKER_02No, I believe in you.
SPEAKER_00We're gonna find lots of ways. Also, I'm gonna arrange for ghosts. And I can feel the stress hormones, like I can almost feel them rushing in to solve a problem that isn't there because um we're so conditioned with our evolution to run like hell as soon as some loud noise happens. Because that usually means a dinosaur is chasing you. You know we lived at the same time.
SPEAKER_02They do move and hurt.
SPEAKER_00So, yes. So, um, Jurassic Park.
SPEAKER_02Ba ba ba ba ba. Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm giving a JP point, Jurassic Park. Yeah, although I don't know which episode, which which the OG. That's what I'd think. The OG guy gets eaten off a toilet. What a way.
SPEAKER_02Woman inherits the earth.
SPEAKER_00There you go. Um, so yeah, I'm much more mindful of all the noise in my life. It's really made me think about do if I should keep living in the middle of a city. Because it's man, it's a noise bath every day.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00A lot of startling noises, a lot of unwanted noises. I know it's hurting my health now. Um the data are pretty compelling that it's not just um it's not just an ear thing. It's a body thing.
SPEAKER_02Well, we you mentioned I'm gonna be touring some some houses today. I'm my best friend and I are buying a home looking into where we're gonna be, and I will definitely be paying some extra attention to the noise levels in these places today. I mean, that's on my list anyway, but I know I'm gonna be even more mindful about it, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so because one person who plays has a garage band, like teenagers with a garage band next door, can ruin your life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that one bagpipe practitioner.
SPEAKER_00It's so funny. And the thing is, it's like sound at night. So, you know, I was a pretty noisy, kind of rowdy teenager, and then I in the very first house I owned was next door to a regular family. But when we moved in, it was just boy, kid, and girl kid, and they're like whatever age, but they're it was a nice little family. Yeah, well, then boy gets old enough, starts having parties.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, talk about the karmic boomerang, Ross.
SPEAKER_00And there, and they would be outside and they would be right our, you know, their driveways right next to where we slept. And so I had to be the guy, yeah, the grown-up who would go out at two in the morning and say karmic boomerang. I got hit hard with that karmic karmic boomerang. Didn't John Lennon sing that? Karmic boomerang's gonna get you. Sometimes I think we just want to drown out the mortality, man. We just want to drown out the reality of day to day.
SPEAKER_02Oh god, for sure.
SPEAKER_00Noise can be soothing.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because otherwise, being alone with your thoughts can be Baby, don't leave me alone with my thoughts. Horrifying. Thank you for everyone for joining us for this episode. Um, you know what to do. You can act on your mulligan call to action and do that rating thing too.
SPEAKER_02Smash that review button.
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty sure. What did I say? I would get married.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I would get married. I also would adopt a grown child.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I love that. I would I would Can you adopt me while I'm still my parents' kid? Can I have extra parent Ross?
SPEAKER_00Uh we'll get a team. We'll get the team of lawyers to let me know. The team of lawyers working on the biggest. No, you know what I would love?
SPEAKER_02I would love it if you quite genuinely, if we got a certain number of reviews, adopted a really weird pet like a chinchilla or something.
SPEAKER_00Done.
SPEAKER_02I'm willing to that you would take care of and love.
SPEAKER_00If it happens, if we get this wave of reviews because of the call to action, then I will I will we'll figure, I mean, I'll let you decide what I need to do.
SPEAKER_02We'll do some research on the proper habitats and homes for whatever creature we decide on and make sure it's well taken care of.
SPEAKER_00And it can handle a lot of banging noise. A lot of noise going on. And we hope. Oh, and remember, before I say that, remember that we're gonna be taking a little summer break. Go back and listen to some of those ancient episodes because a lot of you haven't, and they're really fun. At least some of them are. Most of them are. I like listening to them once in a while. I check it out, and sometimes the production quality isn't as good, but it's good enough, and there's a lot of good topics, so please go back and revisit this catalog of joy. And we hope you will tune in to another episode because whether you are someone with a highly active amygdala or just someone very confident in their genitalia, it's important to remember that we all smell like humans. Goodbye, everybody.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_00You like the monk's reward? I love it.
SPEAKER_02Perfect.
SPEAKER_00That's perfect for that.